to that wee were in our youth as hee hath likewise done in other places as ouer the doore of the Chappell of Saint Iames in the Bouchery neere to my house although that for this last there is a particular cause as also ouer the doore of Saincte Geneuiefue de's Ardans where thou maist see me I maâ—e then to bee painted heere two bodies one of a Male and another of a Female to teach thee that in this second operation thou hast truely but yet not perfectly two natures conioyned and married together the Masculine and the Foeminine or rather the foure Elements and that the foure naturall enemies the hote and cold dry and moist begin to approach amiably one towards another and by meanes of the Mediators and Peace-makers lay downe by little and little the ancient enmity of the old Chaos Thou knowest well enough who these Mediators and Peace-makers are betweene the hote and the cold there is moisture for he is kinsman and allyed to them both to hote by his heate and to cold by his moisture And this is the reason why to begin to make this peace thou hast already in the precedent operation conuerted all the confections into water by dissolution And afterward thou hast made to coagulate the water which is turned into this Earth blacke of the blacke most blacke wholly to accomplish this peace for the Earth which is cold and dry finding himself of kindred and allyance with the dry and moist which are enemies will wholly appease and acâ—ord them Doest thou not then consider a most perfect mixture of all the foure Elements hauing first turned them into water and now into Earth I will also teach thee heereafter the other conuersions into ayer when it shall be all white and into fire when it shall bee of a most perfect purple Then thou hast heere two natures marriâ—d together whereof the one hath conceiued by the other and by this conception it is turned into the body of the Male and the Male into that of the Female that is to say they are made one onely body which is the Androgyne or Hermaphrodite of the Ancients which they haue also called otherwise the head of the Crow or natures conuerted In this fashion I paint them heere because thou hast two natures reconciled which if they be guâ—ded and gouerned wisely can forme an Embrion in the wombe of the Vessell and afterwards bring foorth a most puissant King inuincible and incorruptible because it will bee an admirable quintessence Thus thou seest the principall and most necessary reason of this representation The second cause which is also well to bee noted was because I must of necessitie paint two bodies because in this operation it behooueth that thou diuide that which hath beene coagulated to giue afterwards nourishment which is milke of life to the little Infant when it is borne which is endued by the liuing God with a vegetable soule This is a secret most admirable and secret which for want of vnderstanding it hath made fooles of all those that haue sought it without finding it and hath made euery man wise that beholds it with the eyes of his body or of his spirit Thou must then make two parts and portions of this Coagulated body the one of which shall serue for Azoth to wash and clense the other which is called Leton which must be whitened He which is washed is the Serpent Python which hauing taken his being from the corruption of the slime of the Earth gathered together by the waters of the deluge when all the confections were water must be killed and ouercome by the arrowes of the God Apollo by the yellow Sunne that is to say by our fire equall to that of the Sunne He which washeth or rather the washings which must be continued with the other moity these are the teeth of that Serpent which the sage workeman the valiant Theseus wil sow in the same Earth from whence there shall spring vp armed Souldiers which shal in the end discomsit themselues suffering themselues by opposition to resolue into the same nature of the Earth and the workman to beare away his deserued conquests It is of this that the Phylosophers haue written so often and so often repeated it It dissolues it selfe it congeales it selfe it makes it selfe blacke it makes it selfe white it kils it selfe and it quickens it selfe I haue made their field be painted azure and blew to shew that I doe but now beginne to get out from the most blacke blacknesse for the azure and blew is one of the first colours that the darke woman lets vs see that is to say moisture giuing place a little to heate and drinesse The man and woman are almost all orange-coloured to shew that our Bodies or our body which the wise men here call Rebis hath not as yet digestion enough and that the moisture from whence comes the blacke blew and azure is but halfe vanquished by the drinesse For when drinesse beares rule all will be white and when it fighteth with or is equall to the moisture all will be in part according to these present colours The enuious haue also called these confections in this operation Nummus Ethelia Arena Boritis Coâ—sufle Cambar Albar aeris Duenech Randeric Kukul Thabricis Ebisemech Ixir c. which they haue commanded to make white The woman hath a white circle in forme of a rowle round about her body to shew thee that Rebis will beginne to become white in that very fashion beginning first at the extremities round about this white circle Scala PhylosophoruÌ„ that is the Booke entituled The Phylosophers Ladder saith thus The signe of the first perfect whitenesse is the manifestation of a certaine little circle of haire that is passing ouer the head which will appeare on the sides of the vessels round about the matter in a kind of a cierine or yellowish colour There is written in their Rowles Homo veniet ad iudicium Dei that is Man shall come to the Iudgement of God Verè saith the woman illa dies terribilis erit that is Truly that will be a terrible day These are not passages of holy Scripture but onely sayings which speake according to the Theological sence of the Iudgement to come I haue put them there to serue my selfe of them towards him that beholds onely the grosse outward and most naturall Artifice taking the interpretation thâ—reof to concerne onely the Resurrection and also it may serue for them that gathering together the Parables of the Science take to them the eyes of Lynceus to pierce deeper then the visible obiects There is then Man shall come to the iudgement of God Certainly that day shall be terrible That is as if I should haue said It behoues that this come to the colour of perfection to be iudged clensed from all his blacknesse and filth and to be spiritualized and whitened Surely that day will be terrible yet certainly as you shall find in the Allegory
by the dew or moisture The Earth therefore buddeth not without watring and moisture It is the water of May-dew that clenseth the Bodies that pierceth them like raine water whiteneth them and maketh one new Body of two Bodies This water of life being rightly ordered with his Body whiteneth it turneth it into his white colour for the water is a white fume and therefore the Body is whitened by it whiten the Body then and burne thy Bookes And between these two that is betweene the Body and the water there is friendship desire and lust as betweene the male and the foemale because of the neerenesse of their like natures for our second liuing water is called Azot washing the Leton that is the Body compounded of the Sunne and Moon by our first water This second water is also called the soule of our dissolued Bodies of which Bodies wee haue already tyed the soules together to the end that they may serue the wise Phylosophers O how perfect and magnificent is this water for without it the worke could neuer bee brought to passe It is also called the vessell of Nature the belly the wombe the receptacle of the tincture the Earth and the Nurse It is the Fountaine in which the King and Queene wash themselues and the Mother which must be put and sealed in the belly of her Infant that is the Sun which proceeded from her and which shee brought forth and therefore they loue one another as a Mother and a Sonne and are easily ioyned together because they came from one the same roote and are of the same substance and nature And because this water is the water of the vegetable life therefore it giueth life and maketh the dead body to vegetate encrease spring forth and to rise from death to life by solution and sublimation and in so doing the Body is turned into a spirit and the spirit into a body and then is made amity peace concord and vnion between the contraries that is betweene the Body and the spirit which reciprocally change their natures which they receiue and communicate to one another by the least parts so that the hot is mixed with the cold the dry with the moist and the hard with the soft and thus is there a mixture made of contrary natures that is of cold with hot and of moist with dry an admirable connexion coniunction of enemies Then our dissolution of bodies which is made in this first water is no other thing then a killing of the moist with the dry because the moist is coagulated with the dry for the moisture is contained terminated and coagulated into a Body or into Earth onely by drinesse Let therefore the hard and dry bodies be put in our first water in a vessell well shut where they may abide vntill they be dissolued and ascend on high and then they may bee called a new Body the white gold of Alchimy the white stone the white Sulphur not burning and the stone of Paradice that is the stone which conuerts imperfect Mettals into fine white siluer Hauing this we haue also the Body Soule and Spirit all together of the which spirit and soule it is said that they cannot be drawn from the perfect Bodies but by the coniunction of our dissoluing water because it is certaine that the thing fixed cannot belifted vp but by the coniunction of the thing volatile The spirit then by the mediation of water and the soule is drawne from the Bodies and the Body is made no Body because at the same instant the spirit with the soule of the Bodies mounteth on high into the vpper part which is the perfection of the stone and is called sublimation This sublimation saith Florentius Catalanus is done by things sharpe spirituall and volatile which are of a sulphurous and viscous nature which dissolue the Bodies and make them to be lifted vp into the Ayre in the spirit And in this sublimation a certaine part and portion of our said first water ascendeth with the Bodies ioyning it selfe to them ascending and subliming into a middle substance which holdeth of the nature of the two that is of the Bodies and of the water and therefore it is called the Corporall spirituall compound Corsufle Cambdr Ethelia Zandarach the good Duenech but properly it is onely called the water permanent because it flyeth not in the fire alwayes adhering to the commixed Bodies that is to the Sunne and Moone and communicating vnto them a liuing tincture incombustible and most firme more noble and precious then the former which these bodies had because from hence-forward this tincture can run as oyle vpon the bodies perforating and piercing with a wonderfull fixion because this Tincture is the spirit and the spirit is the soule and the soule is the body because in this operation the body is made a spirit of a most subtile nature and likewise the spirit is incorporated and is made of the nature of a body with bodies and so our stone contains a body a soule and a spirit O Nature how thou changest the body into a spirit which thou couldst not doe if the spirit were not incorporated with the bodies and the bodies with the spirits made volatile or flying and afterward permanent or abiding Therefore they haue passed into one another and are turned the one into the other by wisdome O wisdome how thou makest Gold to be volatile and fugitiue although by nature it be most fixed It behoueth therefore to dissolue and melt these Bodies by our water and to make them a permanent water a golden water sublimed leauing in the bottom the grosse earthly and superfluous dry And in this sublimation the fire ought to be soft and gentle for if in this sublimation the Bodies bee not purified in a lent or slow fire and the grosser earthly parts note well separated from the vncleannesse of the dead thou shalt be hindred from euer making thy worke perfect for thou needest onely this subtile and light nature of the dissolued Bodies which our water will easily giue thee if thou proceed with a slow fire for it will separate the Heterogeneall or that which is of another kinde from the Homogeneall or that which is all of one kinde Our compound therefore receiueth mundification or clensing by our moist fire that is to say dissoluing and subliming that which is pure and white and casting aside the foeces like a voluntary vomit saith Azinaban For in such a dissolution and naturall sublimation there is made a loosing or an vntying of the Elements a clensing and a separation of the pure from the impure so that the pure and white ascendeth vpward and the impure and earthly fixed remaines in the bottome of the water or the vessell which must be taken a way and remooued because it is of no value taking onely the middle white substance flowing and melting and leauing the foeculent earth which remained below in the bottome which came principally from the
and are made life with life in such sort that they can neuer bee separated as water mixt with water And therefore it is wisely said that the Stone is borne in the Ayre because it is altogether spirituall for the vulture flying without wings crieth vpon the top of the mountaine saying I am the white of the blacke and the red of the white and the Citrine sonne of the red I tell truth and lie not It sufficeth thee therefore to put the Bodies in the vessell and in the water once for all and to shut the vessell diligently vntill a true separation be made which by the enuious is called coniunction sublimation assation extraction putrefaction ligation despousation subtiliation generation c. and that the whole Maistery bee done Doe therefore as in the generation of a man and euery vegetable put the seed once into the wombe and shut it well By this meanes thou seest that thou needest not many things and that our worke requires no great charges because there is but one Stone one Medicine one Vessell one Regiment and one successiue disposition to the white and to the red And although we say in many places take this and take that yet wee vnderstand that it behooueth to take but one thing and put it once in the vessell and to shut the vessell vntill the worke be perfected for these things are so set down by the enuious Philosophers to deceiue the vnwary as is aforesaid For is not this Art Cabalisticall and full of secrets And doest thou foole beleeue that wee doe openly teach the secrets of secrets and doest thou take our words according to the literall sound Know assuredly I am no whit enuious as others are he that takes the words of the other Philosophers according to the ordinary signification and sound of them hee doeth already hauing lost Ariadnes thread wander in the middest of the Laberinth and hath as good as appointed his money to perdition But I Artephius after I had learned all the Art and perfect Science in the Bookes of the true-speaking Hermes was sometimes enuious as all the rest but when I had by the space of a thousand yeeres or thereabouts which are now passed ouer mee since my natiuity by the onely grace of God Almighty and the vse of this wonderfull fifth essence when I say for so long time I had seene no man that could worke the Maistery of Hermes by reason of the obscurity of the Philosophers words mooued with pitie and with the goodnesse becomming an honest man I haue determined in these last times of my life to write all things truely and sincerely that thou maist want or desire nothing to the perfecting of the Philosophers Stone excepting a certaine thing which it is not lawfull for any person to say or to write because it is alwayes reuealed by God or by a Maister and yet in this Booke he that is not stiffe-necked shall with a little experience easily learne it I haue therefore in this Booke written the naked trueth although cloathed with a few colours that euery good and wise man may from this Philosophicall Tree happily gather the admirable Apples of the Hesperides Wherefore praised bee the most high God which hath put this benignitie into our soule and with a wonderfull long olde age hath giuen vs a true dilection of heart wherewithall it seemeth vnto mee that I doe truely loue cherish and imbrace all men But let vs returne vnto the Arte. Surely our worke is quickly dispatched for that which the heate of the Sunne doeth in a hundred yeeres in the Mines of the Earth for the generation of a Mettall as I haue often seene our secret fire that is our fierie sulphureous water which is called Balneum Mariae worketh in short time And this work is no great labour to him that knoweth and vnderstandeth it neither is the matter so deare considering a small quantity sufficeth that it ought to cause any man to plucke backe his hand because it is so short and easie that it may well bee called the worke of Women and the play of Children Work then cheerefully my sonne pray to God read Bookes continually for one Booke openeth another thinke of it profoundly fly all things that vanish in the fire for thou hast not thine intent in these combustible and consuming things but onely in the decoction of thy water drawne from thy lights For by this water is colour and weight giuen infinitely and this water is a white fume which as a soule floweth in the perfect bodies taking wholly from them their blacknesse and vncleannesse and consoledating the two Bodies into one and multiplying their water And there is no other thing that can take away their true colour from the perfect Bodies that is from the Sunne and Moone but Azoth that is this our water which coloureth and maketh white the red Body according to the regiments thereof But let vs speake of fires Our fire therefore is minerall equall continuall it vapours not vnlesse it be too much stirred vp it partakes of sulphur it is taken otherwhere then from the matter it pulleth downe all things it dissolueth congealeth and calcineth it is artificiall to finde it is a short way or an expence without cost at the least without any great cost it is moist vaporous digestiue altering piercing subtle ayery not violent not burning compassing or enuironing containing but one and it is the Fountaine of liuing water which goeth about and containeth the place where the King and Queene bathe themselues In all the worke this moist fire is sufficient for thee at the beginning middest and end for in it consisteth the whole Art This is the fire naturall against nature vnnaturall and without burning and finally this fire is hot dry moist and cold thinke vpon this and work aright taking nothing that is of a strange nature And if thou doest not well vnderstand these fires hearken further to what I shall giue thee neuer as yet written in any Booke from out of the abstruse and hidden cauilation of the Ancients concerning fires We haue properly three fires without the which the Art cannot bee done and hee that workes without them takes a great deale of care in vaine The first is the fire of the Lampe which is continuall moist vaporous ayery and artificiall to finde for the Lampe ought to bee proportioned to the closure or enclosure and herein wee must vse great iudgement which commeth not to the knowledge of a workeman of a stiffe necke for if the fire of the Lampe be not geometrically and duly proportioned and fitted to the Furnace either for lacke of heate thou wilt not see the expected signes in their times and so thou wilt loose thy hope by too long expectation or else with too much heate thou wilt burne the flowers of the Gold and so sadly bewaile thy lost labour The second fire is the fire of ashes in which the vessell hermetically sealed is shut vp or rather
vulture therefore flying in the ayre and the Toade going vpon the Earth is our Maistery And therefore when thou shalt gently and with great discretion separate the Earth from the water that is from the fire and the subtile from the thicke then that which is pure will ascend from Earrh into Heauen and that which is impure will goe downe to the Earth and the more subtile part will in the vpper place take the nature of a spirit and in the lower place the nature of an Earthly Body wherefore let the while nature with the more subtile part of the Body be by this operation lifted vp leauing the foeces which is done in a short time for the soule is aided by her associate and fellow and perfected by it My Mother saith the Body hath begotten mee and by me shee her selfe is begotten and after shee hath taken her slight or I haue taken from her her flying shee after the best manner shee can becomes a pious Mother nourishing and cherishing the sonne whom shee hath begotten vntill he come to perfect state Heare this secret Keepe the Body in this our Mercuriall water vntill it ascend on high with the white soule and the Earthly descend to the bottome which is called the Earth that remaines then shalt thou see the water coagulate it selfe with its body and shalt bee assured that the Science is true because the Body coagulateth his moisture into drinesse as the rennet of a Lambe coagulateth milke into Cheese In the same fashion the spirit will pierce the body and there will be a perfect mixture made by the least parts and the Body will draw vnto himself his moisture that is to say his white soule euen as the Load-stone draweth the Iron because of the likenesse and neerenesse of his nature and his greedinesse and then the one will hold the other and this is our sublimation and coagulation which retaineth euery thing volatile and maketh that it can flye no more Therefore this compositiō is not a manuall operation but as I said a changing of natures and a wonderfull connexion of their cold with hot and their moist with dry for the hot is mixed with cold and the dry with moist and so by this meanes is made the mixture and coniunction of the body with the spirit which is called the changing of contrary natures because that in such a solution and sublimation the spirit is turned into a body and the body into a spirit so that the natures being mingled together and reduced into one doe change one another in as much as the body makes the spirit a body and the spirit turnes the body into a teyned and white spirit And therefore this is the last time that I will tell thee boyle it in our white water that is in Mercury vntill it bee dissolued into blacknesse and then by continuall decoction it will bee depriued of his blackenesse and the body so dissolued wil at length arise with the white soule and then one will bee mingled with the other and they will embrace one another so that they shall no more be diuided asunder and then the spirit is vnited to the body with a reall accord and are made one permanent thing and this is the solution of the body and the Coagulation of the spirit which haue one and the selfe same operation Hee therefore that knoweth how to mary to make with childe to mortifie to putrifie to engender to quicken the species to bring in the white light and to clense the vulture from his blacknesse and darknesse vntill he be purged by fire coloured and purified from all his spots shall bee the owner of so great dignity that Kings shall reuerence him and doe him honour Wherefore let our body abide in the water vntill such time as it be loosed into a new powder in the bottome of the vessell and of the water which is called the blacke ashes and this is the corruption of the body which is by wise men called Saturne Leton or Brasse the Phylosophers Lead and the discontinued powder And in this putrifaction and resolution of the Body there appeare three signes to wit the blacke colour the discontinuity of the parts and a stinking smell which is likened to the smel of sepulchres or graues This ashes then is that of which the Phylosophers haue said so much which remained in the lower part of the vessell which wee ought not to despise for in it is the Diademe of our King and the Argent viue blacke and vncleane from whence the blacknesse must be purged by continuall decoction in our water vntill it be lifted vp in a white colour which is called the Goose and the Poulet of Hermogenes He therefore that maketh the red Earth blacke and then white hath the Maistery as also hee that killeth the liuing and quickeneth the dead therefore make the blacke white and the white red that thou mayest make the worke perfect and when thou seest the true whitenesse appeare which shineth like a naked Sword know that in that whitenesse is rednesse hidden and then thou must not take out of the vessell that whitenesse but onely boyle it to the end that with drinesse and heate there may come vpon it a Citrine colour and in the end a most shining and sparkling red which when thou seest with great feare and trembling praise the most good and most great God which giueth wisedome and by consequence riches vnto whom he pleaseth and according to the iniquity of the Persons taketh them away againe and depriueth them of them for euer plunging them in the seruitude and slauery of their enemies To him be praise and glory for euer and euer Amen FINIS THE EPISTLE Of IOHN PONTANVS mentioned in the Preface to the Reader of ARTEPHIVS his secret Booke wherein he beareth witnesse of the BOOKE Translated out of the Latine Copy Extant in the third Volume of Theatrum Chymicum at the 775. Page I Iohn Pontanus haue traueiled thorow many Countries that I might know some certainty of the Philosophers Stone and going thorow as it were all the world I found many false deceiuers but no true Philosophers yet continually studying and making many doubts at the length I found the trueth But when I knew the matter in generall I yet erred two hundred times before I could attaine to the true matter with the operation and practise thereof First I begunne to worke with the matter by putrefaction nine moneths together and I found nothing Then I put it into Balneum Mariae for a certaine time and therein I likewise erred Afterwards I put it in the fire of calcination for three moneths space and I wrought amisse I tryed all kinds of distillations and sublimations as the Philosophers Giber Archelaus and all the rest either say or seeme to say and I found nothing In summe I assayed to perfect the Subiect of the whole Art of Alchimy by all meanes possible to be deuised as by Dung Bathes Ashes
there any other water which can dissolue the Bodies but that which abideth with them in matter and forme nay it cannot be permanent except it bee of the nature of the other body that they may be made one together Therefore when thou seest the water coagulate it selfe with the Bodies that bee dissolued therein rest assured that thy Science Methode and operations are true and Phylosophicall and that thou proceedest aright in the Art Nature then is amended in its like nature that is Gold and Siluer are amended in our water as our water also with the Bodies which water is called the meane of the Soule without the which wee can doe nothing in this Art and it is the vegetable animall and minerall fire preseruing the fixed spirits of the Sunne and Moone the destroyer and the Conquerour of Bodies because it destroyes dissolues and changeth Bodies and mettallick formes and makes them to bee no Bodies but a fixed spirit and turneth them into a moist soft and fluid substance which hath ingression and power to enter into other imperfect Bodies and to be mixed with them by the smallest parts and to colour them and make them perfect which they could not doe when they were Mettallicke bodies dry hard which haue no entrance nor power to colour and make perfect imperfect Bodies And therefore to good purpose doe wee turne the bodies into a fluid substance because euery tincture will colour a thousand times more when it is in a soft and liquid substance then when it is in a dry one as appeares by Saffron and consequently the transmutation of imperfect Bodies is impossible to be done by perfect Bodies while they are dry except they bee first brought backe into their first matter soft and fluid from hence wee conclude that we must make the Moisture returne and so reueale that which is hidden which is called the reincrudation or the making raw againe of the Bodies that is the boyling and the softening them vntill they bee depriued of their hard and dry corporality or bodilynesse because that which is dry doth not enter nor colour any more then it selfe Therefore the dry Earthly Body doth not teine except it be teined because as is aboue-said that which is thicke and Earthy entreth not nor coloureth and because it entreth not therefore it alters not wherefore Gold coloureth not vntill the hidden spirit be drawne from the belly thereof by our white water and that it be made altogether a spirituall and white fume the white spirit and the wonderfull soule Wherefore wee ought by our water to attenuate alter and soften the perfect Bodies that they may afterward be mixed with the other imperfect Bodies And therefore if wee had no other profit by that Antimoniall water then this that it makes the Bodies subtile soft and fluid according to his owne nature yet it were sufficient for vs for it brings backe the Bodies to their first originall of Sulphur and Mercury that of these we may afterwards in a short time in lesse then one houre of the day doe that aboue ground which Nature wrought vnder ground in the mines of the Earth in a thousand yeeres which is as it were miraculous And therefore our finall secret is by our water to make the Bodies volatile spirituall and a teining water which hath ingression or entrance into the other Bodies for it makes the Bodies to be a very spirit because it doth incerate that is bring to the temper and consistence of waxe the hard and dry Bodies and prepares them to fusion that is turnes them into a permanent or abiding water It makes then of the Bodies a most precious blessed Oyle which is the true tincture and the white permanent water of nature hot moist temperate subtile and fusible as waxe which pierceth reacheth to the bottome coloureth maketh perfect Therefore our water doth incontinently dissolue gold and siluer and maketh them an incombustible Oyle which may then be mixed with other imperfect Bodies for our water turnes the Bodies into the nature of a fusible salt which is by the Phylosophers called Sal Albroe which is the best and the noblest of all salts being in the regiment thereof fixed and not flying the fire and it is indeed an oyle of a nature hot subtile penetrating reaching to the depth and entring called the compleat Elixir and it is the hidden secret of the wise Alchimists Hee therefore that knoweth this salt of the Sunne and Moone and the generation or preparation thereof and afterwards how to mixe it and make it friendly to the other imperfect bodies hee in truth knoweth one of the greatest secrets of Nature and one way of perfection These Bodies thus dissolued by our water are called Argent viue which is not without Sulphur nor Sulphur without the nature of the Luminaries or lights because that the Lights the Sunne and Moone are the principall meanes or middle things in the forme by which Nature passeth in the perfecting and accomplishing the generation thereof And this Quick-siluer is called the Salt honoured and animated and pregnant or great with Childe and fire seeing that it is nothing but fire nor fire but Sulphur nor Sulphur but quicke-siluer drawne from the Sunne and Moon by our water and reduced to a stone of great price that is to say it is the matter of the Lights altered from basenesse vnto noblenesse Note that this white Sulphur is the Father of Mettals and their Mother together it is our Mercury and the Minera of Gold and the Soule and the ferment and the minerall vertue and the liuing Body and the perfect Medicine our Sulphur and our Quick-siluer that is Sulphur of Sulphur and Quick-siluer of Quick-siluer and Mercury of Mercury The property therefore of our water is that it melteth gold and siluer and augments in them their natiue colour for it turnes the Bodies from Corporality into Spirituality and this water it is which sends into the Body a white fume which is the white soule subtile hot and of much fierinesse This water is also called the bloudy stone and it is the vertue of the spirituall bloud without which nothing is done the subiect of all liquable things and of liquefaction which agrees very well and cleaueth to the Sunne and the Moone neither is it euer separated from them for it is of kinne to the Sunne and to the Moone but more to the Sun then to the Moone Note this well It is also called the mean of conioyning the tinctures of the Sunne and Moone with imperfect Mettals for it turnes the Bodies into a true tincture to teine the other imperfect Mettals and it is the water which whiteneth as it is white which quickeneth as it is a soule and therefore as the Phylosopher saith soone entreth into its body For it is a liuing water which commeth to moisten its earth that it may budde and bring forth fruit in his time as all things springing from the Earth are engendred
this fire be not measured Clibanically saith Calid the Persian sonne of Iasichus If it be kindled with a sword saith Pithagoras If thou fire thy Vessell saith Morien and makest it feele the heate of the fire it will giue thee a box on the eare and burne his flowres before they be risen from the depth of his Marrow making them come out red rather than white and then thy worke is spoiled as also if thou make too little fire for then thou shalt neuer see the end because of the coldnesse of the natures which shall not haue had motion sufficient to digest them together The heate then of thy fire in this vessell shall be as saith Hermes and Rosinus according to the Winter or rather as saith Diomedes according to the heate of a Bird which beginnes to flie so softly from the signe of Aries to that of Cancer for know that the Infant at the beginning is full of cold flegme and of milke and that too vehement heate is an enemy of the cold and moisture of our Embrion and that the two enemies that is to say our two elements of cold and heate will neuer perfectly imbrace one another but by little and little hauing first long dwelt together in the middest of the temperate heate of their bath and being changed by long decoction into Sulphur incombustible Gouern therefore sweetly with equality and proportion thy proud and haughty natures for feare lest if thou fauour one more then another they which naturally are enemies doe grow angry against thee through Ielousy and dry Choller and make thee sigh for it a long time after Besides this thou must entertain them in this temperate heate perpetually that is to say night and day vntill the time that Winter the time of the moisture of the matters be passed because they make their peace and ioyne hands in being heated together whereas should these natures finde themselues but one onely half houre without fire they would become for euer irreconcileable See therefore the reason why it is said in the Book of the seuenty precepts Looke that their heate cōtinue indefatigably without ceasing and that none of their dayes bee forgotten And Rasis the haste saith hee that brings with it too much fire is alwaies followed by the Diuell and Errour When the golden Bird saith Diomedes shall be come iust to Cancer and that from thence it shall runne toward Libra then thou maist augment the fire a little And in like manner when this faire Bird shall fly from Libra towards Capricorne which is the desired Autumne the time of haruest and of the fruits that are now ripe CHAP. III. The two Dragons of colour yellowish blew and black like the field LOoke well vpon these two Dragons for they are the true principles or beginnings of this Phylosophy which the Sages haue not dared to shew to their owne Children Hee which is vndermost without wings hee is the fixed or the male that which is vppermost is the volatile or the female blacke and obscure which goes about to get the domination for many moneths The first is called Sulphur or heat and drinesse and the latter Argent viue or cold and moisture These are the Sunne and Moone of the Mercurial source and sulphurous originall which by continual fire are adorned with royall habiliments that being vnited and afterward changed into a quintessence they may ouercome euery thing Mettallick how solid hard and strong soeuer it bee These are the Serpents and Dragons which the ancient Aegyptians haue painted in a Circle the head biting the tayle to signifie that they proceeded from one and the same thing and that it alone was sufficient and that in the turning and circulation thereof it made it selfe perfect These are the Dragons which the ancient Poets haue fained did without sleeping keepe watch the golden Apples of the Gardens of the Virgins Hesperides These are they vpon whom Iason in his aduenture for the Golden Fleece powred the brothe or liquor prepared by the faire Medea of the discourse of whom the Books of the Phylosophers are so full that there is no Phylosopher that euer was but he hath written of it from the time of the truth-telling Hermes Trismegistus Orpheus Pythagoras Artephius Morienus and the other following euen vnto my selfe These are the two Serpents giuen and sent by Iuno that is the nature Mettallicke the which the strong Hercules that is to say the sage and wise man must strangle in his cradle that is ouercome and kill them to make them putrifie corrupt and ingender at the beginning of his worke These are the two Serpents wrapped and twisted round about the Caduceus or rod of Mercury with the which hee exerciseth his great power and transformeth himselfe as he listeth He saith Haly that shall kill the one shall also kill the other because the one cannot die but with his brother These two then which Auicen calleth the Corassene bitch and the Armenian dogge these two I say being put together in the vessell of the Sepulcher doe bite one another cruelly and by their great poyson and furious rage they neuer leaue one another from the moment that they haue seized on one another if the cold hinder them not till both of them by their slauering venome and mortall hurts be all of a goarebloud ouer all the parts of their bodies and finally killing one another be stewed in their proper venome which after their death changeth them into liuing and permanent water before which time they loose in their corruption and putrifaction their first naturall formes to take afterwards one onely new more noble and better forme These are the two Spermes masculine and saeminine described at the beginning of my Abridgement of Phylosophy which are engendred say Rasis Auicen and Abraham the Iew within the Reynes and entrails and of the operations of the foure Elements These are the radicall moysture of mettalls Sulphur and Argent viue not vulgar and such as are sold by the Merchants and Apothecaries but those which giue vs those two faire deare bodies which wee loue so much These two spermes saith Democritus are not found vpon the earth of the liuing The same saith Auicen but he addeth that they gather them from the dung ordure and rottennesse of the Sunne and Moone O happy are they that know how to gather them for of them they afterwards make a triacle which hath power ouer all griefes maladies sorrowes infirmities and weaknesses and which sighteth puissantly against death lengthening the life according to the permission of God euen to the time determined triumphing ouer the miseries of this world and filling a man with the riches thereof Of these two Dragons or Principles Mettallicke I haue said in my fore-alledged Summarie that the Enemy would by his heate inflame his enemy and that then if they take not heed they should see in the ayre a venomous fume a stinking worse in flame and in poyson than the
the Mettalls whitening the Sunne because it containes a white Argent viue And from hence thou mayest draw a great secret to wit that the water of Saturnine Antimony ought to be Mercuriall and white to the end that it may whiten the Gold not burning it but dissoluing and afterwards congealing it to the forme of white Creame Therefore saith the Philosopher that this water maketh the Body to bee volatile because after it hath beene dissolued in this water and cooled againe it mounts aloft vpon the surface of the water Take saith he gold crude foliated laminated or calcined with Mercury and put it into our Vinegre Antimoniall Saturnine Mercuriall and drawne from Sal Ammoniack as is said in a broad vessell of glasse foure fingers high or more and leaue it there in a temperate heate and in short time thou wilt see lifted vp as it were a liquor of oyle swimming aloft in manner of a thinne skinne That gather with a spoone or with a feather dipping it in and so doing many times in a day vntill there doe nothing more arise afterward make the water vapour away by the fire that is to say the superfluous humor of the vinegre and there will remain vnto thee a fifth essence of Gold in forme of a white oyle incombustible wherein the Phylosophers haue placed their greatest secrets and this oyle is exceeding sweete and is of great power to mitigate the pain and griefe of wounds All the secret then of this secret Antimoniall is that by vertue thereof we know how to extract draw out of the body of the Magnesia Argent viue not burning and this is Antimony and Mercuriall sublimate that is we must draw a water liuing incombustible and then congeale it with the perfect Body of the Sunne which is dissolued therein into a nature and substance white congealed as if it were creame which maketh it all to become white Neuerthelesse first of all this Sunne in his putrifaction and resolution in this water in the beginning will loose his light be darkened become black and afterward will lift himselfe vpon the water and there will swimme vpon it by little and little a white colour i◠a white substance And this is called to whiten the red Leton to sublime it Phylosophically and to reduce it into his first matter that is to say into white Sulphur incombustible and into Argent viue fixed and so the terminated moisture that is to say Gold our Body by the reiteration of liquefaction in this our dissoluing water is turned and reduced into Sulphur and Argent viue fixed And so the perfect Body of the Sunne taketh life in this water is reuiued inspired encreased and multiplied in his kind as all other things are for in this water it commeth to passe that the Body compounded of two bodies of the Sunne and of the Moone puffeth vp swelleth putrisieth as a graine of Corne becommeth great with young is lifted vp and encreaseth taking the substance nature liuing and vegetable Also our water or our foresaid vinegre is the vinegre of Mountaines that is to say of the Sunne and Moone and therefore it is mixed with the Sunne and Moon and cleaueth to them perpetually to wit the Body taketh from this water the tincture of whitenesse and with it the water shineth with inestimable brightnesse Hee therefore that knowes how to turne the Body into white siluer medicinall hee may afterward by this white gold easily turne all imperfect mettals into very good and fine siluer And this white gold is by the Phylosophers called their white Moone the white Argent viue fixed the Gold of Alchimy and the white smoake Therefore without that our Antimoniall vinegre the white gold of Alchimy cānot be made And because in our vinegre there is a double substance of Argent viue one of Antimony and another of Mercury sublimed it doth therefore giue a double weight substance of Argent viue fixed and also augments therein in the gold the naturall colour weight substance and tincture thereof Therefore our dissoluing water carries a great tincture and great fusion because that when it feeles the common fire if there be in it the perfect Body of the Sunne or of the Moone it suddenly maketh it to bee melted and to be turned into his substance white as it is addes colour weight and tincture to the Body It hath also power to dissolue all things that may be melted and it is a ponderous body viscous precious and honourable resoluing all crude bodies into their first matter that is into Earth a viscous powder that is to say into Sulphur and Argent viue If therefore thou put into this water any mettall filed or attenuated and leauest it for a time in a gentle heate it will bee all dissolued and changed into a viscous water or a white oyle as is said And so it molifies the Body and prepares it to fusion liquefaction nay it makes all things fusible that is stones and mettals and afterwards giues them spirit and life Therefore it dissolues all things with a wonderful solution turning the perfect Body into a fusible medicine melting penetrating and more fixed encreasing the weight and colour Worke therefore with it and thou shalt obtaine from it that which thou desirest for it is the spirit and the soule of the Sunne and the Moone it is the oyle the dissoluing water the fountaine the Balneum Mariae the fire against Nature the moist fire the secret hidden and inuisible fire and the most sharpe vinegre of which a certaine ancient Phylosopher said I besought the Lord and hee shewed me a certain cleane water which I knew to be the pure vinegre altering piercing and digesting The vinegre I say penetratiue and the instrument mouing the gold or the siluer to putrifie resolue and to be reduced into his first matter and it is the onely Agent in the whole World for this Art that can resolue and reincrudate or make raw againe the Mettallicke Bodies with the conseruation of their species It is therefore the onely fit and natural mean by which we ought to resolue the perfect Bodies of the Sunne and Moone by an admirable and solemne dissolution vnder the conseruation of their species and without any destruction vnlesse it be to a new more noble and better forme or generation that is to say into the perfect Stone of the Phylosophers which is their wonderfull and hidden secret Now this water is a certain middle substance cleere as pure siluer which ought to receiue the tinctures of the Sunne and Moone to the end that it may be congealed and conuerted into white and liuing Earth for this water hath need of the perfect bodies that with them after dissolution it may bee congealed fixed and coagulated into white Earth and their solution is also their congelation for they haue one and the same operation for the one is not dissolued but that the other is congealed neither is