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LIVES 
 
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THE 
 
 LIVES 
 
 OF 
 
 aic&empsttcal Ifjtloj&op&ets; 
 
 WITH A 
 
 CRITICAL CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
 OCCULT CHEMISTRY, 
 
 A SELECTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MOST CELEBRATED TREATISES 
 
 On the Theory and Practice 
 
 OF THE 
 
 hermetic %xU 
 
 i *' 
 
 i 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by M»cdon»ld and Son, Cloth Fiir, ' 
 
 TOR LACKINGTON, ALLEN, & CO. F1NSBURY SQUARE. 
 
 1815. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Tubal Cain, the first artificer in brass and iron, was, no 
 doubt, skilled in the preparatory work of finding the mines, rais- 
 ing the ore, and smelting it. ' The reduction of copper ore to 
 metal, by several calcinations, and its admixture with calamine, 
 to make brass, is not the least difficult among metallurgic ope- 
 rations. Tubal Cain is therefore reputed the first inventor of 
 chemistry, relating to manufactures. 
 
 The universal chemistry, by which the science of alchemy opens 
 the knowledge of all nature, being founded on first principles, 
 forms analogy with whatever knowledge is founded on the same. 
 Jirst principles. In this view, Moses, describing the creation, 
 is an universal chemist, and reveals at the same time, the creation 
 of the philosophers' stone, in this process : " The earth was 
 " without form, and void ; % Darkness was on the face of the 
 " deep; 3, The spirit of God moved on the face of the waters; 
 " 4, God said, Let there be light, and there was light ; 5, He 
 " divided the light from the darkness ; 6, He divided the upper 
 «' from the lower waters, by a firmament; 7, He separated the 
 " water from the earth ; 8, The earth vegetated ; 9, He made 
 " the stars, sun, and moon ; 10, The waters brought forth ani- 
 •". mal life; 11, The earth brought forth animal life; 12, He 
 *' made his own image, having dominion over all" 
 
 The same alchemic knowledge is ascribed to Saint John the 
 Divine, and may be said of all the inspired writers,, who were 
 intimately acquainted with the wisdom of God. Saint John de- 
 scribes the redemption, or the neW creation of the fallen soul, 
 on the same Jirst principles, until the consummation of the work, 
 in which the Divine tincture transmutes the base metal of the 
 soul into a perfection that will pass the fire of eternity. 
 
 The seven churches, or states of regeneration, analogize with 
 the seven days of the creation, and the seven regimens of the 
 stone, the last of which is gold, tried in the fire. 
 
 The revelation of the Divine Chemistry, by which the fire 
 of the last day will make a new heaven and a new earth, on the 
 same Jirst principles, is, by analogy, equally descriptive of the 
 stone, and the process into which the fallen universe has passed, 
 is passing, and which at last will assimilate with the philo- 
 sophic transmutation, that of the earth and elements, as described 
 by Saint John. 
 
* INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Saint Peter speaks of the first creation, of the earth standing 
 out of the 'water, and in the water, which earth being overflowed, 
 perished, but is now reserved unto Jire. And St. John describes 
 the new earth having the light of chrystal, cities of transparent 
 gold, stones of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, 
 sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, jacinth, amethist; 
 gates of pearls, and water of life or health. 
 
 All the wise observers of nature among the heathen, have, in 
 their writings, left traits of the same Jirst principles. This pro- 
 duces frequent reference, in the writings of the adepts, to the 
 Heathen Mythology, which has been preserved by the Greeks 
 and Romans. The poem of the Argonauts, by Orpheus, is 
 founded on a Hermetic allegory, that he brought from Egypt, 
 where Hermes Trismegistus, whose name signifies a spiritual 
 trinity in Mercury, was celebrated as the founder of religion 
 and the sciences. 
 
 Alchemy is called Hermetic philosophy, from Hermes, the 
 author of seven books, and a tablet of alchemy, which are the 
 most ancient and esteemed writings on this subject now extant. 
 They were found in the Hebrew and Arabic languages, in the 
 year of the Christian era 400, from which date there is lite- 
 rary evidence of the lives and writings of adepts. 
 
 The destruction of ancient manuscripts prevents higher re- 
 search ; for, in 296, Dioclesian burned the books of the Egyp- 
 tians, on the chemistry of gold and silver, peri chumeias argu- 
 rou kai chrusou. Caesar burned 700,000 rolls at Alexandria; 
 and Leo Isaurus 300,000, at Constantinople, in the eighth cen- 
 tury; about which time the Mahometans commenced the work 
 of destroying literature in its principal sources. 
 
 See Diodorus initio. Tertullian, chap. 2, of the soul, and chap, 
 15, against Valentine. Clemens oj Alexandria, 6th book. Acts 
 of the Apostles, chap. 7, and ver. 22. Eusebius prepar. Evan, 
 lib. 10, cap. 2 Psellus ad Xiphilium. Laertius in Democrito* 
 Pliny Nat. Hist. ch. 30, v. I. 
 
£&*>* 
 
 DHSSiC&MSSS* 
 
 SYNESIUS, 
 
 El SHOP OF PTOLLMAID. 
 
 THE most illustrious of the early adepts was SyitesittS. He- 
 lived in Cyrenia, one of the principal cities of Pentapolis, ht 
 Lybia, to the west of Lower Egypt, and his genealogy, which* 
 ascends to the ancient kings of Sparta, is carefully kept in the 
 public registers of that city. He was born there, about the year 
 365. The taste he had for philosophy, engaged him in the cul- 
 tivation of the most sublime sciences. He was accomplished i» 
 eloquence, poetry, geometry, and astronomy, and with the 
 most secret philosophy of Plato and Pythagoras But as Cyre- 
 nia, though it had produced Carncades and Aristippus, who were 
 celebrated philosophers of antiquity, was less a city than an as- 
 semblage of rich men, where the sciences were not cultivated, 
 he believed, that to perfect himself, he should go to Alexandria. 
 
 Synesius carried into this city a great love tor truth, which he 
 made perfect by the practice of virtue. In his own country, he 
 had heard, with astonishment, that an illustrious female, named 
 Hyrpatia s taught the philosophy of Plato publickly at Alexandria. 
 Charmed, to find in this philosophic lady a still greater wisdom 
 than he expected, he attended at her lectures, and learning from, 
 her the mysteries of philosophy, he conceived so great an esteem 
 for this noble lady, that he often called her his teacher, parent, 
 and benefactor ; even after he was raised to the episcopal dig- 
 nity, all the works he intended to publish, he submitted to her 
 judgment. 
 
 It was in this great city he formed an acquaintance with the 
 learned Egyptians, particularly with Dioscores, high priest of 
 Serapis. Synesius was still a pagan — it was there lie was formed 
 in the Hermetic science, and knew the treatise of Democritus on 
 the physical secret. As this trcastise is very obscure, Synesius 
 made some annotations upon it, which he dedicated to this 
 great priest; but they are not without that cabalistic darkness 
 which is imposed on those who possess the secret,, by a solemn 
 oath, and is even extended to the mysteries of the platonic phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 There are letters of Synesius, on the subject of alchemy, ad- 
 dressed to some philosophers, but he does not express himself 
 clearly, lest they should fall into the hands of the prophane or 
 vulgar. He was so scrupulous, as to reprehend severely his friend 
 Herculeu*, for having spoken plainer than he ought, of thoss 
 secrets of philosophy which Jie had disgoyered to lym, 
 
6 Live of the Adepts. 
 
 Not content with the lights he had acquired in the city of 
 Alexandria, Synesius wished to see Athens, and know personally 
 if the Academy, the Lyceum, and the Gallery of Stoics, still 
 equalled the reputation that Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno, had 
 procured for them ; but he was much disappointed. This cele- 
 brated city no longer preserved any thing but the names of the 
 illustrious assemblies that once dignified it. There were artizans 
 and merchants to be found, but none of the learned, or of the 
 wise. 
 
 At his return from this voyage, Synesius settled in his native 
 country, where philosophy, letters, and the chace occupied him. 
 He did not wear the habit of a philosopher, according to the 
 ancient usage, which was still preserved ; and he refused 
 to read, or have his works read publicly: his birth, and his 
 modesty made him superior to these advantages, which were flat- 
 tering to the vanity of common philosophers. Content with a 
 tranquil life, he remained free and disengaged from any occu- 
 pations or cares of the world. He solely endeavoured to pre- 
 serve his mind in a perfect calm, far from every thing that could 
 trouble his repose. It was not sloth or idleness that withheld 
 him from business, for when it became necessary, he voluntarily 
 devoted himself to the service of the whole city ; in the midst of 
 solitude preserving the desire of being useful to his neighbours 
 and his country ; and in the embarrassments of public affairs, 
 lie did not lose his taste for the study of philosophy. 
 
 The beneficent character of zeal for the public service, that 
 Synesius always preserved, was the cause, that the city of Cyrc- 
 renia, and four others, deputed him, in 397, to proceed to Con- 
 stantinople, to represent to the Emperor Arcadius the deplorable 
 state of his country, and to obtain assistance. He remained 
 three years endeavouring to succeed in his mission, which at 
 length he effected by making large presents. 
 
 •The earthquake, in 400, which desolated Constantinople, 
 obliged him to return to his country ; there he gave an account 
 of his negotiation ; and about this time, it is believed he was 
 baptized. He went again to Alexandria, where he married, 
 towards the year 403, and it was the patriarch Theophilus, who 
 performed the ceremony. 
 
 If the cares of a family relaxed his attention to stud}', it did 
 not diminish the brilliancy of his virtues : on the contrary, his 
 reputation was so great, that the citizens of Ptolemaid, wanting 
 a bishop, in 410, with one accord they fixed upon Synesius to 
 fill the vacant chair, by which he had jurisdiction, as metropo- 
 litan, over the whole province, notwithstanding he was mar- 
 ried. In yam his election was opposed; it was necessary to 
 concede to the wishes of the people and clergy, who were se- 
 conded in their desires by Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria. 
 From this time he was obliged to quit his retreat, and enter 
 into die multiplicity of cures attending ecclesiastical duties. 
 
Bhasis. 7 
 
 Until now, Synesius had been more a philosopher than a 
 Christian, and was so little acquainted with the superior light of 
 the Christian dispensation, that in comparing St. Anthony and 
 St. Aimon, to Zoroaster and Mercury Trismegistes, he thought 
 he had done the former great honour. But alter the episcopal 
 consecration, he joined all the dignity, and the active, vigilant 
 life of a bishop, to the modesty of a simple believer ; and al- 
 though he had not been educated in the church, he perfectly 
 knew how to preserve the faith, against heretics, and purity of- 
 manners against the false Christians ; and all this with gentleness. 
 He even applied himself to the conversion of the pagan philoso- 
 phers, a work more difficult than the transmutation of metals. 
 Yet he succeeded in bringing over his friend Evagrius to the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 He died between the year 416 and 431, as his successor, 
 Evopsus, is named in the list of the council then held at Ephesus. 
 
 Three of the letters of Synesius are addressed to his friend 
 Heliodorus, Bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, who was born at 
 Emesus, in Phoenicia ; and who wrote the celebrated romance of 
 Theagenes and Cariclea, and a treatise in verse, on Alchemy, 
 which is printed by the learned Albert Fabricius, page 789, of 
 the 6th vol. of his Greek Bibliotheca. 
 
 See Synesius' s letters, 36, 142 — 57. and Tillemont's Ecclesias* 
 tical Memoirs* 
 
 RHASIS. 
 
 Rhasis, named also Mahommed Ben Zakara, a celebrated 
 physician and chemist, was of the city of Rei, upon the fron- 
 tiers of Corasan. 
 
 Although he was thirty years of age when he began to study 
 medicine, he soon surpassed all those of his time, and was pre- 
 ferred as the most skilful physician to take charge of the famous 
 hospital of Bagdad. He was in much esteem with Almansor, 
 lord of Corasan. He was a skilful philosopher, a very excel- 
 lent chemist, and had written twelve books upon chemistry; but 
 very few have been published, even supposing all these to be his 
 which are attributed to him. It appears that he was the first 
 who introduced chemistry into medicine. His works served to 
 form other Arabian physicians, and even Avicenna, whom we 
 regard as their chief. It is said that he published at least two 
 hundred and twenty treati es upon medicine; yet was poor, and 
 lost his sight; two facts that have been alleged, with injustice 
 against his skill in alchemy, or medicine. 
 
 He died at an advanced age, in the year 932. 
 
 See Ft amis' 's Hist, of Medicine* 
 
8 Lives of the Adepts, 
 
 ALFARABI. 
 
 The middle of the tenth century was made illustrious by one 
 of these celebrated men, who do honour to the sciences in which 
 they engage. This was Farabi, or Alfarabi, one of those, men 
 of universal genius, who penetrate all sciences with equal facility. 
 He did not confine himself to the reveries of the Coran, but 
 fathomed the most useful and interesting sciences, and passed for 
 the greatest philosopher of his time, 
 
 His adventure with Sifah Doulet, the Sultan of Syria, shews 
 Iris character and singular talents. He was returning from a 
 pilgrimage to Mecca, when, passing through Syria, the Sultan 
 was surrounded with the learned, who were conversing with him, 
 upon the sciences. 
 
 Farabi entered the saloon where they were assembled, and did 
 not sit down till the Empei or desired he should be seated ; at 
 which the philosopher, by a freedom rather astonishing, went 
 and sat upon the end of the Sultan's sopha. The prince, sur- 
 prized at his boldness, called one of his officers, and commanded 
 him, in a tongue not generally known, to put out the intruder. 
 The philosopher heard him, and replied, in the same tongue, 
 " O Signior ! he who acts so hastily, is subject to repent."-— 
 The prince was no less astonished at the reph', than by Yaa 
 manner, and the excellent energy of his action ; wishing to knovr 
 more of him, he began a conference among his philosophers, in 
 which Farabi disputed with so much eloquence and vivacity, that 
 he reduced all the doctors to silence, Then the Sultan ordered 
 music, to recreate the assembly ; and when the musicians en- 
 tered, the philosopher accompanied them on a Lute, with so much 
 delicacy, that he attracted the eyes, and admiration of the as- 
 sembly. But as they found he was a musician, at the request of 
 the sultan, he drew out of his pocket a piece of his own compo- 
 sition ; it was a piece allegro ; he sung it, and accompanied it 
 with so much force and spirit, and the company took such plea- 
 sure in it, that they ail rejoiced to an excess of laughter. The 
 philosopher, then, to shew the extent of his talents, changed to 
 another piece, and accompanied it so tenderly, that the assembly 
 were touched by it, and wept. To conclude, he changed to 
 another measure, and put all the company to sleep. 
 
 It was in vain the sultan, who was struck with the merit of 
 Farabi, wished to retain him near his person. Farabi set out, 
 but it was to perish miserably. He was attacked by robbers in 
 
 the wood? cf Syria, and in spite of his courage, was killed, in 
 the year 95-i. But his work? upon all the sciences, which are in 
 great number, in the library of Leyden, as well as those on the 
 netic science, make him be regarded as one of the greatest 
 men that ever yet appeared among the Mahometans. 
 
Zives of the Acltpts, 
 
 MORIEN. 
 
 Morien was a Roman, but we are assured that his works were 
 originally written in the Arabic language, and that he lived under 
 their dominion, in which, very likely, he died. It the story 
 which is related of him be true, ns it has every appearance of itj 
 we see the Arabians did not rail to cultivate the practice of al- 
 chemy in Egypt, of which they were master-. 
 
 The history of Morien is simple, it is natural, but never- 
 theless very interesting. This philosopher was in Rome, his na- 
 tive place, where he studied under the eyes of a father and mo- 
 ther who tenderly cherished him. He led a peaceful life, formed 
 in all the duties of Christianity. He heard of Adfar, a famous 
 Arabian philosopher of Alexandria; he even saw some of his 
 writings; and he was immediately seized with a desire to understand 
 their meaning. The first impressions of youth carried him away, 
 and he abandoned his paternal house, and set out for Alexan- 
 dria. He arrived there, and sought with so much industry, 
 that he at last found the house of the philosopher. He made 
 known to him his name, his country, and his religion ; and both 
 appeared content and satisfied with each other; Adfar, at hav- 
 ing found a young man whose docility might be depended upon, 
 and Morien, at seeing himself under the discipline of a master, 
 who promised to unveil to him the source of all treasures. The 
 gentleness of the disciple engaged the master to conceal nothing 
 from him. 
 
 The immense treasures of Adfar, his lights and acquirements 
 in the most secret philosophy, did not hinder his death. After 
 Morien had paid the last duties to his deceased master, he quitted 
 Alexandria, not to return to Rome, but to go to Jerusalem, 
 However, he only rested there for the time it took him to pur- 
 chase a retreat near the city, where he could tranquilly finish a 
 Christian life. Fie settled in this hermitage, with a pupil whom, 
 he no doubt intended to form for science. 
 
 In his retreat, the philosopher heard of the Soldan of Egypt, 
 named Kalid, a wise and curious prince, lieutenant of the Ca- 
 liph. The book of Adfar had fallen into his hands, and he 
 made a close search, in all places in his territory, for some per- 
 son who was of sufficient skill to explain it. And, as it happens 
 at this day, many presented themselves, less to work to any pur- 
 pose, than to profit by the great property the prince gave to 
 those who promised him success. 
 
 Morien, who heard with pain, how much Kalid was deceived 
 quitted his retreat, and went to Egypt, as much to endeavour 
 the conversion of the Soldan, as to communicate the knowledge 
 of Adilir's book. Upon the promises of Morien, the Soldan 
 made him chuse a house, and Morien remained in it, till he 
 
10 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 finished his process. The work being brought to its per- 
 fection, the philosopher wrote upon the vase in which he put 
 the elixir : " He who has all, has no want of others ;" and 
 immediately quitted the city, and journeyed safe home to his 
 hermitage. 
 
 At this news, Kalid went to the house in which Morien had 
 dwelt, and found the vase containing the tincture ; but what 
 was his chagrin, on reading the inscription, to find that the 
 hermit was not to be found. 
 
 Then, from being penetrated with regret at the loss of this 
 true artist, he was filled with indignation at the false alchemists 
 who had promised him all things, but executed nothing; so that 
 he made an edict for the capital punishment of all pretenders. 
 Then calling Galip, his favourite slave, " Galip," says the 
 prince, " "What have we to do ?" " My lord," said his faithful 
 servant, "it is good to hope, God will make us know the conduct 
 we ought to pursue." 
 
 Kalid remained some years in these anxieties, till, being in 
 chase, as usual, accompanied by his faithful slave, Galip found 
 a devout hermit, at prayers, in a solitude : " Who are you ?" 
 said Galip to him : " From whence came ye, and where do ye 
 go ?" " I am of Jerusalem, the place of my birth," replied 
 the good hermit ; " and I have remained a long time in the 
 mountains near to that city, with a holy man. There I have heard 
 that Kalid was in pain to know how he could finish the Mystery 
 of Hermes. I know this man is very skilful in that science, and 
 I have quitted my country to inform the prince of it." 
 
 " Oh ! my brother, what do you say ?" exclaimed Galip ; 
 " It is enough, say no more, for 1 do not wish you should die, 
 as the impostors have, who presented themselves to my master." 
 " I fear nothing," said this good man; " If you can present me 
 to the prince, I will go before him with confidence." Galip 
 presented him ; and the hermit informed Kalid, that he knew 
 well he was in pain to accomplish the hermetic work ; that he 
 came to him to tell how he might attain it. That he knew, in the 
 solitudes of Jerusalem, a sage hermit, who had received this su- 
 preme wisdom from God. " He has more than once confessed 
 it to me," says he, " that he had this precious gift, and 1 have 
 had the proof of it, by the quantity of gold and silver which he 
 brought each year to Jerusalem. 
 
 Kalid could not avoid representing to him the danger to which 
 he exposed himself, by making false promises, which had caused 
 the death of many adventurers, who, to deceive princes, boast 
 of knowing that, of which they are totally ignorant. But as 
 the good hermit always spoke with the same confidence, without 
 apprehensions of his menaces, Kalid was enkindled with desire, 
 and upon hearing the description of Morien's person, he believed 
 it was huii, which was confirmed when he heard his name, 
 
Moricn — Aviccrina. 11 
 
 Upon the promise of the hermit, that he would engage to 
 find Morien, Kalid commanded Galip to go himself with a suffi- 
 cient escort. After many fatigues, they arrived at the mountains 
 of Jerusalem, where they found the venerable Morien, who, 
 under a rude hair-cloth, lived in continual youth, and in the 
 most austere penitence. Galip knew him, and saluted him on 
 the part of the prince. The virtuous hermit had no difficulty to 
 comprehend the occasion of this visit. He offered freely to ac- 
 companv him to Egypt;- — they arrived there. But no sooner had 
 the soldan seen Morien, than turning towards Galip, he could 
 not resist expressing his satisfaction, this being the man he so 
 long regreted. Full of joy at having found him again, henvished 
 to engage him in a worldly situation. But Morien had other 
 thoughts. He sought only the conversion of the prince, and the 
 prince sought only riches. 
 
 Morien made known all the truths of Christianity, but he was 
 not able to touch the Soldan's heart. The prince, content with 
 possessing the source of treasure, made him seek a house suitable 
 to the high value he had for him; and after many conversations, 
 in which the pious philosopher vainly sounded the soldan's heart, 
 he, notwithstanding, discovered to him at last, all that he had 
 long desired with so rauch ardour. 
 
 We are ignorant what became of Morion; but his history and 
 his conversations have been written, both by himself, and by 
 Galip, the faithful slave of Kalid. Kalid has likewise left some 
 little works upon this subject, which are printed in the collec- 
 tions of Hermetic Philosophy. 
 
 Bacon and Arnold, who appeared, one at the beginning, and 
 the other at the end of the thirteenth age, have cited Morien as 
 a writer, authorised among the Hermetic Philosophers ; and 
 Robertas Castrensis assures us, that he translated Morien's book 
 into Latin, from the Arabic language, the year 1182. 
 
 AVICENNA. 
 
 Chorasan produced another celebrated adept at the end of 
 the tenth century, Ebn Sina, that is to say, Avicenna was born 
 at Bacara, the principal city of that province of Persia, towards 
 the year 980; he made great progress in the mathematics, and by 
 his uncommon aptness and facility of genius, even in the most 
 sublime philosophy. He was only sixteen when he passed from 
 the preparatory sciences to that of medicine, in which he suc- 
 ceeded with the same celerity : and it is said his sagacity was so 
 great in the knowledge of diseases, he discovered that the illness 
 
12 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 of the Icing of Gordia's nephew was caused by love, and by a 
 stratagem discovered, the object of his affections. 
 
 Medicine and philosophy were his principal occupations, they 
 obtained so much credit for him, that the Sultan "Magdal Dou- 
 let thought he could not do better than to place so penetrating a 
 genius at the head of his affairs. He made him his prime 
 Visier. 
 
 Avicenna drank wine freely, notwithstanding the religion of 
 Mahomet wisely forbids it altogether : bis intemperence led to 
 immorality and disorder, he was deprived oflrs dignities in the 
 state, and died in 1037, aged 56. He was buried at Hamadan, a 
 citv of Persia, which was the ancient Ecbatana, then capital of 
 Media. 
 
 His destiny gave rise to a proverb, that he leas a -philosopher 
 without wisdom, and a physician without health. 
 
 There are extant six or seven treatises of his on the hermetic 
 philosophy, perhaps some of them are onlv ascribed to him, in 
 consequence of his being celebrated in all Asia. He hid illustrious 
 commentators on his writings in the twelfth and thirteenth ages, 
 ihe European physicians for sometime took him as their master 
 in medicine: so that his writings were taught publicly in the 
 schools until the re-establishment of letters, or rather until the 
 reformation in medicine. 
 
 ALAIN OF LISLE. 
 
 This celebrated man, called the universal doctor, for the 
 extent of his learning, resided at Lisle, and after a brilliant period 
 passed in the university of Paris, of which he was one of the 
 most illustrious doctors, retired to a cloister, as a lav brother, in 
 order to be master of his time, and to devote himself entirely to 
 philosophy. It is very likely that in this retreat, Alain practised 
 the hermetic science. 
 
 There is reason to believe that he worked successfully: he died 
 in 1298, aged move than 100 years; the editors of his works have 
 not inserted what he wrote on this science, it was, however, printed 
 separately, and is preserved in the theatrwn chymicum. 
 
 ALBERT THE GREAT, 
 
 The universal genius of Albert, joined to a laudable curiosity 
 in so great a philosopher, did not allow him to pass by the her- 
 metis science without giving it due attention. 
 
Albert the Great. 13 
 
 This learned man was born in 1193, of an illustrious- family, 
 at Lawingen in the Dutchy of Ncubourg, upon the Danube; 
 he was rather stupid in his early years, which has been the 
 ease with other great; meR « Iie was liear 30 > when in 1222 he 
 entered the order of St. Dominic; he had then some difficulty to 
 acquire ' tHe sciences, but his mind was hardly opened to study, 
 vj hen in six months he advanced more than another would in many 
 years. His acknowledged merit induced his superiors to get 
 him to teach in different houses cf their order, and above all at 
 Cologne, where he received Thomas Aquina.«, in 1244< as one of 
 his pupils The year after, he went to Paris with this favorite 
 disciple, for whom he had great affection, and took pleasure to 
 form him in the sciences. Thomas, full of gratitude was equally 
 attached to his master, and did not quit him when Albert returned 
 from Paris to Cologne in 1248. He even participated in the' 
 glory Albert received, when the Emperor William of Holland* 
 passing through the city in 1249, chose to honor Albert with a 
 visit. 
 
 This great man continued always to apply himself to the sci- 
 ences, but his prudence, which distinguished him not less than 
 his knowledge, caused him to be chosen at Worms in 125 4, pro- 
 vincial of his order. The disputes agitated between the mendi- 
 cant order, and the University of Paris, respecting Episcopal 
 rights, made it necessary for him as provincial to attend at 
 Rome. 
 
 These matters were not yet settled, when at his return into 
 Germany a superior post awaited him. — Pope Alexander IV. 
 appointed him in 1259, to fill the chair of Ratisbon; Albert 
 accepted it but soon perceived that the episcopal dignity, whose 
 rights it was then necessary to defend with an armed hand, was 
 not suitable to a man reared in the tranquillity of the cloister. 
 He had tasted the sweet and seducing leizure of the sciences, and 
 especially of philosophy, which requires the entire man; and 
 was often abstracted even from his personal wants. It was an 
 irresistible attraction, that impelled him towards studious re- 
 tirement. 
 
 Albert resigned his Bishopric in 1262, he retired to a 
 delightful retreat at Cologne, and continued his application to 
 study. 
 
 It is in vain that the historians of his order, argue that Albert 
 never applied himself to the Hermetic Philosophy. His books 
 alone sj,eak for him, and I mean books which are his, incontes- 
 tibly. As a | hysician, he carefully examined what regards- Natural 
 History, and above all the Minerals and Metals. He made 
 many singular experiments, which produced his book, " Secret 
 of Secrets," printed four or five times since the first edition at 
 Venice in 1508. The following passage is adduced to disprove his 
 alchemy : the skilful philosopher assures us, in his works, that he 
 essayed gold and silver, which an alchemist had made, they re- 
 
14 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 sristed six or seven fusions but in the eighth passed into scorise; 
 now in the very same chapter whence this weak argument is taken, 
 Albert acknowledges the possibility of metallic transmutation, pro- 
 vided the artist knows how to imitate nature. 
 
 Less ignorant in natural curiosities than his contemporaries, they 
 reported him a magician, the common appellation of more than 
 ordinary attainments, in the gross ignorance of the 13th age: even 
 long after his death, this reputation attended his memory. We 
 find that the Great Chronicle of Belgium, published in 1480, 
 records him magnus in magia, major in philoiophia^ maximus in 
 tkcologia. 
 
 There is one story of his magical abilities extant in the history 
 of the University of Paris. 
 
 It is related that William Count of Holland was prevailed on 
 by this great Philosopher, to honour his house at Cologne, by 
 a visit, and allow him to entertain this prince with a supper. 
 Albert had tables laid in the convent garden, although the season 
 ■was winter, and at that time extremely rigorous; the earth was- 
 covered with snow, and the courtiers who accompanied William, 
 murmured at the imprudence of Albert, who exposed the prince 
 to the severity of the weather; suddenly the snow disappeared, 
 and the}' felt not only the softness of spring, but even the parterre 
 was filled with the most odoriferous flowers, the birds as in sum- 
 mer flew about or sung tlieir most delightful notes, and the trees ap- 
 peared in blossom. Their surprise at this metamorphose of nature, 
 was considerably heightened, when after the repast, all the softness 
 of the air, the flowers, the singing of birds, the delightful spring 
 ceased — every thing disappeared in a moment, and the cold wind 
 began to blow v ith the same rigour as before. 
 
 By a fatality, sometimes attending excessive application, of 
 which the history of the learned, furnish too many examples, 
 Albert about three years before his death, was deprived of his 
 memory, and totally forgot every tiling he knew, with the excep- 
 tion of the essential duties of religion, in which he persevered 
 always, until the end of the year 1280, when he died at Cologne, 
 aged 87 years. 
 
 See Hisioire VUniversite de Paris 1255, 3 tome, p. 213. 
 Quetif et Echardus Bibliotheca JOominicanorum, torn. 1. Albert 
 Mincralium, lib. 3, cap. 9, and Tolamcus [in Historia Ecclesiast. 
 lib. % cap. 17. 
 
 THOMAS AQUINAS. 
 
 ALirERTthe Great had in St. Thomas a pupil, to whom he would 
 
 discover every thing he held most secret; perhaps he loved him 
 
 because he lound in him a great depth of piety, joined to an 
 
 rnc maturity of intellect that merited all his instructions. 
 
Thomas Aquinas. 15 
 
 His docility was as great as his birth, which lie derived from 
 the Counts of Aquinas, one of the first houses of Naples. 
 
 He died in March 1274, at fifty years of age, just as he was 
 summoned to the General Council at Lyons. He carefully 
 avoided, in all his works of theology, the appearance of al- 
 chemy, persuaded of the dishonour it would bring to his name, 
 with those who hold the least tendency towards it, as the height 
 of human folly. 
 
 There are some alchemical treatises ascribed to him, which 
 he did not write; but there are others that cannot be doubted. 
 That of the Nature of Minerals, is not worthy of so great a 
 philosopher; nor the Comment on the Turba. But his Treasure 
 of Alchemy, addressed to Brother Rcgnauld, his companion and 
 friend, is genuine. He cites Albert in this book, as his master 
 in all things, especially in Hermetic philosophy. He addressed 
 other books to Regnauld, on some curious sciences, amongst 
 which is a treatise on Judicial Astrology. 
 
 Saint Thomas wrote with neatness and precision. His leading 
 character is secrecy ; to preserve this important operation in- 
 violable from unworthy men, none other but the children of 
 light, who live as in the presence of God, being fit for the 
 knowledge, or charge of so great a mystery. 
 
 He recommends the salvation of souls, and Christian duties of 
 prayer and preaching, rather than an application to a science 
 that can only procure some temporal advantages. 
 
 In his works of Theology, he says, " It is not lawful to sell as 
 good gold, that which is made by Alchemy" And yet, when he 
 speaks of philosophy, he testifies, " that the aim of the alchemist 
 " is to change imperfect metal into that which is ■perfect " and, 
 *• that it is possible" 
 
 These are contradictions, unless he refers to the lata of juris- 
 prudence, in which there is no admission of the fact, that perfect 
 gold can be made by art. 
 
 He was named the Angelical Doctor, for his religious works 
 in Theological Casuistry, and the scholastic learning of these 
 times. 
 
 See Thesaur. Alchim. cap. 1, 3, 3; 22, quest. 77. article % 
 lib. A } meteorum initio. 
 
16 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 BACON, 
 
 Roger Bacon was the first Englishman who is known to 
 have cultivated alchemical phisosophy. He was of that su- 
 perior and penetrating genius, that acquires a science, and fa- 
 thoms it to the bottom, until its main principles are demon- 
 strated. He was acquainted with theology in its depth, and no- 
 thing was strange to him, not only in such necessary sciences, 
 as medicine and physic, but even of those which being only of 
 curiosity, were almost unknown in his time. Mathematics, geo- 
 metry, mechanics, perspective and optics, were his occupation 
 and delight. He penetrated into chemistry almost as far as any 
 have done after him. 
 
 This learned man was born in 1214, near Ilcestcr, in Somer- 
 set. He made extraordinary progress in the preliminary studies, 
 and when his age permitted, he entered into the order of St. 
 Francis ; this was the custom of the times. After his first studies 
 at Oxford, he went to Paris, where he learned mathematics 
 and medicine; and at his return, he applied himself to lan- 
 guages and philosophy, in which he made such progress, that 
 he wrote three grammars, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He under- 
 stood perfectly, and even explained the nature of optic glasses, 
 upon which he wrote a very curious treatise, and shewed their 
 force in burning combustibles at a considerable distance. 
 
 We see, by what he wrote on perspective, his extensive know- 
 ledge of optics, in all its branches. He speaks solidly of the 
 reflection and refraction of light. He describes the camera ob- 
 sctira, and all sorts of glasses that augment or diminish objects, 
 in approaching them, or removing them from the eye. 
 
 He has even known the use of the optic tube, or telescope^ 
 which is supposed a modern invention. Bacon was almost the 
 only astronomer of 4iis time ; he remarked a considerable error 
 with regard to the solar year, which had encreased from the time 
 of the Julian reformation. Bacon proposed a plan for correcting 
 it in 1267, to Pope Clement IV. who, though skilful, did not 
 put it in practice. But it was on the same plan, three centuries 
 after, that the Calendar was corrected by order of Pope 
 Gregory. 
 
 The penetration and the activity of Bacon did not rest in these 
 sciences ; he turned to mechanism, and searched into its prin- 
 ciples to the bottom ; and as Archytas made a wooden pidgeon to 
 fly, so he, it is said, contrived a machine to rise in the air, and 
 convey a chariot more speedily, than if drawn by horses. Pie 
 knew the art of putting statues in motion, and to draw articulate 
 sounds from a head of' brass. In chemistry he discovered the 
 properties of gun-powder; he described the matter of whigh it is 
 
Raymond Lulhj. 17 
 
 compose;!, and the extraordinary effects it produces* So many 
 inventions from one man would be incredible, if his own writings 
 did not attest them. 
 
 Should we be surprized, if all these prodigies obtained for him 
 the name of magician, in an age of ignorance and superstition. 
 Even the friars of his own order refused to let his works into 
 their library, as if he was a man who ought to be proscribed by so- 
 ciety. His persecution encreased, till, in 1578, he was imprisoned, 
 and this philosopher was obliged to own that he repented of the 
 pains he took in arts and sciences. He was constrained to aban- 
 don the house of his order, and to form a retreat where he 
 might work in quiet. This house is shewn to every curious visitor 
 of Oxford to this day. 
 
 He died in 1592, aged 78. We have few of this great man's 
 works printed ; but the libraries in England preserve several in 
 manuscript. 
 
 See Opus Mqju-, folio. Lond. 1735. 
 Epistle to John Bishop of Paris. 
 
 RAYMOND LULLY. 
 
 Among the philosophers, few have made so much noise as 
 Raymond Lnlly. His story, family, person, and learning, make^ 
 him a sort of prodigy. Of an illustrious house, originally of 
 Catalonia, he entered the army, after the example of his father, 
 who served under James I. King of Arragon, in 1230, at the 
 taking of Majorca and Minorca from the Saracens, where, partly 
 Ivy purchase, and partly by the gift of the King, he possessed 
 considerable estates. 
 
 His son Raymond was born in 1235, and as it was not customary 
 for the nobility to be studious ; Raymond, after a short course of 
 education, was satisfied to follow the court of King James II. 
 who made him Seneschal of the Isles, and Grand Prevot of the 
 Palace. Two male children, and one girl that he had by an 
 advantageous marriage, did not at all fix his affections. Pie cast 
 his eyes upon a lady, whose least qualification was extreme 
 beauty, superior to all the rest of the court. He was assiduous 
 about her person, who was the object of his desires. Pie soli- 
 cited, he wrote billet-doux and verses, but made no progress. 
 The Signora Ambrosia Eleonora de Castello, for that was the 
 name of the virtuous lady, tired, with the assiduity of a lover 
 who was so importunate, sought to cure him by coldness, which, 
 far from rebuking Raymond, served only to inflame his ardour. 
 Jit last, this impassioned courtier having sent her a piece of 
 
 c 
 
18 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 poetry, in which lie particularly described the beauty of her 
 neck, she took the opportunity to recall him to reason. She 
 informed him, in a very polite letter, which she wrote in the 
 presence of her husband ; " That being a lord of great spirit, 
 worthy of the esteem of all those who were most distinguished at 
 court, she was astonished he could be attached to a person who 
 so little merited his attention. That as she loved him much 
 more sincerely than she made appear, she counselled him to raise 
 his vows towards the Eternal Being, instead of fixing them upon 
 a transitory creature. But since her bosom had wounded his 
 heart, she hoped very soon to cure him, by exposing it naked 
 to his view, in order to afford him an opportunity of knowing 
 the object of his praises." 
 
 Raymond did not comprehend the sense of this letter ; he 
 flattered his passion ingeniously, and by his extravagant atten- 
 tions to Eleonora, she was convinced it was time to remedy his 
 delirium. By her husband's advice she gave him an interview : 
 She at first addressed him with every argument to remove his 
 chimerical passion, but found that he, on the contrary, was ar- 
 dently promising himself success. She then asked him what he 
 hoped by attaching himself to pursue her so steadfastly. I hope, 
 said Raymond, to possess the finest and most beautiful person in 
 Europe. You deceive yourself, then, my lord, said Ambrosia, 
 and here is the proof: — at this she bared her bosom, so beautiful 
 in his imagination. What was his horror at finding it all nice- 
 rated with a cancer : - " Behold," said she, " and judge, if this 
 miserable body merits your eulogies and esteem. 1 counsel you, 
 once more, my lord, to fix your affections on that, which is truly 
 worthy of your esteem, the grand object of a Christian soul." 
 
 This sight touched the heart more than the eyes of Raymond ; 
 and, after expressing to this excellent lady, how much he felt for 
 her misfortune, he withdrew to his house, and feeling his heart 
 altogether changed from what it was before, he threw himself at 
 the foot of the Cross, resolved to consecrate himself to the ser- 
 vice of God. Eull of this Christian determination, he passed a 
 more tranquil night than he had been accustomed to ; and, 
 during his sleep, he thought he saw Jesus Christ, who, with a 
 particular grace, said to him, " Raymond, follow me from hence- 
 forth." This vision being repeated, he judged it was the finger 
 of God. Raymond was then thirty years old; it was the year 
 1265. He was Grand Seneschal, that is, Master of the House 
 to the King, which is one of the most noble situations about 
 Court. He enjoyed the favour of his sovereign, and might 
 aspire to any honour for himself or his family. Nevertheless, 
 the attraction of Divine grace was much more powerful in him, 
 than that of a great establishment, and the most flattering hopes. 
 Me soon arranged his affairs, divided so much of his estate 
 among his family as enabled them to live honourably according 
 to their rank ; and distributed the rest to the poor. Retiring to 
 
Raymond Lully. 19 
 
 a. small dwelling on Mount Aranda, near his estate, he prepared 
 himself to labour for the conversion of the Mahometans, by 
 studying their books in the Arabic language. After six years, 
 lie set out, with a servant who could speak the language, and 
 was a Mahometan ; but he, understanding that his master in- 
 tended to dispute against the Coran, formed the desperate reso- 
 lution to assassinate him the first opportunity. He soon seized 
 a moment, in which he stabbed the unsuspecting Raymond, 
 plunging a dagger in his breast; and would have repeated the 
 blow, but that a pious anchorite coming by. assisted to disarm 
 him. Instead of putting him to <leath, Raymond consented, 
 with reluctance, -to commit him to prison, where he shortly after 
 strangled himself, in a furious rage, full of disappointment that 
 lie had sot succeeded in destroying the enemy of his religion. 
 
 Happily the blow was not mortal ; and when Raymond was 
 recovered, he returned to his beloved solitude. In 1726 he 
 founded a professorship in the convent of Saint Francis, at 
 Palmes, for the Arabic language, to serve towards converting 
 the infidels. 
 
 It was in 1281 that Raymond went to Paris, where he became 
 acquainted with Arnold Vijlla Nova, from whom he obtained 
 the first rudiments of the secret ; and he continued in that city 
 for some time, teaching philosophy and the sciences in a new 
 method, since called the Lidlian art. From Paris he travelled 
 to Rome, where he arrived in April, 1287, just after the death 
 of the Pope, whose patronage he expected, to establish the 
 study of the Oriental languages, in the monasteries, for the pur- 
 pose of propagating the faith. He, therefore, returned to Paris, 
 disappointed of his hopes. 
 
 In 1291, lie visited the King of Majorca, at Montpellicr, 
 and there he found liis friend Arnold, who was at the head of 
 the faculty of medicine in that city. 
 
 His travels were not fruitless, as he wrote and taught pub- 
 lickly wherever he stopped. He was still, however, unsatisfied, 
 and did not give up his desire for the conversion of infidels. He 
 set out for Rome, and staid on the way, for some months, at 
 Geneva. With all his solicitation, he could not obtain from 
 Pope Nicholas II. the establishment he desired for the Oriental 
 languages. These disappointments made him think he should 
 go himself to announce Jesus Christ to the Infidels. With this 
 design, he returned to Genoa, to take his passage into Africa. 
 
 He put all his books -and effects on board a ship, and was 
 ready to embark for that part of the world, when a sudden fear 
 seized him, and made him change his resolution. His regret at 
 giving way to this view of danger, threw him into a fit of sick- 
 ness ; and when he was recovered, in order to repair his fault, 
 he sailed in the first vessel bound for Tunis. Immediately on 
 his arrival, he disputed with the chief ministers of religion 
 there, and was soon after arrested and condemned to death, as 
 
20 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 a seducer of the people. He would have received the crown 
 of marytrdom at that time, but that a learned Arabian, who 
 loved him, interceded with the Kino - , remonstrating against put- 
 ting so great a man to death. The sentence was accordingly 
 changed rate banishment. He was therefore obliged, immedi- 
 ately to quit the kingdom, on pain of death if he returned. It 
 was in 1293 that he arrived in Genoa, from this disastrous mis- 
 sion, and from thence he went to Naples, where he met Arnold 
 Villa Nova i and being in controversy with him against the pos- 
 sibility of transmutation, the fact was proved to him by an ex- 
 periment. He remained at Naples during the year 1294, 
 teaching his short method of acquiring the sciences. After this 
 he passed some time at Home, still labouring to execute his pro- 
 ject for establishing the study of Eastern languages ; in which 
 attempt, he found that Boniface VIII. was too much occupied 
 with the difficulty of maintaining his temporal authority, to give 
 him any assistance. 
 
 Raymond now gave up all hopes of success at Rome. He 
 went to Milan, a quiet city, suited to the retirement of a philo- 
 sopher, and there continued to practice some chemical opera- 
 tions; In his Bool: of Mercury^ he relates, that he endeavoured 
 to obtain a solution of that metal, at Milan, in 1296; and the 
 house where he lived is still shewn in that city. He next tra- 
 velled to Montpellier, and was received with distinction by 
 Raymond Gaunredy* General of the Order of St. Francis. He 
 obtained letters of association, as a benefactor to the order, the 
 superiors of which were put under his direction, and he taught 
 his method of science in their houses. He was still disquieted 
 tor the fate of his plan, and successively addressed the Kings of 
 
 France, Sicily, Majorca, and Cyprus; but all was In vain ! 
 
 Never was a more active life; he taught everywhere he went; 
 and preached in Cyprus against the Schismatics, for which he 
 had the good fortune to be persecuted. 
 
 At length he returned to Paris, in 1508, where he conversed 
 with the celebrated Dr. John Scott, who was called the subtle 
 doctor. He had the satisfaction to find thatKing Philip had the 
 Oriental languages taught in the University of Paris. This in- 
 duced Raymond to proceed next year to Ferdinand IV. King 
 of Castile, to engage him to join with the King of France in 
 recovering the Holy Land; and to prove his zeal, he ventured 
 again to Africa, landed at Bona, formerly called Hippona, the 
 ancient diocese of St. Augustine, and in spite of the opposition 
 of the Infidels, its inhabitants, he did not leave it till he con- 
 verted seventy followers of the philosophy of Avorroes. From 
 thence, talking his road to Algiers, he converted many Mahome- 
 tans; but the persecution he suffered in this city," went to a 
 much gre-iter height: — they put a bridle in his mouth, as if he 
 was a horse, and deprived him, by this means, of the free use 
 of his muu$h foribrfy days, he was' then publicly beaten, and e x - 
 
Jiaymond Lully. 21 
 
 pelled from the kingdom. He had no other road but to return to 
 Tunis, where sentqnee of death awaited him since 1292; but he 
 remained concealed, and in a short time went to Bugia, where 
 he publicly announced the Gospel. 
 
 The Mahometan doctors apprehending the success of his 
 preaching in that city, had him arrested, and placed in confine- 
 ment. They went in a crowd to the prison, to persuade him to 
 take the turban. The controversy lasted for some time, and 
 neither party were persuaded ; upon which they liberated him 
 from captivity, and considering him a dangerous character, who 
 disturbed the public peace, put him on board a vessel bound to 
 Genoa. 
 
 In this voyage, he was shipwrecked w r ithin sight Ot the port 
 of Pisa. He, and all on board, were saved ; but he lost his 
 effects, and fell sick at Pisa, where he was carefully attended by 
 the Dominicans. He was recovered at the time that a General 
 Council was held at Vienna, in 1311; and hoping to obtain 
 succcess in some prepositions he had to make, he attended it. It 
 was in this city he received letters from Edward, King of Eng- 
 land, who ascended the throne in 1307, and Robert, King of 
 Scotland, who both invited him, with much persuasion, to visit 
 their realms. Raymond hoped to encourage these princes to 
 assist him in his views against the Infidels, and he soon arrived 
 at London, where he had apartments given him in the tower. — ■ 
 He promised the King to supply all necessary sums of money 
 for carrying his project into effect, and he was now pressed to 
 fulfill his proposals. Raymond accordingly transmuted base 
 metal into gold, which Avas coined, at the mint, into six millions 
 of Nobles, each worth three pounds Sterling at the present day. 
 These coins are -.veil known to Antiquarians, by the name of the 
 Hose J&oble. They prove, in the assay of the test, to be a 
 purer gold than the Jacobus, or any other gold coin made in 
 those times. Lully, in his last testament, declares, that in a 
 short time, while in London, he converted twenty-two tons 
 weight (about 50,000 lb.) of quicksilver, lead, and tin, into 
 Gold. 
 
 He sent to King Robert, of Scotland, a book of the art of 
 transmuting metals, in which he mentions a codicil sent by hiui 
 to King Edward, in 1312. 
 
 Robert Constantine, who wrote a History of Medicine, in 1545, 
 observes, that he found public documents, by which it appeared 
 that Raymond Lully made gold, in the tower of London, by 
 the order and licence of the King : and that the coin was, in 
 his time, called the Raymond Noble; and Dr. Edmund Dick- 
 enson relates, that the workmen who removed the cloister, 
 which Raymond occupied, at Westminster, found some of the 
 powder, by which they enricliecj themselves. The historian. 
 Camden, who was not too credulous, records, that these Rose 
 
2$ Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 Nobles "were coined of gold made by Raymond Lullv, a* 
 quoted in page 242, of Borrichius's Rise and Progress of 
 Chemistry, 
 
 There is an argument against these facts, drawn from LulH-'s 
 book of The Great Art of Science, part the 9th, chapter of 
 Elements, in which he says, " one species of matter cannot be 
 changed into another ; and, that " the gold of alchemy has but 
 the semblance of that metal." But it is very true, that without 
 a similarity of species, there could be no transmutation ; and 
 all other appearances of it in diverse species, are fictitious. — 
 John de Meun, Cremer, and John Rupecissa, who were cor 
 temporaries of Raymond, had no doubt of his being an adept. 
 
 Raymond Lully had now a sufficient proof, that Edward, who 
 was governed by unworthy favourites, would not emulate his fa- 
 ther's heroic virtues, and instead of entering into plans for the 
 advancement of Christianity, Raymond found himself almost a 
 prisoner. He therefore fled out of England privately, in 1215, 
 and travelled to Messina and Majorca. Here he resolved to set 
 out again for Africa. His friends saw, with pain, an old man of 
 seventy-nine embark on this perilous voyage, from which they 
 could never hope to see him return. They accompanied him to 
 the port from whence he sailed for Egypt ; arrived there ; tra- 
 velled to Jerusalem, and back to Tunis ; there he found many 
 friends and disciples, whom he had converted. He exhorted 
 them to persevere, and departed for Bugia. This was the ter- 
 mination of his apostolic labours, and God crowned him here 
 with the martyrdom he had always desired. From the time 
 of his arrival at this city, he was not content with catechising jn 
 private, but publicly proclaimed the Gospel. This Christian 
 generosity, and invincible courage, which nothing could daunt, 
 irritated the Sovereign and people to such a degree, that, rush- 
 ing upon him in a croud, they covered him with blows; and on 
 hh retiring towards the port, he was overwhelmed with a shower 
 of stones. The night following, some Genoese merchants, whose 
 vessel lay in the adjacent river, obtained permission to take up 
 the body, which they found had some remains of life. They 
 carried him on board a ship then on the point of sailing. In 
 two days they arrived within sight of Majorca, just as the blessed 
 Raymond expired, on the 29th of June, 1315; he was then 
 £iged 8-1 years. 
 
 His remains were brought to his family chapel, in the church 
 of St. Ula, attended by the viceroy, and principal nobility. 
 
 The labours of Raymond are prodigious, when we observe, 
 that his travels, voyages, and public teaching, did not prevent 
 Jiim from writing five hundred treatises on various subjects, es- 
 pecially of grammar, rhetoric, logic, analcctic, morals, politics, 
 civil and canon laws, physics, metaphysics, music, astronomy, 
 medicine, chemistry, and theology : all have been well written 
 by this learned man. 
 
Arnold Vilhinova, %3 
 
 See the testimony of Crcmer, abbot of Westminster, in The-' 
 atrum Chymicum, for the transmutations in England ; also, Cam- 
 den" s Britannia; and Selden, in Mare Ctausus, libra 3, for the Rose 
 Noble. Bergcman Opuscules, torn 4, p. 126. Petty Fodi/ue Re- 
 gales, Jor the edict of Henry VI. King of England, in letters 
 patent to Lords, Nobles, Doctors, Professors, and. Priests, to 
 engage them in the pursuit of the philosopher's stone, especially 
 the Priests, (says the pious King) ', who having the power of con- 
 verting bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, may well 
 convert an impure into a perfect metal. 
 
 ARNOLD VILLANOVA. 
 
 There is a contest among the learned, whether Arnold was 
 of Catalonia, Milan, or France ; and there is an equal doubt 
 respecting the time of his birth ; but it is probable he was born 
 about the year 1245, and died about the year 1310; for this 
 reason: Pope Clement V. wrote a circular letter, in 1311, at 
 the time of the General Council at Vienna, conjuring those who 
 lived under his authority, to discover, if possible, and send to 
 him the Treatise on Medicine, written by Arnold, who promised. 
 it to the Holy Father, but died before he could present it. 
 
 Arnold studied medicine at Paris for twenty years ; he then 
 lived ten years at Moutpellier; after which he spent not less 
 than ten years in visiting the universities of Italy. He even 
 went into Spain : but hearing that Peter, of Apono, his friend, 
 was imprisoned there by the Inquisition, he withdrew, and re- 
 mained under the patronage of Frederick, King of Naples and 
 Sicily, where he wrote some tracts of Medicine, and his Com- 
 ment on the School of Salerno. These studies and travels, for 
 the space of forty-five years, leaves about twenty years, for his 
 age, when he began, at Paris, the serious study of physic. 
 There is more certainty in ascertaining the time of his death ; 
 for, in 1309, James II. King of Arragon, sent him to Pope 
 Clement V. to confer respecting the title of King of Jerusa- 
 lem, to which James believed he was entitled; and, in 1311, 
 the Pope wrote the circular letter, for discovering the treatise of 
 the deceased Arnold, whose death is then fixed between the 
 years 1309, and 1311. 
 
 His Country is most probably Languedoc; for, Symphoricii 
 Champier asserts it, from the tradition he heard of him, during 
 his residence in that province, in the fourteenth century. And 
 the learned Olaus Borrichius, who travelled in France, assures 
 ns, that he knew a descendant of Arnold's, Monsieur Villeneuve 
 de Montpesat, one of the first barons of Provence, who, in 
 1664, at Avignon, made some experiments before him, that 
 proved he had inherited the Hermetic philosophy. He acknow- 
 ledged Arnold Villanova for one of his ancestors. 
 
%t" Lives of the Adepts, 
 
 Borrichius relates, from the same authority, that die science 
 had been communicated by Arnold to his brother, Peter Villa- 
 nova. 
 
 Arnold had an extensive mind : he learned from the Arabs of 
 Spain, their language and sciences. He wrote strictures on the 
 Monastic State, and the Service of Religion; and asserted, that 
 works of divine faith and charity were more agreeable to God 
 than the sacrifice of the mass. 
 
 No one disputes his skill in Hermetic philosophy: — Not 
 only his works speak for him, but we have the testimony of the 
 celebrated Jurisconsult John Andre, his contemporary, who 
 says : " In this time appeared Arnold de Villeneuve, a great 
 theologian, a skilful physician, and wise alchymist, who made 
 gold, which he submitted to all proofs." " He testifies the ge- 
 nuine conversion of' iron bars into pure gold, at Rone" Arnold 
 has also the character of writing with more light and clearness 
 than the other philosophers. But all this wisdom did not shelter 
 him from the fate of mortals ; for, in travelling from Italy into 
 France, to Pope Clement V. who required his presence at Avig- 
 non, he died, and was interred at Genoa. 
 
 See Du Boiday's Hist. Paris, torn 4, p. 121, # f p. 166. Bor- 
 richius de ortu et progressus, chemia. 129. J. Andreas ad spi- 
 cidum ; Rubri de crimine falsi. Oldradius concilio, 69. Panor- 
 railan, decretal. Fabianus sect* 5, no. 8. Oprcris Arnoldi de 
 Villa Nova, Jolio 1509. 
 
 JOHN RUPECISSA. 
 
 He was one of the most extraordinary of the Hermetic Phi- 
 losophers. He was born of a noble family, one of whose de- 
 scendants was the illustrious and learned Father Don Bernard 
 de Montfcnicon, who was the honour of literature in his time. 
 
 John Rupeeissa was altogether out of the line of ordinary 
 men ; he was filled with the spirit of prophecy, and in de- 
 nouncing the fate of nations, the crowned heads thought him, 
 their enemy. Pope Innocent VI. was reprehended by him ; he 
 therefore imprisoned him, in 1357. The manner of his death 
 is not known, but he professed himself an adept in the secret che- 
 mistry, by several works on that science, which are printed : — 
 they are considered obscure. 
 
 Sec JVading Annaks Minorum, ad annum, 1357. 
 
%b 
 
 POPE JOHN, XXII. 
 
 He was born at Cahors, in 1244-, not of a mean family, as 
 some writers have recorded, but of noble birth. He was co- 
 temporary with Lully and Arnold ; he had an acute mind, with 
 a sweetness of manner, and natural eloquence cultivated by 
 a great depth of study. Historians make no difficulty to 
 acknowledge that this pope wrote, in Latin, the transmutatory 
 art of metals; it is recorded, that he worked at the practice of 
 the hermetic philosophy, in the city of Avignon ; where he held 
 his chair until his death, which happened in 1334-, and he made 
 there two hundred lingots that weighed each, one quintal, 
 
 The calculation is easy; two hundred lingots made 10,000 lbs. 
 troy weight. The present actual value of gold on an average of 
 all Europe, is about five pounds ten shillings per ounce, at which 
 rate, 120,000 ounces is worth 660,000 pounds British sterling. 
 
 Should we then be surprised that there was found in the 
 treasury of this Pope at his depth, eighteen millions of florins in 
 gold, and seven millions in jewels, and sacred vases, as recorded 
 in history ? 
 
 Notwithstanding his writing a treatise on alchemy, and 
 making these transmutations, such was the mischief arising in his 
 time from the impositions of pretended alchemists, that he issued 
 a bull condemning all traders in this science, as imposters, stating 
 that they promise 'what they do not perform. 
 
 Joannes scripsit quoque latino sermone art em metallorum trans- 
 mutatorium, quod opus prodiit Galilee^ ingerto translatore Lugduniy 
 anno 1557, in Svo. Franciscus Pagi breviarium de gestis romano- 
 rum pontijicum torn. 4, in Joanne XXII. Xo. 88 in \to. 
 
 CREMER. 
 
 There are few nations that have produced more disciples of 
 occult philosophy than England. John Cremer Abbot of West- 
 minster London, was one of the most celebrated artists of his 
 ago, he worked thirty years to obtain the object of this secret 
 science; the obscurities of the hermetic writers, which he could 
 not clear up, had cast him into a labyrinth of errors ; the more 
 lie read the more he wandered, at last tired with the loss of his 
 money, and much more of his precious time, which he should 
 have employed to better advantage; he set out to travel; he 
 arrived in Italy, and had the good fortune to meet Raymond 
 Lull}-, with whom he formed a strict friendship, he remained 
 some time in company with this pious philosopher, edified by his 
 
 s 
 
26 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 penitent life, and instructed by the lights he drew from his con- 
 versation, nevertheless though Raymond conversed cordially with 
 the abbot, and explained himself freely, he did not entirely discover 
 the essential points of the operation. Cremer was insinuating 
 and affectionate, he perceived that Lully's zeal for the conver- 
 sion of the infidels extended to the false enthusiasm of exciting 
 open war against the mahometans, who were then spreading 
 throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe; he easily persuaded him to 
 visit England in the prospect that King Edward by his assistance 
 would distinguish himself in the cause he had at heart. 
 
 Raymond had in vain addressed divers princes, and as his last 
 resource, he accompanied his friend Cremer to England, and 
 lodged in his Abbey of Westminster, where he worked and 
 perfected the stone which Cremer had so long sought without 
 success. He then made no more difficulty to present Raymond to 
 King Edward. Cremer had informed this prince of the great 
 talents of the illustrious stranger, and he was received accordingly 
 with much regard and attention. 
 
 Raymond made these conditions only when he communicated 
 his treasures, " that they should not be expended either in the 
 luxuries of the court, or in war, with a Christian prince ; and 
 that the king should go in person with an army against the 
 infidels. 
 
 Edward, under pretence of doing honor to Raymond, gave him 
 an apartment in the tower of London, where the philosopher 
 again repeated his process; this was in reality an honorable prison, 
 and from the time Raymond satisfied the king in every thing he 
 desired, he no longer heeded the object, which Raymond was 
 desirous to have executed. This was enough to convince Ray- 
 mond that misfortune must attend a prince who evades his 
 promise, and penetrated with disappointment and grief, he found 
 means to escape from the tower and quickly departed from 
 England. 
 
 Cremer, whose intentions were sincere, was not less grieved 
 than Raymond, but he was subject to the king, and could only 
 groan in silence for the conduct of his sovereign. He declares 
 in his testament, his extreme affliction at the event, and his 
 monastery, daily offered up prayers to God for the success of 
 Raymond's cause. 
 
 Cremer lived long after this, and saw part of the reign of king 
 Edward the III. the course of operations which lie proposes in 
 his testament, with apparent sincerity, is not less veiled than the 
 most obscure authors. 
 
 See Museum Hermeticum, Mo. Franc. 1677. 
 
27 
 
 BASIL VALENTINE. 
 
 In the beginning of the 15th century is placed, Basil Va- 
 lentine, a benedictine monk of Erfurt in Germany in the elec- 
 torate of Mayence, one of the most illustrious of the adept phi- 
 losophers. It was supposed that this name was fictitious, for the 
 purpose of concealing some accomplished artist. But the history 
 of the city of Erfurt, published by I. M. Gudenus, who carefully 
 examined the public documents of this city, assures us of the 
 existence and name of this philosopher, who in 14-13, lived in 
 the abbey of St. Peter, and distinguished himself by a profound 
 knowledge of nature ; this is all that is known of him, a few par- 
 ticulars only of his life are to be met in his writings. 
 
 His numerous works, which have been translated from the 
 German, into Latin, French, and English, shew him to have 
 been extremeiy laborious in chemistry, and that he knew how 
 to join the practice of the hermetic science, to the duties of 
 religion. 
 
 He' inclosed his writings behind a pillar of his abbey church, 
 where they remained until a storm of thunder which broke the 
 pillar discovered them. 
 
 The most antient system of chemical philosophy, is preserved 
 in the detail of experiments, by Basil Valentine : every subtance, 
 placed in the fire, yields a spirit, which he calls mercury, an in- 
 flammable principle, named sulphur, and the most fixed part, he 
 calls salt. 
 
 He extols antimony as the source of excellent medicines, to 
 those who know the secrets of alchemy, but that otherwise it is a 
 poison of the most powerful nature. 
 
 Eadem cctate (scilicitamo 1418,) Basilius Valentinus, in divi 
 Petri monasterio vixit arte medica, 8$ naturali indagatione ad?ni- 
 rabilis. Joannes Mauritius Gudenus in historic Erjordiensis, in 
 4/o. Etfurti, 1675. 
 
 ISAAC OF HOLLAND. 
 
 In the same age, Isaac the Hollander, and his son, worked 
 with great success: the celebrated Boerhaave, who will be acknow- 
 ledged a sound judge in these matters, bears testimony to their 
 skill. They are not only the first known Dutch alchemists, but 
 they carried it so far, th at Paracelsus, in the 16th century, and the 
 illustrious Mr. Boyle in the 17th, have the honor of many, curious 
 operations which they copied from these two experienced ar- 
 tists. 
 
28 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 The principle subjects of their labours were the metals, and 
 their writings, most of which are printed, shew with what care 
 they worked, describing the minute particulars of each process. 
 Their lives are almost unknown, buried in the obscurity necessary 
 to adepts, they were occupied in the practice of the hermetic 
 science, and their study or laboratory was the daily scene of 
 their industrious lives. 
 
 They are placed in the 15th century by conjecture, from their 
 not quoting any philosopher subsequent to that age, they speak 
 of Gebet, Dastin, Morien, and Arnold, but no philosopher more 
 modern than these appears in their works. Yet as they speak of 
 aquafortis, and aqua-regiae, which were invented in the 14th 
 age, it is most probable they lived towards the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century. 
 
 See Boerhaave's Elements of Chemistry, Uo. London. 
 
 JOHN DE MEUN. 
 
 This poetical adept was of a good family, and flourished at 
 the court of France in that age, when all people of rank were 
 addicted to the studvof the secret chemistry. Pope John XXII. 
 at this time, was one of the most zealous disciples of the curious 
 sciences, and above al!, of the hermeiic philosophy. 
 
 John de Meun was born about the year 12S0, at Meun upon 
 the Loire, four leagues from Orleans : he was sometimes called 
 Clopind, from a delect in one of his legs : at two or three and 
 twenty, he had acquired much information in the sciences of 
 astronomy, arithmetic, philosophy, chemistry, and theology; 
 he had read attentively all the best authors, and as his manners 
 were agreeable, though sometimes too free in satire, he became 
 a favourite at the court of Philip; and always had access there 
 from the esteem of the nobility. Pic was unmarried, and although 
 he was in the enjoyment of those favours, he irritated all the 
 ladies of the court, by his severe verses on the sex ; they re- 
 solved to punish him, and accordingly a number of them were 
 provided with rods, against he appeared in the apartment of the 
 king, determined to fiagJlate him, but his wit helped him out, for 
 addressing the ladies, he told them, he would voluntarily suffer 
 the inien Vd punishment; but as the verses alluded to, were 
 only against unprincipled itr.,ales, he did not expect disapproba- 
 tion from the virtuous ladies present, but would request that she 
 wiiom he had offended most, should have the pleasure of striking 
 the first blow. This finesse saved him, and afforded much plca- 
 to the public. 
 
 It was about this time 1300, that he published the celebrated 
 Romance of the Rose, which attracted general attention ; men 
 of pleasure read it as a voluptuous love tale, and the admirers 
 
John Dc Meun. 29 
 
 of mccr romance esteemed it; while the adepts saw beneath the 
 ornament of stile, and incidents, the process for the stone for the 
 philosophers. 
 
 The plan of this poem is ascribed to William de Loris of Gas- 
 cony who wrote the first part, he died in 1260, aged 26. 
 
 The Romance of the Rose, as well as some other of the 
 works of John de Meun, evinced a knowledge of the hypocrisy 
 and vices of some monks of his time, and his remarks frequently 
 Drought him into danger, The Sermon of Genius, chaplain and 
 cc fessor to Dame Nature, in the Romance, is not only an ex- 
 position of the principles of chemistry, but a satire on the preach- 
 ers of the day, who for popular admiration, say unintelligable things 
 rather than plain truths. From verse 16914 to 16997 there is much 
 chemical information. Besides this he wrote two other treatises 
 expressly alchemic, which together compose 1800 verses, the 
 first is the M Remonstrance of Nature, to the erring Alchemist" 
 the other is " The Reply of the Alchemist to Nature.'"' 
 There is a letter in this author's name, which seems to be taken 
 from Raymond Lully's works, and is dated Mons, 1422. This 
 *hews it is not his, as his death is supposed to have been about the 
 year 1365. He shewed the same satirical wit. in dying, as in hi* 
 life, by exposing the cupidity of the monks. He chose by his 
 will, to be interred in the church of the Jacobins, and as an 
 acknowledgment, left them a coffer, that appeared to be filled 
 with precious things, at least by its weight; but he ordered that 
 this coffer should not be opened till after his funeral. The monks 
 failed not to raise this treasure, the moment after the funeral was 
 duly solemnized ; and, touched with the piety of the deceased, 
 they assembled in great numbers, to open the coffer, and offer 
 up thanks to God. 
 
 They found, to their great disappointment, that the coffer was 
 filled with large pieces of slates, beautifully engraved with the 
 figures of Geometry and Arithmetic. At this, the Fathers' in- 
 dignation rose, and they were about to remove his body from 
 their walls; but the Parliament being informed of this inhumanity, 
 obliged the Jacobins, by an arret, to leave the deceased undis- 
 turbed, in the honourable sepulchre of the cloisters of their 
 convent. 
 
 The famous English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated the 
 Romance of the Rose into English verse; it is printed in folio, 
 with hie works. 
 
 See Thevct's Lives of Illustrious Men, 
 
30 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 PETER BONO. 
 
 This adept, born in Lombardy, was an inhabitant of Pola, 
 a seaport of Istria, where lie says he made the much desired 
 transmuting metal of the sages, in the year 1330, and wrote 
 a complete treatise on the art which he published. Lacinius, a 
 monk of Calabria, has printed a faithful abridgment of it. 
 
 See Mangcti Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, 1i\fol. Cologne, 1702. 
 
 THE MONK FERARIUS. 
 
 About the beginning of the fourteenth century, this Italian 
 artist gave to the world two treatises ; the first, Of the Philoso- 
 pher^ Stone ; and the second, The Treasure of Philosophy. 
 They are printed in the Theatrum Chemicum, 6 vols. 8vo. 
 Strasburgh, 1661. 
 
 FLA MEL. 
 
 Nicholas Flamel was born at Pontoise, in the time of 
 Philip, whose reign commenced in 1328. His parents were 
 poor, and left him little more than the house in Paris, which 
 he continued to possess till his death : he bequeathed it to the 
 Church : it stands in the Notary-street, at the corner of Mari- 
 vaux-street, opposite the door of St. James's church, which is 
 Called the Marivaux door, from the name of the street. 
 
 Flamel's father had not the means of giving him much edu- 
 cation. He earned a livelihood at Paris, as a scrivener, copying 
 deeds and writings in Latin or French. In his time, the business 
 of copying books employed a numerous class of persons, as 
 printing was not then invented. 
 
 It appears from Flamel's will, in which he is entitled a scrive- 
 ner, that his riches never made him change his profession. He 
 shewed a good natural genius, by his proficiency in painting 
 and poetry, as well as his acknowledged ability in chemistry. 
 Towards the year 1357, he became an Hermetic student, the 
 manner of which is best told in his own words. 
 
 M The Lord God of my life, who exalts the humble in spirit 
 out of the most abject dust, and makes the hearts of such as hope 
 in him to rejoice, be eternally praised. 
 
Nicholas Flamd, 31 
 
 Who, of his own grace, reveals to the believing souls, the 
 springs of his bounty, and subjugates under their feet the crowns 
 of all earthly felicities and glories. 
 
 In him let us always put our confidence ; in his fear let us 
 place our happiness ; and in his mercy, the hope and glory of 
 restoration fr^om our fallen state r 
 
 And in our supplications to him, let us demonstrate, or 
 shew forth, a faith unfeigned and stable, an assurance, that shall 
 not for ever be shaken. 
 
 And thou, O Lord God Almighty, as thou, out of thy in- 
 finite and most desirable goodness, hast condescended to open 
 the earth, and unlock thy treasures unto me, thy poor and un- 
 worthy servant, and has given into my possession the fountains 
 and well-springs of all the treasures and riches of this world. 
 
 So, O Lord God, out of thine abundant kindness, extend 
 thy mercies unto me, that when I shall cease to be any longer 
 in the land of the living, thou mayst open unto me the celestial 
 riches, the divine treasures, and give me a part or portion in 
 the heavenly inheritance for ever, 
 
 Where I may behold thy divine glory, and the fullness of 
 thy Heavenly Majesty, a pleasure so ineffable, and a joy so ra- 
 vishing, which no mortal man can express or conceive. 
 
 This I entreat of thee, O Lord, for our Lord Jesus Christ 
 thy well-beloved Son's sake, who, in the unity of the Holy 
 Spirit, liveth with thee, world without end. Amen. 
 
 I, Nicholas Flamel, Scrivener, living at Paris, Anno 1399, 
 in the Notary-street, near S. James, of the Bouchery, though I 
 learned not much Latin, because of the poorness and meanness 
 of my parents, who notwithstanding were (by them that envy me 
 most) accounted honest and good people. 
 
 Yet, by the blessing of God, I have not wanted an under- 
 standing of the books of the philosophers, but learned them, 
 and attained to a certain kind of knowledge, even of their hid- 
 den secrets. 
 
 For which cause sake, there shall not any moment of my 
 my life pass, wherein remembering this so vast a good, I 
 will not on my bare knees, if the place will permit of it, 
 or otherwise in my heart, with all the intireness of my af- 
 fections, render thanks to this my most good and gracious 
 God: 
 
 Who never forsakes the righteous generation, or suffers the 
 children of the just to beg their bread ; nor deceives their ex- 
 pectations, but supports them with blessings who put their trust 
 in him. 
 
 After the death of my parents, I, Nicholas Flamel^ got my 
 living by the art of writing, ingrossing inventories, making up 
 accounts, keeping of books, and the like. 
 
 In this course of living, there fell by chance into my hand-, 
 a gilded bgokj very old and large, which cost me only two 
 JforenS} 
 
33 Lives of the Adepts, 
 
 It was not made of paper or parchment) as other books arc, 
 but of admirable rinds (as it seemed to me) of young trees. 
 The cover of it was of brass ; it was well bound, aud graven all 
 over with a strange kind of letters, which I take to be Greek cha- 
 racter s, or some such like. 
 
 This I know, that I could not read them, nor were they either 
 Latin or French letters or words, of which I understand some- 
 thing. 
 
 But as to the matter which was written within, it was engraven 
 (as I suppose) with an iron pencil or graver upon the said bark 
 leaves, done admirably well, and in fair and neat Latin letters, 
 and curiously coloured. 
 
 It contained thrice seven leaves, for so they were numbered in 
 the top of each folio , and every seventh leaf was without any 
 writing; but in place thereof, there were several images or 
 figures painted. 
 
 Upon the first seventh leaf was depicted, 1. A Virgin. 
 2. Serpents swallowing her up. On the second seventh, A Ser- 
 pent crucifi-ed. And on the last seventh, A Desert (rr JViUler- 
 ?iess ; in midst whereof was seen many fair fountains, from 
 whence issued out a number of serpents here and there. 
 
 Upon the Jirst of the leaves was written, in capital letters of 
 gold, Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, L'vite, Astrologer and 
 Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, dispersed by the wrath of 
 God in France, wisheth health. 
 
 After which words, it was filled with many execrations and 
 curses, with this word jiarasatha, which was oft repeated, 
 against any one that should look into it to unfold it, except he 
 were either Priest or Scribe. 
 
 The person that sold me this book, was ignorant of its worth, 
 as well as I who bought it. I judge it might have been stolen 
 from some of the Jewish nation, or else found in some place 
 where they anciently abode. 
 
 In the second leaf of the book, he consoled his nation, and 
 gave them pious counsel, to turn from their wickedness and evil 
 ways ; but above all to flee from Idolatry, and to wait in patience 
 for the coming of the Messiah, who, conquering all the kings 
 and potentates of the earth, should reign in glory with his peo- 
 ple to eternity. Without doubt, this was a very pious, wise, and 
 understanding man." 
 
 " In the third leaf, and in all the writings that followed, he 
 taught them, in plain words, the transmutation of metals, to 
 the end that he might help and assist his dispersed people, to 
 pay their tributes to the Roman Emperors, and some other 
 things not needful here to be repeated. 
 
 " He painted the vessels by the sides or margin of the leaves, 
 a.nd discovered all the colours as they should arjse or appear, 
 with all the rest of the work. 
 
Flamel. 33 
 
 But of the prima materia, or first matter or agent, he spake 
 not so much as one word : but only he told them, that in the 
 fourth and fifth leaves, lie had entirely painted or decyphered 
 it, and depicted or figured it, with admirable dexterity and 
 workmanship. 
 
 Now, though it was singularly well, and materially or intel- 
 ligibly figured and painted, yet by that could no man ever have 
 been able to understand it, without having been well skilled in 
 their Cabala, which is a series of old traditions, and also to 
 have been well studied their books. 
 
 The fourth and ffth leaf thereof was without any writing, 
 but full of fair figures, bright and shining, or as it were en« 
 lightened, and very exquisitely depicted. 
 
 First, there was a yofttmg man painted, with wings at his ancles, 
 having in his hand a Cadvcean rod, withen about with tvoct 
 serpents, wherewith he stroke upon an helmet covered with its 
 head. 
 
 This seemed in my mean apprehension, to be one of the hea- 
 then Gods, viz. Mercury: against him there came running and 
 flying with open wings, a great old man, with an hour-glr.sS 
 fixed upon his head, and a scythe in his hands, like Death, 
 with which he would (as it were in indignation) have cut off the 
 feet of Mercury. 
 
 On the other side of the fourth leaf, he painted a fair flower 9 
 on the top of a very high mountain, which was very much shaken 
 with the north wind. Its foot-stalk was blue, its flowers white 
 and red, and its leaves shining like fine gold : and round about 
 
 • GO 7 - 
 
 it the dragons and griffins of the north made their nests and 
 habitations. 
 
 On the ffth leaf was a fair rose tree fowered, in the midst 
 of a garden, growing up against a hollow oak, at the foot 
 whereof bubbled forth a fountain of pui'e white water, which 
 ran headlong down into the depths below. 
 
 Yet it passed through the hands of a great number of people, 
 who digged in the earth, seeking after it; but by reason of their 
 blindness none of them knew it, except a very few, who con- 
 sidered its weight. 
 
 On the last side of the fifth leaf was depicted a king, with a 
 faulchion, who caused his soldiers to slay before him many in- 
 fants, the mothers standing by, and weeping at the feet of their 
 murderers. 
 
 These infants' blood being gathered up by other soldiers, 
 was put into a great vessel wherein Sol and Luna came to bathe 
 themselves. 
 
 And because this history seemed to represent the destruction 
 of the Innocents by Herod, and that I learned the chief est part 
 of the art in this book; therefore I placed in their church-yard 
 these Hieroglyphic figures, of this learning. Thus have you 
 that which was contained in the first five leaves. 
 
 B 
 
34 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 As for what was in all the rest of the written leaves, which 
 was wrote in good and intelligible Latin, I must conceal, lest 
 God being offended with me, should send his plagues and judg- 
 ments upon inc. It would be a wickedness much greater, than 
 he who wished that ail men in the world had but one head, 
 that he might cut it off at one blow. 
 
 Having thus obtained this delicate and precious book, I did 
 nothing else, day and night, but study upon it; conceiving very 
 well all the operations it pointed forth, but wholly ignorant of 
 the prima materia with which I should begin, which made me 
 sad and discontented. 
 
 My wife, whose name was Pcrrenelle, whom I loved equally 
 with myself, and had but lately married, was mightily concerned 
 for me, and with many words comforting me, earnestly desired 
 to know how she might deliver me from this trouble. 
 
 I could no longer keep counsel, but told her all, shewing her 
 the very book, which, when she saw, she became as v ell pleased 
 with it as myself, and with great delight beheld the admirable 
 cover, the engraving, the images, and exquisite figures thereof, 
 but understood as little of them as I. 
 
 Yet it was matter of consolation to me to discourse, and en- 
 tertain myself with her, and to think what we should do, to find 
 out the interpretation and meaning thereof. 
 
 At length I caused to be painted within my chamber, as much 
 to the life or original, as I could, all the images and figures of 
 the said fourth and fifth leaves. 
 
 These I shewed to the greatest scholars and most learned men 
 in Paris, who understood thereof no more than myself: I told 
 them they were found in a book which taught the philosophers' 
 stone. 
 
 But the greatest part of them made a mock both of me, and 
 that most excellent secret, except one, whose name was Anselme t 
 a practiser of physic, and a deep student in this art. 
 
 He much desired to see my book, which he valued more than 
 any thing else in the world, but I always refused him; only made 
 him a large demonstration of the method. 
 
 He told me that ' the first figure represented Time, which de- 
 vours all things ; and that according to the number of the six 
 written leaves, there was required a space of six years to perfect 
 the stone; and then, said he, we must turn the glass, and see it 
 no more.' 
 
 I told him this was not painted, but only to shew the teacher 
 the prima materia, or Jirst agent, as was written in the book : 
 He answered me, that ' this digestion for six years, was as it were 
 a sccwid agent ; and that certainly the first agent was there paint- 
 ed, which was the white and heavy nutter. 
 
 This, without doubt, was Argent Vive, which they could not 
 fix, i. e. cut off his feet, or take away his volatility, 6ave by that 
 torjg digestion in the pure, blood of young ittliuH*. 
 
Flamel. 3% 
 
 For in that this Argent Five being joined with Sol and Luna, 
 was first turned with them into a plant, like that there painted, 
 and afterwards by corruption into serpents, which serpents being 
 perfectly dryed and digested, were made a fine powder of gold, 
 which is the stone.' 
 
 This strange or foreign discourse to the matter, was the cause 
 of my erring, and that made me wander for the space of one 
 and twenty years in a perfect meander from the verity; in which 
 space of time I went through a thousand labyrinths or processes, 
 but ail in vain ; yet never with the blood of infants, for that I 
 accounted wicked and villainous. 
 
 For I found in my book, that the philosophers called blood. 
 the mineral spirit, which is in the metals, chiefly in Sol, Luna, 
 and Mercury, to which sense I always in my own judgment as- 
 sented ; yet these interpretations for the most part were not more 
 subtle than "true. 
 
 Not finding therefore in my operation or course of the process, 
 the signs, at the time written in my book, I was ever to begin 
 again. 
 
 In the end, having lost all hope of ever understanding those 
 symbol* or Jigures, I made a vow to God, to demand their inter- 
 pretation of some Jewish priest, belonging to seme synagogue in 
 Spain. 
 
 Whereupon, with the consent of my wife Perrenelle, carrying 
 with me the extract or copy of the Jigures or pictures, I took 
 up a pilgrim's habit and staff, in the same manner as you see me 
 figured without the said arch, in the said church-yard, in which 
 I put these Hieroglyphic figures. 
 
 Whereupon also I have set on the wall, on both hands, the 
 process, representing in order all the colours of the stone, as 
 they arise and go away again. 
 
 This is, as it were, the very beginning of Hercules'* book, 
 entitled Iris, or the Rainbow, which treats of the stone, in these 
 words : The process of the work is very pleasing unto nature. 
 
 And these words I also put there expressly, for the sake of 
 great scholars and learned men, who may understand to what 
 they allude. 
 
 In this same manner, I say, I put myself upon my journey 
 to Spam, and so much I did, that I in a short time arrived at 
 Mountjoy, and a while after at S. James, where, with much devo- 
 tion I accomplished my vow. 
 
 This done, in Leon, 1, at my return, met with a merchant o„ 
 Boulogne, who brought me acquainted with a physician, M. 
 Conches, a Jew by nation, but now a Christian, dwelling at Leon 
 aforesaid. 
 
 I shewed him the extract or copy of my figures, by which 
 he was, as it were, ravished with great astonishment and joy, 
 he desired immediately, if I could tell him any news of the book 
 from whence they were drawn. 
 
36 Lizes of the Adepts. 
 
 I answered him in Latin (in which language he asked me the 
 question) that I doubted not of obtaining the sight of the book, 
 
 it I could meet with any one who could unfold the amigmas. 
 
 Hearing this, and being transported with great earnestness and 
 joy ; he began to decipher unto me the beginning : to be short, 
 he was much pleased, that he way in hopes to hear tidings of 
 the book; and I as much pleased to hear him speak and intei*- 
 pretit. And, doubtless, he had heard much talk of the book ; 
 but it was, as he said, of a thing which was believed to be utterly 
 lost : Upon this we resolved for our voyage, and from Leon we 
 passed to Oviedo, and from thence to Sanson, where we took 
 shipping, and went to sea, in order to go into France. 
 
 Our voyage was prosperous and happy ; and being arrived in 
 the kingdom of France, he most truly interpreted unto me the 
 greatest part of my Jignres, in which, even to the points and 
 pricks, he could decyphcr great mysteries which were admirable 
 tome. Having attained Orleans,* this learned man fell sick, 
 even to death, being afflicted with extreme vomitings, which still 
 continued with him, as being first caused by his sea-sickness : 
 Notwithstanding which, he was in continual fear, lest I should 
 leave or forsake him, which was a great trouble to him. And 
 although I was continually by his side, yet ho would be almost 
 always calling for me. At the end of 'the seventh day of his 
 sickness he died, which was no small grief to me; and I buried 
 him, as well as my present condition would permit me, in a 
 church at Orleans. 
 
 He that would see the manner of my arrival, and the joy of 
 Pcrrencllc, let him look upon us two, in the city of Paris, upon 
 the door of the chapel of James of the Boucfurii, close by the 
 one. side of my house, where we are both painted/ kneeling, and 
 giving thanks to God. For through the grace of God "it was 
 that I attained the perfect knowledge of all "that I desired. 
 
 Well ! I Lad now the pnina materia, the fir-si principles, 
 yet not their Jirst preparation, which is a thing most dhiieult, 
 above all other things in the world : but in the end I had that 
 ciso, after a long aberration, and wandering in a labyrinth of 
 errors, for the space of three years, or thereabouts, during 
 ^hich time I did m thing but study and search, and labour, so 
 as you see me den ; C:ecl without this arch, where I have placed my 
 process"; praying also continually unto God, and reading atten- 
 tively in my book, pondering the words of the philosophers,, 
 and then trying and proving the various operations, which I 
 thought to myself they might mean by their words. At length 
 I found that which I desired, which I also soon knew by the 
 scent and odour thereof: Having this, I easily accomplished the 
 magistery. For knowing the preparations of the prime agc?!ts, 
 and then literally following the directions hi my book, I could 
 rait then miss the work if 1 would. 
 
Flamel. 37 
 
 Having attained this, I come now to projection ; and the first 
 time I made projection was upon Mercury, a pound and a half 
 whereof, or thereabout*, I turned into pure silver, better than 
 that of the mine, as I proved by assaying of it myself, and also 
 causing others to assay it for me several times. This was done 
 in the year of Our Lord 1382, January 17, about noon, being 
 Monday, in my own house, Perrenelle only being present. 
 
 Again, following exactly the directions in my book, literally, 
 ar.d word by word, I mauJ" projection of the red stone, on the 
 like quantity of Meram/, Perrenelle only being present, and in 
 the same house; which was done in the same year of our Lord, 
 viz. 13S2, April 25, at five in the afternoon. This Mercury I 
 truly transmuted into almost as much gold, much better, indeed 
 than common gold, more soft also, and more pliable. 
 
 I speak it in all truth, I have made it three times, with the 
 help of Perrenelle, who understood it as well as myself, because 
 she assisted me in my operations : And without doubt, if she 
 would have indeed done it alone, she would have brought the 
 work to the same, or full as great perfection as I had done. I 
 had trulv enough when I had once done it ; but I found exceed- 
 ing great pleasure and delight in seeing and contemplating the 
 admirable works of 2\ature within the vessels. And to shew to 
 you that I had then done it three times, I caused to be depicted 
 under the same arch, three furnaces, like to those which serve 
 for the operations of this work. 
 
 I was much concerned for a long time, lest that Perrenelle, 
 by reason of extreme joy, should not hide her felicity, which 
 I measured by my own, and lest she should let fall some words 
 among her relations, concerning the great treasure which we 
 possessed. For an extremity of joy takes away the understand- 
 ing, as well as an extremity of grief and sorrow : But the good- 
 ness of the most great God had not only given and filled me 
 with this blessing, to give me a sober and chaste wife, but she 
 was also a wise and prudent woman, not only capable of reason, 
 but also to do what was reasonable, and was more discreet and 
 secret than ordinarily other women are. Above all, she was 
 exceedingly religious and devout : And therefore seeing herself 
 without hope of children, and now well stricken in years, she 
 made it her business, as I did, to think of God, and to give 
 ourselves to the works of charity and mercy. 
 
 Before the time wherein I wrote this discourse, which was at 
 the latter end of the year of Our Lord 1413, after the death 
 of my faithful companion, whose death I cannot but lament all 
 the days of my life : She and I had already founded, and en- 
 dowed with, revenues, fourteen hospitals, three chapels, and 
 seven churches, in the city of Paris, all which we had new built 
 from the ground, and enriched with great gifts and revenues, 
 with many reparations in their church-yards. We also have 
 cone at Boulogne about as much as we have done at Paris .• not. 
 
S5 Lives of '■ the' Adepts 
 
 to speak of the charitable acts -which we both did to particular 
 poor people, principally to poor widows and orphans ; whose 
 names should I divulge, with the largeness of the charity, and 
 the way and manner of doing it, as my reward would then be 
 only in this world, so neither could it be pleasing to the per- 
 sons to whom we did it. 
 
 Building therefore these hospitals, chapels, churches, and 
 Church-yards in this city, I '-caused to be depicted under the 
 Said fourth arch, the most ti ue and essential marks or sign* 
 of this art, yet under veils, types, and hieroglyphic covertures, 
 in imitation of those things which are contained in the gilded 
 book of Abraham the Jem : Demonstrating to the wise, and 
 men of understanding, the direct and perfect way of operation, 
 and lineary work of the philosophers' stone. Which being 
 perfected by any one, takes away from him the root of all sin 
 and evil, which is covetousness, changing his evil into good, and 
 making him liberal, courteous, religious, devout, and tearing 
 God, however wicked he was before. For from thenceforward 
 he is continually ravished with the goodness of God, and with 
 nis grace and mercy, which he has obtained from the fountain 
 of Eternal Goodness; with the profoundness of his divme and 
 adorable power, and with the consideration of his admirable*- 
 works." 
 
 The evidence of these things remained in 1742, according to 
 the testimony of Langlct du Fresnoy: first in the cemetery of 
 the Holy Innocents, where lie built an arch on the side of St. 
 Denis-street. Here were to be seen the hieroglyphic figures, on 
 which he wrote a commentary, or explanation Without the 
 arch at the side of the cemetary, in the two niches, were the 
 statues of St. James and St. John ; and below that of St. John 
 was the figure of Flamel, reading in a book, with a Gothic 
 JV. F. to mark his name ; but the progression of the colours, 
 in the order of the process, which he represented on the wall, 
 was then effaced. 
 
 In the same cemetery, appeared a charnel-house, or vaulted 
 arch, as a receptacle for the skulls or bones thrown up in dig- 
 ging new graves. Upon one of the pillars of this charnel,. 
 there was a Gothic N. F. with this inscription : 
 
 Ce charnier fut fait <$• donne a I'Eglise, 
 Pour V amour dc Dicu, Van. 1399. 
 
 The second of these evidences, was upon the Marivaux door, 
 of the church of St. James, at the Boucherie, where the figure 
 of Flamel, was on the left side in entering, kneeling at the 
 feet of St. Jacques ; and beneath was a Gothic N. The figure- 
 of Perrenelle was at the other side, kneeling at the feet of St. 
 John, with a Gothic P. On the middle was an image oi' 
 The Virgin. 
 
Flamd. 2t 
 
 The third was in the street of Notre Dame, at the postal of 
 Genevieve, of Arden ; called in Piamel's testament Little Ge- 
 nevieve. There his statue was kneeling in a niche, with a 
 desk at his side, looking towards St. Jamesj and a Gothic 
 N. I. below, at the right. At the loot was • written: '-Tin's 
 Portal built in 1 u v _\- by the aims oi" many." By which incrip- 
 tion Flamel concealed that he was the principal donor. 
 
 The fourth remains of antiquity, was in the street of the Ce- 
 metary of St. Nicholas of the .liticls, near St. Martin's-strcet ; 
 where, from both sides, there was. a wall of cut stone, which 
 was unfinished on the left side. It was intended for an 
 hospital. There were many figures engraven in the stone, with 
 a Gothic N. F. on each side. The right side is dated 1407. 
 
 Flamel, thus piously employed in building churches, with the 
 great treasures winch he so i. ised, thought he 
 
 had not done enough, without leaving to posterity, the means 
 of acquiring the same. J le first wrote his Summary oj ' Pudo- 
 sophy, in French verse:, alter the example of the Romance of 
 the Rose, which was then much in vogue. Four years after, in 
 1413, he wrote the Comment on the Hierogliphies, which he 
 had erected, in an arch in the public street,, at the church-yard 
 of .the Innocents. 
 
 Approaching near the end of his life, and having no chil- 
 dren, he chose his burial-plaqe, in his parish church of St. James 
 of the Boucherie, before the crucifix; by a contract that he 
 made with the wardens of this church, of which he makes men- 
 tion in his testament. Ke then disposed of his property and 
 goods to the church and the poor ; as may be seen in his will, 
 which is lodged in the archives of St. James of the Boucherie. 
 It is dated the 2 2d November, 1416, and begins thus: "To 
 all those to whom these present letters shell come, I, Annegny 
 du Castel, chevalier, counsellor chambellan of the King, our 
 Sire, keeper of the prevot of Paris, greeting; Know ye, that 
 before Hugues de la Barre, and Jean de la Noe, notary clerks 
 of the king, at the chatclet, was established personally, Nicho- 
 las Flamel, scrivener, sound in body and mind, speaking clearly, 
 with good and true understanding," &c. It is four sheets of 
 parchment, which are sewed, one to the end of the other, like 
 the rolls or volumes of ancient writing. It contains thirty-four 
 articles; in the twentieth, he bequeaths to his relations the sum 
 • of forty livres. He lived but thrcv years after this will. 
 
 The preface to his book on the Hieroglyphics, is the last oi his 
 writings, and is dated 1419. 
 
 Flamel made projection in the presence of Perrenelle, in 
 1382; but there is a uocement of a transection which passed 
 between Perrenelle, her sister Isabella, end FJamel, dated llui^ 
 January, 1397, which is lodged in the archives of St. James of 
 the Boucherie, by which the d?te of Perrenelle's deruh is so far 
 ascertained, that it is fixed between that year, and the date ei 
 
40 Lives of the Adepts-. 
 
 his book, 14-13, in which he deplores her loss. A deed was 
 made by the executors of Perrenelle, his wife, the 2d of April, 
 1419. in which there are these words, "The late Perrenelle, wife 
 of the late Nicholas Flamel." There is a great appearance, from 
 this circumstance, that he died in March, 1419; and it is very 
 likely that the deed was made shortly after his death, because 
 he was one of the testamentary executors of his wife ; and from 
 the date of his preface, he was living in 1419. 
 
 Thus, the death of Perrenelle may be placed in the year 
 1413, and the death of Flamel in Hi 9. 
 
 The argument of Flamel's munificence, in proof of the Her- 
 metic science, has bpen contested by Gabriel Naude, who was 
 bookseller to Cardinal Mazarin, and wrote with some ability 
 against the Invisible Rosicrusian brotherhood ; and also, " An 
 Apology for Great Men suspected of Magic." He asserts that 
 Flamel managed affairs for the Jews, and upon their banishment 
 from the kingdom of France, and the confiscation of their pro- 
 perty for the King, he, knowing the sums due by several indi- 
 viduals, compromised, by receiving a part, which they paid him, 
 to prevent his giving information, which would oblige them to 
 pay the entire to the public officer. The riches acquired by 
 this artifice, were concealed by his pretention to Alchemy ; and 
 agreeable to the devotion of the times, to expiate his sin, he 
 built some churches and hospitals. 
 
 The testimony of Naude is considerable, as it supposes the 
 fact of Flamel's riches incontestiblc ; and it goes further, 
 proving his profession, as well as his existence ; for Naude 
 relates, that he saw at Rome, in the library of Cardinal Baguv, 
 a copy of the Romance of the Rose, written in Flamel's own 
 hand. But the explanation Naude gives of the source of Fla- 
 mel's riches, is an unfounded assertion. If we carefully ex- 
 amine history, there were three expulsions of the Jews from 
 France, between 1300 and 1420. They were banished in 1308; 
 wore soon after allowed to return ; and were banished again 
 jn 1320; this was before Flamel's birth. The Jews were re- 
 established by Charles V. in 1364, and they remained in quiet 
 until the riots in Paris, in 13S0, at the beginning of the reign 
 of Charles VI. when the people rose against the Jews, commit- 
 ted great outrages, and demanded their expulsion; but the se- 
 dition was quelled, and the Jews protected, until, in 1393, upon 
 several charges brought against them, they were enjoined to 
 quit France, or become Christians. The historian, Mezaray, 
 says, that some of them chose rather to quit their religion than 
 the kingdom ; others sold their goods, and retired. Thus, it 
 appears, that the only expulsion of the Jews that could agree 
 with Maude's surmise, was without the confiscation of their pro- 
 perty, and therefore could not give Flamel the opportunity 
 alleged, if indeed it were reasonable to suppose that all the 
 
Nicholas Flamel. 41 
 
 Jews entrusted their affairs to one person, when it docs not ap- 
 pear that any necessity required such an agency. 
 
 It is therefore untrue, that Flainel was enriched by the pro- 
 perty of the Jews, or that those who owed them money, com- 
 pounded with Flamel, lest he should denounce them to the 
 king. 
 
 The simplicity and honesty of Flamel, appears, in every 
 line he wrote, to convince us of his innocence. 
 
 Notwithstanding the secrecy of Flamel and Perrenellc, the 
 report of their charities reached the King ; and the Hierogly- 
 phics were not forgotten, which, to some of the learned, ap- 
 peared Hermetical. Charles VI. reigned from 1380, to his 
 death, in 1422. He was naturally a good prince, but griev- 
 ously afflicted in health. He thought the reports respecting 
 Flamel so important, that he sent a confidential person, M. 
 Cramoisi, Master of the Requests, to enquire into it. This 
 magistrate went to the philosopher's house ; he found there no 
 appearance of affluence; a becchen platter, containing boiled 
 greens, was placed on a stool ; Flamel sat on one side, Perre- 
 nelle on the other, enjoying their humble and stlf-denying re- 
 past. These evidences were convincing to the courtier, and he 
 reported to the King, that Flamel was really indigent. He 
 then remained in peace and proceeded without further inter- 
 ruption in his munificent works of charity. 
 
 Flamel gave a quantity of transmuting powder to Perrenelle's 
 nephew, M. Perrier; from him it descended to Dr. Perrier, and 
 was found among the doctor's papers, at his death, by his 
 grandson, Dubois. The prudence and moderation that accom- 
 panied the gift to the Perriers, was not found in Dubois : he 
 exhibited the sacred miracle to improper persons, and was 
 brought before Louis XIII. in whose presence he made gold ot 
 base metal, and this gold, in the cupel, augmented in weight. 
 
 The consequence of all this patriotic generosity was, an infa- 
 mous death. His vanity was equal to his imprudence ; he fan- 
 cied he could make, or augment the powder, and promised to 
 <lo so, but did not succeed. 
 
 It is probable that he was suspected of withholding the art 
 from the King, a circumstance sufficient in politics, to justify 
 strong measures, lest the possessor of the sinews of war should 
 go over to the enemy. 
 
 Whatever were the charges against Dubois, he was hanged ; 
 and his fate should be a proof, that a science, producing un- 
 bounded power in riches, is the greatest misfortune to all those 
 who are unfit, and unprepared to manage the dangerous trust 
 with discretion. 
 
 As a completion to Plamel's history, it may be entertaining to 
 recite a very curious account, given by Paul Lucas, of an ad- 
 venture he had in the East, where he travelled by order of the 
 King of France, Louis XIV. to whom he dedicated his book. 
 
43 Lives of the Adepts, 
 
 which should therefore be authentic. " I was at Broussa, in 
 Natolia, and going to take the air with a person of distinction, 
 came to a little mosque, which was adorned with gardens and 
 fountains, for a public walk ; we were quickly introduced into a 
 cloister, where we found four dcrvises, who received us with 
 all imaginable civility, and desired us to partake of what they 
 were eating, We were told, what we soon found to be true, 
 that they were all persons of the greatest worth and learning ; 
 one of them, who said he was of (Jsbec Tartary, appeared to 
 be more learned than the rest, and I believe verily he spoke all 
 the principal languages of the world. After we had conversed 
 m Turkish, he asked if I could speak Latin, Spanish, or Italian. 
 I told him, if he pleased, to speak to me in Italian ; - but he 
 soon discovered, by my accent, that it was not my mother 
 tongue ; and asked me frankly, what country I came from ? As 
 soon as he knew that. I was a native of France, lv spoke to me 
 in as good French as if he had been brought up at Paris. * Flow 
 long, Sir,' said I, * did you stay in France?' He replied, he 
 had never been there, but that he had a great inclination to 
 undertake the journey. 
 
 " I did all in my power to strengthen that resolution, and to 
 convince him that France was the nursery of the learned, and 
 the King a patron of the sciences, who defrayed 1 the expense of 
 jny travels, for collecting notices of antiquities, drawings of 
 monuments, correcting maps, and making a collection of an- 
 cient coins, manuscripts, &c ; all which he seemed to approve, 
 out of pure civility. Our conversation being ended, the dcr- 
 vises brought us to their house, at the foot of the mountain, 
 where, having drank coffee, I took my leave, but with a pro- 
 mise, however, that I would shortly come and see them again. 
 
 " On the 10th, the dervise whom I took for an Usbeck, came 
 to pay me a visit. I shewed him all the manuscripts I had 
 bought, and he assured me they were very valuable, written 
 by great authors. Fie was a man every way extraordinary ir 
 learning; and in external appearance he seemed to be aboiu 
 thirty years old; but from his discourse, I was persuaded he 
 had lived a century. 
 
 '• lie told me lie was one of seven friends, who travelled to 
 perfect their studies, and, every twenty year?, met hi a place 
 previously appointed. I perceived that Broussa was the place 
 of their present meeting, and that four of them had arrived. 
 Religion, and natural philosophy, took up our thoughts by 
 turns ; and at last we fell upon chemistry, alchemy, and the 
 cabala. I told him all these, and especially the philosophers* 
 stone, were regarded by most men of sense as mere fictions. 
 
 " That,' replied he, 'should not surprise you ; the sage 
 hears the ignorant Without being shocked, but does not for that 
 reason sink his understanding to the same level. When I speak 
 fof a sage, I mean, one who sees all things die, and revive, 
 
TJwmas Norton. 43 
 
 without concern : lie has more riches in his power than the 
 greatest king, but lives temperately, above the power of events/ 
 
 " Here 1 stopped him, ' With all these fine maxims, the 
 sage dies as well as other people.' ' Alas !' said he, < I perceive 
 you are unacquainted with sublime science. Such a one as I de- 
 scribe, dies indeed, for death is inevitable, but he docs not die 
 before the utmost limits of his mortal existence. Hereditary 
 disease and weakness reduced the life of man, but the sage, by 
 the use of the true medicine, can ward off whatever may hinder 
 or impair the animal function"* for a thousand years.' 
 
 " Surprised at all I heard, * And would you persuade me,' 
 said I, ' that all who possessed the philosophers' stone, have lived 
 a thousand years.' He replied gravely, ' Without doubt every 
 one might ; it depends entirely on themselves.' At last I took 
 the liberty of naming the celebrated Flamel, who it was said, 
 possessed the philosophers' stone, but was dead. He smiled at 
 my simplicity, and said, with an air of mirth, ' And do you 
 really believe this ? — No no, my friend, Flamel is living still ; — 
 neither he nor his wife are dead ; It is not above three years 
 since I left both the one and the other in the Indies ; he is one 
 of my best friends !' Upon which he told me the history of 
 Flamel, as he heard it from himself, the same as I had read in' 
 his book ; until at last, when Charles VI. who was then upon 
 the throne, sent M. Cramoisi, a magistrate, and his master of 
 requests, to enquire from Flamel the origin of his riches, he saw 
 at once the danger he was in ; and shortly after spread a report 
 of his wife's death ; having sent her into Switzerland, to wait 
 there for him, he had her funeral celebrated ; and in a few years 
 lie ordered his own coffin to be interred. Since that time 
 they have both lived a philosophic life, sometimes in one coun- 
 try, sometimes in another. This is the true history, and not 
 what is believed at Paris, where there are very few who ever 
 had the least glimpse of true wisdom. 
 
 See Lucas's Travels, vol. 1, p. 79 ; and for Dubois, see Bo- 
 rel's Gallic Antiquities, 48$. 
 
 THOMAS NORTON. 
 
 The first syllables, of the preface, and of the six first chapters 
 of the Ordinal of Alchemy, with the first line of the seventh. 
 discovers the anonymous author to be 
 
 Tomais Norton^ of Bn'seto, 
 
 A parfel mmtir ye mate him trowe. 
 
44; Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 He wrote in 1477. John Pitts, in De Ulustr. Aug!, script, 
 page 666 and John Bale Dc Script Br. Gent. 2 fol. 67, write 
 that this Thomas Norton was Alchemista suo tempore peri 
 tissimus ! 
 
 Norton relates, that he obtained the knowledge of alchemys- 
 try, from an adept. He describes him, possessed of a noble 
 mind, worthy of all praise, loving justice, abhorring fraud ; 
 secret in the midst of talkative company; unassuming; and es- 
 pecially when the conversation turned on alchemy, he said no- 
 thing on the subject. To him, Norton applied for a consider- 
 able time, in vain ; the adept proved him by various trials, and 
 at length being satisfied of his disposition, manners, habits, and 
 strength of mind, his love yielded to Norton's fidelity, and in 
 answer to one of his letters, he wrote as follows: 
 
 " My trusty and well beloved brother, 
 
 "I shall not any longer delay; the time is come; you shall 
 receive this grace ; your honest desire, and approved virtue, 
 your love, truth, wisdom, and long perseverance, shall accom- 
 plish your sorrowful desires. 
 
 " It is necessary, that, as soon as convenient, we speak to- 
 gether, face to face, lest I should, by writing, betray my trust. 
 I will make you my heir and brother in this art ; as I am setting 
 out to travel in foreign countries. Give thanks to God, who, 
 next to his spiritual servants, honours the sons of this sacred 
 science." 
 
 Norton lost no time in pursuing the journey, upwards of one 
 hundred miles, on horseback, to the abode of the adept ; and 
 there he continued forty days, receiving the advice and directions 
 of his friend. 
 
 He was highly prepared by previous study, not only in the 
 course of philosophy that prevailed at the time, but in the most 
 occult and curious sciences. He was now fully satisfied in the 
 disclosure of ' the bonds of nature,' which convinced him of the 
 truth and certainty of the art, by the reasonableness of it, and 
 he had no doubt of success. At this time Norton was but tiventy- 
 eight yea; s old, which the adept noticed, when refusing to teach 
 the process from the white to the red powder, lest his youthful 
 passions might misuse so great a gift ; but in due time, after 
 further proofs of his capacity and prudence, he communicated 
 the work of the medicinal stone. 
 
 The chemical operations of Norton met with two signal disap- 
 pointments : he had nearly perfected the tincture, when his own 
 servant, who was employed about the furnace, supposing the 
 prize was complete, carried it away. He repeated the process 
 again, and made the elixir ^*but it was taken from him by the 
 wife of William Canning, viMayor of Bristol, who built the 
 splendid church and lofty steeple of St. Mary's, RadclhT, and 
 augmented the college of "VVestbury, wear Bristol. 
 
Tlwmas Dallon. 4£ 
 
 It is doubtful whether Norton attained to enjoy the fruits of 
 his knowledge, as he does not speak of his own transmutations. 
 His family lived in high respect under King Henry VIII. There 
 were nine brothers of the name of Norton, all of them knights. 
 The tomb of Sir Sampson Norton, at Fulham- church, near 
 London, was adorned with Hermetic paintings; he was master 
 of ordnance to the King, and died in 1517. 
 
 Samuel Norton, the author of several alchemical books, 
 quotes Thomas Norton, and speaks of his own great grand- 
 father, as an alchemist ; that he commanded, a hood of leather 
 with glass eyes to be used, when distilling a perilous volatile 
 •vapour, that the breathing may be drawn by a tube from below. 
 This direction is given by Thomas Norton, in his ordinal, page 
 10t, * ordaine therefore to fetch breath from your footed lest an 
 incurable corrosion of the lungs, and blindness may ensue from 
 the potent gas that escapes at opening the vessels, or by inse- 
 cure lutement, where the furnace is unfortunately not placed 
 under a spacious funnel of ventilation. 
 
 See Wever's Funeral Monuments, 526. Ca?nden , s Britannia, 
 538. Isaacson's Chronicle, 467. Godw. 367. Ashmo/e's 
 Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. 
 
 THOMAS DALTON. 
 
 The only account of this British adept, who lived in 1450, 
 is preserved by Thomas Norton. He was a religious man, of 
 good report ; and upon suspicion that he had a large mass of 
 transmuting powder, he was taken from his abbey, in Glouces- 
 tershire, by Thomas Herbert, one of the squires of King Ed- 
 ward, and being brought into the royal presence, he was con- 
 fronted by Del vis, another of the King's squires, to whom 
 Dalton was formerly a chaplain. Delvis alleged, that Dalton, 
 hi less than half a day, made him a thousand pounds of good 
 gold; and he attested the fact upon oath. Then Dalton, looking 
 at Delvis, said, ' Sir, you are forsworn.' Delvis acknowledged 
 he had vowed to him, that he would not reveal the benefit 
 he received, but that for the King's sake, and the good of the 
 commonwealth, he ought not to keep the oath. Dalton now- 
 addressed the King, and told his Majesty, that he had received 
 the powder from a canon of Litchfield, on a promise not to use 
 it until after his death ; and since then, he had been in so much 
 danger and disquiet by the possession and charge of it, that he 
 had destroyed it secretly. The King dismissed Dalton, giving 
 him four marks, to pay his travelling expenses where he would ; 
 but Herbert lay in wait, and brought him to Stepney, and from 
 thence secretly conveyed him to the castle of Gloucester; irfceirt 
 
46 Lines of the Adepts. 
 
 every means, were tried In vain, to induce him to make the phi- 
 losophers' tincture. 
 
 After four years imprisonment, Dalton was brought out to be 
 beheaded, in the presence of Herbert. He obeyed, with re- 
 signation and joy, saying, 'Blessed art thou, Lord Jesu ! I have 
 been too long from you ; the science you gave me, 1 have kept 
 without abusing it ; I have found no one apt to be my heir, 
 whereibrc, sweet Lord, I will render thy gift to thee again.' — 
 Then, after making devout prayers, with a smiling countenance, 
 he desired the executioner to proceed. Herbert's eyes gushed 
 tears to see him so willing to die, and that nothing could force 
 the secret from him. He gave orders to let him go. His im- 
 prisonment, and threatened execution were designed without 
 the King's knowledge, to intimidate him into a compliance : 
 and these iniquitous devices having failed, Herbert dared not to 
 take away his life. Dalton rose from the block with a heavy 
 countenance, and departed to his abbey, regretting his stay in 
 a world of wickedness. Herbert died shortly after this atrocious 
 act of tyranny, and Delvis came to an untimely end ; his father. 
 Sir John Delvis, was slain in the battle at Teuxbury, May 4, 
 1471 ; and two days after, he was taken from the church, where 
 he fled for sanctuary, and was beheaded, 
 
 See Norton's Ordinal, c/i. 2. Stop's ^Innate, page 424. 
 
 BERNARD TREVISAN. 
 
 Af.out the time that Basil, in Germany, and the two Isaacs 
 in Holland, were prosecuting their labours successfully, Bernard 
 Trevisan began to study this venerable science. Hit. father was 
 a physicuin, of Padua, where Bernard was born, in 1406. His 
 alchemical errors, of which he gives an account, are, perhaps, 
 the most curious anecdotes in the history of occult chemistry. 
 
 It only requires a little cupidity, to be attracted to a science 
 that promises immense riches. Bernard Trevisan, either from a 
 taste for science, or from a love of wealth, at fourteen years of 
 age, eagerly gave himself up to this pursuit. 
 
 The first book that fell into his hands was Rhasis; he believed 
 that he should find in it a method to encrease his patrimony an 
 hundred fold. He began to operate; and in four years, that 
 he spent in useless trials, lie expended not less than 800 crowns, 
 at that time a considerable sum. Tired of throwing away his 
 time and money, he begun to read, and addicting himself to the 
 study of Getter, who, in the multitude of preparations, is a la- 
 bvrinth to the unexperienced . he expended 2000 crowns in 
 experiments on his proce s, not knowing the character of the 
 $ubtk-"mtted Geber. He was then surrounded by pretended phi- 
 
Bernard Trevisan. 47 
 
 losophers, who, seeing lie was rieh and curious, proffered various 
 secrets, which, perhaps, they did not possess, that tliey might 
 obtain a living. The herd of false alchemists, in all ages, 
 have been a public nuisance, by their impositions on the cre- 
 dulous, who expend their fortunes on their extravagant pro- 
 mises, and imposing experiments. 
 
 He was not discouraged by all this; he still hoped to succeed, 
 by following, according to the letter, the treatises of sbchclc-Ks, 
 Jtupeciskdy and Sacrobosco, and to encrease his light, he associ- 
 ated himself with a good monk : they worked in concert three 
 years ; they rectified spirit of wine more than thirty times, till 
 they could not find glasses strong enough to hold it. Their 
 operations cost them near 300 crowns. 
 
 He had already for twelve years worked, in vain, to dissolve, 
 congeal, and sublime common salt, salt armoniac, all sorts of 
 alums, and copperas; he even proceeded upon ordure, both of 
 men and beasts, by distillation, circulation, and sublimation. 
 These labours consumed, in the twelve years, altogether, about 
 7000 crowns. This money was not all spent on the laboratory, 
 a part of it fell to the share of the pretended artists by whom he 
 was beset, who promised to draw the mercury from plants, 
 herbs, and animals. 
 
 At last, discouraged by so much expense and time lost, he 
 set himself to pray to God to discover to him the aim of al- 
 chemistry. He worked again, with a magistrate of Ills countn^ 
 upon sea salt ; he rectified it for eight months, without finding 
 any alteration in its nature. The little success he drew from 
 this last process, made him change his plan : as he knew artists 
 who worked with strong waters, he tried whether these dis- 
 solvents would succeed with him ; he made proof upon silver, 
 and common mercury, but it was always with the same success. 
 Being now in the prime of life, about forty-six years of age, he 
 set out to travel in search of true alchemists : the first he found 
 was a monk of Citcaux, named Geoffrey Leuvrier, with whom 
 he worked on hen eggs, even to the calcination of the shells. — 
 To conclude ; after eight years of the most laborious operations, 
 all the good he received, was, to know the best way of building 
 furnaces, and distilling strong waters. He, after this, knew a 
 a theologian, who was prothonotary of Bruges, in Flanders, with 
 whom he worked for fourteen months, to distill copperas with 
 vinegar : by this process he got a quartern fever. 
 
 At last,' says he, ' I was informed, that Mr. Henry, confessor 
 to the Emperor, Frederick III. had the secret of the philoso- 
 phers' stone.' 
 
 He immediately set out for Germany, accompanied by some 
 unhappy sons of Hermes, like himself: they contrived to be 
 introduced to the confessor; and began to work, in conjunction 
 with him. Bernard contributed ten marks of silver, and the 
 others put thirty-two, fxoru whjch they expected, in a few days, 
 
48 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 to have one hundred at least ; but after their rectifications, and 
 distillations, instead of increase, they could only recover six of 
 their forty-two marks. This journey cost Bernard two hundred 
 crowns ; and as he had passed the fifty-eighth year of his age, it 
 was time then, either to renounce his pursuit, or obtain the 
 secret of the adepts. 
 
 His disappointments and regret, after losing so many years, at 
 such a considerable expense, had almost put an end to his wan- 
 derings; he was, for two months, resolved against further search, 
 but a ray of hope still kept his cupidity alive, and he set out 
 again: he travelled into Spain, passed to Rome, went through 
 Greece and Turkey, Palestine, Persia, Egypt, Rhodes; he ar- 
 rived at Messina ; returned to France, passed into England ; 
 travelled to Scotland, and returned to Germany. In every 
 country he found many alchemists at work; but of those who 
 worked with success, he could not be informed. The true phi- 
 losopher*' did not chuse to make themselves known, while the 
 impostors, who soon hear of credulous and rich searchers, pre- 
 sent themselves on all sides. Bernard expended in these tra- 
 vels, and in false operations, about 13,000 crowns, and was 
 obliged to sell a possession that yielded him 8,000 German 
 florins yearly. He was now sixty-two years of age; and as he 
 had been deaf to the prudent remonstrances of his family, he 
 saw himself despised, as soon as he fell into misery. He en- 
 deavoured to conceal his poverty from human sight, and fixed 
 on the Isle of Rhodes, to live entirely unknown. Neverthe- 
 less, neither his misfortunes nor his indigence cured him ; he 
 renewed his pursuit, on meeting with a monk who was addicted 
 to it. They repeated their errors ; and to enable them to go on, 
 Bernard had 8000 florins remitted to Rhodes, by an agent who 
 knew his family, but who, very likely, was ignorant of his po- 
 verty, or the pursuit he was engaged in. 
 
 He laboured with this monk hi the dissolution of gold, of 
 silver, and of corrosive sublimate ; and he did so much in three 
 years at this work, that he expended the fund he raised for the 
 purpose. Disconcerted by tins new failure, he amused himself 
 by reading all the great authors, such as Arnold Villanova< 
 Mary the Prophetess ,- The Turba ; and The Great Rosary : 
 this was his only consolation : he passed eight years in these new 
 reveries ; thus he was nearly seventy-three. It was very late in 
 life to hope for success in the Hermetic science, it was time to 
 think of something more serious; yet he professes, that it was at 
 tins time he found the secret. By comparing the adepts, and ex- 
 amining in what things they agree, and in what they differ, he 
 judged the truth lay in those maxims wherein they were unani- 
 mous; he informs us, nevertheless, that it was two years before 
 he put it in practice. 
 
 It was a. feeble consolation, after uselessly consuming a con- 
 siderable property, during more thaii sixty years, in which he 
 
Fontaine. — Ripkyr 40 
 
 was exposed to extreme misery, and obliged to become an exile, 
 to conceal his poverty, that he attained the prize when he was 
 at the age of seventy-live years, and life almost gone. Yet he 
 lived some years alter, in the enjoyment of his success-, not- 
 withstanding the infirmities of old age, increased by, the toils 
 and perils of his life. 
 
 Bernard ha6 left but few works behind him. The Natural 
 Philosophy of Metals, or Secret Work of Chemistry, appeared 
 originally in French, and contains much salutary counsel against 
 imposters ; but the Parting Word, and his Letter to Thomas of 
 Boulogne, first physician to King Charles VIII. lead the under- 
 standing artist into the door of the secret chemistry. 
 
 Some authors erroneously believe him a German, and call 
 him Bernard of Treves ; the best informed writers stile him 
 Compte de la Marche Trevisane. It appears he died in 1490, 
 aged 84> years. After his death he had a much better reputation 
 than while living, being so much esteemed^ as to be generally 
 called the good Trevisan. 
 
 ^ v 
 
 JOHN FONTAINE. 
 
 The life of this artist is littje known, being chiefly in his 
 closet or laboratory, and living much secluded from the world ; 
 he was considered a visionary, and was either writing verses, or 
 attending his furnaces. He lived at Valenciennes, in 1413. — 
 His Hermetic poem, To the Lovers of Science, was printed 
 many times; it is curious, and the author professes himself an 
 adept. 
 
 SIR GEORGE RIPLEY. 
 
 This celebrated philosopher, at an early age, entered among 
 the regular canons of Bridlington, in the diocese of York. The 
 tranquillity of a monastic life, gave him a favourable opportu- 
 nity to read the works of all the great masters in the Secret- 
 Chemistry ; but grieved at not being able to understand them, 
 he resolved to travel, persuading himself, that he should dis- 
 cover, in the conversation^ of philosophers, what he could not 
 comprehend from books. 
 
 In Italy, France, and Germany, he became acquainted with 
 several learned men, and had the happiness to see a transmu- 
 tation performed at Rome. He went to Rhodes, where, it ap- 
 pears, from a document found in Malta, that he gave .£100,000 
 to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. He was dignified by 
 the Pope, which, on bis return to Bridlington, excited the 
 
50 Liven of the Adepts. 
 
 jealousy of his brethren ; in consequence of their disquietude, lie 
 entered into the order of Carmelites, at ButoJph, in Lincoln- 
 shire ; and by an indulgence from Innocent VIII. he obtained 
 permission to live in solitude, exempt from claustral observance ; 
 he now had uninterrupted leisure, and wrote twenty-five books 
 of science, among other devout studies. 
 
 He wrote the Twelve Gates of Alchemy, in 1471 ; and de- 
 clares, that any experiments written by him, from 14-50 to 
 1470, should be discredited, as he wrote than from theory, and 
 found afterwards, by practice, that the}' were nirtfne. Hence 
 it may be concluded, that he was twenty years obtaining the 
 science. He died at Butolph, in 1 490. 
 
 PARACELSUS. 
 
 No man, in his time, had more adversaries, and none had 
 more zealous disciples than Paracelsus. Lie was born at Ho- 
 henheim, two miles from Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1494. His 
 father, who was a physician, had a large collection of scarce 
 and curious books, and was eminent in his profession : from 
 him Paracelsus received the first rudiments of his education; 
 and when he was able to form a judgment of medicine, he was 
 employed, under his father, in the study of that science. As 
 soon as the young philosopher had discovered a volume of Isaac 
 Holland's, in his lather's library, he was inflamed with the am- 
 bition of curing diseases by medicines, superior to the Materia 
 then in use. He performed several chemical operations, accord- 
 ing to the books of Isaac, and adopted, from his writings, the 
 ancient principles, that a spiritual salt, mercury, and ivlpkw. 
 form a trinity in every substance: this system he enlarged, and 
 explained according to his own lights. After a course of study, 
 in which he imbibed all his father's extensive learning, and ex- 
 perience, he was placed under the tuition of Trithcmiu-, abbot 
 of Spanheim, to improve his knowledge of the scientific lan- 
 guages, and the classics. 
 
 Cornelius Agrippa, the former pupi) of Tnthemius, had 
 written to him on occult philosophy, and what was called natural 
 magic, thai is, the doctrine of sympathy and antipathy, in 
 the vegetable, anima!, and mineral kingdoms; which principles 
 have been since extended to explain the motion of the planets, 
 in the Newtonian system of attraction and repulsion ; the or- 
 ganization of plants by sexes ; and lately, Professor Davy has 
 discovered the foundation of chemistry, in the negative and po- 
 sitive electricities, on the same two principles. From Tri- 
 themius's love of occult learning, Paracelsus acquired the ca- 
 bala of the spiritual, astral, and material worlds. He was after- 
 wards placed under the care of Sigismcnd Hugger, to be ire- 
 
Paracelsus. 51 
 
 proved in medicine, surgery, and chemistry; and, at twenty 
 years of age, lie travelled in Germany and Hungary, visiting 
 the mines with the most persevering industry and application, 
 until he acquired every information lie wanted from the miners, 
 encountering, for this purpose, various dangers, from earth- 
 quakes, falls of stones, floods, exhalations, damps, heat, hunger 
 and thirst. 
 
 He now extended his travels to Muscovy, and was taken 
 prisoner by the Tartars, , who brought him before the Great 
 Cham. At this court he became a favourite, from his know- 
 ledge in medicine and chemistry. He was sent from thence, in 
 company with an embassy, to Constantinople, in the twenty- 
 eighth year of his age. It was here, as J. B. Helmont relates, 
 that he was taught the secret of alchemistry, by a generous 
 Arabian, who gave him the universal dissolvent, which he calls 
 azot, death, or that whieh putrifies, or alcahest, the spirit, which 
 is the sophic fire ; the key to alchemistry, a science named 
 from the Arabic chom, and Hebrew churn, heat, meaning the 
 mystery of heat. 
 
 At his return from Turkey to Germany, he practised a* 
 surgeon in the Imperial army, and performed many wonderful 
 cures. He also professed internal medicine, which, in a short 
 time, he reformed from the system of Galen, by the successful 
 use of chemical medicines. He was invited to take the profes* 
 sor's chair for medicine and philosophy, in the university of 
 Basil, celebrated at that time, 1527, by having Erasmus pro- 
 fessor in theology, and Oporinus in Greek classics. 
 
 At his first lecture, Paracelsus burned the works of Galen in 
 a brass pan, with sulphur and nitre. The majority of physicians 
 were, of course, enemies to his innovations, before the value of 
 mineral medicines was proved; and he retorted their persecution 
 with vehemence. He invited the faculty to a lecture, in which 
 lie promised to teach the greatest secret of medicine : he com- 
 menced, by uncovering a dish, which was placed before him ; it 
 contained excrement ; the doctors, indignant at this insult, 
 hasted out of the room ; while Paracelsus cried out, ' If you 
 will not hear the mysteries of putrefactive fermentation, you are 
 unworthy of the name of doctors.' 
 
 Oporinus' says, he never seemed sober while he knew him, 
 during three years, until he resigned his chair, declaring the 
 Latin language unfit for the purposes of philosophy. A singu- 
 lar adventure obliged him to quit Basil altogether: A canon of 
 the cathedral was in extreme sickness ; all the physicians forsook 
 him, as incurable. Paracelsus saw him, and promised to restore 
 him* to health : the canon gratefully expressed himself, as one 
 who would feel the obligation, and make large recompencc ; — 
 txvo pills performed the cure ; but it was no sooner effected, than 
 the canon undervalued it, and contended against the claim of 
 the doctor.— He had been cured too soon. -^-Paracelsus com- 
 
52 Livei of the Adepts. 
 
 plained to the magistrates of the town, who awarded a very mode- 
 rate fee, in proportion to his short attendance. He publicly in- 
 veighed against their injustice, and went to live at Strasburgh, 
 where he remained but a short time, as he became fond of an itine- 
 rant life, lodging at the public inns, and drinking to excess, and 
 performing admirable cures. At length he fell a sacrifice to his 
 intemperance, in the forty-eighth year of his life. He died on a 
 bench, by the kitchen fire of the inn, at Strasburgh, the 24th of 
 September, 154-1. His processes in occult chemistry are impracti- 
 cable to the student who is unacquainted with his alcahest ; 
 his fertility of invention combined this secret universal spirit 
 with various substances, forming innumerable degrees of elixirs, 
 and alchemic dissolvents, for medical purposes. The adept who 
 lias obtained the great object of alchemistry, is then only pre- 
 pared for the school of Paracelsus. 
 
 Oporinus, the learned professor of Basil, attended Paracelsus 
 with all the assiduity of a servant, for the purpose of acquiring 
 some of his secrets : he relates, than when apparently drunk, 
 he drew his sword, and forced him to write as he dictated : — 
 Oporinus obeyed, and wondered much at the coherency of the 
 language, and the wisdom of the matter, which wouid become 
 the most sober philosopher. 
 
 With respect to the art of making gold, Oporinus says, 
 that he often saw him in want, borrowing money of carmen 
 and porters; and the next day he would repay them double, 
 from a fund that could not be discovered. His early death 
 is considered by some, as an argument against the elixir of 
 health ; and by others, a proof that he was poisoned. The 
 poison of intemperance and irregular living, is sufficient, par- 
 ticularly to one who takes the powerful metallic medicine, which 
 is an elixir, in its best state, that cannot withstand the judg- 
 ments of God ; but, on the contrary, heightens the physical 
 consequences of habitual sins against nature, by accelerating 
 dissolution in the conflict of opposite principles. 
 
 The name Paracdsus, is used to avoid his length of names, 
 Philip Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus, of Hohen- 
 heim, is an unwieldy title. His disciples add to it, "The prince 
 of physicians, and philosophers, by fire; the Trismegistus of 
 Switzerland : reformer of chemical philosophy ; Nature's faith- 
 fill secretary; master of the elixir of life, the philosophers* 
 stone, and great monarch of chemical secrets." 
 
 The system of alchemistry, to be collected from the writings of 
 Paracelsus, and his commentators, is very simple. In the first 
 place is the alcahest, or spirit of nature, uncompounded; it i* 
 one i in decomposable, universal, mild attraction, passive and im- 
 jyotent, until by an alchemical combination, with any other matter, 
 it produces in the union, a new substance, of prodigious power, 
 according to the nature of the matter with which it is com- 
 bined : these preparations are dissolvents, transnmters, and m$- 
 
r,-7 
 
 Paracelsus. v* 
 
 vicinal elixirs. Beneath this monad, or principle of simple 
 unity, is placed the binary distinction- of all nature, in a mild 
 or harsh attraction and repul$io)i. This sexual class of nature 
 is not a pure distinction ; the male is partly feminine, the fe- 
 male is partly masculine There is some acid in alkali, some 
 repulsion in attraction, some oxygen in hydrogen, some salt in 
 sulphur, some fire in water, some earth in air ; but that all na- 
 ture may be classed by its predominant state, of positive or ne- 
 gative, .in: the universal principle of electricity, has been lately 
 proved. 
 
 The next classification of nature is the trinity, a mild or hard 
 mttradion, repulsion, and circ laiion ; a recondite salt, mer- 
 curial spirit, and sulphur; in these principles, as before, each 
 one contains a part of the other two. Each division ot the 
 quaternity is still farther removed from simplicity; the great vi- 
 sible masses of earth, air, and water, are infinitely decomposable; 
 and the fourth element of heat, is equally various in its nature: 
 it is produced by the equilibrious conflict of the binary principles, 
 and. partakes of the nature of its origin, in the three principles, 
 or four elements ; but with less apparent predominancy of their 
 qualities, because its birth is in equilibrium ; there is, however, 
 a grand distinction of dark red from the saline predominancy, 
 and the production of light from the class of oils, fats, &c. 
 which belong to the sulphureous principle; cold, hot, dry, moist, 
 are the characters of the four elements. 
 
 The mineral kingdom has the monad in the most powerful 
 combination, forming an universal transmuting metal, that 
 changes all other metals, minerals, and prepared elements, into 
 gold. The binary class is gold and silver, distinct, by their 
 perfection, from the other five ancient metals. They have their 
 embryo minerals, antimony to lead, cinnabar to quicksilver, 
 eobalt to iron, marcasite to gold, vitriol to copper, zinc to tin, 
 white marcasite and arsenic to silver ; each metal contains other 
 metals, and each mineral assists the others in forming metals ; 
 their first being is a volatile spirit, attracting a liquid form. 
 
 MIRANDOLA. 
 
 John Picus, Earl of Mirandola, a prodigy of learning, was 
 born in 1463 ; he was the pupil of Jochanan, a Jew, who in- 
 structed him in the cabalistical writings ; he was called by Sca- 
 liger, monstrum sine vitio ; his numerous works were printed at 
 Strasburgh, with those of his nephew 4 , the Prince of Mirandola, 
 •in 1504; and the following epitaph is on his tomb : 
 
 Hie situs est Picas Mirandola, cater a norunt, 
 Lb- Tagvs. et Ganges, forsan et antipodes. 
 
54 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 When he was twenty-four years of age, he published 900 
 propositions, in logic, mathematics, physics, divinity, and the 
 cabala, collected from Greek, Latin, Jewish, and Arabian 
 writers. At twenty-eight, he confined himself to the study of 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 This illustrious personage who makes the following relation, 
 had studied exactly all the branches of philosophy, and was 
 convinced of the success of Hermetic operations. He writes, 
 in his book De Auro, lib. 3, cap. 2. < I come now to relate what 
 I have seen of this prodigy, without veil or obscui'ity. One of 
 my friends, who is now living, has made gold and silver more 
 than sixty times in my presence. I have seen it done in divers 
 manners ; but the expence of making the silver, with a metallic 
 water, exceeded the produce. 
 
 In another instance, the same author writes : * A good man, 
 who had not a sufficiency to support his family, was reduced to 
 the last extremity of distress; with an agitated mind he went to 
 sleep one night, and, in a dream, saw a blessed angel, who, by 
 some enigmas, taught him the method of making gold, and in- 
 dicated to him, at the same time, the water he should use to 
 succeed. At his awaking, he proceeded to work with this 
 water, and made gold in small quantity, but sufficient to sup- 
 port his family. He twice made gold of iron, and four times 
 of orpiment. He convinced me, by the evidence of my own 
 eyes, that the art of making gold is not a fiction. 
 
 CHARNOCK. 
 
 Thomas Charlock was born in the Isle of Thanct, in the 
 year 1524. He eails himself an unlettered scholar, and student 
 in astronomy and philosophy. He practised surgery ; but did 
 not know much Latin ; yet it appears that he was famed in the 
 neighbourhood of Salisbury, where he lived, for his accomplish- 
 ments in the liberal sciences. He had two masters in alchemy, 
 the first was Sir James S , a priest, dwelling in the clois- 
 ters, near Salisbury, who informed Charnock, that he did not 
 derive his knowledge from any living adept; but by reading and 
 meditation on the words of the ancients, he discovered the prin- 
 cipal secret of alchemy, as he lay in his bed ; and accordingly 
 succeeded in making the silver powder. 
 
 The other master who instructed Charnock, was a blind man, 
 led by a boy, whom he accidentally discovered at an iim, among 
 other travellers, by a few words of the occult chemistry, which 
 he perceived in his conversation. As soon as the company had 
 retired, Charnock entered int ocloser inquiries, and requested to 
 be instructed in natural philosophy ; — to this the adept objected, 
 a* he did not know him : — lie said, he would render up his 
 knowledge to God, who gave it, if he did not meet one Char- 
 
Char nod: 5s 
 
 nock, the fame of whose learning and charity had reached him. 
 At these words Churnotk made himself known, and the old 
 man discoursed with him for an hour, during which time he 
 found him expert in all questions of the sacred science, tie 
 promised Charnock, that if he made a vow, not to reveal the 
 secret for gold, preferment, or through affection for great men,- 
 but only at dying, to one nho WflS truly devoted to the search of 
 Nature; he would make him the heir of his knowledge. Ac- 
 cordingly, the next Sabbath-day, they received the Sacrament 
 together; and then withdrawing into the middle of a large 
 field, the boy was sent away out of hearing, and in a few 
 words the blind man uttered ' the mystery of mineral prudence* 
 He renewed these conversations for nine days, disclosing the se- 
 t-rets of alchemy; and related his own private history, acquainting 
 Charnock that his name was William Biro, that he had been 
 a prior of Bath, and defrayed the expence of repairing the 
 abbey church, from the treasure he made by the red and white 
 elixirs. At the suppression of the abbey, he concealed the in- 
 estimable powder in the wall, and returning in ten days, it was 
 gone ! He found some rags in the place where he had left it! — 
 This misfortune almost deprived him of his senses ; he wandered 
 about, and lost his sight. He was, therefore, unable to repeat 
 his process, and travelled through the country, led by a boy. 
 He had received his Hermetic knowledge from a servant of 
 Ripley's. At the time of this communication, Charnock was 
 twenty-eight years old ; and in two years after, his first master 
 fell sick, while attending his furnace, for the completion of the 
 red stone. He sent for Charnock, made him the heir of his 
 work, and giving him instructions how to proceed, he died. 
 
 Charnock commenced his operations on these materials, and 
 was much perplexed by the difficulty of keeping the fire equal. 
 He often started out of hi* sleep to examine the fuel; but after 
 all his care for some months, in one hour after he had left all 
 safe, the frame of wood that covered the furnace, took fire, and 
 when he smelled the burning, and ran up his laboratory, he dis- 
 covered that his work was completely destroyed; this was Jan. 1, 
 1 555. To repair the mischief, he was obliged to begin from the 
 first part of the process ; he hired a servant to assist in taking 
 care of the fire. In the course of two months he was filled with 
 hopes of success ; when, his dependance on his servant, proved 
 the ruin of his work: he discovered, that this unfaithful assistant 
 would let the fire near out, and then, to conceal his neglect, 
 kindled it with grease, till it was so hot as to scorch the matter 
 beyond recovery. In the third attempt, Charnock resolved to 
 proceed without help. His fire cost him three pounds a week, 
 and he was obliged to sell some rings aud jewels to maintain it : 
 he made good progress in the course of eight months, and ex- 
 pected to be rewarded in ft little time for all his labours; but at 
 
36 Zivts of the Adepts. 
 
 this critical period, he was impressed to serve as a soldier, at 
 the siege of Calais, in a war with France. Furious with disap- 
 pointment, he took a hatchet, smashed his glasses, furnace, and 
 apparatus, and threw them out of the house. 
 
 He wrote his Breviary of Philosophy, in 15.3-7, and the 
 Enigma of Alchemy, in 1572, .with a Memorandum, dated 
 1574*. when he was fifty years old, in, which he declares his 
 attainment of the gold-making powder, when his hairs wvn- 
 white; 
 
 DENNIS ZACHARY. 
 
 Guiennk, in France, was the native place of this gentleman, 
 who was born of a good family, in J 510. After his early studies 
 in his paternal house, he was sent to Bourdeaux, to study Phi- 
 losophy, under the care of a tutor, who was, unfortunately, an 
 erring alchemist. Dennis was soon caught in the contagion of 
 his example and conversatiozis on this subject ; and finding some 
 young men equally credulous with himself, they proceeded in 
 .company, to collect some experiments, out of such books and 
 manuscripts as they could obtain, on the science of transmu- 
 tation. As vet, he only indulged the pleasure of conversing on 
 these agreeable reveries ; but having been sent to Toulouse, to 
 .study law, still accompanied by the same tutor, they proceeded 
 to make several experiments. 
 
 Two hundred crowns, with which they were supplied, for two 
 years maintenance in this city, were soon expended in the cost 
 of furnaces, instruments, and drugs, to execute the processes, 
 which they took literally from their books. The great result^ 
 promised, seduced them ; they believed that the plain language 
 used, was the mark of truth; not knowing, that the adepts are 
 never so much concealed, as in the literal description of a pro- 
 cess, which they design to be understood only by a master, while 
 the allegories teaching general principles, are the most candid 
 instructions to improve the novice. " Before the end of the 
 year," he relates, " my two hundred crowns were gone in smoke, 
 and my tutor died of a fever he took in summer, from his close 
 attention to the furnace, which he erected in his chamber, and 
 stayed there continually in extreme heat. His death afflicted me 
 much, and still more, as my parents refused to supply me with 
 money, except what was just necessary for my support. I was 
 therefore unable to proceed in my grand work." 
 
 " To overcome these difficulties, I went home, in 1535, be- 
 ing of age, to put myself out of guardianship; and I disposed 
 of some of my property for four hundred crowns. This sum 
 was necessary to execute . a process, which was given to me in 
 
Dennis Zachary. 57 
 
 Toulouse, by an Italian, who said he saw it proved. I kept him 
 living witli me, to see the end of his process. 
 
 We dissolved gold Slid silver in various sorts of strong wa- 
 ters ; but it was all in vain ; and we did not recover one half of 
 the gold and silver, out of the solution, which we had put into 
 it. My four hundred crowns were reduced to two hundred and 
 thirty, of which I gave twenty to the Italian, to proceed to 
 Milan, where, he said, the author of the process lived ; and he 
 was to return with Ins explanations. I remained at Toulouse 
 all the winter, waiting for him ; and I should have been there 
 still, had I waited for this Italian, as I never heard of him since. 
 
 In the ensuing summer, the city being visited by the plague, 
 I went to Cahors, and there continued for six months. I did 
 not lose sight of my work ; and became acquainted with an old 
 nr.an, who was called ' the philosopher,' a name given in the 
 Country to any one of superior information. I communicated 
 to him my practices, and asked his advice : he mentioned ten 
 or twelve processes, which he thought better than others. I re- 
 turned to Toulouse, when the plague ceased, and renewed my 
 labours accordingly ; but the only consequence was, that my 
 money was all spent, except one hundred and seventy crowns. 
 To continue my operations with more certainty, I made an ac- 
 quaintance with an Abbe, who dwelt in the neighbourhood of 
 this city. He was taken with a passion for the same pursuit as 
 myself; and he informed me, that one of his friends, who lived 
 ■with the Cardinal Armanac, had sent a process to him from 
 Rome, which he believed genuine, but that it would cost two 
 hundred crowns. I agreed to furnish one half of this sum, and 
 he gave the rest ; so we began to work together. Our pro- 
 cess required a large supply of the spirit of wine. I purchased 
 a cask of excellent wine, from which I drew the spirit, and rec- 
 tified it many times. We took two pounds weight of it, and 
 half a pound weight of gold, which we had calcined for a 
 month ; these were included in a pelican, and placed in a fur- 
 nace. This work lasted a year:— but not to remain idle, we 
 made some other experiments, to amuse ourselves, from which 
 we expected to draw as much profit, as to pay the cost of our 
 great work. 
 
 The year 1537 passed over, without any change appearing in 
 the subject of our labours : we might have been all our lives in 
 the same state; for we should have known, that the perfect: 
 metals are unalterable by vegetable or animal substances : we 
 took out our powder, and made projection upon hot quicksilver, 
 but it was in vain. Judge of our grief ! especially as the Abbe 
 had notified to all his monks, that they would have to melt the 
 lead cistern of their house, in order that he might convert it. 
 into gold, as soon as our operations were finished. 
 
 .My bad success could not make me desist ; I again raised fonr 
 
 li 
 
58 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 hundred crowns on my property; the Abbe did the same, and 
 I set out for Paris, a city containing more alchemists than any 
 Ojtner in the world. I resolved to remain there as long as the 
 S00 crowns lasted, or until I succeeded in my object. This 
 journey drew on me the displeasure of my relations, and the 
 censure of my friends, who imagined I was a studious lawyer. — 
 I made them believe, that the design of my remaining in Paris, 
 was to purchase a situation in the law courts. 
 
 After travelling for fifteen days, I arrived in Paris, January 
 1539. I remained a month almost unknown: but no sooner 
 had I visited the furnace-makers, and conversed with some 
 amateurs, than I became acquainted with more than a hundred 
 artists, who were all at work in different ways. Some laboured 
 to extract the mercury of metals, and afterwards to fix it. A 
 variety of systems were held by others ; and there was scarce a 
 day passed, in which some of them did not visit me, even on 
 Sundays, and the most sacred festivals of the church, to hear 
 what I had done. 
 
 In these conversations, one said, * If I had the means to be- 
 gin again, I should produce something good.' — Another, * If 
 my vessel had been strong enough to resist the force of what it 
 
 contained,' Another, ' If I had a round copper vessel, well 
 
 closed, I would have fixed mercury with silver.' There was 
 not one but had a reasonable excuse for his failure,* but I was 
 deaf to all their discourses, recollecting my experience, in being 
 the dupe of similar expectations. 
 
 I was, however, tempted by a Greek, on a process with cin- 
 nabar :— it failed. At the same time I became acquainted with 
 a strange gentleman, newly arrived, who often, in my presence, 
 sold the fruit of his operations to the goldsmith;?. I was a long 
 time frequenting Lis company, but he did not consent to inform 
 me of his secret. At last I prevailed on him ; but it was only a 
 refinement of metals, more ingenious than the rest. I failed not 
 to write to the Abbe, at Toulouse, enclosing a copy of the pro- 
 cess of the stranger ; and imagining that I had attained some 
 useful knowledge, he advised me to remain another year at Paris, 
 since I had made so good a beginning:. 
 
 After all, as to the philosophers' stone, I succeeded no better 
 than before. I had been three years in Paris, and my money 
 nearly expended, when I had a letter from the Abbe, acquaint- 
 ing me that he had something to communieate, and that I 
 should join him as soon as possible. 
 
 On my arrival at Toulouse, I found he had a letter from the 
 King of Navarre, (Henry) who was a lover of philosophy. He 
 requested that I should proceed to Pan, in Berne, and meet him 
 there, to teach him the secret I had from the stranger at Paris ; 
 and that he would recompense me with three or four thousand, 
 crowns. The mention of this sum exhilirated the Abbe, and he 
 never let me rest till I set out to wait on the Prince, I arrived 
 
Dennis Zachary. 59 
 
 at Pau, in May 1542. I found the Prince a very curious per- 
 sonage. By his command I went to work, and succeeded, ac- 
 cording to the process I knew. When it was fIni.M'.cd, I ob- 
 tained the recompense which I expected. Bat , ". ■'.■:■ the 
 King wished to serve me further, he was dissuaded by the i. 
 of his court, even by those who had engaged me to cbine to him. 
 He sent me back with great acknowledgments, however, 
 siring me to see if there was any thing in his states would gratify 
 me, such as confiscations, or the like, and that he would 
 give them to me with pleasure. These promises, which meant 
 nothing, did not lead me to have courtiers' hopes. I returned 
 to the Abbe, at Toidousc. 
 
 On my road, I heard of a religious man, who was very skilful 
 in natural philosophy : I went to visit him : he lamented my 
 misfortunes; and said, with a friendly zeal, that he advised me 
 to amuse myself no longer with these various particular ope- 
 rations, which were all false and sophistical ; but that I should 
 rather pei~use the best books of the ancient philosophers, as well 
 to know the true matter, as the right order that should be pur- 
 sued in the practice of this science. 
 
 I felt the truth of this sage counsel ; but before I put it in 
 execution, I went to see my friend at Toulouse, to give him an. 
 account of the eight hundred crowns, that we had put in com- 
 mon, and to divide with him the recompense I had received 
 from the King of Navarre. If he was not content with all I 
 told him, he was still less, at the resolution I had taken, to 
 discontinue my operations. Of our 800 crowns, ^e had but 
 86 left. I left him, and went home, intending to go to Paris, 
 and to remain there until I was fixed in my theory, by reading 
 the works of the Adepts. I came to Paris in i5*6, and re- 
 mained there a year, assiduously studying the Turbo, of the 
 Philosophers ,• the good Trevisan ; the Remonstrance of Nature; 
 and some other of the best books. But as, I had no jirst prin- 
 ciples, I knew not on what to determine. 
 
 At length I went out of my solitude, not to see my old ac- 
 quaintances, the searchers after particular tinctures, and minor 
 works, but to frequent those who proceeded in the great pro- 
 cess, by the books of the genuine Adepts. I was, nevertheless, 
 disappointed herein, by the confusion and disagreement of their 
 theories, by the variety of their works, and of their different 
 
 operations. Excitecl by a sort of inspiration, I gave myself 
 
 up to the study of Raymond Lullij, and Arnold de Villanova. — 
 My reading and meditation continued another year. I then 
 formed my plan, aud only waited to sell the remainder ot my 
 land, to enable me to go home, and put my resolutions into 
 practise. I commenced at Christmas, 1549, and after some 
 preparations, I procured every thing that was necessary, and I 
 began my process, not without inquietude, and difficulty. A 
 friend said tg me, * What are you going to do ? — have you not 
 
60 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 lost enough by this delusion ?' Another assured me, that if I 
 continued to purchase so much coal, I would be suspected of 
 counterfeiting the coin, of which he already heard a rumour. — 
 Another said, I should follow my business of a lawyer. But I 
 was chiefly tormented by my relations, who reproached me bit- 
 terly with my conduct ; and threatened to bring the officers of 
 justice into the house, to break my furnaces in pieces. 
 
 I leave you to judge my trouble and grief at this opposition. 
 I found no consolation, but in my work, which prospered from 
 day to day, and to which I was very attentive. The interrup- 
 tion of all cot merce, which was occasioned bv the plague, 
 gave me the opportunity of great solitude, in which. I could, un- 
 disturbed by interruption, examine with satisfaction, the suc- 
 cession of the three colours, which mark the true work. I thus 
 arrived at the perfection of the tincture, and made an essay of 
 its virtue, on common quicksilver, on Easter Monday, 1550. — 
 In less than an hour it was converted into pure gold: — You may 
 guess how joyful 1 was : but I took care not to boast. I thanked 
 God for the favour he shewed me, and prayed that I should be 
 permitted to use it only for his glory. 
 
 The next day I set out to iind the Abbe, according to the 
 promise we gave each other, to communicate our discoveries. — 
 On my way, I called at the house of the religious man, who as- 
 sisted me by his good advice. I had the grief to find, that both 
 he, and the Abbe, were dead about six months. However, I 
 did not go back to my house, but went to another place, to 
 wait for one of my relations, who I had left at my dwelling* I 
 sent him a procuration to sell all that I possessed, both house 
 and furniture, to pay my debts, and distribute the remainder 
 to those in want among my relations. He soon after rejoined 
 me, and wc set out for Lausanne, in Switzerland, resolved to 
 pass our days without ostentation, in some of the celebrated 
 cities of Germany." 
 
 Such is the account Zachary gives of himself, expressly to 
 prevent the same misfortunes occurring to others : and the re- 
 sult of his success, after twenty years labour, is, that he became 
 an exile, unknown, except by his book on the Natural Philu*, 
 sopjnj of Metals. 
 
 BEIIMEN, 
 
 Jacob Beiimen may be considered, Jirst, ns a teacher of. the ■ 
 
 true ground of the Christian Religion. Scco/idlij, as a discoverer 
 of the false, anti-christian church, from its first rise in Cain, 
 through every age of the world, to its present state, in all and 
 every sect, of the present divided Christendom. Tliirdly, as a 
 guide to the truth of all the mysteries of the kingdom of God. 
 
Bchmen. 61 
 
 In these three respects, which' contain all that any one can pos- 
 sibly want to know, or learn from any teacher, lie is the 
 strongest, the plainest, the most open, intelligible, awakening, 
 convincing writer, that ever was. As to all these three matters, 
 he speaks to every one in the sound of a trumpet. He may fur- 
 ther be considered, fourthly, as a relater of depths opened in him- 
 self, of' wonders Which his spirit had seen and felt. When his 
 books first appeared in English, many persons of this nation, ot 
 the greatest wit and abilities, became his readers; who, instead 
 of entering into his one only design, which was, their own re- 
 generation, from an earthly, to a heavenly life, turned chemists, 
 and set up furnaces to regenerate metals, in search of the phi- 
 losophers' stone. And yet of all men in the world, no one has 
 so deeply, and from so true a ground, laid open, the exceeding 
 vanity of such a labour, and utter impossibility of success in it, 
 from any art or skill in the use of fire. 
 
 This author esteems not merely his own outward reason, but 
 acknowledges to have received a higher gift from God ; freely 
 bestowed upon him, and left in writing for the good of those 
 that should live after him. And in his writings, he has dis- 
 covered such a ground, and such principles, as reach into the 
 deepest mysteries of Nature ; and lead to the attaining of the 
 highest, powerful, natural wisdom : such as was among the phi- 
 losophers, Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, 
 and other deep men, both ancient and modern, conversant in 
 the mysteries of Nature. 
 
 These principles lead to the attaining such wisdom as was 
 taught in Egypt, in all which learning Moses had skill ; to the 
 wisdom which was taught in Babylon among the Chaldeans, 
 Astrologians, Wise-men, or Magi, who saw the star that led 
 them to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where they saw the Child 
 Jesus, and worshipped, and so returned ; — Avhom God him- 
 self was pleased to warn, and direct them what to do. 
 
 This ground discovers the way to attain, not only the deepest 
 mysteries of Nature, but Divine wisdom, Thcosophy, the wis- 
 dom of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, and 
 the evidence of things not seen with the outward eye. This 
 wisdom brings our eyes to see such things, as Moses saw in the 
 mount, when his face shone like the sun, that it could not 
 
 be beheld : such things as Gehazi saw, when his master, 
 
 Elisha, prayed that his eyes might be opened, his inward eyes, 
 for his outward were open before ; — and then he saw the 
 angels of God. Such things as Stephen saw, who said that the 
 heavens opened, and Jesus sat at the right hand of God ; and 
 his face shone like the face of an angel at his stoning. And 
 Paul, who was caught up into the third heaven, and heard 
 things not lav ful to utter. 
 
 Such wisdom as this, sees and knows all mysteries; speaks 
 «H tongues, of men and angels ; — and the language of Nature, 
 
C2 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 by which Adam named all the creatures in Paradise. This wis- 
 dom can also do all miracles. 
 
 Jacob Behmen was born in Old Seidenberg, near Goerlitz, 
 in German Prussia, in 1575, of poor, but honest and sober pa- 
 rents. He tended cattle with other boys of the village ; and 
 retiring one day into a cave, in the rock called Landscrown, 
 he saw a large wooden vessel full of money, from which he re- 
 tired without touching it. He informed his companions of it, 
 but they could not again discover the- entrance. Some years 
 after, a foreigner arrived, who took it away— but he died a 
 shameful death — the treasure having been covered by a male- 
 diction to the covetous. 
 
 Behmen was sent to school, until he was of sufficient age to 
 be apprenticed to a shoe-maker. While he attended in the 
 shop, an old man, of good mein, entered, took him by the 
 hand, and with sparkling eyes and angelic countenance, said, 
 ' Jacob, thou art little, but thou wilt be the wonder of the 
 world ! Fear God, and reverence his word.' At this he de- 
 parted ; and Behmen from thenceforth, became more serious 
 and devout. 
 
 In 159S and 1600, he was surrounded with the Divine light 
 for several days, he saw the virtue and nature of the vege- 
 table world, by the signature of the plants, as he sat in a field : 
 his looking on a plate of tin, was sufficient to inflame the glory 
 of the light within him. From this time he wrote several 
 books of the inward manifestation of Theosophy, until he died 
 in 1624, aged fiilv. 
 
 The first book was Aurora, the day-spring, or the dawning of 
 the day in the East, or morning redness in the rising of the sun, 
 the root or mother of philosophy, from the true ground. A de- 
 scription of nature; how all was, and came to be, in the be- 
 ginning; how creatures proceeded from nature, and the ele- 
 ments. The two qualities of evil and good. How all things are, 
 and work, at present. How all will be, at the end of this 
 time. What the condition is, of the kingdom of God, and 
 the kingdom of hell ; and how men work and act, according to 
 either of them. 
 
 2. The three principles of the Divine essence. Of the 
 eternal, 1st, dark, 2d, light, and 3d, temporary world ;shewing 
 what the soul, the image and spirit of the soul are ; also, what 
 angels, heaven, and paradise are. How Adam was before the 
 fall, in the fall, and after the fall. And what the wrath of 
 God, sin, death, the devils,>and hell are. How all things 
 have been, now arc, and how they shall be at the last. 
 
 3. The high and deep searching, of the three-fold life of man, 
 through, or according to the three principles, shewing what is 
 eternal and what is mortal. Why God, who is the highest 
 good, has brought all things to light. How one thing is 
 contrary to, and destroys another. What is right and true, 
 or evil and false. 
 
JRelimcn. 63 
 
 4. Forty questions concerning the soul. Whence it proceeded 
 at the beginning. What its essential nature is. How it was cre- 
 ated in the image of God. What, and when was the breathing 
 of it in. Its form. Power; if corporeal; if propagated ; how 
 nourished with the word of God. If a new soul is without sin. 
 How sin enters the soul. How united with God. How it de- 
 parts at death. Whither it goes. How remains till judgment, 
 if it is conscious of the world and friends it left. What is its 
 glorification. What is the state of the damned. What is the 
 soul of the Messiah. Where is paradise. 
 
 5. Of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Of 
 the Virgin Mary ; what she was, from her original ; and what 
 kind of mother she came to be, in the conception of her son 
 Jesus Christ ; and how the Eternal word, is become man. Of 
 Christ's sufferings, death, and resurrection, and how we may 
 enter thereinto. Of the tree of Christian iaith, shewing what 
 true faith is. 
 
 6. Mysterium Magnum : an explanation of the first book of 
 Moses, called Genesis ; treating of the manifestation of the 
 Divine word, through the three principles of the Divine es- 
 sence ; and of the original of the world, and of the creation, 
 wherein the Kingdom of Nature, and the Kingdom of Grace, 
 are explained, for the better understanding of the Old and New 
 Testament; and what Adam and Christ are; and how man 
 should know himself; what he is, and wherein his temporal, 
 and eternal life consists ; and his eternal blessing and cori^ 
 demnation. 
 
 7. Four tables of Divine revelation, signifying what God 
 himself is, without nature ; and how considered in nature, ac- 
 cording to the Three Principles. Also, what heaven, hell, 
 world, time, and eternity, are ; together with all creatures, 
 visible and invisible ; and out of what all of them had their 
 original. 
 
 8. Signatura Rerum : the signature of all things ; shewing 
 the sign and signification of the several forms and shapes in. 
 the creation ; and what the beginning, ruin, and cure of everv 
 thing is. It proceeds out of eternity into time, and again, out 
 of time into eternity, and comprizes all mysteries. 
 
 9. Of the election of grace ; or, of God's will towards man, 
 called predestination. A short declaration of the highest ground; 
 shewing how a man may attain Divine skill and knowledge. An 
 Appendix of Repentance; the key which opens the Divine 
 Mysteries. 
 
 10. The way to Christ: of true repentance, resignation, re- 
 generation, and the supersensual life. How man should stir up 
 himself in mind and will ; and what his earnest purpose and 
 consideration . must be. How man must daily die in his own 
 will in self; how he must bring his desire into God; and what, 
 he should ask and desire of God. How he must spring up out 
 
64: Lives of the Adepts 
 
 of the dying, sinftil man, with a new mind and will, through 
 the spirit of Christ. "What the old man and new man are ; and 
 what either of them is in life, will, and practice. How lie that 
 earnestly seeketh salvation, must suffer himself to be brought 
 out of the confused and contentious Babel, by the spirit of 
 Christ, that he may be born anew in the spirit of Christ, and 
 live to him only. How the soul may attain to divine hearing 
 and vision; and what its childship in the natural and super-* 
 natural life is; and how it passeth out of nature into God, and 
 out of God into nature and self again ; also, what its salvation 
 and predestination are. Of the way one soul should seek after 
 and comfort another, and bring it into the paths of Christ's pil- 
 grimage. The way from darkness to true illumination. 
 
 11. The four complexions, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, 
 melancholy ; a consolatory instruction for souls in the time of 
 temptation. 
 
 12. Of holy baptism: how it is to be understood ; and why a 
 Christian should be baptized. Of the Holy Supper; what it is? 
 the effects of it, and how to be received: from the true theo- 
 sophical ground. 
 
 15. Six Points: of the tree of life generated by each of the 
 three principles. Of the mixed tree of evil and good; how the 
 three principles are united, and work together. Of contrariety 
 in the life. How the good and holy eternal life springeth 
 through all the generations of the three principles, and is ap- 
 prehended of none of them. Of Perdition : how a life perish- 
 eth, passing out of love and joy into misery. Of darkness, 
 where the devils dwell. Six points : of the blood and water of 
 the soul. Of the election of grace, or predestination : of good 
 and evil. Of sin ; what, and how it is. How Christ will de- 
 liver up the kingdom to the Father. What the Magia is. 
 What the Mystery is. 
 
 14. The Divine Revelation, in answer to thirteen Theosophic 
 questions. What God is, distinct from nature and the creatures. 
 What is the abyss of all. Of God's love and anger. Of what 
 w ere angels created ; their office ; why created 1 What moved 
 Lucifer to his fall, and how it was possible ; why not prevented. 
 What was the strife between Michael and the dragon. Of the 
 counsel or wisdom of God conceivable by man. How Lucifer is 
 •without God, &c. 
 
 15. Of the earthly and heavenly mystery in one another ; and 
 how the heavenly is revealed in the earthly. 
 
 16. Of the true ground of right praying. 
 
 17. Of the Divine Vision; how all is from, through, and in 
 God. How God is near all, and fillcth all. 
 
 18 to 23. Five books in defence and explanation; two ad- 
 dressed to Tylken, two to Stitfd, and one to Richtcr. 
 i24. Sixty-three letters. 
 
Behmen. 65 
 
 To Paul Keym, he wrote the 14th of August, 1620, of 
 Alchemy : 
 
 " You have undertaken a very hard labour, which doth 
 nothing but perplex, eat up, and consume your life; it is 
 wholly needless ; there need no literal demonstration ; the 
 Holy Ghost is the key to it ; there is no need of such hard 
 labour and seeking; seek only Christ, and you lull Jind all 
 1 /tings." 
 
 " The philosophers' stone is a very dark disesteemed stone, 
 of a grey colour, but therein lieth the highest tincture ; take 
 before you only the earth, with its metals, &c." 
 To Dr. Steenberger. 
 
 " The seal of God lieth before it, to conceal the true ground 
 of the same, upon pain of eternal punishment, unless a man 
 knew for certain that it might not be misused ; there is also no 
 power to attain to it ; no skill or art availeth, unless one give 
 the tincture into the hands of another, he cannot prepare it, 
 except he be certainly in the new birth. 
 
 " It doth not <cost any money, but what is spent upon the 
 time and maintenance, else it might be prepared with four 
 shillings. 
 
 " The work is easy, the art simple; a boy of sixteen years 
 might make k ; but the wisdom therein is great, and the great- 
 est mystery. " 
 
 These lines were copied from MS. in a volume oj his works. 
 
 Whate'er the Eastern Magi sought, 
 Or Orpheus sung, or Hermes taught, 
 Whate'er Confucim would inspire, 
 Or Zoroaster's mystic fire ; 
 The symbol's that Pythagoras drew, 
 The wisdom God-like Plato knew ; 
 What Socrates debating proved, 
 Or Fjpictetus lived and loved ; 
 The sacred fire of saint and sage, 
 Through ev'ry clime, in every age, 
 In Bellmen's wonderous page we view, 
 Discovered and revealed anew. 
 " Aurora" dawned the coming day, 
 Succeeding books meridian light display. 
 Ten thousand depths his works explore, 
 Ten thousand truths unknown before . 
 Through all his works profound, we trace, 
 The abyss of nature, God, and grace. 
 The seals are broke, the mystery's past, 
 And ail is now reveal'd, at last. 
 The trumpet sounds, the spirit's given, 
 And Behmen is the voice from Heaven. 
 i 
 
$6 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 ALEXANDER SETHON. 
 
 None of the adopts suffered from imprudent exposure of their 
 power more than the subject of this article. lie was a native of 
 Scotland, and passed into Holland in 1602; — He remained some 
 time at Erkusen, with James Haussen, a seaman, who h;id re- 
 ceived hospitable attention at his house, when his ship was the 
 year before, wrecked on the coast of Scotland. Haussen saw 
 his guest with astonishment, make several transmutations in his 
 house; he was bound in gratitude and friendship to a faith fill se- 
 crecy, but he did not think there was any risk in mentioning the 
 circumstance to Dr. Vanderlinden, of Erkusen, the town where 
 he lived. The physician being a man of integrity and prudence, 
 Haussen did not scruple to give him a piece of the gold, on 
 which he engraved the date and year of the transmutation, 
 13th March, 1602, at four o'clock : — This piece was seen in the 
 hands of the Doctor's grandson, by George Morhoff. 
 
 Sethon proceeded thro' Germany to Basil, where he made 
 transmutations : from thence he went to Saxony ; and having 
 incautiously exposed himself to some persons who informed the 
 Duke ; this prince considering he had a living treasure in his 
 hands, imprisoned him in a tower, guarded by forty soldiers, who 
 had strict orders to keep a constant watch on him. As it was in 
 vain that the Elector used persuasions to obtain the philosopher's 
 secret; he now tried if he could prevail by rigorous means, which 
 were encreased with severity, in proportion as Sethon was ob- 
 stinate. 
 
 All species of torture were tried, even the application of fire, 
 and by turns, every intrcaty was used j but nothing could con- 
 quer the firmness of Sethon. 
 
 There was then at Dresden a Moravian gentleman, named 
 Michael Sendivogius, a resident at Cracovia, in Poland; he 
 was a searcher after the philosophers' stone ; and being inte- 
 rested for Sethon, obtained liberty to visit him. After several 
 interviews, he proposed to aid him in making an escape : to 
 which Sethon consented, and promised him assistance in his 
 pursuit of alchemy. A6 soon as the resolution was formed, 
 Sendivogius went, and sold his house, where he had lived, in 
 Cracovia, and returning to Dresden, he made good cheer with 
 his friend, and also treated the soldiers to the same. At length 
 the day arrived, in which his plan was ready for execution ; 
 he regaled t)ie guards better than usual, and when they were 
 all drunk, he brought Sethon out, to a post-chaise, in which 
 they proceeded without discovery; first calling at Scthon's 
 house, to get from his wile the powder oi' transmutation, and 
 then, without delay, travelled out of the Electorate of Saxony. 
 
Michael St'ndivoghts. f>7 
 
 Sendivogius now reminded Setlion of his promise, and the 
 philosopher gave him mi ounce ftf the powder, which, he said, 
 was sufficient, if he knew how to use it, but with respect to the 
 manner of making, or of multiplying it, 'you see/said he, 'what 
 1 have suffered; mv nerves are shrunk, my limbs dislocated, 
 emaciated to an extremity, and my body almost corrupted; 
 even to avoid this, I did not disclose the secrets of philosophy !' 
 Sethon did not long enjoy his liberty; he died in 1604, only 
 two years after he left his peaceful dwelling in Scotland.. 
 
 MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS. 
 
 Sendivogius, who was now about thirty-eight years of 
 ngc, had the desire of making a great fortune, by discovering 
 the method of making a powder, such as he had received from 
 Sethon, or at least to augment it. He married the widow of 
 Sethon ; she knew nothing of the process, but had the manu- 
 scripts of the twelve treatises, and the dialogue which was 
 written by Sethon. In the mean time, Sendivogius made 
 projections, and wasted his money in extravagant living; making, 
 no secret of what he possessed. At Prague, he presented him- 
 self to the Emperor Rodolph II. and in presence of several 
 lords of the court, the king himself made gold by projection, 
 he then appointed Sendivogius to be a counsellor of state; and 
 had a marble tablet inscribed — ' Facial hoc quispiam aluis quod 
 fecit Sendivogius Polomis.' This was set up in his chamber, in 
 the castle of Prague, where it remained so late as 1742. 
 
 These facts were followed by his printing, at Prague, the 
 treatise written by Sethon, under the name of Cosmopolita ; 
 it generally passes for the work of Sendivogius, as he included 
 his name, by anagram, in the motto, ' Divi Leschi genus amo / 
 and gave no information of the real author. The tract on 
 sulphur, printed at the end of the book, was written by Sendi- 
 vogius, under the anagram ' Angelas doce mi hi jus.' 
 
 He was travelling through Moravia, and a Count of that 
 country, who heard of his operations at Prague, and suspected 
 he had abundance of the transmuting powder, imprisoned him 
 secretly, with a threat, that he should never be liberated, until 
 he communicated his treasure. Sendivogius being a skilful 
 artist, and fearing the fate of Sethon, obtained some matters, 
 with which he cut through the iron bar that crossed the 
 window of his dungeon, and making a rope of his clothes, he 
 escaped, almost naked, out of the power of the little tyrant, 
 whom he summoned to the- Emperor's court, where he was con- 
 demned to be fined: a village on his estate was confiscated, and 
 given to Sendivogius, who afterwards gave it as a dower with, 
 his. daughter, at her marriage. 
 
68 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 At this time the ounce of powder was nearly spent; apart, 
 of it was lost, in attempting to multiply it, in various ways. — 
 His fondness for good living, and his debaucheries, expended 
 large sums, which he obtained from a Jew at Cracovia, who 
 disposed of his gold ; and seeing that, he bad as yet tried no- 
 thing of the virtue of his powder in medicine, he put all that 
 remained of it into rectified spirit of wine, with which he 
 astonished the physicians, by the marvellous cures he per- 
 formed. Desnoyers, secretary to the Queen of Poland, had 
 a medal, which was dipped, red-hot, into this spirit, before 
 SigisBiund III. King of Poland, and it was transmuted from 
 silver into gold. The elixir cured the same king of a very 
 grievous accident. In this manner the entire ounce was ex- 
 pended. And now Sendivogius, sanguine in the hopes of suc- 
 ceeding in the process, though without any property left, to 
 bear the charges of it, commenced the infamous trade of ob- 
 taining money from the opulent, to be applied in the service of 
 their cupidity. The Marshal W'olski, of Poland, gave him 
 6000 francs, which he expended, and produced nothing but 
 smoke and cinders. He was next employed by Mcnizok, the 
 Palatine of Sandemira, who also gave him 6000 francs; lie 
 •paid 3000 of these to the Marshal Wolski, and went to work 
 with the remainder; but the result was only disappointment. — 
 Notwithstanding the character he had, by birth, arid the ac- 
 quirements of learning, he was so besotted and depraved, as to 
 become a deliberate impostor. He silvered a piece of gold, and 
 feigning that he had the elixir, made the silver disappear, by a 
 rhemicai separation, which he imposed on the ignorant, as a 
 projection of the tincture, converting silver into gold. 
 
 The relation of his life, by his confidential servant, Bodorvski, 
 explains this deception as a finesse, to conceal his real character, 
 having learned from experience the necessity of defending him- 
 self from the violence of covetous men. He sometimes feigned 
 poverty, or lay in bed, as one attacked with the gout, or other 
 •sickness ; by these means he removed the general suspicion that 
 lie had the philosophers' stone ; preferring to pass for an impos- 
 ter, rather than a possessor of unlimited riches. 
 
 He frequently travelled in a servant's lively, and concealed 
 most of his red powder in the footstep of his chariot, making 
 one of his servants to sit inside. 
 
 He kept some of the powder in a small gold box, and with 
 a single grain of it, converted so much mercury into gold, as 
 sold tor five hundred ducats. 
 
 He was at his castle of Groverna, on the frontiers of Poland 
 and Silesia, when two strangers came to visit him; one was 
 old, the other young ; they presented him with a letter having 
 twelve seals ; he said lie was not the person they sought ; they 
 announced themselves _as a deputation from the Jiosicntsiart 
 
Gustenhover. 69 
 
 Society ; he replied to their address, that,' ** concerning certaia 
 -tones of- the philosophers, lie did not know what it meant;" 
 however, lie conferred with them on philosophy, in general. — 
 They offered to initiate him in their fraternity, which lie de- 
 clined, lie died at Groverna, in lb'46, aged 84, having been 
 Counsellor of .State to three Emperors, Itodolph, Alatthius, 
 and Ferdinand. 
 
 His only child was a daughter, who married a captain in the 
 army, against the wish of her father. lie left her nothing but 
 the treatise he wrote, " Of Salt," which he would not print in 
 his life-time, lest it should renew the troubles he experienced 
 from the publicity of his character. 
 
 See Mangel's Proof of the Transmutation at Basil, 1603, in 
 the preface to his ('hemic Library ; and Wedelius's Testimony, 
 quoted by Manget, that some of this gold was seen by him in 
 
 the family of Zwinger t in that city. See Desnoyers' Letter, 
 
 ( Langlet's History) in proof of a silver crown piece, partly 
 converted into gold btfore King Sigismund- III. of Poland. 
 
 Borel, in his Galic Antiquities, recounts, that he, pith many 
 others at Paris, saw this crown piece, and he describes it as 
 partly gold, so far only as it was steeped- in the elixir, and- the 
 gold part was porous, being specifically more compact than in its 
 former state in silver : there was no appearance of sold t ring, cr 
 the possibility of any deception. See MorJwff epistola ad Lange- 
 
 iQlU-tU. 
 
 GrSTENHOVEK. 
 
 There was a goldsmith, named Gustenhover, living at Stras- 
 burgh, in 1603. In a time of great peril, he gate shelter to a 
 good religious man; who, on leaving his house, after a con- 
 siderable stay, presented his humane host with some trans- 
 muting powder, and, departing on his journey, was heard of 
 no more. 
 
 Gustenhover imprudently made transmutations before many 
 persons. It was soon reported to Itodolph II. who Was an 
 amateur of alchemy. He wrote to the magistrates of Stras- 
 burgh, directing them to send the goldsmith to him forthwith. 
 They immediately attended to the Emperor's orders with zeal, 
 arrested the man, and guarded him with vigilance from the 
 possibility of escape. When they informed him, that the in- 
 tention of his imprisonment was, to send him to Prague, to the 
 Emperor, he immediately understood the business, and invited 
 the magistrates to meet together, desiring thorn to bring a cm- 
 
10 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 cet anil charcoal, and (without his approaching) to molt some 
 lead, for which purpose they used some musket balls • he then 
 handed them a little red powder, which they cast into the 
 melted lead, and the result of their calcination was pure gold. 
 
 See PfcilmanN preface, vol.6 ; Theatrum Chcm : and Mauget's 
 C hemic Library. 
 
 BU.SARDlER. 
 
 The few particulars recorded of this adept, were preserved 
 in consequence of the celebrity of his successor. He dwelt at 
 Prague, with a lord of the conrt, and, falling' sick, he per- 
 ceived his death was inevitably approaching. In this extremity, 
 he wrote a letter to his chosen friend, Richtausen. at Vienna, 
 requiring him to come, and remain with him in his last mo- 
 ments. On the receipt of this letter, Richtausen set out, and 
 travelled with all expedition ; but he had the mortification, oil 
 his arrival at Prague, to find that the adept was no more. Pic 
 enquired diligently if he had left any thing ; and he was in- 
 formed by the nobleman's steward where he lodged, that he 
 Lad left a powder, which lie shewed to Richtausen, and said, 
 his master had desired him to keep it safely, but, for his part, 
 he did not know the use of it. Upon this information, Rich- 
 tausen adroitly became possessed of the powder, and departed. 
 But tlic nobleman, on hearing of the transaction, threatened 
 to hang his steward if he did not recover the powder. The 
 steward, judging that no one but Richtausen could have taken 
 it, pursued him, well aimed : and tracing him on the road, he 
 had an interview, in which he presented a pistol to his breast, 
 telling he would shoot him, if he did not restore the powder, 
 Richtausen, seeing there was no other way to preserve Iris life, 
 acknowledged he had the powder, and would restore it. Ac- 
 cordingly he did so in appearance; but, by an ingenious con- 
 trivance, he kept a considerable quantity of it out of the parcel. 
 He was now possessed of a treasure, the merit of which was 
 fully known to him. He presented himself to Ferdinand III. 
 This Emperor, who began to reign in 1G37, was an alchemist. 
 Pie took every precaution, aided by Count Russe, his mine- 
 master, in making projection, with some of the powder given 
 him by Richtausen. lie converted three pounds of mercury 
 into gold, with one grain. The force of this tincture was, one 
 upon iy,470. The Emperor caused a medal to be struck, 
 fix. Apollo, with the caduceus of Mercury ; the motto, "Divina 
 metamorphosis cxhibita Prague?. Jan. 15, Anno 1648, in j>r<s 
 
John Dee. 71 
 
 tsntia : Sac : Cits ; Ma/cst : Ferdinandi J\trtii. n On tlio reverse 
 *' Maris luec at howinibus est ars ; ita raru in lucan ]>rodit lau- 
 drtur Dcus in- tcternum, qui partem siuc injinitce potent id nobis 
 suis abjectissimus crcaturis communicat." — He also ennobled 
 Itichtausen, by the title of Baron Chaos. 
 
 Among many other transmutations made by the Baron's 
 powder, was one by the Eleetor of Mayence, in lo'58. His 
 Highness made projection with all the precautions possible to 
 a learned and skilful philosopher ; it was with a little button, 
 like a small onion, covered with gum tragacanth, to retain the 
 powder: he put this button into the wax of a taper, which 
 was lighted, and then put this wax into the bottom of a 
 crucct ; he poured thereon tour ounces of quicksilver, and put 
 the whole into the fire, covered with charcoal, above, belovr, 
 and around ; then they began to blow to the utmost, and in 
 about half an hour they removed the coals, and saw that the 
 melted gold was rather too red, as it is usually green. The 
 Baron said, that the gold was yet too high, and it was neces- 
 sary to put some silver into it. The Elector took some pieces 
 of silver out of his pocket, and put them into the melting pot, 
 and having poured out the entire, in perfect fusion, into a 
 lingot, when cool, he found it was very fine gold, but rather 
 hard, which was attributed to the lingot ; when it was melteci 
 again, it proved very soft; and the Master of the Mint declared 
 to his Highness, that it was more than 24 carats ; he had never 
 seen such fine gold. 
 
 See Wedelius's Preface to Philaletha. Monconia $ Travels, 
 "2nd vol. 379th page. Zwelf'er Pharmacopoeia, p. 1. ch. 1. Philip 
 Jacob in Manget, p. 19 ti. 
 
 JOHN DEE. 
 
 Among some instances, proving that the possession of the 
 philosophers' stone would make a rich man poor, and a weak 
 man immoral, the life of Doctor Dee, affords a striking ex- 
 ample. The historian Camden calls him ' Nobilis Muthema- 
 ticum'. He wrote 49 books, eight of them were printed. His 
 library contained 4000 volumes, 700 of which were ancient MS. 
 in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other languages. At an early 
 age, he had a superstitious veneration for those branches of thj 
 cabala, which are exploded by Christianity; and this led him, 
 throughout his life, into incredible errors. lie associated in 
 these pursuits with Edward Kelly, whose clear understanding, 
 and quick apprehension in matters of philosophy, made the 
 Doctor overlook his irascible temper, and irreligious chnrack r. 
 
Tf Lives of the Adepts , 
 
 Kelly was born at Worcester, in 1555. He was a notary, living 
 in London. Dr. Dee lived in the neighbourhood of the 
 city, in a cottage at Mortlake ; He had taken out his degree, 
 Arthim Magister, at Cambridge, April, 154-8. 
 
 It is said, but without sufficient authority, that Kelly was 
 prosecuted at Lancaster, for falsifying an ancient ilccd, and was 
 condemned to have his ears cut off. He retired, however, 
 to Wales, .and lodged at an obscure inn. During his stay 
 there he learned from the inn-keeper, that the tomb of 
 a wealthy Bishop, in a neighbouring shire, was supposed 
 to contain his riches : the tomb was opened : but the 
 only discovery made, was an old book, and two small 
 bottles of ivory : one of these was broken, and it contained 
 a heavy red powder, without scent ; the other bottle was 
 used as a toy by the inn-keeper's children. Kelly, who 
 knew the value of these articles, offered a pound sterling for 
 the bottle and book, which the inn-keeper accepted with joy, 
 and added to the bargain, some of the red powder, which 
 he had saved when the other bottle was broken. Kelly, pos- 
 sessed of this invaluable treasure, returned to London ; shewed 
 the book to Dr. Dee, and acquainted him with his good for- 
 tune, but did not yet give him the powder, or shew him a 
 proof of its virtue. 
 
 Dr. Dee was not ignorant of chemistry; in December 1579, 
 made a metallic salt ; the projection of which, he says, was one 
 uuon a hundred ; and he revealed this secret to Roger Cooke. 
 But the tincture possessed by Kelly, was so rich as one upon 
 2 7 /\ 330; and he lost much gold by making trials, before he 
 knew the extent of its power. In Dr. Dee's diary, in Ger- 
 many, there is mention made of the book of St. Dunstan, and 
 the, ponder found at the digging in England. The place where 
 this treasure was obtained, was generally reported to be the 
 ruins of Glastonbury abbey, founded by St. Dunstan. The 
 last abbot was hanged by Henry VIII. for adhering to the 
 Pope. It is about thirty-five miles from Glastonbury to- the 
 nearest part of South Wales. 
 
 In June, 1583, an attachment was issued against Edward 
 Kelly, for coining; upon which he expressed so much rage 
 and fur}- against one Husey, who had scandalized him, that 
 Dr. Dee feared \vc ought not to consort with so disorderly a 
 a person, although he was innocent of the felony. Kelly now 
 brought the powder from Islington. 
 
 Sept. 15, 1513. Dr. Dee, his wife and children, Edward 
 Kelly, and his wife, accompanied by Lord Albert Alasco, of 
 Siradia, in Poland, departed from London, on a journey to 
 Craco. As soon as they arrived in the North of Germany, 
 Dee received a letter from one of his friends in England, 
 informing him, that his library at Mortlake, was seized, and 
 partly destroyed, on the vulgar report of his unlawful studies; 
 
John Dee. ■ 73. 
 
 and that his rents ami property were sequestered* The tra- 
 vellers were in so much want or money, when they arrived at 
 Bremen, that Lord Aiasco advised them to return home by Ham- 
 burgh. However, they proceeded by Koningsbergh to Lasco, 
 the Lordship of Albeit, who was so much in debt, that he 
 could not proceed to Craco. t)r. D. had not yet seen a trans- 
 mutation with Kelly'-; powder. They took a house for a year, 
 in Stepheinstreet, Craco, for 80 gilders. Next year, 1584, 
 they lived in Prague. Dr. Dee wrote to the Emperor Rodolph, 
 find to the Spanish ambassador, who were both lovers of al- 
 chemy. He was received with favour, and Dr. Curtz was ap- 
 pointed to confer with him. 
 
 In September 1584, they ' were brought to great penury, so 
 that without Lord Aiasco, or some heavenly help, they could 
 not sustain their stale any longer.' News reached them of 
 Queen Elizabeth's displeasure against them. They were also in 
 ill repute at the Court ol Prague: — it was reported that Dr. 
 Dee had sold his goods in England, and given the produce 
 to Lord Aiasco, who was not able to repay it; and that the 
 Doctor intended to obtain money from the Emperor, by his 
 alchemical impositions. 
 
 In March 1585, Mrs. Dee prayed to God to relieve their 
 necessities lor meat and-vrrihk for their families, which were 
 much oppressed, and that they might not pawn or sell their 
 clo h s or furniture to the Jews, or citizens of Prague, who 
 slandered t hem.. 
 
 In May 1586, a sentence of banishment was officially sent 
 to Dr. Dee. Prince Rosenberg, viceroy of Italy, remonstrated 
 in vain, previous to his departure for Leipsic, from whence he 
 removed to Trebona, in Bohemia. Here, Edward Kelly, on 
 the 4th September, 1586, transmuted an ounce of mercury into 
 gold, with a particle of the powder, like a grain of sand, in' 
 the presence of Edward Garland, who was sent for that purpose 
 from the Czar of Muscovy. 
 
 In January previous to this, Dr. Dee had received two ounces, 
 Donum Dei from Edward Kelly, and he abounded in money ; 
 lie had 2000 ducats in one bag, when he paid 800 florins to 
 Puccius, the author of his banishment, who followed and dis- 
 quieted him, 
 
 Queen Elizabeth hearing some report of these transactions, 
 employed Captain Gevin to ascertain the truth. Dr. Dee wrote 
 to her Majesty's secretary, Walsingham, telling him the Queen 
 had missed an opportunity worth a million of gold ; and in 
 proof of their riches,;the English ambassador, Lord Willoughby, 
 sent to his court, from Prague, a piece of a brass warming-pan, 
 which was converted into silver, by steeping it, red-hot, in the 
 elixir. At the marriage' of Edward Kelly's maid servant, he 
 gave away as many rings as were worth £ 4000. They were 
 made of gold wire, twisted two or three times about the fingers. 
 
74 . Lives of the Adept*. 
 
 The 27th April is noted with joy, heec est dies quam fecit 
 Dominus. Edward Kelly had then declared to Dr. Dec the 
 "making of the philosopher's stone : it does not appear that either 
 of them succeeded in the process. Dr. Dee's son Arthur, who 
 was after his father's death, physician to the Czar at Mosco, 
 says, in his Fasciculus Chemicus, that in his early youth he 
 witnessed tra smu'ation repeated/!/ for seven years. 
 
 In 1589, Dr. Dee parted with Edward Kelly, taking his re- 
 ceipt for the powder lie delivered up to him ; he set out for 
 England, in consequence of the Queen's invitation by Robert 
 Garland : at Bremen he was visited by Henry Kunrath, an 
 alchemical adept. The Langrave of Hesse sent a complimentary 
 letter to Dr. Dee, who in return presented him with twelve 
 Hungarian horses, which he brought from Prague. He arrived 
 in England after six years absence. The Queen gave him au- 
 dience, and called to his house very courteously, presenting 
 him with 200 angels to keep his Christmas, and gave him a 
 license in alchemy. Sir Thomas Jones offered him his castle 
 of Emlin, in Wales, to dwell in. Ele was made chancellor of 
 St. Paul's, and in 1595, Warden of Manchester College. He 
 went there with his wife and children, aii'd was installed 
 February 1596. 
 
 Edward Kelly w^s imprisoned by the Emperor, and set at 
 liberty in 1593. He was in favour and knighted 1595, but was 
 again confined, and attempting to escape by a rope, he fell from 
 the window of his prison, and was killed. 
 
 It does not appear that Dr. Dee made any transmutation in 
 England after his return. The prejudice against his studies was 
 revived ; Secretary Walsingham and £ir T. George were com- 
 missioned 1592, to search his house, and report if there was- 
 any thing unlawful to be found. In 1594-, he wrote to Lady 
 Seudamore to move the Queen, that he might cither be heard 
 in his defence before the Council, or set free to go where he 
 pleased. He wrote a justification of himself to the Archbishop 
 *f Canterbury in 1595. 
 
 In 1607 Dr. Dee lived at Mortlake ; lie had a powder in 
 keeping, but it was not productive of any transmutation : he 
 lived on the revenue he derived from Manchester. The Fellows 
 of that College shewed their enmity to his character on several 
 occasions, and it appears that he was endeavouring to borrow 
 lOOl. to purchase necessaries. He died shortly alter this date, 
 aged upwards of 80 years. 
 
 See Morhof. de Metal. Trans. 1 3. Wever's Funeral Monu- 
 ments 15. M. Casaubon's Preface, and Dr. Dee's Diary, folio, 
 1659. Elias Ashmole's Notes to Kelly's work, 4to. 1652*. 
 
Hclmont. ?» 
 
 HELMONT. 
 
 Ix the year 1577, at Bois le Due, in Dutch Brabant, John 
 Baptist Von Hehnont was born of a noble family. He studied 
 at Louvain. and became eminent in Mathematics, Algebra, the 
 doctrines of Aristotle, Galen, the medicine of Vopiscus and 
 PI i mpius. At seventeen he lectured on physics as prrelector, 
 and took his decree M. D. in 1599. He read Hippocrates, and 
 all the Arabs as well as Greeks, before he was twenty-two years 
 old. He then passed ten years in the unsuccessful practice of 
 physic ; until he met a Paraeclsian chemist, who discovered 
 various chemical medicines to him. He retired to the Gastle of 
 Vilvord, near Brussels, and laboured with unremitting diligence 
 in the analysis of bodies of every ch;ss by chemical experiment? 
 and he continued for the remainder of his life retired and almost 
 unknown to his neighbours, except a few, whom he attended 
 Without lee as a physician. He declined an invitation and flat- 
 tering oilers from the Emperor and the Elector Palatine, and 
 alter writing several Tracts, which are to this day the admiration 
 of the learned, he died in the 67th year of his age. 
 
 This author, so illustrious in the sciences throughout Europe, 
 and no less celebrated for his noble rank than by the probity 
 of his character, testifies in three different places of his books, 
 that he has seen transmutation ! and that he has performed it 
 himself ! He speaks thus in his treatise de Vita Eterna, p. 590, 
 " I have seen and I have touched the philosopher's stone 
 more than once : the colour of it was like saffron in powder, 
 but heavy and shining like pounded glass; I had once given me 
 the fourth part of a grain, 1 call a grain that which takes 600 
 to make an ounce. 1 made projection with this fourth part of a 
 grain, wrapped in paper, upon eight ounces of quicksilver, 
 heated in a crucible, and immediately all the quicksilver, having 
 made a little noise, stopped and congealed into a yellow mass. — 
 Having melted it with a strong fire, I found within eleven grains 
 of eight ounces of most pure gold, so that a grain of this powder 
 would have transmuted into very good gold, 19,156 grains of 
 quicksilver." 
 
 If Helmont professed the art of making the transmuting 
 powder, his testimony would not be so free from suspicion as it 
 is : he savs on another occasion, that an artist of a few days ac- 
 quaintance, gave him half a grain of the powder of projection, 
 with which he transmuted nine ounces of quicksilver into pure 
 gold. He says further, that he performed a similar operation 
 many times, in the presence of a large company, and always 
 with the same success. On these grounds, he believes the cer- 
 tainty of the art. and that it is so prodigious, that one of those 
 
16 
 
 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 artists he knew, had as much of the red-stone, as would make, 
 two hundred thousand pounds weight of gold. 
 
 Helmont professed the knowledge of the alcahest, and the 
 method of preparing medicines of transcendant efficacy, by its 
 
 combinations. The universal dissolvent, according to the Pa- 
 racclsians, unites with some things easier than with others, and 
 the union with one, gives it the power of easier access to ano- 
 ther. Hence, there is a science of its affinities necessary to 
 be understood ; otherwise the exceeding great difficulty of seme 
 solution.?, by the alcahest, would either for want of skill or 
 time, make a radical union insuperable. 
 
 It appears, that the combinations of the universal spirit , 
 in the order of comparative affinities, diverge in the two great 
 branches of the saline and the sulphureous classes. Its nearest 
 affinities arc the most open spirituous substances that partake 
 of both branches ; and as vegetables are more open than animal 
 substances, and minerals are more compact than either, the first 
 and easiest combination is with a watery spirit, including only 
 a small portion of an oily fire, and alkaline salt. After the 
 alcahest passes alchemically through this degree, it comes out 
 separated in the form of an essence, containing all the virtue 
 of the combination, extended with it to a range of medicinal 
 powers, which it had not before ; it passes in like manner 
 by the easiest transitions through the gum and saccharine 
 classes to the unctuous — thin oil — aromatic — dry oil — hard oil — 
 and thence to animal, mineral, and metallic sulphurs. The 
 other branch passes through the neutral salts, alkalies and ve- 
 getable acids ; from thence through the vitriols and saline 
 sulphurs to the animal and mineral acids, salts, metals and 
 stones; each new combination is an accession of new powers, 
 any one of them is perfect and universal — all of them are in^ 
 numerable varieties of perfections, from which may be selected 
 those peculiar powers best suited b}' their appropriate effects to 
 the adept's respective purposes. Thus the artist, who has passed 
 through the one narrow gate, to the shrine of nature, can 
 facilitate his future access, and guard the practice of alchemip 
 physic from injuring, by its too powerful effects, the frail body 
 it should only relieve with medium s suited to its weakness. 
 
 BUTLER. 
 
 In the Reign of James the First, the attention of the curious 
 was attracted by a report, of several transmutations, made in 
 London by this artist. He was an Irish Gentleman, who 
 had just then returned from visiting foreign countries. It was 
 said, that he had net the secret of making the stone, but to 
 
E utter 77 
 
 Account for his possessing it, the following story was related : — 
 The ship in which he took his passage in one of his voyages, 
 was captured by an African pirate* and on arriving in port, he 
 was sold as a slave to an Arabian, who was an alchemical 
 philosopher. Butler appearing to his master skilful and inge- 
 nious, he was employed in the mo>t difficult operations of the 
 laboratory. Having a perfect knowledge of the importance of 
 the process, as soon as it was finished, he bargained with an 
 lrjsh merchant for his ransom, and made his escape, taking with 
 him a large portion of the red-powder. It is probable that Butler, 
 Scndivogius, and others who made public transmutations, found 
 it necessary to declare their inability to make or encrease the 
 powder they obtained, knowing that perpetual imprisonment is 
 the most lenient fate that could befal the possessor of an inex- 
 haustible fund of those metals, which, under royal sanction, 
 are the current representatives of all the property in the ci- 
 vilized world. 
 
 A countryman of Butler's., who was a physician, formed a 
 plan for discovering his secret. He presented himself as a 
 servant who wanted a place, and was hired by Butler : he found 
 the philosopher was grown so circumspect, that he sought in 
 vain for some ciieumstance to justify the public report of his 
 treasures ; until at last Butler sent him into the city to purchase 
 a large quantity of lead and quicksilver. 
 
 The disguised doctor now lipped to make a discovery ; he 
 executed his commission with dispatch, and prepared a small 
 hole in the wall of Butler's room, through which from the ad- 
 joining apartment he could see what was going on. He soon 
 perceived Butler taking something out of a box, which he put 
 on the melted lead, and deposited the box in a concealed place 
 under the floor of his room. At this moment the table and 
 chair on which the doctor was elevated to the spy-hole, gave 
 way, and he fell with a loud noise to the ground. Butler rushed 
 out of his room to learn the cause of this disturbance, and 
 perceiving the spy-hole, he with difficulty refrained from run- 
 ning his servant through the body with his sword. 
 
 Finding there was no hopes of obtaining any thing from 
 Butler, the doctor expected to surprise his treasures, by re- 
 porting to the officers of justice, that he was a coiner of false 
 money : A vigilant search was made according to his direc- 
 tions, but nothing was found, as Butler removed whatever could 
 betray him — his furnace, crucibles, and SO marks in gold, 
 were all he appeared to possess ; he was therefore liberated from 
 the prison in which he had been confined during the in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 Butler was afterwards imprisoned in the Castle of Yilvord, in 
 Flanders, where he performed wonderful cures by hermet'c 
 medicine. A fellow piisoner, who was a Monk of Brittair , 
 having a desperate eris< pilas in his arm. was restored to health 
 
IS Lives of the ^Adepts. 
 
 in one hour b}' drinking almond milk, in which Butler only 
 dipped the stone. The next day, at the rumour of this circum- 
 stance, the celebrated J. B. Helmont, who lived in the neigh- 
 bourhood, went with several noblemen to the prison : Butler 
 cured an old woman in their presence of a megrim, by dipping 
 a stone into oil of olives, with which he anointed her head.— 
 An abbess, whose arm was swelled, and her 6neers stiff' for 
 eighteen years, was also cured by a few applications to her 
 tongue of the same stone. These cures are attested by the 
 illustrious Von Helmont in his works. 
 
 IIELYETIUS. 
 
 The following most unquestionable testimony to the fact of 
 transmutation, was published by an eminent Dutch physician, 
 John Frederic Helvetius, at the Hague in 16G7, and 'edicatcd 
 to his friends, Dr. Rett us, of Amsterdam, Dr. Hansius, of 
 Heidelberg, and Dr. Menzelin, of Brandcnberg. 'On the 27th 
 December, 1666, in the afternoon, a stranger in a plain rustic 
 clrtss, came to my house at the Hague ; his manner of address 
 was honest, grave, and authoritative; his stature was low, with a 
 Jong face, and hair black, his smooth chin ; he seemed like a 
 native of the North of Holland, and I guessed he was about 
 forty-four years old. After saluting me, he requested me most 
 respectfully to pardon his rude introduction ; but that his love 
 of the pyrotechnic art made him visit me ; having read 
 some of my small Treatises, particularly that against the sympa- 
 thetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, and observed therein my 
 doubt of the hermetic mystery, it caused him to request this in- 
 terview. He asked me if F still thought there was no medicine 
 in nature, which could cure all diseases, unless the principal 
 parts as. the lungs, liver, (be. were perished, or the time of 
 death were come. To which I replied, 1 never met with an 
 adept) or saw such a medicine, though 1 read much of it, and 
 often wished for it. Then I asked if he was a physician ; he said, 
 he was a founder of brass, yet from his youth learned many rare 
 things in chemistry, particularly of a friend, the manner to 
 rx tract out of metals, many medicinal arcana's by the use of fire. 
 After discoursing of experiments in metals, lie asked me, would 
 I Know the philosopher's stone if I SKWJfS: I answered I would 
 rot, though I read much of it in Paracelsus, Helmont, Basil, 
 and others ; yet I dare not say I could know the philosopher's 
 matter. In the interim he drew from his breast-pocket, a neat 
 ivory box, and out of it took three ponderous lumps of the stone, 
 each about the size of a small wall-nut; they were transparent, 
 and of.a pale brimstone colour, whereto some scales of the cm- 
 
Hdvctius. 79 
 
 cable adhered, when this most noble Substance wag melted. — 
 The valud of it, I since calculated, was twenty Ions weight of 
 gold : when I had greedily examined and handled the stone 
 ttimost a quarter of an hour, and heard from the owner, many 
 rare secrets of its admirable effects, in human and metallic! 
 bodies, and its other wonderful properties, I returned him this 
 treasure of treasures ; truly with a most sorrowful mind, like 
 these who conquer themselves, yet as was just, very thankfully 
 and humbly; 1 further desired to know why the colour was 
 yellow, and not red, ruby colour, or purple, as philosophers 
 write; he answered, that was nothing, far the matter was mature 
 and ripe enough. Then I humbly requested him to bestow a 
 little piece of the medicine on me, in perpetual memory of him, 
 though but the size of a coriander or hemp seed; he presently 
 answered, Oh no, no, this is not lawful, though thou wouldst 
 give me as many ducats in gold as would fill this room, not for 
 the value of the matter, but for some particular consequences ;— 
 nay, if it were possible said he, that fire could be burnt of fire, 
 I would rather at this instant cast all this substance into the 
 fiercest flames. He then demanded, if I had a more private 
 chamber, as this was seen from the public street : I presently 
 conducted him into the best furnished room backward, not 
 doubting but he would bestow part thereof, or some great 
 treasure on me; he entered without wiping his shoes, although 
 they were full of snow and dirt : and asked me for a little piece 
 of gold, and pulling off' his cloak, opened his vest, under which 
 he had five pieces (if golu ; they were hanging to a green silk 
 ribbon, the size of small breakfast plates ; and this gold so far 
 ex,cejlcd mine, that there was no comparison, for flexibility and 
 colour ; the inscriptions engraven upon them he granted me to 
 write out they were pious thanksgivings to God, dated 26th 
 August, 1666, with the characters of the Sun, Mercury, the 
 Moon, and the signs of Leo and Libra. 
 
 I was in great admiration, and desired to know where and Low 
 he obtained them. He answered, a foreigner who dwelt some 
 days in my house, said he was a lover of this science, and came 
 to reveal it to me; he taught me various arts; first, of ordinary 
 stones and chrystaL, to make rubies, chrysolites and sapphires, &c. 
 much more valuable than those of the nunc ; and how in a quarter 
 of an hour, to make an oxid of iron, one dose of which would 
 infallibly cure the pestilential dissentary, or! bloody flux : and 
 how to make a metallic liquor to cure all kinds of dropsies most 
 certainly in four days ; as also a limpid clear water sweeter than 
 honey, by which in two hours of itself, in hot sand, it would 
 extract the tincture of granats, corals, glasses, and such like ; 
 he said more, which I Helvctius did not observe, my mind 
 being occupied to understand how a noble juice could be drawn 
 out of minerals to transmute metals. He told me his said master 
 caused him to bring a glass of rain water, and he pal 
 
80 • Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 silver leaf into it, which was dissolved therein within a quarter 
 of an hour, like ice when heated : c And presently he drank 
 to me the half, and I pledged him the other half, which had not 
 80 much taste as sweet milk; whereby methought I became 
 very light hearted. I thereupon asked if this were a philosophi- 
 cal drink, and wherefore we drank this potion ? He replied, 
 I ought not to be so curious.' By the said master's directions, 
 a piece of a leaden pipe being melted, he took a little sul- 
 phureous powder out of his pocket, put a little of it on the point 
 of a knife into the melted lead, and after a great blast of the 
 bellows, in a short time he poured it on the red stones of the 
 kitchen chimney, it proved most excellent pure gold ; which he 
 said brought him into such, a trembling amazement, that he could 
 hardly speak ; but his master encouraged him, saying, cut for 
 thyself the sixteenth part of this as a memorial, and give the rest 
 away among the poor, which he did. And he distributed this 
 alms as he alarmed, if my memory fail not, at the Church of 
 Sparenda. At Inst said he y this generous foreigner taught me 
 thoroughly this divine art. As soon as his relation wd6 finished, 
 I begged he would shew me the effect of transmutation to confirm 
 my faith ; but he declined it for that time in such a discreet 
 manner, that I was satisfied, as he promised to come again in 
 three weeks, and shew me some curious arts in the fire, and the 
 manner of projection, provided it were then lawful without pro- 
 hibition. At the three weeks end he came, and invited me 
 abroad for an hour or two, and in our walk we discoursed 
 of nature's secrets, but he was very silent on the subject of thj 
 great elixir, gravely asserting, that it was only to magnify the 
 sweet fame, and mercy of the most glorious God ; that few men 
 endeavoured to serve him, and this he expressed as a pastor or 
 minister of a Church ; but I recalled his attention, intreating 
 him to shew me the metallic transmutation; desiring also that 
 he would eat and drink anil lodge at my house, which I pressed ; 
 but he was of so fixed and stediiist a spirit, that all my endea- 
 vours were frustrated. 1 could not forbear to tell him that 1 had 
 a laboratory, ready for an experiment, and that a promised fa- 
 vour was a kind of debt : yes, true said he, but I pro- 
 mised to teach thee at my return, with this proviso, ' if it were 
 not forbidden.' 
 
 When I perceived all this was in vain, I earnestly requested a 
 small crum of his powder, sufficient to transmute a few grains of 
 lead to gold; and at last out of his philosophical commiseration, 
 he gave me as much as a turnip seed in size : saying, receive 
 this small parcel of the greatest treasure of the world, which 
 truly few kings or princes have ever known or seen : But 1 said, 
 this perhaps will not transmute four grains of lead, whereupon 
 he bid me deliver it back to him, which in hopes of a greater 
 parcel I did ; but he cutting half off with his nail, flung it 
 into the fire, and gave me tile rest wrapped neatly up in blue 
 
Hdvctius. SI 
 
 paper; saying, it is yet sufficient for tlicc. I answered him, 
 indeed with a most dejected countenance ; Sir, what means this : 
 the other being too little, you give me now less. He told me to 
 put into the crucible halt' an ounce of lead, for there ought to he 
 no more lead put in than the medicine can transmute: I gave him 
 great thanks for my diminished treasure, concentrated truly in 
 the superlative degree, and put k charily up into my little box ; 
 saving, I meant to try it the next day, nor would I reveal it to 
 any. ' Not so, not so,' said he, ' for we ought to divulge all 
 things to the children of art, which may tend alone to the honor 
 of God, that so they may live in the theosophical truth.' I now 
 made a confession to him, that while the mass of his medicine 
 was in my hands, I endeavoured to scrape a little of it away 
 with my nail, and could not forbear; but scratched oft' so very 
 little, that it being picked from my nail, wrapped in a paper, 
 and projected on melted lead, I found no transmutation ; but 
 almost the whole mass of lead sublimed, and the remainder was a 
 glassy earth ; at this' unexpected account, he immediately said, 
 you are more dexterous to commit theft than to apply the 
 medicine ; for if you had only Wrapped up the stolen prey in 
 yellow wax, to preserve it from the fumes of tfee lead, it would 
 Lavc'sunk to the bottom and transmuted it to gold; but having cast 
 it into the fumes, the violence of the vapour, partly by its sim- 
 pathetic alliance, carried the medicine quite away. I brought 
 him the crucible and he perceived a most beautiful saffron like 
 tincture sticking to the sides ; he promised to come next morning 
 at nine o'clock, to shew me that this tincture would transmute the 
 lead into gold. Having taken his leave, I impatiently waited his 
 return ; but next day became not, nor ever since ; he sent an ex- 
 cuse at half past nine that morning, and promised to come at 
 three in the afternoon, but I never heard of him >:ince ; I soon 
 began to doubt the whole matter; late that night my wife, who 
 was a most curious student and enquirer after the art, came soli- 
 citing me to make an experiment of that little grain of the stone 
 to be assured of the truth ; ' unless this be done,' said she, ' I 
 shall have no rest nor sleep this night ;' she being so earnest, I 
 commanded a fire to be made, saying to myself, I fear, I fear 
 indeed this man hath deluded me; my wife wrapped the said 
 matter in wax, and I cut half an ounce of lead, and put it into a 
 crucible in the fire ; being melted, my wife put in the medicine 
 made into a small pill with the wax, which presently made a 
 hissing noise, and in a quarter of an hour the mass of lead was 
 totally transmuted into the best and finest gold, which amazed us - 
 exceedingly. We could not sufficiently gaze upon this admirable 
 and miraculous work of nature; for the melted lead, after pro- 
 jection, shewed on the fire the rarest and most beautiful colours 
 imaginable, settling in green; and when poured forth into an 
 ingot, it had the lively fresh colour of blood : when cold, it sinned 
 as the purest and most splendent gold. Truly all those who were 
 
 h 
 
S3 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 standing about me, were exceedingly startled, and I ran with 
 this aurified lead, being yet hot, to the goldsmith, who wondered 
 at the fineness, and alter a short trial by the test, said it was the 
 most excellent gold in the world. 
 
 The next day a rumour of this prodigy went about the Hague, 
 and spread abroad; so that many illustrious andJearned persons 
 gave me their friendly visits for its sake: amongst the rest, the 
 general Assay-master, examiner of coins of this province of 
 Holland, Mr. Porelius, who with others, earnestly besought me 
 to pass some part of the geld through all their customary trials, 
 which I did, to gratify my own curiosity. We went to Mr. 
 Breetel a silversmith, who first mixed four parts of silver with 
 one part of the gold, he filed it, and put aqiuifortis to it, dis- 
 solved the silver, and let the gold precipitate to the bottom ; 
 the solution being poured off, and the calx of gold washed with 
 water, then reduced and melted, it appeared excellent gold : and 
 instead of a loss in weight, we found the gold was increased, and 
 bad transmuted a scruple of the silver into gold by its abounding 
 tincture. 
 
 Doubting whether the silver was now sufficiently separated 
 from the gold, we mingled it with seven parts of antimony, 
 which we melted and poured out into a cone, and blew off the 
 regulus on a test, where we missed eight grains of our gold, but 
 after we blew away the rest of the antimony, or superfluous 
 scoria, we found nine grains of gold for our eight grains missing, 
 yet it was pale and silver-like, but recovered its full colour after- 
 wards ; so that in the best proof of fire we lost nothing at all of 
 this gold; but gained as aforesaid. These tests I repeated three 
 times, and found it still alike ; and the silver remaining out of 
 the aquafortis, was of the very best flexible silver that could be, 
 so that in the total, the said medicine or elixer, had transmuted 
 six drains and two scruples of the lead and silver into most purcj 
 gold. 
 
 BEIUGARD OF PISA. 
 
 Claude Berigard was a celebrated Italian philosopher, author 
 of Cir cuius Pisanus, published in Florence, 1641 ; far from being 
 a credulous man, he was inclined to scepticism. These are his 
 own words, page 25. — " I did not think that it was possible to 
 convert quicksilver into gold, but an acquaintance thought pro- 
 per to remove my doubt; he gave me about a drachm of a 
 powder, nearly of the colour of the wild poppy, and having a 
 smell like calcined sea salt ; to avoid all imposition, I purchased 
 a crucible, charcoal, and quicksilver, in which I was certain, 
 that there was no gold mixed; ten drachms of quicksilver which 
 I heated on the fire, was on projection transmuted into nearly 
 the same weight of good gold, wliich stood all tests. Had I not 
 
Anonymous Adept, S3 
 
 performed this operation in the most careful manner, taking 
 evety precaution against the possibility of doubt, I should not 
 have believed it, but I am satisfied of the fact." 
 
 ANONYMOUS ADEPT. 
 
 Atiianastus Kircher, a German Jesuit, retired to Rome In 
 164'0, where he wrote and published 22 vols, folio, and eleven in 
 4to. lie records in his Mundus Subterraneus, that one of his 
 friends, whose veracity he could not dcubt, related to him as 
 follows : — ' From my youth', said this honest man, * I made a 
 peculiar study of alchemy, without ever attaining the object of 
 thai science. In my course of experiments, I received a visit 
 from a man who was entirely unknown to me : he asked very 
 politely, what was the object of my labours, and w'thout giving 
 me time to reply, he said, I see very well by these glasses and this 
 furnace, that you are engaged in the search of something great in 
 chemistry; but believe me ycu never will, in that way, attain to 
 the object you desire. I said to him, 'Sir, if you have better 
 instructions,* I flatter myself that you will give them.' Willingly, 
 replied this generous unknown : immediately I took a pen and 
 wrote down the process he dictated ; and to shew you the result, 
 said the stranger, let US both work together, according to what 
 you have written. We proceeded, and our operation being 
 finished, I drew from the chemical vessel a brilliant oil, it con- 
 gealed into a mass, which I broke into powder. I took a part 
 of this powder and projected it on three hundred pounds of 
 quicksilver, it was ;n a little time converted into pure gold, much 
 more perfect than that of the mines ; it endured ail the proofs of 
 the goldsmiths.' 
 
 * A prodigy so extraordinary struck me with surprise and asto- 
 nishment, I became almost stupid ; and as another Croesus, I 
 fancied I possessed all the riches in the universe. My gratitude 
 to my benefactor was more than I could express ; he replied that 
 he was on his travels, and wanted no assistance whatever ; but 
 * it gratifies me,' says he, ' to counsel those who are unable to 
 complete the hermetic work.' I pressed him to remain with me, 
 but he retired to his inn ; next day I called there, but what was 
 my surprise, at not finding him in it, or at any place in the town. 
 I had many questions to ask him, which left me in doubt. I re- 
 turned to work according to the receipt, and failed in the result ; 
 I repeated the process with more care ; it was all in vain ! Yet I 
 persevered until I had expended all the transmuted gold, and the 
 givater part of my own property.' 
 
 i We see', says Father Kircher, gravely, 'by this true history, 
 how the devil seeks to deceive men who are led by a lust of 
 riches. This alchemist was convinced he had an infernal visitor, 
 and he destroyed his books, furnace, and apparatus, by the timely 
 advice of his confessor,' 
 
84 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 THE ADEPT MERCHANT OF LUBEC. 
 
 This anonymous possessor of unlimited wealth has left nothing 
 in writing, and would be unknown to the world, but that he 
 performed a transmutation beiore Gustavus Adolphus, King ot 
 Sweden, in Pomcrania, about the year 1620. The gold was 
 coined in medals, bearing the king's effigy, with the reverse, 
 Mercury and Venus. 
 
 The adept did not appear opulent ; as a merchant he never wa.s 
 observed to enter into any commercial business, except a tran- 
 saction by which he did not profit ; but after his death, there 
 were 1700,000 crowns found in his house. — See Borrichius, and' 
 Moncon's travels, p. 379. 
 
 TRANSMUTATION AT BERLIN, 
 
 On the commencement of the eighteenth century, a gentle- 
 man presented himself to the King of Prussia, at Berlin, pro- 
 posing to communicate the secret of transmutation. The king 
 desired to see a proof of it, and the operation was performed 
 before him, with all the necessary precautions against imposition. 
 The projection succeeded perfectly : the artist expected promo- 
 tion, but he was desired to make a similar powder, which he 
 acknowledged he could perform. He failed in the attempt, and 
 instead of being promoted at court for his communications, a 
 charge was brought against him for duelling several years before, 
 and he was accordingly beheaded. This story was verified to the 
 Abbe Lenglet at Paris. 
 
 TRANSMUTATION BEFORE THE DUKE OF 
 SAXONY. 
 
 A transmutation at Dresden, before Frederick Augustus, was 
 performed about the year 1715, by an apothecary's boy. He re- 
 lated that a sick traveller, whom he attended in Berlin, had, on 
 Ins recovery, given him the powder of projection, in a quantity 
 sufficient to establish him for life. The result of his vanity, in 
 exhibiting a phenomenon so dangerous to the landed and com- 
 mercial interest, was a condemnation to death, which he escaped 
 by professing the secret of making delft equal to china : he suc- 
 ceeded in the attempt, which laid the foundation of the Dresden 
 manufactories. His vicious disposition now broke out, he mixed 
 a destructive- powder with tue prepared clay of the porcelain 
 
Count Cagtiostro. 85 
 
 makers, and fled lo Austria. On liis return he was confined 
 in the Castle of Meissen, where he died. The A'obc Lenglct 
 was assured by M. Bray, Minister of the Elector of Saxony, that 
 he witnessed the fact of transmutation at Dresden. 
 
 COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 
 
 Joseph Balsamo, Count Cagliostro, was born at Palermo, in 
 174-3; he was instructed in the secret chemistry by Altotas, an 
 Arab, whom he met at Messina. — They embarked for Alexandria, 
 and performed several operations, by which they procured large 
 sums of money. Altotas could speak greek fluently, and had 
 several arabic manuscripts ; he instructed Balsamo in the oriental 
 languages, and in occult philosophy. They passed to Malta, and 
 worked in the laboratory of the grand master Pinto. Altotas 
 died soon after; and Balsamo visited Naples, in company with a 
 Knight of Malta. He acquired the regard of Prince Caramanco, 
 n lover of chemistry, who brought him to see his estate in 
 Sicily. After this Balsamo appeared to sell drawings, at Rome, 
 for liis support ; but was at the same time in private intimacy 
 with the Pope, several Cardinals and Princes; amongst these 
 was Ganganelli, afterwards Clement 14th, He married Lo- 
 ren/.a Feliciana, in this city : they travelled as pilgrims through 
 Sardinia and Genoa, living upon alms, and reaching Barcelona, 
 proceeded to Madrid ; from that ci.y lu went to Portugal ; his 
 wife learned the English language : lie vested his riches in 
 jewellery, and they embarked for London, where he devoted his 
 leizure to chemistry. The jewels lie brought to England were of 
 great value — he had a watch chain consisting of three rows ot 
 diamonds, and pendants with clusters of diamonds, which was. 
 worth fifteen hundred pounds ; a pawnbroker in Princes-street, 
 lent five hundred on it. His watch and Madame Cagliostro's 
 rings, necklaces, and gold boxes, were enriched with diamond* , 
 and pearls. A large quantity of topazes, which he collected at 
 Lisbon, were now stolen from him by a Sicilian named \ivcna ; 
 and he was thrown into prison for the rent of his lodgings, in; 
 Whitcomb-street ; he soon after obtained his liberty, and went 
 to Paris, and there sold a pomade or wash, for beautifying the 
 skin •, he also made some chemical operations in augmentation of 
 gold, for two amateurs, and departed for Palermo, where he was 
 imprisoned on pretence of his acquaintance with the Marquis 
 Maurigi, who was accused of forgery ; but on being liberated, 
 he went to Malta, returned to Naples, took his wife's father and 
 brother into his family, and brought them to Marseilles and 
 Cadiz, where he left them and proceeded with his wife to London. 
 The noise of his wealth induced many sharpers to persecute him 
 with false arrests, until some friends moved the King's Bench 
 
S6 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 to punish these conspirators. He was now called Count C*ag- 
 liostro ; he had a medicinal liquor called Egyptian wine, and sold 
 certain restorative powders,' he lived inelegant apartments in 
 Sloan-street, attended by a numerous retinue of servants in rich 
 liveries, and saw company t'recjuently with magnificence and hospi- 
 tality. He attended the sick poor, giving them medicine and 
 money- In the same manner he passed some time in various 
 German States and at Paris, until he was imprisoned in the 
 Bastile, on suspicion, when the Queen's diamond necklace was 
 stolen by Madame La Motte; while in prison^ his bureau was 
 robbed of 750 double louis d' or* 1233 roman sequins or crowns, 
 '24? double doubloons, and 47,000 livres, in bills. On his libera- 
 tion and return to London, he predicted the destruction of the 
 Bastile, and that a prince at length will reign in France, 
 who will establish true religion. After a series of similar adven- 
 tures, Cagliostro was arrested at Rome, tried and found guilty of 
 having founded an order of Freemasons, and was sentenced to 
 perpetual imprisonment. See the life of Cagliostro, written by 
 order of the Inquisition at Koine. 
 
 DELISLEv 
 
 He was a rustic of low birth in Provence, who in the year 1 70S, 
 attracted general notice, by transmuting lead and iron into 
 silver and gold. He put an oil and powder on the iron, and then 
 igniting it in the fire, it came forth a bar of gold. Cerisy, prior 
 of New Castel, was employed by the Bishop of Senez, to col- 
 lect and recite the facts : and he obtained some of the powder 
 wherewith he made three pounds weight of pure gold out of lead. 
 The alchemist was invited to court, but he pretended, that the 
 climate he lived in was necessary to the success of his experi- 
 ments, as his preparations were vegetable. He exposed his pro- 
 jections to innumerable witnesses, and freely gave the produce 
 in .gold bars, nails, and ingots, to persons of rank, who witnessed 
 the transmutations. The Baron of lleinvald and his lady, with an 
 ftlchemist named Sauveur, who studied the science for fifty year* 
 in vain, were present, and obtained gold made of base metal 
 before their eyes, which stood the test of the goldsmith. 
 
 Delisle at this time was thirty five years old ; he had been 
 considered for five years a fool or a deceiver, because he was 
 working for an alchemical gentleman; but now his employer was 
 enriched, and the noblemen of the country paid great respect to 
 Uelisle. 
 
 Mr. St. Aubin endeavoured in vain to teach him to read and 
 write ; but he appeared untractably rude, and a fanatical raver. 
 He was told he might humble the enemies of France, but he 
 •nly answered by a loud laugh. 
 
Delisle. 87 
 
 In Lenglot's history of hermetic philosophy, there is a letter 
 from the Bishop of Senez, to the Minister of State and Comp- 
 troller General of the Treasury at Paris, in which the Bishop, 
 who was at first incredulous, professes that he could not resist 
 the evidence of actual transmutation performed before him and 
 several vigilant witnesses, who took every precaution to prevent 
 deceit. There is also a certificate of the Mint-Master at Lyons, 
 to the following facts 3— That he was accompanied by Delisle and 
 others, and went to the garden of the Castle, where he uncovered 
 a basket that was sunk in the ground, and took from a w ire n rag- 
 tied up — the contents were exposed to the sun for a quarter ot an 
 hour, and appeared a blackish earth of about half a pound weight, 
 this was distilled in a retort by a portable furnace, and when a 
 yellow. liquor was perceived to flow into the receiver, Delisle recom- 
 mended that the recipient should be removed before a viscious 
 oil which was rising should follow it. Two drops of the yellow 
 liquor, projected on hot quicksilver, produced, in fusion, three 
 ounces of gold, which was presented to the Minister of State. — 
 Secondly, three ounces of pistol bullets were melted and purified 
 With alum and saltpetre, Delisle handed a small paper to him, 
 desiring him to throw in a pinch of the powder and two drops of 
 oil of the first experiment, and then covering the matter with 
 saltpeter, it was kept fifteen minutes in fusion, and was then poured 
 .out on a piece of iron armour, where it appeared pure gold, 
 bearing all assays. The conversion to silver was made in the 
 same manner with white powder. This certificate was signed 
 officially 14th December, 1710. 
 
 The o;old made by the Mint-Master, Maurice, with Delisle's 
 powder and oil, was coined into medals, inscribed, Aurum arte 
 factum, which are deposited in the Museum at Versailles. 
 
 Delisle having evaded two invitations to Court, on pretence 
 that he was disappointed in gathering the proper herbs, once 
 by the war occupying the mountain of Palu, and again that the 
 summer was passed, when he received his Majesty's commands, 
 and therefore he could not prepare a transmutation of magnitude 
 Worthy to exhibit to the King ; the Bishop of Senez, sus- 
 pecting him of unwillingness, rather than inability, obtained a 
 letter de cachet, to conduct him to the Bastile. His guards on 
 the road endeavouring to extort his supposed riches, wounded 
 him, in which state on his arrival at the Bastile, he was forced 
 to undertake alchemical operations, but produced nothing, and 
 died the following year. 
 
 His son Aluys, inherited some of the powder, with which he 
 made projection before the Duke of Richlieu, then French Am- 
 bassador at Vienna, who assured the Abbe Langlet, that he not 
 only saw the operation, but performed ithimseltj twice on gold, 
 and forty times on silver. 
 
 Aluys made a considerable collection of gold coins, ancient 
 and modern, while on his journey through Austria and Bo- 
 
SS Lives of the Adepts 
 
 hernia. On^.his return to Aix, he presented himself to the 
 President of Provence, who desired him to call the next day. 
 Aluys, suspecting an intention to arrest him, fled ; — he was 
 afterwards imprisoned at Marseilles, from whence he escaped to 
 Brussells. It was here in 1731, that he gave some philosophic 
 mercury to Mr. Percell, the brother of Abbe Langlet, which he 
 frrmented imperfectly, but succeeded so far as to convert an 
 ounce of silver into gold. The death of a Mr. Grefier shortly after 
 some operations on corrosive sublimate, by which he proposed 
 to instruct him in alchemy, made it necessary for him to depart, 
 and he was heard of no more. 
 
 EIREN.^EUS PHILALETHES. 
 
 The name of this artist was never discovered to the public : — 
 ?orne authors mistake him for Thomas Vaughan, an Oxford 
 scholar, who wrote under the name of Eugenius Philalethes, 
 several works that arc not esteemed ; his Aula lucis, by S. N. 
 shews the last letters of his real name. 
 
 Eirenaeus, in his preface to The shut palace opened, thus ex- 
 presses himself : ' I being an adept, anonymon, and lover of 
 learning, decreed to write this little Treatise of physical secrets, 
 in the year 161-5, in the twenty-third year of my age, to pay my 
 duty to the sons of art, and lend my hand to bring them out of 
 the labyrinth of error, to shew the adepti that I am a brother 
 equal to them. 1 presage that many will be enlightened by these 
 my labours. They are no fables, but real experiments, which 
 I have seen, made, and know, as any adept will understand. 
 I have often in writing laid aside my pen, because I was willing 
 to have concealed the truth under the mask of envy ; but God 
 compelled me to write, whom I could not resist : He alone knows 
 the heart — to Kim only be glory for ever. I undoubtedly 
 believe, that many will become blessed in this last age of the 
 world with this arcanum ; I have written faithfully, and left no- 
 thing intentionally doubtful to a young beginner. I know many, 
 who with ine, enjoy this arcanum; may the will of God be done; 
 I confess myself unworthy of effecting such things — 1 adore 
 the holy will of God, to whom all things are subjected ! — 
 He created and preserves them to this end ' In the preface to 
 his Commentary on Ripley, Eirenaeus writes : ' For my own 
 part, I have cause to honour Bernard Trevisan, who is very 
 ingenuous, especially in the lclter to Thomas of Boulogne, 
 where i seriously confess, I received the main light, in the hidden 
 secret. I do not remember, that ever I learned any thing from 
 Raymond Lully ; some who are not adepts give more instruc- 
 tion to a beginner, than one whom perfect knowledge makes 
 cautious. I "learned ike secret of the magnet from one, the 
 
Eumtrus PJiilalclhes. 89 
 
 chalybs from another, the use of Diana's doves from a third, the 
 air or camelion from another, the gross preparation of the 
 dissolvent in another, the number of eagles in another ; but for 
 operations on the true matter and signs of the true mercury, 
 I know of none like Ripley, though Flamel be eminent. — 
 I know what I say, having learned by experience what is truth 
 and what is error. 
 
 * I have read misleading sophistical writers, and made many 
 toilsome, laborious experiments, though but young ; and having 
 at length, through the undeserved mercv of God, arrived at 
 my haven of rest, I shall stretch out my hand to such as are be- 
 hind. I have wrote several Treatises; one in English, very 
 plain but not perfected ; unfortunately it slipped out of my hand. 
 I shall be sorry if it comes abroad into the world. Two in Latin, 
 Brevis manuductio ad rubinem ccelcstum ; and Fons chymica phi- 
 losophic. : — these for special reasons, I resolve to suppress. — 
 Two others I lately wrote, which perhaps you may enjoy, viz. 
 Ars metallorum metamorphoses ; and Introitus apcrtus ad occluswn 
 Regis palatiunu I wrote two poems in English, which are lost ; 
 also in English, an enchiridion of experiments, a diurnal of 
 meditations, with many receipts declaring the whole secret, and 
 an Enigma annexed : these also fell into the hands of one, who 
 I conceive will never restore them/ 
 
 The person alluded to here, is probably George Starkey, an 
 apothecary of London, who emigrated to North America, and 
 was following his professional business there, when he had the 
 good fortune to receive a visit from Eirenaeus, who in the course 
 of his travels through that country, stopped in the city where 
 -Starkey dwelt, and with extraordinary freedom, made himself 
 known as an adept. Starkey returned to London, and wrote 
 several chemical books, from which these particulars are col- 
 lected. He died of the plague in London 1665. A friend of 
 his who obtained his papers, published * A true light of Alchemy* 
 in English verse ; it probably contains the poems lost by 
 Eirenaeus, but the second book evidently includes a narrative by 
 Starkey of his interviews with the adept, as follows : 
 
 ' I have now to assert, from my own experience, facts of 
 transmutation, of which I was an eye-witness. I was well ac- 
 quainted with an artist, with whom I have often conversed on 
 the subject, and I saw in his possession the white and the red 
 elixir, in very large quantity ; he gave me upwards of two 
 ounces of the white medicine, of sufficient virtue to convert 
 120,000 times its weight into the purest virgin silver; with 
 this treasure I went to work ignorantly upon multiplication, 
 and was caught in the trap of my own covetousness ; for I ex- 
 pended or wasted all this tincture. However, I made pro- 
 jection of part of it, which is sufficient for my present purpose 
 enabling me to assert the possibility of the art from ocular 
 demonstration. I have tinged many times hundreds of ounces 
 
 M 
 
90 Lives of the Adepts. 
 
 into the best silver. Of a pound of mercury, I have made within 
 less than a scruple of a pound of silver, of lead little more waste, 
 but 'tis wondrous to see tin, although a dross was burnt from it, 
 yet its weight increased in the fire. I essayed the medicine on 
 copper, iron, even on brass and pewter, on spelter, solder, 
 tinglass, mercury, and on regulus of antimony, and I can say 
 with truth it conquers all metallic things, and brings them all 
 to perfection. I found there was nothing akin to it, but it 
 would tinge into pure silver; even perfect gold was penetrated 
 and changed to a white glass, that would transmute, but in 
 small quantity, inferior metals, into silver ; but when this silver 
 was assayed it was found to abide aquafortis, cupel of antimony, 
 and weighed as gold, so that it was white gold', this was because 
 the white tincture had fermented with red earth, and both virtues 
 coming into projection, produced silver coloured gold, or silver 
 equaling gold in perfection but wanting its hue. I did not know 
 the value of this silver till my medicine was nearly gone, and sold 
 eighty ounces of it at the common price, though it was as valua- 
 ble as gold. I projected the medicine on pure silver, and had a 
 chrystalline metal, like burnished steel or mirror, but there was 
 no encrease of virtue in this, it tinged only so much as it 
 would if it had not been projected on silver. 
 
 The artist who gave me this is still living; I prize him as my 
 own life, I wish his happiness for he has been a sure friend — he 
 is at present on his travels, visiting artists, and collecting anti- 
 quities, as a citizen of the world. — He is an Englishman of 
 an ancient honourable family, who now live in the place wherein 
 he was born; he is scarcely thirty-three years of age, and is 
 rarely learned. You cannot know more of him fro in me, nor 
 can you be acquainted with him, his acquaintance with me wag 
 as unexpected as his love was cordial. I had often seen, by ex- 
 periment, that he was master of the white and red before he 
 would vouchsafe to trust me with a small bit of the stone, nor 
 would I press him, hoping for his courtesy soon or late, which 
 I shortly received, by what I have said of the white medicine 
 and also a portion of his mercury. 
 
 He told me this mercury was a matchless treasure, if God 
 would open my eyes to the use of it, else 1 might grope in 
 blindness. With this dissolvent, which is the hidden secret of 
 all masters, he exceedingly multiplied his red stone. I saw him 
 put a piece of the red, by weight, into that same mercury, which 
 then digested, dissolved it, and made it change colour, and in 
 three days it passed through the process of black, white, and 
 red. 
 
 I thought that if the red and white could be multiplied, that 
 one lineal progress led to either, and on this false ground, I de- 
 stroyed ten parts in twelve of my medicine ; this loss did not 
 suilice me, for I mixt the remaining two parts with ten times its 
 weight of luna, and fell to work again, hoping to make up for. 
 
Eirenceus Philale flics. 91 
 
 mv first error. I then began to think upon the maxims of the 
 old books, revolved in my mind the agreement of my work with 
 the laws of nature, and at length I concluded that each thing is 
 to be disposed according to its condition. 
 
 When I found that my vain attempts only threw away the 
 tincture, I stopped my hand, resolving to keep the few grains 
 left for some urgent necessity, which for its preservation, I mixed 
 with ten parts of luna. 
 
 I tried some of the mercury before mentioned on gold, my 
 desire being to see the work carried forward ; and brought to 
 luna if not to sol. This then I projected on mercury, after 
 having alloyed it with silver, it tinged fifty parts, and I strove to 
 imbibe it, but in vain, because I had let it cool. I foolishly 
 supposed to attain the red by imbibition ; however, nature car- 
 ried on its work into blackness the colours, and whiteness, which 
 yet was far short of what I looked for. 
 
 In these trials I wasted nearly all my mercury likewise ; but 
 I had for my consolation, the witnessing of transmutations, and 
 these extraordinary processes, which I beheld with mine own 
 eyes, and blessed God for seeing. 
 
 In some time I met my good friend and told all my mishaps, 
 hoping that he would supply me as before; but he considering 
 that my failures had made me wise, would not trust me with 
 more, lest I should pluck the Hesperian tree as I chose for my 
 own and other mens hurt. He said to me, ' friend, if God elects 
 you to this art, he will, in due time, bestow the knowledge of it; 
 but if in his wisdom he judges you unfit, or that you would do 
 mischief with it, accursed be that man who would arm a maniac 
 to the hurt of his fellow creatures. While you were ignorant I 
 gave you a great gift, so that if Heaven ordained, the gift should 
 destroy itself. I see it is not right you should enjoy it at present, 
 what providence denies, I cannot give you, or I should be- 
 guilty of your misconduct.' 
 
 I confess this lesson of divinity did not please me, as I hoped 
 so much from him. his answer was a disappointment. He further 
 said, that God had granted me knowledge, but withheld the 
 fruit of it for the present. 
 
 Then I gave him to understand how I had discovered the 
 skill of the water ; "by which, in time, I may obtain what you 
 deny, and which I am resolved to attempt." 
 
 " If so then," he replied, " attend to what I say, and you 
 may bless God for it. Know that we are severely bound by 
 strong vows, never to supply any man by our art, who might 
 confound the world, if he held it at will : and all the evil he 
 does is left at the door of that adept who is so imprudent. Con- 
 sider what a prize you had both of the stone and of the mercury ; 
 would not any one say, he piust be mad that would threw it all 
 away without profit." 
 
92 Lives of the Adepts, 
 
 ' Had you been guided by reason you might hare enough of 
 what I gave you. Your method was to add to the purest gold, 
 but a grain of the stone, in fusion it would unite to it, and then 
 you might go about the work with your mercury, which would 
 speedily mix with that gold, and greatly shorten the work, 
 which you might easily govern to the red] and as you saw how I 
 wedded new gold to such sulphur and mercury, you saw the 
 weight, time, and heat— what more could you have wished. 
 And seeing you know the art of preparing the Jiery 'mercury, you 
 might have as much store as any one.' 
 
 ' But do you not perceive by this, that God is averse to you, 
 and caused you to waste the treasure I gave you. He sees, per- 
 haps, that you would break his holy laws, and do wrong with it ; 
 and though he has imparted so much knowledge, I plainly see 
 that he will keep you some years without the enjoyment of that 
 which no doubt you would misuse. Know, that if you seek this 
 art without a ferment, you must beware of frequent error ; you 
 Mill err and stray from the right path, notwithstanding all your 
 care, and perhaps may not in the course of your life attain this 
 treasure, which is the alone gift of God. If you pursue the 
 straightest course, it will take a year to arrive at perfection ; but 
 if you take wrong ways, you shall be often left behind, sometimes 
 a year, and must renew your charge and pains, repenting of 
 your loss and error, in much distraction, care, and perils, with 
 an expence you can hardly spare. Attend therefore to my coun- 
 sel, and I shall disclose the secret conditionally. Swear before 
 the mighty God, that you will, for such a time, abstain from 
 the attempt or practice; nor shall you in that time, even if you 
 are at the point of death, disclose some tew points that I will 
 reveal to yon in secrecy. I swore, and he unlocked his mind to 
 me : and proved that he did not deceive, by shewing me those 
 lights, which I shall honestly recount, as far as my oath will 
 admit.' 
 
 The shut palace opened c. 19. contains the following remark- 
 able account of Eirenseus, by himself: — ' All alchemical books,* 
 says he, ' abound with obscure enigmas or sophistical operations ; 
 I have not written in this stile, having resigned my will to the 
 divine pleasure. I do not fear that the art will be disesteemed, 
 because I write plainly, for true wisdom will defend its own 
 honor. I wish gold and silver were as mean in esteem as earth, 
 then we need not so strictly conceal ourselves. For we are like 
 Cain, driven from the pleasant society we formerly had without 
 fear ; now we are tossed up and down as if beset with furies ; 
 nor can we suppose ourselves safe in any one place long. We 
 weep and sigh, complaining to the Lord, * behold whosoever 
 shall find me will slay me ;' we travel through many nations like 
 vagabonds, and dare not take upon us the care of a family— 
 neither do we possess any certain habitation : although we possess 
 all things, we can use but a few ; what, therefore, do we enjoy 
 
Eireiitfiis Philalethcs. 93 
 
 except (lie speculations of our minds. Many strangers to the 
 art, imagine that if they enjoyed it* they would do great good ; 
 so I believed formerly, but the danger I have experienced has 
 taught me otherwise. Whoever encounters the eminent peril of 
 his life, will act with more caution thenceforward. I found the 
 world in a mo^t wicked state, scarce a man but is guided by 
 some selfish and unworthy motive, however honest or upright 
 he is judged in public. An adept cannot effect the works of 
 mercy to an uncommon extent without, in some degree, confiding 
 to the secrecy of others; and this is at the hazard of imprisonment 
 and death. I lately had a proof of it, for being in a foreign 
 place, I administered the medicine to some distressed poor persons 
 who were dying, and they having miraculously recovered, there 
 was immediately a rumour spread abroad of the elixir of life, 
 in so much that I was forced to fly by night, with exceeding 
 great trouble; having changed my clothes, shaved my head, put 
 on other hair, and altered my name ; else I would have fallen 
 into the hands of wicked men that lay in wait for me, merely 
 on suspicion, excited by the thirst of gold. I could mention 
 other dangers, which would seem ridiculous to those who did 
 not stand in a similar situation. They think they would manage 
 their affairs better, but they do not consider that all those intel- 
 ligent people, whose sociecy is chiefly desirable, are extremely 
 discerning ; and a slight conjecture is enough to produce a con- 
 spiracy ; tor the iniquity of men is so great, that I have known 
 a person to have been strangled with a halter on suspicion, 
 although he did not possess the art, it was sufficient that a des- 
 perate man heard a report of it. 'Iliis age abounds with alche- 
 mists, however ignorant of science, they know sufficient to 
 discover an adept, or to suspect him. — An appearance of secrecy 
 , will cause them to search and examine every circumstance of 
 your life. If you cure the sick, or sell a large quantity of gold, 
 the news is circulated all through the neighbourhood. — The gold- 
 smith knows that the metal is too fine, and it is contrary to law 
 for any one to alloy it who is not a regular metallurgist. I once 
 sold pure silver worth ^GOO, in a foreign country ; the gold- 
 smith, notwithstanding I was dressed as a merchant, told me 
 ' this silver is made by art.' I asked the reason he said so, he 
 replied, ; I know the silver that comes from Spain, England, &c. 
 this is purer than any of them kinds.' Hearing this I withdrew ; 
 there is no better silver in trade than the Spanish, but if I had 
 attempted to reduce my silver from its superior purity, and was 
 discovered, I would be hanged for felony. I never called again 
 for either the silver or the price of it. The transmission of gold 
 and silver from one country to another, is regulated by strict 
 laws, and this is enough to condemn the adept who appears to 
 have a quantity of it — thus being taught by these difficulties, I 
 have determined to lie hid, and will communicate the art to thee 
 
94 lives of the Adepts. 
 
 who dreamest of performing public good, that we may see what 
 you will undertake when you obtain it. 
 
 The searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth ; nor 
 is there any cause to accuse me of envy, I write with an unter- 
 rified quill in an unheard of stile, to the honor of God, to the 
 profit of my neighbours, with contempt of the world and it* 
 riches ; because Elias the artist is already born, and now glori- 
 ous things are declared of the city of God. I dare affirm, that I 
 do possess more riches than the whole known world is worth ; 
 but I cannot make any use of it, because of the snares of 
 knaves. I disdain loath and detest the idolizing of silver and 
 gold, by which the pomps and vanities of the world are cele- 
 brated. Ah, filthy evil ! ah, vain nothingness ! — Believe ye 
 that I conceal the art out of envy ? no verily, I protest to you, I 
 grieve from the very bottom of my soul, that we are driven a* 
 it were like vagabonds from the face of the Lord throughout the 
 earth. But what need many words, the thing we have seen^ 
 taught and made, which we have, possess, and know, that we 
 do declare ; being moved Avith compassion for the studious, and 
 with indignation of gold, silver, and precious stones ; not as- 
 they are creatures of God ; far be it from us, for in that respect 
 we honor them, and think them worthy of esteem — but the peo- 
 ple of God adore them as well as the world; therefore let them 
 be ground to powder like the golden calf ! I do hope and ex- 
 pect, that within a few years, money will be as dross ; and that 
 prop of the anti-christian beast, will be dashed to pieces. The 
 people are mad, the nations rave, an unprofitable wight is set 
 up in the place of God. At our long expected and approaching 
 redemption, the new Jerusalem shall abound with gold in the 
 streets, the gates thereof shall be made with entire stones, most 
 precious ones, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, shall 
 give leaves for the healing of the nations. I know these, my 
 writings, will be to men as pure gold ; and through them gold 
 and silver will become vile as dirt. Believe me, the time is at 
 the door; I sec it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall return 
 from the four corners of the earth ; nor shall we fear any snare* 
 that are laid against our lives ; but we shall give thanks to the 
 Lord our God. I would to God, that every ingenious man 
 in the whole earth understood this science, then it would only 
 be valued for its wisdom ; and virtue only, would be had in 
 lion our. I know many adepts who have vowed a most secret 
 silence — I am of another judgment, because of the hope I have 
 in my God; therefore I consulted not with my brethren, or with. 
 flesh and blood, in these, my writings : God grant that it be to 
 the glory of his name.' 
 
ALCHEMICAL BOOKS. 
 
 1 Antonius Abbatia, Zwey Epistlen, 12mo. Hamb. 
 
 2 D'Acqueville, les effete tie la picrre divine, 12. Paris, 
 
 3 iEGiDius,dialogus inter naturam et filium artis, 8. Franc. 
 
 4 F. Aggravio, ISourano Medicina, 8vo. Venet. 
 
 5 Geo. Agricola, de Re Mctallica, fol. Basil. 
 
 6 Idem, Lapis philosophorum, rare, 16. Colon. 
 
 7 J. Agricola, of antimony, German, 4to. Leipzic. 
 
 8 L. Alamanni, poema, a chcmic romance 4to. Floren. 
 
 9 Alan i, an adept, dicta de lapide, 8vo. Lug. 
 
 10 Alberti, Magni, an adept, opera omnia, 21 v. f. Lug. 
 
 11 Alchimia, denudata, adept Naxagoras, 8vo. Breslaw, 
 
 12 Alchemia, opuscula, nine tracts scarce, 4to. Franco. 
 
 13 Alchemia, volumcntractatum, 10, esteemed, 4to. Norim. 
 
 14 Alchemia, dialogi duo, Geber and Lully, Svo. Lug. 
 
 15 Alchymischer, particular Zeiger, Svo. Rostoc. 
 
 16 Bedencken von Alkahest, 8vo. 
 
 17 J. H. Alstedii, philos. restituta, 8vo. 
 Ejusdem panacea philosophica, 8yo. 
 
 18 La ruine des Alchimistes, 16. 
 
 19 D. P. Amelungi, panegyric on alchemy, 8to. 
 
 20 lust. Chr. Amelungs, stein tinctur, 4to. 
 
 21 A. Andeloro, usi alchymistici, Messina, 
 
 21 Le Sieur de Angelioue, pierre phijoso. 12mo, Paris, 
 
 22 Arte, del fuoco per la pietra filosofica, 8vo. Geuov. 
 
 23 Avantukes en la recherche de la pierre philos. atlribut 
 
 the celebrated Abbe Belin, under Henry IV. 1 2mo. Paris. 
 £4 Chimiae Aurifodina, incomparabilis, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 
 
 25 Vicr Ausserlesene, chymische buchlein, 8vo. Llamb. 
 
 26 Aureum seculem. inenstrui universal, Svo. Nurnb. 
 
 27 L' Avman, mystique, 12mo. Paris. 
 
 28 Alcaest, merveilles de 1' art et de la nature, 12. Paris. 
 
 29 Alchvmia, vera lapidis philos, German, Svo. Magd. 
 
 30 Altus, mutus liber, fig. hieroglip. adept, fol. Rupcl. 
 81 Hermeticorum Apocalipsis, 4to. Gedani. 
 
 32 Apologie, du grand ceuvre, disesteemed, 12mo. Paris. 
 
 33 Arbre, des mysteres de la grace et de la nature, 
 
 34 Artificiosissimi Arcani Arca, German, Smo. Fran. 
 
 35 Antiquorum philosophorum, Arcano, 8vo. Leip. 
 
 36 A strange letter of the treasure of an Adept, 24. Loud. 
 
 37 Ars, transmutationis metallicae, 8vo. 
 
 .38 Magni philos ; Arcani, revelator, rare, l2mo. Hamb. 
 
 672 
 6SI 
 595 
 68'2 
 621 
 531 
 639 
 570 
 599 
 653 
 708 
 550 
 541 
 548 
 715 
 708 
 612 
 610 
 612 
 607 
 664. 
 
 622 
 
 d to 
 646 
 696 
 697 
 706 
 659 
 678 
 619 
 677 
 683 
 659 
 646 
 617 
 610 
 680 
 550 
 672 
 
96 Alchemical Books. 
 
 39 Ancient war of the Knights, by an adept, l2mo. Lond. 1723 
 40 153 chemical Aphorisms, esteemed, . Lond. 1680 
 
 41 King Alphonso, of the Philos. Stone, 4to. Lond. 1652 
 
 42 W. Avissoni, philos. pyrotechnica, Paris. 1657 
 
 43 Artephius, adept 12th cent, secret book, 24, Lond. 1657 
 44- Artis Auriferje, 47 treatises, 3 vols. 8vo. Basil, 1610 
 
 45 Andreae Alciata, emblamata, Patav. 1618 
 
 46 Aurifontina, chym. 14 tracts phil. mere. 24, Lond. 1680 
 
 47 E. M. Arrais, tree of life, 8vo. Lond. 1683 
 
 48 Elias Ashmole, Theat. Chem. Britanicum, 25, tracts, 
 
 English adepts, esteemed, 4to. Lon. 1652 
 
 49 Do. James Hasolle, Fasciculus Chemicus, by A. Dec, 
 
 8vo. Lond. 1650 
 
 50 Roger Bacon, adept, art of chemistry, 16. Lon. 
 
 51 The same, Mirror of alchemy, a complete treatise, 4to. 1597 
 52 admirable power of art and nature, alchemic, ■ - 
 
 53 Idem, opus majus, ad Clementum IV. fol. Dub. 1733 
 
 54 The same, cure of old age, and preservation of 
 
 youth, Svo. Lond. 1683 
 
 55 medicine of antimony, 16. 1683 
 
 56 Radix mundi, English, alchemical, 12. 1692 
 
 57 opus minus. M. S. Lambeth Library, Lond. 
 
 58 Ejusd. Thesaurus chimicus, Utilitate scientiarum, 2 alchymia 
 
 major, 3 Breviarum de dono Dei. 4 verbum abbreinatum de 
 Leone viridi, 5 Secretum Secretornm, 6 trinm verborum, 
 7 Speculum Secretorum. Seven treatises, Svo. Francof. 1603 
 
 59 Idem de sccretis operibus artis & naturae, 8vo. Hamb. 1598 
 
 60 Fr. Bacon Lord Verulam ; history of metals, f. Lond. 1670 
 
 61 Geo. Baker, new jewel of health, 4to. Lond. 1576 
 
 62 J. Balbian, tract, septem, lap. phil. rare, 8vo. Lug. 1599 
 
 63 Idem Spechio chimico, 8vo. Rome. 1624 
 
 64 Secreti medicinali de Petro Bairo, Svo. Venet. 1592 
 
 65 C. A. Balduini aura? superioris, 12mo. Amt. 1675 
 
 66 Ejusd. Phosphorus hermetiens, Hermes Curios. 1680 
 
 67 A. Barlet, 1' ouvrage del' uni vers, 12mo. Paris. 1653 
 
 68 J. C. Barchusen, elementa chemiae, 78 alch. emblems. 
 
 Lug. Bat. 1718 
 
 69 N. Barn audi, a compiler, triga chimica, Svo. Lug. Bat. 1600 
 
 70 Fabr. Bartoleti, hermetic© medica, 4to Bonon. 1619 
 
 71 Fileum ariadne, per Henrie a Batfdorfli 8vo. Thol. 1639 
 
 72 G. Beato, azoth. solide explicatis, 4to. Franc 1613 
 
 73 Baron Beausoleil, De Materia Lapidis, esteemed, Svo. 1627 
 
 74 J.J. Becher, transmutations at Vienna, Lond. 1681 
 
 75 Idem, physica subterranea, esteemed, Svo. Leip. 1738 
 
 76 Idem, institutiones hermeticae, 4to. Mogun. 1662 
 
 77 Idem, Oedipus Amst. 1716 Laboratium, 8vo. Fran. 16S0 
 
 78 Ejusd. opera omnia, 2 v. f. in German. ■ — — • 
 
 79 Beguinus, Tyrocinium chemicum, English, Lond. 1669 
 SO Lib. Benedictus, nucleus sophicus, allegoric, S. Franc. 1623 
 
Alchemical Books. 97 
 
 81 A. C Benmu6, anhang der Weisen, Svo. Hamb. 1090 
 
 82 Idem, tractatende inenslruo universal!, 8vo. Nurcm. 1709 
 S3 Idem, iapis philos. scu medicina tmiver. 8.vo. Franc. 1714? 
 •81' Idem, thesaurus proccssuum chemicorum, 4to. Nurem. 1715 
 
 85 John de Berle, opuscule de philosophic, • 4 
 
 86 Bericht, von universal ata neye-n, 8vo. 1709 
 
 87 Berlichius de medicina universali, 4to. Jena. 1679 
 
 88 Bernaedi, Comitis, adept, dechimia, 12mo Geism. 1647 
 
 .89 traitedel' auf'des philos. 8vo. Paris. 1G59 
 
 90 — - epistle to Thomas of Bononia, 24, Lond. 1680 
 
 .91 antiqui opua de chimia, curious, 8. Argent. 1 567 
 
 92 Trevisan's fountain, Lond. 
 
 93 — La Turbe des philosophes, 8vo: Paris. 1618 
 
 J94, _ La parole delaissee, 12mo. 1672 
 
 95 De ehimico miraculo, 8vo. Basil. 1600 
 
 96 P. Beroalde, histoire des troiii princes, 2 v. 8vo. — — 1610 
 
 97 Lepalais.de curicux. poeme, 12mo. Paris. 1584 
 
 •98 Le cabinet de mincrva, 8mo. Rouen. 1601 
 
 99 M. Bektemau, restitution de Pluton, Srao, Paris. 1618 
 
 100 J. B. Besardi, de lapide physico, 4to. Aug. 1617 
 
 101 D. JBeuthee, (lived in 1580,) universale, Hamb. 1718 
 
 102 O. Bickeri Hermes redivivus, Svo. Hanov. 1620 
 •108 A. G. Billikius, de tribus principiis, 8vo. Bremen. 1621 
 104- Ejusdcrn, Deliria chimica Laurenbergii, 8vo. Brem. 1625 
 105 assertionem opposita Laurenbergio, Svo. Helm. 1624 
 
 106 G. B. Birelli, dealchimia, 4to. Firenze. 1602 
 
 107 Sol. Blawexstein, contra Kircherum, 4to. Vienna. 1667 
 
 108 Bo.dexsteix, a Paracelsiav, opera varia, died 1577, 
 
 aged 49, son of Carlostad, the Reformer, fol. Batil. 1581 
 
 109 Jacob -Behmen's works, by W. Law, 4 v. 4to. Lond. 1781 
 
 110 The same, by EJliston and Sparrow, 10 v. 4to. Lond. 1659 
 HI . iniroir temporel de 1' eternite, Svo. Fran. 1664 
 
 112 Idas chimiee adepta) Boh.mian.e, 12mo. Amst. 1690 
 
 113 Edw. Bolnesti, aurora chimica, Lond. 1672 
 
 114 Minera delmondo, G. M. Bonardo, 8vo. Mantua. 1591 
 
 115 Samuel Bolton, magical but natural physic, 8. Lon. 1656 
 
 116 P. Boxo, an adept, Margarita Novella, 4to. Basil, 1572 
 
 117 Idem, introductio, in artem divinam alchimia, 8. 1602 
 
 118 Ejusdem De secreto omnium secretorum, 8vo. Venet. 1.546 
 
 119 I. D. Bonneau de 1' astronomie ini'erieure, 4to. Par. 1636 
 
 120 De la Borde de 1' enigme trouve a un pillier, 4to. Par. 1636 
 
 121 Petri Borelli, Hermetic, catalogue, 12mo. Par. 1654 
 
 122 G. F. Borri, la chiave del cabinetto, this artist died in 
 
 prison at Rome, 1695, aged 70. 12mo. Colon. 16S1 
 
 123 O. Borrichius progressu chemiae, 4to. Hafhia. 1668 
 
 124 Hon. Robert Boyle's works, useful, many edit. 
 
 125 J. Braceschi, Gebri explicat, 4to. Lugd. 1543 
 
 126 Richard Bradly, work of nature, rare, 8vo. Dub. 1721 
 
 127 P. Brachel, German, on spurious potable gold, 8. Col. 1607 
 
 128 M. Erbineus Brajjdaw, 12. columjiae natune, 8. Lip. 1689 
 
 if 
 
§S Alchemical Hooks. 
 
 129 J. F. Brebii., concursus philos. 8vo. Jena. 1726 
 
 130 Zac. Brexdelius, de auro potabile agit, 8vo. 1630 
 
 131 And. Brextzics, Patav. Farrago philos. 8vo. Amb. 1611 
 
 132 Le Bretox, clef's de la philos. Spagirique, 12. Paris. 1726 
 
 133 J. D. Broallt, des planets hermetique, 4to. Paris. 1644 
 
 134 Buchleix, von farben der alchimisten, 8vo. 1549 
 
 135 B Burchelati, Dialog philos, 4to. Treviso. 1603 
 
 136 J. Ernest Burgravii, introductio in philos. 4to. Fran. 1623 
 
 137 Ejusdern Balxeum Diana?, Lug. 1600-1612 
 
 138 AntoniaBAZio Florida Corona, Lug. 1534 
 
 139 Dune. Borxetti Jatrochimicus, Franc. 1621 
 
 140 Ze fleriele Tomaso Borro opere, Venez. 1624 
 
 141 Thomas Brown, natures cabinet, 12mo. Lon. 1657 
 
 142 T. Caso, lapis philosophicus, Frankfort. 1660 
 
 143 T. Cesar, alchemias speculum, German, 8vo. Franco. 1613 
 
 144 B. Cesii, medicatorum fossilium, rare, fol. Lug. 1636 
 
 145 M. Campegii, de transmutati. metal, 4to. Lug. 1583 
 
 146 J. de Carellis, de auri essentia, 8vo. Venet. 1646 
 
 147 A. Carerius, metalla artis permutari, 4to. Patav. 1579 
 
 148 Jo. Cast, Lapis philosophicus, 4to. Oxon. 1599 
 
 149 G. Castagxe, Lesoeuvres hermetique, 4 tracts,^. Paris. 1661 
 
 150 Cato, chemicus, 12mo. Lypsine. 1690 
 
 151 Ar. Cephali, mercurius triumphans, 4to. Magdeb. 1600 
 
 152 Charles VI. tresor de philosophic, 8vo. Paris. 
 
 153 J. Chartier, antimoine, plomb sacre, 4to. Paris. 1651 
 
 154 G. Chiaramoxte, elixir vite, 4to. Genoa. 1590 
 
 155 Christop. Paris, adept \Sth age, chimica, 8vo. Paris. 1649 
 
 156 Ciiymia phiiosophica, 8vo. Norimberg. 16S9 
 
 157 E. Lucii, Claf, lapide christo sophico, 4to. Ingol. 1582 
 
 158 G. Claudeiu, de tinctura universal!, 4to. Altenb. 167S 
 
 159 E. Claves des principes de nature, 8vo. Paris. 1633 
 
 160 Gas. Clavei, adept, Argyropocia?, 8vo. Niver. 1590 
 
 161 Idem, philos. chim. 1612, prep, auri, 8vo. Frank. 1602 
 
 162 Idem, ratione proginendi, Lap. Phi!. 8vo. Nivers. 1592 
 3 63 F. Clixge, philosophia hermetica, German, 4to. 1712 
 
 164 Collectanea chemica, 10 tracts, 16; Lond. 1684 
 
 165 J. Collessox, not esteemed, de la Ph. Hermetique, 
 
 8vo. Paris. 1630 
 
 166 G. Colletet clavicule ei la vie R. Lully, 8vo. this diligent 
 
 alchemist died very poor, Paris. 1647 
 
 167 L. Colson, philos. maturata. German, 8vo. Flamb. 1696 
 
 168 L. Combacjiius, salt and secret of philos. 16. Lond. 1657 
 
 169 J. A. Comenius, natural philos. reformed, 16. Lond. 1651 
 
 170 L. Comitibus, approved, de alkaest, 4to. Venet. 1661 
 
 171 CoGiTATroNES, circa alchaest, German, 8vo. Fran. 1708 
 
 172 W. Cooper, catalogue of alchemical books, 8vo. Lond. 1675 
 J 73 Commentatio, de lapide philos. Svo. Cologn. 1595 
 3 74 H. Coxradi, Kmirath, symbolum, esteemed, 8vo. Mag. 1599 
 175 EjubdemAmphithcatruin^tciiiyeiSSapicrjtiiJe, 4to. Mag. 1608 
 
Alchemical Books. 90 
 
 176 Idem, magnesia catholics, de chao, 12mo. Argen. 1599 
 
 177 Menu. Conringii, contra, Hcrmetica, 4to. Helm. 1648 
 173 Cosmopolita, novum lumen, adept, 12 treatises, enigma* 
 
 dialogue, d'ye, by Alex. Sethon i S\o. Prague- 1604 
 
 179 La mome. ses lettres, spnrio?ts, 2 v. 12mo. Paris. 1691 
 
 180 J. A. Cbame&i, fossilium, 2 v. Svo. Lug. Bat. 1730 
 
 181 Gaspar Cremeri, de transmut. metal. Svo. 
 
 1S2 J. C. Creilingius, de transmut. metal. 4to. Tubing. 
 
 183 Osw. Crollii, Basilica chimica, in English, fol. Lond. 1670 
 
 184 The same, philosophy reformed, 12mo. Lond. 1657 
 
 185 Crollius, redivivus, stein tinctur, 4to. Fran. 1635 
 
 186 Barab. Cicoli.ini, via brevis, Romoe. 1696 
 
 187 Clavis, Ottonis Tachenii, Venetiis. 1677 
 
 188 L. Cozzandi, magistero antiq. Colon. 1684 
 
 189 J. Chesne, de plus curieus etrares, Paris. 1648 
 
 190 Nic. Culpepper, three-fold world, 8vo. Lond. 1656 
 
 191 Curiosities of chemistry, Lond. 1691 
 
 192 Mathieu Dammy, sur chimie. son of a Genoese stonecutter \ 
 
 travelled as a Marquiss, 8vo. Amst. 1739 
 
 193 Jolian. Dastinii, visio, English adept, 8vo. Franc. 1625 
 
 194 Ejusdem, Rosarium correctius, 8vo. Geismar. 1647 
 195E. Deani, tractatus varii alchimia, rare, 4to. Fran. 1630 
 
 196 Dr. Arthur Dee, fasciculus chimicus, 12mo. Lond. 1650 
 
 197 Dr. Joannes Dee, rnonas hierogliphica, 1564 
 
 198 Idem, Propasdeumata naturse virtutibus, 4to. Lond. 1568 
 
 199 Democritus, de arte sacra, adept, 8vo. Patav. 1573 
 
 200 Dichiaratione, degl' filosofi alchimisti, 4to. Rome. 1587 
 
 201 E.Dickinson, de chrysopoeia. Physician to King Charles IT. 
 
 and saw a transmutation, Svo. Oxon. 1686 
 
 $02 Gerard Dorneus, clavis philosophia, this ParaCelsian, wrote 
 
 17 alchemical books, 12mo. Lugd. 1567 
 
 203 Fra. Donato, Eremita, adept, Elixir Vite, Napoli. 162* 
 
 204 C. Drebelli us, quinta essentia, not an adept, 8. Hamb. 1621 
 
 205 M. Duchesne, de la violette, ouvres, 6 v. 8vo- Par. 1635 
 
 206 Lameme medicine metalique, 1641 ; miroir du monde, 8vo. 
 
 Lyons. 1593 
 
 207 J. Dumbelei hortus amoris arboris philosophicas, 8vo. 
 
 Fran. 1625 
 
 208 Disputatio solis et mercurii cum Lapide Philos. ' ancient 
 
 war,' Svo. Tolos. 1646 
 
 209 C. Deodato, pantheum hygiasticum. Brunstruti, 1628 
 
 210 St. Dunstan, on the philosophers stone, Lond. 
 
 211 Efferarius, an adept, de lapide philos. Svo. Argent. 1659 
 
 212 Idem, Thesaurus philosophicus, esteemed and scarce, Svo. 
 
 Argent. 1659 
 513 Epistola, cujusdam patris ad filium, 8. Lugd. Lyons. 1601 
 
 214 Epistolarum, philos. chemicarum, fol. Francofurti. 1598 
 
 215 Thcj»8f Erasti, <k aurapotabili, 8vo. Basil. 1578-1584 
 
100 Alchemical Books. 
 
 ^16 Laz. Erkerx, de Re metallka, excellent, fbl. Francofl 
 1629, Eng. Lond. 1683 
 
 217 L' Escaliee des sagos, avec figures, currents and scarce, fol. 
 
 Groningen. 1689 
 
 218 John Espagxet, president of Bourdeaux, wrote "sit hunt 
 
 name, viz. Enchiridion physica t estituta, Paris. 1608 
 
 219 Enchiridion philosophise hermefcieas, Svo. The 
 
 anonymous works of' this esteemed adept in English, 16, 
 Lond. 1651, Paris. 16.38- 
 
 220 L'Expositio-xe deGeberFilosofoyrZ/s^/to'Miy/, 12.- Venet. 1544 
 
 221 D. Ei'CHioxTisde aquisoleis &salibus philos^. Francof.1567 
 
 222 M. Eygeim lepilote de l'onde, scarce, 12. Paris. 1678. 
 
 223 Eclaircissemext dcla pierrephilosophale, 8vo. Paris. 1648 
 
 224 Emblamata de secretis naturae dbemica, 4to. Oppen. 16JS 
 
 225 Examex des principes des alchemistes, 12mo. Paris. 1711 
 
 226 M. Elmtlleri opera omnia, Venet. 1727 
 
 227 P. J. Fabri, not an adept, alchimista Christianus, Svo. 
 
 This skilful chemist wrote 1 7 books of alchemy, Tolo. 1632 
 
 228 G. Faericius de rebus metallici?, 8vo. Tiguri. 1565 
 
 229 ISecreti diversi, raccolti del G. Fallopius, Svo. Venet. 15 78 
 
 230 Leon. Fjoeavaxt, with Paracelsus Peuotus and Isaac. 
 
 4to. Lond. 1652 
 
 231 J. C. Faxeyxi de artis afchimia?, Svo. Basil, 1576 
 
 232 Idem, mctamorphosi metallica, Svo. BasiL 1660 
 
 233 J, M. Faustii Philaletha illustrates, Svo. Francofurti. 1706 
 
 234- Idem, Pandora chemica, hermetic extracts, 1706 
 
 H35 Ed. Fextox, 3ecretsand wonders of nature, Lond. 1659? 
 
 236 J. Ferxelius abditis rerum causis, doubtful. 8. Par. 1560 
 
 237 Phil. Ferxel soliloquium salium, Neapoli. 1649 
 
 238 Josua Ferro meravigiiosi secreti, Svo. Venet. 1606 
 
 239 B. Figulj Paradisus aureolus hermetiens, 4to. Fran. 1600 
 
 240 Idem, auriga benedictus spagyricus, 12mo. Norim. 1609 
 
 241 G. Figeli medecina universalis, 12mo. Brux. 1660- 
 
 242 Filareto racolto di secreti, Svo. Fioren. 1573- 
 
 243 J. V. Fixcki enchiridion hermetico, 16. Lip. 1626 
 242* Nicholas Flamel, an adept, summary, 24. Lond. 1680 
 243* Do. explanation of his hieroglyphics, Svo. Lond. 1624 
 
 244 La nieme le desir desire, ou tresor de philosophic — — 
 
 245 La memele grand ccclaircissement, 8vo. Paris. 1628 
 
 216 De la meme la musique chimique — - — 
 
 247 Idem, annotationes in D. .Zaeharium, spurious. — — - 
 
 243 Roberti Feud clavis alchim. 2 v, f. Francof. 
 
 249 La Foxtaixe des amoureux de science, 16. Paris. 1561 
 
 250 La Foxtaixe pcrilleuse, reputed, 8vo. Paris. 1572 
 
 251 P. Fradix histoire fabuleuse, scarce, 8vo. Lyons. 1560 
 
 252 Von Fraxkexberg gemma magica, 8vo. Ainst. — — 
 
 253 J. Fheixu prelectiones chemica, Lond. 1704 
 25 i J. Fhickii/s de auro potabile sophiatarum, 4. Ham. 1702 
 
Alchemical Books. 10 1 
 
 "255 D. G. Frischi anatomia alchimiae, Svo. Parma. 1696 
 
 256 L. Fruxdeek de elixir arboris vita?, Svo. Hague. 1660 
 
 257 J. N. Fcrichius de lapidc philosophico, 4to. Argent. 1631 
 
 258 Lc Filet d'ariadne, hermetic, 8vo. Paris. 1693- 
 
 259 P. Gabella de lapide philos. 4to Cassel. 1615 
 
 260 J. Garlandii, dictionarium alchimiae, Svo. Basil. 1571 
 
 261 C. Gamcn, trcsor des tresors, 2 vols. 12mo. Lyons. 1610 
 
 262 Gault, les errenrs del'art refutee's 4to. Par. 1588 
 
 263 Geber's works, adept, Chorasan, $th age, 1. Investigation of 
 
 perfection, 2. Stmt of do. 3. Invention of Verity, 4. 
 
 Furnaces, 8vo. Gedani. 1682 
 
 264- J. C. Gerhardi, panacea hermetica, 8vo. Ultn. 1649 
 
 265 Idem — in apertorium Lullii, Svo. Tubing. 1641 
 
 266 D. Germanni, judicium philosophicum, 8vo. 1682 
 
 267 F. S. E. Gf.rzax, vrai tresor, disesteemed, Svo. Paris. 1653 
 
 268 La mcrae L'histoire Africaine, ehemie, Svo. Par. 1634 
 
 269 Flavio Girolani, Ja pietro filosophica, 4to. Venet. 1590 
 
 270 P. Givry, arcanum acidularum, 12mo. Amst. 1682 
 
 271 Rmaldo Giangi, Istruzione speziaie, Roma. 1715 
 
 272 J. R. Glauber's works, chemistry, fol. London. 1689 
 
 273 Jos. Goxelli, thesaurus philosoph. Neapoli. 1702 
 
 274 Mi. Guiberto, dc interitu alchymiae, Tulli. 1614? 
 Idem, alchimia ratione et experientia, Svo. Arg. 1603- 
 
 275 Fabio Glissenti dellapietra de. filosofi. 4to. Venet. 1596 
 
 276 Glutten, miaerale demercurio philos. 8vo. Lips. 1705 
 
 277 J. Gohory, ancien poeme, science minerale, 8, Paris. 1572 
 
 278 Gloria mundi soustein paradeis, Hamb. 1692 
 
 279 B. Godfrey, miscellaneous experiments, Svo. Loud. 
 
 280 Apologie pour le grand ouvre* par D. B. 12. Par. 1659 
 
 281 G. Granger, que les metaux ont vie, 8vo. Par. 1 GiO 
 
 282 William Gratarole, on the philos. stone, 4to. Lond. 1652 
 
 255 Ejusd. vera alchemia, 23 tracts, 2 vols. 8vo. Bas. 1572 
 
 284 Jod. Greveri, sccretum magnum, 8vo. Lugd. 1588 
 
 285 Jac. Grevin, del'antimoine contre Launay, 4to. Par. 1567 
 
 256 J. Grimaldij Senator, dell' akhimiae, 4to. Palermo. 1645 
 287 J. B. Groschedale, proteus mt?rcurialis, 4to. Francof. 1629 
 28S Ejusd. mineralis lapidem descriptio, Svo. Hamb. 1706 
 289 hermetisches Kleebat, weisheit, Svo. Fran. 1629 
 
 290 J. Guidi, alchimisticis, de thesauris, 4 to. Venet. 1625 
 
 291 A. Guntherus, spagirices, 1623, Essentia, 8vo. Brem. 1621 
 
 292 P. Guissonius, tribus principiis, 8vo. Fran. 1666 
 
 293 Dom Gulielmi, de salibus, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1707 
 
 294 Guide to alchemy, Lond. 
 
 295 E. Hagedon, secreta sparigica, Jena. 1676 
 
 296 Hermophile, canones hermetici, 8vo. Marpurgh. 1608 
 
 297 Hadrianeum, de aureo philosoph. 8vo. Rotho. 1651 
 
 298 S. Haffeurefferi, officina hermetico, Svo. Ulm. no date 
 
 299 J. L. Hannemajsni, ovum hermetico, &vo. Franc 1694 
 
J 03 Alchemical Books. 
 
 300 N. N. HapeEIUS, chieragogia heliana, 8vo. Marp. 1613 
 
 301 J. Hartman's works, London, et Latin,tb\. Franc. 1684 
 
 302 C. Haumerie, secrets les plus caches, Par. 1722 
 
 303 J. O. Helbegii, inauditam phisicam, 8vo. Ham. 1680 
 304< Idem centrum naturae concentratum, 12mo. Gedani. 1682 
 
 305 Same, salt of nature, by Alipili, 16. Lond. 1696 
 
 306 Idem deviribus hermeticis, 12mo. Amst. 1683 
 
 307 I Ieli.e, speculum alchemiae, Franciscan, 8vo. Fra. 1614 
 
 308 J. B. FI^lmont's works translated, tbl. Lond. 1664 
 
 309 J. O. Helw;g, curioste akhemia, 8vo. Leip. 1710 
 
 310 J. F. Helvetius, of a transmutation ; he was jirrt physician 
 
 to the Prince of Orange, Svo. Lond. 1670 
 
 311 FIermetis Trismegisti 7 capitula, adept, Svo. Lips. 1600 
 
 312 Idem, 7 chapters, tablet and 2nd book, Svo. Lond. 1692 
 
 313 John Heydon, saph'ric medicine* fol. Lond. 1665 
 
 314 Hierogliphica Egyptio Graeca de lapide, 4to. Basil. 1571 
 
 315 F. Hoffman, dissertationcs tres, 4to. Haf. 1725 
 
 316 H. C. Kirchensis, magnesia Catholica, German 
 
 317 Ewald. Hoghelande, historia transmutat. Svo. Colon. 1604? 
 31 S Theo. Hoghelande, alchimiae difficult. Svo. Colon. 1594 
 
 319 Isaac FIolland, adept, vegetable work, 4to. Lond. 165& 
 
 320 Idem, de triplici ordini elixiris, 8vo. Bern. 1608 
 
 321 Idem, mineralia opera, delap. ph-il. Middl. 1600 
 S22 Idem, opera universalia et vegetabilia, Arnh. 1617 
 
 323 Idem, universal] opere sicut Jilio suo M. Johanni, Isaaco 
 
 Hollando e Flandria pater no animo, 8vo. Fran. 1669 
 
 324 C. Hornei, de metallis medicis, Svo. Helm. 1624 
 
 325 Hortulanus, hermeticus cum t fig, 8vo. Franc. 1627 
 320 Same, reign of Saturn revived, Lond. 1698 
 
 327 Hylealischen, naturl chaos, Svo. Franc. 1708 
 
 328 Histoiue, philos. hermetique, Lcnglet, 3 v. Svo. Hay. 1742 
 
 329 Hermetical banquet, 8vo. Lond. 1652 
 
 330 Hydropyrographieu, true fire water, 24. Lond. 16S0 
 
 331 Icon, philos. occultoe, esteemed, Svo. Par. 1672 
 
 332 DcIgne, magorum philos. C. Kunrath, Svo. Argent. 1608 
 
 333 Pape Jean XXI I. L'art transmutatoire, Svo. Lyons. 1557 
 
 334 Joannes, fil Zacchariae de spiritus, 2 v. Lug. 1556 
 
 335 Secreti della Isabella, Venet. 1665 
 
 336 Isagoge, triunus Dei et naturae, 8vo. Ham. 1674 
 
 337 Chev. Imperial lemiroir d'alchimie, 16. Paris. 1609 
 
 338 Jacques Dubourg, saint Saturne de la chimie. 
 
 339 J. Jebsenu, de lap. phil. discursis, 4to. Rost. 
 
 310 Guil. Johnsoni, Lexicon hermeticarum, 8vo. Lond. 
 
 311 J. Joxstoni, regni mineralis* 12mo. Lip. 
 
 312 Idem, Thaumatographia naturalis, 12mo. Amst. 
 
 343 Abel Isnard, la medicine universelle, 4to. Par. 
 
 344 J. H. Juxgken, chimia curiosa, 8vo. Franc. 
 
 345 Edw. Kejjleus, de lapide pliilos. 8vo. Ham. 
 
Alchemical Books. lO.'J 
 
 S46 Kalid, drab) adept, secrcta alchimia, Svo. Lond. 1692 
 
 347 M. Kk kg Kiii, de lermentatione, Wittenb. 1663 
 
 348 R. A. Keuger, dc sol. chemicorum, Bruns. 1713 
 
 349 T. Kiikki:in\;ii, in Basilii, 8vo. Amst. 1671 
 
 350 G. C. Kriegsmaxxi, in tabulae Hcrmetis, sine loco 
 
 351 J. Kuxckel, experiments, Svo. Lond. 1705 
 
 352 J. C. Kuxst, de menstruo universali, 4to. Hal. 1737 
 
 353 Am Kerxeri, de auro mercurio antimonio, 12. Erfur. 1618 
 
 354 F. Kieseiu, azoth solificatum, 1666 
 
 355 Athan. Kirc.heri, mundus subter. 2 vols. fol. Amst. 1678 
 
 356 G. Kircmayer, lueisetigne philos. 4to. Vitteb. 1680 
 
 357 Kleixold, schatz der philosophen, Svo. Fran. 1714 
 S5S L. G. Kxorr, Basil re Jivivus, German, 8vo. Lep. 1716 
 
 359 V. Koffski, vonder Ehrste tinctur burtzel, 4to. Dan. 1681 
 
 360 J. Lacixium, pretiosa margarita, Svo. Venet. 1546 
 
 361 Lapis metaphisicus, rare, 8vo. Paris. 1570 
 
 362 D. Lagxei consensus philos. Svo. Paris. 1601 
 
 363 Lampas vitas et mortis, 12mo. Lugd. Bat. 1678 
 
 364 S.B. Lam bye, revelation of the secret spirit,8vo. Lond* 1623 
 S65 An Italian comment on this by Agnelli, 1665 
 
 366 Guillaume Lamy sur I'antimoine, l2mo. Paris- 
 
 367 Carlo Laxcilotti, guida alia chemia, 12mo. Mod. 1672 
 
 368 Idem, d'ell antimonio, 12mo. Modene. 1683 
 
 369 Idem, triomfo del mercurio, 16. Modene. 1677 
 
 370 Abbe Lenglet du Fresnoi catal. livresherm. S.Paris. 1762 
 
 371 Lav. Lemxius, secret miracles of nature, fol. Lond. 1658 
 
 372 Franc: Tertii de Laxis, magisterium, 3 vol. fol. Brix. 1684 
 
 373 J. Lasxioso Bohemi, tractatus aureus, 8vo. 1612 
 
 374 Ven. Lavixi Moravi, de Cceio terrestri, Svo. Marp. 1612 
 
 375 Lou. Lazaret., Italian, le basin d'Hcrmes, Svo. Paris. 1577 
 
 376 Nic. Lemery de I'antimoine, 12mo. Paris. 1707 
 
 377 Lettre philos. de Vallemand, par Duval, 12mo. Par. 1674 
 
 378 Thomas Lee, of the sovereign balsam, Lond. 1665 
 
 379 Lettre sur le secret du grand ouvre, 12mo. Hdy. 1686 
 
 380 Camilla Leonaudi, speculum lapidem. Parisiis 1610 
 
 351 Andr. 'Libavii ''//«/. Saxon. 44 lib. alchimia, f. Franc. 1595 
 
 352 Liberii, cabalistico scriptus, 8vo. Fran. 1623 
 
 383 Lud. Locatelli, d'arcani chimici, Svo. Vcnet. 1648 
 
 384 Loxg Livers, young several ages, f. Lon. 1722 
 
 385 J. Locoues, philos. naturelle, scarce, Svo. Par. 1665 
 
 386 F. Lossii, de mort curationibus, Lip. 16S5 
 3S7 C Loxgixo, trinum magicum, rare, 12mo. Fran. 1616 
 388 Lucerxa, salis philos. curious, 8vo. It is by John 
 
 Harprecht, of Tubingen, a pressed adept. Amst. 1658 
 3S9 C. Lucu, lapide christo sophico, 4to. Ingolst. 1582 
 
 390 Raymundi Lulli, an adept o\ nmia, Svo. Argent. 1597 
 
 391 Same, testament and codicil, ivicula, 24. Lond. 1686 
 
 392 Idem, practica artis, f. Lug, io23, secretis, 8. Arg. 15*1 
 
104 Alchemical Books. 
 
 3£3 Idem, mercuriorum. repertorium.apertorium, 8. Colon. 1566 
 
 894 alchimia. magia naturalis, Svo. Norimb. 1546 
 
 395 -7- — testamentum novissimum, 8vo. Basil 1572 
 
 896 - de aquis mineral. Epist. Rupert, 8vo. Colon. 1567 
 
 397 tertia distinctio transmutatione, 4to. Nor. 1546 
 
 S98 -- aquis super accurtationes, Svo. Arg. ^** 
 
 599 secreta magnolia alchimia, Lugd. Bat. 1602 
 
 400 Glossasopra Raim. LucLlo, Veaezta. 1684 
 
 401 Blaquerna in Lullie.m, deamicoet amate, 32. Paris. ! 
 
 402 Summaria lapidis abbreviationes, foL Basil. 1561 
 
 403 Le vademecum abrege de Tart, 8vo. Paris. 1613 
 
 404 Cantilena ad Regem Anglorum, Svo. Col. 155,3 
 
 405 de conservaiione vita?, tiff*. Argent. 1616 
 
 406 de secretis medicina magna, Basil. 1600 
 
 407 Luiiius redivivus, Svo. Norim. 1703 
 
 408 opera alchemia R. Lully, 2 vol. Lond. 1573 
 
 409 Histoire R. Lille, par Vernon, par Colietct, 12. Par. 1668 
 
 410 Lg Litmus re sortantde tenebres, 12. Par. 1687 
 
 411 I|p Lapide philosophico, Svo. 1618 
 
 412 I*p Lapiois pliysici conditionibus, 8.vo. Colon. 1595 
 4*13 Disceptation de Lapide philos. Svo. Col. 1678 
 
 414 Ludovicus Comitibus, practice manuaHs, F rancor. 
 
 415 Maxuale hermeticum, W. S. D. C. P. C. Wofenb. 1655 
 
 416 Magxi philos. arcani revelator, 12mo. Genev. 1688 
 
 417 Of the blessed manna of the philos. * Land. 1680 
 41S Maria Egypti. dialog, adej t, a. si. 3630, 8vo. Leip. 1708 
 
 419 G. C. Maffei scala nattirale, Svo. Venet. 1564 
 
 420 M. Majeri chemicum per oculis, oOJig. 4to. Fran. 1687 
 
 421 J. J, Maxgeti hiblioth. chemi. curiosa, 2 vols, folio. It 
 
 contains 133 alchemic tracts, (36 are from TheaL C/icm.) 
 viz. Arid&uS) Artepluns, Avi.cenna, Aristotle, Arnold, 
 Alius, Augurelli, Albinus, Bacon, Becker, Blaucnstcin, 
 Borrichius, Bracheshj, Bono, Bernard, Basil, Bcrnaud, 
 Baldumus, Cato, Clauder, Chortalasseus, Cnqfftlius, 
 Domea, Dastin, Espagnet, Faber, Fanianus, Ficinus, 
 Friben, Geber, Gerard, Guido, Hermes, Hoghela?id t 
 Jlehetius, Icon, Johnson, Kalid, Kirchcr, Kriegmatu 
 Jjibavius, Leiscis, Lidty, Massa solis, Merlin, Morhoff, 
 Morien, Malvisius, F. Mirandola, T. Norton, Orthclius, 
 Paracelsus, Fir. Philalethes, Pantalcon, Ripley, Richard, 
 Rupecissa, Sachs, Sendivogiits, Stolcius, Todcnfeld, Za- 
 dith, Zacharia, Col. 1702 
 
 422 B. Mark, hermetischen philos. herren, Svo. Strasb. 1701 
 
 423 Margarita, philosophica, 4to. Basil. 1583 
 
 424 Mars philosophische, vel azoth, 2S p. 8. Fran. 1656 
 
 425 La Martixiere, la tombeau de la fclie, 12. Paris. 
 
 426 B. Mazotta, triplici philos. 4to. Banon. 1653 
 
 427 P. Mass ix, Liegeois, de la pierre philosophale, 
 
 428 C. Medices, dess steins der weisen, Svo. 1706 
 
Alchemical Books. 105 
 
 429 MediciSTA melallorum. transmutatio. 4to. , Lip. 1723 
 
 430 Medicinische, universal sonne, Svo. Hamb. 1706' 
 
 431 Mercurhjs, triumphans, rare, 4to. Miigd. 1600 
 4.32 J. G. Meerheim, insonderheit hcrmetischer, 8. I-t*ip. 170$ 
 i33 Mercurius, redivivus, scarce, 4to. Franc. 1630 
 
 434 G. Mennens, sacra? philosophise, 4to. Antw. 1604 
 
 435 Mercury's caducean rod, by Cleidophorus, 16. Load. 170/4 
 
 436 Maria Mel'rdrack, light of chem. German, 12. Frari. 1712 
 
 437 Jean de Meun, ses ouvrcs, 3 tomes, 12mo. Paris. 1735 
 
 438 La meme le miroir d'alchimic, IS. Par. 1613 
 
 439 N. Melceki, lapis philosophorum, foh 1449 
 
 410 J. D. Mil it, disesteemed, chem. cum Jig. 4 to. Fran. 1620 
 
 441 JEjusd. /Eneis illustratus, curious, 4to. Fran. 1622 
 
 442 R. Minder'ii, Jatrochimica. Aug. IG\>> 
 
 443 Minera del mondo, secreti di natura, 12. ^en. 1659 
 
 444 H. Minzicht, med. chem. Svo. Hamb. 1638 
 
 445 A. Mizaldi, Moris, arcanorum, 16. Colonise. 1572 
 Idem, lapide aurcophilos. 4to. Plmnb. 1631 
 
 446 H. Mollii, physica hermetiea, Svo. Franc. 161,9 
 
 447 J. B. Montanij Vcronensis, arte alcliem. lib. 18. 
 
 448 J. Monte, med. univers. per univer. Menstr. 8. Fr. 1678 
 
 449 Idem, hermetischen guldenen fluss, 8vo. Uhn. 16S0 
 
 450 V. Monte, hermet kleeblat mil jigur, 8. Nur. 1667 
 
 451 P. Morestel, de lapierre naturelle, 12. Rouen. 1607 
 
 452 Morienus, adept, de tranfigurationc metal. 4. Han. 1565 
 
 453 Thi. Meresini, metal, transubstant. 8. Han. 1593 
 
 454 D. G. Morhofii, metal, transmut. Svo. Ham. 1G73 
 
 455 C. L. Morleii, collect, chem. esteemed, 8. Ant. .1702 
 
 456 P. MoR3in, arcana natime. . Lugd. 1630 
 
 457 J. Mortii, opera varii. Lug Bat. 1696 
 
 458 M. Motreu, Amadis de Gaul, livre I4me. 
 
 459 Der Von Mose, urtheilende alehymist, Svo. Chem. 1706' 
 
 460 Laviede P. Mouilhet, de Carcassonne, avccfig.8. Par. 1613 
 
 461 A. Muller, paradiess spiegel* Svo. Lcips. 1704 
 
 462 P. Mulleri, Friburgh, miracula chem. 12. Rcgio. 1614 
 
 463 J. E. Muller, des steins der weisen, 8vo. Franc. 1707 
 
 464 Mutus liber, Alius, the process in\5 pfew^fol. Rup. 1677 
 
 465 F. Mysii, secretis anlimonii, Svo. Basil. 1575 
 
 466 J. D. Mylii, philosophia refbrmata. Fran. 1622 
 
 467 Ejusd. Basilica philosophia. 1618 
 
 468 L. Meysonnier, la belle magic. Lyons. 1669 
 
 469 Mercurii Trismegisti, sapientia Del. Basil. 1532 
 
 470 Museum, Hermeticum, 21 tracts, 4to. viz. Alze, Crcmer, 
 
 Flamel, Hydrolitus, Helve this, Lamp spring, de Mcv.n, 
 Mynsicht, Majcrus, T. Norton, Philalethes, PansopluiSj, 
 Sendivogius. Franc. 1677 
 
 471 Teodo. Nadasyi, teorica prattici. Cosmop. 17 IS 
 
 472 G. B. Nabre, L. Salerno, mctamorfosi metal. 4; Brcsc. 1564 
 
 473 Chev. Inconnu, la nature au decouvert, 8vo. Aix. 1669 
 
105 Alchemical Books. 
 
 474 History of Nature, confirmed by exper. 8vo. Loncl. 1679 
 
 475 J. B, Nasart, Bresciano, della transmutat, 4io. Bresc. 1599 
 
 476 Idem, concordanza de i filosofi. 4to. Bresc. 1599 
 
 477 J. Equitis Von Naxagoras, Veritas hermetica, 8. Vrat. 1712 
 
 478 Idem, alchimia denudata, German, 8vo. Vratislau. 1716 
 
 479 Theop. Neander, heptas alchimica, Svo. Malice. 1621 
 
 480 Hcnr. Nehusi, Dantiscani, curious, 16. Havnie 1618 
 
 481 H. Nollius, corruption and generation, 8vo. Lond. 1657 
 
 482 Idem, theoria philos. hermeticae. 8vo. Hanov. 1617 
 
 483 Samuelis Norton i, 7 tractatds chimici cum t fig. 1 catholic 
 
 physic, 2 elixir vitriol, 3 mercury revived, 4 medicine of 
 life, 5 saturn saturated, 6 gems of pebbles, 7 alchemy, 
 
 4to. Fran. 1630 
 
 484 Thomas Norton, ordinall of alchemy, 4to. Lond. 1652 
 
 485 Dom. Nuysement, true salt of philos. 8vo. Lond. 1657 
 
 485 D. A. Oh ac an, Spaniard, in Arnoldi, fol. Hisp. 1514 
 
 486 Le grand Ouvre, 79 metamorphoses, ami da Flamel, Svo. 
 
 Franc. 1614 
 
 487 Opuscula diversorum authorum, 8vo. Franc. 1614 
 
 488 Opus tripartitum de philos. arcanis, 8vo. Lond. 1678 
 
 488 Orontii Finei'de philos. lapide, 4to. Paris. 1542 
 
 489 Ortholanus vera alchimia*, Parisiis. 1358 
 
 490 Parkhurst's sympathetic mummy, Lond. 16.53 
 
 491 Le Petit Pays an, alch. German, rare, Svo. Strasb. 1619 
 
 492 Pantaleonis bifolium metaliicum, Norim. 1676 
 
 493 J. Padua, sapientia consummata. 
 
 494 J. Pagez, les miracles de la creation, 8vo. Par. 1632 
 
 495 B. Palissy, les moyen de devenir richc, 12mo. Par. 1636 
 
 496 La meme, du jardinage; de la chimie, 8vo. Par. 1580 
 
 497 Palladis chimicoe, J. B. Maringuc, rare, 8vo. Genev. 1674 
 
 498 Palladium spagiricum, Svo. Paris. 1624 
 
 499 Petri Palmarii, M.D. Paris, lapis philos. Svo. Paris. 1609 
 
 500 Lucidas Pamphilus, theatri alchymistico, Svo. 16S1 
 
 501 Mart. PanSjE, libellus aureus, 8vo. Lips. 1615 
 
 502 J. A. Pantherus, transmutat. metal. Svo. Paris. 1550 
 
 503 Theophrasti Paracelsi, opera omnia, 3 v, fol. Gen. 1662 
 
 504 Same, philosophy to the Athenians, 12mo. Lond. 1657 
 
 505 Same, prescriptions of 114 cures, 4to. ' 1659 
 
 506 Idem, compendium vitas et catalogus, Basil, 1568 
 
 507 Same, arehidoxis of nrcanums and elixirs, 8vo. Lon. 1663 
 
 508 Idem, aurora, Svo. Basil. 1577, de tartaro, Svo. Basil. 1570 
 
 509 Idem, medico chimico chirurgica, ] 2 tomes, 4to. Franc. 1603 
 
 510 Idem, archidoxorum, lib. 10. Svo. Colon. 1570 
 
 511 Idem, pyrophilia vexationem, 8vo. Basil. 1568 
 
 512 Idem, philosophise adeptae, Svo. Basil. 
 
 513 Idem, de mercuriis metallorum, Sro. Colo. 1582 
 
 514 Idem, philosop. magnas, 7 lib. de grudibus, Basil. 1568 
 
 515 Same, key of philosophy, Svo. Lond. 15SQ 
 
Alchemical Books. 107 
 
 316 Carrie, ch;m. transmut, 1657, sympathy, 8vo. Lon. 1656 
 517 Philadelphia or brotherly love, Lond. — — 
 
 5 ! 8 The Pi; ivy Seal of secrets Lond. — — 
 
 519 John Partridge, treasury of secrets, 8vo. Lond. 1591 
 
 520 F, Pariricii, magia philos. Zoroastris, 8vo. Hamb. 1593 
 
 521 Pelagii, Grcci, in Democritum arte sacra, 8 vo. Col. 1574 
 523 Mar. Poli, II trionfo de gli acido, Roma. 1706 
 5 24 Pelletier, V alcaest 'de Helmont, esteemed, 12mo. 
 
 Rouen. 1704 
 
 525 B. Penotus, alchemists enchiridion, 12mo. Lon. 1692 
 
 526 Idem, de materia lapidis philosophorum, 8vo. Bern. 1608 
 
 527 David Persons, salamandra, 4to. Lond. 1636 
 
 528 John Petty, mine laws of England, f. Lond. 1610 
 
 529 II. Petrei, nosologia hermetica, 4to. Marg. 1614 
 
 530 G. Ph^edronis, iatro chemica, 8vo. Franc. 1611 
 
 531 J. P. Pharmundi, compend. Hermet. 12mo. Fran. 1635 
 
 532 Philosophic epitaph by W. C. Svo. Lond. 1673 
 
 533 Eirenoeus Philaletha, anon, adept ; secrets revealed, or an 
 
 open entrance to the shut palace, 12mo. Lond. 1669 
 
 534 Same, transmutation of metals, 2 celestial ruby, 3 fountain of 
 
 chemical philosophy, Lond. ■ 
 
 535 Same, Ripley revived, a commentary, 8vo. Lond. 1678 
 
 536 Eir. Philoponus Philalethes, marrow of Alch. 12mo. 
 
 Lond. 1709 
 
 537 B. P. Philalethes, alchem : Enchiridion, Lond. 1692 
 
 538 Eugenius Philalethes, E?iglish, 8vo. London-, 1 Theo- 
 
 magia, 2 magia Adamica, 3 Anima magica abscondita, 
 4 Lumen de Lumine, 1651 ; 5 confession of the Rosicross, 
 1659; 6, Waters of the East, 1671 ; 7, aula Lucis, 1652. 
 
 539 PHiLALETHiE, Wigands vom rothen schilde, 12. Ham. 1675 
 
 540 T. Philaleta, theosophischer wunder saal, 8vo. 1709 
 
 541 Philosophus Gallus, de arbore solari, 8vo. Arg. 1659) 
 
 542 J. F. Picus Mirandola, de auro, 4to. Venet. 1586 
 
 543 V. Pin^eus, de concordia Hipoc. et Paracel. 8vo.Arg. 1569 
 
 544 H. Platt, jewel house of art, 4to. Lond. 1594s 
 
 545 Projet du Plan, de la creation, 8vo. Paris. 1653 
 
 546 D. Planis Campi, 1' ecole transmutatoire, 8vo. Paris. 1633 
 54-7 La Meme de la medicine universelle, 8vo. Par. 1633 
 
 548 A. Politii, 5 essentia solutiva, 4vo. Panorm. 1613 
 
 549 John Pontanus, adept, sophic fire, 24. Lond. 1624 
 
 550 Idem, de rebus celestibus Fiorenza, 1520 
 
 551 J. Poppii, hodogeticus chemicus, German, 1627 
 
 552 Ham. Poppius, basilica antimonii, 4to. Fran. 161 S 
 
 553 J. B. Porta, de aeris transmutationibus, 4to. Romas. 1610 
 
 554 Idem, spiritali, Napo. 1606, magia naturale, Nap. 1611 
 
 555 M. Potier, apol. hermetico philos. 4to. Franc. 1630 
 
 556 Idem, vera materia et processu lapidis, 8vo. Franc. 1617 
 
 557 Idem, Fons chimicus vera auri conficiendi, 4to. Col. 1637 
 
 558 Idem, philos. pura. lapidis, 8vo, Francof* 1617 
 
J€8 Alchemical Books. , 
 
 559 P. PoTirn, opera omnia, disestecmed, 4to. Franc. 1692 
 
 560 Pr^ei, nosofogia hermetica, 4to. ■ 1615 
 
 561 Processes for the philos. stone, German, 8vo. Jena. 1704' 
 
 562 M. Pruggmayr, vero elixire vitae. Salis. 1687 
 
 563 Practise of the green lion by a Rosicrucian, 
 
 5C4 P. Prldhomme, deux merveille, l2mo. Par. 1669 
 
 5*65 Pietra de philosopha catala, Ascoli. 1737 
 
 566 M. G. Pittore, dialogi, Venez. 1550 
 
 567 Privy seal of secrets or first matter, Lond. 1680 
 
 56S Quercetan hermetical physic, 4to. 1605 
 
 56D Florian Randorf, on the philos. stone, 4to. Lond. 1652 
 
 570 Silv. Rattri, thcatrum sympatheticum, Norim. 1658 
 
 571 C. A. Kamsaio, observations, J. Kunkell, Rott'. 1678 
 
 572 Mariani Rant;e, English Projifietess, apocaliptica clavis auri- 
 
 facturum brevi promitlens, rare, 8vo. Tolosce. 
 
 573 S. Raphaeeis, de sale sulphure et lnercurio, 12. 
 
 574 Raphael Rabbards, book of alchemy, 4to. Lond. 1591 
 6.15 Reconditorilm ppulenliae, esteen.ed, 4to. Amst. 1666 
 
 576 Regio salutifcra; prima materiae, 8vo. Fran. 1708 
 
 577 Reinecceri thesaurus chimicus, 8vo. Leip. 1609 
 
 578 E. Renaudot, de 1' antimoine Justine, 4to. Paris. 1653 
 
 579 Respour sur Y esprit mineral, 12. Paris. 1668 
 
 580 S. Reyiieui juridico philosophica, 4to. Kibioe. 1692 
 
 581 J. Rhenani hermonie decades duae, Bhasis, Merlin, Guido, 
 
 Saure, Wittich, Dwnbel, Gratian, Antonio, Aquinas, 
 Dastin, Salomon, Small Rosary, 8vo. Fran. 1625 
 
 582 Idem, aureus tractatus, 4to. Franc. 1613 
 
 583 Idem, de solutione materia?, 8vo. Fran. 1635 
 
 584 L. Riiodargiri, de solutione philosophica, 8. Ludg. 1566 
 
 585 Richardi, English adept, died 1336, correctorium, 8vo. 
 
 Arg. 1581 
 
 586 J. M. RiciiEBouRG, bibliotheque, 18 tracts, Artephius, Azot 
 
 Ancient ioar, Bernard, Basil, Elamel, Geher, Hermes, 
 BBrtulain, Moiien, Mary, 'Burba, Zachary, 3 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Paris. 1741 
 
 587 Georgii Riplei, adept, opera omnia, 8vo. Casselis. 164-9 
 
 588 Same, treatise of mercury, Lond. 1680 
 
 589 Same, bosom book, accurtations, Svo. Lond. 1683 
 
 590 H. Rochas, la physique demonstrative, 8vo. Paris. 1643 
 
 591 F-lloTHSCoETzii, Silesii, bibliotheca chemica,4to. 1719 
 
 Idem, chemia, curiosa adornata, 12. Noren. 1720 
 
 592 RoBtRTUs Vallensis, antiquitate artis chemia?, 8vo. 
 
 Lugd. 1602 
 
 593 RonosTAi'-rrcuM speculum, Germanice, 4to. 1618 
 
 594 C. RonocANACis, of antimony, 4to. Lond. 1664 
 
 595 Rosiciu cian Society, 71 'works in several languages. 
 
 596 G. Rolfincius, mercurius mineralium, 4to. Jena. 1670 
 
 597 Rosarium, novum, de lapide benedicto, 4to. Germ. 1608 
 
 598 P. Rosnel, lc mcrcurc Indien, curious, 4to. Paris. 1672 
 
Alchemical BooU. 109 
 
 599 T« Rossello, secreti universalis Svo. • Venet. 1574 
 
 600 H. Rossinds de opere. Dei creationis, 4to. Fran. 1597 
 £01 P. Rouillac, practica operis magni, Svo. Lugd. 1582 
 602 RqussBLet la chryso spagirie, 8vo. Lyons. 1582 
 60S M. Rudenius, alchimistichen artzen, Svo. Lip. 1605 
 
 604 M Rullandi, Lexicon alchimiae, 4to. Fran. 1612 
 
 605 Idem, prpgyranasmato alchimiae, Svo. Fran. 1607 
 
 606 Johan. Rhpeccissa, adept, livro de lumierc, 16. Paris. ••— 
 
 607 Idem, de quinta essentia rerum omnium, Svo. Bas. 1561 
 
 608 Idem, coelum philosophorum, Svo. Parisiis. 1543 
 
 609 Idem, secretis alchemia, 4to. Col. Agr. 1579 
 
 610 Cesare della Riviere il mondo magico, Milano. 1605 
 
 611 J. Ruellii de natura stibium, 2 v. 8vo. Venet. 1538 
 
 612 William Salmon, M. D. Hermes, Kalid, Pontanus, Arte- 
 
 pkius, Gebcr, Flamcl, Bacon, Ripley, Svo. Lond. 1692 
 
 613 Le Sieur Salmon, M. D. bibliotheque, contains 12 tracts, 
 
 Hermes, Turba, Flamel, Bernard, Zachary, Lavinius, 
 P/iilalethcs, Mary, Kalid, Artephius, Gebcr, 12mo. 
 
 Paris. 1672 
 
 614 Chr. Fer. Sabor, practica naturae vera preparatio Lapidis 
 
 mineralis de antimonio, in German, Svo. 1721 
 
 615 Sanguis naturae anon. German adept, Svo. Lon* 1696 
 
 616 J. Saignier, Paris, Magni lapidis philos. 4to. Brem. 1664 
 
 617 Saint Roman, effets de la pierre divine, 12. Par. 1679 
 
 618 Angeli Salve opera omnia, 4to. Rothomagi. 1650 
 
 619 John Sawtre of the philos. stone, 4to. Lon. 1652 
 
 620 De Sale, secreto phiiosophorum, Svo. Cass. 1651 
 
 621 S. Saltzhal, de potentissima med. univer. 8vo. Arg. 1659 
 
 622 H. Scheunem annus, denario hermet. chem. 8. Fran. 1617 
 
 623 H. Schleron, de lapide philos. Svo. Marpur. 1612 
 
 624 Schlussel, Zur findung dess steins der Weissen, 8vo. 
 
 Leip. 1706 
 
 625 L. Scholzii, Roscnau, summorum philos. fol. Hano. 1610 
 
 626 C. Schotti pliysica curiosacum fig. 4to. Herb. 1667 
 Idem, mirabilia artis, 2 v. 4to. Norim. 1664 
 
 627 Patrick Scot's tillage of light, Svo. Lond. 1623 
 62S C.Schuleri, de miraculo chemico, Bernard, 1616 
 
 629 Secrets disclosed of the philos. stone, 24. 1680 
 
 630 Scientia exemplar, ex Lagneo, 4to. Ulm. 1641 
 
 631 Seilerus of a transmuting powder found, 4to. Lond. 1633 
 
 632 D. Sennertus, institutions of chemistry, 8vo. Lond. ■ 
 
 633 Alex. Suchten, secrets of antimony, 8vo. Lon. 1670 
 Idem, clavis alchemia?, German, Svo. , Montis. 1614 
 
 634 Sebald. Schweutzeh, esteemed, Chrysopoeia, 8. Hamb. 1618 
 
 635 Michael Scoti, de secretis naturae, 12. Fran. 1614 
 
 636 Petri Severini, totius philos. adeptoe, 8vo. Bas. 1572 
 
 637 Scipione Severing triomib d' eli' alchimia, 8. Venet. 1691 
 
no 
 
 Alchemical Books. 
 
 638 
 639 
 640 
 641 
 642 
 
 643 
 644 
 645 
 646 
 64=7 
 64S 
 649 
 650 
 651 
 652 
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 676 
 677 
 678 
 679 
 6S0 
 681 
 682 
 f$3 
 
 Idem, filosbpia alchimia, Venet. 
 
 Idem, comment on Lully, Italian, 
 
 Du Sel do sapience, disesteemed, 8vo. Par. 
 
 Smolli, antiq. mysteriorum, 4 to. Lnbec. 
 
 Ii. Snoyus, arte alchimiae, this unsuccessful alchemist died 
 
 Torgau, in 1537, aged 60, f. Francof. 
 Semita rectitudinis de alchemia, Svo. Gratian. 
 J. H. Senfrid, medulla naturae, Svo. Saltzbach. 
 A. Seyfarti, klar luorterung, Svo. Leypsich. 
 G. Anrach, Strasburgii, L. P. de antimonio,8. Bas. 
 W. Sebilista, manuale hermcticum, 4to. Wolf. 
 Sidrach, le grand fountaine de science, 4to. Par. 
 Simpson of fermentation, Lond. 
 Synesius, adept, true book, 8vo. London. 
 Idem, in Democriticum de arte sacra, Svo. Patav. 
 S. Spacheri, alchimia, c?nn. Jig. 4to. 
 
 D. Stolcii, viridarium chhnieum, cum. fig. Franc. 
 Ejusdem hortulus hermeticus, cum. Jig. Svo. Franc. 
 J. Sperberi, de materia lapidis, 8vo. Hamb. 
 Idem, in veram triunius Dei et nature, Svo Hamb. 
 Sol sine vesta, anon, adept, Anist. 
 G. E. St ah Li, fundamenta chimia?, 4to. Norim. 
 G. Starky, pyrotechny asserted, l2mo. Lond. 
 Same, marrow of chemical physic, 12mo. ■ 
 
 Same, natures explication, 
 
 I. C. Steere, elixir solis, 12mo. 
 Idem, Coelum sephiroticum, f. 
 J. A. Stisseri, acta laboratorii Jcsia?, 4to. 
 J. Struthius, medicina priscorum, 
 
 E. G. Struvius, chimicum sine \gxxe, Svo. 
 Syrus, ancient ; de sapientia divina, 12. 
 J. Sturmii, physica electiva, 4to. 
 Idem, experimentale curiosum, 4to. 
 Sudl t 3i philosophicum, 8vo. 
 Em. Swedenblrgii regnum minerale,3 v.f. 
 La Sferza, de gli alchemisto, 
 Clavis Majoris Sapientia, Artcphius, Svo. 
 Mich. Sendivogius, de vero sale, 
 W. T , marrow of chem. physic, 
 
 Tabulae septem synopsim lapidis, 
 
 Otto Taciienius, liquore alkacst, 4to. 
 
 Same, Hippocrates viperine salt, 4to. 
 
 J. Tackii, phasis sophicus solis, 4to. 
 
 J. Tankies, collection of alchemy in German^ Leipsic. 
 
 H. F. Teichmeyeri, institutiones, Jenas. 
 
 A. Tenzelius medecina diastatica, 12. Jena. 
 
 Zach. Theobaldi, arcana naturae, 4to. Norin. 
 
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 Nor. 
 
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 Hamb. 
 
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 Hamb. 
 
 Lond. 
 
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Alchemical Bonks. 1 1 1 
 
 6S+ TiiEAnriM chemicum, 209 treatises, Arnold, Albert, Augu- 
 relic, Aristotle, Aquinas, Alanus, Altetanus, AlpkonsOt 
 Avki nna, Arlephius, Aphorisms, Bacon, Balbius, Bernard, 
 Bernaud, Bona, Brentzius, Brosse, Biawenstem, (\rra- 
 vantis, Collcs'm, Chrisiopher, Dec, Domea, Dcmocritus, 
 , Egidjus, Eck, Ficinus, Fanian, Flamel, Ferarius, Gaston, 
 GreoeriitSj Grosseus, Haymonis, Hermes, Hugh eland, 
 Hornius, Isaac, Kalid, Lagncus, Lasnioro, Lavi?iius, Lo- 
 ci iiius, Lampsprinl,; LuUij, Muffctus, Mary, P. Mirandola, 
 'Micreris, Mcneus, Monachus, Nigrius, Orthclius, Odomar, 
 Ortholan, Fontanus, Penotus, Pantheus, Plato, Phedro, 
 Qucrcctan, Bhedargii, Rupecissa, Ripley, Richard, Ro- 
 sary, Rhasis, Sendivogius, Silento, M. Scott, Trithanius, 
 Turbo, Trogniani, Vogclius, Ventura, Valle?isis, J'igene- 
 rus, Zacharia, Zcnetus, Zed it h, 6 v. 8vo. Argent. 1662 
 
 685 Tho.m.s Aquinatis, thesaurus alch em. 8vo. Ludg. 1602 
 
 686 Idem, esse mineralium, spurious, 4to. Venet. 1488 
 6«7 Idem, secreta alchimiae, 4to. Colon. 1579 
 
 688 G. Thor, cheiragogia heliana, Eng. 8vo. Lond. 1659 
 
 689 John Thorxburgh, artem auriferam, 4to. Oxon. 1621 
 
 690 Leo. Tiiurneyssers, hoechste tier ulchem. 4to. 
 
 Munst. 1569 
 
 691 Tombeau de la pauvrete, by Atramont, 12mo. Par. 1673 
 
 692 Tombeau de Semiramis, 8vo. Par. 1689 
 
 693 Tract at gulden rose, blut der natur, &c. 8vo. 1706 
 
 694 Tract atus antiquorum arcano, 8vo. ■ 1612 
 
 695 Tractat. 7 vom stein der Weissen, 8vo. Ham. ■ 
 
 696 Trances facilis ad hermetis artem, 12vo. Corolopoli- 1686 
 
 697 Transformation metalique, Svo. Paris. 1561 
 
 698 Transfiguratione metallorum, 8vo. Hanov. 1593 
 
 699 Trinum, Koffshi, lived in 1487, Alphidius and Lidly, Svo. 
 
 Arg. 1699 
 
 700 Triomphe hermetique, ancient war, 12mo. Amst. 1689 
 
 701 Treasure of treasures, 24. Lond. 1680 
 
 702 S. Trimosin, adept, la toison d'or, Svo. Par. 1612 
 
 703 J. Trithemius, de lapide philos. Svo. — — 1611 
 
 704 Trifolium hermeticum, German, 1629 
 
 705 Trompette de philos : hermetique, l2mo. Paris. 1609 
 
 706 Tubicum conviviale hermeticum, 4to. Gedani. 1682 
 
 707 Trinum magicum opus secretorum, J2mo. Tran. 1630 
 70S Tres tractatus de metal, transmutat. Amst. 1668 
 
 709 Traites, Bacon, Kalid, Meun, John 22. Svo. Lions. 1557 
 
 7 1 J. Tymme, natures closet opened, 4to. Lond. 1612 
 
 711 Basil Valentine, adept, last will, practice, 12 keys, manual, 
 
 not. and super, things, microcosm, fyc. 8vo. Lond. 1671 
 
 712 Same, triumphal chariot of antimony, 8vo. 1656 
 
 713 R. Vallensis, de veritateet antiq. chem. 16. Par. 1561 
 
 714 V. Valleriis, Lulliam explicans, 4to. August. 1589 
 
 715 Vannucio pyrotecnia delle minere, 4to. Venet. 1540 
 
112 
 
 Alchemical Books. 
 
 716 
 717 
 .718 
 719 
 720 
 721 
 
 722 
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 725 
 -726 
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 72S 
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 B. P.Vargas, tie re metallica, Svo. Madrid. 156D 
 
 T. Vanner, way to long life, 4to. Lond. 1623 
 
 B. Vkjeneri.s, of true fire and salt. Lond. 1649 
 
 VrGAM, of Verona, medulla chymia, Lond. 1683 
 
 Vanderlindent, de scriptis medicis, 4to. Norim. 1686 
 
 Arnoldus de Villanova, opera omnia, conversion of 'metals, 
 Rosary, speculum, questions, Jlosjlorum, fyc. f. Lugd. 1520 
 Vittesteix, de quinta essentia, Svo. Basil. 1582 
 
 Petri Villanovani, compiler, speculum. Duae. 1626 
 
 P. Ulstadii, coelum pliilosophorum, 11 edit. 12mo. 
 
 Ludg. 1553 
 M. Untzerus, anatomia mercurii, 4to. Hale Sax 
 
 Ewal. Vogelii, de lapidis physici, 8vo. 
 
 Baro Urbigero, adept, aphorisms, l2mo. 
 
 Veridarius, hermet. philos. 
 
 D. Vonderbeet, experimental 
 
 De Vita, longa, Theo. Paracelsi, 
 
 J. F. ViGANi, medulla chymie, 
 
 Wallerus, chemia physica, 8vo. 
 
 Webster's history of metals, 4to. 
 
 The Water stone of the wise, Svo, 
 
 Dr. Wecker, Basle, 1562, secrets, 8vo. 
 
 X J. Weidenfeld, secrets of the adepts, 4to 
 
 J. Weidnerus, de arte chimica, 4to. 
 
 G. Wilson, 300 unknown experiments, 
 
 S. Wirdig medicina spirituum, 8vo. 
 
 C. Wittestein, quinta essentia, 8vo. 
 J. Wittichius, Silesia, de lapide philos. 8v 
 J. P. Wickffbain, salamandra, 
 W. Williams, occult physic, Svo. 
 T. Willis, opera omnia medicin, 2 v. 
 Same, theophisical alchemy, Svo. 
 Sebas. Wirdig, medicina spirituum, 
 Zacharia clavis spagirica, 4to. 
 
 D. Zacharii, adept, chimico miraculo, Svo. 
 La meme la vrai philos. des metaux. 8vo. 
 Zadith, antiquissinii philos. 8vo. 
 J. Zelator, alchemistici, 8vo. 
 
 1620 
 1595 
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 Yenet. 161 1 
 
 Basil. 1583 
 
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 Basil. 1606 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ALCHEMIC TREATISES. 
 
 ~=o€Hg>3< 
 
 If the alchemist believes the science true, against the opinion 
 of the most accurate, learned, and laborious chemists, of the 
 present day. If he thinks it an ancient art, notwithstanding the 
 silence of the poets, and historians of antiquity. If he intends 
 to do more good than the adepts have done ; and does not per- 
 ceive by their " Lives," that any industrious profession would 
 enable him to serve his neighbour and himself better than by 
 alchemy. If he imagines that great general good, may be done 
 by the promulgation of the elixir of health among all mankind ; 
 it may be useful to consider, what are the obstacles, and how far 
 it is possible to remove them ; before he devotes his life to a 
 search, which the most credulous allow, is not successful to one 
 in a thousand. 
 
 Of Property. 
 
 Property is land, and the productions of land, because man 
 U maintained by the earth. The indispensable support of the 
 human race, is food, raiment, lodging ; and these are only to be 
 permanently derived from land. The sea, arid its produce, is 
 property, only with reference to the land adjoining, or that to 
 which the most powerful ships, and navigators belong. In the 
 infancy of society, land became property by the act of occupy- 
 ing that, which was not possessed by another : the accumulation 
 of the permanent produce of land, in houses, fences, forests, 
 and the amelioration of the soil by art, in the progress of social 
 order, made it necessary for men to invent various tenures : some 
 are for ever with or without rent as fee simple or real estate ; 
 lives renewable for ever, lives not renewable, and leases for 
 years. A lease of land to expire at a determinate time, is but 
 a loan of the use of it ; it is only a sale of the produce of the land. 
 The uncertain termination of lives, which Jias. a favourable dis- 
 
] 14 Introduction. 
 
 tinction, called freehold, is of the same nature; it is only « #w 
 of land and a sale of the use of it for a period measured by a life. 
 Thus all the distinctions of tenure may be resolved into these two 
 species of property, viz. land, and the produce of land. The 
 property of cattle, is like that of birds and fish ; it is derivable 
 from the possession, of land, which is the support of all. 
 
 O/igin of Money. 
 
 Mankind on entering into- the social state, and living together 
 in towns, must have round it convenient to haA-e artizans, set 
 apart, for supplying each particular want: before this, the 
 head of each family had supplied his household from the land 
 about him; he was butcher, shepherd, and huntsman ; the cotton 
 tree, flax plant,, sheep, goat, and silkworm, supplied clothing, 
 which was manufactured in his family, until it was found, that to 
 arrive at perfection, each branch of business should be professed 
 by those who will do nothing else for their support, and hence 
 arose barter and the necessity of removing the difficulties of barter 
 by money. When villages swelled to cities, and- arts were thus 
 divided, the invention of money required a substance of dura- 
 bility and scarcity, which might become a standard value for 
 the purchase of property. In all civilized nations, gold and 
 silver have, by universal consent, obtained this honorable pre- 
 eminence, and in various coins, devised by Governments, are 
 
 REPKESEXTATIVES OF PROPERTY. 
 
 Before gold and silver could become a safe representative of 
 property, statesmen saw, that they must provide against the 
 Jluctuations of its relative value to properly. The first measure 
 to this end, was to make the mines of gold and silver a royal 
 property ; and by the exclusive prerogative of a royal mint, 
 the legal money representation of property was placed in the con- 
 troul of the Crown, which in this country is guided by the de- 
 liberations of the Legislature. In this mode there is a judicial 
 power, for encreasing or diminishing the quantity of the floating 
 representation of property, as circumstances require, for the good 
 of the commonwealth. 
 
 If the kingdom does not contain mines of gold and silver, in 
 sufficient quantity, Government can only purchase bullion, in 
 case there is a balance of general trade in favor of the country^ 
 by which the merchants import gold;, for instance, if mer- 
 chandize is exported by Great Britain to several nations, viz. to 
 A 5, B 3, C 2, D 4, E 3, F 2, G 2, H 5, I 1, K 16, L 20, 
 M 6, N 2, O 3, P 5, and the merchandize imported by Great 
 Britain is from A 6, B 1, C 1, D 5, E 2, F 1, G 1, H 6, I 1, 
 K 20, L 23, M 7, N 1, 1, Pi, the total export is 79, and 
 
Origin of Money. 115 
 
 import 77, a year's balance of trade by which two million of gold 
 .and silver is brought into Great Britain. 
 
 The extension of trade and commerce, has produced various 
 representatives of money, to avoid the carriage and risk of a 
 ponderous metal, in huge masses. The first and most substantial 
 .of the paper securities, is the bond of a land-holder, under a 
 tenure of life or perpetuity, as the -land becomes the debtor. 
 Other securities depend on public confidence, and the evanescent 
 produce of land, which is called chattel .property. Promissory 
 Notes of individuals were a precedent for Bankers Notes, and 
 the foreign transactions of merchants were the origin #f Bills of 
 Exchange, These and all other securities are engagements for 
 •the payment of legal money, and are to be considered not as the 
 representatives of jpogeytiu but as the representatives of money. 
 These principles are the foundations of finance, 1st, that pro- 
 perty island and its produce ; 2. that money is the represen- 
 tative of property ; 3. that the floating paper currency is in the 
 present system, not property, nor money, btrt is a representative 
 of money. 
 
 Banks originated in the favorable balance of trade, which 
 deposited a surplus of gold and silver in the country ; the cur- 
 rency of Bankers Notes depends on their convenience ,• and 
 public confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the Bankers. 
 These two causes have superseded the necessity of keeping metal 
 in the Bank cellars equal to the paper circulation. Private 
 Bankers' Notes are representatives of the National Bank Notes ; 
 they promise to pay National Bank Notes for their own Notes, 
 and by the public confidence, supply a portion of the floating- 
 paper currency. 
 
 A comparative view of the range taken by all these represen- 
 tatives would appear, if a scale of proportional extent wa^i drawn 
 for each sort of paper. Gold and silver may be allowed a circle 
 as large as the civilized world ; National Bank Notes will have a 
 circle of the kingdom where they are guaranteed by the Govern- 
 ment ; private Bank Notes a little circle of the city, town, or 
 village from whence they emanate, through the Bankers con- 
 nexions, to distant provinces ; Merclumts bills collect in the focus 
 iof an Exchange or Hall, where they bring together distinct 
 transactions into the simplicity of primeval barter by their inter- 
 changes, and finally determine the general balance of a nation's 
 trade into the export or import of gold and silver. 
 
 The most prominent disadvantage of the present system of a 
 metallic representation of property, and a paper representation 
 of the metal money, is the present instance in this country, of 
 the necessity for restricting the National Bank from issuing gold, 
 and making the Notes a legal payment for property. The 
 National Bank Notes> which were formerly current as represen- 
 tatives of metal money, only, until the will of the holder pre- 
 
116 Introduction. 
 
 sented them for payment, arc now representatives of the same 
 until the Legislature shall take off the restriction. The possibility 
 of an interruption to the appearance of the thing represented, 
 is an imperfection in the system of the metallic representation of 
 real property. 
 
 To apprehend the danger arising from an abuse of that ju- 
 dicial power which regulates the quantity of the current rcpre-. 
 sentatives of property, and to evince that the true principle is 
 to keep the floating curri ncy so proportionate to the wants of the 
 people, as not to suffer much fluctuation to arise in the price 
 of property from the excess or the want of a certain quantity of 
 these representatives of land and its produce, it will be necessary 
 to suppose an extreme case, from which all the medium circum- 
 stances may be adduced. 
 
 Suppose an improvident King, possessed of a rich and in- 
 exhaustible gold mine, and that he sends to his mint an immense 
 quantity of the metal which he issues in coin for various purposes, 
 we shall soon perceive, that the good of relieving his subjects 
 from taxes, or the evil of falling upon his neighbour Kings in 
 war, will be of small consideration, in the final consequences, 
 of using such a power to the utmost extent. For in extreme 
 use, this power destroys itself. If gold is common as lead, 
 it will become nearly as cheap, and cease to be a portable re- 
 presentative of properly ; then the landholders and artisans only 
 can live, and they resort to the primitive system of barter, 
 aided by the convenience of paper securities, founded on the 
 possession of land and its produce. 
 
 The evil is' not so great if an improvident King neglects to 
 supply a sullicient quantity of metal money for the currency of 
 his people. The want of it will only exercise their ingenuity in 
 barter, and forming paper representatives of property. The 
 prices of articles of life cannot retrograde to become cheaper, in the 
 same manner as they can proceed in becoming deare? ; but in 
 both cases, all those who arc not landholders, or artisans useful 
 to landholders, will suffer in various degrees, from the first 
 slight privations, to the last stage of poverty; and the obligation 
 of earning a support, by labour, or services to the landholders. 
 The circuit of gold and silver through all civiliz.ed nations, at first 
 retards destruction at home, but finally extends it to all the other 
 countries. To estimate the quantity of floating currency ne- 
 cessary, suppose a pair of scales, containing in one scale all 
 the land and produce of land by art, which is at market; in the 
 other scale, all the representatives of this land, &c. which 
 representatives men have devised in metal coins, and the repre- 
 sentatives of metal coins in paper bills and notes, taking the 
 average of what is afloat, allowing for the fluctuation by can- 
 celling notes, melting and exporting coin, &c. If the contents 
 of one scale is 10, we are to call tho contents of the other, at the 
 
Finance. 117 
 
 present moment, 10 also ; as every thing finds its own level, we 
 shall suppose the present quantity of the currency, the level of 
 necessity ; it follows, that any artificial alteration of this level, 
 will raise the value of what is in one scale or in the other. If 
 metal coin or paper notes are added, making the representative 
 20, the holders of the property in the other scale, will get twice 
 as much for their sales as before. If metal or paper is taken out, 
 that is, withdrawn from the currency, so as to reduce the 10 to 5, 
 the holders of the property in the other scale, will only get one 
 half as much for their sales as before. The ruinous calamity 
 in these cases, to numerous classes of society, is not because there 
 is any certain quantity of money that should be ascertained and 
 kept afloat ; for it is no matter what the mass of the represen- 
 tation is, provided it is kept nearly in that level. The mischief 
 springs from the rapid progress of a rise, or a fall, in the neces- 
 saries of life: for this reason, that the receipts and payments of all 
 classes of the community cannot advance or recede simultaneously. 
 The multitude of the upper and middle classes of life, who have 
 retired from the occupation of land, business, or work ; depend- 
 ing for ease and affluence on certain receipts of money, would find 
 at length that this sort of money was of no value, except for 
 ornaments or utensil*. The legitimate cause for encreasing the 
 floating currency, is the encrease of the produce of land in the 
 works of art, and embellishments of life. But the most rigid 
 restriction of an excessive representation of property on this 
 account, is the prolongation of political health in a nation. 
 A temporary and partial fluctuation in the price of the necessa- 
 ries of life, will unavoidably arise from the variations in the 
 harvest, general balance of trade, taxes on import and export ; 
 peace, war, mortal it)', ike. A judicial interference, by adding 
 to or taking from the floating currency on these accounts, may 
 have an injurious effect. To keep prices from fluctuating, by a 
 fluctuation in the mass of floating currency ; the channels through 
 which the representatives of property disappear, and the inlets 
 through which they may increase, are to be watched. The ma?s 
 encreases by coinage, founded on a favourable balance of trade, 
 which deposits gold and silver in the country: or by the arts of 
 Bankers, in disseminating their Notes in all the receptacles of 
 public confidence ; the mass decreases, by an unfavourable ba- 
 lance of trade, which throws the duty of Government upon the 
 Banker, and obliges the Legislature to shield the Banker from 
 the performance of his promise, until the balance of trade Tec- 
 tums ; a circumstance which has been noticed as a most capital 
 infirmity in the system of metal money, as founded at present on 
 commerce, and the working of mines. 
 
 The progress of commerce, and the convenience or necessities 
 of nations, have made paper supersede in nine parts out of ten, 
 the use of gold money. Taper is the representative of gold coin ; 
 
!1S Introduction. 
 
 the thing represented is not equivalent in sum to that which re- 
 presents it. Paper is founded on gold coin ; the superstructure 
 is too great for the foundation, and the grand desideratum, is 
 to discover a better foundation for that paper, which is now 
 identified with the habits of mankind in Bankers Notes and 
 Bills of Exchange. The abolition of the present system of 
 gold coin, would be no loss to the Royal Treasury, as the spe- 
 cific price of it as bullion, is nearly equal to the current value as 
 coin ; and cannot be otherwise, as they will always find one 
 level throughout the civilized world. The attempt to coin 
 money at a nominal value, would only for a time reduce coin 
 to the level of Bank Notes, current only in the kingdom where 
 Htvy are legal. In seeking another foundation, one is naturally 
 led to wish that paper, which is only a representative of metal 
 money, could become a representative of real ■property. Those 
 who are best acquainted with the subject, are interested against 
 the transfer of so powerful a momentum, from the commercial 
 to the landed interest. The most striking consequence of such 
 an alteration, would be the encreased difficulty of foreign wars 
 and invasions, as all foreign money transactions will depend on 
 ISiils of Exchange arising from commercial transactions. 
 
 It is the necessity of Nations that may force 'a new system. 
 If a private Bank can obtain a certain mass of National Bank 
 Notes on the landed seem ity of its firm, this is nearly a model 
 for a new and good foundation in the National Bank. That 
 which the National Bank in its wisdom may think necessary to 
 be <lone with some private Bankers, is excellent counsel to the 
 financier who would devise improvements in the relations of the 
 National Bank to the public and to . Government ; but it 
 is indispensably necessary, in avoiding the fate of assignats, to 
 have the Bank Stock of land placed in the same circumstances, 
 as the original Bank property was in gold coin, that is, ready 
 to be delivered to the holders of the Notes; that this is not 
 impossible, we may suppose a room, hung with maps of the 
 Bank lands, leased like Church lands, for a short term ; a cer- 
 tain large sum of Bank Notes, suppose not less than £'2000 being 
 presented by an individual, or company, for payment in land, 
 choice is made by the Note holders among the maps, and a con- 
 veyance is made to them of a fee simple equivalent to their money, 
 at the valuation of a jury, as is common at present in other 
 cases. It may be objected, that landholders will not risk 
 the sale of their land : but when the profits of the Banking bu- 
 siness by the mass of Notes in circulation is considered, the risk 
 is less unpleasant than the possibility that Bankers endured of 
 being called on for more gold in payment of their Notes than 
 they possessed ; the holder of a Guinea Note might demand gold, 
 but the holders only of large sums should be entitled to 
 demand land. There may not be land in the market to ena- 
 
Medicine. 119 
 
 Me the present Bankers to alter their system, and the chain of 
 tenures from the feeholder to the landholder in most lands, may 
 cause some difficulty, but interest will remove it ; and the landed 
 proprietors will readily become bankers. 
 
 The objection that paper is easily melted or otherwise de- 
 stroyed, may be removed by a partial use of metal notes, or 
 tokens, which is practised at present. Promissory notes for 
 large sums may be inscribed on plates of gold by inventions to 
 avoid forgery as easily as those on paper. If there are insur- 
 mountable difficulties to the abolition of the present system of 
 Royal coin, the alchemist may rest satisfied, that if he was so 
 fortunate as to attain his object, he cannot attempt performing 
 any extensive work of mercy in metal or medicine at a less 
 risk, if discovered, than imprisonment for life . it would be the 
 duty of the Legislature to enact a law for that purpose. 
 
 To indulge a proper alchemical dream, we must suppose the 
 Royal coin of the present system abolished. Paper Bank Notes, 
 and gold, silver, or copper Bank Tokens, the direct representa- 
 tives of real estate, which is ready to be conveyed to the holder 
 of a certain large sum on demand. The Nation that takes the 
 lead in this regulation, repeals the penal necessity that proscribes 
 the adept. A profusion of gold will only supply materials to the 
 goldsmiths proportionate to the wants of their trade, and trans- 
 mutation will stop at the point where other metals are more 
 useful. All other nations must follow the example of the first, 
 as the circulation of gold will reduce them to the same level : 
 the embellishments and utensils of life will be improved, and the 
 Banking svstem secured from an over issue of floating currency, 
 by an infallible principle of reaction. But the greatest advan- 
 tage to mankind, is the reformation of medicine ; health will 
 be & established in those who are moral, while the immoral will 
 be cut off by the intemperate use of the medicine, conflicting 
 with the reiterated physical consequences of sin. The elixir 
 may be diluted in matter till it pervades the preparations of 
 meat and drink, and the Medical Faculty, empowered by the 
 ©pen exposition of alchemistical philosophy, may then devote 
 their lives to the exaltation of the human race. 
 
 In this land of liberty, an extensive company of great landed 
 proprietors may erect such a Bank, as was described, and by 
 the wisdom of their arrangements, their Notes and Tokens may 
 take place of all other currency. 
 
DIONISIUS ANDREAS FREHER, 
 
 Of the Analogy in the Process of the Philosophic 
 yVffRjLf to the Redemption of Man, through 
 Jesus Christ, according to the Writings of 
 Jacob Behmen. 
 
 If man does not understand his oyO corrupt nature, and 
 the curse under which he consequently lies, he cannot understand 
 the nature and curse of the earth, or presume to restore a 
 matter from that curse, and be instrumental in its deliverance, 
 "u hich is the true artist's only business. 
 
 While Adam stood in pure paradisical innocency, the 
 Eternal word and power of life was his leader, and had dominion 
 in him ; his life, which was a clear flame, burned in, and was 
 nourished, by that pure spirit of the divine substantiality, which, 
 together with the water of eternal life, generated in the angelical 
 world, gave forth a glorious and bright shining light. 
 
 Immediately after the fall of man, God said to the serpent, 
 I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between 
 thy seed and her seed ; her seed shall bruise thy head, and thou 
 shalt bruise his heel. Herein the philosopher's stone, or tincture 
 lieth. For though this concerneth man, in the first place, yet 
 secondly, it concerneth the whole creation. The bruising of 
 the serpent's head, is done spiritually and corporally, both in 
 nature and in the soul, and though in different degrees, yet in a 
 parallel process in each. 
 
 The serpent's sting, is the wrath fire, and the woman's seed, 
 the light and love fire: these two are in every thing ; the former 
 predominated in outward nature, by the fall, and therefore the 
 latter must be raised up, and by its shining through the wrath, 
 must subdue aud keep it under ; taking away from it, its pre- 
 dominant power, so that it may exercise its true natural office, 
 as a servant to the light : that these two may no more stand in 
 opposition to each other, but be one thing re-harmonized by 
 light and love, and re-introduced to paradise ; when the dark 
 poisoned mercury is thus tinctured, his anguishing death is 
 turned into triumphing life, and his former dark desire, into a 
 
 p 
 
122 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 light love desire, which is able to make a pure love and light 
 substantially, viz. a heavenly body out of an earthly. 
 
 The tv/iole work consists summarily herein, that two natures 
 be reduced to one, as they were at the beginning. A heavenly 
 and an earthly matter are to be mutually united, and brought 
 to a heavenly quality : Earth must be turned in, and heaven 
 out. The mercury which is therein doth all this itself; the 
 artist is not to attempt it — he cannot do it ; he is to prepare the 
 matter as is requisite, and leave the work to be done by the 
 workman which is in it already ; nevertheless understanding 
 and faith are required in him. His design is no less than to 
 redeem a matter from the curse, and to raise it from the dead, 
 which never can be done by one who is dead himself in his 
 understanding, and internal lifr. 
 
 When these two requisites are found in the artist, first, an 
 experimental understanding from the process in his own re- 
 generation ; and secondly, a divine call for this undertaking, 
 two qualities will further be required in him, when he is to make 
 a beginning of his work ; and these are represented by Behmen, 
 from that parable of our Lord, concerning a man that went 
 down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was robbed and wounded 
 by highwaymen, saying, the artist must truly stand in the 
 figure of the merciful Samaritan, and have his will, that he 
 may desire nothing else but to heal that which is wounded ; 
 and his eyes, that he may see and discern the wounded body 
 that he is to heal, which is not easy or by every one to be done, 
 because of its great comiption. 
 
 He shall have the greatest need of such eyes in the very be- 
 ginning, when he is to chuse the proper matter for this philo- 
 sophic work — this is called by Behmen, and described para- 
 bolically, that evil child, which is run out from its mother's 
 house, and desired to be in self, or to stand by itself on its own 
 foundation ; this must be sought for in Saturn, which Saturn, 
 therefore, the artist must have sharp and piercing eyes to 
 look into, both as to eternal and temporal nature ; for the wrath 
 of God, by its strong astringent impression, hath shut it up 
 in the chamber of death ; not that it turned it into Saturn, but it 
 keeps it imprisoned or shut up in the Saturnine death ; in the first, 
 cold, harsh, dark, astringent property ; which is called the 
 great still standing death, because as yet there is no mobility of 
 life therein. 
 
 When this proper matter is found in Saturn, the artist may 
 go to work, if he considers and follows that process, which God 
 observed in the Redemption, and restoration of mankind, through 
 Jesus Christ, from his conception and nativity to his resurrection 
 and ascension ; in so doing he may find the joyful feast of 
 Pentecost, viz. that desirable tincture in Outward nature, which 
 is answerable to that holy and spiritual tincture, whereby St. 
 
Frehers Analogy. 123 
 
 Peter, in his first public sermon, tinctured three thousand differ- 
 ent souls at once. When the human mercury, the outspoken 
 word of human life, was infected and poisoned by the serpent, 
 and was left in its falsehood without the light ; God did not reject 
 the humanity so as to annihilate it, and make another strange or 
 foreign Adam : he restored that which was spoiled. — This he 
 effected not by strange things, which the humanity had not in it 
 before, but by that same holy, divine spirit, which at first was 
 breathed into Adam, to make him an image and likeness of God. 
 This he re-introduced to the poisoned humanity, and made 
 thereby a good, sure, and solid disposition to the new regene- 
 ration thereof; and this was done in the immaculate conception 
 of Jesus Christ : for therein a conjunction was made, between 
 the eternal speaking; and human outspoken word, the mercury, 
 or human life, which was poisoned in fallen man, and was full 
 of self or own-will. 
 
 This must be the first consideration of an artist, which he is 
 to observe and ponder, that he may act accordingly, and bring 
 not his subject matter to the fire, without such previous 
 conjunction, unless he will work in vain, and make 
 himself ridiculous. The artist is to know, that he is not 
 to bring the tendency to perfection, into his matter from 
 without; but that it lieth therein already. He must be capable 
 of the divine will, and then with his renewed or tinctured will, 
 which is his holy faith, must handle his subject matter, that 
 so the will towards perfection, which lieth in the matter still 
 and immovable, may be stirred up, and brought into conjunction 
 with his will, and with the divine will; and further, that this 
 divine will may press forward to meet and bless that outward 
 will, which presseth inward from the corruption into God's love 
 and mercy. 
 
 This point is recommended to the artist's highest consideration, 
 to make it his continual study and practice ; because the philo- 
 sophical baptism consisteth herein, and this is the very first be- 
 ginning of it. This can enable him to baptize truly and 
 rightly ; he is to baptize his matter not only with the water of 
 the outward, but also with that of the inward world. 
 
 The wilderness wherein the temptation is offered, is, in the 
 philosophical work, the outward, earthly, dry, desolate, and 
 barren body, wherein the mercury or young man is not able 
 to stand against the Devil, except he lay hold on the virgin, 
 and be by her supported. He is therefore to unite with her, to 
 cast his will and desire into her love, and to eat of her bread, 
 not of his own natural quality, like as Christ our Lord, all the 
 forty days of his temptation, did eat only of the eternal 
 speaking word, and would not eat of that bread which he could 
 have made out of the stones. All which is nothing else, but that 
 the mercury must admit and receive into his own poisonous qua- 
 lity, the heavenly tincture, and suffer the serpent's head, the 
 
124 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 fiery wrathful property, to be bruised thereby in himself, which 
 if he cloth not, the devil will prevail, and detain him captive 
 in that state, wherein he is when separated from his frirgitf. 
 The artist should take care, not to suffer the tempting devil 
 to be too furious, or wrathful, but proportionable ; and on the 
 other hand, that he be not too Weak or impotent : for otherwise 
 the mercury would not be assaulted by h-im sufficiently, and 
 might, as- a hungry wolf, swallow up his baptism, return to hi* 
 own wrathful property, and continue still that same poisonous 
 thing, which it was before. 
 
 At the end of forty days, when the devil had ended all the 
 temptation, he must depart from the Lord Christ, and the 
 angels come and minister to him. This the artist is espe- 
 cially to observe; for he stood in the trial himself, and may now 
 perceive infallibly, whether or not he is fit for, and accounted 
 worthy of this work ; if at the end of forty days, according to 
 the process of Christ, the angels do not appear, he may con- 
 elude he is not successful : and that his fiery masculine mercury 
 does not yet stand in a due internal union with the watery fe- 
 minine mercury, bnt that it is still the same in its wrathful 
 quality, that it was before, and therefore the tempting devii 
 has prevailed. But if he sees the sign of the angels-, he may 
 rejoice, and be assured that the bridegroom is united to his bride, 
 and she to him, and that his work prospers. 
 
 Immediately after the temptation, and overcoming of the 
 devil, the Lord Christ began his public office, not only by 
 preaching, reproving, and instructing the people, but also by 
 working many great, miraculous, and amazing things, through 
 all the properties of nature ,• for instance in Saturn, he raised 
 up the dead ; in Luna, he transmuted water into wine ; and fed 
 with five loaves of bread, five thousand men ; in Jupiter, he 
 made out of the simple and ignorant fishermen, the most wise 
 and understanding apostles; in Mercury, he made the deaf, 
 hearing ; the dumb, speaking, and healed the lepers : in Mars, 
 he expelled devils from the possessed ; in Venus, he loved his 
 brethren arid sisters as to the humanity, and gave freely his life 
 for them into death. 
 
 The seventh property, which is Sol, standing in the midst, 
 and uniting three and three, is here not mentioned, because 
 this belongeth to the full perfection, which then only was at- 
 tained unto, when he was risen from the dead, ascended up 
 to heaven, and had poured out the holy-tincturing-spirit, on the 
 day of Pentecost. 
 
 The artist shall distinctly see, that there is a true and exact 
 accordance to this in the philosophical work ; for when the 
 forty days temptation is happily ended, he shall see, in Saturn, 
 that the mercury raiseth up from death, that same dead sub- 
 *>iauec, wherein he was shut up before ; in Luna, that he fecdetli 
 
Fr.eher*s Analogy. \2~> 
 
 and rrourisheth that substance, when there is nothing outwardly 
 wrought, which it could be fed and nourished frith ; and again, 
 that the deadly water is exalted and turned into wine, by having 
 as wine an union of a fiery and watery tirtue ; in Jupiter, he 
 shall see the four elements each by itself, and their colours, and 
 a similitude of the rainbow upon which Christ sitteth for judg- 
 ment in the outspoken mercury : so that he shall be amazed 
 at it, and perceive that the wisdom of God playeth and delighteth 
 therein, as in a joyful play: for the friendly Jupiter sheweth 
 forth his property, after such a manner as God will in its time 
 change this world, and transmute it into Paradise : in M rcury, 
 he shall see that heaven separates itself from the earth, and that 
 it sinks down again into the earth, ami changeth the same into 
 its own colour, and that mercury purifieth the matter : in Mars, 
 ,he shall see, that Jupiter in the mercury, casts out from the 
 matter upwards, a black fire-smoke, which will be coagulated 
 as soot in the chimney ; and this is the poisonous hunger in 
 the mercury, rightly to be compared to the devil, because it hath 
 according to its own kind, the devil's qualities. As soon as 
 this black devil is expelled from the matter, the artist shall see 
 Venus in her virginity with great beauty and glory, which, 
 is a fine type or emblem of the great love of Christ. 
 
 Now when this appears, the artist is rejoiced, and thinks his 
 work is finished, and that he hath the treasure of the world ; but 
 he shall find himself extremely disappointed; for if he tries it, 
 he shall find it is but Venus, still a female, and not a pure 
 masculine virgin, with both tinctures united into one : as 
 in Christ, the eternal-speaking-word, who wrought out, through 
 his humanity, wondrous deeds, and yet full perfection could 
 not be manifest therein : his human body could not be glorified, 
 and much less could he pour out the Holy Ghost, before he 
 passed through the great anger of God, or death and hell. 
 {So also in this philosophical work, though all these glorious 
 things appeared in the properties of nature, yet the universal 
 tincture is not fixed and manifest ; all that was seen hitherto 
 was only transient, and the greatest part of the work still re- 
 mains to be done for its fixation or manifestation. 
 
 All the seven properties must be made totally pure and 
 chrystalline, before they can be paradisical ; each of these pro- 
 perties hath its own peculiar process ; and if they are to pass 
 from the wrathful into the paradisical life, wherein they must 
 all seven have but one will, viz. that of love ; all their for- 
 mer own will, wherein each was for itself, in opposition to the 
 others, must be utterly swallowed up, and then only they are 
 fixed, and able to abide the fire. 
 
 In the philosophic work, as soon as Venus appears in her 
 beauty, with her own natural character, in order to perfection ; 
 there ia a great alarm, opposition, afld insurrection against her 
 
126 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 manifest in Saturn, Mercury, and Mars ; the first of which is a 
 true figure of the civil government, the second, of the eccle- 
 siastical state, and the third-, of the devil ; and as these three 
 jointly were the same chief agents that brought the Lord of 
 Life and Glory unto death, so in this philosophical work, the 
 three inferior wrathful properties, Saturn, Mercury, and Mars, 
 are rightly called by Behmen, the three murderers of 
 Venus. 
 
 There is no other ground for this great opposition, but that 
 Venus is from above, and these three are from beneath, united 
 in one wrathful sphere, and unwilling to be deprived of their 
 natural power and pre-dominion. Heaven stands now in hell, 
 upon earth, and will transmute them all into paradise ; and hell 
 perceiveth its ruin is inevitable, if it receives into it this child 
 from heaven ; and therefore it swelleth up against it, and op- 
 poseth all it can ; but by this opposition, it must and doth 
 promote its own destruction, as it was also, in the process of 
 Christ. 
 
 i Here it might be objected, how can this be consistent with 
 what was declared above, that the matter was purified, the devil 
 expelled, and the sign of the angels appeared. If so, whence 
 can such a wrathful-hellish opposition arise ? But it is easily 
 answered. Behmen says, when the mercury is awakened from 
 the death of Saturn's strong impression, by the manna, or 
 heavenly food of light and love substantiality, which is his 
 own true virgin, or water of life ; the philosophical baptism 
 is received into the poisonous property, and a joyful fire ariseth ; 
 it is as if a light were kindled in the darkness, and a paradisical 
 joy and love springeth up in the midst of the wrath. When 
 Mercury gets a twinkling glimpse thereof in Mars, the 
 wrathfulness is terrified at the love, and lalleth back or sinketh 
 down. This is not yet a transmutation, but is like one; 
 yet transient, not constant or fixed ; if therefore a fixed and 
 radical transmutation shall be made, the same process that was 
 like a transmutation must be repeated again, but in a far higher, 
 or rather deeper degree ; this can be repeated again, because 
 the harsh, bitter, and wrathful-hellish properties, were sup- 
 pressed only in part, and not fully rooted out, and radically 
 turned into one only will ; they are now raised afresh, by 
 this appearance of Venus, much more than before, they stand 
 up in opposition against her, to maintain their own natural 
 right. 
 
 So it was also in the process with the Lord Christ, when 
 he was going into the strong severity of the wrath and anger of 
 God, in order to the full consummation of his great work, he 
 said expressly of himself; I am not alone, the father is with me; 
 he had with him from above, the father, and this unalterably, 
 as to his divinity, though alterable as to the sensibility of his 
 
Frcher's Analogy. 127 
 
 outward human person ; which may appear, by his crying 
 out on the cross, " my God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
 saken me ?" From beneath, he had with him the common 
 people, who received and accompanied him with great joy and 
 acclamations when he came riding upon an ass into Jerusalem. 
 So also in the philosophic work, Venus is not alone, but as it 
 were, from above, jupiter is with her, and from beneath luna, 
 which is a true figure of the vulgar and simple class of people ; 
 lona cleaves to venus as the disciples did with Christ, so long as 
 it goes well with her, or at least tolerably, that is, so long as 
 saturn, mercury, and mars, do not actually and manifestly 
 exert their malice against her; but when these three murderers 
 arise, and will forcibly put her to death, or swallow her up 
 into their wrathful pit ; then luna also changes her colour and 
 inclination, as the vulgar people changed their will, and instead 
 of their former hosanna, cry out, crucify him, crucify him. 
 So also in this philosophical work, when it cometh to the 
 great earnest struggle, the artist shall plainly perceive a teiTor 
 and trembling in the work ; he shall see, that mercury which is 
 the principal agent against venus, trembleth at the appearance 
 of venus; and venus, also, not only trembleth at the opposition 
 of the wrathful murdering property, but it is as if a sweat 
 did break out from her body, and nevertheless she is not 
 stirring, but quiet and patient, resigned and ready to suffer 
 all they can inflict upon her, to be wholly swallowed up by them 
 into their wrathfulness. 
 
 In the process of Christ, the devil said or thought with him- 
 self: I am alone the great monarch in the fire, saturn is mv 
 might, and mercury my life, and I am in them a prince and god 
 of this world ; and will therefore not suffer that such another 
 as calls himself a prince of love, should rule therein ; but I 
 willdevour him in my wrath, together with his love, this he 
 intended indeed, but he could not effect it by himself, without 
 the concurrence of the two chief principalities of this outward 
 world ; he stirred up mercury and saturn, the ecclesiastical 
 and the civil government ; and then all three went together, 
 sent their emissaries, apprehended the Lord, bound and car- 
 ried him from the one unrighteous judge to another. 
 
 Thus also in the philosophical work, the artist shall plainly 
 see that venus, which is all passive, wholly resigned, and ready 
 to enter into the dragon's jaws, is surrounded on every side by 
 saturn, mars, and mercury, and as it were is apprehended, or 
 captivated, by these three in conjunction ; and that they lay 
 hold and bind her, by darting their several poisonous rays upon 
 her ; and then carry her from the one property of wrathfulness 
 to another, as if to be by them tried, examined, and 
 judged. 
 
 In the first place, mars bringeth venus to mercury, as the 
 
I2S Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 devil's instruments in the wrath of God, brought, the Lord 
 Christ first to the high priest ; but as he was prepossessed with 
 hatred, he did not truly or duly try him, nor could he look 
 into his internal will, and work of love ; but looked upon him 
 only from without, examined him superficially, and concluded, 
 that since he stood not with them in the same will, way, mid 
 form, he was not to be toieratcd among the living : But seeing 
 that he could not execute his design to kill, he sent him to 
 Pilate, with the character of an evil-doer, that had deserved 
 death. 
 
 So in the philosophical work, this is the true internal signa- 
 ture of mercury, against venus. He was already possessed with 
 his own hateful quality, and stood in opposition agaizist her, 
 and he is therefore not able to try, much less to approve, of the 
 loving property of venus, but hath a will to murder her ; but 
 seeing there is in venus, another living mercury from above, he 
 cannot destroy her, by his own power, but must confederate 
 himself with saturn ; to whom he delivered} venus to be 
 killed ; as Christ was delivered unto Pontius Pilate to be 
 crucified. 
 
 Pilate, a governor, or lord, in the dark saturnine property, 
 did not enquire after, or concern himself with the spiritual 
 doctrine, light, love, and truth of Christ ; but only respecting 
 the government ; and upon this pretence of Christ's being against 
 Caesar, and his own coveting to be accounted Csesar's friend, 
 lie sentenced him to death. 
 
 So here in the philosophical work, saturn, the dark astringent 
 property, doas not concern itself with the internal loving qua- 
 litv of venus ; being unable to receive any thing of it into its ovvn 
 osence. The great contest js for the pre-dominion : tatum 
 will not lose the friendship of mars and mercury, as both are 
 with him in the same sphere, and jointly make up their own 
 settled government, which must yield, if venus should arise, 
 and shine therein with her light and love; and therefore he 
 puts in execution that which is well pleasing to them, and which 
 they think preserves their wrathful government. 
 
 In the philosophic work, a breaking forth of the solar power, 
 in a golden lustre, from the fire's centre, to tincture the white 
 lunar appearance of venus, is expected in vain ; because the 
 pure union, and universal tincture cannot be made manifest, 
 except first, all the dark wrath and poison of saturn, mercury, 
 and mars, be wholly drowned, and swallowed up in blood and 
 death. 
 
 Venus is delivered to saturn, and he with his strong dark 
 uupression, lays hold on her, strips her of her fair robe, and 
 put on her a scarlet or purple colour, wherein the wrath of 
 mars is lodged- This colour, which will be adorned as with a 
 "lance or splendour in a flash, is from saturn's and mercury's 
 
Freher's Analogy. 129 
 
 property, mixed with the fiery mars, as the artist shall dis- 
 tinctly *ee. When venus in this royal colour appears to mer- 
 cury, saturn, mars, and luna, the latter being changed in her 
 will, joins herself with the three chief murdering properties, and 
 they altogether with one consent reject her ; they dart forth 
 their malignant, poisonous, fiery rays upon her, by the sharp 
 impression of saturn ; so that the artist shall distinctly see that 
 the meekness is scourged, and full of stripes ; he shall see 
 exactly the crown of thorns, with its sharp stinging prickles ; 
 the -whole process, in the suffering and death of Christ, is a 
 circumstantial representation contrariwise of the process of the 
 first Adam in his transgression ; this is distinctly shewn by 
 Behmen : and as the condition of man in the fall, is the same 
 with the earth's condition in the curse, only different from it in 
 degree, as he asserts, and demonstrates ; so also the manner and 
 process of their restoration cannot but be alike. And as the 
 Lord Christ, in all his sufferings, was most profoundly humble 
 and passive, opening not his mouth, but enduring all things 
 most patiently, in a full submission to the pleasure of his 
 Father. So also in this philosophical work, the artist shall see, 
 that the heavenly part is wholly passive, standing quiet, and 
 immovable. Now as the mother of Jesus was blessed among wo- 
 men, so the artist obtains a blessing in this miserable world, that 
 he may tincture his corrupted earthly body, and preserve it in 
 health, unto the termination or end of his highest constella- 
 tion, which is under saturn. "When saturn therefore is at his 
 end and limit, and leaveth that life of which he hath been a 
 leader, no universal tincture can prolong that life any 
 longer. 
 
 Venus thirsteth after the manifestation and pre-dominion of 
 the fire of love ; but mercury, in the sulphur of mars and saturn, 
 presseth itself into her, with his killing dissolvent, which is the 
 greatest poison of the dark wrathful source; but venus instead of 
 drinking the same down, yieldeth up herself wholly thereinto, 
 as if she actually died. And from hence the great darkness 
 in the philosophical work ariseth, so that the whole matter be- 
 cometh black as a raven. 
 
 When the inward sun of the eternal light's principle, in the 
 humanity, had given up itself into the dark wrath and anger 
 of God; the outward sun in this third principle could not 
 shine, because it taketh all its glance and lustre from the inward, 
 as a representative figure or mirror thereof. In the philosophic 
 work, the artist shall see what God hath done, in the humanity, 
 when he was to redeem, and bring it again into Paradise ; he 
 shall see a great supernatural darkness when venus yieldeth up 
 her life, on which all her lustre depends; all her beauty must 
 disappear, and darkness cometh up instead thereof. Nay he 
 •sh:;H also see. that not only venus in the three wrathful pro- 
 
 o 
 
130 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 perties, but ah>o that these three themselves, in venas, do lose 
 their life altogether ; and that all is now black and dark as a 
 coal : for here life and death lie still and quiet together in the 
 will of God, resigned to his disposition. The end is now re- 
 duced to the beginning, and standeth in that order, wherein it 
 stood before the Creation. Nature's origin is now attained* 
 and all is fallen home to the power of the first fiat. 
 
 The artist hath hitherto seen many wonderful things, and 
 very glorious appearances, which made him have great hope 
 and expectation; yet now his expectation is apparently frus- 
 trated. For the whole nature dieth in his work, and he sees, 
 that it is changed into a dark night; all the properties, pow- 
 ers, and virtues now cease to be what they were before, and 
 fall into the end of nature. All yields up its former life and 
 activity ; there is no stirring, moving, or operating : all the 
 properties are scattered, and entered into the first mystery, 
 in that state wherein they were before the Creation ; the 
 meaning is not that the outward materiality is made invisible, 
 or quite annihilated ; but only, that all the powers therein, 
 which the outspoken properties had from the Eternal speaking 
 word, and which were raised up against each other in con- 
 trariety, each of them according to its own nature, are now 
 at an end of their activity in self-will, and earthly inclination, 
 and are fallen home again into the power of the Eternal 
 speaking word, having no other way, nor gate, but this death, 
 through which they could enter from the curse into their 
 primitive blessing. But when thus they are in death to them- 
 selves, and in the hand of the Eternal word, this cannot but 
 raise them up again into glory, as by a new creation, in an- 
 swerableness to the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 The Lord Christ died indeed, as So the humanity from 
 this world ; but he took the same human body again in his 
 resurrection, and lost nothing of it, but the government of 
 the four elements, wherein the wrath, curse, and mortality 
 lieth. So in this philosophical work, the first matter is not 
 annihilated, the curse only is destroyed, in the four elements, 
 and the first life in the one eternal element, is raised up again, 
 and therefore it is now fixed and can abide the fire ; a glorious 
 new body is made of the black darkness, in a fair white color; 
 it hath a hidden glance in it, so that the colour cannot be exactly 
 discerned, until it resolveth itself, and the new love-desire 
 cometh up ; and then in satum's centre, but in jupiter and 
 venus's property, the sun ariseth. This is in the fiat like a 
 new creation, and when it is done, all the properties cast forth 
 unanimously their desire into sol; and then the colours are 
 turned into a mixture of white and red, from fire and light in 
 union, that is, into yellow, which is the colour of majesty. 
 
 The appearance of love, to the wrathful properties of dark- 
 
Frehej^s An alogy. ] 3 1 
 
 ncr>, causes a great terror. The wrathiulness is mightily ex- 
 asperated by this appearauco of love, and presseth vehemently 
 to swallow it up in death ; which actually it doth ; but seeing 
 that no death can be therein, the love sinketh only down, 
 yicklcth up herself into these murdering properties, .and dis- 
 playeth among them her own loving essentiality, which they 
 must keep in them, and cannot get rid thereof. This is a 
 poison to death, and a pestilence to hell ; for the wrathful 
 properties are mightily terrified, at this entering of love into 
 them, which is so strange and contrary to their own qua- 
 lities, which makes fhem all weak and impotent, so that they 
 must lose their own will] strength, and pre-dominion. So it 
 was in the death of Christ, and after such a manner, largely 
 and excellently declared by Behmen ; death and the curse in 
 the humanity, was killed and destroyed ifl and by the death 
 of Christ ; who, after his resurrection, had no more the form 
 of a male in his human body, but that of a paradisical virgin, 
 as Adam had before his falL And so it is in this philoso- 
 phical work, this terror and mutual killing, though there is 
 properly no -death, but only a transmutation and union of two 
 into one, when venus yieldeth up her life to the wrathful proper- 
 ties ; and when these having lost their pre-dominion, are raised 
 up again to a new life, the life of the anger, and the Hfe of the 
 love, are no more two, but only one ; no more a male and female 
 property, but a whole male virgin, with both tinctures united 
 in one. When the artist seeth the red blood of the male rise 
 from death, ami come forth out of the black darkness, together 
 in union with the white colour of the virgin, he may then know 
 that he hath the great arcanum of the world, and such a treasure 
 as is inestimable. Several things more could be brought forth 
 from Behmen, which would afford many excellent considera- 
 tions ; but these may be sufficient to shew that harmonious 
 analogy, which is between the restoration of fallen man, through 
 Jesus Christ, and the restoration of fallen nature in the philosophic 
 work. 
 
 C-5* This Treatise is now first printed ; the Author was a 
 native of Norimberg, and died in London, 1728, 'aged 79. 
 His MSS. are deposited in the British Museum, in Tiventy- 
 one Treatises, with Figures, xdiich would make in print a large 
 quarto volume. 
 
TUB 
 
 SECRET BOOK OF ARTEPHIUS. 
 
 Written in the Twelfth Century. 
 
 1. Axtimony is n mineral participating of saturnine parts, 
 and has in all respects the nature thereof. This saturnine anti- 
 mony agrees with sol, and contains in itself argent vive, in which 
 no metal is swallowed up, except Gold ; and gold is truty swal- 
 lowed up by this antimoni.il argent vive. Without this argent 
 vive no metal whatsoever can be whitened ; it whitens laton, i. e, 
 gold ; reduceth a perfect body into its inima materia, or first 
 matter, viz. into sulphur and argent vive, of a white colour, and 
 outshining a looking-glass. It dissolves, I say, the perfect bod}', 
 which is so in its own nature ; for this water is friendly and 
 agreeable with the metals, whitening sol, because it contains in, 
 itself white, or pure argent vive. 
 
 2, And from both these j r ou may draw a great arcanum, 
 viz. a water of saturnine antimony, mercurial and white ; to 
 the end, that it may whiten sol, not burning but dis-> 
 solving, and afterwards congealing to the consistence or like- 
 ness of white cream. Therefore, saith the philosopher, this 
 water makes the body to be volatile; because alter it has 
 been dissolved in it, and infrigidated, it ascends above, and 
 swims upon the surface of the water. Take, saith he, crude 
 leaf-gold, or calcined with mercury, and put it into our vinegar, 
 made of saturnine antimony, mercurial, and sal armoniac, as it 
 is said, in a broad glass vessel, and four inches high, or more ; 
 put it into a gentle iieat, and in a short time you will see elevated 
 a liquor, as it were oil, swimming a top, much like a scum. — ■ 
 Gather this with a spoon, or a feather, dipping it in; and so doing 
 often times a day, till nothing more arise: evaporate away the 
 water with a gentle heat, i. e, the superfluous humidity of the 
 vinegar, and there will remain the quintessence, potestates, or 
 powers of gold, in form of a white oil incombustible. In this 
 oil the philosophers have placed their greatest secrets ; it is ex- 
 ceeding sweet, and of great virtue tor easing the pains of 
 wounds. 
 
 3. The whole, then, of this antimonial secret is, that we know 
 how by it to extract or draw forth argent vive, out of the body 
 of magnesia, not burning, and this is antimony, and a mercurial 
 
Secret Bool- of Jrkphins. \33 
 
 sublimate. That is, you must extract a living and incombustible 
 water, and then congeal, or coagulate it with the perfect body 
 of sol, /. c. fine gold, without alloy : which is done by dissolving- 
 it into a nature and white substance, of the consistency of cream, 
 and made thoroughly white. But first this sol by putrefaction 
 and resolution in this water, leseth all its light or brightness, and 
 will grow dark and black; afterwards it will ascend above the 
 water, and by little and little will swim upon it, in a substance 
 of a white colour. And this is the whitening of red laton, to 
 sublimate it philosophically, and to reduce it into its first matter, 
 viz. into a white incombustible sulphur, and into a fixed argent 
 vive. And so the fixed moisture, to wit, gold our body, by the 
 reiterating of the liquiiaction or dissolution in this our dissolving 
 water, is changed and reduced into fixed sulphur, and fixed 
 argent vive. Thus the perfect body of sol, resumed) life in this 
 water ; it is revived, inspired, grows, and is multiplied in its kind, 
 as all other things are. For in this water, it so happens, that 
 the body compounded of two bodies, viz. — Sol and Luna, is 
 puffed up, swells, putrefies, is raised up, and does increase by 
 receiving from the vegetable and animated nature and sub- 
 stance. 
 
 4. Our water also, or vinegar aforesaid, is the vinegar of the 
 mountains, i. e. of sol and luna ; ar-d therefore it is mixed with 
 gold and silver, and. sticks close to them perpetually; and the 
 body receiveth from this water a white tincture, and shines with 
 an inestimable brightness. Who so therefore knows how to 
 convert, or change the body into a medicinal white gold, may 
 easily by the same white gold, change all imperfect metals into 
 the best and finest silver. And this white gold is called by the 
 philosophers luna alba philosophorum, argenlum virion album 
 
 Jimkii aiirum alchymice, and Junius alius : and therefore without 
 this our antimonial vinegar, the aurum album of the philosophers 
 cannot be made. And because in our vim gar, there is a double 
 substance of argentum vivum, the one irom antimony, the 
 other from mercury sublimated; it does give a double weight and 
 substance of fixed argent vive, and also augments therein the 
 native colour, weight, substance, and tincture thereof. 
 
 5. Our dissolving water therefore carries with it a great tincture, 
 and a great melting or dissolving; because that when it feels the 
 vulgar fire, if there be in it the piffle or fine bodies of sol or luna. 
 it immediately melts them, and converts them into its white sub- 
 stance, such as itself is, and gives to the body colour, weight, 
 and tincture. In it also is a powder of liquifying or melting all 
 things that can be melted or dissolved ; it is a water ponderous, 
 viscous, precious, and worthy to be esteemed, resolving all 
 crude bodies into their prima materia, or first matter, viz. into 
 earth and a viscous powder ; that is, into sulphur, and argen- 
 tum vivum. If therefore you put into this water, leaves, filings, 
 •r calx of any metal, and set it in a gentle heat for a time, the 
 
13i Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 whole will be dissolved, and converted into a viscous water, or 
 white oil, as aforesaid. Tims it mollifies the bod}-, and prepares 
 it for fusion and liquefaction ; yea, it makes all things fusible, 
 viz. — Stones and metals, and afterwards gives -them spirit and 
 lile. And it dissolves all things with an admirable solution, 
 transmuting the perfect body into a fusible medicine, melting, or 
 liquifying, moreover fixing, and augmenting the weight and 
 colour. 
 
 6. Work therefore with it, and you shall obtain from it what 
 you desire, for it is the spirit and soul of sol and luna; it is the 
 oil, the dissolving water, the fountain, the Balneum mariae, the 
 preternatural fire, the moist fire, the secret, hidden and invisible 
 fire. It is also the most acrid vinegar, concerning which an ancient 
 philosopher saiih, I besought the Lord, and he shewed me a pure 
 clear water, which I knew to be the pure vinegar, altering, pene- 
 trating and digesting. I say a penetrating vinegar, and the 
 moving instrument tor petrifying, resolving and reducing gold 
 or silver into their prima materia w first mattw. And it is the 
 only agent in the universe, which in this art is able to rein- 
 crudate metallic bodies with the conservation of their species. — 
 It is therefore the only apt and natural medium, by which we 
 ought to resolve the perfect bodies of sol and luna, by a wonder- 
 ful and solemn dissolution, \: ith the conservation of the species, 
 and without any destruction, unless it be to a new, more noble, 
 and better form or generation, viz. into the perfect philosophers 
 stone, which is their wonderful secret and arcanum. 
 
 7. Now this water is a certain middle substance, clear as fine 
 silver, which ought to receive the tinctures of sol and luna, so as 
 thev may be congealed and changed into a white and living 
 earth, r or tins water needs the perfect bodies, that with them 
 after the dissolution, it may be congealed, fixed, and coagulated 
 into a white earth. But if this solution, is also their coagulation, 
 for they have one and the same operation, because one is not 
 dissolved, but the other is congealed : nor is there any other 
 water which can dissolve the bodies, but that which abideth with 
 them in the matter and the form. It cannot be permanent unless 
 it be of the nature of the other bodies, that they may be made 
 one. When therefore you see the water coagulate itself with 
 the bodies that be dissolved therein ; be assured that thy know- 
 ledge, way of working, and the work itself are true and philo- 
 sophic, and that you have done rightly according to art. 
 
 S. Thus you see that nature is to be amended by its own like 
 nature ; that is, gold and silver are to be exalted in our water, 
 as our water also with those bodies; which water is called the 
 medium of the soul, without which nothing is to be done in this 
 art. It is a vegetable, mineral, and animal fire, which conserves 
 the fixed spirits of sol and luna, but destroys and conquers their 
 bodies : for it destroys, overturns, and changes bodies and metal- 
 lic forms, making them to be no bodies but a fixed .spirit. And 
 
Secret Book of Arlcphius. 135t 
 
 it turns them into a humid substance, soft and fluid, which hath 
 ingression and power to enter into other imperfect bodies, and 
 to mix with them in their smallest parts, and to tinge them and 
 make them perfect. But this the}' could not do while they re- 
 mained in their metallic forms or bodies, which were dry and 
 hard, whereby they could have no entrance into other things, 
 so to tinge and make perfect, what was before imperfect. 
 
 9. It is necessary therefore to convert the bodies of metals into 
 a auid substance ; for that every tincture will tinge a thousand 
 times more in a soft and liquid substance, than when it is in a 
 dry one, as is plainly apparent in saffron. Therefore the trans- 
 mutation of imperfect metals, is impossible to be done by perfect 
 bodies, while they are dry and hard: for which cause sake, thev 
 must be brought back into their first matter, which is soft and 
 fluid. It appears therefore^ that the moisture must be reverted, 
 that the hidden treasure may be revealed. Ami this is called the 
 reincrudation of bodies, which is the decocting, and softening 
 them, till they lose their hard and dry substance or form ; be- 
 cause that which is dry does not enter into, nor tinge any thing 
 besides itself. Therefore the dry terrene body doth not enter 
 into, nor tinge, except its own body, nor can it tinge except it be 
 tinged ; because, as I said before, a thick dry earthy matter does 
 not penetrate nor tinge, and therefore, because it cannot enter 
 or penetrate it can make no alteration in the matter to. be altered. 
 For this reason it is, that gold coloureth not, until its internal or 
 hidden spirit be drawn forth out of its bowels by this, our white 
 water, and that it be made altogether a spiritual substance, a 
 white vapour, a white spirit, and a wonderful soul. 
 
 10. It behoves us therefore by this our water to attenuate, 
 alter, and soften the perfect bodies, to wit sol and lima, that so 
 they may be mixed with other imperfect bodies. From whence, 
 if we had no other benefit by this our antimonial water, than 
 that it rendered bodies more subtile, soft, and fluid, according to 
 its own nature, it would be sufficient But more than that, it 
 brings back bodies to their first original of sulphur and mercury, 
 that of them we may afterwards in a little time, in less titan an 
 hour's time do that above ground, which nature was a thousand 
 years doing under ground, in the mines of the earth, which 
 is a work almost miraculous. 
 
 11. And therefore our ultimate, or highest secret is, by this 
 our water, to make bodies volatile, spiritual, and a tincture, or 
 tinging water, which may have ingress or entrance into bodies. 
 For it makes bodies to be merely spirit, because it reduces hard 
 and dry bodies, and prepares them for fusion, melting, or dis- 
 solving ; that is, it converts them into a permanent or fixed 
 water. And so it makes of bodies a most precious and desirable 
 oil, which is the true tincture, and the permanent or fixed white 
 water, by nature hot and moist, or rather temperate, subtile, 
 fusible as wax, which does penetrate, sink, tinge, and make per- 
 
136 Alchemical 7'rcatiscs. 
 
 feet the work. And this- our water immediately dissolves bodies 
 (as sol and lima) and makes them into an incombustible oil, 
 which then may bo mixed with other imperfect bodies. It also 
 converts other bodies into the nature of a fusible salt, which the 
 philosophers call sal alcbrot philosaphiofutri, better and more 
 noble than any other salt, being in its own nature fixed, and not 
 subject to vanish iu fire. It is an oil indeed by nature hot, sub- 
 tile, penetrating, sinking through and entering into other bodies : 
 it is called the perfect or great elixir, and the hidden secret of the 
 wise searchers of nature. He, therefore that knows this salt of 
 sol and hum, and its generation and preparation, and afterwards- 
 how to commix it, and make it homogenc with other imperfect 
 bodies ; he in truth knows one of the greatest secrets of nature, 
 and the only way that leads to perfection. 
 
 12. These bodies thus dissolved by our water are called argent 
 vive, which is not without its sulphur, nor the sulphur without 
 the fixedness of sol and lima : because gold and silver are the 
 particular means, or medium in the form through which nature 
 passes in the perfecting and completing thereof. And this argent 
 vive is called our esteemed and valuable salt, being animated and 
 pregnant, and our fire, for that it is nothing but fire: yet not 
 tire, but sulphur ; and not sulphur only, but also quick-silver 
 drawn from sol and luna by our water, and reduced to a stone of 
 great price. That is to say, it is the matter or substance of sol 
 and luna, or silver and gold, altered from vilcness to nobility. — 
 Now you must note that tins white sulphur is the father and 
 mother of the metals ; it is our mercury, and the mineral of 
 gold; also the afoul, and the ferment; yea, the mineral virtue, 
 and the living body ; our sulphur, and our quicksilver ; that is, 
 sulphur of sulphur; quicksilver of quicksilver, and mercury of 
 mercury. 
 
 13. The property therefore of cur water is, that it melts or 
 dissolves gold and silver, and encreases their native tincture or 
 colour. For it changes their bodies from being corporeal, into a 
 spirituality; and it is this water which turns the bodies, or cor- 
 poreal substance into a white vapour, which is a soul that i% 
 whiteness itself, subtile, hot, and full of fire. This water is also 
 called the tinging or blood-colonr-making stone, being the virtue 
 of the spiritual tincture, without which nothing can be done; 
 and it is the subject of all things that may be melted, and of 
 Hquefaetion itself, which agrees perfectly, and unites closely with 
 sol and luna, from which it can never be separated For it is 
 joined in affinity to the gold and silver, but more immediately 
 to the gold than to the silver : which you arc to take special 
 notice of. It is also called the medium of conjoining the tinc- 
 tures of sol and luna with the inferior or imperfect metals; for it 
 turns the bodies into the true tincture, to tinge the said other 
 imoerfect meruk: u!?t> it- is the water which whitcneth, ns it is 
 
Secret Bool- of Artepliins. 137 
 
 whiteness itself, which quickcneth, as it is a soul ; and therefore, 
 as the philosopher saith, quickly enterethinto its body. 
 
 14. For it is a living water which comes to moisten the earth, t 1 -at 
 it may spring out, and in its due season bring forth much fruit; 
 for all things springing from the earth, are educed through dew 
 or moisture. The eartjb therefore springeth not forth without 
 watering and moisture: It is tin? water proceeding from May 
 dew, that cleanseth the body; and like rain it penetrates them, 
 and makes one body of two bodies. This aqua vita. 1 , or water 
 of life, being rightly ordered and disposed with the body, it 
 whitens it, and converts or changes it into its white colour. For 
 this water is a white vapour, and therefore the body is whitened 
 with it. It behoves you therefore to whiten the body, and open 
 its infoldings : for between these two, that is, between the body 
 •and the water, there Is a desire and friendship, like as between 
 the male and female, because of the propinquity and likeness of 
 their natures. 
 
 15. Now this our second and living water is called azoth, the 
 water washing the laton, viz. the body compounded of sol and 
 luna by our first water : it is also called the soul of the dissolved 
 bodies, which souls we have even now tied together, for the use 
 of the wise philosopher. How precious then, and how great a 
 thing is this water ! For without it the work could never be 
 done or perfected : it is also called the vas ?iatunc, the belly, the 
 womb, the receptacle of the tincture, the earth, the nurse. It- 
 is the royal fountain in which the king and queen bathe them- 
 selves : and the mother must be put into and sealed up within the 
 the bell}- of her infant ; and that is sol himself, who proceeded 
 from her, and whom she brought forth ; and therefore they have 
 loved one another as mother and soil, and are conjoined toge- 
 ther, because they come from one and the same root, and are of 
 the same substance and nature. And because this water is the 
 water of the vegetable life, it causes the dead body to vegetate, 
 increase, and spring forth, and to rise from death to life, by 
 being dissolved first, and then sublimed. And in doing thjs, the 
 body is converted into a spirit, and the spirit, afterwards, into a 
 body ; and then is made the amity, the peace, the concord, and 
 the union of the contraries, to wit, between the body and the 
 spirit, which reciprocally, or mutually change their natures 
 which they receive^ and communicate one to another through 
 their most minute parts. So that that which is hot, is mixed 
 with that which is cold, the dry with the moist, and the hard 
 with the soft; by which means there is a. mixture made of con- 
 trary natures, viz. of cold with hot, and moist with dry, even a 
 most admirable unity between enemies. 
 
 16. Our dissolution then of bodies, which is made such in 
 this first water, is nothing else, but a destroying or overcoming 
 of the moist with the dry, for the moist is coagulated with the 
 
138 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 dry. For the moisture is contained under, terminated with, and 
 coagulated in the dry body, to wit, in that which is earthy. Lei 
 therefore the hard and the dry bodies be put into our first water 
 in a vessel, which close well, and there let fhem abide till they 
 be dissolved, and ascend to the top ; then may they be called a 
 new body, the white gold made by art, the white stone, the 
 white sulphur, not inflammable, the paradisical stone, viz. the 
 stone transmuting imperfect metals, into white silver. Then 
 have we also the body, soul, and spirit altogether; of which 
 spirit and soul it is said, that they cannot be extracted from the 
 perfect bodies, but by the help or conjunction of our dissolving 
 water. Because it is certain, that the things fixed cannot be 
 lifted up, or made to ascend, but by the conjunction or help 
 of that which is volatile. 
 
 17. The spirit, therefore, by the help of the water and the 
 soul, is drawn forth from the bodies themselves, and the body 
 thereby is made spiritual ; for that at the same instant of time, 
 the spirit, with the soul of the bodies, ascend en high to the 
 superior part, which :s the perfection of the stone, and is called 
 sublimation. This sublimation', said Florentius Cathalanus, is 
 made by things acid, spiritual, volatile, and which are in their 
 own nature sulphureous and viscous, which dissolve bodies, and 
 make them to ascend, and be changed into air and spirit. And 
 in this sublimation a certain part of our said first water ascends 
 with the bodies, joining itself with them, ascending and subliming 
 into one neutral or complex substance, which contains the nature 
 of the two, viz. the nature of the two bodies, and of the wafer. 
 And therefore it is called the corporeal and spiritual compo- 
 situm, corjufle, cambar, ethelia, zandarith, duencch, the good; 
 but properly it is called the permanent or fixed water only, 
 because it flies not in the fire. But it perpetually adheres to the 
 commixed or compound bodies, that is, the sol and Luna, and 
 communicates to them the living tincture, incombustible and 
 most fixed, much more noble and precious than the former 
 which those bodies had. Because from henceforth this tincture 
 runs like oil, running through, and penetrating the bodies, and 
 giving to them its wonderful fixity ; and this tincture is the 
 spirit, and the spirit is the soul, and the soul is the body. For 
 in this operation the body is- made a spirit, of a most subtile 
 nature ; and again, the spirit is corporified and changed into the 
 nature of the body, with the bodies, whereby our stone consists 
 of a body, a soul, and a spirit. 
 
 1 8. O God, how through n ■ ' ure dost thou change a body into a 
 spirit ! which could not be done, if the spirit were not incorpo- 
 rated with the bodies, and the bodies made volatile with the spirit 
 aibd afterwards permanent or fixed. For this cause sake, they 
 have passed over into one another, and by the influence of wisdom 
 are converted the one into the other. O wisdom ! how thou 
 
Sennet Book of Artephius. 139 
 
 makest tlie most fixed gpld to bo volatile and fugitive, yea, though 
 by nature it is the mosl fixed of all things in the world ! It is 
 necessary therefore to dissolve and liquify these bodies by our 
 water, and to make them a permanent or fixed water, a pure, 
 golden water, leaving in the bottom the gross, earthy, superflu- 
 ous and dry matter. And in this subliming, making thin and 
 pure, the fire ought to be gentle ; but if in this sublimation with 
 a soft fire, the bodies be not purified, and the gross or earthy 
 parts thereof, (note this well,) be not separated from the impu- 
 rities of the dead, you shall not be able to perfect the work. For 
 thou necdest nothing but that thin and subtile part of the dissolved 
 bodies, which our water will give thee, if thou proceedest with 
 a slow or gentle fire, by separating the things heterogene, from 
 the things homogene. 
 
 ID. This compositum then has its mundification or cleanings 
 by our moist fire, which, as Azinabam saith, by dissolving and 
 subliming that which is pure and white, it casts forth or rejects 
 its foecis or filth, like a voluntary vomit. For in such a disso- 
 lution and natural sublimation or lifting up, there is a loosening 
 or untying of the elements, and a cleansing and separation of 
 the pure, from the impure. So that tlie pure and white substance 
 ascends upwards, and the impure and earthy remains fixed in 
 the bottom of the water and the vessel. This must be taken 
 away and removed, because it is of no value, taking only the 
 middle white substance, flowing, and melted or dissolved, re- 
 jecting the fceculent earth, which remains below in the bottom. 
 These feces were separated partly by the water, and are the 
 dross and terra Samnata, which is of no value, nor can do any 
 such service as the clear, white, pure and clean matter, which is 
 wholly and only to be taken and made use of. 
 
 20. And against this capharean rock, the ship and knowledge, 
 or art of the young philosopher is often, as it happened also to 
 me sometimes, dashed together in pieces, or destroyed, because 
 the philosophers for the most part speak by the contraries. That 
 is to say, that nothing must be removed or taken away, except 
 the moisture, which is the blackness ; which notwithstanding 
 they speak and write only to the unwary, who, without a master •' 
 indefatigable reading, or humble supplications to God Almighty, 
 would ravish away the golden fleece. It is therefore to be ob- 
 served, that this separation, division, and sublimation, is, without 
 doubt, the key of the whole work. 
 
 21. After the putrefaction then and dissolution of these bodies, 
 our bodies also ascend to the top, even to the surface of the dis- 
 solving water, in a whiteness of colour, which whiteness is life. 
 And in this whiteness the antimonial and mercurial soul, is by a 
 natural compact infused into, and joined with the spirits of sol 
 and luna, which separate the thin from the thick, and the pure 
 from the impure. That is, by lifting up by little and little the 
 
140 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 thin and pure part of the body, from the fceccs and impurity, 
 until all the pure parts are separated and ascended. And in this 
 work is our natural and philosophical sublimation com pleated. — 
 Now in this whiteness is the soul infused into the body, to wit, 
 the mineral virtue, which is more subtile than fire, being indeed 
 the true quintessence and life, which desires or hungers to be 
 born again, and to put off the defilement and be spoiled of its 
 gross and earthly fceces, which it has taken from its menstruotis 
 womb, and corrupt place of its original. And in this is our 
 philosophical sublimation, not in the impure, corrupt, vulgar 
 mercury, which has no properties or qualities like to those, with 
 which our mercury, drawn from its vitriolic caverns, is adorned. 
 But let us return to our sublimation. 
 
 22. It is most certain therefore in this art, that this soul ex- 
 tracted from the bodies, cannot be made to ascend, but by 
 adding to it a volatile matter, which is of its own kind. By 
 which the bodies will be made volatile and spiritual, lifting them- 
 selves up, subtilizing and subliming themselves, contrary to 
 their own proper nature, which is corporeal, heavy, and ponder- 
 ous. And by this means they are unbodied, or made no bodies, 
 to wit, incorporeal, and a quintessence of the nature of a 
 spirit, which is called avis hcrmeiis r and mcrcurius cxtractus y 
 drawn from a red subject or matter. And so the terrene or 
 earthy parts remain below, or rather the grosser parts of the 
 bodies, which can by no industry or ingenuity of man be brought 
 to a perfect dissolution. 
 
 23. And this white vapor, this white gold, to wit, this quin- 
 tessence, is called also the compound magnesia, which like man 
 does contain, or like man is composed of a body, soul, and spirit. 
 Now the body is the fixed solar earth, exceeding the most subtile 
 matter, which by the help of our divine water is with difficulty 
 lifted up or separated. The soul is the tincture of sol and luna, 
 proceeding from the conjunction, or communicating of these 
 two, to wit, the bodies of sol and lima, and our water. And 
 the spirit is the mineral power, or virtue of the bodies, and of 
 the water which carries the soul or white tincture in or upon 
 the bodies, and also out of the bodies, like as the tinctures 
 or colours in dyeing cloth are by the water put upon, and 
 diffused in and through the cloth. And this mercurial 
 spirit is the chain or band of the solar soul ; and the solar 
 bod}' ; is that body which contains the spirit and soul, hav- 
 ing the power of fixing in itself, being joined with luna. The 
 spirit therefore penetrates, the body fixes, and the soul joins 
 together, tinges and whitens. From these three united together, 
 is our stone made; to wit, of sol, luna, and mercury. 
 
 24. Therefore with this our golden water, a natural substance 
 is extracted, exceeding all natural substances; and so, except the 
 bodies be broken and destroyed, imbibed, made subtile, andfiue, 
 
Secret Book of Artephiiis. 14L 
 
 thriftily and diligently managed, till they are abstracted from, or 
 lose their grossness or solid substance, and be changed into a 
 thin and subtile spirit, all our labour will be in vain. And unless 
 the bodies be made no bodies, or incorporeal, that is, be con- 
 verted into the philosophers mercury, there is no rule of 
 art yet found out to work by. The reason is, because 
 it is impossible to draw out of the bodies all that most thin 
 and subtile soul, which has in itself the tincture, except it be first 
 resolved in our water. Dissolve then the bodies in this our gol- 
 den water, and boil them till all the tincture is brought forth by 
 the water, in a white colour, and a white oil ; and when you see 
 this whiteness upon the water, then know that the bodies are 
 melted, liquified, or dissolved. Continue then this boiling, till the 
 dark, black, and white cloud is brought forth, which they have 
 conceived. 
 
 25. Put therefore the perfect bodies of metals, to wit, sol and 
 luna, into our water in a vessel, hermetically sealed, upon a 
 gentle fire, and digest continually, till they are perfectly resolved 
 into a most precious oil. Saith Adfar, digest with a gentle fire, 
 as it were for the hatching of chickens, so long, till the bodies are 
 dissolved, and their perfectly conjoined tincture is extracted, 
 mark this well. But it is not extracted all at once, but it is 
 drawn out by little and little, day by day, and hour by hour 
 till after a long time the solution thereof is compleated, anil 
 that which is dissolved, always swims a top. And while this 
 dissolution is in hand, let the fire be gentle and continual, till the 
 bodies are dissolved into a viscous and most subtile water, and 
 the whole tincture be educed, in colour first black, which is the 
 sign of a true dissolution. 
 
 26. Then continue the digestion, till it becomes a white fixed 
 water ; for being digested in balneo, it will afterwards become 
 clear, and in the end become like to common argent vive, ascend- 
 ing by the spirit above the first water. When therefore you see 
 bodies dissolved in the first viscous water, then know, that they 
 are turned into a vapour, and that the soul is separated from the 
 dead body, and by sublimation, brought into the order of spirits. 
 Whence both of them, with a part of our water, are made spi- 
 rits flying up into the air ; and there the compounded body, made 
 of the male and female, viz. of sol and luna, and of that most subtile 
 nature, cleansed by sublimation, taketh life, and is made spiri- 
 tual by its own humidity. That is by its own water ; like as a 
 man is sustained by the air; whereby from thenceforth it is mul- 
 tiplied, and increases in its own kind, as do all other things. — 
 In such an ascension therefore, and philosophical sublimation, 
 all are joyned one with another, and the new body subtilized, 
 or made living by the spirit, miraculously livcth or springs like 
 a vegetable. 
 
 27. Wherefore, unless the bodies be attenuated, or made thin, 
 by the fire and water 3 till they asceijd in a spirit, and are made, 
 
142 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 or do become like water and vapour, or mercury, you labour 
 wholly in vain. But when they arise or ascend, they are born or 
 brought forth in the air or spirit, and in the same they are 
 changed, and made life with life, so as they can never be sepa- 
 rated, but are as water mixed with water. And therefore it is 
 wisely said, that the stone is born of the spirit, because it is 
 altogether spiritual. For the vulture himself flying without wings 
 cries upon the top of the mountain, saying, I am the white, 
 brought forth from the black, and the red, brought forth from the 
 white, the citrine son of the red ; I speak the truth, and lye 
 not. 
 
 28. It sufficed) thee then to put the bodies in the vessel, and 
 into the water once for all, and to close the vessel well, until a 
 true separation be made. This the obscure artist calls conjunc- 
 tion, sublimation, assation, extraction, putrefaction, ligation, 
 desponsation, subtilization, generation, &c. 
 
 29. Now that the whole magistcry may be perfected, work, as in 
 the generation of man, and of every vegetable ; put the seed 
 once into the womb, and shut it up well. Thus you may see, 
 that you need not many things, and that this our work requires 
 no great charges, for that as there is but one stone, there is but 
 one medicine, one vessel, one order of working, and one suc- 
 cessive disposition to the white and the red. And although we 
 say in many places, take this, and take that ; yet we under- 
 stand, that it behoves us to take but one thing, and put it once 
 into the vessel, until the work be perfected. But these things 
 are so set down by the obscure philosophers, to deceive the un- 
 wary, as we have before spoken ; for is not this ars cabalistica, 
 or a secret and a hidden art ? Is it not an art full of secrets ? and 
 believest thou O fool that we plainly teach this secret of secrets, 
 taking our words according to their literal signification? Truly, I 
 tell thee, that as for myself, I am no ways self-seeking or envious as 
 others are ; but he that takes the words of the other philoso- 
 phers, according to their common signification ; he even already, 
 having lost Ariadncs clue of thread, wanders in the midst of 
 the labyrinth, multiplies errors, and casts away his money for 
 nought. 
 
 30. And I, Artephius, after I became an Adept, and had 
 attained to the true and complete wisdom, by studying the books 
 of the most faithful Hermes, the speaker of truth, was sometimes 
 obscure also, as the others were. But when I had for the space 
 of a thousand years, or there abouts, which are now passed over 
 my head, since the time I was born to tins day, through the 
 alone goodness of God Almighty, by the use of this wonderful 
 quintessence. When I say for so very long a time, 1 found no 
 man that had found out or obtained this hermetic secret, because 
 of the obscurity of the philosophers words. Being moved with 
 a generous mind, and the integrity of a good man, I have de- 
 
Stcret Uovk of Arteplthis. 143 
 
 terminer! in these latter days of my life, to declare all things 
 truly and sincerely, that you may not want any thing for the 
 perfecting of this stone of the philosophers. Excepting one 
 certain thing, which is not lawful for me to discover to any, 
 because it is either revealed or made known, by God himself, or 
 taught by some master, which notwithstanding he that can bend 
 himself to the search of, by the help of ajittle experience, may 
 easily learn in this book. 
 
 31. In this book I have therefore written the naked truth, 
 though clothed or disguised with a few colours; yet so that every 
 good and wise man may happily gather those desirable apples of 
 the Hesperidcs from this our philosophers tree. Wherefore 
 praises be given to the most high God, who has poured into 
 our soul of his goodness ; and through a good old age, even an 
 almost infinite number of years, has truly filled our heart with 
 his love, in which, methinks, I embrace, cherish, and truly 
 love all mankind together. But to return to our business. — ■ 
 Truly our work is perfectly performed ; for that which the heat 
 of the sun is an hundred years in doing,- for the generation 
 of one metal in the bowels of the earth ; our secret fire, that 
 is, our fiery and sulphureous water, which is called Balneum 
 Marias, doth, as I have often seen in a very short time. 
 
 32. Now this operation or work is a thing of no great labour 
 to him that knows and understands it ; nor is the matter so dear, 
 considering how small a quantity does suffice, that it may cause 
 any man to withdraw his hand from it. It is, indeed, a work so 
 short and easy, that it may well be called a womans work and 
 the play of children. Go to then, my son, put up thy supplica- 
 tions to God Almighty ; be diligent in searching the books of 
 the learned in this science ; for one book openeth another ; think 
 and meditate of these things profoundly ; and avoid all things 
 Which vanish in, or will not endure the fire, because from those 
 adustible, perishing or consuming things, you can never attain 
 to the perfect matter, which is only found in the digesting of 
 your water, extracted from sol and luna. For by this .water, 
 colour, and ponderosity or weight, are infinitely given to the 
 matter; and this water is a white vapour, which like a soul, 
 flows through the perfect bodies, taking wholly from them their 
 blackness, and impurities, uniting the two bodies in one, and 
 increasing their water. Nor is there any other thing than 
 azoth, to wit, this our water, which can take from the perfect 
 bodies of sol and luna, their natural colour, making the red body 
 white, according to the disposition thereof. 
 
 33. Now let us speak of the fire. Our fire then is mineral, 
 equal, continuous ; it fumes not, unless it be too much stirred up, 
 participates of sulphur, and is taken from other things than from 
 the matter ; it overturns all things, dissolves, congeals, and cal- 
 cines, and is to be found out by art, or after an artificial manner. 
 
144 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 It is a compendious thing, got without cost or charge, or at least 
 without any great purchase; it is humid, vaporous, digestive, 
 altering, penetrating, subtile, spirituous, not violent, incombus- 
 tible, circumspective, continent, and one only thing. It is also 
 a fountain of living water, which circumvolveth and contains the 
 place in which the king and queen bathe themselves; through 
 the whole work this moist fire is sufficient ; in the beginning, 
 middle, and end, because in it, the whole art does consist. This 
 is the natural fire, which is yet against nature, not natural, and 
 which burns not ; and lastly, this fire is hot, cold, dry, moist ; 
 meditate on these things, and proceed directly, without any 
 thing of a foreign nature. If you understand not these fires, 
 give car to what I have yet to say, never as yet written in any 
 book, but drawn from the more abstruse and occult riddles of 
 the ancients. 
 
 3k We have properly three fires, without which this our 
 art cannot be perfected ; and whosoever works without them, 
 takes a great deal of labour in vain. The first fire is that of 
 the lamp, which is continuous, humid, vaporous, spiritous, ;-.nd 
 found out by art. This lamp fire ought to be proportioned to 
 the enclosure; wherein you must use great judgment, which 
 none can attain to, but j$s that can bend to the search thereof. 
 For if this fire of the lamp be not measured, and duly propor- 
 tioned or fitted to the furnace, it will be, that either for want of 
 heat you will not sec the expected signs, in their limited times, 
 whereby you will lose your hopes and expectation by a too long 
 delay : or else, by reason of too much heat, you will burn the 
 Jlores auri, the golden flowers, and so foolishly bewail your lost 
 expence. 
 
 35, The second fire is ignis cinerum, an ash heat, in which the 
 vessel hermetically sealed is recluded, or buried : or rather, it is 
 that most sweet and gentle heat, which proceeding from the tem- 
 perate vapours of the lamp, does equally surround your vessel. — • 
 This fire is not violent or forcing, except it be too much excited 
 or stirred up ; it is a fire digestive, alterative, and taken from 
 another body than the matter ; being but one only, moist also, 
 and not natural. 
 
 36. The third fire, is the natural fire of water, which is also 
 called the fire against nature, because it is water; and yet never- 
 theless, it makes a mere spirit of gold, which common fire is not 
 able to do. This fire is mineral, equal, and participates of sul- 
 phur ; it overturns or destroys, congeals, dissolves, and calcines ; 
 it is penetrating, subtil, incombustible and not burning, and is 
 the fountain of living water, wherein the king and queen bathe 
 themselves, whose help we stand in need of, through the whole 
 work, through the beginning, middle and end. But the other 
 two above mentioned, we have not always occasion for, but only 
 at sometimes. In reading therefore the books of philosophers. 
 
Secret Book of Artcphius 145 
 
 conjoin these three fires in your judgment, and without doubt, 
 yon will understand whatever they have wrote of them. 
 
 37. Now as to the colours, that which does not make black 
 cannot make white, because blackness is the beginning of white- 
 ness, and a sign of putrefaction and alteration, and that the 
 body is now penetrated and mortified. From the putrefaction 
 therefore in this water, there first appears blackness, like unto 
 broth wherein some bloody thing is boiled. Secondly, the black 
 earth by a continual digestion is whitened, because the soul of 
 the two bodies swims above upon the water, like white cream ; 
 and in this only whiteness, all the spirits are so united, that they 
 can never flie one from another. And therelbi'e the latten must 
 be whitened, and its leaves unfolded, i. e. its body broken or 
 opened, lest we labour in vain ; for this whiteness is the perfect 
 stone for the white work, and a body enobled in order to that 
 end ; even the tincture of a most exuberant glory, and shining 
 brightness, which never departs from the body it is once joined 
 with. Therefore you must note here, that the spirits are not 
 fixed, but in the white colour, which is more noble than the 
 other colours, and is more vehemently to be desired, for that it is 
 as it were the complement or perfection of the whole work. 
 
 38. For our earth putrifics and becomes black, then it is putri- 
 fied in lifting up or separation ; afterwards being dried, its black- 
 ness goes away from it, and then it is whitened, and the 
 feminine dominion of the darkness and humidity perisheth : then 
 also the white vapor penetrates through the new body, and the 
 spirits are bound up or fixed in the dryness. And that which is 
 corrupting, deformed, and black through the moisture, vanishes 
 away ; so the new body rises again clear, pure, white, and im- 
 mortal, obtaining the victory over all its enemies. And as heat 
 working upon that which is moist, causeth or generates black- 
 ness, which is the prime or first colour ; so always by decoction^, 
 more and more heat working upon that which is dry, begets 
 whiteness, which is the second colour ; and then working upon 
 that which is purely and perfectly dry, it produceth citrinity and 
 redness, thus much for colours. We must know therefore, that 
 the thing which has its head red and white, but its feet white and 
 afterwards red ; and its eyes beforehand black, that this thing, 
 I say, is the only matter of our magistery. 
 
 39. Dissolve then sol and luna in our dissolving water, which 
 is familiar and friendly, and the next in nature unto them ; and 
 is also sweet and pleasant to them, and as it were a womb, a 
 mother, an original, the beginning and the end of their life. — 
 And that is the very reason why they are meliorated or amended 
 in this water, because like nature rejoiceth in like nature, and 
 like nature retains like nature, being joined the one to the other, 
 in a true marriage, by which they are made one nature, one new- 
 body, raised again from the dead, and immortal. Thus it behoves 
 you to joia consanguinity, or sameness of kind, by which these 
 
 s 
 
J 46 Alchemical Treatise?. 
 
 natures, will meet and follow one another, purify themselves, 
 generate, and make one another rejoice ; for that like nature, 
 now is disposed by like nature, even that which is nearest, and 
 most friendly to it. 
 
 40'. Our water then is the most beautiful, lovely, and clear 
 fountain, prepared only for the king, and queen, whom it knows 
 very well, and they it. For it attracts them to itself, and they 
 abide therein for two or three days, to wit, two or three months, 
 to wash themselves therewith, whereby they are made young 
 again and beautiful. And because sol and luna have their origi- 
 nal from this water their mother ; it is necessary therefore that 
 they enter into it again, to wit, into their mothers womb, that 
 they may be regenerate or born again, and made more healthy, 
 more noble, and more strong. If therefore these do not die, 
 and be converted into water, they remain alone, or as they were 
 and without fruit ; but if they die, and are resolved in our 
 water, they bring forth, fruit, an hundred fold; and from that 
 very place in which they seemed to perish, from thence shall 
 they appear to be that which they were not before. 
 
 4-1. Let therefoz-e the spirit of our living water be, with all 
 care and industry, fixed with sol and luna ; for that they being 
 converted into the nature of water become dead, and appear like 
 to the dead ; from whence afterwards, being revived, they en- 
 crease and multiply, even as do all sorts of vegetable substances. 
 It suffices then to dispose the matter sufficiently without, because 
 that within, it sufficiently disposes itself for the perfection of its 
 own work. For it has in itself a certain and inherent motion, 
 according to the true way and method, and a much better order 
 than it is possible for any man to invent or think of. For this 
 cause it is, that you need only to prepare the matter, nature 
 herself alone will perfect it; and if she be not hindred by some 
 contrary thing, she will not overpass her own certain motion, 
 neither in conceiving or generating, nor in bringing forth. 
 
 42. Wherefore, after the preparation of the matter, beware 
 only, lest by too much heat or fire, you inflame the bath, or 
 make it too hot; secondly, take heed, lest the spirit should exhale, 
 lest it hurts the operator, to wit, lest it destroys the work, and 
 induces many infirmities, as sadness, trouble, vexation, and 
 discontent. From these things which have been spoken, this 
 axiom is manifest, to wit, that he can never know the neces- 
 sary course of nature in the making or generating metals, who 
 is ignorant of the way of destroying them. You must therefore 
 join them together that are of one consanguinity or kindred ; 
 for like natures do find out and join with their like natures, and 
 by putrifying themselves together, and mixed together and mor- 
 tify themselves. It is needful therefore to know this corruption 
 and generation, and how the natures do embrace one another, 
 and are brought to a fixity in a slow or gentle fire ; how like 
 
Secret Book of Artcphius. 147 
 
 nature rejoiceth with like nature; how they retain one another, 
 and are converted into a white siibsistency. 
 
 43. This white substance, it' you will make it red, you must 
 continually decoct it in a dry fire, till it is rubified, or becomes 
 red as blood, which is then nothing but water, fire, and true 
 tincture. And so by a continual thy lire, the whiteness i- 
 changed, removed, perfected, made citrine, and still digested till 
 it comes to a true red raid iixeel colour. Anel consequently by 
 how much more this red is decocted in this gentle heat by so 
 much the more it is heightened in colour, and .made a true tinc- 
 ture of perfect redness. Wherefore with a dry fire, and a dry 
 calcination, without any moisture, you mnsjt decoct this co.mpo- 
 situm, till it be invested with a most perfect red colour, and then 
 it will be the true and perfect elixir. 
 
 44. Now if afterwards you would multiply your tincture, you 
 must again resolve that red, in new or fresh dissolving water, and 
 then by decoctions first whiten, and then rubify it again, by the 
 degrees of fire, reiterating the first method of operating in ihis 
 work. Dissolve, .coagulate, and reiterate the closing up, the 
 opening and multiplying in quantity and quality at your own 
 pleasure. For by a new corruption and generation, there is in- 
 troduced a new motion. Thus can we never finel an end, if we 
 do always work by reiterating the same thing over anel over 
 again, viz. by solution and coagulation, by the help of our dissolv- 
 ing water, by which we dissolve and congeal, as we have for- 
 merly said, in the beginning of the work. Thus also is the 
 virtue thereof increased and multiplied, both in quantity and 
 quality ; so that, if after the first course of operation you obtain 
 an hundred ibid; by a second course, you will have a thousand 
 fold; and by a third, ten thousand fold increase. And by pur- 
 suing your work, your projection will come to infinity, tinging 
 truly and perfectly, and fixing the greatest quantity how much 
 soever. Thus by a thing of an easy or small price, you have 
 both colour, goodness, and weight. 
 
 45. Our fire then and azoth, are sufficient forj-ou; decoct, 
 reiterate, dissolve, congeal, and continue this course, aeeord- 
 ing as you please, multiplying it as you think good, until 
 your medicine is made fusible as wax, anet has attained the quan- 
 tity and goodness or fixity and colour you desire. This then is 
 the compleating of the whole work of our second stone (observe 
 it well) that you take the perfect body, and put it into our water 
 in a glass vesica or body well closed with cement, lest the air 
 
 in, or the inclosed humidity get out. Keep it in digestion in a 
 gentle heat, as it were of a balneum, or the most temperate 
 horse dung, anil assiduously continue the operation or work 
 upon the fire, till the decoction and digestion is perfect. And 
 keep it in this digestion of a gentle heat, until it be putrified and 
 resolved into blackness, and be drawn up and sublimed by the 
 water, and is thereby cleansed from all blackness and impurity, 
 
148 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 that it may be white and subtile. Until it comes to the ultimate 
 or highest purity of sublimation, and the utmost volatility, and 
 be made white both within and without: for the vulture flying in 
 the air without wings, cries out, that it might get up upon the 
 mountain, that is upon the waters upon which the spiritus albus, 
 or spirit of whiteness is born. Continue still a fitting fire, and 
 that spirit, which is the subtile being of the body, and of the 
 mercury will ascend upon the top of the water, which quintes- 
 sence is more white than the driven snow. Continue yet still, and 
 toward the end, encrease the fire, till the whole spiritual sub- 
 sistence ascend to the top. And know well, that whatsoever is 
 clear, pure, and spiritual, ascends in air to the top of the water 
 in the substance of a white vapor, which the philosophers call 
 their virgins milk. 
 
 46. It ought to be, therefore, as one of the Sybills said, that 
 the son of the virgin be exalted from the earth, and that the 
 white quintessence after its rising out of the dead eavth, be raised 
 up towards heaven ; the gross and thick remaining in the bottom 
 of the vessel and of the water. Afterwards the vessel being 
 cooled, you will find in the bottom the black fceces, scorched and 
 burnt, which separate from the spirit and quintessence of white- 
 ness, and cast them away. Then will the argent vive fall down 
 from our air or spirit, upon the new earth, which is called argent 
 vive sublimed by the air or spirit, whereof is made a viscous 
 water, pure and white. This water is the true tincture separated 
 from all its black fasces, and our brass or latten is prepared with 
 our water, purified, and brought to a white colour. Which 
 white colour is not obtained but by decoction, and coagulation 
 of the water: decoct therefore continually, wash away the black- 
 ness from the latten, not with your hands, but with the stone, or 
 the fire, or our second mercurial water, which is the true 
 tincture. This separation of the pure from the impure is not 
 done with hands ; but nature herself does it, and brings it to 
 perfection by a circular operation. 
 
 47. It appears then, that this composition is not a work of 
 the hands, but a change of the natures ; because nature dissolves 
 and joins itself, sublimes and lifts itself up, and grows white, 
 being separate from the faeces. And in such a sublimation, the 
 more subtile, pure, and essential parts are conjoined ; for that 
 with the fiery nature or property lilts up the subtile parts, it sepa- 
 rates always the more pure, leaving the grosser at the bottom. — 
 "Wherefore your fire ought to be a gentle and a continual vapour, 
 with which you sublime, that the matter may be filled with 
 spirit from the air, and live. For naturally all things take life 
 from the inbreathing of the air; and so also our magistery 
 receives in the vapour or spirit, by the sublimation of the 
 water. • - ..< 
 
 48. Our brass or laten then, is to be made to ascend by the de- 
 grees of fire, but of its own accord, freely, and without violence j 
 
Secret Booh of Artephhis. 149 
 
 except the body therefore be by the fire and the water broken, 
 or dissolved, and attenuated, until it ascends as a spirit, or 
 climbs like argent vive, or rather as the white soul, separated 
 from the body, and by sublimation dilated or brought into a 
 spirit, nothing is or can be done. Rut when it ascends on high, 
 it is born in the air or spirit, and is changed into spirit; and 
 becomes life with life, being only spiritual and incorruptible. — 
 And by such an operation it is, that the body is made spirit, 
 of a subtile nature, and the spirit js incorporated with the body, 
 and made one with it; and by such a sublimation, conjunc- 
 tion, and raising up, the whole, both body and spirit are made 
 white. 
 
 49. This philosophical and natural sublimation therefore is 
 necessary, which makes peace between, or fixes, the body and 
 spirit, which is impossible to be done otherwise, than in the 
 separation of these parts. Therefore it behoves j'ou to sublime 
 both, that the pure may ascend, and the impure and earthy may 
 descend, or be left at bottom, in the perplexity of a troubled sea. 
 And for this reason it must be continually decocted, that it may 
 be brought to a subtile property, and the body may assume, and 
 draw to itself the white mercurial soul, which it naturally hold?, 
 and suffers not to be separated from it, because it is like to it in 
 the nearness of the first, pure, and simple nature. From these 
 things it is necessary to make a separation by decoction, till no 
 more remains of the purity of the soul, which is not ascended 
 and exalted to the higher part, whereby they will both be re- 
 duced to an equality of properties, and a simple or pure 
 whiteness. 
 
 50. The vulture flying through the air, and the toad creep- 
 ing upon the ground, are the emblems of our magistery. When 
 therefore gently and with much care, you separate the earth from 
 the water, that is, from the fire, and the thin from the thick, then 
 that which is pure will separate itself from the earth, and ascend 
 to the upper part, as it were into heaven, and the impure will 
 descend beneath, as to the earth. And the more subtil part in 
 the superior place, will lake upon it the nature of a spirit, and 
 that in the lower place, the nature of an earthy body. Where- 
 fore let the white property, with the more subtil parts of the body, 
 be by this operation, made to ascend, leaving the lieces behind, 
 which is done in a short time. For the soul is aided by her 
 associate and fellow, and perfected by it. My mother, said the 
 body, has begotten me, and by me, she herself is begotten: now 
 after I have taken from her her flying, she, after an admirable 
 manner becomes kind, nourishing and cherishing the son whom 
 she has begotten, till he comes to be of a ripe or perfect age. 
 
 51. Hear now this secret: keep the body in our mercurial 
 water, till it ascends with .the white soul, and the earthy part 
 descends to the bottom, which is called the residing earth. Then 
 you shall see the water to coagulate itself with its body, and be 
 
150 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 assured that the art is true; because the body coagulate* the 
 moisture into dryness, like as the rennet of a lamb or cfclf turns 
 milk into cheese. In the same manner the spirit penetrates the 
 body, and is perfectly commixed with it in its smallest atoms, 
 and the body draws to itself his moisture, to wit, its white soul, 
 like as the loadstone draws iron, because of the nearness and 
 likeness of its nature ; and then the one contains the other. And 
 this is our sublimation and coagulation, which retaineth every 
 volatile thing, making it fixt for ever. 
 
 52. This compositum then, is not a mechanical thing, or a 
 work of the hands, but, as I have said, a changing of natures ; 
 and wonderful connexion of their cold with hot, and the moist 
 with the dry : the hot also is mixed with the cold, and t)ie dry 
 with the moist. By this means also is made the mixtion and con- 
 junction of body and spirit, which is called a conversion of con- 
 trary natures; because by such a dissolution and sublimation, the 
 spirit is converted into a body, and body into a spirit. So that 
 the natures being mingled together, and reduced into one, do 
 change one another: and as the body corporifies the spirit, or 
 changes it into a body : so also does the spirit convert the body 
 into a tinging and white spirit. 
 
 53. Wherefore, as the last time I say, decoct the body in our 
 white water, viz. mercury, till it is dissolved into blackness, and 
 then by a continual decoction, let it be deprived of the same 
 blackness, and the body so dissolved, will at length ascend or rise 
 with a white soul. And then the one will be mixed with the 
 other, and so embrace one another, that it shall not be possible 
 any more to separate them, but the spirit, with a real agreement, 
 will be united will the body, and make one permanent or nxed 
 substance. And this is the solution of the body, and coagulation 
 <>f the spirit which have one and the same operation. Who 
 therefore knows how to conjoin the principles, or direct the 
 work, to impregnate, to mortify, to putrify, to generate, to 
 quicken the species, to make white, to cleanse the vulture from 
 its blackness and darkness, till he is purged by the fire, and 
 tinged, and purified from all his spots, shall be possessor of a 
 treasure so great, that even kings themselves shall venerate him. 
 
 54-. Wherefore let our body remain in the water till it is dis- 
 solved into a subtile powder in the bottom of the vessel and the 
 water .which is called the black ashes: This is the corruption of 
 the body which is called by philosophers or wise men, salumus, 
 &s, plumbum pkilosophorum, 8$ pulvis di scout imiatus, viz. saturn, 
 Lit ten, or brass, the lead of the philosophers, the disguised 
 powder. And in this putrefaction and resolution of the body, 
 three signs appear, viz. a black color, a discontinuity of parts, 
 aixl a stinking smell, not much unlike to the smell of a vault 
 where dead bodies are buried. These ashes then arc those of 
 which the philosophers have spoken so much, which remained 
 m the lower part of the vessel, which we opght not to under- 
 
Secret Book of Artcphius. 151 
 
 ralue or despise. In them is the royal diadem, and the black and 
 unclean argent vive, which ought to be cleansed from its black- 
 ness, by a continual digestion in our water, till it be elevated 
 above in a white colour, which is called the gander, and the bird 
 of Hermes. He therefore that maketh the red earth black, and 
 then renders it white, has obtained the magistery; so also he 
 who kills the living, and revives the dead. Therefore make the 
 black white, and the white black, and you perfect the work. — 
 55. And when you see the true whiteness appear, which 
 shineth like a bright sword, or polished silver, know that in 
 that whiteness there is redness hidden. But then beware that 
 you take not that whiteness out of the vessel, but only digest it 
 to the end, that with heat and dryness it may assume a citron 
 colour, and a most beautiful redness. Which when you see, 
 with great fear and trembling, render praises and thanksgiving 
 to the most great and good God, who gives wisdom and riches 
 to whom soever he pleases ; and according to the wickedness of 
 a person, takes them away, and withdraws them for ever again, 
 depressing him even to the bottom of hell. To him, I say, 
 the most wise and Almighty God, be glory to the ages of ages. — 
 Amen. 
 
The ancient War of the Knights ; 
 Or, Victorious Stone. 
 
 BY A GERMAN ADEPT— 1604. 
 
 A true philosopher writes thus : In the presence of God 
 Almighty, the Saviour of my soul, do I tell you, lovers of this 
 excellent art, from a sincere heart, and out of compassion for 
 those who have sought a long time in vain, that our whole work 
 comes forth out of one thing, which is completed in itself, ami 
 needs no more but to be dissolved and re-coagulated ; and this it 
 must do of itself, without all foreign things. 
 
 As ice which is put over the fire in a dry vessel, and by heat 
 turns into water : in the same manner it is with our stone, which 
 wants nothing but the help of the operation of the artist, and 
 of the natural fire. For of itself it cannot do it, although it 
 should lie or remain for ever in the earth, therefore it must be 
 assisted ; yet not so, as to join foreign and contrary things with 
 it. But thus, as God gives us the corn in the field, and we 
 must grind and bake it for to make bread thereof; in like man- 
 ner in this ; God has created for us this mineral, or ore, which 
 we take by itself, destroy the gross body, extract the interior 
 goodness, put away the superfluity, and make out of the poison, 
 a medicine. 
 
 That you may understand this the better, I will recite you a 
 fine dialogue and disputation which happened betwixt the stone 
 of the philosophers, gold and mercury, by which those who 
 know a little, or in some measure, how to deal with metals and 
 minerals, having sought a long time in vain, may easily arrive 
 to the true foundation. And it will be necessary, that one 
 learn to know the exterior and interior quality of each thing in 
 the earth, and what it is radically capable of, or what it is ca- 
 pable of by the foundation of nature. Gold and mercury came 
 at a certain time to a stone with an armed hand, in the inten- 
 tion to subdue it. And Gold began thus in a rude manner, 
 saying, 
 
 Gold. — You poisonous worm and dragon, why do you pre- 
 tend to be above me and my brother Mercury? Being I am 
 the most high, most noble, and most constant metal; and all 
 princes and lord.*, and likewise all ordinary men, seek to obtain 
 riches from, or to grow rich by working with, me and my bro- 
 
The Victorious Stone. 153 
 
 • Mercury, whereas you ore an enemy of all men and 
 metal:.;, and yoii know, that the physicians praise me exceed- 
 ingly to be tor the health of men ? 
 
 To which our Stone answereth : Dear Gold, why are you 
 not angry with Got!, ami enquire, why he hath not created in 
 you, what is found in me ? 
 
 Gold. — God has .g^ven me ^he honor, the beauty, and the 
 praise, wherefore, I am desired by the whole world, and because 
 I am the most constant metal, in the fire and out of the fire, for 
 that reason I am loved by » . ery body. But as for you, you are 
 volatile, you turn unfaithful and deceive the people ; lor one sees, 
 that you fly away or escape out of the hands of those that work 
 with you. 
 
 The Stone. — Dear Gold, it is true, God has given you 
 honor, beauty and constancy, for which } ou ought to be 
 thankful unto God, and not despise others ; but as for your 
 disparaging me thus, you do it with untruth ; and I Kiy, 
 you are not the gold, of which the philosophers write, but the 
 same is concealed within me ; for although it is true that I am 
 volatile in the lire, nevertheless you know, that God and nature 
 iiave ordered me thus, and I must be so, for my volatility- is to 
 the advantage of the artist; and if he, the said artist, can duly 
 .extract the same, yet remains within me the constant soul, 
 which is much more constantthan vou wold, and all vour brothers 
 ana companions ; no fire or water can consume or destroy her, 
 as long as the world lasts. Nor is it to be imputed to me, that 
 I am sought for by those, who cannot duly work with me, or 
 prepare me, and join often foreign and contrary things with me, 
 such as waters and powders, whereby they destroy my innate 
 nature and quality, or property. Besides this, there is not one 
 in an hundred, that works with me, but all of them seek to 
 complete the art with you gold, and your brother mercury,; 
 wherein however they err, and work falsely, it being apparent, 
 that all of them bring nothing to effect, but employ their 
 gold in vain, destroy or ruin themselves by it, and are reduced 
 to poverty ; which is most to be imputed to you Sol, who know 
 particularly well, that no true gold or silver can be made without 
 me, for I alone have that power. Wiry then do you allow 
 that almost the whole world works chiefly with you and your 
 brother Mercury ? If then you were indeed sincere, and did 
 desire to deal honestly, you would apprise the people, and 
 warn them to avoid damages ; wherefore I may well say with 
 truth, that you are the cheat. 
 
 Gold. — I will prove it by the philosophers sayings, that the 
 art may be completed by me and my brother Mercury. I or 
 read Hermes, who says thus : The Sun is its Father, and the 
 Moon is its Mother ; now it is I who am compared to the Sun. 
 Likewise Aristotle, Avicenna, Pliny, Serapion, Hippocrates, 
 X>j. oscorides, Mesne, Rhasis, Averrocs, Gcber,- Kaymund 
 
154 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Lully, Albertus Magnus, Arnold of Villa-Nova, Thomas 
 Aquinas, and many others, which I omit for brevity's sake ; all 
 these say plain and distinctly, that the tinctures, as well as the 
 metals, must be composed of sulphur and mercury, and the 
 sulphur must be red, incombustible, and constant or fixed in 
 the fire, and the mercury must be bright or clean, and clearly 
 purified, and they write without any winding expressions or 
 circumlocution, naming me openly by my name, and say, that 
 in me gold, is the well digested, constant, or fixed incombus- 
 tible, red sulphur, which is also true; and it is obvious to every 
 body, that I am the most constant metal, and have the best sul- 
 phur of all, which cannot be consumed by fire, but is quite 
 fixed. Then Mercury assented with his discourses to what the 
 Gold had advanced, and added : It were true, what his brother, 
 the Gold had told* and might be proved by the aforesaid 
 masters. And that likewise it were known commonly and by 
 every body, what great love and unity there were betwixt them 
 two, above all other metals ; which might easily be proved by 
 only this ocular demonstration, that when goldsmiths, or such 
 like workmen will gild things, they cannot do without gold 
 and mercury, but take them and put them together, and unite 
 them with very little pains. What then might not be done, 
 with more pains and diligence, with more work and longer 
 labour ? 
 
 Our Stoxe. — Then our Stone replied in a merry humour; 
 truly, you both deserve to be laughed at with your proofs ; 
 and I admire more especially of you Gold, who boast so very 
 much of yourself to be good for a great many things, or uses, 
 that you have no more sense than that comes to ; do you think 
 that the old philosophers have fitted their writings barely to 
 the common literal sense or interpretation, and will be under- 
 stood in that manner ? ' - ' • ' •■ 
 
 Gold. — -The aforesaid masters have writ no untruth, and 
 they all agree concerning my virtue* but there have been some, 
 who have sought for my virtues in other improper things, viz. 
 in various herbs, animals, blood, urine, hair, sperm, and the 
 like, who therefore have erred, and perhaps have writ erro- 
 neously too ; but the aforesaid masters have good testimony, 
 that they have possessed the art indeed ; for which reason their 
 writings may very well be credited. 
 
 The Stone. — I do no ways doubt, and it is very true that 
 they have possessed the art indeed ; some however excepted of 
 those whom you have quoted. But when they name barely the 
 name of Gold and Mercury, they do it to hide the art from 
 the senseless dunces and the unworthy, knowing very well, 
 that such only dwell upon names and written processes, without 
 meditating further upon the foundation of this matter. But the 
 prudent and diligent read with prudence, and ponder how one 
 squares with the other ; out of which they get a foundation; 
 
The Victorious Stone. 155 
 
 finding thus by speculation, and from the philosophers sen- 
 tences, the true matter, which no philosopher ever named and 
 described openly by its true name. 
 
 This they prove themselves, when they say, where we write 
 plainest, or open, according to the common sense or interpre- 
 tation, there we have most concealed the art. But where we 
 speak by parables and sentences, there we have truly disclosed 
 the art. And where they write of Gold or Mercury, they how- 
 ever soon after that, tell and explain themselves, saying, that 
 their gold is no common gold, nor their mercury common mer- 
 cury; by reason, that gold, because of its perfection, cannot be 
 altered or changed, because it is grown already to a quite per- 
 fect metal ; and although one should extract its colour a hundred 
 times, and work ever so artful with it, nevertheless it cannot 
 tinge any more, than just so much as it has colour and tincture 
 in itself. Therefore the philosophers say, if you search in im- 
 perfect things, you there will find the perfection, as you may 
 read in the Rosary. Likewise Raymund Lully, whom yourself 
 have quoted as a testimony, says thus : what shall be meliorated, 
 must not be perfect; nothing is changed or altered in perfect 
 things, it rather is quite destroyed and spoiled. 
 
 Gold. — I know indeed that they say thus ; but that may be 
 understood of my brother Mercury, who as yet is imperfect ; 
 and when we two mix ourselves with each other, he then is made 
 perfect by me ; for he is of the feminine, and I of the masculine 
 sex. Therefore the philosophers say, that the art is entirely an 
 homogeneum. You see the same in men, that no child is pro- 
 duced, but by conjunction of male and female. And the same is 
 to be seen in all animals which have life. 
 
 Our Stone. — Thy brother Mercury is indeed imperfect, yet 
 therefore is not he the Mercury of the philosophers ; and if you 
 two should mix yourselves together, and were kept in the fire 
 or in digestion for many years, it were nevertheless impossible 
 that you two could really be united together ; for as soon as 
 Mercury feels the fire, he slips from you going on high, and sub- 
 limes itself on the top, leaving you in the bottom. Or if you 
 are joined together with corrosive waters, and are dissolved, 
 distilled, and coagulated, you yield nothing else but a red pow- 
 der and pnecipititc, which if it is thrown by projection upon 
 imperfect metals, it tinges not; but only so much of you Gold 
 is found again, as was taken at the beginning, and your brother 
 Mercury escapes entirely from you ; which the searchers in 
 alchemy have experienced for many years, and are convinced 
 of it by their own no small damage. But as for your referring 
 to the sentences of the ancients, who say, that the art is wholly 
 an homogeneum, and that no child can be produced but by male 
 and female, which you fancy, the philosophers did to hint at you 
 and your brother Mercury by it; that is not thus neither, but 
 misunderstood by you. although they writing thus speak very 
 
] 56 Mclumical Treatises. 
 
 right and proper ; for I tell you in tvulli, tliat even this 10 the* 
 corner-stone laid by the ancients, at -which many thousands have 
 stumbled. Do you imagine it is with metals, just as with other 
 things, vvhich have life ? You tare in this, as ah* tho^e who 
 work wrongly in this art ; when you read these things in the 
 philosophers writings, you do not meditate on the scope, and 
 whether it agrees with what has been said before, or what is 
 said after that ; for what the philosophers have described ot'thi--. 
 art with such parabolical words, is solely to be applied to mo, 
 and to no other thing in the world ; for it is I alone that do 
 perform it, and without me no true gold or silver can be 
 made. 
 
 Golo. — Good God 1 are you not afraid to commit a sin, and 
 •have no shame to tell such a lie ? And are you so audacious, as 
 to apply or attribute solely unto you, what so many philosophers 
 and learned men have written of this art in several ages ? You, 
 who are only a gross, poisonous, and unclean thing, and yet 
 confess, that tlie art is an homogeneum ; and you- affirm besides 
 this, that without you, who are the universal, no true gold or 
 silver can be made ;■ whereas it is known, that many have sought 
 so assiduously and diligently, that they have found some other 
 ways, which are called particulars, from which they may have a 
 good profit. 
 
 Our Stone-. — My dear G&\d,. do not won<3cr at what I have 
 told you, and do not thus impudently and imprudently give me 
 the lie, because I am older than yourself. And although I had 
 been mistaken in this, you ought to spare my age ; for you are 
 not ignorant, that age ought to be honored. 
 
 But to save my honor,. I will prove by the masters you have 
 cited, that I spoke truth, whose testimonies being quoted by 
 your own self, you have no reason to object against. And first, 
 Hermes says thus: in truth, without lie, certain, and most true, 
 is this, that that which is under, is like to that which is above, 
 and that which is above, is like unto that below, by this you may 
 attain to the miracles and wonders of one thing. 
 
 Item. Aristotle writes thus ; Oh \ what a strange thing is this, 
 for it has in itself all what we stand in need of; it kills itself, 
 and gets life again of itself,* it espouses itself, it begets itself, and 
 brings forth or generates of itself; it dissolves itself in its own 
 blood, and re-coagulates itself with the same; it grows white and 
 red ot itself and we add nothing more to it, nor do we change 
 any thing, only we separate the terrestreity and the grossness 
 from it. 
 
 Item. Plato, the philosophei-, says thus of me : it is even but 
 one and the same or only thing in itself; it has a bodj', a soul, a 
 spirit, and the. four elements, over which it has dominion ; and 
 it does not want to borrow any thing of other bodies, for k 
 brings forth or generates itself only of itself, and all things 
 are in it.. 
 
Ihc Victorious SIoju lb' 
 
 Many testimonies more of these roasters opukl I prolkr, but it 
 boilig unnecessary, I omit them for .brevity's sake. However, 
 as for particulars, of which you make mention, it is thus with, 
 them: Some are come thus far, that tliey have bc&u a-bl.c to 
 e\tract my tinging spirit, which they have Joined to other metals, 
 and brought it about by many operations, that I have participated 
 to such metals as had any aflinity with me, a small matter of my 
 virtue and power: which, however, but very lew succeeded in ; 
 Likewise did they partly find it by chance. And by reason that 
 they did not penetrate into the foundation, whence tinctures; 
 come, therefore they could not proceed further, and thus tUey 
 could not reap very great advantages thereirom. But if the 
 artist had looked further about for my own proper wife, anal 
 joined or united me with her, I then could have tiuged a thou- 
 sand times more ; but they thus spoiled my nature or property 
 with foreign things. However, whatever they found, al- 
 though but a small matter in comparison of my true 
 power and efficacy, it proceeded from me, and of no otljex 
 thing whatsoever. 
 
 Gold. — What you have said is no sufficient proof; foy akuQUgb 
 the philosophers write of one only thing, in which arc contained 
 the four elements, and a bod)', a soul, and a spirit ; they thereby 
 insinuate, or give to understand the tincture, after the same has 
 been completely finished ; it must nevertheless be composed iti 
 the beginning of me Gold, and my brother Mercury, we being 
 the male and female seed, as has been mentioned ; an J 
 when we are brought to maturity or completed by di- 
 gestion, we then are both that one thing, of which, they 
 write. 
 
 Our Stoxe. — It is no ways thus ; and I have told you before, 
 that it is not possible for you two to perform it, for you two are 
 not one body, but two bodies, and you are in the foundation ojf 
 nature, or radically contrary to each other. But as for me, 
 I have an imperfect body ; a pure, penetrating, tinging, and 
 constant or fixed spirit ; and besides this, a clear, bright, vo- 
 latile, and moveable Mercury ; and am alone capable of what 
 both of you together do indeed boast of, but are not able to per- 
 form it ; for in me is the philosopher's gold, and the mercury 
 of the wise. For this reason the ancients say : our stone is not 
 visible, nor our mercury to be had, but out of the soft uncor- 
 rupted or proper bodies, and neither of the two can be attained 
 without the other ; wherefore I alone do yield the male and 
 female seed, and am wholly an homogeneum ; also am I called an 
 hermaphrodite. 
 
 Richard us Anglus too, witnesses the same of me, saying : 
 the first matter of our stone is called Rebis, that is to say, a 
 thing, which by nature has a double quality or property con- 
 cealed in itself ; and it is likewise called an hermaphrodite, that 
 is, a matter, which. is not easily to be distinguished, whether it 
 
J 58 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 be a male or female ; by reason, that it inclines to both pan 9. 
 Therefore a medicine is made out of a thing, or one thing, which 
 is the water of the body and spirit. This has occasioned the 
 saying, that this medicine has by its enigma's deceived many 
 fools. The art, however, requires but one thing, which is 
 known to every body ; many wish for it, and yet it is but one 
 only thing, or matter ; nothing is to be compared to it, and yet 
 it is mean and cheap ; but for this it ought not to be 
 despised, for it makes and brings forth or completes admirable 
 things. 
 
 Alanus the philosopher says : You operators in this art, you 
 ought to be of a fixed mind in your work, not beginning and 
 trying sometimes with one thing, and sometimes with another ; 
 for the art consists not in multitude of species's, but in body and 
 soul. And for a certain truth, the medicine of our stone is one. 
 thing, one vessel, one composition. For the whole masterpiece 
 of art is begun with one thing, and is ended with one thing; 
 although the philosophers, in order to hide the art, have pre- 
 tended to point out many other ways, as for instance : continual 
 cooking or digestion, mixtion, sublimation, trituration, and 
 siccation, and as many other names or allegories as the same 
 may be named withal. However, the solution of the body is not 
 brought about, but in its own blood. Geber says thus : in the 
 foundation or in the root of the nature of mercury, is sulphur, 
 which perfects it, viz. the mercury, by cooking and digesting it 
 during a long time in the veins of the mines. 
 
 Thus, my dear Gold, with what has been said, you are 
 sufficiently convinced, that it is only in me, and I alone can per- 
 form all, without the assistance of you and all your brothers ; 
 nor do I want you any ways, although all of you want me, or 
 have occasion for me : for I can perfect you all, and bring you to 
 a higher degree, than what you arc by nature. Then the Gold 
 grew angry, and not knowing any more what to answer, con- 
 sulted with its brother Mercury, and agreed upon this, that they 
 would assist one another, who being two in number, and our 
 Stone but single, they, because they could get no advantage 
 upon it by disputing, would by their double power destroy it or 
 kill it by the sword. 
 
 But when the fight began, our Stone issued strength or power, 
 and destroyed and conquered them both ; and swallowed them 
 in such a manner, that nothing at all was to be seen of them ; nor 
 what was become of them. 
 
 Thus, you n y dearly beloved, who fear God, you have here 
 a true and sufficient narrative or instruction to understand the 
 foundation or root of the highest and most precious 
 treasure. For no philosopher did ever declare himself so 
 plain and openly. 
 
 You therefore want nothing else, but that you pray to God 
 that he may £rant you to attain to such a dear and precious 
 
Hie Victorious Stone, 159 
 
 jewel. Next to this quicken your thoughts, and read with pru- 
 dence, work with diligence, and haste not in the preparation of 
 this precious work ; ior it must have its natural time, or its time 
 ordained by nature, like fruit on a tree, or grapes on a vine. 
 Be likewise of a good will and intention, or else the Lord will 
 grant you nothing ; for God gives it to those, who desire to dp 
 good with it, and takes it or detains it from such as would empjoy 
 it to ill uses. 
 
 The Lord give you his Blessing. Amen; 
 
 :' 
 
EIRENJEUS ' IMIILALETHES. 
 
 Secrets rcteuicd. Of the appearances in th-c Jfatras 
 during the nine months digestion. 
 
 Having prepared our sol and our mercury. Shut them in our 
 vessel and govern them with our fire, and within forty days thou 
 fahalt see thy whole matter turned into a shadow or atoms, 
 without any visible mover or motion, or without any heat 
 perceptible to the touch, save only that it is hot. But if you 
 be yet ignorant both of our sol and our mercury, meddle not in 
 this our work, for expenee only will be thy lot, and no gain 
 nor profit- But if only thou want the full discovery of our 
 sun, having thoroughly attained the skill of our mercury, and 
 knowest how to fit it to the perfect body, which is a great 
 mystery. Then take of sol vulgar well purified one part, and of. 
 our mercury first illuminated three parts, join them as was before 
 taught, and set them to the fire, giving a heat in which it may 
 boil and sweat; let it be circulated day and night without 
 ceasing ; for the space of ninety days and nights, and thou 
 shalt see in that space, that thy mercury will have divided 
 and rc-conjoined all the elements of thy gold ; boil it then other 
 fifty days, and thou shalt see in this operation thy sol vulgar 
 turned in-to our sol, which is a medicine of the first order; 
 thus doth it become our true sulphur, but it is not yet a tey- 
 ning tincture. Trust me, many philosophers have wrought this 
 way, and attained the truth, yet it is a most tedious way, and it 
 is for the grandees of the earth. Moreover when thou hast got 
 diis sulphur, do not think thou hast the stone, but only its true 
 matter ; which in an imperfect thing thou mayest seek, and find 
 it in a week, with our easy, but rare way, which jCrod hath re- 
 served for his poor contemned and abject saints. Of this thing 
 I have now determined to write much, although in the beginning 
 of this book, I decreed to bury this in silence ; for here lies the 
 knot on which the grand sophism of all the adepti is built. — 
 iSome write concerning so] and luna vulgar, and they write true ; 
 and again others deny sol and luna vulgar, and they also say 
 true. I being now moved with charity, will reach forth my 
 hand, and therein I dare appeal to all the adepti that eyer wrote, 
 and tax them all with envy, yea, and I myself that had resolved 
 to tread in that same path of envy, but that God did inforce me 
 beyond what I intended, to whom be everlasting praise. I say 
 then that each way is true, for it is but one way in the end, but 
 
Philakthes. 1G1 
 
 not in the beginning ; for our whole secret is in our mercury » 
 rnul in our sol; our mercury is our way, and without it 
 nothing is done; our sol also is not sol vulgar, yet in sol vulgar 
 is our sol, else how could metals be homogeneal ? If then thou 
 know how to illuminate our mercury as it ought to be, thou mayest 
 for want of our sol join with gold vulgar, but yet know that the 
 preparation of the mercury ought to be different for the one, 
 and for the other, and in a true regimen of them, in a hundred 
 and fifty days, thou shalt have our sol, for our sol naturally comes 
 out of our mercury : if then sol vulgar be by our mercury divided 
 into its elements, and afterwards joined, all the mixture, by the 
 help of the fire, will become our sol, which then being joined 
 with that mercury, which we prepared, and call our virgins 
 milk, by reiterate decoction it will give all the signs which the 
 philosophers have described, in such a fire as they have written 
 in their books. But now if you shall in your decoction of sol 
 vulgar, though it be most pure, use that same mercury which is 
 used in our sol, though both flow from one root in general, and 
 apply that regimen of heat, which the wisemen in their books 
 have applied to our stone, thou art without all doubt in an erro- 
 neous way, and that is the great labyrinth in which almost all 
 young practitioners are entangled, for there is scarce one philo- 
 sopher who in his writings doth not touch both ways ; which is 
 indeed but one way fundamentally, only one is more direct to the 
 mark than the other : they then that do write of luna vulgar, as 
 we sometimes in this treatise, so also Artephius, Flamel and 
 Ripley, with many others; we are not otherwise to be under- 
 stood, but that our philosophical sol is to be made out of sol 
 vulgar and our mercury, which then by reiterate liquefaction, will 
 give a sulphur and argent vive, fixt and incombustible, and whose 
 tincture will abide all trials ; also in this sense, our stone is in 
 -every metal or mineral, forasmuch as sol vulgar may be ex- 
 tracted out of them, and out of that sol our sol may be made, as 
 being nearer in it than any metal. So then our stone is in all 
 metals, but in our sol and luna nearer than in any other ; there- 
 fore, saith Flamel, some wrought it in jupiter, some in saturn ; 
 but I wrought it in sol, and there I found it. Yet there is in 
 the metallic kingdom one thing of a miraculous original, in which 
 our sol is nearer to be sought than in sol and luna vulgar, if it be 
 sought in the hour of its nativity; which melts in our mercury 
 like ice in warm water, and yet it hath a resemblance with 
 gold : this is not to be found in the manifestation of sol vulgar, 
 but by revealing that which is hidden in our mercury ; the same 
 thing may be found by digestion of sol vulgar in our mercury 
 for the space of an hundred and fifty days. This is our gold, 
 sought the farthest way about, which is not yet of so great a 
 virtue as that which nature hath made and left to our hands % 
 yet turning the wheel thrice, each comes to one end, yet with this 
 difference, what thou findest in the ojie in seven months, thou 
 
 u 
 
16S Alchemical T-, cat tees. 
 
 must wait for in the latter the space of a year and a half or it. 
 may be two years. I am acquainted with both ways, and com- 
 mend the first to all ingenious men, but in my descriptions I 
 have most touched the hardest way, lest I should draw on my 
 head the anathema of all philosophers ; know then, that this is 
 the only difficulty, in reading the books of those that are most 
 candid, that all, one as well as the other, do vary the regimen, 
 and when they write one Work they set down the regimen of 
 another, in which snare I was entangled myself at first, and it 
 was long before I could get free out of this net. Thirdly and 
 lastly, there is a mixt work, where sol vulgar is mixt with our 
 mercury in a due proportion, and a ferment of our sulphur is 
 added as much as is sufficient ; then are fulfilled all the miracles 
 of the world, and the elixir becomes able to furnish the possessor 
 both with riches and health : seek then our sulphur with all thy 
 might, which, believe me, thou shaft find in our mercury. — 
 lake then that mercury which I have described, and unite with 
 sol to which it is most friendly, and in seven months, in our 
 true regimen of heat, thou shalt for certain see all which thou 
 desirest, or in nine months, or ten at the most ; but our luna in 
 its full thou shalt see in five mouths: and these are the true 
 periods of these sulphurs, out of which, by reiterate decoction, 
 thou shalt have our stone and permanent tinctures, through the 
 grace of God, to whom be all glory and honour for ever. 
 
 2. If thou shalt work in sol or luna to find our sulphur in 
 them, consider if you see this matter like to paste, and to boil like 
 unto water, or rather to melted pitch ; for our sol and mercury 
 have an emblematical type in sol vulgar, joined with, and de- 
 cocted in our mercury. When thou hast kindled thy furnace, 
 wait for the space of twenty days and nights, in which time 
 thou shalt observe divers colours, and about the end of the 
 fourth week, if the fire be continual, thou shalt see a most 
 amiable greeuness, which will be seen for about ten days, less 
 or more, then rejoice, for without doubt in a short time thou 
 shalt see it like unto a coal in blackness, and all the members of 
 thy compound shall be turned into atoms, for the operation is 
 no other than a resolution of the fixt in that which is not fixt, 
 that afterwards both being joined together, may make one 
 matter ; partly spiritual, and partly corporeal : therefore saith the 
 philosopher, take the corascene dog and bitch of Armenia, join 
 them together, and they shall beget thee a son of the colour of the 
 heaven ; for these natures, in a short decoction, shall, be turned 
 into a broth, like unto the foam of the sea, or like a thick cloud, 
 which shall be tinctured with a livid colour ; and once more I 
 may assure thee, that I have not hidden any thing, save only 
 the regimen, and this, if thou art wise, thou shalt easily collect 
 from my lines: supposing then that thou wilt learn the regimen ; 
 take the stone which I have told you of before, and govern it as 
 you know how, und there shaU follow these notable things ; 
 
Philalethes. 163 
 
 first, as soon as our stone shall feel the fire, it shall flow, its 
 .sulphur and its mercury together upon the fire like to wax, and 
 the sulphur shall be burned, and the colour shall change day 
 by day ; but the mercury is incombustible, only it shall be 
 affected with the colours of the sulphur for a time, but it 
 cannot be radically affected, therefore it will wash latton clean 
 from all its filth ; reiterate the heaven upon the earth, so long 
 and so often, until the earth receive a spiritual and heavenly 
 nature. Q blessed nature, which doth that which is impossible 
 for man to do 1 therefore when in thy glass thou shalt see thy 
 natures to be mingled like unto a coagulated and burnt blood, 
 know that then the female is embraced by the male ; therefore 
 after the first stirring up of the matter, expect that in seven- 
 teen days thy two natures shall be turned into a bloody or fatted 
 broth, which shall be turned round together, like unto a thick 
 cloud, or the scum of the sea, as is before said ; and the colour 
 of it will be exceeding obscure ; then be sure that the kingly 
 child is conceived, and from that time thou shalt see vapours, 
 green, blue, black and yellow, in the air, and at the sides of 
 the vessel. These are those winds, which in the forming of 
 our embryon, are very frequent, which are to be kept warily, 
 lest they fly out, and the work be destroyed ; beware also of the 
 odour, lest it happen to exhale at any chink ; for the virtue of 
 the stone would thereby get a most notable detriment ; therefore 
 the philosopher commands to keep the vessel close sealed, 
 and beware that you do not break off' abruptly from the work ; 
 neither open nor move the vessel, nor yet intermit the operation 
 not an hour, but continue the decoction till you see the mois- 
 ture begin to fail, which will be in about thirty days ; then re- 
 joice, and rest assured that thou art in the right way. Attend 
 the work vigilantly, for in about two weeks from the time, thou\ 
 shalt see the whole earth dry and notably black, then is the 
 death of thy compound at hand, the winds are ceased, and all 
 are at rest and quietness. This is the fatal eclipse of the sun and 
 of the moon, when no lighc shall shine upon the earth, and the 
 sea shall vanish, then is made our chaos, out of which, at the 
 command of God, shall proceed all the miracles of the world in 
 their orders. 
 
 3. The burning of the flowers is an error of fatal consequence, 
 yet soon committed before the natures which are tender are 
 extracted from their profundity ; they are oftentimes burnt; this 
 error is chiefly to be heeded after the three weeks ; for in the 
 beginning there is so much moisture, that if the work be governed 
 by a stronger fire than is convenient, the vessel being brittle will 
 not bear the abundance of winds, but will suddenly fly in pieces, 
 unless the glass be too large, and then sure the vapours will be 
 so out of measure dispersed, that they will hardly return again 
 to their body, at least not so much as is necessary for the re- 
 freshment sf the stone. But so soon as the earth shall begin to 
 
164 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 retain part of its water, then the vapours decreasing, the fire 
 mav be strengthened without danger of the vessel ; but the work 
 will nevertheless be destroyed, and will have a colour of a wild 
 poppy, and the whole compound will at length become a dry 
 and unprofitable powder, of a half red colour. Thou shalt con- 
 clude from this sign, that thy fire hath been too strong, so 
 strong, to wit, as to hinder true conjunction ; for know, that 
 our work doth require a true change of natures, which cannot 
 be until an entire union of both principles be made ; but they 
 cannot be united but in the form of water, for bodies may be 
 confounded or blended together, but cannot be united, nor yet 
 can any body with a spirit be united per minima ; but spirits 
 with spirits may well be united, therefore our operations must 
 become homogeneal metallic water ; the way to which solution 
 is our foregoing true calcination, which therefore is not an 
 exsiccation properly, but a kind grinding of water and earth, into 
 atoms ; which when they become more subtle than the exigen- 
 cies of the earth requires, earth is then actually transmuted into, 
 and doth receive the form of water ; but if the fire be too 
 vehement, this spiritual nature being struck as with a fatal 
 stroke, our active will become passive, of spiritual corporeal, 
 even a red unprofitable precipitate, for in a due heat the colour 
 will be as black as that of the crow, which though it be dark, 
 yet it is most desirable ; yet there is also a redness which will 
 appear in the beginning of the true work, and that very re- 
 markable, but this is ever accompanied with a due proportion of 
 moisture, and sheweth that heaven and earth have been in con- 
 junction, between which the fire of nature is conceived ; by 
 which redness all the concave of the glass will seem as it were 
 gilt over with gold, but this colour is not durable long, but in a 
 short space will be changed into a greenness, then in a very short 
 time expect blackness ; and if thou wilt be patient, thou for 
 certain shalt see thy desire accomplished, at least make slow, but 
 sure progress. Let not thy heat be over strong, and yet strong 
 enough, and between Scilla and Charybdis sail like unto a skilful 
 pilot, so shalt thou attain the wealth of cither India ; some- 
 times thou shalt see as it were little Islands floating, and shoot- 
 ing out as it were little sprigs and buds, which will be change- 
 able in colours, which soon will be melted and others will arise 
 in the stead of them ; for the earth as inclining to a ve- 
 getation, is always sending forth some new thing or other; — 
 sometimes thy fancy will be that thou seest in thy glass birds or 
 beasts, or creeping things, and thou shalt each day behold co- 
 lours most beautiful to sight, which though they are pleasant 
 to the eye, are not of a long continuance ; all is hi the keeping 
 of a due heat without any intermission. So shall all these 
 pleasant colours in the space of fifty days end in a colour most 
 black, and a powder discontinuous, which if thou seest not, 
 blame either thy mercury or thy regimen, or the disposition of 
 
Philahilics. 165 
 
 the matter, unless thou either hast moved or meddled 
 ■with the glass, which may either protract or finally destroy 
 the work. 
 
 4. As man}' of the wise men as have wrote of this master-piece 
 of philosophy) have all spoken of the regimen of Saturn, which 
 many, understanding wrongs have turned aside unto divers er- 
 rors, and deceived themselves with their own opinion; some 
 being thus led with a great deal of confidence, although with 
 very little advantage. But know that our Saturn is more 
 noble than any Gold ; it is the Limus in which the soul of our 
 Gold is joined with its Mercury, that after they may produce 
 Adam and Eve his wife ; therefore that which is the highest, 
 shall so humble itself as to become the lowest, then expect 
 that he will redeem all his brethren by his blood. The sepulchre 
 in which our King is buried, is named Saturn in our work, and 
 it is the key of the w r ork of transmutation ; O happy is he that 
 may behold this slow planet ! Pray to God, my brother, that 
 he would vouchsafe to you his blessing ; for it is not of him that 
 willeth, nor of him runneth, but on the Father of Lights alone, 
 this blessing dependeth. 
 
 5. Be certainly confident, studious son of art, whoever thou 
 art, that nothing is hidden in this work, save only the regimen, 
 ofwhioh, that of the philosopher may be verified, whoever is 
 master of that science, princes and grandees of the earth shall 
 honor him. I assure you, upon the word of an honest man, 
 that if this one secret were but openly discovered, fools them- 
 selves would deride the art ; for that being known, nothing re- 
 mains but the work of women, and the play of children, and" 
 that is decoction. So that not without cause did the wise men 
 hide this secret with all their might. And rest assured that 
 we have done the same, whatever we have seemed to speak con- 
 cerning the degree of heat : yet because I did promise candour 
 in this treatise, something at the least is to be done, that I may 
 not deceive the ingenious of their hope and pains. Know 
 then, that our regimen, from the beginning to the end, is only 
 lineal, and that is to decoct and to digest, and yet this one 
 regimen in itself comprehends many others, which the envious 
 have concealed, by giving them divers names, and describing as 
 so many several operations. We, to perform the candour we 
 promised, will make a Far more perspicuous manifestation. So 
 that, Reader, whoever thou art, if ingenious, thou shalt 
 find cause to acknowledge our candidness in this to be more than 
 ordinary. 
 
 6. And in the first place, we shall treat of the regimen of 
 mercury, which is a secret hitherto not discovered by any phi- 
 losophers ; for they verily do begin their work at the second 
 regimen, and do give a young practitioner no light in the mas- 
 tery of the capital signs of blackne^ ; in this point, that good 
 Marquis of Treviso was silejitj noble Bernard, who in his pa- 
 
166 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 rabies saith, " That the King, when he came to the Fountain. 
 ** leaving all strangers behind him, enters the Bath alone, clothed, 
 * 4 in golden robes, which he puts off, and gives to Saturn, his 
 " first Chamberlain, from whom he receiveth a black velvet 
 " suit." But he sheweth not how long the interval of time is, 
 before he plucks off his golden garment, and therefore he 
 passeth over in silence the first and most intricate regimen, which 
 is perhaps forty or fifty days ere it be fully complete ; in which 
 time the poor practitioner is left to uncertain experiments ; from 
 the appearing of blackness until the very end of the work, the 
 sights that do appear are sufficient to refresh the artist, but in 
 this space to wander without a guide or direction, for the space 
 of fifty days, I confess is tedious. I say then, that from the 
 second kindling of the fire, even until blackness, all the inter- 
 val of time is the regimen of our mercury, even of our sophical 
 mercury, which all that time doth work alone, his companion 
 being dead at first, and so remains a great space ; and this secret 
 before me no man ever yet discovered. Therefore when thy 
 matters are joined, which are our Sol and our Mercury, do not 
 think, as some alchemists vainly imagine, that the setting of the 
 Sun will follow suddenly, no verily, we w r aited a long and te- 
 dious while before a reconciliation was made betwixt the water 
 and the fire ; and this the envipus have in a short speech mys- 
 tically comprehended, when they in the first beginning of their 
 work, called their matter Rebis, that is, made of two substances^ 
 according to the poet, 
 
 Res Eebis est bina covjuncta, sed est tamen una 
 Solvitur, tit prima sint ant Sol aid Spermata Luna. 
 
 Rebis are two things joined, yet is but one 
 Dissolved, that Sol or Lune be Sperm alone. 
 
 For know of an undoubted truth, that though our Mercury 
 devour the Gold, yet it doth it not so as chemical phantastics 
 dream ; for although the Gold join with our Mercury, yet a 
 year after you shall separate each from the other in its own na- 
 ture, unless you decoct them together in a convenient degree of 
 lire, otherwise they wiil not be altered ; he who will affirm the 
 contrary, is no philosopher. They who wander in errors 
 path, do dream that it is a matter of very light concernment to 
 dissolve the perfect bodies in our Mercury, insomuch, that ac- 
 cording to their imaginations, Gold in this will be devoured 
 in the twinkling of an eye ; not well understanding the place 
 vA' Bernard Trevisan, in his parable concerning his Golden 
 Book irrecoverably drowned in his Fountain. But how hard a 
 work it is to dissolve bodies, they can witness who have taken 
 pains in this dissolution. ^ myself, who have been oft taught 
 this lesson by ocular testimony, can be a witness, that k is « 
 
PhiUilethes. 167 
 
 most ingenious thing to govern the fire, even after the matter 
 is prepared, such a lire as may dissolve the bodies as they ought 
 to be dissolved, without burning their tinctures. Attend then 
 to my doctrine : take the body which I have shewed you, and 
 put it into the water of our sea, and decoct it continually with a, 
 due heat of fire, that both dews and clouds may ascend, and 
 drops may descend, both night and day, without intermission ; 
 and know, that in this circulation the Mercury doth arise in its 
 former nature, and leaves the body beneath in its former nature, 
 so long until after a long time the body begins to retain part of 
 its soul, so by degrees both begin to partake each of the other, but 
 because the whole water doth not ascend by sublimation, part 
 of it remains below in the bottom of the vessel, therefore is 
 the body boiled in the water that remains beneath, and by its 
 means it is sifted, and the drops which are continually running 
 down do perforate the mass marvelously, and by continual cir- 
 culation the water is made more subtle, and doth sweetly extract 
 the soul of the Sun ; so by the mediation of the soul the spirit 
 is reconciled with the body, and an union of both is made at 
 the utmost within fifty days; and this operation is called the 
 regimen of Mercury, because the Mercury is circulated above, 
 and in it the body of the Sun is boiled beneath, and the body is 
 in his work passive, until the colours shall appear, which will 
 be a little about the twentieth day in a good and continual 
 ebullition ; which colours are afterwards increased, multiplied 
 and varied, until all be at last completed in black of the blackest 
 most black, which the fiftieth day will give thee, 
 
 (If Fates thee call.) 
 7. Having run through the regimen of Mercury, which is to 
 strip the King of his golden robes, to assault the Lion with di- 
 vers conflicts, to weary him, and at length to kill him; the next 
 regimen that appears is that of Saturn, for it is the will of God 
 that the work, when once it is begun, should be carried on even 
 unto the end, and the law of those operations is, that the ending 
 of one, is the entrance of another ; the period of one, the begin- 
 ning of another. Nor doth the regimen of Mercury sooner pass 
 away, but his successor Saturn comes in, who is the next heir 
 in succession ; the Lion dying, the Crow is engendered. This 
 regimen lineal in respect of the colour, for there is but one 
 only colour, and that is the blackest black, but neither fumes, 
 nor winds, nor any symbol of life, only the compound, will 
 at some seasons appear dry, otherwhiles boiling like to melted 
 pitch. O sad sight, the image of eternal death ! But withal a 
 most pleasant messenger to the artist, for the blackness is not 
 ordinary intense, so that it shines again for blackness ; and when 
 thou seest thy matter swelling beneath, like unto a paste, rejoice; 
 for know, that within this there is shut a quickening spirit, 
 which in its appointed time, will restore life from the Almighty 
 to these carcases* Be thou, only careful of the fire, which tho-j. 
 
16S Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 must be sure to govern with a sound judgment, and I swear unto 
 thee upon the faith of an honest man, that if thou urge thy 
 fire, so as to make ought to sublime, in the days of this regi- 
 men, thou wilt destroy the work irrecoverably ; be' content 
 then, with good Trevisan, to be detained in prison forty days 
 and nights, and suffer the tender nature to remain below in the 
 bottom, which is the nest of their conception ; knowing for 
 certain then, that when the period of time is expired, which 
 the Almighty hath appointed, the spirit will arise glorious, and 
 glorify its body ; it will ascend, I say, and be circulated swcetly r 
 and without violence, and from the centre it shall ascend unto 
 the heavens, and again from the heavens it shall descend to 
 the centre, and it shall receive the virtue of that which is above, 
 and that which is beneath. 
 
 8. After black saturn, jupiteu, succeeds, who is of divers* 
 colours ; for after the putrefaction and corruption which is made 
 in the bottom of the vessel, through the command of God thou 
 shalt again see change of colours, and a circulating sublimation. 
 This regimen is not durable, for it continues not more than three 
 weeks space ; in which time, all colours imaginable in the world 
 will be to be seen, of which, no certain account can possibly be 
 Tendered. In these days the showers shall be multiplied con- 
 tinually, and at the last, after all these things most beautiful 
 to behold, there shall shew itself a whiteness at the sides of the 
 vessel, like unto rays or hairs, then rejoice, for now thou art 
 liappily run through the regimen of Jupiter. The greatest cau- 
 tion in this regimen is, lest when the chickens of the crow have 
 left their nest, they return to it again ; also, lest you draw out 
 the water too immoderately, so the earth beneath want it, and 
 be left dry and unprofitable in the bottom ; lastly, lest thou wa- 
 terest thy earth so intempcrately as to suffocate it, which 
 error thou shalt help by the good regimen of external 
 fire. 
 
 9. In the regimen of Luna. After the finishing of Jupiter's 
 Tegimen, about the closing of the fourth month, the sign of 
 the moon crescent shall appear unto thee ; and know, that the 
 whole regimen of Jupiter is employed about the washing of 
 Latton, the washing spirit is very white in its nature, but the 
 body which is to be washed is very black, in the passage whereof 
 to white, all the middle colours shall be seen ; after which, all 
 will become white, not in a day, but gradually it shall arise 
 from white to the whitest of all ; and know, that in thi* 
 operation, there shall be a season in which all shall appear 
 Eke to liquid Argent Vive, and this is called, the sealing of the 
 mother in the belly of her own infant which she brought forth ; 
 a'hd in this regimen there shall also appear some beautiful 
 colours, but momentary and soon vanishing, and more of kin to 
 white than unto black, as the colours in the regimen of Jupiter 
 
Philuletltes. 169 
 
 contrariwise partieipated more of blackness than whiteness ; 
 also know, that in three weeks the regimen of Luna will be 
 complete,, but before its perfection the compound shall change 
 in a thousand forms : for when the fumes begin to cease, before 
 it be wholly congealed, it will melt and grow Hard again an 
 hundred times in a day ; sometimes it will appear like to the 
 eyes of a fish, sometimes like to a pure silver tree shining with 
 branches and leaves ; in a word, about this season the hourly 
 marvels that shall appear, shall overwhelm the sight, and at the 
 last thou shalt have most pure sparkling grains like unto atoms 
 of the tSun, more glorious than which human eyes never saw. 
 Let us give immortal thanks to our God, who hath brought the 
 work to this perfection ; for it is the true perfect tincture to 
 the white, yet only of the first order, and therefore but of small 
 virtue, in comparison of that admirable force which it will attain 
 by reiterate preparation, 
 
 10- In the regimen of Venus. Above all things this is most 
 wonderful, that our Stone being now wholly perfect, and able 
 to give a perfect tincture, should of his own accord again abase 
 himself, and become again volatile without any laying on of 
 hands. But if you take the white stone out of the vessel, the 
 same being put again into a new vessel, after it is once cold, 
 can never be brought into a new operation ; a demonstrative 
 reason of which, neither we nor any of the ancient philosopher.--, 
 are able to render, only it is done by the will of God ; at least 
 here be very wary of your fire, for this is the law of the stone 
 when it is perfect, that it must be fusible. Therefore if you give 
 too great a heat, the matter will be vitrified, and melting will 
 adhere to the sides of the vessel ; nor canst thou then go on 
 any farther with the work. And this is the vitrifying of the 
 matter so often warned of by the philosophers, which oft hap- 
 pens to them which are unwary both before and after the white 
 work is even ended, to wit, after the middle of the regimen of 
 Luna, until the seventh or tenth day of the rule of Venus. 
 Therefore let thy fire be increased but a very little, so that the 
 compound may not vitrify, that is, to be melted passively like 
 to glass ; but with a bounteous fire, it may of its' own accord 
 melt, and swell, and by the command of God it shall be en- 
 dued with a spirit, that shall fly aloft, and the stone to fly with 
 it. ' It shall thus give thee new colours, the green at first, 
 which is of Venus, which shall last a long time less or more 
 for the space of twenty days ; expect after this Cerule ami 
 Livid, and about the end of the rule of Venus pale and 
 obscure purple, be heedful in this work that thou do not pro- 
 voke the spirit too urgently, for being now more corporal thaii 
 formerly, if it do fly to the top of the vessel, it will 
 hardly return of its own accord ; which caution is also to be 
 observed in the rule of Luna. When once thou seest the spirits 
 to thicken, then handle them sweetly and without violence* 
 
 x 
 
170 Alclicmical Treatises. 
 
 lest if thou makest them to ascend to the top, that which is ill 
 the bottom be either burnt or vitrified, to the destruction of the 
 work ; when then thou seest greenness, know that in it is the 
 virtue germinative contained. Beware then that this greenness 
 turn not into a filthy blackness with immoderate heat, but 
 govern thy fire prudently ; so after forty days thou shalt see this 
 regimen at an end. 
 
 11. After the rule of Venus is ended, whose colour was chiefly 
 vert or green, and a little red of an obscure purple, and some- 
 times livid ; in which time the philosophical tree did flourish 
 with boughs and with discoloured leaves and branches, next suc- 
 ceeds the reign of Mars, which shews a little yellow, mixed 
 with luteous brownness ; these are the chief colours, but tran- 
 sitory ones of the rain-bow and peacock's-tail, it shews most 
 gloriously; this is a dry state of the compound, in which the 
 compound will appear at times in strange figures ; the hyacinth 
 and high orange colour in these days will be seen frequently. 
 Now the mother being sealed in her infant's belly, swells and is 
 purified, but because of the present great purity of the com- 
 pound, no putridness can have place in this regimen, but some 
 obscure colours play their part as the chief actors in this stone, 
 and some middle colours do pass and come, pleasant to behold. 
 Now know, that this is the last tillage of our virgin eartji, that 
 in it the fruit of the sun might be set and maturated ; therefore 
 continue a good heat, aud thou shalt see lor certain, about thirty 
 days ofli this regimen, a citrine colour shall appear, which 
 shall in two weeks after its first appearing, tinge all with a true 
 citrine colour. 
 
 12. Now art thou drawing near to the end of thy work, and 
 hast almost made an end of this business ; now all the regimen 
 of Sol appears like to pure gold, and the virgin's milk, with 
 which thou imbibest this matter, is now very citrine. Now to 
 God, the giver of all good, you must render immortal thanks, 
 who hath brought this work on so far, and beg earnestly of him, 
 that thy counsel may hereafter be so governed, that thou rriayes't 
 not endeavour to hasten thy work now it is so near perfection, so 
 as to lose all. Consider that thou hast waited now about seven 
 months, and it would be a mad thing to annihilate all in one 
 hour; therefore be thou very wary, yea, so much the more by 
 how much thou art nearer to perfection. But if you do pro- 
 ceed warily in ihis re£imen, thou shalt meet with these notable 
 things, first, thoii shalt observe a certain citrine sweat to stand 
 upon the body, and fetter that citrine vapours, then shall thy 
 body below" be tinctured of a violet colour, with an obscure pur- 
 ple intermixt ; after fourteen or fifteen days expectation, in this 
 regimen of the Sun, thou shalt sec the greatest part of thy matter 
 humid, and although it be very ponderous, yet it will ascend hi 
 the belly of the wind; at length, about the twenty -sixth day of 
 this regimen, it will begin to dry, and then it will liquify an4 
 
Philahthes. 171 
 
 rceongeal, and will grow liquid again an hundred times in a 
 day, until at the last it begin to turn into grains, and sometimes 
 it will seem as if it were all discontinuous in grain, and then 
 again it will grow into one mass again, and thus will it put on 
 innumerable forms in one day ; and this will continue for the 
 space of about two weeks ; at the last, by the will of God, a 
 light sh.ill be sent upon thy matter, which thou canst not ima- 
 gine ; then expect a sudden end, within three days thou shalt 
 see, that thy matter shall convert itself into grains, as fine as 
 the atoms of the Sun, and the colour will be the highest red 
 imaginable, which for its transcendant redness will shew blackish, 
 like unto the soundest blood when it is congealed, although thou 
 mnyest not believe that any such thing can be an exact parallel 
 of our elixir, for it is a marvellous creature, not having its 
 compeer in the whole universe, nor any thing exactly 
 like it. 
 
 13. Remember now, that thou hast got our Sulphur red and 
 incombustible, which can by no fire be promoted further of 
 itself, and be very wary, that in the regimen of the citrine sun, 
 before this supernatural Sol be born, which is adorned with a 
 true Tynan colour ; lest, I say, thou then vitrify thy matter with 
 too great fire, for so it would be after insoluble, and by con- 
 sequence cannot be coagulated into these glorious atoms, red of 
 the reddest. Be wary then that thou destroy not so great a 
 treasure, and yet do not think that thy labour here hath an 
 end, but proceed further, that out of this Sulphur, by 
 reiterate solution and coagulation, thou mayest have our elixir. 
 Take then of most fine Gold three parts, and of this Sulphur 
 one part, thou mayest take four parts of Gold, and a fifth part 
 of our Sulphur, but the aforesaid proportion is better ; melt the 
 Gold in a clean crucible, and when it is melted, put thy Sulphur 
 into it, but very warily, lest you lose it by the smoak of the 
 coals, let them flow together, then put them forth into an 
 ingot, and thou shalt have a mass, which may be pulverised, 
 of a most glorious red colour, but hardly transparent ; then 
 take of this mass exactly pulverised one part, of thy sophical 
 Mercury two parts, mix them well, put them in a glass, which 
 seal, and govern it as before two months, in which time thou 
 shalt see all the aforesaid regimens pass in their order. 
 This is true fermentation, which thou mayest, if thou wilt, 
 reiterate. 
 
 14. 1 know that many authors do take fermentation in this 
 work for the internal invisible agent, which they call ferment, 
 by whose virtue the fugitive and subtile spirit, without laying 
 on of hands, are of their own accord thickened : and our afore- 
 mentioned way of fermentation they call cibation with bread 
 and milk, so Ripley ; but I, not using to cite other authors, 
 nor yet to swear to their words in a thing, which I myself 
 
172 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 know as well as they, have followed my own judgment in my 
 writings. There is then another operation, by which our 
 stone is increased in weight more than virtue. Take of thy 
 Sulphur, white or red, and to three parts of the Sulphur add a 
 fourth part of the water, and after a little blackness, in six or 
 seven days decoction, thy water newly added shall be increased 
 or thickened, like unto thy Sulphur ; then add another fourth 
 part, not in respect of the whole compound, which is now in- 
 creased a fourth part by the first imbibition ; but in reference to 
 thy first Sulphur, as thou tookest it at first, which being dried, 
 add another fourth part, and let it be congealed with a conve- 
 nient fire, then put to it two parts of the water in reference to the 
 fhree parts of the Sulphur which thou tookest at first, before the 
 first imbibition, and in this proportion, imbibe and congeal three 
 other times, at last add five parts of water in the seventh imbi- 
 bition, still remembering to reckon the water in reference to the 
 Sulphur as it was taken at first ; seal thy vessel, and in a fire 
 like to the former make thy compound pass through all the 
 aforesaid regimens, which will be done in one month, and then 
 thou hast the true stone of the third order ; of which one part 
 will fall on a thousand, and tinge perfectly. 
 
 15. To the multiplication of the stone is required no labour, 
 save only that thou take the stone, being perfect, and join it 
 with three parts, or at the most with four parts of Mercury of 
 our first work, and govern it with a due fire, in a vessel well 
 closed, so shall all the regimens pass with infinite pleasure, and 
 thou shalt have the whole increased a thousand fold beyond what 
 it was before the multiplication of it; and if thou shalt reiterate 
 this work again, in three days thou shalt run through all the 
 regimens, and thy medicine shall be exalted to another millinary 
 •virtue of tincture; and if thou yet shalt reiterate the work, it 
 will be perfected in a natural day, and all the regimens and 
 colours shall pass, which will be done afterwards with another 
 reiteration in one hour, nor shalt thou at last be able to find 
 the extent of the virtue of thy stone, it shall be so great that it 
 ^hall pass thy ingenuity to reckon it, if that thou proceed in the 
 work of reiterate multiplication. Now remember to render im- 
 mortal thanks to God, for thou now hast the whole treasure of 
 nature in thy possession. 
 
 16. The manner of projection is to take of thy stone per- 
 fected as is said, white or red, according to the quality of the 
 medicine, take of either gold or silver four parts, melt them 
 in a clean- crucible, then put in of thy stone, white or red, as 
 the metal that is melted is in quality, and being well mixed to- 
 gether in fusion, pour them into an ingot, and thou shalt have 
 a mass which is brittle ; take of this mass one part, and Mercury 
 well washed ten parts, heat the Mercury till it begin to crack, 
 $hen throw upon it this mixture, which in the twinkling of an 
 eye vvill pierce it; increase thy fire till it be melted, and all will 
 
Philalethes. 173 
 
 be a medicine of inferior virtue ; take then of this, and cast 
 one part upon any metal, purged and melted, to wit, as much 
 as it can tinge, and thou shalt have most pure gold or silver, 
 purer than which nature cannot give. But it is better to make 
 projection gradually, until projection cease ; for so it will extend 
 farther ; for when so little is projected on so much, unless pro- 
 jection be made on Mercury, there is a notable loss of the me- 
 dicine, by reason of the scorias, which do adhere to impure me- 
 tals ; by how much then the metals are better purged before pro- 
 jection, by so much more will the matter succeed. 
 
 17. He who hath once, by the blessing of God, perfectly at- 
 tained this art, I know not what in the world he can wish, but 
 that he may be free from all snares of wicked men, so as to serve 
 God without distraction. But it would be a vain thing, by out- ' 
 ward pomp to seek for vulgar applause, such trifles are not es- 
 teemed by those who have this art, nay rather they despise them. 
 He therefore whom God hath blessed with this talent, hath this 
 field of content, which far exceeds popular admiration ; first, 
 if he should live a thousand years, and every day provide for 
 a thousand men, he could not want, for he may increase his 
 stone at his pleasure, both in weight and virtue; so that, if a 
 man would, one man that is an adeptist, might transmute into 
 perfect gold and silver all the imperfect metals that are in the 
 whole world ; secondly, he may by this art make precious stones 
 and gems, such as cannot be parallelled in nature, for goodness 
 and greatness. Thirdly and lastly, he hath a medicine universal, 
 both for prolonging life, and curing of all diseases, so that 
 one true adeptist can easily cure all the sick people in the-world, 
 I mean his medicine is sufficient. 
 
 Now to the King Eternal, Immortal and sole Almighty, be 
 everlasting praise, for these his unspeakable gifts, and invaluable 
 treasures. Whosoever enjoycth this talent, let him be sure to 
 employ it to the glory of God, and the good of his neighbours, 
 lest he be found ungrateful to God his creditor, who hath blessed 
 him with so great a talent, and so be in the last day found guilty 
 of mi?proving of it, and so condemned. 
 
The Learned Sophies Feast. 
 Eiren. Philalelhes, in Ripley revived. 
 
 Whoever would desire eternal fame, must learn to tame 
 the green lion. Before you can attain this by ait, you must 
 understand it by study, and not that of the schools, or the infor- 
 mation of every pedant. But lest you should go from this ban- 
 quet unsatisfied, I shall portray it to your attentive mind, if you 
 are a worthy guest. This horrid beast, called our lion, has so 
 many names, that unless God direct the searcher, it is impos- 
 sible to distinguish him. Though called a lion, it is not an 
 animal substance ; but for its transcendant force, and the raw- 
 ness of its origin, it is called the green lion. Now hear me, 
 and I shall disclose the secret, which like a rose has been guarded 
 by thorns, so that tew m times past could pull the flower. 
 There is a substance of a metalline species, which looks so 
 cloudy, that the unwise will have nothing to do with it; its 
 visible form is vile — it denies metalline bodies, and no one can 
 readily imagine, that the pearly drink of bright Phoebus should 
 spring from thence. 
 
 O strange and wonderous ! At this spring, Diana sat naked; 
 two dreadful beasts guard it, driving away all rash searchers, as 
 Diana punished Acteon for his presumptuous chase. This sub- 
 ject never felt the fire of metallic sulphur, but is more crucjp 
 than any mineral ; it deludes the unwary, and is fugitive in 
 the fire, particularly the purest part which is driven away bjr 
 that which is impure. 
 
 Its components arc, a most pure and tender mercury, a dry 
 incarcerate sulphur, which binds it and restrains fiuxation. 
 This sulphur infects the mercury with malignant qualities. 
 Although they have no fundamental union, yet the secret com- 
 munion is prevented between the virgin nymph called our lead, 
 &nd her dear sister, which runs down abundantly in silver 
 streams. Then should the beams of bright Apollo cause the 
 dewy of these commixt waters that fall from the high mountains, 
 and glide through the vallies to conceive the fire of nature, 
 which warms the bath for Sol to descend and wash himself 
 with fair Phoebe, till they renew their flesh and youth — to shine 
 with glory, and multiply without end. Know this subject; it is 
 the sure basis of all our secrets ; take off its covering, and fol- 
 low my advice, for the truth is one — it is not in many things ; 
 this is our stone appearing at first in a defiled garb, to deal 
 
 
Philakthes. 175 
 
 plainly, it is the child of Saturn, of moan price and great venom; 
 cold, though mixed with a combustible sulphur. You must be 
 sure to get another sulphur of a pure metalline kind, and mix 
 it with the mercurial part. This sulphur is to be found in 
 the house of Aries. This is Alcides, whom Jason took with 
 him to Colchos, in search of the golden fleece. No book has 
 revealed this. Our subject is not malleable, though metalline. 
 Its colour is sable, with intermixt argent, which marked the 
 sable field with veins of glittering branches. You never can 
 separate the pure parts from the impure with fire or water, or 
 dig it thence with the hardest iron. Steel is conquered by it, 
 though it were the breastplate of Alcides. O wonderous force ; 
 the sages sat in council to tame this green lion, and they suffered 
 him to prey on the companions of Cadmus. When the fight 
 was over, they made him to abide under waters, tiled by the 
 charm of Diana, washed him, gave him wings like a dragon, 
 and the sharpness of this fiery spring of water, caused the harp* 
 strings of Apollo to sound. This is the true nymph's bath, 
 which on trial is found to be the mercury of the wise. 
 
 A TRUE LIGHT OF ALCHEMY, 
 
 See page 89, and Catalogue No. 536, page 107, 
 
 "We are now to unfold the operations and matters by which 
 we attain the tincture. 
 
 It is necessary you should weigh and deliberate on the process 
 of nature, before you proceed to work, else you may spend your 
 money in a vain search. 
 
 The stone you seek, we said and still affirm, is only gold, 
 brought to the highest perfection ; and the art you enquire into, 
 is whereby this firm compacted body is made an unfading ting- 
 ing body. 
 
 This stone cannot be perfected by the mere progress of nature ; 
 for gold has no propensity to move itself so far; but rather 
 choses to remain in its constantly abiding body. He that would 
 attain the essence, must turn gold to dust by art, and then re- 
 lented to mineral water, then circulated in due fire, until the 
 moisture is drank up, and it be fixed. It is then to be im- 
 bibed often and recongealed ; the infant must be sealed in its 
 
176 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 mother's womb, and fed so long till it becomes strong, and abl^ 
 to overthrow its opposcrs : which then being fermented, must 
 abide the doom of iterated blackness, encreasing until the na- 
 tures rot and die, and then thou art to revivify it. Sublime 
 exalt, and make it return to the earth, where it is to remain 
 in heat, until mourning be turned into mirth, and the King 
 is placet! upon his royal throne. Shining like sparkling flame, 
 this is the hidden stone, which we call our sulphur. Multiply 
 this so lona; till you come to the elixir, which like the Judt-e of 
 All at the last day, is a judge of spirits condemning all 
 earthliness. 
 
 It adheres to the perfection which it finds in imperfect metals, 
 and changes them. But if our subject is gold, then we must 
 find an agent to unlock it. If you know how to seek it in its 
 own kind, it will not cost you much to prepare it, for it is a vile 
 matter, defiled by a filthy external. 
 
 Few authors speak of this, and those who do, obscure it as 
 much as they can. But I shall be more candid. 
 
 Attend first to the mystery that lies in our fiery agent. 
 Believe me it is not attained by a dull lazy artist. 
 
 But if you are tractable, ingenious, and laborious, hear- 
 ken to me. 
 
 The substance that we first jtake in hand is mineral — akin to 
 mercury, baked in the earth by a crude sulphur. It is of 
 great inward virtue, though vile to the sight. It is Saturn's 
 child, do you need more ; conceive it aright, for it is our first 
 entrance. It is sable coloured, with argent veins appearing 
 intermixed in the body. The sulphur which is born with it, 
 stains its sparkling hue. It is wholly volatile; nothing of fixity ; 
 yet taken in its native crudity, it purges the superfluity of sol. 
 It is of a venemoufi nature, and abused by many in a medicinal 
 way. When its elements are unloosed by art, the inside. appears 
 resplendent, and flows in the fire like metal, and grows more 
 brittle than any metallic body. This is our dragon, which is 
 assailed by the stout god of war, in armour of well-tempered 
 steel.' But ail in vain, for the appearance of a new star shews 
 that. Cadmus could not abide such might, which divides his soid 
 from his body. When the sages beheld this mighty force, 
 they called it their green lion, which with charms they spelled, 
 and hoped in time to tame his fury. They let him prey on the 
 companions of Cadmus, and found that he devoured them. 
 After the fray was over, behold a morning star was seen to 
 appear out of the earth. Then the carcases were brought to a 
 running spring which was near at hand, whereat the beast was 
 to drink ; but when the beast drew near to it, behold the waters 
 as if afraid retire, nor docs the help of Vulcan avail. Then 
 appeared Diana's dov-\sin shining attire, their pure silver wings 
 calmed the air, in which the infolded dragon lost hss sting. 
 The vater then straight returns with clouds, and swallows up 
 
Philalethcs. 177 
 
 the beast, in which lie drinks until his belly burst; his colour 
 changes to black, and a foul smell fills the fountain, which arises, 
 troin the dead putrifvuig dragon, who finds a grave in the 
 waters ; but he revived through Vulcan's aid, and receives a soul 
 from heaven ; and now these which strove together are recon- 
 ciled, and their united souls leave their bodies. This is the true 
 nymph's bath, our green lion. 
 
 Not to hold you longer iij suspense, I shall unfold these alley 
 gorics, which may perplex the reader — therefore 
 
 Know our son of saturu must be united to a metalline form ; 
 Argent vive alone is the Agent requisite to our work ; but 
 common Argent vive avails not to our stone. It js dead ; but 
 yet desires to be acuated by the salt of nature and true sulphur, 
 which is its only mate. 
 
 The salt is found in satum's offspring ; it is pure underneath, 
 and can penetrate to the metal's centre; it abounds with qualities 
 fitting it to enter the body of sol, and divide it into elements^ 
 and abide with it after it is dissolved. 
 
 Seek the sulphur in the house of Aries; this is the magic fire 
 of the wise, to heat the king's bath ; thou canst prepare it in a 
 week. This fire lies straight closed : you are to unlock it, which 
 jnaybe done in an hour, and afterwards wash it in a shower of 
 silver. It is strange to see a stout and fixed metal that stands a 
 great fire unmelted; nor will mix in flux with any metal, yet 
 is its course by our art made to retrograde, such power this 
 piercing mineral hath. 
 
 The Almighty seals this Jfingly work, to teach the prudent 
 that the royal infant is born here; where after diligent search, 
 they are brought near by the guidance of a star. 
 
 Fools search out our secrets in sordid things, out of kind with 
 what they seek, and therefore find disappointment and ruin. 
 This substance is stellate and incjjned to fly from fire ; 
 it is wholly spiritual ; if you ask why, this may satisfy you — 
 the soul of each is a magnet to the other. 
 
 We call it the child of saturn — our steel, our true herma- 
 phrodite—our moon famed for its brightness — our unripe gold ; 
 for it is a brittle body in appearance and to the touch, and tamed 
 by Vulcan. 
 * If you can mix the soul of it with mercury (philos.) no secret 
 can lie hid from thee. I need not cite authors, for with my 
 own hands I have wrought this mystery. I have often taken 
 council with nature, and reduced the solid body to softness, 
 and out of a gross body, have made a tinging fixed earth un- 
 fadable. I am not alone the discoverer of this, many avow it, 
 Artephius names it, but he conceals the other secret, saying, it 
 is to be sought of God or a master. 
 
 This is the riddle which has so much perplexed the students 
 of this art : upon reading some authors who declare the stone 
 is vile, and so vile, it is cast out in the open way on dunghills 
 
 Y 
 
178 Alcheniica\ Treatises. 
 
 and filthy places, which same we must take for the true 
 ground of our art. No one can live without it; it is applied 
 to sordid uses, &c. &c. All these descriptions denote Mars 
 only, which we know perfectly applies to it, either as the nails 
 of houses or ships, plough irons, sickles, knifes, pots ; tht 
 examples are unlimited, and being broke or worn out, the 
 fragments often lay cast away en dunghills. 
 
 Mars shoeth horses — old stub-nails lie about scarce worth 
 picking up — is there any thing more vile ! 
 
 Aries is the house of Mars, wherein all artists direct you to 
 begin your work — is any thing plainer. 
 
 Belus in the turba of philosophers commands you to join 
 the Fighter with him who does not chose to fight — the God 
 of War is Mars ; assign to him Saturn in union, who delights 
 in peace, whose kingdom is golden ceguominate. 
 
 Then see the second figure -which is placed in the philosopher's 
 true Rosary; (Cabala SajneniumJ the King and Queen robed 
 hold between them our true binary, bearing eight flowers, and 
 without a root ; between them both a bird, undern; ath is the 
 Sun and Moon. The King holds, one flower, the Queen the 
 other, and a third is held in the bird's beak — a stas i formed 
 on the bird's tail, which speaks our secret. The wyiged bird 
 denotes Mercury, joined with the starry earth till both are 
 volatile. 
 
 The ancient sages instruct the eye by figures, rather than the 
 ear by piain words; some of these are so plain, that any fool 
 may gather the meaning couched in them it is so clear. 
 
 Which I have done elsewhere as plain as the light, and refer 
 the studious reader to it, and shall proceed here to teach our 
 water, which few are able to obtain, for drawing out" the secret 
 seed of sol; therefore learn the manner, of this water with all 
 diligence, for it is the ground of our quintessence. Know then 
 that metals have ail one matter, which is no other than mercury. 
 On this foundation is built the first entrance and possibility of 
 transmutation., Hence we conclude that our secret water has 
 the same matter with vulgar 'mercury.' And if our mercury, 
 which we call our living water, be but -unripe gold, then what- 
 ever may be converted into gold by art, must hold such a nature 
 as can be made by art into our argent vive ; and the way to do 
 xiils is the contrivance of our art. 
 
 If lead, or tin, or copper was resolved to a real Mercury, 
 art might cause those waters to appear so changed in their 
 form, that really any or each of all the waters named, might be 
 framed to our sophic mercury. 
 
 But wherefore these pains, when nature has produced a water 
 ready to the artist's hand — on which a form may be induced 
 h\ skill, to command pll our secrets. 
 
 Attend, therefore, to what Mercury wants of our secret 
 
Phil a! et lies. 179 
 
 menstruum. We grant the weight and colour of both are si- 
 milar ; both are fluid, both metalline, each is volatile in fire; 
 but we have in our mercury a sulphur, which is wanting to the 
 mercury of the mine : this sulphur purifies and makes the matter 
 fiery — yet leaves it still a water. 
 
 Water is the womb, but if it has not heat, is unapt for true 
 generation. Our body will not be reduced to sweat and to send 
 forth seed, but in a circulating fire, commixt by art with mercury, 
 partaking of sulphur. This sulphur must be of magnetic force, 
 and therefore must be substantial gold, though unripe, yet 
 holding of one source, both to the 'matter and- form. It must be 
 volatile, as the other is fixt, the one Untying the other. There 
 is no body in the earth but one so nearly allied to mercury, as 
 to prepare it for our secret stone, hiding the solid body in its 
 womb. 
 
 This I have said is saturn's offspring, the secret of the magi, 
 and repealed by me. 
 
 For ail the metals, though some may mix with argent vivo, 
 yet they do not enter more than to sight, but are driven from 
 each other by heat, and you may perceive that their centre ne- 
 ver was penetrated, nor either of them altered by the other— 
 the cause is this; that the sulphur of perfect metals is sealed 
 up, and the sulphur of imperfect metals partakes of terrene fceces 
 and crudities abhorred by mercury, nor will it unite with them, 
 though it may be mixt to appearance. And if you first separate 
 these fceces, you shall obtain a fluid mercury, and a crude sul- 
 phur which hardened the humidity by congelation ; you will also 
 find an aluminous sa.lt ; but all these are too remote from the 
 nature of gold. 
 
 It is our inestimable mineral that after the separation of its 
 crude dregs, contains a pure mercury which can restore Ike to 
 bodies that are dead, enabling them to propagate their own 
 kind, like to all things which generate after their own 
 likeness 
 
 But it contains no sulphur in itself, save only it is congealed 
 by a burning sulphur, brittle, black, with shining veins, the sul- 
 phur by no means metallic, yet if separated right, is little dif- 
 ferent from the outward hue of common sulphui*. When the 
 dregs arc removed, you have a nut like a metal, but by tri- 
 turation may be powdered to dust, in which a tender soul is shut, 
 that rises like a vapour in a small fire, like quicksilver slightly 
 congealed, and sublimed by the fire. This imparts a penetrating 
 quality to our water, and makes its body to enter to their root, 
 reducing them to their true first matter, wholly inverting their 
 hidden centre. It wants true sulphur to be joined to it, and we 
 find it in the house of Aries; Mars only is made by this mi- 
 neral, and the artist's skill to go retrograde, and change from a 
 metal to a mineral. 
 
ISO Alchemical Trtatiues. 
 
 Here is our Venus, the spouse of lame Vulcan, bel overt by 
 Mars. First, then, cause Mars to embrace this mineral, till 
 both cast aside their earthiness. The metalline substance pro- 
 duced, will in a short time shine like heaven) and as a sign of 
 your success, you will find impressed on it a starry seal. The 
 Almighty marks it with this royal stamp, fitting its strange qua- 
 lities ; for this is a heavenly fire, a spark of which, once kindled, 
 causes a change in bodies from black to brightness, sparkling as 
 a gem, or the diadem that crowns a King. To tlm add Yenu* 
 in due proportion, Mars admires her beauty, and she is known 
 to have great love for him. She is soon inclined, being allied 
 to Gold, and Mars, ami Diana, arid she conciliates their love. 
 Vulcan now grows jealous, and spread his net to catch the 
 lovers ; and grieved to find himself horned, shews the pair en- 
 trapped within his net. This is not a mere fable. First observe 
 how Cadmns is devoured by oor fierce beast, after he had 
 stoutly pierced him, and with overpowering might, transfixed 
 this terror of men with his spear against an oak. 
 
 Observe the star, or sun that declares the union of Gold wrtJt 
 the child of Saturn ; his fceces purged out, all that is perfect 
 precipitates to the bottom. And being poured out after fusion, 
 a star appears as it cools similar to Mars. Venus, though she 
 is contemptible of herself, gives a metalline substance when 
 united with Mars, as if a net enfolded them. This fine junction 
 the ancient mystic poets have declared in plain terms to the wise. 
 We conclude the soul of Saturn and of Mars are closely mixed 
 by our art, and the help of Vukan — both are volatile alike* 
 nor are their parts divisible till the soid of Mars shall be fixed • 
 then it leaves Saturn, and yields most perfect gold in the trial, 
 ©f a true and sound tincture. But this mwst be attained by the 
 help of Venus, else they cannot be severed, no though you re- 
 solved them to dust, they will continue joined. 
 
 Yet Diana makes a separation of thera by the help of Venus. 
 Some use Diana's doves to prepare the water, which is a tedious 
 labour, and may be missed twice out of three times even by a 
 good artist. The other most secret way we commend. Let the 
 most subtle vaponr of the water, be circulated so long and oft 
 till the souls of each, leaving the grosser matter, unite and 
 ascend together. You are only to avoid doing this to an excess 
 that would cause them to coagulate. Two parts of Saturn's son ; 
 one of Cadmus. Purify these so long by Vulcan's aid, till the 
 metalline part be purified of its feces. This shall be done in four 
 reiterations; and you will then see the star if yon have worked 
 aright. 
 
 Make Eneas equal to her lover, purge them craftily till the 
 net of Vulcan enclose them ; then take them and see they be 
 well wet with the water, and penetrated with heat and moisture, 
 till the souls of both at length be glorified. This is the. heavenly 
 dew that must be fed so long and often as nature requires, three 
 
Philatelhes. iSl 
 
 times at least or till seven ; let it be led through waves and flames^ 
 us reason shall direct, guarding against the sublimation or burn- 
 ing of the tender nature, this is to guide your fire— also know 
 that Mercury, which ought to begin the work, must be liquid 
 and white; do not with excess or" fire dry the moisture to a red 
 powder, for so the female sperm is corrupted, and will not carry 
 on the work. Do not endeavour to turn argent vive into a clear 
 transparent gum, or oil or unguent, for you lose the proportion, 
 and miss the true dissolution, which will oblige you to put 
 aside your forlorn attempt, having departed from the line of 
 reason. 
 
 Endeavour only to augment a spirit which is wanted in argent 
 vive, and then sublime the gross to the skies, and separate 
 the dregs, and when full seven times have passed, then espouse 
 it unto Gold, till each holds the other ; thus by art, and na- 
 ture's help, is the true maiden prepared, which being severed 
 from the feces, becomes a heavenly offspring, that makes the 
 solid body of Sol grow soft, and dissevers it to black atoms, rots 
 and putrifies it, and again revives and ascends. 
 
 Should I reveal all the secrets contained in the composition of 
 this our water, I would be condemned by all true artists. 
 
 For God alone communicates it; all who are not taught by 
 him, must wander in mists and errors ; but he that labours in 
 study and prayer to find this truth, not for covetousness, but 
 in candour for wisdom's sake — such a person shall sure attaio 
 this wisdom, which never was before so plainly declared. 
 
Alexander Sethox. 
 
 Vh Ho soph iced Enigm ,i . 
 
 1. It fell out upon a time, ivlicn I had sailed almost all my 
 life from the Artie Pole, to the Antartic, that by the singular 
 providence of God I was cast upon the shore of a certain -great 
 eea, and although I well knew and understood the passages and 
 properties of the sea of that coast, yet I knew not whether in 
 those coasts was bred that little fish, called Remora, which so 
 many men of great and small fortunes have hitherto so studiously 
 sought after. But whilst I was beholding the sweet singing 
 mermaids swimming up and down with the nymphs, and being 
 •weary with my foregoing labours, and oppressed with divers 
 thoughts, I was with the noise of waters overtaken with sleep ; 
 and whilst I was in a sweet sleep, there appeared to me a won- 
 derful vision, which is this. 
 
 2. I saw Neptune, a man of an honorable old age, going forth 
 out of our sea with his three-toothed instrument, called Tridcns, 
 who after a friendly salute, led me into a most pleasant Island. 
 This goodly Island was situated towards the south, being re- 
 plenished with all things respecting the necessity and delight of 
 man. Virgil's Elisian Field might scarce compare with it. All 
 the banks were round about beset with green myrtles, cypress 
 trees and rosemary. The green meadows were covered all over 
 with flowers of all sorts, both fair and sweet. The hills were 
 set forth widi vines, olive trees, and cedar trees in a most won- 
 derful manner. The woods were filled with orange and lemon 
 trees. The high ways were planted on both sides with bay- 
 trees and pomegranate-trees, woven most artificially one within 
 the other, and affording a most pleasant shadow to tra- 
 vellers. And to be short, whatsoever is in the whole world was 
 seen there. 
 
 3. As I was walking, there was shewed to me by the aforesaid 
 Neptune, two mines of that island lying under a certain rock, 
 the one was of gold, the other of chalybs, or steel. Not far 
 from thence I was brought to a meadow, in which was a peculiar 
 orchard with divers sorts of trees, most goodly to behold, and 
 amongst the rest, being very many, he shewed to me seven trees 
 marked out by special names ; and among-:t these I observed 
 two a,$ chiefestj more emii)eut than the rest, one of which did 
 
Setiuw. IS3 
 
 Liar fruit like the sun most bright, and shining, and the leaves 
 thereof were like gold. The other brought forth fruit that was 
 most white, yea, whiter than the lillies, and the leaves thereof 
 were as fine silver. Now . these trees were called by 
 Neptune, the one the tree of the Sun, the other the tree of 
 the Moon. 
 
 4. In this Island, all things were at one's pleasure and com- 
 mand, but one thing which was wanting ; there was no water 
 to be had, but with great difficulty. There were indeed many 
 that endeavoured to bring it thither by pipes, and partly drew 
 it out of divers things; but their endeavours were in vain; be- 
 cause in those places it could not be had by means or medium ; 
 and if it were at any time had, yet it was unprofitable and poison- 
 ous, unless they fetched it, as few could do, from the beams 
 of the Sun and Moon ; and he which was fortunate in so doing, 
 could never get above ten parts ; and that water was most won- 
 derful ; and believe me, for I saw it with mine eyes, and felt it. 
 that that water was as white as the snow : and whilst I vas con- 
 templating upon the water, I was in a great wonder. 
 
 5. Wherefore Neptune, being in the meanwhile wearied, 
 vanished away from before mine eyes, and there appeared to me 
 a great man, upon whose forehead was written the name of Sa- 
 turn. This man taking the vessel drew ten parts of water, and 
 took presently of the tree of the Sun, and put it in; and I saw 
 the fruit of the tree consumed, and dissolved like ice in warm 
 water. I demanded of him;. Sir, I see a wonderful thing, water 
 to be as it were of nothing ; I see the fruit of the tree consumed 
 in it with a most sweet and kindly heat, and wherefore is all 
 this ? But he answered me most lovingly. My son, it is true 
 this is a thing to be wondered at ; but do not thou wonder at it, 
 for so it must be. 
 
 6. For this water is the water of life, having power to better 
 the fruit of this tree, so that afterward neither by planting or 
 grafting, but only by its own odour it may convert the other six 
 frees into its own likeness. Moreover this water is to this fruit 
 as it were a woman, the fruit of this tree can be putrified in no- 
 thing but in this water, and although the fruit of it be of itself 
 most wonderful, and a thing of great price ; yet if it be pu- 
 trified in this water, it begets by this putrefaction a salamander 
 abiding in the fire, whose blood is more precious than any kind 
 of treasure or riches in the world, being able to make those six 
 trees, which here thou seest, fruitful, and to bring forth their 
 fruit sweeter than the honey. 
 
 7. But I asked, Sir, how is that done ? I told thee, saith he, 
 that the fruit of that tree is living, and sweet ; and one is 
 now sufficed with it, but when it is boiled in this water, a 
 thousand may then be satisfied with it. I demanded moreover ; 
 "Sir, is it boiled with a strong fire, and how long is it in boiling ? 
 
IS'4- Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Said he> that water hath an iistrui&ical fire, and if it be helped 
 •with a continual heat, it burns three parts of its body with this 
 body of the fruit, and there will remain but a very small part, 
 which is scarce imaginable, but of wonderful virtue; it is boiled 
 by the skilful wit of the artificer, first seven months, then ten, 
 but in the mean time there appeared divers things, and always 
 in the fiftieth day, or thereabouts. 
 
 8. I demanded again. Sir, cannot this fruit be boiled in 
 other waters, or something be put to it? Pie answered, there 
 is but this one water that is useful in this country, or island ; 
 and there is no other water can penetrate the pores of Jthis appje, 
 but this : and know also that the tree of the sun hath its ori- 
 ginal from this water, which is extracted out of the beams of 
 the sun and moon by a magnetic virtue. Besides they have a 
 great correspondency betwixt themselves, but if any strange 
 thing be added to it, it cannot perform that which it can do of 
 itself, It must therefore be left by itself, and nothing added to 
 it but this apple. This fruit after boiling, comes to be 
 immortal, having life and blood, which blood makes all 
 the trees bring forth fruit of the same nature with the 
 apple. 
 
 9. I asked him farther, Sir, is thi$ water drawn any other 
 way, or to be had every where ? And he said, it is in every 
 place, and no man can live without it; it is drawn divers ways, 
 but that |s the best which is extracted by virtue of our chalybs, 
 which is found in the belly of Aries. I said, to what use is it? 
 He answered, before its due boiling it is the greatest poison, but 
 after a convenient boiling it is the greatest medicine, and yields 
 nine and twenty grains of blood, and every grain will yield to 
 tliec the fruit of the tree of the sun 864 fold. I asked, can it 
 not be made yet better ? The philosophical scripture being 
 witness, snith he, it may be exalted first to ten, then to a hun- 
 dred, then to a thousand, and ten thousand. 
 
 10. I required again of him, Sir, do many know that water, 
 and hath it any proper name ? lie cried out, saying, few know 
 it, but all have seen it, and do see if, and love it ; it hath many 
 and various names, but its proper name is the water of our sea, 
 the water of life not wetting the hands. ' I asked yet farther, 
 do any use it to any other things ? Every creature, saith he, 
 doth use it, but invisibly. Then I asked, dotli any thing grow 
 in it ? but he said, of it are made all things in the world, and in 
 it they live, but in it nothing properly is, but it is that thing 
 which mixeth itself to every thing. I asked again, is it useful 
 tor any thing without the fruit of this tree? 'To this he said, 
 not in "this work, because it is not bettered, but in the fruit of 
 the tree of the sun alone. l I began to intreat him, Sir, I pray 
 name it to me by such a manifest name, that I may have no fur- 
 ther doubt about it. But he cried with a loud voice, so as that 
 
Scthon. J 8$ 
 
 he awakened me from sleep. Therefore I couid ask him no 
 further, neither would he tell me any more, neither can I teli 
 any more. Be satisfied with these, and believe me, that it is not 
 possible to speak more clearly. For if thou dost not understand 
 these things, thou v$t never be able to comprehend the books 
 of other philosophers. 
 
 11. After Saturn's unexpected and sudden departure, a new- 
 sleep came upon me, and then appeared to me Neptune in a 
 visible shape. He congratulated my present happiness in the 
 gardens of the Hesperides, shewing to me a looking-glass, in 
 which 1 saw all nature discovered. After the changing of divers 
 words betwixt us, I gave him thanks for his courtesies shewed 
 to me ; because I not only entered into this garden, but also 
 came into Saturn's most desired discourse. But because by rea- 
 son of Saturn's unexpected departure, some difficulties did yet 
 remain to be enquired alter, and searched into, I earnestly be- 
 sought him, that by means of this happy opportunity, he would 
 resolve me my doubts. Now 1 importuned him with these word::, 
 Sir, I have read the books of philosophers, and they say, that 
 all generation is done by male and female, yet I saw in my dream 
 Saturn ] ut the fruit alone of the tree of the Sun into our Mercury. 
 I believe also thee as the master of this sea, that thou knowest 
 these things ; answer my question, I pray thee. But he said, 
 it is true, my son, all generation is done in male and female, 
 but by reason of the distinguishing of the three kingdoms 
 of nature, a four-footed animal is brought forth one way, 
 and a worm another. Although worms have eyes, sight, 
 hearing, and other senses, yet they are brought forth by pu- 
 trefaction, and their place, or earth, in which they are pu- 
 trified, is the female. So in this philosophical work the mother 
 of this thing is that water of thine so often repeated, and 
 whatsoever is produced of that, is produced as worms by pu- 
 trefaction. Theretore the philosophers have created a phoenix 
 or salamander. For if it were done by the conception of 
 two bodies, it would be a thing subject to death ; but 
 because it revives itself alone, the former body being de- 
 stroyed, it riseth up another body -incorruptible. Seeing 
 the death of things is nothing else but the separation of the one* 
 from the other And so it is in this phoenix, because the 
 life separates itself by itself from a corruptible body. More- 
 over, I asked him, Sir, are there divers things, or is there 
 a composition of things in this work ? But he said, there 
 is only one thing, with which there is mixed nothing else 
 but the philosophical water shewed to thee oftentimes in. 
 thy sleep, of which there must be ten parts to one of the 
 body. And strongly and undoubtedly believe, my son, that 
 those things which are by me and Saturn shewed thee by 
 way of dreams^ according to the custom in this Island, 
 
 z 
 
J 86 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 are not dreams, but the very truth, which experience the 
 only mistress of things will by the assistance of God disco- 
 ver to thee. I yet further demanded some things of him, 
 but he without any answer, after he had took his leave of 
 me, departing set me, being raised from sleep, into 
 my desired region of Europe. And so. friendly Reader, 
 let this suffice thee, which hath by me thus far been fully 
 declared. 
 
 To God alone be praise and glory. 
 
The Green Lion of Paracelsus. 
 
 Take distilled vinegar, (of the philosophers) wherein dissolve 
 the green lion, putrify and filter the solution, draw off the li- 
 quor in balneo to an oiliness; this oil or residue put in a retort, 
 distil away the moisture in sand with a gentle fire; then increase 
 the fire, and the green lion, being compelled by the strength, 
 of the fire will yield his glue, or air. To the caput mortuum, 
 pour its^ phlegm (the moisture drawn off) putrify in dung or 
 balneo, and distil, as before, and again will ascend the spirits ; 
 force it strongly, and there will come a tenacious oil of a ci- 
 trine colour. Upon the caput mortuum pour again the first dis- 
 tilled water, putrify, filter, and distil as before ; lastly with 
 a most strong open fire, and there will come over a bloody oil, 
 which is otherwise called fire. The remaining earth reverberate 
 into whiteness, &c. — Aurei Velleris^ p. 41. 
 
 Annotations by John Segerns Wciclenfeld. 
 
 1. From the receipt we observe— that the menstruums of this 
 kind, being made of the very matter of philosophical wine, or 
 philosophical grapes, are the first of all other menstruums, either 
 mineral or vegetable. 
 
 2. That the milky liquor or spirit, virgin's milk, white 
 mercury, the white wine of Lully, and the glue of the green 
 lion, called by Paracelsus the glue of the eagle, are terms sy- 
 nonymous ; and that the red liquor, blood oi the green lion, 
 red mercury, the philosophers sulphur, and the red wine ot Lully, 
 otherwise by Paracelsus, the blood of the red lion, are likewise 
 synonyma's. 
 
 3. That the acid mineral menstruums, are by digestion or 
 further elaboration, transmuted either into a simple vege- 
 table menstruum, or into the heaven or spirit of philosophical 
 wine. 
 
 4. That these acid menstruums are to be distilled with very 
 great caution, by reason of the excessive effervescence of the azo- 
 quean vitriol, or rather spirit of philosophical wine, which .is in 
 this vitriol caused bv the acids. 
 
!S8 Alchemical Treatises, 
 
 5. That mineral menstruums are the heaven, or essence of 
 philosophical wine dissolved in an acid, so that having ac- 
 quired this spirit, you may make them ex tempore by simple 
 dissolution. 
 
 6. That the menstruums even now prepared, are presently to 
 be used, lest they perish. 
 
 7. That menstruums are by dissolving bodies coagulated. 
 
 8. That metallic bodies are by these menstruums reduced into 
 running mercury. 
 
 9. That these are called stinking menstruums, because of their 
 stinking smell. By the smell alone wc easily distinguish these from 
 those fragrant menstruums called vegetable. Thus the unsavoury 
 ismell of the menstruum itself proves that Moric-nus used the stink- 
 ing menstruum What is the smell of it, saith King Kalid, by 
 way of question, before and after the making of it? Morienus- 
 answered], before it is made, the scent of it is strong and unsa- 
 voury ; but after the preparation of it, it has a good scent, ac- 
 cording to that which the wise man saith: this water resem- 
 bles the unpleasant smell of a body dead, and void of life ; for 
 the smell of it is ill, and not unlike to the smell of graves. He 
 that can whiten the soul, and cause it to ascend again, and keep 
 the body well, and take away all obscurity from it, and ex- 
 tract the ill savour out of it, will be able to infuse it into the 
 body, and in the hour of conjunction exceeding miracles will 
 appear, Morien. de Trans. Metal, p. 33. Geber also atknowledg- 
 eth himself to have operated with a mineral menstruum, cap. 25. 
 Summce perfect. The first natural principles, saith he, out of which 
 metals are procreated, are the stinking spirit, that is, sulphur, 
 and water vive, which also we allow to be called dry water. And 
 in another place, at the end of his Book de Investigat. he goes 
 on ; we do by plain and open proof conclude our stone to be no- 
 thing else but a stinking spirit, and living water, which we 
 also call dry water, being cleansed by natural decoction and 
 true proportion with such an union, that nothing can be added 
 or taken from it, to which a third thing ought to be added for 
 the abbreviation of the work, that is, a perfect body at- 
 tenuated. 
 
 10. That adrop, the name of the matter of these menstruums* 
 signifies the philosophers saturn, or lead. The first matter of 
 this leprous body, saith Ripley, is a viscous water inspissated 
 m the bowels of the earth. The great elixir for the red and for 
 the white, saith Vincentius, is made of this body, whose name 
 is adrop, otherwise calied philosophical lead* page 132. MeduL 
 Phil. Chym. 
 
 Our stone, saith Arnold, ra Speculo Alchym is called adrop, 
 which is in Latin saturnus, in English lead, and according to 
 the 1 rojans dragon or topum, that is, poison, Septima Dispos, 
 Spcndi, page 596. Vol. 4. Theatr. Chym. I have shewed that the 
 philosophers gave it divers names, because of tlie diversity of 
 
Wcidcnfdd on Paracelsus. 189 
 
 colours ; but as to their intention, they had one peculiar name, 
 that is, Roman gold, or adrop, or stone above ail the stones of 
 this world, quarto dispositio Speculi, page 5fM-, of the same vo- 
 lume. Laton and Azoth are t gether, and never asunder, hut 
 remain always joined together, but because of the diversity of 
 colours, the philosophers called them by many names ; and 
 as the colours are varied and changed, they imposed so many 
 names ; because Azoth among the Indians is gold ; among the 
 JHcrmians silver; among the Alexandrians and Macedonians 
 iron ; with the Greeks mercury ; with the Hebrews tin ; with 
 the Tartars brass ; with the Arabians saturn ; and among the 
 Latins, and especially among the Romans ognividon, (by an 
 anagram L^vno G vim\ G signifying philosophical mercury, 
 or sulphur aqueum.) But that none may err, I say it hath one 
 proper name, and is commonly called by men ; and every one 
 knows the stone, Terlia dispos. Sjiecul. page 593, of the same 
 volume. 
 
 Some of the adepts write not adrop, but atrop ; by which 
 name they have been pleased to signify the matter of these men- 
 struums to be as it were the gate of all the most secret Chymy ; 
 for atrop, by the inversion of the letters is read porta, a gate : 
 thus Robcrtus Valensis in Gloria Mundi, page 30.5. That 
 you may attain, saith he, to the true foundation, I will once 
 again repeat it to you, and call it the first hyle, that is, the 
 beginning of all things ; it is also called the only holy ; appre- 
 hend what elements are in it by those which are repugnant ;— - 
 the stone of the philosophers, of the sun, of metals, the fugi- 
 tive servant, the airy stone, the Thernian stone, magnesia, or 
 the corporal stone, marcasite, the stone of Sal Gemma, the 
 stone of children, the golden stone, the original of worldly 
 things, xelis, also by inversion silex, a flint, xidar, by the 
 same inversion radix, atrop, by inversion, porta, a gate ; 
 and it hath also as many other names, yet is but one only 
 thing. 
 
 To Robertus, Lully seems to incline, who has been pleased to 
 call every alteration of the azoquean vitriol, or matter of the men- 
 struums of this kind, the first porta or gate of the work ; thus he 
 called the dissolution of the matter the first gate. In our whole 
 magistery, saith he, there are three principal spirits necessary, 
 which cannot without the consummation of their resolution be 
 manifested, and they are otherwise called, three argent vives. 
 And because resolution is so often used for the first gate of our 
 magistery which we will declare ; the said resolution is divided 
 into three principal parts. The first is corporal, and is called 
 in the Latin tongue, recfage, that is, anagrammatically facere G ; 
 but by G, he means sulphur aqueum, cap. 5. The. Test. p. 115. 
 vol. 4. Theat. Chym. or our mercury, cap. "20. Pract. Test, page 
 170, of the same volume, The second is spiritual, and called 
 
100 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 agazoph. The third is spiritual and corporal, and called 
 Ubridrugat, &c. 
 
 When the matter in the resolution of it appears black, this 
 blackness, for which some have called it lead, he would have to 
 be a sign of the first gate. In the first resolution, saith he, lies 
 all the danger, and therefore I give you notice, that you must 
 have the sulphurs of simple argent vives destroyed by heat, in 
 such manner and form, as that their active property may not 
 be expelled by extraneous heat, and that it may not be sepa- 
 rated from its moist subject, which appears wholly black, full 
 of a noble spirit. That blackness demonstrates the sign of the 
 first gate leading into our magistery, and without it can no- 
 thing be done, because it is the fire of nature, which is to 
 create the stone, and which cannot be manifested without the 
 corruption of its body, cap. 28. Theoi\ Test, page 51. vol. 4. 
 Til, Chym. 
 
 Lastly, he calls the distillation of this matter the first gate 
 also. The way of preparing the stony, and fermentable spi- 
 rit is, to take the juice of binary, and extract the sweat of it 
 with a small and gentle fire, and you will have in your power 
 one of our argent vives in liquor, in the form of a white 
 water, which is the ablution and purgation of our stone, and 
 its whole nature. And that is one of the most principal se- 
 crets, and is the first gate, as j^ou may understand by the 
 reasons aforesaid, &c. cap. 9. Theor. Test, page 21, of the 
 same volume. 
 
 Being persuaded, by these and the like quotations, I may affirm, 
 that atrop is to be written rather than adrop, because besides the 
 blackness or philosophical lead, atrop signifies the beginning or 
 first gate of the work. 
 
 1 1 . That in the adeptical chymy are many green lions, to be 
 necessarily distinguished one from another. 
 
 ' By the first the adepts meant the ccelestial sun, governing the 
 whole world. 
 
 The second is argent vive, more common to us than common 
 argent vive. 
 
 The third is called argent vive, dissolved into a green 
 colour. 
 
 The fourth is adrop, azoquean vitriol, philosophers lead, &c. 
 
 A filth is the stinking menstruum, otherwise called the blood of 
 the green lion. 
 
 A sixth is the green lion of fools, Roman vitriol, verdi- 
 groase, &c. 
 
 The seventh is extraordinary, namely, common mercury sub- 
 limed. 
 
 J '2. That there arc also many saturns. 
 
 The first is common lead, the impurest of metals, and conse- 
 quently the most remote of all in our art; which to prove by the 
 
Weidenfeld on Paracelsus. 191 
 
 sentiments of the adepts is a thing superfluous, finding almost 
 every where amongst the adepts a solemn caution for us to beware 
 of this devourer of metals and minerals, saturn. Have a care, 
 saith Ripley, to bring one witness for all, of operating with s;l- 
 turn, because it is commonly said, eat not of the son, whose mo- 
 ther is defiled, ami believe me, many men err in saturn. Hear 
 what Avicenna saifh, saturn will be always saturn, yea operate; 
 not with the earth of philosophical saturn, which the spirit of it 
 has despised, and left for the worst sulphur, &c. cap. 2. Pbjlorcii. 
 page 188. 
 
 The second is adrop, or azoquean vitriol, whereof before. 
 A third is the first colour or blackness of the first work ; of 
 which lower. 
 
 The fourth is copper, the first of metals; of which Arnold in 
 Spcculo Alchym. disp. 8. page 605. vol. 4. Theat. C'hym. thus : 
 There were, saith he, philosophers that placed our science in the 
 .seven planets ; and our first planet is called Venus, the second 
 Saturn, the third Mercury, the fourth Mars, the fifth Jupiter, the 
 sixth Luna, the seventh Sol. The generation of copper hath 
 the first place after the universal Mercury? saith Basilius, Libro 
 de rebus nat. & supernat. cap. 4. Of all those things, saith Para- 
 celsus, which proceed from salts, there is none more nearly allied 
 to the mineral virtue, than vitriol ; the reason is, because salts are 
 minerals, and all minerals lie in one mass and ares. Now 
 vitriol in the separation of minerals, is the last thing, to 
 which is immediately subsequent the generation of metals, 
 whereof Venus is the first, Lib. i. Philos. de Element Aqua"*, page 
 '279. And a little after he saith, the Marcasites and Cachymys 
 being thus separated from the first matter of metals, then fol- 
 lows the first generation, which is of Venus, &c. Besides, by 
 the separation, whereby the nature of the marcasites and cachy- 
 mys are expelled, the generations of copper do immediately con- 
 cur, imprint themselves, and are coagulated together, because it 
 is the first metal after the separation of the marcasites and cachy- 
 mys; in the same book, page 281. 
 
 The vitriol of Venus being the first of all things added or joined 
 to the vegetable mercury in the making of adrop, is called by 
 Lully the first male. This fire, saith he, is that property of the 
 mercury, which you must endeavour to preserve from burning, 
 being the tincture of vitriol, with which the vegetable mer- 
 cury ought to be sublimed, because it is the first male of it, and 
 is the augmentation of our tincture, which is a great addition, 
 in virtue and power, when it is joined with the tincture of 
 Sol; — for if you know how to extract the property of mercury 
 from vitriol and salt, and make them friendly by conjunction, 
 which is done by gentle sublimations, you will know one of the 
 greatest secrets of nature, and the true principal perfect ioi . 
 Codicil, cap. 9% page 202. So us many places of his The- 
 
192 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 ©riae Testamcnti majoris, he means vitriol by his male ; in these 
 especially : The fire of our male, page 50. The virtue of the 
 male, page 91. '1 he virtue of the sperm of the mule, page 108. 
 The heat of the male, page 7 I. The female Venus is in this 
 case the male, and is not so hot as the true second male, gold, 
 page 73. vol. 4. Theat. Chym. This male also Espanietus men- 
 tioneth in the making of his menstruum. Take, saith he, the 
 winged virgin completely washed and cleansed, impregnated 
 with the spiritual seed of the first male, &c. Sect. 58. Arcani 
 Hermet. Phil. 
 
 Paracelsus, the better to express the masculine nature of ve- 
 nus, calls it metallus, a noun of the masculine gender, ,as me- 
 tallic primus. Take, saith he, the coralline liquor I mean 
 that which is very diaphanous, to which add a fifth part of the 
 vitnol of venus, digest them in balneo for a month ; for by 
 this means the wine of the first metal separates itself aloft, 
 but the feculent part of this wine, the vitriol of venus re- 
 tains ; he means the residue kit in the extraction of vitriol, and 
 so that first metal, m t a this primus, is made a perspicuous, di- 
 aphanous, and truly red wine, &c. cap. \ . Lib. 3. De Vita 
 Ion j a. page 65 As the adepts called venus the first metal, me- 
 tallus prunus in the mascH line gender, so also they changed Sa- 
 turn us, saturn, a noun of the masculine gender, into saturna, 
 a noun of the feminine gender, to signify not common lead, but 
 venus, being a feminine noun, of copper. I have, saith Ripley, 
 a dear and beloved daughter, named saturna, from which 
 daughter are both the white and red elixirs assuredly procreated; 
 if therefore you desire this science, you must extract a clear water 
 from her, &c 
 
 Sometimes to describe by saturn, not only venus, but also the 
 philosophical preparation of copper, that is to be performed by a 
 vegetable menstruum, they made it a vegetable or herb, that so 
 they might distinguish that which was, from that which was not 
 prepared ; thus Flame! in his Summary : Some unskilful men, 
 and unlearned chymists take common gold, silver, and mer- 
 cury, and handle them so ill, till they vanish away by fume, and 
 thereby endeavour to make the philosophers mercury ; but 
 they do not attain to that, which is the first matter and true 
 mine of the stone. But if they would attain to that, and reap 
 any good, they must betake themselves to the seventh mounr 
 tain, where there is no plain, and from the top downward be- 
 hold the other six, which they will see at great distance. At 
 the top of this mountain, you will find a triumphant royal 
 herb, which some philosophers call a mineral, some a vege- 
 table, and it' pure and clean broth be made thereof, the better 
 part of the work will be hereby accomplished, and this right 
 and subtile philosophical mercury must you take. This place is 
 thus read in Chortalassaeus, page 313. vol. 6. Theat. Chym. 
 
Weidenfcld on Paracelsus. 193 
 
 Ascend therefore tlvs mountain, that you may sec the vegetable, 
 saturnine, plumbeous and royal, likewise a!*o mineral root, 
 or herb.; take oniy the juice of it, and throw away the 
 husks. 
 
 It is moreover also called green, because that matter is as yet 
 sharp and unripe* that is, not yet fixed or perfected by naturt, 
 as common gold. The philosophers green lion therefore is green 
 gold, gold vive, which is not as yetfixul, but left imperfect by 
 natures and for this reason hath it the virtue of rednekig all 
 bodies into their first matter, and making those bodies which arc 
 fixed spiritual and volatile. Tract, tic Adrop, page .-31-7. — 
 It may also be called lion, because as all other animals give$ lace 
 to a lion, so all bodies yield to the power of gold vive, which is 
 our mercury. Tract. Adrop. page 548. This noble infant is 
 called green lion, because when it is dissolved, it is clothed 
 with a green garment. Yet out of the green lion of fools (vitriol) 
 is with a violent fire extracted that which we call aqua 
 tbrtis, in which the said lion ought to be elixirated. Medulla 
 Piths, page 139. 
 
 These things spoken of the green lion, arc also to be understood 
 of adrop, being a synonymous term of the same matter. Take, 
 saith Ripley, adrop, that is, the green lion. Now as to adrop 
 he declared as followcth : adrop, saith he, is gold and silver in 
 power but not in sight, as Rhasis saith, and our gold and silver, 
 according to the philosophers, is not common gold and silver, 
 for our gojd and silver are airy, which in order to be well fer- 
 mented, ought to be joined with the beloved common gold. 
 Forasmuch as the philosopher saith, that adrop in its profun- 
 dity is airy gold, and adrop itself is called leprous gold. And 
 to these sayings seems to assent Guido, the Greek philosopher, 
 speaking of the mercurial or menstrual spirit, the spirit or blood 
 of the green lion, which is extracted out of the natural adrop 
 by art, where he writes : And that spirit is sol, extracted out 
 of the philosophers solary water, arsenic, and luna. And in 
 the same place presently adds ; the body is the ferment of the 
 spirit, and the spirit the ferment of the bod}', and the earth, 
 wherein lies the fire, dries, imbibes, and fixeth the water ; and 
 the air, wherein lies the water, (the air which lies in the water, 
 it ought to be read according to the doctrine of separating the ele- 
 ments,) washeth, tingeth, and pcrfectcth the ear.th ami tire ; and 
 so Guido's saying, that they tinge and perfect, ought to be un- 
 derstood, that the stone, the menstruum drawn from adrop, or 
 the green lion, is sufficient for the completing of itself into an 
 elixir, and that no exotick or heterogeneous matter, as he 
 affirms, is or ought to be introduced to it, but all the parts of it 
 are co-essential and concrete, because the philosophers meai ing 
 was to complete that work in a short space above the earth, 
 which nature scarce perfecteth in a thousand years under t^e 
 
 a a 
 
194 Alchemical Treatises* 
 
 earth. Unskilfully therefore according to the opinion of the 
 philosophers, as Guido saith, do they proceed, thai seek to obtain 
 a ferment from common silver and gold lor oar select body. — 
 For that matter, in which is argent vive clean and pure, not 
 (most, is ill read,) thoroughly brought to perfection by nature, is, 
 as Guido affirms, after complete purification, a thotisai I times 
 better than the bodies of sol and luna vulgarly deeott »y the 
 natural heat of the sun. Concord. Lidhj $ Guidon, pag - 23. 
 A certain philosopher saith, he goes on discoursing ci tti ne 
 
 adrop ; a fume, (white) is drawn from its own mines, v. ' if 
 
 rightly gathered, and again sprinkled upon its own mines, \ill 
 there make a fixation, and so the true elixir will in a &\x#t 
 space of time be produced from it. And certainly without those 
 liquors or spirits, that is, the water and fail of merourv, (men- 
 struum,) this alchymical body which is neutral or adrop, is not 
 purged ; and that is the alchymical body, which is called le- 
 prous body, that is, black, at the beginning of the work in which, 
 as saith Vmeentius in his Spcailum Natvralc, arc gold and silver 
 in power, and not in aspect ; which in the bowels of it is also 
 airy gold, to which no man can attain, except the unclean body 
 be first cleansed, which is without doubt after its complete 
 dealbation, and then it is a thousand times better than are the 
 bodies of common gold and silver decocted by natural heat. 
 The first matter of this leprotls body is a viscous water inspissat- 
 ed in the bowels of the earth. Of this body, according to the 
 judgment of Vincentius, is made the great elixir for the red 
 and white, the name whereof is adrop, otherwise called the 
 philosophers black lead, out of which Rayrnund commands us to 
 extract an oil of a golden colour, or such like: R.iymund adds, 
 but this oil is not necessary in the vegetable work, namely, for 
 the inceration of the vegetable stone, because solutions and co- 
 agulations are there soon made ; and if you can separate it from 
 its phlegm, and after that ingeniously find out the secrets of it, 
 you will in thirty days be able to perfect the philosophers stone. 
 .Fortius oil makes medicines, (tinctures) penetrable, sociable, and 
 amicable to all bodies, and in the world there is not a greater 
 secret. Med id. Phil. Chxpn. page 131. 
 
 Ripley hath here recited various synonima's of this adrop. We 
 for a time will follow the green lion by the way of philosophical 
 lead, as we are directed by Ripley in these very words: First, un- 
 derstand, when Avicenna saith, that gold and silver are in lead 
 by power, and not by sight, and they are left by nature crude 
 and half coctcd, and therefore that ought to be perfectly supplied 
 by art, which is left imperfect by nature, and by way of a fer- 
 ment digesting and cocting that which is left crude ; for a fer- 
 ment therefore take perfect gold, for a little, pendulum, notpaula 
 tbn, of their fixed substance, those fixed bodies will draw and 
 convert much of bodies not fixed to the perfection of gold and 
 
Weidenfdd on Paracehus. 195 
 
 silver. Am! thus will art help nature, that in a little space of 
 time that may be done above the earth, which is not in a thou- 
 sand years done under the earth. And by this means you will 
 understand, how lead contains in it the greatest secrets of this 
 art : for it hath in h argent vive, clean, pure, odoriferous, not 
 brought by nature to perfection. And this argent vive is the 
 basis and ground-work of our precious medicine, as well for 
 metallic as human bodies, so as to be the elixir of life, curing 
 all infirmities ; which the philosopher meant, saying, there is 
 in mercury whatsoever wise men seek. From this are the 
 soul, body, spirit, and tincture drawn ; moreover also in this 
 mercury is the philosophers fire, always burning equally within 
 the vessel, and not without. It hath also a great attractive 
 virtue and power in dissolving sol and luna, and reducing the 
 same into their first matter. With this mercury are to be dis- 
 solved the calxes of the perfect bodies in congealing the afore- 
 said mercurial spirit, See. Pupilla, page 295. But have a care that 
 you operate not with common saturn, because commonly it is 
 said, eat not of the son, whose mother is corrupted, and believe, 
 that many men err in saturn. Hear what Avicenn saith, 
 saturn will be always saturn ; yea operate not with the earth 
 of philosophical saturn, which the spirit of it has despised, and re- 
 linquished for the worst sulphur. Operate only with the fume 
 of it to congeal mercury, yet not as fools, but as the philoso- 
 phers do, and you will have a very good work. Phil. cap. 2- 
 page 188. The whole composition we call our lead ; the qua- 
 lity of the splendor proceeds from sol and luna, and in short, 
 these are our menstruums wherewith we calcine perfect bodies 
 naturally, but no unclean body is an ingredient, one excepted, 
 which is by the philosophers commonly called green lion, 
 which is the means of joining the tinctures between sol and 
 luna with perfection, as Geber himself attesteth, Libro. 42. por- 
 tar, page 12. To manifest this thing to you, you must know, 
 that it is one of those, which are of the seven days planets, and 
 the meanest of the same, out of whose body is artificially ex- 
 tracted blood, and a vaporous humor, which is called the blood 
 of the green lion, from which is produced a water, called 
 white of an egg, and aqua vitas, may-dew, and by many other 
 names, which to avoid prolixity, we now omit. Phil. cap. 3. 
 page 190. 
 
 Green lion, adrop, philosophical lead, mineral antimony., 
 airy gold, mercury, &c. arc synonima's of one and the same 
 matter. This matter being dissolved in distilled vinegar, 
 and again inspissated into a gum, in taste like alum, is by 
 Ripley in the Description of the antecedent menstruum in Nwnb. 
 62. polled Lully's Vitriol of Azoth, or Vitriolum Azoqueum : 
 Lully in practica Testamcuti, cap. 9. page 159. vol.4. Th. Chym. 
 jliakes a menstruum of B. C. D. By B. he meant the said green 
 
19(5 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 lion, or common argent vivc, which ao he says elsewhere, it more 
 common to men, than vulgar argent vivc. 13. saith he, page 
 153. of the sakl practica, signifies argent vive, which is a com- 
 mon substance consisting in every corruptible body, as appears; 
 by the property of it, &c. By C. he intended common nitre. C. 
 saith he, signifies salt peter, which hath a common acid nature, 
 and like argent vive by the property of its strong acid nature, 
 page 154. 4 vol. aforesaid. By D. he understood gum adrop, 
 blade of the green lion. 1). saith he, signifies azoquean 
 vitriol, which corrupts and confounds all that is of the nature 
 and being of common argent vive. In the same place, both 
 C. and D. he calls the purer mediums cap. 5S. Theor, Test, page 
 96- You must know, son, saitli he, our bath, you may wash the 
 nature of (phil.) argent vive so, as nature could never do, that 
 is, to make argent vive a complete elixir. But (phil.) ar- 
 gent vive and metals being both in nature, and in your work, 
 extremes, and extremes not being able to join themselves, with- 
 out the virtue of a middle disposition, which is between the 
 softness of argent vive, and the hardness of metal, because there 
 is by reason of that middle disposition a natural compliance, 
 which is the cause of conjunction between body and spirit, as 
 it is in every thing generated, or in capacity of being generated. 
 In nature are many mediums, whereof two are more pure, and 
 more viscous, the green azoquean vitriols, with the stony nature, 
 which is tl*e salt and nature of stones. By the help my son, of 
 this contemptible matter is our stone, which we have so much 
 sought for, procreated, &c. 
 
 With the other of these mediums, C. the stony nature, salt pe- 
 ter, salt of peter, or niter, we have no business at present j but be- 
 ing solicitous of D. gum adrop, or the azoquean vitriol of Lully, 
 it will be worth while to consult Lnlly himself; of which the phi- 
 losopher, cap. 59. Thcor. Testament!, thus : son, saith he, the 
 azoqucan lion, which is called azoquean vitriol, is by nature 
 made of the peculiar substance of common argent vive, which is 
 the natural root, from whence metal is procreated in its own 
 mine. By common argent vive, he meant not the vulgar but 
 philosophical argent vive, the natural root as well of metals as 
 minerals. When we say common mercury, saith he, we speak 
 of that which the philosophers understand, and when we name 
 the vulgar, we speak of that which is known to the country- 
 men, and sold in shops. Cap. 1. Lib. Mercuriorum, which the 
 following synonyma's of this mercury, namely, chaos, nature, 
 origo, green lion, argent vive, unguent, oil, pasture and liquor 
 of great value, do also testify in cap, 45. Theor. Test, page 75. 
 Vol. 4. Th. Chym. 
 
 This common argent vive, or green lion, must be purged 
 from its superfluities, before the azoquean vitriol of Lully,- ° r 
 the gum adrop of Ripley, can be made of it. Yon must saitb 
 
Wcidenfeld on Paracelsus. 197 
 
 he, my son, being a student of this science, be stedfast, and 
 not search after this or that, because this art is not perfected 
 with many things ; and therefore we tell you, there is but one 
 only storie, that is sulphur, and one only medicine, namely, 
 the composition of sulphur, to which nothing is to be added, 
 only the terrestrial and phlegmatic superfluities taken away, 
 because they are and ought to be separated from our argent 
 yive, which is more common to men, than vulgar argent vive, 
 and is of greater price, merit, and stronger union of nature, 
 from which and the first forms of it, it is necessary to separate, 
 by the known degrees of separation, all that belongs not to 
 the sal armoniac of metals, &c. Cap. 18. Theor. Test, page 
 S3, vol. 4. Th. Chym. We say there is but one only philo- 
 sophical stone, volatile not yet fixed, or matter of a menstru- 
 um, extracted from the things aforesaid by our magistery. 
 And therefore when it comes newly into the world, you must 
 not add any other powder, or any other water, nor any thing 
 incongruous to it, more than that, which is born in it, being 
 radical to its own nature, and the mother of it, which feeds 
 and carried it, that is sulphur, which formed the stone in a 
 celestial colour. But before you extract (distil) it, (the stone) 
 thoroughly purge and cleanse it, from all its phlegmatic, 
 terrestrial, and corruptible infirmities, which are contrary 
 to its nature, because they are the death of it, with which 
 it is surrounded, which do mortify its vivificative spirit. 
 Cap. 7. Theor. Test, page 20, of the said vol. It is to be di- 
 ligently noted, that one of the two aforesaid natural principles* 
 sulphur and argent vive, is more truly natural in the whole, 
 fend through the whole substance of it, as well within as with- 
 out, and that is the pure sulphur, hot and dry, introducing 
 its form, that is, according to which the form of a metal pur- 
 sues a pure effect. But the other argent vive is unnatural, 
 that is inwardly natural, and outwardly against nature; but 
 the internal natural part is made proper, and also con-natural to 
 itself, because it comes by its own nature, but the external 
 part is added to it by accident, and is to be naturally separated 
 from it after the conniption (putrefaction) of it ; wherefore it 
 is manifest that such ai'gent vive is not in the whole substance 
 of it natural, in the first reception of it, nor is depurated to the 
 full, unless it be depurated by the ingenuity of art. C 5. p. 10. 
 Codicilli. 
 
 As to this purification of argent vive, or the green lion, Rip- 
 ley thus : wherefore saith he, this mercury, the corrosive spirit 
 of common vitriol, is by Raymund called, our lire against na- 
 ture ; nevertheless the same thing happens in some measure 
 to this mercury, (the acidity of vitriol,) as also to the other 
 (vegetable mercury, or green lion,) which is our natural fire. 
 $ot both of the*a are hidden in the middle or centre of 
 
198 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 their bodies, that is, between the phlegmatic water on one 
 side, and terrestrial crassitude on the other side, nor are they 
 obtained without the great industry of philosophy, and so 
 those parts can avail ns nothing, except only their middle sub- 
 stance. For saith Raymond, we take neither of the first prin- 
 ciples, because they are too simple, nor of the last, because they 
 are too gross and feculent, but only of the middle; wherein is 
 the tincture, and true oil, separated from unclean terrcstreity, 
 and phlegmatic water. Therefore saith Raymond thus : the 
 unctuous moisture, is the near matter of our physical argent vive, 
 page 289, Papillae Alchym. 
 
 Argent vive, or the green lion, is purified by common vitriol, 
 as thus : When the argent vive is put in a dry vitriolated 
 vapour, (spirit of vitriol) which is a sharp water, it is pre- 
 sently dissolved by the incision and penetration, caused by the 
 sharpness, being manifestly strong, and in dissolving, is converted 
 into the nature of terrestrial vitriol, not taking a metallic, nor 
 a clear ccelestial form, as appears after the evaporation of 
 the said water, and the congelation of it in the form of yel- 
 low chrystals, which yellowness proceeds from the sharp sul- 
 phurous terrcstreity, which was beyond measure mixed in the 
 said water by atoms, with an homogeneous universality and 
 simplicity, which simplicity was taken and bound by the said 
 terrcstreity, with the alteration of the light, clarity, and 
 lucidity into obscurity, &c. Cap. 89. Theor. Test. 141. vol. 
 4. Th. Chyni. Son, the thick vitriolated vapours from which 
 vitriol is produced, is very sharp and pontick, and therefore 
 penetrates the parts of the sulphur, and argent vive being de- 
 purated, and penetrating, tingeth that purified matter, con- 
 gealing it into the form of that vitriolated and yellow ter- 
 restrial vapour, which is mixed with them. Wherefore what 
 we have said is manifest, that is, this is the great gate, namely, 
 that the terrestrial virtues must not excel the ccelestial, 
 but on the contrary, if you will have the thing desired, cap. 
 85. Theor. Test, page 137, of the same volume. You may re- 
 member that you would put nothing with the menstrual, (the 
 matter of the menstruum) but that which proceeded from it at 
 the beginning of its mixtion ; for if you add an incongruous 
 thing, it will presently be corrupted by the incongruous nature, 
 nor will you ever have that which you would have. Gold and 
 silver, and mcrcur} r are dissolved in our menstrual, because 
 it participates with them in proximity and vicinity of the first 
 nature, aud from hence will you extract a white fume, which 
 is our sulphur, and the green lion, which is your unguent, 
 and the stinking water, which is our argent vive. But it is 
 requisite for the green lion to be thoroughly dissolved in the 
 acjua foetens, or stinking water, before you can have the 
 said fume, which is our sulphur, which sulphur is indeed the 
 
Wcidcnfdd on Paracelsus. 109 
 
 same way dissolved from the body, congealing the spirit in the 
 form of a dry water, which we call stone, and the highest me- 
 dium of all our work, which is the connexion and aggregation 
 oi' both natures, that is, of body and spirit. !Son, this wa- 
 ter is called aqua ignis, or it' you had rather ignisaqua, that 
 undeclinable word, because it burns geld and silver better than 
 elementary fhv can do, and because it contains in it heat of a 
 terrestrial nature, which dissolves without violence, which 
 common fire cannot do. Wherefore we enjoin you to make the 
 magistery of the hottest things you can get in nature, and you 
 will have a hot water, which dissolveth all things, cap. 59. 
 Theor. Test, page £8, of the same volume. 
 
 These sayings Ripley comprehends in short, thus: these words, 
 saith he, may serve a wise man in order to know and acquire 
 the green lion. But this noble infant is called green lion, be- 
 cause being dissolved, it is clothed in a green garment. Yet out 
 of the green lion of fools, vitriol, is extracted by a violent 
 fire, that water which we call aqua fortis, spirit of vitriol, in 
 which the said lion ought to be elixirated. For all 
 alrhymieal gold is made of corrosives, &c. page 139, Me- 
 dulla Phil. 
 
 This argent vive, green lion, philosophers lead, &c. being 
 purified with vitriol, must be further matured or calcined into a 
 red colour, minium, lead calcined, sericon, &c. E. that is, vitrio- 
 lated azoth, page 15. Theor. '1 est. the fourth medium or prin- 
 ciple is a substance produced from its mine, and in it, more near 
 to the nature of metals, which is by some called calcantis, and 
 azoth vitreus, mercury vitriolated, or azoquean vitriol, which is 
 the earth and mine of metals, and is by another name called 
 urisius, of shining white and red within, black and green openly, 
 having the colour of a venomous lizard, immediately gene- 
 rated out of argent vive, the matter aforesaid impregnated 
 with the said hot and dry sulphurous vapour (of common vitriol) 
 in its resolution congealed into a lizard, in which azoth vi- 
 triolated is the form and species of the stinking spirit in its 
 mixtion, the mineral heat of which is multiplied, which is the 
 life of metal, and is signified by E. cap. 3. Theor. Testam. page 
 \% volume 4. Theat. Chym. And a little after : in the work of 
 nature is argent vive, but not such as is found upon the earth, 
 nor will be, till it be first turned into an apostcmated and veno- 
 mous blood. In the same place ; you must know, son, that by 
 art and nature argent vive is congealed by an acute water, un- 
 derstand therefore philosophically, because it" it were not sharp 
 and acute, it could not penetrate, which is the first action in 
 dissolution, after which dissolution it is returned into an aposte- 
 matcd blood, by the mutation of its own nature into another. 
 ►Son, there are two things, which ought to stick together by the 
 Agreement of contrariety, one pure, the other impure ; the hn- 
 
200 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 pure recedes, fire being an enemy, by reason of its corruption % 
 the other remains in fire, because of its purity, being transn. ut- 
 eri into blood, and this is our argent vive, and our whole se- 
 cret, clothed with a tripartite garment, that is, black, whit.", 
 and red, and that alone we want for the purpose of our magis- 
 tery, argent vive containing all that is necessary for a quintes- 
 sence. There is in mercury whatsoever wise men seek ; for 
 under the shadow of it lies a fifth substance ; for the substance 
 of it is pure and incombustible ; and all of it is nothing else but 
 gold and silver, not common metals, but airy, beip<; in mercury. 
 or the green lion, melted and fused within and without by vir- 
 tue of the fire against nature, and afterwards purified and se- 
 parated from all its original blemish and pollution; lor that gold 
 which is incombustible, remains fused and liquid, and imparts its 
 golden nature in the said mercury, &c. Cap. 62. Theor. Test, page 
 10.3. volume 4. Th. Chym. 
 
 Out of this philosophical minium, calcined lead, or seneon 
 only, the adepts sometimes distilled their menstruums ; for exam- 
 ple, the first of this kind in Numb. 5-9. Sometimes they dissolved 
 this minium in distilled vinegar, which being drawn off, they re- 
 duced it into gum adrop, or Lully's azoquean vitriol, out of which 
 they then distilled the stinking menstruum, or menstruum foetens, 
 in Numb. 60. Sometimes they dissolved gum adrop per deliquium 
 first, and then distilled it. The thirteenth way of practising, saith 
 Itipley, as it here appears, is very curious, and that is in sa- 
 turn, philosophical, rubified in a glass vessel stopped, to prevent 
 respiration, with a strong and continual fire, till it becomes red. 
 Take therefore that rubified saturn, and pour a good quantity 
 of distilled vinegar upon it, and shake it very often every day 
 for a month, (a week) then separate the vinegar by a filter, 
 and take only that which is clear without feces, and put it in 
 balneo to distil, and after the separation of the vinegar, you 
 will find at the bottom of the vessel a white or sky-coloured 
 water, which take, and being put in a bladder five double, to 
 keep out the water, dissolve it in balneo into a cristalline water ; 
 put that water in a distillatory, and if you will, separate the 
 elements from it, or distil the dissolved water, which rectify in 
 a circulatory, and the earth which remained in the bottom, in 
 the distillation, calcine, till it grows like a sponge, and then is it 
 very fit to re-assume its mercury separated from it, that a new 
 generation may be made, and a son brought forth, which is 
 called king of fire, and which is so great in the love of all the 
 philosophers, cap. 17. Philos. page 220. Of this work Ripley made 
 mention: cap. 4. of the same book, page 194, saying, there is 
 moreover another work in gum produced by vinegar from red 
 saturn, out of which is the separation of the elements made, af- 
 ter it is dissolved in bladders. The menstruums of gum adrop, 
 which way soever made, were called stinking menstruums, be^ 
 
Weidenfclcl on Paracelsus. 201 
 
 cause of the stinking smell. This water, saith Ripley, hath a 
 most sharp taste, and partly also a stinking smell, and therefore 
 is called stinking menstruum. Assa faetida also is so called from 
 the smell, which our mercury hath when it is newly extracted out 
 of its polluted body, because that smell is like assa fsctida, ac- 
 cording to the philosopher, who saith ; that stink is worst be- 
 fore the preparation of this water, which after the circulating of 
 it into a quintessence, and good preparation, it is pleasant and 
 very delectable, and becomes a medicine against the leprosy, and 
 all other diseases, without which i^old vive, you can never make 
 the true potable gold, which is the elixir of life and metals, Adrop. 
 Phil, page o48. vol. 6. Theat Chym. 
 
 These menstruums they called white fume, because of their 
 white and opake colour. It is also called white fume, saith Ripley, 
 nor without cause, for in distillation a white fume goeth out 
 first, before the red tincture, which ascending into the alem- 
 bick, makes the glass white as milk, from whence it is also call- 
 ed lac yirginiS} or virgin's milk. In the same place ; out of the 
 red fume or red tincture, otherwise called the blood of the green 
 lion, the adepts did by rectification alone prepare two mercuries, 
 namely, red and white. Upon this occasion, saith Ripley, I will 
 teach you a general rule ; if you would make the white elixir, 
 you must of necessity divide your tincture, the blood of the 
 green lion, into two parts, whereof one must be kept for the reel 
 work, but the other distilled with a gentle fire ; and you will 
 obtain a white water, which is our white tincture, our eagle, 
 our mercury and virgin's milk. When you have these two tinc- 
 tures, or the white and red mercury, you will be able to practise 
 upon their own earth, or upon the calx of metals ; for the phi- 
 losophers say, we need not care what substance the earth is of, Sec. 
 Adr. Phil. p. 554?. vol. 6. Theat. Chemicum. 
 
 Let us therefore desist from further pursuit of the said green 
 lion, which we have pursued through the meads and forest of 
 Diana, through the way of philosophical saturn, even to the 
 vineyards of philosophy. This most pleasant place is allowed the 
 disciples of this art, to recreate themselves here, after so much 
 pains and sweat, dangers of fortune and life, exercising the work 
 of women, and the sports of children, being content with the most 
 red blood of the lion, and eating the white or red grapes of 
 Diana, the' wine of which being purified, is the most secret secret, 
 of all the more secret Chymy ; as being the white or red wine of 
 Lull}', the nectar of the ancients, and their only desire, the pe- 
 culiar refreshment of the adopted sons ; but the heart-breaking, 
 and stumbling-block of the scornful and ignorant. 
 
 Bb 
 
Operis Mago Cabbalistici ct Tlicosophici. 
 By George Von Welling. — Hamburgh, 1735, 
 
 OF THE HEAVENLY MERCURY. 
 
 That the universal mercury, which is also salt and suljj/uir? 
 is to be found in all things even in the minutest atoms, and 
 is the spirit and upholder of all things ; must not be unknown 
 to those who are versed in the true art oi separating. "When 
 this mercury is separated from any body, there remains only 
 a gross saltish sulphur, which is without life. Its form is won- 
 derful, in all creatures ; the earthly fire makes it fly from all 
 things visible or invisible ; it is not easily described, but is well 
 known to the wise. Whoever knows this wonderful phoenix 
 by her feathers, may readily find and prepare the cords where- 
 by this universal, though rarely-seen bird, may be caught. 
 To those who have a knowledge of nature, this is sufficient 
 information ; yet we say that the colours of these feathers arc 
 like the rainbow, yellow, green, and red, blended in shades 
 according to their origin and share of the light. It is properly 
 called the sulphur of the light of nature, the spirit and soul of all 
 things ; without this nothing can be performed in the secret 
 philosophy, and whoever has it, will not want the salt and 
 sulphur of the wise, and may then easily accomplish the art : 
 for the perpetual workings of nature, will shew the fire which is 
 necessary, and its degrees. 
 
 We have described the heavenly mercury, and how necessary 
 it Is to the tincture or stone of the wise ; in the mineral salt 
 sulphur and mercury, it is verily not to be found. Without this 
 heavenly mercury, no being on earth can exist ; not that wc 
 understand by the spirit of a vegetable animal or mineral, the 
 heavenly mercury. These are mercuries comparatively accord- 
 ing to their physical principles, in which the heavenly mercury 
 is concealed in an aerial water, like a highly rectified spirit 
 which divides a body in the minutest particles, but does not 
 melt it into its first matter ; for that melting is only possible to 
 the heavenly mercury, which can dissolve all bodies without 
 violence to their nature and projpevties. 
 
 From this the sophistical alchemists may learn how useless 
 their dissolvents are, that tear, rend, and destroy bodies,— » 
 
Von Welling. 203 
 
 To the true dissolvent belongs this wonderful mercury, which is 
 also salt and sulphur : the sort of a net that is to be used to 
 catch this bird, is a high question, because it appears now in the 
 form of a spirit ; then as a smoke or moisture as flour, salt, 
 and sulphur. An experienced bird-catcher is always diligent 
 to have at hand good call-birds, of the same sort as those he 
 intends to catch, and places them among the flock. Of gold, 
 only you can make gold ; but of lead you can make mercury 
 by a ferment : like loves its like. By contrary things, nothing 
 is to be obtained ; one thing gives this — another, that. — 
 Whosoever has this mercury, as it is congealed in its own 
 minera, the same has a magnet through which he may obtain 
 his object, and catch this bird, according to his pleasure, whether 
 it is in the form of a spirit, smoke, damp, or else as the stone 
 Jaspes. Rev. 21. v. 11. 
 
 That nothing can be obtained in the high philosophy without 
 the universal mercury, is well known ; but this mercury is sel- 
 dom described by the wise, except in such wonderful enigmas, 
 that it requires divine inspiration to understand them with 
 all their different views and meanings. It is a universal dis- 
 solvent ; in its first form a fire, which cannot be withstood by 
 earthly bodies ; but when it is by the artist's hand brought to the 
 form of congealed ice : it is a wonderful secret in medicine, and 
 of great power. It is not found naturally in such a congealed 
 icy form, but is easily brought thereto, if what was said of the 
 magnet has been understood. Whosoever has this mercury, 
 he has the true saline water which is necessary to dissolve the 
 true gold for the highest aurum potabile. When metallic 
 gold is dissolved therein, it is also potable ; but is only a 
 specific, and the same may be said of silver, and the other 
 metals. 
 
A LETTER 
 
 To the true Disciples of Hermes, containing 
 
 SIX PRINCIPAL KEYS of the Secret Philosophy. 
 
 By a French Adept, 
 JVhose name is concealed in the anagram, Dives sicut ardens S — 
 
 If I writ this letter to persuade those to the truth of our phi- 
 losophy, who imagine that it is only a vain idea, and a mere 
 paradox, I would follow the example of many masters in this 
 great art ; I would endeavour to convince those sort of wits of 
 their errors, by demon strath)!; to them the solidness of the prin- 
 ciples of our science supported by the laws, and by the opera- 
 tions of nature, and I would speak but slightly of what be- 
 longs to the practice ; but as I have a quite different design, 
 and that I write only for you, the wise disciples of Hermes, and 
 true sons of the art, my only intention is to serve you as a guide 
 in a way so difficult to be followed. Our practice is in effect 
 a track in the sands, where one ought to conduct one's self ra- 
 ther by the North Star, than by any footsteps which are seen 
 imprinted there. The confusion of the tracks, which an almost 
 infinite number of people have left there, is so great, and one 
 finds so many different paths, which almost all of them lead into 
 most frightful desarts, that it is almost impossible not to stray 
 from the true road, which only the sages favoured by Heaven 
 have happily known how to find out and to discover. 
 
 This confusion stops the sons of art at once; some in the be- 
 ginning, others in the middle of this philosophical course, and 
 some even when they approach near the end of this painful jour- 
 ney, and when they begin to discover the happy end of their 
 undertaking ; but perceive not, that the little of the way 
 which remains for them to go, is the most difficult. They know 
 not that the envious of their good fortune have dug ditches and 
 precipices in the middle of the way, and that for want of know- 
 ing the secret windings, whereby the wise avoid those dangerous 
 snares, they unhappily lose all the advantage which they had got, 
 at the same time, when they imagined to have surmounted all the 
 difficulties. 
 
 I vow sincerely to you, that the practice of our art is the most 
 
Six Keys. 205 
 
 difficult tiling of the world, not in regard to its operations, but 
 in respect of the difficulties which are in it, to learn it distinctly 
 from the books of the philosophers; for if on one side it is called 
 with reason the play of children, on the other it requires in 
 those who search for the truth by their labour, and their study, 
 a profound knowledge of the principles, and of the operations of 
 nature in the three kinds; but particularly in the mineral and 
 metallic kind. It is a great point to iind out the true matter, 
 which is the subject of our work ; you must for this pierce through 
 a thousand obscure vails, wherewith it has been spread over ; 
 you must distinguish it by its proper name, among a million ot 
 uncommon names, whereby the philosophers have differently 
 expressed it ; you must understand all the properties of it, and 
 judge of all the degrees of perfection, which the art is ca- 
 pable of giving to it ; you must know the secret fire of the wise, 
 which is the only agent which can open, sublime, purify, and 
 disperse the matter to be reduced into water ; you must for this 
 penetrate into the divine source of the celestial water, which 
 operates the solution, the animation and purification of the 
 stone ; you must know how to convert our metallic water into 
 an incombustible oil, by the entire solution of the body, from 
 whence it draws its original; and to effect this, you must make 
 the conversion of the elements, the separation, and the re-union 
 of the three principles ; you must learn to know how to make 
 thereof a white mercury, and a citrine mercury; — you must 
 fix this mercury, nourish it with its own blood, to the end that 
 it may be converted into the fixt sulphur of the philosophers. 
 These are the fundamental points of our art ; the rest of the 
 work is found clearly enough taught in the books of the philoso- 
 phers, that we have no need of an ampler explanation. 
 
 As there are three kingdoms (or reigns) in nature, so there 
 are also three medicines in our art which make three different 
 works in the practice, and which are nevertheless but three 
 different degrees, which raise our elixir to its highest per- 
 fection. These important operations of the three works, are 
 by all philosophers reserved under the key of the secret, to the 
 end that the sacred mysteries of our divine philosophy may 
 not be revealed to the profane ; — but to you who are the 
 sons of the science, and can understand the language of the 
 wise, the> locks shall be opened, arid you shall have the 
 keys of the precious treasures of nature and of art, if you 
 apply all your mind to the understanding of what I do design 
 to tell you, in terms as intelligible as is necessary for those, 
 who are predestinated as you are, to the knowledge of these 
 sublime mysteries. I will put into your hands six keys, 
 wherewith you may enter into the sanctuary of philosophy, 
 open all its recesses, and arrive at the understanding of the most 
 hidden truths, 
 
«0o Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 The First Key. 
 
 The first key is, that which opens the dark prisons, in which 
 the sulphur is shut up ; this is it which knows how to extract 
 the seed out of the body, and which forms the stone of the 
 philosophers, by the conjunction of the male with the female; 
 of the spirit with the body ; of sulphur with mercury. Hermes 
 has manifestly demonstrated the operation of this first key, by 
 these words : in the cayerns of the metals there is hidden, the 
 stone which is venerable, bright in colour, a mind sublime, 
 and an open sea. This stone has a bright glittering* it con- 
 tains a spirit or a sublime original, it is the sea of the wise, in 
 which they fish for their mysterious fish. The same philosor 
 pher does still more particularly take notice of the nativity of 
 this admirable stone, when he says : the king shall come out 
 of the fire, and shall rejoice in his marriage, and the hidden 
 things shall be laid open. It is a king crowned with glory, 
 who has his nativity in the fire, who is pleased with the union of 
 the spouse, which is given to him. It is this union which makes 
 manifest that which before was hidden. 
 
 But before I go any further, I have a counsel to give you^ 
 which will be of no small advantage to you ; that is, to re- 
 flect, that the operations of each of the three works, having a 
 great deal of analogy and relation to one another ; the philoso- 
 phers do designedly speak in equivocal terms, to the end that 
 those who have not lynx's eyes, may pursue wrong, and be lost 
 in this labyrinth, from whence it is very hard to get out. In 
 effect, when one imagines, that they speak of one work, they 
 often treat of another ; take heed, therefore, not to be de- 
 ceived herein ; for it is a truth, that in each work the wise artist 
 ought to dissolve the body with the spirit ; he must cut off the 
 raven's head, whiten the black, and rubify the white ; yet it is 
 properly in the first operation, that the wise artist cuts off the 
 head of the black dragon, and of the raven. Hermes says, 
 that it is from thence that our art takes its beginning. What is 
 born of the crow, is the beginning of this art. Consider, that 
 it is by the separation of the black, foul, and stinking fume of 
 the blackest black, that our astral, white, and resplendent stone 
 is formed, which containeth in its veins the blood of the pelican ; 
 it is at this first purification of the stone, and at this shining 
 whiteness, that the first key of the first work is ended. 
 
 The Second Key. 
 
 The second key dissolves the compound, or the stone, and 
 begins the separation of the elements iu a philosophical maiv? 
 
Six Keys. 207 
 
 uer ; this separation of the elements is not made but by raising 
 up the subtile and pure parts above the thick and terrestrial 
 parts. He who knows how to sublime the stone philosophically, 
 justly deserves the name of a philosopher, since he knows the 
 fire of the wise, which is the only instrument, which can work 
 this sublimation. No philosopher has ever openly revealed 
 this secret lire, and this powerful agent, which works all the 
 wonders of the art ; he who shall not understand it, and not 
 know how to distinguish it by the characters wherewith I have 
 endeavoured to point it out in the discourse of Eudoxus and 
 Pyrophilus, ought to make a stand here, and pray to God to 
 make it clear to him ; for the knowledge of this great secret, 
 is rather a gift of heaven, than a light acquired by the force of 
 reasoning ; let him, nevertheless, read the writings of the phi- 
 losophers ; let him meditate, and above all let him pray ; ther« 
 is no difficulty, which may not in the end be made clear by work, 
 meditation, and prayer. 
 
 Without the sublimation of the stone, the conversion of the 
 elements, and the extraction of the principles is impossible ; — 
 and this conversion, which makes water of earth, air of water, 
 and fire of air, is the only way whereby our mercury can 
 be prepared. Apply yourself then to know this secret fire, 
 which dissolves the stone naturally, and without violence, and 
 makes it dissolve into water in the great sea of the wise, by the 
 distillation which is made by the rays of the sun, and of the moon. 
 It is in this manner that the stone, which according to Hermes, 
 is the vine of the wise, becomes their wine, which by the opera- 
 tions of art, produces their rectified water of life, and their most 
 sharp vinegar. This father of our philosophy cits out con- 
 cerning this mystery ; O blessed watery form, which dissolvest 
 the elements ! The elements of the stone could not be dis- 
 solved, but by this water wholly divine ; nor could a perfect 
 dissolution be made of it, but after a proportioned digestion 
 and putrefaction, at which the second key of the first work 
 k ended. 
 
 The Third Key. 
 
 The third key comprehends of itself alone a longer train of 
 operations, than all the rest together. The philosophers have 
 spoken very little of it, seeing the perfection of our mercury 
 depends thereon ; the sincerest themselves, as Artephius, Trevisan, 
 Flamel, have passed in silence the preparations of our mercury, 
 and there is hardly one found, who has not feigned instead .of 
 showing the longest and the most important of the opera- 
 tions of our practice. With a design to lend you a hand in this 
 part of the way, which you have to go, where for want of light it 
 
308 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 U impossible to follow the true road, I will enlarge my- 
 self more than the philosophers have done, on this third key, 
 or at least I will follow in an order that which they have said of 
 this subject so confusedly, that without the inspiration of Heaven, 
 or without the help of a faithful friend, one remains undoubtedly 
 in this labyrinth, without being able to find a happy deliverance 
 from thence. I am sure that you who are the true sons of the 
 science, will receive aver}' great satisfaction in the explaining of 
 these hidden mysteries, which regard the separation, and the 
 purification of the principles of our mercury, which is made 
 by a perfect dissolution and glorification of the body, whence 
 it had its nativity, and by the intimate union of the soul 
 with its body, of whom the spirit is the only tie which 
 works this conjunction ; this is the intention, and the essential 
 point of the operations of this key, which terminate at 
 the generation of a new substance, infinitely nobler than 
 the first. 
 
 After that the wise artist has made a spring of living water 
 come out of the stone, that he has pressed out the juice of the vine 
 of the philosophers, and that he has made their wine, he ought 
 to take notice, that in this homogenous substance, which ap- 
 pears under the form of water, there are three different substances, 
 and three natural principles of all bodies : salt, sulphur, and 
 mercury, which are the spirit, the soul, and the body, and 
 though they appear pure and perfectly united together, there 
 still wants much of their being so ; — for when by distillation 
 we draw the water, which is the soul and the spirit, the 
 body remains in the bottom of the vessel like a dead, black, and 
 dreggy earth, which nevertheless is not to be despised; — for in 
 our subject there is nothing which is not good. The philosopher, 
 John Pontanus, protests, that the very superfluities of the stone 
 are converted into a true essence ; that he who pretends to sepa- 
 rate any thing from our subject, knows nothing in philosophy, 
 and that all which is therein of superfluous, unclean, dreggy, and 
 in fine, the whole substance of the compound is made per- 
 fect by the action of our fire. This advice opens the eyes of 
 those, who to make an exact purification of the elements, and 
 of the principles, persuade themselves, that they must only take 
 the subtile, and cast away the heavy ; but the sons of the sci- 
 ence ought not to be ignorant, that the fire, and the sulphur are 
 hidden in the centre of the earth, and that you must wash it 
 exactly with its spirit, to extract out of it the balm, viz. the 
 fixed salt, which is the blood of our stone. This is the essen- 
 tial mystery of this operation, which is not accomplished till af- 
 ter a convenient digestion, and a slow distillation. Follo\r 
 then, ye sons of art, the command which the truth-telling Hermes 
 gives ye, who says in this place : But with this watery soul, we 
 must mix our vinegar, that we may possess the sulphureous form ; 
 
Six Kajs. 209 
 
 for when the compound is dissolved, it is the key of restoration. 
 You know that nothing is more contrary than fire anil water ;— 
 but yet the wise artist must make peace between the enemies, 
 who at the bottom (or radically) love one another vehemently. 
 Cosmopolite has told the manner thereof in a few words : the 
 things therefore being purged, make fire and water to be friends,, 
 which they will easily do in their earth which had ascended with, 
 them. Be then attentive on this point, moisten oftentimes the 
 earth with its water* and you will obtain what you seek. Must 
 not the body be dissolved by the water, and the earth be pene- 
 trated with its humidity to be made proper for generation ? — 
 According to the philosophers, the spirit is Eve; the body is 
 Adam, they ought to be joined for the propagation of their spe- 
 cies. Hermes says the same thing in other terms ; tor water 
 is the strongest nature, which surmounts and excites the 
 fixed nature in the body, that is, rejoices it. In effect, these 
 two substances, which are of the same nature, but of two diffe- 
 rent sexes, embrace one another with the same love, and the 
 ^ame satisfaction, as the male and the female, and ascend insen- 
 sibly together, leaving but a little fieces in the bottom of the 
 vessel ; so that the soul, the spirit, and the body, after an 
 exact purification, appear at last inseparably united under 
 a more noble and more perfect form than it was before, 
 and as different from its first liquid form, as the alcohol of 
 wine exactly rectified, and acuated with its salt, is different 
 from the substance of the wine from whence it has been drawn ; 
 this comparison is not only very fitting, but it furthermore gives 
 the sons of science a precise knowledge of the operations of this 
 third key. 
 
 Our water is a living spring, which comes out of the stone, 
 by a natural miracle of our philosophy. The first of all is 
 the water which issueth out of this stone. It is Hermes who 
 hath pronounced this great truth. He acknowledges further, 
 that this water is the foundation of our art. The philosophers 
 give it many names; for sometimes they call it wine, some- 
 times water of life, sometimes vinegar, sometimes oil, accord- 
 ing to the different degrees of preparation, or according to the 
 diverse effects, which it is capable of producing. Yet I let 
 you know, that it is properly called the vinegar of the wise, 
 and that in the distillation of this divine liquor there happens 
 the same thing, as in that of common vinegar; — you may 
 from this draw a great instruction ; the water and the phlegm 
 ascend first ; the oily substance, in which the efficacy ot our 
 water consists, comes the last. It is this middle substance 
 between earth and water, which in the generation of the philo- 
 sophical child, does the office of the male. Hermes makes us 
 take particular notice of it by these intelligible words: the indif- 
 ferent unguent, which is fire, is the medium between the faeces and 
 the water. He is not content to give these lights to his scholars, 
 
 cc 
 
210 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 he shows fnrther in his smaragdine table, in what manner they 
 ought to conduct themselves in this operation. You shall separate 
 the earth from the fire, the subtile from the thick, sweetly, and 
 with great skill. Take care above all things not to smother the 
 fire of the earth by the waters of the deluge. This separa- 
 tion, or rather this extraction, must be done with a great deal 
 of judgment. 
 
 It is therefore necessary to dissolve the body entirely, to 
 extract all its humidity from it, which contain- this precious sul<- 
 phur, this balm of nature, and this wonderful unguent, with- 
 out which you ought not to hope ever to see in your vessel this 
 blackness so desired by all the philosophers. Reduce then the 
 whole compound into water, and make a perfect union of the 
 Volatile with the fixed ; it is a precept of Senior, which deserves 
 you should give attention to it. The highest fume, says he, 
 ought to»be reduced to the lowest, and the divine water is the 
 king descending from Heaven, it is the reducer of the soul to 
 its body, which it at length revives. The balm of life is hid 
 in these unclean faeces; you ought to wash them with this celes- 
 tial water, until you have removed away the blackness from 
 them, and then your water shall be animated with this fiery 
 essence, which works all the wonders of our art. I cannot give 
 you a better counsel about it than that of the great Trismegistus; 
 you must drive away from the water, the fume which is upon it, 
 the blackness from the unguent, and death from the faeces. — 
 "But the only means to succeed in this operation is taught you 
 by the same philosopher, who adds immediately ; and this by 
 dissolution, which 'being done, we have the greatest philoso- 
 phy, and the secret of all secrets. 
 
 But that you may not be deceived with the term of the com- 
 pound, I will tell you, that the philosophers have two sorts of 
 compounds. The' first is the compound of nature ; it is that 
 whereof I have spoke in the first key ; for it is nature which 
 makes it, in a manner incomprehensible to the artist, who does 
 nothing but lend a hand to nature, by the adhibition of external 
 things, by the means of which she brings Forth and produces 
 this admirable compound. The second is the compound of 
 art ; it is the wise man who makes it by the secret union of 
 the fixed with the volatile, perfectly conjoined with all the pru- 
 dence which car. be acquired by the lights of a profound philo- 
 sophy. The compound of art is not altogether the same in 
 the second, as in the third work ; yet it is always the 
 artist who makes it. Gebor defines it a mixture of argent vive 
 and sulphur, ihat is to say, of the volatile and the fixed, which 
 acting on one another are volatilized and fixed reciprocally into 
 a perfect fixity. Consider the example of nature, you will see 
 that the earth will never produce fruit, if it be not penetrated 
 v,ith its humidity, and that the humidity would remain 
 
Six Keys. 211 
 
 always barren, if it were not retained and fixed by the dryness 
 of the earth. 
 
 You ought then to be certain, that one cannot have any good 
 success in our art ; if you do not in the first work purify 
 I he serpent, born of the slime of the earth. If you do not 
 whiten these foul and black feces, to separate from thence the 
 white sulphur, the sal-armoniac of the wise, which is their chaste 
 Diana, who washes herself in the bath. All this mystery 
 is but the' extraction of the fixed salt of our compound, in 
 which the whole energy of our mercury consists. The water 
 which ascends by distillation, carries up with it a part of this 
 fiery salt : so that the affusion of the water on the body reiterated 
 many limes, impregnates, fattens, and fertilizes our mercury, 
 and makes it fitting to be fixed, which is the end of the second 
 work. One cannot better explain this truth, than Hermes has 
 done by these words: when I saw that the water began by de- 
 grees to become thicker and harder, I did rejoice, fori certainly 
 knew that I should find what I sought for. 
 
 Though vou might have but a very indifferent knowledge of 
 our art, what I am going to tell you will be more than suf- 
 ficient, to make you apprehend, that all the operations of this 
 key, which put an end to the first work, are no other than to 
 digest, distil, cohobate, dissolve, separate, and conjoin, the 
 whole with sweetness and patience. Thus you will have not 
 only an entire extraction of the juice of 'the vine of the wise; 
 but furthermore, you will possess the true water of life ; and 
 I let you know, that the more you shall rectify it, and the more 
 you shall work upon it, the more penetration and virtue it will 
 acquire ; the philosophers have not given it the name of the 
 water of life, but because it gives life to the metals. It is 
 properly called the great Lundfitt, because its brightness where- 
 with it shines. They also call it a sulphureous substance, a balm, 
 a gum, the viscous humidity, and the most sharp vinegar of the 
 philosophers, &c. 
 
 It is not without reason that the philosophers give this mer- 
 curial liquor the name of a pontic water, and of a most sharp 
 vinegar. Its exuberant ponticity is the true character of its 
 virtue. There happens also in its distillation, as I have al- 
 ready said, the same thing which happens in that of vinegar. — 
 The phlegm and the water arise first, the sulphureous and the 
 saline parts ascend the last ; separate the phlegm from the water, 
 unite the water and the fire together, the mercury with the sul- 
 phur, and you shall see at last the blackest black, you wiil whiten 
 the raven, and rubify the swan. 
 
 Since I speak only to you, ye true scholars of Hermes, 
 1 will reveal to you one secret, which you will not find entirely 
 in the books of the philosophers. Some of them only say, that 
 of their liquor they make two mercuries, the one white, and 
 
I 2]2 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 the other red. Flamel has said more particular})', that one 
 must make use of the citrine mercury, to make the imbibitions to 
 the red ; he gives notice to the sons of art, not to be deceived 
 in this point; he assures you also, that lie had therein been 
 himself deceived, if Abraham the Jew had not informed him of* 
 it. Other philosophers have taught, that the white mercury is 
 the bath of the moon, and that the red mercury is the bath ot 
 the sun ; but there are none who have been willing to shew dis- 
 tinctly to the sons of the science, by what way they may get 
 these two mercuries ; if you apprehended me well, you have this 
 point already cleared up to you. The Iunaria is the white 
 mercury, the most sharp vinegar is the red mercury; but the bet- 
 ter,^ determine these two mercuries, feed them with flesh of 
 their own species ; the blood of innocents, whose throats are 
 cut, that is to say, the spirits of the bodies, are the bath where 
 the sun and moon go to bath themselves. 
 
 I have unfolded to you a great mystery, if you reflect well 
 on it ; the philosophers, who have spoken thereof, have passed 
 over this important point very slightly. Cosmopolite has very 
 wittily mentioned it by an ingenious allegory, speaking of the 
 purification of mercury : this will be done, says he, if you shall 
 give our old man gold and silver to swallow, that he consume 
 them, and at length he also dying be burnt. He makes an end 
 of describing the whole magistery in these terms ; let his ashes be 
 strowed into the water ; boil it until it is enough, and you have 
 a medicine to cure the leprosy. You must not be ignorant, that 
 our old man is our mercury, that this name agrees with him, 
 because he is- the first matter of all the metals ; the same phi- 
 losopher says, that he is their water, to which he gives the 
 name of steel, and of the loadstone, and he adds for a greater 
 confirmation of what I am about to discover to you : if gold cou- 
 ples with it eleven times, it sends forth its seed, and is weakened 
 almost to death ; the chalybs conceives and begets a son more 
 glorious than the father. Behold then a great mystery, which I 
 reveal to you without any enigma; this is the secret of the two 
 mercuries, which contain the two tinctures. Keep them sepa- 
 rately, and do not confound their species, for fear they should 
 beget a monstrous lineage. 
 
 1 not only speak to you more intelligibly than any philosopher 
 has done, but I also reveal to you all which is the most 
 essential in the practice of our art; if you meditate thereon, 
 if; ou apply yourself to understand it well ; but above all, if you 
 work according to those lights which I give you, I in no wise 
 doijbt, but you will obtain what you seek for; and if you come 
 not to these knowledges, by the way which I have pointed out 
 to you, I am very well assured that you will hardly arrive afc 
 your design by only reading the philosophers. Therefore despair 
 of nothing ; search the source of the liquor of the sages. 
 
Six Keys. 213 
 
 which contains all -which is necessary for the work ; it is hid- 
 den under the stone; strike upon it with the rod of magic lire, 
 and a clear fountain will issue out of it; do afterwards as I 
 have shewn you, prepare the bath of the kino- with the 
 blood of the innocents, and you will have the animated mer- 
 cury of the wise, which never loses its virtue, if you keep it in 
 a vessel well closed. Hern es says, that there is so much 
 sympathy between the purified bodies and the spirits, that 
 they never quit one another when they arc u«ki d together ; — 
 because this union resembles that of the soul with the glorified 
 body, alter which faith tells us, that there shall be no more se- 
 paration nor death. Because the spirits desire to be in the cleansed 
 bodies, but having had them, they enliven them, aid dwell in 
 them. You see by this the merit of chis precious liquor, to which 
 the philosophers have given more than a thousand different 
 names : it is the water of life of the wise, the water of Diana, the 
 great lunaria, the water of argent vive ; it is our mercurv, 
 our incombustible oil, which in the cold is congealed like 
 ice, and is melted with heat like butter. Hermes calls it the 
 foliated earth, or the earth of leaves, not without a great deal 
 of reason; for if you well observe, it is all lea vy; in a word, 
 it is the most clear fountain, which Count Trevisan makes men- 
 tion of; in fine, it is the great alkahest which radically dissolves 
 the metals ; it is the true permanent water, which after having 
 radically dissolved them, is inseparably united to them, and in- 
 creases the weight and the tincture. 
 
 The Fourth Key. 
 
 The fourth key of the art, is the entrance of the second work ; 
 it is that which reduces our water into earth ; there is but this 
 only water in the world, which by a bare boiling can be con- 
 verted into earth, because the mercury of the wise carries in its 
 centre its own sulphur, which coagulates it. The terrification 
 of the spirit is the only operation of this work ; boil then 
 with patience; if you have proceeded well, you will not be a lono" 
 time without seeing the marks of this coagulation, and if they 
 appear not in their time, they will never appear ; because it is 
 an undoubted sign, that you have failed in some essential 
 thing in the first operations ; for to corponfy the spirit, which 
 is our mercury, you must have well dissolved the body in which 
 the sulphur, which coagulates the mercury, is inclosed. Hermes 
 assures, that our mercurial water shall obtain all the virtues 
 which the philosophers attribute to it, when it shall be changed 
 into earth. Its force will be entire, if it shall be converted 
 into earth. An earth admirable for its fertility ; the land of 
 
§14 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 promise of the wise, who knowing how to make the clew of 
 heaven fall upon it, myke it produce fruits of an inestimable 
 price. Cosmopolite very well expresses the advantages of 
 this blessed earth ; he who knows how to congeal water in beat, 
 and to join a spirit with it, shall truly find a thing a thou- 
 sand times more precious than gold, and every thing. Nothing 
 comes near the worth of this earth, and of this spirit, perfectly 
 bound together according to the rules of our art ; they are the 
 true mercury, and the true sulphur of the philosophers, the liv- 
 ing male, and the living female, who contain the seed which 
 only can beget a son more illustrious than his parents. Then 
 cultivate diligently this precious earth, moisten it often with its 
 own humidity, dry it as often, and you will not less augment 
 its virtues, than its weight, and its fertility. 
 
 The Fijth Key. 
 
 The fifth key of our work is the fermentation of the stone 
 with the perfect body, to make thereof the medicine of the third 
 order. I will say nothing in particular of the operation of the 
 third work ; except, that the perfect body is a necessa^ leaven 
 of our paste ; that the spirit ought to make the union of the 
 paste with the leaven ; in the same maimer as water moistens 
 the meal, and dissolves the leaven to compose a fermented 
 paste fit to make bread. This comparison is very proper ; — 
 Hermes first made it, saying ; for as a paste cannot be fermented 
 without a ferment, so when you shall have sublimed, cleansed, 
 and separated the foulness from the feces; when you would join 
 them, put a ferment in them, and make the water earth, that 
 the paste may be made a ferment. On the subject of fermenta- 
 tion, the philosopher repeats here the whole work, and shews 
 that just so as the whole lump of the paste becomes all leaven, by 
 the action of the ferment, which has been added to it; so all 
 the philosophical confection becomes by this operation a leaven 
 proper to ferment a new matter, and to multiply it even to 
 infinity. 
 
 If you observe well how bread is made, you will find the 
 proportions which you ought to keep among the matters, which 
 compose our philosophical paste. Do not the bakers put more 
 meal than leaven, and more water than the leaven and the meal ? 
 The laws of nature are the rules you ought to follow in the 
 practice gf our whole magistery. I have given you upon all the 
 principal points, all the instructions which are necessary for- 
 you, so that it would be superfluous to tell you more of it, par- 
 ticularly concerning the last operations, about which the phik>- 
 
Six Keys. 215 
 
 sophers have boon less reserved, than on the first, which are the 
 foundations of the art. 
 
 The Sixth Key. 
 
 ■ The sixth key teaches the multiplication of the stone, by 
 the reiteration of the same operation, which consists but in 
 opening and shutting, dissolving and coagulating, imbibing 
 and (tying: whereby the virtues of the stone are infinitely aug- 
 mented. As my design has not been to describe entirely the 
 practice <u the three medicines, but only to instruct yon in the 
 m rt in?] drtant operations concerning the preparation of mer- 
 cury, which the philosophers commonly pass over in silence, to 
 hi le . se mysteries from the profane, which are only for the 
 wise ; i wiu tarry no longer upon this point, and I will tell 
 Jroi nothing more of what relates to the projection of the me* 
 dicine, oca use the success you expect depends not thereon. — 
 1 have not given you very full instructions but on the third key* 
 use it contains a long train of operations, which, though 
 sii le and natural, require a great understanding of the laws of 
 nature, and of the qualities of our matter, as well as a perfect 
 knowledge of chemistry, and of the different degrees of heat, 
 which are fitting for these operations. 
 
 1 have conducted you by the straight way without any wind- 
 ing ; and if you have well minded the road which I have 
 pointed you out, I am sure that you will go straight to the end 
 without straying. Take this in good part from me in the design 
 which I had of sparing you a thousand labours, and a thousand 
 troubles, which I myself have undergone in this painful journey 
 for want of an assistance, such as this which I give you in this 
 letter, which comes from a sincere heart, and a tender affection 
 for all the true sons of the science. I should much bewail you, 
 if like me, after having known the true matter, you should 
 spend fifteen years entirely in work, in study, and in meditation, 
 without being able to extract out of the stone, the precious juice 
 wluch it incloses in its bosom, lor want of knowing the secret fire 
 of the wise, which makes to run out of this plant (dry and wi- 
 thered in appearance) a water which wets not the hands, and 
 which by a magical union of the dry water of the sea of the wise, 
 is dissolved into a viscous water, into a mercurial liquor, which 
 is the beginning, the foundation, and the key of our art ; convert, 
 separate, and purify the elements as I have taught you, and yon 
 will possess the true mercury of the philosophers, which will give 
 you the fixed sulphur, and the universal medicine. 
 
 But I give you notice, that after you shnll be arrived at the 
 knowledge of the secret fire of the wise, yet still you shall not at- 
 tain your point at your first career. I have erred many years in 
 
216 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 the way which remains to be gone, to arrive at the mysterious 
 fountain wher* the king bathes himself, is made young again, 
 and retakes a new life exempt from all sorts of infirmities. Be- 
 sides this you must know how to purify, to heat, and to animate 
 the royal batii ; it is to lend you a hand in this secret way, that I 
 have expatiated on the third key, where all these operations are 
 described. I wish with all my heart, that the instructions which 
 I have given you, may make you go directly to the end. But 
 remember, ye sons of the science, that the knowledge of our ma- 
 gistery comes rather by the inspiration of heaven, than from 
 the lights which we can get by ourselves. This truth is acknow- 
 ledged by a 1 philosophers ; it is for that reason that it is not 
 enough to work ; pray daily, read good books, and meditate 
 night and day on the operations ol nature, and on what she 
 may be able to do when she is assisted by the help of our art, and 
 by these means you will succeed without doubt in your undertak- 
 ing. This is all which I had to say to you in this letter. I was 
 not willing to make you such a long discourse as the matter seemed 
 to demand ; neither have I told you any thing but what is essen- 
 tial to our art; so that if you know our stone, which is the only 
 matter of our stone, and if you have the understanding of our 
 fire which is both secret and natural, you have the keys of the 
 art, and you can calcine our stone; not by the common calcina- 
 tion which is made by the violence of fire, but by a philosophical 
 calcination which is purely natural. 
 
 Yet observe this with the most enlightened philosophers, that 
 there is this difference between the common calcination which is 
 made by the force of fire, and the natural calcination ; that the 
 first destroys the body, and consumes the greatest part of its ra- 
 dical humidity ; but the second does not only preserve the humi- 
 dity of the body in calcining it, but still it considerably aug- 
 ments it. 
 
 Experience will give you knowledge in the practice of this great 
 truth, for you will in effect find that this philosophical calcina- 
 tion, which sublimes and distils the stone in calcining it, much 
 augments its humidity ; the reason is, that the igneous spirit of 
 the natural lire is corporified in the substances which are ana- 
 logoustoit. Our stone is an astral fire, which sympathizes with 
 the natural fire, and which as a true salamander receives its na- 
 tivity, is nourished and grows in the elementary fire, which is 
 geometrically proportioned to it. 
 
SIR GEORGE RIPLEY'S 
 
 Twelve Gates of Alchemy, 
 (abridged.) 
 
 O hygh yncomprchensyble and gloryous Magcste, 
 
 Whose luminos bemes obtundyth our speculation ; 
 
 One-hode in substance, O Tryne hode in Deite, 
 
 Of hierarchycall jubylestes the gratulant gloryfyeation , 
 
 O pytewouse puryfyer ofsoules and puer perpetuation $ 
 
 O deviaunt fro danger, O drawer most deboner ; 
 
 Pro thys envyos valey of vanyte, O our Exalter. 
 
 O power, O wysdom, O goodness inexplycable ; 
 
 Support me, tech me, and be my Governour, 
 
 That never my lyvyng be to thee dysplycable, 
 
 But that I aquyte me to thee as a trew professor . 
 
 Att thys begynnyng good Lord here my prayer ; 
 
 Be nygh with grace for to enforce my wyll, 
 
 Graunt well that 1 may my entent fulfyll. 
 
 In the begynnyng when thou madyst all of nought, 
 
 A globose mater and darke under confusyon, 
 
 By thee Begynner mervelously was wrought, 
 
 Conteynyng naturally all thyngs withoute dyvysyon, 
 
 Of whych thou madyst in six d ayes dere dy sty nction ; 
 
 As Genesys apertly doth recordc 
 
 Then Heavyn and Erth perfeytyd were wyth thy word* 
 
 So thorow thy wyll and power owte of one mase 
 
 Confusyd was made all thyngs that being ys : 
 
 Butyn thy glory afore as maker thou was, 
 
 Now ys and shall be wythout end I wvs : 
 
 And puryfyed sowls upp to thy blys 
 
 Shall come a piyncyple, thys may be one, 
 
 For the declaryng of our Stone. 
 
 For as of one mase was made all thyng, 
 
 Ryght soe must hyt in our practyse be, 
 
 All our secrets of one Image must spryng ; 
 
 hi phylosophers bokes therefore who lust tose, 
 
2J8 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Our stone ys caliyd the lessc world one and three. 
 
 Magnesia also of Sulphure and Mercury, 
 
 Propotionat by nature most perfytly. 
 
 Thys stone alsoe tcil thee 1 dare, 
 
 Is the vapour of mettalls potentyall, 
 
 How thou shall gett hyt thou must beware: 
 
 For invysible is truly thys menstruall : 
 
 Howbehytt with the second water phylosophyealt, 
 
 By seperatyon of elements yt may appeare, 
 
 To svsjht in forme of water cieerc. 
 
 Of our menstrue by labour exuberate 
 
 And wyth hyt may be made sulphure of nature 
 
 If itt be well and kyndly acuale; 
 
 And cyrculate into a spryt pure. 
 
 Then to dyssolve thou must be sure 
 
 Thy base wyth hyt indyvers wyse, 
 
 As thou shalt know by thy practyse. 
 
 THE FIRST GATE 
 
 Of Calcination. 
 
 CaTcinacion is the purgaeyon of our stone,, 
 
 Restauryng also of hys naturall heate ; 
 
 Of radyeall moysture it lesyth none ; 
 
 Indueyng solucion into our stone most mete, 
 
 After philosophy I you behytc, 
 
 Do not after the comyn gyse, 
 
 Wyth sulphure and salts preparat in dyvers wyse> 
 
 Nether with corrosyves nor with fire alone, 
 
 Nor with vyneger nor water ardent, 
 
 Nether with the vapour of lede our stone 
 
 Is calcyned to our intente : 
 
 All they to ealcyne whych so be bent 
 
 Fro thys hard scyence withdraw theyre hond ? 
 
 Till they our calcyning better understonde. 
 
 lor by such calcynyug theyre bodyes be shent,- 
 
 Whych mynysheth the moysture of our stone £• 
 
 Therefore when bodyes to powder be brent, 
 
 Dry as askys of tre or bone, 
 
 Of such calx then wyll we none, 
 
 For moysture we multiply radyeall, 
 
 In ealcynyng, mynyshyng none at alL, 
 
Twelve Gates. 219 
 
 And for a sure ground of our trew calcynacyon, 
 
 Woofbh wyttyly kynde only with kynde ; 
 
 For kynd to kynde hath appetyble inclynacyoh ; 
 
 Who knowelh not thys yn knowledge is but blynd : 
 
 He may forth wander as my&t doth wyth the wynd ; 
 
 Woting never wyth perfytnes where to lygfot, 
 
 Because he cannot conseve our words aryght. 
 
 And we make calxes unctious both whyte and red, 
 
 Of three degrees or our base be perfyt ; 
 
 Fluxybls as wcx, ells stond they lyttle in sted ; 
 
 By ryght long proccsse as phylosophcrs wryte, 
 
 A ycre we take or more for our respite. 
 
 For in lesse space our calxe wyll not be made, 
 
 Able to tayne with colour whych vjVt not vade< 
 
 If the water bo equull in proporcyon 
 
 To the crthe whych here in dew mesure, 
 
 Of hym shall spryng a new burgyon ; 
 
 Both whyte and red in pure tyncture, 
 
 AVhych in the lyre shall ever endure; 
 
 Kyll than the quyck, the ded revyve, 
 
 Make Trynyte unyte vvythout any strwe. 
 
 Thys ys the best and the surest proporcyon. 
 
 For here ys lest of the part spyrytuall, 
 
 The better therefore shall be solucyon ; 
 
 Then yf thou dyd it wyth water small, 
 
 Thyne erth over glutyn whych losyth all: 
 
 Take heede therefore to potters loome, 
 
 And make you never to nesh thy womc. 
 
 Thus under the moysture of the moone, 
 
 And under the temperate hete of the sonne s 
 
 Thy elements shalbe incynerate sone, 
 
 And then thow hast the maistery wone ; 
 
 Thanke God thy worke was then begon ; 
 
 Pore there thow hast one token trew, 
 
 Whych fyrst in blacknes to thee wyll shew. 
 
 THE SECOND GATE. 
 
 Of Solution. 
 
 But yet I trow thou understandyst not utterly 
 The very secrett of phylosopers dyssolucion ; 
 Therefore conceve me I counccll thee wyttyly : 
 For I wyll tell thee trewly wythoutdelusyon ; 
 Our solucyon ys cause of our congelacyon ; 
 For the dissolucyon on the one syde corporail 
 Causyth congelacyon on the other side spyrytuall. 
 
220 Alchemical Tnaftses. 
 
 And we dyssolvc into water whych weytyth no hand- 
 
 For when the erthys integrally yncyncrat ; 
 
 Then ys the water congelvd, thys understand ; 
 
 For the elements be so concatenat. 
 
 That when the body fro hys fyrst forme ys altevate r- 
 
 A new forme ys inducyd immediately, 
 
 For notbyng being wythout all forme ys utterly. 
 
 And here a secret to thee I wyll dysclose, 
 
 Whych ys the ground of our secvets all ; 
 
 And yf thou hyt not know thou shalt but lose 
 
 Thy labour and costs both great and small, 
 
 Take hede therefore in errour that thou not fall : 
 
 The more thyne erth and the lease thy water be, 
 
 The rather and better solucyon shall thou see. 
 
 Behold how yse to water doth relent, 
 
 And so hyt must, for water hyt was before ; 
 
 Ryght soe agayne to water our erth is bent, 
 
 And water thereby congelyd for evermore, 
 
 For after all phylosophers whych ever was bore : 
 
 Every mettall was ons water mynerall, 
 
 Thcreforewyth water they turne to water all. 
 
 And in oncglasse must be done all thys thyng, 
 
 Lyke to an egg in shape, and closyd well, 
 
 Then must you know the mesure of fyryng ; 
 
 The whych unknowen thy warke ys lost ech dele, 
 
 Lett never thy glasse be hotter then thow may feele : 
 
 And suffer styll in thy bare hand to holde 
 
 For dread of losyngas philosophers have the told. 
 
 Yett to my doetryne furthermore intend, 
 
 Beware thy glasse thou never opyn ne meve 
 
 Fro thy begynnyng, tyll thou have made an end ; 
 
 If thou do contrary thy warke may never cheve : 
 
 Thus in thys Chapter whych ys so breve, 
 
 I have the taught thy trew solution ; 
 
 Now to the thyrdgate goe, for thys ys won. 
 
 TOE THIRD GATE. 
 
 Of Separation. 
 
 Separacyon, doth ech parte from other devyde, 
 
 The subtill fro thegroce, fro the thyck the thyii ; 
 
 But separacyon manual! look thou put asyde : 
 
 For that pertaynyth to folys whych lyttyll good don wyn* 
 
 But in our separacyon nature doth not blyn : 
 
 Making dyvysyon of qualytes elemcnull 
 
 Into the tyfth degree tyll they be turned all. 
 
Twelve Gates. %Zl 
 
 Do thys wyth hete csy and mesuryng 
 
 Fyrst wyth moyst fyre, and after wyth the dry : 
 
 The flewme by pacyence owt drawyng; 
 
 And after that thy other natures wyttyly, 
 
 Dry up thyne erth tyll hyt be thrysty : 
 
 By calcenyng els thou laboryst all in vayne, 
 
 And then make hyt drynke up his moysture agaynej 
 
 Whvch yf they were not by craft made quick, 
 
 And the; .atnes wyth water drawn out ; 
 
 And so the thyn dyssevered from the thyke, 
 
 Thcu should never bryng thys worke about : 
 
 Yf thou wylt speed therefore wythout doubt, 
 
 lleyse up thy byrds out of theyre nest, 
 
 And after agayne bryng them downe to rest. 
 
 Now to help thee in at thys gate, 
 
 r j li ast secret I wyll tell to thee; 
 
 Thy w ater must be seven tymes subtymate, 
 
 shall no kyndly dyssolucyon be, 
 Nor ] utryfyyng shall thou none see, 
 Like lyquyd pytch nor colours apperyng, 
 For lack of fyre wythin thy glasse workyng. 
 Fower fyers there be whych you must understands 
 Natural!, innaturall, against nature, alsoe 
 Elementall whych doth bren the brond ; 
 These foure fyres use we and no mo : 
 Fyre against nature must doe thy bodyes wo; 
 Thatys our dragon as I thee tell, 
 Fersely brennyng as fyre of hell. 
 Fyre of nature ys the thyrd menstruall, 
 That fyre ys naturally in every thyng; 
 But fyre occasionat we call innatiu all, 
 And hete of askys and balnys for putrefying : 
 Wythout these lyres thou may not bryng 
 To putrefaccyon for to be seperat, 
 Thy matters togeather proportyonat. 
 Therefore make fyre thy glasse wythin, 
 "Whych brennyth the bodyes more then fyre 
 Elementall ; yf thou wylt wyn 
 Our secret accordyng to thy desyre, 
 Then shall thy seeds both roote and spyre, 
 By help of fyre occasionate, 
 That kyndly after they may be seperato 
 
222 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 THE FOURTH GATE. 
 
 Of Conjunction. 
 
 Of two conjunccions phylosophers don menfyon make, 
 Groce when the body with Mercury ys reincendat, 
 But let hyt passe, and to the second tent thou take, 
 "Which as I sayd ys after separacion celebrat : 
 In whych the partys be lest whych lest so collygate ; 
 And so promotyd unto most perlyt temperance, 
 Then never alter may be among them repugnance. 
 Thus causyth separacion trew conjunccion to be had 
 Of water, ayre, earth, and lyre, 
 But that every element may into other be lad, 
 And so abyde for ever to thy desyre ; 
 Do as done laborours with clay and myer, 
 Temper them thyke, and make them not to thyn, 
 lor so to up drying thou shalt the rather wyn. 
 And whan thy vessle hath stond b}- monyths five, 
 And clowds and cbypsys be passed ech one ; 
 That lyght apperen increase thy hete then blyve, 
 T}dl bryght and shyneing in whytnesse be thy stonCj 
 Then may thou opyn thy glasse anone, 
 And fede thy chyld whych ys then ybore 
 "Wyth mylke and mete ay more and more. 
 For now both moyst and. dry be so contemperate. 
 That of the water erth hath recevyd imprcssyon ; 
 Whych never assundcr after that may be seperatCj 
 And ryght soe water to erth hath given ingressyon, 
 That both together to dwell hath made professyon : 
 And water of erth hath purchasyd retentive, 
 They lower be made one never more to strive. 
 And in two thyngs all our entent doth hing, 
 In dry and moyst whych be contraryous two ; 
 In dry that hyt the moyst to fyxing bryng, 
 In moyst that hyt geve lyquyfaccion the erth unto, 
 That of them thus contemperate may forth go 
 A temperament not so thyk as the body ys, 
 Mother so thyn as water wythout mys. 
 
Twelve Gates. 223 
 
 THE FIFTH GATE. 
 
 Of Putr ejection. 
 
 Now bcgynnytli the chapter of putrefaccion, 
 
 Wvthout whych pole no sede may multiply, 
 
 Whych must be done only by contynuall accyon 
 
 Of hete in the body, moyst, not manually, 
 
 For bodies ells may not be alterat naturally : 
 
 iSyth Chrystdo it wytnes, wythowt the grayne of whete 
 
 Dye in the ground, encrese may thou not gete. 
 
 And in lykewv.se wythoul thy matter do putrefyc, 
 
 It may in no wyse trewly be alterate, 
 
 Nor thyne elements may be devyded kyndly ; 
 
 Nor thy conjunction of them portytly eelebrat : 
 
 That thy labor therefore be not frustrate, 
 
 The prevyte of putrefying well understond, 
 
 Or ever thou take thys warke in bond. 
 
 And therefore as I have seyd afore 
 
 Theyn elements comyxt and wysely coequat, 
 
 Thou keepe intemperat heate, eschuyng evermore, 
 
 That they by violent hete be never ineynerat ; 
 
 To powder dry unprofytably rubyfycate, 
 
 But into powder blaeke as a crowes byll 
 
 Wyth hete of balne, or ells of our dounghyll. 
 
 To tyme that nyghts be past nynty, 
 
 In moyst hete kepe them fro eny thyng ; 
 
 Sonc after by blacknes thow shalt espy 
 
 That they draw fast to putrefying, 
 
 Whych thow shalt after many colers bryng 
 
 To perfyt whytenes wyth pacyence esyly, 
 
 And so thy sede in hys nature shall multeply. 
 
 Thys tyme of conceptyon wyth esye hete abyde, 
 
 The blacknes showing shall tell the when they dye j 
 
 For they together lyke lyquyd Pyche thattyde, 
 
 Shall swell and burbyll, setyll, and putrelye, 
 
 Shynirig colors therin thou shalt espye : 
 
 Lyke to the raynbow mervelose unto syght, 
 
 The water then begynnyth to dry upryght. 
 
 For in moyst bodys hete noryshyng temperate*. 
 
 Ingendryth blacknes syrst of all which ys 
 
 Of kyndly commyxyon to the tokyn assygnate ; 
 
 And of trew putrefying, remembei tliys, 
 
 For then to alter perfytiy thou may not mysse ; 
 
 And thus by the gate of biacknes thou must cum in 
 
 To lyght of Paradyce in whytenes yf thou vvylt wyo* 
 
324 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 For fyrst the son in liys uprysyng obscurate 
 Shalbe, and passe the waters of Noyes fiud 
 On erth, whyeh were a hundred dayes contynuate 
 And fyfiy, away or all thys waters yode, 
 Ryght so our waters as wyse men understode 
 Shall passe, that thou wyth Davyd may say 
 Abierunt in sicco Jlumincjc : bare thys away. 
 
 THE SIXTH GATE. 
 
 Of Congelation. 
 
 Of congelacyon I nede not much to wryte, 
 
 But what yt ys now I wyll fyrst declare : 
 
 It ys of soft thyngs induracyon of colour whyte? 
 
 And confyxacyon of spyrits whych fleyng are : 
 
 How to congele thee nedyth not much to care 
 
 For elements wyll knyt together sone, 
 
 So that putrefaccyon be kyndly done. 
 
 For when the matter ys made parfyt whyte, 
 
 Then wyll thy spryte wyth the body congelyd be ; 
 
 But of that tyme thou must have long respyte, 
 
 Yer yt appere congelyd lyke pearles unto the, 
 
 Such congelacyon be glad for to see ; 
 
 And after lyke graynys red as blod, 
 
 Rychyr then any worldly good. 
 
 1 he erthly grosnes therefore fyrst mortyfyed 
 
 In moystnes, blacknes ingendryd ys ; 
 
 Thys pryncypell majr not be denyed, 
 
 For naturall philosophers so seyth I wys, 
 
 "Whych had, of Avhytenes thou may not mys-; 
 
 And into whytenes yf" thou congele hyt ons, 
 
 Thou hast a stone most presyose of all stonys. 
 
 But here thou must another secret knowe, 
 
 How the philosophers chyld in the ayre ys borne ; 
 
 Bcsy thee not to fast at the cole to blowe, 
 
 And take that nether for mock nor skorne, 
 
 But trust me truly else thy work ys all forlorne j 
 
 Wvthout thyne erth wyth water revyvyd be, 
 
 Our trew congelyng shalt thou never see. 
 
Twelve Gates. 225 
 
 THE SEVENTH GATE. 
 Of Cibatlon. 
 
 Thretyriies thus must thouturne about thy whele 
 
 Abowte kepying the rewle of the scyd cibacyon, 
 
 And then as sone as yt the fyre doth fele, 
 
 Lvke wax yt wylbq redy unto lyquacyon ; 
 
 Tnys chapter neuyth not longer protestacion ; 
 
 For I have told thee the dyatory. most convenyent 
 
 After thyne elements be made equypolent. 
 
 And also how thou to whytenes shaltbryng thy gold, 
 
 .Most lvke in fyguro to the lenys of an hawthorn tre, 
 
 Callyd Magnesya afore as I have told; 
 
 And our whyte sulfur wythowte conbustebyllyte, 
 
 Whych fro the fyer away wyll never fle ; 
 
 And thus the seventh gate as thow desyred 
 
 In the upspryng of the son ys con query d. 
 
 THE EIGHTH GATE. 
 
 Of Sublimation. 
 
 Tn Miblymacyon fyrst beware of one thyng, 
 That thou sublyme not to the top of thy vessel!, 
 For without vyolence thou shnlt yt not downe bryng 
 Ageyne, but there yt wyll abyde and dwell ; 
 So hyt rejoysyth wyth refrvgeracion I the tell ; 
 Kepe hyt therfore wyth temperat hete adowne 
 Full forty dayes, tyll hyt wex black abowen. 
 And sublymacyon we make for causys thre, 
 The fyrst cause ys to make the body spirituall % 
 The second that the spryt may corporall be, 
 And becom fyx wyth hyt and substancyall ; 
 The thyrd cause ys that fro hys fylth orygAnall 
 He may beclensyd, and hys fatnys sulphuryose 
 Be mynyshyd in hym whych ys infectuose. 
 Then when they thus togeder depuryd be, 
 They wyll sublyme up whyter then snow; 
 That syght wyll gi'etly comfort the ; 
 For than anon parfytly shalt thou know 
 Thy sprytts shall so be a downe I throw; 
 That thys gate to the shalbe unlockyd, 
 Out of thys gate many one be shuyt a#d raockyd. 
 
226 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 THE NINTH GATE?. 
 
 Of Fermentation, 
 
 That poynt therfore I wyll dysclosc to thee, 
 
 X.ooke how thou dydyst wyth thy unparfyt body,' 
 
 And do so wyth thy parfyt bodys in every degre ; 
 
 That ys to sey fy rst thou them putrefy e 
 
 Her prymary qualytes destroying utterly } 
 
 For thys ys" wholey to our enteilt, 
 
 That fyrst thou alter before thou ferment. 
 
 To thy compound make ferment the fowcrth parte, 
 
 Whych ferments be only of son and mone ; 
 
 If thou therfore be master of thys arte, 
 
 Thy fermentaciori lat thys be doile,' 
 
 Fyx water and erth together sone : 
 
 And when the medcyn as wax doth flowe, 
 
 Than uppon Malgams loke thou hyt throw. 
 
 And when all that together ys myxyd 
 
 Above thy glasse well closyd make thy fyre, 
 
 And so contenew hyt tyll all be fyxid, 
 
 And well fermented to desyre ; 
 
 Than make projeccyon after thy pleasure: 
 
 For that ys medcyn than ech dele parfyt, 
 
 Thus must you ferment both red and whyte^ 
 
 And understood that ther be ferments three, 
 
 Two be of bodys in nature clene, 
 
 Whych must be altryd as I have told thee ; 
 
 The thyrd most secret of whych I mene, 
 
 Ys the fyrst erth to hys owne water grene : 
 
 And therfore when the lyon* doth thurst, 
 
 Make hym dryrike fyll hys belly burst. 
 
 But wyth thy bace after my doctrynepreperatj 
 
 Whych ys our calx, thys must be don ; 
 
 For when our bodys be sO calcenat, 
 
 That water wyll to oyle dyssolte them sone ; 
 
 Make therfore oyle of son and mone 
 
 Which ys ferment most fragrant for to smell, 
 
 Ami so the ninth gate ys conquered of thys castelk 
 
Twelve Gates. '#&< 
 
 THE TENTH GATE. 
 
 Of Exaltation. 
 
 Yf thou tlierfore thy bodys wyll cxaltat, 
 
 Fyrst wyth the spryts of lyfe thou them augment, 
 
 Tyll tyme thy erth be well subtylyate, 
 
 By naturall rectyfyyng of eche element; 
 
 Flym up exaltyng into thei^xanamect : 
 
 Than much more presyose shall they be than gold, 
 
 Because they of the quyntessence do hold. 
 
 For when the cold .hath overcuin the hete, 
 
 Then into water the ayre shall turnyd be; 
 
 And so two contrarys together shall mete, 
 
 Tyll ether wyth other ryght well agre, 
 
 So into ayre thy water as I tell the ; 
 
 When hete of cold hath gott (kxmy.nacyon, 
 
 Shalbe convertyd by craft of cyrculacion. 
 
 And of the fyer -then ayer have thou shall, 
 
 By losyng putrefyyng and sublymyng; 
 
 And Iyer thou hast of the erth materyall : 
 
 Thyne elements by craft thus dysseveryng, 
 
 Most specyally the erth well calcenyng : 
 
 And when they be eche on made pure, 
 
 Then do thevhold all of the fvfth nature. 
 
 THE ELEVENTH GATE. 
 
 Of ^Multiplication. 
 
 And why thou may thy medcyn mulleply, 
 
 Infynytly the cause forsoth ys thys. 
 
 Forytys fyer whych tynedwyll never dye : 
 
 Dwellyngwyth the a^ fyer doth in housys, 
 
 Of whych one sparke may make more fyers I-wys ; 
 
 As musk in pygments, and other spycys mo, 
 
 In vertue multyplyeth and our medcyn ryght so. 
 
 So he ys ryche the whych fyer hath les or more, 
 
 Because he may so gretly multeply; 
 
 And ryght so ryche ys he whych any parte hath in store 
 
 Of our elixers whych be augmentable infynytly : 
 
 One way yf thou dyssolve our powders dry, 
 
 And oft tymes of them make congelacyon, 
 
 Of hyt in goodncs thou makyst then augmentacyon. 
 
22S Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 The second way both in goodnes and in quantyte, 
 
 Hyt multyplycth by iterat fermentacion, 
 
 As in that chapter I showyd playnly unto the, 
 
 By dyvers manners of natural I operacyon, 
 
 And also in the chapter of our cybacyon : 
 
 Where thou may know how thou shalt multcply 
 
 Thy medcyn wyth mercury infynytly. 
 
 THE TWELFTH GATE. 
 
 Of Projection. 
 
 In projeccyon hyt shalbe provyd yf our practise be profytabl* 
 Of whycli yt behovy th me the secrets here to mere, 
 Therfore yf thy tyncture be sure and not varyable, 
 By a Jyttyllof thy medcyn thus shall thou prevc 
 Wyth mettall or wyth mercury as pyche yt wyll cleve : 
 And tynct in projeccj-on all fycrs to abyde, 
 And sone yt wyll enter and spred hym full wyde. 
 But many for ignorans doth mar that they made, 
 When on mettalls unclensyd projeccyon they make, 
 For be cause of corrupcyon theyr tinctures must rade ; 
 Whych the wold not awey fyrst fro the bodys take, 
 Whych after projeccyon be bryttyl, bloe, anil blacke ; 
 That thy tyncture therfore may evermore last, 
 Uppon ferment thy medcyn loke tyrst that thou cast. 
 
JOHN PONTANUS, 
 
 or THE 
 
 Sophie Fire. 
 
 1. I, John Pontaxus, have travelled through many coun- 
 tries, that I might know the certainty of the philosophers stone; 
 and passing through the universe, I found many deceivers, but 
 no true philosophers, which put me upon incessant studying, 
 and making many doubts, till at length I found out the truth. 
 But when f attained the knowledge of the matter in general) 
 yet I erred at least two hundred times, before I could attain to 
 know the singular thing itself, with the work and practice 
 iheioof. 
 
 2. First, I began with the putrefaction of the matter, which 
 I continued for nine months together, and obtained nothing. — 
 I then for some certain time proved a Balneum Marine, but in 
 vain. After that, I used a fire of calcination for three months 
 space, and still found myself out of the way. I essayed all sorts 
 of distillations and sublimations, as the philosophers, Geber, 
 Archelaus, and all the rest of them have prescribed, and yet 
 found nothing: In sum, I attempted to perfect the whole work 
 of alchemy by all imaginable and likely means, as by horse-dung, 
 baths, ashes, and other heats of divers kinds, all which are 
 found in the philosophers books, yet without any success.— 
 I yet continually for three years together studied the books of 
 philosophers, and that chiefly in Hermes, whose concise words 
 comprehend the sum of the whole matter, viz. the secret of the 
 philosophers stone, by an obscure way of speaking, of what is 
 superipr, and what is inferior, to wit, of heaven and of earth. — 
 TheiLiore our operation which brings the matter into being, in 
 t.i first, second, and third work, is not the heat of a bath, nor 
 horse-dung, nor ashes, nor of the other fires, which philosopher^ 
 excogitate in their books. Shall I demand then, what it is that 
 perfect;: the work, since the wise men have thus concealed it ? — 
 Truly, being moved with a generous spirit, I will declare it, with 
 the complement of the whole work. 
 
 3. The Lapis Philosophorum, therefore, is but one, though 
 it has many names, which before you conceive them, will be very 
 difficult. For it is watery, airy, fiery, earthy : it is salt, sul- 
 phur, mercury, and phlegm ; it is sulphureous, yet is argent 
 vivo , it has many superfluities, which are turned into the true 
 essence, by the help of our fire. He which separates any thing 
 from the subject or matter, thinking it to be necessary, * wholly 
 
230 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 errs in his philosophy. That which is snperfluous, unclean, 
 filth}', feculent, and in a word, the whole substance of the sub- 
 ject is transmuted cm' changed into a perfect, fixed, and spiritual 
 body, by the help of our fire, which the wise men never revealed, 
 and therefore it is, that few attain to this art, as thinking that to 
 be superfluous and impure, which is not. 
 
 4. It behoves us now to enquire after the properties of oar m fire 9 
 and how it agrees with our matter, according to that which I have 
 said, viz. that a transmutation may be made, though the fire is 
 not such as io burn the matter, separating nothing from it, nor 
 /dividing the pure parts from the impure, as the philosophers 
 teach, but transmuting and changing the whole subject into pu- 
 rity. Nor does it sublime after the manner of Geber's sublima- 
 tion, nor the sublimations or distillations of Arnoldus, or others; 
 but it is perfected in a short time. It is a matter mineral, equal', 
 continuous, vapours or fumes not, unless too much provoked : 
 partakes of sulphur, and k taken otherwise than from matter; — 
 it destroys all things, dissolves, congeals, coagulates and cal- 
 cines, adapted to penetrate, and is a compendium, without any 
 great cost. And that is the fire, with a gentle heat, soft or 
 remiss, by which the whole work is <|>erfected, together with all 
 the proper .sublimations. They who read Geber, with all the 
 rest of the philosophers, though they should survive an hundred 
 thousand years, yet would they not be able to comprehend it, 
 for that this fire is found by a profound cogitation only, which be- 
 ing once apprehended, may be gathered out of books, and not 
 ^before. 
 
 ,5. The error, therefore, in this work, proceeds chiefly from 
 -a not knowing, or understanding of the true fire, which is one 
 of the moving principles that transmutes the whole matter 
 into the true philosophers stone ; and therefore diligently find 
 it out. Had I found that first, I had never been two hundred 
 times mistaken in the pursuit of the matter I so long sought after. 
 For which cause sake, I wonder 'hot that so many, and so great 
 men, have not attained unto the work. They have erred, 
 they A& err, and they will err; because the philosophers, 
 Artcphius only excepted, have concealed the principal or proper 
 agent. And unless I had read Artcphius, and sensibly under* 
 i-tood his speech, I had never arrived to the complement of the 
 work. 
 
 6. Now the practical part is this : Let the matter be taken 
 and diligently ground with a philosophical contrition, put it upon 
 the fire, with such a proportion of heat, that it only excite or 
 Stir up the matter ; and in a short time that fire, without 
 any laying on of hands, will -complete the whole work, bc r 
 cause it putrefies, corrupts, generates, and perfects, and makes 
 the three principal colours, viz. the black, white, and red to 
 appear. And by the means of this our fire, the medicine will 
 
 
Pontcmus. £31 
 
 be multiplied, by addition of the crude matter, not onTy iri 
 quantity, but also in quality or virtue. Therefore seek out 
 this fire with all thy industry, for having Once found it, 
 thou shalt accomplish thy desire, because it performs the 
 Whole work, and is the true key of all the philosophers, which 
 they never yet revealed. Consider well of what I have spo- 
 ken concerning the properties of this fire, and thou must know 
 it, otherwise it will be hid from thine eyes. 
 
 7. Being moved with generosity, I have written these 
 things, but that I might speak plainly, this fire is not trans- 
 muted with the matter, because it is nothing of the matter, 
 as I have before declared. And these things I thought fit to 
 speak, as a warning to the prudent sons of art, that they 
 spend not their money unprofitably, but may know what they 
 ought to look after ; for by this only they may attain to the 
 perfection of this secret* and by no other means. 
 
 Farewell, 
 
THE STONE OF FIRE. 
 
 FROM 
 
 BASIL VALENTINE. 
 
 tVnoSoF-VEri desires to become a perfect anatomist of anti- 
 mony, the first thing to be considered by him is solution of 
 the body; and in order to this, he must take it in a convenient 
 place, and propose to himself the right way, that he be not se- 
 duced into devious paths. Secondly, he must observe the go- 
 vernance of the fire, taking care that it be neither too much, 
 nor too little, or too hot, or too cold. For the sum of all is 
 sited in sn exact governance of the fire ; by which the vivifying 
 •pirits of antimony are extracted, and loosed from their bonds, 
 and so rendered capable to manifest their effects operatively. — 
 Also, he must take great care, that this operative virtue be not 
 mortified, and perish by adustion. 
 
 Kirkringius — Believe not only Basilius, but me also, with 
 the same faith aud sincerity affirming to you ; this is the first 
 ley, this is the principal part of the whole art, this opens to 
 you the first gate, this will also unlock the last, which leads to 
 the palace of the king. But as I said, not only believe, but 
 also consider and observe. Here you stand in the entrance, if 
 you miss the door, all your course will be error, all your haste 
 ruin, and all your wisdom foolishness. He who obtains this 
 key, and knows the method, which is called manual operation, 
 by which to use it, and hath strength to turn the same, will 
 acquire riches, and an open passage unto the mysteries of 
 chemistry. 
 
 Bash. — Therefore preparation of antimony consists in the 
 key of alchemy, by which it is dissolved, opened, divided, and 
 separated. Also in extracting its essence, and in vivifying its 
 mercury ; which mercury must afterwards be precipitated into 
 a fixed powder. Likewise by art and a due method, of it may- 
 be made an oil. The same is visible in other preparations, de- 
 rived from the spagyric art and alchemy; as for example: 
 if any one would make beer of barley, wheat, or other corn, 
 all these degrees must be most perfectly known to him, before he 
 can from those grains extract their most subtile essence and 
 virtue, and reduce the same into a most efficacious drink. First, 
 the grains must be so long steeped in water, as until they be 
 able sufficiently, to open tuid resolve themselves, as I, when 
 
Jlasil of Antimony. 233 
 
 1 was a young man, travelling into England and Holland, di- 
 ligently observed to be done in those places ; this is called 
 putrefaction and corruption. This key being used, the water 
 is drawn off from the grain, and the macerated corn is laid on 
 heaps close together, and left so for a due time, until it spon- 
 taneously conceive heat, and by the same heat germinating, the 
 grains adhere each to other ; this is digestion. This being finish- 
 ed, the grains which adhered in their germination, are sepa- 
 rated, and dried, either in the air, or by heat of fire, and so 
 hardened. This is reverberation, and coagulation. When the 
 corn is thus prepared, it is carried to the mill, that it may be 
 broke and ground small ; this is vegetable calcination. After- 
 wards, by heat of fire cocting these grains, the more noble 
 spirit of them is extracted, and the water is imbibed with the 
 same ; which without the aforesaid preparation could not have 
 been. In this way the crude water is converted into beer, and 
 this operation (though I speak but rudely) is and is called dis- 
 tillation. The hops, when added to the beer, is the vegetable 
 salt thereof, which conserves and preserves from all contraries, 
 endeavouring to corrupt the same. 
 
 After all these works are performed, a new separation is made 
 by clarification, viz. of the drink, in this manner : a little yest 
 or ferment is added, which excites an internal motion and heat 
 in the beer, so that it is elevated in itself, and by the help of 
 time, separation of the dense from the rare, and of the pure 
 from the impure is made; and by this means the beer acquires 
 a constant virtue in operating, so that it penetrates and effects 
 all those ends, for which it was made and brought into use ; 
 which before could not have been, because the spirit, the opera- 
 tor was hindered, by its own impurity, from effecting its proper 
 work. 
 
 In wine also doth not experience teach the same ? That 
 cannot, before the time come, in which the impurities may be 
 separated from it, so very perfectly and efficaciously perform its 
 own work, as after separation of the pure from the impure :— 
 which by drunkenness is manifest ; for beer or wine unsettled, 
 and not purified, give not forth from themselves so much spirit 
 for inebriating, as after clarification. But of this no more. — 
 After all the aforesaid, a new operation may be instituted, by 
 vegetable sublimation, for separation of the spirit of the wine or 
 beer, and for preparing it by distillation into another drink 
 of burning wine, which may also be made of the lees or 
 dregs of wine and beer. When this is done, the operative 
 virtue is separated from its own body, and the spirit being ex- 
 tracted by fire, forsakes its own unprofitable dead habitation!, in 
 which it was eommodiously hospited before. Now, ll tins burn- 
 ing wine, or spirit of wine, be rectified, an exaltation is made 
 by often distilling it. and by a certain method of operating, the 
 
 * r f 
 
234 ^Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 pure part, free from all phlegm or aquosity, may be so concen- 
 tered, and as it were condensed, as one measure of it may effect 
 more, than twenty or more could have done belbrc. For it 
 sooner inebriates, and is swift, volatile and subtile for penetrat- 
 ing and operating. 
 
 Here I admonish you, whosoever you are, who desire to be 
 taught by my writings, and hope to obtain riches and a true 
 medicine from antimony, that you would not carelessly peruse 
 my intention, in which is no letter writ in vain, and which hath 
 not a certain singular signification for your instruction. 
 
 Kirkringius — Come hither you traveller, stay your journey 
 here. Contemn not or slightly pass over this tautological, but 
 Hot impertinent, admonition ; often in your mind nave recourse 
 to this description of beer ; search, contemplate, and weigh all 
 things, perhaps in this turbid and fumous gulf, you will find 
 the fish you look not for. If in this light you yet be blind, 
 I know not any collyrium will profit you ; if with so certain a 
 manuduction you cannot pass on to the work itselC I know not 
 who will lend you a staflfj or what demonstration can direct the 
 journey of a stupid man. Believe, read, meditate, labour, 
 and spare the use of so many chemical books, which distract 
 you with the error of various ways ; this one tells you all 
 things. 
 
 Basil — When most hard steel is struck with an hard and 
 solid flint, fire excites fire by vehement commotion, and accen- 
 sion, drawing forth the occult sulphur, or the occult fire is ma- 
 nifested by that vehement commotion, and enkindled by the air 
 so, as it truly and efficaciously burns ; but the salt remains in 
 the ashes, and the mercury thence takes its flight together with 
 the burning sulphur. 
 
 Kikkringius — You, who read this most simple comparison 
 of steel and a flint, slack the reins of your admiration, and se- 
 riously ask yourself, whether there can be found out any way or 
 method, by which from this stone and cold iron may be extracted 
 a substance, of which one only grain (but why do I speak of a 
 grain ?) of which the hundredth part of a grain can in a very 
 short time convert a great mass of some rude matter, into the 
 most splendid and most precious of all things; yea, into fire 
 most profitable for mankind. This is possible, "and is daily 
 done, when the fixed is made volatile, and the volatile again 
 fixed. He that hath understanding, let him understand, 
 and cease to defame the admirable virtues of chemical 
 works. 
 
 Basil — So here also understand, that antimony ought in 
 a certain method so to be handled, as its mercury may be 
 separated from the sulphur thereof, in a natural manner. — 
 Now as fire, which lies absconded in matter, unless it be made 
 manifest, and can be demonstrated, is profitable for nothingr 
 
Basil of Antimony. 235 
 
 is not, as I may say, tangible by the hands, nor can it effect 
 any tiling to purpose ; so medicine can effect nothing thai; is 
 excellent, unless it be first separated from its grossness, rectified 
 and so discharged of impurities, clarified ar<.' 1 r< uglit to light 
 by due preparation, as is manifest in all tilings : tor when se- 
 paration of the pure from the impure is made, and ai! that is 
 mountainous or terrestrial is segregated from the pure mcL;i!, then 
 the desired harvest is to be expected. Hence it is manifest, that 
 fire can effect nothing, before it is in a certain manner opened 
 and set at liberty, that it may operate. Therefore, to compre- 
 hend much in few words, I say, this is the condition of 
 antimony. 
 
 Its transparent redness is assigned to the carbuncle, rub)', 
 and coral ; its whiteness, to the diamond and crystal ; its blue 
 colour, to the sapphire ; green, to the emerald ; yellow, to the 
 jacinth ; its black, to the granate, which stone contains in itself 
 a certain blackness occultly absconded. But as to metals, the 
 black is assigned to saturn, the red to iron, the yellow to gold, 
 the green to copper, the blue to silver, the white to mercury, 
 and its mixture of various colours is attributed to Jupiter. But 
 as all the colours of all metals and precicus stones are clearly 
 found in antimony, so also all the powers and yirtues of medicine 
 are no less shewed in it, than the colours aforesaid. 
 
 There is an extraction of antimony made in this manner. 
 Grind crude (pure) antimony to powder, and pour (distil) 
 upon it strong vinegar, not of wine, but made of its own 
 minera, and expose the mixture in a vessel well closed to a 
 solar heat ; then, after some time the vinegar will be tinged 
 with a blood-like colour ; pour (distil) off this extraction 
 clear, filter it, and distil by alembicli in sand : then again, 
 in distilling, it shews admirable coloui's, pleasant to the sight, 
 and wonderful in aspect. This oil at length becomes red as 
 blood, and leaves many faeces, and prevails against many in- 
 firmities. 
 
 Take crude Hungarian antimony, put that ground to a 
 subtile powder, into a glass cucurbit with a flat bottom, 
 and pour thereon the true vinegar of philosophers, rendered 
 more acid with its own salt. Then set the cucurbit firmly 
 closed in horse-dung, or B. M. to putrify the matter for forty 
 days, in which time the body resolves itself, and the vinegar 
 contracts a colour red as blood. 
 
 Melt the minera of antimony, and purify it, grind it to a 
 subfile powder, this matter put into a round glass, which is 
 called a phial, having a long neck, pour upon it distilled 
 water, that the vessel may be half full. Then having well 
 closed the vessel, set it to putrity in horse-dung, until the 
 minera begin to wax hot, and cast out a froth to the superficies ; 
 then it is time to take it out ; for that is a sign the body is opened , 
 
236 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 This digested matter put into a cucurbit, which well close, and 
 extract the water, which will have an acid taste. When all the 
 water is come off, intend the fire, and a sublimate will ascend ; 
 this again grind with the fa?ces, and again pour on the same wa- 
 ter, and a second time abstract it, then it will be more sharp. 
 This operation must be repeated, until the water be made as 
 acid, as any other sharp distilled vinegar of wine. But the 
 sublimate, the oftener the operation is repeated, the more it is 
 diminished. When you have obtained this acid vinegar, take 
 fresh minera as before, and pour this vinegar on it, so as it 
 may sfan 1 above it three fingers; put it into a pelican, and 
 digest it two days in heat, then the vinegar becomes red, and 
 much more sharp than before. Cant this clean off, and distil 
 it without addition in B. M. The vinegar comes off white, 
 and the redness remains in the bottom, which extracted with 
 spirit of wine, is an excellent medicine. Again rectify the 
 vinegar in B. M. that it may be freed from its phlegm ; lastly, 
 dissolve in it its proper salt, viz. four parts of it, to one 
 of the salt, and force it strongly by ashes ; then the vinegar 
 becomes more sharp, and acquires greater strength, and 
 virtue. 
 
 The star is thus made : Put Hungarian antimony nine parts 
 upon iron red-hot four parts, melt these together with two parte 
 of nitre added in spoonfulls for half an hour, pour out the whole 
 into a hot greased iron mortar, when cold take out the regulus, 
 and separate it from all the scoria; break this regulus to pieces, 
 and add to it when melted as much of nitre as before, and pour 
 it out. Repeat this labour the third time ; then the regulus 
 purgetli itself, and becomes pure and clear. Note, if you have 
 rightly performed the fusion, you will see a fair star on the 
 regulus shining like cupellate silver, a proof that the matter has 
 taken a new structure in rays like the sun and moon, irom the 
 centre to the circumference. 
 
 Sir Humphry Davy, page 400, Elements of Chemistry, 
 writes : Basil Valentine is the first chemist who has described 
 the process of extracting antimony from the sulphuret, though 
 it does not appear that he was. the inventor of this process. To 
 procure antimony, the common antimony sold by druggists, 
 which appears as a series of chrystals like needles possessing the 
 metallic brilliancy, and which are composed of the metal and 
 sulphur, are ignited with half their weight of iron filings 
 ( Boerhaave says nails) and a quarter of their weight of nitre added 
 (in spoonfulls) when they are in fusion, the antimony will be 
 found at the bottom. This is to be ignited for about twenty 
 minutes with twice its weight of tartar, when the pure metal 
 will be produced. 
 
ONE HUNDRED APHORISMS 
 
 Demonstrating the Preparation of the 
 GRAND ELIXIR. 
 
 By BARO URBIGERUS. 
 
 1. The hermetic science consists only in the right know- 
 lodge of the first matter of the philosophers, which is in the 
 mineral kingdom, not yet determined by nature. 
 
 2. An undetermined matter being the beginning of all metals 
 and minerals, it follows, that as soon as any one shall be so 
 happy, as to know and conceive it, he shall easily comprehend 
 also their natures, qualities, and properties. 
 
 3. Although some persons, possessed with foolish notions, 
 dream, that the first matter is to be found only in some par- 
 ticular places, at such and such times of the year, and by the 
 virtue of a magical magnet; yet we are most certain, accord- 
 ing to our divine master, Hermes, that all these suppositions 
 being false, it is to be found every where, at all times, and only 
 by our science. 
 
 4. The hermetic art consists in the true manipulation of our 
 undetermined subject, which before it can be brought to the 
 Highest degree of perfection, must of necessity undergo all our 
 cli mical operations. 
 
 5. Our chemical operations are these, amalgamation, subli- 
 mation, dissolution, filtration, cohobation, distillation, separa- 
 tion, reverberation, imbibition, and digestion. 
 
 6. When we call all these operations ours, they are not at all to 
 be understood according to the common operations of the. so- 
 phisters of metals, whose industry consists only in' disguising of 
 subjects from their form, and their nature ; but ours are really 
 to transfigure our subject, yet conserving its nature, quality, and 
 property. 
 
 7. This our subject, after its having passed through all those 
 artificial operations, which always imitate nature, is called the 
 
238 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 philosophers stone, or the fifth essence of metals, being com- 
 pounded of the essence of their four elements. 
 
 8. The metals and minerals, which nature has already deter- 
 mined, although they should be retrogradated into running 
 mercury, water, and vapour ; yet can they by no means be taken 
 for the first matter of the philosophers. 
 
 9. Our true and real matter is only a vapour, impregnated 
 with the metallic seed, yet undetermined, created by God Al- 
 mighty, generated by the concurrence and influence of the as- 
 tnuns, contained in the bowels of the earth, as the matrix of all 
 created things, 
 
 10. This our matter is called undetermined, because, being a 
 medium between a metal and a mineral, and being neither of 
 them, it has in it power 'to produce both, according to the sub- 
 ject, it meets withal. 
 
 11. Such a metallic vapour, congealed and nourished in the 
 bowels of the earth, is called the undetermined, and when it 
 enchants the serpent with the beauty of its internal and addi- 
 tional fire, the determined green dragon of the philosophers; and 
 without the true knowledge and right manipulation of it, nothing 
 can be done in our art. 
 
 12. This green dragon is the natural gold of the philosophers, 
 exceedingly different from the vulgar, which is corporeal and 
 dead, being come to the period of its perfection according to 
 nature, and therefore incapable of generating, unless it be first 
 generated itself by our mercurial water ; but ours is spiritual, 
 and living, having the generative faculty in itself, and in its own 
 nature, and having received the masculine quality from the 
 Creator of all things. 
 
 13. Our gold is called natural, because it is not to be made by 
 art, and since it is known to none, but the true disciples of Hermes, 
 who understand how to separate it from its original lump ; 
 it is called also philosophical ; and if God had not been 
 so gracious, as to create this first chaos to our hand, all our 
 skill and art in the construction of the great elixir would be in 
 vain. 
 
 14-. Out of this our gold, or undetermined green dragon, 
 without the addition of any other created thing whatsoever, 
 we know how through our universal menstruum to extract all 
 our elements, or principles, necessary for the performance 
 of our great work ; which is our first way of preparing the 
 gr^rd elixir ; and since this our first chaos is to be had 
 v.lchout any expencc, as costing only the trouble of digging it out 
 of the mines, this is not unfitly called the only way of the 
 poor. 
 
 15. The operations in this our first way being in a manner 
 the same with those of our second, which is, when we join our 
 determined dragon with our serpent, we shall (to avoid repe- 
 
Crbigerus. 239 
 
 titions) in the subsequent aphorisms give instructions for them 
 both together. 
 
 16. Our serpent, which is also contained in the bowels of 
 the earth, being of all created tilings whatsoever, the nearest 
 subject of a feminine nature to our dragon, through their co- 
 pulation such an antral and metallic seed, containing our ele- 
 ments, is also to be brought forth, as can, though with somewhat 
 more of expence and time, perform the whole mystery of 
 Hermes. 
 
 17. Since our serpent is of all created things, the nearest 
 subject of feminine nature to our dragon, she is after her 
 copulation to be taken for the basis of our philosophical work ; 
 tor out of her bowels, without the help of any other metal or 
 mineral, we must draw our principles or elements, necessaiy 
 to our work, being retrogradatcd by the universal men- 
 struum. 
 
 18. This feminine subject cannot be rctrogradatcd, unless to 
 free her from her impurities, and heterogeneous qualities, she is 
 first actuated by her homogeneous ones, that she may be in a 
 better capacity to receive the spiritual love of our green 
 dragon. 
 
 19. After our serpent has been bound with her chain, pe- 
 netrated with the blood of our green dragon, and driven nine, 
 or ten times through the combustible fire into the elementary 
 air, if you do not find her to be exceeding furious, and 
 extremely penetrating, it is a sign, that you do not 
 hit our subject, the notion of the homogenea, or their pro- 
 portion. 
 
 20. If this furious serpent, after it has been dissolved by the 
 universal menstruum, filtrated, evaporated, and congealed nine 
 or ten times, does not come over in a cloud, and turn into our 
 virgin milk, or metallic argentine water, not corrosive at all, 
 and yet insensibly, and invisibly devouring every thing, that 
 comes near it, it is plainly to be seen, that you err in the notion 
 of our universal menstruum. 
 
 21. The serpent, of which I now speak, is our true water of 
 the clouds, or the real eagle and mercury of the philosophers, 
 greatly different from the vulgar, which- is corporeal, gross, 
 dead, and full of heterogeneous qualities, and a subject fallen 
 from its sphere, like unripe fruit from the tree ; but ours is spi- 
 ritual, transparent, living, residing in its own sphere, like a 
 king on his throne. 
 
 22. Though the vulgar mercury is such an unripe fruit, cor- 
 poreal, and dead ; yet if you know how to amalgamate it with 
 our dragon, and to retrogradate it with the universal men- 
 struum, you may assure yourself, that out of this also you shall 
 be able to prepare a sophic mercury, with which you shall 
 certainly produce the great elixir, discover the secret of secrets,- 
 
240 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 unlock the'most difficult locks, and command all the treasures 
 in the world. 
 
 23. Our mercury is called the mercury of the philosophers, 
 because it is a subject, which is not to be found ready prepared 
 to our hand ; for it must of necessity be made by our philoso- 
 phical preparations, out of the first chaos ; and although it is, 
 artificial, yet is it naturally prepared, nature, which is 
 imitated ill the preparation of it, contributing likewise there- 
 unto. 
 
 24. Since our subject cannot be called the fiery serpent of the 
 philosophers, nor have the power of overcoming any created 
 thing, before it has received such virtue and quality from our 
 green dragon, and the universal menstruum, by which itself 
 is first overcome, devoured, and buried in their bowels, out of 
 which being born again, it is made capable of the same, it 
 follows, that such a virtue of killing and vivifying is natural to 
 our dragon and the universal menstruum. 
 
 25. The universal menstruum of the philosophers is that 
 celestial one, without which nothing can live nor subsist in this 
 world. It is also that noble champion, which delivers the 
 uncorrupted virgin, Andromeda, who was with a strong chain 
 fastened to the rock in the power of the dragon, of whose spiri- 
 tual love having admitted, for fear of being eternally ruined 
 and devoured by him, which could not have been avoided, if 
 this noble champion had not come to her assistance. She is to be 
 delivered of a child, which will be the wonder of wonders, and 
 prodigy of nature. 
 
 26. If our virgin in her confinement, before she is set at 
 liberty, does not manifest her extreme beauty with all her 
 internal, divers, delicate natural colours, wonderfully charm- 
 ing, and very pleasant to the eye, it signifies, that she 
 has not sufficiently enjoyed the spiritual company of the 
 dragon. 
 
 27. If the universal menstruum has not totally delivered 
 the virgin from the claws of the dragon, it is a sign, either 
 that she was not sufficiently free from her heterogeneous qua- 
 lities, or that she had not received from the external heat a suffi- 
 cient penetrating quality, or that the universal menstruum was 
 too weak to perform its undertaking. 
 
 28. To know, whether the amalgamation, sublimation, dis- 
 solution, filtration, coagulation, and distillation have been 
 natural and philosophical, the whole body of the serpent 
 must come over spiritual and transparent, leaving only some 
 few and very light faeces at the bottom, which can by no art 
 be reduced either into a running mercury, or any other kind of 
 metallic substance. 
 
 29. After all these above-mentioned operations, and the se- 
 paration, if our serpent, being amalgamated with any metal, 
 
Urbigerus. 241 
 
 'C3 
 
 pure ( r impure, cannot suffer the fusion, it will be in vain for 
 you to go any farther with it : for you may assure yourself, that 
 you do not walk in the true paths of the hermetic art. 
 
 30. Our philosophical distillations consist only in the right 
 separation of our spiritual and mercurial water from all its 
 poisonous oily substance, which is of no use at all in our art, and 
 from the caput mortuum, which is left behind after the first dis- 
 tillation. 
 
 81; If after the first distillation, an exceedingly corrosive 
 and extremely penetrating red oil docs not ascend, (which 
 as soon as it begins to appear in the neck of the retort, the 
 receiver must be changed) it signifies, that the distillation has 
 not been rightly performed, and by consequence, that the 
 internal fire of our metallic vaporous water, being 
 burnt up, and corroded by its poisonous vapour, and the 
 outward fire, is still mixed with it, and with the caput 
 mart num. 
 
 32. In case you should commit so great an error in the per- 
 formance of this first distillation, although it will never be in 
 your power to prepare the mercury duplex of the philosophers, 
 unless you should begin the whole work again from the very 
 beginning; yet, if you have any farther skill in our art, you may 
 easily prepare our mercury simplex, with which you will effect 
 gr at and miraculous things. 
 
 33. This blood red oil with its only fumes penetrates every 
 part and atom of all metals and minerals, and principally of 
 gold, out of which dissolution one may easily extract the right 
 tincture or essence with highly rectified spirit of wine, and bring 
 it over the alembic with it; which is indeed a great medicine for 
 human bodies. 
 
 34-. A deep blood-red tincture of excellent virtue is to be 
 extracted also out of the above-mentioned caput moriuum, ac- 
 cidentally and unfortunately intermixed with the internal sul- 
 phur of our mercurial water, and with the red oil, with 
 nighly rectified spirit of wine : with which after it has been 
 evaporated to a powder, imbibed, and philosophically di- 
 gested, you may assure yourself of having the medicine of medi- 
 cines, next to the great elixir, by which you may imperceptibly 
 and quickly cure all sorts of distempers, to the great admiration 
 of all Galenists, and to the astonishment of all vulgar 
 chemists. 
 
 35. The most part of the philosophers, whilst their intention 
 was to go farther to the noblest perfection of our celestial 
 art, either employed this red oil, brought to a potability, 
 for internal medicines, or to external diseases without any 
 farther preparation of it, till they had obtained the great 
 elixir. 
 
242 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 36. If tire caput morluum has not the magnetic quality in 
 attracting the spirilus mundi into itself from the astrums, it is 
 a sign, that at the end of the distillation of the red oil the 
 Outward fire was so violent, as quite to burn up the magnet, 
 which is contained in the first fasces of our mercurial 
 water. 
 
 37. After the first distillation, if the least part of the virgin 
 mercurial water can by any art whatsoever be brought to 
 running mercury, or any other kind of a metallic substance, it 
 is an evident sign, that either the subject, or its preparation 
 and reduction into water, has not been real, natural, or philo- 
 sophical. 
 
 3S. The above-mentioned spirilus mundi, although of no use 
 at all in this our great work, is yet a great menstruum in extract- 
 ing of tinctures out of metals, minerals, animals, and vegetables, 
 and in performing great things in the art, volatilizing all fixed 
 bodies, and principally gold. 
 
 39. A great many pretenders to the true hermetic knowledge, 
 prepare menstruums to dissolve common mercury, and to turn 
 it into water several manner of ways, and by several additions 
 of salts, sulphurs, metals, and minerals ; but, since all those 
 preparations arc sophistical, any one, expert in our art, will be 
 able to reduce it to its running quality again. 
 
 40. The quality of our mercurial water being to volatilize all 
 fixed bodies, and to fix all those, that are volatile, fixing itself 
 with those that are fixed, according to the proportion of it, dis- 
 solving its own body, it unites inseparably with it, conserving 
 always its own qualities and properties, and receives no aug- 
 mentation from any other created thing, but only from its crude 
 body. 
 
 41. Our mercurial water has such a sympathy with the astrums, 
 that, if it is not kept very close, and hermetically sealed, it 
 will in a very short time, like a winged serpent, fly away in a 
 wonderful manner to its own sphere, carrying along with 
 it all the elements and principles of metals, and not 
 leaving so much as one single drop, or the least remainder,, 
 behind. 
 
 42. Several pretenders to the magical science prepare magical 
 magnets, to draw from the air, and (as they pretend) from 
 the astrums such menstruums, as they think necessary for 
 ihe production of the great elixir ; but their magnets being, 
 compounded of several determinate things, although their 
 menstruums are great dissolvents, yet we do on assured know- 
 ledge affirm, that they can never perform any real experiment in 
 our art. 
 
 A.°,. Some are of opinion, that, unless the operator is master 
 in the magical science, and fundamentally understands all its ex- 
 peri«aenttSj he will never be able by any other art whatsoever to 
 
Cihigcrus. 243 
 
 bring forth any such tilings, as can produce the v:.niv. 
 elixir. -Now, although we do not deny, that the magical know- 
 ledge is required to attain to ike highest degree of perfection 
 In all sciences, yet we are most certain, that it is not at all neces- 
 sary to the formation of the grand elixir upon animals, metals, 
 precious stones, and vegetables. 
 
 44. Our virgin miik, or metallic water, being brought to a 
 perfect spirituality, and excellent diaphanity, is called the 
 true chaos of the philosophers ; for out of that alone, with- 
 out any addition of any created, or artificially prepared thing, 
 we are to prepare and separate all the elements, which 
 are required to the formation of our philosophical mi- 
 crocosm. 
 
 45. To understand aright, how out ol this our chaos, we are 
 to form our philosophical microcosm, we must first of neces- 
 sity rightly comprehend the great mystery and proceeding 
 in the creation of the microcosm : — it being extremely ne- 
 cessary to imitate and use the very same method in the cre- 
 ation of our little one, that the Creator of all things has used 
 in the formation of the great one. 
 
 46. When our chaos or celestial water has purified itself from 
 its own gross and palpable body, it is called the heaven of the 
 philosophers, and the palpable body the earth, which is 
 void, empty, and dark. And if our divine spirit, which is 
 cairied upon the face of the waters, did not bring forth out 
 of the palpable body that precious metallic seed, we should 
 never be able by any art whatsoever to go on any farther with 
 the perfect creation of our microcosm according to our 
 intent. 
 
 47. This heaven of the philosophers, after it has separated 
 itself from the earth, containing our philosophical seed, and 
 the magnet of our salt of nature, and from the superfluous 
 waters, is called the mercury simplex of the wise man : — for 
 whosoever attains it, at the same time attains also the know- 
 ledge and power of retrogradating metals, minerals, &c. so as to 
 reduce them to their first being, to perfect imperfect bodies, and to 
 vivify dead ones, conserving always its own property and quality 
 to itself, and to produce the great elixir according to the usual way 
 of the philosophers. 
 
 48. After we have separated the water from the waters, by 
 which I mean the mercurial celestial water from the superfluous 
 water, which is the phlegm, by the blessing of God and the in- 
 fusion of our holy spirit, we do not in the least doubt, but we 
 shall be able to bring forth out of our earth such fruits and 
 subjects, with which we shall certainly perform the whole 
 creation, carrying our work to the highest degree of per- 
 fection. 
 
 49. Our mercurial water being of the same brightness with 
 
244 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 the heavens, and our palpable gross body, which did separate 
 itself from our celestial water, having the same properties 
 and quality with the earth, none, but ignorantjs, will deny 
 them to be the right heaven and true earth of the philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 50. If, after the separation of the spirit from the super- 
 fluous waters, the world, in which it is contained, docs not ap- 
 pear mighty clear, and full of light, and of the same brightness 
 with our celestial water, it is a sign, that the separation is 
 not fully performed, the spirit being still intermixed witli the 
 waters. 
 
 51. If in the space of nine or ten weeks, or two philosophi- 
 cal months at longest, our mercurial water has not done sepa- 
 rating itself from all its own earth, containing the metallic 
 seed, it is an evident sign, that you have either erred in the 
 working of it, or that its digestion, having been too violent, 
 has confounded and burnt up the principal subject of the 
 creation. 
 
 52. This philosophic earth, containing our principal subject, 
 after it has been separated from all the waters, is very 
 gently to be dried by some external heat, to free it from its 
 extraneous humidity, that it may be in a proper capacity to 
 receive the celestial moisture of our argentine water, to 
 which it unites its most noble fruits, with which our phi- 
 losophical microcosm is generated, nourished, and satu- 
 rated. 
 
 53. If the earth, after it has been reverberated, humected 
 with our celestial moisture, does not presently enrich our 
 air with the divine expected fruits, you must certainly be- 
 lieve, that in the drying of it the external heat has been so 
 violent, as to burn up the internal heat and nature of the earth, 
 and consequently spoil your undertaking as to the performance 
 of the whole mystery of the creation, according to the noblest, 
 richest, shortest, most natural, and secretest ways of the philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 54. In case the earth should be totally destroyed by the violent 
 external heat, although it is most certain, you cannot carry 
 on our noble Creation any farther with it ; yet if you know how 
 to amalgamate our mercury simplex with your common gold, 
 which is dissolved, vivified, and renewed by it, you may be sure 
 of effecting the great elixir, although neither so quick, so natural, 
 nor so rich, as you might have done without it. And this is our 
 third way. 
 
 55. 1 he amalgamation of our mercury simplex with common 
 gold, consists only in the right proportion, and in the indissoluble 
 union of both, which is done without any external heat in a very 
 short time, without which exact proportion and right union, 
 nothing of any moment is to be expected from their marriage. 
 
Urbinerus. 245 
 
 5G. Know then, that this right proportion is ten parts of our 
 mercury simplex to one of your finest common gold in filings, 
 which is dissolved in it, like ice in common water, alter an imper- 
 ceptible manner, and as soon as the dissolution is over, the coa- 
 gulation and putrefaction presently follow, which effects if you 
 find not, it is a sign, that the mercury exceeds its due proportion. 
 Now when your gold has been thus well amalgamated, united, 
 putrified, and inseparably digested with our mercury simplex, you 
 will then have only our philosophical sulphur, in which time one 
 might easily have performed the whole work, working without 
 common gold. 
 
 57. Although our mercury simplex is exceedingly spiritual and 
 volatile, yet since it is the right agent, o'gesting the seed or es- 
 sence of all metals and minerals, it will, though undigested, natu- 
 rally adhere to any of them, although corporeal, that 
 shall come near it, and will never leave it, unless it be 
 forced away by the test, though kept in a great fusion for many 
 hours. 
 
 58. This mercury simplex, which before its retrogradation, 
 was of a feminine nature, and before it left all its own earth, was 
 hermaphroditic, being powerful in both sexes, is now become of 
 a feminine quality again, and although it has lost the masculine 
 visible fire, yet it has conserved its own, which is invisible to us, 
 and with which it performs visible operations in digest- 
 ing of imperfect metals, after its determination with any of 
 them. 
 
 59. If this our mercury, the proportion rightly observed, 
 should bo amalgamated with any imperfect metal, being first 
 determined with a fixed one, it will regenerate and perfect 
 the same, not losing the least particle of its virtue or quan- 
 tity ; — which metal, after the digestion of a philosophical 
 month, will, as most philosophers teach, be able to resist 
 all manner of trials, and will be far better than any natural 
 pne. 
 
 60. The determination of our mercury simplex with any 
 of the fixed bodies, is to be done by dissolving a small quantity 
 of filings of red or white according to the colour and quali y 
 of the metal, that you desire to meliorate, and if you do not 
 err in the separation and union of the subjects, you may assure 
 yourself of obtaining your desire after a philosophical di- 
 gestion. 
 
 61. To examine aright, whether the mercury simplex is 
 rightly prepared, or come to its perfection, one only drop j ut 
 upon a red-hot plate of copper, must whiten it through and 
 through, and must not part with it, although brought into a 
 great fusion ; which, if you find it does not, it will be a plain 
 demonstration, that cither your mercury is not well prepared; or 
 that it has not yet done separating itself from its own earth. 
 
§46 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 62. If your mercury simplex, put upon its own dried 
 earth, does not presently unite with the essence of metals, appear- 
 ing deeper than any blood, and shining brighter than any fire, 
 which is a mark of the reception of its own internal fire, and 
 that the eagle has sacked the blood of our red-lion, it is ait 
 evident sign, that you have erred in the manipulation of the 
 earth. 
 
 63. This mercury, thus impregnated with its essence, or 
 sulphur of metals, is called the mercury duplex of the philoso- 
 phers, which is of a far greater quality, and virtue than the 
 simplex, with whose imbibitions in the salt of nature, after its 
 being saturated with the simplex, the whole mystery of the 
 creation of the philosophical microcosm is maintained and. 
 perfected. 
 
 6i. To kncw r , whether your mercury duplex is philosophi- 
 cally prepared, and sufficiently impregnated with its own in- 
 ternal natural fire, put one single drop of it upon a red- 
 hot plate of fine silver : and if the silver is not by thio 
 drop penetrated through and through with a deep-red 
 tincture, enduring the greatest fire of fusion, it will signify, 
 that you either fail in the preparation of it. or that you have not 
 given it time enough to receive a full saturation out of its own 
 earth. 
 
 65. This deep-red tincture, extracted out of our philoso- 
 phical earth, is called our sulphur, our undigested, essentifi- 
 cated gold, our internal elementary fire, and our red-lion ; — 
 for without its help and concurrence, our philosophical 
 ■world cannot be nourished, digested, or accomplished, being 
 the right ground, and true essence of the whole work of our 
 creation. 
 
 66. When the earth has lost its soul, the remainder of it is 
 the true magnet, attracting the salt of nature from the com- 
 bi^tible fire after a violent calcination for several hours : — 
 which salt, after its purification and clarification, is called the 
 clarified earth or salt of the philosophers, which, uniting itself 
 with our single and double mercury, after their digestion, 
 is called by our master, Hermes, the universal spirit 
 earthified. 
 
 67. The extraction, purification, and clarification of our 
 earth or salt of nature, is to be performed by our mercury sim- 
 plex ; which, being put upon the reverberated earth, will pre- 
 sently draw it to itself, and unite itself with it, yet separable by 
 gentle distillation, after which the clarified salt of the philosophers 
 is at hand. 
 
 68. Although we use our mercury simplex in the extraction of 
 its own soul out of its body, and for the clarification of the latter ; 
 yet, since it is a philosophical and perpetual menstruum, it loses 
 nothing of its connatural prerogatives, nor does in the least dimi- 
 
Urbigerm* 247 
 
 "6 
 
 nisli in quantity, being our true alkahest, as Paracelsus is pleased 
 to call it. 
 
 69. Those three principles, or elements of our chaos, per- 
 fectly separated from their impurities, and brought, to their 
 highest perfection, are rightly called the three Herculean works ; 
 for after the preparation of them, all the labour, trouble, and dan- 
 ger will be past. 
 
 70. Some foolish operators pretend, that our great elixir is 
 to be prepared in a very easy manner, .and without any trou- 
 ble at all, to whom we will, with our master, Hermes, briefly 
 answer ; that such impostors neither know our matter, nor the 
 right preparation of it. Yet we do not deny, but any 
 healthy person, of what age soever he may be, may under- 
 go all our Herculean labours, necessary to the performance 
 of it. 
 
 71. These our operations are therefore called Herculean 
 in respect to the rest of the work, which is exceeding easy, 
 and without the least trouble or danger, being for that 
 reason called childrens' play, because a child or a woman, 
 that has any sense, may easily work it, and bring it to the 
 highest perfection, according to the saying of all true philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 72. Although all those above-mentioned operations are, ac- 
 cording to the common opinion of the philosophers, esteemed 
 difficult and dangerous ; yet we can upon our conscience 
 assure you, that we have ourselves alone, without the help of 
 any creature living, prepared them all on a common kitchen 
 fire, as is very well known to several co-adepts, our 
 friends, who could not but admire and approve of our in- 
 dustry. 
 
 73. No true adept or perfect artist can deny, but that the 
 whole work of the great elixir, may from the very begin- 
 ning to the end, be performed on one only furnace, in one 
 only sort of vessel, and by one only person alone, at a very 
 small charge. 
 
 74. Some impostors would persuade the vulgar, that gold, 
 silver, and many other ingredients, are required to the making 
 of the grand elixir according to our noblest ways : which the 
 doctrines of all the philosophers, and our own infallible rules, 
 clearly shew to be false : for it is most certain, that we neither 
 use any of their ingredients, nor yet any silver or gold, unless as 
 we have mentioned in our third way, till we come to the fermen- 
 tation of our elixirs. 
 
 75. We do with all true philosophers assure you, that all 
 tilings, necessary for our philosophical work, besides the 
 fuel, vesscis, and some few instruments, belonging to the furnace, 
 are to be purchased for less than the cxpence of one single gui- 
 nea, and that every where, and at all times of the year. 
 
248 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 76. Since neither gold nor silver is to be used at all iu the 
 formation and cibation of our philosophical work, it follows, 
 that the old and common saying of some authors, viz. M that 
 ■without working with gold, it is an impossible thing to make- 
 gold," proves to be only a false notion of men, who understood 
 not our art. 
 
 77. When our Herculean works arc brought to perfection, 
 which is, when our three principles, or elements are prepared, 
 purified and perfected, unless the philosophical and inseparable 
 union of them is exactly performed, the great mystery of our cre- 
 ation is not to be expected. 
 
 78. Our principles or elements being brought to a perfect 
 and inseparable union and digestion, it is called the triple mer- 
 cury of the philosophers, which being finished, the whole crea- 
 tion and formation of our work is crowned. 
 
 79. All our work of the creation from its very begin- 
 ning to its perfect end may, on our certain knowledge, be 
 perfected in less than nine months by any skilful and careful 
 artist, that follows our rules, unless some accident should 
 happen in the preparation of our Herculean works ; which 
 to prevent, w r e wrought them ourselves in an earthen vessel, 
 which we count far better and surer than any glass, and 
 ■which is most agreeable to the practice of the most ancient phi- 
 losophers. 
 
 80. Before you come to the union of your elements, your cla- 
 rified earth is before all things to be digested in a moderate and 
 continual heat of ashes, to free it from any unnatural moisture, 
 that it might have attracted after its purification, to be in a fit ca- 
 pacity to receive your mercury simplex, by which it is to be nou- 
 rished in its infancy. 
 
 81. If your clarified earth, after it has been digested 
 the space of a whole month, does not appear exceeding 
 dry, subtile, and frangible, it will signify, that you have 
 failed in the purification or clarification of it, or that the 
 external moisture, it had attracted, is not yet parted 
 from it. 
 
 82. Take great care, that you do not begin your imbi- 
 bitions of your earth, before you find it to be very w r ell 
 purified, clarified, dried, and brought to be very subtile, 
 and extremely frangible : — for it would be a great detriment 
 as well to your work, as to your mercury, and, although it 
 should not spoil your work, yet it would be to you a great loss 
 of time. 
 
 83. After our clarified earth has been brought to a 
 perfect purity, dryness, and frangibility, it is to be imbibed 
 with the eighth part of our mercury simplex, or virgin's milk, 
 which will in a very short time be soaked into it, as into a 
 sponge, which shews the hungry state of our infant ; — 
 
Urbigerus. 2W 
 
 find then the fire is to be continued, till the infant is hungry 
 again. 
 
 84-. If in the space of two or three days, or four, at the 
 farthest, the infant does not shew itself to be extreme hungry 
 by becoming very dry and frangible again, it will be an 
 evident sign, that you have overcome it by your excessive feed- 
 ing of it. 
 
 85. Great care is to be taken also in the feeding of the noble 
 infant; for if you do not well observe all our infallible rules, 
 you will never be able to bring it to a perfect maturity ; for in 
 the notion and proportion of our imbibitions, and the manage- 
 ment of them, the prosperous and unfailable end of our work is 
 to be expected. 
 
 86. It is always to be observed, that the fire be very moderate, 
 as long as you are making your imbibitions, for fear of forcing 
 any part of your mercury to leave the earth ; for as a moderate 
 heat makes the union between the soul and the body, and perfect* 
 all the work ; so on the contrary a too violent heat disunites and 
 destroys all. 
 
 87. Tlie infant being dry, the imbibition is to be repeated 
 again, and this method is to be used, until the matter has re- 
 ceived its weight of the mercury ; at which time if you do not 
 find it to flow like wax, and be whiter than any snow, and very 
 fixed, you must proceed with your imbibitions, until you perceive 
 the same. 
 
 88. The imbibitions are not to be made any oftener, than 
 once every three or four days, in which time you will find 
 your matter, having soaked up all your mercury, to be in 
 great want of food, which must be supplied, until it be satu- 
 rated ; the mark of which will be, when it flows like wax. 
 again. 
 
 89. Your matter being brought to a perfect flexibility, in- 
 comparable whiteness, and unalterable fixedness, know then, 
 that you have perfectioned the white elixir, which, being 
 fermented with fine silver in filings, will be in a capacity 
 to transmute ail inferior metals into the finest silver in the 
 world. 
 
 90. Before the white elixir is fermented with common 
 silver, you may multiply it, as well in virtue, as in quantity, 
 by the continuation of imbibitions with the mercury simplex, 
 by which it may by degrees be brought ad iiiftnitwn in its 
 virtue. 
 
 91. The white elixir being brought to its degree of maturity, 
 desiring to go on to its highest degree of perfection, instead ot 
 fermenting it with silver, it must be cibated with its own ffcsh 
 and blood, which is the double mercury, by which being nou- 
 rished, multiplied in quality and quantity, and digested th* 
 »vhole work is accomplished. 
 
 Hb. 
 
250 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 &%.■ As soon as the first imbibition is made, yon will see a 
 great alteration in your vessel ; for there will be nothing- 
 seen but a cloud, filling the whole space of the vessel, the 
 fixed being in controversy with the volatile, and the volatile with 
 the fixed.' The volatile is conqueror at the beginning, but at last 
 by its own internal fire, conjoined with the external, both are 
 united, and fixed inseparably together. 
 
 93. It is to be observed, that the glass vessel, which must be 
 oval, with a neck half a foot long, and very strong, be of a fit 
 bigness, and of such capacity, that your matter, when it is put 
 into the vessel, may take up only the third part of it, leaving 
 the other two vacant ; tor, if it should be too big, it would be a 
 great hinderance in performing the work, and if too little, it 
 would break into a thousand pieces. 
 
 94. After you have cibated the noble elixir with your 
 double mercury, before it can come to its perfect fixed- 
 ness, it must of necessity wander through all the states and 
 colours of nature, by which we are to judge its being and tem- 
 perament. 
 
 95. The constant and essential colours, that appear in the 
 digestion of the matter, and before it comes to a perfection, 
 arc three* viz. black, which signifies the putrefaction and 
 conjunction of the elements ; — white* which demonstrates 
 its purification ; — and red, which denotes its maturation. — 
 The rest of the colours, that appear and disappear in 
 the progress of the work, are only accidental, and uncon- 
 stant. 
 
 96. By every cibation of its own flesh and blood, rege- 
 neration of its colours, and digestion, the infant will grow 
 stronger and stronger, that at last being fully saturated 
 and digested, it is called the great elixir of the philoso- 
 phers, with which you will be able to perform won- 
 ders in all the Regions, as well animal, as mineral, and 
 vegetable. 
 
 97. When your elixir is brought to a fluxibility, and a 
 perfect fixedness, if you desire to make a medicine upon metals, 
 you must determinate or ferment "-it with common gold in 
 filings, in which determination' it will vitrify, and then you 
 will have an incomparable medicine, capable to trans- 
 mute all imperfect metals into the purest gold, according 
 to the doctrine of all the philosophers, though ourselves 
 never designed any thing, but an universal remedy for the 
 t ure of all curable diseases, incident to human bodies, as is well 
 kvown to our friends, who have enjoyed the benefit of these 
 our labours. 
 
 95. It is to be observed in the fermentation, that the elixir 
 exceed • not the ferment in quantity, otherwise the sponsal 
 ftgainenj vf it calmot be actually performed, and whw the 
 
Urbigerus. 2'.>l 
 
 ferment is predominant oyer the elixir, all will be presently 
 turned into dust. The best method of fermentation is to take 
 one part of the elixir, and put it into the midst of ten parts of" 
 gold in filings, ccst tL rough antimony, to free it from all its 
 impurities, and to keep it in a eirculary fire for the space of six 
 hours, so increasing the fire by degrees, that the two last hours 
 it be in a good fusion, and when cold, you will find all your 
 matter exceeding frangible, and of the ^colour of the granate- 
 stone. 
 
 99. Common mercury, amalgamated with lead, is counted 
 the most proper subject for making projection, which being in 
 fusion, your fermented matter being divided into three parts, 
 one part of it rolled in wax, is to be flung upon the amalgam: — 
 then presently cover the crucible, and continue the fire, until 
 you hear the noise of the separation and union : then the 
 second and third part, as before, and being kept for 
 two hours in a continual fire of fusion, let it cool by 
 itself. 
 
 100. Whoever shall presume to prepare the great elixir, 
 accordine to our most secret ways, without following and ob- 
 serving all these our infallible rules, will certainly find himself 
 mightily mistaken at last, having after a great deal of trouble, 
 charges, and pain, reaped nothing but discontent ; and on the 
 contrary they, that shall walk in our true and infallible paths, 
 shall with very little trouble and expences attain to their desired 
 end, which we cordially wish to all those, who are sincere wellr 
 wisliers to the hermetic philosophy. 
 
THE SUMMARY. OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Written by Nicholas Flame!, in 1409. 
 
 If you would know bow metals are transmuted, you must un- 
 derstand from what matter they are generated, and how they 
 are formed in the mines ; and that you may not err, you must 
 see and observe, how those transmutations are performed in the 
 bowels or veins of the earth. 
 
 Minerals taken out of the earth, may be changed, if before- 
 hand they be spiritualized, and reduced into their sulphureous 
 and argent vive nature, which are the swo sperms, composed 
 of the elements, the one masculine, the other feminine. — 
 The male sulphur, is nothing but fire and air ; and the true 
 sulphur is as a fire, but not the vulgar, which contains no me- 
 tallic substance. The feminine sperm is argent vive, which is 
 nothing but earth and water ; these two sperms the ancient 
 sages called two dragons or serpents, of which, the one is 
 winged, the other not. Sulphur not flying the fire, is without 
 wings ; the winged serpent is argent vive, borne up by the wind, 
 therefore in her certain hour she flies from the fire, not having 
 fixity enough to endure it. Now if these two sperms, separated 
 from themselves, be united again, by powerful nature, in the 
 potentiality of mercury, which is the metalinc fire : being thus 
 united, it is called by the philosophers the flying dragon ; — 
 because the dragon kindled by its fire, while he Hies by little 
 and little, fills the air with his fire, and poisonous vapours. — 
 The same thing doth mercury ; for being placed upon an ex- 
 terior fire, and in its place in a vessel ; it sets on fire its inside, 
 which is hidden in its profundity ; by which may be seen, how 
 the external fire does burn and inflame the natural mercury. — 
 And then you may see how the poisonous vapour breaks out 
 into the air, with a most stinking and pernicious poison ; which 
 is nothing else but the head of the dragon, which hastily goes out 
 of Babylon. 
 
 But other philosophers have compared this mercury, with a 
 flying lion, because a lion is a devourer of other creatures, and 
 delights himself in his voracity of every thing, except that 
 which is able to resist his violence and fury. So also does 
 mercury, which has in itself such a power/ force, and opera- 
 
Flamel. 253 
 
 tion, to spoil and devastate a metal of its form, and to devour 
 it. Mercury being to<> much influenced, devours and hides 
 metals in its belly ; but which of them so ever it be, it is cer- 
 tain, that it consumes it not, for in their nature they are per- 
 fect, and much more indurate. But mercury has in itself a sub- 
 stance of perfecting sol and luna ; am! all the imperfect bodies or 
 metals, proceed from argent vive ; therefore the ancients called 
 it the mother of metals ; whence it follows, that in its own prin 
 nipl'C and centre, being formed, it has a double metallic sub 
 stance. And first, the substance of the interior; then the sub 
 stance of sol, which is not like the other metals: of these two 
 substances, argent vive is loaned, which in its body is spiritually 
 nourished. As soon then as nature hns formed argent vive, 
 of the two after-named spirits, then it endeavours to make them 
 perfect and corporeal ; but when the spirits are of strength, 
 and the two sperms awakened out of their centrnl principle, 
 then they desire to assume their own bodies. Which being 
 done, argent vive the mother must die, and being thus natu- 
 rally mortified, cannot (as dead things cannot) quicken itself as 
 belore. But there are some proud philosophers, who in obscure 
 words affirm, that we ought to transmute both perfect and im- 
 perfect bodies into running argent vive ; this is the serpent's 
 subtlety, and you may be in danger of being bit by it. It is 
 true, that argent vive may transmute an imperfect body, as lead 
 or tin; and may without much labour, multiply in a quantity; 
 but thereby it diminishes or loses its own perfection, and may no 
 more for this reason be called argent vive But if by art it 
 may be mortified, that it can no more vivify itself then it will 
 be changed into another thing, as in cinnabar, or sublimate is 
 done. For when it is by the art coagulated, whether sooner or 
 later, yet then its two bodies assume not a fixed body, 
 nor can they conserve it, as we may see in the bowels of the 
 earth. 
 
 Lest any one therefore should err, there are in the veins of lead 
 some fixed grains or particles of fine sol and luna mixed in its 
 substance of nourishment. 
 
 The first coagulation of argent vive is the mine of saturn; and 
 most fit and proper it is to bring him unto perfection and 
 fixation ; for the mine of saturn is not without fixed particles of 
 gold, which particles were imparted to it by nature. So in itself 
 it may be multiplied and brought to perfection, and a vast 
 power or strength, as I have tried, and therefore affirm it. — 
 So long as it is not separated from its mine, viz. its argent vive, 
 but well kept, (lor every metal which is in its mine, the same is 
 an argent vive) then may it multiply itself, for that it has sub- 
 etance from its mercury, or argent vive, but it will be like some 
 green immature fruit on a tree, which the blossom being past, 
 becomes an unripe fruit, and then a larger apple. Now if any 
 
251 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 one plucks this unripe fruit from the tree, then its first forming 
 would be frustrate, nor would it grow larger nor ripe ; for man 
 knows not how to give substance, nourishment, or maturity, so 
 well as internal nature, while the fruit yet hangs on the tree, 
 which feeds it 'with substance and nourishment, till the determined 
 maturity is accomplished. 
 
 And so long also does the fruit draw sap or moisture for it$ 
 augmentation and nourishment, till it comes to its perfect ma- 
 turity. So is it with sol ; for if by nature, a grain, or grain? 
 are made, and it is reduced to its argent vive, then also by the 
 same it is daily, without ceasing, sustained and supplied, and re- 
 duced intp its place, viz. argent vive, as he is in himself ; and 
 then must you wait till he shall obtain some substance from his 
 mercury as it happens in the fruit of trees. For as the 
 argent vive, both of perfect and imperfect bodies is a tree, 
 so they can have no more nourishment, otherwise than from their 
 own mercury. 
 
 If therefore you would gather fruit from argent vive, viz. pure 
 sol and luna, if they be disjoined from their mercury; think not 
 that you, like as nature did in the beginning, may again conjoin 
 and multiply, and without change, augment them. For if me- 
 tals be separated from their mine, then they, like the fruit of 
 trees too soon gathered, never come to their perfection, as nature 
 and experience makes it appear. For if an apple or pear be 
 once plucked off from the tree, it would then be a great vanity 
 to attempt to fasten it to the tree again, expecting it to encrease 
 and grow ripe ; and experience testifies, that the more it is han- 
 dled, the more it withereth. And so it is also with metals : for 
 if you should take the vulgar spl and luna, endeavouring to re- 
 duce them into argent vive, you would wholly play the fool, for 
 there is no artifice yet found, whereby it can be performed.— 
 Though you should use many waters, and cements, or other 
 things infinitely of that kind, yet would you continually err, 
 and that would befal you, which would him that should tie unripe 
 fruit to their trees. 
 
 Yet some philosophers have said truly, that if sol and luna, 
 by a right mercury, or argent vive be rightly conjoined, they 
 will make all imperfect metals perfect ; but in this thing most 
 men have erred, who having these three vegetables, animals, and 
 minerals, which in one thing are conjoined ; for that they con- 
 sidered not, that the philosophers speak not of vulgar.sol, luna, 
 and mercury, which are all dead, and receive no more substance 
 or increase from nature, but remain the same in their 
 own essence, without the possibility of bringing others to per- 
 fection. 
 
 They are fruits plucked offfrom their trees before their time, 
 and are therefore of no value or estimation. Therefore seek 
 the fruit in the tree, that leads them straight to it, whose fruit 
 
Flam el. 255 
 
 is daily made greater with increase, so long as the tree bears it.. 
 This work is seen with joy and satisfaction ; and by this means 
 one may transplant the tree without gathering the fruit, fixing it 
 into a moister, better, and a more fruitful place, which in one 
 day will give more nourishment to the fruit, than it received other- 
 wise in an hundred, years. 
 
 In this therefore it is understood, that mcrcuiy, the muck 
 commended tree must be taken, which has in its power indis- 
 solvably sol and luna ; and then transplanted into another soil 
 nearer the sun, that thence it may gain its profitable increase, 
 for which thing, dew docs abundantly suffice ; for where it was 
 placed before, it was so weakened by cold and wind, that little 
 fruit could be expected from it, and where it long stood and 
 brought forth no fruit at all. 
 
 And indeed the philosophers have a garden, where the sun as 
 well morning as evening remains with a most sweet dew, with- 
 out ceasing, with which it is sprinkled and moistened ; — whose 
 earth brings forth trees and fruits, which are transplanted thither, 
 which also receive descent and nourishment from the pleasant 
 meadows. And this is done daily, and there they are both 
 corroborated and quickened, without ever fading ; and this more 
 in one year, than in a thousand, where the cold affects them. — 
 Take them therefore, aud night and day cherish them in a dis- 
 tillatory fire ; but not with a fire of wood or coals, but in a clear 
 transparent fire, not unlike the sun, which is never hotter than 
 is requisite, but is always alike ; for a vapour is the dew, and seed 
 of metals, which ought not to be altered. 
 
 Fruits, if they be too hot, and without dew or moisture, they 
 abide on the boughs, but without coming to perfection, only wi- 
 thering or dwindling away. But if they be fed with heat and 
 due moisture on their trees, then they prove elegant and fruitful; 
 for heat and moisture are the elements of all earthly things, ani- 
 mal, vegetable, and mineral. Therefore fires of wood and coal 
 produce or help not metals ; those are violent fires, which nou- 
 rish not as the heat of the sun does, that conserves all corporeal 
 things ; for that it is natural which they follow. 
 
 But a philosopher acts not what nature does ; for nature 
 where she rules, forms all vegetables, animals, and minerals, in 
 their own degrees. Men, do not after the same sort, by their 
 arts make natural things. When nature has finished her work 
 about them ; then by our art they are made more perfect. — 
 In thi6 manner the ancient sages and philosophers, for our in- 
 formation, wrought on luna and mercury her true mother, of 
 which they made the mercury of the philosophers, which in its 
 operation is much stronger than the natural mercury. For this 
 is serviceable only to the simple, perfect, imperfect, hot and 
 cold metals ; but our mercury, the philosophers stone, is useful 
 •'wi the more than perfect, imperfect bodies, or n$cta)>. Also th it 
 
256 •Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 the sun may perfect and nourish them •without diminution, ad- 
 dition, or immutation, as they were created or formed by nature, 
 and so leaves them, not neglecting any thing. 
 
 I will not now say, that the philosophers conjoin the tree, for 
 the better perfecting their mercury, as some unskilful in the 
 nature of things, and unlearned chemists affirm, who take com- 
 mon sol, luna, and mercury, and so unnaturally handle them, 
 till they vanish in smoak. These men endeavour to make the 
 philosophers mercury, but they never attain it, which is the 
 first matter of the stone, and the first minera thereof. If you 
 would come hither and find good, and to the mountain of the 
 seaven, where there is no plain,, you would betake yourself; 
 from the highest, you must look downward to the sixth, which 
 you will see afar off. In the height of this mountain, you will 
 find a royal herb triumphing, which some have called mineral, 
 some vegetable, some saturnine. But let its bones or ribs be left, 
 and let a pure clean broth be taken from it, so will the better part 
 of your work be done. 
 
 This is the right and subtle mercury of the philosophers, 
 which you are to take, which will make first the white work, and 
 then the red. If you have well understood me, both of them 
 are nothing else, as they term them, but the practice, which is 
 so easy and so simple, that a woman sitting by her distaff may 
 perfect it. As if in winter she would put her eggs under a hen, 
 and not wash them, because eggs are put under a hen without 
 washing them, and no more labour is required about them, than 
 that they should be every day turned, that the chickens may 
 be the better and sooner hatched, concerning the which enough 
 is said. 
 
 But that I may follow the example, first, wash not the mercury, 
 but take it, and with its like, which is fire, place it in the ashes, 
 which is straw, and in one glass which is the nest, without any 
 other thing in a convenient alembic, which is the house, from 
 whence will come forth a chicken, which with its blood will free 
 thee from all diseases, and with its flesh will nourish thee, and 
 with its feathers will clothe thee, and keep thee warm from the 
 injuries of the cold and ambient air. For this cause I have 
 written this present treatise, that you may search with the greater 
 desire, and want in the right way. And I have written this 
 small book, this summary, that you might the better compre- 
 hend the smings and writings of the philosophers, which I be- 
 lieve you will much better understand for time to come. 
 
THE HERMETIC MERCURIES 
 
 OF 
 RAYMOND LULLY, 
 
 With a Preface mid Notes from J. S. Wcidenfeld. 
 
 Great indeed, yea vast is the treasure of our chymy ; but 
 altogether inaccessible to those who have not the keys thereof; 
 by which alone the adepts themselves could either dissolve or 
 coagulate bodies. If you know not the way of dissolving our 
 body, it is in vain to operate, is the advice of Dionysius 
 Zacharias, page 79S, vol. 1, Th. Chym. But he that knows 
 the art and secret of dissolution, has attained to the secret 
 of the art, saith Bernard, page 40, suce Epistolae. For this 
 cause it is, saith Parisinus, that the wise men say, to know 
 the celestial water, which reduceth our body into a spirit, is 
 the chief mystery of this art, in Eluc. page 212. vol. 1. Th. 
 Chym. For without these dissolvents, things heterogeneous can 
 never be perfectly mixed. Coral, though ever so finely pulve- 
 rized, cannot be mixed with the purest powder of pearls ; yea 
 gold mixeth not with silver, much less with bodies less perfect, 
 though both be melted together ; the particles of each do indeed 
 touch one another in their extreme parts, being in a mass or heap 
 consisting of things heterogeneous, yet they are and do remain 
 all distinct, unblemished, and unaltered in their figures and pro- 
 perties, no otherwise than as a heap composed of barley and oats. 
 But in the more secret chyinv there is no body, no heterogeneity, 
 but what hath its own peculiar dissolvent, and with which as 
 being homogeneous to it, it runs into one concrete, rejoicing in 
 the inseparable properties of either. Metals are not only the 
 matter, but are also called by Lully, the form of the stone ; yet 
 without these dissolvents they signify nothing. The form, saith 
 he, which is the eiticient principle, former and transformer of all 
 other forms of less virtue and power, is described by C. 
 (metals) cannot of itself only be the magistcry of the greater 
 work, &c. Very commodious it is for that principle to be 
 known, because hereby the understanding knows it to be one 
 
 I i 
 
258 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 of the two substances, from which our infant is produced, hav- 
 ing in it the condition of a male, from which proceeds a sperm 
 in the belly of our D. (or dissolvent,) Lul. Dist. 3. Lib. Ess. 
 Heaven or mercury is the fourth principle signified by D. 
 It is the cause and principle moving C. (metals) from power to 
 action, ruling and governing them in its belly, as the woman 
 ' the infant which she procreates in her matrix. And in this point 
 knows the understanding of an artist, that D. (dissolvent) hath 
 action upon C. ruling, governing, and reducing them into 
 action, even as the heavens above do by their motion, bring 
 things elementary into action. And an artist is to understand 
 that of the two substances, of winch our stone is compounded, 
 and' by which it is generated, tin's, namely, D. (dissolvent) 
 is the more principal, Ibid. In the Book de Medicinis secretis, 
 page 336, he goes on ; you must know, saith he, that hitherto 
 I have nottold you the most secret thing and matter of the whole 
 magistery, which is our incorruptible quintessence, extracted 
 out of white, or red wine, which we call celestial crown, and the 
 dissolvent after the sublimations, putrefactions, and final depu- 
 tation of it; which quintessence is indeed the foundation, prin- 
 cipal matter, and magistery of all medicinal things. My son. if 
 you have it, you will have the magistery of the whole thing, with- 
 out which nothing can be done,- 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of JVine—Zil). de qiiinta esscntiaj 
 
 Take wine red or white, neither too little nor too much thereof 
 find distil an aqua ardens, as the custom isy and then rectify it 
 for better purification. But I tell you it is enough to rectify it 
 three times, and stop it close, that the burning spirit may not 
 exhale. Take therefore that, and put it in a circulating vessel, 
 which is called the vessel of Hermes, and stop the hole very close 
 with olibamim or mastic being soft, or quick lime mixed with 
 the white of eggs, and if a continual heat be administered to it 
 by continual circulations, our quintessence will be separated in 
 the colour of heaven, which may be seen by a diametrical line, 
 *-bich divide-; the upper part, that is the quintessence, from the 
 lower, namely, from the faeces, which are of a muddy colour. 
 Circulation being continued many days, the hole which you 
 stopped with the said matter, must be opened, and a wonder- 
 ful scent will issue out, so as that no fragrancy of the world cat* 
 be. oompavud'-to it. 
 
Raymond LuUy. 2»9 
 
 WsiDKNf i.t.n — Among the dissolvents of the adopts, no one 
 as made .without the vegetable mercury, or spirit ot philoso- 
 phical wine; for it is the foundation, beginning and end of them 
 
 all. Yea it is according to the various and distinct degrees of its 
 strength, sometimes the least, sometimes the greatest oi all the 
 dissolvents. It is the least and weakest, when it doth by its sim- 
 ple unctuoMty dissolve only the unctuous or oily parts ot vege- 
 tables, but either reject or leave untouched the remainder being 
 Jess oily and heterogeneous to itself; it becomes the strongest 
 when we temper its unctuosity with arids, (that is, dry tilings, 
 not oily) for so it is made homogeneous to things dry-oily, and 
 to things merely dry. In respect of which homogeneity, the 
 dissolvents of the adepts differ from the common, because they 
 do by reason of the said homogeneity, remain with the things 
 dissolved inseparably : yea, are augmented by them, biit not 
 with the least saturation, transmuted and melted into a third 
 substance, and so cannot part without the diminution or de- 
 struction of their former virtues. You are not to take the 
 spirit of common wine, though ever so much rectified, for the 
 philosophical spirit of wine; for so the following dissolvents 
 would be erroneous and seducing. 
 
 Common wine is hot, but there is another sort much hotter, 
 whose whole substance is by reason, of its aerity most easily kindled 
 by fire, and the tartar of this unctuous humour is thick ; for so 
 saith Raymond; that tartar is blacker than the tartar from the 
 black grapes of Catalonia ; whereupon it is called Nigrum 
 nigrius Nigro ; that is, black blacker than black : and this hu- 
 midity being unctuous, doth therefore better agree with the 
 unctuosity of metals, than the spirit extracted from common 
 wine, because by its liquefactive virtue, metals are dissolved 
 into water, which operation the spirit of common wiuc cannot 
 perform. 
 
 It is necessary to observe that the spirit of philosophical wine. 
 appears in two forms, cither like an oil swimming upon all li- 
 quors, or like the spirit of common wine (to the nature ol which 
 it comes sometimes nearer, and therefore doth from the analogy 
 borrow its name) not swhnming upon watery liquors, but mixib.e 
 with them and its own phlegm : yet separable by simple distilla- 
 tion, it easily by this means leaving its phlegms behind it ; but it 
 being rectified, and kindled, it burns wholly away, it affords us 
 the common sign of perfect rectification of the common spirit, but 
 however, they are not two, but que only spirit, differing in degree 
 of purity and subtilty. Distinction must be made between the 
 first and second spirit of philosophical wine, father and son. — 
 The first doth in its preparation require laborem sophias, the 
 most secret, difficult, and dangerous Work of all true chemistry. 
 The second is easily made with the former spirit according to the 
 rule of perfect chemistry. 
 
SCO Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Our vegetable dissolvent, saith Lully, the celestial animal, 
 which is called quintessence, preserves flesh from corruption, 
 comforts things elemented, restores former youth, vivifys the 
 spirit, digests the crude, hardeneth the sort, rarifies the hard, 
 fattens the lean, wasteth the fat, cools the hot, heats the cold, 
 dries the moist, moistens also the dry; one and the same thing 
 can do contrary operations. The act of one thing is diversified 
 according to the nature of the receiver ; as the heat of the sun, 
 which hath contrary operations; as in drying clay, and melting 
 wax ; yet the act of the sun is one in itself and not contrary 
 to itself. 
 
 Like heaven, it receives the forms of all things. As the 
 universal form (the macrocosmical heaven) hath an appetite 
 to every form, so the quintessence (of philosophical wine) 
 to every complexion; whereby it is evidently manifest, that the 
 quintessence of things is said to be of that complexion to which it 
 is adjoined ; if joined to hot, hot ; if to cold, cold, &c. This 
 therefore the philosophers called heaven ; because as heaven 
 affords us sometimes heat, sometimes moisture, &c. so the 
 quintessence in. mens' bodies at the artist's pleasure, &c. — 
 Distinct. 1. Lib. Essentia?. To this heaven we apply its stars ; 
 which are plants, stones and metals, to communicate to us life 
 and health, Ibid. 
 
 Like heaven, it moveth all things from power to act. — 
 Therefore heaven or our mercury is the cause and principle 
 moving C. (metals) from power to act ; and in this point 
 knows the understanding of an artist, that D. (our heaven). 
 hath action upon C. ruling and governing, and reducing it 
 into action ; as heaven brines that which is in elemental 
 things, by its own motion into action, &c. For we call it 
 heaven, by reason of its motion ; because as the upper heaven 
 moves the universal form, and first matter, and elements, 
 and senses, to compound elemented individuals ; so D. moves 
 C and the four elements to M. (the sulphur of nature, or phi- 
 losophers mercury) or to Q. (the tincture) Distinct. 3. de quarto 
 principio Libri Essentia?. 
 
 Like heaven, it is incorruptible. Aqua vita? is the soul 
 and life of bodies, by which our stone is vivified ; therefore we 
 call it heaven, and quintessence, and incombustible oil, and by 
 its infinite other names, because it is incorruptible almost, as 
 heaven, in the continual circulation of its motion, page 145, 
 Elueid. Testam. 
 
 It is of the colour and clarity of heaven. Heaven or our mer- 
 cury is the fourth principle in this art, and is signified by D. of 
 an azure colour and line, and is signified by that colour, because 
 it is celestial, and of a celestial nature, as we said before in the 
 description of it, Dist. 3. Lib. Essentia. 
 
Raymond Lully. 261 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of Spice — vol. 3. p. 193, Thcat. Chem. 
 
 First you must know, that the matter of our stone, or of all 
 the stones of the philosophers, to< ether with precious stones, 
 which are generated or compounded by art, is this metallic soul, 
 cud our dissolvent rectified and acuated, or the lunaria ccelica, 
 which among the philosophers is called vegetable mercury, pro- 
 duced from wine red or white, as is clearly manifest, being re- 
 vealed to us by God, in our Figura Individ uorum, Distinct. 3. 
 Libri. Quint. Essent. &c. 
 
 But first, it is expedient to draw our dissolvent by art from 
 death, that is, the impurities and phlegm of wine, by the office 
 of an alembic, and to acuate it in distillation with pertinent ve- 
 getables; such as arc apium sylvestre, squilia, solatrum, carduus, 
 oliandrum, piper nigrum, euphorbium, viticeliaor flammula, and 
 pyrethrum, an equal quantity of all, and pulverized. Then 
 the dissolvent must be circulated continually for the space often 
 days in B. M. 
 
 Weidenfeld. — The unctuous spirit of philosophical 
 wine attracts none but the unctuous essences of vegetables. 
 Essences being thus extracted, as also all other oily things, 
 crude or expressed, and all distilled of both kingdoms, 
 animal and vegetable, this spirit of wine doth by simple 
 digestion divide into two distinct parts, two oils pr fats, 
 whereof one is the essence of the thing, the other the body. — 
 The essence so made we named the second spirit of wine. Both 
 essences, this by division, and that by extraction prepared, are by 
 longer digestion made one with the aforesaid spirit of wine. For 
 those thiugs which are of one and the same purity, and of a symbo- 
 lical nature, are easily mixed together, and that inseparably, and 
 so an essence made by an essence, is joined to that essence. And if 
 we protract digestion further, one of the fats, namely, the body 
 less oily, and therefore left hitherto, is at length received also into 
 a symbolical nature, by reason of which mixtion, not only is the 
 spirit multiplied, but also made fitter for the dissolutions of dry 
 things, because the particles of this body less oily incline to dry- 
 ness ; concerning which way we treat in this receipt, in the pre- 
 scription of which, the oil drawn out of oily vegetables, is by 
 distillation together with the spirit of philosophical wine, circu- 
 lated into a magistery, by which the spirit of wine is multiplied, 
 and made more homogeneous to dry bodies. There is the same 
 dissolvent, but a little otherwise described in his Natural Magic, 
 p. 358, thus ; take nigrum nigrius nigro, and distil ten or eight 
 
262 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 parts of the same in a glass vessel, and in the first distillation 
 you must receive only one halt'; this again distil, and hereof 
 take a fourth part.; and the third distillation you must take in 
 a manner all, and so distil that part eight or nine times, and it 
 will be perfect, but not rectified under one and twenty distil- 
 lations. Take of this water a quarter of a pound, and acuate 
 the same by distilling it with the vegetables, which are 
 apium svlvestre ; and so of the rest, of which was spoken 
 above. 
 
 The matter of which this dissolvent is made, is called wine in 
 the former receipt : the dissolvent must be extracted from the 
 death of wine ; but in the latter it is called nigrum nigrius 
 nigro. To these two Lully adds a third synonimous, p. 1. Test. 
 novissimi. Take red wine, which we call the liquor of lunaria and 
 nigrum nigrius nigro. 
 
 Wine, lunaria, nigrum nigrius nigro, the matter oi th« 
 dissolvent of vegetable mercury or soul of metals, is not com- 
 mon, but philosophical wine; nor is the spirit of this wine 
 the common, but philosophical aqua ardens. The unctuous 
 spirit of philosophical wine acuated, that is, tempered with the 
 common unetuosity of vegetable oils ; mix, digest, and distil any 
 common distilled oil with the spirit of philosophical wine, and 
 you will obtain a dissolvent of the second kind much sooner; yea, 
 yon will make the same in a moment, if you mix the essence 
 (■spirit) of philosophical wine with the magistery of an oily ve- 
 getable. One oily vegetable (saffron or macis) of so many, is 
 sufficient for the acuation of the spirit of philosophical wine \ 
 nor yet will you err, if you take treacle ; which spirit of treacle, 
 made with this spirit of wine, will be a dissolvent of this kind.. 
 These dissolvents arc medicines. 
 
 The Alchemic Spirit of Honey — Cap. 19. Lib. Mcrcur. 
 
 Take of aqua vita?, and put into this vegetable humidity 
 a third part of a honey-comb, with all its substance, wax, 
 and honey together, ferment, or digest it in a gentle heat 
 for three hours, and the longer it stands, the better it is : then 
 let it be distilled in balnco, and repeat the distillation and fer- 
 mentation nine times, renewing the comb every second dis- 
 til lation. 
 
Raymond Lully. 2G3 
 
 WeidENFELD — The spirit of philosophical wine hath in dry 
 things no dissolving faculty without attrition. This acuitioh is the 
 mystery of the art, being difficult and tedious. It is best made with 
 crude honey, white sugar-candy, and manna purified. Such dis- 
 solvents as these are somewhat hard to be made with crude tar- 
 tar. Lully by aqua vk;e, Parisinus by the celestial and ardent 
 spirit, Guido by spirit of wine, and Paracelsus by the alcool of 
 wine, meant not common aqua ardens, which if a man try, he 
 will by his own experience find. 
 
 Hitherto of things oily acuating the spirit of philosophical 
 wine : — now follow those things which" arc less oily, volatile 
 ►alls, which though they seem not to be oily, yet that they are 
 bo is easily demonstrated by the following preparations of salts 
 harmoniac, whose earths, otherwise most fixed and flowing like 
 wax, are by the unctuosity alone of the dissolvent made volatile, 
 but this will not now be our inquiry. It sufficeth us to use cruda 
 and common sal armoniac, salt of urine, blood, &c. for the 
 acuition of the spirit of philosophical wine, which salts do by 
 their aridity alter the unctuosity of this spirit, more than the 
 aforesaid oily matters, and consequently make the vegetable dis* 
 solvent stronger. 
 
 The Alchemic Spirit of Urine — Exp. 8. 
 
 Take of the animated spirit (of urine) one part, and of 
 aqua vitas perfectly rectified four parts, which pour upon 
 the animated spirit, and forthwitli stop the vessel, that it 
 may not respire, which vessel must be a large bottle, which 
 shake and move with your hands, so in the twinkling of an 
 eye or moment, you will see all the water converted into salt; — 
 but if any part of phlegm be in the philosophical aqua vita?, 
 it will be immediately separated from the salt in the form of 
 water ; the aqua vitas therefore ought to be very well purged! 
 from all phlegm, that, when the work is done, no matter may 
 remain with the salt, but be wholly converted, which will be 
 better and more useful, and by this means you will have the 
 animal and vegetable salt, which we will call coagulativc and 
 gelative sulphur, because it hath the property and virtue of 
 dissolving the two luminaries, and reducing them from power 
 to act, their vegetative aud germiriative form being pre- 
 served. 
 
264r Alchemical Treatises, 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of Tartar — Exp. 34. 
 
 Take the best aqua vita?, rectified so, as to burn a linen 
 cloth, as you have seen, operating with me, and therefore 
 no need of amplifying to you the magistery of this water. 
 Take therefore of aqua vita? four pounds, and put it in a 
 glass urinal (cucurbit) which is very sound ; — then take of 
 the vegetable salt sublimed of the second experiment (vola- 
 tile salt of tartar) one pound, grind very well, and put it in 
 the aqua vitas, lute the vessel with its antenotorium (blind 
 alembic) firmly, with wax gummed, that nothing may re- 
 spire, then putrify two natural days ; after that take away the 
 antenotorium, and put on an alembic with its receiver, the 
 joints being very close, and distil upon hot ashes. Take no- 
 tice, that the receiver must be very large and sound, that it 
 may not be broken by the force of the aqua vita?, and thus con- 
 tinue your distillation with a slow fire, till all be distilled 
 through the alembic. But if any part of the salt remain in 
 the bottom of the vessel, pour it again upon the water now 
 lately distilled, and distil as before, making the joints as close 
 as may be ; the distillation repeat in this order, till all the salt 
 be passed through the alembic in the form of clear water. — 
 Then put of the aforesaid salt one other pound into an urinal, 
 and pour the same distilled water to it ; cover the vessel with itj 
 antenotorium, as before, putrify as before, then distil as before ; 
 and when all the salt is passed over with the water, take again 
 as before of new vegetable salt one pound, and pass it all 
 through the alembic again, as before, with the distilled water ; 
 and by this means you will have those four pounds of aqua vita? 
 united with three pounds of the vegetable salt, which hath 
 the power of dissolving the two luminaries (gold and silver) 
 and all the other metals, with preservation of the vegetable 
 form. But now we intend to reduce this simple dissolvent into 
 a celestial form : — Take therefore this simple dissolvent, and 
 put it in a sound glass vessel, (a circulatory) four parts of which 
 must be empty, but the fifth full : stop the vessel so as not to 
 evaporate, and circulate in dung or balneo sixty natural days ; 
 and by this method will ycu have a clarified dissolvent, in 
 which you will see a sediment, wherefore empty the celestial 
 water into another vessel, and have a care that no sediment 
 pass over with the water, which you must keep very close in 
 balneo. 
 
Raymond Lully. 2G5 
 
 Spirit of the Adepts Sal Harmoniac. 
 
 Lully having prescribed several acuators of the spirit of philo- 
 sophical wine, speaks at length of acuating this spirit with these 
 salts philosophically volatilized. ' Let,' saith he, ' our dissolvent, 
 which is the quintessence of wine, be depurated from all 
 phlegm, and acuatcd with the philosophers armoniac, because 
 it cannot otherwise dissolve gold, nor precious stones ; but let 
 the philosophers sal armoniac be well purified, that is, sub- 
 limed, and cleansed from all terrestreity and uncleanness, accord- 
 ing to the manner of the philosophers ; of which philosophical 
 sal armoniac we have indeed treated largely in our book, De in- 
 tentione Alchemistarum, dedicated to the most illustrious King 
 Robert, in the chapter dc Salibus Armoniac, &c. and in Clau- 
 sura Testamenti, otherwise called Vade mecum, in the chapter 
 which begins, Partus Vera? Terrae. There you may read from 
 first to last the magistery of making and purifying, together 
 with the virtues and energies of this salt. And know, my son, 
 that whatsoever we write in that chapter, we mean that salt 
 and nothing else : Read and peruse that chapter, because no- 
 thing can be done in the magistery without that salt, for that 
 is the thing with which we acuate our dissolvent, to dissolve 
 gold, and precious stones, and pearls, as well for human medi- 
 cines, as for a metallic and lapidific magistery, and to make pearls 
 and precious stones.' 
 
 These sal armoniacs are called sulphurs of nature. In. 
 the preparation of philosophical wine there is an earth found, 
 which is called sulphur, existent in the vegetable mercury, coagu- 
 lating its own mercury; for the sake of which earth, they called 
 every other exanimated and fixed earth, sulphur; but the animat- 
 ed spirit (essence, tincture, &c.) they termed mercury, to be coa- 
 gulated by this sulphur, but both of them being reduced into one 
 body, and sublimed, they called sulphur of nature, not more 
 fixed, but sublimed. 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of Quicksilver — Nov. Test am. 
 
 Take of common argent vive one pound, put it in a glass 
 vessel, and pour upon it of the vegetable dissolvent so much 
 as to swim four fingers above it, set it in balneo or dung six days, 
 and it will be all dissolved into a glorious water, elevate the*. 
 
 k k 
 
266 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 dissolvent gently by balneo, and at the bottom of the vessel 
 will remain the light of pearls, and soul of metals. This we 
 meant in the chapter which begins : Oportet nos cum eo incipere, 
 & cum eo fin ire. Then take of this glorious water of argent 
 vive one pound, and mix it with two pounds of the vegetable 
 dissolvent, coclificatcd, and it will all become one water, with 
 which you will dissolve all bodies, as well perfect as imperfect, for 
 the production of our sulphur. 
 
 Mercuriatc of Silver— Exp. 24. 
 
 Put common mercury in those vessels', (Wolf's apparatus) 
 and distil with repetition, till it turns all into water, as 
 I taught you above ; then take four ounces of this mercurial 
 water, and therein dissolve one ounce of the vegetable mercury 
 of the fifth experiment (salt of tartar sublimed, or vegetable 
 sal armoniac made of the salt of tartar) pass it through an 
 alembic, together with the aforesaid mercurial water, then in 
 every four ounces of the water, dissolve one ounce of mercury 
 as before prepared, (that is vegetable) putrify eight clays, then, 
 distil by ashes, increase the fire at last, that so it may pass into 
 that which was distilled, in which dissolve half an ounce of 
 silver cupellated, then putrify three days, then distil in ashes, 
 and lastly increase the fire a little, that all the clearness, of 
 whiteness of the luna may go over by an airy resolution in this' 
 distillation. 
 
 Weidenfeld — These dissolvents are stronger than all the an- 
 tecedent, as being acuated with better arids, or dry things, and 
 therefore do not extract the essences, but dissolve the whole body 
 into a magistery. These dissolvents arc the magisteries of metals 
 and minerals, and therefore medicines. The sal armoniacs of metals 
 are made the same ways as vegetable sal armoniacs. Every one 
 of them is properly called philosophers mercury, or mercury of 
 the mercury of gold, silver, iron, &C. sublimed; the mercury 
 of antimony, common sulphur, &c. sublimed, because lika 
 common mercury sublimed, it is most easily resuscitated by hot 
 water or vinegar, into the running mercury of gold, silver, iron, 
 antimony, &c. 
 
 Mercurial waters are called ignes gehennae, by reason of this 
 fiery nature of argent vive, the corrosive specific was because of 
 the mercurial water called by Paracelsus ignis gehennae. Libro. 
 de Specif, page 29. The. cimilatwnj inajus, prepared from 
 
Raymond Lully. 267 
 
 mercury, lie calls a living fire, most extreme fire, and ccelcstial 
 lire. 
 
 If you would bring into action, saith he, (the life of antimony 
 hidden in its regains) you must resuscitate that life with iis 
 like living fire, or metallic vinegar, with which fire many of 
 the philosophers proceeded several ways, but agreeing in the 
 foundation, they ai' hit the intended mark, Sec. Yet that fire, 
 or corporal life in common mercury, is found much more per- 
 fect ami sublime, which manifestly proves by its flowing, that 
 there is a most absolute fire, and coelestial life hidden in it; 
 wherefore whoever desires to graduate his metallic heaven 
 (the arcanum lapidis, or antimonii) to the highest, and reduce 
 it to action, he must first extract the first liquid being, as the 
 coeiestial fire, quintessence, and metallic acetum acerrimum out 
 of the corporal life, (common mercury) ecc. Libro. 10. Archie!. 
 cup. 6. p. 39. 
 
 Hermetic JSIercury of Pearls. 
 
 Take the liquor of lunaria of the third or second rectifica- 
 tion, (philosophical aqua aniens rectified) pour it upon ar- 
 gent vive, so as to swim three fingers above it, and putrify three 
 natural days, and a great part of it will be dissolved with the 
 water of lunaria, which decant, and pour fresh liqnor upon 
 the fasces, putrify in dung or balnco, and repeat till all the 
 mercury is reduced into water, then join all the distillations to- 
 gether, and draw off in balneo, and when you see it in a manner 
 thick, so as to be half a pound of the water of mercury and 
 argent vive, (vegetable and mineral) putrify six natural days, 
 then put in pearls, and they will within ten hours be dissolved, 
 then exuberate them by the way, which I taught in the exube- 
 ration of metals, till they be converted into a sal armoniac, or 
 sulphur naturae of pearls, whereof dissolve one ounce in a 
 pound of its dissolvent aforesaid, and distil four times, then put 
 in pearls, and they will in half a quarter of an hour be dissolved, 
 by reason of the greater subtlety of the dissolvent. As silver 
 is joined to the mercurial dissolvent made by the three fire-hot 
 vessels, for the Neapolitan dissolvent, (which may be so called, 
 because it was revealed to Lully at Neapolis by Arnold de villa 
 nova) so this dissolvent for pearls is made of the sal armoniac 
 of pearls, and the mercurial dissolvent, or glorious water of mer- 
 cury, which if they be circulated together a convenient tune, vow 
 will make thereof a coslum perlatum. 
 
26S Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 "Weidenfeld — Hitherto we have by argent vive acuated cither 
 the spirit of philosophical wine, or dissolvents made with this spirit, 
 which had so good a faculty of dissolving, that most of the atJ 
 being content with these mercui'ial waters, desisted from inquiring 
 after stronger dissolvents. The mercurial water, which Liilly 
 terms glorious, he saith, is sufficient, yen, a proper dissolvent 
 to make the philosophers mercury, or metallic sal armoniac, out 
 of all metals and minerals. You must know, saith he, my son ! 
 that in the truth and faith of God, no sulphur of nature of any 
 metal can be sublimed without this water of common argent vive. 
 Test. Noviss. p. 12. . 
 
 But in this ninth kind of dissolvents, the adepts made yet 
 other dissolvents, adding moreover divers bodies, according to 
 the intended several uses to the aforesaid mercurial waters. Lully, 
 to make a more noble dissolvent for the dissolution of gold, added 
 silver to the mercurial dissolvent. If perhaps he wanted a dis- 
 solvent for pearls, he joined pearls with the mercurial dissolvent ; 
 if he had a mind to make aurum potabile, he prepared a dissolvent 
 out of gold and silver, as more suitable to this purpose, yet with 
 some mercurial dissolvent, and so of others. 
 
 Dissolvents may and ought to be made according to the de- 
 signed uses, for they are desired not only to dissolve bodies pro- 
 miscuously, but rightly also, that the tinctures of things dissolved 
 may not by any heterogeneous tinctures of the dissolvents be in- 
 quinated, but rather illustrated. These dissolvents being once 
 compounded, the oftener the composition is repeated by adding 
 new matter, are endowed with so much a greater virtue ; whereas 
 on the contrary it is manifest, that common dissolvents are this 
 way debilitated. These dissolvents are most fragrant, and of ex- 
 ceeding sweetness and redness, yet nevertheless called acetum 
 acerrimum, which dissolves gold into a spirit. These dissolvents 
 are the essences or magisteries of metals made by magisterics or 
 essences, and mixed together into compounded circulatums. — 
 These compounded circulatums may be made not only of gold 
 and silver, but also of imperfect metals and minerals ; and sal 
 armoniac may be made of corals, or other arids, as well as 
 pearls. 
 
 The first matter of mercury is a poison, wherefore it is not to 
 be used for human medicines, but metals only, yet ifthisincal- 
 cinated dissolvent be circulated as the rest, it becomes harmless, 
 and an excellent medicine. 
 
Raymond Lully. 26 J 
 
 Alchemic Gems of the Mcinls. 
 
 Take the water of mercury, made by the way, which we 
 declared in our New Testament, (Numb. 7) and in that water, 
 soil ! vou must dissolve one half ounce of the purest lima, after 
 the filtered dissolution, separate the water from the feces (distil 
 the dissolvent from the silver through an alembic) in which the 
 limosity of the silver will ascend; this water, son ! resolves all 
 other bodies, and argent vive itself, by virtue of which, son ! 
 pearls arc reformed by the way which I told you in our Testa- 
 mentum, and in the Compendium super Testamentum & Codi- 
 cillum missum Regi Roberto, 
 
 The second water is thus made: take half an ounce of lead, 
 and of the aforesaid water as much as sufiicclh, when you see 
 the lead dissolved, separate the water by filtered distillation, 
 (filter the dissolution of the lead) and throw out the faeces, as 
 nothing worth, then distil the water by balneo (draw off the dis- 
 solvent in balneo) and keep the faeces (the dissolved lead) for 
 occasion. 
 
 The third water is thus made : take of copper one ounce, 
 and dissolve it in as much of the first water as you please, and 
 let it rest in its vessel, in a cold place, for a natural day, then 
 separate the green water through a filter, and pour out the first 
 faeces, (that which remains in the filter must be cast away) 
 then distil the water through an alembic, and keep the second 
 faeces. 
 
 The fourth water is thus made : take one ounce of the 
 purest tin of Cornwall, which is purer than any other, and 
 dissolve it in a quantity of the first waiter, and distil (through 
 a filter) that water (dissolution) with its limosity, and the faeces 
 which remain cast away, then distil the water through an 
 alembic, and keep (the residue, or tin dissolved) the second 
 faeces. 
 
 The fifth water is thus made : take of the purest iron 
 one ounce, and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of the 
 first water, then distil through a filter, and cast away the 
 faeces, distil the water through an alembic, and keep the second 
 faeces. 
 
 The sixth water is thus made : take of the purest gold one 
 ounce, and dissolve it as I told you in my Testamentum, that is, 
 with pure lunaria (the simple vegetable dissolvent without ar- 
 gent vive and silver) mixed with such a weight of the fifth 
 water, (now prepared from i2-on) and do as you did with the 
 other. 
 
270 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 You may also, son ! dissolve all those metals in this order r 
 Having made the first water, in it dissolve the metal, which 
 wc commanded you to dissolve after the second way, (to wit lead) 
 then do with it as wc told you before. In this second 
 water dissolve the third metal, (copper) and in the water of 
 the third metal dissolve the fourth metal, (tin) and in the 
 water of the fourth metal dissolve the fifth metal, (iron) 
 and in the water of the fifth metal dissolve the sixth metal, 
 (gold.) 
 
 Take which of those waters you like best to dissolve a metal. 
 Son ! these limosities of metals are called quintessences, or 
 mineral mercury, which the philosophers esteemed in the al- 
 chemical work (in alchemical tinctures) and the lapidific, (in 
 the making of precious stones) and in the medicinal work (in the 
 preparing of medicines.) But son ! in the alchemical work 
 those quintessences ought to be more subtil, and to be done by 
 dividing the elements, but in (making precious) stones, the 
 quintessence (aforesaid) are not so, in such a subtil matter, but 
 in medicine either of them (this two-fold way of preparing) may 
 be used. 
 
 Having spoken of the quintessences of minerals (of metallic 
 waters) now we are to make them, it is now convenient to speak 
 ex the division of them in general- And my son ! do thus ; 
 when your metals are dissolved, you must divide every water 
 
 ing first filtered and distilled from its remainder) and every di- 
 vided water (now distilled) into two parts, and one part of every 
 part you must put with its own faeces (the remaining metal which 
 the water had left in distillation) into a glass alembic, and distil 
 a limus deserti, which is air made out oi two bodies, (or metals) 
 in the furnace, which we designed you first with a gentle 
 fire, shining with great mineral lustre, and with great limosity 
 appropriated to receive celestial virtues : and put every one 
 of those waters into a glass vessel, with a long neck and round, 
 and then stop the mouth of it with common wax, and after that 
 with mastic, and every of those vessels put in the open air so, 
 as that neither stone, nor any other hurtful thing may touch 
 the glass. Sou ! take the material fasces, from which you 
 resolved the limus, which are the second faeces left in the distil- 
 lation of the waters which you pat in the air. (Take the caput 
 norluum from the distillation of every limus desertus. or the third 
 iiecesj i'ov the first remaining in the filter were cast away, from the 
 second the limus desertus was distilled ; now the faeces of the limus 
 tiesertus, are those which he here calls the second) and put them 
 in a gi ;ss vessel with a long neck, which may contain two 
 hands L read th, and put in part of its own water, which was 
 reserved From thai aforesaid limous substance, and stop the ves- 
 sels with a stopple of wax, and with leather and mastic, as y 014 
 *iid to the oilier, and bury them (water of metals) in a 
 
Raymond Lull?/. 271 
 
 garden, in an earth half a yard deep, and put also something 
 about the neck of the vessels, which may appear above ground, 
 for the preservation of them, and let them be there for one 
 whole year. Son ! the waters which arc put into the earth 
 are of one nature, and those which are put in the air of ano- 
 ther ; for son ! those which are put into the earth have a har- 
 dening, coagulating, and fixing virtue and quality ; and those 
 which are in the air, have the virtue and property of being har- 
 dened, coagulated, and fixed. The year being ended, you will 
 June all that is desired in the world for this work, &c. Lib. Quint. 
 Essen. Canon. 43. 
 
 WeidenfelO — Hitherto we have mixed or tempered the 
 unctuous spirit of philosophical- wine with things oily, dry-oily, 
 oilv-drv, and purely dry, and reduced them to divers kinds of ve- 
 getable dissolvents ; in which we have exhibited dissolvents every 
 Way absolute and perfect, in smell, taste, and colour incomparable, 
 dissolving without hissing or effervescence, and permanent with 
 things dissolved. Now follow in order, those which are called mi- 
 neral dissolvents, which though they be of a stinking smell, of an 
 acid or corrosive taste, and for the most part of a milky and opake 
 colour, and dissolve bodies with very great violence and corrosion, 
 yet nevertheless having the same spirit of philosophical w-ine, as 
 the vegetable dissolvents for their foundation, are therefore as 
 permanent as they, yea better than they as to the abbreviation of 
 time ; for the acidity of mineral salts (for which corrosive or acid 
 dissolvents are called rninera) cannot destroy the nature of the 
 spirit of wine, nor the nature of the vegetable dissolvent, but by 
 corroding makes the particles of dry bodies more apt to unite 
 themselves with the oily spirit of philosophical wine ; but if that 
 acidity be taken away, it becomes that which it was before, 
 namely, either the spirit of philosophical wine, or a vegetable 
 dissolvent. 
 
 The method, which we used in the vegetable dissolvents, we will 
 as near as we can observe also in these mineral dissolvents. In the 
 vegetable we extracted from the philosophical wine an aqua ar- 
 dens, from which we did by circulation separate an oil or essence 
 of wine, which is our spirit of wine, which then by acuating clivers 
 ways we reduced into the precedent kinds of vegetable dissolvents ; 
 but in the mineral we will begin with philosophical grapes, the 
 matter itself of philosophical wine, which is elsewhere called green 
 lion, adrop, Sec. Though the discourse of this matter appertains 
 not to this place, yet if any thing presents itself to us either in the 
 receipts themselves, or elsewhere, which may tend to a more clear 
 manifestation of it, we will not conceal it : but on the contrary 
 have determined to illustrate and explain things so, as not only 
 to make you more assured of the use and necessity of this 
 spirit promised to you, but moreover also, that you may have 
 
212 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 some certain notions before-hand of its conception, substance, 
 nativity, &c. 
 
 Spirit of the Adepts Vitriol — JSIagia Kat. p. 359, 
 
 Take of the earth D. (azoquean vitriol) five ounces and a half, 
 and of the water C. (of salt peter animated) two ounces and a half, 
 and being all mixed, grind the matter fine upon a marble, 
 then put it in a glass vessel with an alembic upon it, and distil 
 the whole substance, first making a gentle fire, and encrease it 
 till the alembic loseth its colour, or no more distils : then cease 
 and let it cool, gather the water, keep it in a hot and moist 
 place, and have a care that it respires not. This water, 
 though made of a contemptible thing, hath the power of 
 converting bodies into their first matter, which being joined 
 to the vegetable virtue, is of much perfection, and must be 
 put into practice presently after it is distilled, that the spirit 
 which is subtil and of a strange nature, may not be lost by 
 the air. 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of Nitric Acid — Elite. Test. p. 117. 
 
 Vitriol one part, nitre one part, allum a fourth part, mix 
 them all well together, and distil with a gentle fire, till the 
 liquor is gone over, then give a stronger, and lastly most 
 strong, till the alembic grows white, for then is the aqua 
 fort is prepared. Then put it in a large cucurbit, and pour 
 trpon it four ounces of aqua vitoe (philos. aqua ardens) four times 
 distilled, and put an alembic on with its receiver, then will it 
 make great noises, boiling exceeding violently without fire, and 
 therefore the waters ought to be mixed by little and little. Put 
 on an alembic with its receiver, and distil the water in balneo, 
 that a matter mav remain alone at the bottom of the vessel in the 
 form of ice; pour back the water, and distil again, and this re- 
 peat nine times, then will an oil or matter like ice remain in the 
 bottom. 
 
 
Raymond Lully. 273 
 
 Weidenfeld — From the receipt we observe these remarkable 
 things : 1. That the spirit of philosophical wine dissolved in an 
 acid spirit, is a mineral dissolvent. Our aqua fortis, our vinegar, 
 distilled vinegar, vinegar mixed with the spirit of wine, our spirit 
 of salt, sulphur, &c. 2. That the spirit of the same wine, is with 
 very great ebullition dissolved in an acid, and therefore you 
 ought to be exceeding careful lest you pour too much of the spirit 
 of philosophical wine upon the aqua fortis, and vice versa : For 
 it would be more safe to distil the aqua fortis upon the spirit of 
 philosophical wine, as Paracelsus adviseth. 3. That aquafortis 
 mixed with the spirit of wine, may be taken instead of vinegar 
 mixed with the spirit of wine, or spirit of salt mixed with the 
 spirit of wine, &c. in chemical works especially. 4. That the 
 more these dissolvents are abstracted from the acid debilitated 
 in dissolution, the stronger they are made. 5. That the adepts 
 used also corrosive dissolvents or aqua fortis. There are some, 
 not only common ignorant operators, but adepts also, who not 
 knowing the preparation and use of these dissolvents, have writ- 
 ten against these corrosive dissolvents. 
 
 Parisinus, a faithful disciple of Lully, explains his meaning 
 thus : those things that are objected by us against aqua fortisses, 
 namely, that they are of no efficacy in the art, and nevertheless 
 are taught by Lully, are to be otherwise understood. For he 
 this way puts a difference between the vulgar and philosophical 
 aqua fortisses, &c. And therefore Raymond rejecting sharp 
 waters, means the aqua fortisses of separation, but not those of 
 the philosophers, cap. C. Lib. 1. Elucid. page 206, vol. 6. Th. 
 Chem. 
 
 Our annotations upon the receipts are : That these dissolvents 
 are better made of aqua fortis, it being an acid stronger than the 
 rest. Yet that they may be also made of any other acid less 
 strong, as distilled vinegar, spirit of salt, sulphur, &c. These 
 are the best of all the simple mineral dissolvents, both in the 
 facility of making, and excellency of virtue. It is equal, whe- 
 ther the metal be first dissolved in common aqua fortis, and then 
 the vegetable sal armoniac added, or the said salt first, and then 
 the metal. 
 
 That these aqua regisses differ from the common, in that 
 they dissolve all metals promiscuously, silver as well as gold, and 
 reduce the same not into a calx, but oil, which cannot be said 
 of common aqua regis. Metals dissolved in these dis- 
 solvents and sublimed, become the greatest poisons belonging 
 to this art. 
 
274 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Alchemic Spirit of Vitriolic Acid — Epis. Accurt. p. 327. 
 
 The spirit of vitriol is more dry and thick, than the 
 spirit of the quintessence of aqua ardens, and great affinity 
 there is between the spirit of vitriol, and the nature of gold, 
 because they are both derived from the same principles 
 with minerals. The spirit therefore of vitriol being joined 
 with the spirit of aqua ardens, inspissates it, and makes 
 it suddenly adhere to gold, so as to be fixed with it ; — 
 and believe me, this is a very excellent way of abbre- 
 viation. 
 
 Dissolvents compounded of the Spirit of Philosophical 
 Wine and tinging Minerals. 
 
 Weidenfeld. — The antecedent kind contained mineral dis- 
 solvents, compounded of acid spirits containing a metallic tinc- 
 ture in them ; in this present wc use the bodies of these spirits, to 
 make the dissolvents a degree better. For a tincture, for example, 
 extracted out of the dry part or body of vitriol distilled, with the 
 spirit of philosophical wine is an essence, which being in the same 
 distillation dissolved in its own acid part, produced a dissolvent 
 of this kind ; whereas in the precedent kind, that ^mall quan- 
 tity of copper, dissolved or contained in common spirit of vitriol, 
 and elevated with a violent fire, is by the spirit of philoso- 
 phical wine, reduced not into the essence, but magistery, 
 little effectual as well through the smallness of its quantity as 
 tincture. 
 
 Alchemic Spiiit of Vitriol and Cinnadar~*p. 371, 
 Magia. Nat. 
 
 After the fourth distillation of the water aforesaid, 
 (aqua vita* or ardens made of philosophical wine) distil 
 
Raymond Lully. 275 
 
 seven times with an equal weight of good cinnabar and 
 vitriol, putting in nev» things every time constantly, and 
 drying the matter of the stone (vitriol and cinnabar) well 
 in every distillation, before vou pour in the aqua (vitae) 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Take of the (last mentioned) dissolvent, four pounds, and put 
 in one pound of mercury vive, put the matter in balneo or horse 
 dung six days, and it will be all converted into water, distil 
 by balneo, and you will have a mercurial water, truly mi- 
 neral. 
 
 Weidenfeld. — These dissolvents do by continued cohoba- 
 tions become most red, shining by night so, that men at supper 
 want no other light;— permanent and multiplying the philoso- 
 phers stone. 
 
 The dissolutions of metals performed by these mercurial 
 dissolvents, have been by the adepts sometimes called amalga- 
 mations. You must know, saith Isaacus, that this is the best 
 solution, that ever was found in the world, for herein is no 
 error of proportion and weight. For nature errs not. — 
 For when mercury is dissolved, it dissolves other metals also, 
 as is rightly taught in other places. Nor will it dissolve 
 more than it is able, nor will it receive more of a body 
 into it, than its nature can bear. For whatsoever has no need 
 of it, it cannot dissolve. And it is the best amalgamation 
 that can be found. 2. Oper. Min. Cap. 103, p. 494, vol. 3. Th. 
 Chem. 
 
 The Compound fragrant and fcetid Mercuries. 
 
 Take of the vegetable water acuated (Numb. 3,) one ounce, 
 put it in a phial with a long neck, into which you pour three 
 ounces of the water (Numb. 4,) and suddenly cover the 
 phial with its cover, luted close with wax, then place it 
 well in a balneo, the space of two natural days, and in that 
 time, the whole vegetable will be converted into a clear 
 water. 
 
 Weidenfeld. — These dissolvents are the mixtures of divers 
 dissolvents. They may be made of all vegetable and mineral 
 dissolvents, being mixed together at the artists pleasure. Yet 
 they are made the better, the more tinging the dissolvents were, 
 and they do by digestion become sweet and pure. 
 
276 
 
 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 Despise not these Receipts of dissolvents offered to vcu. 
 but rather read and peruse them, and every where endeavour to 
 find out the chemical truth ; those which you do not understand, 
 or esteem, castaway: for if one only kind, or any one receipt 
 please you, it is sufficient. For we will easily prove that by 
 that one, all the secrets of the more secret chemy may be 
 prepared. 
 
 To make these things more easy to you, I will here contract 
 into a breviary, and reduce them into twelve conclusions : — 
 
 I. That the descriptions of these dissolvents are understood, accord- 
 ing to the sound of the letter. 
 
 The foregoing receipts contain nothing occult, but the spirit 
 of philosophical wine, the use only of which we promised to 
 define. It may be properly called an unctuous spirit, proceed- 
 ing from the white and red wine of Lully, the constitutives of the 
 foetid dissolvent. 
 
 II. That no one of the aforesaid dissolvents is prepared without 
 the Spirit of Philosophical Wine. 
 
 There are indeed dissolvents, in the receipts of which, we 
 meet not with the name of this spirit, yet there it is lurking 
 under the name of this or that dissolvent. Other receipts of 
 dissolvents there are, which do not take the spirit of philoso- 
 phical wine free, but cs it were fettered, that is, any common 
 oil ; but when in the making of these dissolvents the spirit is 
 unfettered, as also acuated, such dissolvents cannot in the least 
 be said to be made without it. There are lastly also dissolvents, 
 in the receipts of which, neither the spirit of philosophical wine, 
 nor any oily matter is expressly mentioned, (but these arc more 
 lore, on purpose alleged to shew us cither the envy or morosity 
 of the adepts) whereas notwithstanding it is by the use of the 
 dissolvent manifest, that this spirit is added through ne- 
 cessity ;— for that which is promised, could not otherwise be 
 effected. 
 
 Finally, there are some, which you will affirm may be made with 
 common spirit, common vinegar, and aqua fortis, or common 
 sal armoniac without the spirit of philosophical wine. Sup- 
 pose it so ; but when you proceed to practice, and try an expe- 
 riment with such a dissolvent, you will soon find it not only too 
 weak, but also altogether ineffectual, in the more secret chemy. 
 For it is impossible to do that with a common dissolvent, which 
 
Raymond Lully. 27T 
 
 the adepts have prescribed by a philosophical dissolvent. The 
 secrets of the more secret chemy Lave this privilege, that they 
 cannot be made by any man but him that, is possessed oi' philoso- 
 phical wine. 
 
 III. That these dissolvents are prepared Jrom any sort of 
 
 Mailer. 
 
 We have demonstrated that the dissolvents aforesaid are made 
 of divers oleosities, aridities, and acidities of the three kingdoms. 
 You have observed the simple vegetable dissolvents to be made 
 of things neither tinging nor acid ; compounded vegetable dis- 
 solvents of things tinging, not acid ; simple mineral dissolvents 
 made of things acid, and not tinging; the compounded, of 
 things both acid and tinging. Wherefore being now better assured 
 of your dissolving matter hitherto so anxiously sought lor, you 
 may take crude mercury, or vitriol, nitre, common salt, salt of 
 tartar, or urine, rain-water, may-dew, or any other matter also 
 which you have made choice of before the rest, for the true and 
 universal matter of a dissolvent, in which choice ycu will not err; 
 for it is much at one, whether you make it of gold or mercury ; 
 whether of pearls or arsenic ; vegetable or mineral salt, provided 
 you proceed according to this or that kind of dissolvents, with 
 consideration also of what use you would have the dissolvent, lest 
 you prepare an essence instead of a magistery, or a poison for an 
 antidote: on the contrary, take pure honey so applauded by Pa- 
 risinus, or the salt of tartar, commended by Ripley ; or common 
 salt, esteemed by Paracelsus, as the matrix of metals ; or vitriol 
 abounding with the tincture of gold, extolled by Basilius, or ar- 
 gent vive magnified by most of the adepts, as the open metal. — 
 Take, I say, which of them you please, but you must know it 
 cannot in the least answer your expectation, except it be joined, 
 that is, corrected, exalted and graduated with the spirit of philo- 
 sophical wine. 
 
 IV. That these dissolvents are also prepared by any method. 
 
 You have here had several methods of preparation, which if 
 not satisfactory, you may please to invent new ones. Herein is 
 contained nothing secret, if your matter, and the spirit of phi- 
 losophical wine be, without any possibility of being separated, 
 mixed together, and distilled either in part or whole, through an 
 alembic. For every matter, by what method soever volatilized 
 and distilled with the spirit of philosophical wine, is a dis- 
 solvent. 
 
TiH 
 
 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 V. That these dissolvents are sufficient also for every me. 
 
 You have now observed the use of the spirit of philosophical 
 wine in these ways of making dissolvents: hereafter, in the follow- 
 ing books, you will perceive them to be sufficient for every pur- 
 pose. By these means you will make all the medicines of the 
 adepts, reduce alJ metals into running mercury, or if you had 
 rather, into the philosophers mercury, or first matter of metals. 
 By these will you make as well universal as particular transmuta- 
 tivcs of metals, the best of all in respect of deeper tincture, short- 
 ness of time, and conciseness of work. Hereby lastly, will you 
 prepare whatsoever curiosity has been left us by the adepts, and 
 prescribed in their books, so that if they have any preparations 
 without the spirit of philosophical wine, you may decline them 
 without any damage. For these dissolvents do volatilize all 
 fixed bodies, and fix the volatile and volatilized, dissolve the 
 coagulated, and coagulate the dissolved. Under which few 
 notions are comprehended all the operations of the more 
 secret chemy. 
 
 VI. That these dissolvents are many. 
 
 You have observed divers kinds of dissolvents, designed for 
 several distinct uses. Simple vegetable dissolvents do extract, 
 rather than dissolve bodies ; the compounded dissolve only, 
 but not extract. That which vegetable dissolvents do, the mi- 
 neral cannot, and so on the contrary : of vegetable dissolvents 
 arc made medicines only, not poisons ; but of mineral dissolvents, 
 poisons only, and not antidotes without the singular dexterity of 
 an artist. An use different and contrary to itself admits no 
 universal dissolvent. The spirit of philosophical wine is in- 
 deed the universal matter of them all, but there is not one of 
 ail the dissolvents sufficient for every use ; wherefore, unless 
 you will for the same reason call every one universal, 
 because they all proceed from the spirit of light, the uni- 
 versal basis of all things, we cannot but deny an universal 
 dissolvent. 
 
 VII. That some dissolvents are corrosive. 
 
 That mineral dissolvents are corrosive, and therefore dis- 
 solve bodies with ebullition, is clearly manifest by the re- 
 
Raymond Lulhj. 279 
 
 ceipts aforesaid. I would not have you, being perhaps not suffi- 
 ciently instructed in the sayings of the adepts, every where declar- 
 ing against aqua fortisses, and all corrosives, either despise, or 
 think ill of them. These are those dissolvents by which the an- 
 cient adepts abbreviated their time and labour in preparing 
 their tinctures. And Paracelsus justly entitled himself to the 
 monarchy of arcanums, he having been the principal instrument 
 in completing not only the abbreviations of alchemy, but moreover 
 introducing these mineral dissolvents to medicinal use, and that 
 with so much dexterity, that there seems to be now no hope left 
 to his disciples of mending any imperfection of this art. Besides, • 
 these dissolvents differ from the vegetable dissolvents no otherwise, 
 than that an acidum is superadded to them, or to the spirit of phi- 
 losophical wine, corroding the aridum, and dividing it into atoms, 
 making way for the oleosum, to be sooner and better incorporated 
 and mixed together, which notwithstanding do by taking away 
 the acidum, return into the same vegetable dissolvents they 
 were before. 
 
 VIII. That these dissolvents are permanent, yeajixed with things 
 dissolved in them. 
 
 It is by the former descriptions of dissolvents manifest, that 
 as well the spirit of philosophical wine, as dissolvents made of 
 it, do stick to the things dissolved in them. There is indeed no 
 better argument to confirm the excellency of dissolvents, than that 
 they are homogeneous and permanent with things dissolved, and 
 consequently dissolvents transmutable with the dissolved into a 
 third substance different from both. These dissolvents therefore 
 are so far from being immutable, that, according to the Edict of 
 the whole crowd of philosophers, to wit, the dissolution of the 
 body is the coagulation of the spirit, and so on the contrary, 
 nothing in the more secret enemy, can be more infallible. 
 
 IX. That dissolvents are not debilitated with dissolving, but be- 
 come rather more powerful, and e o are by dissolutions aug- 
 mented as well in quantity as quality. 
 
 Though the spirit of our wine is the basis, root, and centre 
 of all dissolvents, medicines, alchemical tinctures, and precious 
 stones, yet nevertheless doth it dissolve slowly, yea only such 
 bodies as are homogeneous to it, that is, purely oily, as itself 
 is a pure oleosum, and associate the same to it, transmuting into 
 it§ owu nature, and so multiplies itself by this means. Now so. 
 
280 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 soon as this spirit is transmuted into an arido-oleosum, it docs 
 under the name of a simple vegetable dissolvent, dissolve arido- 
 oleosums, that is, the sulphurs of tinctures of the mineral king- 
 dom, the pure aridum being untouched, and left in the form of 
 a white powder, with which essences the said dissolvents or es- 
 sences may indeed melt together, but not in the least be satiated, 
 because there is an addition and multiplication of like parts. But 
 the same vegetable dissolvents being now compounded of the sim- 
 ple, do no more extract the tinctures and essences of minerals, but 
 dissolve and transmute the whole mass or substance of these bo- 
 dies into an oil swimming above, which is called a magistcry. : — 
 Now this being digested together with its dissolvent, at length 
 falls in, is united, and so multiplies the compounded vegetable 
 dissolvent. For an example to young beginners ; the spirit of 
 philosophical wine being a dissolvent of the first kind, and acu- 
 ated with the oil of nutmegs, is hereby made a dissolvent of the 
 second kind ; or acuated with honey, if you would have a dis- 
 solvent of the third kind : distil either of those dissolvents with, 
 common sal armoniac, and you will have a dissolvent of the 
 fourth ; but if you desire one of the fifth kind, cohobate either 
 of them with the salt of tartar, and you will have the acetum 
 acerrimum of Ripley ; or with common salt, and you will make 
 the sal circulatum of Paracelsus ; cohobate mercury, or any 
 other mercury, or any other metal through an alembic with this 
 vinegar or salt, and you will transmute the simple vegetable 
 dissolvents into the compounded vegetable dissolvents of the 
 seventh kind ; from which you will further prepare dissolvents 
 of the eighth kind, by dissolving and volatilizing any other me- 
 tal in them. The same rule you have as to our mineral dissol- 
 vents. But the common dissolvents cannot receive beyond their 1 
 capacity. 
 
 X. That these dissolvents arc also Secrets of Medicines. 
 
 You have observed that among the vegetable dissolvents, there 
 is none but what is either an essence, or a magistery. You have 
 also taken notice by the aforesaid receipts of them, that mineral 
 dissolvents are the same medicines, but mixed and dissolved 
 with acids. 
 
 XI. That these dissolvents are likewise the Secrets of Trans~ 
 
 mutations. 
 
 It is now clear by the receipts, that the simple dissolvents are 
 the philosophers stones not yet fermented ; but the compounded 
 
Raymond Lully. 281 
 
 ure dissolvents mixed with the masculine seed, and therefore vo- 
 latile and fermented stones. 
 
 XII. That these dissolvents are in like manner the Secrets of 
 perpetual Lights and Gems. 
 
 That these dissolvents do give light by night, and conse- 
 quently, are perpetual lights, yield also matters for pearls, pre- 
 cious stones, Sec. 
 
 RIPLEY— Cap. 13. PhilorciL 
 
 Without these waters we do little good in this art ; but he 
 that hath these waters, will, without all doubt, com- 
 plete the art. 
 
 *i m 
 
SANGUIS NATUR/E, 
 
 BY A GERMAN ADEPT— 1650. 
 
 I. Whosoever attempteth the search of our glorious ston«$ 
 he ought in the first place, to implore the assistance of the aH 
 powerful Jehova, at the throne of his mercy, who is the true 
 and sole author of all mysteries of nature; the monarch of 
 heaven and earth, the king of kings, omnipotent, most true and 
 most wise; who not only makcth manifest in the macrocosm, 
 the truth of every science to worthy philosophers, and liberally 
 bestoweth both natural and divine knowledge on the deserving 
 and faithful; but also layeth open his treasures of health and 
 riches which are locked up in the abyss of nature to those who 
 devoutly worship him. And for as much as none arc permitted 
 to touch the mysteries of nature with foul fingers; therefore it 
 behoveth all who attempt such matters, to lay aside their natural 
 blindness from which, by the light of the holy scripture and a 
 stedfast faith, they may be freed that being the means by which 
 the holy spirit doth clearly make manifest the most profoundly 
 hidden light of nature; which light alone lays open the way to 
 the wisdom of nature, and to unlock the most abstruse mysteries 
 thereof. 
 
 II. All the masters of alchemy, who have ever treated of this 
 celebrated stone, and left us any thing in writing, have declared 
 the matter and subject (which is the chief part of this art) so 
 obscurely, that Apollo himself would be tired in unriddling the 
 aenigma's they have invented concerning it. And this doubtful 
 declaration of the matter, is the reason why many who seek this 
 science without the light of nature, are precipitated into very 
 great errors; because they know not the true subject of this art, 
 but busy themselves about other things altogether unfit for the 
 w-ork. But they ought to consider what the philosopher's stone 
 is in its own nature, and what qualities it hath, and so com- 
 paring the qualities of their matters, with the qualities of the 
 stone, the thing itself will discover what is truth and what not. 
 
 1. The stone in its perfection is permanent in the fire, and 
 despiseth the most cxtream, violence of the flames. 2. It con- 
 taineth in itself, in great abundance the vital fire, and the virtues 
 and powers of the superiors and inferiors concentrated in it. 
 3. It is resolvcable in any liquor. 4. It abounds with fixed and 
 tinging spirits, which befcre its complete perfection were volatil. 
 5. Before its perfection it hath two distinct parts, one volatil, the 
 
S.i?iguls Naturae. 2S3 
 
 other hxt. 6. It is of most easy fusion. 7. It containeth the 
 three principles of nature in the highest purity, namely salt, 
 sulphur, sod mercury. 8. It containeth in potentia gold and 
 silver. 9. It is made out of one thing. 
 
 Seeing the stone hath the qualities above-mentioned, it is 
 plain and evident that the subject of it ought to have the like. 
 Namely, 
 
 1. That the subject of the stone be only one thing. 2. That 
 it have in it, in potentia, gold and silver. 3. That it contain in 
 it the three principles of nature. 4. That it be of most easy 
 fusion. 5. That it consist of volatile and fixt parts. 6'. That it 
 abound with tinctures both red and white. 7. That it be re- 
 sol veable in any liquor. 8. That it be the place of residence of 
 the vital fire, and the virtues of the superiors and inferiors* 
 9. That it endure the utmost force of the flames. 
 
 Now let the seekers compare the qualities of their subjects 
 with the fore-mentioned qualities, and then they will see whether 
 thev are right or wrong. 
 
 Now for the sake of some good men, who perhaps bear an 
 honest mind, I will discourse something of the elements, and 
 their operations, and first and chiefly of the mover of the ele- 
 ments, and of its life ; which not being known, the whole ope- 
 ration of the elements is unknown. 
 
 This mover of the elements which, not without good reason, 
 I will call the living fire, is two-fold, the one volatil, the other 
 fixt, residing in the center of the earth, of which at present I 
 will not speak, but of the volatil; which is a substance invisible, 
 spiritual and wholly fiery, an eternal light nearest to God, the 
 life of the elements, from which the sun and moon, the radiant 
 stars, and whatsoever giveth forth, a lustre in the heavens, takes 
 its original and splendor, flying through the universe, every 
 where present, and most of all in those things which stand in 
 need of continual nourishment, endowed with innumerable vir- 
 tues. This ccelestial light is originally most pure in itself, as 
 long it is not defiled by impure bodies; the knowledge whereof 
 is the sea of wisdom, which all who have obtained light from 
 the holy spirit,- and faith from the father of lights, ought to keep 
 safe, if they desire a happy success in this mysterious philosophy. 
 This light deseendeth daily into the elements, which are bodies 
 internally spiritual, very simple, and most powerful; which con- 
 tain in themselves a certain seminal spirit, which is the very 
 element ; and which spirit of every element is stirred up to mo- 
 tion by the living fire; and if it were absent, the elements would 
 be dead, especially the fire, if it were deprived of this fiery 
 .splendor, which by itself, and not by accident, is the true prin- 
 ciple of motion in all things; and to this the passive elements 
 are obedient. But yet this agent cannot act without the elements, 
 itor the elements upon one another without it. For this ca 
 
284 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 the elements were made, by the most high creator, which to- 
 gether with their body contain a certain seminal spirit, very 
 powerful, which lieth hid as a soul in them, out of which by the 
 action of the living fire upon it, daily new seeds are produced- 
 This living fire, with which the heavens and all things are filled 
 by the creator, descendeth through the elements into the sub- 
 ject, which is called the balsom of nature, electrum immaturum, 
 magnesia, the green dragon, azoth vitreus, the fire of nature, 
 the universal seed, the salt of the earth, out of which all bodies 
 which consist of the elements are produced by nature; and out 
 of this matter, by the administration of an ingenious artist, by 
 means of a spagiric destruction, new forms of natural bodies 
 may be produced : which is one of the greatest arcana of secret 
 philosophy. For in this subject lie secretly hidden all the vir- 
 tues, properties, and splendors of animals, vegetables, and mi- 
 nerals, metals, and precious stones ; which by the help of Vwlcan, 
 are brought from darkness to light. 
 
 Now I will describe the action of our living fire upon the 
 elements, which descendeth out of the fire into the heavens as 
 on the element of fire, and there whatsoever is lucid or glittering, 
 as the sun, moon, and stars, doth secretly derive its original 
 from this living fire, and constituteth this principal element, 
 and obeyeth it as a son the father, and a patient its agent. And 
 from this living fire, the heaven hath its chief power of acting ; 
 and is of so great consequence, that if its action upon the heaven 
 should cease for one moment of time, whole nature would be 
 ruined. For the sun, moon, and stars, would lose their active 
 and influential virtue, the elements would not move, and nothing 
 for ever would have any action ; which would be a great mis- 
 chief to the earth, and extremely hurtful to all mixts. For the 
 power and virtue of this living fire is so great, that if that were 
 absent, the elements would be dead, especially the heaven, an 
 element which most of all stands in need of this light. Having 
 passed through the heaven, it comes into the air, that great and 
 most thin element, and insinuateth itself most intimately into it. 
 In this element the virtue of this fire doth chiefly manifest itself; 
 because in it is inspissated, and constituteth the vital air ; which 
 air is then agreeable to the creatures, for sustaining of life. For 
 this living fire simply is not convenient for the creatures, nor 
 yet the simple air; but fire congealed with the most pure part of 
 the air, and air impregnated with the coelestial living fire ; and 
 so they constitute vital airs, which every living creature receiveth 
 for the conservation of its life. This living fire needeth the soul 
 of the elements, chiefly of the air, which it makes use of for a 
 vehicle, that thereby it may more easily enter into the other 
 elements, that is to say the water, a subtile and thin element, 
 in which it is yet more inspissated, and taketh a more gross 
 body of which it standeth in need for irrorating of all terestml 
 
Sanguis Nature. S85 
 
 things, especially salts, minerals and stones ; all which need such 
 irroration ; then being cloathed with a thick garment, it passeth 
 into the earth, a dark and thick element, and of a very powerful 
 fixing virtue; and there it puts on a saline body, whic! predomi- 
 nates over all things, and contains the rest of the principles, 
 which it had received in the air, heaven and water, that is to 
 gay, sulphur and mercury, by virtue of which it becometh ca- 
 pable of production. This salt is the soul of the earth, and all 
 other things. Therefore if the earth were deprived of this salt, 
 it would want the power of sprouting and budding, which con- 
 sisteth only in this salt, of which also Moses was not ignorant, 
 saying (in the second chap, of Gen.) And there went up a mist 
 from the middle of the earth, and watered the superficies of the 
 ground ; which vapour can be nothing else, but the subtile parts 
 of this salt, which hath settled itself in the center of the earth, 
 and by the warmth of the corporeal water are made to ascend, 
 and so do water the whole superficies. 
 
 Thus we clearly and evidently see, that this living fire putteth. 
 en no other body than that of salt ; because that alone is fit for 
 generation. And so the balsam of nature is generated by the 
 action of the fire upon the elements. 
 
 Now I will speak but a very little of the fixed living fire, 
 which is hidden in the earth or center of the world, and there 
 hath taken up its most fixed habitation ; and by many philoso- 
 phers is called the corporal water ; but it may better be called 
 the fire of bodies. To know this is the most secret mystery in 
 all our philosophy. This fixt fire hath a great sympathy with 
 the volatil fire ; for it wanteth it as an aliment, and to its nourish- 
 ment, which it continually attracteth out of the water and air, 
 and converteth into its own substance; and in this as in a center 
 all the virtue lyeth concentrated, which being scattered, flyeth 
 in the circumference ; as may be observed in man, in whom this 
 fire fixed in the center of the heart, hath its seat as the yolk in 
 the egg. But its operation is invisible and very secret, and yet 
 very powerful, which also few know ; for it operates by its heat 
 in all things, which lie in the earth, and exciteth the flux and 
 reflux of the sea, as the pulse in man is excited by the fire which 
 lieth hid in the center of his heart. Hence also all the watery 
 and airy vapours, by the help of this fire are elevated from the 
 earth and sea into the air, which compose the clouds, and by 
 rarefaction of the winds (being impregnated by the vital spirit) 
 fall down again to the earth in form of water. 
 
 And thus every searcher of nature must acknowledge it to be 
 true, that there is only one subject under the concave of the 
 moon, in which alone the virtues as well of the superiors lie 
 concentrated ; out of which by the chemical art, stupendious 
 things may be brought to pass. This body is salt, but no com- 
 mon salt, or any other salt of this kind, but a rotuir.ine and 
 
286 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 mineral salt, which hath chosen to itself a residence in ihc 
 sphere of saturn ; and is also culled the heart of salurn; out of 
 which being made clean and bright, and purged from all excre- 
 ments, by easy art, a certain gummy liquor is drawn, called by 
 the name of a Morions mercury. But you must be wary in the 
 choice of this salt. There is only one salt which is useful to us, 
 a pontick fiery, bitter and mineral salt of a saturnine nature, 
 out of which this famous liquor is extracted; which is of so 
 great moment, that without it, no transmutation of metals can 
 be made. In this mercurial liquor may be seen what is sulphur 
 and mercury ; for the sulphur at first sheweth itself in a purple 
 and yellow colour ; but the mercury is invested with a watery 
 and airy humidity; and though the salt appeareth not, yet its 
 virtue is eminent in this liquor. For it is wholly saline, and by 
 an easy fire, is coagulated into a permanent earth, which re- 
 prcsenteth salt. And so you have three principles of nature, 
 salt, sulphur and mercury. These are but a few things which I 
 have said of the matter ; which though it be very secret, yet the 
 operation of it is more secret which nevertheless in my following 
 discourse I will reveal, so that its occult may be made manifest 
 only to men elected by God. 
 
 III. Of what kind this matter is, which is endowed with such 
 virtue, and out of which is plentifully drawn the famous philo- 
 sophical mercury, I have sufficiently demonstrated in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, and herein will farther demonstrate ; which is 
 not properly mineral nor vegetable or animal ; yet a metalline 
 sulphur, salt and mercury, are together purely and plentifully in 
 it, which is obvious to every one, andlieth hidden in every thing, 
 but especially in the earth, the receptacle of all the influences, 
 in which also the virtues of the sun, moon, and stars are found 
 corporally. This the artist ought to take where it is most near 
 and most pure, in form of a trine-salt, which elsewhere I called 
 the salt of saturn. Out of this salt groweth gold, and all other 
 things in the whole mineral kingdom ; and into it they may be 
 resolved again. And as in gold lieth hidden a bright and dia- 
 phanous sulphur ; so also in our saturnine minera, there is a 
 coelestial solar fiery, diaphanous red and sweet sulphur. For 
 where there is glittering brightness, there is light; where is 
 light, there is heat; where is heat there is life and very powerful 
 action ; and which is a great matter, in it reign the elements 
 animated with a living fire, which is a ccelestial vivifying, fertile 
 and greening spirit; the light, force and life of all things. — 
 And although the ccelestial sun doth much help the production 
 of sublunary creatures, yet without this internal sun nothing can 
 be generated : which also the philosophers knew. Therefore 
 all other concretes are rejected, as also salts, except one which 
 is the salt of wisdom, power and strength, and the mother of the 
 other salts, namely our central saturnine sait, a sulphurous and 
 
Sanguis Aaturtf. 287 
 
 mercurial salt : whose heart and blood doth easily dissolve every 
 metal, and coagulate mercury. 
 
 The lire as sol and luna, though they appear not to fight, yet 
 they arc powerfully in the inward parts of our matter, and it 
 posscsseth the seminal virtue of all things; so also that unless 
 what is hidden in it be made manifest, they will not appear; 
 which is done only by reduction and purification of the matter, 
 that the feces which be clouded over sol and luna may be 
 throughly purged away, and the matter may first grow white as 
 a diamond, and be as fulgent as a ruby, then they appear to 
 sight. Which reduction must be made with a certain contrary 
 liquor; for sol and luna, which are secretly in our matter, and 
 rule powerfully in it, are not reduced so as to appear to sight, 
 unless this reduction is made by a contrary, which is a menstrum 
 or most subtile vapour, penetrating and resolving, containing 
 in it air, fire, and water, and separating the pure from the im- 
 pure, and yet first extracted out of our miners ; which liquor 
 possesr.eth only power of reducing, manifesting, and multiply- 
 ing tinctures; and therefore it is called the secret fire of nature, 
 which alone exciteth and perfectcth tinctures. But yet we must 
 not therefore suppose that the subject is red or any other colour, 
 but it is white and red only in potentia ; because this nature of 
 redness lieth secretly hidden in the belly of the air of our matter, 
 not shewing its tinctire visibly, because if it be put into the fire, 
 it cannot manifest a fixed tincture, unless it be first reduced by 
 an ingenious artist, so that the watery and earthy heterogeneous 
 substances may be separated ; then appeareth a tincture resisting 
 the fire, and shewing itself in white and red. 
 
 The certainty of this solar subject may be evidently known, 
 if out of it the three principles of nature can be separated. 
 What they are I will explain. .Sulphur residing in our matter, 
 is its fiery, most subtile, and most thin part, partaking of a 
 subtile earth, which indeed is the perfect and absolute tincture, 
 having power of rubifying and illuminating every body, by 
 reason of its innate oily, very fat, unctuous and viscous, fiery 
 and ethereal quality ; upon which account it is able by its subtile 
 and internal action to produce all natural things. Which sul- 
 phur is called the philosophers secret fire, the living fire, and 
 the luminous part, &c. Therefore if any one in the anatomy 
 of our matter see a certain shining, subfile clear substance, full 
 of a fiery shining redness like a ruby, and full of active virtue, 
 he may be certain that he hath seen our sulphur, and the secret 
 fire of the philosophers. Mercury is the aereal and unctuous 
 humidity of our matter, and the inseparable companion of sul- 
 phur, and is as a menstrum to it, cherishing and nourishing it, 
 and a medium of conjoining the sulphur with the salt : but the 
 reason why it is viscous as 6iilphur, is, because it hath subtile 
 earthy parts resolved in it, which it took with it in the anatomy 
 
288 ^Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 made by external fire. The salt is the principle of coagulation; 
 and coagulateth the mercury and sulphur, and in which a new 
 form is introduced by the action of the sulphur which operateth 
 in it; which sulphur is very bitter and acid, in which bitterness 
 there is a certain fiery substance corrupting the inward parts of 
 the salt, and which being corrupted, immediately it receiveth a 
 new form, and that a living one, which is a great secret. 
 
 These principles are also very much defiled with heterogeneous 
 feces; which an artist ought to know. Sulphur in the first 
 place, aboundeth with destructive and consuming feces: but the 
 mercury with watery and cold substances, contrary to life ; and 
 in salt there are caustic, viscous and bitter salts; all w.hicji must 
 be separated, and if not, they occasion damage and unlucky 
 success to the work. 
 
 This one minera is of easy fusion, so as it can catch mercury 
 upon the fire before his flight; which if it be circulated by the 
 philosophers wheel, so that those parts which hinder speedy 
 fusion be separated, and the elements firmly coagulated, it be- 
 comes of more easy fusion than it was before ; which fusion de- 
 pendeth upon the saline and sulphurous spirituality, which is a 
 perfect and concentrated light, penetrating every body and on 
 all sides illuminating it with the tinging rays with which it 
 abounds. 
 
 The spagyrical art by distillation and separation, affords us 
 two sulphurs out of one minera of a saturnine nature ; one is 
 votatile and green, the other fixed and fiery ; which two by cir- 
 culating their elements were made one, which sulphurs are of the 
 nature of salt produced by nature out of the most pure soul of 
 the elements. Because by the mixture of the living fire and this 
 soul, these sulphurs as produced in the greater world, out of 
 which by the chemical art, the two sulphurs of the philosophers 
 are extracted, which consist of the most subtile and pure part of 
 the sulphurs produced by nature. Out of this pure substance 
 metals are also generated, which differ only according to the 
 purity of the place, and the more or less fit disposition. Out 
 of these two minerals is plentifully extracted the mercury of the 
 philosophers, which is their radical humidity mixed with a sub- 
 tile earth. For as by this earthy sulphur is meant the heat and 
 fire of nature, as also the form of the matter, which we also 
 call sulphur : so also the humidity of this substance is our sul- 
 phur, in which, (if they be joined by art in a certain propor- 
 tion, and are decocted in a glass vessel, circulating their elements; 
 first water, air, fire, and earth, and then they are purified by 
 reduction into a certain chaotic, thick and viscous mass ; then by 
 distillation into liquor, one white, another red and shining as 
 fire ; lastly they are fixed into a glorious and permanent earth) 
 consisteth all our art. Sulphur is the principal part of our 
 tincture, and that which plentifully beareth rule in our matter, 
 
Sanguis Natura. 289 
 
 is two fold, as we have declared, white and red, fixed and volatil. 
 The fixed is the green lion; which lieth hid in the center of our 
 concrete, abounding with fixed and tinging tinctures ; but the 
 volatil is the fire of nature and our sulphur, full of power and 
 efficacy of tinging and illuminating, as his vestment doth mani- 
 festly declare. For it is the blood of our green dragon, distilled 
 from the verv bowels of it, abounding with redness ; therefore 
 it is, not without cause, called the blood of nature, which stirreth 
 up his own sulphur, lying hid in an earthy substance, and brings 
 it from power into act ; and then out of it do arise our two 
 glorious mercuries, our two perfect sulphurs, one red, the hus- 
 band : the other white, the wife; springing out of one minera. 
 And that sulphur which we call the green lion, is the fire of 
 nature, which lieth hid in the centre of our subject, understand 
 salt, and there is detained shut up in a strong earthy prison, 
 disabled to exert its force, unless by its associate it be set at li- 
 berty from its fetters, so that it may come out together with his 
 companion. This deliverance consisteth in solution, which is 
 very difficult; for this sulphur which we also call the stone, is 
 both most hard and most soft in its nature, and therefore it is 
 not easily dissolved, except in its own liquor, that is his compa- 
 nion, in which it is most soft; so that it can be set at liberty only 
 by this airy companion, which otherwise could not be delivered, 
 neither by fire nor water; which is a secret known to few, of 
 which I will speak more particularly hereafter. This fixed sul- 
 phur is very powerful, and sustaineth every thing that opcrateth 
 in nature, but as soon as it is set free, it ceaseth from its labour, 
 if together with its companion it be carried aloft, and in the top 
 of the vessel, where if they are detained, they constitute a cer- 
 tain substance bright as luna, called Diana; at this time I say, 
 it receiveth the power of transmuting. 
 
 Since the stone is of the substance of salt, it resolveth itself in 
 any liquor ; but the salt, out of which it is prepared, is of most 
 profound research, and differeth much from other salts ; for it 
 is fluid in the fire, and values not its martyrdom at all ; and loseth 
 nothing of its virtue therein, though it be kept in it divers years, 
 which other salts, as vitriol, salgemme, and other the like salts, 
 cannot do ; for by often repeating ignitions, they all turn to an 
 unprofitable and unfluxiblc calx, which is not resolvable in any 
 liquor, being of the nature of damned earth. 
 
 Though the matter to sight is most vile and most cold, yet its 
 more inward parts are mere fire, and abound with the living 
 fire, and the virtues both of the superiors and inferiors; and 
 therefore its soul flyeth in all places to bring down the living 
 fire. For the father of it is the sun, and the mother the moon, 
 from which it secretly deriveth the virtues of all things. This 
 living fire ruleth powerfully in our two radical sulphurs, fixed 
 and volatile ; which two being firmly united, do constitute our 
 
 >' n 
 
290 *4Tehepucal Treatises. 
 
 universal mercury, which cqntaineth in itself the two . cenfrru 
 fires of the macrocosm, the cdfelestiaf aiid terrestrial; ant! tliesg 
 two, by the help of external fire, arc reduced into one substance, 
 in Wmteh the ccclcstial and terrestrial virtues lie concentrated, 
 which heat is the innate heat of every tiling, wroefi often shewcthf 
 its splendor in the eyes of fishes, hairs or 8-fiites and- men, in? 
 insects generated out of dew, as also in rotten wood ; but I 
 think it is sufficient, that every one daily seet'h the tester of 
 gold and silver, pearls and precious stones, and also behokltth 
 the sun and moon. 
 
 Lastly, it is 1 to be considered, that the tincture of tfifephfl&so- 
 phers is' a substance tinging imperfect metals in a very string 
 lire, into perfect gold and silver, from whence it liecessarBy 
 followeth, that its subject' ought also constantly to resist the 
 flames, and to rejoice in tlrem. But it is not the whole substance 
 of the first matter which endures the fire; because it aboundeth 
 with nvairy elementary fteces, which are combustible in the fire ; 
 but only its pure parts, which are also called incombustible oils, 
 rejoice in the fire, and are permanent in it; because they are 
 Of a pure nature, and not defiled with any feces, therefore the 
 fire cannot touch them*. Wherefore it is necessary in the first 
 place, to purify tire matter, and take away the sphere of saturn, 
 which becloudeth the sun and moon, before they can despise the 
 irre;' and then decoct these parts till ihey be reduced into one 
 thing, whose virtues neither fire, nor water, nor iron, nor air, 
 can diminish, but they, mifanqnished, resist all their force. 
 Consider therefore, O man, the wisdom and power, which the' 
 most wise, eternal, and omnipotent God, Jchova, hath granted 
 thee. Consider these things in humility of heart, and sing 
 Hallelujahs to him without ceasing, for holy, holy, holy, is the 
 the Lord Zeboatli; the heavens and the earth are full of the 
 majesty of his glory, Amen. 
 
 It. Among the secrets of alchemy, the greatest i*3 to draw 
 water out of a rock ; verily a hard and very difficult work, unless 
 chemistry alone had shewed us the possibility of this thing; 
 Which the artist ought to endeavour to do by fire, which in the 
 beginning must be gentle, in the middle strong, and in the end 
 most vehement ; so that all the aercal and ethereal spirits of this 
 rocky miners, may issue forth into a fit philosophical vessel, and 
 there resolve themselves 1 into water ; which water with wonderful 
 sympathy loveth the rock, from whence it issued ; which water 
 is called by various names, as rock-water, argent vive, a fume, 
 the tinging ccclcstial spirit, incombustible sulphur, wine vinegar, 
 succus acacia?, spirit of wine, temperate water, the luciferous 
 virgin; all which names signify this water; which if it be again 
 conjoined with it, remameth stone,* and often operateth resting 
 upon it, it acquireth a wonderful active power, as all know who 
 are acquainted with this water, This operation is also called by 
 
Sanguis Naturae. 291 
 
 'tip philosophers, a clcstt ncti*>fl of the compound; which de- 
 struction is not to de->tioy sj€ the vulgar chemists think, v. ho 
 destroy mixts by corn.):. is. es, but the unlocking the bonds of our 
 compound, by which it is bound, which it they be unlock.'', 
 it is divided into oar ts with conservation .of tb •).-:■: parts which 
 cons this .elementary mixture; which parts so divided, 
 
 are purified ..md delivered from excrements and impurities, with 
 which they abound in their composition.. But that .this might 
 be more easily done, the ancient philosophers di vised this distil- 
 lation and destruction, by lifclp of which, tiie parts might Up- 
 most highly purified, and exalted to such a degree of purity, 
 that thereupon a new compound might be made, of greater 
 efHeacy. But to bring thjs to pass, the artist ought to follov/ 
 nature, as all philosophers, both ancient and modern .teach, and 
 to extract our mineral, out of the bosom of nature, where she 
 hath hidden it, and purity it most subtlely, by very frequent co- 
 hobations and reductions. For so it .thoroughly sheds all its cx- 
 crements, and whatsoever eke lundereth it from its perfect power 
 of transmutation, y/hich is wonderful, and yet it is more wonder- 
 ful, that in this vile.and abject miuera, lieth hidden the celebrated 
 stone of the philosophers, whose essence also by reason of its 
 obscurit\' no body can see, unless it be delivered therefrom, and 
 brought to light; for before it is set at liberty by the chemic 
 art, it is a rude, vile, abject, and undigested mass, which is 
 found scattered in the earth. 
 
 The second and hist operation, is that of the fixation of the 
 permanent water and the glorious earth, of which the philoso- 
 phers say, that it is a eommixtion of qualities, a copulation of 
 vomplcxions, a reconduction of things separated, a coequatiou 
 of principles, a disposition of what is repugnant ; which must 
 be done by a gentle lire, cherishing the parts mixed together, 
 and put into a glass vessel, being iirst made very pure. And 
 the internal fire of these parts being excited by a gentle external 
 fire, doth dissolve and decoct them 5 and by decoction they are 
 again by little and little inspissated and made thicker, until at 
 length they are wholly fixed, and remain fixed in the bottom of 
 the circulatory. For the earth contained! in itself a fiery most 
 thin, dry anil insensible fume, which coagulatctli the volatile 
 part, being of its own nature and substance. This fume lying 
 Lid in the center of the earth, by its action converteth the other 
 volatile elements into its own (namely a fixed) nature; and then 
 the motion of these elements ceaseth, because they have attained 
 their desired end; which if they be again dissolved by the vola- 
 tiles, their motion begiuneth again, till the fixed have overcome 
 the volatile. Then again motion ceaseth, which if they are dis- 
 solved again, they work afresh, &c. 
 
 Flere all operators must observe, that in this operation a two- 
 fold fire must be Used, the one internal, the other external; which 
 
£92 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 external must not over power the internal ; the internal is a dry 
 mercurial etherial nectar, and our glorious mercury, which vivi- 
 fieth, conserveth and nourisheth the matter, and bringeth it to 
 perfection ; this fire is not moved but by an external agent, which 
 if it be slow in operation, the internal fire lieth still, and produceth 
 nothino-; but if the external be too strong, either the vessels 
 break, or the matter burneth ; therefore the fire must be warily 
 applied, so that the fumes, which lie hid in the center of our 
 earth, may be moved, and then the spiritual humidity will re- 
 solve the earthly siccity, and the earth will be impregnated by 
 the volatile, and will grow thick ; the sign whereof is blackness. 
 And if the spirits of this compound be more inspissated, various 
 colours will appear, and by a farther operation, there will ap- 
 pear a white colour, afterwards a citrine, and lastly, a red dia- 
 phanous colour ; and after reiterate operation, the matter will 
 be of easy fusion, fixed, and tinging all imperfect metals into 
 pure gold. The multiplication whereof an ingenious operator 
 can easily effect. Namely, if he dissolve the stone of the first 
 order, compleatly finished, in our glorious mercury and decocteth, 
 fixeth and incereth it ; and so he may multiply it, and very hiwhly 
 exalt it ; which that they may accomplish, I wish to all, by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
FIRST PRINCIPLES, 
 According to the Writings of Jacob Behmen. 
 
 Attraction is the first principle of motion in nature ; the 
 origin of attraction is beyond nature, and is therefore incom- 
 pi 
 
 ehensible to the human understanding. Repulsion is the 
 
 r> 
 
 second principle ; it is a necessary consequence of the first by 
 re-action. Circulation is the third principle; it proceeds 
 from tue conflict of the attraction and repulsion. 
 
 All motion in nature is derived from this threefold principle, 
 and is diversified according to its various qualifications with 
 matter. The attraction, repulsion, and circulation in the sun 
 and stars, move the planets in their orbits, the same prin- 
 ciple in each globe performs the rotation on the axis, and the 
 satellites of planets have the same law to their primary. Every 
 quantity of matter solid, fluid, or gaseous, when separated from 
 the rest by its quality or discontinuity, is possessed individually 
 by the same principles, however infinite the variety of substances, 
 natural or factitious, great or small ; vegetable, and animal 
 forms, and motions, are no less evidences of these principles 
 than the heavenly and earthly bodies. Hence chemical 
 affinity, called elective attraction, is ruled by the same laws, 
 and it is found, that when two matters unite, one is attractive, 
 and the other repulsive. When they will not unite, both 
 are attractive, or both repulsive. To illustrate this by a figure, 
 draw two lines opposite, place arrows beside them to shew their 
 course — if one is attractive, and the other repulsive, the arrows 
 are going the same way, and therefore unite; but if both are 
 attractive, or both repulsive, the arrows are going in different 
 ways, and therefore disunite. When attraction or repulsion 
 predominates in a matter, the circulation is in el ipse or pa- 
 rabola ; but when they are in equilibrium the circle is produced : 
 draw two circles, and place arrows round them to shew which 
 way they are turning — if they turn the same way, the circu- 
 lation on contact is adverse — if they turn different ways, the 
 circulation on contact agrees. Matter of one species disjoined, 
 unites chemically, by changing its polarity ; this is proved by 
 the changes of polarity in magnets, the poles of the electric 
 conductors, and the chemical affinities changed by the volta pile. 
 There are degrees, in which either of the three principles predo- 
 minate in the exterior activity of matter more or less — and hence 
 
294 Alchemical Trcatists. 
 
 the degrees of affinity for union. There are also degrees of 
 strength from harshness to mildness in the three principles, 
 
 from the compaction of a rock to the adherence of a globule of 
 mercury, or a tfrop of dew ; from explosion to expansion ; 
 and from violent whirling to gentle evolution. 
 
 The repulsion being produced by the attraction, must equal 
 it as re-action equals action ; bui in matter <ue principle may 
 be more latent and inert in the exterior than the other. — 
 Circulation produced from the action of both, is the medium 
 between the centripetal and centrifugal force; the excess of 
 repulsion inclines to a tangent, and forms parabolas proportioned 
 to Its strength ; the equality of repulsion with its origin, at- 
 traction, tonus a circle, which labours to harmonize the con- 
 flict of the other two properties, and will succeed if the matter 
 is qualified for it. 
 
 There is nothing in nature capable of qualifying matter to 
 be harmonized, but one mineral spirit, the ore of which is in 
 bright lines of equal attraction and repulsion, and the pure 
 metal in £ star-like circle of irradiated circulation. Antimony 
 purified by iron, and pounded fine, might be circulated, that is 
 digested in a inairas, to a perfect harmony of the principles. 
 j '..'. in the fusions of its purification, it has lott the original pro- 
 portion of its subtle spirit. In order to restore it, place some 
 of the powder in a receiver, and some more in a retort, lute 
 them strongly, and in sand of blood-heat, a gas passes from 
 the powder in the retort, and impregnates the powder in the 
 receiver, until it is thoroughly moistened by the distillation 
 night and day without a moment's interval. If in the first 
 distillation, it is not quite moistened, it may be distilled on 
 fresh powder, and this repeatedly ; — s^al the last wet powder 
 immediately in a long-necked round bottle, of great and equal 
 thickness, without flaw, and digest it without intermission in 
 sand three months at blood-heat, three months at fever-heat, 
 and three months at water-boiling heat by a thermometer ; — 
 and if the moisture was seamy, of evaporates in the heat of 
 sealing, the process will fail as a plant without rain : if the 
 powder is wet too much, it will be a long time in drying op, and 
 jhe vessel may burst by the heat rari tying the moisture. 
 
 The matter which fills one-fourth of the glass, is the earth — 
 the empty part is the heaven, in which the circulation is per- 
 formed, harmonizing the dense attraction of the fixed with the 
 subtle repulsion of the volatile parts, and in consequence of its 
 original irradiation in its crude state, it is now capable of a su- 
 >r irradiation - from the same cause, which is the ethereal 
 ijre of the spiritual gas or vapour of antimony ascending and 
 descending, going round inside the glass, piereing the fixity of 
 the earth, and obtaining fixation for itself. 
 
 suction, in the retort imitates nature, which distils th$ 
 
First Principles. . 99-1 
 
 mineral spirit in the chasms of the -globe, by a moderate heat. 
 Fhe invisible universal mercury passes into suitable earth, ami 
 tonus metallic ores : — the action iir the scaled niatras is like 
 nature under the rocky root' of the mine, which retains the 
 the subKbiatioiij a#d reverberates it until it coagulates into 
 mefal. 
 
 Tf befween the distillation of the gas from the retort, and 
 the scaling of the niatras, or long-necked receiver, there was 
 any loss of time, or cause from over-heat or cold, for the spi- 
 ritual fire of the gas or water to retire — or if there is an in- 
 terval of cold, or scorching heat, in distilling or digesting for 
 »ine months, the work is so far spoiled. 
 
 The agent of the work is the invisible mercury, which is the 
 gas, spirit, or air of antimony, excited in a steady sand heat 
 oca warm as blood. Various methods will arrive at the same 
 *nd, if this agent is not omitted: — some of these methods, in 
 the hands of an experienced adept, are less liable to accidental 
 mischances than the former: for instance, an unintermitting 
 distillation of the gas, will impregnate and open the powder to 
 solution in the form of water, which will partly or wholly dis- 
 solve fresh powder, according to the proportion. By cohobated 
 distillation from the residuum, it acquires permanency, and 
 when a bright clear water is separated, the residuum yields a 
 red oil in a stronger fire, and leaves a black residuum, which 
 may be calcined to a white fixed earth. Fresh antimony in 
 powder will unite easier and safer with these together, than 
 with the first gas or water, and the time lost in clistii'ing is saved 
 in digesting. The white water easily absorbs the white fixed 
 earth, and then unites sooner with the red oil by di- 
 gestion. 
 
 The powder of antimony fixes in digestion sooner with the 
 thick permanent white water of antimony, than it could with 
 the volatile clear bright water. It digests rapidly with the red 
 oil, which contains a large portion of the invisible mercury 
 in a permanent and nearly fixed state of action. The calcined 
 white fixed earth, made of the residuum of these white and 
 red mercuries, contains no mercury, and is therefore only fit 
 for union with the said mercuries in some of their various de» 
 grecs of volatility, and it is the best magnet for condensing the 
 first gas. The simple work first described performs all these 
 separations virtually in the sealed glass ; the other varieties of 
 separation afford permanency to the dissolvent, or vehicle which 
 contains the prime agent, so as to allow intervals for its ap- 
 plication to various purposes. No process can finally fail* 
 where the invisible universal mercury, or spiritual air of an- 
 timony, is present, condensed, in its proper vehicle in any of the. 
 degrees of its permanency. 
 
 The principle of the work is the power of harmonising the 
 
29(5 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 threefold discordant principles of attraction, repulsion, and 
 circulation. In three months circulation by digestion, the pow- 
 der is completely black; the opposition of attraction and re- 
 pulsion ceases ; the attraction 1 of the fixed, which produced the 
 repulsion of the volatile, is slain by the circulation, which also 
 dies itself, and all three enter into rest. There is no more 
 compression or expansion, ascent or descent; the action and 
 re-action have by the irradiated equilibrium of their power, 
 and the subtlety of the spirit, formed a circulation which has 
 consumed all discordant opposition and sunk down, black and 
 motionless. The same three principles gradually assume a new 
 life, infinitely more powerful in virtue, but without any violent 
 contest, and in three months further, the mild action of the 
 principles in harmony, have produced a brilliant whiteness in. 
 the matter, which in three months more, becomes a Lrilliant 
 yellow, red or purple. 
 
 Every other matter labours after this perfection in vain ; — 
 it can only attain to combustion, heat, and temporary light ; 
 its consumption is a separation into gas and ashes, not an union 
 such as the fiery spirit of antimony forms between the extremes. 
 This spirit of antimony is so full of life, either in its oil or wa- 
 tery form, that if the process foils in any stage, an addition of 
 the spirit will renew it. The white or red powder is encreased 
 tenfold in strength and quantity, by each digestion of it with 
 fresh antimony in powder wet with gas, water or oil of antimony 
 as at first; each digestion is made in tenfold si ortcr time than 
 the former, from a few weeks to a few hours. 
 
 The plate annexed shews the theory of nature in the relation 
 of its spirit or alkahest to matter of every sort. The prime 
 matter is antimony purified by iron, and finely pounded ; — 
 the invisible mercuiy is the spiritual air of antimony, which 
 combines with the vegetable or animal fluids, and then solids, in 
 its spiritual or watery form— and from thence combines with me- 
 tals and stones. From this theory, the affinities may be learned 
 for practice — the gas will not unite easily with metals or mi- 
 nerals, until it is embodied for that purpose. This may be done 
 either by the thick red and white mercuries, which arc the oil 
 and water of antimony as described — or by condensing the gas 
 in distillation on vegetable or animal liquids — or in the acids of 
 mineral salts, sulphurs, or vitriols. By circulating, that is di- 
 gesting, the impregnated liquid two months, the gas floats as an 
 oil on weak liquids, or is united with the strong, subduing their 
 corrosion. In these states, it is able to make extracts from or 
 unite with the solids in the three kingdoms, according to the 
 quality to which it was united. These solutions arc more pow- 
 erful and rapid, than those with the unctuous water or oil of 
 antimony, but require great skill and experience of the so- 
 phic fire. 
 
2t*&*z$6 
 
 *^% 
 
 6 6 6 
 
 * 
 U 
 
 O <- 
 
 „ 
 
 
 
 White 
 
 Red 
 
 . 
 

First Prim'plei. 297 
 
 If instead of condensing the gis, the water or oil of antimony 
 was united with vegetable, animal, or mineral liquids, the time 
 is gained in digestion which was employed in distilling the water 
 or oil, and the work is safer to one who knows how to preserve 
 the presence of the prime agent. By distilling the volatile part 
 of the water, leaving- the phlegm, a spiritual water is obtained, 
 easily commixabie for vegetable medicines, and without the me- 
 tallic strength that may be unsuitable to some animal diseases. — 
 All natural or artificial productions may be added to those in the 
 plate, and new combinations, either simple or compound, will 
 attain perfection, provided the prime agent spirit, in some of its 
 forms, is not omitted. The materia medica may be treated in 
 the same manner, and compounded by elective affinities : — 
 there can be no possibility -of mistaking a poison for a medicine, 
 if the circulation is continued till the discordant principles are 
 harmonized. An infinite variety of processes, simple or com- 
 pound, may be devised from the plate thus enlarge*} — .all setting 
 out from one point, guided by one power, and all of them may 
 attain the same end ; the iimc lost in the coin men cement of 
 come, may Ixs gained in their termination. When the prime 
 agent has attained its most perfect vehicle h; the white and red 
 powders, the plate may be turned upside down, and the uni- 
 versal relation of the perfect white ajui red, may be traced 
 through all nature with much more rapidity in practice, and more 
 powerful in effect, than the relation of the prime agent, when 
 naked as the invisible mercury, or slightly covered by its volatile 
 forms of water and oil. 
 
 When the mechanical part of these principles passes into the 
 hands of its proper manufacturers, equally and generally in all 
 ■countries, and that all Governments provide for the alteration, 
 *he school of the adepts will then come out of its captivity iqi 
 Babylon, and they will find their proper level as true physicians 
 tor the soul and body, dispensing the leaves of the tree of life fb# 
 the healing of the nations. 
 
 o o 
 
PEARCE, THE BLACK MONK. 
 
 A. D. 1400. 
 
 God made man and woman, who multiplied exceedingly ; 
 and yet they were made of but one thing. This was the slime 
 of the earth, not pure clay or sand, but grey fceces, called dust. 
 The water turned to blood to make Adam, which signifies red 
 earth ; air and fire were contained in this blood. The bright- 
 ness of the Holy Ghost was the air, and the lightness that gave 
 life was the fire: this is not to be done'in the stone by many spir 
 rits, but by one spirit ; it is to be made by kind, naturally with a 
 spirit that abides in the body kindly — this spirit is disregarded by 
 men ; and yet is the best spirit in the world : it is of small cost, 
 and sure in its operations. It is so rich and powerful, that if all 
 the world was turned into nothing, it could restore all as good 
 as it was before. 
 
 Take earth of earth, earth's mother and water, and fire of 
 earth, pure and subtile., with clear water shining bright ; after 
 three days union separate the water, which has now obtained a 
 soul ; there remains a heavy earth — distil it three days with a 
 stronger fire, and you shall see the red blood — the earth re- 
 maining must be purged by fire for three hours. Place the 
 purged earth in a glass, with some of the water which was its 
 own, and place it in the heat till it absorbs the water ; when 
 it is united to the water, add the blood which was its own, and 
 when it has absorbed the blood : then feed it with milk and 
 meat till it becomes our stone, turning all suitable bodies into its 
 Own dignity. 
 
 There is no way but one; as the human species can only 
 be produced in one way, so the sun and moon, earth and water 
 are of one sperm, taken out of one body. Mercury says, 
 I am the source of gold, silver, and iron, the generator of Jove, 
 the settler of Saturn, and source of Venus. I am both' suit 
 and moon; I do all things; my daughter Saturna is the mother 
 of all works, and incloses a gold and silver seed ; a rich sperm 
 full of bright seed of Mercury and true sulphur. Of this my 
 daughter are made the two elixirs,' : white and red; therefore 
 if you seek to learn this science, you must draw a clear water 
 from her; this water reduces every thing to tenderness and 
 fixation. The red oil is extracted in three hours, and digests 
 with red earth in seven weeks to a tincture of one upon two hun- 
 dred of mercury. 
 
Kdhj. 299 
 
 S\;w understand that the fine earth hid within the body's 
 centre, is by the water of wood or essel of wine united to the 
 Moisture DI the grape. This and sericon makes the magistery; 
 for it first becomes a mercury, and then an essence. When 
 you have drawn out all that can be distilled from the gum, un- 
 derstand that this contains three qualities ; first, ardent water of 
 life, which is separated in a slow heat, and burns like spirit of 
 wine. It is called our attractive mercury, wherewith is prepared 
 a chrystalline earth out of all metalline colours ; this does not 
 concern our work Then runneth a small quantit} r of white 
 water like milk; this is the sperm of the stone — it is animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral ; our quicksilver and virgin's milk, 
 with the permanent mercurial water, washes the earth till it 
 flows like gum, and then the red gum rises in a dry fire, which 
 is the soul of s ttura our gold ; this oil makes the stone red. 
 Thus we have two gums as well as two elixirs. 
 
 THE WORK OP 
 SIR EDAVARD KELLY, 
 
 From the Book of St. Dunstan. 
 
 It is no Costly thing that produces magnesia in its kind : 
 made pure from its leprosy, as he can tell that unbinds the 
 fastness of the earth. Eve, the wife of Adam, was taken from 
 his side while he slept ; it is in the same manner with our stone, 
 and when the man and wife are joined, they produce their kind : 
 thus the stone produces its own wife, who multiplies to it in- 
 finitely. These are sulphur and mercury ; mercury is the 
 wife and essence of the sulphur, and as meal and water mixed 
 together is neither meal or water, but dough, and being baked, 
 is neither dough, water, or meal, but bread ; so it is in our 
 secret — the mercury is water, and the sulphur is meal; they 
 combine in one paste, which is digested into a new nature. — 
 The child of this marriage is born in the air, saith Ripley, and 
 is there baptized with a heavenly unction, which is able to revive 
 the child, the father, and the mother after their death. Take 
 this stone, in which is all things; it will be gummous, crumbling, 
 silken and soft; beat it into fine powder, and grind it with the 
 
oCO Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 mercurial moisture, but not so ninth as to overflow it. All the 
 work alter this, though called by a hundred names, is only cir- 
 culation, by which the blackness of darkness, whiteness of light, 
 and redness of fire are manifested. This is not done by ths 
 hands, but is the true secret work of nature, by heat acting on 
 the matter. When this wheel of the three colours is turned 
 three times about, you have the medicine flowing like wax, 
 which project upon ten parts of gold, and this will transmute 
 ten thousand of tin. 
 
 RICIlARD CARPENTER, 
 
 OP WORCESTER— U77. 
 
 Take the clear light of Titan magnesia, and the bright red 
 gum, which is the sulphur vive, or philosophers gold ; join them 
 with the water of light, let no vapour escape, and keep the fire 
 like the sun beams in summer. In three hours you will see 
 marvellous colours, black, white, red, and citron ; let not 
 your vessel be open until you have engendered the blessed 
 stone. 
 
 ABRAHAM ANDREWS 
 
 Of the Green Lion. 
 
 U\ the green lions' bed, the sun and moon are born; they are 
 married, and beget a king. The king feeds on the lions' blood, 
 which is the king's father and mother, who are at the same time 
 his brother and sister. I fear I betray the secret, which I pro- 
 mised my master to conceal in dark speech, from every one that 
 does not know how to rule the philosophers fire. 
 
 When you have led your lion with sol and luna/lay them in 
 an easy heat, enclose them like an eg;g ; a long time will elapse 
 before the king dies, after having eaten all the lion's blood ; and 
 at length he grows dark and dry like lamp-black ; then the fire 
 may be encreased one degree ; for the sweat of the lion, which 
 wjis given to him to eat before the glass was shut, has now united 
 
Robinson, 301 
 
 with him, and is imbibed, or soaked up, if it was rightly pro- 
 portioned ; but it' there was too much moisture, it v. il. be ths 
 longer-in drying, and it' it was not sufficiently wet, thv_ child will 
 die of thirst. 
 
 Imbibe six times with eight days between each, and then in 
 six weeks in the sealed ghss, blackness will appear, and pass 
 away till all is white: this may be fermented for the white stone, 
 or otherwise proceed to the red by continuation of the fire; — - 
 then ferment the red powder witli pure gold, but the secret is ia 
 take the thing that began the work ; join iuna and the blood of 
 the green lion as at first, and with it ferment the white or red, one 
 to four, without cooling the matters, and seal the glass again till 
 Vou see the black, white, and red. There is no better multi- 
 plication than to repeat the work of the ferment. 
 
 BLOOMFIELD'S PRACTICE of the CHAOS. 
 
 The chaos, as Ovid writes, is an undigested mass, contain- 
 ing divers natures; it is the vine tree, white and red : join 
 three of the white female, to one of the red male, in perfect 
 unity bv liquefaction ; bring it into dust by three pails of the 
 fiery dragon, and temper them together ; close the glass well, 
 and keep moderate fire night and day, as a hen on her eggs. 
 After forty days, it becomes black ; after, forty more, it will 
 grow wfiite, and afterwards all the colours of the rain-bow or 
 peacock's tail will appear ; the fire may be gradually encre-sed, 
 till the yellow appears,' and then the red, which ukes in fortr 
 «lavs in a tincture of one upon a hundred. 
 
 THOMAS ROBINSON. 
 
 ■ 
 
 Of the Tincture. 
 
 In six days all the variety of the universe was created from 
 one abyss. From one stone there proceeds tour elements, and 
 from these our the stone is made ; the first was :. >;<jtt, the last 
 is a corner stone ; without the first, the Inst could not be made^ 
 
303 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 though it seems too bad for that purpose. When the heavens 
 were separated from the earth, the earth was cohobated with the 
 heavens. In the beginning there was heaven and earth, not 
 heaven alolie ; the earth is the mother of all, the heavens arc but 
 essential earths. If there was no earth, whence could the water, 
 air, or fire proceed; and if there were no heavens, nothing could 
 be produced on the earth. The heavens shall purify the earth 
 in six thousand years through life and death ; then all shall rest 
 eternally divine, shining by the beauty of the God-head : this \k 
 the much desired stone. 
 
 THOMAS NORTON, 
 
 Of the Matter of the Stone. 
 
 Our stone is one; many things help it, but two are material, 
 which only differ so far as mother and child, or male and female. 
 It is a stone, and stands the fire, but in touch or sight it is a 
 subtile earth, brown, ruddy, and not clear; when it is separated 
 we name it litharge from its appearance; and when it is whitened, 
 we call it our chosen marcasite. This is to be made by the ar- 
 tist, as it cannot be purchased ; it is esteemed as of no value, 
 though it is better than gold. The other stone is glorious, 
 fair, and glittering with brightness, called magnesia. You shall 
 take no other materials than these two to make our storic, except 
 sal armbniac and sulphur of kind, such as you may find out of 
 tnetals : these two will fulfil your desire ; you must not begin 
 with metals or quicksilver; but if you destroy their composition, 
 some of their compounds will help in the conclusion, which is 
 still to the same purpose as the magnesia and litharge its 
 brother. 
 
 Of the Gross )Vorl\ 
 
 Arnold says, our secret is to know the thing on which our 
 Work taketh ground, and how to find pure and simple natures. 
 Avicen saith, that it is to eat as it drinks, and drink as it eats : 
 and it will sweat temperately. Rhasis set the dietary, not to eat 
 quick, and to leave time lor digestion — tins vcqu ires watching 
 
Subtle Work. 303 
 
 night and day, and great pains to feed it aright j therefore the 
 work belongs to those who have leisure and patience, with regu- 
 larity and steadiness. The foulest part of the work is to clarify 
 our mineral means. Albert writes openly of it; it is a mechanical 
 art, but full of peril and mischances: be uniform, beware of the 
 commixion of strange matter, and let nothing escape. 
 
 Of the Subtle Work. 
 
 Three adepts met together at Leaden-hall, London, in 1465; 
 one was of Lorrain, the other two of England ; the eldest 
 chanted a prophecy, that when the Cross is honoured in the 
 land of God, this nation shall be blessed by science above all die 
 nations Hortulan describes the subtle work under the doctrine 
 of the vine, grapes, wine, tartar, and alcohol ; for the exhibition, 
 of the air, water, fire, and earth of the stone. It is shewn also by 
 baking and brewing ; moisture is operative by heat ; this is easier 
 understood by sight than speech. Heat and moisture makes 
 black, dryness makes white, and in the white is hidden the 
 red. 
 
JOHN DESPAGNEI\ 
 
 1. In the philosophers work, more toil and time, than cost is 
 expended ; for he that hath convenient matter, need be at little 
 expenee; besides, those that hunt after great store of money, and 
 place their chief end in wealth, they trust more to their riches, 
 than their own art. Let therefore the too credulous fresh-man 
 beware of these pilfering piek-pockt Is, for whilst they promise 
 golden mountains, they lay in wait for gold; they demand bright 
 us'i'-ring Sol, viz. money before hand, because they walk in 
 darkness. 
 
 '2. As those that sail between Scilla and Ch.a.rybclis are in 
 dnrtg< r on b©th sides; unto no less hazard are they subject who 
 pursuing the prey oF the golden fleece, are carried between the un- 
 certain rocks of the philosophers sulphur and mercury. The 
 more acute by their constant reading of grave and credible au- 
 thor*, and by the irracikait sun have attained unto the knowledge 
 of sulphur, but are at a stand in the entrance of the philosophers 
 mercury ; for writers have twisted it with so mam' windings and 
 meanders, involved it with so many equivocal names, that 
 it may be sooner met with by the force of the seekers intellect, 
 than be found by reason or toil. 
 
 S. Thai philosophers might the deeper drown their mercury m 
 darkness, they have made it manifold, and placed their mercury, 
 yet diversely, in every part and forefront of their work, nor 
 will he attain unto a perfect knowledge thereof, who shall be ig- 
 1101 ant of any part of the work. 
 
 4. Philosophers have acknowledged a threefold mercury espe- 
 cially, to wit, after absolute preparation of the first degree, and 
 philosophical sublimation ; for then they call it their mercury, 
 and mercury sublimated- 
 
 5. Lastly the philosophers do sometimes call perfect elixir 
 and colouring medicine, their mercury, though improperly: for 
 the name of mercury doth only properly agree with that which is 
 volatile; besides that which is sublimated in every region of the 
 work, they call mercury: but elixir because it is most fixed, can- 
 not have the simple name of mercury, and therefore they have 
 stiied jt their own mercury, to distinguish it from the vo- 
 latile- A straightway is only laid down for them to find out and 
 discern so many mercuries of the philosophers. 
 
 Quos eequus amavit 
 
 Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus. 
 
D'Espagnet. 303 
 
 6- In tlie philosophical sublimation or first preparation of 
 mercury, Herculean labour must be undergone by the workman ; 
 for Jason I tad in vain attempted his expedition to Colchos with- 
 
 out Alcidcs. 
 7. The p 
 thereof) seems to be touched by the \ 
 
 The natural quality of philosophical earth and the tillage 
 >e touched bv the poet in this verse — 
 
 Pingue solum prim is extemplo a mensibus anni 
 
 Fortes invertaut Tauri 
 
 Tunc Zepliyro putris se gleba resolvit. 
 
 8. He that callcth the philosophers lima or their mercury, the 
 common mercury, doth wittingly deceive, or is deceived ; so the 
 writings of Geber teach us (cap. 1. 4.) that the philosophers 
 mercury is argent vive, yet not of the common sort, but may be 
 extracted out of! it by the philosophers skill. 
 
 9. The philosophers mercury hath divers names ; sometimes 
 it is called earth, sometimes water in a divers respect, because it 
 naturally ariseth from them both. The earth is subtle, white, 
 sulphurous, in which the elements are fixed, and the philoso- 
 phical gold is sown .- the water is water of life, burning, per- 
 manent, most clear, called the water of gold and silver ; but this 
 mercury, because it hath in it sulphur of its own, which is multi- 
 plied by art, it deserves to be called the sulphur of argent vive.— 
 Last of all the must precious substance is Venus, the ancients 
 hermaphrodite, glorious in each sex. 
 
 10. That dryland most precious liquor doth constitute the ra- 
 dical moisture of metals, wherefore of some of the ancients it is 
 called glass ; for glass is extracted out of the radical moisture, 
 closely lurking in ashes which will not give place, unless it be to 
 the hottest flame ; notwithstanding our inmost or central mercury 
 discovers itself by the most gentle and kindly (though a little 
 more tedious) fire of nature. 
 
 11. The stone is exalted by successive digestions, as by de- 
 grees, and at length attaineth to perfection. Now four digestions 
 agreeable to the four chief operations or governments do 
 complete the whole work, the author whereof is the fire, which 
 makes their difference. 
 
 12. The first digestion operateth the solution of the body, 
 whereby comes the first conjunction of male and female, the 
 commixtion of both seeds, putrefaction, the resolution of the ele- 
 ments into homogeneal water, the eclipse of the sun and moon 
 in the head of the dragon, and lastly it bringeth back the whole 
 world into its ancient chaos, and dark abyss. This first digestion 
 is made as in the stomach, of a melon colour and weak, more fit 
 lor corruption than generation. 
 
 13. In the second digestion the spirit of the Lord walketh upon 
 the waters; the light begins to appear, and a separation of water; 
 
 pp 
 
306 Alchemical Treatises, 
 
 from the waters; tlic sun and moon are renewed ; the elements 
 »re extracted nut of the chaos, that being perfectly mrxt in spirit 
 they ma}- constitute a new world ; a new heaven and new earth are 
 made; and lastly, all bodies are become spiritual. Hie crows 
 vtmng ones changing their feathers oegin to pass into doves, the 
 eagle and Hon embrace one another with an eternal league. Anti 
 this generation of the world is made by the fiery spirit descend- 
 ing in the form of water, and wiping away original- -in : for the 
 philosophers water is n re, which ; s moved by the exerting heat of 
 a bath. Eut sec that the separation of wafers be done hi weight 
 and measure, lest those things that remain under heaven be drown- 
 ed under the earth, or those things that site snatched up above 
 heaven be too much ck'strt ate of aridity. 
 
 14. The third digestion- of the newly generated earth drinketh 
 tip the dewy mirk, and all the spiritual virtues of tfee' quintessence, 
 and fasteneth the quickening soul to tire body by the spirits medi- 
 ation. Then the earth laycth up a gfeat treasure in- itself, and is 
 made, like thecoruscantii'xxMi, afterwards t»» rueldy sun : the for- 
 mer is called the carrh of the moon, the latter the earth of the 
 sun ; for both of them is begot, of the copulation of them both r 
 neither of them any longer fearcth the pains of the fire, because 
 both want all spots ; for they have been often cleansed from sin 
 hy fire, mk] have suffered great martyrdom, until all the elements 
 are turned down wards-. • 
 
 15. The fourth digestion consummateth all the mysteries of 
 the world, and the earth being turned irc-to most excellent leaven, 
 it Ieaveneth all imperfect bodies, because it hath before passed 
 into the heavenly nature of quintessence. The virtue thereof 
 flowing from the spirit of the universe i* a present panacea and 
 universal medicine for all the diseases of all creatures, the diges- 
 tions of the first work being repeated will open to thee the philo- 
 sophers secret, furnace. Be right in thy works, that thou inavest 
 find God favourable, otherwise the ploughing of the earth will be 
 in vain. 
 
 26. The whole progress of the philosophers work is nothing 
 but solution and congelation ; the solution of the body, and eon- 
 gelation of the spirit; nevertheless, there is but one operation 
 ♦>f both : the fixed and ve>latile are perfectly mixed and united in 
 the spirit, which cannot be done, unless the fixed body be first 
 made soluble and volatile. By reduction is the volatile body fixed 
 into a permanent body, and volatile nature doth at last change 
 into a fixed one^ tin the fixed nature had beibre passed into vola- 
 tile. Now so long as tlve natures were confused in the spirit, that 
 mixed spirit keeps a middle nature between body and spirit, fixed 
 and volatile. 
 
 17. The first mover of nature is external fire, the moderate 
 of internal fire 1 , and of the whole work; let the philosopher there- 
 fore very well understand the government thereof, and observe k* 
 
D'Espagnct. 307 
 
 degrees Mid points: for from thence the . welfare or ruin of the 
 work dejicndeth. Tims art helpeth nature, and the philosopher 
 is the .minister of both. 
 
 Mi. Hy these two instrument s of art .a-nd nature, the stone l.ift- 
 qth itself up from earth to heaven with great ingenuity, and 
 -vKK-ih from heaven to ear.th, Jxeaiue the earth is its nurse, and 
 being carried in the womb of tUe wind, it receiveth the /orce of 
 the superiors and inferiors. 
 
 19. Philosophers Jiavc ob6Qired a ihree-fold fire in tlie mat- 
 tor of their work, natural, not natural, against nature. The 
 natural they call the fiery celestial spirit innate, kept in the 
 profundity of matter, aiy.1 most strictly bound un.to.it, which by 
 the sluffijiifc strength of metal grows dull, until being stirred 
 up and freed by the philosophers discretion and external heat, it 
 .shall have obtained a faculty of moving its "body dissolved, and so 
 it informeth its humid matter, by explication, penetration, dilata- 
 tion and congelation,. Iu every mixed body natural fire is the 
 principle of heat and motion. Unnatural fire they name thai 
 which being called .and coining extrinsically, is introduced htfo 
 f\ie matter wondcrhd artificially, that it may encreasc and multiply 
 the strength of natural heat. The fire contrary to nature they call 
 that which putrifies the compositura, and corrupteth the tempera- 
 ment of nature; it is imperfect, because being too weak for gene- 
 ration, it is not carried beyond the bounds of corruption : such is 
 the fire or heat c-fthe menstruum.; yet it hath the name improperly 
 of fire against nature, because in u. manner it is according to na- 
 ture, for salving the speciiical form, it so corrupteth the matter, 
 that it disposcth it for generation. 
 
 20. That we may leave nothing untouched, let the students in 
 philosophy know that from that first sulphur, a second is generat- 
 ed which may be multiplied in infinitum : let the wise man, after 
 lie hath got the everlasting mineral of that heavenly fire, keep it 
 diligently. Now of what matter sulphur is generated, of the same 
 it is multiplied, a small portion of tlie first being added, yet as in 
 the balance. The rcjSt may a fresh-man sec in Lullius, this may 
 suffice only to point at it. 
 
 21. The elixir is compounded of a threefold matter, namely 
 of metallic water or mercury sublimated as before ; of leaven 
 white or red, according to the intention of the operator, and of 
 the second sulphur, all in weight. 
 
 22. The way of multiplying the elixir is threefold. By the 
 first, mingle one weight of red elixir, with nine weights of its 
 red water, and dissolve it into water in a solutory vessel, 
 curdle the matter well dissolved, and unite by decocting it with a 
 gentle fire, until it be made strong into a ruby or red lamel, 
 -which afterwards inccre with its red oil, after tlie manner pre- 
 scribed until it flow : so shalt thou have a medicine ten times 
 more powerful than the first. The business is easily finished in a 
 
 . short time. 
 
SOS Alchemical 'Treatises. 
 
 23. By the second manner, what potion thou pleasest of thy 
 elixir mixed with its water, the weights being observed ; — seal 
 it very well in the vessel of reduction, dissolve it in a bath, by 
 inhumation, being dissolved, distil it, separating the elements 
 by their proper fires, and fixing them downwards, as was done in 
 the first and second work, until it be a stone; lastly, incere it and 
 project it. This is the longer, but yet the richer way, for the vir- 
 tue of the elixir is increased unto an hundred fold, lor by how 
 much the more subtile it is made by reiterated operations, by so 
 much more both of superior and inferior strength jt retaineth, 
 and more powerfully operates. 
 
 24?. Lastly, take one ounce of the said elixir multiplied in 
 virtue, and project it upon an hundred of purified mft-cury, and 
 in a little time mercury made hot amongst burning coals, will be 
 converted into pure elixir, whereof if thou castest every ounce 
 upon an other hundred of the li e mercury, sol will shine most 
 purely to thine eyes. The multiplication of white elixir may bo 
 made the same way. Take the virtues of this medicine to cure all 
 kinds of diseases, and to preserve good health, as also the use 
 thereof, out of the writings of Arnoldusdc villa nova, Lullius, and 
 other philosophers. 
 
BERNARD PEXOTUS, 
 
 OF AQUITAIX. 
 
 Now I (pietate motus) being moved by brotherly affection; 
 will disclose the proper name of this matter, aiul declare it with 
 Arnold of retarding old age. For he calls it chiffir minerale, 
 that is, the animal stone, the preparation of which the ancients 
 have concealed. There is also another name for it, especially 
 for the mineral stone, the preparation of which they have also 
 kept secret ; some calling it abissini bistumi, others the mineral 
 chaos, in which is contained a very great mineral power. In 
 which all metals lie glistering in obscurity. Some affirm, that 
 the matter of this stone is nothing else than a corporeal spirit of 
 the world, formed in the matrix of the earth, from which it re- 
 ceives all its animal, vegetable and mineral faculties, as was 
 aforesaid. As wax receives the impression of any shape and 
 form, so does argent vive, lurking in the matter of the stone, 
 receive the properties or proprieties of all things. The stone 
 (says a learned man) of the wise men, is perfected in itself, and 
 by itself. The roots, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, are 
 then like a tree; now what numerous boughs there are belonging 
 to one tree ? And then, what a multitude of seeds ? In like man- 
 ner is this our philosophic fruitful tree, containing in itself the 
 seed of gold and silver; which seed, if sown in its proper earth, 
 brings forth sols and lands' ad infinilum, as other seeds sown in 
 the ground. For nature naturally acts and operates perpetually 
 on things of its own nature, and not of a diverse species, much 
 less then in a diverse kind. For by how much the greater the 
 diversity of things is, by so much the greater als is the unity 
 of things? For nature disposes all things in potentia, for as 
 much as that art should and does perfect actu. For example, 
 nature has and does produce matter whereof glass is made; but 
 in no place glass itself. In like manner it has also created iron 
 lying in a rude matter, committing it to us in a rough, un- 
 fashioned and confused form, that therewith we make horse-shoes, 
 sickles, launces, or whatsoever we please. Thus nature has also 
 created herbs, trees, gems, corals, gold, and every thing the 
 eye can see; yet as they arc, they cannot be called medicines, 
 but rude and unrefined substances, which by chemistry arc so 
 ordered into medicines, as to purge, dissolve and separate the 
 heterogene from the homogene qualities ; otherwise the putrid 
 would commix with the putrid, and the corrupt with the cor- 
 ruptible. Thus God the author of nature has created an only 
 
310 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 certain simple matter, by which the stone may be made, which 
 wise men have called the root of metals. Which matter, if not 
 disponed by chemical philosophy a poientia ad actum, from its 
 
 power of per. brining, to performance itself, it will always re- 
 main in the same state, of which the matter whereof glass is 
 formed is in, which is not glass itself, till means be used by an 
 artist to make it so. The matter of this stone is one only thing, 
 as I have often said before, which, as being but one thing, is 
 not numbered or divided. \yhLch, if numbered, it is no more 
 one thing; and jf divided, it then begins to be composed. If 
 therefore you would profit by philosophy, remember to take one 
 only thing, (simple) whosoever does otherwise, will never find 
 io\ end or perfection. Whereas nature from one thing produces 
 all, and thus in one both agree together; for nature is the mother, 
 and art her daughter. Now where nature ceases, art begins; 
 and this and no other ways is the order and rule of truth ? When 
 therefore you have found that one matter which contains all things 
 in itself, exhibit not other extraneous matters to this, with an in- 
 tention to bring it to perfection ; they will not bring it to per-? 
 Jeetion, but corruption ; and you wiU grievously deceive your- 
 self; for the matter of our s!one is one only thing; yet not so, 
 very simple, but it contains the four elements, as other ele- 
 mentary bodies do. l ? or as a tree planted in the ground brings 
 forth fruit in its proper season, in, through, and by itself: thus 
 our i.oatter, if transplanted, and bedewed with its own matter, 
 will bring forth (as the tree) its fruit, which, if sown upon impure 
 metals, will undoubtedly transmute them into pure gold. For 
 this philosophic tree contains in itself whatsoever is neccssaiy 
 for itself, without any mans' assistance. 
 
 The work is light, and requires not much cxpencc, only much 
 patience and waiting for. If you but once untie the knot on it, 
 the work may then be well styled womens work, and children? 
 play. Now in the name of God will J declare the practic and 
 method of philosophical working, how the great elixir is brought 
 to perfection, or the white and red tincture, composed only of 
 the mercury of the philosopher.?. Bringing crude mercury and 
 antimony to perfect perfection, converting all imperfect bodies 
 into pure sol and lune, far excelling that produced by nature. 
 From therefore the mercury of the philosophers, which they call 
 "their prima materia, or first matter: their aqueous, frigid and 
 humid element : their aqua permanens, their spiritns corporis^ 
 vapor unctuosus, aquabenedicta, their.aqua venosa, aqua sapicn- 
 tum, their ros coclestis, gratia 1 , their lac virginis, their mticurius 
 corporis magnesia, radix philosophica, u\\d by infinite mole 
 names, which yon may find in philosophic books. Whichmatter, 
 chough going by divers names, yet always signify one and the 
 same tiling, as being mercury of the wise men, from which only 
 :u\d alone is made the red and white tincture. Therefore, says 
 Geb.r, that prince of philosophers, our art is not perfected in a 
 
Peiiofux. 311 
 
 multitude of things; hut it is one thing alone, it is one stone, 
 one medicine, in which consists the magistery. To which we do 
 not add uny foreign. thing, unless in its preparation, by removing 
 superfluities : for in and by it arc all tilings necessary for the 
 
 Work, to which we add not (I say) any extraneous tbiftgs, be- 
 cause of gold and silver : for they are not extraneous to the stoAe 
 
 itself, if fermented therewith^ they then being both coadjutors 
 to the same, by which the physical work is finished. Another 
 philosopher says we make use of venerable nature for na- 
 ture cannot be mended or made better but by things of its own 
 nature. Therefore we must not introduce any thing of an alien 
 nature as a helper to this work; nor powder, nor water, nor any 
 thine of an extraneous nature. For divers things do not better 
 our physical stone; therefore 'tis only perfected by the mercury 
 of the philosophers. Therefore the aforementioned mercury is; 
 the only radix physica, the arbor aha from which iniinite boughs 
 are multiplied : and this is called that stone which is mentioned 
 so often in the books of philosophers, and which they had. But 
 the first operation of the stone is called sublimation. Now how 
 this mercury of the philosophers ought to be sublimed and 
 brought to perfection, shall be plainly laid open in the following 
 lines, without any dissimulation or obscurity. Observe then 
 that this sublimation is not vulgar, but physical. Our sublima- 
 tion being nothing else but a subtiliation of a tiling. So that 
 "... ... ^ 
 
 phvsical sublimation is an elevation ot the non-fixed parts from 
 
 the fixed. For the subtile non-fixed parts are elevated by fumes 
 from the fixed parts I would that they be not separated one 
 one from another, but remain together in mutual conjunction. 
 And now know that he which conjoins our physical mercury, 
 rightly, sublimes it, (i. e. subtiliates it) in which depends the 
 virtue of our stone, that makes and finishes our whole elixir. 
 Fpr as Geber says the whole perfection of the art consists only 
 in the right sublimation, right manner of vessel, and regimen 
 df fire. Because in this sublimation, every thing of this are made 
 and do consist, viz. sublimation, distillation, ascension, descen- 
 sion, coagulation, putrefaction, calcination, fixation, &c. 
 
 Take, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the: vendible 
 prepared mercury, the water of philosophers, the primum hyle 
 of the wise men, put it into its clean, bright, lucid and round 
 vessel. Close its mouth very well with Hermes's seal, and let 
 it suffocate in its temperate and warm little bed for a philoso- 
 phers month. Never in that months time permitting it to cool, 
 for then alls undone ; till you have sublimed so long, that it 
 will sweat no longer, i. e. till there is nothing remaining either 
 to ascend or descend ; and till that matter within begins to 
 putrify, be choaked, coagulated and fixed by virtue of the con- 
 tinual maintenance of its due heat, that nothing will ascend 
 any longer, in any airy famous substance, bit r.-main fixed on 
 the bottom. Its caoistness being all drawn up, putrified una 
 
312 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 coagulated, and turned into a black earth, which is railed the 
 crows head, the black and dry element, &c. Then is the true 
 sublimation of the philosophers expedited. In which sublima- 
 tion all the fore-mentioned manners of doings exist, viz. solu- 
 tion, distillation, coagulation, putrefaction, calcination, and 
 fixation in one only vessel, and on one only furnace, as was 
 spoke of before. For when our stone is in its vessel, and when 
 it shall ascend by fumes to the top of the same, it is then called 
 sublimation and ascension. But when it precipitates from the 
 Cop of the vessel to the bottom and its nether ends, then it is 
 called distillation and descension. And when by its very much 
 ascension it begins to putrify, then it begins to be coagulated 
 also, and is called putrefaction and coagulation. But when at 
 length (the humidity of its radical moisture being exhausted) it 
 begins to be calcined and fixed ; it is called calcination and fix- 
 ation. And all this uno actu, by decocting them at one time 
 altogether in one vessel, and on one furnace, (as has been often 
 said before.) From which may be observed that the separation 
 of the four elements irt the stone, is not vulgar but physical. 
 Because our sublimation being finished, the elements (as was 
 told you before) are perfectly separated. Yet in our stone there 
 are only two formal elements, viz. earth and water. Earth, 
 which virtually contains fire in itself by reason of its dryness, 
 as water contains in like manner air in itself, by reason of its 
 humidity or moistness. It may- further be observed then, that 
 in our stone there are but two formal elements, though there be 
 four virtually. Therefore there is not a separation of four ele- 
 ments, as fools and ideots conceive. There is a certain hidden 
 secret in our matter, whose work and virtue is perceived, viz. 
 earth and water. But the other two, viz. air and fire, are not 
 perceived ; (nee quicquam largiuntur) nor can their residing 
 place be seen no more than their virtue, as in the other two 
 elements of earth and water. By such a privation therefore of 
 humidity, which is caused by sublimation, the volatile is made- 
 fixed, the soft hard, and the water earth. And as Geber says, 
 the mutation of nature into nature, also a change of complexion-; 
 is made ; for the cold and moist complexion is converted into 
 choleric and dry, becoming also spiritual, corporeal, and liquid, 
 thick, and so on the contrary. Therefore the philosophers say 
 wisely, when they say, the operation of our stone is nothing else 
 but the permutation of nature and revolution of elements. For 
 by such an incorporation we change the moist and volatile into 
 fixed, the spiritual into corporeal, and the liquid into thick, the 
 watry into fiery, and the airy into earthly. 
 
 Arosthe philosopher says, that the water or spirit of the stone 
 is all in all, and is the only thing sought after, and requisite for 
 this work; for in it is the flying and fixed, the tinging and 
 tinged, the white and red masculine and feminine composed to- 
 gether by an inseparable composition. Lully says, the spirit is 
 
Ripley. 313 
 
 the first principal secret, the water the next, -from which two 
 things every thin.'' receives its nutriment, and every tree, sprout 
 and herb its vegetation, and every light its illumination. This 
 water carries life, light and spirit with it ; but why docs Lully 
 call the water the second principal secret, &c. which the other 
 philosophers call the oil ? The reason is, because it is drawn in 
 the second place alter the spirit; the oil is nothing else than the 
 radical, pure and incombustible humidity of metals, in which 
 does most especially consist the metallic essence and form (and 
 nisi to turn compositum aqua fiat, pulvis non erit fusibilis, nee 
 ingressuih habebit,) to which water the whole is reduced, by a 
 moderate and continual humid heat. 
 
 FIVE PREPARATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS MERCURY; 
 BY SIR GEORGE RIPLEY. 
 
 I. Take the green lion without dissolution in vinegar, 
 (as sometimes the custom is) put it in a large earthen retort, 
 which can endure the fire, and distil it the same way as 
 you distil aqua fortis, putting a receiver under it, and lut- 
 ing the joints well, that it may not respire: — then distil first 
 with a gentle fire, till you see white fumes appear, then change 
 the receiver, stopping it well, and distil with a great fire so, as 
 aqua fortis is distilled, thus continuing twenty-four hours, and if 
 you continue the fire the space of eight days, you will see the 
 receiver always full of white fumes, and so you will have the 
 blood of the green lion, which we call secret water, and ace- 
 tum acerrimum, by which ail bodies are reduced to their first 
 matter, and the body of man preserved from all infirmities. — 
 This is our fire, burning continually in one form within the 
 glass vessel, and not without. Our dunghill, our aqua vitce, 
 our balneo, our vindemia, our horse-belly, which effects wonder- 
 ful things in the works of nature, and is the examen of all bo- 
 dies dissolved, and not dissolved ; and is a sharp water, carrying 
 lire in its belly, as a fiery water, for otherwise it would not 
 
' i Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 •■c the power of dissolving bodies into their first matter. Bev 
 Id ! tlus is our mercury, our sol and iuna, which we use in> 
 )iir worji Then will you find in the bottom of the vessel ibeees 
 k as coals, which you must for the space of eight days cal- 
 newitfe agentk (ire, See. — Libro Accnrt. p. 3S3. 
 II. Take adrop, that is, the green lion, which we spoke of 
 ( ' ?, and dissolve it in distilled vinegar for the space of 
 n days, shaking well the vessel which the matter is in. r 
 e times daily, then empty the dissolved liquor, and distil 
 through a filter three times from it* faeces, till it be clear as 
 ehrvstal, and evaporate the vinegar with a gentle fire, till it be 
 thick as bird-lime, which you cannot stir by reason of its vis- 
 cosity, ar.d being cold, take it out of the vessel, and keep it;— • 
 and again make more of it, and this do, till you have twelve 
 pounds of this green lion or adrop reduced to the form of a gum, 
 then have yon- the earth extracted from the earth, and the brother 
 of the earth. Then take a pound of that gum, and put it in n- 
 glass vessel of the bigness of a bottle, well luting the joints of the 
 alembic with glue made of the white of eggs and filings well mixed 
 together. — Libro Aceurt. p. SSl. 
 
 TYeidenfelb. — This Receipt in the Treatise of the philoso- 
 phical adrop (which is in the sixth volume of Theat. Chem. ami 
 inscribed to an anonymous disciple #f the great Guido de monte ? 
 but differs not- from the books of Ilipley, namely, the present 
 de Accurtationibus, and the Clavis aurece porta?, the greatest 
 part of which is ascribed to the famous Dunstan, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury) is altogether the same as to the sense, 
 though these words run better in the Translation, thus ;' 
 Now take three pounds of the aforesaid gum, put it into a' 
 distillatory able to hold about two measures, and putting on 
 an alembic, lute the joints with luting made of ale, the white 
 of an egg, and wheat-flour, page 552. Volume 6. Theat. Chem, 
 Which is confirmed with the process or receipt of the Clavis 
 aurea'portae, where thus: Put three pounds of this milk (thickened 
 or gummed) into a glass, page 25"-, Clavis aureae portoe ; and 
 distil in a sand furnace, and let the sand be the thickness of two 
 lingers under the vessel, and so round about even to the middle- 
 of the vessel, or till the matter be covered : put a receiver to 
 it, making at first a gentle fire, but not luting the receiver, till 
 the phlegm be gone over, and this continue, till you see fumes 
 appear in the receiver white as milk ; then increasing the fire 
 change the receiver,, stopping it well, that it may not evaporate, 
 and so continually augment the fire, and you will have an oil 
 most ied as blood, which is airy gold, the menstruum foetens, 
 the philosophers sol, our tincture aqua ardens, the blood of the 
 green lion, our unctuous humor, which is the last consolation of 
 man's body in this life, the philosophers mercury, aqua solutiva^ 
 which dissolves gold with the preservation o^ its species, and is 
 
Ripley. SJ 5 
 
 hatli a great many other names. And when first the white fi 
 jappe&r, continue' your fife twelve hours, in ueich space i. ; 
 be strong!, will all the oil be distilled, which keep well stop] 
 prevent respiring. 
 
 III. Tahe of lead calcined or rabified, or the best mil 
 ■that is, mineral rm-rimony, prepared, wjhat quantity you pl< 
 yet with this consideration, that you niust have so manj <; : . 
 of distilled vinegar, as you hare pounds oi the aforesaid cal< 
 lead; to this vinegar pour the aforesaid lead in a large earthen 
 
 . 1 well glazed, then for the space of three days stir 
 matter strongly with a wooden spatula six or seven times a 
 day, cover it well from cht.-t, i\nd let it not be put to the fire by 
 any menus during all this lime, alter which separate all that is 
 clear and crystalline by a filter into another vessel, then put it 
 into a brass skillet to a gentle fire, that all the phlegmatic 
 water may evaporate, till a very thick oil is left in the bottom 
 of the vessel, which suffer to cool; which being done, the 
 matter will become like gum, so as to be cut with a knife, 
 hereof put four pounds into a glass cucurbit with an alembic, 
 the joint being well luted with a paste made of the scales of 
 iron, flour, and the whites of eggs well beaten together : — put 
 the vessel in a furnace of sand, and not in ashes, and let the 
 vessel be buried in the sand even to the middle of it, and. let 
 the sand be two linger;-: thick under the bottom of the vessel ; — 
 then put a receiver to it, but not luted, till you have drawn out 
 all the phlegmatic water with a most gentle fire, which wa- 
 ter throw away. When you see a white fume appear, then lute 
 the receiver, which must be two foot long ; which being drawn, 
 out, strengthen the fire as much as yon can, and continue it till 
 you have distilled all that can be extracted in twelve hours, 
 and so will you have the blood of the red lion, most red as 
 blood, which is our mercury, and our tincture now prepared., 
 to be poured upon its ferment, that is, upon the calxes of most 
 pure gold, &c. But if you would use it i\x* the white work, you 
 must distil your mercury three times with a slow fire, always 
 reserving the faeces apart in every distillation, and then will you 
 have your mercury most white as milk. And this is our vir- 
 gin's milk, whitened menstruum, and our argent vive philosophi- 
 cally exuberated; with which by circulation make an oil out of 
 the calxes of luna, and proceed in all things, as you did with 
 the red mercury upon the calxes of gold, and you will have a 
 white elixir, which will convert any metal into perfect luna. — 
 But the golden oil ought to be perfected and tempered, and 
 well united with artificial balsom, by the way of circulation, 
 till out of them is made a most clear and resplendent golden 
 liquor, which is the true aurum potabile, and elixir of life, 
 more precious for mens' bodies, than any other medicine of the 
 world. — Pupilla Alchimia, p. 303. 
 
316 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 IV. Take the sharpest juice of grapes, and being distilled, 
 dissolve into a clear cristalline water, the body being well 
 calcined to a redness, which is by the philosophers called se- 
 ricon ; of which, make a gum, which is like allum in taste, 
 and is by Raymond called azoquean vitriol. Out of this gum 
 with a slow fire is drawn first a weak water, which hath in its 
 taste no sharpness, no more than spring-water; — and when a 
 white fume begins to appear, then change the receiver, aud 
 lute strongly, that it may no way expire ; and so you will have 
 your aqua ardens, aqua vita?, and a resolvative menstruum, 
 which before was resolvable. This is the potential vapour, 
 able to dissolve, putrify, and also purify bodies, divide the ele- 
 ments, and by its attractive virtue exalt its own earth into a 
 wonderful salt ; and they that think there is any other water, 
 besides this which we speak of, are mistaken in this work : this 
 water hath a most sharp taste, and partly also a stinking smell, 
 and therefore is called stinking menstruum ; and it being a very 
 airy water, it therefore ought to be put upon its calxes in 
 less than an hour after it is distilled or rectified ; — but when it 
 is poured upon the aforesaid calxes, it begins to boil up, and 
 then if the vessel be well stopped, it will not leave working, 
 though no fire be administered to it from without, till it be 
 dried up in the calx ; — wherefore you must apply no greater 
 quantity of it than scarce to cover the calxes ; — then proceed to 
 the full completing of it, as in the work of the compounded 
 water. And when the elixir is reduced to a purple colour, let 
 it be dissolved in the same menstruum, being first rectified into 
 a thin oil, upon which fix the spirit of our water by circu- 
 lation, and then hath it the power of converting all bodies 
 into most pure gold, and to heal all infirmities of man's bodj', 
 more than all the potions of Hippocrates and Galen, for this is 
 the true aurum potabile, and no other, which is made of artificial 
 gold elemented, turned about by the wheel of philosophy, &c. — 
 Medulla Phil. Chcm. p. 170. 
 
 V. Take of scricon or antimony thirty pounds, out of which 
 you will have twenty pounds or thereabouts of gum, if the 
 vinegar be good ;— dissolve each pound of that scricon in 
 iwo measures (a gallon) of vinegar twice distilled, and having 
 stood a little while in digestion, stir the matter often everyday, 
 the often cr the better,, with a clean stick, filter the liquor three 
 times, throw away the faeces, to be taken away as superfluous, 
 being no ingredient to the magistery, for it is the damned earth : 
 Then evaporate the filtered liquors in balneo mariae with a 
 temperate heat, and our scricon will be coagulated into a green 
 gum, called our green lion, dry that gum well, yet with care, 
 lest you burn the flowers, or destroy the greens of it ; — then 
 take the said gum, put it in a strong glass retort well luted, 
 and with a moderate lire distil a weak water to be cast away :— 
 
Ripley. SU 
 
 But when first you perceive a white fume ascending, put to it a 
 glasg receiver Jarge, and of sufficient capacity, whose mouth ia 
 exactly joined to the neck of the retort, which must be very 
 well luted, lest any of the fume be lost or evaporate out of the 
 receiver ; — then increase the fire by degrees, till a red fume 
 ascends, and continue a stronger fire, till bloody drops come, or 
 no more fume appears ; — then abate the fire by degrees, and 
 all being cold, take away the receiver, and forthwith stop it, 
 that the spirits may not exhale, because this liquor is called 
 our blessed liquor, to be kept in a glass vessel very close stop- 
 ped ; — then examine the neck of the retort, where you will 
 find a white and hard ice, in the form of a congealed vapour, 
 or mercury sublimate, which gather carefully, and keep, be- 
 cause it contains great secrets, of which lower : — then take the 
 feces out of the retort, being black as soot, which are called 
 our dragon, whereof calcine one pound, or more, if you please, 
 in a potters, glass-makers, or philosophical furnace, into a 
 white snowy calx, which keep pure by itself, it being called 
 the basis and foundation of the work, Mars, our white fixed 
 earth, or philosophers iron. Now take the residue of the 
 faeces, or black dragon, and sift it on a marble, or any other 
 stone, and at one of the ends light it with a live coal, and in 
 the space of half an hour the fire will run over all the feces, 
 which it will calcine into a very glorious citrine colour ; these 
 citrine feces dissolve with distilled vinegar, after the aforesaid 
 manner, filter also three times as before, then evaporate the dis- 
 solution into a gum, and distil the menstruum, which is now call- 
 ed sanguis draconis, or dragon's blood, and repeat this work in 
 all things as before, till you have reduced all, or the greater part 
 of the feces into our natural or blessed liquor, all which li- 
 quors pour to the first liquor or menstruum, called the blood of 
 the green lion ; — the liquor being thus mixed, putrify it in a 
 glass vessel for the space of fourteen days ; then proceed to the 
 separation of the elements, because in this blessed liquor you 
 have now all the fire of the stone, hidden before in the feces ; 
 which secret lias been hitherto kept wonderfully close by the 
 philosophers Now take all the menstruum being putrified, put 
 it in a Venice glass of a fit size, put an alembic to it, and lute 
 with linen rags dipped in the white of eggs; the receiver 
 must be very spacious, to keep in the respiring spirit, and witli 
 a temperate heat separate the elements one from another, and the 
 element of air, which is the oil (ardent spirit, containing a little 
 white oil at the top) will first ascend; the first element be- 
 ing distilled, rectify it in another vessel fit for it, that is, distil 
 seven times, till it burns a linen cloth, being dipped in it and 
 kindled; then is it called our rectified aqua ardens, which keep 
 very well stopped, for otherwise the most subtile spirit of it will 
 vanish away. In the rectifications of the aqua ardens, the air 
 
315 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 wil'i ascend in the form of a white oil, swimming upon the 
 aqua aniens, and a citrine oil will remain, which is distilled 
 with a stronger fire : mercury being sublimed, and reduced inte» 
 powder dissolved per deliquium, upon iron plates In a, cold place, 
 pour a little of the aqua ardeis to the liquor being filtered, and 
 it wjjH extract the mercury in the form of a green oil swim- 
 ming a-top, which separate and distil by a retort, and there 
 *vill ascend first a water, anddien a thick oil, which is the oil 
 of mercury; — then distil the flood or water of the stone into 
 another receiver, the liquor will be whitish, which draw off' in 
 bakieo with a moderate heat, till there remains in the bottom of 
 the cucurbit a thick oily substance, like melted pitch; kcop 
 this water by itself in a glass well stopped. Take notice, when 
 first the liquor risetli white, another receiver must be put to, 
 because that element is wholly distilled. Two or three dropk 
 of that black liquid oil being given in the spirit of wine, do 
 cure any poison. Now to this black and liquid matter pour 
 our aqua ardens, mix them well together, and let the mixture 
 ■settle three h^urs, then decant, and filter the liquor, pour on 
 new aqua ardens, and repeat the operation three times, then dis- 
 til again in balneo with a gentle Leat, and th£» reiterate thrice, 
 and it will come under the denomination of the rectified blood 
 of man, which operators search for in the secrets of nature. 
 Thus have you exalted the two elements, water, and air, to 
 the virtue of a quintessence; keep this blood for occasion. 
 Now to the black and liquid matter or earth, pour the floo4 
 or water of the stone, mix them well together, and distil the 
 whole, till the earth remains very dry and black, which is the 
 earth of the stone ; keep the oil with the water for occasion. 
 Reduce the black earth to a powder, to which pour the afore? 
 said* man's blood, digest three hours, then distil in ashes with a 
 fire sufficiently strong, repeat this work three times, and it will 
 foe called the rectified water of fire, and so have you exalted the 
 three elements, namely, water, air, and fire, into the virtue of 
 a quintessence; then calcine the earth being black and dry, in 
 the bottom of the reverberatory, into a most white calx, with 
 which mix the fiery water, and distil with a strong fire as be-- 
 fore ; the remaining earth calcine again, and distil, and that se- 
 ven times, or till the whole substance of the calx be passed thro" 
 the alembic, and then have you the rectified and truly spiritual 
 water of life, and the four elements, exalted to the virtue 
 of a quintessence : this water will dissolve all bodies, putrify 
 and purge them. This is our mercury, our lunary, but who- 
 soever thinks of any othcy water besides this, is ignorant ancj 
 foolish,, never attaining to the desired effects. — Vadc Mecum^ 
 or Bosom- Book. 
 
lUpley. 319 
 
 Ripley hath these following sayings, in his Book named Tern* 
 Ifcmfi I'hilosoph. p. 319, where thus: When therefore you have 
 cxt '.lifted all the mercury out of the gum, know, that in tins 
 mercury are contained three liquors, whereof the first is a 
 burning aqua vita.-, which is extracted by a most temperate 
 balnco. This water being kindled, flames immediately, as com- 
 mon aqua vita*, and is called our attractive mercury, with 
 which is made a cvistalline earth, with all metallic calxes also, 
 of which I will say no more, because in this operation we 
 want it not. Alter that there follows another water thick 
 and white as milk, in a small quantity, which is the sperm o£ 
 our stone, sought by many men ; for the sperm is the ori- 
 ginal of nun and all living creatures ; whereupon we do not 
 undeservedly call it our mercury, because it is found in alt things 
 and all places j — for without it no man whatsoever lives, and 
 therefore it is said to be in every thing. This liquor, which 
 now you ought to esteem most dear, is that mercury, which 
 we call vegetable, mineral, and animal, our argent vivc, and 
 virgin's milk, and our permanent water. With this mercurial 
 water we wash away the original sin, and pollution of our 
 earth, till it becomes white, as gum, soon flowing ; — but after 
 the distillation of this aforesaid water, will appear an oil by a 
 strong fire ; with this oil we take a red gum, which is our 
 tincture, and our sulphur vive, which is otherwise called the 
 soul of saturn, and living gold, our precious tincture, and our 
 most beloved gold, of which never man spoke so plainly ; God 
 forgive me therefore, if I have any way offended him, being con- 
 strained to gratify your will. 
 
 Weidenfeld. — Some great mystery of art is here discovered 
 by Ripley, for the revealing of which he fears the displeasure of 
 not only the adepts, but of God himself. Lully, and others, have 
 indeed plainly enough declared to their disciples, though perhaps 
 it may not appear to us being less instructed in the matter, what 
 our green lion is, what common mercury more common to us than 
 common argent vive, what the azoquean vitriol is, and the men- 
 struum made thereof; but Ripley affirms that no man ever spoke 
 so plainly of the present secret. The adepts have indeed in their 
 practice described the use of philosophical wine without any veil 
 of philosophy ; and amongst them Raymond and Arnold, with 
 some others, have attained to the knowledge of the same, but 
 (to use Ripley's expression in Medulla) how it might be ob- 
 tained they said not. Wherefore they being silent, Ripley the 
 first, and indeed the only man of all, declares to us, that the 
 key of all the more secret chemy lies in the milk and blood of 
 the green lion, that is, that the stinking menstruum (or the parts 
 of it, mercury and sulphur, virgin's milk, and the lion's blood, 
 white and red mercury) being fourteen days digested gently, 
 is the white and red wine of Lully, and other adepts. Nor was 
 
S20 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 i 
 
 he satisfied in declaring tin's freely to us, but adds strength 
 and light to his words, in making- a vegetable menstruum the 
 rectified aqua vitae (described by Lully in Potestate Divitiarum, 
 and by us in Numb. 31.) of the said stinking and corrosive men- 
 struum, by which one only example he was pleased to teach us, 
 that all vegetable menstruums may be made of the said stinking 
 menstruum. Lully's rectified aqua vitae is made by divers colio- 
 bationsupon its own caput mortuum. We may if we please pro- 
 ceed by another way or method : distil the menstruum fcetens, 
 being fourteen days digested, and first will ascend the aqua ar- 
 dens, then the phlegm, and in the bottom will remain a matter 
 thick as melted pitch, which are the constitutive principles of all 
 vegetable menstruums, 
 
 Further of the Philosophers JWcrcury. 
 
 There is a certain subtile fume, which docs spring forth 
 from its proper veins, dispersing and spreading itself abroad, 
 the which thin fume if it be wisely gathered together again, and 
 sprinkled upon its proper veins or matrix, it will make not 
 only a certain fixation, of which thin fume, in a short space is 
 made the true elixir, but also cleanses the impure metals or 
 alchemic body. 
 
 This alchemic body is called leprous gold, wherein gold and 
 silver, are in essence and power, but not in sight or appear- 
 ance ; in its profundity or depth, it is airous or spiritual gold, 
 which none can obtain, unless the same body be first made clean 
 and pure. The which impure body after mundification, is a 
 thousand times better than are the bodies of common sol and 
 luna, decocted by natural heat. 
 
 The first matter of this unclean alchemical body, is a 
 viscous water, which is thickened in the bowels of the earth. 
 And therefore of this impure body is made the great elixir of 
 the red and white, whose name is adrop, or the philosophers 
 lead. From the which Raymond commands an oil to be 
 drawn ; from the lead of the philosophers, saith he, let there 
 be an oil drawn of a golden colour ; if you can separate this oil 
 from its phlegm, which is its waterishness, and wisely search out 
 the secret thereof, you may in the space of thirty days perform 
 the work of the philosophers stone. This oil does not only 
 make the medicine penetrable, being amicable and conjoinable 
 to all bodies or corporeal things, but it is also the hidden or 
 secret fire of nature ; which does so augment the excellencies 
 of those bodies to whom it is so joined, that it makes them to- 
 exceed in infinite proportions of goodness and purity. .So much 
 as does appertain to the work of alchemy, which is only for the 
 
«?uVrr of metals, is now sufficiently opened, which if you 
 rightly understand, you will find that no great cost is required 
 to the performance or this philosophic operation. 
 
 And this thin and subtil oil, being put into kemia its proper 
 vessel, first sealed up, to putrify in the fire of the first degree, 
 being moist, it becomes as black tis liquid pitch. The fire may 
 then" have its action in the body, to corrupt it, the same body 
 .before opened. Therefore it grows first black, like melted pitch, 
 because the heat working in this moist body, does first beget a 
 blackness, which blackness is the first sign of corruption ; and 
 since the corruption of one thing is the generation of another ; 
 therefore of the body corrupted, is generated a body neutral, 
 which is certainly apt, declinable, and applicable unto every 
 ferment whatsoever you please to apply it to. But the ferment 
 must be altered together with the alchemic body ; and the wholo 
 -substance of our stone or elixir must partake of -the nature ot 
 the quintessence, otherwise it will be of no effect. 
 
 And between the said sign of blackness and perfect whiteness, 
 which will follow the said blackness, there will appear a green 
 colour, and as many variable colours afterwards as the mind ot 
 man k able to conceive. When the present white colour shall 
 begin to appear like the eyes of fishes, then may you know 
 that Summer is near at hand, after which Autumn or Harvest 
 will happily follow with ripe fruit, which is in the long looked-for 
 redness ; this is after the pale, ashy, and citrine colour. First 
 the sun does perfectly descend by its due course, from its rae- 
 ridianal heigh.t and g'lory, through its gross and natural solution 
 into an imperfect pale, and' ashy colour, shining in the occidental 
 parts of the west, which is somewhat of a yellowish or brick dust 
 colour ; from thence it goes to the septentrional parts of the 
 earth, being of a variable waterish blackness, of a dark, cloudy, 
 alterable, putrefactive waterishness. Then it ascends up to the 
 oriental parts, shining with a more perfect chrystallinc, summer- 
 like, and Paradisical white. Lastly, he ascends his fiery cha- 
 riot, directing his course up again to his meridianal life, per- 
 fection and glory, there to rule and shine, in fire, brightness, 
 splendor, and the highest perfection, even in the highest, most 
 pure, and imperial redness. 
 
 When this aforesaid simple oil of the altered body, being in 
 its vessel duly sealed, is by the fire thus disposed, what is there 
 more than one simple thing, which nature has made to be ge- 
 nerated of sulphur and mercury in the bowels of the earth i — 
 Thus it is evident, that our stone is nothing else but sol and luna, 
 sulphur and mercury ; male and female ; heat and cold. And 
 therefore, to be more short, when all the parts of our stone, 
 are thus gathered together, it appears plainly enough, what is 
 our mercury, our sulphur, our alchemic body, our ferment, 
 our dissolvent, our green lion. And what our white fame, 
 
 it r 
 
32% Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 our two dragons, our fires, and our egg, in which is both the 
 •whiteness and the redness. As also what is man's blood, our 
 aquas vitas, our burning water, and what are many other things, 
 which in this our art are metaphorically, or figuratively named 
 to deceive the foolish and unwary. 
 
 Also there is a similitude of a Trinity shining in the body, 
 soul, and spirit. The body is the substance of the stenc. The 
 soul is the ferment which cannot be had, but from the most per- 
 fect body; and the spirit is that which raiseth up the natures 
 from death and corruption to life, perfection and glory. 
 
 In sulphur, there is an earthiness for the body ; in mercury, 
 there is an airialness for the spirit, and in them both a natural 
 unctuosity fur the soul or ferment; all which arc inseparably 
 united in their least parts for ever. From this fcrmental body 
 the stone is formed, and without it, it cannot be made. It is 
 the peculiar property of sol and luna, which property apper- 
 tains to the stone itself, to give the form of gold and silver. — 
 And therefore the elixir, whether it be white or red, may be 
 infinitely augmented with the fermental oil ; if you do cast the 
 same upon mercury, it shall transmute it into the elixir, which 
 elixir must be cast afterwards upon the imperfect bodies. — 
 Moreover the said white elixir is augmented with mercurial \va- 
 ter, and the red elixir with the mercurial oil ; the which two, 
 viz, the mercurial water and mercurial oil, can only be had of 
 mercury dissolved of itself. 
 
 See what the Scripture saith ; He stroke the stone, and water 
 flowed out, and lie brought forth oil out of the flinty rock. 
 We may note the whole composition of the elixir in these four 
 verses following. "lie stretched forth the Heavens as a curtain. 
 The water stood above the mountains." This is the water which 
 does cover our matter, and performs the dissolution thereof, 
 causing a cloudy ascension. " That does walk upon the wings of 
 the wind." This figures forth the sublimation of our stone. 
 ". Who makes his ang<Js spirits, and his ministers a flame of 
 lire." By this is shadowed forth the rectification, separation, 
 and disposition of the elements. " Who has founded the 
 earth upon its basis ; so fixed, that it shall not be moved for 
 ever." Under which is described the fixation of the elements, 
 and the perfection of the philosophic stone. — Medulla Philosoyhia 
 1476, dedicated io George Nccill, Archbishop of York, 
 
CHRISTOPHER, OF PARIS, 
 
 Take the philosophers first matter, called chaos (vegela* 
 ble mercury, the philosophers wine) distil its spirit (ardent) 
 and watery clement , (phlegm) in its convenient vessel, as 
 we shall teach in its proper place, till its body remain in 
 the bottom like melted pitch, which by two distillations wash 
 with its watery clement, then pour its spirit to it, four fingers 
 above it, mixing the matter well, till it be well united, and set 
 the vessel to distil in balneo with an easy heat; then put it into 
 putrefaction six days in a convenient vessel, and distil in ashes, 
 (the animated spirit) then take other spirit, (ardens) and that 
 being poured to it, put it again into putrefaction six days, and 
 so repeat this magisicry* till you see that the spirit has imbibed 
 and extracted the soul out of the body, an infallible sign of 
 which will be, when you see its earth hard and dry; — for then 
 may you be assured, that the body is for its health-sake dead, 
 which you may vivify and make incorruptible, and it will no 
 more fear death, nor corruption in this world. Now take the 
 aforesaid body, first weigh it, tnen put it in a convenient vessel, 
 and pour to it an eighth part or' its spirit (animated spirit) 
 which extracted its soul, then put your vessel in a lire of di- 
 gestion, (which we shall speak of afterwards) and continue the 
 lire till you see that the earth hath imbibed its liquor: — thin 
 open your vessel, put on an alembic, and gather^feiat little 
 sweat, which will have the taste of hot water : — imbibe now 
 your matter for a second time with a seventh part of the afore- 
 said spirit, which contains the soui, and proceed in the method- 
 izing of tlraktforcsaid magistcry. Now for a third time im- 
 bibe with a sftcth part — for a fourth time imbibe with a fifth part, 
 for a fifth time imbibe with a fourth part, and do not multiply 
 the weight of the aforesaid spirit, but continue it so, observing 
 the aforesaid method, till the matterj which hath drunk up its 
 •spirit, and is again united With its soul, be white. Take now 
 the aforesaid earth, and put it in convenient sublimation, the 
 lower part of the vessel being luted below the matter, and 
 make the pure part sublime from the impure, and so will vou 
 have our mercury, which is clear and shining as a diamond. 
 
324 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 This is that which the philosophers do by divers metaphors, 
 call the first vegetable matter, sal armoniac, our mercury. 
 our sulphur of nature, whereas notwithstanding it is one and the 
 same thing. Take the other simple spirit, which you fii'st ex- 
 tracted out of your chaos, that which, hath not extracted its 
 soul, and make it more pure and subtile by the way following : — 
 Take of the vegetable first matter (sal armoniac) which you 
 made before, one pound, and put it in a convenient vessel in 
 balneo, till the matter dissolve itself per deliquium, then put- 
 ting to an alembic, distil the superfluous water, then pour ok 
 three pounds of the aforesaid simple spirit (aniens) and the 
 vessel being conveniently stopped, as will be manifested below, 
 put it into putrefaction lor one natural day, after the manner 
 following :■— get you a brass vessel, about one span and a halt 
 broad, and three spans and a half long, which towards the ori- 
 fice must have a copper bottom pierced with many holes, the 
 cover whereof, which is to go into the vessel, and stop it well, 
 must have one or two holes; but the glass vessels, which you 
 would put to that copper vessel, ought to be conveniently co- 
 vered : in the lower part of those copper vessels of putrefaction 
 must be common water, those copper vessels put upon a fur- 
 nace, making a moderate fire under, by the strength of which 
 the fume or vapour of the water will ascend, and heat the ves- 
 sels, in which your matter is ; the whole work of our supreme 
 magistery will be matured and prepared by this method ; then 
 distil conveniently in ashes with a heat, scarce unlike to the 
 heat of the sun, till you have drawn all the juice from it ; then 
 dissolve the matter by pouring to it of the aforesaid simple spi- 
 rit three parts, in respect of the matter, which remained in the 
 vessel, after the aforesaid juice was abstracted from it ; repeat 
 the magistery a fourth time, proceeding and observing all things 
 exactly as above; — so will you have the spirit of your chaos, 
 which is by the philosophers called fire depurated, reduced 
 from power into action with the virtue of the vegetable matter. — 
 Take therefore a glass vessel, strong, able to contain the mea- 
 sure of a common urn, pure and long, whose neck must be 
 strong, and two spans and a half long, whose cover must be ano- 
 ther glass, called antenotorium, with a neck turned downward, 
 containing the fourth part of a common urn, tp be put into 
 the aforesaid vessel. Into this circulating vessel, put four 
 pounds, and no more, of the depurated spirit, which you brought 
 from power to action, by virtue of the vegetable matter, as I 
 taught you before ; circulate in balneo, or dung, the space of 
 sixty days, and when conversion is made of the spirit deduced 
 from power to action by the first vegetable matter, then this 
 you will thereby know, that in the bottom of the vessel will be 
 a sediment, like the urine of a sound man ; then will you see a 
 quintessence brighter and clearer than a diamond, which ex* 
 
Christopher. 325 
 
 eecds the stars in splendour, so aa to be doubted, -whether it be 
 contained in the gla*s.or not; which you must dexterously sepa- 
 rate from its sediment, and keep in awssel close stopped in a 
 cold place. This is that virtue which the envious have hidden, 
 and obscured by innumerable metaphors, calling it spiritus vivus, 
 aqua argenti vivi, aqua vine, aqua celestfs, aqua Diana*, annua 
 menstrui vegctabilis, Junius, ventus, our heaven, menstrual 
 blood, urine sublimed, menstruum, our water of sulphur, our 
 blessed stone, giving it infinite other names, which we mention 
 not here, but have by experience seen and known them to be 
 one and the same tiling. — Theat. Chem. p. 271, vol. 6. 
 
 The great mystery and treasure which we teach 
 you is, how you ought to make B (the ccelestial and ar- 
 dent spirit) acute, which we signify by C, wherefore give car, 
 for I know not how I ought to propound this doctrine, lest this 
 secret should be prostituted to all men. For all the philosophers 
 that ever have been, have absconded this secret under divers 
 figures, because without all doubt this is the thing, which is 
 the principal, or one of the principal keys, of this admirable 
 science. This I would have you certainly believe, that B hath 
 no solutive nature actually, but only potentially ; for if B were 
 not acuated by the way and means manifested to you, it would 
 have no power of dissolving. Some made it acute with vitriol, 
 which way is good enough ; some with niter ; some with cinna- 
 bar : some with these two, and some with all three. Some with 
 their earth, which way displeaseth me, because this way thick 
 unctuosity and ponderosity was introduced ; some have used 
 vegetables, as herbs, roots, flowers, and seeds known to you, 
 which have powerful mercuries in them ; for this reason it is, 
 that they which handled it this way, augmented rather its vege- 
 table form, than made it solutive ; some used flowers united for 
 acuition, which is the principal way, and of our intention, which 
 is found in the alphabetum apertoriale ; some not knowing the 
 true way of acuating this B, spent much time in preparing divers 
 waters, before they could put any body into B, as happened to us ' 
 in the beginning, seeking that practice, which is now manifested 
 to you. The mystery of this dissolutive part is difficult, and 
 tedious ; but having made B acute by this method, which we 
 now manifest concerning the solution of bodies, it is perfected 
 without trouble in a little time. I confess, when I was with vou 
 at that time wherein we made the first beginning of dfssolvmg, 
 we did not understand Raymond Lully in this dissolutive part ; 
 but having read him over again returning to our studies, prac- 
 tising, praying, and fasting, a perfect illumination of mind came 
 to us : this way therefore will I manifest uuder the seal of silence, 
 page '231, vol. 6, Theat Chcm. 
 
AMSL.EUS. 
 
 1. in the name of God, Amen. Know my dear son, that 
 before the creation of the world, the spirit of the Lord rested 
 upon the waters. Afterwards all things were created from water* 
 this water did God divide when he commanded part of the water 
 to become dry* which he called land ; the other part not con- 
 verted to land, called he water still ; which he preserved in the 
 same estate it was at first, that it might be serviceable to the dry 
 land in watering it, &c. For the earth cannot or will not yield 
 its fruits, unless moistened by the waters of its rivers. 
 
 2. Now in this discourse of mine, will I manifest to thee the 
 natural condition of the stone of philosophers, appareled with a 
 triple garment, even this stone of riches and charity, the stone 
 of relief from languishment. In which is contained every secret, 
 being called a divine mystery and gift of God, than which there 
 is nothing in this world more sublime. Therefore diligently ob- 
 serve what I say, viz. That 'tis appareled with a triple garment, 
 that is to sav, with a body, soul and spirit. Ncijw that this 
 body may be revived, give it its soul, and it will live. SchoL 
 Good master, I cannot understand your expressions, being too 
 
 obscure for me to comprehend lor whereas at first you told 
 
 me of but one stone, now you tell me there is three, viz. a cor- 
 poreal, animal and spiritual. Now if there is but one stone, 
 how can there be three? Mast, O my son, remove that cloud 
 
 of ignorance from you, and understand the truth you are to 
 
 understand that when I said there was but one stone, I meaned, 
 that there is but one thing of which it is made: now when this 
 bodv is reduced into its first matter, viz. into a water full of 
 waves, then 'tis called one thing, and a physical root, from 
 which infinite boughs are produced. It is also called a stone, 
 known to the principal philosophers who have it ; therefore from 
 that stone, viz. white and red earth, its soul is extracted by se- 
 paration and sublimation, that is* subtiliation. SchoL Is then 
 sublimation, which is subtiliation, absolutely necessary in this 
 work? Mast. Know my son, that our sublimation is' not com- 
 mon sublimation, but philosophic; for our sublimation is no 
 other than subtiliation, after such a manner, that the superfluities 
 of our stone in sublimation are removed, separating the non- 
 fixed parts, and converting them into fume and smoak from the 
 fixed. But this must be done with wisdom. lie then that 
 ri'ditlv sublimes subtilizes, and so his work is ended. 
 
 °8. Schoh But Sir, 1 have often heard you say, that the clo, 
 inents must be separated per mod urn scjjarationis, after the man. , 
 
Arid (eus. 32 V 
 
 nor of separation. Mast. Know my son, that all this is done in 
 tliis our sublimation, for it perfectly separates the elements, be* 
 coming then a certain white stone of three elements, viz. of earth, 
 water that is mercury, and of a soul. And know that ilex, that 
 i> earth, is the root and true ferment, and is called the muse of 
 all the elements. Aer, that is the soul, is penetrating. The spi- 
 rit, 'hat is mercury, is portans. And so you may reckon our 
 .sublimation, which is subtiliation, and they are called elements. 
 But that you may better understand me, our earth fixes the spirit* 
 that is its ferment the mercury; air, that is its soul, penetrates. 
 Its spirit, that ib mercury, cleanses and washes it from its impu- 
 rity, v. g When water from heaven upon earth, then begins the 
 matter to change black, which from the decoction of its sun, 
 (that :s, its fiye) that water, (that is, its spirit) is dried up, and so 
 it incomes while earth. 'J hns it is in our work. But there are 
 but Very few, uiv son, that understand that subtilation ; there- 
 fore thv v lab< in in vain who understand it not. 
 
 k Schol. Tell me, most learned Sir, can this work be done 
 from beginning to the end, on one furnace, and in one glass. — 
 M st. As for that, my son, its according to the quantity of mat- 
 ter you have at work; if you have much matter, then it cannot 
 be contained in one vessel, but many. If you do a mean quan- 
 tity, one furnace will suffice for our sublimation, i. e. subtiliation, 
 coagulation, fixation, inceration, solution, and white and red 
 tincture. Sc/iol. I am not a little cheered with what you have 
 already said tc me, having lor a long time sought alter it, but 
 never made trial. — But, good Sir, your kindness emboldens me 
 to desire the method of conjoining the elements again; for I 
 must needs confss I neither understand aright separation or 
 conjunction. Mast. I will very willingly answer you, therefore 
 mind what I say, and conceal it. After you have separated the 
 spirit and soul from its body, (understand the aerial essences,) 
 then return the quantitative form to its first principle, after the 
 manner of Union, and immediately the body will receive its 
 soul as nature will receive nature. Then proceed to its regimen, 
 and imbibe its water so long, till its earth or quintessence flow 
 a-top, and has drunk up its water; then may est thou command 
 its earth to encrease. ScJi<>t. Thanks, good Sir, I desire further 
 to know, whether presently after that earth, which you call its 
 quintessence, has flowed atop, it will tinge ? Mast. I'll satisfy 
 your desire, son : that conduction which is called the quintes- 
 sence is a simple bod}', which contains not the motions of the 
 elements, as other elementary bodies do. The reason is, because 
 that body of the elements is called the super- addition, as being 
 extracted from them. If you would arrive to the perfection of 
 the elixir, so that it may be of such great power as to transub- 
 stantiate every thing conjoined to ha self, you must by no means 
 
32S Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 do so, unless hr often repeating its solution. — Such is the man- 
 ner of our solution. 
 
 5. After our stone is by virtue of our fire become most pure 
 and white, and without any dross, then convert it into a subtile 
 powder in one stone, and dissolve with our most bright and C03- 
 lestiaj vinegar. Then is it dissolved into a most clear, physical; 
 and (as it were) fountain water. Then after our stone is thus 
 dissolved, distil according to our way of distillation, and coajjii- 
 late in the fire by a gentle heat. And lastly, after coagulation, 
 calcine as it ought, as I have often told you: and know that in 
 the first dissolution of the stone, one part converts an hundred 
 parts into pure gold. And this is our solution, the secret of 
 secrets. Schol. Loving master, how great are the works 
 of God \ And how gracious is he to bestow such gifts on his 
 children ! For me, I cannot but give you eternal thanks, who 
 am by your instruction brought to the end of the work. I have 
 no need now any more to be sad, for my heart is replenished with 
 alljov. I must needs confess how very much they err, who go 
 aiot this way to \-ork; for some work on salts, aloms, borax, hair, 
 urine, shecps blood, on aqua fortis, on spirits extracted from 
 «Xold, arsenic, magnesia, auripigment, honey, fat, &c. nor can 
 I but pity them, knowing thai I myself once worked on them. 
 But now I consider what you have been pleased to say, viz. — 
 That the stone is extracted alone from the mercury of the philo- 
 sophers, which mercury is physical not vulgar, as that is which 
 is dug out of the earth. But our mercury contains a body, soul 
 and spirit, as you, worthy Sir, have taught me at the beginning 
 of this discourse. Let me intreat you then to satisfy me in one 
 point more, and by your benignity, I have everything sufficient 
 to proceed as I desire, that is, viz. Whether in multiplication of 
 the stone, the stone is not to be begun again from the \ery be- 
 sinning, and to be so loasr and tedious a time about as at first, 
 or how, ? Mast. I will answer you to this, two ways, theologi- 
 cally and physically. First, theologically. In Genesis, Chap. G, 
 says God, Let us make man after our similitude and image. But 
 he did not therefore create man alone to increase and multiply. — 
 No (he did not, nor could he,) but to that intent he created a 
 woman also, that retaining the seed of generation they might 
 multiply, till the end of the world. In like manner it is also in 
 our Magistery, for sol retains its sulphur, (i. e. its seed,) to ge- 
 nerate gold according to its Nature, as Luna her seed, (i. e. her 
 sulphur,) to generate silver. Such is our and the philosophers 
 sulphur, which is not found upon the earth, unless in these bo- 
 dies from which it is extracted. Our mercury then is the fer- 
 mentation of this sulphur; for from its seed is to be had the fruit 
 of its ferments. It is measured, and the fruit thereof is gathered, 
 and so without ceasing for ever. Schol. Pray Sir, let me know 
 more fully. 
 
 
Arish-cus. 329 
 
 Mast. Very willingly, my son, Thou shalt then multiply the 
 stone after its multiplication, R. its weight of the extracted 
 water, and well mix, (de servo) well washed of its regimem, and 
 this without confluxion; and be careful in this composition, lest 
 it conflux then after commixion, place wisely in balneo, (i. e. in 
 a gentle heat,) then dissolve all together in the milky water, which 
 water is lac virginis, and acetum philosophorum ; and let this be 
 done for the space of one month, and with discretion ; then you 
 may permit it to elevate towards the heavens, and become vola- 
 tile*. Afterwards that you see it beautified by such an elevation, 
 command it to descend into the earth, and then it will be a fluid 
 and flowing stone, (& hoc in gradu regiminis mensura) and fhen 
 will your stone be multiplied. Then divide into two parts, re- 
 serve one for present use, the other for augmentation ; but first 
 of all make the stone pure and fixed by ascention, and the stone 
 fixed by descending into the earth. Then dissolve the fixed in 
 pure and clear distilled vinegar so Long, until it convert mercury, 
 and all other imperfect metals into sol and lune (much excelling 
 the common sort,) so wilt thou have the honour and glory of 
 this world, and all obscurity will fly from thee. Therefore, my 
 son, I beg one thing from thee, viz. That from thy whole heart 
 thou love God, who hath by me, unworthy of the least of his 
 mercies, bestowed the knowledge of this magistery on thee. 
 
 s s 
 
ROGER BACON. 
 
 Root of the World. 
 
 1. The bodies of all natural things being as well perfect as im- 
 perfect from the original of time, and compounded of a qua- 
 ternity of elements or natures, viz. fire, air, earth, water, arc 
 conjoined by God Almighty in a perfect unity. In these four 
 el ements is hid the secret of philosophers. The earth and wa- 
 ter give corporeity and visibility ; the fire and air, the spirit 
 and invisible power, which cannot be seen or touched but in the 
 other two. When these four elements are conjoined, and made 
 to exist in one, they become another thing ; whence it is evi- 
 dent, that all things in nature are composed of the said elements, 
 being altered and changed. 
 
 2. So saith Rhasis, simple generation, and natural trans- 
 formation is the operation of the elements. But it is necessary, 
 that the elements be of one kind, and not divers, to wit, simple: 
 for otherwise neither action nor passion could happen between 
 them. So saith Aristotle, there is no true generation, but of 
 things agreeing iu nature. So that things be not made but ac- 
 cording to their natures. The elder' or oak trees will not bring 
 forth pears; nor can you gather grapes of thorns, or figs of 
 thistles, things bring not forth, but only their like, or what 
 agrees with them in nature, each tree its own fruit. 
 
 3. Our secret therefore is to be drawn only out of those things 
 in which it is. You cannot extract it out'of stones or salt, or 
 other heterogene bodies : neither salt nor alum enters into our 
 mystery. But as Theophrastus saith, the philosophers disguise 
 with salts and alums, the places of the elements. If you prudently 
 desire to make our elixir, you must extract it from a mineral 
 wot. For as Geber saith, you must obtain the perfection of the 
 matter from the seeds thereof. Sulphur and mercury are the 
 mineral roots, and natural principles, upon which nature herself 
 acts and works in the mines and caverns of the earth, which are 
 viscous water, and subtil spirit running through the pores, veins, 
 and bowels of the mountains. Of them is produced a vapour or 
 cloud, which is the substance and body of metals united, as- 
 cending, and reverberating upon its own proper earth, (as Ge- 
 ber sheweth) even till by a temperate digestion through the 
 space of a thousand years, the matter is fixed, and converted into 
 a mineral stone, of which metals are made. 
 
Bacon. 331 
 
 4. In the same manner sol, which is our sulphur, being 
 reduced into mercury by mercury, which is the viscous water 
 made thick, and mixed with its proper earth, by a temperate 
 decoction and digestion, ariseth the vapour or cloud, agreeing 
 111 nature and substance with that in the bowels of the earth. — 
 This afterwards is turned into most subtil water, which is called 
 the soul, spirit., and tincture, as we shall hereafter shew. When 
 this water is returned into the earth, out of which it was drawn, 
 and every way t preads through or is mixed with it, as its pro- 
 per womb, it becomes fixed. Thus the wise man does that by 
 art in a short time, which nature cannot perform in less than 
 the revolution of a thousand years. Yet notwithstanding, it is 
 not we that make the metal, but nature herself that does it. — 
 Nor do or can we change one thing into another ; but it is na- 
 ture that changes them. We are no more than mere servants 
 in the work Therefore Med us in Turba Philosophorum, saithj 
 our stone naturally contains in it the whole tincture. It is per- 
 fectly made in the mountains and body of the earth; yet of itself, 
 without art, it has no life or power whereby to move the 
 elements. 
 
 5. Choose then the natural minerals, to which, by the advice 
 of Aristotle, add art ; for nature generates metalline bodies of 
 the vapours, clouds, or fumes of sulphur and mercury, to which 
 all the philosophers agree. Know therefore the principles upon 
 which art works, to wit, the principles or beginnings of metals ; 
 for he that knows not these things shall never attain to the per- 
 fection of the work. Geber saith, he who has not in himself the 
 knowledge of the natural principles, is far from attaining the 
 perfection of the art ; being ignorant of the mineral root upon 
 which he should work. Geber also farther saith, that our art 
 is only to be understood and learned through the true wisdom 
 and knowledge of natural things : that is, with a wisdom search- 
 ing into the roots and natural principles of the matter. Yet saith 
 he, my son, I shew thee a secret, though thou knowest the prin- 
 ciples, yet therein thou canst not follow nature in all things. — 
 Herein some have erred, in essaying to follow nature in all her 
 properties and differences. • 
 
 6. The second principle of our stone is called mercury, which 
 some philosophers call, as it is simple of itself, a stone. One 
 of them said, this is a stone, and no stone, and that without 
 which, nature never performs, any thing ; which enters into, or 
 is swallowed up of other bodies, and also swallows them up. 
 This is simply argent vive, which contains the essential power, 
 which explicates the tincture of our elixir or philosophers stone. 
 Therefore saith Rhasis, such a thing may be* made of it which 
 exceedeth the highest perfection of nature. For it is the root 
 of metals, harmonizes with them, and is the medium that expli- 
 cates and conjoins the tinctures. For it swallows up that wltich 
 
332 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 is of its own nature and production ; but rejects what is fo- 
 reign and heterogenic : being of an uniform substance in all its 
 parts. Wherefore our stone is called natural, or mineral, ve- 
 getable, and animal, for it is generated in the mines, and is the 
 Biother or womb of all metals, and by projection converts into- 
 metals ; it springs or grows like a vegetable, and abounds with 
 lifelike an animal, by piercing with its tincture, like spirit and 
 life, every where, and through all particles. 
 i 7. Morien saith, this stone is no stone that can generate a 
 jiving creature. Another saith, it is cast out upon the dung- 
 hill as a vile thing, and is hidden from the eyes or understand- 
 ings of ignorant men. AlsoinLibro Speculi Alchemiae, it is said, 
 our stone is a thing rejected, but found in dunghills (i. e. in 
 putrefaction, or the matter being putrified) containing in itself 
 line four elements^ over which it triumphs, and is certainly to 
 be perfected by human industry. Some make mercury of lead, 
 $hus : — R. lead, melt it six or seven times, and quench it in 
 salt armoniac dissolved, of which take three lb. ; of sal vitriol, 
 one lb. ; of borax, half lb. mix, and digest forty days in igne phi- 
 losophorum. So have you mercury, not at all differing from the 
 natural. But that is not fit for our work, as the mineral i*, 
 Jf you have any understanding, this caution may sufficiently in- 
 struct you. 
 
 8. This is a great and certain truth, that the clean ought to 
 be separated from the unclean ; for nothing can give that which 
 it has not. Fot the pure substance is of one simple essence, void 
 of all heterogeneity ; but that which is impure and unclean, con- 
 sists of heterogene parts, is not simple, but compounded (to wit 
 ■of pure and impure) and apt to putrify and corrupt. There- 
 fore let nothing enter into your composition, which is alien or fo- 
 reign to the matter, as all impurity is; for nothing goes to. the 
 composition of our stone, that proceedeth not from it neither in- 
 part nor in whole. If any strange or foreign thing be mixed with; 
 it, it is immediately corrupted,- and by that corruption your work 
 becomes frustrate. 
 
 9. The citrine bodies, as sol, &c. you must purge by calci- 
 nation or cementation; and it is then purged or purified if it be 
 line and florid. The metal being well cleansed, beat it into thin 
 plates or leaves* a3 is leaf gold, and reserve them for use- The 
 white liquor, as mercury, contains two superfluities, which must 
 necessarily be removed from it, viz. its fetid carthiness, which 
 hinders its fusion; and its humidity, which causes its flying- 
 1 he earthiness is thus removed. Put it into a marble or wooden 
 mortar, with its equal weight of pure fine and dry salt, and » 
 little vinegar. Grind all with the pestal, till nothing of the mat- 
 ter appears, bat the whole salt becomes very black. Wash this 
 whole matter with pure water, till the salt is dissolved ; thisfilthy 
 water decant, and put to the mercury again as much more sate 
 
Bacon. 333 
 
 and vinegar, grinding it as before, and washing it with fair 
 water, which work so often repeat, till the water comes clear 
 from it, and that the mercury remains pure, height and clear, 
 like a Venice looking-glass, and of a celestial colour. Then 
 strain it through a linen cloth three or tour times doubled, two 
 or three times, into a glass vessel, till it be dry. The propor- 
 tion of the parts is as '24 to 1. There are 24 hours in a 
 natural day, to winch add one, and it is 25, to wit, the rising of 
 the sun. To understand this, is wisdom, as Gebcr saith. — 
 Endeavour through the whole work, to overpower the mercury 
 in commixtion. Rhasis saith, those bodies come nearest to per- 
 feciion, whieh contain most argent vive. He tardier saith, that 
 the philosophers hid nothing but weight and measure, to wit, 
 the proportions of the ingredients, which is clear, for that none 
 of them all agree one with another therein, whieh causeth great 
 error. Though the matters be well prepared and well mixed, 
 without the proportions or quantities of the things be just, and ac- 
 cording to the reason of the work, you will miss of the truth, or 
 the end, and lose all your labour; you will not indeed bring any 
 thing to perfection. And this is evident in the examination : 
 when there is a transmutation of the body, or that the body 
 is changed, then let it be put into the cineritium or test, and then 
 it will be consumed, or otherwise remain, according as the 
 proportions are more or less than just ; or just as they ought 
 to be. If they be right and just, according to the reason of that, 
 your body will be incorruptible and remain firm, without any 
 loss, through all essays and trials ; you can do nothing in this 
 work without the true knowledge of this thing, whose foundation 
 is natural matter, purity of substance, and right reason or pro- 
 portion 
 
 10. Euclid the philosopher, and a man of great under- 
 standing, advises to work in nothing but in sol and mercury; 
 which joined together, make the wonderful and admirable phi- 
 losophers stone, as Rhasis saith. White and red both pro- 
 ceed from one root ; no other bodies coming between them. 
 But yet the gold, wanting mercury, is hindered from working 
 according to his power. Therefore know that no stone, nor 
 pearl, or other foreign thing, but this our stone, belongs to 
 this work. You must therefore labour about the dissolution of 
 the citrine body, to reduce it into its first matter. For as 
 Rhasis saith, we dissolve gold, that it may be reduced into its 
 first nature or matter that is into mercury. For being broken 
 and made one, they have in themselves the whole tincture both 
 of the agent and patient. Wherefore saith Rhasis, make a 
 marriage (that is a conjunction) between the red man, and his 
 white wife, and you shall have the whole secret. 
 
 11. The same saith Merlin .- if you marry the white woman 
 to the red man, they will be conjoined and embrace one another, 
 
334 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 and become impregnated. By themselves they are dissolved, 
 and by themselves they bring forth what they have conceived, 
 whereby the two are made but one body. And truly our dis- 
 solution, is only the reducing the hard body into a liquid form, 
 and into the nature of argent vive, that the saltness of the sul- 
 phur may be diminished Without our brass then be broken, 
 ground, and gently and prudently managed, till it will be re- 
 duced from its hard and dense body, into a thin and subtil spirit, 
 you labour in vain. 
 
 12. And therefore in the Speculum Alchemias, it is said, 
 the first work is the reducing the body into water, that is, into 
 mercury. And this the philosophers called dissolution, which 
 is the foundation of the whole art. This dissolution makes the 
 body of an evident liquidity, and absolute subtilty ; and this is 
 done by a gentle grinding, and a soft and continued assation or 
 digestion. Wherefore saith Rhasis, the work of making our 
 stone is, that the matter be put into its proper vessel, and con- 
 tinually decocted and digested, until such time as it wholly as- 
 cends, or sublimes to the top thereof. This is declared in 
 Speculum Philosophorum. The philosophers stone is converted 
 from a vile thing, into a precious substance; for the semen solaro 
 is cast into the matrix of mercury, by copulation or conjunction, 
 whereby in process of time they be made one. Also, that when 
 it is compounded with the like, and mercurizated, then it shall 
 be the springing bud. For the soul, the spirit, and the 
 tincture may then be drawn out of them by the help of a 
 gentle fire. 
 
 13. Therefore saith Aristotle, the true matters or principles 
 are not possible to be transformed or changed by the most 
 learned in alcliemie, except they be reduced into their first mat- 
 ter. And Geber saith, all ought to be made of mercury only ; 
 for when sol is reduced to its first original or matter, by mer- 
 curv, then nature embraceth nature. And then it will be easy 
 to draw out the subtil and spiritual substance thereof; of which 
 Alkindus saith, take the things from their mines, and exact or 
 subtilize them, and reduce them to their roots, or first matter, 
 which is lumen luminum. And therefore, except you cast out 
 the redness with the whiteness, you will never come to the ex- 
 alted glory of the redness. For Rhasis saith, he that knows 
 how to convert sol into lima, knows how to convert luna into sol. 
 Therefore saith Pandophilus, in Turba Philosophorum, he that 
 prudently draws the virtue or power from sol, and his shadow, 
 shall obtain a great secret. Again it is said, without sol, and 
 his shadow, no tinging Virtue or power is generated. And 
 whosoever it is that shall endeavour to make a tinging or co- 
 louring tincture, without these things, and by any other means, 
 he errs, and goes astray from truth; to his own hurt, loss and 
 detriment, 
 
Bacon. 335 
 
 14-. The vessel for our stone is but one, in which the whole 
 magistery or elixir is performed and perfected ; this is a cu- 
 curbit, whose bottom is round like an egg, or an urinal, smooth 
 within, that it may ascend and descend the more easily, covered 
 "with a limbeck round and smooth every where, and not very 
 high, and whose bottom is round also like an egg. Its largeness 
 ought to be such, that the medicine or matter may not fill above 
 a fourth part of it, made of strong double glass, clear and trans- 
 parent, that you may see through it, all the colours appertaining 
 to, and appearing in the work; in which the spirit moving con- 
 tinually, cannot pass or fly away. Let it also be so closed, that 
 as nothing can go out of it, so nothing can enter into it ; as 
 Lucas saith, lute the vessel strongly with lutum sapiential, that 
 nothing mavget in or go out of it. For if the flowers, or matter 
 subliming, should breath out, or any strange air or matter 
 enter in, yonr work will be spoiled and lost. 
 
 15. And tliough the philosophers oftentimes say, that the 
 matter is to be put into the vessel, and closed up fast, yet it is 
 sufficient for the operator, once to put the said matter in, once 
 to close it up, and so to keep it even to the very perfection and 
 finishing of the work. If these things be often repeated, the 
 work will be spoiled. Therefore saith Khasis, keep your vessel 
 continually close, encompassed with dew, which demonstrates 
 what kind of heat you are to use, and so well luted that none of 
 the flowers, or that which sublimes, may get out, or vanish in 
 vapour or fume. And in Speculum Alchemiae, it is said, let th« 
 philosophers stone remain shut within the vessel strongly, 
 until such time that it has drunk up the humidity ; and 
 let it be nourished with a continual heat till it becomes 
 white. 
 
 16. Also another philosopher, in his Breveloquium saith, 
 *s there are three things in a naturalegg, viz. the shell, the 
 white, and the yolk, so likewise there are three things corres- 
 ponding to the phi fosophers stone, the glass vessel, the white 
 liquor, and the citrine body. And as of the yolk and white, 
 with a little heat, a bird is made, (the shell being whole, until 
 the coming forth' or hatching of the chicken ;) so is it in the 
 work of the philosophers stone. Of the citrine body, and white 
 liquor, with a temperate or gentle heat is made the avis hermetis, 
 or philosophers bird. 
 
 17. The vessel being well and perfectly closed, and never so 
 much as once opened till the perfection or end of the work ; so 
 that you see the vessel is to be kept close, that the spirit may 
 not get out and vanish. Therefore saith Rhasis, keep thy ves- 
 sel and its junctures close and firm, for the conservation of the 
 spirit. And another saith, close thy vessel well, and as you are 
 not to cease from the work, or let it cool, so neither are you to 
 make too much haste, neither by too great a heat, nor too soon 
 
336 ^Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 opening of it. You must take special care that the humidity, 
 ■which is the spirit, gets not out of the vessel ; for then you will 
 have nothing but a dead bod}' remaining, and the work will come 
 to nothing. Socrates saith, grind it with most sharp vinegar, 
 till it grows thick, and be careful that the vinegar be not turned 
 into funic, and perish. 
 
 IS. The philosophers have described in their books a two- 
 fold fire, a uiojst and a dry. The moist fire they called the warm 
 horse belly : in the which, so long as the humidity remains, the 
 heat is retain ed ; but the humidity being consumed, the heat 
 vanishes and ceases, which heat being small, seldom lasts above 
 five or six days ; but it may be conserved and renewed, by cast- 
 ing upon it many tunes urine mixed with salt. Of this fire speaks 
 Phiiares the philosopher : the property of the fire of the horse 
 belly, is, not to destroy with its dryness the oil, but augments 
 it with its humidity ; whereas other lire would be apt to con- 
 sume it. 
 
 19. Senior the philosopher saith, dig a sepulchre and bury 
 the woman with her man, or husband, in horse-dung, or balneo 
 of the same heat, until such time as they be intimately conjoined 
 or united. Altudonus the philosopher saith likewise, you must 
 hide your medicine in horse-dung, which is the /ire of the phi- 
 Josophers ; for this dung is hot, moist, and dark, having a hu- 
 midity in itself, and an excellent light, or whiteness. There is 
 no other tire comparable to it in the world, excepting only the 
 natural heat of a man, or woman's body. This is a secret.. 
 The vapour of the sea not burned, the blood of man, and the 
 blood of tire grape is our red fire. 
 
 20. The dry fire is the fire of the bodies themselves; and the 
 inflammability of every thing able to be burned. Now the go- 
 vernment of these fires is thus : the medicine of the white ought 
 to be put into the moist fire, until the complement of the white- 
 ness shall appear in the vessel. For a gentle fire }s the conser- 
 vation ot the humidity. Therefore saith Pandolphus, you are 
 to understand that the body is to be dissolved with the spirit; — 
 with which they are mixed by an easjr and gentle decoction, so 
 that the body may be spiritualized by it. Ascanius also saith, 
 a gentle fire gives health, but too much or great a heat will 
 not conserve or unite the elements, but on the contrary divide 
 them, waste the humidity, and destroy the whole work. 
 
 HI. Therefore saith Rhasis, be very diligent and careful in 
 the sublimation and liquefaction of the matter, that you increase 
 not your fire too much, whereby the water may ascend to the 
 highest part of the vessel. For then wanting a place of re- 
 frigeration, it will stick fast there, whereby the sulphur of the 
 elements will not be perfected. For indeed in this work, it is 
 necessary that they be many times elevated, or sublimed, and 
 depressed again. And the gentle or temperate fire is that 
 
Baccm. 337 
 
 cnl\ which completes il.c mixture, makes thick, and perfects 
 fi.e work. Therefore saith Bolulphus, that gentle fire, 
 which is the white fire of the philosophers, is the greatest and 
 moai principal matter of the operation of the elements, Khasis 
 qlso saith, burn, our lu-ass with a gentle fire, such as is that of a 
 lien for tbehafcening of.eggs, until the body be broken, and the 
 vine tare extracted, for with an easy decoction, the water is 
 congeale^, and the humidity which eorrupteth, drawn out; — 
 and i.n drying; the "burning is avoided. The happy prosecution 
 of the whole work, consists in the exact temperament of the fire : 
 therefore .beware of too much heat, lest you come to solution 
 before (he time, viz. before the matter is ripe ; for that will 
 brufg you to despair of attaining the end of your hopes. — 
 
 ' » » • 1 1 • 11 Jl 
 
 Wherefore saith he, beware of too much fire, for it it be kindled 
 .before the time, the matter will be red, before it comes to ripe- 
 ness and perfection, whereby it becomes like an abortion, or the 
 unripe fruit of the womb ; whereas it ought to be first white, 
 then red, like as the fruits of a tree, a cherry is first white, then 
 red, when it. comes to its perfection. 
 
 22. And that he might indig-itate a certain time, of decoction, 
 he saith, that the dissolution of the body, and coagulation .or 
 congelation of the spirit, ought to be done, by .an* easy de- 
 coction in a gentic fire, and "a moist putrefaction, for the space 
 of one hundred and forty days. To which Orsolen assents saying, 
 in the beginning of the mixture, you ought to mix the elements, 
 being sincere and made pure, clean, and rectified with' a gentle 
 fire, by a slow and natural digestion, and to beware of too much 
 fire, till you know they are conjoined. Bonellus also saith, 
 that by a temperate and gentle heat continued, you must make 
 the pure and perfect body. 
 
 23. You ought to put "on courage, resolution, and constancy, 
 in attempting this great work, IcsX you err, and be deceived, 
 sometimes following or doing one thing, and then another. 
 For the knowledge of this art consisteth not in the multiplicity, 
 or great number of things, but in unity; our stone is but one, 
 the matter is one, and the vessel is one : the government is one, 
 and the disposition is one. The whole art and work thereof is 
 one, and begins in one manner, and in one manner it is 
 finished. 
 
 24. Notwithstanding the philosophers have subtily delivered 
 themselves, and clouded their instructions with amigmatical and 
 typical phrases and words, to the end that their art might not 
 only be hidden and so continued, but also be had in the greater 
 veneration. Thus they advise to decoct, to commix, and to 
 conjoin ; to sublime, to bake, to grind, and to congeal ; to 
 make equal, to putrify, to make white, and to make red ; of all 
 which things, the order, management, and way of working is all 
 pne, which is only to decoct. And therefore to grind is to de- 
 
 Tt 
 
338 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 coct, of which you are not to be weary, saith Rhnsis : digest 
 continually, but not in haste, that is, net with too great a fire ; 
 cease not, or make no intermission in your work, follow not the 
 artifice of sophisters, but pursue your operation, to the comple- 
 ment and perfection thereof. 
 
 25. Also in the Rosary it is advised, to be cautious and 
 watchful, lest your work prove dead or imperfect, and to con- 
 tinue it with a long decoction. Close up well thy vessel, and 
 pursue to the end. For there is no generation of things, but by 
 putrefaction, by keeping out the air, and a continual internal 
 motion, with an equal and gentle heat. Remember when yen 
 »re in your work, all the signs and appearances which arise in 
 every decoction, for they are necessary to be known and under- 
 stood in order to the perfecting the matter. You must be sure to 
 be incessant and continual in your operation, with a gentle fire, 
 to the appearing of the perfect whiteness, which cannot be if 
 you open the vessel, and let out the spirit. From whence it is 
 evident, that if you manage your matter ill, or your fire be too 
 great, it ought to be extinguished. Therefore saith Rhasis, pur- 
 sue your business incessantly, beware of instability of mind, 
 and too great expectations, by a too hasty and precipitate pur- 
 suit, lest you lose your end. But as another philosopher snith, 
 digest, and digest again, and be not weary ; the most exquisite 
 and industrious artist can never attain to perfection by too much 
 baste, but only by a long and continual decoction and digestion, 
 for so nature works, and art must in some measure imitate 
 nature. 
 
 2C T lis then is the thing, that the vessel with the medicine 
 be put in o a moist fire; to wit, that the middle or one half of the 
 vessel be in a moist fire, or balneo, of equal heat with horse- 
 dung, and the other half out of the fire, that you may daily look 
 into it. And in about the space of forty days, the superficies or 
 upper part of the medicine will appear black as melted pitch ; 
 and this is the sign, that the citrine body is truly converted into 
 mercury. Therefore saith Bonellus, when you see the black- 
 ness of the water to appear, be assured that the body is made 
 liquid. The same thing sail lr Rhasis ; the disposition or ope- 
 ration of our stone is one, which is, that it be put into its 
 vessel and carefully decocted and digested, till such time a& 
 the whole body be dissolved and ascended. And in another 
 place he saith, continue it upon a temperate or gentle balneo, 
 so long till it be perfectly dissolved into water, and made im- 
 palpable, and that the whole tincture be extracted into the 
 blackness, which is the sign of its dissolution. Lucas also 
 assureth us, that when we see the blackness of the water in all 
 things to appear, that then the body is dissolved, or made liquid. 
 This blackness the philosophers called the first conjunction ; — 
 for then the male and female are joined together, and it is the 
 sign of perfect mixtion. 
 
 
Bacon. 339 
 
 27. Yet notwithstanding, the whole tincture is not drawn 
 out together ; but it goes out every day, by little and little, until 
 by a great length of time, it is perfectly extracted, and made 
 complete. And that part of the body which is dissolved, ever 
 ascends or rises to the top, above all the other undissolved matter 
 which remains yet at bottom. Therefore saith Avicen, that 
 which is spiritual in the vessel ascends up to the top of the mat- 
 ter, and that which is yet gross and thick, remains in the bot- 
 tom of the vessel. This blackness is called among the philoso* 
 phers by many names, to wit, the fires, the soul, a cloud, the 
 raven's-head, a coal, our oil, aqua vitae, the tincture of redness, 
 the shadow of the sun, black bras.;, water of sulphur, and by 
 many other names. 
 
 °28. And this blackness is that which conjoineth the body with 
 the spirit. Then saith Rhasis, the government of the fire being 
 observed for the space of forty days, both (to wit the white 
 liquor, and the cilrine body) are made a permanent or fixed 
 water, covered over with blackness ; which blackness, if rightly 
 ordered, cometh to its perfection in forty days space. Of which 
 another philosopher saith, so long as the obscure blackness ap- 
 peareth, the woman hath the dominion ; and this is the first 
 conception or strength of our stone ; for if it be not first black, 
 it shall never be either white or red. Avicen saith, that heat 
 causeth blackness first, in a moist body; then the humidity 
 being consumed, it putteth off or loseth its blackness ; and as 
 the heat encreaseth, "or is continued, so it grows white. Lastly, 
 by a more inward heat, it is calcined into ashes, as the philoso- 
 phers teach. 
 
 29. In the first decoction, which is called putrefaction, our 
 stone is made ail black, to wit, a black earth, by the drawing 
 out of its humidity ; and in that blackness, the whiteness is 
 hidden. And when the humidity is reverted upon the black- 
 ness again, and by a continued soft and gentle digestion is made 
 fixed with its earth, then it becomes white. In this whiteness, 
 the redness is hidden ; and when it is decocted and digested by 
 augmentation and continuance of the fire, that earth is changed 
 into redness, as we shall hereafter teach. 
 
 30. Now let us return to the black matter in its vessel, con- 
 tinually closed. Let this vessel I say, stand continually in the 
 moist fire, till such time as the white colour appears, like to a 
 white moist salt. The colour is called by the philosophers 
 arsenic, and sal armoniac ; and some others call it, the thing 
 without which no profit is to be had in the work. But inward 
 whiteness appearing in the work, then is there a perfect con- 
 junction, and copulation, of the bodies in this stone, which is 
 indissoluble. And then is fulfilled that saying of Hermes, the 
 thing which is above, is as that which is beneath; and that 
 which is beneath, is as that which is above, to perform the 
 
340 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 mystery of this matter. Ph ares saith, seeing tke whiidaess ap- 
 pearing above in the vessel, you may be certain, that in that 
 whiteness, the redness lies hid ; but before it becomes white? 
 you will find many colours to appear. Therefore saitlj Pio- 
 medes, decoct the male and the (female or) vapour together, 
 until such time as they shall become one dry body; for except 
 they be dry, the divers or various colours will not appear.— 
 For it will ever be black, whilst that humidity or moisture has* 
 the dominion; but if that be once wasted, then il emits divers 
 colours, after many and several ways. 
 
 31. And many times it shall be changed from colour to colour,, 
 till such times as it comes fo the fixed whiteness. Syp.bn saith, 
 all the colours of the world' will appear' in it when the black 
 humidity is dried up. But value none of these colours, for they 
 be not the true tincture : yea many times it becomes citrine and 
 reddish, and many times it is dried, and becomes liquid again, 
 before the whiteness will appear. Now all this while the spirit 
 is not perfectly joined with the body, nor will it be joined or fixed 
 but in the white colour. Astanus saith, between the white and 
 the red appear all- colours, even to the utmost imagination. — 
 For the varieties of which the philosophers hove given various 
 names, and almost innumerable ; some for obscuring it, and 
 some for envy sake. The cause of the appearance of such variety 
 of colours in the operation of your medicine, is from the exten- 
 sion of the blackness; for as much as blackness and whiteness 
 be the extreme colours, ail the other colours are but means bc- 
 tween them. Therefore as often as any degree or portion of 
 blackness descends, so often another and another colour appears,, 
 until it comes to whiteness. 
 
 32. Now concerning; the ascending and descending of the mc- 
 dicine, Hermes saith, it ascends from the earth into heaven, 
 and again descends from heaven to the earth, whereby it may 
 receive both the superior strength, and the inferior. Moreover 
 this you are to observe, that if between the blackness and the 
 whiteness, there should appear the red or citrine colour, you are 
 not to look upon it or esteem it, for it is not fixed, but will va- 
 nish away. There cannot indeed be any perfect and fixed red- 
 ness, without it be first white. Wherefore saith Rhasis, no man 
 can come from the first to the third, but by the second. From 
 whence it is evident, that whiteness must always be first looked 
 Jbr, after the blackness, and bclbre the redness ; for as much as 
 it is the complement of the whole work. Then after this white- 
 ness appears, it shall not be changed into any true or stable co- 
 lour, but into the red* Thus have we taught you to make the 
 white; it remains now that we elucidate the red. 
 
 33. The mutters then of the white and red, among themselves 
 differ not in respect to their essence; but the red elixir needs 
 more subiilization, and longer digestion, and a hotter hre in tlie 
 
Bacon, 341 
 
 course of tlie operation, than the white, bec?mso the end of 
 {lie white work, is the beginning of the red work ; and that 
 which is complete in the one, is to be begun in the other. — 
 Therefore without you make the white elixir first, make the mat- 
 ter become first white, you can never come to the red elixir, 
 fhat which is indeed the true red : which how it is to be per- 
 formed, we shall briefly shew! The medicine for the red ought 
 to be put into our moist tire, until the White colour aforesaid 
 appear, a iter wards take out the vessel from the fire, and put it 
 into another pot with sifted ashes made moist with water, to 
 about half lull, in which let it stand up to the middle thereof* 
 making under the earthen pot a temperate dry fire, and that 
 continually, but the heat of this dry fire ought to be double 
 at the least, to what ft was before, or than the heat of the moist 
 fire, by the help of this heat, the white medicine receiveth the 
 admirable tincture of the redness, 
 
 34. You cannot err if you con I inuc the dry fire. Therefore 
 Rhasis saith, with a dry fire, and a dry calcination, decoct the 
 dry matter, tiil such time as it becomes in colour, like to Ver- 
 million or cinabar. To the which you shall not afterwards put 
 to complete it, either water, or oil, or vinegar, or any other 
 thing. DecoCt the red matter, or medicine ; the more red it is, 
 the more worth it is, and the more decocted it is, the more red 
 it is. Therefore that which is more decocted, is the more pre- 
 cious and valuable. 
 
 35. Therefore you must burn it without fear in a dry fire, 
 until such time as it is clothed with a most glorious red, or a pure 
 vermillion colour. For which cause Epictus the philosopher 
 saith, decoct the white in a red hot furnace, until such time as it be 
 clothed with a purple glory. Do not cease, though the redness 
 be somewhat long, betbre it appears. For as I have said, the 
 fire bemg augmented, the first colour of whiteness will change 
 into red. Also when the citrine shall first appear, among those 
 colours, yet that colour is not fixed. But not long after it, 
 the red colour shall begin to appear, which ascending to the 
 height, your work will indeed be complete. As Hermes saith in 
 Turba, between the whiteness and the redness, one colour only 
 appears, to wit, citrine, but it changes from the less to the more. 
 Maria, also saith, when you have the true white, then follows 
 the false and citrine colour ; and at last the perfect redness itself. 
 This is the glory and the beauty of the whole world. 
 
 36. Our medicine, or clixi.-, is multiplied after a two-fold 
 manner, viz. 1. By dissolution. 2. By fermentation. By dis- 
 solution, it is augmented two manner of ways, first, by a greater 
 or more intense heat ; secondly, by dew, or the heat of a 
 balneum roris. The dissolution of heat is, that you take 
 medicine put into a glazed vessel, or boil or decoct it in pur 
 moist fire for seven days or more, until the medicine be dissolved 
 into water, which will be without much trouble. The dissolution 
 
342 Alchemical Tixatiscs. 
 
 by dew, or balneum roris, is, that you take the glass vessel 
 with the medicine in it, and hang it in a brazen or copper pot, 
 with a narrow inouth, in which there must be water boiling, the 
 mouth of the vessel being in the mean season shut, that the as- 
 cending vapours of the boiling water may dissolve the medicine. 
 But note, that the boiling water ought not to touch the glass 
 vessel, which contains the medicine, by three or four inches, 
 and this dissolution possibly may be done in two or three days. 
 After the medicine is dissolved, take it from the fire, and let it 
 cool, to be fixed, to be congealed, and to be made bard or 
 dried ; and so let it be dissolved many times; for so much the 
 often er it is dissolved, so much the more strong, and the more 
 perfect it shall be. Therefore Bonellus saith, when the ass, 
 brass, or laten is burned, and this burning many times reiterated, 
 it is made better than it was ; and this solution is the subtiliza- 
 tion of the medicine, and the sublimation of the virtues 
 thereof. 
 
 37. So that the oftener it is sublimed and made subtil, so 
 much the more virtue it shall receive; and the more pene- 
 trative shall the tincture be made, and more plentiful in 
 quantity ; and the more perfect it is, the more it shall trans- 
 mute. In the fourth distillation then, it shall receive such a 
 virtue and tincture, that one part shall be able to transmute a 
 thousand parts of the cleansed metal into fine gold or silver, 
 better than that which is generated in the mines. Therefore 
 saith Rhasis, the goodness or excellency of the multiplication 
 hereof depends only on the reiteration of the dissolution and 
 fixation of the perfect medicine. For so much the oftener 
 the work is reiterated, so much the more fruitful it will bej 
 and so much the more augmented. So much the oftener you 
 sublime it, so much the more you increase it ; for every time 
 it is augmented in virtue, and power, and tincture, one more 
 to be cast upon a thousand ; at a second time upon ten thou- 
 sand ; at the third time upon one hundred thousand ; at the 
 fourth time upon a million. And thus you may increase its 
 power by the number of the reiterations, till it is almost infinite. 
 Therefore saith Meredes the philosopher, know for certain, that 
 the oftener the matter or stone is dissolved and congealed, the 
 more absolutely and perfectly the spirit and soul are conjoined 
 and retained. And for this cause, every time the tincture 
 is multiplied, after a most admirable and inconceivable 
 manner. 
 
 38. Our medicine is multiplied by fermentation : and the fer- 
 ment for the white is pure luna, the ferment for the red is pure 
 fine sol. Now cast one part of the medicine upon tweuty 
 parts of the ferment, and all shall become medicine, elixir, 
 or tincture : put it on the fire in a glass vessel, and seal it so 
 tliat no air go in or out. dissolve and subtilize it, as oft as you 
 
Bacon. 343 
 
 j/lease, even as you did for making of the first medicine. And 
 one part of this second medicine, shall have as much virtue and 
 power, as ten parts of the former. Therefore saith Rhasis, 
 now have we accomplished our work by that which is hot and 
 moist, and it is become equally temperate: and whatsoever is 
 added or put to it shall become of .he same temperament and 
 virtue with it. You must then conjoin it, that it may generate 
 its like; yet you must not join it with any other that it might 
 convert it to the same, but only with that very same kind, of 
 whose substance it was in the beginning. 
 
 39. For in speculo Terra? spiritualis, it is written, that the 
 elixir is figured in the bod}-, from whence it was taken in the 
 beginning, when it was to be dissolved. That is to say, to dis- 
 pose, marry or conjoin that earth revived, and in its soul pu- 
 rified by commixtion of its first body from whence it took be- 
 ginning. Also in libro gemmae salutaris, it is said, that the 
 white work needs a white ferment; which when it is made white, 
 is white ferment also : and when it is made red, is the ferment of 
 redness. And so the white earth is ferment of ferment : for 
 when it is conjoined with luna; or shall be made a medicine, it 
 is to cast upon mercury, and every imperfect metal ine body, to 
 be converted into luna. And to the red, ought sol to be joined ; 
 and it will become a medicine or tincture, to project upon mer- 
 cury, or upon luna. 
 
 40. Rhasis also saith, you must now mix it with argent vive, 
 white and red, after their kind ; and be so chained that it flies 
 not away. Wherefore we command argent vive to be mixed i 
 with argent vive, until one clear water be made of two argent 
 vives compounded together. But you must not make the mix- 
 ture of them, till each of them apart or separately be dissolved 
 into water: and in the conjunction of them, put a little of the 
 matter upon much of the body, viz. first upon four; and it shall 
 become in a short, time a fine powder, whose tincture shall be 
 white or red. This powder is the true and perfect elixir or 
 tincture, and the elixir or tincture, it is truly a simple powder. 
 
 41. Egidius also saith, to solution put solution, and in dis- 
 solution put desiccation, viz. make it dry, putting all together 
 to the fire. Keep entire the fume or vapour, and take heed that 
 nothing thereof fly out from it. Tarry by the vessel and behold 
 the wonders, how it changes from colour to colour, in less space 
 than an hours time, till such time as it comes to the signs of 
 whiteness or redness. For it melts quickly in the fire, and con- 
 geals in the air. When the fume or vapour feels the force of 
 the hre, the fire will penetrate into the body, and the spirit will 
 become fixed, and the matter made dry, becoming a body fixed 
 and clear or pure and either white or red. This powder is the 
 compleat and perfect elixir or tincture ; now you may separate 
 or take, it from the fire, and let it cool. 
 
*44 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 4-?. And first, part of it projected upon 1000 parts of any 
 metalline body, transmutes it into fine gold or silver, . according 
 as your elixir or tincture is for the ret! or the white. From 
 w hat has been said, it is manifest an d evident, that if you do 
 Dot congeal argent vive, making it to bear or endure the fire, 
 and then conjoining it with pure silver, you shall never attain to 
 the whiteness. And if you make not argent vive red, and so as 
 it may endure the greatest fire, and then conjoin it with pure Hue 
 gold, you shall never attain to the redness. And by dissolution, 
 viz. by fermentation, your medicine, elixir, or tincture, may be 
 rnultiplic-cl infinitely.' 
 
 4fl. Now you must understand that the elixir or tincture, give$ 
 fusion like wax: for which cause saith RHasis, our medicine 
 ought of necessity be of a subtle substance, and most pure, cleav-, 
 ing to mercury, of its nature, and of most easy and thin liqui- 
 faction, fusion, or melting, alter the manner of water. Also yq, 
 the book, called Omne datum Optimum, it is said, when the 
 elixir is well prepared, it ought to be made liquid, that it may 
 melt as wax upon a plate red lire-hot, or upon coals. Now ob-r 
 -*ewc whatvoudo in the white, the same you must do in the red, 
 for the work is all one. The same operation that is in the one, 
 is in the other, as well in multiplication as projection. 
 
 44'. Gebar, the Arabian prince, alchemist, and philosopher, 
 in lib 5. cap. 21. saith, that there are three orders of medicines'. 
 The first order, is of such medicines, which being cast upon 
 imperfect bodies, takes not away their corruption or imperfection, 
 but only g'ive tincture, which in examination, flies away and 
 vanishes. The second order, is of such medicines, which being 
 cast upon imperfect bodies, tinge them (in examination) with a' 
 true tincture, but take not away wholly their corruption. The 
 third order, is of such medicines, which being cast upon im- 
 perfect bodies, not only perfectly tinge them, but also take aw; y 
 all their corruption and impurities, making them incorrupt and 
 perfect: of the first two kinds, or orders of medicines, we have 
 nothing to say here; we now come to speak of the third. Let 
 therefore this your perfect medicine, or elixir, be cast upon a 
 thousand or more parts, according to the number of times it has 
 been dissolved, sublimed, and made subtile : if you put on too 
 little, you must mend it by adding more; otherwise the virtue 
 thereof will not accomplish a perfect transmutation. 
 
 -k5. The philosophers therefore made three proportions, di- 
 vers manner of ways, but the best proportion is this: let one 
 part be cast upon an hundred parts of mercury, cleansed from 
 all its impurities; and it will ail become medicine, or eljxir; and 
 this is the second medicine: which projected upon a thousand 
 parts, converts it all into good sol, or lima. Cast one part of 
 this second medicine upon an hundred of mercury prepared, 
 and it will all become medicine, and this is the third medicine, 
 or elixir of the third degree, which will project upon ten thou-* 
 
Bacon.. S45 
 
 sand parts of another body, and transmute it wholly into fine 
 sol or luna. Again, every part of this third medicine being 
 <-ast upon an hundred parts of prepared mercury, it will all be- 
 cbih* medicine of the fourth degree, and it will transmute ten 
 hundred thousand times its own quantity of another metal into 
 fine sol or luna, according as your fomentation was made. No\V 
 the.se second, third, and fourth medicines may be so often dis- 
 solved, sublimed, and subtilizated, till they receive far greater 
 virtues and powers, and may after the same manner be multi- 
 plyed infinitely. 
 
 46. According to Rhasis, the proportion is thus to be com- 
 puted. First, multiply ten by ten, and its product is an hun- 
 dred: agaiii 100 by 10, and the product is 1000; and a 100 
 by 10, and the product will be 10,000. And this 10,000 be- 
 ing multiplied by 10, produce an 100,000; and thus by come* 
 quence you may augment it, till it comes to a number almost 
 infinite. That is to say, put J upon 10, and that 10 upon an 
 100, and that 100 upon a 1000, and it shall multiply to, 
 or produce an 100,000; and so forward, in the same propor- 
 tion. 
 
 47. Now the projection is after this manner to be done: put 
 the body, or metal upon the fire in a crucible, and cast thereon 
 the elixir as aforesaid, moving, or stirring it well ; and when 
 it is melted, become liquid, and mixed with the body, or with 
 the spirit, remove it from the fire, and you shall have fine geld 
 or silver, according to what your elixir was prepared from. But 
 here is to be noted, that by how much the more the metalline 
 body is the easier to be melted, by so much the more shall the 
 medicine have power to enter into, and transmute it. There- 
 fore by so much as mercury is more liquid than any other body, 
 by so much the moie, the medicine has power in being cast upon 
 it, to wit, mercury, to transmute it into fine sol or luna. And 
 a greater nun tit of it shall your medicine transmute, give tinc- 
 ture to, an te perfect, than of" any other mineral body. 
 The like is t ) n Urstood, to be performed in the same man- 
 ner upon otiKi mineral bodies, according as they arc easy or 
 hard to be fused • r melted. 
 
 And because prolixity is not pleasant, butinduceth error, and 
 clouds the understanding, we shall now use much brevity, and 
 shew the compliment of the whole work, the premises behxr 
 well conceived. It appears, that our work is hidden in the 
 body of the magnesias', that is, in the body of Sulphur; which 
 is sulphur of sulphur; and in the body of mercury, which is 
 mcvcurv of mercury. 
 
 Therefore our stone is from one thing only, as is aforesaid, 
 and it is performed by one act or work, with decoction : and 
 by one disposition, or operation, which is the changing of it 
 first to black, then to white, thirdly, to red : and by one pro- 
 jection, by which the whole act and work is finished. Froa^ 
 
 V u 
 
34 fr Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 henceforth, let all pseudo-chemists, and their followers* ceas* 
 from their vairi -distillation.--, subStfKrtiofts, conjunctions, chl'cH 
 nations, dissolutions, contritions, and such other like vanities. 
 Let them cense from their deceiving^ prating, and pretending 
 to aiiy other" gold", than our gold ; or any other sulphur thaw 
 our sulphur, or any other argent vive tfran ours; or any ofche? 
 ablution or washing than' what we' have taught. 
 
 Which washing h matle by means of the black colour, and 
 rs the cause of the white, and not a washing matte with hands; 
 Let them not say, that there is any other dissolution than ours, 
 or other congelation than that which rs perffrrmed with an easy 
 fire: or any other egg than that which we have spoken of by 
 similitude, and so called an egg". Or that there is any produc- 
 tion of the philosophic .master f*om vegetables, or from man- 
 kind, or from brute beasts, our hares' blood, and such like, which 
 may serve to this work, lest thereby you be deceived, and err, 
 and fali short of tire end. But hear now what llhasis saith, 
 look not irpon the mul tit rule; or 'diversity of names, which are 
 dark and obscure, they arc chiefly given to the diversity of co- 
 lours appearing in the work. 
 
 Therefore whatever the natures be, and how many soever, 
 yet coiiccive the matter or thing to be but one, and the work to be 
 but one only. Lucas saith, consider not the multitude of the 
 simples composing it, which the philosophers have dictated, lor 
 the verity is but one only,' in the which is the spirit and life 
 sought after. And with tbisn't is that we tinge and colour every 
 body, bringing them from their beginnings and smallness, to 
 their com plea*, growth, and full perfection. 
 
 Permenides the philosopher sarth, it is a stone, viiul yet m> 
 stone: it is sulphur, and no sulphur, it is gold, and yet no gold : 
 it is also a hens' egg-, a toad, roans' blood* mans' hair, &c. by 
 which names it is called, only *o hide the mystery. Then ho 
 adds, O thou most happy, let not the* words, nor other the 
 ;ike trouble thee, for by them understand our sulphur and our 
 mercury. If you that are searchers into this science, under- 
 stand these words and things which we have written, you are 
 happy, yea, thrice happy: if you understood not what we have 
 said, God himself lure hidden the thing from you. Therefore 
 blame not the philosophers but yourselves; for if a just ami 
 faithful mind possessed your souls, God would doubtless reveal 
 the verity -tor you. And k>iow, rt is- impossible for you to attain 
 ro this knowledge, unless you become sanctified in mind, and 
 purified in soul, so as to be united to God, and to become one 
 spirit with him. 
 
 When you shall appear thus before the Lord, he shall open 
 f o you the gates of his treasure, the like of which is not to be 
 found in all the earth. Behold, I shew unto you the fear of the 
 Lord, and the lore of him with unfeigned obedience : nothing 
 shall be wanting to them that fear God, who are cloathed with 
 the excellency of his holiness, to whom be rendered all praise, 
 honour and glory to the ages of ages. Amen. 
 
THE TRUE BOOK OF SYNESIUS. 
 
 Though she aatient philosophers have written diversly of fhis 
 irieuca, conceding under a multitude of .names the true pripci- 
 pies of the art; jet have they not done it Jbut upon important 
 roxisities-aU-Kiv as we sh;ili hereafter have appear. And though 
 tl;:y arc different in their expressions yet are they not any way 
 «ii-<.(, idiot one from another, but aiming ail at one end, and speak- 
 ing of the same tiling, they have thought fit, (above all the rest,.) 
 to name the proper agent, by a term, grange, nay sonn times con- 
 trary to its nature .and qualities. 
 
 Know thou, iuy .sou, that Almighty God together with this 
 Universe, created .two stones, that is to say, the whii.e and the 
 ^ed, both v.iieh are under one and the same subject, and after - 
 ..vards multiplied in such .alumdance, (that every one .may .take as 
 much as h, pleases thereof. The matter of them is of such p. 
 kind, that' it seems to be a mean between metal and mercury, and 
 _'- partly fhxd aud partly not fixed, otherwise it could not be a 
 mean betwixt metals and mercury j and this matter is the instru- 
 ment, whereby pur desire is accomplished, if we do but prepare 
 it. Hence it .comes that those who bestow .their endeavours in 
 this art without -the said medium, loose their labour, but if they 
 iire acquainted with the medium, they shall find all things feasible 
 and fortunate. Know then that -this medium being aerial, is 
 founded amane the celestial bodies, and that it is onlv there are 
 iound the masculine and feminine gender, (tc speak properly,! 
 having a constant, strong, fixed and permanent virtue, of the es- 
 sence whereof, (as I have told thee,) philosophers have expressed 
 themselves only by similiuides aud figures. This -they did, that 
 the science might not be discovered by the ignorant, which if it 
 should once happen, all were lost : but that it might be compre- 
 hended only by otiose patient souls, and subtilized understand- 
 ings, which being sequestered by the soilincss of this world, are 
 cleansed from the filth of that terrene dunghill of avarice, whereby 
 the ignorant are chained to the earthiness of this world, which is 
 j(without this admirable quintessence,) the receptacle of poverty; 
 it being certain, that those divine soub, when they have dived 
 into Democritus's fountain, that is to say into the truth of nature, 
 would soon discover what confusion might happen in all estates 
 and conditions, if every one could make as much gold as he 
 xvould himself. Upon tills ground was it that they were pleased 
 to speak by figures, types, and analogies, that so they might not 
 be understood but by such as are discreet, religious, and en- 
 lightened by (divine) wisdom. All which notwithstanding, they 
 luave left in their writings a certain method, way and rule, by the 
 
348 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 assistance whereof the wise man may comprehend whatever ther 
 have written most obscurely, and in time arrive at the knowledge 
 of it, though haply wading through some error, as I have done, 
 praised be God for it. And whereas the vulgar ignorant person 
 ought to submit to these reasons and consequently adore, what 
 is too great, to epter into his brain, he on the contrary accuses the 
 philosophers of imposture and impiety, by which means, and the 
 scarcity of wise men, the art falls into contempt. 
 
 But for my part, I tell thee, they have always expressed them- 
 selves according to certain truth, though very obscurely, and 
 sometimes fabulously, all which I have deciphered in this little 
 treatise, and that after such a manner that the earnest desirer of 
 science shall understand what hath been mystically delivered by 
 the philosophers. And yet if he pretend to understand me and 
 1: uow not the nature of the elements and things created, as also 
 our rich metal, he doth but loose his labour: but if he under- 
 stand the concord and discord of natures, he will by God's assist- 
 ance arrive to the rest? It is therefore my suit to God, that he 
 who shall understand the present secret may work to the. glory 
 and praise of the sacred divinity. 
 
 Know then my dear son, that the ignorant man cannot corn-* 
 prehend the secret of the art, because it depends upon the know- 
 ledge of the true body, which is hidden from him. Know then, 
 jny son, pure and impure, the eleati and unclean natures, for 
 there cannot come from any thing that which it hath not. For 
 things, that are not or have not, cannot give but their own na- 
 ture : make use then of that which is most perfect and nearest in 
 kind, thou shalt meet with, and it shall suffice. Avoid then that 
 which is mixt, and take the simple, for that proceeds from the 
 quintessence. Note that wo have two bodies of .very great per- 
 fection, full of mercury : out of these extract thy mercury, and 
 of that thou shaft make the medicine, called by some quint- 
 essence, which is a virtue or power that is imperishable, perma- 
 nent, and perpetually victorious, nay it is a clear light, which 
 sheds true goodness into every soul that hath once tasted of it. 
 Jt is the knot and link of all the elements, which it contains in 
 itself, as being also the spirit which notirishcth all things, and by 
 the assistance whereof na'ure works* in the universe. It is the 
 force, the beginning and end of the whole work, and to lay all 
 open to thee in a word, know, that the quintessence and the hid- 
 den thing of our stone is nothing else than our viscous, celestial 
 and glorious soul drawn by our magistery out of its mine, which 
 engenders its?lf, and that it is not possible for us to make that 
 water by art, but nature alone begets it, and that water is the 
 ivost sharp vinegar, which makes gold to be a pure spirit, nay it 
 is that blessed nature which engenders all things, which through 
 its putrefaction is become a tri-unitv, and by reason of its viridity 
 c.;nses ah appearance of divers Colours. And I advise thee, my 
 sim, make no account of any other things, (as being vain,) la* 
 
Syncsius. 349 
 
 Kntir only for that water, which burns to blackness, whitens, dis- 
 solves and congeals. It is that which putrefies, and causes get* 
 i ^nation, and therefore I advise thee, that thou wholly imploy 
 titv.ii' in the decoction of this water, and quarrel not at the ex- 
 pence of time, otherwise thou shalt have no advantage. Decoct 
 it gently by little and little, until it have changed -its false colour 
 into a perfect, and have a great care at the beginning that thou, 
 burn not its flowers and its vivacity, and make not too much haste 
 to come to an end of thy work. Shut thy vessel well, that what 
 is within may not breath out, and so thou mayst bring it to some 
 effect. And note, that to dissolve, to calcine, to tinge, to whiten, 
 to renew, to bath, to wash, to coagulate, to imbibe, to decoct* 
 to fix, to grind, to dry, ami to distil, are all one, and signify 
 no more then to concoct nature, until such time as it be per- 
 fect. Note further that to extract the soul, or the spirit, or the 
 body, is nothing else then the above said calcinations, in regard 
 they signify the operation of'venus. It is therefore through the 
 fire of the extraction of the soul that the spirit comes forth 
 gently, understand me. The same may also be said of the ex- 
 traction of the soul out of the body, and the reduction of it 
 afterwards upon the same body, until the whole be drawn to a 
 commixtion of all the four, elements. And so that which is be- 
 low, is like that which is above, and consequently there are made 
 therein two luminaries, the one fixed the other not, whereof the 
 fixed remains below, and the volatile above, moving itself per- 
 petually, until that which is below, which is the male, get upon 
 the female, and all be fixed, and then issues out an incompara- 
 ble luminary. And as in the beginning, there was only one, so 
 in this matter, all proceeds from one and returns to one, which 
 is called a conversion of the elements, and to convert the ele- 
 ments, is as much as to make the humid dry, and the volatile 
 fixed, that so that which is thick may be made thin, and weaken 
 the thing that fixeth the rest, the fixative part of the thing re-» 
 maining entire. Thus happens the life and death of the elements, 
 which composed germinate and produce, and so one thing per- 
 fects another, and assists it to oppose the fire 
 
 The practice. My son it is necessary that thou work with the 
 mercury of the philosophers and the wise, which is not the vul- 
 gar, nor hath any thing of the vulgar, but, according to them, 
 is the first matter, the soul of the world, the cold element, the 
 blessed water, the water of the wise, the vencmous water, the 
 most sharp vinegar, the mineral water, the water of celestial 
 grace, the virgin milk, our mineral and corporeal mercury. For 
 this alone perfects both the stones, the white and the red. Con- 
 sider what Geber says, that our art consists not in the multitude 
 of several things, because the mercury is but one only thing, 
 that is to say, one only stone wherein consists the whole magis- 
 tery; to which thou shalt not add any strange thing, sav\ that 
 in the preparation thereof thou shalt take away from it whatso- 
 
.'550 
 
 A Ichem ical Ire a t is.es . 
 
 ever is superfluous, by reason that in this matter, all thiugs re* 
 qutsite-to this art are contained. And therefore it is very obr 
 bovvabie that be says, we must add noticing thai is strange, save 
 the sun and moon for the r,ed and white tincture, which are noi 
 strange (to it) but arc its ferment, by which the work is accom- 
 plished. Lastly, murk im son, that these suns ac.d moons ar« 
 not the same with the vulgar gold and silver, for that imr stir.'i 
 and moons are better in their nature then the vulgar suns am. 
 moons. For our -sues and moons are in their nature living., and 
 those of the vulgar are dead in compiirison of ours, which are 
 existent and permanent in cur stone. Whence thou njayest ob- 
 serve that the mercury drawn out of qui bodies, is like the 
 aqueous an J common mercury, and for thai reason, enjoys itself 
 and takes pleasure in its like, and js more glad of its company, 
 as it happens in the simple afcd compound, which thing hath 
 not been discovered bv the philosophers in *heir books. And 
 (be advanta^ctherefore which is in thi^ art, lies in the mercury, 
 tun and moon. Diomcdes",saii.h, make use of such a matter as 
 to which thou must not introduce any strange thing, neither 
 powder nor water, for that several thingt do ;iot improve our 
 ktone, and thereby he suilicicntly instructs, him, who under- 
 stands him, that the tincture of our stone is not dra\wi from any 
 thing but the mercury of the philosophers; which is their prin- 
 ciple, their root, and their great tr.ee, sprouting forth into 
 boughs and branches. 
 
 It is net by vulga* but philosophical sublimation, whereby we 
 take away from the stone whatever is superfluous, which, in el- 
 fcet is nothing else, but the elevation of the not fixed part by 
 fume and vapor, for the fixed part should remain Jn the bottom, 
 DOT would we that one should be separated from the ether, but 
 that thev .remain and be fixed together. Know ata> izhat he-, 
 who shall sublime our philosophical mercury (wherein is all the 
 virtue of our stone) as it ought to be done, shall perfect the 
 rnngifitery. This gave Geber reason to say jthat 'ail perfection 
 consists in sublimation, and in this sublimation all other opera- 
 tions, that is to say, distillation, assation, destruction, coagu- 
 lation, putrefaction, calcination, fixation, reduction of the white 
 and red tinctures, procreated and engendred in one furnace and 
 in one vessel, and this is the ready way to the final consumma- 
 tion, whereof the philosophers Jiave made divers chapters, pur- 
 posely to amuse the ignorant. 
 
 Take then in the name of the great God, the venerable matter 
 of the philosophers, called die first hyle of the sages, which 
 contains the above named philosophical mercury, termed, the 
 first matter of the perfect body, put it into its vessel, which 
 must be clear,di:mhanousand round, and closely stopped with the 
 ^ea! of seals, and make it hot in its place, well prepared, with 
 tonrierate heat, for the space of a philosophical month, keeping 
 it fix weeks and two days in the sweat of sublimation until 4 
 
Sjjficsius. 351 
 
 begins to bo putrtfied*, to ferment, to be coloured and to be con* 
 gealetl with its metallic humidity, to be fixed so i'nr, that it tlo mi 
 more ascend in airy fctunohs sub-tfcncoj but remain fixed in ths 
 bottom, turned from what it was, alul divested of all viscous 
 humidity, putrified and black, which is tailed the sable robej 
 night, or the crows-heath 1 bus when our stone k in the vessel, 
 fend that it mounts up oh high m 'nine, this is called sublima- 
 tion, and when it tails down from on high) distention, and de- 
 scension. When it begins to participate of the famous sub~ 
 stance, and to be putrefied, and that by reason of the frequent 
 ascent and descent it begins to coagulate,, then k is putrefaction 
 and devouring sulphas, and lastly through the want or privation 
 of the humidity of the radical water is wrought calcination and 
 fixation both at the same time, by decoction alone, >n one only 
 vessel, as I have already said. Moreover in this sublimation is 
 wrought the true separation of the elements, for in our sublima- 
 tion the elixir is turned from water into a terrestrial element dry 
 and hot, by which operation it is manifest, that the separation 
 of the four elements in our stone is not vulgar but philosophical. 
 Hence also is it, that in our stone there are but two formal ele- 
 ments, that is to soy, earth and water ; but the earth hath in its 
 grossness, the virtue and draught of fire; and the water contains 
 in itself the air with its humidity. Thus we have in our stone 
 visibly but two elements, but effectually there arc four. And by 
 this thou mayest judge, that the separation of the four elements 
 is absolutely physical not vulgar and real, such as the ignorant 
 daily employ themselves in. Continue therefore its decoction 
 with a gentle fire, until all the black matter appearing in tlxe 
 superficies be quite dissipated by the magistery, which blackness, 
 is by the philosophers called the dark mantle of the stone, which 
 afterwards becoming clear is termed the cleansing water of the 
 earth, or rather the elixir. And note, that the blackness which 
 appears is a sign of putrefaction. And the beginning of the dis- 
 solution is a sign of the conjunction of both natures. And this 
 blackness appears sometimes in forty days, more or less, accord- 
 ing to the quantity of the matter, and the industry of the 
 operator, which contributes much to the separation of the said 
 blackness. Now my son, by the grace of God thou art ac- 
 quainted with one element of our stone, which is the black 
 earth, the ravens head, by some called the obscure shadow, 
 upon which earth as upon a base all the rest is grounded. This 
 terrestrial and dry element, is called, Laton, the Lull, black 
 dregs, our metal, our mercury. And thus by the privation of 
 the adust humidity, which is taken away by philosophical subli- 
 mation, the volatile is fixed, and the moist is made dry and 
 earthy, nay, according to Geber, there is wrought a change of 
 the complexion, as of a cold and humid nature, into dry cheiei ; 
 ■*nd according to Alphidius, of a liquid into a thick. VVheucj 
 is apprehended what the philosophers mean when they say. ui 
 
SWt At die mi ad Treatises 
 
 the operation of our stone is only a transmutation of BattWfl xnil 
 a revolution of elements. Thou seest then how that by this .in- 
 corporation the humid becomes dry, the volatile fixed, the spi- 
 ritual corporeal, the liquid thick, water fire, air earth, and that 
 there happens an infallible change in their true nature, and a 
 certain circulation of the four elements. 
 
 Pealbai'ion converts our mercury into the white stone, am! 
 that by decoction only. When the earth is separated from its 
 water,* then must the vessel be set on the ashes, as is usual in s 
 distilling furnace, and the water be distilled by a gentle fire at 
 the beginning, so that the water come so gently ihat thou mayeX 
 distinctly number as far as forty names, or pronounce iifiy-s:x 
 words, and let this order be observed in all the distillations of 
 the black earth, and that which is in the bottom of the vessel, 
 that is, the fasces remaining to be imbibed, with the new water, 
 will be dissolved, which water will contain three or four parts 
 more then those faeces, that so all may be dissolved and converted 
 into mercury and argent vive. I tell thee that this must be done 
 so often, that there shall remain nothing but the mure. For 
 this distillation there is no time limited, but it is done sooner 
 or later according to the greater or lesser quantity of the water, 
 proportionably to the quantity of the fire. Then take the earth 
 which thou shalt have reserved in a vessel of glass, with its dis- 
 tilled water, and with a soft and gentle fire, such as was that of 
 distillation, or purification, or rather One somewhat stronger, 
 continue it, till such time as the earth be dry and white, and by 
 reason of its drought, drunk up all its water. This done, put 
 to it some of the above said water, and so, as at the beginning, 
 continue on the same decoction, until that earth is become abso- 
 lutely white, cleansed and clear, and have drunk all its water. 
 And note that the said earth will be washed from its blackness 
 by the decoction, as I have said, because it is easily putrefied 
 by its own water, and is cleansed, which is the end of the ma- 
 gistery, and then to be sure to keep that white earth very care- 
 fullv. For that is the white mercury, white magnesia, foliated 
 earth. Then take this white earth rectified as above said, and 
 put it into its vessel upon the ashes, to a fire of sublimation, and 
 let it have a very strong fire until all the coagulated water, which 
 is within, come into the alembic, and the earth remain in the 
 bottom well calcined : then hast thou the earth, the water, and 
 the air, and though the earth have in it the nature of the fire, 
 yet is it not apparent in effect, as thou shalt sec, when by a 
 greater decoction thou shalt make it become red ; so that then 
 thou shalt manifestly see the fire in appearance, and such must be 
 the proceeding in order to fermentation of the white earth, that 
 thebodv may be animated and enlivened, and its virtue be mul- 
 tiplied to infinity. But note, that the ferment cannot enter into 
 the dead body, but by the means of the water, which hath made 
 a contract and a marriage between the ferment and tjre white 
 
Sj/ncsius. 353 
 
 earth. And know that in all fermentation the weight is to be 
 considered, that so the quantity of the volatile exceed not the 
 fixed, and that the marriage pass away in fume. For, as Senior 
 says, if thou convert not the earth into water, and the water 
 into fire, there cannot be a conjunction of the spirit and body. 
 To do this- take alamen or plate red hot, and cast on it a drop of 
 our medicine, which penetrating, it shall be of a perfect colour, 
 and will be a sign of perfection. If it happen it do not tinge, 
 reiterate the dissolution and coagulation, until it do tinge and 
 penetrate. And note, that seven imbibitions, at the most, are 
 sufficient, and five at the least, that so the matter may be li- 
 quified, and without smoak, and then the matter is perfect as to 
 whiteness, for as much as the matter sometimes requires a longer 
 time to be fixed, and sometimes is done in a shorter, according 
 to the quantity of the medicine. And note that our medicine 
 from the creation of our mercury requires the term of seven 
 months to compass the whiteness, and, to arrive at the redness, 
 five; which put together, make twelve. 
 
 Take of the white medicine, as much as thou wilt, and put 
 it with its glass upon the hot ashes, till it becomes as dry as the 
 ashes. Then put to it some water of the sun, which thou hast 
 kept purposely for that end, and continue the fire to the second 
 degree, until it become dry, then put to it again some of the 
 above said water, and so successively imbibe and dry, until the 
 matter be rubified, and fluxible as wax, and cover with it the 
 red lamen, as hath been said, and the matter shall be perfect as 
 to redness. But note that at every time, thou needest put no 
 more of the water of the sun then is barely necessary to cover 
 the body, and this is done that the elixir sink not and be drowned, 
 and so the fire must be continued unto desiccation, and then 
 must there be made a second imbibition, and so proceed in 
 order to the perfection of the medicine, that is to say, until the 
 force of the digestion, of the fire convert it into a very red 
 powder, which is the true hyle of the philosophers, the bloody 
 stone, the purple red coral, the precious ruby, red mercury and 
 the red tincture. 
 
 The oftener thou shalt dissolve and coagulate it, the more will 
 the virtue of it be multiplied to infinity. But note that the me- 
 dicine is multiplied later by solution, then by fermentation. 
 Wherefore the thing dissolved operates not well, if it be not be- 
 fore fixed in its ferment. Nevertheless the multiplication of the 
 medicine by solution is more abundant then that of the ferment, 
 by reason there is more subtilization. Yet I advise thee that in 
 the multiplication thou put one part of the work upon four of 
 the other, and in a short time there will be made a^powder, all 
 ferment. 
 
 Thus art thou to separate the earth from the fire, the gross 
 from the subtil, gently, with great judgment, that is to say, se- 
 parate the parts that are united to the furnace, by the dissolution 
 
 XX 
 
354 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 and separation of the parts, as the earth from the fire, the subtile 
 from the gross, &c. that is to say, the more pure substance of 
 the stone, until thou hast got it clean, and free from all spots or 
 filth. And when he saith, it ascends from the earth up into 
 heaven and returns again into the earth, there is no more to be 
 understood by it then the sublimation of the bodies. Further, 
 to explain what distillation is, he says the wind carries it in its 
 belly, that is, when the water is distilled by the alembic, where 
 it 'first ascends by a wind full of fume and vapour, and afterwards 
 returns to the bottom of the vessel in water again. When he 
 would also express the congelation of the matter, he says, it* 
 force is absolute, if it be turned into earth, that is to say, be 
 converted by decoction. And to make a general demonstration 
 of all hath been said, he says, it shall receive both the inferior 
 and superior force, that is to say, that of the elements, for as 
 much as, if the medicine receive the force of the lighter parts, 
 that is to say, air and fire, it shall also receive that of the more 
 grave and weighty parts, changing itself into water and earth, to 
 the end, that the matters being thus perpetually joined together, 
 may have permanence, durance, constancy, and stability : glory- 
 be to God. 
 
 The Secret of Secrets, 
 
 BY KALID, SOLDAN OF EGYPT. 
 
 I. If you would be so happy as to obtain the blessing of the 
 philosophers, as God doth live for ever, so let this verity live 
 with you. Now the philosophers say, it abides in the shell, and 
 contains in itself both white and red, the one is called masculine, 
 the other feminine J and they are animal, vegetable, and mineral, 
 the like of which is not found in the world besides. It hath 
 power both active and passive in it, and has also in it a substance 
 dead and living, spirit and soul, which, among the ignorant, 
 the philosophers call the most vile thing: it contains in itself the 
 four elements which are found in its skirts, and may commonly 
 be bought for a small price. It ascends by itself, it waxes black, 
 it descends and waxes white, increases and decreases of itself: it 
 is a matter which the earth brings forth, and descends from 
 heaven, grows pale and red, is born, dieth, rises again, and 
 afterwards lives for ever. By many ways it is brought to its 
 
Kalid. 355 
 
 end, but its proper decoction is upon a fire, soft, mediate, strong, 
 by various degrees augmented, until you are certain it is quietly 
 fixed with the red in the fire. This is the philosophers stone. 
 
 2. Read and read again, so will all things become more clear 
 to you : But if hereby you understand not the matter, you are 
 withheld by the chains of ignorance; for you shall never other- 
 wise know pr learn this art. Hermes saith, the dragon is not 
 killed, but by his brother and his sister; not by one of them 
 alone, but by both together: note these things; there are three 
 heads, yet but one body, ope nature, and one mineral. This 
 is sufficient for you if you have a disposition to understand this 
 art. The dragon is not mortified, nor made fixed, but with sol 
 and luna, and by no other. In the mountains of bodies, in the 
 plains of mercury, look for it, there this water is created, and 
 by concourse of these two, and is called by the philosophers, 
 their permanent or fixed water. Our sublimation is to decoct 
 the bodies with golden water, to dissolve, to liquify, and to sub- 
 lime them : our calcination is to purify and digest in four ways, 
 and not otherwise, by which many have been deceived in subli- 
 mation. 
 
 3. Know also that our brass, or latten, is the philosophers 
 gold, is the true gold ; but you strive to expel the greenness, 
 thinking that our latten, or brass, is a leprous body, because of 
 that greenness, but I tell you, that that greenness is all that is 
 perfect therein, and all that is perfect, is in the greenness only 
 which is in our latten, or brass. For that greenness, by our 
 jnagistery, is in a very little time transmuted into the most fine 
 gold ; and of this thing we have experienced, which you may try 
 by the foljowiug directions : Take burnt or calcined brass, and 
 perfectly rubified, grind it, and decoct it with water seven times, 
 •s much every time as it is able to drink, in all the ways of rubi- 
 fying and assating it again. Then make it to descend, and its 
 green colour will be made red, and as clear as a hyacinth ; and 
 so much redness will descend with it, that it will be able to tinge 
 argent vive, in some measure, with the very colour of gold ; all 
 which we have done and perfected, and is indeed a very great 
 work. Yet you cannot prepare the stone by any means with any 
 green and moist liquor, which is found and brought forth in ouv 
 minerals ; this blessed might, power, or virtue, which generates 
 ail things, will not yet cause a vegetation, springing, budding 
 forth, or fruitfulness, unless there be a green colour. Where- 
 fore the philosophers call it their bud, and their water of puri- 
 fication, or putrefaction ; and they say truth herein ; for with its 
 water it is putrefied and purified, and washed from its blackness 
 and made white. And afterwards it is made the highest red ; 
 whereby you may learn and understand, that no true tincture is 
 made but with our brass or latten. 
 
 4. Decoct it therefore with its soul, till the spirit be joined with 
 jts body, and be made one, so shall you have your desire. The 
 
356 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 philosophers have spoken of this under many names, but know 
 certainly, that it is but one matter which does clear or join itself 
 to argent vive, and to bodies, which you shall have the true 
 signs of. Now you must know what argent vive will cleave, or 
 perfectly join and unite itself unto. Tliat the argent vive will 
 cleave, join, or unite itself to bodies is false. And they err who 
 think that they understand that place in Geber of argent vive, 
 where he saith, ' when in searching among other things, you 
 shall not find by our invention, any matter to be more agreeable 
 to nature, than argent vive of the bodies.' 
 
 5. By argent vive in this place, is understood argent vive 
 philosophical ; and it is that argent vive only which sticks to, and 
 is fixed in, and with the bodies. The old philosophers could 
 find no other matter; nor can the philosophers now invent any 
 other matter or thing, which will abide with the bodies, but this 
 philosophic argent vive only. That common argent vive does 
 not stick, or cleave to the bodies, is evident by experience, for 
 if common argent vive be joined to the bodies, it abides in its 
 proper nature, or flies away, not being able to transmute the 
 body into its own nature and substance, and therefore does not 
 cleave unto them. For this cause, many are deceived in work- 
 ing with the vulgar quick-silver: for our stone, that is to say, 
 our argent vive accidental, does exalt itself far above the most 
 fine gold, and does overcome it, and kill it, and then make it 
 alive again. And this argent vive is the father of all the wonder- 
 ful things of this our magistery, and is congealed, and is both 
 spirit and body. This is the argent vive which Geber speaks ofj, 
 the consideration of which is of moment, for that it is the very 
 matter which does make perfect. It is a chosen pure substance 
 of argent vive; but out of what matter it is chiefly to be drawn, 
 is a thing to be enquired into. To which we say, that it can only 
 be drawn out of that matter in which it is: Consider therefore 
 my Son, and see from whence that substance is, taking that and 
 nothing else : by no other principle can you obtain this magis? 
 tery. Nor could the philosophers ever find any other matter, 
 which would continually abide the fire, but this only, which is 
 of an unctuous substance, perfect and incombustible. And this 
 matter, when it is prepared as it ought, will transmute, or 
 change all bodies of a metallick substance, which it is rightly 
 projected upon, into the most perfect sol, or the mpst pure fine, 
 gold ; but most easily, and above all other bodies luna. 
 
 6. Decoct first with wind or air, and afterwards without wind, 
 until you have drawn forth the venom, which is called the soul, 
 out of your matter ; this is that which you seek, the everlasting 
 aqua vitae, which cures all diseases. Now the whole magistery 
 is in the vapour. Let the body be put into a fire for forty days, 
 of elemental heat: and in that decoction of 40 days, the body 
 will rejoice with the soul, and the soul will rejoice with the body 
 and spirit^ and the spirit will rejoice with the body au<J souf, 
 
Kalid. 357 
 
 and they will be fixed together, and dwell one with another, in 
 which life they will be made perpetual and immortal without se- 
 paration for ever. 
 
 7. Our medicine is made of three things, viz. of a body, soul, 
 and spirit. There are two bodies, to wit sol and luna : sol is a 
 tincture, wherewith imperfect bodies are tinged into sol ; and 
 luna tingcth into luna ; for mature brings forth only its like, a 
 man, a man, a horse, a horse, &c. We have named the bodies 
 which serve to this work, which of some are called ferment; for 
 as a little leven levens the whole lump, so luna and sol, leven 
 mercury as their meal into their nature and virtue. If it be de- 
 manded, why sol and luna, having a prefixed tincture, do not 
 yet tinge imperfect metals ? 1 answer : a child, though born of 
 human kind, acts not the man ; it must first be nourished and 
 bred up till it comes to maturity: so is it with metals also ; they 
 cannot shew their power and force, unless they be first reduced 
 from their terrestreity to a spirituality, and nourished and fed 
 in their tinctures through heat and humidity. For the spirit is 
 of the same matter and nature with our medicine: we say our 
 medicines are of a fiery nature, and much subtiler, but of them- 
 selves, they cannot be subtil nor simple, but must be maturated, 
 or ripened with subtil and penetrating things. 
 
 8. Earth of itself is not subtil, but may be made so through 
 moist water, which is dissolving, and makes an ingress for sol, 
 that it may penetrate the earth, and with its heat make the earth 
 subtile; and in this way the earth must be subtilized so long, 
 till it be as subtil as a spirit, which then is the mercury, more 
 dissolving than common water, and apt to dissolve the said me- 
 tals, and that through the heat of fire, to penetrate and subti- 
 lize them. There are several spirits, as mercury, sulphur, orpi- 
 ment, arsenic, antinmny, nitre, sal-armoniac, tutia, marcasites, 
 &c. but mercury is a better spirit than all others ; for being put 
 into the fire they are carried away, and we know not what be- 
 comes of them : but mercury, as it is much subtiler, clearer, and 
 penetrative, so it is joined to the metals, and changed into them, 
 whereas the others burn and destroy them, making them more 
 gross than they were before. Now mercury is of such a subtil 
 nature, that it transmutes metals into simple and pure substances 
 as itself is, and attracts them to itself; but no metal can be trans- 
 muted by any of the other spirits, but they hum it to earth and 
 ashes ; which mercury it becomes impalpable, and therefore is 
 called argent vive. Wetakenothing else to subtilize metals, to make 
 them penetrative, or to tinge other metals : some call it argent 
 vive, or a water, an acetum, a poison, because it destroys im- 
 perfect bodies, dividing them into several parts and forms ; our 
 medicine is made of two things, viz. of body and spirit : and 
 this is true, that all metals have but one root and original. But 
 why cannot this medicine be made of two compounded together ? 
 I answer : it may be made of all these together ; but they must 
 
3F)8 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 be reduced into a mercury, which would be difficult in respect 
 of the shortness of mans' life: therefore we take the next matter, 
 which are the two aforesaid things, viz. body and spirit. Some 
 philosophers say, our medicine is made of four things, and so 
 it is : for in metals, and their spirits are the four elements, 
 Others say trije also, that metals must be turned into argent 
 vive : here many learned and wise men err, and loose themselves 
 in this path. Thus far of the matter of which our medicine is 
 made, or with which it is joined : now of the vessels. 
 
 9. The vessel ought to resemble the firmament, to enclose and 
 encompass the whole work : for our medicine is nothing else but 
 a change of elements one into another, which is done by the 
 motion of the firmament ; for which reason it must needs be 
 round and circular. The other, or second vessel, must also be 
 round, and be less than the outward vessel : six or seven inches 
 high, called a containing cucurbit; on which you must place 
 an alembic or head, through which the vapors may ascend, which 
 must be well luted, with lute made of flour quicklime and whites 
 of eggs, &c. Or of flour and lime equal parts tempered with 
 whites of eggs, which you must immediately use : lute it so well 
 that no spirits may fly away ; the loss of which will prejudice 
 your work extremely ; therefore be wary. The furnace or oven 
 must be round, twelve or fourteen inches high, and six or seven 
 inches broad, and three or four inches in thickness to keep in 
 the heat the better. 
 
 10. Our matter is generated through, or by help of the heat 
 of the fire, through the vapour of the water, and also of the 
 mercury, which must be nourished ; be wise and consider, and 
 meditate well upon the matter. Now in order to this work, 
 there is 1. Dissolution. 2. Separation. 3. Sublimation. 4 T 
 Fixation, or congelation. 5. Calcination,. 6. Ingression. Dis- 
 solution is the changing of a dry thing into a moist one, and 
 belongs only to bodies, as to sol and luna, which serve for our 
 art: for a spirit needs not to be dissolved, being a liquid thing 
 of itself; but metals are gross and dry, and of a gross nature, 
 and therefore must be subtilized. First, because unless they be 
 subtilized through dissolution, they cannot be reduced into water, 
 and made to ascend through the alembic, to be converted into 
 spirit, whose remaining fceces are reserved for a farther use, 
 Secondly, because the body and spirit must be made indivisible 
 and one: for no gross matter joins or mixes with a spirit, unless 
 it be first subtilized, and reduced into argent vive, then the one 
 embraces the other inseparably. For argent vive meeting with 
 a thing like itself, lcjoyccth in it; and the dissolved body em- 
 braces the spirit, and suffers it not to fly away, making it to 
 endure the fire; and it rejoyces because it has found an equal, 
 viz. one like itself, and of the same nature. Dissolution is thus 
 done; take leaves of sol, or luna, to which add a good quantity 
 
 1 pmc mercury; putting in the leaves by little and little, into 
 
Kalid. 359 
 
 a Vessel placed in so gentle a heat, that the mercury may not 
 funic : when all is dissolved, and the mass seems to be one homo* 
 gene body, you have done well : If there be any feces, or 
 matter undissolved, add more mercury, till all seems to be melt- 
 ed together. Take the matter thus dissolved, set it in B. M« 
 for seven days, then let it cool : and strain all through a cloth 
 or skin ; if all goes through, the dissolution is perfect: if not, 
 vou must begin again, and add more mercury, so long till all 
 be dissolved. 
 
 1 1. Separation is the dividing of a thing into parts, as of pure 
 from impure. We take our dissolved matter, and put it into 
 the smaller vessel which stands in the cucurbit, well luting to 
 the alembic, and setting it in ashes, continuing the fire for a 
 week : one part of the spirit sublimes, which we call the spirit 
 or water, and is the subtilest part; the other which is not yet 
 subtil, sticks about the cucurbit, and some of it falls as it were 
 to the bottom, which is warm and moist, this we call the air. 
 And a third part remaining in the bottom of the inner vessel, 
 which is yet grosser, may be called the earth. Each of these 
 we put into a vessel apart ; but to the third we put more mer- 
 cury, and proceed as before, reserving always each principle or 
 element apart by itself, and thus proceeding, till nothing re- 
 mains in the inner vessel, but a black powder, whieh we call 
 the black earth, and is the dregs of metals, and the thing causing 
 the obstruction, that the metals cannot be united with the spirit; 
 this black powder is of no use. Having thus separated the four 
 elements from the metals, or divided them, you may demand, 
 what then is the fire, which is one of these four? To which I 
 answer : that the fire and air are of one nature, and are mixed 
 together, and changed the one into the other; and in the dividing 
 of the elements, they have their natural force and power, as ia 
 the whole, so in the parts. We call that air which remained in 
 the bigger vessel, because it is more hot than moist, cold, or 
 dry : the same understand of the other elements. Hence Plato 
 »aith, we turned the moist into dry, and the dry we made moist, 
 and we turned the body into water and air. 
 
 12. Sublimation is the ascending from below upwards, the 
 subtil matter arising, leaving the gross matter still below, as he 
 said before in the changing of the elements : thus the matter 
 must be subtilized, which is not subtil enough, all which must 
 be done through heat and moistnre, viz. through fire and water. 
 You must then take the thing which remained in the greater 
 vessel, and put it to other fresh mercury, that it may le well 
 dissolved and subtilized : set it in B. M. for three days as before. 
 We mention not the quantity of mercury, but leave that to your 
 discretion, taking as much as you need, that you may make it 
 fusible, and clear like a spirit. But you must not take too much 
 of the mercury, lest it become a sea; then you must set it again 
 to sublime, as formerly, and do this work so often, till you ' • 
 
360 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 brought it through the Alembic, and it be very subtil, one 
 united thing, clear, pure, and fusible. Then we put it again into 
 the inner vessel, and let it go once more through the alembic, 
 to see whether any thing be left behind ; which if so, to the same 
 we add more mercury, till it becomes all one thing; and leaves 
 no more sediment, and be separated from all its impurity and 
 superfluity Thus have we made out of two, one only thing, viz. 
 out of body and spirit, one only congenerous substance, vliich is 
 a spirit and light ; the body, which before was heavy and fixed, 
 ascending upwards, is become light and volatile, and a mere 
 spirit : thus have we made a spirit out of a body, we must now 
 make a body out of a spirit, which is the one thing. 
 
 Fixation, pr Congelation, is the making the flowing and vola- 
 tile matter fixed, and able to endure the fire; and this is the 
 changing of a spirit into a body : we before turned the dryness 
 and the body, into moistness and a spirit ; now we must turn the 
 spirit into a body, making that which ascended to stay below ; 
 that is, we must make it a thing fixed, according to the sayings 
 of the philosophers, reducing each element into its contrary, you 
 will find what you seek after, viz. making a fixed thing to be 
 volatile, and a volatile fixed ; this can only be done through 
 congelation, by which we turn the spirit into a body. But how 
 is this done? We take a little of the ferment, which is made of 
 our medicine be it Luna or sol ; as if you have 10 ounces of the 
 medicine, you take but 1 ounce of the ferment, which must be 
 foliated ; and this ferment we amalgamate with the matter which 
 you had before prepared, the same we put into the glass vial with 
 a long neck, and set it in warm ashes : then to the said ferment, 
 add the said spirit which you drew through the alembic, so much 
 as may overtop it the height of 2 or 3 inches; put to it a good 
 fire for 3 days, then will the dissolved body find its companion, 
 and they will embrace each other. Then the gross ferment, 
 laying hold of the subtil ferment, attracts the same, joins itself 
 with it, and will not let it go; and the dissolved body, which is 
 now subtil, keeps the spirit, for that they are of equal subtilty, 
 and like one to another ; and are become so one and the same 
 thing, that the fire can never be able to separate them any more. 
 By this means you come to make one thing like another ; the 
 ferment becomes the abiding place of the subtil body, and the 
 subtil body the habitation of the spirit, that it may not fly away. 
 Then we make a fire for a week, more or less, till we see the 
 matter congealed: which time is longer or shorter, according to 
 the condition of the vessel, furnaces, and fires you make use of. 
 When you see the matter coagulated, put the abovesaid matter 
 or spirit to it, to overtop it two or three inches, which digest as 
 before, till it be coagulated also, and thus proceed, till all the 
 matter or spirit be congealed. This secret of the congelation, 
 the Philosophers have concealed in their books, none of them 
 that we know of having disclosed it, except only Larkalix, who 
 
Kalid. 361 
 
 composed it in many chapters; and also revealed it unto me, 
 ■without any reservation or deceit. 
 
 13. Calcination. We take the known matter, and put it 
 into a vesica, setting a head upon it, and luting it well, put it 
 into a sand furnace, making a continued great fire for a week: 
 then the volatile ascends into the alembeck' which we call avis 
 hermctis : that which remains in the bottom of the glass, is like 
 ashes or sifted earth, called, the philosophers earth, out of which 
 they make their increase or augmentation, through heat and 
 moisture. This earth is composed of four elements, but are not 
 contrary one to another, for their contrariety is changed to an 
 agreement, unto an homogenc and uniform nature: then we take 
 the moist part, and reserve it a part to a farther use. This 
 earth, or ashes, (which is a very fixed thing) we put into a very 
 strong earthen pot or crucible, to which we lute its cover, and set 
 it in a calcining furnace, or reverberatory, for three days, so 
 that it may be always red hot : thus we make of a stone, a white 
 calx ; anrt of things of an earthy and watery nature, a fiery nature: 
 for every calx is of a fiery nature, which is hot and dry. We 
 have brought things to the nature of fire; we must now further 
 subtilize our elements ; we take apart, a small quantity of this 
 calx, viz. a fourth part : the other we set to dissolve with a good 
 quantity of fresh mercury, even as we had done formerly (in all 
 the processes of the aforegoing paragraphs) and so proceed on 
 from time to time, till it is wholly dissolved. Now that you may 
 change the fixed into a volatile, that is, fire into water, know, 
 that that which was of the nature of fire, is now become the 
 nature of water; and the fixed thereby is made volatile and very 
 subtil. Take of this water one part, put it to the reserved calx, 
 and add to it as much of the water, as may over top the calx 
 two or three inches, making a fire under it for three days ; thus 
 it congeals sooner than at first, for calx is hot and dry, and drinks 
 up the humidity greedily. This congelation must be continued 
 till all be quite congealed ; afterwards you must calcine it as for- 
 merly ; being quite calcined, it is called the quintessence, because 
 it is of a more subtil nature than fire, and because of the trans- 
 mutation formerly made. All this being done our medicine is 
 finished, and nothing but ingression is wanting, viz. that the 
 matter may have an ingress into imperfect metals. Plato and 
 many other philosophers, began this work again, with dissolving, 
 subliming, or subtilizing, congealing, and calcining, as at first. 
 But this our medicine, which we call a ferment, transmutes mer- 
 cury into its own nature, in which it is dissolved and sublimed. 
 They say also, our medicine transmutes infinitely imperfect metals, 
 and that he who attains once to the perfection of it, shall never 
 have any need to make more, all which is philosophically to be 
 understood, as to the first original work. 
 
 14-. Seeing then that our medicine transmutes imperfect metals 
 into sol and luna, according to the nature and form of the matter 
 
 yy 
 
3#£ Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 out of which it is mack* ; therefore we now a second time .-. 
 that this our medicine is of that nature, that it transmutes 01 
 changes, converts, divides asunder like fire, and is of a more- 
 subtil nature than lire, being of the nature of a qui n res ence *£ 
 aforesaid, converting mercury, which is an imperfect substance, 
 into its own nature, turning - the grossness of nietal into dust and 
 
 • allies, as you see fire, whieli does not turn all tilings ratio its nature, 
 but that which is homogene with it, turning the heterogene mat- 
 ter into ashes.. Wc have taught how a body is to be .changed 
 
 • into a spirit; and again how the spirit is to be turned into;, 
 body, viz. how the fixed is made volatile, and the volatile fixed 
 again: how the earth is turned into water and air, and the air 
 into iire, and the fire into earth again : then the earth into fire, 
 
 " and the fire into air, and the air into water;: and the water again 
 into earth- Now the earth which was of the nature of fire, is 
 
 ' brought to the nature of a quintessence.- Thus wc have taught 
 
 ■ the ways of transmuting, performed through heat and moisture; 
 making cut of a dry a moist thing, and out of a moista dry one :. 
 otherwise natures which are of several properties, or families, 
 could not be brought to one uniform thing, if the one should be 
 turned into the others nature. And this is the perfection accord- 
 ing to the advice of the philosopher : ascend from the earth into 
 heaven and descend from the heaven to the earth ; to the intent 
 to make the body which is earth r into :v spirit which is subtii, and 
 
 " then to reduce that spirit into a body again which is gross, 
 changing one clement into another, as earth into water, water 
 into air, air into fire; and fire again into water, and water into 
 tire: and that into a more subtil nature and quintessence. Thus 
 have von accomplished the treasure of the whole world. 
 
 15: Ingrkssion. Take sulphur vive, melt it in an earthen 
 
 • vessel well glazed, and put to it a strong lye made of quicklime 
 and pot ashes: boil gently together, so will an oil swim on the 
 top, whieh take and keep: having enough of it, mix it with sand, 
 distil it through an alembic or retort, so long till it becomes 
 incombustible. With this oil we imbibe our medicine, which 
 
 •will be like soap,- Uhcv we distil by an alembic, and cohobatc 
 
 • three or four times, adding more oil to it if it be not imbibed 
 enough. Being thus imbibed-, put fire under it, that the moisture 
 nay vanish r and the medicine be fit anil fusible, as the body of 
 glass. Then take the avis hennctis before reserved, and put it 
 to it gradatim, till it all becomes perfectly fixed. Now according 
 to Avicen, it is not possible to convert or transmute metals, unless 
 they be reduced to their first matter; then by the help of art 
 they are transmuted into another metal. The alchymist doe* 
 like the physician, who first purges off the corrupt or morbific 
 matter, the enemy to man's health, and then administers a cor- 
 dial to restore the vital powers : so we first purge the mercury 
 and sulphur in metals, and then strengthen the heavenly elements 
 in them, according to their various preparations. This nature 
 
 
A ulid. 363 
 
 vork.-, farther Ivy ib^ help of art, as her instrument; and really 
 makes ;i. % most pure and fine sol and Iuiki: tor as the heavenly 
 eli mental virtues work in natural w sols : even so do the artificial,, 
 being made uniform, aareeable with nature; and as nature worlds 
 by means of the be.:','.* i\:' iiiv and ot the bodies, so also art work- 
 ■:li by a like % temperate and proportionate lire, by the moving; 
 and living virtue in ihe matter.. 1'or the heavenly virtue rnjwd 
 with it at lirst, and inclinable to ibis or thai i- - furthered by ttj 
 heavenly virtues are commurHeared to their subjects, as it is in. 
 all natural things, chieily in things generated by putrefaction,, 
 where the astral influence.- are apparent according- to the capacity 
 of the matter. The alchvmist imitates the same thing, destroy- 
 ing one form to beget another, arul his operations are best when 
 
 pey are according to nature, as by putriiying the sulphur, by 
 digesting, subliming, and purging argent vive, by an exact 
 mixtion, with a metallic matter.; and itics out of their principles ' 
 the form of every metal is produced The power of the conven- 
 ing element must prevail, that the parts of it may appear in the 
 converted clement; and being thus mhed with the elemented, 
 thing, then that element will have that matter which made it an 
 clement, and the virtue of the other converting element will 
 be predominant and remain ; this is the great arcanum of the 
 whole art. 
 
 MARY OF ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 Translated from an Arabic M. S. in the Royal Library at Lar.s 
 
 The philosopher Aros went to see Mary the prophetess, and 
 ifter saluting her, said, * is it true that you can make the stone 
 white in one day;' — ' yes,' replied Mary, ' and even in less than 
 a day :' — £ I cannot conceive,' answered Aros, ' the possibility 
 of doing what you say, nor by what means one can whiten it so 
 quickly by the magistery :' Mary replied, ' you know that a 
 water, or thing can be made, which whitens it in a month :' — 
 
 * yes,' said Aros 'but a longtime is necessary to make that thing 
 of which you speak :' — « Hermes,' replied Mary, ' says in all his 
 books, that the philosophers can whiten the stone in an hour:' — 
 
 * O,' said Aros, ' you tell me a strange thing :' — c very strange,' 
 replied Mary, ' to those who are unacquainted with it :' — ' but,' 
 
5'64 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 answered Aros, * as the body of metals, as well as the human 
 body, is composed of elements. — You must then say that the/ 
 can be fixed and moderated, their fumes coagulated and retained 
 in a day, till all that ought to be done is fully accomplished. 
 
 * I assure you Arcs,' said Mary, * and I take God to witness, 
 that if you were not such as you are, I would not say a word of 
 what I am going to declare to you ; and I will only reveal so far 
 as God is pleased to inspire me. T:tke then of alum, of the 
 white gum, and of the red gum ; which is the kibric of the philo- 
 sophers, their gold, and their greatest tincture, and join them 
 by a true marriage, the white gum with the red. Do you under- 
 stand me?' — * Yes,' said Aros, * I comprehend what you have 
 said.' ' Keduce all this into running water,' continued Mary, 
 ' and by means of the fixed body, purify this truly divine water 
 which was drawn from the two sulphurs; cause this composition 
 to become liquid, by the secret of nature, in the philosophical 
 vessel. Do you conceive Aros r' — ' Yes,' replied Aros, ' I under- 
 stand you very well. ' Preserve the fume,' pursued Mary 'and 
 let not any of it escape, make the proportion of your fire similar 
 to the sun's heat in June or July : stay near your vessel, and you 
 will see things in it which will surprize you : for in less than three 
 hours your matter will become black, white, and orange; and 
 the rume will penetrate the body, and the spirit will become 
 fixed, the whole of it will afterwards seem as milk, which will 
 make itself incerating, melting and penetrating. This is the 
 concealed secret. Then Aros said, ■ I know not how to believe 
 that it can be always in this manner.' ' Behold a thing highly 
 admirable,' said Mary, ' which has not been known to the 
 ancients ; it never entered their minds. Take the white clear 
 and dignified herb, which grows upon the little mountains, grind 
 it fresh, when it is at its determined hour, for in it is the genuine 
 body which evaporates not, neither does it at all fly from the fire/ 
 * Is not this the true stone you speak of?' said Aros. ' Yes Aros, 
 it is,' replied Mary, ' but men do not know the regimen of it, 
 because they go on with the work before they are prepared/ 
 ' What is there to do after this,' asked Aros. * It is necessary,' 
 said Mary to him, t to rectify kibric and zibeth upon this body, 
 that is to say, the two fumes, which comprise and embrace the 
 two luminaries, and to put them upon that which softens them, 
 which is the accomplishment of the tinctures and spirits, the true 
 weights of the science; then having ground the whole, put it tb 
 the fire: admirable things will be seen. There is nothing further 
 required but to keep a moderate fire ; after which it is surprizing 
 to see, how in less than an hour, the composition will pass from, 
 one colour to another till it comes to the perfect red, or white : 
 when it does, then abate the fire and open the vessel ; when it is 
 cold there will appear in it a body, clear and shining like a 
 pear), the colour of wild poppy mix'd with white. It is then 
 ;nccrating, melting, and penetrating, and a weight of this body 
 
Mary of Alexandria. 363 
 
 CSSt upon twelve hundred weight of imperfect metal, will convert 
 it into gold. Behold the concealed secret.' Here Aros pros- 
 trated himself on the earth. Mary said to him, • rise Aros, I will 
 ?hew you a further abridgement of the work. Take the clear 
 body, formed upon the little mountains, which are not at all 
 made by putrefaction, but by the one movement; grind this 
 body with the gum elzaron, and the two fumes, for the gum 
 elzaron is the body which seizes and keeps hold of the spirit. 
 Grind the whole, place it near the fire, it will melt, and if you 
 project it upon its feminine part, the whole will become like the 
 water which was distilled, it will congeal in the air, and will 
 remain a body: if you make projection of it on imperfect bodies, 
 you will be a witness to marvels : for this is the hidden secret of 
 the science. Know that these two fumes, of which I spoke, are 
 the roots of the art ; and these are the white kibric, and the 
 humid fire, which the philosophers have called by so many names. 
 The fixed body from the heart of saturn, comprehends the tinc- 
 ture and perfects the work of wisdom : the body that we take 
 on the little mountains is clear and white, and these are the 
 medicines or two matters of this art, of which the one is to be 
 purchased, and the other to be got on the little mountains ; the 
 sages have called them the work of philosophy, because without 
 them the science cannot be perfected ; and herein lies all the 
 wonders of the art, for there is in them four stones : the regimen 
 of it is truly as 1 have said ; Hermes has made many allegories 
 thereon in his books, and the philosophers have always prolonged 
 their regimen, saying that a long time is necessary to do it as it 
 ought to be done. They have said it is necessary to do certain 
 things which are not necessary ; they have always declared that 
 a year is required- to complete their magistery. This they said, 
 to deter ignorant people, by making them think their work 
 cannot be perfected in less than a year. As this is a grand 
 secret, there is none but God can reveal it ; those who hear of it 
 being unable to try, because they don't understand it. But have 
 you understood me, Aros. * Yes, Mary,' said he, ' but I beseech 
 you to tell me what vessel is to be used, for without knowing 
 that the operation cannot be performed. ' The vessel,' said Mary, 
 
 * is the vessel of Hermes, which the philosophers have concealed, 
 and which the ignorant cannot learn, for it is the measure of the 
 philosophic fire.' Aros then said, ' O prophetess ! tell me I 
 pray you, if you have found in the books of the philosophers, that 
 we can make the work with one single body?' * Yes,' said she, 
 
 * although Hermes has not spoken of it, because the root of the 
 science is a poison, which mortifies the whole body, which 
 reduces it into powder, and which coagulates its mercury by its 
 odour. I protest to you, that when this poison is dissolved into 
 a subtle water, in whatsoever manner the dissolution is made, it 
 coagulates mercury into genuine silver, to all tests ; and if projec- 
 tion is made of it ca tin, it will change it into silver. I say to 
 
366 
 
 Alchemical 'J'rculibcs, 
 
 voti, moreover, that this science maybe found in all bodies? hut 
 the philosophers have not chosen to say any thing of it, bvcaii.- 3 
 of the shortness of life, and the length of the work; tl]£y found 
 it nio.-,t easily in that matter, which most evidently .contains the 
 four elements, ami they have multiplied the obscurity of th.it 
 matter by giving it diverse names. The philosophers have spoken 
 sufficiently of all that is necessai'y to be done to accomplish (be 
 work, except of the vessel of Hermes, which is a divine secret 
 that God will not disclose to the Gentiles or Idolators: th<- yesi 
 sel being iudi sponsible to the magistery; those wlm know it wt 
 will never attain the true regimen. 
 
 HERMES TR1SMEGISTUS. 
 
 Seven Golden Chapters. 
 
 I. Hermes saith, I have not in a very long age ceased to try 
 experiments, nor have I spared any labour of mind : but I 
 obtained the knowledge of this art, by the inspiration of the living 
 God only, who esteeming me his servant worthy, did reveal and 
 open the secrets to me. He has bestowed upon rational creatures, 
 the power and faculty of judging and determining truly, not 
 forsaking any, so as to give them an occasion to cease searching 
 after the truth. For my part, I had never discovered any thing 
 of this matter, nor revealed it to any one, had not the fear of the 
 judgments of God, or the hazard of the damnation of my soul 
 for such a concealment prevailed with me. It is a debt I am 
 willing to pay to the just; as the father of the just has liberally 
 bestowed it upon me. 
 
 Now understand, O ye children of wisdom, that the 
 knowledge of the four elements of the ancient philosophers, was 
 not corporeally, nor inconsiderately sought into : they are through 
 patience to be attained, according to their kind, but in their 
 own operation are hidden or obscured. You can do nothing, 
 except the matter be compounded, because it cannot be per- 
 fected, unless first the various colours are thoroughly accom- 
 plished. Know then, that the division which was made of the 
 water by the ancient philosophers, is that which separates it 
 
Hit-Dies Trismegisius. 3(17 
 
 into four other substances; one into two, and three to one; 
 the third part of which is colour, or has tincture, viz. the coa- 
 gulating humour or moisture, but the second ;md third waters 
 • re the weights of the wise. Take of the humility or moisture, 
 an ounce rfnd half; of the southern redness, viz, the soul of sol, 
 half announce, that is, a fourth part of both ; of the orange 
 guiri in like manner, half an ounce: of auripigment half uu 
 'ounce, which are eight • that is three ounces. 
 
 Now understand that the vine of the wi<=e men, or tree 
 of the philosophers is extracted or drawn forth in three, hut 
 the wine thereof is not perfected till at length thirty he com- 
 pleted. Understand the operation. Decoction diminishes the 
 .e.'.ter, but the tincture augments its strength. Because luna in 
 fifteen days is diminished, and in the third is augmented. 
 This is then the beginning and the end. 
 
 Behold, I have exposed to you that which was hidden, 
 and the work is both with you and for you : that which is within, 
 B quickly taken out, and is permanent or fixed; and y°ii may 
 have it either in the earth, or in the sea. Keep therefore your 
 argent vive, which is prepared in the innermost; chamber of the 
 bridegroom, in which it is coagulated: for that is the ardent 
 vive itself, which is said to be of the remaining earth. He 
 therefore that now hears mv words, let him search into, and iu- 
 nuire, from them; it is not for the justification of the work of 
 any evil doer, but to give to every good man a reward, that I 
 have laid open or discovered all things which were hid, relating 
 to this science; and disclosed and made plain and open to you 
 the greatest of secrets, even the intellect ual knowledge. Know 
 therefore ye children of wisdom, and ye seekers after the fame 
 thereof, that the vulture standing upon the mountain, cries out 
 with a great voice; saying, I am the white of the black, and 
 the yellow of the white, and the citrine of the yellow, and behold 
 I speak the very truth. Now the chief principle of the art is the 
 crow, which in the blackness of the night, and clearness of the 
 day Hies without wings. From the bitterness existing in the 
 throat, the tincture or tinging matter is taken : but the red goes 
 forth of its body, and a pure water is taken from its back. Un- 
 derstand aud accept of this gift of God, which is hidden from 
 ignorant and foolish men. This hidden secret which is the vene- 
 rable stone, splendid in color, and sublime in spirit, an open sea, 
 is hid in the caverns of the metals : behold I have exposed it to 
 you : and give thanks to the almighty God, who teaches you 
 this knowledge: if you be grateful, he will return you the tribute 
 of your love. You must put this matter into a moist fire, and 
 make it to boil, which augments the heat of the humour or 
 matter, and destroys the dryness of the incombustible sulphur; 
 continue boiling till the radix ma} r appear then extract the 
 •redness and the light parts,, till only about a third remains. 
 For this cause saue. the philosophers are said to be envious or 
 
3G8 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 ■obscure, not for that they grudged the thing to the honest or just 
 man, to the religious or wise; or to the legitimate sons of art? 
 but to the ignorant, the vicious, the dishonest : lest evil persons 
 should be made powerful to perpetrate sinful things : for such a 
 fault the philosophers must render an account to God. Evil 
 men are not worthy of this wisdom. 
 
 Now this matter I call by the name of the stone ; the femi- 
 nine of the magnesia, the hen, the white spittle, or froth, the 
 volatile milk, the incombustible ashes ; so that it might be hidden 
 from the simple and unwise, who want understanding, honesty, 
 and goodness: which notwithstanding is signified to the 
 wise and prudent by one only name, which is the stone of the 
 wise, or the philosophers stone. Conserve therefore in this, the 
 sea, the fire, and the heavenly bird, even to the last moment of 
 its exit. But 1 deprecate, or wish a curse from our benefactor, 
 the great and living God, even to all the sons of the philoso- 
 phers, to whom it shall please God to give of the bountifulucss 
 of his goodness, if they shall undervalue, or divulge the name 
 and power thereof, to any foolish or ignorant person, or any 
 man unfit for the knowledge of this secret. Whatever any man 
 has given to me, I have returned it again ; nor have I been be- 
 hind hand with any, or desisted to return an equal kindness; 
 even in this friendship and unity consists the chief matter of this 
 operation. This is the concealed stone of many colours, which 
 is born and brought forth in one colour only : understand this 
 and conceal it. By means of it, (through the permission of the 
 omnipotent) the greatest disease is cured ; and every sorrow, 
 distress, evil, and hurtful thing may be evaded : and through 
 the help thereof, you may come from darkness to light; from a 
 desert or wilderness to a habitation or home ; and from straight- 
 ness and necessities, to a large and ample fortune. 
 
 II. Now my son, before all things, I admonish thee to fear 
 God, in whom is the blessing of your imder takings ; and the 
 uniting and disposing of every thing which you segregate, put 
 together, or design for this purpose. Whatever I speak or 
 writs, consider it, and reason about it in your mind: I advise 
 not them who are depraved in their reason and understanding, 
 nor the ignorant, or insipid of judgment. Lay hold of my in- 
 structions, and meditate upon them ; and so fit your mind and 
 understanding to conceive what I say, as if you yourself were 
 the author of these things I write. For to what nature is hot, 
 if it shall be made cold, it shall do hurt or injury to it ; so in 
 like manner, he to whom reason is become a guide, does shut 
 against himself, the door of ignorance, lest he should be securely 
 deceived. Take (my son) the flying bird, and drown it flying; 
 then divide, separate, or cleanse it from its filth, which keeps 
 it in death ; expel it, and put it away from it, that it may be 
 made living, and answer thee, not by flying in the regions above, 
 but truly by forbearing to fly. If therefore you shall deliver it 
 
Hermes Tiismcgtetus. 369 
 
 out of its imprisonment, and then afterwards you shall order 
 and govern it, according to the number of days I shall note to 
 you, according to reason ; and then it shall be a companion to 
 thee, and by it, thou shalt be made great and powerful. Ex- 
 tract from the sun beams the shadow, and the sordid matter, 
 by that which makes the clouds hang over it, and corrupts it, 
 and keeps it from the light, because by its torture and red fiery 
 heat, or redness it is burned. 
 
 Take this redness- corrupted with the water (which resembles 
 the matter, holding the fire as in a live coal) from it: as often 
 as you take this redness corrupted in water, away from it, so 
 often you have the redness purified, then will it associate itself, 
 viz. become fixed, and tinged, in which station it will rest for 
 ever. Return the coal, being extinct in its life, to the water, 
 in the thirty days I note to thee, so will you have a crowned 
 king, resting upon the fountain or well, but drawing it from the 
 auripigment, and wanting the humour or moisture: now have I 
 made the hearts of the attentive, who hope in thee, glad, and 
 their eyes beholding thee, in the hope of that which thou pos- 
 sessest ? Now the water was first in the air, then in the earth; 
 restore thou it then, to the superior places, through its own 
 meanders or passages, and (not foolishly or indiscreetly) change 
 or alter it : and then to the former spirit gathered in its redness, 
 you must carefully and leisurely join it. Know thou my son, 
 that the fat of our earth is sulphur ; that sulphur is auripigment, 
 siretz, or colcothar, of which auripigment, sulphurs, and such 
 like, some are more vile or mean than others, in which there is 
 a difference or diversity. Of this kind also is the fat of glewy 
 substances; to wit, of hair, nails, hoofs, and sulphur itself; 
 oil of Peter, and the brain or marrow, which is auripigment. 
 Of the same kind also is the cats or lions claw, which is siretz: 
 the fat of the white bodies, and the fat of the two oriental ar- 
 gent vives, which sulphurs are caught hold of, and retained by 
 the bodies. I say more, that this sulphur does tinge and fix; 
 and is contained and held by the conjunctions of the tinctures. 
 Fats also tinge, but withal they fly away, in the body which is 
 contained, which is a conjunction of fugitives only with sulphurs 
 and aluminous bodies, which also contain and hold the fugitive 
 matter. 
 
 The order, method, management and disposition of the matter 
 sought after by the philosophers, is but one, in our egg. Now 
 this, in the hens egg, is in no wise to be found. But lest so 
 much of the divine wisdom, as is seen in a hens egg, should not 
 be distinguished ; we make in imitation thereof, a composition 
 from the four elements, jointly fitted and compacted together. 
 is T ow in a hens egg, there is the greatest help that may be, for 
 herein is a nearness of the matters in their natures : a spiritu- 
 ality, and gathering, and joining together of the elements, and 
 the earth which is gold in its nature. The son saith to him, the 
 
 z z 
 
370 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 sulphurs which are convenient or fit for our work, are they 
 coelestial or terrestrial, heavenly or earthly? To whom Hermes 
 answers : some of them are heavenly, and some are from the 
 earth. The son saith, father, I think the heart in the superiors 
 to preiiote heaven ; in the inferiors, the earth. To whom Hermes 
 saith : it is not so, the masculine truly is the heaven of the fe- 
 minine: and the feminine the earth of the masculine. The son 
 saith, father, which of these is more worthy, one than another, 
 whether is the heaven or the earth? The father answers: both 
 want the help of one another; but a nodNffii k proposed by pre- 
 cepts. But if thou shalt say, th-at wisdom or the wise man does 
 rule or command among all mankind ,* to this Hermes : the in- 
 thffcrent or ordinary things are better with them, because every 
 nature delights, or desires to be joined in society with its own 
 kind. We find even in wisdom itself that equal things are 
 joined together. The son saith ;. but what is the main among 
 them ? To whom Hermes, tvnd answers : to every thing in nature, 
 there are three things from two, X- The beginning. 2. The 
 middle. 3. The end, viz. First, the profitable and necessary 
 ■water. Secondly, the fat or oil. Thirdly,, the faeces, or earth, 
 which remains below. But the dragon dwells in, or inhabits in 
 ail these things. And his houses arc the darkness and blackness 
 in them ; and by them he ascends into the air, which is their 
 heaven: buH while the fame or vapour remains in them, they 
 are not perpetual, pcrmananU remaining or fixed. Take but 
 away the fume or vapor from the water; and the blackness from 
 the fat or *uiphur, and death from the ftcccs r and by dissolu- 
 tion, you shall possess a triumphant gift, even that in and by 
 which the possessors- live. 
 
 Now the temperate fat or sulphur which is the fire, is the 
 medium or middle nature, between the fasces and the water, and 
 the through searcher of the water : the fats are called sulphurs,. 
 for between fire, oil, and sulphur, there is so little difference, 
 that t?iere is a propinquity, or nearness; because as the fire does- 
 burn, so also docs the sulphur. All the wisdom of the world is 
 comprehended within this, learning the art is placed in these 
 wonderful hidden. efements r which it does obtain, finish or com- 
 pleat. It behoves him therefore, who would be introduced into 
 this our hidden wisdom, to quit himself from the usurpation of 
 vice r to be just and good, of a profound reason, and ready at 
 hand to help mankind r of a serene a-nd pleasing countenance,, 
 courteous in his conversation* %& others ' T and to himself a faithful 
 keeper of the arcanums, being once revealed to him. And this 
 know, that except you know how to mortify and induce genera- 
 lion, to vivify the spirit, to cleanse, and introduce light, how 
 things fight and contend one with another, are made colourless 
 and freed from their defedations, or spots and foulnesses, like as 
 from blackness and dai'kness, you know nothing, nor can you 
 peribrzu any thing. But this you may know, that this great 
 
Hermes Trimcghtus. 371 
 
 arcanum is a matter of so great worth, that even kings them- 
 selves shall venerate it; the which secrets, it behoves us to keep 
 close, and to hide them from every profane and worthless person. 
 Understand also that our stone is conjoined with, and composed 
 of many things, of various colours, and ot' four elements, which 
 it behoves us to divide and cut in pieces, and to disjoint them ; 
 and partly to mortify the nature in the same, which is in it. 
 And also to keep safe the water and the lire dwelling therein, 
 which does contain its own water, drawn from the four elements, 
 and their waters; this is not water in its form, but fire, contain- 
 ing in a strong and pure vessel, the ascending waters ; lest the 
 spirits should fly away from the bodies, for by this means are 
 they made tinging and permanant, or fixed O blessed water 
 in the form of sea, which element thou dissolvest ! Now it be- 
 hoves ns, with this watery soul, to possess a sulphurous form, 
 and to mix or join the same with our vinegar. For when by the 
 power of the water, the composiium also is dissolved, you have 
 the key of the restoration; then death and blackness fly awa\, 
 and wisdom proceeds on to the finishing ,of the work. 
 
 III. Now kiiow my son, that the philosophers chain up (the 
 matter) with a strong chain, or band, when they make it to con- 
 tend with the fire : because the spirits in the washed bodies, 
 desire to dwell therein, and to rejoice there. In these habitat 
 tions, they vivify themselves, and dwell therein, and the bodies 
 hold, or contain them, nor from them can they ever be separated. 
 Then the dead elements are revived, and the compositum, or 
 compounded bodies are tinged and altered, and by wonderful 
 operations, they are made permanent, or fixed, as the philoso- 
 pher saith. O beautiful and permanent, or fixed water, the 
 formator of the royal elements, who having obtained (with thy 
 brethren joined with a modei'ate government) the tincture, hast 
 found a place of rest. Our stone is a most pretious thing, yet 
 cast forth upon the dunghill. It is most dear and valuable, yet 
 vile and the most vile ; (i. e. found among the most vile things). 
 Because it behoves us to kill two argent vive's together, and yet 
 to value, prize, and esteem them, viz. the argent vive of auri- 
 pigment, and the oriental argent vive magnesia. O nature, 
 the greatest, the creator of natures, which makest, containest, 
 and separajtest natures in a middle principle ! Our stone corner 
 with light, and with light it is generated, and then it generate-? 
 or brings forth the black clouds or darkness which is the mother 
 of all things. 
 
 But when we conjoin the crowned king to our red daughter, 
 and in a gentle fire, not yet too great or hurtful, she does con- 
 ceive, and will bring forth a faithful and excellent son ; which 
 she does feed with a little heat, and nourishes the permanant or 
 fixed matter, making it to abide even the greatest fire. But 
 when you send forth the fire upon the leaves or enfoldingsof the 
 sulphur, the boundary of hearts docs enter in above it, is washed 
 
S72 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 in the same, and Ins putrefied and stinking matter is extracted; 
 then he is altered or changed, and his tincture by the help of 
 the fire remains red as flesh. But our son the begotten king, 
 doth take his tincture from the fire; and death, and the sea, and 
 darkness fly away from him. The dragon flics from the beams 
 of the sun, who observes the holes or passaged, where they 
 enter in ; and our dead son lives. The king comes from the 
 fire, and rejoices with his wife, laving open the hidden tilings; 
 and obscured virgins milk. Now the son vivified, or made to 
 live, is made a warrior of the fire, and supcrexcellent in his 
 tinctures; for the son has got the blessing, haying also the root 
 of the matter in \ilm. Come ye sons of wisdom, and rejoice ; 
 be ye glad and exceeding joyful together; for death- has received 
 its consummation, and the son does reign, he is invested with 
 his red garment, and the scarlet colour is put on. 
 
 IV. Now understand that this stone cries out, nourish and 
 perfect me, and I will reward you; give to me mine, that 
 which is my own, and I will bountifully recompence you. My 
 sol, and my beams are most inward, and secretly in rae> my 
 own luna also, is my light, exceeding every light ; and my good 
 things are better than all other good things. I give largely and 
 plentifully: I reward the understanding with joy and gladness, 
 with delight, with riches and honour and glory: and they that 
 seek alter me, I give them opportunities, to know and under- 
 stand, and to possess divine things. Now know that which the 
 philosophers have hidden and obscured is written with seven 
 letters. Alpha and Yda, follow the two : and sol in like manner 
 follows the book (of nature) notwithstanding, if you are willing, 
 or desire that he should have the dominion you must watch the 
 motions of art, tojointheson to the daughter of the water, 
 which is Jupiter: this is a hidden secret. Auditor understand, 
 let us then use our reason : consider what I have written with 
 the most accurate investigation, and in the contemplative part 
 have demonstrated to you. The whole matter I know to be but 
 only one thing. But who is it that understands the sincere in- 
 vestigation, and inquires into the reason of this matter ? It is 
 not made from man, nor from any thing like, or a km to him, 
 nor from the ox or bullock. If any living creature conjoins with 
 one of another species, the thing is neutral indeed which is 
 brought forth. Now Venus saith, I beget the light, nor is the 
 darkness t.i' my nature; and unless my metal be dryed, all bo- 
 dies would cleave unto me; because I should make them liquids; 
 also I blot out, or wipe away their rust and filthiness, and I ex- 
 tract their substance: nothing therefore is better than me and 
 my brother, being conjoined. 
 
 But the king, and lord, or nominator, to the witnesses his 
 brethren saith, I am crowned, and adorned with a royal diadem, 
 I am cloathed with the royal garment, and I bring joy and glad- 
 ness of heart, And being overcome by force, I made my sub= 
 
Hermes Tii&megiatus. 
 
 a" 
 
 stance to lay hold of, and to rest within the arms and breast, 
 (i. e. the body or womb) of my mother, and to lay hold and 
 fasten upon her substance : making that which is visible to be 
 invisible, and the hidden /natter to appear: for every thing 
 winch the philosophers have vailed or obscured, is generated by 
 us. Understand these words, keep them, meditate upon them, 
 and enquire after nothing else: man in the beginning is gene- 
 rated of nature, whose bowels or inwards arc fleshy ; and not 
 from any thing else. Upon these words meditate; and reject 
 what is .superfluous (to the work). From thence saith the philo- 
 sopher Botri is made ; from the yellow or citrine, which is ex- 
 tracted out of the red root, and from nothing else; which if it 
 shall be citrine, thou hast sought it at the mouth of wisdom, it 
 was not obtained by thy care or industry: you need not study to 
 exalt or change it from the redness : see 1 have not limited you, 
 or circumscribed you under darkness ; I have made almost all 
 tilings plain to you. Burn the body of laton or brass with a 
 wry great fire, and it will give you gratis what you desire ; it 
 will stain, dye, and tinge, as much as you can wish it, and that 
 with glory and excellency. And see that you make that which 
 is fugitive and volatile, or flying away, that it may not fly, by 
 the means of that which flies not. And that which rests or re- 
 mains upon a strong fire (is fixed,) and is also a strong fire itself ; 
 and that which in the heat of a strong or boiling fire is corrupted, 
 or destroyed, or made to fly, is cambar. And know ye that 
 our aes, brass or laton, is gold, which is the art of the perma- 
 nant or fixed water; and the coloration of its tincture and black- 
 ness, is then turned or changed into redness. I confess that 
 through the help of God, I have spoken nothing but the truth : 
 that which is destroyed must be restored and renewed, and from 
 thence corruption is seen in the matter to be renovated, and from 
 thence the renovation appears : and on both or either side, it is 
 the si<m of art. 
 
 V. My son, that which is bora of the crow is the beginning 
 of this art. See here, how I have obscured the matter spoken 
 of to you, by a kind of circumlocution ; and I have deprived 
 you of seeing the light (by giving you too much light :) and 
 1. This dissolved, 2. This joined, 3. This nearest and longest, 
 I have named to you. Roast them therefore, then boil them in 
 that which proceeds from the horse belly, for 7, 1-i, or 21 
 days; that it may eat its own wings, and kill or destroy itself. 
 This done, let it be put in petta panni, and in the fire of a fur- 
 nace, which diligently lute and take care of, that none of the 
 spirit may go forth: and observe, that the times of the earth are 
 in the water; which let be as long as you put the same up upon 
 it. The matter then being melted or dissolved and burnt, take 
 the brain thereof, and grind it in most sharp vinegar, or childrcns 
 urine, till it be obscured or hid: this done; it does live in pu* 
 ^refaction. The dark clouds will be in it, before it is killed ; let 
 
374 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 them be converted into its own body ; and this to be reiterated 
 as I have described : again let it be killed as aforesaid, and then 
 it does live, In the life and death thereof the spirits work : for 
 as it is killed by taking away of the spirit; so that being restored, 
 it is again made alive, and rejoices therein. But coining to this, 
 that which ye seek by affirmation, ye shall see: I declare also to 
 you the signs of joy and rejoicing, even that thing which does 
 fix its body. Now these things our ancestors gave us only in 
 figures and types, how they attained to the knowledge of this 
 swot; 'out behold, they are dead: I have now opened the 
 riddle, I have demonstrated the proposition so much desired, so 
 ir.uch aimed at: I 'have opened the book (of secrets) to the 
 ski! f\il an,d learned^ yet T have also a little concealed the hidden 
 nv stery. I have kept the things (which ought to be put a part) 
 within their own bounds: I conjoined the various and divers 
 figures and forms (of its appearance in the operation) and I have 
 confederated or joined together (with them) the spirit. Receive 
 you tins as the gift of God. 
 
 VI. It behoves you therefore to give thanks to God, who has 
 largefy given (of his bounty) to all the wise ; who delivers us out 
 of the snares and el niches of misery and poverty. I am proved 
 and tried with the fulness of his riches and goodness ; with his 
 probable miracles ; and I humbly pray to God, that whilst Hive, 
 I may pass the whole course of my life, so as I may attain him. 
 Take then from thence the fats or sulphurous matter, which we 
 take from suets, grease, hair, verdigrease, tragacanth, and 
 bones, which things are written in the books of the ancients. 
 But the fats which contain the tinctures, which coagulate the 
 fugitive, and set forth, or adorn the sulphurs, it behoves us to 
 explicate their disposition (more fully hereafter). And to unveH 
 tne figure or form, from all other fats or sulphur, (which is the 
 hidden and buried fat or sulphur) which is seen in no disposition, 
 but dwells in its own body, as fire or heat in trees and stones, 
 which by the most subtle art and ingenuity it behoves us to ex- 
 tract without burning. And know that the heaven is to be joined 
 in a mean with the earth: but the figure is to be in a middle 
 nature, between the heaven awd the earth, which thing is our 
 water. Now in the first place of all, is the -water, which goes 
 forth from this our stone: the second is gold : but the third is 
 gold in a mean, which is more noble than the water and the 
 iocces. And in these three are the vapors, the blackness, and 
 the death. It behoves us therefore to chase or drive away, and 
 expel the snper-vcxistent fume or vapor, from the water ; the 
 blackness from the fat ; and the death from the foeces and this 
 by dissolution ; by which means we attain to the knowledge of 
 the greatest philosophy, and the sublime secrets of all secrets. 
 
 VII. Now there are seven bodies, of which, the first is gold, 
 the most perfect, the king and the head of them : which the 
 •water cannot alter, nor the earth corrupt, nor fire devastate ; 
 
Hermes Trismegistus. 375 
 
 because its complexion is temperate, or in a mean ; and its na- 
 ture tlireet, in respect of heat, cold, moisture, or dryness ; nor 
 is any thing that is in it superfluous. Therefore the philosophers 
 bear up, and magnify themselves in it, saying, that such gold 
 in bodies is like the sun among the stars, most light and splendid. 
 And as by the power of God, every vegetable, and all the fruits 
 of the earth are perfected ; so by the same power, the gold, and 
 (the seed thereof) which contains all these seven bodies, makes 
 them to spring to be ripened, and brought to perfection, and 
 without which this work can in no vise be performed. And like 
 as paste or dough is impossible to be fermented, or levened with- 
 out leven ; so is it in this case, without the proper ferment, you 
 can do nothing: when you sublime the bodies, and purify them 
 separating the filthiness and uncleanness from them, or from the 
 iincces, you must conjoin and mix them together, and put in the 
 ferment, making up the enrth with the water. And you must 
 decoct and digest till ixir, the ferment, makes the alteration or 
 change, like as leven does in paste. Meditate upon this, and 
 see whether the ferment to this compositum, docs make or change 
 it from its former nature to another thing. Consider also that 
 there is no leven or ferment but from the paste itself. It is also 
 to be noted, that the ferment does whiten the confection or com- 
 positum ; and forbids or hinders the burning : It contains, holds, 
 or fixes the tincture, so that it cannot fly away, and rejoices the 
 bodies, and makes them mutually to join, and to enter one into 
 another. And this is the key of the philosophers, and the end 
 of all their works : and by this science the bodies are meliorated, 
 and restored : and the work of them (Deo annuente) is performed 
 and perfected. 
 
 But by negligence and an ill opinion of the matter, the ope- 
 rations may be spoiled and destroyed ; as in a mass of levened 
 paste : or milk turned with runnet for cheese ; and musk among; 
 aromatics. The certain colour of the golden matter for the red, 
 and the nature thereof is not sweetnes.,, therefore of them we 
 make sericum, which is ixir, (the ferment r) and of them we 
 make enamel, of which we have written. And with the king's 
 seal we have tinged the clay, and in that we have put or placed 
 the colour of heaven, which augments the sight of them, who 
 can already in some measure see. Gold therefore is the most pre- 
 cious stone without spots, also temperate, which neither fire, nor 
 air, nor water, nor earth, is able to corrupt or destroy, the uni- 
 versal ferment, rectifying all things, in a middle or temperate 
 composition, which is of a yellow, or true citrine colour. The 
 gold of the wise men, boiled and well digested, with a fiery 
 water makes ixir. For the gold of the wise men is more weighty 
 or heavy than lead, which in a temperate composition, is the 
 ferment of ixir : and contrariwise, in a distemperate composition ; 
 is the distemperature, or hurt of the whole work or matter. For 
 the work is first made from the vegetable : secondly from the 
 
376 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 animal, in aliens egg; in which is the greatest assistance, ant! 
 the constancy of the elements. And gold is our earth ; of all 
 which, we make sericum, which is our ferment, or ixir. 
 
 The wise say, if you conserve a third part of your camels, (viz. 
 of the swift or volatile matter, or that which must bear the bur- 
 then,) and consume the remaining two thirds, you have attained 
 to the thing desired ; you have perfected the work. In like man- 
 ner you must be careful of your argent vive ; for the black 
 matter does whiten the flesh, and the work is perfected by the 
 fire of the wise. And the work is to be performed by a spiritual 
 water, in which the blackness is washed away ; and by that in- 
 strument, in which the foundation of the work is laid, and in 
 that time and moment, in which the clouds appear. Now that 
 water, in or by which the blackness is washed away, is the sweat 
 or moisture of the sun, and childrcns' urine, (i. e. the virgins 
 water.) The thing which I tell you issuincient foryou to know. In 
 like manner, take the water of the water, (mercury of mercury,) 
 and with it cleanse and purify the wind, fume, or vapour, and 
 abolish the blackness. Understand what this signifies, and re- 
 joice therein. Also in the same manner, take the blackness and 
 conjoin ^t; then have respect to the white, and conjoin the red ; 
 so will you go through the thing desired, and come to the end 
 of the work. It is also to be noted, that it is the fire- stone which 
 governs the matter or work, by the good pleasure of God : 
 boil it therefore with a gentle fire, night and day, lest the water 
 should be separated from it ; even till it becomes of a golden 
 colour : understand well what I say. That also which congeals, 
 does dissolve; and that which docs whiten, does in like manner 
 make red. I have made plain to you the nearest way, that you 
 may be easy and satisfied : understand therefore these things, 
 and meditate upon them ; and you shall certainly attain to the 
 perfection of the work. It is also to be noted, that as sol is 
 among the stars ; so is gold among the other metalline bodies : 
 for as the light of the sun, is joined to the lights, and contains 
 the fruit of this operation; so in like manner gold: meditate 
 upon these words, and by the permission of God you may find 
 it out. 
 
 Hermes moreover saith, he that outwardly takes in this medi- 
 cine, it kills him : but he that inwardly drinks it in, it makes him. 
 to live and rejoice. Understand what this means. And as for 
 this cause sake, this water is said to be divine, so it is said to be 
 the greatest poison : and it is preferred before all other things, 
 by so much as that without it nothing of the work can be done. 
 It is also called divine, for that it cannot be mixed or joined 
 with any filth or defiled thing : and this water of our stone pu- 
 rifies and cleanses the natures of the metals, and washes away 
 their detccdations or defilements. And as sol acts upon bodies, 
 so also does this water upon the philosophic stone ; yea, it pene- 
 
Hermes Trismegistus. 377 
 
 Urates and sinks through it, and is constant, fixed, and perfect. 
 This indeed is seen in sol; but it is to be understood that the 
 work may be made through all the seven planers : as first from 
 saturn, then from Jupiter, mars, venus, mercury, and lastly from 
 iuna. The first is the government of saturn ; to wit, to cause 
 sol to putrefy, or bring the body to putrefaction, which is done 
 in the space of forty days and nights. The second is the go- 
 vernment of jupiter, which is to grind or break the matter, and 
 in twelve days and nights to imbue or moisten it, which is called 
 the regiment of tin. The third is the government of mars, 
 which is to induce death or blackness, or to separate the spirit 
 from the body, by which it is said to be changed. The fourth 
 is the government of sol, which is to work away the blackness 
 and poison ; and is indeed to make it white. The fifth is the go- 
 vernment of venus, which is to join the moist to the dry, and 
 the hot to the cold, and to unite them together in one : this is the 
 dominion of brass or copper, (or the making of the matter of 
 a changeable yellow). The sixth is the government of mercury ; 
 which is to burn, and is called the dominion of argent vive. 
 The seventh is the government of luna, which is to decoct or 
 boil, and make hot, and so to perfect the matter, (with the fixed 
 citrine tincture) in twenty-five days : and this is the dominion of 
 silver. See here, I have gone with you through the whole work ; 
 take heed therefore lest you err. 
 
 And know that the white body is made with the whiteness; 
 and its ferment is that which you already know : whiten there- 
 fore the body, and understand what 1 say. Also in like man- 
 ner you are to note ; that the stone sought after, has not its like 
 or equal in the whole earth. It is both outwardly and inwardly 
 of a citrine golden colour; but when it is altered or changed, 
 it is made a body dark and black, like burnt coals. Now the 
 colour of the spirit taken from it is white, and the substance 
 thereof is liquid as water ; but the colour of the soul thereof is 
 red. But the soul and the spirit thereof is returned to it again, 
 and it doth live and rejoice, and its light and glory returns 
 again; and you shall see it overcome and triumph: and that 
 which was even now dead, shall have conquered death, and then 
 it shall live, and arise from the dead, and live as it were for ever. 
 Happy and blessed therefore is he in whose power the disposition 
 of this matter is, who kills and makes alive, and is omnipotent 
 over all for ever. I therefore advise you, not to do any thing 
 in this work, till you get an understanding thereof: for if you 
 be ignorant and void of true knowledge, you will err in what- 
 soever you do, you will wholly labour in vain, and your work 
 will perish. So that thus mistaking in your operation, you 
 blame presently your instructors (the philosophers) and think that 
 they have erred, or taught you wrong, when it is only your ig- 
 norance, and not understanding their words. This then 
 know and understand, that the day, is the nativity or bringing 
 
 a a a 
 
378 . Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 forth of the light; but the night, the nativity or bringing forth 
 of the darkness. Sol, also is the light of the day; and lima the 
 light of the night; which God created to govern the world. 
 But luna does receive her light of the sun by combustion, and 
 h dilated or enlarged therewith : and !>v h;o much as she receives 
 of the light of the sun, or docs contain in her, of his light ; by 
 so much does the nature of sol bear rule over the nature of luna. 
 If therefore you contemplate what I say, and meditate upon my 
 words, you will find that I have spoken the truth; and you will 
 understand the signification, of all that I have said, and the de- 
 monstration of the whole matter. Know then, that the spirits 
 is enfolded or circumscribed, within its marble house or walls : 
 open therefore the passages that the dead spirit may go out, and 
 be cast forth from our bodies : then it will become beautiful, 
 which is only a work or undertaking of wisdom. Sow therefore 
 O God, thy wisdom in our hearts, and root out the corrupt 
 principles which lodge therein, and lead us ia the way of thy 
 saints, by which our spirits and souls may be purified. Thou 
 art omnipotent, O Lord God Almighty, and canst do whatever 
 thou pleasest. 
 
 There is one thing which is to be wondered at, viz. after what 
 manner carmine, to wit, grana nostra, doth tinge or dye silk, 
 which is of a contrary nature, and tinges not a dead thing : and 
 after what manner uzifur, to wit, our vermilion doth tinge vestem 
 which is of a contrary nature, and tinges not live or growing' 
 things. For it is not natural for any thing to tinge other sub- 
 stances, not agreeable to their natures: if therefore you put into 
 your composition, red gold, you shall find in the tincture a pure 
 and perfect red : and if you put into it white gold ; the most passive 
 red will vanish or go forth. There is nothing indeed does tinge 
 any thing, but what is similate to, or like itself. And I testily 
 to you by the living God, maker of heaven and earth, that the 
 stone which I have described, you have permenant or fixed, 
 nor are you kept from it by the earth or the sea, or any other 
 matter. Keep then your congealed quick-silver, many parts of 
 which are lost because of its subtilty. Also the mountain in 
 which is the tabernacle which cries out. I am the black of the 
 white, and the white of the black ; I speak the truth indeed, 
 and I lye not. Now know, that the root of the matter is, the 
 head of the crow flying without wings, in the dark and black of 
 the night, and in the appearance of the day : from the throat the 
 fixing spirit : from its gall the colouring or tinging matter is 
 taken, from its tail, the Vesication, or drying of the matter ; 
 from its wings the liquid water; and from its body the redness. 
 Understand the meaning of the words, for hereby is understood 
 our venerable stone, and the fume or vapour thereof which is 
 exalted (lifted up or sublimed) and the sea irradiated, and alight 
 shining. You are aL\) to note, what alums and salts are, which 
 flow from bodies : if you put the medicines (or matters of the 
 
Hermes l^Hsmegistus. 379 
 
 medicine) in a just or true proportion, you shall not err; but if 
 you mistake the proportion, you must add or diminish, accord- 
 ing as you see it tends to the emendation or performing of the 
 work, lest a deluge should come and overflow all, drowning the 
 regions, and overturning (he trees by the roots. And though 
 the matter be unknown, vet consider these things, how, or after 
 what manner these two colours are distinguished, or diversified, 
 by their vapours: look into the sweetness of sugar, which is one 
 kind of sweet juice; and into the sweetness of honey, which is 
 yet more inten.se or inward. Except you make the bodies spi- 
 ritual and impalpable, von know not how to putrefy ixir, or 
 ptoceed on in the woik ; nor how the three volatile matters or 
 principles, fight one against another; and how they fad not, 
 each in their turns, to devour one another, till of two being left, 
 one, only remains. Be careful also, how you increase your lire 
 [though k is not to be very small when you dry up the water) 
 and take heed that you burn not the matter, because if the 
 vessel breaks, it will *be with a mii-htv impetus or force. And 
 unless the matters of the stone, prove inimical one to another, 
 or contend and fight with, and strive to destroy one another, you 
 shall never attain to the thing you seek after. If you mix your 
 calx with auripiginent, and hot in a mean or due proportion, 
 the splendour and glory of the operation will not succeed ; but 
 if you interpose a medium, the effect will immediately follow. 
 jtfow know, that it is our water, which extracts die hidden tinc- 
 ture. Behold the example and understand it; if you have once 
 brought the body into ashes, you have operated rightly. And 
 the blood (which is in the philosophic water) of the animated 
 body, is the earth of the wise, to wit, the permenant or enduring 
 perfection. 
 
 Now it is that winch is dead, which you ought to vivify or 
 make alive; and that which is sick, which ought to be cured: 
 it is the white which is to be rubified ; the black which is to be 
 purified ; and the cold which is to be made hot. It is God him- 
 self who does create, and inspire or give life, and replenishes 
 nature with his power, that it might follow and imitate his wis- 
 dom, and act as an instrument subservient to him. Iron is our 
 gold ; and brass or copper is our tincture; argent vive is our 
 glory; tin is our silver ^blackness is our whiteness; and the 
 whiteness is our redness. From hence it appears necessary, that 
 we should have a body purifying bodies ; and a water subliming 
 water. Our stone which is a vessel of fire, is made of fire : 
 and is converted into the same again. And if you would walk 
 in the true way, you must pursue it in the evident or visible 
 blackness : for (saith our stone) it is that which is hidden within, 
 which does make me white ; and the same thing which makes 
 me white, makes me also red. Conceal this thing from men, 
 like as a word which is yet in thy mouth, which no man under- 
 stands; and as the fire, light, or sight, which is in thine eye: 
 
SSO Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 I will not tell it plainly to thee thyself, lest by thy words thou 
 conveyest my breath to another, to thine own damage: this is 
 the caution I give thee. Now know that this our work, is made 
 of two figures the one of which wants the white rust, and the 
 other the reddish rust. Our matters also are searsed through our 
 sieves or searses, made of pure or clean rinds, and a most blessed 
 wood. You are also to take notice, that the fire-stone of the 
 philosophers sought after, wants eXtenticn, but it has quantity. 
 It behoves you therefore, to support and nourish it on every 
 side, and to continue it as in the middle. You must also conjoin 
 the body with the soul, beating and grinding it in the sun, and 
 imbuing it with the stone; then putting it into the fire, so long 
 till all its stains and defilements are taken away; let it be a 
 cen tie fire for about seven hours space; thus will you get that 
 vhieh will make yon to live. I also tell you, that its habitation 
 or dwelling place, is posited in the bowels of the earth, for 
 without earth it cannot be perfected : also, its habitation is po- 
 sited in the bowels of the fire, nor without fire can it be per- 
 fected, which is the perfection of our art. Again, except you 
 mix with the white the red, and presently bring or reduce the 
 same into a perfect water, it will tinge nothing; for it never 
 tinges any thing red, but that which is white: and while the 
 work is now perfecting, add them to the light of the sun, and it 
 will be compleated regimine marino, as we have already declared : 
 and by this conjunction above, your stone will attain to its beauty 
 and glory. Thus have you a dry fire which does tinge : an air 
 or vapour, which fixes and chains the volatile matter, binding 
 the fugitive in fetters; and also whitens, expelling the blackness 
 from bodies: and a fixed earth, also receiving the tincture. 
 
 Wash your mercury with the water of the sea, till you have 
 taken away from it all its blackness, so will you accomplish your 
 work to perfection, in which rejoice. If you understand how a 
 resurrection is accomplished, i. e. how the living (principle or 
 spirit) comes forth from the dead (matter or substance) how that 
 is made apparent which was hidden, and how strength is drawn 
 forth through weakness ; you cannot be ignorant how to compleat 
 and perfect this work. How manifest and clear are the words 
 of the wise, yet so as the internal life and principal is still hid- 
 ilen ; you understand them not perfectly by their expressions. 
 Two bodies equally taken from the earth, grind, in the oil of 
 the decocted matter, and in the milk of the white volatile : 
 new mighty and wonderful arc the powers and force of these 
 bodies, which are freely bestowed upon you, through this whole 
 science, which you shall possess, and therewith a long and en- 
 during life. Take by force the most intense wisdom, from 
 whence you must draw forth the eternal (perpetual or fixed) life 
 of the stone, till your stone is congealed, and its dulness is va- 
 nished ; so will you accomplish the life thereof sought after. 
 Give therefore of this life sufficiently to your matter, and it will 
 
Hermes Trimegistus* 381 
 
 mortify it (or bring it to putrefaction) but replete your earth, and 
 it shall make it to live (spring, bud, grow, germinate.) Plant 
 this tree upon your stone, that it may not be in danger of the 
 violence of winds, that the volatile influences or bird of heaven, 
 may fall upon it, and by virtue thereof, its branches may bring 
 forth much fruit ; from thence wisdom does arise. Take thi» 
 volatile bird, cut off its head with a fiery sword, then strip it 
 of its feathers or wings, undo its joints, and boil it upon coals, 
 till it is made, or becomes of one only colour. Then put the 
 venom, or poison to it, so much as is enough to bury or cover 
 it; govern it now with a gentle fire, till youl matter is mortified 
 or putrefied; which done, grind it with white water, and ma- 
 nage it rightly. For we bought two (crows) and we put 
 
 them into a paropsidem, or crucible (or cupel) which we had by 
 us, and eggs or silver gobbets came out, white as salt, these- 
 we tinged with our saffron : of them we sold publicly two hun- 
 dred times, with which we have been made rich, and our trea- 
 sures are multiplied. And whosoever you shall imbue or fill 
 with the powers thereof, should they be hurt with the poison of 
 vipers, or the malignity of brass or verdigrease, they shall be in 
 no danger ; for that it quickens and revives the dead, and kills 
 tire living: it destroys and restores again ; it casts down that 
 which is elevated and lift up, and elevates that which is abjected 
 and cast down, and gives you a dominion over the heavens of 
 the earth. Now^ you must note, that there are two stones of the 
 wise, found in the shores of the rivers, in the arms of the moun- 
 tains, in the bowels of the floods, and in the back parts of the 
 king's house, which by instruction and prudent management 
 may be- brought forth, male and female. By these being con- 
 joined and made complex (or perfectly united into one consi- 
 milar substance) you will be made wiser (you will see the reason 
 of the operation, and the end of the work.) Blessed God, how- 
 great and how wonderful a thing is this. 
 
 A certain philosopher dreamed, that the king's messenger 
 came to a certain gouty man, and the man desired that lie might 
 go with him ; to whom the messenger answered, since thou hast 
 the gout, how canst thou go with me, for thou canst not walk. 
 To whom the gouty man answered, thou knowest that in the 
 root of this mountain, there is a certain tabernacle, bear me 
 then thither, leave there the burthen, so shall I be presently 
 freed or delivered from my gout. Then said he to me, thou art 
 not able to touch the foot thereof: but going back, he took him 
 up and placed him in the tabernacle, the foot of which, the 
 messenger said, he was not able to touch : and waking from 
 his dream, he saw nothing. Behold the similitude. Another 
 also saw in a dream, wherein it was said, if any one truly should 
 sit down by the way, and should ask you, whether you would 
 think fit to do this thing, would you do it ? He answered, I 
 know not; the other said, that he should lie or generate with bit 
 
S82 Alchemical Treatises. 
 
 mother in the middle of the earth ; then awaking, he saw no- 
 thing. Consider well this similitude. 
 
 But leading you to the knowledge of philosophy, and ex- 
 posing the demonstrations thereof, in a philosophic manner, 
 ye si; mid make it the derision and mockery of women, and the 
 piny of children. Take also the fresh bark or rind, in the same 
 moment; in which you shall, alter another manner, extract the 
 mat;: a- or thing itself, in the place where it is generated; and 
 put it into a cucurbit, and sublime it. And that which is or 
 shall be sublimed, separate it, for it is the vinegar of the philo- 
 sophers, and their sapience (i. e. their salt ) Then take this 
 vinegar, and melt or pour it forth upon another cortex, bark, 
 or supcriices of the sea, and put it into a glass vesica, in which 
 put so much of your vinegar, as may over top it the height of 
 four inches : this bury in warm horse dung, for thirty-one or 
 forty davs. This time being past, take the vessel forth, and you 
 will find it now dissolved, and turned into a black and stinking wa- 
 ter; morchJack andstinkingthanany thinginthewholeworld. Take 
 then this very thing itself, and very gently elevate itinitstabernacle, 
 till all the moisture is consumed, so as no more will ascend, this 
 sublimed matter keep carefully for your use. Then take the feces, 
 which remain in the bottom of the cucurbit, and keep them, for they 
 sin the crown (and rejoicing) of the heart. Dye then the same 
 ano grind them, and add thereto fresh or new cortex of the 
 sea, that is say, mercury, and grind them together, drying them 
 in a warm sun. And the waters from the same first sublimed, 
 sink down to the botf m, which diligently grind and dry, and 
 put tiiem in the crucible or test of Ethel, and sublime : and the 
 matter being sublimed purely white, as fine salt^ keep it safely, 
 for it k the auripigment, and sulphur and magnesia of the phi- 
 losophers. 
 
 Understand now, and see that you govern your work with 
 wisdom and prudence, and make not too much haste. Then 
 take the cucurbit, put half wav into lute, aud put into the same, 
 your dissolved black water, which you have sublimed; that is to 
 say, nine parts, and of this whitened auripigmentum, which you 
 sublimed from the ethel two parts. I say, that this opened or 
 decocted auripigment, is immediately dissolved in the water, 
 and made like to water; that nothing can be seen by mankind, 
 of a more intense, fixf, and perfect whiteness, nor any thing 
 more beautiful to the eye, which the philosophers call their sal 
 virginis, or virgin salt. Put this into a little vessel, called a 
 cucurbit, close well the joynts, which put upon a gentle fire, 
 making it, as it were, but with two coals at first, and then add- 
 ing two others: and look into it, to see how the water ascends 
 and descends. V\ hen you see the vapour is consumed, and 
 nothing more will ascend, of that which is elevated, nor de- 
 scend, know that the matter itself is now coagulated: make 
 therefore a more intense and vehement fire, for the space of 
 
Hermes .Trismc*>istus. 383 
 
 o 
 
 three hours of the day. Then lasi.lv, take away the. fire, or let 
 it go out, ami the next day (all tilings being cold) open the 
 mouth of your cucurbit, and take forth the matter, which is of 
 a substance, white, sincere, and melted or dissolved. .Tins i* 
 your substance sought after: and now you have come through 
 to the end of your work; manage it according to your reason 
 and prudence, for (God assisting) you may make of it what yow 
 pi case. 
 
 THE EMERALD TABLE OF HERMES. 
 
 This is true, and far distant from a lie; whatsoever is below, 
 is like that which is above ; and that which is above, is like that 
 which is below : by this are acquired and perfected the miracles 
 of the one thing. 
 
 Also, as all things were made from one, by the help of one : 
 so all things are made from one thing by conjunction. 
 
 The father thereof is the sun, and the mother thereof is the 
 moon : the wind carries it in its belly, and the nurse thereof is 
 the earth. 
 
 This is the mother or fountain of all perfection, and its power 
 is perfect and entire, if it be changed -into earth. 
 
 Separate the earth from the fire, and the subtile and thin 
 from the gross and thick ; but prudently with long sufferance, 
 gentleness and patience, wisdom, and judgment. 
 
 It ascends from the earth up to heaven, and descends again 
 from the heaven to the earth, and receives the powers and effi- 
 cacy of the superiors and inferiors. 
 
 In this work, you acquire to yourself the wealth and glory of 
 the whole world : drive therefore from you all cloudiness or ob- 
 scurity, darkness and blindness. 
 
 For the work increasing or going on in strength, adds strength 
 to strength, forestalling and over-topping all other fortitudes and 
 powers ; and is able to subjugate and conquer all things, whether 
 they be thin and subtile, or thick and solid bodies. 
 
 In this manner was the world made ; and hence are the won- 
 derful conjunctions or joinings together of the matter and parts 
 
384 Alchemical 2'reatiscs. 
 
 ^hereof, and the marvellous effects, when in this way it is done* 
 by which these wonders are effected. 
 
 And for this cause I am called Hermes Trimegistus, for that 
 1 have the knowledge or understanding of the philosophy of 
 *h$ three principles of the universe. My doctrine or discourse, 
 which I have here delivered concerning this solar work, is com- 
 pleat and perfect, , 
 
INDEX TO THE CONTENTS. 
 
 Page, 
 
 Introduction to the Lives of the Adepts, 1 
 
 1 Synesius, 410, A. D. Bishop of Ptolcmais, in Lybia, 5 
 
 2 Ilhasis, 900, Physician to the Hospital, Bagdad, 7 
 
 3 Farabi, 1050, a Mahometan Doctor, 8 
 
 4 Morien, 1000, a Roman Hermit in Judea, 9 
 
 5 Avicenna, 1030, Physician at Bacara Persia, 11 
 
 6 Albert, 1230, Bishop of Ratisbon Bavaria, 12 
 
 7 St. Thomas, 1260, Aquino Castle Italy, 14. 
 
 8 Roger Bacon, 1260, a Franciscan Friar, Oxford, 16 
 
 9 Raymond Lully, 1265, Seneschal in Majorca, ,17 
 
 10 Arnold Villanova, 1291, Physician Montpellier, 23 
 
 11 John Rupecissa, 1350, a Franciscan Friar, 24 
 
 12 Pope John XXII. 1330, Avignon, 25 
 
 1 3 John Cremer, 1312, Abbot of Westminster, 25 
 
 14 Basil Valentine, 1450, a Benedictine Monk, 27 
 
 15 John Isaac, 1420, Holland, 27 
 
 16 Johnde Meun, 1360, French Poet, Paris, 28 
 
 17 Peter Bona, 1330, of Lombardy, 30 
 
 1 8 Ferarius, 1 320, an Italian Monk, 30 
 
 19 Nicholas Flamel, 1382, Scrivener, Paris, 30 
 
 20 Thomas Norton, 1477, of Bristol England, 43 
 
 21 Thomas Dalton, 1450, Priest, Gloucester-abbey, 45 
 
 22 Count Trevisan, 1481, of Padua in Italy, 46 
 
 23 John Fontaine, 1413, Poet, French Flanders, 49 
 
 24 Sir George Ripley, 1471, Canon and Carmelite, England, 49 
 
 25 Paracelsus, 1527, Dr. of Med. Univ. Basil, 50 
 
 26 John Picus, 1491, Earl of Mirandola, 53 
 
 27 Thomas Charnock, 1574, Salisbury, England, 54 
 
 28 Dennis Zachary, 1550, Guienne in France, 5$ 
 
 29 Jacob Behmen, 1600, North Germany, 60 
 
 30 Alexander Sethon, 1002, North Britain, 66 
 
 31 Michael Sendivogius, 1604, Imper. Counsellor of State, 67 
 
 32 Gustenhover, 1603, Goldsmith Strasburgh, 69 
 
 33 Busardier, 1648, 70 
 
 34 Dr. John Dee, A. M. 1595, Chancellor of St. Paul's, 71 
 
 35 J. B. Heimont, M. D. 1599, Flanders, 
 
 36 Butler, , 1624, Ireland, 76 
 
 37 F. Helvetius, M. D. 1666, Holland, 81 
 
 38 Claude Berigard, 1641, Pisa in Italy, 82 
 
 39 Transmutation, 1640, testifed by A Kircher, 83 
 
 4,0 " , 1620, before Gustavus Adolphus, 84 
 
 41 , 17 iO, before the King of Prussia, 84 
 
 42 , 1715, before the King of Poland, 84 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 43 Joseph Balsamo, 1783, a Sicilian, 85 
 
 4-1 Delisle, 1708, of Provence, 85 
 
 15 Eirenaeus Philalethes, 1645, England, 88 
 
 Catalogue of Alchemical Books, 95 
 
 Introduction to the Alchemic Treatises, US 
 
 1 Andreas Freher, analogy of the Work, 121 
 
 2 The Secret Book of Artephius, 132 
 
 3 The ancient war of the Knights, 152 
 
 4 Eirenaeus Philalethes, secrets revealed, 160 
 
 5 The same in Ripley revived, 174 
 
 6 The same, a true light of Alchemy, 175 
 .7 Alexander Sethon Philosophic Enigma, 182 
 
 8 Wcidenfeld on the Green Lion of Paracelsus, 187 
 
 9 Of the heavenly Mercury, by G. Welling, 202 
 
 10 Six Keys from the Hermetic Triumph, 204 
 
 11 Sir G. Ripley, twelve Gates of Alchemy, 217 
 
 12 John Pontanus of the Sophie Fire, 229 
 
 1 3 Basil Valentine's Chariot of Antimony, 237 
 
 14 Baro Urbigerus, 100 Aphorisms, 237 
 
 15 Nicholas Flamel, Summary of Philosophy, , 252 
 
 16 The Hermetic Mercuries of Raymond Lully, 257 
 
 17 Sanguis Naturae, or congealed Liquor, 282 
 
 18 First Principles according to J. Behmen, a plain decla- 
 
 ration of the whole Science, illustrating all the other 
 
 Treatises, 293 
 
 19 Pierce the black Monk, on the Elixir, 298 
 
 20 Sir Edward Kelly's Work, from St. Bunstan, 299 
 
 21 Richard Carpenter, 300 
 
 22 Abraham Andrew's Hunting of the Green Lion, 300 
 
 23 William Bjoomfield's Blossoms, 301 
 
 24 Thomas Robinson of the Stone, 301 
 
 25 Thomas Norton, Ordinal of Alchemy, 302 
 
 26 John D'Espagnet, Hermetic Secrets, ' 303 
 
 27 Sir George Ripley, Mercury of Philosophers, 313 
 
 28 Christopher of Paris, of the same, 323 
 
 29 Arisl^eus, an Ancient Dialogue, 327 
 
 30 Roger Bacon, Radix Munu'i, 330 
 
 31 The true Eg..: of Synesias the Greek Abbot, 353 
 
 32 Kalid the Persian, Secret of Secrets, 35 4 
 
 33 Mary of Alexandria, Lialogue with Aros, 363 
 
 34 Hermes Trismegiotus, 7 chapters and tablet, 366 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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