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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92903	A new light of alchymie: taken out of the fountaine of nature, and manuall experience. To which is added a treatise of sulphur: / written by Micheel Sandivogius: i.e. anagram matically, divi Leschi genus amo. Also nine books of the nature of things, written by Paracelsus, viz. Of the generations growthes conservations life: death renewing transmutation separation signatures of naturall things. Also a chymicall dictionary explaining hard places and words met withall in the writings of Paracelsus, and other obscure authors. All which are faithfully translated out of the Latin into the English tongue, by J.F. M.D.; Novum lumen chymicum. English.	Sędziwój, Michał, ca. 1556-ca. 1646.; French, John, 1616-1657.; Paracelsus, 1493-1541. Of the nature of things.; Dorn, Gerhard, 16th cent. Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi.	1650 (1650)	Wing S2506; Thomason E604_3; Thomason E604_4; Thomason E604_5; ESTC R203736	79,289	151

OF THE NATURE OF THINGS NINE BOOKS Written by Philipp Theophrastus of Hohenheim CALLED PARACELSVS The Titles of the Nine Bookes of the Generations Growths Conservations Life Death Renewing Transmutations Separations Signatures of Naturall things London Printed by Richard Cotes for Thomas Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain 1650. NINE BOOKS OF THE NATVRE Of Thing Written by Philipp Theophrastus of Hohenheim called PARACELSUS To the honest and wise man John Winck Isteiner of Friburge his most intimate friend and dear brother Theophrastus Paracelsus wisheth all health IT is most fit that I should most intimate Friend and dear brother satisfie your friendly and daily requests expressed in your frequent Letters to me and seeing that in your last Letters you do earnestly and courteously invite me to you if it were convenient I cannot dissemble with you yet by reason of many hinderances I cannot but as for your other request viz. that I should give you some clear Instructions I cannot deny you but am constrained to gratifie you therein I know the honesty of your mind and that you do willingly hear or see any thing that is new or wonderfull in this art I know also that you have spent good part of your estate and life in it Because therefore you have expressed much good will and brotherly fidelity towards mee I cannot forget either but am constrained to be thankfull and if I never see you more to leave a brotherly legacy to you and yours as a remembrance of of mee For I will not here only answer and cleerly instruct you concerning those points only of which you have asked me but wil also dedicate a Book to you which I will call Of the Nature of things and will divide it into nine little books In this book I will satisfie all your requests and further then you demanded although haply you will much wonder and perhaps doubt whether all these things are true that I shal write But doe not so yea beleeve them not to be speculations and theories but practicall and proceeding from experience And although I have not tryed all of them my selfe yet I have them from and have approved them by others and know them by that kind of experience as also by the light of nature If in some places you cannot understand mee what I shall say and in some processes require of me further explication write to mee privately and I will declare the matter more cleerly and give you sufficient instruction and intelligence Although I beleeve you cannot well misunderstand what I shall write seeing I know you are so well qualified and gifted by God with arts and a good understanding Moreover you have known my mind and meaning and therefore will quickly and easily understand me Now I hope and do not doubt that you will respect this present worke commended to you and esteem of it according to its worth and not at all divulge it but keep it in great secresie for your selfe and yours as indeed it is a hid and great treasure an excellent gem and pretious thing which is not to be cast to swine i.e. Sophisters and contemners of all good naturall arts and secrets who are worthy neither to read them much lesse to have know or understand them And although this book bee very little consisting of few words yet it is full of many and great secrets For I do not here write out of speculation and theorie but practically out of the light of nature and experience lest I should burden you and make you weary with many words c. Wherefore most deare friend and loving brother seeing I have wrote this book out of love to you alone and to no body else I beseech you that you will keep it as a thing of value and a a great secret and not let it goe out of your hands as long as you live and at your death bequeath it in like manner to your children heirs that they also may keep this book secretly which also I shal particularly desire of them that they wil not let it goe out of your family at any time and be made publique so as to come to the hands of Sophisters scoffers who contemn all things which are not agreeable to them and indeed detract from them These are pleased onely with what is their own as indeed all fools are wont to bee whom their owne toyes onely please not anything which is anothers hating all kind of wisdome Wherefore they account wisdom as folly bec nothing doth thē any good they know the use of nothing As one workman cannot use the instruments of another so a foole can use no weapons better then his owne sticke or boughes and there is no sound pleasanter to him then the ringing of his own bell Wherefore most dear brother be you faithfully admonished as I have entreated you and do what I have enjoined you which I hope you will and you shall doe what is right and well Farewell with the protection of God Dated at Villacum in the year 1537. OF THE NATVRE Of Things THE FIRST BOOKE Of the generations of Naturall things The generation of naturall things is twofold THe generation of all natural things is twofold Naturall and without Art and Artificiall viz. by Alchymie Although in generall it may bee said that all things are naturally generated of the Earth by means of putrefaction For Putrefaction is the chiefe degree All things proceed from putrefaction and first step to Generation Now Putrefaction is occasioned by a moist heat The cause of putrefaction is a moist heart For a continuall moist heat causeth putrefaction and changeth all naturall things from their first form and essence as also their vertues The power and nature of putrefaction and efficacy into another thing For as putrefaction in the stomach changeth and reduceth all meats into dung so also putrefaction out of the stomach in a glasse changeth all things from one form into another from one essence into another from one colour into another from one smell into another from one vertue into another from one power into another from one property into another and generally from one quality into another For it is evident and proved by daily experience that many good things which are wholsome and medicinable become after putrefaction naught unwholsome and meer poison So on the contrary there are many bad unwholsome poisonous and hurtfull things which after their putrefaction become good lose all their unwholsomnesse and become wonderfull medicinable because putrefaction produceth great matters as of this wee have a most famous example in the holy Gospel where Christ saith Unlesse a grain of Wheat bee cast into the Earth and be putrefied it cannot bring forth fruit in a hundred fold Hence also we must know that many things are multiplyed in putrefaction so as to bring forth excellent fruit For putrefaction is the change What putrefaction is and death of all things and destruction

all which coagulate Waters into snow and ice But the Coagulation of Fire which alone is here to bee taken notice of is made by an Artificiall and Graduall Fire of the Alchymists and it is fixed and permanent For whatsoever such a Fire doth coagulate the same abides so The other Coagulation is done by the Aetnean and Minerall Fire in in Mountains which indeed the Archeius of the Earth governs and graduates not unlike to the Alchymists and whatsoever is coagulated by such a Fire is also fixed and constant as you see in Mineralls and Metalls which indeed at the beginning are a mucilaginous matter and are coagulated into Metalls Stones Flints Salts and other bodies by the Aetnean fire in Mountaines through the Archeius of Earth and operator of Nature What things cannot be Coagulated Also wee must know that Fire can coagulate no water or moisture but only the Liquors and Juices of all Naturall things Besides also there can no flegm bee coagulated unlesse in the beginning it was a corporeall matter into which by the industry of a skilfull Alchymist it may return So also any mucilaginous matter or spermaticke slimynesse may by the heat of Fire be coagulated into a body and corporeall matter but never bee resolved into water again And as you have heard of Coagulation so also know concerning Solution viz. that no corporeall matter can bee dissolved into Water unlesse at the beginning it was water and so it is in all Mineralls What Tincture is and its kinds Tincture is the seventh and last degree which concludes the whole worke of our mystery for Transmutation making all imperfect things perfect and transmuting them into a most excellent essence and into a most perfect soundnesse and alters them into another colour Tincture therefore is a most excellent matter wherewithall Minerall and Humane bodies are tinged and are changed into a better and more noble essence and into the highest perfection and purity For Tincture colours all things according to its own nature and colour All things that are to be tinged must be fluid Now there are many Tinctures and not only for Metalline but Humane bodies because every thing which penetrates another matter or tingeth it with another colour or essence so that it bee no more like the former may bee called a Tincture Wherefore there are many and various sorts of Tinctures viz. of Metalls Mineralls Mens bodies Waters Liquors Oyls Salts all fat things and indeed of all things which may bee brought to flux out of the Fire or in the Fire For if a Tincture must tinge it is necessary that the body or matter which is to bee tinged bee opened and continue in flux and unless this should bee so the Tincture could not operate But it would bee as if any one should cast saffron or any colour upon coagulated Water or Ice for so it would hot so suddenly tinge the Ice with its colour as if it were cast into other water And although it should tinge yet it would at the same time resolve the Ice into Water Wherefore those Metalls that wee would tinge must first bee melted in the Fire and bee freed from Coagulation And here wee must know that by how much the stronger fire is requisite for their melting so much the sooner the Tincture runs through them as Leaven penetrates and infects the whole masse with sowreness and by how much better the masse is covered and kept warm so much the better is it fermented and makes the better bread for ferment is the Tincture of Dowe and Bread Feces are of a more fixt nature then their Flegme Wee must also note that all feces are of a more fixed substance then the liquor of it is also of a sharper and more penetrating nature as you see in the spirit of Wine which is made of the feces of Wine and of Aqua vitae which is distilled out of the grounds of Beer and burns like spirit of Wine and is inflamed as Sulphur The preparation and Nature of distilled Vineger Also if of the feces of Vineger another Vineger bee distilled as commonly spirit of Wine is distilled there will bee thereby made a Vineger of so fiery and sharp a nature that it consumes all Metalls Stones and other things as Aqua fortis How the Tinctures of Metalls must be made Moreover it is necessary that Tinctures be of a fixt fluxil and incombustible nature so that if a little of a place of any Metall red hot bee cast into them they will presently flow like wax● without any manner of fume at all and they penetrate the Metalls as oyle doth paper or water a sponge and tinge all Metalls into white and red that is into Silver or Gold Now these are the Tinctures of Metalls which it is necessary must bee turned into an Alcool by the first degree of Calcination then by the second degree of Sublimation must get an easy and light flux And lastly by the degree of Putrefaction and Distillation are made a fixt and incombustible Tincture and of an unchangeable colour The Tinctures of Men. Now the Tinctures of Mens bodies are that they bee tinged into the highest perfection of health and all Diseases bee expelled from them that their lost strength and colour bee restored and renewed and they are these viz. Gold Pearles Antimony Sulphur Vitriall and such like whose preparation wee have diverfly taught in other books wherefore it doth not seem to us necessary here to repeat them Of Dying and Painting Wee shall write no more of Tinctures seeing every extracted colour may bee called a Tincture which doth indeed tinge things with a permanent colour which doe not go into the Fire or preserve colours fixed in the Fire All these are in the hand and power of the Dyer and Painter who prepares them according to his pleasure How many degrees of the Alchymists fire there be It is very necessary in this book to know the degrees of Fire which many wayes may bee graduated and intended and every degree hath a peculiar operation and one produceth the same effect as another as every expert Alchymist by the daily experience and exercise of the Art knows For one is as living and flaming Fire which reverberates and Calcines all bodies Another is the Fire of a Candle or Lamp which fixeth all volatile bodies Another is a Fire of coals which cements colours and purgeth Metalls from their dross exalts Gold and Silver to a higher purity whitens Copper and in brief renews all Metalls Another Fire is of an Iron plate made red hot in which the Tinctures of Metalls are proved which also is profitable for other things The Filings of Iron heat after one fashion Sand after another Ashes after another a Balneum Maria after another in which manifold Distillations Sublimations and Coagulations are done Balneumroris after another in which there are made many Solutions of corporeall things Horse-dung after

have found Now after this manner may Quicksilver bee prepared out of all Metall viz. ☿ auri ☽ ♀ ♂ ♃ ♄ The reduction of Sublimate and the highest purging of it Now the raising again or restoring of coagulated Mercury is done by distillation in a retort for Quicksilver alone ascends into cold water the Ashes of ♄ ♀ or Sulphur being left behind Now the raising again or restauration of Mercury sublimed is done in seething hot water but it must first be ground very small so the hot water wil seperates it from it the spirit of Salt and Vitriall which it carries up with it the quicksilver running in the bottome of the water Now if this Quicksilver shall be again sublimed with Salt and Vitriall and revived againe in Hot water and this done seven or eight times it can never bee better purged and renewed And this may bee kept for a great secret in Alchymie and Physick and be much rejoiced in For by this means all the impurity blacknesse and poisonousnesse is taken away The reduction of calcined and Precipitated Mercury Mercury calcined can never bee restored againe without sublimation for unlesse it be sublimed after calcination it will never bee revived wherefore thou shalt first sublime it and then reduce it as other Sublimate The resuscitation of Azure Cinnabar Aurum vitae also of Precipitate that they may bee reduced into Quicksilver is thus Take either of these grind it small upon a marble make it up into a past with the white of an egge and sope then make pills of the bigness of Filbeards which put into a strong earthen gourd upon the month of it put a plate of Iron with many little holes in it and lute it on and distill it per descensum with a strong fire so that it may fall into cold water and thou shalt have the Quicksilver again The renewing of Wood that is burn Now the resuscitation and restoring of Wood is hard and difficult yet possible to Nature but without much skilfulness and industry it can never bee done But to revive it the processe is this Take Wood which must first bee a Coale then Ashes which put into a gourd together with die Resine Liquor and Oyle of that tree of each a like weight mingle them and melt them with a soft heat and there will bee a mucilaginous matter and so thou hast the three Principles of which all things are produced and generated viz. flegm fatnesse and Ashes The flegme of of Wood is its Mercury the fat its sulphur the ashes its salt The Flegm is Mercury the Fat is Sulphur the Ashes is Salt For whatsoever fumes and evaporates in the Fire is Mercury whatsoever flames and is burnt is Sulphur and all Ashes is Salt Now seeing thou hast these three Principles together put them in Horse-dung and putrefie them for a time If afterward that matter bee put in and buried in fat ground thou shalt see it live again and a little tree spring from thence which truly in vertue is farre more excellent then the former This Tree or Wood is and is called Regenerated Wood renewed and restored which from the beginning was Wood but mortified destroyed and brought into coales ashes and almost to nothing and yet out of that nothing is made and renewed This truly in the light of Nature is a great mystery viz. that a thing which had utterly lost its form and was reduced to nothing should recover its form and of nothing bee made something which afterward becomes much more excellent in vertue and efficacy then it was at first Algenerall rule for raising of things againe But to speake generally of the Resurrection and Restauration of Naturall things you must know that the chiefest foundation here is that that bee restored to every thing and made to agree with it which was taken from it in mortification and separated from it which is hard to bee here specifically explained Wherefore wee shall conclude this book and shall speak of these things more at large in the next book Concerning the transmutations of naturall things OF THE NATVRE Of Things THE SEVENTH BOOK Of the Transmutation of Naturall things IF wee write of the Transmutation of all Naturall things it is fit and necessary that in the first place wee shew what Transmutation is Secondly what bee the degrees to it Thirdly by what Medium's and how it is done What Transmutation is Transmutation therefore is when a thing loseth its form and is so altered that it is altogether unlike to its former substance and form but assumes another form another essence another colour another vertue another nature or property as if a Metal I bee made glasse or stone if a stone bee made a coale if wood be made a coal clay be made a stone or a brick a skin bee made glew cloth bee made paper and many such like things All these are Transmutations of Naturall things There are seven principal degrees of transmutation After this it is very necessary also to know the degrees to Transmutation and how many they be And they are no more then seven For although many doe reckon more yet there are no more but seven which are principall and the rest may bee reckoned betwixt the degrees being comprehended under those seven And they are these Calcination Sublimation Solution Putrefaction Distillation Coagulation Tincture If any one will climbe that Ladder he shall come into a most wonderful place that hee shall see and have experience of many secrets in the Transmutation of Naturall things The first degree therefore is Calcination under which also are comprehended Reverberation and Cementation What Calcination is and its kinds are For betwixt these there is but little difference as for matter of Calcination Wherefore it is here the chiefest degree For by Reverberation and Cementation many corporeall things are calcined and brought into Ashes and especially Metalls Now what is calcined is not any further reverberated or cemented By Calcination therefore all Metalls Mineralls Stones Glasse c. and all corporeall things are made a Coal and Ashes and this is done by a naked strong Fire with blowing by which all tenacious soft and fat earth is hardened into a stone Also all stones are brought into a Calx as wee see in a Potters furnace of lime and brickes Sublimation is the second degree and one of the most principall for the Transmutation of many Naturall things What Sublimation is and its kinds under which is contained Exaltation Elevation and Fixation and it is not much unlike Distillation For as in Distillation the water ascends from all flegmatick and watery things and is separated from its body so in Sublimation that which is spirituall is raised from what is corporeall and is subtilized volatile from fixed and that in dry things as are all Mineralls and the pure is separated from the impure Besides Sublimation many good vertues and wonderfull things are found out

without the body But now seeing idlenesse is so much in request amongst Physitians and all labour and study is turned only to insolency truly I do not wonder that all such preparations are every where neglected and coales sold at so low a price that if Smiths could be o easily without coales in forging and working their Metalls as Physitians are in preparing their Medicines certainly Colliers would long since have been brought to extream want A reprehension of Physitians In the mean time I will give to Spagiricall Physitians their due praise For they are not given to idlenesse and sloth nor goe in a proud habit or plush and velvet garments often shewing their rings upon their fingers or wearing swords with silver hilts by their sides or fine and gay gloves upon their hands but diligently follow their labours sweating whole nights and dayes by their furnaces The commendation of Chymists and how they differ from other Physitians These doe not spend their time abroad for recreation but take delight in their laboratory They wear Leather garments with a pouch and Apron wherewith they wipe their hands They put their fingers amongst coales into clay and dung not into gold rings They are sooty and black like Smithes or Colliers and doe not pride themselves with cleane and beautifull faces They are not talkative when they come to the sick neither doe they extoll their Medicines seeing they well know that the Artificer must not commend his work but the work the Artificer and that the sick cannot be cured with fine words How many degrees of Alchymie there be Therefore laying aside all these kinds of vanities they delight to bee busied about the fire and to learn the degrees of the science of Alchymie Of this order are Distillation Resolution Putrefaction Extraction Calcination Reverberation Sublimation Fixation Separation Reduction Coagulation Tincture c. But how these separations may bee done by the help of distinct degrees according to the Art of Alchymie hath been in generall spoken of already Wherefore it is needlesse here to make repetition But to proceed to particulars and briefly to explaine the practise you must know that Water Spirit Liquor Oyle c. cannot bee separated after one and the same processe out of Flowers Hearbes Seeds Leaves Roots Trees Fruits Woods by the degree of Distillation For Hearbs require one processe Flowers another Seeds another Leaves another Roots another Trees another the Stalkes another the Fruite another Woods another The degrees of fire in Distillation And in this degree of Distillation there are also foure distinct degrees of Fire to bee considered The first degree of Fire in Distillation is Balneum Mariae this Distillation is made in Water Another degree of Fire is Distillation made in Ashes The third in Sand. The fourth in a naked Fire as also Distillation may bee made by Aqua fortis and other sharp Waters With what degrees of fire every Vegetable is to be Distilled To the first degree of Fire belong Hearbs Flowers Seeds and such like To the second Leaves Fruits c. To the third Roots and Boughes of trees c. To the fourth Woods and such like Note that every one of these must bee beaten small and bruised before they bee put into the Still And thus much bee spoken concerning the Distillation of Waters out of the Vegetable substances As concerning the Seperation and Distillation of Oyls the processe is the same as that of Water only some of them are to bee distilled per descensum and cannot ascend as Waters the processe of these in this case is to bee changed But Liquors are not separated in Distillation as Waters or Oyles but are expressed from their corporeall substances with a presse And here wee must know that there are some Oyles that are pressed out and separated after the same manner by a Presse as liquors are and that for this reason because they should not contract an ill odour from the Fire as otherwise they would doe Of this Order is the Oyle of Almonds Nuts hard egges and the like Also wee must note that all Oyles if they be prepared and coagulated according to the Spagiricall Art yeeld a kind of Vernish Gumme Amber or Refine which may bee also called Sulphur and that which remaines in the bottome of the Still may bee calcined and brought to ashes and from it may bee with warme water alone the Alcali extracted and separated from it The Ashes which is left behind is called the Dead Earth out of which never any else can bee extracted Of the Separation of Animalls IT is necessary that Anatomie goe before the separation of Animalls that the bloud may bee apart the flesh apart the bones apart the skinne apart the bowels apart the tendons apart c. and after this must every one of these bee separated by it selfe by the help of the Spagiricall Art Therefore the separations in this place are chiefly 4. Foure degrees of the separation of Aninalls The first draws forth a waterie and flegmatick humidity from the bloud For from the bloud being after this manner according to the processe shewed in the book of Conservations prepared there comes forth a most excellent Mummie Mummie c. and so excellent a Specificum that any fresh wound may bee cured and consolidated in the space of twenty four hours only with one binding up Balsome c. The second is the separation of fat from flesh for that being separated from Mans flesh is a most excellent balsome allaying the pains of the Gout and Cramp and such like pains if any part affected bee anointed with it warm It helps also the tendons of the hands or feet being drawn together if they bee daily anointed with it It cures also the scab and all kinds of Leprosy Therefore it is the chiefest Chirurgical specificum and in all cases as in wounds and the like most profitable c. The third is the separation of waterie and flegmatick moisture together with the fat extracted out of bones For if these two bee carefully by the Art of Alchymie separated from Mens bones by the degree of Distillation and the bones bee reduced or burnt into most white ashes by the degree of Calcination and then these three bee again after a right manner joined together so that they resemble butter they become a most wonderfull specificall Arcanum with which thou maist soundly cure any fracture of bones without any pain at three bindings up so that thou dost handle and set the fracture according to the rules of Chirurgery and then apply that specificum by way of plaister c. This also doth most speedily cure the wounds of the skull and any other contusion of bones whatsoever The fourth and the last is the separation of Refines and Gummes from the Skin Bowels and tendons For this Refine being extracted and separated out of them by the degree of Extraction according to the Spagiricall Art and

and proved Why is a seal put upon Letters but that there is a certain bond which it is lawfull for no man to violate For a seal is a confirmation of Letters whence they are of all men accounted ratified Without a seale an Acquitance is void and of no force After the same manner many things are marked with few letters names or words as books which being writ upon the outside but with one word doe presently shew what is contained within The same rule also there is for glasses and boxes in Apothecaries shops all which are discerned by peculiar names or papers put upon them Unlesse that were done who could discern so many Waters Liquors Syrups Oyles Powders Seeds Unguents c. and all simples After the same manner doth the Alchymist in his Elabatorie mark with names and papers all Waters Liquors Spirits Oyles Flegms Crocus Alcali and all species that thereby hee may when there is occasion make use of any of them and know them without the help of which his memory could never bear them So also may all houses and buildings bee marked with numbers or figures that the age of every one of them by the first sight of the number may presently be known These and other things that are marked I was willing to shew to you that these being comprehended I might bee the better understood by you in the rest and so the signification of every thing might bee the more plain and clear Of the Monstrous Signes of Men. MAny men are brought forth deformed with monstrous marks Divers monstrous signes or Markes or signes so one abounds with one finger or Toe another wants one The fingers of some grow all together in the mothers womb Another hath a wry foot arm or neck c. and brings it with him out of the womb Another hath a bunch in his back so also are Hermaphrodites born i. e. they which are both Male and Female and have the members both of Man and Woman or else want both I have observed many of these monstrous signs as well in Males as in Females all which are to bee accounted for monstrous signes of secret evil ascendents Whence that proverb is made good The more crooked What monstrous signes shew the more wicked Lame members lame deeds For they are signes of vices seldome signifying any good As the Executioner marks his sons with infamous markes so the evil Ascendents impresse upon their yong supernatural mischievous marks that they may bee the better taken heed of which shew some marks in their forehead cheeks ears fingers hands eyes tongues c. being short or cutted Every one of these infamous signes denotes a peculiar vice So a mark burnt upon the face of a Woman or the cutting off her ears for the most part signifies theft the cutting off the fingers cheating Dicers the cutting off the hand breakers of the peace the cutting off two of the fingers perjured the pulling out of the eye cunning and subtile villains the cutting out of the tongue blasphemers slanderers c. So also you may know them that deny the Christian Religion by a crosse burnt in the soles of their feet because viz. they have denyed their Redeemer But that passing by these we may proceed to the monstrous signs of Malignants ascending you must know that all monstrous signes do not arise from an Ascendent only but offtentimes also from the stars of Mens minds which continually and every moment ascend and descend with the fancy estimation or imagination no otherwise then in the superiour firmament Hence either from fear or terrour of breeding Women many monsters or children marked with monstrous signes in the womb are borne The primary cause of these is fear terror appetite from which is raised the imagination If a women with child begin to imagine then her heaven by its motion is carryed round no otherwise then the superiour firmament every moment with Ascendents or risings or Settings For according to the example of the greater firmament the stars of the Microcosme also are moved by Imagination untill there be an assault whereby the stars of the Imagination convey an influence and impression upon the Woman that is breeding just as if any one should impresse a seale or stamp money Whence these signes and geniall marks are called Impressions of inferiour stars of which many Philosophers have wrote many things and men have endeavoured much to give a full and rationall account of which could never yet bee done Yet they doe adhere and are impressed on the infants as the stars of the Mother whether frequent or violent doe rest upon the Infants or the Mothers longing is not satisfied For if the Mother long for this or that meat and cannot have it the starres are suffocated as it were in themselves and dye And that longing doth follow the infant all its life time that it can never bee well satisfied The like reason is there of other things of which we shall not hear Discourse any further Of the Astrall Signes of Physiognomy in Man THe signes of Physiognomy receive their original from the superior stars The Originall of Physiognomie this art of Physiognomy was greatly esteemed of by our Ancestors and especially by Heathens Tartars and Turks c. and other people amongst whom it was the custome to sel men for slaves and it is not yet altogether laid aside amongst Christians Yet together with it many errors crept in not yet taken notice of by any whilest every blockish ignorant fellow would take upon him without any manner of judgement to judge of any one Where it is worthy of admiration that those erours should never bee taken notice of from the workes deeds and abilities of the men Now if any one shall in this place argue against us saying that the signes of Physiognomy are from the stars and that the stars have no power to compell any one or stir him up he indeed doth not speake amisse but yet there is some difference in it which must be taken notice of because the stars compell some and others they doe not compell For here we must know who can rule or constrain the stars and who can be governed by them Therefore for this you must note that a wise man can rule the stars and not be subject to them The stars are subject to a wise man and are forced to obey him and not he the stars But the stars compell an Animall man that whither they lead him hee must follow just as a thief doth the gallows and a high-way robber the wheel the fisher the fishes the fowler the birds the hunter the wild beasts And what here is the cause of this but that such a kind of man doth neither know himself nor his own strength never considers or thinks that he is the lesser world and that he hath the universall Firmament with the powers thereof hid in him Wherefore he is called an Animall an ignorant man and a slave

the New Testament must doe by prayer knocking and seeking and procure by faith In what chiefe points the foundations of Magick and Cabalie consists In these 3 chief points consists all the foundation of the Magicall and Cabalisticall Art by which wee may obtain whatsoeve we desire so that to us Christians nothing is impossible But wee shall desist to treat here of more things concerning these and other monuments of Cabalie spoken of sufficiently in the book of Visions I refer you thither that you may see how wonderfully Christ the Son of God works by his Angells in us Christians and the faithfull and how brotherly he is conversant with us Whence we are the true Angels and members of Christ as hee is our head as hee is in us so we live in him as is taught in the booke of the Lords Supper But to returne to our purpose concerning Minerall signes and especially concerning the. Coruscation of Metalline veins we must know that as Metalls which are yet in their first being send forth their Coruscation i. e. Signes so also the Tincture of Philosophers What is the vertue of the Tincture of Philosophers which changeth all imperfect Motalls into Silver and Gold or White Metalls into Silver and Red into Gold puts forth its proper signs like unto Coruscation if it be Astrally perfected and prepared For as soon as a small quantity of it is cast upon a fluxil metall so that they mixe together in the fire there ariseth a naturall Coruscation and brigthnesse like to that of fine Gold or Silver in a test which then is a signe that that Gold or Silver is freed and purged without all manner of addition of other Metalls How the Tincture of Philosophers is made astrall But how the Tincture of Philosophers is made Astrall you must conceive it after this manner First of all you must know that every Metall as long as it lies hid in its first being hath its certaine peculiar stars So Gold hath the stars of the Sun Silver the stars of the Moon Copper the stars of Venus Iron the stars of Mars Tinne the stars of Jupiter Lead the stars of Saturne Quicksilver the starres of Mercury But as soon as they come to their perfection and are coagulated into a fixt Metalline body their stars fall off from them and leave them as a dead body Hence it follows that all such bodies are afterwards dead and inefficacious and that the unconquered star of Metalls doth overcome them all and converts them into its nature and makes them all Astrall Gold that is made by the Tincture is better then natural For which cause also our Gold and Silver which is tinged and prepared with our tincture is much more excellent and better for the preparation of Medicinall secrets then that which is naturall which Nature generates in the Mines and afterwards is separated from other Metalls So also the Mercury of a body is made Astrally of another body and is much more noble and fixt then common Mercury And so of the other Metalls I say therefore that every Alchymist which hath that star of Gold can turne all Red Metalls into Gold by tinging of them So by the star of Silver all White Metalls are changed into Silver by the star of Copper into Copper by the star of Quicksilver into Mercury of the body and so of the rest But now how all these stars are prepared according to the Spagiricall Art it is not our purpose at this time to declare but the explication of them belongs to our bookes of the Transmutation of Metalls The nature of the red Tincture But as for that which concerns their signes I would have you know that our Red tincture which contains the stars of Gold to bee of a most fixt substance of most quick penetration and of a most intense redness in powder resembling the colour of Saffron but in its whole body the colour of a Rubie I say it is a Tincture as fluxil as Wax as transparent as Crystall as brittle as Glasse and for weight most heavy The nature of the white The white tincture which containes the star of the Moon is after the same manner of a fixt substance of an unchangeable quantity of wonderfull whitenesse as fluid as Resine as transparent as Crystall as brittle as Glasse and for weight like to a Diamond The star of Copper The star of Copper is of a wonderfull citrine colour like to an Emrald as fluxill as Resine much heavier then its Metall The star of white Tin The starre of white Tinne is as fluid as Resine of a darke colour with some mixture of yellow The star of Iron The star Iron is very red as transparent as a Granate as fluxil as Resine as brittle as Glasse of a fixt substance much heavier then its Metall The star of Lead The star of Lead is like Cobaltum black yet transparent as fluxile as Resine as brittle as Glasse equall to Gold for weight heavier then other Lead The star of Quicksilver The star of Quicksilver is of a wonderfull white sparkling colour like to snow in the extreamest cold weather very subtile of a penetrating corrosive acrimony as transparent as Crystall flowing as easily as Resine very cold to the tast but very hot within as if it were fire but of a very volatil substance in the fire By this description the stars of the Metalls are to be known and understood Also you must understand that for the preparation of both tinctures viz. of the Red and White you must not in the beginning take of your work the body of Gold or Silver but the first being of Gold and Silver For it in the beginning there be an errour committed all your pains and labour will be in vain So also you must understand of Metalls that every one of them receives a peculiar signe in the fire by which it is known Of this kind are sparks flames glisterings the colour smell taste of fire c. So the true signe of Gold or Silver in the test is glistering That appearing it is certain that Lead and other Metalls that were mixed are fumed away and that the Gold and Silver is fully purged The signes of Iron being red hot in the furnace are cleer transparent sparks flying upward Those appearing the Iron unlesse it be taken from the fire is burnt like straw c. To know how Metalls have more or less of the three principles After the same manner any earthly body shews its peculiar and distinct signes in the fire whether it have more of Mercury Sulphur or Salt and which of the three principles it hath most of For if it fume before in flame it is a signe that it containes more Mercury then Sulphur But if it presenlly burn with a flame and without any fume it is a signe that it contains much Sulphur and little or no Mercury This you see in at