but is the true matter to multiply Emeraulds more glorious than natural For if to thee Knowledge never come Therefore yet shalt thou me not twite ANd now indeed if any be ignorant let him be ignorant I know not what more to say and not transgress the silence of Pythagoras I have told you that our matter is two-fold crude and fixed the fixed is by Nature perfected to our hands and we need only to have it made more then most perfect which Nature alone could never perform nor is there any thing that can thus exalt Tinctures but our dissolving Water which I told you floweth from three Springs the one is a common Well at which all draw and of which Water many use this Well hath in it a Saturnine drossiness which make the Waters unuseful these frigid superfluities are purged by two other Springs through which the Water of this Well is artificially caused to run these Springs make but one Well whose Waters appear dry the humidity being sealed the Well it self is surrounded with an Arsenical Wall the slimy bottom abounds with the First Ens of Mineral Salt and Sulphur which acuate the Water of the first Well whose primary quality is Coldness being thus acuated it becomes so powerful a Menstruum and so pleasant to the Metals that for its peculiar Vertue it is chosen for to be the Bath of the Sun and Moon For I will truely now thee excite to understand well Mercuries three BUt because one Book never is sufficient in this Mastery to discover all that is to be known and other Authors write variously of Mercury Attend further what I have to say to thee concerning this point We have in our work properly three Mercuries of which one is to be by the Philosopher prepared of which I have spoken and this being joynd with the perfect Body and set to digest the Glass is shut and then in this first Composition is the Matter called Rebis that is two things to wit in Number for you may yet separate each from other in its intire nature These two being joyned do operate so within the Vessel till the Compound become a black Powder which is then called the Ashes of the Platter This Powder relenteth into a black Broth which is called Elixir or Water extracted by Elixation which is reiterate Liquefaction This Elixir is divided into a more subtile part which is called Azoth and the grosser part is called Leton which is by Azoth washed and whitened In Rebis the Matters are confused in Elixir they are divided and in Azoth they are conjoyned with an inseparable union The Keys which of this Science be THese Menstruums or Mercuries are the very Keys of this Science The first is the Philosophers Key the other two are Natures Keys Reymund his Menstrues doth them call THey are called by the wise men Menstrues in three respects first for the secresie of them as those Lunary Tributes of Women are hid from common view so these Mercuries from vulgar Searchers Secondly for the Prognosticks of them as those in Women betoken maturity to conceive so these are called Menstrues because they are fit for procreation Thirdly in regard of the office of them as those in Women are accounted nutritive for the Embrion so our Child is nourished by these to perfect age and strength Let me add a fourth reason and that is in respect of the time the Philosophical Preparation will hardly give thee thy first Menstruum fit for thy use in less than a month And after conjunction thy first Menstruum will begin to hold of the nature of the Body in another month and then thou shalt see a show of the second Menstruum but wait till another month and thou shalt see thy second Menstruum compleat then yet wait a third month and thou shalt see a show of the third Menstruum which in the fourth month will perfectly exuberate and then with it thou shalt soon see perfected Sulphur of Nature for it is Fire of Nature and in this first Exaltation is the white Stone perfected Without them truly no Truth is done HE then that knoweth not the Secret of our Menstruals let him forbear the practice of the Work for verily he may expect nothing but a sophistical Delusion instead of the true Work of Nature He is like a man that would enter an inaccessable Castle without a Key or shoot in a Bow without a string But two of them be superficial NOw that you may know our Secrets exactly we shall faithfully discover unto you our Experience as cordially as a Brother may declare to a Brother and shall reveal what I never found yet revealed in any Author There are in our Mercury three Mercurial Substances which may well be called Menstrues the one the more gross part which though it be a Water yet it being the most palpable part and visible may be termed the Body of the Water the last is a Fiery Form which is the Blood of Cadmus this is a real invisible form which is essentially and formally Sol Volatile the second is the mean Soul which Philosophers without Equivocation call Saturn's Child the middle substance of these three are made into one wonderful Mercury which hath not its like in the world Now for the superficiality of the two first Menstrues or Mercuries and the essentiality of the third know and understand for our speech will be very mysterious Know I say what it is to be superficial and what essential Essence you know is invisible and more formal then material which doth actuate the matter and ripens it but that which is superficial is visible and may be seen and is more material and passive Now those two first which are superficial are the Water and the Blood the essential Menstrue is the Spirit which all are in one yet distinguished in number though not in kind The third Essential to Sun and Moon SO then two are material passive substances which are united in our sophical Mercury the third is an active essence which is hid in our Mercury which is essential to Sun and Moon because it is a Fire which is Sol volatile and as the Artist may govern this Mercury it will digest the passive Principles either into Sol or Luna at the Philosophers pleasure Their Properties I will declare right soon I Shall by and by in its place describe to you all the Properties of these three Menstrues when I come to it in the mean time take notice that by this Mercury in which are three Mercuries or Menstrues the perfect Bodies will be calcined and then dissolved into Mercury which is not then so properly called a Menstrue for it is the Fruit it self called Azoth or Virgins Milk which is a digestion beyond the Menstrues And Mercury of Metals essential Is the Principle of our Stone material THe Bodies when they are dissolved do transmute the foresaid Mercuries by their own ferment into their own nature for the Fire of Nature assimilates
the Sentence of most of the Wise Men who have written concerning this Art do reject Mercury vulgar in word when as indeed they dote as much upon it as others whenas by their mock-purgations they handle Mercuries divers ways by Sublimation Precipitation Calcination Manual even to a black substance like to Soot or Lamp-black by distillation from sundry Faeces after grinding with Vinegar by Calcination with Waters-fort by Lotions innumerable changing Mercury into sundry forms and after quickning him By all which Operations they imagine themselves secure of the Secret of our Mercury whenas all such ways indeed are but Sophisms and yet Mercury so abused is one and the same vulgar Mercury So that upon this Rock more have stumbled than upon any other yet will stumble till they know how to distinguish our Mercury from Common and our preparations from that of the vulgar Sophisters which have no likeness one to another But Mercury without which nothing being is FOr our Mercury is Essential and Radical to our Body and partakes of the nature of it intirely and therefore it is said to be that Mercury without which nothing is for all things are distinguished by Philosophers by three Principles although some Simples have not three but only by Analogy among which the most essential is Mercury for the humidity of all things concrete is called their Mercury which is most intire to all things forasmuch as all things owe their beginning unto Water So then as the proper specifick Mercury of all things is so Essential unto them that nothing is without it so our Mercury is so consubstantial with our Body that it is one in kind with that Mercury of which it was by coagulation concrete which vulgar Mercury is not and therefore the Body is incrudate by this Mercury and sends forth its Seed by mixture with it through the co-operation of requisite temperate external heat All Philosophers record and truly sain the same TRuly this I could confirm by infinite Testimonies of Philosophers since there never wrote any who was indeed a true Artist but he hath affirmed the same Geber Artephius Haly Rozinus Flammel Sendivogius the Author of the Rosary Trevisan with many others which would be very tedious to name So that indeed this Work of mine I wrote not because enough hath not been written before for I do but eccho to the Voice of all Philosophers who have left upon record such clear Testimonies of the co-operation of Art and Nature herein that if Wit were capable of this attainment the Art would have been common ere now and I do verily admiringly adore the Wisdom of God herein that an Art so true so natural so easie so much desired and sought after should yet be so rarely found that the generality of Men Learned and Unlearned do laugh at it as a Fable it is therefore most certainly the Gift of God who is and ever will be the Dispenser of it according to his good pleasure But simple Searchers putteth them in blame saying they hid it MOst injurious are they therefore to the well-deserving Philosophers who because they cannot understand their Writings and through the mis-understanding of the possibility of Nature do commit foul mistakes in their operations and therefore reap a ridiculous Harvest they then blame the falsity of Authors or at least accuse their difficult writing not considering that Philosophers owe them nothing and whatever they write for the information of the studious it is not of debt nor yet of Covetousness for they possess the greatest Treasure in the World nor lastly of Ambition for many suppress their names it is of Love therefore and of desire to be helpful to the Studious which Love to requite with reproaches is a token of great ingratitude Moreover it is to be understood that the most wise GOD hath a ruling hand herein and all Sons of Art have their Commission as it were given them they write and teach according to that permission which the Creator of all things hath given them I may speak it experimentally that when my self have had one intent I have been so over-swayed with unpremeditated thoughts in the very writing that I have taken notice of the immediate hand of God therein by which I have been carried beyond what I intended And truly it is not our intent to make the Art common to all kind of men we write to the deserving only intending our Books to be but as Way-marks to such as shall travel in these paths of Nature and we do what we may to shut out the unworthy Yet so plainly we write that as many as God hath appointed to this Mastery shall certainly understand us and have cause to be thankful unto us for our faithfulness herein This we shall receive from the Sons of this Science whatever we have from others therefore our Books are intended for the former we do not write a word to the latter But they be blame-worthy which be no Clerks and meddle with Philosophy MOreover we write not our Books for the information of the illiterate as though any vulgar mechanick Distiller Alchymist or Sophister should readily carry away the Golden Fleece or as though any covetous man who makes Gain his utmost end should readily gather the Apples of the Hesperides nor yet that any though Learned should by once or twice overly and slight reading as the Dogs lap the Water of Nilus straight-way be made a Philosopher Nay verily the majesty of this Science forbids so great impiety it is the gift of God and not of Men Our Books are for those who have been or intend to be conversant about the search of Nature we hint the way prayer to God and patient persisting in the use of means must open these Doors Let therefore profound Meditation accompanied with the Blessing of God Furnaces Coals Glasses and indefatigable pains be thy Interpreters and let them serve for Commentaries upon our Writings So I did so I advise thee and the Blessing of God attend all studious vertuous Searchers in this way But though it Mercury be YEt is not the knot untied nor difficulties overcome when once a man hath learned to sing this thredbare Song in Philosophy Est in Mercurio quicquid quaerunt sapientes for what Sophister who cannot make so great a clatter in these general terms as a son of Art the greatest difficulty is to know what this Mercury is that is so desirable and effectual Yet wisely understand wherein it is and where thou shalt it seek THerefore let me advise every studious Searcher of this hid Science to consider warily with himself what he seeks and would find nor that only but in what he would find it for trust me it is not in this Science as some do imagine that our Arcanum may be made out of any thing nor yet out of any base thing But in the knowing of the true Principle consists the first true step to Perfection according to the Poet Dimidium
facti qui bene coepit habet Else I counsel thee take not this work in hand BUt he who knows not this our Ocean in which our Water hath its flux and reflux and our Fountain out of which he may draw this Water for his use let him forbear this as a most dangerous Science for he may only expect loss in it but no profit For Philosophers flatter Fools with fair speech NOr let any expect comfortable Direction in our Books who know not the true Matter nor the true Keys by which our Matter is brought forth from darkness into the light for verily though we write for the inlightning of a son of Art yet also for the fatal blinding of all such Owls and Bats who cannot behold the light of the Sun nor can indure the splendor of our Moon To such we propound rare tricks suiting to their sordid fancy to the covetous an easie way without expence in an inconsiderable time to the lazy Book-men a play without tedious toil to the unstable rash hasty multiplicity of Distillations But listen to me for truly I will thee teach BUt to thee supposing thy qualifications to be Honesty Secresie Studiousness and Indefatigableness we will shew the Truth yet so that it may be hid from the Vulgar yet plain enough to an industrious attentive Reader Which is this Mercury most profitable PHilosophers have hidden much under the Homonymium of Mercury so that it is no hard matter for those that peruse their Books to mistake them yea as many as God will have excluded from this Art shall certainly mistake For many things are by them named by the name of Mercury which are altogether useless in this Mastery and many Processes have they deciphered which themselves never did I for my part shall not tread in their metaphorical steps but shall herein candidly follow the path of profound Ripley whose Text I annex to my Discourse as I go because it is an elaborate Piece in excellent Method on whom I do not so much comment for I write mine own experimental Knowledge but rather intend this Treatise for a Light to that excellent Light in Alchymy these Labours of mine being intire of themselves Only to help thee to my utmost I have confined my Discourse to his Method which I might as other Philosophers have done have scattered here and there confusedly Being to thee nothing deceiveable AS then I have chosen Ripley's Method to follow so will I imitate his Ingenuity and do solemnly profess not to be deceiveable to thee in any thing though I shall not so unfold the Mysteries that bare reading shall suffice to shew the unveiled Diana Know therefore assuredly that when the Philosophers say That their Matter is every where c. This they speak only for the blinding of all such who taking the Philosophers meaning according to the bare sound of their words do reap Trifles instead of Treasures I shall therefore let you understand that this subject of the Philosophers is considered either in reference to its Matter or formal Vertue in reference to the former it is a concrete of Water as all other Compounds are in respect of the latter it participates of a Celestial Virtue and that in a high degree in both respects It is said to be in every place for the original matter which is Water passeth equally through the whole Family of Concretes and for the celestial Influence it is so universal that nothing is hidden from the heat of it so that indeed in this sence it is said to be every where Moreover the Stone being the System of the great World doth in some way or other represent every thing which is or can be perceived by man I mean in reference to some or other operation colour or quality and therefore the Wise have described it almost by all things imaginable for to every thing in some or other circumstance it hath resemblance It is more near in some things than in some YEt to speak properly for information and not to conceal the Secret we profess that there is but one kind in which our Stone is found and in number two understand me not as the Philosopher finds things in his first laborious Preparation for so one of the two subjects which being of one kind enter the supernatural work of Generation of our fiery Stone I say our crude Sperm flows from a Trinity of Substances in one Essence of which two are extracted out of the Earth of their Nativity by the third and then become a pure milky Virgin-like Nature drawn from the Menstruum of our sordid Whore Take heed therefore what I to thee write ANd now I call God to witness that I will shew you a great Mystery our Stone is in one part of a perfect nature which we would exalt into a more then most perfect and for this end we stand in need of our true Fountain which I have elsewhere described and shall not now repeat This Fountain hath three Springs and these are three Witnesses which testifie to the Artist of the truth of his proceedings these are the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one the Water is a Mercurial Bond which the Sophisters can behold so far as the outward shell reacheth but the wise man can behold his hidden secret Centre the Blood is of our Green Lyon which is indeed the greenest or rawest of the three for it hath no manner of Metalline Sulphur no not a grain and therefore is Totally Volatile and it is more raw than the common Water and yet it is called the Blood for a most secret reason because it is the seat of the Life which is the Spirit as Blood in man is the seat of his Life yea the Spirit by this Soul of our Green Lyon is made manifest and is united to it so that though it be very green or unripe yet that inhabits it which is both pure and ripe and can and will digest it with the Water and make both become life with life Now the Spirit is nothing else but a Chaos the Wonder of the Wonders of God which every man almost hath and knows it not because as it appears to the World it is compact in a vile despised form yet is it so useful that in humane Affairs none can want it to the Philosopher it appears united to the Blood that is of our Green Lyon which truly is not a Lyon till the spirit be joyned with it and then it is made able to devour all Creatures of its kind And these three agree in one they are not absolutely one mark that our Fire is not of the matter and yet it is united with the matter as if it were of one form with it and there is an agreement in one though not a radical union for the spirit which is the Fire is separable from the Water and the Blood and then is our Lyon actually Green but ceaseth then to be our Lyon