red work and no man can make a shorter abreviation in the world And when the sulphur of any body is prepared it may this way very speedily be converted into Elixir by adding the liquor of the ferment CHAP VI. 1 The Body 2 The Spirit 3 The Lion 4 The Eagle 5 The Phylosophers Lead 6 Antimony 7 Antimony Mercury 8 The Glue of the Eagle 9 Solution of the red Lion into Blood 10 Solution of the Glue of the Eagle 11 Solution of the Blood of the red Lion 12 Conjunction 13 Putrifaction 14 The Stone 15 Fermentation 16 In the Trinity of The Phisical and Alchimical Tincture The Soul 17 Is the Vnity of the Medicine TAke Antimony calcined so much as you please and grind it to a subtile powder then take twice so much Lac Virginis and put your powder of Antimony therein and set it in balneo 7 days then put it into a body and set it in sand or ashes till the Lac be turned red which draw of and pour on more and so let it stand when that is coloured red pour it to the other and thus do till you have drawn out all the tincture set all this water in balneo or lent ashes to distill with a Limbeck and distill it with a lent fire and first of all the Lac will ascend then you shall see a stupendious Miracle because you shall see through the nose of the Alimbeck is it were a thousand veins of the liquor of this blessed minere to descend in red drops just like bloud which when you have got thou hast a thing whereto all the treasure in the world is not equall Now you have the blood of the Lion according to Rupesissa let us here rest a little and speak of the Glew of the Eagle of which Paracelsus thus saith Reduce Mercury so far by sublimation till it be a fixed Christall this is his preparation of Mercury and his way of reducing it into the Glew of the Eagle but above all I require that that way be used which is described by me before in the first Chapter or that hereafter set down after this Then saith the foresaid Author go on to resolution and coagulation and I again will you to observe the same manner of solution shewed in the first Chapter before Now let us come to conjunction after the solution of these two take equal weight of them and put them in a vessel well shut After you have thus joined them together set your glass in your furnace to putrifie and alter the space of certain days Therefore Paracelsus saith then at length and presently after your Lili is made hot in your glass it appeareth in wonderful manners or demonstrations blacker then the Crow after that in process of time whiter then the Swan and then passing by yellow to be more red then bloud This being putrified and turned into red is to be taken for the stone and then it is time it be fermented Of which Fermentation Paracelsus thus speaketh one part thereof is to be projected upon 1000 parts of molton gold and then the medicine is prepared and this is the Fermentation of it But if the half or one part of the liquor of the sulphur of gold before described be added to it then it would be spirituall ferment and would be much more penetrating in fortitude and fusible as Paracelsus doth testifie in his Aurora where he would have us to join the star of the sun or the oyl of sol to this stone And thus the phisical Alchimical tincture is performed in a short time for curing all manner of Infirmities and humane diseases which is also the great Elixir for mettals so courtly concealed by the Antients Which Hermes Trismagistus the Aegyptian Osus the Gretian Haly an Arabian and Albertus Magnus a German with many others have sought and prosecuted every one after their own method and one in one subject another in another so much desired by the Philosophers onely for prolongation of life In this composition Mercury is made a fixed and dissolved body the blood or spirit of the red Lion is the ferment or soul and so of trinity is made unity which is called the Phisical and Alchimicall tincture never before that I knew of collected or writ in one work And I swear I had not done this except that otherwise the composition of this blessed medecine had for ever been forgot A shorter way to make the glue of the Eagle If you desire to make the glue of the Eagle in a breifer way Take part of the red precipitate prose as is taught before in the table of Mercury and dissolve it in distilled vineger and the vineger will be coloured into a yelow or delightfull golden colour and after you have destilled away the vineger there will remain in the bottome a white substance of the Mercury fixed and fair which is to be joyned to the oyle of the Lion And this work is much shorter and less laborious look more hereof in the third Book The Calcination of Antimony into the red Lion Take Antimony well ground so much as you please and melt it in naked fire with salt Armoniack and when it is melted cast it suddainly into a vessel almost full of distilled vineger wherein salt Armoniack hath been dissolved and thus melt it and cast it in three times then pour off the vineger from the Calx of the Antimony and drie it well and grind it small and dissolve it as before is taught and so have you the Red Lion of the Philosophers Lead or Antimony CHAP. VII 1 Elixir 2 Conjunction 3 Seperation 4 the Stone 5 Fermentation 6 The Earth 7 Spirit oyl Blood of the Lambe 8 Distillation 9 Resolution 10 Putrifaction 11 Solution 12 Vitrioll 13 Calcination 14 Copper The first Chapter of the Elixir of Copper MAny have sought out the way of the Mineral stone in vitrioll or green Copperas but they were altogether received which common vitrioll by the Philosophers is called the green Lion of fools But this our noble red Lion taketh its original from the Metallick body of Copper Although I am not ignorant how to draw an oyl out of Romain vitrioll of a more sweet smell and delightfull taste then any balsome if the Tincture be taken out of the calcined vitrioll in spirit of wine yet the Philosophers will is and command that it do consist of a Metallick vertue wherewith the transmutaion of mettalls is to be effected Therefore they say it is to be made of bodies and not of spirits as of vitrioll sulphur as well and the like Whence I find it written in the Philosophers Turba and in the first Exercitation But the Philosophers stone is a metallick matter converting the substances and forms of imperfect mettalls and it is concluded by all the Philosophers that the conversion is not made except by its like therefore it is necesary that the Philosophers stone be made of a metallick matter yet if any be made of
the white stone of Mercury Take the third part which before you reserved and fixed called the glue of the Eagle as much of it as you please and add thereto equal weight of its spirit or Lac Virginis and close up the glass and so you have joined the Man and the woman ☿ with his own Earth the spirit with the body See the Holy Guid. Set your Lac Virginis thus joyned with his own Each in Balneo to putrine 150 days and there let it stand unmoved after forty days it will be black and it is then called the head of the Crow then it will be of a green colour after that the Peacocks tail and many false colours for between this and white it will appear red but at last you shall see it white and then encrease your fire and it will stick to the sides of the glasse like fishes eyes Then have you each in the nature of Sulpher Read the Holy Guid. Take of this Sulphur as much as you please and weigh it and add thereto two parts of the white Tincture or Lac Virginis and set it in Balneo to dissolve the space of six days then distill away the Lac Virginis or Tincture and the Sulphur will remain in the form of Liquor for it is the Liquor of the white sulphur of ☿ which is to be joined with the Liquor of the sulphur of Luna or siver The Sulphur of the white Luminary or silver or Luna is made as the other whereof we shall speak more in the next Branch This Liquor of the sulphur is the soul which is joined with the spirit and body which quickeneth the whole stone The other conjunction before was onely the union of the spirit and the body but this is a threefold copulation viz. The uniting of the soul spirit and body Adde equal weight of these two Liquors of sulphur that is to say the liquor of the sulphur of Mercury and of silver and Luna and close well the glasse and set it in Ashes till it be white for it will be of all coulours again and at last white And then is it the perfect stone converting all Mettalls into silver This stone or Elixir is thus multiplied in vertue dissolve it in your Lac Virginis and distill it away and dry it and dissolve it again c. And let it be so often dissolved and dryed till it will drie no more but remain in an incombustible oyl And is then Elixer of the third Order Take one part of this Elixir and project it upon 100 or 1000 parts of melted silver according to the goodness and vertue thereof and it will turn the silver into a brittle Mass or substance which beat to powder in an Iron or brasse Morter or upon a Marble and project one part of this powder upon 100 parts of ☿ purged made hot and it will be perfect medicine whereof one part turneth 100 or 1000 parts of other bodies into good silver And this way is your Medicine multiplyed in quantity A Corollary IT remaineth now that we speak of the Medicine or the Elixir of Life which is called potable silver But although the Liquor of silver may be made potable silver if it be corroberated before by digestion in Balneo 7 days with the spirit of wine and then distill away the said spirit of wine that the oyl of the silver may remain in the bottome which may easily be given for medicine Yet the Philosophers would have us do otherwise for they teach us to bring the mettalls first into their quintessence before they be taken inwardly and that their is no other quintessences but those that are of a second nature according to the old saying Elixir de te est res secunda De quo sunt facta corpora munda That is to say the 4 Elements are destroyed and by putrifaction a new body created and made into a stone which is the quintessence as Ripley would have it But I do boldly and constantly affirm that there is no true silver or potable silver nor Qintessence unless it be first Elixir and that is done in a quarter of an hour by projection of the Elixir upon silver or pure gold molten according as the Elixir was red or white If therefore you desire after the first composition of the Elixir to make the Arcanum of Argentum or Aurum potabile project the Elixir or Medicine according to his quality or property upon pure silver or gold molten and then it is made brittle and frangible and grind it to powder and take thereof so much as you please and dissolve it in distilled vinegar or rather in spirit of wine the space of nine days then distill away the vineger or spirit of wine that which remaineth in the bottome is the true Medicine Quintessence Elixir of life Ferment of ferments and incombustible oyl converting mettalls and Mans body into perfect health from all diseases of mans body which proceed from Mercury and Luna And thus is the true potable silver made cureing the Vertigo Sincope Spilepsy Madness Phrency Leprosie c. And this is the right way of making the stone of Mercury alone but the Elixir cannot be made without the Addition of silver to the white and of gold to the red CHAP. II. 1 Luna 2 pure Silver 3 Calcination 4 Solution 5 Putrefaction 6 The Sulphur 7 The Liquor of the Sulphur 8 White Ferment HERMES saith The Elixir is nothing else but Mercury Sol and Luna by Mercury nothing is understood but the sulphur of nature which is called the true ☿ of the Phylosophers and that sulphur gotten by putrifaction by the conjunction of the spirit and of the body of imperfect bodyes or mettals By Sol is meant gold by Luna silver both of them are to be joyned to imperfect bodies that is to say white sulphurs and red whence the same Hermes in his treatise of Sol saith there happeneth a conjunction of two bodies and it is necessary in our Maistry And if one of these bodies onely were not in our stone it would never by any means give any Tincture Upon which Morienus saith For the Ferment prepareth the imperfect body and converteth it to its own nature and there is no Ferment but Sol and Luna that is gold and silver Of which Rosinus Sol and Luna prepared that is â—o say their sulphurs are the ferments of mettles in colour See the Holy Guid. But this is made more evident by Raymund in his Apertory where he saith there is no ferment except Sol and Luna for the Ferment of the stone to white is silver and to the red gold as the Phylosophers do demonstrate because without ferment there doth proceed neither gold nor silver nor any thing else that is of its kind or nature therefore join the Ferment with its sulphur that it may beget its like because the Ferment draweth the sulphur to its own colour and nature also and weight and sound because every like begetteth its like Because the
7 or 9 times untill you have a sufficient quantity of this powder that is to say a pound or more And this is the Calcination When you see your ☿ will ascend no more but remain in the bottome of a black colour and that is dead and brought perfectly into calx let it cool and remove your body into sand till it be turned into a red colour And this is the perfect precipitation prose without the help of any corrosive water take a little of this powder upon a hot iron plate if it fume dry it longer if not it is well Take of this red powder as much as you will dissolve and put thereupon at least his double weight of Lac Virginis and set in Balneo till you see your Lac Virginis stained a yellow or red colour then filter it from its feces and keep it by it self in a glass well stopped and dry the matter that remaineth in Ashes and pour thereon new Lac Virginis and do as before till you have drawn out all the tincture And so your ☿ is dissolved Put these solutions into a body luting to a head and in balneo distill away the Lac Virginis and the red oyl precipitate will remain which is fixed and needeth no distillation but is the tinging oyl of red Mercury and the red tincture of the red stone of ☿ and the soul and spirit of the same stone joyned Therefore take part of the white Sulphur reserved in the first Table and rubify it in ashes till it be red then imbile it with equal weight of the oyl of the tincture of this red ☿ and set it to dissolve in Balneo and when you see it is dissolved into a liquid substance take it out Then set it in ashes or under the fire to fix till the matter being dried remain fixed and fusible standing in a mean heat not over hot which try upon a hot Iron plate and if it fume not it is well if it do encrease your fire till it be totally fixed and dry If this matter be imbibed again with its oyl till it drink up as much as it will and again dissolved in Balneo and then dried in Ashes it will shew many colours and lastly appeared And then it is the stone penetrating and fusible apt for forme Join this imbiled matter or stone with the 4th part of the liquor or oyl of the red sulphur of Gold or the red Ferment and dissolve it in Balneo and drie it again and again dissolve it in a glasse hanged in the fume of hot water or Balneum and congeal it again till it stand like honey Then it is the perfect red Elixir of Mercury The Multiplication or Augmentation of the vertue and quantity is shewed in the former Chapter CHAP. IV. 1 Gold Sol. 2 Purged Gold 3 Calcination 4 Solution 5 Putrifaction 6 Filius solis Coelestis 7 Filia Lunae Coelestis THe putrifaction or purgation of gold is done as the Goldsmiths use to do by melting it with Antimony that the gold may remain in the bottome pure and clear from other mettalls which they call Regulus Take 4 or 5 ounces of this refined gold leaf or fileings and dissolve it in Lac Virginis mixed with equal weight of Aqua fortis wherein salt Armoniack sublimed is dissolved and when it is dissolved into a red Liquor or deep yellow then it is well calcined The solution and putrifaction is done as before you did with silver in the preparation of the white Ferment When you have your white sulphur of nature after putrifaction sticking to the sides of the glass let it cool and take out your glass and set it â—n Ashes and encrease your fire but not too much lest your matter vitrifie and let your ashes be no hotter then you can hold your hand therein and so let it stand till the sulphur be of a perfect deep red colour Then have you the red sulphur of the red Luminary If you resolve this red sulphur in spirit of wine or distilled Vinegar into an oyl it is then the Liquor of the red Luminary And Auram potabile curing all infirmities if the spirit of wine or vinegar be destilled from it But for this work it were better to dissolve it in our red Lac Virginis spoken of in the second Chapter of the second Book distill away the Lac from the sulphur in Ashes and the sulphur remaining in an oile is the Ferment of all stones to the red The augmentation of this red Elixir in vertue is with his red Tincture as before in the white Elixir with his white Tincture The augmentation in quantity is by projection upon the body of gold molten And that brittle matter of gold upon ☿ and if it be powdered and resolved with spirit of wine inan oyl as was said before of silver then it is the Quintessence of gold and the great Elixir of life and the spiritual ferment for the transmutation of mettals and for the health of mans body The 5 Chapter sheweth the abbreviation of the Red Elixir CHAP. V. 1 The Liquor of the red sulphur 2 Fermentation ALthough Raymund writing to King Robert was pleased to say That every Accurtation diminisheth the perfection because Medicines which are made by accurtation have less effect of transmutation which I also ascent to with him for a truth if the work be begun from the first fountain yet because this work hath its beginning from those things which before were brought to a perfect degree of perfection therefore in this there is no diminution of the perfection as the same Raymund witnesseth lib. Mecur pag. 103. saying thus Therefore it ought to be declared unto thee that if they be both well prepared and that thou begin with them thou wilt do a wonderful work without any great labour sooner then if thou should begin with one thing alone Therefore my son begin thy work of two things together as 〈◊〉 shewed to thee in the greater stone when we spoke of the twofold custody of the actions which are caused by the bodies and spirits By that which is caused by the bodies and spirits he means nothing else but sulphur willing that we should begin with sulphur to which I do so well agree that I begin this my accurtation with sulphur alone and I add no other body to this Elixir but onely the sulphur of ☿ alone created of his own body and spirit Take therefore 2 ounces of the white sulphur that was described in the first Chapter and set it in ashes to rubifie in 30 days it will be turned into red sulphur Which when you have done dissolve that sulphur in the red Tincture of Mecury when it is dissolved draw away the Tincture in the bottom remaineth the Liquor of the sulphur To which if you add a due proportion of the liquor of the red Luminary it will be perfect Ferment which if you dissolve and congeal as before is shewed it is then Elixir of very great vertue to the
spirits yet it would be better and much more Philosophical and more near to a metallick nature to be made of bodies then of spirits but if by Art the body should be turned into a spirit then the same body would be both body and spirit and not to be doubled but the stone might be made of such a body or spirit but let us return to our purpose It being granted that this our vitrioll is such a body according to which Paracelsus testifyeth in his Aurora Philosophorum under this Aenigura or secret of the Antient Philosophers Visicabis Interiora Terrae Reclificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam Out of the first letter of every word of this Aenigura is gathered this word VITRIOLUM by which is meant that thereof the stone or medicine may be made Therefore Paracelsus saith the inward parts of the Earth are to be visited not onely the Earth which is vitrioll but the Inward parts of the Earth he meaneth the sweetness and redness because there lieth hid in the inward parts of vitrioll a subtill noble and fragrant juice and pure oyle And this is especially to be noted the production of this Copper into vitrioll is not to be done neither by calcination of the fire nor distillation of the matter lest it be deprived of its greennesse which being lost it wants both power and strength Paracelsus speaks not one word of the preparation of this vitriol by whose silence many have erred therefore I determined to leave him here a little and to prosecute and follow the order of the Table wherefore begin with the calcination of the metall And note that this calcination of Copper is made that it may be turned into vitrioll and not the calcination of vitrioll made of copper Take therefore as much copper as you please and dissolve Calcination it in Aqua fortis to a fair green water then set it 3 or 4 days to disgest till the matter be clear which pour out into a limbeck and in Balneo draw away the corrasive water so that the matter remain dry for then it is calcined Then upon every 2 pound of this calcined matter pour a gallon of distilled Vinegar and lute it up in a glass and set it in balneo almost boyling the space of 7 days when it is cold put into a limbeck to distill away all the vinegar in balneo and in the bottom of the Alimbeck you shall have your vitrioll very well congealed far fairer then Romain vitrioll which is corporeal and metallick vitrioll Which Vitrioll I do not dissolve in rain-water like the Paracelsians but rather with Lac Virginis as before is taught in the former Chapters or in Raymunds Calcination water and after its dissolution and perfect digestion that is to say 15 days I put it into a limbeck and balneo draw off the Lac virginis which being done you shall find an oylie water green and clear upon which pour the spirit of wine and after it hath been digested 7 days and the spirit of wine distilled away in balneo you shall find your green water perfectly rectified made pure subtile and spiritual and apt for putrifaction for if it be not well dissolved and rarified it will not putrifie But now that I may join with Paracelsus in the manner of putrifaction I return to him and say with him commanding to disgest in a warm heat in a glass well closed the space of some moneths and so long till diverse colours appear and be at length red which sheweth the termination of its putrifaction But yet in this process this redness is not sufficiently fixed but is to be more fully purged from its feces in this manner Resolve it or rectifie it in distilled vinegar till the vinegar be coloured then filler it from its feces This is its true Tincture and best resolution and rectification out of which a blessed oyl is to be drawn This Tincture being thus resolved and rectified is to be put into a body with a limbeck and in balneo distil the vinegar gently away Then in sand or ashes lift up the spirit gently and temperately and when you see a fume ascend into the glass and red drops begin to fall out of the nose of the limbeck into the receiver then the red oyl beginneth to distil continue your distillation till all be come over when it is done you shall have the oyl in the receiver lifted up and separated from its Earth more delightful and sweet then any balsom or Aromatick without any sharpness at all which oyl is called the blood of the Lamb. In the bottome of the body you shall find a white shining Earth like snow which keep well from dust and so you have the clear Earth seperated from its oyl Take this white Earth and put it in a glass viol and put thereto equal weight of the oyl or soul and body will receive it and embrace it in a moment But that it may be turned into a stone when you have joined these two together set it into our furnace the space of 40 days and you shall have an absolute oyl of wonderful perfection wherewith Mercury and other imperfect mettals are turned into gold As Paracelsus was pleased to say The stone being thus made I now come to the fermentation without which it is not possible to give form to it neither will I adhere to the opinion of one man alone contrary to all the Philosophers alone that is to say Paracelsus repugnant to the rest of the Philosophers because they all of necessity have decreed to give form to the stone by ferment and union that is to say of an imperfect body and by how much the ferment is more spirituall the stone will be of so much more penetration and transmutation These things being promised I do not think it sit that you should proceed to projection upon Mercury instead of fermentation as Paracelsus teacheth or that the stone should be fermented his way with gold either corporeall or spiritual Which gold will be the foundation of the first projection but what do the Philosophers command us to do that projection that is to say fermentation be made of a perfect foundation and that upon imperfect bodies that medicines may be made which foundation of the stone or Elixir is not except it be onely the white or red ferment in respect of which both gold and silver are said to be imperfect bodies therefore this stone is to be fermented before it be projected upon the corporeal foundation or imperfect that is to say corporeal gold Therefore joyn this oyle to the fourth part of the oyle of the sulpur of gold and this is the true fermentation or conversion unto the Elixir Then Augment it in vertue by solution and coagulation and in quantity by projection first upon the corporeal foundation that is to say gold then that upon purified Mercury and that medicine upon other bodies which are most sit for projection that is to say
most fusible as Lead or Tinne which after they are purified are most apt by reason of their easie melting And thus the Inward parts of the Earth are visited and by reflection the hiden stone is found the true Medicine out of the green Lion of the Philosophers and not of fools and out of Corporeal and metallick vitrioll not terrestrial and made of mineral coperas The Second Chapter of Augmentation and projection of the STONE FIRST Let us speak of the Augmentation of the vertue or quality of which Raymund saith The Augmentation in quality and goodness is by solution and coagulation of the Tincture that is to say by imbiling it with our Mercury and drying it But let us hear Arnoldus more attentively take one part of your prepared Tincture and dissolve it in three parts of our Mercury then put it in a glass and seal it up and set it in ashes till it be dry and come to a powder then open the glass and imbile it again and dry it again And the oftener you do the thus so much sha you gain and giveth more tincture And also as it is found in Clangor Buccinae Dissolve it in the water of Mercury of which the Medicine was made till it be clear then congeal it by light decoction and imbile it with its oyl upon the fire till it flow by vertue whereof it will be doubled in tincture with all its perfections as you will see in projection because the weight that was before projected upon a thousand is now to be projected upon ten thousand and there is no great labour in this multiplication Again the medicine is multiplyed two manner of ways By solution of calidity and solution of varity By solution of calidity is that you take the Medicine put in a glass vessel and burie it in our moist fire seven days or more till the medicine be dissolved into water without any turbulency By solution of rarity is that you take your glass vessel with your medicine and hang it in a new brass pot full of water that boileth and close up the mouth of the pot that the medicine may dissolve in the vapour of the boiling water But note that the boiling water must not touch the glass wherein the medicine is but hang above it three fingers and this solution will be above it in 2 or 3 days after your medicine is dissolved take it from the fire to cool fix and congeal and be hard and dry this do often and and how much the more the medicine shall be dissolved it will be so much more perfect and such a solution is the sublimation of the medicine and its virtual sublimation which the oftener it is reiterated so much more abundantly and more parts it tingeth Whence Rasis saith the goodness of this multiplication consisteth in the reiteration sublimation and fixation of the medicine and by how much more this order is repeated it worketh so much more and is augmented for so often as you sublime your medicine and dissolve it you shall gain so much every time in projection one upon a thousand and if the first fall upon a thousand the third upon a hundred thousand the fourth upon a million and so infinitely For Morienus the Philosopher saith Know for certain that the oftener our stone is dissolved and congealed the spirit and soul is joined more to the body and is retained by it and in every time the Tincture is multiplyed Whence we thus read in Scala Philosophorum which also the Philosophers say Dissolve and congeal so without doubt it is understood of the solution of the body and soul with the spirit into water and congealation makes the soul and spirit mix with the body and if with one solution and simple congealation the soul and spirit would be perfectly joined to the body the Philosophers would not say dissolve again and congeal and again dissolve and congeal that the Tincture of the stone may grow if it could be done with one congealation only The Medicine is another way multiplyed by fermentation and the ferment to the white is pure silver and the ferment to the red is pure gold therefore project one part of your medicine upon a of the ferment but I say 3 parts of the medicine upon one of the ferment and all will be Medicine which put in a glass upon the fire and so close it that no air go in nor out and keep it there till it be subtiliated as you did with the first medicine and one part of the second medicine will have as much vertue as one part of the first medicine had but here again Clangor Buccinae hath erred for it should be write thus one part of the second medicine will have as much vertue as ten parts of the first medicine had And thus by solution and fermentation the medicine may be multiplied infinitely We have spoken enough of this multiplication we now come to the other way of augmentation which is called corporeal multiplication and according to Raymund is thus defined Augmentation is the Addition of Quantity whence Anicen writeth It is hard to project upon a million and to preducate it incontinently wherefore I will reveal one great secret unto you one part is to be mixed with a thousand parts of its nearest in kind I call that nearest that is the body of the same mettal whereof the medicine was made or perfected but to return again to Anicen close all this firmly in a fit vessel and set it in a furnace of fusion 3 days till it be wholly joined together Whereof it is more largely and better set down by the said Author and the manner of the work is thus projected one part of the foresaid medicine upon 100 parts of molten gold and it makes it brittle and will all be medicine whereof one part projected a hundred of any melted mettall converteth it into pure gold and if you project it upon silver in like manner it converteth all bodies into silver In Scala Philosophorum all sorts of projection is set thus down in few words You must know that first it is said project that is to say one upon 100 c. yet it is better to project nunc dimittis upon fundamenta and fundamenta upon verba mea and verba mea upon diligans te Domine and diligam te upon attendite This breif Aenigua is thus expounded it is nothing else but the words and opinion of the former Author concealed under the Aenigura Therefore let us repeat the words of this Aenigura or Oraccle Nunc dimittis super fundamenta Fundamenta super verba mea Verba mea super diligam te Diligamte super attendite These are trifles for the hiding and concealing the perfection of the Art if the expert Artist could be diverted with such simple words which though they are hard at first to young Artists yet they are thus explained We therefore begin with the first sentence Nunc dimittis super
The fifth Table of making of Pearls THis Table of making Pearls consisteth of these parts that is to say Lac Virginis Dissolved Pearls Quick-silver And The White Elixir Take Lac Virginis or Acetum Acerrimum so much as you think sufficient for dissolving the Pearls as in double proportion to the Pearls as if there be three ounces of the Pearls let there be six ounces of Lac Virginis wherein dissolve the Pearls and set the Glass in Balneo to disgest the space of a day then pour out the solution and distill it in Balneo and in the bottom of the Glass you shall find the thick Oyl of the Pearls whereunto add so much of your white corporeal Elixir as sufficieth to make the matter like paste and put thereto equal weight of the Pearls of Quick-silver if the matter be too thin put more powder of the Elixir if it be too thick add more Lac Virginis or Quick-silver till it be like Liver grind this mass upon a stone till it be brought to a fit thickness Then make it up in what form you please therefore it is necessary that you have a pair of Brass or Iron Moulds in readiness but it would be better they were of Silver of what form you will and fill them with this matter while it is soft then peirce them through with a needle or such like thing and put as many of these in a Glass as you will but first hang them upon a thred and close well the Glass and bury it with the Pearls therein two foot under the earth and let it stand there the space of six months till they be congealed with the cold into a shining and clear substance like natural Margarites These Pearls made and compounded in this manner are no less then natural ones but much greater and more excellent by reason of the white Elixir CHAP. VII The sixth Table of the Magistery of Carbunckles WE now come to speak of Carbunckles which have their birth or original in the pits and Golden Mines of the earth of the spirit of Gold and Mineral Salt indurated and corporeal being â—ecocted and disgested into the hardness of stone â—y the Archeus of Nature as well by the heat â—f the Climate as by the great heat of the Sun â—or they arise from the spirit of the Minere of Sol or Gold under the earth by whose influence they shine as also from the hard Mineral Salt by the mixture of which they are hardned into the nature of stone whence the Philosopher intendeth and endeavoureth as near as he can to imitate nature by Art and to make and compound artificial Carbunckles above the earth with the same materials which Nature formeth them of under the earth therefore he useth the same principles operating with the spirit and soul of Sol undivided and the most hard Salt of the earth whereof Venice Glass is made which two are the material Organs for Manuals three things are required that is to say a Glass-maker Furnace a flaming fire and a Crucible We now come to the materials which are two and are to be joyned together the first giveth the form the other receiveth it that which giveth the form is the spirit and soul of Sol or Gold joyned together in the red Elixir and is the agent as it were the man that which receiveth the form is the hardest Salt of the earth contained in Glass and is the patient as it were the woman the agent is the power of heaven impregnating the earth the patient is the power of the earth retaining the impression of the heaven Having thus demonstrated the Theory wâ— now lay the foundation of the practice which are two whereof the first is the preparation oâ— the Elixir the other of the Glass Therefore your red corporeal Elixir is to bâ— dissolved with the oyl or tincture of Mars oâ— Iron because it hath the greatest vertue above all other bodies by whose Coelestial power the Earth that is to say the glasse is brought to the hardnesse of stone and converted into a stone And so the Elixir is prepared for projection upon glasse but for the preparation of glasse there is no more required but that it be made of the same matter that Venice-glasse is made of the composition of which if you know not Take as much Venice-glasse as you please and weigh it exactly upon which project your Elixir when you have so done put your glasse in the Crucible to melt and when it is well molten then take your Corporeal red Elixir dissolved as before or if you will undissolved as much as sufficeth to â—inge the molten glasse and put it tied up in a paper into the Crucible upon the molten glasse stirring it a little with a rod and there let it stand the space of one hour then take out the Crucible and pour the matter into an ingot and it will be malleable but as hard as glasse and stonelike â—o the sight and you may either cut it like a â—â—one or work it with a hammer This Carbunckle-stone or metal hath the property of a Carbunckle in shining and glistring above all natural Carbuncles and if it touch a Toad or Spiâ—er they presently die because it taketh virtue â—rom the Elixir against all poyson And if the â—â—ck carrie this Carbunckle about him so that 〈◊〉 doth touch the region of his heart it takes away the Cardiack passions and diminisheth the â—â—rength of the disease CHAP. VIII The seventh Table denoting the composition of Minerall Electrum or Amber as well naturall as Artificiall and also speaketh of a Bell made of Amber used by Tritemius HAving finished these two Secrets we now come to the Electrum but whether it is to be reckoned amongst stones or amongst bodies it may be doubted because in the West-Indies it is found writ in the Spanish Decads of the vertue thereof it is affirmed to be the greatest Antidote against all poyson and far more noble then Gold but if it be a metal it must necessarily be the chief and supreme of all metals for other metals have their original from Sulphure and Mercury but this metal consisteth of seven metals and is the best of all those which grow in the Archaeas of the Earth For where Gold is taken for the most noble of all metals by reason of its perfect digestion and colour this hath a greater degree of digestion and colour having a higher colour that is to say clear red approaching neerer to the true colour of the Sun For aâ— Gold is the Sun of other metals so this Electrum is to Gold as the Heaven to the Sun wherein Nature as it were in Heaven hath created certain stars shining with clear beams of a Silverish colour shewing plain to the eye that it consisteâ—â— of red and white metals mixt in the highest degree of digestion On the Contrary it may be objected Ob. 1. That there are onely six metallick boâ—ies amongst which this is found to be none therefore it