this true Separation is the cause and without it it cannot be made Then Oyl and Water with Water shall distill And through her help receive moving Keep well these two that thou not spill Thy Work for want of due closing And make thy Stopple of Glass melting The top of thy Vessel together with it Then Philosopher lick it is up shit IN this second Circulation which is after Conjunction there shall be no more the Body below and the Spirit above but all shall be one and the Body which is the Sulphur shall always follow the Spirit on the Fire wherever it flys The occasional cause of all this is our first Water which though vile is therefore to be much valued for it is very precious through the virtue of which it comes to pass that our Earth yields a Water and causeth it to fly with the Spirit aloft and is the Soul of our Sol which at length doth allure the said Spirit and Body to union which else would never be and then the Body beyond its own nature is lifted up moving uncessantly with the Spirit and Soul upon the Fire for all now are made one inseparably and this is called the sealing the Mother in the belly of the Infant which she bore that is the Earth below is so united to the Water that arose from it that in this Operation after this true Conjunction they are never more divided but are together sublimed and descend continually moving and altering continually until perfect Complement Now for as much as all the Mastery consists in Vapour which are called the great Winds which are in the Vessel at the forming of this our Embrio therefore great care must be had lest the Spirits exhale Which they will do without the Glass have a strong guard for first they are subtle nor that only but ascend with a great impetus by reason of our Fire which must cause the inferiora ebullire moveri continuò inferiora circulari quolibet momento and thirdly in Putrefaction the Body and Spirits have a most subtle odour which also must be retained For preventing of all thou shalt have thy Stopple as firm as any part of thy Glass which let it be strong as is said and the neck long and strong and let the neck be melted up with a Lamp or with Coals and closed well without much wringing which makes the Glass brittle but being nipt up and after that staying in the same heat turning it to and fro in the clear heat the Glass will come to as exactly close and smooth a superficies as in any other place This is the true and sure way which Philosophers have secured their Glasses by Let it cool by degrees and be very wary that it get no crack in cooling which if it do though never so little you must not connive at it lest the winds within cause it there to burst as being a weak defective place The Water wherewith thou mayst revive thy Stone Look thou distill before thou work with it Oftentimes by it self alone And by this sight thou shalt wit From feculent faeces when it is quit For some men can with Saturn it multiply And such like substance which we defie THus thou seest how our Work must be ordered in reference to its Regimen but the main matter is our Water Which Water as saith Artephius is the Vinegar of Mountains and it is the only Instrument for our Work its Preparation consists in Cohobation which we will discover In my little Treatise called Introitus Apertus and in my other Tractate called Ars Metallorum Metamorphoseâ—s I speak as much of it as a man can speak without giving a Receipt but to the Ingenious what there is written is far better than any Receipt This I say that it must first be cohobated in a very wonderful way for it is such a Cohobation that hath not its like in the World and for several times to a determinate number and after it may and ought to be distilled per se without addition again and again that thou mayst have the Water clean from any Exotical mixture When it ascends like to the Pearled dew thou mayst then know that it is sufficiently pure which is not till all the filthiness be cast from the centre and wash'd from the superficies Thy Water then hath so excellent a Pontick faculty that it will dissolve Jupiter Saturn or Venus into Mercury and Sulphur for it commands Metals as their true Water Mineral which no Mercury in the World is but our Mercury nor can be for Reasons known to the Adepti which if I should give there would be none almost so stupid but would easily apprehend them for they are most demonstrable This only I at present say of this Mercury that it is the Mother of Metals and therefore hath power to reduce them by dividing their principles of Sulphur and Mercury but we count it a loss to imploy our Mercury to such such sordid uses for we spoil the goodness of it hereby Gold only is drowned in it that is it is reduced without division of parts but though the Sulphur and Mercury be for a time distinct yet they will joyn with the Water and together and so remain perpetually which other Metals in their dissolution will not for their Sulphurs being not perfect are rejected to the superficies and never are received to union again for they are Heterogeneous Distill it therefore till it be clean And thin like Water as it should be Like Heaven in colour bright and sheene Keeping both figure and ponderosity There with did Hermes moisten his Tree In his Glass that he made it to grow upright With Flowers discoloured beautiful to sight SO then to return to what we digressed a little from thy Water must be so long distilled until it be very clean for this saith the Philosopher is thy first work to make clean thy Mercury and then into clean Mercury to put clean Bodies for who can expect a pure Generation from that which is unclean The next property of thy Water is that it must be thin even as thin as any other Mercury for if the external proportion be corrupted it is an evident sign that the inward nature is confused It must also be of a very bright colour even like to fine burnished Silver as saith Artephius Hence saith a certain Philosopher that our Water to sight is like to a Coelestial Body Our Water must not be reduced into any limpid Diaphanous liquor as some fondly imagine and as I my self in my time of errours did conceit but it must keep its Mercurial form pure and incorrupted It is also very ponderous so ponderous that it is somewhat more weighty then any other Mercury in the World This is the only one Mercury and there is none in the whole World besides it which can do our Work with this Hermes did moisten his Body and made it to rot and putrefie By means of this Water
so that our whole Operation is above a year For indeed it is not an ordinary thing that we expect but a Fire-abiding Tincture which is unfading and incorruptible which cannot be expected in a short time yet verily the Industry of the Work-man may forward or set back his Work a month two or three according to his more exquisitely preparing of his Matters and governing of his Fire whose exact Regimen is for speed or retarding of the Work almost all in all And for thy proportion thou must beware For therein mayst thou be beguil'd Therefore thy Work that thou not mar AFter the knowledge of the true material Subject and its Preparation the next main thing to be understood is the mystery of Proportion which is a secret of no light concernment for many erre therein Thou shalt therefore understand that our Proportion is two-fold Internal and External the Internal pondus is a Labyrinth in which all erre who know our Subject as many do but not its Proportion He who would effect any thing must principally learn this which is set down in Golden words in Bernard Trevisan his Treatise of the Chymical Miracle The Sulphur saith he which is in the Mercury and predominates not is the Fire alone which governs the whole Work and he therefore that in these things would be a skilful Artist let him know how much Fire is beyond other Elements in subtilty and what a proportion of it will overcome all the rest These Golden words worthy to be ingraven in Marble are the true foundation of our pondus With Mercury as much then so subtil'd One of the Sun two of the Moon Till all together like pap be done BUt there is an External proportion which is as necessary as the other or else the Work will either for lack or excess of moisture be destroyed and that is thus Take thy Body which without any equivocation is most pure Gold let it be exquisitely purged then filed or laminated or calcined with Mercury as is vulgarly known of this take one part and of our Water which is without equivocation Argent-vive animated which then we call our Luna two parts mix them together in an Amalgama and grind them in a Mortar of Glass or on a Marble till they become very soft and all the grettiness of the Body be subtilized with the Mercury that they may seem to be one pap or paste which we call Inceration Then make the Mercury four to the Sun Two to the Moon as it should be NOw pluck up your attention for my speech will be difficult When your Body to your Mercury in outward proportion is one to two then must your Mercury in its inward proportion be just opposite that is four to two else you shall never make Harmony that is good Musick for do not think it is all one with one and the same proportioned Mercury to put either one of the Body to two of the Water or one to three or two to three or three to four no verily till you come to this to measure your Lamp clibanically to your Furnace you are yet in the dark for Practice though you may be true in Theory I almost tremble to speak of this point for it is the very wilde of all those who study this Art and cannot come to the end of their desires for want of true information in this particular Know then that when thy Mercury is to Sol in external pondus two to one it must be as I said in respect of its own internal qualities four to the Sun to two of the Moon therefore saith Artephius that our Water is of kin to the Sun and to the Moon but more to the Sun then to the Moon Note this well that is four to two as Ripley hath it This is indeed a great secret which hath befooled many Now know that our Eagles duly prepared are accommodated to the Sun from three to ten so that four to the Sun will be just seven and thy Mercury thus proportioned let it be two of the Moon to one of its Body Know also that our Water is not called the Moon but in or in reference to conjunction and so let the Moon be two In reference to its one Constitution it is called Mercury for so it ought to be in that form and flux and so it ought to be four to the Sun that is seven Eagles which are to the Sun not before three to which adding four you make seven And thus thy Work must be begun In figure of the Trinity Three of the Body and of the Spirit three And for the unity of the substance spiritual One more then of the substance corporal ANd thus thy Work is brought to the true Touch-stone and that is Trinity in Unity for in this pondus of your Mercury you have a potential Body which is one part of three of the Mercury which may by Art be made appear This potential Body is to be reckoned to your actual Body and that makes with it two and so in potentia you have two of the Body to one of the Spirit which is three to three and one to one And this potential Body is at first spiritual and volatile in manifesto for unity sake without which could be no unity Thus then a potential Body but an actual Spirit is joyned with an actual Body by which means the actual Body when it is actually dissolved and made no Body but a Spirit or Spiritual Body then this potential Spiritual Body which was in the Water before receives this potentialized Body and both unite and congeal together and is endowed with a double nature and virtue that is Spiritual and Corporal Heavenly and Earthly And thus is made an union of which the proportion of the Water in its first preparation and its due mixing with its Body was the moving cause really though hiddenly enforcing the Compound by the necessity of its end which it could not have done had it not been so proportioned By Raymunds Repertory this is true Proportion there who list to look The same my Doctor to me did shew THis is the true meaning of our proportions both according to the mystery of Internal and External pondus this is that which Authors have so much concealed both Raymund Arnold Albert and all who ever have wrote of it I have broke the Ice first in plain discovering the mystery Yet for all this you stand in need either of a Master or of more then ordinary pains accompanied with the blessing of God eâ—se never look to find out this mystery which though by me revealed more plainly then any yet it will and must remain secret even till the fulness of time But three of the Spirit Bacon took To one of the Body For which I awoke Many a night ere I it wist And both be true take which you list THere is another External proportion which is three of the Spirit to one of the Body according to the
which is an Impastation of the body with the Water to the temper of Dough or Leaven which the Water readily doth such affinity there is between the Water and the Body as the Philosopher saith this Water is friendly and pleasant to the metals But over and besides the Water soaks Radically into our Body being circulated upon it according as the Philosopher saith When it s own sweat is returned to the Body it perforates it marvellously Thus the Body drinks in the Water or Juice of Grapes not so much then when they are first mingled but most especially when by decoction it pierceth radically to the very profundity of it and makes it to alter its Form This is the Water which teareth the Bodies and makes them no Bodies but flying Spirits like a Smoak Wind or Fume as Artephius speaketh plentifully This operation is performed in a short while in comparison of Subterraneal operations of Nature which are done in a very long time therefore it is that so many Philosophers say that it is done in a very short time and yet it is not without cause that so many of the Philosophers have complained of the length of this decoction Therefore the same Artephius who had said that this fire of the Water of our Mercury doth that in a short time above ground that Nature was in performing a 1000 years doth in another place say that the tincture doth not come out at once but by little and little each day and hour till after along time the decoction be compleat according to the saying of the Philosopher Boyl boyl and again boyl and accompt not tedious our long decoction So fast SO then this expression here that the Toad doth drink in the Juice of Grapes so fast doth not imply but that this work must have the true time of Nature which is indeed a long time and so is every decoction at least so they will seem to the Artist who attends the fire day by day and yet must wait for the fruit with Patience till the Heaven have showred down upon the Earth the former and latter Rain yet be not out of heart but attend until the compleatment for then a large Harvest will abundantly recompence all thy toyl Till over-charged with the Broth his Bowels all to brast IT follows in the Vision that at length the Toad over-charged with the broth did burst asunder This broth is the same which the fair Medea did prepare and pour upon the two Serpents which did keep the Golden Aples which grew in the hidden Garden of the Virgins Hesperides For the Vinegre of the Philosophers being circulated upon the Body doth engender a substance like unto bloudy Broth and makes Colours of the Rainbow to appear in the ascension and descension upon your Lyon until the Eagles have at length devoured the Lyon and all together being killed with the Carion of the Carcasses become a venemous Toad creeping on the Earth and a Crow swimming in the midst of the dead Sea The Juice of Grapes then which is our Mercury drawn from the Chameleon or Air of our Physical Magnesia and Chalybs Magical being circulated upon our true Terra Lemnia after it is grossly mixed with it by Incorporation and set to our fire to digest doth still enter in and upon our Body and searcheth the profoundity of it and makes the occult to become manifest by continual ascension and descension till all together become a Broth which is a mean substance of dissevered qualities between the Water and the Body till at length the Body burst asunder and be reduced into a Powder like to the Atoms of the Sun black of the blackest and of a viscous matter And after that from poysoned bulk he cast his venom fell THis Reduction of the Body thus in this water ingenders so venomous a Nature that truly in the whole World there is not a ranker Poyson or stink according as Philosophers witness And therefore he is said to cast his fell venom from his poysoned bulk in as much as the exhalations are compared to the Invenomed Fume of Dragons as Flamell in his Summary hath such an Allusion But the Philosopher as he adds in his Hieroglyphicks of the two Dragons never feels his stink unless he break his Vessels but only he judgeth it by the colours proceeding from the rottenness of the Confections And indeed it is a wonder to consider which some Sons of Art are eye-witnesses of that the fixed and most digested Body of Gold should so rot and putrifie as if it were a Carcass which is done by the admirable Divine virtue of our dissolving Water which no Money can purchase All these operations which are so enlarged by variety of expressions center in one which is killing the quick and reviving the dead For grief and pain whereof his members all began to swell THis venemous fume of exhalations returning upon the Body cause it to swell all over according to the saying of the Philosopher The Body in this Water puffeth up swelleth and putrifieth as a Grain of Corn taking the nature living and vegetable therefore for this cause this Water is in this sence called by the Philosophers their Leaven for as Leaven causeth Past to swell so this fermenteth the body and causeth it to tumefie and puff up it is also called venom for as venom causeth swelling so this Water by its reiteration uncessantly upon our body This operation is uncessant from the first incitation of the matter even until compleat putrefaction for the Toad doth always send forth his exhalations being rather called the Lyon till he be over-come in part and then when the Body begins a little to put on the Nature of the Water and the Water of the Body then it is compared to two Dragons one winged and the other without wings and lastly when that stinking Earth appears which Hermes calls his Terra Foliata or Earth of Leaves then it is most properly called the Toad of the Earth from the first excitation even to the last of this putrefaction which exhalations are at the beginning for a time White and afterwards become Yellowish Blewish and Blackish from the virulency of the matter which exhalations hourly condensing and ever and anon running down like little veins in drops do enter the Body marvelously and the more it is entred the more it swells and puffs up till at length it be compleatly putrefied With drops of poysoned sweat approaching thus his secret Den. THe following two Verses then are but a more Ample description of this work of volatization which is an ascension and descension or circulation of the confections within the Glass Which Glass here called the secret Den is else-where called by the same Author a little Glassen-tun and is an ovall Vessel of the purest White Glass about the bigness of an ordinary Hen-Egg in the which about the quantity of an ounce of 8 drachms of the confection in all mixed is a convenient proportion to be
though to them their Light seem clear enough yet can they see nothing by it but what is phantastical and mystically or sophistically written by the Envious for the seducing of such fanciful Doters therefore when once the Light of Nature is brought to their station it discovers Cimmerian darkness there where their imaginary Light only shines such as is Fox-fire and Glow-worms Tails that shine only in the dark This Light makes their Eyes so tender that the Lamp of Nature makes them fly Moreover whatever is written according to this Light they cannot see nay they cannot endure the Light of the true Luna of the wise men for any true Light discovers their Darkness and yet their Darkness is uncapable of apprehending the Light Now in that you went in among them without your Candle it was a bold adventure for had you lost your Thread you could never have returned Then I looked into my Tower and did as I was directed and again I went to view those parts of Cimmerian Darkness once more yet with my Candle in mine hand and my Thread at my Girdle when I came the second time at the sight of this Light all fled so that I could not meet with any but I entered into several turnings which I saw and found in them several works curiously erected in which I might guess they aimed at nothing less than the Philosophers Stone With Sulphurs I Found one Furnace most curiously built in which all degrees of heat imaginable by the Art of man might be kept with one fire in which was set a multitude of curious Glasses in which were several Matters some digesting others subliming others distilling others calcining and about the Glasses and the Furnace was written this of Geber Per Deum Sulphur est omne illud illuminans quod est supra terram By this I knew that Sulphur was the subject on which was wrought and indeed with so great cunning that I could not but admire the ingenuity of the men and knowing that what a man prizeth though it be a trifle yet to spoil or destroy that would be an injury I meddled not with any Glass for indeed there were Labourers that fled not because they knew nothing but only wrought as they were directed and when I came they could not perceive that I had any Candle in my hand and wondred their Masters should fly so from a phansie Moreover I found that they could not see any light from the Fox-fire and Glow-worms tails which were there but the place being dark as being under ground they wrought by Candles and Lamps which yet could give their Masters no light but they sought all the world over for those shining subjects Yet I could notwithstanding both discern utter darkness which the Rays of my Candle would not enlighten Then said I to the Workmen What is this that is brought in here Oh said they they are Sol and Luna terrestrial whereby our Masters can see clearly the Natures of all things in the world and to make by their light the great Elixir and though we can see no light in them or very little it is because of our Ignorance in these things therefore we use our Lamps to work by Where are your Masters said I. They ran away said they because when you came they said you were a Devil and brought an ominous light with you and if they did but once see that with a full view their Works would all vanish they did therefore lay a few Charms and ran away Then I looked and the ground under me was full of Crosses and Circles at which I laughed and departed into another Room Or Salts preparate in divers wise Neither with Corrosives nor with Fire alone Neither with Vinegar nor with Waters ardent Nor with the vapour of Lead our Stone Calcined is according to our intent All those to Calcining which are so bent From this hard Science withdraw their hand Till they our Calcining better understand ANd there I found in the like sort rare Furnaces with this Inscription Sal Metallorum est Lapis Philosophorum many processes I beheld which would be tedious to relate On I passed from thence and in another Room I found large Furnaces in which they were labouring about Waters for t others were with strong reverberations calcining Lead Tin Copper Iron and all Metals and Minerals others were drawing Spirit of Vinegar with a great care till it became exquisitely sharp and in this they laboured to calcine several Metalline bodies others were rectifying Spirit of Wine so long till no Body almost or Receiver could hold it it was so subtile and this they said was the true Water of Life that must do the work others were subliming of Lead hoping after it was exquisitely sublimed to have out of it that Menstruum which should effect the Stone without any further laying on of hands This when I had seen I returned to my Furnace and recruited my Fire as I was directed and made a particular relation of what I had seen and desired the verdict of Nature upon them all She told me That they could never by this way expect any thing but loss I asked her if they might not with trying many things at length hit the right She told me No they had not any ground of truth nor could they expect either the great secret or any other particular profitable truth in that way Then said I Noble Lady pray let me know the reason of their error that I may know how to avoid the like For by such Calcination their bodies be shent Which minisheth the moisture of our Stone Therefore when bodies to powder are brent Dry as ashes of Tree or Bone Of such Calxes then will we none For moisture we multiply radical In Calcining minishing none at all THen said she Besides that they work not on the true Matter they work not in a right way which are two most desperate errors for our work is to make a substance fluid penetrating and entring that may have ingress into imperfect Metals for which cause we do preserve humidity without which our Stone cannot be penetrative So then instead of purifying the crude and ripening what is raw by these Calcinations the tender Soul is put to flight and the crudities are the more strongly vitrified so that all hope of fruit is wholly by this means taken away for take this for a rule whatever either by violence of Fire or Corrosives is turned into a dry Powder or Calx it is wholly reprobate in our work for though we Calcine yet it is in such a Fire in which our moisture is not burnt and in such a Vessel so closed that the Spirits are retained and in a word so sweet is our Regimen in reference to our Matter that moisture is advanced and is made more unctuous and by consequent more ingressive And for a sure ground of our true Calcination Work wittily only kind with kind For kind unto kind hath appetitive
and Calcination into a red Elixir which is the Sabboth of Nature and Art at which being arrived there is no farther progress without a new Marriage either by Ferment or otherwise according to the rule of Nature and Art so that indeed all our work is three Rotations and every Rotation hath three Members Solution Sublimation and Calcination The first Solution is called Inceration and Reduction or Liquefaction the second properly Solution the third Inceration The first Sublimation is called Distillation Ascension and Descension the second Separation and Ablution the third Exaltation and Sublimation The First Calcination is called Calcination and Conjunction Triptative Putrefaction c. The second Congelation Albification and Fixation the Third Illumination c. only remember thou in thy first Calcination attainest compleat Putrefaction in the second the compleat white Elixir and in the third the compleat Red. This I premise to undeceive thee that thou mayst not think to have a Calcination first a Dissolution next a Separation thirdly a Conjunction fourthly a Putrefaction fifthly c. No verily when thou first puttest thy Matters into the Vessel in the first day of thy Operation thou givest a Fire in which thy Compound boileth swelleth and puffeth visibly and drops run down in veins off from the Convex of thy Glass for in this Mercury thy Gold will beyond the nature of any other Mercury flow in the Fire as if the whole was Mercury and boyl visibly which must never cease not a moment for it brings imminent damage In the first days of your boyling which is accompanied with a constant ascending and return of Fumes your Compound grows more and more liquid now and then a skin appearing in the form of a distinguishable though not very observable whiteness At length a yellowish colour will appear less at first and more afterwards distinguishable both in the boyling Compound below and in the Fumes above and when thou seest thy Glass as if it were all over gilded where the Fumes ascend with a blewness then know that thy Man and Wife do mix their Seeds then shall an obscure greenness pass and continue a season then shall thy Fumes diminish and at length be none at all and the Compound shall boyl and swell in the bottom of the Glass After that the more you boyl your Compound will be the more black coming at last to the temper of melted Pitch for colour and bubbling which shall rot with obscure colours untill it come to the period of Putrefaction which is a most exquisitely subtle black unctuous Powder which about the 84 th or 90 th day in a good decoction will be compleat Take heed now for I shall not make such another particular Systeme of the Work in all my Writings When the fulness of compleat Calcination is perfect then will the parts begin to liquefie together again and you then shall see Vapours begin to arise again first like to a Smoak which will after return in drops condensing on the Vessel sides which believe me is a gallant sight for in this Operation as blackness by little wears away such colours will appear which thou canst not imagine that thou wilt steal from Natures due to satisfie thine eyes in the beholding of it when thou shouldest sleep This Circulation with infinite variety of colours will last between 20 and 30 days and then thou shalt see thy Matter appear pretty white which then will grow whiter and whiter till it become like a glittering Sword in the Sun-beams trust me for I have seen this shining sparkling white which yet will be quick like a most glorious Heaven-born Mercury the subject of wonders Then shall these Fumes begin to cease and thou shalt see a Congelation like to the sparkling twinkling eyes of Fishes which moving uncessantly on the Fire will glitter incomparably and wonderfully and thickning more and more it will sprout like the tender Frost in a most amiable lustre and in 25 days shalt thou have it a most impalpable undiscernable Powder Now thou needest no farther instruction only this let me tell you that the continuing your Glass in the Fire and increasing it discreetly this white will relent again and change into a perfect green and will again circulate and become perfect Azure and at the length thicken and in the end become after a long Citrinity in a moment a sparkling red pure impalpable Powder Understand this well and you will not be amazed any longer with the distinction of our Operations which is but Solution which contains Separation or Sublimation and Volatization and Coagulation which contains Conjunction Calcination and Fixation and all is but a successive action and passion of Gold the Body and his qualities and Mercury the Soul and its qualities between which intercedes a Spirit of Life which carries them up and down like a Wheel which turns till it returns thither whence it proceeded and then begins again and turns so long till it finds its rest which is in the Fiery Cathedra the red of the reddest the great Elixir commanding all Metals and reducing them to the highest period of Nature which is Gold it self having attained a plusquam perfection through the marvellous co-operation of Art and Nature Thus Gold is thy Base or Foundation the Centre to which all thy Operations return and in which they rest for they are but Circulations in their own kind and these Circulations are uncessantly carried along through the never-ceasing action of the Fire which a little intermission would retard notably an extinction of the heat would extinguish irrecoverably If any then should ask us what our natural Operation of the Stone is we would answer a making of active Natures passive and passive active by continual decoction We boyl continually and when the Spirit is active there is a constant ascension and descension and the Body is dissolved and made to fly like a Spirit and when the Body is active the Fumes by little and little cease and the Compound remains below boiling without fuming thickning and then at length calcining and this is without hands repeated three times the Fire only being kept continually and then a Sabboth of rest and perfection is attained in the mean time divers colours come and go which the dying Body and vegetative Soul do work and cause Trust me Friend and Brother thou never hadst such a manuduct as this in thy life the Reasons of my plainness my little Latine Treatise doth clearly shew The Battle 's fought the Conquest won The Lyon dead reviv'd The Eagle's dead which did him slay And both of sense depriv'd The Showrs cease the Dews which fell For six weeks do not rise The ugly Toad that did so swell With swelling bursts and dies The Argent Field with Or is stain'd With Violet intermix'd The sable Black is not disdain'd Which shews the Spirits fix'd The Compound into Atoms turn'd The Seeds together blended The flying Soul to th' Earth return'd The soaring Bird descended The
come to that pass that they will ascend no more but remain at the bottom of the Vessel together which is Conjunction in which Conjunction they swell bubble and boil till they calcine and putrefie The black Earth impalpable like Atoms of the Sun being the highest degree of Putrefaction and this is a secret not so clearly discovered by any before THe Sun is set no wonder darkest Night Doth veil the Crystal Skie The Moon 's eclips'd no marvel that her light Doth from us hidden lie The Sun 's declined to the Northern Pole And O the change that 's made The pearly drops are turned to a Coal All brightness quite doth fade Is this Apollo bright whose glory did A lustre great display Is this fair Phoebe who ere light was hid Did shine as bright as day Is this the King whose glory and renown Through all the World did ring Is this the Queen who far and near was known Oh 't is a wondrous thing Such glory and such beauty thus should fade That what before did shine More bright then Tagus should so soon be made More foul then ere 't was fine The Earth doth melt the Heavens drop down rain The Rocks which do relent They seem like Water then condense again Till all their moisture's spent To Ashes they return for Dust they were This Dust from Water springs Therefore at length they melt to Water clear Which all to Spirits brings The Nest is Earth therefore they will congeal To sparkling pearly dew Shining like tender Pearl on which doth steal A Body dry and new And then the parts like Atoms of the Sun For fineness do appear Rejoyce for now thou half thy course hast run Nor hast thou cause to fear Proceed until thou see the sparkling red Oh happy sight to see By which unto the Royal Palace led Thou shalt aye happy be Happy are they who shall not miss to find The new uprising Sun More happy they who with renewed mind In God find rest alone AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Third Gate Which is SEPARATION The Third Gate Opened Which is SEPARATION Separation doth each part from other divide The subtle from the gross the thick from the thin But manual Separation see thou set aside For that pertains to Fools which little fruit doth win But in our Separation Nature doth not blin Making division of qualities Elemental Into a fifth degree till they be turned all HAving now run through two of the twelve Gates I am come to the third which is Separation which begins so soon as the Matters have been so long circulated as to begin to hold one of another This Operation the Ancient Sages have denominated Division of Elements which afterwards they say must be joyned with a perpetual union This Separation is by others called Extraction of Natures and the parts separated are compared to two Dragons the one winged and the other without wings Artephius who for Age and Candor was next to Hermes the most eminent calls this Separation the Key of the Work which according to him is a Sublimation in a continual Vapour that what is Heavenly and subtile may ascend aloft that is to the upper part of the Vessel and there take the nature of a Body Heavenly or Spirit and what is gross may remain below in the nature of a Body Earthly which is the end of our Mastery to bring the Bodies which are compact and dry to become a Spiritual fume which is only to be done by Sublimation and Division or Separation So then our Separation is not to be understood as many foolish Alchymists do interpret it who have their Elements of which they boast much which are indeed manual done by handy-work the Glass being removed altered or renewed every time Nor are our Separations made by filter or per tritorium as many imagine who know not the nature of our Work and therefore run into such foolish fancies Nature then in our Work doth all in all who as a curious Artificer maketh no confused mixtures but first of all causeth the moisture to ascend which because it cannot get out it doth therefore condense in drops and descends so long till at length it begin to be acuated from the Body which is below for naturally all homogeneal moisture cohobated on a bodily substance with which it hath affinity is acuated by it Gold then is a Body in which the active qualities of heat and driness are more than in the Mercury and the Mercury being cohobated on it begins to be a little more Fiery or hot and then the Exhalations are more Aërial which before were more Watry and by continued Cohobation the Water partakes yet more and more of the Solary nature until at length this heat or Sulphur impregnating the Mercury cause it to congeal into a new Body or quintessence which is after the corruption of the old Body which is called the Earth or Ashes of Hermes's Tree Earth is turned into Water under black and bloe And Water after into Air under very white Then Air into Fire Elements there be no moe Of these is made our Stone of great delight But of this Separation much more I must write And Separation is called by Philosophers definition Of several qualities a Tetraptive dispersion SO then this is the method of our Operation Earth that is Sol is boiled in our Mercury in such a heat in which the Mercury may ascend constantly in a smoak and descend in drops and the Body below stand liquid and boil then shall the Water dry up under which is blackness hidden which when the Water is dryed up shall appear like the Crows Bill Then shall this Powder again relent and after 40 days rotting without fumes shall send up a smoak again which shall ascend and descend so long till the whole be made volatile and Aërial then shall the black colour vanish and the white appear This white Argent vive or Mercury animated which appears after blackness shall then totally congeal and shall be then Fire whose Nurse is the Earth then hast thou the four Elements that is cohobated thy Natures to the highest degree of perfection of the white Stone then canst thou go no further but go back and turn the same Wheel till thou hast attained the red Stone Thus hast thou the true Principles and Operation of our great Elixirs both red and white which if thou once hast thou hast Riches enough and needest no more in this life This if no more were said of this point might be enough to shew thee the truth of our true Separation yet because Philosophers have spoken much of it and indeed it is all the work to cause ascension and descension of our true Water on our true Body so long till by the Water the Body be volatized and after that by the Body the Water fixed and till that be brought to pass there will come and go the four Qualities in their season and will cause change of colours suitable
or Fiery part of the Body as Light will mix with Light and then the gross part of the Body and of the Water in the bottom of the Vessel will be brought in absence of the Soul and Spirit to putrefie So then these two Fiery Natures being Homogeneous will readily mix and will sublime together in form of a white Smoak or Vapour as saith noble Artephius and there condensing in the top of the Vessel that is about the fides and in the Concave of the Glass will return again and circulate up and down till it have destroyed the solidity of the Body making it no Body but subliming what is subtle and what is earthly and resisting turning into Ashes or an impalpable Powder by Calcination And after Putrefaction is compleat by Circulation the most fixed part which is called the Body of Fixion the essential and most permanent part of both Body and Water will ponderously be lifted up and carried aloft into the Air. And without this Separation and Division all is nothing for this is the very Key of the Mastery it is the cause of Generation therefore in vain is whatever is attempted without this boiling the gross and subliming what is subtle that in the troubles of the stormy Sea which works up and down as the Sea in the mighty Winds what is pure may ascend and whatever is impure may remain at the bottom and when all that is pure is ascended that which is left is called the Earth that remains So Artephius Now to help thee in at this Gate This last secret I will disclose to thee Thy Water must be seven times sublimate Else shall no kindly Dissolution be Nor Putrefaction shalt thou none see Like liquid Pitch nor colours appearing For lack of heat within thy Glass working NOte then that Sublimation which otherwise is called Separation Division Ascension and Descension is the Key of the Work it is placed for the third Gate and yet it is the last and the first the last it is called by Ripley and I to Eccho to his voice assure thee it is the first and last And as the Key of all our Operations is Separation so the Key to it is our true Mercury truly prepared and proportioned as it ought to be Now the proportion of thy Water is in reference to its internal additional Sulphur which is added by the Philosopher which is done by successive Eagles which are made by our Philosophical Arsnick the number of which ought to be seven The darkness vanishing and the light appearing after many showrs before the flight of each Eagle our Water being thus acuated is by Acuation purged and then it becomes powerful in dissolving the Body which will be done with a fewer number of Eagles or a greater but with 7 or 9 most desiredly This acuated Water is also the Instrument which doth move the Gold to putrefie which no other Agent in the World can do for by this the Body is ground softned and mollified the pores of it are opened and the Sulphur invisible is set at liberty which causeth the Body to rot change colours and at length become black like unto melted Pitch But if thou omit any of the number of Eagles or fail in the goodness of thy Arsnick or erre in the preparation of the Water with thy Arsnick either in Conjunction or Purification or Digestion or any other errour of which experience will warn thee do not then expect that the most exact Regimen of heat of thy external Furnace will do the Work Four Fires there be which thou must understand Natural against Nature unnatural also And the Elemental which doth burn the brand These four Fires use we and no moe Fire against Nature must do thy Body woe This is our Dragon as I thee tell Fiercely burning as the Fire in Hell NOw to give thee a touch concerning our Fire which he that knows may well be accounted a Master of our Secrets We have indeed four Fires which is one more than Artephius numbred which yet he intended to include The most noble Fire is Natural which is that which we seek to have multiplied and that is the Sulphur of Gold or rather its Fiery Tincture it is that which we seek for and we use Mercury for Sol his sake Our next Fire is our Fire against Nature and that is the Fire of our Water which is to be corrupted and by this corruption Multiplication is made The third Fire is Unnatural which is the mixture of these two Fires while they are in their action and passion and neither doth actually predominate Now for to give you a reason of these Fires denomination know that Mineral Fire is Sulphur which is hot and dry and it is the death of the Mineral Tree that is it is the cause of coagulating that is taking away the flux of the Mercury which is cold and moist this in Gold is apparent for it is a coagulated perfect Body fixed and permanent in all tryals this it hath from its Fire or Sulphur and this is Natural But now our Water hath an actual and active Sulphur in it and yet quick and fluid a Fire in Water which yet is not burned this Sulphur is true Gold and yet it is volatile this is a Riddle the Philosophers Mystery and yet true this is contrary to Natures ordinary operation in Mineral Bodies Now Nature will always care and provide for her own Child before a Stranger Gold is her own Son and is according to her own Rules but this Mercury is the Son of the Philosopher to whose nativity though Nature contribute her help yet he is out of her ordinary road and through the co-operation of Art and Nature he is for his qualifications an astonishment to Nature hot and dry internally and that actually for it is impregnated with real Sulphur and yet not coagulated but in one word Ignis aqua Gold truly so called and that most pure yet volatile and crude and no abortive not perfect yet left in the way to perfection and yet its virtue active not extinguished This subject Nature finding mixed with her Son the King even Gold by it she endeavours to mend his Constitution and to multiply his virtue for though living Gold be a thing of admirable force yet being out of the ordinary channel of Natures operations Nature doth not mind its preservation much less its propagation These three forenamed Fires are internal secret and invisible but there is one more which we use which is not ours properly for every Sophister hath it and useth it as well as we and that is Culinary Fire which yet is so necessary that without it we can do nothing nor yet without the true knowledge of its due proportion So then we use no Fires of Dung nor of the Sun or of Baths at some Sophisters perswade themselves and others for these are all the Fires which we use With the secret Sulphur that is in our Water which we proportion
to their station pleasant to the Philosopher to behold Of this Separation I find a like figure thus spoken So out of our Stone precious if thou be witty Oyl incombustible and Water thou shalt draw And thereabout thou needest not at the Coles to blow THese Philosophical Operations some have had the fancy to compare with some passages of Scripture but I had rather bound Philosophy within its own Pale and not allegorize the Holy Scripture thereto where Philosophy is not understood there To the thing in hand by continual decoction our Work will shew as in Circulation a real change of the ascending Humidity the first will be white and so continue a long time which is called Water or Phlegm and after it the Water will be coloured and ascend so on the sides of the Vessel which is called Oyl and this Oyl is not combustible for it is the true Sulphur of Gold and therefore as permanent as the Mercury Yet be not mistaken nor do not imagine that because we speak of incombustible Oyl that our Work is to be performed with the Fire of a Wind Oven or of Bellows as some foolishly imagine to burn up what is combustible until the very incombustible Oyl be left for all our volatile subject is turned into incombustible fixity with a moderate decoction in our secret Athanor whose heat in its highest vigoration is but very obscurely red hardly perceptible and in its lowest degree is not full half so strong or half at the most Do this with heat easie and nourishing First with moist Fire and after that with dry The Flegm with patience out-drawing And after that the other Natures wittily Dry up thine Earth until it be thirsty By Calcination else labourest thou in vain And then make it drink up the moisture again THis is a heat which is friendly to the Bodies for it causeth the Spirit to ascend and yet suffers it to return and by reason of its ascending and returning the Matter below stands continually moist and boileth with a perpetual motion and exhalation which ascends and returns day and night every hour and minute without intermission This moist Air or liquid form at bottom with Ebullition and sending forth a spiritual smoak or Vapour in which saith Artephius the whole Mastery consists continues about six weeks or thereabouts and then the boiling will turn to a Pitchy swelling and puffing up like Leavened Dough and from that time the Compound shall grow dryer and dryer coming at length to Pitch-black Atoms or Powder impalpable and the fumes shall cease for six weeks Be patient therefore in decoction and wait with a great deal of confidence until thou seest thy Water which at first ascends white and flegmatick to begin to change colour and the Exhalations to arise discoloured within the Glass Then continue your decoction till the Cloud which is conceived be brought forth for in this Operation be sure that the Seeds begin to mingle and will give you a sign of the beginning of the Conjunction of Natures and that is the gilding of the Glass about the sides within the Concave as if it were overspread with leaves of pure Gold Continue still your decoction till the Earth at the bottom begin to appear and the moisture of the Compound begin to be terminated in Diâ—ess in colour Black which is a sure sign of your right progress and without which you can never attain the Mastery Remember that in this Calcination thou hast a portion of Water in the upper part of thy Vessel which did not descend and in the time of the ceasing of the fumes the Body grows very dry even to Calcination which when it is intirely perfected the Water is as it were by a Magnetical virtue drawn down and then follows a second Liquefaction Separation thus must thou oftentimes make Thy Waters dividing into parts two So that the subtle from the gross thou take Till the Earth remain below in colours bloe That Earth is fixed to abide all woe The other part is spiritual and flying But thou must turn them all into one thing BUt to return to our Work of Sublimation which is as was touched before the Key of the whole Work by which Separation is made uncessantly each day and hour Thus are the Waters divided from the Waters that is the Waters above from them which are below for part of the Water ascends up like a fume and congeals and runs down the sides of the Glass in drops like veins and part remains still below with the Body and with it boils visibly and that uncessantly By this Work thou hast the subtle or thin parts of the Body and the thin parts of the Water ascend and mingle and the gross part of the Body and the gross part of the Water mixt below the one by subliming together and the other by boiling together thus is thy Body below compounded of two even the most fixed parts of Sol with the grosser parts of Lunaria and thy Water of two parts the Soul of Sol and the Spirit of Lunaria which is the true mystical ground of Fixation Thus by subliming in a continual Vapour whatever is Spiritual and Heavenly both in the Water and in the Body lightly ascending and in the upper part of the Glass taking the nature of a Spirit what is more gross earthy and corporeal will in the bottom take the nature of a Body whose colour the Soul being separated will be as Black as Pitch This Body is a middle substance between the Body and the Water a Limus a new Body or Adamica terra a medium between fixed and not fixed it is not so fixed as to be equal to Sol nor yet so volatile as the Mercury but it is sufficiently fixed to endure a Fire requisite for this Work and to suffer all the pain and woe of this our Purgatory in which it abides six weeks without fumes or vapour But as for the Spirit that is a tender thing nor is it able to endure the Fire but flys from it and abides in the uppermost part of the Glass only so long as the fumes arise the ascending do still meet with them which are above till at last making over great drops they fall down and when the fumes cease as much of the Spirit as the Concave of the Glass will hold without running down stays above until intire Calcination be perfected and then they are drawn down by a Magnetical virtue So that here is all the mystery of the proportion of the Glass to the Matter namely that it be so big and no bigger as in its Concave will hold up a competent quantity of Water after Calcination to water the dry pores while the Body below rots into Atoms Then shall you bring back the Water upon the Earth and circulate again so long till there be a total joyning till the Spirit become the Body and the Body become the Spirit and all be made true Fire or Tincture of which Conjunction