AN EXPOSITION UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY's PREFACE Written by Aeyrenaeus Philalethes ANGLUS COSMOPOLITA LONDON Printed for William Cooper at the Pellican in Little Britain MDCLXXVII An Exposition UPON THE PREFACE OF Sr GEORGE RIPLEY Canon of Bridlington TO pass over his Prologue which is Adhortatory to the desirously studious of this Art and the beginning of the Preface which is his Address to God who is the only Giver of Wisdom to bestow upon him true Understanding that he might lead his sinful Life to the glory of him being over-swayed from what he was naturally by him who is the Fountain of all Goodness I shall take up his Pattern for a Precedent rather of Imitation than a Subject of Exposition And first as touching those who shall bend themselves to this Science Let them resolve that they undertake a most admirable piece of Work in which though far be it that I should think that God bestows upon any of us what we enjoy for our own Merits but of his free Grace yet withal let me exhort any one who shall set his Studies this way to address himself to the Author and Fountain of Goodness for his help that he may have grace to honour God in the use of so great a Talent For I perswade my self that whomever God shall appoint to be Heir of such a Talent that he will give him a heart to improve it aright or else he will add to his Judgment for the abuse of so great a Blessing For whoever shall be wanton and dissolute and live without the fear of God what may he not do with such an Art unless God restrain him as certainly he will hiding this Secret from him or making it to him a snare and trap to betray his Life into the hands of covetous men of the World as many have found it by sad experience Therefore the Lord give both me and thee that grace that he may be continually before our Eyes The Alpha and Omega of our Thoughts Words and Actions Even so Amen In the Beginning when thou madest all of nought a globous matter and dark under confusion by him the beginning c. FIrst then cast thine Eyes upon the Works of God and behold that work of his hands Consider how the glorious work of Creation was begun by him even by Christ for whose sake this very Science is communicated unto the Sons of Men as Bernardus Trevisan witnesseth who in his Epistle to Thomas of Bononia saith of this work That it is done Christi Gratia for Christs sake Consider how out of one Mass the Lord God by his powerful Command made all things to appear that are in Heaven or in Earth the heavenly Bodies with their Influences above and the earthly Matter below which by the Rotation of the Heavens produce all sublunary products through the word of his Mouth Above all which and in all which God is he is the Maker and the Lord of all above all blessed for ever who hath purchased to himself a People and redeemed them and they shall reign with him for ever and ever For as of one Mass was made all things right so in our practice must it be APply all this to the work of this Mastery Analogically and Allegorically for as the Lord made all the works which we see so he did lay them all under his powerful word of Command by which they continue to be what they are and are carried with an uniform motion to that first Pattern or Draught of things All our Secrets of one Image must spring AS then out of one mixed confused Mass all things had an actual existence according to their several kinds so out of one Image all these Secrets must flow Truth doth not consist in Heterogeneity but in Unity for God is one and his works uniform and the more Noble any thing is the nearer to Simplicity As in Philosophers Books whoso list to see TO this the Sentences of the Philosophers concur as many as have truly understood the Secret as Morien often and plentifully witnesseth Geber Trevisan and many others The thing is but one in kind though two in number and though more things are used yet till they be all brought to an oneness of Nature they are not fit to enter into this work Our Stone is called the Lesser World ANd therefore our Stone is resembled to Man who although he have a Wife different from him in Sex yet one with him in kind in which sence it is called the Microcosm or Less World for indeed next to Man who is the Image of God it is the true little System of the Great World I shall not particularize here how for in its place it will fall in seasonably One and Three THis Stone is also called Trine or Trinity in Vnity from the Homogeneity of the Matter as Trevisan saith Our Stone is made of one Root that is of two Mercurial Substances c. This Trinity is discerned in the Components for first there is the Body which is Sol and the Water of Mercury in which besides its Mercuriality there is a spiritual seed of Sulphur which is the secret Fire This is the Trinity these are called the Body the Soul and the Spirit the Body is the dead Earth which increaseth not without the celestial Vertue the Spirit is the Soul of our Air or Chameleon which is also of a two-fold composure yet made one inseparably the Soul is the Bond of Mercury without which our Fire never appears nor can appear for it is naked it inhabits the Fiery-Dragon and it yields his Soul to the true Saturnia and is embraced by it and both become one together bearing the stamp of the most High even the Oriental Lucifer the Son of the Morning This Soul is Chalyb's Magical Volatile and very tender the true Minera of Sol out of which Sol naturally proceeds which I my self know to be true and have spoken of it in my little Latin Treatise called Introitus apertus ad occlusum Regis palatium This is true Sulphur which is imbibed by the Mercuriality of Saturnia and notes it with the Regal Signet and being united and revived into a Mineral Water by the Mediation of Diana's Doves it is the sharp Spirit which in the Water moves the Body to putrefie Thus is the Trinity proportionable to wit three Natures in the first Mixture the Work is carried an end to perfect Complement distinctly according to the Vertue of a Body Soul and Spirit for the Body would be never penetrative were it not for the Spirit nor would the Spirit be permanent in its super-perfect Tincture were it not for the Body nor could these two act one upon another without the Soul for the Spirit is an invisible thing nor doth it ever appear without another Garment which Garment is the Soul In this it exerciseth its vertue this Soul as it is drawn from the Saturnia solid and dry is named our Air or rather the Chameleon which is
an airy Body changing its hue according to every Object it beholds so our Air is of an astonishing Nature out of which I know all Metals may be drawn yea even Sol and Luna without the Transmuting Elixir of which in my little Latine Treatise which was the Congest of mine own experience I spake fully This Air being dissolved into Water Mineral hath in it two of our Trinity united so really that in a short digestion the spiritual inhabiting invisible Sulphur will without addition congeal the Mercury in which it is and make a visible congelated substance of Luna and then Sol. Thus this Trinity is indeed Vnity one being Gold mature fixt and digested in act the other Gold volatile white and crude yet in posse to be made most fixt and solid by naked digestion It is not then a delusion that Philosophers speak and write for trust me Viderunt nudam fine veste Dianam sciens loquor I know I speak true which the Sons of Art do know and can testifie with me Magnesia also THis Stone is by the Philosophers called their Magnesia their Adrop c. with many more names and is indeed their Stone in the first true mixture of the true matter for it is the true seed and will produce with the co-operation of external Fire in a patient expectation of the time of Nature which is not long to him that understands it Of Sulphur and Mercury FOr that which is done by Nature in many years and ages in the bowels of the Earth decocting Mercury alone without addition Art to make the work short first impregnates Mercury with a spiritual seed of Sulphur by which it becomes powerful in the dissolution of Metals and then adds to it mature Sulphur by which the work is shortened and out of these two Parents of one Root is brought forth a Noble Son of a Regal Off-spring that is not simply Gold but our Elixir ten thousand times more precious Proportionate by Nature most perfectly YEt all this Work of the Artist is only to help Nature we can do no more yea we have professed and will profess that we do only administer unto Nature herein for all the Works of God are intire we can but behold them and admire them and therefore we seek our Principals where Nature is and amend Nature in its own Nature Nor do we make the simple believe which is the Trade of Sophisters that we by our Extractions and Manual Operations upon Vegetables Minerals Urines Hair or the like intend to make our so highly prized Elixir but out of such things in which Nature hath put it we by Art do make it appear by revealing what was hidden and hiding what was manifest But many one marvelleth and marvel may and museth on such a marvellous thing WHereas those who work upon other matters than the true do betray their ignorance herein most foully that they do not consider the possibility of Nature but work after their Fancy as though out of combustible substances filthy in their nature and made up of Heterogeneities might be produc'd a pure perfect Metallick Substance by reason of its unseverable Unity invincible and by vertue of its transcendent Excellency cleansing and fixing all leporous and fugitive bodies in the Mineral Kingdom and reducing them to the Anatical proportion of perfectly digested Sol or Luna according to the quality of the Medicine When therefore their Principles are not sound their Conclusion is always deceitful and then they not knowing Nature in her Operation but interpreting the words of the crafty and envious Philosophers according to the Letter do stand admiring at the Unconformity of their Work to the Promises of the Philosophers at least as they understand their Books they admire what this Stone is if it be a Truth or a Conceit and why they as well as any do not attain it if possible Such meditations usually fill the minds of unsuccessful Alchymists who though they be as they esteem themselves very Judicious yet cannot stumble upon this unhappy Stone What is our Stone c. THey marvel at the uncouth difficulty of the thing nor can they almost tell what to judge of what they read forasmuch as all Philosophers say it is a very easie thing For Fowls and Fishes to us do it bring every Man it hath And it is in every place in thee in me c. ANd in very deed the Antient Wise Men have so written and do still write the same as to wit That it is found in a Dunghil according to Morien and for the easiness of the charge they all write plentifully so that in respect of time and cost Artophius and Flammel say it is but the play of Children and work of Women and therefore one Excellent Philosopher writing of this Mastery titles his Treatise Ludus Puerorum that is Childrens Play To this I answer That Mercury it is I wis YEt trust me though the wise men thus write and it be true there is notwithstanding something to be added to their Sentence according as the Author of Novum Lumen well observed as namely That this Art is easie to him that understands it as Artephius plainly expresseth but to him that is ignorant of it there is nothing can appear so hard The Wise Man saith Sendivogius finds it in a Dunghil but the Fool cannot believe that it is in Gold I for my part through the great mercy of God to me an unworthy and unthankful Creature I know the Art to be true and not that only but also very easie and I wonder that men of so great parts have studied for it so long in vain only this I am confident of it is the gift of God nor is it in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that giveth mercy In which respect I am bold to the glory of God to confess that I have the Art and have Natures Operations in these so hidden Secrets before mine eyes at this present writing which I see hourly with admiration of the infinite Glory in the beholding of such a great Glory in the Creatures which trust me will ravish the Beholder to see such a despised Infant as our Mercury is to grow into so strong a Heroe which the World cannot purchase But not the Common called Quick-silver by name YEt the difficulty is not over when once it is known that the whole Secret consisteth in Mercury for what more frequent among the Sophisters than to cry Our Mercury c. and yet in the Work of Nature they are as blind as Moles The cause is for that Nature hath produced a Mineral Juice in the bowels of the Earth which doth answer to most of the Philosophical Descriptions of their Water as namely that it is mineral quick current without humectation ponderous and the like which when the vulgar Alchymists read they apply it to this naughty Mercury which for inward Qualities hath nothing in it like ours Some there are who trusting to
Waters to abide And wash'd him clean and after gave him Wings To fly much like a Dragon whose sharp Springs Of fiery Water th' only way was found To cause Apollo his Harp-strings to sound This is the true Nymphs Bath which we did try And prov'd to be the Wise Mens Mercury IN this Song you have the Lyon Green so described that more I dare not more I cannot unless I should pen you down the Receipt verbatim which God and Reason forbids He is the mean the Sun and Moon between Of joyning Tinctures with perfectness LEarn then to know this Green Lyon and its preparation which is all in all in the Art it is the only knot untie it and you are as good as a Master for whatever then remains is but to know the outward Regimen of Fire for to help on Natures internal Work As Geber thereunto beareth witness MOreover be not various seeking that in many things which is verily but in one thing for in all the world there is not any one subject but this Ripley after the Rehearsal of all his Errors tells you That he never saw true Work but one And Geber Exacte inquit singula sumus experti idque probatis rationibus nihil invenimus praeter solam unctuosam humiditatem penetrantem tingentem c. And Artephius saith There is no other subject in the World for this Art naming it although in a Philosophick manner wonderous subtilly I counsel thee with Ripley to learn to know this one thing which I have faithfully declared and I know what I have declared experimentally to be true He that understands me will have cause to thank God and me for what Light I have given to Ripley He that with me understands Ripley will easily discern With the second which is an humidity Vegetable reviving what earst was dead OUr second Water or Menstruum or Fire is our Elixir which is an Elixation of our Matters or drawing forth the Tincture out of our dissolved Bodies which doth cause our dead Body to rise and to spring forth in Sprigs and Branches like to the tender Grass in the Spring out of the Field and this so long until an intire Triptative Union be made of Body Soul and Spirit In this operation our Body of the Sun hath its dead moles turned into a living quick active Spirit and our Compound after death begins to sprout and to shew its true Vegetative nature it is indowed with a green Colour which is the sign of the growth of all things Both Principles Materials must loosed be HEre your Natures are changed and hold one of another and become one inseparably that is the Solary Nature is no to be divided from the Mercury nor the Fire from the Water but with one the other is always moved and so though there yet be a superius and an inferius an ascendens and subsidens yet now quod est superius est sicut id quod est inferius And Formals else they stand in little stead NOw between the two Extreams of Mercury and Sulphur you have a marvellous medium ingendered now the form of Gold is taken quite away and it hath at present an accidental imperfect form which is the mean through which it passeth to its transcendent perfection These Menstrues therefore know I thee reed LAbour with all thy might to attain the skill of these two first Menstruums Theoretically and Practically the first is to be by thee prepared and proportioned in the beginning before thou attempt any thing When thou hast the true Nymphs Bath then joyn this Spouse with her beloved Husband and see if she will make his Body fall to sunder in impalpable Atoms Then let Saturn be thy Chamberlain and let him gather together these dissevered members and of them make one broth in which is blackness compleat after which followeth greenness and then shalt thou know that thy Compound is by the living God endowed with a vegetable Soul Without the which neither true Calcination Done may be nor true Dissolution HE who knoweth not the Mystery of these two Menstrues can never attain either to Calcination or Dissolution of the Philosophers The Mystery of the first consists in the acuating of thy Vinegar with the Blood of our Green Lyon and the Soul of the Fiery Dragon which is by seven Eagles which are seven Cohobations and Depurations of thy feminine Sperm till it conceive a spiritual seed or true natural heat to animate thy young King The Mystery of the second Menstrue consists in the true proportion of thy first Water with its own Body and the administration of true heat external by which the combat between the Eagles and the Lyon may be stirred up thus shall the Duel be ended the Lyon rent in pieces and the Carrion of its Carcass shall kill the Eagles and out of these Atoms shall the second Water be made apparent by Dissolution With the third Humidity most permanent THe third Menstrue is by Artephius called the second Water for our second he doth joyn together with the first although where he doth particularize the three Fires he doth then distinguish three Menstruums The like course many Philosophers have used in the description of their Operations some omitting the first or at least confounding it with the second for the greater obscuring of the Art But we have beyond what any have hitherto performed particularly insisted upon the three in order and have taken more pains in the discovery of the first because the wise Ancients have taken such pains to conceal that most and after that we have made an orderly proceeding to the second which we have in like sort handled and this being performed we do now address our selves to the third This is called by Ripley a most permanent Humidity and note by the way that the first Water is called by Authors a permanent Water likewise but take notice that there is a different reason for each denomination for first of all all Mercury is Water permanent that is the parts have no Heterogeneity they will not leave one another in the examen of the Fire but either all flyes and is unconstant or else all abides and is constant in the tryal of Vulcan and so is our first Menstruum And in this our Mercury and Common Mercury agree besides the identity of matter for it is the form only that distinguisheth them But in the next place our Water is permanent with the Body which Common Mercury is not that is it by digestion doth unite not only adhere to it so that both together do make one Individuum which is done by our secret Conjunction But lastly when the Body is thus by our Water reduced at last it comes that the four Elements are united in this Water After Putrefaction and Purification which is the last most laudable Tetraptive Conjunction and now the Tincture is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Soul and the Soul is the Body and all these are one
Earth to sprout and bud with tender branches These two the base oyl or Sulphur and the vegetable Menstrue at last make one intire indivisible substance which is of an Hermaphroditical quality the Man is the Woman and the Woman the Man the Sulphur the Mercury and the Mercury is the Sulphur in this respect the Earth flyeth as if it were Heaven and at length the Heaven will precipitate in the form of Earth and then is our work at an end there is the Harvest in the South when the glorified Soul is become a spiritual Body which is called our Stone of Paradise Of nature so Fiery that we it call Our Basilisk or our Cockatrice Our great Elixir most of price For as the sight of the Basilisk his object Killeth so slayeth it crude Mercury When thereupon he is project In twinkling of an eye most suddenly That Mercury then teyneth permanently All Metals to Gold and Silver perfite Thus guide thy base both red and white THis Heavenly Earth is true Mineral Fire which is then resembled to the Sun in its Summer Solstice it is called Venom because it penetrates Metals so wonderfully it is called our Basilisk our Cockatrice our Tyrian Poison though indeed it be an excellent Medicine in which respect it is called our incomparable inestimable Elixir But the denomination of Basilisk it retains from its sudden operation upon Mercury for it penetrates it in projection as warm Oyl runs into sinking Paper even to the profundity of it Let thy Mercury therefore be taken as it is crude bought at the Apothecaries and thou shalt set it in a Crucible to the Fire in such a heat as the Mercury may not fume and when it is so hot that it is ready to fly which you shall discern by a spurtling noise throw upon it of your Medicine as much as will teyne it and you shall see that in a moment it will enter it and straightway the Mercury loseth its flux and stands congealed Then it is to be melted by a Fire of fusion and you shall find pure Gold or Silver according to the quality of your Medicine But if you cast your high Elixir in too great a quantity on Mercury you shall find in the Crucible after projection a brittle mass of the quality and colour of the first Medicine only of a lower virtue which then you may project upon any inferiour Metal and it will transmute it into most perfect This operation is not apparent or to sight as is the work of Sophisters but it is both inward and outward for it transmuteth into a perfect species and not only to shew This is the way of projection both of thy white and thy red Quintessences first to cast them upon Sol or Luna according as thy Medicine is and after that to make projection on Mercury again and again till you find the true extent of the virtue of your Stone Aurum Potabile thus is made Of Gold not commonly calcinate ANd now I come to the second reward that Wisdom doth bring with her and that is length of days and here I have transposed some few Verses of Ripleys concerning Aurum Potabile that what he saith in this point may be represented in view together Method inviting me to it Some propound the Medicine of Aurum Potabile to be Extracted out of Sol pure by corroding with Aqua Regia and afterwards levigating it by reiterate Calcinations in the Fire and manual Contritions This Calx so subtilized some attempt to resolve by Menstrues as they call them but in vain there being only one Menstruum that hath the power to resolve both Gold and all sublunary Bodies to their first matter Paracelsus the first Author of this did name this dissolving Water his Alkahest his Ignis Gehennae his Corrosivum specificum with many other names This Medicine thus made of Gold by the Alkahest as it is Philosophical and real so it is very excellent and known only to the Adepti Yet this is not our great Medicine for this being but a resolution of Gold in its unary simplicity doth afford to us only the most exquisite Medicine that is in Gold as it is made and left by Nature which partly for its simple vertue and partly for its Metallick determination doth not enter our Constitutive Principles and consequently cannot touch or reach long life But of our Tincture which will not fade Out of our base drawn by our Menstrue circulate BUt when as we have by our Art exalted Gold from an unary to a millenary perfection and advanced it from its gross corpulency to a Spiritual Tincture which is unfading and of all Sublunary things the most durable then out of this so glorious and triumphant in an universal virtue we do make an Oyl so called by us though it be permiscible by mixture in any Liquor which Oyl is the very Tree of Life which prevails and triumphs over all the Miseries in the world For it is not Metallum but transcending all Metalline things This Tincture is extracted out of Gold not as Tinctures are drawn by the Sal Circulatum of Paracelsus but by an universal changing of the Sickness of the Metalline off-spring into a true posture of Health by which means it is able to heal all Metalline Bodies from their Leprosie and being resolved by its own Vegetable Humidity which is our first Menstrue circulated till the Water have a ferment from the Bodies and the Bodies from the Water it will give a Spiritual Tincture sparkling like the flame to tast most sweet to smell most pleasant the most incomparable Treasure of the whole World And for thy first ground principal Vnderstand thy Waters Menstrual NOw I return to that which went before concerning this Medicine which I passed over in that place that I might here bring it in together and indeed he who will know this Mystery he must in the first place learn to know his Menstrual Waters for without this knowledge he can never come to this Mastery for with the third Menstruum counting three according to Ripley or the second Water making the first and second into one with Artephius is this fragrant Balsam made And verily the whole is but Cohobation the first Water being cohobated so long upon the Bodies till it receive from them a quality of natural heat yet so as that the quality of its own Fire which is corruptive and so against Nature be mingled in way of action and passion with the natural Fire This makes a Fire innatural and is the second Water in which colours rise and set frequently and then by cohobating it till Fire of Nature have wholly subdued his Adversary and made a perfect peace and union with it Then all is Fire of Nature then the Clouds are scattered and the Light appears and this is our third Water the subject of wonders which being one alone doth from that time all operations within it self congealing relenting calcining exalting subliming and fixing
Incombustible and unctuous in his Nature THis is our true Incombustible Mercury for it is totally purged from all its burning faeculency Gold though it be a pure Metal in respect of others which are imperfect yet compared with our Stone it hath also its faeces but this when it is taken away by Putrefaction and Ablution then becomes a total separation of what is precious from what is vile and as the Philosopher well saith In the troubles of this our stormy Sea all that is pure will ascend and all that is impure descend and will abide in the bottom of the Vessel in the form of a combust Earth then is made the new Heaven and the new Earth pray to God then that thou mayst see when there shall be no more Sea Yet I say before thou hast this final Inceration thou hast this most incombustible Menstruum and most permanent in which Nature and Art have conspired and made a Purification beyond what Nature alone could ever have brought to pass Therefore this Mercury though it be liquid and in the form of Mercury it is notwithstanding Unctuous that is great with Child which Child is Sulphur which Sulphur it will in the end bring forth and shall then be sealed up in the belly of this Infant which is when all is fixed and Mercury is then hidden under the fixity of Sulphur Hermes Tree unto Ashes is burnt IT doth therefore naturally incline it self unto Inceration for Earth is the Nurse of our Stone and in it is its virtue attained and its perfection intire according to noble Hermes in his Smaragdine Table Vis saith he ejus est integra fi versa fuerit in terram By vertue of this third permanent pure incombustible Water thou shalt at last attain a total Inceration for this Water though it be wholly Mercurial to sight yet hath it in its own Bowels its own Sulphur nay it is all Sulphur and that all incombustible This work is called the burning of Hermes Tree to Ashes which is done thrice first into a black unctuous Calx as impalpable as Atoms which are only to be discerned in the Sun-beams secondly into a fine white Calx in which is the Moon in the full the third a red Calx in which the Sun is Orient Now know that the first Calcination is from the vertue of the Sun in which the Sun seeks to rise but by reason of the equal opposition it finds from the water it is beclouded and after through the interposition of the Earth totally Eclipsed This Fire therefore because of the mixture of it with the natural Fire of Sol which is in it dissolved is called unnatural the first Fire of our Water is called Fire against nature and the Fire of the Sulphur of the perfect Body is called Fire of nature In this operation through the power and will of the Almighty the Body which hath been so long dead is by this Water quickned and actually sprouts like to a Vegetable for when the pores of it are opened by the moistning of our Water it straight begins to follow the Spirit upon the Fire the Spirit then doth mount aloft which the Body thus made tender cannot follow but as the Poet saith non passibus aequis as a Son that is little followeth his Father It therefore in a token of its friendship with the Water doth bud forth like to the tender Frost upon the surface of the Earth and retains a quantity of the Water with it self occupying a middle room between the bottom and the top in which respects the Philosophers have called it their Soul which to shew its union to the Body riseth no higher then it can have a root or Basis below and to manifest its love to the Spirit it doth as it were climb after it higher and higher for its season until at length it return from whence it came And verily this Soul is the Magnetical Medium between the Spirit and the Body which doth desire the Spirit as its true drink and therefore as it grows dry it doth attract the greater drops of sweat which falling to the Earth arise in a pleasant fume and do moisten the growing virtue with a pleasant dew by reason of which it grows every day more and more This Tree of ours some have compared to one thing and some to another some to a Cypress or Fir-Tree which indeed may seem to resemble it others to Haw-Thorn Trees as Ripley in his Gate of Cibation others to Shrubs and Bushes others to thick Woods and in these Woods saith Lambsprint there is a Beast all over black I confess there is a similitude between our Germination and all these others because of the Humidity of the Compound which is ever and anon returning by drops have likened it to a moorish low Bog in which Rushes grow and Toads keep others have called it their Coral which is indeed the fittest comparison for in our Tree there are Shoots and Sprigs without any thing that may be properly likened to Leaves as then Coral is an union of a Vegetable and a Stony nature so is it in our Tree for Stones and Minerals are of one Composition our Tree is Metalline and yet through the power of God it seems to Vegetate 2ly Coral grows under the water where one would think no Vegetable could grow ours also grows in a heat in which no Vegetable but it self can grow 3ly Coral hath many Sprigs and Branches without Leaves so is our Tree 4ly Coral as it is under water hath a most exquisite biting tast which in the Air it quickly loseth so our Stone or Tree Metaline in its place is of a pontique Fiery nature but taken out it in a short space loseth the same irrecoverably 5ly There are five sorts of Coral the common Gray the Milk White the Green the Bloud Red and the Black so our Tree is at his periods of all these colours and in this form which Tree by the heat of the Fire is dryed to a Calx which is called the Ashes of Hermes Tree Lastly Coral is more heavy then any other Vegetable and so is our Tree beyond all Vegetables yea and Coral it self in ponderosity It was not therefore a fortuitous comparison that Philosophers named their Mastery the Tree of the Hesperides nor is it in vain that they bring in Jason pouring Broth at the Root of it to attain the Mastery for verily the wise Philosopher noted by Jason so governing his Fire that the Lunary or Water of the Moon may return to the Earth in which these Trees grow the Earth will at length be so dryed by the heat of the Sun that it shall afford the Tree no more moisture then shall the Tree it self be calcined by the prevailing heat into a Powder impalpable first black then white then red Therefore is our little Glass by Flammel in his Summary named the Philosophers Garden in which the Sun riseth and setteth and the Philosophers Tree is moistned with the