the same course of Nature and power with the Heavens Concerning the Creation of Man Severinus saith Man is a quintessence extracted from the Firmament and Elements or a subtile Essence of the whole World extracted and concreted into one body And so is the compleat image of the Universe and he adds that God in creating the World plaid the Spagyrist or Chymist These things plainly taken are not to be endured because there are two parts that constitute man the soul and the body neither of which being alone can be called man There are also spirits in the body which are the principal instruments of the soul and the soul useth them immediately in the actions of life These spirits are invisible but corporeal if the Chymists take these for the invisible man they tell us no news onely they speak improperly when they give the name of the whole to a part of man If they mean any thing besides spirits to be the invisible man they multiply beings or they must prove that besides the body soul and spirit there is an other substance in man and I shall not yeild to them till they do Then in describing the Creation of man Crollius is very rash for God by his power created man of clay and gave him strength as he pleased nor had he need of the Spagyrick Art to give him strength and we read that man was made according to Gods image and we read not that that clay or dust of which he was made was the quintessence of the whole World therefore the Paracelsians are out What they say of generation nourishment and rule of mans body is according to Hippocrates and Galen only a little coloured with other fictions yet some things are false When they say that generation is from mechanical spirits and that after generation the body being compleat all natural actions are administred they say true but it is no news But they erre in two points First for rejecting the temperament to be from the first qualities as though it availed not for actions for an animated part having its temper and full of natural heat and spirits is the adequate or fit organ for every action therefore none of these must be wanting Then they erre in that they give knowledg to act simply to the spirits for they act not by their own strength but are directed by the soul and this knowledg is belonging to the soul which is the first cause of all actions in a living body Fourthly they think not right concerning blood when they deny it to be the nourishment of the body and place it above the dignity of the parts for experience teacheth that the chyle is turned into blood as the meat into chyle for no other end but that the whole body should be nourished with blood Therefore since Severinus hath questioned so plainly a matter and brought no reasons against it we may with as much ease deny what he saies Fiftly when he saith the spirits are hungry and filled it is absurd for it is the creatures properly but the spirits are refreshed and restored it is one thing to indicate and another to defire Consumed spirits indicate restauration but the appetite desires to be preserved by its like and to have what is troublesom removed Sixthly they make blood one of the parts and and it may be allowed but let them understand parts as Hippocrates did when he divided the body into parts cōtaining contained and such as do force otherwise blood is no part but nourishment They do ill to give the government of the body to blood because it is only for nourishmēt but the spirits govern the body under the soul Seventhly they do ill to accuse the Galenists of idleness Nor are they ignorant of that of Hippocrates of places in men which Severinus quored nor are they ignorant that the diseases in the joynts are worst when humors flow from other parts under them This they call by a new name Synovia and they know not what to determine about it But Hippocrates only attributes that humor to the joynts that they may move better Paracelsus thought otherwise of Synovia when he said It is a nourishment of its part Lib. 7. paragr par 7 And they since say it is an internal vertue and agility or a sweet Milk which nourisheth the parts all these hang not well together Eightly Severinus doth undeservedly accuse Galen because he reckoned not the gall among the parts of the body for it ought to be cast out as an excrement it is so far from being a part that constitutes a body Ninthly when Severinus makes a stomach in the liver and other parts it is simple to quible so upon the word Stomach as Paracelsus did when he said the pleurisie was in the head The 10. Chapter of Severinus is Galen in other words Lib. 3. de morb tartareis c. 4. The Paracelsians toss the humors strangely and say they are but bare words and call the Galenists Humorists because saith Paracelsus Neither Heaven nor Earth knows flegm choler or melancholy therefore they are not in man And why should we prove the humors from the Analogy between the great and little World It is foolish without sense or experience to flie to such Analogical proofs For as in other creatures so in man there is blood which nourisheth now sense teacheth that blood is made of meats received but not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and when a vein is opened blood is let out not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and in all bodies in all times ages places and countries blood is found But Paracelsus differs in this from himself and mentions blood and humors in many of his Books But they will answer that it is manifest to the senses that blood is in the veins but they will shew by an artificial dissolving of it that it hath three Principles as they shew from what fountain actions proceed but here they seem wise for while we speak of blood and humors the question is not touching the first Principles of things but of the immediate in mans body and perfect animals Suppose we grant that blood and humors are made of Salt Sulphur and Mercury therefore must the ancient names of choler blood flegm and melancholy be rejected by the same reason you may reject the appellations of bones membranes flesh and of all parts for by the principles of Chymists these are made of their three principles as well as blood Therefore it is fit that ancient should be kept to which Galen Hippocrates Aristotle Avicen Mefue and the rest have agreed both Chymists and others For it is not for every one to give names to things nor was Paracelsus so great a man that he ought so to do The names of the humors are not insignificant without essence and properties Seed Flesh and Bone are made of Blood as the rest but because they have a new form they take new names And that which was before called Bread may be called
Chyle then Blood Choler or Flegm c. Severinus is out when he saith there is blood in Balsom with spirit flesh bones ligaments and nerves and that these are seperated from it by help of the mechanick spirits There is in all sood somthing familiar to us that turns nourishment and may have divers forms as the parts are to which it comes call it Balsom or Mummy I am indifferent but I allow not that the things mentioned should be contained in them and be only made known and separated by the mechanick spirits Thus we should say with Anaxagoras that all things are in al things and there is no true generation But when chyle is made of bread blood of chyle bones membranes flesh of blood in every change there is a new form And every part hath force to turn its nourishment into its own nature which is the peculiar faculty of the vegetative soul what we have spoken of blood and humors is meant of alimentary humors that make blood We shall speak of excrementitious humors in the next Chapter in the Causes of Diseases Lastly They make two Anatomies the one local which they esteem little as the dissecting of bodies to see the shape figure and position and number of parts this they called a dead Anatomy for Butchers by which the Carcass is only seen but not the secrets of the nature of man The other they cal essential vital formal by by which every body is dissolved into its principles Paracel de orig morb ae tribus primis substantiis c. 6. alibi Severin c. 3. alibi passim he that wil try this must first know the nature of seeds and properties the offices of the elements and of the principles the roots of generation and transplantation the laws of Astronomy and the disposition not of the dead but of the whole living body Therefore they say the heart is wheresoever there is vital heat The Stomach is every cavity or place of concoction The womb is every place where there is seed of any fruit and they think the consideration of the great world is chiefly to be had in this Anatomy They say whatsoever is in the great world is also in man not according to a superficial likeness but indeed and according to the species and that man contains all things in himself though invisibly As to the local Anatomy they speak of they dishonor it for Anatomy is much beyond a Butchers work for by it all parts are artificially found out and their constitution and use Thus did Galen in his Book of the use of parts and others which if Paracelsus had read he had not written so absurdly They arrogate to themselves only the vital Anatomy but the Galenists had it as you may see in Galens Books of the faculties of nature of the Seed of the sorming of the Infant of Breathing temperaments Elements c. in which he speaks of the faculties of the soul which govern the body and of the instruments thereof in action Yet if the Chymists by their Principles can give it more light we wil accept of it thankfully But they here rather quible with words and with new terms they sell the opinions of the Ancients as their own and do little discover them or clear them up as when they say the heart is wheresoever there is vital heat It is the part of a wise Philosopher to call things by their own names and not so to quible with names as to confound things that are distinct Chap. 16. of Pathologie or Diseases THe Chymists seem also to enlarge the Pathological part of Physick Ideae Philos c. 13. when they suppose that the antecedent cause the Disease and the Symptom differ not in kind essence or specifical propreties but only in power and act Thus Severinus and that they differ no otherwise then a sleeping Physitian doth from the same being awake brimstone not burning from that which burneth salt not dissolved from that which is dissolved therefore he supposeth names are to be given from the roots as from the hidden roots of diseases in intermitting feavers when no heat is fired in the heart while the feaver lies close in the body and not from the antecedent cause But Galen doth better divide all things that are besides nature in mans body into three Cap. 12. that is the disease the cause and the symptom and there is no Discipline that makes no difference between the causes and the effects therfore it must be in Physick for the humors are the causes the diseases the effects and again the symptoms are effects of them both and all these differ in their whole essence and nature Therefore Severinus writes foolishly saying That which is most remote from producing of an effect is a genus that which is nearest to the individual is the species and the effect is the individual He makes the most general genus or kind to be the stony tartarous Mucilages in fruits and those in the stomach and guts to be the sudordinate genus But when they cause diseases and symptoms they are species and the last actions being hurt or hindered are the individuals But every true Philosopher may perceive this absurdity He writes like a fool when he saith he saw a feaver vomited forth for he saw the cause but not the feaver And more simply when he saies that matter so vomited up shaked for a time like an ague But either he read not or observed not what Galen and Galenists have written concerning the shaking of feavers But these Severinians are offended that the names of diseases are not given from the causes But they are unreasonable to think names must be given as they please and that fit names may be rejected Therefore it is not bad to define a feaver from its essence then let them enquire into the nature of the cause and whether the cause of a feaver may be called Choler or Sulphur Nor do the Galenists allows eye the disease alone but look often more at the cause much less do they only observe the symptoms for many of them come often from the same cause and one somtimes from divers causes and if these be not diligently disting dished he plaies the Emperick and will be deceived and if the Chymists will help us in curing we shall thank them As for the nature of a disease Paracelsus errs exceedingly when he saith a disease is a substance and that the disease is a whole man and hath an invisible body and this he shews by the Jaundies But every disease is nothing else but a quality in the body besides Nature Lib. 2. de morb podag by which the body is so disposed that it is unfit for its proper actions Now all error is from this that as plants come from their seeds so they think diseases do also and the true cure of a disease is nothing else but the taking away of those seeds and if they be not taken away by changing
tartarous Diseases of which they speak often and many flie to that in time of ignorance they say then the disease is from Tartar but few explain what Tartar is Lib. de morb tar tar c. 1. Paracelsus rails against the Galenists because they call tartarous diseases sand or the stone because it is a Metaphorical appellation but in Physick we must speak properly and things must de denominated from their Nature which he doth not observe He saith the cause of this appellation is because an oyl and a water and a tincture are made of it which burns the sick as the Tartar of Hell therefore if the name be from the likeness of Hell fire it is taken from a similitude and is not proper Others extend the word Tartar larger then that it should be given only to the stone for they call a slimy humor by the same name which causeth the Colick corrosions and divers pains in the stomach Thus they cal divers things by the name of Tartar to which it doth not equally in reason belong and so is not proper But to the purpose agreeing about names let us see whether the Chymists and Dogmatists may be reconciled in this The Chymists have no clear definition of Tartar Lib. 2. de tar tract 1. c. 1. Paracelsus defines it thus It is stony disease or a bole or between a bole and a stone which hinders the effect and vertue of Nature Other Chymists say Tartar is that impurity in the nourishment under a resolved form that cannot be discerned but yet tends to coagulation and a stony Nature Some from Paracelsus say It is an excrement coagulated by its spirit Some Chymists seem to agree with the Galenists who say Tartar is a stone-making juyce or a matter by Nature apt to coagulate And this juyce is drawn from Plants with the nourishment and sent from Plants into Animals and then it hurts much when Nature is weak to concoct and void it They make four kinds of this Tartarous juyce Viscous bolare or like bole sandy and stony and hence come divers diseases in divers parts of the body First they bring most diseases of the stomach from Tartarous impurities when such a matter covers the sides of the stomach the vital spirits are obstructed which are the Author of all natural actions hence comes slow concoction compression loathing and the like and as the tinctures of the Tartarous spirits are stronger to wholly overcome the inbred spirits there follows want of concoction and nourishment But if these impurities have strange spirits with them they turn the nourishment into a strange nature and there is belching and stink and if they have vomiting properties as of Hellebore or Antimony they cause loathing and vomiting If they have the tinctures of Salts there is burning of the stomach gnawing and the like If of vitriolated Salt there is a Dog-like appetite Let us grant all this that we be not so unjust against the Chymists as Erastus Part 4. disp conâ—a para Yet this tartarous matter is not the onely cause of the hurt actions of the stomach for a hot or a cold distemper often hurts it Moreover from the opinion of Severine diseases breed from those tartarous impurities mixed or alone from the mixed come sulphurous stinking diseases thirst heat bitterness of mouth headach with cold and shaking called ordinary feavers But he thinks they come rather from their roots which are Niter with Sulphur Because he saith feavers have seeds and roots in which slimy and salt spirits with Niter are mixed with impure stinking dissolved Sulphur Therefore at set times when the mineral or matter of the disease begins to spring being nitrous Sulphur there is horror chilness panting and the like as the nitrous Sulphur differs As we are not in this enemies to them so let them be milder against the opinions of Galenists for first we must distinguish the seaver from the cause The cause is that matter which they call Nitrous Sulphur from the accession of which there is a hot distemper in the whole body by which all the parts are unfit for their offices and this preternatural disposition is called a feaver Nor must the name of humors be rejected for Niter or Sulphur are never vomited up or purged forth or sweat out but only humors Though we grant that the humors are set on fire by Sulphur we will not therefore reject the name of humors Scheunemamnus his opinion of the original of feavers is ridiculous he saith that a globe or bal of many Sphaeres like a Bezoar-stone is bred in the stomach or liver and thence come seavers and fits and when this ball is struck from Heaven it flames and smoaks and infects the air hence comes a little cold and trembling and then heat But this globe and its circles of which it is made ought to be very great because he writes that the patient shall have so many fits as are circles in it Against Severine I say the Colick cannot breed from a slimy Tartar mixed with stiptick or binding four spirits because he made one cause only of the pain of the Colick I agree with him about the name for the case is plain that the colick is from glass like flegm as Galen taught But if he make that the only cause he errs exceedingly because there are great pains from wind that extends the guts nor doth sharpness or wind cause pains but by stretching which being made to pass by a Clyster or two the pain ceaseth better then by the laborious Chymical medicines Ideo Philos 13. It is false that he saith the sharpest pains are only from the sharpest spirits of Salts he calls the pains from cuts burnings and stroaks Relolls But all men living do witness by sense that there is no greater pain then that from cutting and burning c. Severine proceeds and saies and describes the generations and differences of inflammations saying That the seeds of these diseases come to the matrixes not only in a liquid form dissolved but in a spiritual vapor and continual nutrication and digested fermentation and except the time of neaturity and separation which coming the spirits break forth and boyl And then the signatures that lay hid before in the spirits are explained colours tasts scents heat and other qualities And by nourishment daily attracted they make bodies agreable to the principles mattery slimy bloody coagulated dissolved stinking red black He brings the kinds of inflammations from the proprieties of the sulphurous spirits And Arsenick spirits make plague sores Orpiment spirits make Pleurisies not only in the breast but in the brain lungs heart liver spleen and stomach He accuseth Galen and other Doctors for saying That inflammations come from much blood violent exercise falls contusions And denies that these effects can come from these causes except some Arsenical seed cause the Plague or other the Pleurisie lying in the blood till it get an occasion to boyl For the breeding of ulcers
not used alike of all but let us not fall out about words but things There are three sorts of Chymical works The first is when nothing is separated from the whole but a thing is changed and made more useful and a new manner of substance or quality is induced they call this a Magistery but it may be called unchanged or impersect The second sort is when that which is separated from the whole or extracted which may be called a Secret or separated body or an Extract by the name of the species The third is that which holds the Compounds for the Chymist doth not only prepare Simples but Compounds some as Elixirs Balsoms and the like To the first kind belong first things that of solid become liquid as Oyls made by a deliquium the making of which is in my Institutions Lib 5. par 3. sec 2. c. 14. As the Oyl or Liquor of Tartar and other Salts which are not properly Oyls but whole bodies impregnated with their salt Menstruum and therefore melt in the moist air to this is drinkable gold referred and other potable Metals The Chymists dispute whether Metals may be reduced into a liquid form of themselves I suppose the liquidity is from the Menstruum mixed because all Metals are of a dry nature and they that think otherwise let them shew that there is any moisture in them if not it is not in the power of art that these dry parts of Metals and their dry fumes should be turned into water And though the Chymists add nothing yet if it be left in the moist air it gets into it as appears by Vitriol calcined Of this kind are the dissolvings of Pearl Coral Crabs-eyes White vomiting Vitriol and pouder and chalks of Metals The golden Sulphur of Antimony Crocus of Mars and other Metals which is made only of the substance of Metal resolved But here we understand things plainly Homogeneal and from which nothing is separated but only a new kind of substance is induced The second kind of Chymical works is called the Secret or separated Body where the whole body is not presented but a part To this belong purified Bodies burnt and calcined all the chalks of combustible things and Salts drawn from them Also Extracts and Tinctures or Essences Also Distillations as Waters Spirits Oyls properly or improperly so called Sublimates and Flowers when the whole body is not sublimed but part of it remains But it is absurd to make Extracts or Quintessences or Oyls of all things especially of substances plainly subtile or Homogeneal There is an example in Pepper whose corns in a cold stomach when the liver is hot are good because they heat the stomach and hurt not the liver but the Extract or Oyl of Pepper is not good because it goes presently to the liver and hurts it The third kind of Chymical work is of Compounds Lib. 5 par 3. sec 3. c. 5. to this belongs the Elixir of which in my Institutes These are the differences in general of Chymical operations of which there is great variety according to the variety of bodies as Vegetables Animals Minerals and Metals for every thing is not made of every thing but one thing of another therefore the Chymists must understand what may be made of every thing For Vegetables to this belong whole Plants and their parts as of herbs shurbs trees leaves flowers seeds c. of these are made depurated Juyces Spirits Oyls Extracts and Tinctures and Salts you may ad juyces to these in the preparing that they may last better as Wine or a little Spirit of Wine We shewed in our Institutes the way of making simple and compound Waters and Spirits Lib. proxime Citato These are made of green or dry Plants green Plants we distil in Balneo or if they be juycy we make juyces and clarifie them in the embers and distil them if they be less juycy we add water and distil them in a still or add water and press out the juyce and then distil it But when we make Spirits fermentation is made first A question may arise whether Oyls and Spirits differ in Essence This we leave to every mans judgment Grosser Oyls made by burning of bodies are of woods and barks as of Box Guajacum because in these the oyly substance cleaves so close to the wood that if you boyl it it cannot be drawn out Then observe in Extracts that every Simple will not afford an Extract for little is extracted from things that have spiritual parts and that have spiritual and oyly Waters as Rosemary Mints but they whose strength is in a slimy juyce and are not volatile have more extract as Gentian Calamus Aromaticus Carduus and the like We said that Salts are made of Plants but some do it only to delight the eyes Inst lib. 5. s 3. c. 5. and not increase the strength They make Salts in Crystals and somtimes they pour Aqua fortis upon Salts vulgarly prepared as in making Tartar vitriolate this is reprehended from Salts of Plants there is also a Spirit as we shewed to be made C 5. Things called Faeculae belong to separations made of Plants Of Drops and Rosins and Gums are made Spirits and Oyls and an Extract of Scammony called a Rosin and it is pure Scammony separated from all its impurity as the Extract or Balsom of Aloes Also there is flour of Benzoin sublimed From Tartar there is a cream of Crystal a Liquor Spirit and Oyl Salt the Secret or great Magistery is made the same way as the Magistery only instead of spirit of Wine we use distil'd Vinegar Moreover the cream and Crystal of Tartar is not a pure Salt because it dissolves not in cold water and if it be distilled in a Retort it affords oyl also That called oyl of Tartar is not its proper Oyl but its Salt dissolved by Deliquium From Coral a Magistery is made and many talk of a tincture of Coral but if it be considered the best Chymists dare not promise it to be true but it is the Solution or Magistery of Coral mixed with some Menstruum Chymists work also upon Animals and their parts as Blood Flesh Horns Bones Stones Pearls Perch stones Crabs eyes Galls Of Honey is made a Water or Spirit of Wax there is made an Oyl and from Butter From fats of Beasts an Oyl is distilled which is hotter and drier then they Of Urine is made Salt from Blood only a fixed and volatile salt water and oyl but they are not safely given inwardly by reason of their stink nor outwardly for other things may supply Some make Mummy of blood which is nothing but that fibrous part of the blood and the beginning of flesh separated from the serous and dried in the Sun Also Mummy is made of Mans flesh And a Water is distilled from hearts of Beasts and from Horns There is Physick made also of Mans Skull and other bones burnt or a Liquor
Hermetick Art and thence come the Hermetical vessels and seals of which hereafter It is also called the Separating and Distilling Art But the distinction of Disciplines is from the end and that of Chymistry is not onely to melt Metals and separate one Mettle from another but a hope to turn inferior Metals into Gold And by use and operation they still discovered new things and so came to distil and separate Vegetables So the whole Art of Chymistry consists in working of Metals and preparing of Medicines But they are by custom called only the true Chymists that labour to turn the cheap Metals into Gold and Silver or that make good Medicines of Minerals or Vegetables or Animals and the inferior Metal-workers are not honored with this Name of a Chymist Nor doth a Chymist only exercise in Natural bodies as an Apothecary but he dissolves compounded bodies into their first principles and separates them the good from the bad clenseth all alters perfects and exalts them and makes them efficacious and if need be he again joyns them together as when the strength of the whole compounded body is required Hence there are two ends in Chymistry the internal and external The internal end is that whose work being perfect the operation ceaseth and to dissolve bodies into their first principles to clense alter exalt and purifie them in particular together and make them fit for use is very necessary In respect of this end Chymistry of it self is an Art separate from Physick because it doth not only serve the Physitian but other Artists This end hath two parts for the Chymist either only labors in transmuting of Metals or studies Physick If the later the Apothecary and the Chymist are little different now the Physitian useth the Apotehcary as a Servant therefore he ought to be skilled in Chymical operations to direct his Apothecary and when the Physitian himself prepares Chymical medicines he is a Chymist as when he cures wounds and dislocations he is a Chirurgion The external end of Chymistry is twofold it is either exercised in transmutation of Metals or to cure mans body In respect of the first end it is a distinct Art from all others and therefore it is called by way of eminency Alchymy or the Art of the great Magistral the Magistery of wisdom the Art of Hermes In respect of the latter end Chymistry is not a peculiar Art but belongs to Physick and is the perfection of it for it is the part only of the Physitian to use and apply Chymical medicines for cure and may be called then a Chymical Physitian and the Medicines Chymical which are the perfection of Physick Some will have no difference between common Medicine or Physick and Chymistry and say that the old Physitians Apothecaries knew all the Chymical preparations as Digestion Sublimation Distillation Calcination Reverberation Extraction and the like We confess they knew some of them 7. De comp med sec ge c. 11. for Galen teacheth to make medicines by long steeping And Treacle is not good till it be sermented long but they knew it not so wel as it is now known what they had was from the Refiners Lib. de simp med facul as Galen shews and Chymistry was not then brought into the Apothecaries shops and Physitians house from the Refiners furnace and Chymical work-houses Some enlarge Chymistry and dispute principles and labour to bring in new operations into all the parts of Philosophy and Physick but it is not for Chymists as such to dispute of principles but for Physitians and Philosophers And Chymistry doth but only bring some observations and experiments by working from which the Physitian and Philosopher makes conclusions Therefore a Chymist is exercised about all natural bodies to dissolve purifie and work them as to his internal end But as to his external end he is conversant only about Metals to transmute them In respect of the latter end he is conversant not only in Metals but all natural bodies that may be medicinable whether Vegetables or Animals Moreover Chymistry is an art that is not only conversant about natural things to know them only but to make somthing out of them And though it hath its principles and conclusions yet is it not a science but an Art or factive habit according to reason Therefore Chymistry is neither a part of Physick nor subordinate unto it though it be conversant about the natural body as Physick is because the manner of ordering is divers from Physick for skill only in operation or working neither makes a Philosopher nor a Physitian but every fool may attain to operation if he have but a good purse From hence we give this Definition of Chymistry It is an Art to resolve Natural compound bodies into their Principles of which they are made and to make them pure and strong for Medicines or to perfect or change Metals Therefore the Sophistical operations to make base Metals like gold or silver in colour are not worthy of the honest name of Chymistry though the Chymist may for tryal do somthing therein to obtain a higher end Chap. 2. Of the Truth and Dignity of Chymistry IT is commendable first from the transmutation of Metals secondly from the good Medicines that are found out by it That Metals are transmuted it is proved by experience In Hungary by the Town called Smolnitium in the Mountain Carpath there are Fountains into which if iron be cast it is turned into the best copper The same is done at Gossaria and the same may be done by Art for if Iron be cast into Vitriol-water there is a red pouder that sticks to it which being mleted turns to copper Also Quicksilver is turned to Lead as John Rhenan shews in his Definition for the truth of Chymistry although Nicolas Guibert Physitian of Lotharing thinks otherwise But the chief question is concerning turning of other Metals into gold which though it seems impossible to many yet experience is again them not to speak of the Ancients Arnold de villa nova and Raymund Lully and others Such things have been done in the memory of our Fathers and of our selves and it is impudency to deny such a certain Experiment The chief objection is that Metals are distinct in specie and cannot be transmuted one into another unless you can make a Pig of a Dog But I answer That the form of Iron and the form of Lead cannot be turned into the forms of copper or gold but the form of iron departing the form of copper may be brought in and the form of Lead departing the form of gold may be brought in and this is easier in Metals because they have one common matter the Elements are transinuted Wheat and other Plants are perfect species in their forms yet they are turned into chyle and blood is turned into flesh bones and membranes Nor let it seem absurd that Metals in so short a time can be turned into gold except you are ignorant
of the power of Spirits and of Chymical operations what force hath thunder upon Metals What force hath Aqua fortis and other Spirits Nor let any say that Chymical gold is not true gold but apparent for the forms of things being hid from us we know them by their proper accidents and proprieties but Chymical gold hath all the proprieties of gold therefore it must be acknowledged to be true gold The proprieties of gold are that it be yellow not ringing malleable so that one ounce beaten may cover ten acres of ground and the third part of a grain may be drawn into wyer of 134. foot long as Cardan writes Lib. de varietate rerum De vanit scient to be incorruptible in air and water and to endure all tests by the assay-men Some with Agrippa say that the Chymists draw a tincture of gold which they give to other Metals and make them gold but onely so much as that was from which the tincture was drawn and so there is no profit But experience shews the contrary for Edward Kelley an Englishman at Prague in the house of Thaddaeus Haggecius turned a pound of Quicksilver into gold with one drop of a very red liquor and it is stil to be seen and the sign of the liquor sticks like a Rubie upon the Quicksilver so turned to gold and as much more gold may be made of the same let this one experiment serve turn Yet though this art be true it is very difficult as appears by the lost labors of many and none can easily attain to it by reading or practise There are many cheaters But let none trust him that promiseth this art for money First let them make gold for themselves which they commonly want I shall recite some of their cheats First they carry gold or silver in a stick with which they stir their Metals Others dissolve gold or silver in Aqua fortis and mix with Ink and write upon paper in which they put the Metal they pretend to turn Or they use the pouder of gold or silver as sand upon a letter Others mix gold or silver dissolved within charcole Others have false bottoms to their crucibles into which they put gold Others have filled great coles with gold and laid them upon the crucible But the greatest cheat is when they have gotten some of the true tincture and done wonders till they have gotten money but can go no further being ignorant The other end of Chymistry is for Physitians for first the medicines Nature afford us have often parts of divers strength and force but by Chymistry they are ingeniously separated The Chymists imitate the industry of the Ancients in preparing of meats by boyling and other preparations to make them pleasant and wholsom And the Ancients when the patient wanted much nourishment and could not well concoct found out consummate broath or cullesses in which the unprofitable parts for nourishment were cast away and that which nourished best was preserved Thus are Chymical medicines made powerful pleasant and safe and the Physitian may cure by them safely quickly and pleasantly For when the thick earth and unprofitable parts are separated from the profitable and spirital the thinner parts sooner pierce into the whole body and exercise their force And being given in a small dose and freed from unpleasant qualities they are taken without loathing and so work the better And some medicines that are rank poyson are prepared by the Chymist and made safe Nature is the Chymists leader which makes us wholsom Spaw-waters from Minerals and Metals by which desperate diseases are cured But observe that we here only commend the true Chymistry but hate the false Chymists who when they can prepare a medicine or two promise golden mountains and scorn all the Galenists when they themselves are ignorant in all good Arts chiefly in Physick and Philosophy And will be called by no other name then Hermecial Physitians when they may be more truly called Haeretical Physitians Chap. 3. Of the Inventors and and Users of Chymistry CHymistry had been no worse if it had been found out later for that is old enough that is good enough and there is nothing which was not new at the first Some suppose that all the Chymical Books were written but three or four ages since but they are out for we have Greek Authors that treat of it Some shew that Chymistry may be proved ancient say that Adam invented it Gen. 4. but this they cannot prove But the Rudiments of Chymistry were more probably invented by Tubalcain the Master of Iron and Brass And if he shewed how to fashion Metals he must needs know how to find them out melt and separate them and purifie them The Scriptures commend him for an excellent Metal-man and his Successors were iudustrious in the same And if they knew how to work on Iron and Brass they questionless knew how to order Metals After the flood the invention or propagation of Chymistry was by many imputed to Hermes Trismegistus and from him it is at this day called the Hermetical Art the vessels and seals of Hermes are so called from him And he was called Tresmegistus or thrice great because he was the chief Priest Philosopher and King or as others say the chief King Priest and Prophet He lived in ancient time about the 2000d year of the World heard Noah preach and was as the Learned say the Master of Chamephis or Chusus The Grecians as well as the Aegyptians honored him for antiquity and learning and imputed the invention of all Arts and Sciences to him They say he wrote 25000. Books all set forth in his Name Mesue mentions another Hermes that succeeded him and mentions a Hiera of Hermes and Pills of Alhandal of Hermes and so do other Physitians but these vulgar medicines were not worth of the Name of Hermes Trismegistus There is also a Smaragd Table esteemed by all Chymists which was found in the Valley of Ebron after the flood but the Author of it is unknown Some say it was found in the Sepulcher of Trismegistus by a woman called Sarah it is the foundation of all Chymistry and I shal here mention it The Smaragd Table To speak plain truth without lying it is most true and certain that what is below is as that is which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to perpetuate the miracles of one thing And as all things were from one by the meditation and invention of one so all things are from this one thing by adaptation or proportion The Father of it is the Sun the mother the Moon the wind carried it in its belly The Earth is its Nurse This is the Father of all Talism in the world The vertue of it is compleat if it be turned into earth you shall separate the earth from the fire gently with much ingenuity and that which is subtile from that which is gross It ascends from earth to