subiect which cannot be seen And as the effects are diuers so are there diuers kindes of Saltes which according to their diuersitie haue diuers tastes and sundery properties of euacuations and clensings and diuers other faculties But among Salts that which is more bitter and néerest to the taste of Aloes or Gaule sheweth his proper working in purging the belly by siege Such Salts Chymists call Salt Niter or Niterous salts Saladine an ancient great Physition speaking of Salts saith thus There are foure famous kinds of Salt to wit the salt of bread that is to say Common-salt salt-gem salt-naptie and salt-Indiâ— And afterward he saith that this last is of all other the most bâ—tter sharpe and most violent and therefore of greatest force to purge And he saith that al Salt is as it were a spurre to other medicines with the which it is mingled for that it maketh them to worke more spéedily Lastly hée saith that all Salt bringeth foorth grosse Phlegmaticke humors Among Salts some are earthie some watery and some aierie or such as haue in them predominant eyther the Element of that earth of water or of ayre insomuch some of them are fixed are of the nature of earth other some are betwéene fixed flying and doe retaine a certaine middle watery propertie But Sal Armoniac is of nature spiritual as is also the common Armoniac of all other most flying ayrie And al Salt whether it be flying or fixed is no otherwise dissolued and commixed in waters than with the water of Water and if one be a dry water the other is moyst These thrée kindes of Saltes which lye hydden in the secret parts of things whether they be metalline vegitable or animal and which are principally seated in that element which produceth his generations out of the earth they do participat of the nature of the thrée beginnings For the common salte and that which is of the sea passing through the philter of the earth and boyled and digested with the heates of the bowels of the same earth doth participate of the nature of fixed and firme salt the father and original of all others But Niter being partly fixed and in part volatile doth participate of the sulphurus beginning of things euen as Sal Amoniac doth participate of the Mercuriall beginning spirituall and ayrie whose extreames to wit fixed and volatile of the sulphurus salt or the Niterus partaker of the volatile nature in part and partly fixed are coupled together by intercession By this straight and wonderfull bond of the thrée beginnings thrée diuers substances of Salts of sundry properties doe manifestly appeare like in essence but not in natures of qualities For beyond all expectation a good wittie Salt-maker wil extract out of a fat and fertile earth by washings these three kindes of Saltes namely the marine and fixed which is dissolued in lye made of ashes the Niterus by it selfe which is there coagulated or congealed and the Armoniac volatile ayrie flying in part out of the Lye and partly contained in both the Saltes and therefore hydden from the sences This may bée done by a skilfull Salt-maker albeit he were vtterly ignorant of all the mysterâ—es which here are hidden Which thrée distinct differences of Saltes as they are to be found in euery fat kind of earth so out of both the saltes namely the marine and fixed and the Niterus volatile they may be thenceforth separated For those Saltes being put into a retort together or apart by themselues with a receiuer first by the force of fire stilleth forth a Volatile Salt sower sharpe and Mercurial then with a greater heate commeth forth a Salt Sulphurus and Niterus and swéete the third Salt which is Salt vpon Salt fixed will not moue with any force of fier but remaineth constantly in the bottome of the glasse All tastes are brought forth out of these thrée sundry Saltes common to that triple beginning of things so as we shall not néede to haue recourse to hot and cold moist and dry For they are procreated out of those beginnings alone Fixed Salt consider as it is simple and without commixtion maketh simply a salt tast A Sulphurus Salt also simply vnderstoode yéeldeth out of it a swéete oylely taste But Mercurial Salt in like sort conceiued by it selfe and apart representeth a sower taste All which tastes mixed together in equall proportions yéelde a pleasant and delightful taste without any sense or taste of any of the particulars These thrée beginnings cannot be found simple in a mixt body in such wise but that they haue some composition and do in mixture communicate their qualities together as may bée séene in sea-salt and salt-péeter out of the which may be separated not onely a salt and sharpe taste but also a swéete taste And it is certaine that in things sulphurus and oylely and also in Mercurial liquors there is to be found a coniunction of such tastes For this cause we affirme that all fixed Salt of a mixt body is very brinish and excéeding bitter the sulphurus of a fat and sweete taste and the Mercurial sower sharpe and fiery So that vpon these simple qualities salt swéete and sower which are to be found in all bodies minerall vegitable and animal all others tastes do depend And as touching the elementary qualities passiue which are as organical and instrumentall causes they little appertaine to this matter whether it be the terrestrial and drie passiue quality passiue coldnesse or whether it be the aiery moist vapor the which tastes of this sort or potent qualities procéedeth from these thrée beginnings do either further to this or that nature or else doe impaire and weaken them To make this plaine by manifest reasons and to lay it open before our eyes we will begin to intreat of mixed bodies the which notwithstanding according to the Elements are most simple CHAP. VI. IT is already said that tastes by a certaine priuate right are ascribed to Salts or to their spirits which euidently appeareth hereby that the differences of tastes are not produced but from the differences of Saltes or contrariwise the differences of Saltes are produced from the differences of tastes In the bosome of nature there are found almost so many kinde of Saltes as there are variety of tastes Digged or minerall and marine Salt is endued with a salt qualitie Niter with a bitter quality Allum with a sharpe Vitriol with a sower Armoniac with a sharpe and sower quality But swéete Saltes do manifestly appeare not onely in Manna and in Sugar but also in marine salt and in salt of Vitriol out of which they are to be seperated And as we haue said in euery of these salts these thrée first beginnings Salt Sulphur and Merucry are contained ioyntly together one aiery mercurial or spiritual the which is sharpe and sower the other earthly which is sower and bitter and the third oylely sweet which is a meane betwéene them
But as touching a Chymical Philosopher let him know that hée ought to bestowe his labour most chiefely in fusil Salts and to remember that Philosophers haue not without good cause euer and anon cryed Bake it Bake it and bake it againe which is al one as if they had sayd Calcine calcine or bring it to ashes And in very déede if wée wil confesse the trueth of the matter al Chymical workings as Distillations Calcinations Reuerberations Dissolutions Filtrations Coagulations Decoctions Fixations and such other appertaining to this Science tend to no other ende then so to bring their bodies into dust or ashes that they may communicate the spirits of Saltes and sulphur which haue made them placed neuerthelesse vnder one and the same essence after a certaine imperceptible manner with their metallick water and true Mercurie and that to this ende that by the infernal vertue and force of Salt the Mercurie may bée consumed boyled and altered from his vile nature into a more noble when as of common Mercurie it is made by the benefite of the spirit of Salt the Mercurie of the Phylosophers which Salt it hath attracted out of the ashes or calx vine Metallick Euen like as it commeth to passe in the lye-wash which is made of ashes and water the which béeing oftentimes messhed and drawen away the ashes leaue al their life and strength communicating all their Salt to the foresayd water the which water albeit it alwayes remaineth fluxile and liquid yet it abydeth not simple and pure water colde or of smal vertue but béeing now made lye it is become hote and of a drying qualitie clensing and of qualitie wholely actiue which is altogether the vertue and facultie of an altering medicine But it is to bée considered of what matter this quicke and metallick ashes are to bée made Also of what manner of water the lye is to bée prepared that thou mayest exalt the Salt or Sulphur of the Phylosophers that is to say the Balsamick medicine which is ful of actiue qualities like vnto thunder béeing reduced into a true liuing calx And whereas at the first it was a certaine dead body voyde of life it shal then be made a liuing body indued with spirit and medicinal vertue CHAP. IIII. Gold animated is the chiefe subiect of the metallic Medicine of the Philosophers OF so great power and force is the Phylosophical Sulphur of Nature that it multiplyeth and increaseth gold in strength and vertue béeing already indued with great perfection not so much for the equal concurrencie of Sulphur and Quick-siluer as in regard of the perfect combination adequation equabilitie of Elements and of the principles which make gold And the sayd principles or beginnings to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercurie doe so order themselues that the one doth not excéed the other but being as it were equally ballanced and proportionated they make gold to bée incorruptible in such wise that neither the earth béeing buried therein can canker fret and corrupt it nor the Ayre alter it nor yet the fire maister it nor diminish the least part of it And the reason hereof is for that as the Phylosopher saith No equal hath any commaund or maisterie ouer his equal For because also in euery body equalled and duly preportioned no action or passion can be found Also this is onely that equalitie which Pithagoras called the Mother the Nurce and the defender of the concord of al things This is the cause that in gold and in euery perfect body wherein this equalitie is there is a certaine incontrollable and incorruptible composition The which when the ancient Phylosophers obserued they sought for that great and incomparable Medicine in gold And because they vnderstood that gold was of so smal compacted and firme composition that it could not worke and send his effects into our body so long as it remained in that solidity they sought indeuored to dissolue and breake his hard bonds and by the benefit of vegetable Sulphur and by the artificious working of the Balsam of life to bring it to a perfect adequation that the vegetable spirits of gold which now lay hidden as it were idle might make it of common gold which before it was gold phylosophical and medicinable which hauing gotten a more perfect vegetation and seminal vertue may be dissolued into any liquor and may communicate vnto the same that flowing and balsamic perfection or the Balsam of life and of our nature And because we are now speaking of the animation of gold be it known for a surety that the auncient Fathers and Phylosophers sweat and laboured much to find out the mistery hereof that they might compound a certaine Balsamic Medicine to vegetate and corroborate and by the noble adequation and she integritie of nature thereof to conserue the radical Balsam and that Nectar of our life in good and laudable temperament But indéed it is not to be wondered at that gold being deliuered from his mannacles and fetters and being made so spiritual and animate and increased in vertue and strength doth corroborate nature and renue the Balsam of our nature and doth conserue vnto the last period of life being taken in a very smal dose as in the quantity of one or two graines And so much lesse it is to be maruailed at that forsomuch as by that great adequation of temperature it doth conueniently agrée and communicate with our radical Balsam it doth checke the rule of phleame the burning of choller and the adustion of melancholy and by his incorruptible vertue doth preserue our nature but also to ouercome all the diseases which belong to our body And so much the rather in regard that the same Balsam of nature that natural spirit is the principal cause in vs of all actions operations and of motions not depending vpon temperature or mixture but concerning the same as Galen himselfe is compelled to confesse speaking of that our natural heat Ye must vnderstand saith he that Hypocrates calleth that inset heate which we call the natiue spirit in euery liuing thing Neither hath any other thing formed any liuing creature from the beginning or increased it or nourished it vnto the appointed time of death but onely this inset or natural heate which is the cause of all natural workes Therefore they can be excused by no maner of meanes which contumeliously without any reason doe dispise discōmend and caluminat these kind of remedies which doe principally tend to the restoring corroborating of our radical Balsam which alone holpen with the said medicine is able to seperate those things which are vnkindly grieuous to nature méerely heterogenial by expulsions conuenient ordinary euacuations to retaine the homogenial kindly parts with the which it doth most especially agrée to their further conseruation Whereas if for the corroborating of mans strength there could bee any vse made of leafe gold the which is nothing else but a certaine dead matter in no sort
and Omnipotent Plato in his Timaeo giueth testimonie when hée speaketh thus When the sempiternall GOD had created this Vniuersal hee put into it certaine seedes of reason brought in the beginning Life that he might beget with the world the procreating force Wherein our explication which I brought before concerning the Soule of the worlde is confirmed Which also agreeth with that which the Prophet Moses hath written and which King Dauid hath in his Psalme in these wordes By the worde of the Lorde were the Heauens made and all the vertue of them by the spirit of his mouth By which vertue of the quickning spirit that great Trimegistus more conuersant and exercised in Moses writings then all other Philosophers vttered these diuine wordes in his second booke which is called Asclepias All spirit saith he in the world is acted and gouerned by the spirit The spirit telleth all things the worlde nourisheth bodies the spirit giueth them soule By the spirit all things in the world are ministred are made to growe and increase And after that he saith againe All things haue neede of this spirit For it carryeth all things and it quickneth nourisheth all things according to the dignitie of eache thing in it selfe Life and the spirit is brought forth out of the holy fountaine By which diuine words it appeareth plainely that this eternal and quickening spirit is infused and put into all things so that it is not obserued to deduce and deriue the actions forces and powers also all naturall things from the spirits as from the causes CHAP. III. HAuing spoken sufficiently of the first and second beginning that is to say of God vniuersal Nature God the first cause vsing that generall Nature as his handmaid it resteth that somewhat be spoken of nature natured that is to say of that which is particular To make an apt and conuenient definition whereof let vs knowe that it is no other thing than euery naturall body consisting of forme and matter For of these two causes and not onely of the causes but also of the parts of the whole compound all nature that is to say euery naturall body consisteth For the Peripateticks do thinke that whatsoeuer is the beginning of generation ought to be called nature by a certaine peculiar right And Aristotle saith that the same from whence any thing is made at the first and whereof it hath the first motion mutation is the very beginning I say the beginning from whence the essence of all natural things ariseth The which nature Aristotle in another place defineth to be the beginning substantiall and the cause of motion and of the rest thereof in the which it is at the first and not by Accidents the explication of which definition he hath comprehended in eight bookes And Aristotle doth rightly call Nature the cause and the beginning of internall motion For those things which are made by Nature and are therefore called naturall haue a certaine beginning of motion whereby they are moued of their owne accord not by force Whereby plainly appeareth the difference betweene those things which are naturall and which are endued with an effectuall spirit and with power to worke by it selfe and those things which are made by Arte which haue no force nor power of doing but are dead and deuoided of all sense and motion By these things it appeareth that things natural are called properly naturall existences or beings and such as haue nature And they are saide to haue nature which possesse in themselues the beginning of their motion and of their rest the which beginning of motion of euery thing is either the forme or the matter wherof we haue spoken Forme which is wholly spiritual hath all her motion likewise spiritual So the soule is of this same nature in a liuing creature the motions and sences plainely celestiall spirituall and a light beginning Whereas the Matter is terrestriall ponderous and corporal the other beginning of naturall motion By whose waight and grossenesse the body tendeth downeward so as this kind of motion procéedeth not from the soule or spirituall forme but from the corporall matter which is terrestriall and heauy by his owne nature Hereof it commeth that the name of nature is giuen as well to Matter as to Forme but more aptly and conueniently to Forme because Forme doth manifestly giue to a thing his being actually whereas Matter alone cannot performe that For not euery liuing creature hath sense and motion from that body which is solid terrestriall and ponderous but onely from the spiritual forme that is to say the soule mouing the body and informing it with the vitall vertues As for example A horse is in act and in truth a horse when he neither moueth leapeth nor runneth but these motions which are spiritual are the effects operations of the soule or forme whereas otherwise the body hauing nothing but the lineaments and visible forme whereby it séemeth a horse is meere terrestriall heauie and deade Howbeit neither the soule alone of the horse can bée saide to bée a horse except it be coupled with the body For both being ioyned and coupled together make a horse Knowe therefore that the Forme is far more noble and excellent then the Matter and that Nature as touching her effects and operations is of that power that it generateth and giueth being to all things it putteth matter on the formes it beautifieth and suffereth nothing to bee corrupted but preserueth all things in their estate Thâ—se her vertues faculties and powers she very apparantly sheweth when as she worketh and causeth all sorts of beings out of the 〈◊〉 and out of the seedes and beginning of all things Salt Sulphur and Mercurie and informeth with great variety of impressions of the vitall spirits colours and taste and with the properties of such kinde of powers and faculties that it giueth to euery thing so much as concerneth the office and dignity thereof in all sufficiencie The which building and 〈◊〉 of things so aptâ—â— and conueniently formed in order in number and measure wee may wâ—ll call diuine not terrestriall and corporall 〈…〉 same be naturall according to the power which God hath giuen vnto Nature And yet wée must not thinke that God hath so forsaken the frame of this worâ—d that he sitteth idle as hauing giuen such admirable and potent â—ffects to nature onely according to the opinion of Anâ—xagoras Protagoras and many other Atheâ—â—â—i all Philosophers which acknowledge no other God but Name as also did the Epicures 〈◊〉 it they be to be accused and condemned for so wicked an opinion then do they deserue no small reprehension which denie nature her partes and offices in working For the offices pecuâ—â—ar both of her first and second cause are to be attributed to either according to 〈…〉 Neither are these places of Scripture any thing repugnant 〈◊〉 is God which worketh all in all And againe in him wee liue moue and haue our beeing For
made the world after his owne Image which may plainely appeare in this that albeit the whole world is one yet it ioyeth in the number of thrée being framed in order number and measure in whose bosome these thrée simple bodyes were included Salt Sulphur and Mercurie Therefore let vs compare the workes of God a little with the similitude of the Trinitie The worlde is diuided into these thrée partes Intellectuall Coelestiall and Elementall The Elementall to let the other two alone as lesse known vnto vs consisteth of Minerals Vegetables and animals beside the which there is nothing to bée found in this world Of Minerals there are thrée differences Stones Metals and meane Minerals In like maner among Vegitables there are thrée sorts Herbes Trees and Plants Also of Animals there are thrée orders créeping things swimming things and flying things If we should prosecute euery particular at large wée shall finde this Teruarie euery where and in all the parts thereof But we will consider of man onely in this point Man consisteth of Spirit Soule and body as holy Writ testifieth The Spirit saith Hermes is represented by Mercurie the Soule is represented by Sulphur and the Body by Salt The Spirit consisteth of minde reason and phantasie The Soule hath thrée factulties naturall vitall and Animall The Body is cut into thrée partes in Anatomie to wit into head belly and members These haue thrée principall members wherunto others are subiect the braine the heart and the lyuer The braine hath thrée helpes to purge by the mouth the nostrils and the eares The purgers and receiuers of vncleannesse from the heart are the Midryâ—e the Lungs and the great Arteries The purgers of the Lyuer are the Milt the bladder of the Gaule and the Reines So there are thrée principall vessels which doe serue the whole body namely the Arteries the Sinewes and the Veines Further if we consider the head againe it hath thrée skinnes The braine hath thrée bellyes two soft before and one hard behinde There are thrée principall instruments of voyce the throate the pallate and the kernels To conclude this point if all these should bée disseuered and separated into their beginnings they might be resolued into Mercurie Sulphur and Salt whereof they consist Therefore these thrée formall beginnings which we haue described by their offices and propertions albeit they are more spirituall than corporall yet being ioyned with simple Elements they make a materiall body mixt and compound they increase and nourish it and preserue it in his estate vnto the predestinated ende And séeing the properties Impressions and faculties are inset and included in those beginnings and haue those vitall qualities of tastes odours and colours hidden in them how materiall soeuer those séedes be yet notwithstanding they rather contende to come néere to Forme than to Matter but the Elements doe more cleaue and inclyne to Matter than to Forme And therefore the Phylosophers call them properly simple beginnings formall because they are more principall adorned and inriched with the first and chiefe faculties of astral séedes But the Elements they call beginnings materiall simple To the one they attribute actuall qualities and to the other passiue And so of them both as it were secondarily and so neere as may be all mixt bodyes are compounded and doe consist If therefore we shall throughly discusse and ransacke euery particular indiuidiall in his kinde and their generation we shall finde that which is said to be true namely that some simple beginnings are formall and spirituall others materiall corporall and visible And that the Inuisibles are the Elements simple formall the astral séedes and spirituall beginnings Also that the visibles are all one and the same but yet couered with a materiall body The which two bodyes spiritual and material inuisible and visible are contained in euery Indiuiduall albeit that which is spiritual cannot be discerned but by reason of motion of life and of functions and yet is within it These visible and material bodyes are of thrée sortes Séedes Beginnings Elements Of these 3. some are Actiue as Séeds and Beginnings Passiue as are the Elements The Actiue bodies of visible Séeds wherein there is any vertue are The séedes of liuing creatures put forth by Venus The séedes of herbes trées in their seueral cases trunkes The séeds of Mines ouerwhelmed with a great heape of impediments All which lye hidden in themselues haue Spirits The Actiue bodies of beginnings haue Two moyst Mercurie Sulphur One drie Salt Mercurie is a sharpe liquor passable and penetrable and a most pure Aethereall substantiall body a substance ayrie most subtill quickning and ful of Spirit the foode of life and the Essence or terme the next instrument Sulphur is that moyst swéet oyly clammy original which giueth substance to it selfe the nourishment of fire or of natural heat endued with the force of mollifying and of giuing together Salt is that dry body saltish méerely earththy representing the nature of Salt endued with wonderfull vertues of dissoluing congealing clensing emptying and with other infinite faculties which it exerciseth in the Indiuiduals and seperated in other bodyes from their indiuiduals These thrée beginnings were by Hermes the most ancient Philosopher called Spirit Soule and Body Mercurie the Spirit Sulphur the Soule Salt the Body as is already said The body is ioyned with the spirit by the bond of Sulphur the soule for that it hath affinitie with both the extreames as a meane coupling them together For Mercury is liquid thinne flexible Sulphur is a soft oyle passable salt is dry thicke and stable The which notwithstanding are so proportionate together or tempered equally the one with the other that a manifest signe and great analogie or conuenience is found in this contrarietie of beginnings For Sulphur or that oyly moysture is as I haue said a meane which with his humidity softnesse and fluidity or passablenes ioyneth the two extreames that is to say fixed salt and flying Mercurie that is to say the drynes of salt and the moystnes of Mercurie with his viscus and clammy humiditie the thicknesse of salt and the subtiltie of Mercurie vtterly contrary with his fluiditie which holdeth the meane betwéene stable and flying Moreouer Sulphur by reason of his excéeding swéetnesse doth contemper the sharpnesse or sowernes of Mercurie and the bitternesse of salt and by his clammynes doth conioyne the subtill flying of Mercurie with the firmnesse and fastnesse of salt CHAP. V. Concerning Salt OF all other the Philosophicall salt is of greatest vertue and force to purge and is as it were the generall clenser of whole nature deliuering the same from al impuritie whether it bée the belly by siege the stomacke by vomit the reines by vrine or the body by sweate opening clensing obstructions comming of what cause soeuer This kinde of purging is very large whose partes albeit they tend to one end yet they haue as it were diuers contrary effects procéeding froÌ„ one
colde which do procéede from the spirits only or else from the most thinne and aiery vapours which lye hid in the Salt especially in that Salt which by nature is sulphurus such as is Niter or Salt-Peter as men call it Niter throughly depured and clensed will be as white as snow from which whitenesse may be drawen infinite sorts of colours most excellent to beholde Which colours come from the onely spirits of Salt-peter which are able to pearce the most hard kind of glasse by the force of fire thrust forth in the likenesse of volatile meale and cleaning in the ouerture of the glasse Alembic By which colours a maÌ„ may behold the body of the Alembic to be tained dyed as well within as without in the superficial part Which colours are of no lesse varietie then are the flowers of the earth in the time of the Spring Hereby it appeareth plainely that this diuersitie of all colours is to be taken from the spirits no lesse nor otherwise then are all other properties and vertues of all other things to be referred vnto them If therefore the foundation of these thrée things be laid vpon thrée beginnings vpon their spirits it will be very firme and stable in such wise that in the ignorance of any cause it shal not be néedful to fly to hidden properties If this doctrine according to the truth thereof be receiued learned and studied being vpholden also with the authorities of that great Hypocrates it shal easily driue from vs the darkenesse of ignorance and shal bring with it the light of knowledge which will remoue all difficulties For out of this schoole are learned most certain and infallible Thearemes and Axiomes against which as against most assured grounds there can be no opposition or resistance but wil be allowed by the general consent of indifferent Iudges Let vs take an example from Vineger whereof many famous Physitians cannot tell what certainely to affirme For because it is sharpe and therefore cooleth they wil haue it to be colde But contrariwise when they behold the facultie thereof to be attenuating cutting and dissoluing also their â—ernor and boyling thereof when it is put vpon earth or claie they are constrained to forsake their opinion vncertaine what to iudge thereof Who if they had bene acquainted with the Hermeticall doctrine they should haue knowne that the cause of such tartnesse or sowernesse in vineger commeth by the seperation of the spirit from the wine as is plainly séene by experience For the longer that wine standeth in the Sun or in a hotte place the more by little and little it waxeth sharpe and whatsoeuer is aiery therein and of the quintessence of the wine by the force of the heat vaporeth away This eternal and celestial essence being gone which was the cause of the wines swéetnes which swéetnes hath alwaies ioyned with it neuerthelesse a certaine pricking very acceptable to the pallate by reason of a singular temper of sharpnesse Vitriolated by swéete and Sulphurus spirits put by the instinct of nature into wine at the length it waxeth sower the cause of whose sharpnesse is not to be referred to the colde qualities but to those hidden and sower spirits of Salt which by the bonde of the sulphurus substance were contained and kept in their office and working in the wine the which bond being dissolued the spirits range at will and doe make manifest their nature which was afore hidden Hereupon it commeth that vnegers are sharper in one sort then in another according as they haue in them more or lesse of the nature of Salt Armoniac and â—o whit of the sulphurus substance For simple water deuoide of all Salt can neuer by reason of the coldnesse therein waxe sower But as from wine so from meat and from ale or béere and from boyling new wine may be separated the proper water of life and ethereal substance the which being so separated they become eager because they containe in themselues a sharpe salt of nature Such is that sharpe salt which Phylosophers call their Mercury or Salt Armoniac Volatile and spiritual because of al metalline salts the common Armoniac is most Volatile such as in the forme of most white and salt meale may be carried vp vnto the cloudes by sublimation and yet hath a dry and spiritual nature which the Phylosophers call their dry water because this Salt is so farre forth Volatile and flying that it is lifted vp together with the aiery or watery vapour of the which is made the mixture of the compound and so great is the sharpnesse of this salt that one scruple or eightéene or twenty graines of this salt perfitly refined and made most simple dissolued in a pot of commom water doth make all the same wonderfully sower And this is the Salt the sulphurus essence taken away which sheweth it selfe euidently to be séene by his sharpnesse in vineger with watery substance But the more strong the wine shal be the more sharpe the ferment of the vineger and the more vehement the tartnesse thereof will shewe it selfe out of the which the pearcing attenuating dissoluing spirits are extracted by a skilful workmaÌ„ the which forces faculties cannot procéed from any other thing then from that spiritual and Volatile salt Armoniac mixed with a watery humour And to make this more plaine and to proue it by effect take the most strong Vinegar white or red distil the same in Balneo Mariae till it be drie with a gentle fire out of a pinte and a halfe you shall extract thrée partes or more like most cleare water but most sharpe and sower the bottome of the matter as the léese and pheses remaining in the bottome of the glasse with the most sharpe and byting Salt the which because it is fixed and cleauing to the terrestrial part of the Vinegar cannot be extracted but by the great violence of the fire By which meane a most sharpe oyle like in nature to Aqua Regia most corroding and fretting is extracted not by reason of the heate of fire but by the force and power of a brinish substance which is expelled in forme of an oyle with the Salt from the rest of the â—eces by fire But leauing that sharpe fire of the Léese let vs take in hand to explicate the sowernes of the Vineagar distilled By a soft and gentle distillation is first of all extracted a certaine watry elementary phleme which is drawne out of the whole body almost without taste leauing in the bottome of the glasse another liquour farre more sower and sharpe and therefore more strong to dissolue which otherwise before was nothing so sharp because the Salt Armoniac was tempered and mixed with a watery Phleame Whereof if thou desire to know the quantitie take so much of the best Salt Tartar which is of the same nature but fixed by which if thou drawe by little and little thrée pintes of this Vinegar distilled and disphâ—eamed to the waight of
spred and distributed into the liuer hart and braine by diuers degrées of concoctions circulations that at the length they are changed into spirits natural vitall animal mercurial sulphurus and saltish ethereal and spirituous by reason whereof man is preserued and continueth in his state vnto his predestinated time hereof also may be gathered and vnderstood the original and generation of the thrée humours which come both from the mixture of these beginnings and also of the Elements Which are no lesse different and varying one from the other whether it be in perfection or in imperfection then are those thrée beginnings different in the degrees of perfection The first of the profitable humours whereof we are purposed to speake is that Chylus or white Iuice which is effected and perfected in the stomack and in the vaines next adioyning especially in the mesaraic vaines by the first concoction the same Chylus consisting of those three beginnings but as yet very impure whereof the first beginnings of nourishment are and the same is the first digestion and seperation of the pure from the impure of those thrée formal beginnings and of the thrée material elements The second of the profitable humours is blood arysing out of the Chylus which is a good iuice being of the first degrée of the concocting heat of the liuer and of the vaines whereof commeth a second concoction and seperation of the pure from the impure notwithstanding of the formal and matertal essence which is far more subtil and noble then the first concoction and seperation The third of the humours is that which after sundry reterations of the circulations made by the much vital heate of the heart doth very farre excéede in perfection of concoction the other two which may be called the elimentary or nourishing humour of life and radical Sulphur the which is disperced by the arteries throughout the whole body and is turned into the whole body and is turned into the whole substance thereof out of the most perfect concoction of all the other which is the third and is called the assimilation or resemblance of the nourishment or nourished It is certaine that this humour is most especially partaker of the puritie of the thrée beginnings and doth resemble the rectified animal Aquauita which is seperated from al passiue element of the animal wine that is to say of the blood For the blood which we haue already said to be the second profitable humour and by vs compared to pure and refined wine is freed from the greater part of his terrestrial tartar whose thrée beginnings also doe exceed the Chylus in puritie Out of which thrée beginnings by a third concoction and digestion the Sulphurus animal Aquauita the aiery and most subtil spirit together with the Salt depured and made thinne with diuers circulations also and natural concoctions are extracted The which being so extracted that which resteth in the blood as also in wine is water without sauour or tast and a Sulphurus tartarlike and impure feces which procéed from out of the material elements In blood such are these cold moyst mercurial fleame yealow hote dry and Sulphurus choller and melancholy or black choler not cold but hote dry and saltish which are the ecremental parts of those more pure substances And yet the same lye not altogether vnprofitable for that they retayning somthing out of the actiue qualities both of the thrée beginnings and also of the elements doe serue for somewhat so far forth as they are material For choller in that it is introsulphurus most hote and bitter especially that which is of the gaule ouerflowing in the capacity or place of the bowels prouoketh the facultie expulsiue to cast out But the fleame which is sower mercurial is profitable to stirre vp fermentation and appetite Whereunto also melancholy is not vnfit which is as it were the dregges of the humour of blood hauing a certaine analogie and similitude with vineger made out of wine For it serueth for the first concoction of meates through the vertue of a certaine internal and vitriolated fier lying hid in such a sharpe humour which being stirred vp and set on edge with the heate of the stomack doth readily and quickly confect and destroy the meates and doth with so great force consume and deuour sometime when it doth superabound that many times it bringeth a doglike appetite And those excrements which are altogether superfluous and a burden to nature will confirme the truth hereof The which excrements are such as are seperated partly from these thrée beginnings and partly from the elements namely the mercuriall vapours the Sulphurus breathings and the saltish exhalations which passe through the skinne by sweates euen as Mercury and Sulphur doe vanish away by an infensible transpiration If such seperation of excrements be made by little and litle without any violence they doe prolong a happy age euen to extreame decrepity But if on a sodaine and with a more violent force of some more vehement motion or sicknesse as of inflamation or of a burning feauer they be thrust out then they shorten age and doe hasten old age or else doe cast headlong into vntimely death by soundings and faintings Moreouer if such kinde of excrements be retained in the body and are stayed by some impediment from their outgoing by reason of some external cause as the coldnesse of the weather which doth harden and thicken the skinne or by reason of cooling dyet briâ—ging obstructions or other infirmities of the body which are impediments they become the séedes and rootes of sundry and infinite effects The same is to be said of the most vile and filthy excrements and of the grosse dregs of the elementary matter together vnprofitable terrestrial and filthy For out of watery crude and thinne excrements out of excrements aiery and windy finally out of the more grosse and earthie or most stinking excrements how corrupt soeuer they be yet there are bewrayed in either of them certaine prints of their defects which the more pure substance of the three beginnings procreated from the which the impure at the length are separated If any man wil make trial of the due Anatomie of these things as amongst others of vrine which in sickenesses is diligently viewed and obserued he shall finde therein a great quantitie of Mercurial liquor sharpe subtil and pearcing which wil dissolue the most solid and hard bodies as also he shal finde great plenty of a sulphurus essence conceiuing flames that I may say nothing of the body of Salt which is euidently enough to be séene in that great plentie of Salt which is extracted from the same The which Salt hath so great sharpnesse biting and coroding force and vehemencie that it is more forcible and strong than all other salts of nature These things are most true and euident to be séene in the Writings of Chrystophorus Parisiensis a most famous Philosopher who hath taken great paines in setting foorth
partly malignant receiue a worse nature that is to say an intermedial But the Arsenicals as stirred vp with the worst and most pernitious spirits bring a mortall and destroying nature which oftentimes bringeth great detriment These last being so fyerie vehement and violent doe serue to forme and to boyle metallick and hard substances and are as fyer to giue life vnto them being halfe dead but are in no case fitting to the more gentle and soft bodyes such as are vegetables and Animals Also the spirits themselues do put on bodies agréeing to their natures Arsenicals Sulphurus do put on the body of auripigment Arsenic Antimonials the body of Antimony and of Magnesia or Loade-stone because among other metallicks these are most corpulent and of grossest substance of the roote of Saturne and Vitriole and which for the same cause are the beings and beginnings of other mettals By the impediment of which bodies the force and violent actiuitie of the foresaid spirits is checked and restrained Neither doe they shewe such violent strength when they are brought to a simplicitie and spirituous thinnesse But among corporal spirites the Mercurials doe excéede the Antimonials in benignitie and swéetnesse and the Arsenicals which are the last doe ouercome the other two in violence and malice For these are wholy fierie for the most part as is already said and are therefore most pernicious But the Mercurials being of al other most simple and thinne are therefore more ready to worke Also Mercurie it selfe consisteth wholely of homogenial or kindly partes and the same spiritual and therefore it excéedeth others in readinesse of working And hereupon it is made more fit than others for an vniuersall purger and clenser for that out of his whole substance without any seperation of the partes excellent and the best purgations of all sortes without any preparation at all may bée extracted Prouided alwayes that you correct a certaine hurtfull cruditie which it hath in it and that you alay his too much celeritie and promptnesse in working This you may doe his concoction and fixation Also the spirits which by a certaine meane are fixed and volatile haue place and doe shew forth themselues in Auripigment and in Arsenic out of whose whole substance without any exquisite seperation are extracted certaine solutiue spirits so excéeding sulphurus fierie violent and deadly that deseruedly they are reckoned among the most mortal poysons whose assalts and vilolence the animal nature as more delicate and weake cannot indure but that by and by it decayeth whose vehemencie and pernicious qualitie can by no art be corrected or made fit for and vse But the Antimoniall spirites as more corpulent and grosse than others doe fixe their seate in Antimonie because it is the roote and original of all other mettals which are more corpulent than other things And yet for al that they doe not remaine alone but that being associated and linked to the companie of others as to the societie of Mercurials and Arsenicals of the seuen Mettals they bring forth out of themselues those seueral kinds Namely Lead and Tinne when as the antimonial spirits doe excéed in vertue and plentie Iron and Copper when the arsenicals doe superabound and ouercome Gold Siluer and Mercurie when the Mercurials haue the victorie ouer others the which Mercurials are more spiritual and simple than any others and most essential the which being brought to perfect concoction and fixation doe procreate Siliuer and Golde and doe make them pure and cleane from all antimonial and arsenical Sulphur For Gold and siluer are nothing else but fixed Mercurie brought to perfect concoction And these Mettals of gold and siluer when they are wholy fixed and corporeat hauing put off that simplicitie and thinnes of spirites are destitutâ— of al power of acting or working neither can they worke and performe any thing at all except they be brought againe to their first spiritualitie that is to say into their first matter As for the other foure mettals they hauing as yet not attayned that degrée of perfection that is to say of puritie digestion concoction and fixation albeit they séeme to the sent most hard and solid yet haue they not gotten as yet perfect fixation being ful of much impure Sulphur and such other like kinde of heterogenial and vnkindly substances that is to say of arsenicall and antimonials spirits and doe possesse a very smal portion of the Mercurial spirits and the same as yet full of impuritie Whereby it commeth to passe that some of them cannot indure the tryal of fire but by the force thereof doe turne to ashes and glasse and can neuer more be reduced by any Art into a metallicke nature other some as more volatile and flying than others do vanish away into fume or smoake The which is wel knowne to al not onely Philosophers which haue séene the nature of mettals in the searching out and exercise of these workes but also to euery Goldsmith and Myntman which know how to dispearse and send away such mettals into smoake with their Cupels which Philosophers can bring to passe by diuers other meanes and instruments And out of these kindes of Metals full of flying spirites are extracted purges of admirable operations and the same according to the nature of the spirits abounding or predominating in euery of them Of the flowers or spirits of Tinne and Lead extracted by sublimation are made purgations which worke wonderfully by deiâ—ctions by vomit by sweates and by Vrines which may be reckoned among the meane sort and such as are lesse hurtful albeit they be deriued from the metallicke nature Out of Iron and brasse may be extracted very good purgatiue medicines wel knowne to them of old time Now to passe from metals to semi-minerals and so metallick iuices infinite purgations also are extracted out of them according to the force of their spirits As out of Vitriol Niter Salgem Sal Armoniac out of many other such like things may be extracted both meane and violent Solutiues And to make it plaine that al the power and effect of working which is in Mercurie Arsenic and Antimonie these thrée metallick spirits also what vertue partly those foure imperfect metals and al kindes of Salts Iuices and metallicke substances haue doe altogether come especially from these kinde of spirits it is hereby manifest that fixed Mercurie which by no maner of meanes wil moue or flye from our heart and which is sociable and communicable with our spirits hath no force to purge either by deiecting through the belly or by prouoking to vomit but is rather fit to procure sweat and vrine But when it shal bée volatile and flying by reason of his wonderful spiritualtie and subtiltie it is made a great mundificatiue of the bodie pearcing into all the partes and members thereof So in like maner the glasse of Antimonie in that it hath fuming and flying spirites not fixed which doth both shew foorth themselues at the time of the
differences are to be made in Antimonials Arsenicals and Mineral humours or vapours and that out of their effect either seplic putrifying or caustic burning the which effects are in the said fumes by the meanes of salt Such pearcing fumes are too wel knowne and felt of our eyes oftentimes to which they bring by their sharpenesse paines inflamations and flowing of teares Héereupon out of this diuersitie of fumes there arise diuers passions in continuance in maladie and in vemencie more or lesse inuading and troubling according to the nature mineral and condition of the qualitie or quantitie of the exhalations and of their substances which are lifted vp with them as it were in a certaine chariot Moreouer we sée in the bowels of the earth of the little world man no lesse then in the great worlds belly in the bellies I say of both almost the same effects are to bée seene of Meteors as wel waterie as fierie For example the Tympanie the swelling of the Coddes windinesse of the stomach and bellie al which doe represent the windes raynes and Earth-quakes of the earth and the waters within the body and betwéene the skin and the flesh doe represent the Sea the Riuers and Springs of the earth Also there are in man diuers fierie Meteors by reason of the exhalations of the Niterous and Sulphurus spirits which being set on fire stirre vp such diuersities of Feauers and inflamations There are bred also in man diuers metallic substances as landes and stones which are commonly ingendered in diuers parts of his bodie as in his bowels stomach gaule spléene lyuer yea in the lunges and braine but more often in the reynes and bladder which are the most fertile mines of al the rest There are also procreated in mans bodie certaine concreate congealed Iuices as many kindes of Sulphurs but of Saltes more differences vitriolated alluminous niterous and Gemmeus Salt-gemme or common salt is plentifull in Salt spittle sower Salt-Armoniac in sower flegme or spittle and also in a certaine kinde of sower melancholy salt vitriolated and of the colour of rustie metal in choller that is of the same complexion Salt aluminous pricking and stiptickâ— in glassy fleame of the same qualitie Salt niterous and bitter in bitter choller Moreouer Vrines which are wholy niterous doe represent a matter most like to Niter There are also in this little worlde as also in the greater world found many differences of Salts as a sugered salt in swéete flegme as also an Arsenical and corroding Salt in malignant and pestilent humours From the resolutions of the which Saltes but most especially of the stiplick or corroding salts come certaine kindes of Chollickes which afterwards degenerate into contractions of the bowels From the corrosiue Salts spring diuers kindes of disenterie fluxes from the brinish salts come the burnings of Vlrines from the tart Salts commeth the appetite of the Stomach from the Arsenicall Salts comes Carbuncles cankerous Vlcers running pockes such like And of the congelations of these salts comes Goutes Stones Scirrhus hardnesse and diuers kindes of obstructions according to the diuersitie of tartars and of Salts which are ingendred and procreate to nature in our body From these things are the causes of diseases in mans body to be truely and exactly learned and discerned without the which wée shal in vaine séeke for remedies But to make al which hath béene hitherto spoken more plaine wée wil adde certayne manifest demonstrations and playne to sense but yet in as briefe manner as I can séeing wée haue reserued a more ample and special Treatise of these things to our worke concerning the hidden nature of things It is known and confessed of al by the Edict of Hyppocrates the chiefest Authour of Phisitians that our body consisteth of things containing of things contained and of things enforcing The things containing are the solide and more firme partes as the bones gristles ligaments flesh which doe containe and as it were restraine the more soft and delicate parts The contents are in a two-fold difference some are violent breathing out and enforcing as Physitians speake othersome moystening and flowing out The first sort are the spirits of our radical Balsam which they call naturall spirits whether they bée firmely fixed in any one part or whether they haue scope and recourse throughout the whole body generated of the most pure substance spiritual of the Sulphurus liquor and of the 〈◊〉 of the nourishments of our life Furthermore they diuide the spirits into natural vital and animal All these are either natural and pure or else impure and seculent The one are of a most pure nature ethereal and conseruers of life the other grosse and impure in comparison of them subiect to alterations for that they participate much of the seculent impuritie of Mercurie and of the liquors of Salt and also of the aliments of Sulphur of the which beginnings wée doe consist as wée said before The moystening parts are mercucurial liquors or that which they commonly call humours as well the natural profiting and nourishing which retaine somewhat of the spirit of life as the vnprofitable and excremental The out-flowing and breathing foorth are the breathes vnder which name also wée comprehend the vapours of the which we made mention before which vapours are a distillation and that moyst euaporation taken from the more watery part of humoral or mercurial things or else a dry exhalation of Sulphurus and tartarous things and of Salts of our body And such exhalations also are no other thing but fumes and spiritual smoakes but yet excremental and therefore superfluous For beside those first seperations which nature maketh out of the more grosse part of nourishments by the excretion and separation of the ordinarie impure feces there are yet also in the Chylus or good Iuice and in the very blood which of all other humours are most noble certaine superfluous impurities which for the same cause Nature seperateth Therefore the more mâ—yst superfluities are separated by euaporations and those onely which are seperated in the third concoction which could not be made semblable or like to the nourishing parts For the which cause nature expelleth them by insensible passages eueÌ„ through the pores of the skin that our natural heate may the more fréely be winded by the ayre and the burning of the heart comforted The breathing superfluities also doe paticipate as much of the drie as of the moyst that is to say of those which are exhaled and euaporated out of the sulphurus salt matters and mercurial liquors Whereof the more thinne and breathie part passe by insensible transpirations the more waterie by sweates but the more foule and that which is feculent cleaueth to the outside of the skinne But now if such vapouring exhalations be retained stil in our body the which sometime commeth to passe through the coldnesse of the ayre coÌ„passing vs about by the shrinking of the skin by occasion of place or of age
by intemperate life by a naturall disposition by the thicknesse of the skinne or by such like occasions then it cannot be but that such bodies shal be subiect to many other diseases than those whereof we haue spoken before It is also to bée remembred in this place that in all these euaporations ordinarie exhalations somewhat of our substancetying nectar of life or of our radical Balsam doth also breathe away The which breathing if it be gently and sparingly and without all manner violence and force but by a certaine voluntarie continuance and naturall then our age is prolonged in the meane time declining to extreame old age by little and little vntill al our water of life or radical oyle which continueth the lampe of our life be consumed But if the sayd exhalation or breathing bée violently and suddenly enforced as it commeth to passe in burning feauours and in many other sicknesses faintings passions and most vehement motions of the spirits of our body then our life shall be preuented before age Haereupon commeth the vntimely and in some sort the violant death of many and yet the cause of such violence comming from an internal occasion And because it is very pertinent and necessarie that wée rightly vnderstand those things which wée haue now spoken concerning the natures of the contents in vs that is to say of the enforcings moystenings and out-flowings and so much the rather because by them wée come to the knowledge of our â—pirits and of our radicial moysture or nectar of life and also to the causes of the conseruation prolongation destruction and abreuiation of our life I wil therefore now declare them all by an example whereby euery one which wil giue eare may come to the perfect knowledge of those things And yet wée doe not much estéeme presumptions probable reasons or authorities but wée wil ground our demonstration vppon the very senses themselues that those things which wée speake may bée both séene and felt And if so bée any bée so farre deuoyd of shame that hée will yet obstinately contradict vs we will say to him as sometime Aâ—errho said One experience is more of value than many reasons Experience cannot bée without sense he which denieth sense is worthy to haue no vse of sense And forasmuch as Aristotle sayd that the foundation of all demonstration is in sense Who is hee that dare gainesay it Therefore wée wil take Wine againe for an example forsomuch as wée vsed the same before In which wine how apparantly and manifestly doe such separations and excrements appeare to bée made And this it doth by his owne proper nature that the more easily the nature of either of them and of both may manifestly bée knowen by this Analogie and resemblance which it hath with our blood For by the clensing of wine wée know the vitall Anatomie of our blood and by the same it will appeare which are our natural spirits ethereal as also which is our natiue heate and radicall moysture which two doe vphold our body and defend our life and of whose helpe either of them haue néede forasmuch as that radicall moysture is the foode and nourisher of heate and this same heate subsisteth by the benefite of that moysture Thus these two replenished with spirit and as it were knit together are spred and diffused through the whole body By this same example the difference betwéene nourishing vital humiditie and that which is vnprofitable and excremental wil plainly appeare Furthermore it wil appeare which be moyst and which be dry in that kind of moystures which are outflowing and which of them are hurtful to our nature and which profitable By which anatomie of blood the reader willing to learne shal profit more as I thinke because we referre those foure humors whereof they make blood one to the very same and doe by a certaine analogie and resemblance compare it therewith But to come to the 〈◊〉 Therefore when the wine is prepared the clusters of grapes are crushed in the wine-presse first and the skinnes and kernels with the stalkes are throwne away Then the vnprofitable clensings and excrements being partly by mans industrie and partly by the nature of the wine it selfe being reiected the wine is powred into caskes and vessels In these digestion being made by his owne force it seperateth and purgeth forth together those seculent and more grosse superfluities This done the wine is all most perfect and fit for drinke and nourishment That first artificiall preperation of wine which is made by the expression and separation of the Vintners doth after a certaine manner represent vnto vs the preparation of wheate in the which separation the chaffe and the branne being taken away the rest is grouÌ„d into meale that it may be more fit for nourishment Euen so in like maner in our mouthes first preparation of the flesh is made from the bones or such like And the expression or grinding is made with the mouth and téeth then after due chewing the meate is sent down into the stomach This is the first resembled preparation of our nourishment with that first preparation of wine and wheate and that which is put into our stomach answereth that wine which at the first is put into vessels the meale which is ground Therefore after this there is another working in the stomach by nature For whatsoeuer the stomach receiueth it concocteth and digesteth yea all kind of meates mixed together like wine in his caskâ— or any other kind of drinke made of hony fruites barley or of water wherein diuers things are sodden The stomach therefore is that vessell of nature wherein not only the matter put into it is concocted and digested but also it is the same which seperateth the tartarous feces and whatsoeuer is excremental therein by such passages and vents as nature hath prouided to that end At the length after much purifying the blood is clensed being the red fountaine and the original of the spirits of our life euen like as wine which throughly fined is preferred before all others which serue for the nourishing and restoring of our life But let vs now procéede 〈…〉 Out of this artificial wine with the hâ—â—pe of gentle fire by circulatorie vessels as they terme them is extracted a fire of nature which attendeth the radical moysture namely a water of life wholy fiery and ethereal a quintessence altogether spiritual and almost of an incorruptible nature After the very same manner through the benefite of nature and by Circulation which is made by the heate of the Heart and of the Liuer there is generated and extracted in vs that quickening fire accompanied and nourished with his proper vnctuous humour and radical which is the water of life and true and quickening Nectar the quintessence and almost the ethereal spirit the incorruptible vpholder and conseruer of our life This also here by the way commeth to be noted in the operatioÌ„ of the foresaid wine which is also
Trimegistus as doth also Diodorus Siculus who affirmeth that the Aegiptians were the first inuentors of Sciences taking their originall and infallible grounds from the same Hermes or Mercury whose diuine monuments are to be séene at this day From this ancient Author Hermes which liued in the first worldes haue sprung vp all our Hermetical Philosophers and Physitions whose traditions haue bene receiued and imbraced not onely of all sorts of learned men in all countries but also by the most noble and famous Princes and Kings both Gréekes Arabians and Latines Yet it must be confessed that the most ancient learned Philosophers neither haue nor could deliuer such a general knowledge wherin there was not something wanting and whereof themselues were not ignorant For to vse the words of learned Guido we are infants carried vpon the shoulders of those great and lofty Gyants frō whose eminence we do behold not onely those things which they saw but many other misteries also which they saw not For no man is so sottish as to imagin that those first founders of Physicke had attained to the exact perfect knowledge of Medicine or of any other Science which Hypocrates himselfe acknowledged in his Epistle to Democritus The same Hypocrates howsoeuer otherwise singularly learned and of all learned men for his monuments of Medicine to be had in great reputation and reuerence yet hath bewrayed his ignorance in mineralls and metalline misteries as appeareth in his booke of Simp. where he intreating of Quick-siluer affirmeth that he neuer made tryail thereof neither inwardly taken nor outwardly applyed bewraying his error in thinking that Hydrargyre Quick-siluer were two seueral things supposing that it was a medicine of Siluer dissolued into water like vnto potable golde Hereby I say he hath bewrayed his ignorance in metalline substance in that he knew not Hydrargyre and Quick-siluer to be all one Whereof neuer any man doubted except he were so addicted to his teacher that he wold say black is white because his master saith so which none of meane wit will do For as we thinke them worthy of blame which with newe found phantasies toyes do go about to burne couer the errors of the reuerend fathers ancients as do many Empiricks and deceiuers vnder the name and profession of Paracelsians who also do too stiffely and falsely ascribe to Paracelsus as to the onely author the knowledge of hidden things causes the finding out of mysteries the true preparation of al remedies and medicines so in like manner they are to be reprehended which holde it sufficient so as they talke of Galen without all reason and affirme that he was ignorant of nothing and that he came to the full knowledge of Medicine It is therefore well said of a learned wel experienced lawyer that it is a token of great rashnes for wise men either at the first to subscribe error or to subuert that which might please moderated with a temperate resolution And yet learned men against all truth do oftentimes barke against auncient writers thinking it great honour and praise vnto them if they be able in any sort to contend with their greatnesse Those Phylosophers which haue written of Chymistrie haue to maintaine their Science Nature Arte and Experience by auncient practise deriued from the Hebrues Chaldeis Aegiptians Persians Greekes Latines and Arabians This Science therefore is not grounded as some suppose vpon a vaine an imaginarie speculation but is found most certaine and infallible to the procuring of health and length of dayes to many by the goodnesse of Almighty God Neither doth this Science onely affoord common extractions of oyles and waters by ordinary Distillations as many Emperis doe imagine but also most precious Elipirs Quintessences much laboured circulated and wrought by digestious concoctions and fermentations by the meanes whereof all impure and corrupt matter is defeked and separated the euil quality corrected amended that which is bitter is made swéet Without the which operations our bread béere wine the ordinary and most principal meanes of our nourishment become hurtful pernicious vnto vs. For if we should eat raw wheate or hoyled onely in water what how many diseases would grow in vs For this cause we separate the pure from the impure that they may be profitable for vs as the meale from the bran the which meale or flower we mixe with water we leauen and bake whereof ariseth a great magistery namely bread fit for nourishment and by his artifice apt to passe and turne into our flesh in the working whereof if there be but a little error it wil not be so pleasing to the tast nor so fitting to nourishment as is to be séene in bread either ill seasoned or not wel baked the which we reiect through these defaults The like practise worke is to be vsed in wines if we desire to haue them fitte for our vse For the pure must be separated from the impure by boylings digestions and firmentations separating from the kernells and skinnes the liquor of the grapes that it may be brought into pure wine This done and being put into vessels it worketh newe seperations fermentations disgestions and purgations seperating the dregges and lées from the pure substance of the wine the which so seperated it becommeth fine and cleare and is fit to be dranke for nourishment Whereas otherwise taken with the lees not fined it bréedeth dissenterie fluxes the stone paine in the head and procureth such like diseases Chymists therfore immitating nature in these kind of workings and haue learned them in her schoole finding by effect in natures worke that if common ordinary meates drinkes vnprepared vnseasoned rude cannot be taken into our bodies without perill then Physitians and Apothecaries ought to prepare seperate purge those simples which they shal vse for medicine by arte seperating the crosse impurity that they may not be more hurtful to the weake and sick then profitable If Hypocrates or Galen himselfe were now againe aliue they would excéedingly reioyce to sée art so inlarged augmented by so great and noble addition and would patronize and vpholde with their owne hands that which was hidden from the old fathers in former ages and reiecting many of these things which before pleased them yéelding to reason and experience would gladly imbrace the new For it is euident by their writings how vncertaine and doubtful they be in many things by reason of the weakenesse of the foundation whereon they haue builded Whose buldings notwithstanding vtterly to ouerthrow no wise and modest Phhlosopher wil goe about but will rather endeuour to vphold them that posterity may well and assuredly knowe that we were not barren but endued with the same wit that they had and that our mindes were seasoned with that more noble salt The which shall appeare it not reiecting the writings of our elders we shall inrich and adorne them with newe inuentions For artes come by
one ounce thou shalt finde the volatile Salt Armoniac to be conioyned with the sharpe fixed Salt and that which shall be distilled from the same will become altogether without taste or a little swéetish the volatile Salt Armoniac being gone through the passage in the fixed Salt So that the said ounce of Salt Tartar is increased by one scruple or more of volatile Salt increasing the quantitie of the other fixed Thus that volatil Salt Armoniac which vanisheth out of the Vinegar with the watry and aierie substance is retained by passage in the proper fixed Salt and there abioeth and by his absence dispoyling the distilled liquor of all sowernesse the which is therefore of no vertue or of lesse efficacie then pure and simple water Hereby it appeareth how litle ferment is néedful to a great quantitie of paste to acuate and augment the same as Phylosophers speak without the which the elementary water wil haue no sharpenesse For if that Salt Armoniac be wanting as touching the force and vertue thereof water hath neither tartnesse nor taste at all Therefore a Hermetical Phylosopher Phisitian which is wel acquainted with the liuely anatonie of things wil teach that the sharpe sower and attenuating taste of vineger and the dissoluing facultie thereof ariseth herehence because tart things whether they be waters or iuices are mixed and infused with salt Armoniac and that therefore Vineger not onely in regard of the tarnesse thereof but also that most thin spirituous sower essence of Salt doe pierce into the most inward parts euen of the hard bodyes And if it shewe foorth any cooling effects it commeth thereof because the sulphurus and fierie qualitie of the wine that is to say the Aqua Vitae is seperated without the seperation whereof it can neuer bée made vineger and can at no time yéelde any taste of Aqua Vitae And that sharpenesse by which it burneth is the chariot or carrier away of the elementarie and colde water by the which it is carryed and pierceth into the most inward and secret partes as wée haue learned by often experience that in that water the same sharpnesse is contained and most néerely conioyned therewith Nowe as we haue shewed that the sower and mercuriall liquor of things doth borrow that tartnesse from a certaine Armoniac salt and volatile which ariseth from the fixed euen so the sulphurus and oylie liquor doth receiue and taketh his vertue from no other thing than from that swéete Niterous sulphurus salt which borroweth the same from fixed salt so that in the fixed salt and out of that salt that mercuriall sowernesse and sulphurus vertue doe spring and doe receiue their fruits therefro as from the roote and first originall As also héere it is to be noted and to be wondred at that a tryple substance is seuerally to be extracted out of one and the same Essence from whence all things created do sucke and drawe their faculties vertues and properties and that the same doe so subsist in one and the same subiect that two others are to be produced from one other And the same thrée essences when they are separated and coupled together againe and vnited are then inriched and increased with wonderfull vertues and faculties and haue gotten excéeding perfection The which the more often that they be separated and vnited the more perfect and high degrees of power and force they obtaine in such wise that it is to bée reputed the vniuersall and most excellent Medicine of all others CHAP. VIII Concerning the excellent goodnesse of Salt in Medicine according to auncient prescription IT is manifest in the Writings of Galen and other Greeke Physitians as also in the Traditions of the Arabians and Latines with one consent that Salt is good and profitable not onely to season and sawce meates but also for Medicine Albeit in the dyet of sicke persons they commanded them to abstaine from salt things They defended the vse of Salt to be necessary for the curing of diuers diseases for that it hath vertue to clense to open to cut and to make shinne to moue sweates to further vrine and to prouoke vomit And in this manifold facultie and vertue it is more profitable than the most of other remedies For the proofe whereof we will bring certaine examples of some of the most auncient and famous Physitians First of all Aegineta concerning the facultie of Salt saith thus All Salt hath great facultie to drye and to binde Wherefore it consumeth all whatsoeuer is moyst in mens bodyes and compacteth the rest by binding For this cause it preserueth from putrifaction But burnt Salt hath greater force to resolue and consume Oribasius is of the same opinion Saltes saith he whether they be digged out of the earth or whether they come out of the sea haue like facultie and is mixed with two qualities that is to say of clensing and binding In this notwithstanding they differ that Saltes digged out of the earth are of a resoluing and consuming essence by reason that they are of more grosse parts and do more binde The same Oribafius saith also speaking of Aloes digged and marine salt haue all one force and are mixed of two qualities the one of clensing the other of binding But it is plaine that both kindes doe drie For the which cause it consumeth all humor in the body and thickeneth the solyde parts by binding Burnt salt hath greater force to clense but it doth not contract and thicken so much as the other The flower of salt hath thinner parts than burnt salt and is of a sharpe qualitie and much digesting Aetius hath also almost the same wordes sauing that hée addeth this concerning the froth of salt The flower of Salt saith hée is frothy cleaning to the rockes that are next adioyning and it hath by nature more thinne partes than Salt it selfe therefore it can much more attenuate and resolue but the rest of the substance cannot thicken as Salt doth Paulus Aegineta in the same Booke and chapter before quoted writeth that the same â—roth of Salt is the flower of Salt and is of more thinne parts and more consuming then is Salt it selfe but doth lesse compact By whch it doth euidently appeare that the science of Calcination of attenuation and of essences was not vnknowen to them of olde time For by the working and styrring of the sea they learned the Art of distillation by which they seperated the more spirituous from the more grosse euen as we sée the truth hereof to appeare in the experience of charming and working simple milke For by that meanes three sundrie substances are diuided one from the other namely Butter Curdes and Whaye Aetius speaking of cruditie and of those things which do helpe concoction according to the opinion of Galen and other Phisitians setteth before vs Saltes In the description whereof he putteth in one pound of salt of Cappadocea the which surmounteth the dose of all other the Ingredients
mercuriall essence as by Chymicall experience may be made plaine For hée which is a meane Chymist knoweth how to extracte out of the same by the force of fire a sharpe Mercuriall spirite which being Ethereall and therefore moste Potente doth dissolue into liquor the most firme and harde metall as Golde which otherwise cannot be ouercome neither with the most vehement fyer nor bée consumed with any long continuance of time Furthermore a workeman knoweth how to extract out of the same salt congealed stones very sweete and of a Sulphurus nature which neuerthelesse haue a mightie and admirable force to dissolue the most hard thing that is And yet for all this that which remaineth is Salt Thus you see plainely that these thrée beginings Salt Sulphur and Mercury are contained in the Marine Salt The same also is to be séeâ—â— Vitriol the which among other Salts is most corporent For alwayes for the most part figures and Images of Venus and Mars are to be séene therein and conioyned together In this Vitriol I say doe plainely appeare Salt Sulphur and Mercurie Whos 's Mercurie altogether ethereall being by art separated and made most pure from the elementary passiue 〈◊〉 possesseth a gréene sharpe spirit of so great an acting and penetrating force that in a very short time it will dissolue metalyne bodyes and most hard substances whether they be mettals or stones And this is that gréene Lyon which Rypley commendeth so much The Sulphur in Vitriol is easily discerned by a certaine red Ocre swéet which is easily separated from the same which is an asswager of things and a right actatiue and a great mittigator all griefes and paines But the Colcotar or red feces with remayneth in she bottome after the seperation of the ethereall Mercury and of the swéete Sulphur conteyned in it a most white Salt the extraction whereof maketh a very good and gentle vomit fit and profitable for many diseases As these thrée are found in Vitriol so also they are to be found in Allum and in other Salts as we haue shewed before concerning common Salt They are also to be séene in common Sulphur wherein beside the Sulphurus substance and inflamable matter there is contained a Mercuriall sharpish liquor so pearcing that it is able to open and vnlock the most strong and hard gates of Sol and Lana But the Salt drawen from the other parts remaineth in the bottome as euery meane workman knoweth And such is this sowerish spirit of Slphur that although it be drawen out of Sulphur fit to burne yet it is so vnfit to take fier that it is easily let from burning It happeneth otherwise to common Mercurie which is altogether ethereall and spirituall from whence the third begineing of all things which is most spirituall hath borrowed the name albeit it is not like vnto common Mercurie or to quicksiluer in forme For out of the same both a liquor and a swéete Sulphur and also a Salt may be extracted Hereby it is easily iudged that these thrée principles of Thymists are not the common Salt Sulphur and Mercurie but some other thing of nature more pure and simble which neuerthelesse hath some conscience and agréement with coÌ„mon Salt Sulphur and Mercurie from whence also our beginnings haue taken their name and not without cause for that the common are in all mixt things and in all things most simple and spirituall For the other being mixed with the more grosse substances of bodies are hindered from being so volatile and spirituall For that they consist of many vnkindly parts with the which these common spirits are not so holden backe Of those thrée beginnings aforesaid all metalls are compounded albeit after diuers sorts And this is the cause that they differ so much one from an other For in yron the Sulphur thereof which may be burnt in that it passeth almost away in sparkes â—â—nders by meanes of the fier doth excéed in qualitie the other two beginnings and doth ouersway them Hereof it commeth that will be on fier throughout For the which cause it is called by the old Philosophers by the name of the Planet Mars a burning Planet So copper hath great store of Sulphur but lesse burning then that of yron and it hath also much vitriol salt yet but little quantitie of Mercurie But that vitriolated Salt is that sharpe ferment of nature whereby the generations of all naturall things are propagated and increased whereupon the name of Venus is giuen to Copper in whom there is a second quaternarie among the Planets where are heaped vp nourished and coagulated spiritually all celestiall essences wherefore this Planet by all the auncient Phylosophers is called Venus the mother of generations and begotten of the males froth Tinne hath in it much ethereall and aiery Mercury but of combustble Sulphur a small quantitie and the least portion of Salt And hereof it commeth that Philosophers call the fame Inpiter because that Planet is altogether aiery and ethereall and therefore Poets appoint him king of the aier and the region of lightning Gold and siluer which of all other metalls are most noble and perfit do also consist of the thrée foresaid beginnings but yet mixed in equalitie and so perfectly with great purity vnited that it may séeme that there is one chiefe and first essence onely in them and not thrée of which they consist For theyr Salt Sulphur and Mercury are so straitly and by the least things so ioyned together that it may séeme they are one substance not thrée or consisting of thrée Notwithstanding most pure Mercury séemeth to excell and ouersway in siluer by which it is made more moyst then Golde which is the most temperate of all other But in Golde the sulphur which is fixed and incombustible of a fiery nature bringeth to passe that it standeth inuincible against all force of fier and looseth not the least waite thereof because like wil neuer oppresse his like but contrariwise do cherish and preserue one the other whereby it commeth to passe that it ioyeth in the fier and alwaies commeth out of the same more pure and noble then it went in Therefore the name of the Sunne is giuen to gold because in very déede it is an ethereall fier and brightnesse For the Sunne is a most fiery shining Planet giuing to all things by his heat and spirits life But siluer for the force and propertie of Mercuriall humiditie which it hath with the Moone a Planet full of radicall moysture and pregnant is called by the name of the Moone Leade containeth much Salt and great plentie of indigested and crude Mercury but lesse flying Sulphur hereupon it commeth that lead is the examiner of all other metalls which it disperceth into some as is to be séene by tryall excepting the two perfect metalls gold and siluer which it cannot consume This vertue of consuming the bodies of imperfect metalls it hath from that qualitie of Crude and flying Mercury with the which it
gold to it selfe with the which it is mingled and vnited into one body in such wise that it swalloweth vp gold whereas all other metalls except siluer do floate aloft and wil not sinke into the same Consider therefore saith Arnold that thing onely which cleaueth to Mercury and to the perfect bodies and thou hast the full knowledge And when he hath thus discribed the deuouring Lyon he addeth these words Because our stone is like to the accidentall quicksiluer which carrieth gold before it and ouercommeth it and is the very same which can kill and make aliue And know further that our coagulated quicksiluer is the father of all the minerals of that our magistery is both body spirit c. The same thrée chiefe beginnings doe offer themselues vnto vs in other semi mineralls as in Arsenick orpinent and such other like which albeit in their whole substance they bee contrary to our nature and spirits yet by nature they haue that spiritual promptnes and flying swiftnesse that by their subtiltie they easily conuey and mingle and mingle themselues with our spirits whether they be inwardly taken or outwardly applyed and doe worke venemous and mortal effects and that by reason of the Arsenical Mercury poinson ful or arsenical Sulphur and arsenicall Salt Gems also and precious stones haue in them the vertues and qualities of those thrée beginnings by reason of whose fier and brightnesse the pure Mercury in them doth shine cleauing firmly to his fixed Salt and also to the Sulphur of the same nature whereby the whole substance of a contrary kind being seperated there ariseth and is made a most pure stone of contrinance like vnto gold Of this sort is the most firme and constant Diamond to whom that good old Saturne hath giuen the leaden colour of his more pure Mercury together with the fixed and constant spirits of his more pure Sulphur and hath so confirmed coniealed and compacted it in all stability with his christalline salt that of all other stones it is the most solyd and hardest by reason of the most firme vnion of the thrée principal beginnings and their coherence which by no art of seperation can be disioyned and sundered into the solution of his spiritual beginnings And this is the cause that the ancient Physitians had no vse thereof in medicine because it could not be dissolued into his first matter And it is not to be thought that those auncient Physitians refrained the vse thereof for that they déemed it to be venemous by nature as some falsely imagin which being homogenial and of a 〈◊〉 simple nature it is wholely celestial and therefore most pure and for that cause nothing venemous but the poyson and daunger commeth here hence that being onely broken and beaten and in no sort apt to preperation taken so into the stomack and remaining there by reason of his soliditie and hardnesse inconcocted by coutinuance of time and by little and little it doth fret and teare the laps of the stomack and so the intralls being â—â—oriated death by a lingering consumption ensueth It belongeth to golde with his Sulphur to giue a red tineture to Carbuncles and Rubines neither doth the difference of their colours come of any other cause then this that their Mercuries and Chrystallyne salts are not defeked and clensed alike the which clensing the more perfect or imperfect it is the colour appeareth accordingly either better or worse And albeit Siluer be outwardly white yet within it hath the colour of Azure and blewe by which shée giueth her tincture to Saphyrs Copper hauing outwardly a shew of rednes hath a gréene colour within as the Viridgreese that is made thereof doth testifie by which it giueth greennesse vnto the Emerand Iron red within as his Saffron yeallow colour doth plainly shew and yet nothing like the colour which gold hath within it giueth colour to the Iacint Tinne albeit it is earthie yet being partaker of the celestial nature it giueth vnto Agates diuers and sundry colours From gold and from other mettals as also from precious stones their colours may be taken away by Cementation and Reuerberation by their proper menstrues which things are well knowen to Chymists and fire workmen The which colours and sulphurs so extracted are very fit for the affects of the braine The colour of gold serueth for the affects of the heart The colour of tinne for the lunges The colour of Mercury The colour of lead for the splene The colour of Iron for the rednesse The colour of Copper for the priuie parts The heauenly menstruéese to dispoyle mettalls of their colours and sulphures naturall is this namely the deaw which falleth in the moneth of May and his sugar Manna out of the which two mixed together digested and distilled according to Arte there wil come forth a general dissoluer most fit to dispoyle stones and mettals of their colours Yea of onely Sugar or of hony by it selfe may be made a dissoluer of mettals Now if these thrée beginnings Salt Sulphur and Mercurie are to be found in the Heauen in the Ayer and in the Waters as is al ready shewed who wil make any doubt but that by a farre greater reason they are to be found in the earth and to be made no lesse apparant séeing the earth of al other elements is the most fruitfull and plentiful The Mercurial spirits shâ—we themselues in the leâ—ues and fruites The Sulphurus in the flowers séedes and kirnels The salts in the wood barke and rootes and yet so that eache one of those thrée partes of the trée or plant seuerally by themselues albeit to one is giuen the mercurial spirit to another that of Sulphur and to the third that of Salt yet euery one apart may as yet be resolued into those thrée beginnings without the which they cannot consist how simple so euer they be For whatsoeuer it bée that hath being within the whole compasse and course of nature doe consist and are profited by these thrée beginnings And whereas some are said to be mercurial some Sulphurus and some Salt it is therefore because the Mercurials doe conteine more Mercurie the Sulphurus more Sulphur and the Saltish more Salt in them than the others For some whole trées are to be séene more sulphurus and roseny than other some as the Pine and Firre-trées which are alwayes gréene in the coldest mountaines because they abound with their Sulphurus beginning being the principal vital instrumeÌ„t of their growing For there are some other plants as the Lawrel and the Trées of Oranges Citrons and Lemons which continue long gréene and yet are subiect to colde because their Sulphure is not so easily dispersed as is the Sulphur of the firre trées which are roseny and are therefore thrice of a more fixed and constant life furnished against the iniuries of times Furthermore al Spice-trées and al fragrant and odoriferous hearts are Sulphurus And as there are sundry sortes of trées of this kinde so are
Philosophers lead is easily dissolued into liquor and deserueth then to bee called Potable gold this must néedes be more conuenient for medicine in the stomack of man then leafe gold For how can leafe gold benefit the stomack or in any sort be profitable for the sicke when the secret kernell is so fast inclosed in the shell which is so indigestible that it will not be dissolued in the body of the Ostrich The body of any thing profiteth little or nothing without the spirit It cannot be denied but that all actions come from the spirit for a body deuoyd of spirits is empty rotten and dead If the spirits be they which are agents the body is desired in vaine And contrariwise when the body is an impediment to the spirit that it cannot vtter his force and strength as appeareth by the working of nature it selfe which without the destroying and obiecting of the body cannot change the spirit that is to say the nourishment of meate into flesh then of necessitie the spirit must be deliuered from all his impediments that it may shewe it selfe powerfull and not bee hindered from his working This appeareth plaine by daily experience For what good doth that thing in the body which is neither profitable for the nourishment nor yet for the health thereof Nay what annoyance doth it not bring to our faculties which lyeth in the stomack vndigested much better then wée shall prouide for our body if in time of sicknesse we take that to nourish and sustaine vs which is well concocted and digested by art and purged from all grosse superfluitie For so nature is no maner of way hindred from distributing the same to all the parts neither hath it any burden in concocting the same albeit as yet it is requisite for nature to haue a more subtill worke that it may turne to the profit of the body For how much more auaileable to helpe the sicke which are weake of nature is the spirituous substance of a medicine if it be giuen tryed and seperated from grosse impurity then to be administered with such impuritie which oftentimes cloyeth and ouerlayeth the strength of the body He is more blinde then any â—â—oule which seeth not this For the spirit whether it be of meat or of medicine is giuen in such small quantitie that it bringeth no detriment but spéedy profit in a moment But yet these spirits cannot be giuen nor prepared without bodies for the which cause we prescribe broathes Iellies to be the chariots of the spirits and we clense the bodies that they being made pure the spirit may more firmely cleane vnto them And that they are not dispoyled of their first naturall humour it hereby appeareth because that naturall humour is the body of his spirit But when by our art the spirits are extracted wée must haue diligent care that none of theÌ„ flye away into the aier and so be lost For this cause we must looke that our vessels be sure and nothing breake out by violence of the fier the which spirits if we can retaine much lesse can their bodies escape Spirits then are in bodies and bodies passe into spirits in such wise that they are corporeat spirits and spiritual bodies so as we can giue both body and spirit together Furthermore that the most dry calpes doe still retaine their humour and moysture in them in so much that they may be turned into liquor daily experience showeth For glasse brought into ashes and gold brought into a caix may be restored to the formes of glasse and gold againe through the force of fire But here it may be obiected as it is by some that gold hath no force in it to prolong life or to corroborate the same because it is prolonged by onely heate remaining in moysture and is also conserued by the reparation of natural moysture But these faculties or essences say some are not in gold but rather in those things which haue liued as in plants and liuing things from whom that force to prolong and preserue life is to be taken rather then from gold And hereupon it is inferred that there is no life in metalls and minerals but that they are plainly dead I presume no man will denie that gold is the fruite of his element or some thing elementated if a thing elementated then doth it consist of elements therefore also of forme For elements doe not want their beginnings which are formall beginnings giuing being or that which it is to a thing For so much as therefore gold is a body elemeÌ„tated it consisteth of matter and forme by the mixture whereof there ariseth a certaine temperature or some thing of likenesse which is the life of things Therefore gold and other metalls haue life Furthermore whatsoeuer the eye can sée and behold that hath matter and Forme For forme is the external arising from the internal which offereth it selfe to the sence of the eye if it haue forme and matter then hath it also life Death is said so be the destruction of things which séemeth to bring the subiect to nothing But for so much as metalls are the obiects of the sences it shal be thought amisse that they are brought to destruction They liue therfore because they subsist And the things which subsist cannot be said to be brought to nothing therfore not dead By these reasons it doth plainly appeare that there is life in metalls because they subsist and because they consist of Matter and Forme whose mixture and coâ—iunction is nothing but by the bond of a certaine kind of life which is drawen from the elements and beginnings in the which consisteth the life of things Furthermore that cannot be said to be without life which is indued with power of acting For actions as we haue said proceede from spirits In the spirits is life or else they themselues are life And wonderful actions doe proceed and come from gold when it is spiritual and seperated from the waight of his body finally who is he that dare denie life to be in metalls which are indued with so many tastes with so many odours with so many colours and with other vertues Therfore gold is vitall For so Marcilius Ficinus a most witty Phylosopher and a famous Physitian writeth of gold saying We know that all liuing things as well plants as animals doe liue and are generated by a certaine spirit like vnto this and is alwaies moued as if it were liuing and doth most speedily generate among the elements because it is most spirituall But thou wilt say vnto me if the elements and liuing things doe generate and beget why doe not stones and mettalls beget which are meane things betwéene the elements liuing things I answere because the spirit which is in them is restrained and hindered by a more grosse matter the which if at any time it be rightly seperated being seperated if it be conserued as the seminary of one thing it is able to beget vnto it selfe the
moysture And as all Phylosopers doe write with one consent it is an vniuersal medicinable body whereunto all the particularities of medicines are reduced and infused For this cause it is as it were a fineth nature or essence a most thinne soule most purgatiue much resisting for a very long time putrifaction or corruption freed from al mortal concretion a celestial and simple substance of the Elements brought to to this spiritual nature by Chymical sublimation And yet for al this we affirme not that this medicine is altogether incorruptible for as much as it is made and consisteth of natural things Neuerthelesse it is brought to that subtiltie thinnesse and simplicitie spiritual that it séemeth to containe nothing in it that is Heterogenial or vnkindely whereby it may be corrupted whereby also it commeth to passe that being giuen to the sicke it preserueth them a long time in health And for this cause the Philosophers haue had this in so great estéeme and haue wholy addicted themselues to seeke and search out the same not to make themselues rich by turning imperfect metals into gold and siluer when as many of them willingly embraced pouertie but rather to heale the diseases and sicknesses of men and to defende and preserue their liues in long health without griefe vnto the time which God hath appointed But leauing this great mysterie which very fewe attaine vnto I wil in charitie and good wil deliuer here vnto thee an easie prescription how to make certaine waters of great vertue which I found written in the Latine tongue in an auncient coppy seruing to kéepe the body in health and to deliuer it from many infirmities which I thought good here to insert as very pertinent so this Treatise which concerneth as you haue heard the vertue of Minerals Take of Aqua vitae distilled with red Wine lib. 4. Of burnt Salt lib. 2. Of dead Sulphur lib. 2. Of white Tartar z. 2. Of the coales of Flaxe which groweth in Abella a Towne of Campania in Italie z. 3. Of Salt Peter z. 4. Beate al these into fine pouder seare them and being mingled together powre on them the aforesaid Aqua vitae and so put the whole masse to distillation The Vertues of the Distillation THe first Distilation hath vertue of a Balsam to conserue both flesh and Fish from putrifaction It clenseth the face from all freckles and spots clearing the skinne and making if fairer It cleanseth the body from Itch and Scabbes and dryeth vp the teares and watrinesse of the eyes The second distillation expelleth impostumations and superfluities of the body fasteneth the téeth which are loose and taketh away the windinesse of the Liuer The third taketh away a stinking breath and purgeth tough flegme out of the Stomach and whatsoeuer is not wel digested The fourth expelleth blood which is congealed in the body The fifth healeth and taketh away from man the faling sicknesse The sixt distillation helpeth al paines about the throate The seuenth cureth the paine of the Goute The eight is an excellent Balsam which sée thou kéepe well The ninth distillation comforteth and preserueth the Liuer if a little gold be dissolued therein After euery of the former distillations the feces must be beaten and searced as in the beginning Another Water by which a Phisitian may worke wonders TAke the fylings of Siluer of Brasse of Iron of Leade of Steele of Gold the summe or froth of Golde and of Siluer and of Storax so much of all these as the abilitie of the man can wel affoorde put these the first day in the vrine of seuen yeares of age the second day in white Wine made hote the third day into the Iuice of Fennel the fourth day into the white of an Egge the fifth day into womans milke which giueth a boy sucke the sixth day into red wine the seuenth day in seuen whites of Egges Then put all this into a cupel and distil it with a soft and gentle fyer That which is distilled kéepe in a Siluer or golden vessel There cannot bée spoken enough in the praise of this water It cureth all sortes of Leprosie and wonderfully clenseth the body It maketh youth to continue long Vse it to thy comfort and to the good of thy neighbour CHAP. XVIII Shewing by what remedies sicknesses are to be cured IT is alleaged out of the authoritie of Hypocrates and Galen that contraries are cured by contraries But hée which affirmeth that contraries are cured by contraries hée shall neuer easily finde out a remedie for sicknesse neither was this Hypocrates meaning as shall bée shewed anon It is out of question that sicknesses doe arise from the disagrement of the beginnings and so often as those beginnings doe decline from their temper which is then called a distemperature and the one being seperated from the consort of the other taking vp his standing by himselfe procureth sicknesse For when it is not in mixture with the other which being ioyned together do maintaine concord they then make warre vpon the body without any stoppe or let I speake not here of simple and bare qualities but of the very essences wherein are those powers and faculties whereof Hypocrates speaketh which preserue the health of their Balsam or to restore it when it is lost Seing therefore the séedes and properties both of health and of sicknesses lye hid in the essences it followeth that they are to be cherished with essences and not with qualities The which essences forsomuch as they are méere acting spirits they are to be repelled with spirits not with bodyes which are not like them or which are contrary to them But it is obiected that al things consist of Elements therefore our bodies also If then the Element of ayer do suffer and be out of course in vs shal the same be holpen with the Element of earth Why then haue Phisitians so fewe remedies against the pestilence Is it because there are none at al I confesse when God wil punish hée taketh away the vertue from remedies and medicines That is not the cause I meane the want of remedies but because ignorant Phisitians know not the causes of the pestilence and therefore dâ—e not rightly prouide to preuent the same For séeing they oppose against the pestilence comming of the corruption of the Ayer a medicine taken from earth water or ayer or from the earth hauing a watery original what maruayle is it if there follow no effect thereof when as they doe not driue away those things which are to bée mixed together but those things which doe easily agrée and are gathered together For how can the heauen and the earth bée mingled together to helpe the distemperature of the Heauen betwéene the which there is so great distance as there is betwéen diuisible and indiuisible as Plato spake Therefore celestiall things are to be mingled with celestial things waterie with waterie and earthie with earthie and not contrariwise otherwise there can be no agréement Consider wel
Ice whereof the maker of Salt-Péeter finisheth his worke purifying the same by sundry dissolutions and coagulations that it may loose his fatnesse quite and cleane This common worke being triuial and no better then mechanical if it be rightly considered and weighed is as I haue said already full of admiration For by the very same preparation the thrée beginnings are extracted out of earth which may be seperated one from the other and yet neuerthelesse the whole thrée doe consist in one and the same essence and are onely distinguished in properties and vertues And herein we may plainly see as in a glasse after a certaine manner that in comprehensible misery of the thrée persons in one and the same Hypostasis or substance which make the diuine Trinitie For thus it hath pleased the omnipotent Creator to manifest and shewe himselfe a vâ—â—trine or Trinne not onely herein that he is found so to be in the nature of earth but vniuersally in all the workes of the creation For this our comparison of the Salt of the earth is general and is euery where found and in all things Also in this comparison of Salt wée may beholde thrée distinct natures which neuerthelesse are and doe subsist in one and the same essence For the first nature is Salt common fixed and constant and the other nature is Volatil Salt the which alone the Sal-péeter-man seeketh after This volatil or flying Salt containeth in it two kindes of Volatil Salt the other full of Sulphur easily catching flame which men call Niter the other Mercurial watery sower partaking of the nature of Salt Armoniac Wherefore in that most common essence of earth these thrée seueral Salts are found vnder one and the same nature of the which thrée all vegetables and animalls whatsoeuer doe participate And we determine to place our thrée hypostatical and substantial beginnings vpon these thrée Salts as vpon the fundamental grounds in that our worke concerning the hidden nature of things and the misteries of Art the which we had thought to haue published before this time whereof we thought it conuenient to say some thing by the way because the ground-worke and beginnings of Medicines depend vpon them Wherefore to the end so large immensurable doctrine may the better and more diligently be considered of all men especially of the wiser sort then heretofore it hath bene I wil set plainly before their eyes those three distinct natures of Salt comprehended as already is sayd in one Hupostasis or substance For the maker of Salt-peter or Niter to make his salt the more effectual volatile and more apt to take fire taketh away the fatnesse as they terme it from the same and seperateth the Salt thereof which is al one with the sea salt or common salt which is dissolued into common water Contrariwise Salt-peted as men cal it is congealed into such péeces as we sée it to be and so there is made a visible seperation of both the Salts For the water wherein the common Salt being defused and dissolued as we said being euaporated or boyled away there remayneth a portion of Salt in the bottome which is somewhat like to our common marine Salt and of the nature thereof for it hath the same brynish qualities it is fixed it melteth not in the fire neither is it set on fire and therefore is wholy different from that which is congealed in the same water which is called Salt-peter The which thing truly deserueth to bée diligently considered not of ordinary Salt-peter-men which are ignorant of the nature of things but of Phylosophers if they desire to be reputed and to be such To whom it shal manifestly appeare that Salt which by nature and qualitie according to the common opinion of Phylosophers is hote and dry a sulphurus Salt fierie and apt to be set on fire such as is Salt peter wil be coagulated or congealed in water wherein al other saltes are dissolued no lesse than that salt which procéeded from the very same essence of Salt-peter may be dissolued in water as we haue said Therefore not without great cause the admirable nature of Salt-peter deserueth to be considered which comprehendeth in it two volatile partes the one of Sulphur the other of Mercurie The Sulphurus part is the soule thereof the Mercurial is his spirit The Sulphurus part commeth to that first moouing of nature which is nothing else but an ethereal fire which is neither hote nor drie not consuming like the Elementarie fyre but is a certaine Celestial fyre and Ayerie humour hote and moyste and such as wée may almost beholde in Aqua Vitae a fyre I say contempered ful of life which in Vegetables wée cal the vegetating soule in Animals the hote and moyst radical the natural and vnnatural heate the true Nectar of life which falling into any subiect whether it bée Animal or Vegetable death by and by ensueth The which commeth so to passe vppon no other cause but vppon the defect of this vital heate which is the repayrer and conseruer of life The same vital heate is also to bée found albeit more obscurely in Minerals which may more easily bée comprehended by the sympathy and concordance which the sayd salt-peter hath with Mettals as is to be séene in the dissolutions whereof wée haue spoken somewhat before Beside that sulphurus part there is also found in salt-peter a certaine Mercurial of ayerie nature and which notwithstanding cannot take fyre but is rather contrary therevnto This spirit is not hote in qualitie but rather colde as appeareth by the tart and sharpe taste thereof the which sharpnesse and coldnesse is wonderful and is farre different from the Elementary coldnesse for that it can dissolue bodies and coagulate spirites no lesse then it doth congeale salt-peter the which sowernesse is the generall cause of Fermentation and coagulation of al natural things This same sower and tart spirit is also found in sulphurs of the same qualitie not burning nor setting on fire and which congealeth sulpur and maketh it firme which otherwise would bée running like Oyle Vitriol among al the kindes of salt doth most of al abound with this spirit because it is of the nature of Venus or Copper which sower spirit inconstant Mercurie which notwithstanding alwayes tendeth to his perfection that is to say to his coagulation and fixation ful wel can make choyse of and attract it to him that hée may bée fixed and coagulated when it is mixed and sublimed with the same vitriol Euen as Bées suck hony from flowers as Ripley saith Furthermore this sharpe sower and cold spirit is the cause why Salt-Péeter hauing his sulphur set on fire giueth a cracke that so salt-péeter may be of the number of them whereof Aristotle writeth as that they are moued with a contrary motion Which words of his are diligently to be considered But what doe I meane to open the gate of passage into the orchard
elemental fire that if thou cast into the same any thing that wil easily take flame as strawe or any such thing which wil readily burne and increase the force of burning which before was almost extinguished for because it was destitute as it were of nourishment and wholy as it were ouerwhelmed of asshes So also our radicall Balsam the fire brand and burning lampe of the fire of our nature wanting conuenient and proper nourishment whereby it fainteth or else so ouerwhelmed by the feces and ashes of obstructions that it is in danger of suffocation and smoothering or else kindred by some other cause whereby it cannot exercise liuing flame for the conseruation of our life then indéed it standeth in néede of a calefactor and restorer of heate that in better maner and more readily it may shew forth the proper qualities and functions The like reason and consideration also is to be had concerning our natural Balsam the which being diminished or being hindred or hurt by any occurrent outwardly being againe increased by that Balsamick medicine it ariseth est soone and most perfectly performeth his woonted functions For séeing that medicinall Balsam is of a certaine ethereal nature or a heauenly fire because it quickeneth and burneth not nor consumeth therefore out of hand as if it were a permanent and certaine spiritual water of life it doth commâ—nicate and is as it were vnited with our spirit and doth repaire and increase it by reason of the simpathy and common likenesse therewith Neither is it to be thought that this commeth so to passe for any other cause but only of this as was said euen now namely of that friendly conuenience and agréeing friendship which that Balsamick medicine hath with our radical Balsam The which is the onely reason why I call the one Balsam of life and the other the medicinal Balsam euen for the relatiue conuenience of them both And yet beside this similitude and familiarity of nature it hath other particular vertues For it is enduâ—d with great actiuitie it is spiritual and excéeding pearcing for this cause it doth attenuate and make thinne it doth digest dissolue and euacuate these seculent sâ—uffings and ashes threatening peril of suffocation and choaking to the Balsam of life Moreouer if there be any impurity or corruption by which it is much offended by what other meanes can it bee more safely and better rooted out then by a thing so pure and incorruptible And if any burning feauer doe inuade the body and the instrumental parts of life about the heart with what more conuenient sharpe Syrup or Syrup of Limons canst thou extinguish it then by the Balsamick sharpnesse of this our medicine Let gun-poulder speake for vs and by a sufficient testimony of this thing which this liquor doth not onely extinguish but also will not suffer it to take flame but maketh it idle Witnesses also are the most burning and volatil spirits which al the Ise of the Northerne mountaines cannot congeale and yet are congealed with that liquor in Balnâ—â— Mariae yet with all the same liquor hath this property that it wil attemperate and dissolue the most hard Ise Is there any paine and griefe that would be asswaged This medicine shal be thy mittigating anodine and most healthsome Nepenthes Is there any pestilent poyson or malignant quality to be eâ—tyrped There is not a more safe Treacle or Mithridate then this which is the summe of all Alexipharmacons the most chiefe preseruatiue from all infection Is the heart to be corroborated the spirits to be vegetated No confection Alkermes no confection of Hyacinth is to be preferred before this balsam To conclude what more spéedy altering medicine can there be found which is able to correct a distemperature then that most temperat remedy To these vnspeakeable vertues adde yet this one that this medicine neuer bringeth with it a glutting loathsomnesse or perturbation of the body but quickly safely pleasantly performeth his workings And the same with so small adoe that whereas in other medicine ounces are required in this a few graines dissolued in wine or in broath or in other conuenient liqâ—â—â— are sufficient to be opposed against the sicknesse which produce great and wonderful effects These are those great properties of this vniuersal medicine so much spoken of by the ancient Phylosophers These are the admirable vertues of our said medicinable Balsam the coadintor priuie director of our natural Balsam which is the only meane to conserue our life which natural Balsam is the onely immediate putter away of sicknesses and of all corporal infirmities For if sicknesses as Galen saith be an effect against nature hurting actions then must it also needes be contrary to our radical Balsam Nectar of our life which is nothing else but the same nature or else an instrument so resisting it conioyned with it that without the helpe hereof it can intend to doe or performe nothing Therefore now whether the functions be diminished or depraued or altogether abolished it cannot otherwise be but that our said radical Balsam is in some part hurt seeing it is certaine that all those laudable functions procéed there from This is that which Hypocrates calleth mans nature This is that disposer which maketh the attractions expulsions mixtions seperations and concoctions of meates and drinkes To this chiefely the same Hypocrates attributeth al the foresaid functions of our body Not that the same Balsam of our radical can take vpon it selfe and on his substance alterations and that it can suffer séeing it is of an ethereal and celestial nature therefore after a certaine maner incorruptible but because his action is delayed or hindered by lets which lye hidden in the internal members and bowels and which doe occupy and trouble the same This is the occasion this is the beginning and principall foundation of diseases Therfore to take vpon me the dispute and to defend it thus I determine If such a disease comming vpon a man be to be taken cleane away first of all nature is to be restored to her landable whole and woonted state to the which end all our cogitations ought to tend First of all therefore we must prouide to take away all lets To this the disciples of Hermes Trismegistus answere Al this may be sufficiently performed done onely by restoring the radical Balsam for that vpon the same all action demonstration of health do depend the which Balsam being holpen as is conueuenient it wil come to passe that the sicke man within the 〈◊〉 of one hower shal haue and féele more solace and so much the more when the same Balsam of life being holpen with that Balsamick medicine doth more boldly expulse the enemy and that in a very short time I say to the greater ioy and comfort of the sicke then can the huge multitude of common potions powred into the loathing of the patient bring to passe and that very hardly in a long time And
may be seperated in such wife that the same Salt Armoniac being extracted the same liquor will be made swéete and potable and the Salt remaine by it selfe the which being againe mixed with spring water or with any other liquor deuoid of taste it wil make the same sharpe That same sharpnesse or Salt Armoniac spirituall is not onely found in Vitriol but also in common Salt in Niter yea in Sulphur also it selfe as also in all things For that sharpnesse is that very same which coagulateth Sulphur which is plentifully found therein For without it Sulphur will not cleane vnited but would be running as are other oyle-like liquors The same Salt Armoniac of nature is manifested vnto vs by that extraction of sharpe oyle which is drawen out of Sulphur whose nature is farre different from that of the said Sulphur For it is so farre from taking fleame that contrariwise it is a hinderance to gun-poulder not-suffering it to be inflamed with the touch of fire as is said already The same liquor doth dissolue pearles and coral no lesse then doth the iuice of Limons of Barberies or any other of that nature the which power it hath by the dissoluing vertue of Salt Armoniac of nature which is in it The like and by the same reason doth Vineger performe For Wine as is saide afore partaketh of the nature of Vitriol more then any other vegetable and containeth much of the foresaide sharpe Salt of nature He which doth exactly consider these things shal readily and out of true grounded reasons dissolue the question concerning the true and natural qualitie of Vineger which question hath troubled many of the most learned Piysitians For the dissoluing vertue which appeareth to be in Vineger euen in this that when clay or earth is put into it it wil as it were boyle argueth that the nature thereof is altogether hote Others on the coâ—trary part denying Vineger to be colde appoint it as a chiefe remedy to extinguish and represse external Inflamations Also by the taste which they affirme to bee the effect of coldnesse they conclude that Vineger is colde But they can very easily end this controuersie which haue the perfect knowledge of the nature of Salt Armoniac which Vineger containeth mat For this Salt is the true cause of dissoluing vertue But because the â—ame Salt is of force to coagulate spirits and to dissolue bodies therefore it is effectual and a singular remedy against both inward and outward inflamations For it doth coagulate the Niter Sulphurus exhalations which stirreth vp those inflamations For such heates and feauerous passions doe procéed out of the spirits onely either Niterous or Sulphurus arysing out of the Saltâ—Niter Sulphurus or tartarus of our body and lifted vp into euaporations which cause such vnkindly heates The which coÌ„meth not so to passe when the same spirits be as yet bound together and lye as it they were buried in their proper bodies or tartarous feces But if thou wilt yet knowe more manifestly the corrosiue force and inflaming heate of the saide spirits consider the strong waters which are nothing else but the spirits of Niter and Vitriol which thou shalt sée will dissolue siluer or any hard metall But if thou put but one onely ounce of siluer to one hundred pound waight of Vitriol and Niter as they are in their owne nature and body yet they will neuer be able to dissolue it It is therefore manifest that such violent forces and operations are onely in the spirits seperated euaporated and dissolued from their body the which forces thou shalt by no safer meanes take away and suppresse then if the same spirits bée againe incorporated and coagulated And this is performed by that Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature which is in Vineger as also in other things which haue sharpnesse But peraduenture there are some which now thinking that wee haue killed our selues with our owne swoord will inferre vpon the same example by vs alleaged that such essences prepared by Chymists are all for the most part spiritual and therfore by consequence are more violent remedies then is fitting for nature to beare and therefore cannot be giuen with safetie I would haue those which make this obiection to be in this wise answered That the reason is not all one and therefore the conclâ—sion not good For it we take the spirit of Vitriol or of Salt-Péeter which indéed are spirits partaking of the terrestrial fire yet neuerthelesse they may bee so swéetened and mingled with broathes or other conuenient liquor that they wil be very familiar to nature grateful sauory and gentle and not without great vertue and efficacie The iuice of Limons giuen by it selfe alone into great plenty can hurt the stomack For the which cause our maner is to mingle it with some liquor or with sugar and to bring it into a syrup or Iulep no lesse profitable then pleasing to the stomack But the vertue of the spirit of vitriol is better knowne at this day and commended of the most approued Physitians of diuers countries then that the ignorant can detract any thing from the dignity and praise thereâ—f It is reported very credibly that in France it is much vsed and commended for the effects it hath to extinguish burning feauers And not without iust cause for it is a most singular remedy not onely against feauers but also against many other contumacious sicknesses as hereafter in due place shal be shewed but it is fit that no other presume to administer it then such as are expert Phisitians not Emperikes and such as try conclusions by killing men Furthermore the sharpe spirit drawen out of Niter alone or Sulphur among the metallick Salts is of the same nature and property For these doe auaile no lesse then the other to extinguish feauers of what kind soeuer by their coagulatiâ—e vertue whereby they doe tame subdue and coagulate those Sulphurs and burning spirits of our body Moreouer there are other some which iudge vs worthy of much reprehension because we said afore that one and the selfe-same sharpe Salt Armoniar hath both vertue to dissolue and also to congeale which being effects contrary cannot procéed from one and the same cause according to the common opinion of Phylosophers To this we answere that as we haue spoken it so we will maintaine it And therefore we say againe that this Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature whereof we speake can both dissolue bodies and also which is more to be maruailed at congeale spirits yea and which is yet more wonderfull euen in the middest of fire it can congeale And concerning dissolution it shall not be necessary that we proue this because it is well known to persons of very meane skill And now to say somewhat for the ignorants sake The spirit of Vitriol or of Sulphur or of sower Niter wel prepared and seperated from all terrestreitie doth dissolue corall and pearles By which dissolution an excellent