Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	cold_a	hot_a	moist_a	1,558	5	9.6254	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44608	Aurifontina chymica, or, A collection of fourteen small treatises concerning the first matter of philosophers for the discovery of their (hitherto so much concealed) mercury which many have studiously endeavoured to hide, but these to make manifest for the benefit of mankind in general.	Houpreght, John Frederick.; Flamel, Nicolas, d. 1418.; Ripley, George, d. 1490?	1680 (1680)	Wing H2941; ESTC R31127	85,086	301

Mercury which is such as the Planet is with which it is in Conjunction For that Arnoldus though in other Sciences he were a Reverend and Ingenious Doctor yet in this Art he handled Experiments only without the learning of the Causes Now when he saith that in the first Sublimation the crude Spirit is sublimed from the inferiour salt Minerals and that Mercury it self which in its own nature is cold and moist becomes a Powder of an hot and dry nature as he saith this yet conduces nothing to our Work But let it be so that he makes of Mercury such a Powder as he speaks of that is throughly dried and hot by sublimation from Salts yet those Purifications are vain and impertinent to our Work yea as to the perfecting of our Work they are hurtful For though these inferiour Minerals communicate with Metals in their nature yet not in kind and proportion For the superiour and inferiour Minerals in their nativity and subterraneous formation are of one and the same constitution ●niversally and therefore of the same nature but they differ in proportion quality and kind or form Wherefore if Mercury be distilled with those inferiour Minerals and throughly dried then his internal nature is confounded and disproportioned and is hindred and made unprofitable as to the effect of a Feminine Seed and invalid for our Metallick Work For so soon as he is turned into the form of a Powder except from his Body of Sol or Luna so soon he undergoes a through driness unprofitable to the Philosophick Work Yet I deny not but that a drossie and impure Mercury may and ought by a simple Salt be sublimed or purged once or oftner according to a due Philosophick experience to take from it its dro●s and outward Mineral impurity so that notwithstanding the fluidity and radical humidity of Mercury may always remain unaltered For the Mercurial kind and form in such a Work ought to remain uncorrupted as hath been said already Nor ought its outward form to be reduced into a throughly dried Powder because its external form being corrupted shews its internal nature to be confounded unless it be in the way of generation that it be altered as may be manifestly seen in the signs which appear in the Work of the natural way For there are Sublimations of Mercury from its own proper Bodies which are conjoyned and mingled with it by an Amalgamation with it in its most inward parts from which being oftentimes raised and reunited it rejects and loses its superfluities and is not confounded in its nature and afterwards it is very agreeable to the Philosophick Work and powerful to dissolve Metallick species yet it is not greatly altered intrinsically for the Philosophick Work unless it be altered by fixed Bodies dissolved in it But wonderful things may be done in Medicines for Sensitives from this dried Powder whether it be reduced into an Oyl or into Water or it abide in a Powder but it is not at all pertinent to the Philosophick Experiment And therefore it must be universally noted that so soon as Mercury is turned into a Powder of whatever sort contrary to the nature of its Body to be dissolved so soon will it be unprofitable to the Philosophick Work There are certain deceiving Sophisters who by joyning Venus to it or adding other species make a Sophistick Work that is they give unto imperfect Copper a colour but not natural they induce indeed a kind of an apparency but not a true nature that is transmutation like as he that paints a dead Image or composes a Statue of Wood which appears only but is not and as much as a living differs from an Image and Picture so much differs their Work from the Philosophick Hence this mixture perseveres not in the Test of the Fire though it be Mineral because Nature attracts it not from a proportionable digestion nor hath Art vehemently decocted it to an alteration of the mixt natures wherefore that Copper appears to be superficially only and not permanently and intrinsically tinged Wherefore we must not adhere to the Experiments of deceitful Sophisters because the truth of the natural Art confutes this Sophistick Work and shews it to be false And if you will instance farther and say that as the said Armaldus by Sublimation purged away the dross of Mercury and dried it in its nature so also as you say he by reviving it moistned it again and made the Mercury it self hot and moist and in its nature conformable to its Body This hinders not my Reverend Doctor nor refutes the truth of the Philosophick Art yea rather an errour appears in the Natural Art For as is manifest Arnaldus doth teach if you regard the found of his words that Mercury thus throughly dried is revived by hot water into which it is cast and he saith that it is made hot and moist when it was first sublimed hot and dry But what true Philosopher would say that Mercury or any other Metal is changed in nature and internal quality by simple Water however hot or boyling or that it could thence acquire its natural humidity and so be revived Therefore Mercury in this revival acquires nothing because common Water neither decocts nor alters it because it neither hath entrance nor ingress into it and that which neither hath entrance nor ingress alters not because every thing to be altered must first be throughly mingled For indeed such a Water may wipe away from it some superficial dross swimming upon it but cannot infuse into it a new quality For what nature soever Mercury reduced into a Powder and mortified by Sublimations retained such nature altogether it retains revived by Water Now this I would have to be spoken in honour and respect unto the said Arnaldus but I contemplate and defend the truth of Nature and Experience Furthermore honoured Doctor that I may by this my Answer satisfie your Epistle and put an end thereto I humbly entreat you that you would take in good part and favourably bear what I have written not by way of Confutation but Disputation But if I have answered any thing that offends you take it yet in good part and favourably or signifie it to me in writing and I will satisfie you to my power as the most true Doctor our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God blessed for ever and ever shall give and teach me Thanks be to Christ. The Prefatory Epistle of Bernard Earl of Tresne to the noble Doctor and most learned Philosopher Thomas of Bononia My Friend IF I had any thing more noble imagine you with what good will I should dedicate it to thee for having considered the wonderful virtue of this Science in its height which you are not ignorant of therefore was I willing to dedicate this my Labour unto thee intreating thee to accept it with as good a will as I give it unto thee and conclude that whilst I give thee this my Labour that I have given a

adequate activity and passion for some of the Elements are therein either in an active or passive power and the rest are therein actually But in the Philosophers Stone which is Gold being it is an uniform Work of Nature all the four Elements active and passive are actually therein and permanent in an equal proportion For the Essence or Nature of Gold is nothing else but the four Elements equally mixed not that their form and matter may be said to be therein equal but their passive and active power that is they are each alike and equal not in quantity but in quality because that the active doth not exceed the passive in its acting nor on the other side the passive doth not exceed the active by suffering more because there is an equal proportion as to measure in our Gold or in our Medicine double hot double moist double cold double dry and all these are actually therein by actual action and passion that is Fire Air Water and Earth as we have said before And all these are said to be alike and equal in quality not quantity because they are equal in actives and passives and they are therefore durably permanent in Gold because the passive in it consists permanently in its active and on the other part the passive rises not up against the active And they ought not to be alike in quantity that is there ought not be so much matter of Fire as there is matter of Earth because then the Fire by reason of its quality would be everywhere of an unequal activity with its passive Earth and of a far greater Wherefore there is in Gold as to its matter but not as to its quality much more of the heavier and more passive Element than of the lighter and more active that ●s more in quantity there is in ●t a greater quantity of Earth than Water a greater quantity of Water than Air a greater of Air than Fire wherefore it is the heaviest of all Metals But in this ●nequal proportion of quantity there is an equal and like proportion of quality of hot dry moist and cold because each of these is in Gold as hath been said The cause of which weight is the permanency of the solidity of the Earth and Water and the solution of an homogeneous Water with the Earth because Water dissolves an homogeneous Earth Also their intrinsical thorow mixture in their very least particles is the cause of the weight because the Water as well in Gold as Quick-silver suffers not the Earth to have any ●res in it which is otherwise in other Metals in which pores are insensibly made in their congelation because of the dross mingled in those Metals all over rejected by the Mercurial nature and heterogeneous whereupon their lightness results which is nothing else but want of matter and porousness of the same as weight is nothing else but a solid addition of matter Wherefore if there were in an equal commensurative quantity so much of the solid matter of Fire as there is of the matter of Earth Fire would be as weighty as Earth But the cause of the weight of Saturn is its immature congelation because it d●●● not yet reject the dross of its parts whence pores are made in it but the pure and impure abide through mixt together in it everywhere as in the first crude Quick-silver in which the inspissation and coagulation is weak for that cause Saturn or Lead retains the weight of its Quick-silver not because of the purity of its solid matter but because of its immature coagulation or coction Wherefore if in this Work you would not destroy the Fire and Air you must preserve in a distinct and like proportion the heat of the Compound But if you would not destroy the Air and the Water then in the same Compound you must cherish the humid so in the same manner you may preserve the Water and Earth or the Earth and the Fire in the said Work by preserving rightly and by the artifice of the Philosophick skill both the cold and dry because if you destroy any one of them the proportionab●● form and kind of Gold is lost For this cause the Philosophers say our Gold is made of every thing that is of every Element every Element being intrinsically preserved in it and actually compounding it wherefore all the Elements are intrinsically in act or power the principles of all compounded alterable things and for that cause are said to be all things Furthermore my Reverend Doctor for your credits sake you must understand the sayings of the Philosophers according to the possibility of Nature and not according to the sound of Words For they have handled this holy and hidden Art and its Secrets under Similitudes Fables Riddles and obscure words and have hid it purposely that it might not be exposed to the unlearned impious and unworthy Furthermore that I may go on to other Heads of your Epistle I understand the artifice of your Stone to be a composure from Gold but from your writing I cannot apprehend it because you set not down the first original of that Composition Therefore I shall not need to handle it more at large till you instruct me fully and more plainly in its Composition and Operation For I cannot neither believe that the Elixir or Philosophers Stone can consist of the signs appearing in it and of the properties of the nutritive vegetation of the flaming Fire which you attribute to it as I have openly shewed in what I have said already But when I received your Work and the gift of so great a Secret sent unto me I at once understood your unfeigned love and free confidence in me Wherefore for your Friendship sake I reserve your Stone with me and keep it as a most acceptable gift and shall write unto you more concerning it when you shall declare it to me more manifestly But whereas you say that in your Stone there are three a Body Spirit and Soul which is manifest to you by your experience and work the Philosophers when they said those three natural things were in their artificial Stone understood it by way of resemblance and experiment For they called the Earth its Body and Bones because it is an astringent Compound and restrains the fluid Elements from their raw flexibility having the Fire also with it symbolically by its driness But they called the Water and Air its Spirit because they are the Elements that moisten and dissolve the Earth But they called the Air and Fire the Soul because they ripen and digest the whole Compound And they named them thus with resemblance unto Humane nature because in a well-constituted Flesh there ought to be Bones to sustain the Body and likewise there ought to be in the Flesh a vivacity of vegetable Accidents which are called its Spirits contrary to the errors of the Pagan Philosophers who thought the vital Spirits to be something distinct from the Body compounded and parts compounding