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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68054	Nicholas Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures which he caused to bee painted vpon an arch in St. Innocents Church-yard, in Paris. Together with the secret booke of Artephius, and the epistle of Iohn Pontanus: concerning both the theoricke and the practicke of the philosophers stone. Faithfully, and (as the maiesty of the thing requireth) religiously done into English out of the French and Latine copies. By Eirenæus Orandus, qui est, vera veris enodans; Figures hierogliphiques. English	Flamel, Nicolas, d. 1418.; Artephius. Liber secretus artis occultae.; Pontanus, Joannes, d. 1572. Epistola de lapide philosophorum.; Orandus, Eirenaeus.	1624 (1624)	STC 11027; ESTC S102276	53,157	276

mettall in the first coagulation for this reason therefore haue I made to bee painted a Key in the hand of the man which is in the forme of Saint Peter to signifie that the stone desireth to be opened and shut for multiplication and likewise to shew thee with what Mercury thou oughtest to doe this when I haue giuen the man a garment Citrine red and the woman one of orange colour Let this suffice lest I transgresse the silence of Pythagoras to teach thee that the woman that is our stone asketh to haue the rich Accoustrements and colour of Saint Peter Shee hath written in her Rowle CHRISTE PRECOR ESTOPIVS that is Iesu Christ be pittifull vnto mee as if shee said Lord be good vnto mee and suffer not that hee that shal become thus farre should spoile all with too much fire It is true that from henceforward I shal no more feare mine enemies and that all fire shall be alike vnto me yet the vessell that containes me is alwaies brittle and easie to be broken for if they exalt the fire ouermuch it will cracke and flying a pieces will carry mee and sow mee vnfortunately amongst the ashes Take heed therefore to thy fire in this place and gouerne sweetly with patience this admirable quintessence for the fire must be augmented vnto it but not too much And pray the soueraigne Goodnesse that it will not suffer the euill spirits which keepe the Mines and Treasures to destroy thy worke or to bewitch thy sight when thou cōsiderest these incomprehensible motions of this Quintessence within thy vessell CHAP. IX Vpon a darke violet field a man red purple holding the foote of a Lyon red as vermillion which hath wings it seemes would rauish and carry away the man THis field violet and darke tels vs that the stone hath obtained by her full decoction the faire Garments that are wholly Citrine and red which shee demanded of Saint Peter who was cloathed therewith and that her compleat and perfect digestion signified by the entire Citrinity hath made her leaue her old robe of orange colour The vermilion red colour of this flying Lyon like the pure cleere skarlet in graine which is of the true Granadored demonstrates that it is now accomplished in all right and equality And that shee is now like a Lyon deuouring euery pure mettallicke nature and changing it into her true substance into true pure gold more fine then that of the best mines Also shee now carrieth this man out of this vale of miseries that is to say out of the discommodities of pouerty infirmity and with her wings gloriously lifts him vp out of the dead and standing waters of Aegypt which are the ordinary thoughts of mortall men making him despise this life and the riches thereof and causing him night and day to meditate on God and his Saints to dwell in the Emperiall Heauen and to drinke the sweet springs of the Fountains of euerlasting hope Praised be God eternally which hath giuen vs grace to see this most fair all-perfect purple colour this pleasant colour of the wilde poppy of the Rocke this Tyrian sparkling and flaming colour which is incapable of Alteration or change ouer which the heauen it selfe nor his Zodiacke can haue no more domination nor power whose bright shining rayes that dazle the eyes seeme as though they did communicate vnto a man some supercoelestiall thing making him when he beholds and knowes it to be astonisht to tremble and to be afraid at the same time O Lord giue vs grace to vse it well to the augmentation of the Faith to the profit of our Soules and to the encrease of the glory of this noble REALME Amen FINIS ARTEPHIVS HIS SECRET BOOKE Concerning the PHILOSOPHERS STONE LONDON Printed by T. S. for Tho. Walkley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Eagle and Childe in Britans Bursse 1624. THE PREFACE to the READER in the French and Latine Copies AMongst all the other Philosophers louing Reader only our Artephius is not enuious as himself affirmeth of himselfe in many places and therefore he layeth downe the whole Art in most open words in this Treatise interpreting as farre as he may the doubtfull speeches and Sophismes of others Neuerthelesse least he should giue vnto the wicked ignorant and euill men occasion and meanes to doe hurt hee hath a little vailed the truth in the Principalls of the Science vnder an Arteficiall Methode sometimes affirming sometimes denying and making as though hee often repeated one and the same thing whereas in those repetitions hee alwayes changeth some words seeming often to say the contrary of what hee had said before willing to leaue vnto the iudgement of the Reader the way of Trueth Vertue and true Working which if any man finde let him giue immortall thankes to God alone but if hee see that hee walketh not in the right way let him reade ouer this Author againe and againe vntill hee vnderstand his meaning So did the learned Iohn Pontanus which saith in his Epistle Printed in Theatrum Chimicum They erre saith hee speaking of them that labour in this Arte they haue erred and they will alwayes erre because the Philosophers in their books haue neuer set downe the proper Agent except onely one which is called Artephius but hee speakes for himselfe and if I had not read Artephius and vnderstood whereof hee spake I had neuer come to the Complement of the worke Therefore reade this Booke and reade it againe vntill thou vnderstand his speech and so obtaine thy desired end It shall bee needlesse to speake any more concerning our Authour It sufficeth that by the grace of God and the vse of this wonderfull Quintessence hee liued a thousand yeeres as witnesseth Roger Bacon in his Booke of the wonderfull workes of nature and also the most learned Theophrastus Baracelsus in his Booke of long life Which terme of a thousand yeeres none of the other Philosophers no nor the Father of them Hermes himselfe was able to attaine vnto Looke therefore whether peraduenture this man haue not vnderstood the vertues of our Stone and the manner how to vse it better than the rest Howsoeuer it bee vse thou it and our labours to the glory of God and the profit of this Kingdome Farewell ARTEPHIVS HIS SECRET BOOKE ANtimony is of the parts of Saturne and hath in euery respect the nature thereof so this Saturnine Antimonie agrees with the Sunne hauing in it selfe Argent viue wherein no mettall is drowned but gold that is to say Gold onely is drowned in Antimoniall Saturnine Argent viue and without that Argent viue no mettall can bee whitened It whiteneth therefore Leton that is Gold and it reduceth a perfect Body into its first matter that is into Sulphur and Argent viue of a white colour and shining more than glasse It dissolues I say the perfect Body which is of his nature for this water is friendly and pleasant to

this secret science And thus you see that which was in the first fiue leaues I will not represent vnto you that which was written in good and intelligible Latine in all the other written leaues for God would punish me because I should commit a greater wickednesse then he who as it is said wished that all the men of the World had but one head that hee might cut it off at one blow Hauing with me therefore this faire Booke I did nothing else day nor night but study vpon it vnderstanding very well all the operations that it shewed but not knowing with what matter I should beginne which made me very heauy and sollitary and caused me to fetch many a sigh My wife Perrenelle whom I loued as my selfe and had lately married was much astonished at this comforting mee and earnestly demanding if shee could by any meanes deliuer mee from this trouble I could not possibly hold my tongue but told her all and shewed her this faire Booke whereof at the same instant that shee saw it shee became as much enamored as my selfe taking extreame pleasure to behold the faire couer grauings images and portraicts whereof notwithstanding shee vnderstood as little as I yet it was a great comfort to mee to talke with her and to entertaine my selfe what wee should doe to haue the interpretation of them In the end I caused to bee painted within my Lodging as naturally as I could all the figures and portraicts of the fourth and fifth leafe which I shewed to the greatest Clerkes in Paris who vnderstood thereof no more then my selfe I told them they were found in a Booke that taught the Phylosophers stone but the greatest part of them made a mocke both of me and of that blessed Stone excepting one called Master Anselme which was a Licentiate in Physick and studied hard in this Science He had a great desire to haue seene my Book and there was nothing in the world which he would not haue done for a sight of it but I alwayes told him that I had it not onely I made him a large description of the Method He told mee that the first portraict represented Time which deuoured all and that according to the number of the sixe written leaues there was required the space of sixe yeeres to perfect the stone and then he said wee must turne the glasse and seeth it no more And when I told him that this was not painted but onely to shew and teach the first Agent as was said in the Booke hee answered me that this decoction for sixe yeeres space was as it were a second Agent and that certainely the first Agent was there painted which was the white and heauy water which without doubt was Argent viue which they could not fixe nor cut off his feete that is to say take away his volatility saue by that long decoction in the purest bloud of young Infants for in that this Argent viue being ioined with gold and siluer was first turned with them into an herb like that which was there painted and afterwards by corruption into Serpents which Serpents being then wholly dried and decocted by fire were reduced into powder of gold which should be the stone This was the cause that during the space of one and twenty yeeres I tryed a thousand broulleryes yet neuer with bloud for that was wicked and villanous for I found in my Booke that the Phylosophers called Bloud the minerall spirit which is in the Mettals principally in the Sunne Moone and Mercury to the assembling whereof I alwayes tended yet these interpretations for the most part were more subtile then true Not seeing therefore in my workes the signes at the time written in my Booke I was alwayes to beginne againe In the end hauing lost all hope of euer vnderstanding those figures for my last refuge I made a vow to God and S t Iames of Gallicia to demand the interpretation of them at some Iewish Priest in some Synagogue of Spaine whereupon with the consent of Perrenelle carrying with me the Extract of the Pictures hauing taken the Pilgrims habit and staffe in the same fashion as you may see me without this same Arch in the Church-yard in the which I put these hyeroglyphicall figures where I haue also set against the wall on the one and the other side a Procession in which are represented by order all the colours of the stone so as they come goe with this writing in French Moult plaist a Dieu procession S' elle est faicte en deuotion that is Much pleaseth God procession If 't be done in deuotion which is as it wete the beginning of King Hercules his Book which entreateth of the colours of the stone entituled Iris or the Rainebow in these termes Operis processio multùm naturae placet that is The procession of the worke is very pleasant vnto Nature the which I haue put there expresly for the great Clerkes who shall vnderstand the Allusion In this same fashion I say I put my selfe vpon my way and so much I did that I arriued at Montioy and afterwards at Saint Iames where with great deuotion I accomplished my vow This done in Leon at my returne I met with a Merchant of Boloyn which made me knowne to a Physician a Iew by Nation and as then a Christian dwelling in Leon aforesaid who was very skilfull in sublime Sciences called Master Canches Assoone as I had showen him the figures of my Extraict hee being rauished with great astonishment and ioy demanded of me incontinently if I could tell him any newes of the Booke from whence they were drawne I answered him in Latine wherein hee asked me the question that I hoped to haue some good newes of the Book if any body could decipher vnto me the Enigmaes All at that instant transported with great Ardor and ioy hee began to decipher vnto mee the bening But to be short hee wel content to learn newes where this Book should be and I to heare him speake and certainly he had heard much discourse of the Booke but as he said as of a thing which was beleeued to be vtterly lost we resolued of our voyage and from Leon wee passed to Ouiedo and from thence to Sanson where wee put our selues to Sea to come into France Our voyage had beene fortunate enough all ready since we were entred into this Kingdome he had most truly interpreted vnto mee the greatest part of my figures where euen vnto the very points and prickes he found great misteries which seemed vnto mee wonderfull when arriuing at Orleans this learned man fell extreamely sicke being afflicted with excessiue vomitings which remained still with him of those he had suffered at Sea and he was in such a continuall feare of my forsaking him that hee could imagine nothing like vnto it And although I was alwayes by his side yet would he incessantly call for mee but in summe hee dyed at the end of the seuenth day of

his sicknesse by reason whereof I was much grieued yet as well as I could I caused him to be buried in the Church of the holy Crosse at Orleans where hee yet resteth God haue his soule for hee dyed a good Christian And surely if I be not hindered by death I will giue vnto that Church some reuenew to cause some Masses to bee said for his soule euery day He that would see the manner of my arriuall and the ioy of Perenelle let him looke vpon vs two in this City of Paris vpon the doore of the Chappell of S t Iames of the Bouchery close by the one side of my house where wee are both painted my selfe giuing thankes at the feet of Saint Iames of Gallicia and Perrenelle at the feet of S t Iohn whom shee had so often called vpon So it was that by the grace of God and the intercession of the happy and holy Virgin and the blessed Saints Iames and Iohn I knew all that I desired that is to say The first Principles yet not their first preparation which is a thing most difficult aboue all the things in the world But in the end I had that also after long errours of three yeeres or thereabouts during which time I did nothing but study and labour so as you may see me without this Arch where I haue placed my Processions against the two Pillars of it vnder the feet of St. Iames and St. Iohn praying alwayes to God with my Beades in my hand reading attentiuely within a Booke and poysing the words of the Philosophers and afterwards trying and proouing the diuerse operations which I imagined to my selfe by their onely words Finally I found that which I desired which I also soone knew by the strong sent and odour thereof Hauing this I easily accomplished the Mastery for knowing the preparation of the first Agents and after following my Booke according to the letter I could not haue missed it though I would Then the first time that I made proiection was vpon Mercurie whereof I turned halfe a pound or thereabouts into pure Siluer better than that of the Mine as I my selfe assayed and made others assay many times This was vpon a Munday the 17. of Ianuary about noone in my house Perrenelle onely being present in the yeere of the restoring of mankind 1382. And afterwards following alwayes my Booke from word to word I made proiection of the Red stone vpon the like quantity of Mercurie in the presence likewise of Perrenelle onely in the same house the fiue and twentieth day of Aprill following the same yeere about fiue a clocke in the Euening which I transmuted truely into almost as much pure Gold better assuredly than common Golde more soft and more plyable I may speake it with truth I haue made it three times with the helpe of Perrenelle who vnderstood it as well as I because she helped mee in my operations and without doubt if shee would haue enterprised to haue done it alone shee had attained to the end and perfection thereof I had indeed enough when I had once done it but I found exceeding great pleasure and delight in seeing and contemplating the Admirable workes of Nature within the Vessels To signifie vnto thee then how I haue done it three times thou shalt see in this Arch if thou haue any skil to know them three furnaces like vnto them which serue for our opperations was afraid a long time that Perrenelle could not hide the extreme ioy of her felicitie which I measured by mine owne and lest shee should let fall some word amongst her kindred of the great treasures which wee possessed for extreme ioy takes away the vnderstanding as well as great heauinesse but the goodnesse of the most great God had not onely filled mee with this blessing to giue mee a wife chaste and sage for she was moreouer not onely capeable of reason but also to doe all that was reasonable and more discreet and secret than ordinarily other women are Aboue all shee was exceeding deuout and therefore seeing her selfe without hope of children and now well stricken in yeeres shee began as I did to thinke of God and to giue or selues to the workes of mercy At that time when I wrote this Commentarie in the yeere one thousand foure hundred and thirteene in the end of the yeere after the decease of my faithfull companion which I shall lament all the dayes of my life she and I had already founded and endued with reuenewes 14. Hospitals in this Citie of Paris wee had new built from the ground three Chappels we had inriched with great gifts and good rents seuen Churches with many reparations in their Church-yards besides that which we haue done at Boloigne which is not much lesse than that which wee haue done heere I will not speake of the good which both of vs haue done to particular poore folkes principally to widdowes and poore Orphans whose names if I should tel and how I did it besides that my reward should be giuen mee in this World I should likewise doe displeasure to those good persons whom I pray God blesse which I would not doe for any thing in the World Building therefore these Churches Churchyards and Hospitals in this City I resolued my selfe to cause to be painted in the fourth Arch of the Church-yard of the Innocents as you enter in by the great gate in St. Dennis street and taking the way on the right hand the most true and essentiall markes of the Arte yet vnder vailes and Hieroglyphicall couertures in imitation of those which are in the gilded Booke of Abraham the Iew which may represent two things according to the capacity and vnderstanding of them that behold them First the mysteries of our future and vndoubted Resurrection at the day of Iudgement and comming of good Iesus whom may it please to haue mercy vpon vs a Historie which is well agreeing to a Churchyard And secondly they may signifie to them which are skilled in Naturall Philosophy all the principall and necessary operations of the Maistery These Hieroglyphicke figures shall serue as two wayes to leade vnto the heauenly life the first and most open sence teaching the sacred Mysteries of our saluation as I will shew heereafter the other teaching euery man that hath any small vnderstanding in the Stone the lineary way of the worke which being perfected by any one the change of euill into good takes away from him the roote of all sinne which is couetousnesse making him liberall gentle pious religious and fearing God how euill soeuer hee was before for from thence forward hee is continually rauished with the great grace and mercy which hee hath obtained from God and with the profoundnesse of his Diuine admirable works These are the reasons which haue mooued mee to set these formes in this fashion and in this place which is a Churchyard to the end that if any man obtaine this inestimable good to conquere this

and are made life with life in such sort that they can neuer bee separated as water mixt with water And therefore it is wisely said that the Stone is borne in the Ayre because it is altogether spirituall for the vulture flying without wings crieth vpon the top of the mountaine saying I am the white of the blacke and the red of the white and the Citrine sonne of the red I tell truth and lie not It sufficeth thee therefore to put the Bodies in the vessell and in the water once for all and to shut the vessell diligently vntill a true separation be made which by the enuious is called coniunction sublimation assation extraction putrefaction ligation despousation subtiliation generation c. and that the whole Maistery bee done Doe therefore as in the generation of a man and euery vegetable put the seed once into the wombe and shut it well By this meanes thou seest that thou needest not many things and that our worke requires no great charges because there is but one Stone one Medicine one Vessell one Regiment and one successiue disposition to the white and to the red And although we say in many places take this and take that yet wee vnderstand that it behooueth to take but one thing and put it once in the vessell and to shut the vessell vntill the worke be perfected for these things are so set down by the enuious Philosophers to deceiue the vnwary as is aforesaid For is not this Art Cabalisticall and full of secrets And doest thou foole beleeue that wee doe openly teach the secrets of secrets and doest thou take our words according to the literall sound Know assuredly I am no whit enuious as others are he that takes the words of the other Philosophers according to the ordinary signification and sound of them hee doeth already hauing lost Ariadnes thread wander in the middest of the Laberinth and hath as good as appointed his money to perdition But I Artephius after I had learned all the Art and perfect Science in the Bookes of the true-speaking Hermes was sometimes enuious as all the rest but when I had by the space of a thousand yeeres or thereabouts which are now passed ouer mee since my natiuity by the onely grace of God Almighty and the vse of this wonderfull fifth essence when I say for so long time I had seene no man that could worke the Maistery of Hermes by reason of the obscurity of the Philosophers words mooued with pitie and with the goodnesse becomming an honest man I haue determined in these last times of my life to write all things truely and sincerely that thou maist want or desire nothing to the perfecting of the Philosophers Stone excepting a certaine thing which it is not lawfull for any person to say or to write because it is alwayes reuealed by God or by a Maister and yet in this Booke he that is not stiffe-necked shall with a little experience easily learne it I haue therefore in this Booke written the naked trueth although cloathed with a few colours that euery good and wise man may from this Philosophicall Tree happily gather the admirable Apples of the Hesperides Wherefore praised bee the most high God which hath put this benignitie into our soule and with a wonderfull long olde age hath giuen vs a true dilection of heart wherewithall it seemeth vnto mee that I doe truely loue cherish and imbrace all men But let vs returne vnto the Arte. Surely our worke is quickly dispatched for that which the heate of the Sunne doeth in a hundred yeeres in the Mines of the Earth for the generation of a Mettall as I haue often seene our secret fire that is our fierie sulphureous water which is called Balneum Mariae worketh in short time And this work is no great labour to him that knoweth and vnderstandeth it neither is the matter so deare considering a small quantity sufficeth that it ought to cause any man to plucke backe his hand because it is so short and easie that it may well bee called the worke of Women and the play of Children Work then cheerefully my sonne pray to God read Bookes continually for one Booke openeth another thinke of it profoundly fly all things that vanish in the fire for thou hast not thine intent in these combustible and consuming things but onely in the decoction of thy water drawne from thy lights For by this water is colour and weight giuen infinitely and this water is a white fume which as a soule floweth in the perfect bodies taking wholly from them their blacknesse and vncleannesse and consoledating the two Bodies into one and multiplying their water And there is no other thing that can take away their true colour from the perfect Bodies that is from the Sunne and Moone but Azoth that is this our water which coloureth and maketh white the red Body according to the regiments thereof But let vs speake of fires Our fire therefore is minerall equall continuall it vapours not vnlesse it be too much stirred vp it partakes of sulphur it is taken otherwhere then from the matter it pulleth downe all things it dissolueth congealeth and calcineth it is artificiall to finde it is a short way or an expence without cost at the least without any great cost it is moist vaporous digestiue altering piercing subtle ayery not violent not burning compassing or enuironing containing but one and it is the Fountaine of liuing water which goeth about and containeth the place where the King and Queene bathe themselues In all the worke this moist fire is sufficient for thee at the beginning middest and end for in it consisteth the whole Art This is the fire naturall against nature vnnaturall and without burning and finally this fire is hot dry moist and cold thinke vpon this and work aright taking nothing that is of a strange nature And if thou doest not well vnderstand these fires hearken further to what I shall giue thee neuer as yet written in any Booke from out of the abstruse and hidden cauilation of the Ancients concerning fires We haue properly three fires without the which the Art cannot bee done and hee that workes without them takes a great deale of care in vaine The first is the fire of the Lampe which is continuall moist vaporous ayery and artificiall to finde for the Lampe ought to bee proportioned to the closure or enclosure and herein wee must vse great iudgement which commeth not to the knowledge of a workeman of a stiffe necke for if the fire of the Lampe be not geometrically and duly proportioned and fitted to the Furnace either for lacke of heate thou wilt not see the expected signes in their times and so thou wilt loose thy hope by too long expectation or else with too much heate thou wilt burne the flowers of the Gold and so sadly bewaile thy lost labour The second fire is the fire of ashes in which the vessell hermetically sealed is shut vp or rather

and other fires of diuers kinds which yet are all found in the Philosophers Bookes but I found no good in them Wherefore I studied three whole yeeres in the Bookes of the Philosophers especially in Hermes alone whose briefer words doe comprehend the whole Stone though hee speake obscurely of the superior and inferiour or that which is aboue and that which is below of heauen earth Therefore our Instrument which bringeth the matter into being in the beginning second and third worke is not the fire of a Bath nor of Dung nor of Ashes nor of the other fires which the Philosophers haue put in their Bookes What fire is it then which perfects the whole worke from the beginning to the ending Surely the Philosophers haue concealed it But I being mooued with pitie will declare it vnto you together with the complement of the whole worke The Philosophers Stone therefore is one but it hath many names and before thou know it it will be very difficult for it is watery aiery fiery earthy flegmaticke cholericke and melancholy for it is sulphurous and it is likewise Argent viue and it hath many superfluities which by the liuing God are turned into the true essence our fire being the meanes And hee that separates any thing from the subiect thinking it to bee necessary hee truely knoweth nothing at all in Philosophy for that which is superfluous vncleane filthy foeculent and in summe the whole substance of the Subiect is perfected into a fixt spirituall body by the meanes of our fire And this the wise men neuer reuealed and therefore few doe come vnto the Arte thinking that there is some such superfluous and vncleane thing Now wee must seeke out the properties of our fire and whether it agree to our matter after the manner that I haue sayd to wit that it may bee transmuted when as that fire doth not burne the matter it separateth nothing from the matter it diuideth not the pure parts from the impure as all the Philosophers say but it turneth the whole Subiect into puritie It doeth not sublime as Geber maketh his sublimations Arnold likewise and others speaking of sublimations and distillations to bee done in a short time It is minerall equall continuall it vapours not except it bee too much stirred vp it partaketh of Sulphur it is taken from else-where then from the matter it pulleth downe all things it dissolueth and congealeth likewise it both congeales and calcines and it is artificiall to finde out and is a compendious and neere way without any cost at least with small cost and that fire is it with a meane firing for with a soft fire all the whole worke is perfected and it performeth withall all the due sublimations They that should reade Geber and all the other Philosophers though they should liue an hundred thousand yeeres could not comprehend it because that fire is found by deepe and profound Meditation onely and then it may be gathered out of Bookes and not before And therefore the errour of this Arte is not to finde the fire which turnes the whole matter into the true Stone of the Philosophers And therefore studie vpon it for if I had found that first I had neuer erred two hundred times in my practise vpon the matter wherefore I doe not meruaile if so many and great men haue not attained vnto the worke They doe erre they haue erred they will erre because the Philosophers haue not put the proper Agent saue onely one which is named Artephius but hee speakes for himselfe or by himselfe And vnlesse I had read Artephius and felt him speake I had neuer come to the complement of the work But the practique is this Let it bee taken and ground with a physicall contrition as diligently as may bee and let it bee set vpon the fire and let the proportion of the fire bee knowne to wit that it onely stirre vp the matter and in a short time that fire without any other laying on of hands will accomplish the whole worke because ii will putrifie corrupt ingender and perfect and make to appeare the three principall colours blacke white and red And by the meanes of our fire the Medicine will bee multiplied if it bee ioyned with the crude matter not onely in quantitie but also in vertue With all thy strength therefore search out this fire and thou shalt attaine thy wish because it doeth the whole worke and is the Key of the Philosophers which they neuer reuealed But if thou muse well and profoundly vpon those things that haue beene spoken concerning the properties of the fire thou mayest know it otherwise not I beeing mooued with pitie haue written these things but that I may satisfie thee fully this fire is not transmuted with the matter because as I said aboue it is not of the matter These things therefore I thought fit to say and to warne the prudent that they spend not their moneys vnprofitably but know what they ought to looke after For by this meanes they may come to the truth of the Arte and not otherwise Farewell FINIS