three Elements And these last colours abide hiddenly and intrinsically and appear under the shew of a white Spirit in liquid Mercury until it be recondensed in the Powder which is in the Bodies because the Soul lies hid in the Spirit as in the condensation the Spirit and the Soul lie hid in the Powder or Body For there is a corruption in the things to be altered but no dissipation of parts unless some superfluous parts be to be rejected as unprofitable for generation whereupon the Artificer purifies his Work that digestion may succeed better This is manifest by example in Grain for of two grains of Wheat if the one be cast into good ground there it putrifies dies and loses its external form but nothing thereof is dissipated yea in its time it encreases into a multiplicity of Fruit and there is indeed made a corruption only of the form and not any dissipation of the matter But if the other grain be cast into the Fire then both matter and form are corrupted and the whole is dissipated and that corruption is unprofitable for generation Wherefore Water dissolves not Bodies but those only of its own kind and by which it may be condensed nor can Bodies be at all nourished to generation but by their like which can preserve the species destroyed by that transmuting Body through the artifice of the Work though Vegetables are nourished by things of different kinds yet before they nourish them they are assimilated the dissolution of them being first made according to the proportion of the things which suck and draw them to them It must be noted therefore that the Solution of Metals may be made by different ways one which Fools know as is abovesaid with Foreign things which abide not with the dissolved Metals which is rather to be called a corrosive destruction and defilement of the Compound The second Solution is made by the power and force of Fire which is no true Solution but a melting rather of the colligated Elementary parts for the outward heat of the Fire in dissolving the Compound finds out its intrinsical natural or native Fire within which internal and proportional Fire dwells in the Air therefore it dissolves the Air it self But that dissolved Air resides and dwells in the Water and the Water in the Earth and the Water it self dissolves the Earth so that it melts both the active and passive but this melting is no true Solution yea it is a dissipation because the Elements there being homogeneous to one another and proportionably fixed by digestion are mixt and one of them educed out of the power of another generally And therefore this falls out even in pure Bodies in which the Elemental natures are fixed Wherefore in them the flame of Fire causeth melting and dissolves that whole Body to fluidity and not to a separation because Fire cannot flow unless the Air consubstantial to it flow neither doth the Aâ— flow unless the Water be dissolved nor doth the Water flow unless the Earth flow and contrariwise as the Earth is dissolved by the Water so on the contrary side the Water retaineth the Air and congealeth it and in the same manner ascending upwards the Air retaineth the Fire in Congelation because the more fixt and fixing Elements cause fixation by acting together on one another as Earth and Water and in a contrary manner Fire and Air act together each on other unto Solution But this Solution is called a melting of the Compound and not properly a Solution of it because the parts separable from one another in the generation of the Compound are not dissolved as is done in the third and truly Philosophick Solution when the Compound is dissolved in the manner aforesaid and yet the parts abide unseparated though separable so that the virtue of the most digested Elements may be extracted from things to be dissolved by the dissolver that is Quick-silver and the grosser parts in such a dissolution acquire some latitude of subtilty because the Body is turned into Spirit and contrariwise the Spirit into Body fixed things are turned into volatiles and volatiles to fixed For this Solution is possible and natural that is by Art of Nature subserving thereto and this is sole and necessary Solution in the Work of the Philosophers which can be done by no other thing than Quick-silver only with a prudent proportion so as a good Artificer knowing from within the natures and proportions ought to make the proportion from his first entrance upon the Work For these two Sir are sufficient for this Work and nothing else enters it nor generates and multiplies as we have said Besides you say that Gold as most think is nothing else than Quick-silver coagulated naturally by the force of Sulphur yet so that nothing oâ— the Sulphur which generated the Gold doth remain in the substance of the Gold as in an humane Embryo when it is conceived in the Womb there remains nothing of the Father's Seed according to Aristotle's opinion but the Seed of the Man doth only coagulate the menstrual blood of the Woman in the same manner you say that after Quick-silver is so coagulated the form of Gold is perfected in it by virtue of the Heavenly Bodies and especially of the Sun But by your good leave and with respect I must tell you we must not think so For being we are Philosophically perswaded that Gold is nothing but Mercury anatized that is equally digested in the bowels of a Mineral Earth and the Philosophers have signified that this very thing is done by the contact of Sulphur coagulating the Mercury and by reason of its operation that is from Mercury being digested and thickned by a proportionate heat Wherefore we must know that Gold is Sulphur and Mercury together that is the coagulant and the coagulated in one and nothing added from without thereto but only a pure digestion or maturation which multiplies qualities and excites one Element from another out of their pure possibility into act no other thing whatsoever being superadded But this digestion or matutarion is produced actively from the superiour Elements that is the Fire and Air which are not actually but potentially in Mercury which yet being excited and assisted by an external heat and by the proper and natural digesting heat the passive Elements in Mercury are by them subtilized being not only potentially existent but actually towards Water it self and the Water is subtilized towards Air and Air follows to Fire and in this proportionable action of Nature and digestion of Mercury the Male and Femalâ— abide together in closed Natures the Female truly as it were Earth and Water the Male as Air and Fire which Earth and Water the Philosophers do mingle in Gold but called the Air and Fire a Sulphur as it were therein neither is there any other Foreign addition in the bowels of the Earth And therefore in Art above ground neither is there found and Foreign addition to digest or
adequate activity and passion for some of the Elements are therein either in an active or passive power and the rest are therein actually But in the Philosophers Stone which is Gold being it is an uniform Work of Nature all the four Elements active and passive are actually therein and permanent in an equal proportion For the Essence or Nature of Gold is nothing else but the four Elements equally mixed not that their form and matter may be said to be therein equal but their passive and active power that is they are each alike and equal not in quantity but in quality because that the active doth not exceed the passive in its acting nor on the other side the passive doth not exceed the active by suffering more because there is an equal proportion as to measure in our Gold or in our Medicine double hot double moist double cold double dry and all these are actually therein by actual action and passion that is Fire Air Water and Earth as we have said before And all these are said to be alike and equal in quality not quantity because they are equal in actives and passives and they are therefore durably permanent in Gold because the passive in it consists permanently in its active and on the other part the passive rises not up against the active And they ought not to be alike in quantity that is there ought not be so much matter of Fire as there is matter of Earth because then the Fire by reason of its quality would be everywhere of an unequal activity with its passive Earth and of a far greater Wherefore there is in Gold as to its matter but not as to its quality much more of the heavier and more passive Element than of the lighter and more active that â—s more in quantity there is in â—t a greater quantity of Earth than Water a greater quantity of Water than Air a greater of Air than Fire wherefore it is the heaviest of all Metals But in this â—nequal proportion of quantity there is an equal and like proportion of quality of hot dry moist and cold because each of these is in Gold as hath been said The cause of which weight is the permanency of the solidity of the Earth and Water and the solution of an homogeneous Water with the Earth because Water dissolves an homogeneous Earth Also their intrinsical thorow mixture in their very least particles is the cause of the weight because the Water as well in Gold as Quick-silver suffers not the Earth to have any â—res in it which is otherwise in other Metals in which pores are insensibly made in their congelation because of the dross mingled in those Metals all over rejected by the Mercurial nature and heterogeneous whereupon their lightness results which is nothing else but want of matter and porousness of the same as weight is nothing else but a solid addition of matter Wherefore if there were in an equal commensurative quantity so much of the solid matter of Fire as there is of the matter of Earth Fire would be as weighty as Earth But the cause of the weight of Saturn is its immature congelation because it dâ—â—â— not yet reject the dross of its parts whence pores are made in it but the pure and impure abide through mixt together in it everywhere as in the first crude Quick-silver in which the inspissation and coagulation is weak for that cause Saturn or Lead retains the weight of its Quick-silver not because of the purity of its solid matter but because of its immature coagulation or coction Wherefore if in this Work you would not destroy the Fire and Air you must preserve in a distinct and like proportion the heat of the Compound But if you would not destroy the Air and the Water then in the same Compound you must cherish the humid so in the same manner you may preserve the Water and Earth or the Earth and the Fire in the said Work by preserving rightly and by the artifice of the Philosophick skill both the cold and dry because if you destroy any one of them the proportionabâ—â— form and kind of Gold is lost For this cause the Philosophers say our Gold is made of every thing that is of every Element every Element being intrinsically preserved in it and actually compounding it wherefore all the Elements are intrinsically in act or power the principles of all compounded alterable things and for that cause are said to be all things Furthermore my Reverend Doctor for your credits sake you must understand the sayings of the Philosophers according to the possibility of Nature and not according to the sound of Words For they have handled this holy and hidden Art and its Secrets under Similitudes Fables Riddles and obscure words and have hid it purposely that it might not be exposed to the unlearned impious and unworthy Furthermore that I may go on to other Heads of your Epistle I understand the artifice of your Stone to be a composure from Gold but from your writing I cannot apprehend it because you set not down the first original of that Composition Therefore I shall not need to handle it more at large till you instruct me fully and more plainly in its Composition and Operation For I cannot neither believe that the Elixir or Philosophers Stone can consist of the signs appearing in it and of the properties of the nutritive vegetation of the flaming Fire which you attribute to it as I have openly shewed in what I have said already But when I received your Work and the gift of so great a Secret sent unto me I at once understood your unfeigned love and free confidence in me Wherefore for your Friendship sake I reserve your Stone with me and keep it as a most acceptable gift and shall write unto you more concerning it when you shall declare it to me more manifestly But whereas you say that in your Stone there are three a Body Spirit and Soul which is manifest to you by your experience and work the Philosophers when they said those three natural things were in their artificial Stone understood it by way of resemblance and experiment For they called the Earth its Body and Bones because it is an astringent Compound and restrains the fluid Elements from their raw flexibility having the Fire also with it symbolically by its driness But they called the Water and Air its Spirit because they are the Elements that moisten and dissolve the Earth But they called the Air and Fire the Soul because they ripen and digest the whole Compound And they named them thus with resemblance unto Humane nature because in a well-constituted Flesh there ought to be Bones to sustain the Body and likewise there ought to be in the Flesh a vivacity of vegetable Accidents which are called its Spirits contrary to the errors of the Pagan Philosophers who thought the vital Spirits to be something distinct from the Body compounded and parts compounding
perceive that Water is the first Matter of all things which are born or generated in the World for certainly 't is manifest unto thee that nothing grows or receiveth increase without the four Elements therefore whatsoever is Elementated by the virtue of the four Elements it must of necessity be that the original of all things that are born or grow should be of Water Yet ought you not to understand this before spoken of Water but of that Water which is the Matter of all things out of which all Natural things are produced in their kind Know therefore that first of all Air is engendred of Water of Air Fire of Fire Earth Now will I more familiarly and friendly discourse with thee I 'le further manifest this Mystery unto thee by degrees lâ—â—t by too much hast it happen to us according to the Proverb That he that makes too much hast oftentimes comes home too late Now therefore that I may satisfie thy desire I will discourse of the first Matter which Philosophers call the fifth Essence and many other Names they have for it by which they may the more obscure it In it for certain are four Elements pure in their Exaltation Know therefore that if you would have the fifth Essence Man you must first have Man and you must have nothing else of that Matter and see that you observe this well This I say that if you desire to have the Philosophers Stone you must of necessity first have the fifth Essence of that same Stone whether it be Mineral or Vegetative joyn therefore species with species and Gems with Gems and not the one without the other nor any thing contrary which may be other than the species or proper Gems beware therefore of all that is not Essential For of Boneâ— Stones cannot be made neither do Cranes beget Geâ—se which if you will consider you 'l find the profit of it by the help of Divine Grace by the assistance whereof let us fâ—rther proceed to speak of this blessed Water which is called the Water of the Sun and Moon hidden in the concavity of our Earth Concerning which Earth know that all that is generated must of necessity have Male and Female from which action and passion arise without which Generation never is But you will certainly never receive profit from things differing in kinds Notwithstanding if you have this Water of the Sun and Moon it will draw other Bodies and Humours to its own kind by the help of the virtue and heat of the Sun and Moon and will make them perfect As an Infant in the womb of its Mother decoction of temperate heat helping it turneth the Flowers into its nature and kind that is into Flesh Bloud Bones and Life with the other properties of a living Body of which 't is needless to say any more And hence you may understand that our Water changeth it self into a perfect kind with things of its own kind For first it will congeal it self into a substance like Oyl then it will change that Oyl by the means of temperate heat into Gum and lastly by the help of the perfect heat of the Sun into a Stone Now therefore know that out of one thing you have three that is Oyl Gum and a Stone Know also that when the Water is turned into Oyl then you have a perfect Spirit when the Oyl is turned into hard Gum then you have a perfect Spirit and Soul and when the Spirit and Soul are turned into a Stone then you have a perfect Body Soul and Spirit together which as it is called the Philosophers Stone and Elixir and a perfect Medicine of mans Body so also that which is leavened with its genus and the fifth Essencâ— Know Son that fifth Essences are divers one whereof is to Humane Bodies another to Elixir and to the imperfect Bodies of Metals For you must consider that the generation and growth of Metals is not as the growth of mans Body for a genus agrees with its genus and a species with its species Moreover know that the first Matter of man which begetteth the Flesh Bloud Bones and Life is a Spermatick Humour which causeth generation through a vital Spirit included therein And when the Matter is generated and congealed into a Body extract thence the fifth Essence of that Body wherewith you may nourish the Body Yet Son will I tell thee moreover that Water or Matter or Seed whereof Man is begot is not the augmenter of the Body Know Son that if the Body be fed with its natural food then its first Matter will be increased and also the Body viz. the first Matter in quality and the Body in quantity the first Matter is that which is called the fifth Essence Yet know Son that the fifth Essence is one thing and the Matter of augmentation is another and as I said before the increase of Metals is not like the increase of mans Body Although the fifth Essence which causeth the augmentation of Metals may be a fit Medicine for Humane Bodies as also the fifth Essence which causeth the augmentation of mans Body may be a fit Medicine for the Bodies of Metals and therefore as before is said the fifth Essence is one thing and augmentation another You see therefore for what reason our Water is called the first Matter and Seed of Metals viz. because of it all Metals are generated Therefore you will have need of it in the beginning middle and end for as much as it is the cause of all generation because by its Congelation it is turned into all sorts of Metals to wit into the first Matter of the sorts Thence it is called the Seed of Metals and the Metallick Water of Life because it affords Life and Bloud to sick and dead Metals joyneth in Matrimony the Red man with the White woman that is the Sun and the Moon It is called also Virgins Milk for as long as it is not joyned with the Sun and the Moon nor with any thing else except only those which are of its own â—ind so long it may be called a Virgin But when it is joyned with a Male and Female and marrieth with them then is it no longer a Virgin because it adhereth to them and becomes one with them to whom it is joyned that is with the Sun and Moon whom it joyns and is joyned with to generation But as long as it remains a Virgin it is called Virgins Milk the Blessed Water and the Water of Life and by many other Names And now my Son that I may say something of the Philosophers Mercury know that when thou hast put thy Water of Life to the Red man who is our Magnesia and to the White woman whose name is Albifica and they shall all have been gathered together into one then you have the true Philosophers Mercury For after that in this manner all is joyned with a Male and Female then it is called the Philosophers Mercury
the Philosophers Water of Life the Bloud of Man his red Flesh his Body and Bones Know therefore that there are many sorts of Milk viz. Virgins Milk Womans Milk and also Mans Milk For when first they are joyned in one and she is big having conceived then the Infant must be nourished with Milk But then you may know that this Milk is not Virgins Milk but rather the man and the womans Milk wherewith it is always to be nourished till it is growâ— to that strength that it may be brought up with stronger and fuller food That food which I mean is the leavening of it which gives it form that it may perform Virile work For until the Infant that is this our Stone be formed and leavened with its like the Bloud of the green Dragon and the red Bloud of the red Dragon whether it be the white Stone or the red it will never do a perfect work Know therefore Son that the first Water is that Water Rebar which God made of Nature and it is the cause of Generation as I said before but when after the conjunction which ariseth from the Marriage it begets the Water of Life and the Philosophers Milk with one of which or both you must augment and feed your Stone perpetually Much more could I say to thee Son concerning this first Matter but let this suffice that setting aside impertinencies of words we may now Divine Grace favouring of us proceed to the practice it self of the Philosophick Stone See therefore my Son that thou diligently puttest all these Matters which though they are three things yet are they but one only in a Glass Vessel and lettest them quietly putrefie then put an Alembick upon your Vessel and by distillation draw out all the Water which may be thence distilled Try this first in Maries Bath Then place the Vessel in Ashes and make a gentle Fire for 12 hours then take the Matter out of the Vessel grind it well by it self without the foresaid Water then â—ut it again into the Vessel with Water and stop the Vessel close Put it in the Bath for three days and then distill the Water as before in the Bath and the Matter will be more black than before Do thus three times over and then grind it no more but afterwardâ— as often as you distill it so oft pour Water on the top but between each distillation give it so much Fire for six hours or more till it become indifferent dry then pour Water on the top again and dissolve it again in the Bath under a blind Alembick Also in every distillation separate the Flegm by casting away six or seven drops of Water in the beginning of each distillation And observing this order cause it to drink its proper Water till it hath drank of it seven times its weight which it had at the first But then it will be of a white colour and so much the whiter by how much the more of its own Water it hath drank This is white Elixir Moreover this our Water is called Homogeneal and by many other names Besides know that this Water and Matter generate as well the Red Stone as the White Know also when this first Matter is brought to its compleat whiteness then the end of one is the beginning of the other that is of the Red Stone which is our Red Magnesia and Virgins Brass as we said at first Son see thou well understand these words Our Virgins Brass is our Gold yet I do not say that all Brass is Gold also our Brass is our live Brimstone but all live Brimstone is not our live Brimstone also Quicksilver is Mercury but I do not say that common Quicksilver is our Silver as I said before that Water of Life which is our Seed and first Matter is our Mercury and our Spirit of Life which is extracted out of the blessed Land of Aethiopia which is called Magnesia and by many other names Besides my Son know that there is no perfect generation without corruption for corruption causeth cleanliness and cleanliness corruption Consider therefore Son our dying poison which dyeth and is dyed perpetually and this is our Body our Soul and our Spirit when they are joyned together in one and become one thing which with its parts ariseth also out of one thing besides which there is not any other neither ever shall be Wherefore my Son great folly it is for any one to believe that any other Medicine can be turned into Gold or Silver which Medicine will little profit thee of it self except it be mingled with a Body for then shall it perfect its work according to its form to which it is born For it is never born that it may of it self become a Body Moreover know that there is as much difference between the first Matter which is called the Seed of Metals and the Medicine as is between the Medicine and Gold For the Seed will never be the Medicine without a Body neither will the Medicine ever be a Metal without a Body Much difference also there is between Elixir and the Medicine as between Masculine and Feminine Seed and also an Infant which is generated of those in the Matrice Now you may see that the Seed is one thing and the Infant another though they be one and the same in kind one thing one operation the Vessel finally one though it be called by divers names For of a Man and Woman is an Infant born when as yet the Man is one thing and the Woman another though they be one and the same in kind which you ought to understand in our Stone But what I said before that corruption is the cause of generation and of cleanliness is true For you must know that every thing in its first Master is corrupt and bitter which corruption and bitterness is called dying poison which is the cause of Life in all things as will be sufficiently manifest if you with right reason do weigh the Natures of things Consider well O Son that when Lucifer the Angel of Pride first rebelled against God and prevaricated the Command of the most High be assured that this was made corrupt bitter and harsh to him No less was the fall and prevarication of our first Parents Adam and Eve whom death and condemnation followed made to them corruption and bitterness and likewise to us in whom the same corruption is propagated Many more like examples I could recite if need were But setting aside these to come to what is proper to our discourse consider well that of all precious Fruits which grow out of the Earth their First Matter is bitter and harsh as still retaining some footstep of the former corruption and putrefaction which bitterness by the means of continual action of natural heat is with great virtue turned into sweetness Now therefore Son if thou wiâ—â— be ingenious this little will suffice whereby to find out much more and to perceive my meaning Consider therefore
condense Mercury into the nature of Gold or other species of Metals Therefore the Philosophers have said that Sulphur and Mercury make Sol that is its corporeity and permanency And therefore it is not hence concluded that the external artificial heat stirring up and assisting the proportional intrinsick heat to digest and ripen the other two less digested and immature Elements in Mercury namely its Water and Earth is of the substance of the Compound For the external heat is not permanent within with the quantity and weight of the Matter nor adds any thing thereto But the intrinsick proportionate natural and simple heat is permanent with the quantity and weight of the Mercury digested by it because that heat is an intrinsick and essential part of Mercury it self to wit the two more active Elements in it namely Air and Fire Therefore Fools do ill and absurdly understand that saying of the Philosophers that Sulphur and Mercury beget Sol because as is sufficiently known as neither Air nor Fire in the first Mercurial composition nor afterwards in the natural Metallick digestion depart nor are severed from Water and Earth so neither doth Sulphur which is no other than Air and Fire depart nor is separated from Mercury which is the same with Water and Earth And he is not a natural Philosopher who imagines or asserts the contrary for the digestion of Gold happens and is made of the first Mercurial proportion without any addition made thereto by Nature under or Art above ground as is said Neither is that repugnant to what we have said that a pure Sol and clean Mercury must in this Art be conjoyned because this is not done to that intent to affirm that there is one Sulphur in Sol and another in Mercury or that there is one Mercury in Sol and another in Mercury but because the digestion is more mature and perfect in Sol than Mercury And also in the Sun the Sulphur is more mature and digested and therefore more active than in Mercury whence the Philosophers have affirmed Sol to be nothing else but Quick-silver maturedâ— For in Mercury there are only two actual Elements to wit Water and Earth which are passive but the active Elements Air and Fire are only potentially therein But as it is known when those Air and Fire in a pure Mercury are deduced from possibility into act that is to a due digestion and proportionable concoction then â—t becomes Gold Wherefore in Gold there are four Elements conjoyned in equal and anatical proportion in which therefore there is actually a more ripe and active Sulphur that is Air and Fire than in Mercury Wherefore Gold is by Art dissolved with Mercury that the unripe may be holpen by the ripe and so Art decocting and Nature perfecting the Composition is ripened by the favour of Christ. Whence the cause may be derived why by the help of the Philosophick Art more perfect noble and by many degrees more elevated Gold is made sooner and in less time than by the work of Nature Because Nature doth act and work this by boyling and digesting Mercury alone in the bowels of the Earth without any assistant which cannot be brought on to the due proportion of Gold or any other Metal in a little time But our Art helps the work of Nature by mingling with Mercury ripe Gold in which is a Sulphur excellently digested and therefore maturing and quickly digesting Mercury it self to the anatick proportion of Gold by subtilizing its Elements whereupon there follows by Art a wonderful abbreviation of this natural Work Wherefore my Doctor I return to the former points we must not imagine according to their mistake who say that the Male Agent himself approaches the Female in the coagulation and departs afterwards because as is known in every generation the conception is active and passive Both the active and passive that is all the four Elements must always abide together otherwise there would be no mixture and the hope of generating an off-spring would be extinguished For in every man the Masculine Seed to the end of his life is called in him the Agent when it is first mingled with the Feminine and whether it be shed out or consumed in him Nature for its sake doth vegetate and is wonderfully increased and nourished and makes to it self in the same mans loins the like specifick Seed The like is to be judged of the Feminine Seed in the Women wherefore both these Seeds abide always and are to be esteemed for original Agents and first Patients Yet there is a various or different nativity or generation of Mixts and Vegetables For they are called Simple Mixts which grow under ground out of our sight or about the surface thereof by the commixture of the Elements alone compounded one with another or from their first Solution because they grow not as Vegetables but how much soever of matter was compact and mixt in them so much of their first weight is reserved in the same Compounds For example sake how much soever at first a mass of some Mercurial substance doth weigh in its Mineral disposition in the bowels of the Earth so much weight of Gold will abide digested therefrom and the Scoriae and Faeces rejected from it will rather be diminished than multiplied because they receive no nourishment But there are manifold degrees of this first and simple natural mixture The first is the naked concretion and composition of the four Elements and that immediate in which there is not yet any change made or exaltation of one Element into another but a simple union of a symbolizing composition of them persevering and abiding of which sort Stones are The second degree follows upon the first because from the aforesaid Stones Minerals about which we discourse are generated and the more noble subterraneous species emerge and arise from hence because in these begin the action of Elements and their mutual transmutation though their action is not in so great vivacity and virtue as in Vegetables and Sensitives because they have neither growth nor sense as we have said before The third degree is that which comprehends precious Stones and Gems because in them is found a perfect and compleat action from the virtue of the Elements compacted and acting mutually as I have declared more largely in my Philosophy where I have perspicuously manifested this third degree together with the second to be a mean betwixt the first and second composition of Natural things Then another nativity or generation is that which is not accounted to be of Simple Mixts but Compound Vegetables which are truly divisible into four kinds or Classes as I have discoursed more largely in my other Book which I sent you For there are Vegetables but Sensitives more especially which for the most part beget their like by the Seeds of the Male and Female for the most part concurring and commixt by copulation which work of Nature the Philosophick Art imitates in the generation of
clear tear from the Eye nor every dissolving Spirit though they be each of higher Natures than another according to their degrees as the Soul is higher than the crude Spirit being they are not of one form For as the Soul lies hid under the species of a dissolved Spirit before its re-inspissation for the Soul being extracted out of the Body always appeareth like Quick-silver so after its inspislation the Soul and Body lie hid under the species of a Body Your Worship hath seen an Experiment thereof in the Powder sometime sent to that King whose Physician you are in which Experiment Quick-silver was found in the species of Quick-silver but if that which remained in the bottom had been coagulated it would certainly have assumed the same form of Powder But that Powder must be called a Tincture nominally only not that it is a Medicine for Metals for it is not yet perfectly fixt yet as a Medicine for Men it is of very good force But the fixt Medicine without all doubt exceeds this humane Medicine in all virtues both as to Metals and to Men which cannot come to pass in a clear diaphanous and transparent Liquor Because if the aforesaid Elixir and Azor that is Spirit and Soul did appear in and had a transparency now the Earth as to its proportion had left the Water and had been separated from it which had thickned and coagulated its parts causing an opacity in the Elixir and Azor and making a congealable Metallick form to consist For in the condensing of fixed Metallick species the condenser must act upon the condensable and the coagulating upon the coagulable which cannot be in the aforesaid diaphanous and clear Water But it happens otherwise in Vegetables in which a simple and diaphanous Water is thickned by decoction into the Vegetables themselves which yet by the Test of the Fire doth at length vanish and evaporate because it is not permanent and fixed in its composition because it had not with it an Earth naturally homogeneal to it in its composition as Quick-silver hath which Earth indeed is the cause of permanent fixation in homogeneous things wherefore simple Water cannot by coagulation be so fixed with Vegetables as Mercury with Metals If therefore Mercury should be reduced to a transparency in the Work of the Philosophers it would by good reason remain of an uncoagulable substance nor would it be congealed upon Laton to a Metallick form species and proportion which carries not with nor in it self its own congelation namely Water the Earth which Earth as was said is Mercurial and the first cause of Inspissation Coagulation and Fixation If then this Water abide destitute of Metallick proportion how should it be possible that such like species should be produced from this Composition They also erre who think to extract a limpid transparent Water out of Mercury and out of it to work many wonderful things For be it so that they can perfect such a Water that Work would conduce nothing either to Nature or proportion nor could it restore or build up any perfect kind of Metal For so soon as Mercury is throughly changed from his first Nature so soon he is forbidden entrance into our Philosophick Work because he hath lost his Spermatick and Metallick Nature From these things it is manifest what truth there is in your opinion and in what it is contrary and improper when you say there must be had as I think to perfect the highest Elixir a Gum in which are all things necessary thereunto and containing the four Elements and it is a most clear Water as a tear from the Eye made Spiritual c. which make Gold to be a mere Spirit For a Body penetrates not a Body but a subtle congealed Spiritual substance which penetrates and colours a Body Let it be so as you say my Venerable Doctor that Natures are not joyned but in a Gum or Oylie substance and equal proportioned having a Spiritual Nature the Elements being yet fixedly shut up in it unâ—o which Gumminess the whole Philosophers Stone is at last reduced by Inceration under a gentle flux after the manner of an Inceration resembling all the Elements standing like Copper and in the nature of Copper existing also in a subtle Spiritual Nature penetrating and colouring Metallick Bodies For this Stone in the sublimation of the first crude Body hath not lost its kind namely of the same Spirit neither yet in the perfect and great Gum doth it lose its first Nature Therefore Gum and Oyl belong not otherwise unto this Work but as Elements equally proportioned shut up together resolvable united in the Oylie viscosity of the Earth retained buried inseparably mixt For this Gum or Oyl first is extracted out of the Body drawn into an incinerated Spirit till the superfluous humidity of the Water be turned into Air and one Element be excited from another Element by digestion and what was of an Aqueous form become of an Oylie nature and so the whole Stone at last assumes the name of Gum and Sulphur For Geber teacheth this when he saith as you have written in your Epistle If any person know to joyn and friendly unite our Sulphur unto Bodies he hath found one of the greatest Secrets and one way of perfection as if he should say If any man can reduce a Body to this that it may be made a Gum which may be throughly mingled with other imperfect Bodies he hath found the greatest Secret of Nature c. because this perfect Stone is a Gum and a Sulphur as is known by what we have already said But you must know that Geber with highest prudence and wonderful artifice hides the truth under a Veil intermingling with it many obscurities and falsities which those who are ignorant at first appearance imagine to be truth yet he speaking like a Philosopher secretly under this craft doth openly learnedly and Philosophically describe the truth wherefore the unexperienced and Sophisters not understanding his mind and wit nor the nature of the thing do perversly turn aside to the vulgar exposition and sound of the words For he saith If thou knowest that we have said something to thee but if thou knowest not we have said nothing to thee Wherefore in reading Philosophick Books consider especially the possibility of Nature notwithstanding some Writers of this Art have also sometimes erred and have happened sometimes to have handled it as to the natural truth either ill or ambiguously As it may be observed that Arnoldus de Villa Nova hath said in a Book which he called his Rosary that raw Mercury that is Quick-silver which in its own nature is cold and moist by Sublimation may be made hot and dry afterwards being revived it becomes hot and moist like the complexion of Man You will say then what wonder is it if it be joyned with the Sun that it likewise becomes of the nature of the Sun For Mercury is of a convertible nature as the Heavenly