things differing according to the Strength of the one and the Obedience of the other And so by reason in that separation of the fine and Male part at first the stuff was throughly tost and mingled and the Heat of Heaven thereby like a hot Summer after a wet Spring very fierce and eager the two causes serving very fitly all Wights Man and all were made alike without any seed sown otherwise than by the great Seedsman of Heaven upon the common stuff of Earth and Water As is still seen in the common Tillage yet used in those lame and unperfect Wights which some call Start-ups and sprung out from themselves As we may be easily led to think if we consider how not onely all kinde of Plants without all setting or sowing grow up by themselves in some places and some kinde of Fish in the Sea are onely Female but also what plenty of Fish there abounds in the frozen Countries for the great heat and fatness of the Waters and chiefly that upon the slimy and hot Land of Aegypt there are yet some bloody and perfect Land-wights as Hares and Goates c. so made and fashioned But because afterward the well-mingled and fat fine Stuff and the strong working Heat failed as it must needs in time and yet the great Lord would have the continual flitting change and succession hold The same two fit Causes were duly kept by continual succession within the Bodies of perfect Wights the Stuff in the She and the Heat in Both yea and as far as need required in seeded Plants also Now we must understand as well that this heavenly Soul which when it is so clothed with that windy Body is called Spirit not onely moveth and worketh with his Heat but also for Food wasteth the Stuff for nothing that is made is able to bear up his state and being without his proper and like food and sustenance Then as our gross Fire here below feedeth upon Weather and Wind called Air as upon his likest meat And as it in his due place is too thin and scattered spreading the Fire so far as it followeth his Food until at last it vanisheth to nothing unless it be plentifully heaped and crowded up together and so kept in a narrow shell of Water which is called Oil or Fatness Even so it is between the fine starry Fire and his like Food the fine Fat of Aether for that cause besides the Divine Purpose above set it cometh down in post into these Quarters to finde and dress himself store of meat as appeareth by his tarrying for as soon as his Food is spent he flieth away as fast and leaves his House at six or sevens uncared for I was about to tell you the Cause of the divers sorts and suits of these lower Creatures but that there was a great puff of Matter came between and swept me away which now being passed over I will go forward Then if the suffering Stuff be Gross Foul and Tough and the making Heat very Small and Easie as it is within and under the Ground things are made which they call Mettals or better by the Arabick word Minerals little broken altered or changed but the gross Beginnings Earth and Water Earth especially rule still and the Life and Soul as it were in a dark dungeon fast shut up and chained is not able to stir and shew it self at all When the Stuff is Finer and Softer with greater Heat upon it there will arise a rooted and growing thing called a Plant better mingled and smaller and further broken from the low and foul Beginnings and the Life of Heaven shall have more scope because Wind or Air and Water and yet Water chiefly swayeth the Matter But if the Soul be yet more mighty and the Stuff yet finer he is able Air and Fire but that above this exalted to shew himself a quicker Workman and to make yet a finer piece of Work moving forward and by mighty sense perceiving But by reason these two Causes passing by those degrees do so mount and rise at last there is an excellent and fiery kinde contrived even Our kinde I mean most throughly and fair and finely wrought even so Fat indeed that he may not easily seem made at all of these All-making Seeds the four Beginnings whence it is that when a Corps is consumed with Fire there are found scarce six Ounces of clean Earth remaining which fineness of Body gives occasion to the greatest freedom and quickness of the Soul and ability to perform as his duty of Life Moving and Perceiving yea and shall I put in Understanding also for albeit GOD hath inbreathed us with another more fine and clean Mover called Minde for a special and Divine purpose yet that Minde as well as the Soul above is all one of it self in all places and worketh diversly according to those divers places as we shall see more at large hereafter Then you see all the differences of the four great Heads or Kindes which contain all things yea and of many lesser degrees and steps lying within every one of these which I named not before as also of sundry sorts not worth the naming of Doubtful and Middle things touching and partaking on each side of the four great ones as between the first two Stones budding like Herbs in the Scottish Sea between Plants and Beasts the Spunge Apes or rather hairy Wildmen between Beasts and Us to proceed from the divers mixtures of the Bodies If you cannot quickly perceive the Matter behold at once the outward Shapes and Fashions as they here go down a short pair of Stairs before you Do you not see Man alone through his exceeding fine and light Body carried up and mounted with a mighty heat of Heaven of an upright stature and carriage of himself that this Divine Wit might be free from the clog of Flesh when other Wights from the contrary Cause which the gross and earthly Leavings or Excrements of Hair Horn Hoof and such like declare are quite otherwise disposed as we see towards the Ground their like Companion and so the less hot and fine they be that is the liker the Earth the nearer they bend unto her being less of stature still and after that many-footed to support them but at length Footless and groveling until it come to their Heads downward and there it stayeth not but passeth quite over and degenerates from Wights to Plants And from thence if I might tarry about it I would send them down still through all the steps of them and Minerals until they came to the main Rest and Stay from whence they all sprang clean Earth and Water But I think it be now high time to take my leave of these Philosophers and to set forward as soon as I have packt up my Stuff round together especially the best and most precious Things Then we gather by that enlarged Speech
the last and lowest part being Servants and so to be used and yet very needful and not to be spared in this blessed Houshold for although we have all the helps of Long Life Health and Youth that may be yet if we want the service of Riches Poverty will besiege us and keep us under and cut off and hinder many goodly Deeds and Works of Wisdome and Virtue But what are Riches for the World and Philosophy agree not in this account No nor this within it self The World reckons store of Gold and Silver to be Riches Aristotle enough of needful things the Stoicks enough of Earth and Air To begin here These might be stretched and made large enough but that we know their straitness would they have us live by breath alone and never eat according to the guise which I set out in the Art of Healing Be it possible as it seemeth yet it is somewhat feeble as I shewed there and so somewhat halting and unperfect by lack of Youth and Lustiness for our first and perfect Life appointed besides the maims and hurts of Poverty which I right now touched Aristotle is somewhat strait also for so the Beasts are rich as well If he had put in enough of things needful for good Life wherefore we were made he had said much better yet not all for so should all the bodily means and helps aforesaid be counted Riches a great deal too confusedly Now much less can we rate the Golden-wealth right and true Riches because a Man may die with hunger for all this as he that sold a Mouse for two hundred pence died himself for lack of Food when the Buyer lived and this was done to let go feigned Midas when Hannibal besieged Casiline Then true Riches are enough of outward things needfull for good Life that is for our BLISSE above-set But because that golden and worldly Wealth is a ready and certain way and means to this out-barring Violence which no man can warrant we will use the cause for the effect in this place and strive to shew how all Men may get enough of Gold and Silver and that by weaker means than HERMES Medicine as the place requireâ—h although by the same way concerning the Stuff we work on that is by turning base Metals into Silver and Gold This is the hard matter which turns the edge of worldly Wits the brightness I say of this glorious thing dazles the Eyes of the common and blear-ey'd People because it is in their account the best and highest and most happy thing in the World when in deed and truth as it is the least and lowest and worst of all the helps unto BLISSE belonging so it is in proof and trial the less hard and troublesome both to Art and Nature the most ready and easie to be gotten and performed And to shew this we will make no long tarrying it were good first of all to enter into the way and order which Nature below keepeth in making the Metals under ground If I thought I might not run into that part of Socrates accusation for searching over-deeply the Under-ground-matters But I hope I shall not now by the mighty pains of Miners Spades and Mattocks the way is made so plain before me or else sure as they be indeed I would account them over-deep and hard for my Pen to dig in Then all under-ground Bodies which the Arabians call Minerals are either Stones or hard Juyces which we name Middle-Minerals or else they be Metals These as all other perfect things have all one Stuff Earth and Water and one Workman the Heat of Heaven as I said above for their Womb because they be but dead things as they call them the Earth will serve But for that Nature meant to make most perfect things in that kinde which require long time to finish them she chose a most sure and certain place even the deep and hard Rock it self not to the end the Earth might hide them as hurtful things and lean upon them with all her weight as Seneca saith very severely or rather finely for we know how he hunts after fineness like an Orator to whom it is granted to lie a little in a Story that he may bring it in the more prettily as the Orator himself confesseth Then the manner of the work of Minerals is this first the Water piercing downwards softens and breaks the Rock taking her course still that way where it is softest to make the cross and crooked race which we see of Wombs called Veins and Pipes of the Minerals But as the Water runneth to take the stuffe as the next thing in order it washeth and shaveth off small pieces of the Rock and when it stands and gathers together in one place by continuall drayning clenseth and refineth the same untill the middle heat of the Earth which is the heat of Heaven come and by long boyling makes it thicker and grow together in one body of many kinds according to the difference of the stuffe and heat which they call Hard-juices as I said or Middle-minerals This Workman continuing and holding on his labour though Agricola saith the cold and drought of the Rock now layes hold upon the stuffe and by little and little at last binds it into that hard form of a Metall Nay though Aristotle from the beginning gives the work to the same cause out of the heart as it were and best part of them wringeth out at last a clean close and heavy raw waterish and running Body called Quick-silver Here it standeth in perfection of this Minerall work except there chance which chance happens often by the means of that boyling any contrary hot and dry breath of the same kind to be made withall in the same place Then this meeting with that raw waterish and unshapen lump like Rennet with Milk or Seed with Menstrue curdles thickens and fashions it into the standing body of a Metall This Minerall breath our Men for his likenesse in Quality though their Substance doe greatly differ doe use to call Brimstone Now when this second and earthly heat is come into the work the milde heat of Heaven sets the stuffe which stayed before to work again and drives it forward and these two together by continuall boyling and mingling alter and change clense and refine it from degree to degree untill at last after many yeares labour it came to the top of perfection in Cleannesse finenesse and Closenesse which they call Gold These degrees if the Heat be gentle and long-suffering as they say be first Lead then Tinne thirdly Silver and so to Gold But if it be strong and sudden it turnes the weake work out of the way quickly and burnes it up and makes nought but Iron or at least if the Heat be somewhat better Copper Yea and sometimes the foulnesse of that eâ—rthly Brimstone alters the course of Nature in
Burthen but that the great desire I have both to defend the Truth from slander and to do good to them that love it makes it light and easie And again this hope upholds me That if I chance to stumble or faint at any time they will as gently and willingly lend their hand to stay me or at the least bear with the fall and misfortune Then for the common and viler Sort which either for lack of good Nature or want of good Manners use to wrangle about Words or twitch at Things I care not And because I know them not I will pass by them as unknown men for neither was Hercules able as they say to match with many-headed Hydra nor yet with the awk and crooked Crab. Then to turn my Speech which way were it best to set forward Not right and streight to the matter No Because there is such crying out against the Possibility of the good Works which our Medicine promiseth And that awk fore-judgement of the Matter hath been the chief cause which hath hitherto buried this Divine Art from the sight of good and learned Men I take it the best way of delivery before I come to the point it self to fetch about a little and shew the possibility of these effects and the way to work them by other and weaker means as well as by HERMES his Medicine For although it be not so Natural in marching forward to move the left and weak part yet I ween it right Artificial and then it shall agree with that good order of Art first of all to put by a few of the light things laid against this blessed Science Because albeit they be gathered but by guess besides all grounds and rules of certainty yet they have so wholly possessed the common people yea and some of the better and wiser sort likewise that without any further search or hearing of the Matter they have streightway cast it off for false and condemned it for as when sleep hath once taken the Fort of the Body the Senses yield and can do nothing so if wrong belief once get possession of the Soul Reason is laid to rest and cannot move again before that must be loosened and put to flight and scattered First say they sith there be seen in all places and times so many hundreds with great Pains Heed and Cunning to study this Art and to put the Receipts in practise sure if they were true and faultless as others are some should appear to hit the Mark and to gather the fruit of their Travel and not to live as they all do of all men most miserable Or at least because it is so ancient an Art it would have been recorded in some publick or private Writing besides their own which be it bound with never so deep Oaths as it is yet is it unsufficient proof and witness in their own case These be the most saleable Reasons and best approved among the People wherewith they use to batter this exchanging Science But mark how light and weak they be and easie to be wiped away for how could the Acts and Deeds of these Philosophers come into the Writings and Records of Men to begin there with them whose Fame nay whose Company they have ever shunned And when their own Records if they chanced to like of leaving any were not sown abroad and published to the World as is the use of Worldlings but left like precious Heirlooms unto some Friend of secret trust which was counted as a Son adopted upon Condition to keep it still within the House and Stock of HERMES from the Eyes and Hands of the World and Strangers running evermore like the wise Stars a contrary race unto the World that no marvel though they be both in like sort crossed by the World and mis-called Wanderers or Planets when in deed and truth they go better Now when they deem credit to be denied to the Mens own Report and Witness it is a sign that either their own Report and Witness is of light and little weight whereby they judge of others or else that their Thoughts are vain and phantastical puft up I mean with that new kinde of Self-love and overweening Wisdom to set up themselves and pull down Authorities of which sort it falls out most commonly in proof that while they strive to avoid the Lake of Superstition they run headlong unawares down the Rock of Impiety for if such a wilde breach and entry may be suffered to be made into the Credit and Authority of Writers which are the life of Antiquity and light of Memory great darkness and confusion will soon come in and overcast the World yea and so far forth at length as nought shall be believed and judged true that is not seen that even they which dwell in the main Land shall not grant a Sea A thing not onely fond and childish among all Men but also ill be to me if I speak not as I think wicked and godless amongst us Christians whose whole Religion as S. Augustine saith stands upon that ground Wherefore if we must needs believe Recorders of Acts and Stories yea though they be sometimes lewd men foolish and unlearned as if they were as whole and harmless as Xenocrates but especially although they had great cause to lie and to speak more or less than the truth who can in any common Reason refuse the solemn Oathes of so many good wise and learned Men for he that is Good for the love of Virtue it self he that is Wise to avoid the shame of Lying will speak the Truth What should I say of the learned Men whose whole care and practise drift and study is nothing else but to finde and set down the Truth But all is well and clear of all suspicion if it may be thought these Oathes and Protestations to have sprung from themselves of meer good will and desire to perswade the lovers of Wisdome and Virtue and not wrung out by fear of flattery Which may be easily judged in such Men as were all either Kings that needed not or Diogenists that cared not as it is clear in all their Eyes that are conversant in these kinde of Studies Wherefore such men as are so bold without sure ground of Reason to deny and deny still all that comes are in my Opinion greatly to be looked into for although they like Xerxes pull not down Religion with hands openly yet they are of another sort as dangerous that undermine it closely with wrong Opinions If our Men avowed such plain untruths as might be reproved by common sense and daily experience as when Anaxagor as said Snow was black and Xenophanes the Moon inhabited and full of Hills and Cities and Nicetes of old with some of late that the Earth the onely unmoveable thing in the world onely moved and such like ugly and mis-shapen Lies wherewith Greece over-swarmed then you had reason to use them with ill
this work As also there is oddes of Quick-silver But indeed the cause of all the difference is in the working Heat that maketh and disposeth the beginning midst and end of all thus or thus according to her strength and continuance and which is the main ground to this purpose Quick-silver is the Mother of all the Metalls Now when the work is done it lyeth yet as it did all the while in a thick flowing form like the form of a molten Metall and when the owner comes to enjoy it bringing in the cold breath of the Aire upon it like unto Corall and other soft and growing Sea-plants it freezeth and hardeneth of a sudden fit for the turn and use of Man wherefore it was made and ordained These be the grounds of the most and best Men that is of Men best seen and furthest travelled in such matters whereunto Cardane a man indifferent and none of us and yet very learned agreeth jump as may be But lest these dimme and little lights may seem to be darkned with the brightnesse and fame of Aristotle and his Scholar Theophrast and the late renowned Agricola holding hard the contrary and the same sometime stifly maintaining I will as much as in me lyeth and my narrow bounds will suffer endeavour to lay the Reasons all down in order which moved them to think thus and staied them in the same opinion That Wisemen at least may weigh one Reason with another and judge which is the weightiest and worthy to bear the best price without the vain regard of outward shewes and Authorities First that the Minerall stuffe sprung out from those rock-shavings aforesaid all cunning Miners can tell you who still by the nature and grit of the stone though there be twenty sundry sorts as there be sometimes in the Rock are able certainly to say this or that Veine followeth But to passe over lightly the lighter matters and such they grant as well as we The Quick-silver is the nearest stuffe and Menstrue or Mother of Metals that is the thing in great strife and question when it needed not in mine opinion if we mark the consent of all those Men in all Nations that put the name upon things which were not of the unwisest soâ—t flatly to allow his saying when they by calling it in Greek Latine and other Tongues Quick or liquid silver in secret meaning plainly say that if by the force of those two hot Workmen aforesaid it were staied and better purged it were nothing else but silver for indeed Avicen and some other of the learned side leaving out the middle degrees hold the very same opinion which I also thinke true if the stuffe and heates as they are in hot Countries be good and faultlesse But the disputers will account this kind of Argument unskilfull and soone cast it off Then remove the cold that at last came upon the Metall and hardened it and it appeares to the eye nothing else but such an altered Quick-silver Or if the witnesse of sence be sometimes false and deceitfull enter into our School and behold them by a more kindly and gentle way lead them back to a true Quick-silver both in cold and heat abiding being a true rule in Philosophy Every thing to be made of that whereunto it is loosned and dissolved But if this will not serve passe a little further into the border and edge of secrets and you shall see them by following the steps of Kinde underneath which I marked out before that is by sowing the dissolved seedes and breaths of Metalls upon Quick-silver to curdle and bring her into that form of Metall which they will and wish for Now for that earthly Brimstone As Nature to make a perfect Wight is fain to break her first order and to take the help of an hot Womb and of another Workman even so to frame a perfect dead Creature beside the help of a certain dead Wombe she must needs use the hand of a lusty fellow Workman both to fashion and to boyle it to perfection then as Aristotle saith The Sun and Man make a Man and the rest have two working and moving causes the Heat of Heaven and the breath of the Male-seed so in this work of Metall there is not onely the great and generall begetting breath of Heaven but also the private and particular seed of the Earth their father That there lacks a little Earth to stay Quick-silver Aristotle himself sheweth by a pretty like example He saith the Hares blood flameth still when it is cold whereas others stand because it wants those earthly Streams which others have to make it grow together as we may see by tryall finding no bloud which hath them with a Strainer taken away to stand and cluster but run continually Even so take away the Earth and Brimstone of a Metall which our Art can doe and the Water will not stand again but flow for ever And this is generall if we mark well that nothing stands and leaves his running before Earth ruling binds and stayes him Whosoever allowes not this way of making Metalls besides other fayls and errors he shall never unfold the Nature of Quick-silver as we may see by Aristotle and Agricola strugling and striving against the stream about it giving the cause of his flowing and flying from the Fire unto abundance of Ayre in him for then his lightnesse and feeding of the Fire two things far from his nature would as well as in all ayrie Bodies appear and shine forth unto us But he that stands upon our Grounds and Rules laid down before may easily perceive his raw cold and watry condition to make him fly the Fire his Enemy and this even proportion in power and equall rule of Earth and Water in him to be the cause of his running The first is plain But there is as much Earth in power as Water in Quick-silver albeit it seems all Water for a little Earth is as strong as much Water and no more of this then of that surely mingled and put together appears because it is the onely dry Water in the World her Earth haling one way makes her dry and her Water another causeth her to flow but this is a certain sign thereof that when we find by reason all other things if either Earth or Water ruleth over them either to stand with Cold and harden or else to melt with Fire and Water yet we see plainly this one dry Water called Quick-silver to stoop and yeeld to neither But to our purpose The Reasons why the heat of Heaven is the Workman in the Mine are many but hear a few and briefly delivered If he worketh and mingleth as I proved above all perfect mingled Bodies then what shall lett and bar him from this labour also the depth and hardnesse of the Rock No for if those subtile Bodies which we call Spirits are able in the opinion of all Men
to pierce through stone-walls without breach or sign of passage how much more subtile and strong and able to doe it is this heavenly Soul But all Men grant the Workmanship w of living things to flow from the onely cause and fountain Then tell us how it comes to passe that Fish by the witnesse of good Authors are sometimes found in the deep and sound Earth where no Water runneth Nay which way doe very Toads get into certain Rocks in Germany and Milstone-Rocks in France even so close that they cannot be spyed before they be set in grinding and break themselves as George Agricola reporteth But if Mineralls as well as Plants take Food and Nourishment wax and grow in bignesse all is clear I hope and void of doubt This will I prove hereafter In the mean time let us win it again by proof and tryal the strongest Battery that may be Cold binds and gathers in the stuffe of both like and unlike grosse and fine together without any clensing or sundering But Metalls especially Gold are very finely and cleanly purged Bodies Again if Cold had frozen and packt up Gold together the force of Heat as we see the proof in all things should cut the bands and unmask the work again which is not To this what Colour springs from Cold but his own waterish and earthy colour That if a thing be dyed with other Colours we know straightway where it had them Besides Cold leaves no smell behind it but Heat is the cause of all smells Then to omit the fiery smell of some stones and sweet savour of others and the variety of sent in Juices how hapned it that Silver found at Mary-berg smelt like Violets as Agricola reporteth That all Men feel the unpleasant scent of Copper and other base metals But mark the practice of the plain Men when they devise to judge of a Mine below they take their aime at no better mark then if by grating two stones of the hill together they feel a smell of Brimstone because they take this the Leaving of the Metals in their concoction To be short doe but cast with your selves why there be no Metals but in Rocks and Mountains unlesse these unload them and shoot them down into the Plain and then wherefore chiefly foul Metals in Cold and fine Silver and Gold besides Precious Stones in Hot Countries and you shall finde the cause of this to be the difference of that purging and refining Heat and the closenesse of the Place to keep in that heavenly heat and barrennesse withall and emptinesse of Plants to draw it forth and spend it Some cannot conceive how Heat should cause this Matter when they feel not Heat in the Mine I will not say to such that this Heat is most mild and gentle every where and there especially but bid them bring up a piece of Minerall earth and lay it in the open Ayre and they shall feel if they lay their hand upon it no small but a burning Heat by the cold blast stirred up and raised even as the lurking heat of Lime is stirred up with Water Wherefore we may safely set down and build upon it that all Mineralls are made with Heat and get thereby their Being and Perfection Albeit the outward shape and last cover as it were of the work is put on by Cold. Now for the steps and degrees of Metals that they all except Iron and Copper though some doe not except them arise from the steps and degrees of baking the self same thing and stuffe of Quick-silver it appears in Lead-mines where is alwayes for the most part some Gold and Silver found by report of good Authors And therefore Albert saith that cunning Miners use in such case to shut up the Mine again for thirty or forty years to bake the Lead better and lead it on to perfection and that thing to have been found true in his time in Sclavonia But what doe white and yellow Coppers sometime found in the Ground signifie unto us but that Nature was travelling by way of Concoction unto the end of Silver and Gold Again how comes it to passe that plain Artificers can fetch out of every Metall some Gold and Silver and out of these some base Metall unlesse Gold and Silver were the Heart and best part of the whole Body and of one self same thing with the Metals Nay Paracelse avoweth that not onely these but Mines of Middle-Minerals things further off as you know are never without some Silver or Gold and therefore he giveth counsel to water them as it were Plants with their own Mine and kindly water assuring us that they will grow up to ripeness and in few years prove as rich as any Silver or Gold Mine Then we see at last the truth of this Metalline Ground unshaken and standing sure for all the Battery of the stoutest Graecians that All Metals have but one Quicksilver Stuff Kind and Nature being all one self same thing differing by degrees of Cleanness Fineness Closeness and Colour that is by those Hang-byes called Accidents sprung out from the degrees of Boyling and Concoction It is now time to go to build upon this Matter and to shew how these lower and unclean Metals may be mended and changed into Silver and Gold to make the way to attain Riches If all Metals are so neer and like one another especially some of them which I set down before wanting nothing but continuance of Cleansing and Purging by Concoction then sure this exchange may seem no such hard and impossible matter nor to need perhaps the help of the Divine Art of Hermes but a Lesser and Baser Skill may serve the turn And as Nature is not Poor and Needy but full of Store and Change so may Skill if She will mark and follow the steps of Nature find more wayes then one to one Matter Then which is the lower way and lesser Skill following Nature We will fetch it from that way which we saw Nature take even now beneath the Ground What is that I will tell you shortly As Nature in her work below used two hot Workmen so will I and because we cannot tarry her leisure and long time she taketh to that purpose we will match and countervail her little Heats with proportions answerable and meet for our time that we may do that in fourty dayes which she doth in as many years And this proportion is not hard to be found when we consider the odds and space that lieth between the Founders Fire and the gentle Heat of Heaven And again the difference betwixt such a scowring Purger and that Eater above consuming Stones and Iron so quickly and the milde Heat and easie Breath that thickned Quick-silver And therefore as the Miners do well in trying and purging the rude Metals from the outward filth leavings besides a great outward fire to put to the lump many hot and
and search all about and so scour and cleanse a great Mass of foul Mettals how many times more then a weak and gross Mineral binder fasten and bend your Mindes upon it we see how a weak waterish and earthly Breath in a narrow place within a Cloud the Gramide or Gunne all is but Thunder because he is so suddenly turned into a larger Element and lacketh room bestirs himself and worketh marvellous deeds what may we think then of the heaps of those fat vapours of Heaven and of that most strong golden body closely couched up together in a little room when they be in a narrow Vessel drawn out and spread abroad at large by a mighty fire and thereby still pricked and egged forward for as long as the fire holdeth they cannot be still nor draw in themselves again What thing in the sturdiest Mettal can be able to withstand them How easily shall they cast down all that comes in their way break and bruise all to powder May we not all say plainly that which the Poet by borrowed speech avoweth That Gold loveth to go through the midst of the Guard yea and pâ—ss through the Rocks being more mighty than the stroak of Lightning It is so fit as if it had been made for the matter I have heard that the extreme cold weather in Lappia and Finland which lie under the pinny Girdle of the World pierceth frezeth and cracketh the Rocks yea and mettalline Vessels Again that the poisoned Cockatrice by his violent Cold and dry Breath doth the same on the Rocks where he treadeth Then what may we judge of the force of our fiery Medicine upon the Mettals by these comparisons How fiercely and quickly were it like to divide breâ—k them having an extreme fire the greatest spoiler of all things to over-match the cold dry quality a much stronger Body then those vapors which carried thâ—se former qualities and both these sent with far greater speed and swiftness as appears in the difference of the Movers Lift up your Ears and mark what I say A deaf Judge had not need hear these Matters who hath not seen how Quicksilver enters cuts and rents the Mettals though many doubt and differ about the cause thereof Cardan thinks that like as we said of the cold Weather in those frozen Countries so this marvellous cold Mettalline water entring the Mettals freezeth their Moysture within them and makes them crack and fall assunder and therefore Gold soonest of all other because his moisture is finest even as sodden-water for his fineness freezeth sooner then cold Surely very wittily Paracelse deems this done by the Spiritual subtilty of the Body even as the understanding Spirits of the Air and the lively Spirits of Heaven use to pierce through stone walls and Rocks by the same strength without the force of qualities But I think it is rather for his stronger like Nature seeking to devour them else he would pierce you hand and leather and such like easie things which he leaveth untouched as unlike and strangers As for the qualities of Quicksilver it is a question what they are and which excelleth some judge her very Cold some again marvellous hot as Paracelse for one some most moist other dry But as she hath them all apparantly so I deem her Temperate like him that hath sprung from her and is most like unto her Gold I mean though perhaps the qualities be not all in her as in him so equally ballanced But let the Cause be what it will I love not to settle upon uncertain matters the great Spirit of Mettals after she is first wrought into Gold and then into his Son our Medcine shall be in any reason both for Soul Body an hundred times stronger and more able to do it Nay Antimony and Lead are much grosser then Quicksilver and yet we see how they rend and tear and consume base Mettals even to nothing But what say we to Plants there is as great difference in sharpness and ability to pierce and enter between them and minerals as is between a Thorn and a Needle and yet you hear above the gentle Plant of the Vine and the milde Dew of Heaven yielded stuff to an eating water able within three or four distillings to devour and dissolve mettals Then what shall not onely other sharp mineral eaters but this our almighty Golden medicine shew upon them which besides that wonderful passing sharp and piercing Body hath the great help which they want of that Heavenly fire and of his swiftness stirred up by a mighty Mover These things are enough to suffice any reasonable man if they will not stop their ears against the sound of Reason touching the power might and strength of our Medicine What is then behinde Yes many I heard them whisper that albeit this Stone of ours hath such thundring power yet it may not force to our purpose consuming all the Mettal as the guise and forcible use of so fierce things is without regard or choice of any part or portion But it is not alwayes I hope the guise of violent things I need not go far There is a natural stone in Asia which by a mighty and strong property ueth in forty dayes space to consume and make away all the flesh and bones of a dead mans body saving the Teeth which he leaveth ever safe and whole and therefore they called it in times past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh-eater and made Tombs thereof for dead and Boots for Gowty men I could cloy a world of Readers with like examples if I might be suffered But weigh this one and our artificial Stone together why may not it as well have his choice and save a part in this great waste and spoiling They know not why And how then there are many deep hidden and causeless properties in the bosom of kinde and nature which no mans wit is able to reach and see into the World is full of them when Art is open and all his wayes known Indeed the World is full of late of such causeless and blinde Phylosophers which like as the Poet when they stick a little call upon Jove by many names to help to shore up the fall of a verse or stop a gap in the number so they when their eyes are dazled upon the view of a deep matter fly to Nature as fast and to her hid and unsearchable Secrâ—â—s to cover the shame of Ignorance as though GOD moved all with his finger as they say without any â—ween means or instâ—uments There is nothing done without a middle cause fore running if it were known as I think it is to some though never so dark and hid from others and therefore to come to the purpose as the reason of the natural eating Stone was clear to Agricola though unknown to Pliny and many moe the Reporters and found to be for the loose and light temperature of his Body apt
thred and the extreme red and white colours carried with their bodies take a Yellow mean also even so you must think when an hundred Ounces of silver and one Ounce of our Medicine are both by the Fire beaten and driven out at length and to the farthest thinness every part overtakes fits and reacheth other and the small part being as strong as the bigge in striving one overcomes consumes and turns the other that neither shall be quite razed but both equally changed and mingled into a third Mean thing both in fineness and colour which is gold for the Medicine is as far above gold as this beyond Silver both in fineness and colour and all other properties whatsoever And so you see the Colour also dispatched which I kept unto this place and which seemeth a wonder in some Mens sights for I hope you will not ask me how gold got this high red and unkindly colour unless you be ignorant how all such Hang-bies fleet and change up and down without hurt unto the thing that carrieth them and except you know not that by a kindly course whereby all soft and alterable things gently and softly boyled wax first black then white next yellow and lastly red where they stay in the top of the Colour we see changed and drawn up our seed of gold unto this new unwonted Colour And thus you have at last all the Reason which I saw or at least thought good to deliver to writing for the truth of HERMES or the PHILOSOPHERS STONE and MEDICINES why it is the ready way to bring all Men to all the Bliss and Happiness in the VVorld that is to Long-life Health Youth Riches VVisdom and Virtue it is now time to sit down and take our rest CHAP. IV. That Gold may be wrought into such a fine oyl as we speak of BUt methinks I hear them mutter among themselves that there is never a Reason given as yet no not one because all standing upon a feigned and supposed ground which being nothing all that is built upon it must needs come to nothing For even as Paracelsus in his supposed Paradise in the end of his High opinions concludes that if it were possible to be made by any Labour of Wisdome it would prove no doubt a notable place for Long-life and Health even so may be thought of this Stone of gold if any Art or skill were able to contrive it that it would without doubt work those wonders aforesaid But as his Paradise if he mean plainly as he sayes and not of the Philosophers Stone whereto it may be wrested is impossible to be made unless he would include himself in a place free first from the contagion and force of the outward Earth Water and Weather yea and therefore of the Fire of Heaven and Light also and secondly where all the Beginnings were in their pure and naked Nature which they call a Fifth nature which is no where save in Heaven and which were a Miracle to be conceived And lastly except he could live without Meat and his Leavings which both Learned and unlearned hold ridiculous to think Even so it is as hard in opinion and unlike that Gold may be spoiled and brought to nothing as he must be first and then restored and raised to such dignity Because as Heaven is ever one and unchangeable for that in it all Beginnings are weighed so evenly and surely tyed together in a full consent and unable ever to jarre and to be loosned in like sort Gold is so close and fast for his sure and equal mixture of his fine earth and water that no force of nature neither of earth air or water no nor of fire although he be helpen with lead antimony or any such like fierce and hot stomach easily consuming all other things will ever touch him nay which is strange the greatest spoylers in the world fire and his helpes are so far from touching him that they mend him and make him still better and better what is to be said to this Albeit I confess that to be the main ground and stay of all the work and building yet I supposed it not nor took it as granted as if I had been in Geometry but left it to be proved in the fittest place As for that supposed Paradise it is hard to judge because he did but glance at it and so leaves it unlawful to be told Albeit a Man may devise in thought as well as he for I think he had not tryed it what may be done and what Nature will suffer Then what if a Man inclosed himself in a pretty Chamber free from all outward Influence which is easie overcast for lights sake if need be with such Marble as Nero made his temple shine in darkness withall floored thick with Terra Lemn or the Earth of a Fifth nature which is better but much more hard to be gotten and had such Water within the lodging as that not long since found under ground between two silver Cups in Italy then if he could ever live quiet without Meat which I shewed not impossible or preserved himself with a Fifth nature which breeds no Leavings what think you of the matter But think what you will If it jarre and sound not well in the ears of any Man let it be among other his incredible and impossible Monsters yet our Cause shall not be the worse for it but easily possible as I will open unto you as far as my leave will suffer me which hath been large indeed and must be because I made a large promise at first perhaps too rashly but for the good meaning which must be paid and performed Aristotle saith like a wise Philosopher that nature makes her Creatures and subjects apt to move and rest that is changeable and again that a Body that is bounded cannot be without end and everlasting And therefore that when Heaven ever moveth and Earth ever resteth it is beyond the compass of Nature and springs from a more Divine cause If his Rule be true as it is most certain then Gold a thing not unbounded nor yet an extraordinary and divine work but made by the ordinary hand of Kind as we heard above must needs decay and perish again and cannot last for ever And if Nature can dissolve him much more shall she with the help of Art performe it And that which was said of Fire and his helpers is nothing for why do they better Gold but because they remove his Enemies when Nature had secretly laid about him to destroy him And so a very stick as I said above may be saved from decay But let nature have her swinge under Ground or skil above and they shall cause his enemies in time to spoil and consume him We cannot tell say they Country-like it may be a divine and no natural work for we see it everlasting Go to be it so I will overtake them that way too for as we know
that which Aristotle knew not that both Heaven and Earth by the same divine cause that made them both may be and once must be marred and changed so we may think that Gold although it were a divine work yet by the like skill following the divine Pattern might fall to decay and perish But what is that divine Pattern how shall men be like unto GOD even by the goodness of God who hath as I said above left this Pattern open in al places easie to be seen to them that seek to be like the main Pattern wherof wewere al made And this as HERMES saith is gentle witty separation where with he avoweth both the great this our little work made woven and so to be marred and unwoven again to figure unto us privily that there is no great and cunning work performed by such rude and smith-like violence as you speak of viz. consilii expers mole ruit sua but by gentle skill Counsel as we may see plainly fitly by a thing in virtue and price I mean in worldly estimation most near unto Gold the noble and untamed Diamond which when he comes into the smiths hands will neither yield to Fire nor Hammer but will break this rather then he will break and not so much as be hot as Pliny saith but not be hurt as they all grant by that other And yet by the gentle means of Lions or Goats blood though they be hot bloods that by kind and this by disease of a continual Ague you may so soften and bring under this stout and noble stone as he will yield to be handled at your pleasure Nay by the flowing Tears of molten lead a thing not so hot as may be he will quite relent and melt withal Even so we may judge of Gold That albeit the more roughly that it be handled the less he stoops as the nature of stout things is yet there is a gentle and heavenly skill and a way to soften him and make him willingly yield and go to Corrruption though this as well as that be not common and known abroad as no reason it should But what need we fly with Aristotle to any divine shelter As Gold was made by a common course of Kind and must dye and perish the same way so this skill of ours needs not be fetched from any hid and divine secret whatsoever our Men say to keep off the unworthy but from a plain Art following the ordinary and daily steps of Nature in all her kindly works and Changes Then mark and chew my words well and I will open the whole Art unto you GOD because he would have none of these lower Creatures eternal as is aforesaid first sowed the four Seeds of strife in the world one to fight with and destroy the other And if that would not serve as it will not here he made those that spring from them of the same nature and there is nothing in the world that hath not his match either like or contrary able to combate with him and devoure him But the Like eats up and consumes the like with more ease and more kindly then the contrary for their nearness and agreement Then if nature mean to spoil Gold and make him perish because it is so strong a thing she takes the nearest and most kindly way she sets a strange Like upon him to eat him up and consume him What should I say more or more plainly you know the thing most like and nearest unto him This is in all Mens sight corrupt and subject to decay and then when it is loosened very strong and fierce It is ever more wrapt about him and so by contagion it strikes and enters and pulls him after and all in their own natural heat and furnace rot together and in due time rise again and the same for being all one in effect as the seeds of Male and Female it booteth not whether overcome in the end and a new thing like the old must needs arise if some occasion in the place as I said of Heat and Brimstone come not between and turne the course You have heard of Nature let us now come to Art If she cannot follow those steps of nature she is but a rude skill Nay she must pass them far if she mean to take profit by the work for albeit I deny not but all things may fall out so luckily that our Sonne of Gold may start up under ground though never found for who would know it yet nature may so easily fail in the choice of the corrupting ground but chiefly in tempering the degrees of her kindly heat without which the work will never see end and again the lets are so many and so casual that perhaps we would be worne before the work were finished Then how shall Art her Counterfeit pass this kindly Pattern very easily by the understanding skill of a divine Mind which I said to pass nature in her own works first in choosing the best ground and best proportionated for generation which nature in this respecteth not as aiming at destruction onely then in removing all Lets to come between But especially in well ordering that gentle and witty fire of HERMES wherewith all the work is sundered that is turned altered and mingled But what is this Witty Fire for here is all the hardness here all the Work is blinded All the rest is easie Bend your mindes I say I will tell you all the Art Enclose the seed of Gold in a common and yet kindly place lo here is all the Art All the rest is written to blinde and shadow this so far as I may do good and avoid hurt I will unfold this short hid and dark matter and yet Hermetically and Philosophically As the Sun is the Father of all things and the Moon his Wife the Mother for he sends not down these begetting Beams immediately but through the belly of the Moon and this double Seed is carried in a Winde and Spirit into the Earth to be made up and nourished so our Sun hath his Wife and Moon though not in sundry Circles but Adam-like and both these are carried in a Spirit also and put into a kindely Furnace To be more plain this Seed of Gold is his whole Body loosened and softned with his own Water I care not how but best with his beloved for ease in working There is all your Stuff and Preparation A very contemned trifle Here is the Fire this Belly is full of Blood of a strange Nature It is Earthy and yet Watery Aiery and very Fiery It is a Bath it is a Dunghill and it is ashes also And yet these are not common ones but Heavenly and Philosophical as it becomes Philosophers to deal with nothing but Heavenly things Search then this rare kinde of Heat for here is all the cunning This is the Key of all this makes the seeds