hath come my experience neither doubt I but by it to obtaine that universal Salamander which lives in the fire These things which I write are true and no fallacies And though this secret be incredible to the ignorant for the wonderful vertues it sheweth in the preparation of medicines I would willingly publish it to the world for publike good but on consideration I held it not meet to communicate it for certain causes But only lest the knowledge of it should perish and that the true and almost extinct medicine for the curing of diseases vulgarly incurable might flourish I have revealed this secret menstruum to two friends viz. its preparation and use But do thou not think because I write of these high things that I do intend to make common the secret to all in general not so but I endeavor to confirm him that seeketh and give him occasion to search this secret deeper which being found he shall not only finde the truth of my words but he shall daily by exercise obtaine far greater things then these And because I have never aspired after vaine riches and honors nor never desire them I might well be perswaded to leave to others as yet not hating the wicked world my troublesome labors because in this my painful age such tedious labors are very burdensome besides Philosophy hath pointed me another way so that what I am able I have determined to abstaine from these vanities and to seek a perpetual good the life of rest but my counsel shall not be wanting to those that seek it for besides moved with the former reasons also seeing innumerable many vaine Philosophers as well learned as unlearned uncessantly working and losing rheir time and labour and at last despairing are perswaded that there is no truth in the Philosophers writings but to be all filled with lyes and dâ—cits whence royal Chymistry is disgraced But seeing and marking the infallible truth of ancient writings suffering injury by unskilful Zoilus's I could not but defend their worth and vindicate them from injuries viz. in a few words demonstrating the possibility of metallical transmutation But I do not affirme that by the art which I have many yeers exercised and the possibility of which I defend I have gotten much wealth because hitherto I could not make trial but in smal quantity for finding out the possibility without any gaine and only particularly for I have never tried any thing in the universal work reserving it to a more convenient time and place But I will not deny such a universal medicine because I have seen the principles of it and foundations of the art wherefore houshold cares being removed I intend to make tryal of it For who will longer doubt of the possibility of it being proved by most excellent men yea Kings and Princes which godly and honest men have not written for gaine some of whom though they lived with Ethnicks yet were they not Heathens who had more knowledge of Christ by the light of nature then those foolish detractors of Christian truth as they appear to be by their writings But thou wilt urge that if those things were true which they write then it might be found in them but it is not because all and every one miss of it in their practice so that their time labor and charges are spent in vaine I answer Their writings are not to be understood according to the letter but according to the hidden sense according to which they have written the naked truth which to the illuminated is conspicuous And this menstruum sufficeth to defend the writings of the Philosophers without the metallick transmutations so that I verily believe the time to be neer when the omnipotent God before he judge the world in fire will shew his omnipotency to the nations by the revelation of the wonderful and incredible things of nature of which transmutation of metals is not the least which in the third part of this mineral work I shall deliver to the last age being acceptable to God to the profit of my neighbor and for demonstration sake Wherefore I now pass over such things with a firme hope that this faithful admonition shall be received as an undoubted and infallible truth How the aforesaid Regulus of the flowerss and dross of Antimony is to be used in the bettering of course metals shall be shewen that art may not be abused THe Antimonial Regulus a radical metallick humor may help to perform wonderful things for being reduced to a water without a corrosive it resolveth all metals cleanseth washeth and purifieth them and turns them into a better species so that particularly not a smal gaine may be from thence received But how it may be redueed into water and how by its help metals may be resolved volatized and again fixed hath been demonstrated by Artephius Basilius and Paracelsus wherefore we need not here repeat their writings but refer the readers to their works But not only the Regulus but also all Antimony may many wayes be used in the separation of metals viz. For the extraction of hidden gold which cannot be done without Antimony as shall appear by the following example When you finde a marcasit or other ironish fossile that will not yeeld to the tryal by lead add to it three parts of Antimony and being well mixt melt them in a covered crucible and being melted powre it into a cone and when all is cold separate the Regulus which purge againe by fire as before and thou shalt finde gold contained in the aforesaid fossile And if it be indued with more plenty of gold for it is not all drawn out at one time viz. with the first Regulus another Regulus is to be melted by adding more iron and salt-peter which is also of a nature near to Sol. And if these marcasit fossiles are not ferreous you must in the first fusion adde iron and nitre to them or else they yeeld no Regulus By the adding more scals of iron more Regulus is made and for the same use as that is of which above in the fusion and separation of extracted gold weights also may be made out of the dross And thus are lapis calaminaris marcasit kobolt zinck talc and other fossiles separated viz. containing gold But all gold containing iron as that of Stiria Carinthia the Granâ—cia and of Transylvania c. may this way be easily separated with profit by the help of iron And if the iron have no gold yet if the Antimony have it it may thence be separated by fusion with iron viz. if it be brought to a Regulus The rest of the Antimony may again be fused with new iron and new glass of more weight then it but less then this and be reduced into a Regulus fit for the following uses Out of the dross let weights that nothing may be lost be made that thou maist have the more gaine as may appear from the following example When you have the Antimony
like gunpowder but if it be kindled from above it doth not fulminate but onely burneth away like a quick fire metals may be melted and reduced thereby To make a spirit out of Salt of Tartar Sulphur and Salt-nitre IF you take one part of salt of Tartar and one part and half of Sulphur with three parts of salt nitre and grinde them together you will have a composition which fulminateh like Aurum fulminans and the same also after the same manner as above hath been taught with the gold can be distilled into flores and spirits which are not without speciall vertue and operation For the corruption of one thing is the generation of another How to make a spirit of saw dust sulphur and salt nitre IF you make a mixture of one part of Saw-dust made of Tilia or Linden-wood and two parts of good sulphur and nine parts of purified and well dryed salt nitre and cast it in by little and little there will come over an acid spirit which may be used outwardly for to cleanse wounds that are unclean But if you mix with this composition minerals or metals made into fine powder and then cast it in and distill it there will come not only a powerful metallical spirit but also a good quantity of flores according to the nature of the mineral which are of no small vertue for the minerals and metals are by this quick fire destroyed and reduced to a better condition whereof many things could be written but it is not good to reveal all things Consider this sentence of the Philosophers It is impossible to destroy without a flame The combustible Sulphur of the Calx which the digged Mine doth doe Also fusible minerals and metals may not only be melted therewith but also cupellated in a moment upon a Table in the hand or in a nut shel whereby singular proofs of oares and metals may be made and much better then upon a Cupel whereof further in the fourth part of this book Here is opened unto us a gate to high things if entrance be granted unto us we shall need no more books to look for the Art in them To make metallical spirits and flores by the help of salt-nitre and linnen cloth IF metals be dissolved in their appropriated Menstruums and in the solution wherein a due proportion of salt nitre must be dissolved fine linnen rags be dipt and dryed you have a prepared metal which may be kindled and as it was mentioned above concerning the saw dust through the burning away and consuming of their superfluous sulphur the mercurial substance of the metal is manifested And after the distillation is ended you will finde a singular purified calx which by rubbing coloureth other metals as that of gold doth guild silver that of silver over-silvereth copper and copper calx maketh iron look like copper c. which colouring though it cannot bring any great profit yet at least for to shew the possibility I thought it not amiss to describe it and perchance something more may be hid in it which is not given to every one to know Of Gun-powder OF this mischievous composition and diabolical abuse of Gunpowder much could be written but because this present world taketh onely delight in shedding innocent blood and cannot endure that unrighteous things should be reproved and good things praised therefore it is best to be silent and to let every one answer for himself when the time cometh that we shall give an account of our stewardship which perhaps is not far off then there will be made a separation of good and bad by him that tryeth the heart even as gold is refined in the fire from its dross And then it will be seen what Christians we have been We do all bear the name but do not approve our selves to be such by our works every one thinketh himself better then others and for a words sake which one understandeth otherwise or takes in another sense then the other and though it be no point wherein salvation doth depend one curseth and condemneth another and persecuteth one another unto death which Christ never taught us to do but rather did earnestly command us that we should love one another reward evil with good and not good with evil as now a dayes every where they use to do every one standeth upon his reputation but the honor of God and his command are in no repute but are trampled under foot and Lucifers pride vaine ambition and Pharisaicall hypocrisie or shew of holiness hath so far got the upper-hand with the learned that none will leave his contumacy or stubbornness or recede a little from his opinion although the whole world should be turned upside down thereby Are not these fine Christians By their fruit you shall know them and not by their words Woolves are now clothed with sheeps skins so that none of them almost are to be found and yet the deeds and works of Woolves are every where extant All good manners are turned into bad women turn men and men women in their fashion and behaviour contrary to the institution and ordinance of God and Nature In brief tke world goeth on crutches If Heraclitus and Democritus should now behold this present world they would finde exceeding great cause for their lamenting and laughing at it And therefore it is no marvel that God sent such a terrible scourge as the gun-powder is upon us and it is credible that if this do not cause our amendment that a worse will follow viz. thunder and lightning falling down from heaven whereby the world shal be turned upside down for to make an end of all pride self-love ambition deceit and vanity For which the whole creature doth waite fervently desiring to be delivered from the bondage thereof Now this preparation which is the most hurtfull poyson a terror unto all the living is nothing else but a sulmen terrestre denouncing unto us the wrath and coming of the Lord. For Christ for to judge the world is to come with thundering and lightning and this earthly thunder perchance is given us for to put us in minde and fear of that which is to come but this is not so much as thought on by men who prepare it only for to plague and destroy mankinde therewith in a most cruel and abominable manner as every one knoweth For none can deny but that there is no nimbler poyson then this gunpowder It is written of the Basiliske that he killeth man only by his look which a man may avoyd and there are but few if any at all of them found but this poyson is now prepared and found every where How often doth it fall out that a place wherein this powder is kept is stricken with thunder as with its like in so much that all things above it are in a moment destroyed and carryed up into the aire Also in sieges when an Ordnance is discharged or mines blown up all whom it lays hold on
too covetous and idle loathing the blackness of coals and the rust of the tongs who had rather handle the viol and bandore then coals c. And these are deservedly compared to that young man of whom in the 19. Cha. of Mat. it is said he had a desire to learn the truth but was unwilling to follow Christ in poverty and misery From proud Peacockes and pratling Parrots nothing but tedious clamours whereas on the contrary the auditors are refeshed with the voyces of birds Therefore that perverse condition of man is to be bewailed affecting rather the vanities of a proud world then vertues and praise-worthy arts then which nothing is more honest and nothing more profitable after the world of God revealing to us the will of God concerning charity towards our neighbor And thus much for youths sake I was willing to say that they would not spend their tender yeers in vanities but rather would make tryal in the fire without which no man obtaines a true knowledge of natural things which although it seem hard in the beginning yet it is pleasant in old age Now follows the mixture of those subtile mineral sulphureous and salt spirits with water AS concerning the weight of the aforesaid spirits that are to be mixed with sweet water giving it the nature and property of natural bathes I would have thee know that of those which in the second part I shewed to be various and divers being viz. not equal in vertue the same weight cannot alwayes be so accurately observed seeing also there is a consideration to be had of their strength and of the strength of the patient Now you may at the beginning mix one or two pound of the spirits to a sufficient quantity of the water and then by sitting in it make tryal of the strength of the artificial bath which if it be too weak is to be increased by adding a greater quantity of the spirits but if it be stronger then it is to be diminished by abstraction of which more at large in Arte nostra Balneatoria Now this observe that it is best to make Baths in the beginning weak then stronger by little and little by degrees as the nature of the sick is accustomed to them that it be not overcome by the unaccustomed use of them being too strong Wherefore Baths are to be used with discretion and cautiously for which matter I refer the reader to my Artem Balneatoriam in which he shall find plaine and perfect instruction Let it suffice therefore that I have shewed the use of that Copper Globe in heating Baths which let the sick take in good part until more come Now follows the use Of Sulphur Bathes APply the furnace with the Copper globe to the tub after the manner aforesaid and powre in a sufficient quantity of sweet water which make hot with the fire kindled in the furnace by the help of the globe which being sufficiently warmed make the patient sit in it and powre into it so much of the sulphureous spirit as is sufficient which being done cause that the tub be covered all over that the volatile spirit vanish not and as necessity requires continue the heat till the patient come forth Know also that the water is to be changed every time and fresh spirits to be mixed And this is the use of the Copper globe in heating bathes of sweet or medicinal water and that either of vegetable or mineral and this made sulphureous is by art or nature whereby most grievous and otherwise incurable diseases are happily cured Of which enough now in this Treatise The use of the Copper Globe in dry Baths which are more excellent then the moist in many cases I Might have put off this matter unto its proper Treatise where all things shall be handled more largely and cleerly yet by reason of some unthought of impediments for a while procrastinating the edition of the promised Treatise I am resolved to say something of their use after I have made mention of the humid and indeed not only of the use of those subtile sulphureous and dry spirits but also of the use of subtile vegetable and animal spirits which are medicinal because in some diseases dry baths are more commodiously used then moist He therefore that will provoke sweat by a dry bath without water let him provide a wooden box or wooden instrument convenient to sit in standing upon a stoole boared through that you may raise it up more or less according as you please and having boards appoynted for the armes and feet to rest upon This box also besides the great dore must have also a little dore serving for the puting in of a burning lamp with spirit of wine or of any earthen vessel with coals for to heat it The box being well warmed let the patient go in and sit upon a stool let the box be very close shut all about and the furnace with the Copper Globe be fitted thereunto under which let there be a small fire kindled by help whereof the volatile spirit growing warm goeth forth into the box like a most subtile vapour penetrating all about the patient But when this spirit is not sufficient to heat the box set in it a burning lamp with spirit of wine or some earthen pot with coales the best whereof which are made of Juniper or the vine especially of the roots as being such that will endure long and cannot easily be extinguished by the vapours of those spirits that the patient take not cold and the vapours of the spirits may the better penetrate the body of the patient Let the wick for the spirit of wine in the burning lamp be incombustible made of the subtle threads of gold of which thing more in Arte Balneatoria In the mean time that volatile spirit penetrates and heates the whole body and performes its office being this way used better then by being mixed with water When the patient hath sate there long enough let him come forth and go into a warme bed to sweat Now before he go into the box let him take a dose of that volatile spirit which is used outwardly to provoke sweat and accelerate the action And by this means not only those volatile sulphureous spirits of salts minerals and metals are used outwardly without water to procure sweat but also the spirits of many vegetables as of mustard seed garden cresses crude Tartar also of animals as hartshorn urine salt Armoniack c. for the expelling of most grievous and desperate diseases Now the aforesaid spirits have divers properties the volatile spirits of salt minerals and metals have some those of vegetables and animals have others those have a sulphureous and fiery essence these a mercurial and aerial wherefore they serve for different uses In some diseases those sulphureous are preferred but in others vegetable and animal where also a consideration is to be had of the sickness and bath it self that one be not used for the other to
great a heat be destroyed For oftentimes the strongest crucibles melt with too much heat wherefore a register is made for the governing of the fire And by the help of this furnace with Gods blessing I found out my choicest secrets For before and indeed from my youth I under went the trouble of those v ulgar labours performed by bellows and common vents not without loss of my health by reason of the unavoidable malignant and poysonous fumes which danger this furnace was without not onely of poysonous and malignant fumes but also of all excessive heat For our furnace sends forth no fume but above o drawing that the dore being opened for the putting in of coals it attracts by the vehemency of the fire another fume that is remote by the distance of halfe an ell And because the fire doth so vehemently attract it keeps its heat within it self so that there is no fear of burning yet you must cover your hand that holds the tongs with a linnen glove twice double and wet in water and with the other hand a wooden fence that is perspectible to preserve your eyes otherwise it wants all danger of vapours or fumes as hath been said and all excessive heat that which is a great benefit in Art I doe ingenuously confess if I had not found this a few years since I had not without loss left off all Alchymy together with its tedious labours For I had spent many years of my life in great misery of my labours in superfluous cares and watchings as also in stinks so that going into my Elaboratory with loathing I should behold so many materials in so many and such various pots boxes and other vessels and also as many broken as whole instruments of earth glass iron and copper and did judge my self so unhappy that I had made my self a slave of this Art and especially because scarse one of 100 whereof I was one did get his victuals and cloths thereby For these reasons I was determined to bid farewel to Chymistry and to apply my selfe to Physick and Chirurgery in which I was alwayes happy But what Whilest I thought to do as I resolved and to cast forth of the doores all and each vessel of divers kinds I found some crucibles broken and in them many grains of gold and silver formerly melted in them which together with others gathered together I thought to melt but seeing I could not melt such things being very hard to be melted without the helpe of bellows which I had sold I began to consider the matter with my self more seriously and so I found out this furnace and being invented I presently built and proved it which in tryings I found so good that I did again take hope of my labours and would no more despair Seeing therefore an easie and compendious way of melting metals I began to work and to begin a new search and every day I found more and more in nature viz. the greatest and most pleasant secrets of nature wherefore I did without ceasing seek until God had opened mine eyes to see that which I sought a long time for in vain Where also I observed that although I had before had more knowledge of nature yet without this furnace I could scarse have done any thing that had been singular And so God willing by the help of this furnace I found out more and more dayly for which blessing I give to the immortal God immortal thankes resolving to communicate this new invention candidly and faithfully for the sake of my neighbour Judge therefore O Chymist whether this or that which is made by the help of bellows and common vents be the best For how long doth he that will melt a hard metal in a wind furnace give fire to it before it will flow and with what loss of time and coals He that doth melt by the help of bellows hath need of a companion to blow with great danger of breaking the crucible with the winde and of making it fall when the coals are abated or of impurities falling into the crucible in case the cover thereof should fall off although there can be no detriment by impurities falling in if the matter be metallick but not so if it be a salt or a mineral without which that cannot be perfected in the fire not induring the impurities of the coals but boyling over by reason of them Now our furnace is free from this danger because the wind comes from beneath and crucibles come alwayes into sight not being so overwhelmed with coals as in the common way c. For by this means the matter to be melted is flowed although the crucibles be not covered over with coals nor with a cover and although thou hast not a companion to blow for you may at pleasure give any degree of fire by the direction of the register When therefore thou makest any trial in the fire have this furnace which is recommended to thee which build rightly with its register for the governing of the fire and for the drawing of wind and without doubt this labour shall not be in vain How minerals are to be tryed THe manner of trying minerals hath been already made known wherefore it is not needful here to write many things because divers authours as Georgius Agricola Lazarus Ercker and others have sufficiently wrote thereof to whose writings I refer thee especially to that most famous Lazarus Ercker which is so much commended De Probatione Mineralium as well malignant obstinate as mild But thus much know being that which experience hath also taught us that neither he nor his predecessours had a perfect knowledge of all things nor would reveal all things they knew For many excellent things doe yet lye hid and perhaps shall yet for a while lye hid by reason of the ingratitude of the world although the most famous Philosophers doe with one consent affirm that imperfect metals as lead tin iron copper and Mercury are intrinsecally gold and silver although it may seem very improbable to many that are not curious but contented with the opinions of their parents supposing those minerals to be barren that leave nothing in the cuple when they are tryed with lead when as yet that proof by cuples although famous is not yet that true Philosophical trials of metals but only vulgar according to the testimony of Philosophers as of Isaac Hollandus and others especially of Paracelsus in many places treating of metals but especially in his book Vexationum Alchymistarum containing a true description of the properties and perfection of metals Which although not being to be understood by all matters not for a very easie art is not to be communicated to all according to Paracelsus saying Imperfect metals being freed from their impurities have in them aboundance of gold and silver But how metals are to be purged and separated he doth not teach but only commends lead to be the authour which made the Alchymist beleive that
pious men deceive posterity with their workes and reduce them into errors Though there remain not the works of famous Worthies yet there would be a plain confirming the truth of this Art For I am perswaded there are some to be found having this knowledge and privately possessing it For who is so madd to reveal himself to the world to receive nought but envy for his reward Let no man therefore doubt of this secret Art's truth But say you Why stand you so much for the Art Did you ever see or perform any thing in it I reply though I never made projections to perfect metals nor saw transmutations yet I am sure of this I have often from metals with metals leaving no gold and silver in the cupel extracted gold and silver by the help of fire But I will not have you think that one imperfect metal will perfect another or turn it into gold or silver impure and drossie without in comparison of gold and silver for how can such metals perfect another imperfect which thus understand For as in the vegetable kingdom water cleanseth water or juice with seething as is wont to be done in purifying honey and sugar or any other vegetable juice with common water and white egges so also you must understand of mineral juices or metal of which if we know the water and white surely we might refine the impurity in which gold and silver lye hid as in black shales and powerfully extract gold and silver which is not a transmutation of metals but an eduction of gold and silver from the dunghil Dost thou ask how gold and silver can be educed from copper iron tin and lead to wit by the help of lotion out of which none is drawn with that best probe as 't is thought of Cupels to which we answered before of the probe of cupels not to be sufficient for all severall metals I need therefore say no more but I refer the studious Reader to Paracelsus his booke the Vexation of Chymists where thou shalt finde another lotion and purification of metals which heretofore was unknown to Miners and dealers in minerals As for example A Miner finding the oar of copper useth his skill delivered by the ancients to his utmost endeavour whereby he may cleanse it and reduce it to metal where first he breaks it into pieces and boils it for to take away the superfluous sulphur then by vertue of melting he brings it into a stone so called which afterward again he commits to fire and freeth it by the addition of lead of its gold and silver which done he blacks and reddens it turning it into copper which is his last labour whereby the copper is made malleable and vendible which done the Chymist coming tries another separation by whose help gold and silver is extracted as yet tryed of very few of which mention is here made Paracelsus also saith in the same place that gold hath given some an easier way of separating gold and silver from courser metals and indeed without refining the oar which is a special and curious Art which he teacheth not in plain tearms but onely saith it is sufficiently taught in seven rules of that book where he treats of the nature and propriety of metals in which you may seek it And this purification of courser metals I count most easie which I have often tryed in small quantity and I doubt not but God hath shewn other Artizens also other purifications which imperfect metals are perfected for example if one would purge the fruit of the earth by distillation so that the dregs and impurities being taken away it would grow up with a new clear clarified body as if one distil black and impure Amber by a retort the separation would be made by fire of the water savouring of the Empyreum of the oyl and volatile salt and the Caput mortuum be left in the bottome of the retort by which meanes in a very short time without great labour is made a great alteration and emendation of Amber though the oyl be black impure and stinking but if it be again distilled by the retort with some mundifying water as with the spirit of salt namely through a fresh clean glass retort shall be made a new separation by that spirit ofi salt and a far clearer oyle shall be extacted the dregs with the stink left in the bottom of the retort which afterward may be twice or thrice rectified againe with fresh spirit of salt until it get the clearness of salt and sweetness of sent resembling amber and musk And this transmutation makes of a hard thing a soft unlike the former in shape which though never so soft and liquid oily may again be coagulated so that it become as it was at first after this manner following Take the said oyle very well clarified adde to it new spirit of salt yea salt enough for its own recoagulation and againe it requires the hardness of amber of an excellent clear and admirable colour of which half an ounce is worth more than some pounds of black amber of which scarse the eight or tenth part remains in purifying all the soul superfluities cast away By this means I think one may cleanse and mend black metals if so be the manner of their cleansing were known by distillation sublimation and recoagulation But thou say'st that metal cannot like vegetables be purified by force of distillation to which I present our first furnace not given to peasants but Chymists trying metals so also the possibility of their perfection is shown by help of fermentation For as fresh leaven may ferment the vegetable juices which are perfected with fermentation the dregs being cast away as one may see in wine ale and other liquors whose lasting and perfection proceeds from no other thing but fermentation purifying the vegetable juices without which they could not otherwise withstand the Elements subject to corruption in a very short time which fermented last some years so also if we knew the proper ferment of metals surely we might refine and perfect them so that they would not be any more subject to rust they would prevaile against fire and water and be nourished and fed by them For so the world heretofore perished with water and shall at last perish with fire and our bodies must rot and be purified with fire before we come to the sight of God And thus far of the fermentation of metals wherewith they are resisted and perfected Metals also are pur'd and mended like milk set on the fire whose cream the better part the substance of butter in the top is separated from whey and cheese and according to the heat of the place the separation is speeded even so it is with the separation of metals where metals putinto a fitted hot place by themselves without any addition of another thing for metals were before reduced to a milky substance oâ— curd are separated in time by parting the nobler parts from the
be counted metals in which controversie they have not agreed to this day when as one approves this which another denyes so that a student of Chymistry knows not to what side he had best assent But this knowledge not a little concerning the purifying of metals I would put my opinion also grounded upon experience for the satisfying the doubtful the simplicity of them is strange who hold not one and the same beginning to be of minerals and metals but if metals might be made by nature surely it had long since been done but it never was experience witnessing for permanent minerals are never transplanted into metals I Answer metals grow one way also vegetables another soon budding and again soon dying but it is not so with metals for all lasting things have long time of digestion according to the saying That which is soon made doth soon fade this is to be understood not only of vegetables and minerals but also of animals as appears from that budding of some vegetables coming in six moneths space to their perfection and then again iron perishing when as things requiring longer time of digestion and perfection are much more lasting A Mushroom in the space of one or two nights grows out of rotten wood again soon vanishing not so the Oke Oxen and horses in the space of two or three yeer come to perfection scarce living the twentieth or the twenty fourth yeer but a man requiring twenty four yeers to his perfection lives sixty eighty or a hundred yeers So also we must conceive of lasting metals requiring many ages and also very long times of digestions and perfections metals therefore requiring very long times of digestions to their perfection it is granted to no man ever to see the beginning and end of them the transplantation of minerals into metalsby nature cannot be divided especially because that in the oares of metals especially of course ones minerals are also found wherefore diggers of minerals when they finde them conceive good hopes of finding metals of which they are termed the Coverlids for seldome metals are found without minerals or minerals without metals nor also are ever minerals found wanting gold or silver therefore minerals are properly termed Embryon metals because by art and fire a good part of gold and silver is drawn out of them by fusion which if they do not proceed from the metallick root whence proceeds that gold and silver for an Oxe is not born of an infant nor man of a Calf for alwayes like is produced of its like Therefore minerals are counted but unripe fruits in respect of metals not yet obtaining their ripeness and perfection nor separated from the superfluous earth for how should a bird be hatcht of an egg by heat not predestined for the generation of the bird for so we must understand of minerals which if they be deprived of their metallick nature how should by fire metals be produced from thence But thou saist that thou never sawest the production of perfect metals out of courser therefore that it is neither likely nor credible to thee to whom many things as yet lie hid from most men perversly and foolishly denying things unknown for daily experience witnesseth that the viler minerals and metals by taking away the superfluous sulphur however it be done to obtaine a greater degree of perfection therefore should not thy heart believe and thy tongue speak what thou seest with thine eyes for experience shews that good gold and silver might be drawn out by art almost out of all course minerals and metals yet more out of some then of others and speedier for there is not that dark night that is altogether deprived of light which may not not be manifested by a hollow glass nor is there an element though never so pure not mixt with other elements nor any malignity deprived of all good or on the contrary And as it is possible to gather the hidden beams of the Sun in the aire so also hidden perfect metals dispersed in imperfect and minerals by fire and an expert Artist if once they are placed in fire with their proper solvents where the homogeneous parts are gathered and the heterogeneous separated so that there is no need to go into the Indies to seek gold and silver in those new Islands which is possible to finde plentifully here in Germany if so be the merciful God would please to turn away those present cruel plagues and bring them out of old metals viz. Lead Iron Tin and Copper there left by the dealers in minerals indeed without the husbanding of metals Let no man therefore judge himself to be poor because he is only poor and in want although otherwise very rich and abounding in wealth which yet in a moment he is forc't to forsake that being ungrateful neither knoweth nor acknowledgeth God in his works What I pray is in less esteem in the world then old Iron and Lead which are acceptable to the wise to use in the Lotion of Copper and Tin with the mineral white But how they are to be washed is a difficulty to the unexercised in the fire and shall be delivered by similitudes You see Antimony fresh digged out of the earth very black and impure which by fusion separated from its superfluity which though nature gave to it not in vain but as a help to its purification according to that God and Nature do nothing in vaine is made more pure and endowed with a body nearer to metals then its mineral which if afterwards cast with salt of Tartar the crude and combustible sulphur is mortified thereby and is turned into dross separated from the pure mercurial part so that hereby is made a new and fresh separation of the parts of which one portion white and brittle sinks to the bottome the other lighter to wit the combustible sulphur is on the top with salt of Tartar which powred out into a Cone when they are cold may be separated with a hammer the inferior part of which is called by the Chymists Regulus which is purer then Antimony cast the first time out of its mineral and this is the usual purging of Antimony used by Chymists to which Regulus if afterward any thing should be added for a third purification without doubt it would not only be made purer but more fixt and malleable For if white Regulus be preparable out of black Antimony why not as well malleable metal out of the Regulus Another away of separating the superfluous Antimonial sulphur â„ž ANtimony powdred one part salt petre half as much mingle them and kindle the mixture with a live coal and let that Antimonial sulphur with the nitre be burnt up the darkish mass being left to wit of a brown colour which melted for the space of an hour in a strong fire yeilds an Antimony like to that which is made with salt of Tartar but somewhat less in quantity like to these the parts of animals are separated viz. if Antimony nitre and
then in any common Potters furnace whatsoever yet with greater danger to the vessels then in a potters furnace compassed about with wals But let him that burns crucibles and other smaller vessels burn them in our melting or distilling furnace being covered with coals giving fire first above for so I my self was wont hitherto to burn all my crucibles and burn and glaze all other distilling vessels and this in defect of fitting furnaces is the best way of burning and vitrifying where in three or four hours space the vessels are exactly burnt and vitrified Now the earth that is burnt quickly must be the best and durable in the fire for fear of the breaking of some of the vessels Let him therefore in this case for security sake use our fourth furnace who hath built it with his chambers in the first whereof he may burn and vitrifie without any danger But that foresaid way of burning and vitrifying is not to be slighted wherefore I would have thee be admonished to be cautious in giving of fire that you give no more or less then you should lest afterwards you impute the cause of your error committed to me whilest the vessels are broke as if I had not wrote the truth but to thy self that errest and must for the future be more diligent and cautious in this work I know other vitrifications of divers colours hitherto unknown and indeed most secret not to be communicated to every one indifferently But he that knows to reduce metals into a true glass retaining the colour of his metal is indeed the inventor of a very great secret to whom if he consider the matter more profundly and exercise himself therein a gate is open with the blessing of God to a greater light There are also other vitrifications with which the earth being covered doth appear as if it t were adorned with gems but because it is not our purpose now to treat of such kinds I shall make an end of vitrifications onely one excepted which yet I shall communicate for the sake of the sick and Physitians and it is this Make little earthen cups very smooth and white of the best earth being burnt then make the following glasses to flow in a very strong crucible in which dip one cup after another being held with tongs and first made red hot in some little furnace letting them lye covered therein for a while that the earth may the better attract the glass which being done let them be taken out and be set again into the aforesaid collateral furnace where they were before made red hot when one is taken out dip another in the molten glass in its place which also is again to be set as the first into the aforesaid furnace and this is to be reiterated so often untill all the pots be covered over with glass all which being done the furnace is to be shut close every where that the winde enter not into it and so it is to be left untill it become cold of it self and the glass covering over the cups remaine intire which otherwise cannot be if the cups be set in a cold place now the glass is made after this manner Take of crude Antimony two parts of pure nitre one part grinde them well being mixt together kindle the mixture being put into a crucible with red hot iron and the sulphur of the Antimony will be burnt together with the nitre a mass of brown colour being left behinde which you must take out while it is hot with a spatle that it may coole which afterwards being melted in another strong crucible for the space of half an hour or an hour makes that glass with which the aforesaid cups with their covers are covered over Of the use of the aforesaid cups THere is no one that can deny that Antimony is the most excellent of all vomitives wherefore so many and so various preparations have been invented by Physitians for the taking away of the malignity thereof whereof I have shewed some together with the use thereof in the first and second part of this book where alwayes one is better then another yet nothing withstanding t is confest that Antimony reduced in o glass is sufficient to purge the stomach and bowels from all corrupt humors and that without all danger being rightly administred as well by vomit as by stoole by which meanes many grievous imminent diseases are not only prevented but also presently are cured But you infer that this is yet a crude and imperfect preparation and therefore not so safe To which I answer that Antimony that purgeth needeth no great preparation for if all the crudity thereof were wholly taken away by fixation it would no more cause vomiting or stools wherefore the aforesaid glass of Antimony is not to be feared because it is not dangerous but may safely be given to children that are one or two yeers old but not in form of a powder but in infusion or extraction of its chiefest vertue made with honey sugar and wine sweet or sowre After which manner being given it attracts from all the bowels all vitious humors and evacuates them aswel upward as downward without danger of which thing elsewhere more at large Let him that useth the aforesaid cups infuse one or two ounces of wine and set them a whole night in some warm place and the wine will attract from the glass so much as doth suffice it which afterwards being drunk in a morning doth perform the same as infusion made with the powder of Stibium and this is a more delicate way then the other because a cup is sent to the patient that he may infuse in it the space of a night two or three spoonfuls of proper wine placing it in some warm place which he may drink up blood warm in the morning with a due ordering of himself afterwards Which in my judgement is a more delicate way being made with ones own wine and ones own hand then that tedious way of potions both large bitter and nauseous And this cup may oftentimes be used and if at length the wine should not attract sufficiently the cup with the wine is to be set in seething hot water for a little time that the wine might the better attract and work when need shall require Now he that gives such kinde of cups to others must instruct them concerning the ordering and administring of the same One cup is sufficient for the master of a family with his whole family for all the dayes of their life It is not to be used by all and every one and in all diseases indifferently but only by those that are strong and young and where the principal parts are not hurt Cups may also after another way be covered over with glass without Antimony as follows Sublime auripignemtum in a glass or earthen gourd and take the gallant golden coloured flowers thereof which being after a peculiar manner melted yeeld a red and most beautiful glass
verdegrease of which one pound prepared after this manner doth not also exceed the price of halfe a Ryal A compendious and very easie way of distilling a very strong spirit of urine and that without any cost and paines so that twenty or thirty pints shall not exceed the price of one ryal being very excellent in medicine Alchimy and Mechanique affaires by the help whereof a most beautiful blew vitriol may be made out of copper being very profitable in Alchimy and medicine making silver so fusible that by the help thereof glass vessels as basons dishes and candlesticks c. may be so guilded as to be taken for silver A way of distilling the spirit of salt in a great quantity and that with smal costs so that one pound thereof will scarce exceed the price of 6. stivers being very excellent in Alchimy medicine other arts especially for the doing of these following things viz. the separation of gold from silver without hurt to the cups or other things also the solution and separation of gold mixt with copper and silver by the force of precipitation where the menstruum that is preserved may again be used for the same uses which separation is the easiest of all other humid separations whereby gold is reduced to the highest degree The separation of volatile sparkling gold out of sand c. very profitable without which otherwise it could never be separated neither by the helpe of washing nor by Mercury nor by the force of melting An Artificial secret and hitherto unheard of trying of stubborn metals finding out their tenaciousness which otherwise could not be found out for oftentimes there are found golden mines which are stubborn in which nothing is found out by that common way and therefore they are left unlaboured in and sometimes elsewhere where there are not found mines of metals there are found other things as white and red talc that yeeld nothing being tryed the common way or very little all which yet abound with gold and silver which may be separated this way A new and unheard of compendious way of melting mines in great plenty where in the space of one day by the heate of a certaine separating furnace more may be melted then by the common way in the space of eight daies where not onely costs are separed but where also is hope of greater gaine Another way for the better proving of things melted and a new way of separating silver from lead A very speedy way of melting minerals whereby they are melted in great plenty by the help of pit coals in defect of other coales The fixation of minerals sulphureous Arsenical Antimonial and others that are volatile which cannot be retained and melted by the force of fire by the help of a certain peculiar furnace with a grate so that afterwards they may by infusion yeeld gold and silver The melting of gold and silver that sparkles and is rarified out of sand pure clay flints c. by the help of melting The separation of gold lying hid in baser minerals and metals most profitable which cannot be done the common way A very quick Artificial and easie separation of melted gold and silver by the help of fusion so that in the space of one day by the help of one furnace some hundreds of Marks may be separated with far less costs and labour then that common way by cement and Aqua fortis The reduction of elaborated gold of chaines and other ornaments unto the highest degree also the separation of gold from guilded silver by the help of fusion by which means a hundred marks are more easily separated then twenty of the common way A certain way whereby more silver is separated from lead them by copper A separation of good gold from any old iron which although it be not a labour of great gaine yet it is sufficient for those who are contented with a few things A separation of gold and silver from tin or copper according to more or less The maturation of mines so that they may afterwards be able to yeeld more gold and silver then by the common way also the separation of gold and silver out of Antimony Arsenick and Auripigmentum The separation of the external sulphur of Venus that the son Cupid may be born The separation of silver from the cuples into which it enters in the tryal without melting or any other labour or cost The preparation of divers earthen things to be done in any part of the world like to the Porcelane that hold fire and retaine spirits A certain Allome exalting and fixing any colour especially requisit for scarlet and other pretious colours with a certain prepetual cauldron that doth not alter colours and is not costly A making of colours for painters as of purple gum ultramarine not costly and especially of that rich white never before seen like to pearl and Margarites also a peculiar colouring of gold and silver FINIS A Preface to the Reader WHAT moved me to annex an Appendix to those five books of my Philosophical Furnaces you may presently see in the entrance thereof which therefore I accounted superfluous to repeat Moreover my aime was to declare to the world how great and hitherto unknown and most profitable secrets God hath reserved for this age for the sustaining of our life not doubting but to provoke and excite many perverse men to a due thankfulness to God But the contrary fals out For the Appendix which you have seen hath begot great admiration in many as well learned as unlearned that God should reserve so great and hitherto unknown secrets to be revealed to this age who therefore have given God thanks But others and indeed very many have according to their usual manner derided the Appendix and have proclaimed the contents thereof for things impossible and lyes wherof even some that are scornful and slanderous being ignorant of nature and art have broke forth into these words It is a wonder that Glauber doth not teach how to make bread of stones since he hath taught the possibility of making wine out of water that husbandmen for the future may not be at so great labors Such sort of cavillations as these men have such devised in their meetings whereof some would seem learned and wise who by reason of too much wisdome folly know not themselves who indeed are blockish unlearned rude and proud asses although puffed up despising others far more skilful whose ignorance I do so much admire as they do my writings seeing now with open eyes the reasons of many mens silence to whom God hath given a singular knowledge of natural things who left nothing to posterity But it matters not much For it is impossible to please all as experience can witness from the beginning of the world till this day wherefore there is nothing strange But how ever it be yet it is no wonder that any one should take it ill that the ingratitude of wicked men should be a