both In Vitriol alone is manifestly to be séene egar sharpe sower and astringent for that of all other Salts it is most corporal But those tastes or qualities which are mixed with passiue and Elementarie qualities haue not the full force of euery of these but are made more weake by mixtion for the sharpe which is not extracted and seperated but by the force of the fier with the aiery part is mixed with a mercurial liquor the sower is mixed with a flegmetique or watery humour and the eger with a terrestrial drinesse the which the more they haue of the Elementary qualities and the same passiue so much the more weake they are and impaired But if the actiue qualities be separated from the passiue as by arte it is to be done then the tarte and sower do obtaine their full force and doe manifestly and fully burne the tongue with their fiers for the sharpe hath a more fiery and burning qualitie and the sower a more watery propertie For the sharpe partaking of the nature of fire hath ouermuch vertue to attenuate dissipate and to fret the sower as aiery watery of thinne parts hath vertue to cutte to open to refrigerate and also to put away putrifactions The eger and more tarte which remaineth in the Colchotar after the extraction of the sharpe oylely and sower water with the aiery parts of the elemental qualities do possesse a nature and force to thicken and binde by reason of the earthy and grosse propertie But if from that terrestrial parte the pure which is Salt be extracted it wil haue a salt taste by the vertue whereof it wil bée made both deiectiue and vomitiue And in the swéete Sulphur of Vitriol there is a manifest swéetnesse which is plainely stupefactiue Finally in all Salts almost disseuered by Chymicall seperation these thrée are to be discerned Sower Swéete and Bitter which haue force of actiue qualities and yet not destitute of the moist passiue terrestrial and grosse but with them in sundry wise so seasoned and tempered that they bring to the Salts varety of tastes And let this serue for demonstration by which it may plainely appeare that those sundry differences of tastes are manifestly contained in Salts both ioyntly and seuerally especially in their spirits And according to the opinion of Hermes schollers we deny that those inset and naturall qualities vertues and properties are to be arrogated to hotte moist and drie but rather to the essences of a nature which is salt bitter eger sharpe sower tarte swéete and oylely For there are sixe hundred frigidities or coldes sixe hundred heates humidities â—â—gities or drinesses then the which nothing doth more heate coole moysten and dry But they haue neuer brought any sauour or taste to pure or simple water or to other Iuices or liquors which haue béene destitute of Salt Whatsoeuer is without Salt or destitute of a brinish spirit can neuer be discerned by taste but is vtterly vnsauory Yet notwithstanding it simple water be powred vpon ashes with a little heate that water wil drawe vnto it saltnesse bitternesse or sharpnesse more or lesse according to the nature of the salt more or lesse salt or bitter which is contained in the ashes And if any man obiect that Hony and Sugar by boyling or by the force of fier may be made sharpe or bitter we answer that it commeth so to passe when the aiery sulphurus and watery partes which bring and preserue the swéetnesse do perish and are separated by decoction But terrestrial Salt whose faculties are inward haue this property that of their owne nature they possesse this or that sharpe or bitter taste how extreame soeuer it be So if thou shalt drawe out of onions and garlicke a Volatile and aiery sharpe Mercurial Salt which ariseth in the superficies vppermost of their bodies thou shalt make them more swéet and pleasing and to put off their sharpnesse by which they bite the tongue but yet they will retaine and represent their hot qualitie with the which they abound by reason of their fixed Saltes As out of Saltes so out of odours also we may drawe certaine faculties without the helpe of hotte qualities For séeing they are referred to the diuers properties of Sulphur sundry odours doe arise therfrom and not from the qualities Which if they be swéete and pleasing the braine receiueth them with pleasure and delight whereas vnpleasant sauours or odours are offensiue both to the nose and to the braine and are reiected Such is the marcotical and stefactiue odour of Poppie and Hemlock and such like which do stinke and astonish the braine by reason as Physitions affirme of their colde qualitie Wherein they breake the Lawe of their axiomes for that they holde that their odours are of a hotte qualitie as most true it is For that which is stupefactiue in the Poppeis and in Opium is no other thing but a certaine oylely and sulphurus parte conceiuing flame much like to that kinde of oyle which is extracted out of the séedes of Poppey the which albeit it do readily burne yet as it is commonly thought it sheweth most colde effects The common Physitians to correct such coldnesse attributed to Opium vse helpes as is to bee séene in their opiat and antidotarie medicines wherein Opium is an Ingredient Of these kind of coÌ„positions Myrepsus describeth aboue foure score where Euphorbium which is of a fiery and burning facultie is no more forborne then either of the Peppers or such other like causticke and burning simples of extreame hotte qualitie when as the true and proper corrector of Opium that I may so speake wel knowne to Hermeticall Physitians is Vineger which putteth away stupefactiue vapours and fumes that they ascende not to the braine so suppressing them by the sharpnesse thereof that it retaineth them whereas their hot correctors do more stirre them vp and multiple them Hereof come sinister and deadly passions and paines by reason whereof men are constrained to vse the imperfect Laudanum of Empiricks against the deadly daunger of such medicines CHAP. VII NOw somewhat shall be saide concerning colours The dogmatical Physitians that they might not diminish any whit of the qualities of colours are woont to referre to those qualities a certaine variety of colours and haue obserued and noted certaine friuolous and light obseruations as when they say that in a white onion or in white wine a man may iudge by the colour a great coldnesse than in a read onion or in red wine Whereas white sublimate and Arsnic albeit they are most white like vnto Christall yet neuerthelesse vnder this whitenesse they foster and hide a most burning and deadly fire Yea Sugar it selfe which is so swéet white and pleasant doth hide in the innermost parts thereof a wonderfull blacknesse and sharpnesse from whence may bée extracted most sharpe liquors and waters which will dissolue and breake the most hard metalls Therefore it is absurd to sharpe and forme colours from hotte and
The drye is a Sandy earth or ashes 〈◊〉 of all salt by reason of the washing of Waters and is called by the Chymists Terra damnata or Damned earth Because it hath no other force but that which is drying The mâ—yste which is called vnsauorie Phleame is pestered with all Sulphur and Mercurie hauing no odour or taste or other vital vertue which can onely moysten without any other force at all And as these are of no force so doe they onely possesse passiue qualities and vnprofitable But Ayer the thyrd Element cannot be separated by it selfe but doth eyther vanish into ayre or else remayneth mixed Sulphur and Mercury and doth more chiefely cleaue vnto Mercury which is so spiritual that the most experte woorkeman cannot separate the same from it selfe alone but doth alwayes passe away into aire with the aire or vapour of that thing whereof the separation is made to which aier Mercury is straitely combyned that it can neuer be separated from the same without it be done by the great industry of a skilful workeman who knoweth that Mercury or salte Armoniack volatile is so conioyned with aier or with the aiery parts that it doth also breathe away with the aiery parte and with the same is reduced into spiritual Water which is knowen to be the mercurial water by the sharpe sower and vehement which springeth from the Mercury or salt armoniack of nature spirituall The which the workeman séeking to separate conioyneth this spiritual liquor with a Christalline salt naturally fixed from the which he separateth that aiery liquor by Distillation which by that separation is vtterly spoyled of all force and remaineth an vnsauory aiery liquor for because that Mercuriall spirite possessing the nature of volatil Salt remaineth fixed with his proper Salt with the which hée hath the most chiefe analogie and proportion And thus the Philosophers testify that nature is delighted with nature Thus we sée how the Elementary aier is to be separated from that Mercuriall spirite namely by bringing the Eâ—â—ment of aier into water deuoyde of taste and by cutting the Mercuriall spirit into the salt of his proper preheminence Furthermore hereby it appeareth that Mercury is a certaine aiery thing or aier it selfe and yet somewhat more then the elementarie aier which wanting the spirit of Mercurie is a simple aiery liquor of no vertue or power but simplie to moysten and penetrate And so the actiue qualities doe belong to the beginnings Salt sulphur and Mercurie and the passiue to the Elements This thing wée haue made plaine before by the example of Wine and Water of life These things are therefore spoken that all men may sée by the Anatomie and resolution of things that the element of aier cannot be separated by it selfe alone neyther is it so to be séene of any but of the true Philosophers and by such as are most conuersant in this art Thus certaine demonstration is made of the visible bodies of things procreated both out of the séedes and beginnings and also out of the elements albeit in the resolution of the bodies thou doest not discerne the visible bodies of the séedes put a parte by themselues But it is an easie matter to discerne the seuered partes of those thrée beginnings and also of the Elements in the which partes of the thrée beginnings the vertues and powers of actions wherwith the séedes are indued are included and mixed together Whereby it commeth to passe that their bodies are filled together with the vitall forces and faculties of the Astrall and spirituall séedes as the receptacle of thâ—se vertues But the Elementall bodies haue only passiue qualities the which elementall bodies a wâ—rkeman cannot onely separate by themselues but can also bring them to nothing in such sorte that the passiue and materiall Elements being separated there shall onely remaine those thrée Hypostaticall Formall and Actiue beginnings salt sulphur and mercury which being drawen into one body do make a mixed body which the Philosophers call a fifth or a fourth Essence which is frée from all corruption abounding with quickening spirits whereas contrariwise the sole elements separated from those thrée beginnings doe bring nothing but impurities corruptions and mortification In this Chymestry is to be extolled that imitating nature it rateth Elements and their beginnings by which all the partes of a compund body are anatomized and made manifest And yet those naturall substances are not said to be begotten by such separations as if they were not before neyther yet as bring before are they corrupted by the arte of separation but they were in compounde and after separation they ceased not to bee and to subsist And as the thrée beginnings are coupled together by the benefite of an oylelie liquor ioyning them in one so the thrée Elements Ayer Water and Earth are combyned together by the comming in of Water as a meane For water by her analogie and conuenience partaketh both of the naâ—ure of aier and of earth whereby it commeth to passe that one while it is easily turned into aier another while into earth and so it combyneth both the extreames In things that haue likenesse an alteration is easily made For by reason of likenesse and consent aier made thicke with colde passeth into water and water made thinne becommeth aier and water also made grosse and thick becommeth earth euen as earth also made thinne passeth into water and is chaunged Wherefore forsomuch as aier and earth two extreames are fitlie ioyned together by a thyrd which is water a meane betwéene them both Aristotle did more than was néedefull to appoynt a quaternarie number of Elements out of the quaternary number of the fower qualities Hote Colde Drie Moyst Howbeit it cannot be denied but that he had great probability hereof as is to be séene in his second booke of the generation of liuing creatures where he goeth about by many reasons to prooue that it is most necessary for the production of things to appoynt a fourth element namely Fyer hote and drie But forsomuch as Moses in the first Chapt. of his Genesis wherein he sheweth the creation of all things maketh no mention of Fier it is more conuenient that we leaue it rather to the opinion of the diuine Prophet then to the reasons of an Ethnick Philosopher And therfore wée acknowledge no other Fier then Heauen the fiery Region which is so called of burning Therefore it ought to be called the fourth formall Heauen and essential element or rather the fourth essence extracted out of the other elements bicause it is indueâ— with far more noble vertues then the most simple elements For the Hermeticall Philosophers deny that there is a quintessence because there are not fower elements from whence there may be drawen a fifth essence but thrée onely and no more out of which a fourth may be extracted So great is the power of this fourth essence that it mooueth sharpeneth and mightily animateth the bodies of the thrée principles and of the
gold to it selfe with the which it is mingled and vnited into one body in such wise that it swalloweth vp gold whereas all other metalls except siluer do floate aloft and wil not sinke into the same Consider therefore saith Arnold that thing onely which cleaueth to Mercury and to the perfect bodies and thou hast the full knowledge And when he hath thus discribed the deuouring Lyon he addeth these words Because our stone is like to the accidentall quicksiluer which carrieth gold before it and ouercommeth it and is the very same which can kill and make aliue And know further that our coagulated quicksiluer is the father of all the minerals of that our magistery is both body spirit c. The same thrée chiefe beginnings doe offer themselues vnto vs in other semi mineralls as in Arsenick orpinent and such other like which albeit in their whole substance they bee contrary to our nature and spirits yet by nature they haue that spiritual promptnes and flying swiftnesse that by their subtiltie they easily conuey and mingle and mingle themselues with our spirits whether they be inwardly taken or outwardly applyed and doe worke venemous and mortal effects and that by reason of the Arsenical Mercury poinson ful or arsenical Sulphur and arsenicall Salt Gems also and precious stones haue in them the vertues and qualities of those thrée beginnings by reason of whose fier and brightnesse the pure Mercury in them doth shine cleauing firmly to his fixed Salt and also to the Sulphur of the same nature whereby the whole substance of a contrary kind being seperated there ariseth and is made a most pure stone of contrinance like vnto gold Of this sort is the most firme and constant Diamond to whom that good old Saturne hath giuen the leaden colour of his more pure Mercury together with the fixed and constant spirits of his more pure Sulphur and hath so confirmed coniealed and compacted it in all stability with his christalline salt that of all other stones it is the most solyd and hardest by reason of the most firme vnion of the thrée principal beginnings and their coherence which by no art of seperation can be disioyned and sundered into the solution of his spiritual beginnings And this is the cause that the ancient Physitians had no vse thereof in medicine because it could not be dissolued into his first matter And it is not to be thought that those auncient Physitians refrained the vse thereof for that they déemed it to be venemous by nature as some falsely imagin which being homogenial and of a 〈◊〉 simple nature it is wholely celestial and therefore most pure and for that cause nothing venemous but the poyson and daunger commeth here hence that being onely broken and beaten and in no sort apt to preperation taken so into the stomack and remaining there by reason of his soliditie and hardnesse inconcocted by coutinuance of time and by little and little it doth fret and teare the laps of the stomack and so the intralls being â—â—oriated death by a lingering consumption ensueth It belongeth to golde with his Sulphur to giue a red tineture to Carbuncles and Rubines neither doth the difference of their colours come of any other cause then this that their Mercuries and Chrystallyne salts are not defeked and clensed alike the which clensing the more perfect or imperfect it is the colour appeareth accordingly either better or worse And albeit Siluer be outwardly white yet within it hath the colour of Azure and blewe by which shée giueth her tincture to Saphyrs Copper hauing outwardly a shew of rednes hath a gréene colour within as the Viridgreese that is made thereof doth testifie by which it giueth greennesse vnto the Emerand Iron red within as his Saffron yeallow colour doth plainly shew and yet nothing like the colour which gold hath within it giueth colour to the Iacint Tinne albeit it is earthie yet being partaker of the celestial nature it giueth vnto Agates diuers and sundry colours From gold and from other mettals as also from precious stones their colours may be taken away by Cementation and Reuerberation by their proper menstrues which things are well knowen to Chymists and fire workmen The which colours and sulphurs so extracted are very fit for the affects of the braine The colour of gold serueth for the affects of the heart The colour of tinne for the lunges The colour of Mercury The colour of lead for the splene The colour of Iron for the rednesse The colour of Copper for the priuie parts The heauenly menstruéese to dispoyle mettalls of their colours and sulphures naturall is this namely the deaw which falleth in the moneth of May and his sugar Manna out of the which two mixed together digested and distilled according to Arte there wil come forth a general dissoluer most fit to dispoyle stones and mettals of their colours Yea of onely Sugar or of hony by it selfe may be made a dissoluer of mettals Now if these thrée beginnings Salt Sulphur and Mercurie are to be found in the Heauen in the Ayer and in the Waters as is al ready shewed who wil make any doubt but that by a farre greater reason they are to be found in the earth and to be made no lesse apparant séeing the earth of al other elements is the most fruitfull and plentiful The Mercurial spirits shâ—we themselues in the leâ—ues and fruites The Sulphurus in the flowers séedes and kirnels The salts in the wood barke and rootes and yet so that eache one of those thrée partes of the trée or plant seuerally by themselues albeit to one is giuen the mercurial spirit to another that of Sulphur and to the third that of Salt yet euery one apart may as yet be resolued into those thrée beginnings without the which they cannot consist how simple so euer they be For whatsoeuer it bée that hath being within the whole compasse and course of nature doe consist and are profited by these thrée beginnings And whereas some are said to be mercurial some Sulphurus and some Salt it is therefore because the Mercurials doe conteine more Mercurie the Sulphurus more Sulphur and the Saltish more Salt in them than the others For some whole trées are to be séene more sulphurus and roseny than other some as the Pine and Firre-trées which are alwayes gréene in the coldest mountaines because they abound with their Sulphurus beginning being the principal vital instrumeÌ„t of their growing For there are some other plants as the Lawrel and the Trées of Oranges Citrons and Lemons which continue long gréene and yet are subiect to colde because their Sulphure is not so easily dispersed as is the Sulphur of the firre trées which are roseny and are therefore thrice of a more fixed and constant life furnished against the iniuries of times Furthermore al Spice-trées and al fragrant and odoriferous hearts are Sulphurus And as there are sundry sortes of trées of this kinde so are
the seuerall parts of Vrines They which shal search diligently in the building and frame of mans body for another thing than the elements their qualities that is to say hote and colde moyst and drie namely for a mercurial liquor sulphur and salt indued with al kinde of vertures faculties and properties the thrée beginnings out of the which the colours tastes and odours and such other things of infinite varietie doe spring shal easily vnderstand that euery one of the beginnings by his temperature or the excurreth out of their consort doe procreat sicknesses of diuers sorts in the bodie as if sulphur doe too much excéed then it bringeth on inflamations and feuers of diuers sorts beside other stupefactiue and drousie affects which the stupefactiue sulphur stirreth vp out of the stupefactiue and drunken spirits which it containeth within the same and being excessiue spreadeth it selfe throughout the whole body The which is easily to be seen in such as drinke too much wine and in eating of bread that hath much darnel in it as also in the taking of Camphyre the iuices of Poppey of Henbane and of such like opiates which bring sléepe by their soporiferus Sulphurs and not by their cold quality Also they shal finde by their sower and sharpe vapours of Mercury that falling sicknesses Apoplexies Palsiâ—s al kindes of Catarres come from thence The which effects if they be accompanied with any poyson or maligne contagious spirits they cannot but must néedes bring on pestilential venemous and contagious diseases If they looke diligently into Salts they shal find that from them doe arise inward gnawings Impostums vlcers disenterie fluxes the Pemoxoides and such like so often as they runne out of their seates and are seperated from the other beginnings or doe excéed the measure of nature from whence also doe come great annoyances to the body as by their resolutioÌ„ the burnings of vrine stranguries and such like For according to the variety of Salts diuers kindes of vlcers impostumes and other diseases as diuers kindes of Collickes doe arise by their sharpe and sower spirit Also by the coagulation and congealing of these Salts are ingendered swellings stones and knots of the sinewes and an infinit sort of abstructions whereof many sicknesses doe arise The which coagulated Salts or tartar forsomuch as they neuer want their Mercury and Sulphur rude indigested and impure if they be out of measure and doe reach to the vppermost degrée of their malignitie they wil commixe according to their sundry natures and properties diuers effects the which notwithstanding wil séeke to come to the full sicknesse of the qualities and forces of euery of the beginnings which are also wrapped and infolded the one within the other And herein wee depart not from the opinion of Hypocrates which he hath shewed in his booke concerning the auncient medicine For he reiecting their opinion which tye the beginnings and causes of sicknesses to the elementarie qualities layeth other foundations namely Swéet Sower Bitter and Salt the which we reduce to those thrée beginnings of all things arrogating to euery of them their singular faculties and properties For what power or vertue soeuer is in the nature of Medicines and of sicknesses and doth moue and put it selfe in action the same is to bée reuoked to those thrée beginnings Yet notwithstanding I deny not but that some kindes of sicknesses may arise from the elementary qualities abounding in our body which do rather come of the excrements and feculent humours either retayned or superabounding and doe certainely rather arise out of such Elements than out of the beginnings For out of the abundance of ayerie and spirituous windes simply out of thinne waters and terrestrial feces or dregges we do sée diuers kindes of effects dayly to come yet notwithstanding such sicknesses haue no long continuance being such as may bée easily cured euen by Elementary remedies being either hote or cold moyst or drie As for example ayerie windes shut vp in the bowels and bringing forth the paines of the Collicke are with lysters dispersed and driuen away Surperfluous humidities and thinne water is consumned with drying medicines Inflamations comming of a terrestrial and simply grosse matter introsulphurus are extinguished by a simple cooling helpe And to conclude we wil say with Fernelius that some sicknesses are méerely secret and hidden which the same Fernelius as doth also Paracelsus affirme to be supernatural which sicknesse come from the influences of Stars wherin also is obserued somewhat which is diuine or at least more singular and peculiar than in common sicknesses Such are the astral and aiery effects which happen to some men more then to other by a certain singular influences of the Starres or constitution of the heauen or by the concourse of the euil Planets who are therefore diuersly affected by the sundry rootes natures and properties of their Ascendentes producing by their aspects and radiations conuenient fruites in fit times The secret and hidden causes of these kinde of diseases being such as we cannot easily reach vnto like medicines of the same nature which are indued with a hidden vertue are to be vsed And as there be Celestial spiritual and etherial effects so also they require spiritual and etherial remedies which may elsewhere be taken then from those thrée beginnings brought into a spirituall nature But wée haue stood too long vpon this point CHAP. XVI Wherein is shewed that the whole force of purging in Medicines in the Antimonial Mercurial and Arsenical Spirits according to euery of their seuerall natures AMong Minerals thrée kindes of spirits doe offer themselues to be viewed and considedered from their first original namely spirits Mercurial Arsenical and Antimonial which by their owne nature are truely simple formal fierie and of wonderfull qualitie and efficacie and of ready working Which are to be distinguished as differing among them and also as rising from the thrée beginnings different For the Mercurials as the most subtil vaporus aierie and waterie take their original from Mercurie the Arsenicals as those which are more prosperous or breathing more fierie hote and meanely volatile doe take their original of sulphur the Antimonials of al others the most grosse corporeat and terrestrial doe take their original from Salt The Mercurials doe borrow their Celestiaâ— spirits from the Sunne from the Moone and from Mercurie and are by them impregnated animated The Arsenicals doe receiue the spirits of Mars Venus euen as the Antimonials do contayne the spiritual properties vertues of Iupiter and Saturne By the which vertues of the Celestial euery of the beginnings being impregnated by the things most fitting for them by theÌ„ increased doe obtaine greater forces in euery of their kindes and a more corrected and temperate nature For the Mercurials as indued with more gentle and wholesome spirits doe get a more gentle nature medicinable and nourishing The Antimonials from the intermedials that is to say from things partly good and
like We might yet make these things more plaine lay the same more open by many reasons and examples but why should we ease you of that labour which we haue vndergon our selues by diliâ—eÌ„t reading searching and experimenting the things of nature with great expences before we attained our desire Accept my good wil in this which I fréely offer for some ease of thy paines and for thy profit And if it fit not thy humour taste for al men haue not one relish leaue it for those which shall better allow it FINIS THE SECOND part of this Treatise wherein is contained in some measure the practise of the Hermeticall Physicke CHAP. I. SAlt whereof hath bene spoken before at large is a thing of such qualitie and so excellent in it selfe that all creatures by a certaine natural instinct doe desire the same as a Balsam by which they are preserued conserued doe grow and increase They loue it and like it so wel I say that they long after it and doe drawe it vnto them by their breath and doe licke it with their tongue out of walles and old rubbish Byrdes as Doues and such like doe search after it with their beakes and wil if they can attaine it though out of â—eculent places which are made â—at by mens excrements and vertues What huge multitudes of fishes are bread and nourished in the Salt Sea The which being so apparant I wonder that men are of so peruerse iudgement that they knowe not or at least will not acknowledge the admirable effects of this radical balsam of nature And who wil not admire the vertual properties and qualities of Salt yea euen of that which is extracted out of liuing creatures which qualities are to be séene in making liquide in clensing in binding 〈…〉 preseruing from 〈◊〉 corruption and 〈…〉 Are not all these faculties and many others sufficient to proue that Salt is a thing animal And so much the rather because there haue bene some chiefe Phylosophers who haue affirmed the Magâ—es or Loadstone to be animate or indued with life onely because it hath power to draw â—ron to it How many faculties far greater then these yea and the same magnetical also do we find in Salt if we looke diligently and throughly into them What is greater and more admirable then the Salt of mans â—riâ—e which after conuenient preparation is made fit to dissolue gold and siluer which by this their simpathy and concordance â—o sufficiently declare and manifestly giue attraction and magnetical vertue occasioned or caused by their coniunction and copulation Who seeth not those admirable things which are to be discerned and which fal out in the preparation thereof and in the exaltation whether you respect so great variety of colours or the coagulations and dissolutions when the spirit returneth into the body and the body passeth againe into spirit Christophorus Parisiensis that great Phylosopher did not in vaine take the subiect herehence and begin the foundation of his worke Thus I hope I haue sufficiently declared that our Salt may be saide to be animate But that it may appeare also to be as vegetaâ— as it is animal that is to say that it is not depriued of the growing facultie it may hereby be demonstrated because it is the first mouing thing in nature which maketh to grow and to multiply and therefore serueth for the generation of all things so as with the Poets and auncient Phylosophers it may be said that Venus the mother and first beginner of al generation is begotten of the Salt spume or froath of the male the which also Athenaeus confirmeth For this cause Venus was called by the Greekes Aligene as affâ—anced to the Salt sea And also the generation of most precious pearles in the shels of fishes and of coral springing out of the bowels of hard stones and rockes in the sea spreading forth branches like a 〈◊〉 doe yet more and more confirme this sentence Theâ—â— are the â—â—fects which that fier of nature Salt bringeth forth yea euen in the middest of most cold water But let vs see also what it worketh in the earth The effects which it hath in the earth are these namely it heateth and maketh the earth fat it animaâ—â—th fortifieth and giueth power vnto it It increaseth and giueth a vegetating and growing vertue with séede into euery thing in the same For what other thing is it which 〈◊〉 the earth 〈◊〉 and bringeth to passe that one graine multiplyeth into a hundred but a certaine â—â—ercoration and spreading of 〈…〉 which commeth from cattle What other thing openeth the earth and maketh it to sproute â—n the beginning of the spring time after that the Sunne is exalted into the signe of Ariâ—â— which signe is the full of Saturn and the house of Mars signes altogether fâ—ery but the eleuations and sublâ—â—ations of the spirits of the said Salt and of the balsam of nature This is 〈…〉 and quickeneth which maketh to grow and which 〈◊〉 and ioyeth the medowes and the fieldes and which produceth that most ample and vniuersal vigor and vertue Who seeth not this in the very aâ—er also by the sublimations of the spirits of the 〈◊〉 nature of Salt which spirits being sublenated into aier in the said spring time doe fal againe in forme of a deawe vpon corne and all things that spring out of the earth And who seeth not that these deawes arysing from the earth and falling againe from the aier is a cause of vegetation and growing But that the dewe is the spirit of the foresaid Salt and indued with Salt they which thinke themselues great Philosophers against their wils and not without shame do confesse when they sée that the true Phylosophers doe extract out of the deawe a Salt which dissolueth corall and pearles no lesse then doth the Salt which is extracted out of common Salt out of Salt-Péeter out of Niter or out of other Salts which are prepared for the same end Furthermore the same Salt may rightly also be said to bee vegetall because it is manifestly found in all vegetables and because those things in the which it doth most abound haue the longer life and continuance and doe more manifestly shew forth the vegetable effects either in their owne proper nature â—or at such times as they are to serue for vse Salt also is well known to be metallick or minerall And all men knowe it the better so to be for that such sundry and diuers kinds of Salts are found in the bowels of the earth such are Salt Gem Allum Vitriol Salt niter and such others moe all which are of metallick nature or else doe participate much with the same But a Phylosopher knoweth how to 〈◊〉 this thing further and to find out the innermost 〈…〉 by the helpe of diuers strong waters which hee knoweth how to prepare which are nothing else but the spirits of the foresaide Salts which haue power to
may be seperated in such wife that the same Salt Armoniac being extracted the same liquor will be made swéete and potable and the Salt remaine by it selfe the which being againe mixed with spring water or with any other liquor deuoid of taste it wil make the same sharpe That same sharpnesse or Salt Armoniac spirituall is not onely found in Vitriol but also in common Salt in Niter yea in Sulphur also it selfe as also in all things For that sharpnesse is that very same which coagulateth Sulphur which is plentifully found therein For without it Sulphur will not cleane vnited but would be running as are other oyle-like liquors The same Salt Armoniac of nature is manifested vnto vs by that extraction of sharpe oyle which is drawen out of Sulphur whose nature is farre different from that of the said Sulphur For it is so farre from taking fleame that contrariwise it is a hinderance to gun-poulder not-suffering it to be inflamed with the touch of fire as is said already The same liquor doth dissolue pearles and coral no lesse then doth the iuice of Limons of Barberies or any other of that nature the which power it hath by the dissoluing vertue of Salt Armoniac of nature which is in it The like and by the same reason doth Vineger performe For Wine as is saide afore partaketh of the nature of Vitriol more then any other vegetable and containeth much of the foresaide sharpe Salt of nature He which doth exactly consider these things shal readily and out of true grounded reasons dissolue the question concerning the true and natural qualitie of Vineger which question hath troubled many of the most learned Piysitians For the dissoluing vertue which appeareth to be in Vineger euen in this that when clay or earth is put into it it wil as it were boyle argueth that the nature thereof is altogether hote Others on the coâ—trary part denying Vineger to be colde appoint it as a chiefe remedy to extinguish and represse external Inflamations Also by the taste which they affirme to bee the effect of coldnesse they conclude that Vineger is colde But they can very easily end this controuersie which haue the perfect knowledge of the nature of Salt Armoniac which Vineger containeth mat For this Salt is the true cause of dissoluing vertue But because the â—ame Salt is of force to coagulate spirits and to dissolue bodies therefore it is effectual and a singular remedy against both inward and outward inflamations For it doth coagulate the Niter Sulphurus exhalations which stirreth vp those inflamations For such heates and feauerous passions doe procéed out of the spirits onely either Niterous or Sulphurus arysing out of the Saltâ—Niter Sulphurus or tartarus of our body and lifted vp into euaporations which cause such vnkindly heates The which coÌ„meth not so to passe when the same spirits be as yet bound together and lye as it they were buried in their proper bodies or tartarous feces But if thou wilt yet knowe more manifestly the corrosiue force and inflaming heate of the saide spirits consider the strong waters which are nothing else but the spirits of Niter and Vitriol which thou shalt sée will dissolue siluer or any hard metall But if thou put but one onely ounce of siluer to one hundred pound waight of Vitriol and Niter as they are in their owne nature and body yet they will neuer be able to dissolue it It is therefore manifest that such violent forces and operations are onely in the spirits seperated euaporated and dissolued from their body the which forces thou shalt by no safer meanes take away and suppresse then if the same spirits bée againe incorporated and coagulated And this is performed by that Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature which is in Vineger as also in other things which haue sharpnesse But peraduenture there are some which now thinking that wee haue killed our selues with our owne swoord will inferre vpon the same example by vs alleaged that such essences prepared by Chymists are all for the most part spiritual and therfore by consequence are more violent remedies then is fitting for nature to beare and therefore cannot be giuen with safetie I would haue those which make this obiection to be in this wise answered That the reason is not all one and therefore the conclâ—sion not good For it we take the spirit of Vitriol or of Salt-Péeter which indéed are spirits partaking of the terrestrial fire yet neuerthelesse they may bee so swéetened and mingled with broathes or other conuenient liquor that they wil be very familiar to nature grateful sauory and gentle and not without great vertue and efficacie The iuice of Limons giuen by it selfe alone into great plenty can hurt the stomack For the which cause our maner is to mingle it with some liquor or with sugar and to bring it into a syrup or Iulep no lesse profitable then pleasing to the stomack But the vertue of the spirit of vitriol is better knowne at this day and commended of the most approued Physitians of diuers countries then that the ignorant can detract any thing from the dignity and praise thereâ—f It is reported very credibly that in France it is much vsed and commended for the effects it hath to extinguish burning feauers And not without iust cause for it is a most singular remedy not onely against feauers but also against many other contumacious sicknesses as hereafter in due place shal be shewed but it is fit that no other presume to administer it then such as are expert Phisitians not Emperikes and such as try conclusions by killing men Furthermore the sharpe spirit drawen out of Niter alone or Sulphur among the metallick Salts is of the same nature and property For these doe auaile no lesse then the other to extinguish feauers of what kind soeuer by their coagulatiâ—e vertue whereby they doe tame subdue and coagulate those Sulphurs and burning spirits of our body Moreouer there are other some which iudge vs worthy of much reprehension because we said afore that one and the selfe-same sharpe Salt Armoniar hath both vertue to dissolue and also to congeale which being effects contrary cannot procéed from one and the same cause according to the common opinion of Phylosophers To this we answere that as we haue spoken it so we will maintaine it And therefore we say againe that this Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature whereof we speake can both dissolue bodies and also which is more to be maruailed at congeale spirits yea and which is yet more wonderfull euen in the middest of fire it can congeale And concerning dissolution it shall not be necessary that we proue this because it is well known to persons of very meane skill And now to say somewhat for the ignorants sake The spirit of Vitriol or of Sulphur or of sower Niter wel prepared and seperated from all terrestreitie doth dissolue corall and pearles By which dissolution an excellent
remedy is made to stop the fluxes hepatic Lienterie and Dyssenterie where the liuer hath néed of spéedy corroboration But they must necessarily be prepared according to Art But now time and reason perswadeth vs that we say somewhat concerning the contrarie faculty of this sharpnesse which is contrary to the other coagulating effect To doe this little wit and lesse labour wil serue For they which are but meanely séene in the Spargerick Art and haue bene Chymists a very short time or if they be but common Apothecaries they know this and haue séene it in the preparation of quicksiluer whose liquor and running nature no exterior coldnesse no Elementall frost how great soeuer the same be congeale or fixe But if it be sublimed with Vitriol onely meanely calcined it will come to passe that Mercury or quick-siluer which desireth his coagulation as his perfection by a certaine magnetical vertue draweth into it selfe that Sulphur or that Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature by the benefit whereof of running it is made solid and firme so as thou maiest easily handle it Being brought into this forme it is commonly called Sublimate But to make it yet more perfect those which are careful and skilfull workmen reiterate their sublimations adding to this new Vitriol that by his Salt Armoniac of nature it may be impregnated And thus at the last it becommeth solid and cleare as any Christal Venis-glasse Spargeric Phylosophers can so dispoyle againe this Mercurie so prepared of his coagulation or of his sharpe Salt Armoniac of nature that he shal returne to his former state and of fixed shal become moueable and running But he is now perfectly clenâ—ed and is now no more commoÌ„ Mercury or Hydrargyre but the Phylosophers Mercury And now if the foresaid water be exhaled or vapored that there may remaine nothing but a sharpe liquor like vnto the spirit of Vitriol thou shalt haue a liquor more excellent then any Vitriolated spirit and truly spiritual And so in stéede of a great poyson which was mixed with Mercurie which was then nothing but a certaine terrestrial corrosiue fire thou shalt now haue the true spirit of Vitriol whose greater and better part vaporeth away is consumed and lost if it bee extracted according to the common manner with that great and violent fire by Retort This spirit prepared after the saide manner excéeding good and a special commaunder of the Epilepste if it be administred by a skilful Physitian not by an Emperick with proper and conuenient liquor And this is one tryal of the vertue of coagulating Mercury The same coagulating force of his doth manifestly appeare in those preparations which are called precipitations which are made with the sharpe spirits of Vitriol and of Sulphur by the meanes whereof it may be brought into a poulder which cannot be easily done by fire But that it may appeare that this coagulating power of Armoniac of nature is not oâ—ely vppon Mercurie ouer whome it can exercise this power but nothing at all vpon the spirits Niter Sulphurus of our bodies with the which quick-siluer hath no simpathy or conuenience we wil shew it by a certaine other manifest demonstration and the same most true as shall appeare to them which will try it And in the same experiment I wil also teach a very excellent remedy against Gangrena and all sorts of cankerous Vlcers if any bee loth to take it inwardly into the body because of the vrine ingredient Take the vrine of a boy betwéene the age of ten and sixtéene which drinketh wine in good quantity let it be depured according to Art Adde hereunto of Romane or Hungarian Vitriol for by these the operation wil be the better I say of the Vitriol twise so much Put it to digestion in Balneo Mar which is moyst by the space of fixe or eight dayes in one or in seueral glasse Allembicks For there is required much matter This digestion being ended thou shalt increase the fire of Balne til the water 〈◊〉 Presently set on a head with a receiuer and distill the water And the same which first commeth forth is an excellent Ophthalmick water for the eyes The second something more sharp then the former is excellent good to asswage the paines of the Gout Thus goe forward brging the heate of the Balne or else by hote ashes vntill the matter in the bottom of the Alembic remaine like vnto hony The which afterward thou shalt put into an yron vessel and putting fire vnder it stirre it continually with an yron spattle that it cleane not too this thou shalt continue so long vntil all the liquor is vapored away and that there remaineth onely the Salt of Vitriol and of the vrine dry in the bottome and in a certaine masse This being pouldred put it into a cornute wel luted hauing a wide receiuer wel closed that the spirits issue not forth Then put to a vehement fire such as is néedful for the making of strong water or the spirit of Vitrioll But the fire must bee moderated by degrées vntill it come to the highest degrée as Art requireth And then at the last you shall sée the receiuer filled euery where with white spirits which in that great heate will be congealed as it were into Isâ—-â—ickels hauing all bout the body of the receiuer much like vnto the hayse or white thréedes which in time of frost are congealed out of foggy mistes and doe hang vpon the trées These are the spirits of the Salt which through the vehement heate of the fire are thus formed This Ise may be kept after the maner of Salt Niter Wherof if thou giue one scruple or halfe a scruple in broath wine or other conuenient liquor it will shewe it selfe an excellent remedy against all obstructions of the Liuer and of the spleene it prouoketh vrines and is also a special remedy against the Stone The same Ise being brought into water for it will easily be dissolued is a principal remedy for Inflamations and Gangrenas which very sodainly it extinguisheth Out of this so faire and noble experient euery true Phylosopher and Physitian will take occasion of séeking and searching further then the common sort are woont and so he may more certainly finde out the causes of stones congealed which are ingendred of the same salts or tartarous matter in diuers parts of our body He will also haue more quick insight into many other diseases which come by the coagulation of the foresaid sharp and Vitciolated spirits or else of the euaporations of other most sharpe spirits from whence Inflamations and gouty paines with swellings doe spring by the inward vertue of the thickened spirits aforesaid These things being thus knowne a remedy wil easily be found to mittigate and to dissolue such calculous and stony matter if we marke and consider diligently where that sharpe vertue lyeth hidden and wherein also the coagulatiue propertie of the said spirits are Also
worthy the marking and admiration namely that two or thrée fiery coales and no moe put vnder a large vessel or chaldrone which may containe sixe gallons will heate the same wine and will procure the spirit of wine to distill when as by that small heate a much lesse portion of water cannot bée made blood warme But which is more to bée maruailed at and obserued when the same spirit of wine doth passe through the Colunrina as they terme it namely by very long cunduites and pipes of brasse reforsed fit for this distillation it doth so heate them as also a whole pipeful of cold water-besidâ— and farâ— enough from fire in the which the saide pipes are moystened that a man may scarce handle them The which is to bee attributed to the great heate which the spirit of wine giueth to the colde water passing through the foresaide pipes For when all the spirit of wine is distilled forth although thou put vnder the saide vessell a much more vehement fire yet thou shalt féele the heate of that water in the vessel contained to bée extinguished and cooled The which should put vs in minde what is the next cause and original of natural or connatural heate in vs for this heate is stirres vp in vs by the continual circulation of the quickening spirit of our blood When all this water of life is at last distilled forth by a certaine internal external and violent heate or else vtterly wasted by progresse of time then doth appeare the extinction of that quickening heate and cold death insueth But to returne to the matter After the extraction of the true Aqua-Vitae or spirit of wine which is the whole purity of those thrée substantial beginnings whole liquor representeth Mercury whose flame which it readily conceiueth sheweth the Sulphurus nature and the excéeding strong taste declareth the spirit of Salt Armoniac there remaineth great plenty of â—â—eame or of Mercurial water which as yet containeth some quantity of spirit of wine But the last remainder is no better then vnprofitable water which soone corrupteth in like manner after the extraction of the water of life which is truly spiritual from out of our blood there remaineth in our body that moyst and moystening liquor which is partly nourishing and partly excrementall as is saide afore Lastly there remaine ouer and aboue the former the Feces Tartarous residences and Niterus Sulphurus matter which containe many stinking Impurities as also greate plentie of Salt The impurities doe sufficiently shewe the impurities in the eyes and filthy stinkes out of the nosthrils where as diuers oyles are distilled out of the said feces by vehement fire And out of the very feces there is extracted Salt if they be calcined and the same is also fixed with his proper fleame as we haue shewed afore in the working of the same vegetable This Salt is made Volatil with Salt Armoniac flying contained in his own spirit or water of life procéeding as we haue already shewed In like sort in blood beside that spirit of life and Mercurial liquor which two may in very déede be seperated from blood it selfe and shewed to the eye after conuenient digestions in the heate of Balne Mary which resembleth the heate of nature that it may the better and more easily appeare how the same heate and the same nature in vs maketh the same seperations and operations I say beside those two a certaine soft consistence like liquor wil reside in the bottome wherein thou shalt finde many impurities to be séene and smelt if the same matter be dryed vpon a fire of ashes proportionable to the heate of a feauer and no greater This Niter-Sulphurus stinke is that which manifestly causeth in vs fiery meteors as wel in the vpper as in the inferiour part of the body and which bringeth forth innumerable passions and paines beside as is already shewed afore So also by the force of the fire Sulphurs and oyles thick and gluing like pitch may be seperated out of the feces and tartar of blood no lesse then out of wine so offensiue with stinke as thou art not able to abide the odour thereof whereof how many diseases may arise in our bodies euery man may easily coniecture This done there wil remaine ashes out of which a Salt is extracted the which by the vertue of the Salt Armoniac of nature may be made Volatil and the very same which Lullie calleth the greater Lunarie for the imitation of the vegetable work This worke is very admirable by which the true Numie the vniuersal Medicine and the true Balsam conseruing and restoring nature is made And this is the true and vital anatomie of blood which by manifest demonstration we haue shewed that it hath a great analogie proportion and resemblance with wine when as a true Phylosopher as wel out of the one as out of the other sauing that the one requireth greater artifice knoweth how to seperate waters of life méerely spirituall which are saide to be very forcible and strong and beside these Mercuriall liquors which are as wel profitable as hurtful which are also moystening and finally which knoweth how to extract vapors and exhalations fuming which are called out-flowings Now therefore if so be in wine which we easily vse to nourish our bodies and the same pure and cleare after the seperation of the spirit thereof we sée and behold so many vnkindly things and so impure how many more grosse impurities I pray you shall we finde in the Lées of wines cleaning to the caskes and in the grosse residence of the same They which knowe and vnderstand that great and excéeding blacknesse of wine lées which is manifestly to be séene in the calcination thereof and the sepreation of his spirit and of his oyle red blacke and stinking which is done by destillation they I say can giue cleare testimony and credibly informe what a great stinke there is in the Sulphur thereof and how great the acrimony and byting sharpnesse is in the same tartar or lées by reason of the Salt which is extracted out of the same and the oyle which is made by the resolution of the same Salt of tartar And trust mée in the feces of the same wine there are found beside the things already spoken those matters which are more grosse impure and stinking as they wel knowe who to calcine them into ashes which they call clanelated are compelled to goe out of the Cities into the fieldes and places further off by reason of their excéeding infection and stinke with the which they are wont to infect the places néere adioyning What maruaile is it then as is shewed afore if in our blood after the seperation of the true spirit there are found so many vnkindly tartarous stinking and Sulphurus impurities But what maruaile I say if more and greater impurities and stinkes are to bee found in diuers of the Heterogeneal parts of the Chylus or best matter digested in the stomach for nourishment from whence
tittle of Apothecaries professing that and yet follow the Trade of Marchandise and not of honest and good men which are dilligent in their Arte to whom this our labour pertaineth and to whom these our studies and admonions are dedicated for the health of many and for their praise and profite The auncient Physitians and men of the best sort delt more warily and prouided better for themselues had this arte in great honor and therefore in their owne houses they prepared medicines with their owne hands And wée also for our owne partes would bee loath that some of our secrets should bee cast before these Hogges and therefore wée commonly prouide that they bée prepared in our Laboratorie at home by a kilfull workeman whome wée direct and appoint for that purpose Not that wee might make thereby the greater gaine to our selues but for the honour and praise of the Arte and to our friends good the which all those know that know vs and haue receyued the benefite from vs. But for this time these shall suffice For the Patterne of Furnaces and glasses apt and méete for Distillation buy Maister George Bakers Booke our Countryman And if thou be desirous to procure glasses of all sortes for this Arte thou mayst haue them at the Marchants hand which sell such in their houses néere the Poultery in London THe winde Furnace must haue a hole beneath one foote déepe inwarde and one foote and a halfe vpward and at that height a grate shall be layed wherein the coales of fire must lie Also at that height make another mouth where at thou shalt put in the saide coales of fire and aboute the same raise vp the walles round about ten Inches in height and there also lay two barres of Iron to set the Panne vppon either for Balneum Mariae or for a dry fire To make thy nourishing Balnâ— TAke chopt Hay and water and put it into an earthen Pan then set ouer it a Trencher with a hole in the middest to answere the bottome of the glasse which must come within two Inches of the water Concerning Hermes Seale and the making of diuers closiers of glasses FIrst thou shalt know that of all fastnings or closing vp of Glasses that no vâ—pours nor spirits goe foorth the Seale of Hermes is most noble which is done in the manner following First make a little Furnace with the Instruments belonging It must haue a grate in the bottome to make fire vppon In the middst of the Furnace shall be a hole to put in the ende of a narrowe necked Glasse so that the third part of the glasse be emptie And if the hole of the Furnace be greater then the glasses necke close vp the hole with claye on euery side round about so as the mouth of the glasse haue some libertie Let thy fire be as farre from thy glasse as thou canst and when thy coale fire is readie put the Glasse néerer and néerer by little and litle till the mouth of thy glasse waxe red as it were ready to melt Then take the red hote tonges and therewith wring or nippe the toppe close together whereby it shall be so closed as if it had no vent 〈◊〉 or came so closed out of the Glasse-makers shoppe But take héed when you haue so done that you pull it not too suddenly out of the fire least the sâ—dden colde cracke the glasse and marre all Therefore abate it by little and little and not at once And when thou wilt open the glasse take a thridde dipt in brimstone or waxe and wind it 6. or 7. times about the necke of the glasse where thou wouldest haue it to breake and set it on fire with a small waxe candle and when it is burnt powre a drop or two of cold water vpon it and it will crack in the saâ—â— place that thou maist take it off Concerning the maner of making Lutes wherewith to close glasses THe ordinary Lutes wherewith to stop vessels of glasse against faint vapours are these Take quick lyme beaten to â—oulder as fine as may be and searsed temper it with the white of egs Or else mix wheat flower with the white of egges spred them vpon linnen cloath and wrap it diuers times about the mouth or ioynts of the glasse Other Lutes called Lutum Sapientiae made for the defence of stronger vapours either to parget and lute the body of the glasses or to stop their mouthes or loose their ioynts which are to be wrought cleare smooth and without knots or bladders in maner following Take potters earth with a forth part of shorne floxe added to the same an eigth part of white ashes with a forth part of dry horse-dung All these wel beaten together with an yron rod. This is the right composition of Lutum Sapientiae There be that doe adde to this composition the poulder of brick and of the scales beaten from yron finely searsed And for the more conuenient drying of vessels so luted and fenced you shal bore certaine holes in a wodden forme into the which put the neckes of thy glasses that their bottomes and bodies may be dryed the better Another most excellent Lute for the like incloser is made of glasse and Vermilion of each like quantitie pouldred and searsed then incorporated with vernish and a little oyle of Linséede and making the whole like a soft poultesse which is to be spread on a fine linnen cloath wrap it about the mouth ioynts of the glasses and so suffer them to dry in the Sunne Which albeit it is a long worke yet it is most sure For this will serue against the strongest vapours that are Also to compound a Lute wherewith to make your Fornace that it may not riue or chap take chalke and potters clay and a quantity of sand wrought together with wollen 〈◊〉 and horse-dung incorporated as afore Thus courteous Reader I haue shewed thée such secrets in this Art as neither Quersitanus Isacus Hollandus nor any other Phylosopher haue before published in print to my knowledge but haue come to my hands in paper and parchment copies If thou be industruous doest tread the right Hermetical path thou shalt by the meanes of these helps so plainly set before thine eyes without Hieroglyphicks and Riddels to do thy selfe and thy countrey good Thus wishing to thée as to my selfe good successe in all thy godly indeuours I commend them and thée to the Lord. FINIS Genesis 1. 2. Eccle. 3. 19. Acts 17. 28. 1. Thess 5 23 Heb. 4. 12. Gen. 1. 16. Wisd 11. 17 2. Pet. 3. 10. 13. Apoc. 21. 5. Psal 14. 1. Rom. 1. 20. Col. 2. 8. Gen 30. 37. Iob. 9. 26. 28 37. 38. 39. 2. Cron. 9. 2 Mat 12 4. Eccle. 38. Luke 14. verse 5. Num. 11. 29. Lact. lib. de Ira Dei cap. 10. Plin. lib. 2. cap. 7. Sen. lib. 4 de benet cap. 7. Thomas lib 9 super 2. lib. de coelo Plato in Timaeo Gen. 1. Metaph. 5. Cap. 1. 1. Thes 5. 23. Heb. 4. 12. Lib. de remed 7. cap. 3 Lib. colleâ— 15. Lib. 2. de virtute simp medi. ad Eutrapi Tetr 1. serm 2. cap. 43. 4. 6. Ter. â— serm 1. cap 24. In lib. de metho meâ—â— cap. 9. Li. de medidica cap. 30. Ter. 1. Ser. 2. Cap. 156. Cap. 157. Cap. 161. Lib. 7. de re medica Coll lib. 15. The Heauen of Philosophers Venus and Mars are Copper and Iron The greene Lyon Sol and Lana Gold Siluer Lib de Aurora Lib. de sâ—â—â—â—bus Hip. lib. de Antiq maedicina All things naturally loue Salt Salt the Balsam of nature Salt hath life in it is animal Salt is also vegetal Salt the original matter of pearles and corall Salt the fier of nature The effects of Salt in the earth The effects of Salt in the aier Salts minerall Salts of diuers kinds Stirring waters Nature accordâ—â—h with nature Salt is fusible Salts may be extracted out of metalls A Figure of the Trinitie Phree distinct natures in Salt Two salts appeare in the 〈◊〉 of salt-peter Two flying parts of salt-peter Sulphur of Nature The Mercurial part of salt-peter The cause of ferment is sowernesse Vitriolis of the nature of Copper The spirit of Vitriol fixeth Mercurie Body soule and spirit A practise A good purgation of bad humours Gold tryumpheth in earth in aier and in fire The incorruptibilitie of gold maketh it the best Medicine to helpe a corruptible body The wonderful effects of potable gold Bathes and waters artificial The Chymical ministries Balsam is in euery thing The spirit of wine The Christal of Tartar The good effects of the spirit of wine B. M. signifieth Balneum â—arie A Balsam Radicaâ— Potable gold 1. Phlegme 2. Mercury 3. Sulphur 4. Salt Elements passiue Actiue Elâ—ments A Medicine particular and general 〈…〉 Crude wines breede the stone Helleborâ— poisonfull Transplanting of herbs helpeth their nature Obiection Answerâ— Galen Lib. 13. Method Syrach 38. 4 A Dissoluing water Copper is red without and greens within Narcotical is Stupefactiue Taste odour and colours Salt of 2. sorts Salt defined Salt and earth Sulphur and Fire Mercurie Ayre and Water Mercurie a moyst actiue Sulphur the meane to ioyne salt and Mercurie Three natures in one Salt causeth Vicers in the body Saltes of diuers sortes Mercurie is properly extracted from leaues Sulphur out of Seedes Salt out of wood and rootes A mixture of the 3. beginnings Salt the root of the other beginnings Bitter things doe purge Salt extracted out of bitter things Salt in vrinâ— Purgers Dissoluing liquors Dissoluing liquor Dissoluing spirits Obiection Answere The spirit of vitriol and his vertue A remedy against feauers Obiection A remedy to stoppe fluxes The fixing of quick-siluer Mercurie of the Phylosophers The right spirit of Vitriol good against the falling euil A remedy for Gangrena eating vlâ—ers Water for the Ophthalmie Water to ease the gout A remedy against obseruations and to breake the Stone Gangrena â—ured Causes of the Stonâ— Sal-Armoniac a coagulator and a dissotuer The cause of dogge-like appetite Choller rustie yeallow and greene The Philosophical cause of Meteors c. The cause of madnesse Phrensie and such like Salts of diuers kinds in mands body The stopping of the pores procureth sicknesse Spirit of wine The water of 2. degree Mercurie An Oyle Sulphur Fyer The Feces Salt Earth A most precious Elixir Hippocrates bagge is like the bagge where through Hypocras runneth
albeit this is true yet God hath appointed Nature as a meanes to fulfill his will the which Nature hee hauing 〈◊〉 with the vertues of working he by the same beginneth furthereth and perfiteth all things Therefore the second cause is called Nature because by the same as by a vital instrument God who is the first cause worketh all things For thus God féedeth men with bread the which he hath indued with a natural faculty of nourishing that the nature of bread may be said to féede and nourish whereto he hath predestinated the same by the forme of natural bread Thus therefore these things are to be reconciled that we acknowledge God to bee the first cause of working in all other causes because hée hath made the causes and hath giuen power of working and doth himselfe worke together with them and that we belieue that hée stirreth vppe prouoketh directeth and moderateth Nature by the power force and vnitie which hée hath giuen to her to doe all things by her proper motions So that we must séeke the cause and forme of all natural actions in Nature which God hath made potent with spiritual vertues by which it acteth and worketh in the matter for that nothing can procéede from the matter it selfe being dead which is Vital or indued with the faculties of working CHAP. IIII THis word Beginning extendeth very farre For as Artes and Sciences so also all other things haue their proper and set beginnings Plato intreating of Beginnings one while appointeth three namely God Patterne and Matter another while he appointeth two onely that is to say that which is infinite and that which is terminable and to be limited By the word Infinite he meaneth Matter and by the word Terminable he meaneth Forme as bringing a thing within a certaine compasse and restraining a matter excurrent within bondes and limits Aristotle varyed not much from the opinion and sentence of his Maister albeit he declared the same in other wordes calling that Forme which Plato named Terminable And that which Plato called Infinite Aristotle nameth Matter appointing Priuation by it selfe for a third beginning Let it not therefore séeme absurde to any that we appoint thrée beginnings of all things Salt Sulphur and Mercurie as if it were thereby intended to ouerthrowe by our constitution the beginnings of the ancient Phylosophers whereas we ioyne and agrée with them For if wée grant to Aristotle his beginnings what difference will there be betwéene him and vs. Wée admit if you please the distinction by which he diuideth his beginnings namely into the first matter into the simple matter and into that which is remote enduring all alterations of formes or wherein there is power to bée made subiect to all formes and in two contraryes to wit Forme and Priuation the which habilitie of taking forme is in the subiect Wée graunt that these beginnings of all other are the more parciptible in vnderstanding than in sense As therefore our beginnings which we appoint out of which al mixt things are compounded and be cannot by the Aristotelian Philosophers be ouerthrowen so in like Aristotelian beginnings cannot by ours be destroyed For all this whole world is diuided into two Globes to wit into the inferior Heauen which is Aetheriall and Airie and into the inferior Globe which comprehendeth Water and Earth The superior which is Aetheriall hath in it Fire lightning and brightnesse and this firery Heauen is a formall and essentiall Element What things soeuer are comprehended in these foure bodyes which are the Elements and receptacles of all things are eyther simple things or bodyes mixed and compounded of them They are simple which are without mixture existing apart and seuerall by themselues of the which all things are made and into the which all things are resolued They are compound or corporeat which both are made of simples and into simples And simples may be distinguished into those things which are simple formes and into those which are simple matters or into those things which are simply formals and into those which are simply materials So bodyes are diuided into materiall bodyes and into bodyes formall Those things which are simply formall are astrall and spirituall the Elements are formall Seedes are formall and the three beginnings are formall that is to say so spirituall that they come not within the compasse of our 〈◊〉 But the formal Elements whereof we speakâ— are they in wâ—ose closet the astral séedes oâ— things and the formal beginnings are defused and layd vp as in their proper recâ—â—â—â—cles in the which simple and spiritual Elements of seedes and spiritual beginnings the 〈◊〉 and quickening Sciences properties and rootes of propagating 〈◊〉 increase of al things lye hid wherein also all habites 〈◊〉 and figures qualities quantities and dimentions sauours â—dours and coolours are included which doe budde 〈◊〉 and florish out of their bosome in their due time by opertune maturitie And these simple Elements or beginnings doe imbrace the spiritual seedes with so great simphathy and friendship and doe render to the Elements and beginnings mutual reciprocation of loue that being brought by the parents into some particular kinde or forme they neuer make an ende by the recordation of their vnion with the simple Elements but that at the last againe the predestination and 〈◊〉 of the natural bodies being consummated they returne backe againe to their graundfathers and great graundfathers and doe rest there euen as the floods passing and issuing out of their Element of the sea running in their course hither and thither leauing at the length euery where behinde them their generation or their wombe eâ—oâ—erated they returne to their beginning againe wherupon by mutuall copulation they receiue new force and strength to increase their issue And this is the perpetuall circulation by which the heauen is marryed to the Earth and the inferior Elements doe conioyne with the superior For the continuall vapours arising from the center of the earth being expulsed into waters and being caryed from waters into ayre by the attraction of the Coelestiall Starres and also by the force and appetite of the inferior Elements to bring forth issue and to conceiue from heauen the séedes passing too and againe at the last the Elements returne to their parents full and impregnated with Celestiall formes and doe there nourish their séedes vntill at the length they bring foorth in due season and doe exclude their generation The which impregnation commeth from no other than from those astrall séedes and those thrée seuerall beginnings Mercurie Sulphur and Salt furnished and fulfilled with all science properties vertues and tinctures and doe borrowe and fitte to themselues out of their spirituall body a materiall and doe animate and adorne it with their properties For it belongeth vnto Mercurie to giue life vnto the partes to Sulphur to giue increase of body and to Salt to compact those two together and to conioyne them into one firme body GOD the Creator of all things
made the world after his owne Image which may plainely appeare in this that albeit the whole world is one yet it ioyeth in the number of thrée being framed in order number and measure in whose bosome these thrée simple bodyes were included Salt Sulphur and Mercurie Therefore let vs compare the workes of God a little with the similitude of the Trinitie The worlde is diuided into these thrée partes Intellectuall Coelestiall and Elementall The Elementall to let the other two alone as lesse known vnto vs consisteth of Minerals Vegetables and animals beside the which there is nothing to bée found in this world Of Minerals there are thrée differences Stones Metals and meane Minerals In like maner among Vegitables there are thrée sorts Herbes Trees and Plants Also of Animals there are thrée orders créeping things swimming things and flying things If we should prosecute euery particular at large wée shall finde this Teruarie euery where and in all the parts thereof But we will consider of man onely in this point Man consisteth of Spirit Soule and body as holy Writ testifieth The Spirit saith Hermes is represented by Mercurie the Soule is represented by Sulphur and the Body by Salt The Spirit consisteth of minde reason and phantasie The Soule hath thrée factulties naturall vitall and Animall The Body is cut into thrée partes in Anatomie to wit into head belly and members These haue thrée principall members wherunto others are subiect the braine the heart and the lyuer The braine hath thrée helpes to purge by the mouth the nostrils and the eares The purgers and receiuers of vncleannesse from the heart are the Midryâ—e the Lungs and the great Arteries The purgers of the Lyuer are the Milt the bladder of the Gaule and the Reines So there are thrée principall vessels which doe serue the whole body namely the Arteries the Sinewes and the Veines Further if we consider the head againe it hath thrée skinnes The braine hath thrée bellyes two soft before and one hard behinde There are thrée principall instruments of voyce the throate the pallate and the kernels To conclude this point if all these should bée disseuered and separated into their beginnings they might be resolued into Mercurie Sulphur and Salt whereof they consist Therefore these thrée formall beginnings which we haue described by their offices and propertions albeit they are more spirituall than corporall yet being ioyned with simple Elements they make a materiall body mixt and compound they increase and nourish it and preserue it in his estate vnto the predestinated ende And séeing the properties Impressions and faculties are inset and included in those beginnings and haue those vitall qualities of tastes odours and colours hidden in them how materiall soeuer those séedes be yet notwithstanding they rather contende to come néere to Forme than to Matter but the Elements doe more cleaue and inclyne to Matter than to Forme And therefore the Phylosophers call them properly simple beginnings formall because they are more principall adorned and inriched with the first and chiefe faculties of astral séedes But the Elements they call beginnings materiall simple To the one they attribute actuall qualities and to the other passiue And so of them both as it were secondarily and so neere as may be all mixt bodyes are compounded and doe consist If therefore we shall throughly discusse and ransacke euery particular indiuidiall in his kinde and their generation we shall finde that which is said to be true namely that some simple beginnings are formall and spirituall others materiall corporall and visible And that the Inuisibles are the Elements simple formall the astral séedes and spirituall beginnings Also that the visibles are all one and the same but yet couered with a materiall body The which two bodyes spiritual and material inuisible and visible are contained in euery Indiuiduall albeit that which is spiritual cannot be discerned but by reason of motion of life and of functions and yet is within it These visible and material bodyes are of thrée sortes Séedes Beginnings Elements Of these 3. some are Actiue as Séeds and Beginnings Passiue as are the Elements The Actiue bodies of visible Séeds wherein there is any vertue are The séedes of liuing creatures put forth by Venus The séedes of herbes trées in their seueral cases trunkes The séeds of Mines ouerwhelmed with a great heape of impediments All which lye hidden in themselues haue Spirits The Actiue bodies of beginnings haue Two moyst Mercurie Sulphur One drie Salt Mercurie is a sharpe liquor passable and penetrable and a most pure Aethereall substantiall body a substance ayrie most subtill quickning and ful of Spirit the foode of life and the Essence or terme the next instrument Sulphur is that moyst swéet oyly clammy original which giueth substance to it selfe the nourishment of fire or of natural heat endued with the force of mollifying and of giuing together Salt is that dry body saltish méerely earththy representing the nature of Salt endued with wonderfull vertues of dissoluing congealing clensing emptying and with other infinite faculties which it exerciseth in the Indiuiduals and seperated in other bodyes from their indiuiduals These thrée beginnings were by Hermes the most ancient Philosopher called Spirit Soule and Body Mercurie the Spirit Sulphur the Soule Salt the Body as is already said The body is ioyned with the spirit by the bond of Sulphur the soule for that it hath affinitie with both the extreames as a meane coupling them together For Mercury is liquid thinne flexible Sulphur is a soft oyle passable salt is dry thicke and stable The which notwithstanding are so proportionate together or tempered equally the one with the other that a manifest signe and great analogie or conuenience is found in this contrarietie of beginnings For Sulphur or that oyly moysture is as I haue said a meane which with his humidity softnesse and fluidity or passablenes ioyneth the two extreames that is to say fixed salt and flying Mercurie that is to say the drynes of salt and the moystnes of Mercurie with his viscus and clammy humiditie the thicknesse of salt and the subtiltie of Mercurie vtterly contrary with his fluiditie which holdeth the meane betwéene stable and flying Moreouer Sulphur by reason of his excéeding swéetnesse doth contemper the sharpnesse or sowernes of Mercurie and the bitternesse of salt and by his clammynes doth conioyne the subtill flying of Mercurie with the firmnesse and fastnesse of salt CHAP. V. Concerning Salt OF all other the Philosophicall salt is of greatest vertue and force to purge and is as it were the generall clenser of whole nature deliuering the same from al impuritie whether it bée the belly by siege the stomacke by vomit the reines by vrine or the body by sweate opening clensing obstructions comming of what cause soeuer This kinde of purging is very large whose partes albeit they tend to one end yet they haue as it were diuers contrary effects procéeding froÌ„ one
one ounce thou shalt finde the volatile Salt Armoniac to be conioyned with the sharpe fixed Salt and that which shall be distilled from the same will become altogether without taste or a little swéetish the volatile Salt Armoniac being gone through the passage in the fixed Salt So that the said ounce of Salt Tartar is increased by one scruple or more of volatile Salt increasing the quantitie of the other fixed Thus that volatil Salt Armoniac which vanisheth out of the Vinegar with the watry and aierie substance is retained by passage in the proper fixed Salt and there abioeth and by his absence dispoyling the distilled liquor of all sowernesse the which is therefore of no vertue or of lesse efficacie then pure and simple water Hereby it appeareth how litle ferment is néedful to a great quantitie of paste to acuate and augment the same as Phylosophers speak without the which the elementary water wil haue no sharpenesse For if that Salt Armoniac be wanting as touching the force and vertue thereof water hath neither tartnesse nor taste at all Therefore a Hermetical Phylosopher Phisitian which is wel acquainted with the liuely anatonie of things wil teach that the sharpe sower and attenuating taste of vineger and the dissoluing facultie thereof ariseth herehence because tart things whether they be waters or iuices are mixed and infused with salt Armoniac and that therefore Vineger not onely in regard of the tarnesse thereof but also that most thin spirituous sower essence of Salt doe pierce into the most inward parts euen of the hard bodyes And if it shewe foorth any cooling effects it commeth thereof because the sulphurus and fierie qualitie of the wine that is to say the Aqua Vitae is seperated without the seperation whereof it can neuer bée made vineger and can at no time yéelde any taste of Aqua Vitae And that sharpenesse by which it burneth is the chariot or carrier away of the elementarie and colde water by the which it is carryed and pierceth into the most inward and secret partes as wée haue learned by often experience that in that water the same sharpnesse is contained and most néerely conioyned therewith Nowe as we haue shewed that the sower and mercuriall liquor of things doth borrow that tartnesse from a certaine Armoniac salt and volatile which ariseth from the fixed euen so the sulphurus and oylie liquor doth receiue and taketh his vertue from no other thing than from that swéete Niterous sulphurus salt which borroweth the same from fixed salt so that in the fixed salt and out of that salt that mercuriall sowernesse and sulphurus vertue doe spring and doe receiue their fruits therefro as from the roote and first originall As also héere it is to be noted and to be wondred at that a tryple substance is seuerally to be extracted out of one and the same Essence from whence all things created do sucke and drawe their faculties vertues and properties and that the same doe so subsist in one and the same subiect that two others are to be produced from one other And the same thrée essences when they are separated and coupled together againe and vnited are then inriched and increased with wonderfull vertues and faculties and haue gotten excéeding perfection The which the more often that they be separated and vnited the more perfect and high degrees of power and force they obtaine in such wise that it is to bée reputed the vniuersall and most excellent Medicine of all others CHAP. VIII Concerning the excellent goodnesse of Salt in Medicine according to auncient prescription IT is manifest in the Writings of Galen and other Greeke Physitians as also in the Traditions of the Arabians and Latines with one consent that Salt is good and profitable not onely to season and sawce meates but also for Medicine Albeit in the dyet of sicke persons they commanded them to abstaine from salt things They defended the vse of Salt to be necessary for the curing of diuers diseases for that it hath vertue to clense to open to cut and to make shinne to moue sweates to further vrine and to prouoke vomit And in this manifold facultie and vertue it is more profitable than the most of other remedies For the proofe whereof we will bring certaine examples of some of the most auncient and famous Physitians First of all Aegineta concerning the facultie of Salt saith thus All Salt hath great facultie to drye and to binde Wherefore it consumeth all whatsoeuer is moyst in mens bodyes and compacteth the rest by binding For this cause it preserueth from putrifaction But burnt Salt hath greater force to resolue and consume Oribasius is of the same opinion Saltes saith he whether they be digged out of the earth or whether they come out of the sea haue like facultie and is mixed with two qualities that is to say of clensing and binding In this notwithstanding they differ that Saltes digged out of the earth are of a resoluing and consuming essence by reason that they are of more grosse parts and do more binde The same Oribafius saith also speaking of Aloes digged and marine salt haue all one force and are mixed of two qualities the one of clensing the other of binding But it is plaine that both kindes doe drie For the which cause it consumeth all humor in the body and thickeneth the solyde parts by binding Burnt salt hath greater force to clense but it doth not contract and thicken so much as the other The flower of salt hath thinner parts than burnt salt and is of a sharpe qualitie and much digesting Aetius hath also almost the same wordes sauing that hée addeth this concerning the froth of salt The flower of Salt saith hée is frothy cleaning to the rockes that are next adioyning and it hath by nature more thinne partes than Salt it selfe therefore it can much more attenuate and resolue but the rest of the substance cannot thicken as Salt doth Paulus Aegineta in the same Booke and chapter before quoted writeth that the same â—roth of Salt is the flower of Salt and is of more thinne parts and more consuming then is Salt it selfe but doth lesse compact By whch it doth euidently appeare that the science of Calcination of attenuation and of essences was not vnknowen to them of olde time For by the working and styrring of the sea they learned the Art of distillation by which they seperated the more spirituous from the more grosse euen as we sée the truth hereof to appeare in the experience of charming and working simple milke For by that meanes three sundrie substances are diuided one from the other namely Butter Curdes and Whaye Aetius speaking of cruditie and of those things which do helpe concoction according to the opinion of Galen and other Phisitians setteth before vs Saltes In the description whereof he putteth in one pound of salt of Cappadocea the which surmounteth the dose of all other the Ingredients
of that composition the which pouldred he prescribeth to be taken in a reare egge to the quantitie of halfe a spoonefull fasting in the morning The effect whereof he sheweth in these words No man can sufficiently commende the worthines of this medicine for the helping vertue which it hath in colde distemperatures correcting raw humors for the which cause it helpeth the collicke and doth gently loosen the belly Hée describeth also other saltes which loosen the bellie which drawe fleame from the head with other helpes besides And into one composition hee appointeth to be put of cléere dryed salt 144. dragmes In the which composition hee added of the flowers of Câ—amamil of Coniza of mountaine Calamynt of the roote of the mountaine Eringium of Origan of Sylphium of Pepper of each a thirde parte The which Ingredients put to the quantitie of the salt aforesaid come nothing neere to the quantity therof He appointeth another composition of Salte where to thirtie ounces of parched salt hee appointeth a farre lesse dose of Hysope of wilde Tyme of Cummine the continuall vse wherof hée appointeth in stéede of common salte not onely for to make the meate sauory but also for medicine For saith he who so vseth the same continually shall at no time be troubled with any disease It helpeth headache it quickeneth the sight it cleanseth the brest from fleame it maketh good concoction in the stomacke and purgeth the kidneys Hereby it appeareth that the auncient Physitians did not only vse Salt but also that they made choyse of the best and most cleare sort the which also they dryed and parched with heate of the fire to make it the more forcible to helpe in all obstructions For Salts are of that power that they take away all manner putrifaction and corruption of wormes and doe put away the originall of other vices and diseases and do amend them The which being so what other thing can be found out for the conseruation of life and health or for the expulsion of all diseases more profitable Actuarius also describing certaine purgatiue Salts doth giue vnto them great efficacie in helping and easing sundry diseases and 〈◊〉 preuenting many sicknesses â—yrepsius describeth moe then twenty sundry Salts And among their compositions hée calleth one the Apostles Salt the which preserueth the sight to a very great age clenseth the lunges from tough fleame preuenting coughes and inlarging the breath Another composition hée attributeth to Saint Luke the Euangelist which is almost of the like vertue the which the Priestes of Aegipt as he saith vsed for fulnesse that they might be the more fitte to apply themselues to their studies being also of force to remedie sundry diseases Marcellus Empiricus discribed two maner of purging Salts Many other authors might be alleaged as Gregorius Theologus Plinius Secundus and others which haue giuen great commendation to the vertue of Salts whose wordes for breuities sake I omit CHAP. IX Concerning the extractions of Salts out of all things and Chymicall calcinations and incinerations knowne to the ancient Physitians and vsed in Medicine THere are some which contemne and deride our Artifice coÌ„cerning the extractions of Salts But no wise man will speake against the thing which he knoweth not For the auncient Physitians haue vsed calcinations like vnto ours as may appeare by the wordes of Oribasius when he maketh mention of the Calcination of Tartar and of the feces of vineger put into an earthen potte close pasted or lated For he saith that the matter which is to be calcined being fast luted in a potte and set ouer the fire to be baked so long vntill it waxe white Alchimically Plinius Secundus vsed the ashes of beastes and foules as most singular and familar remedies All the auncient writers speake of a little bird like a Wrenne which is called Regulus Troglodites and haue taught that the same being brought into ashes is singular remedie for the Stone Also they say that glasse calcined and burnt into ashes hath the same effect And many of our later Physitians doe vse the ashes of a spoonge drunke in white wine for the cure of the Broncoceles which is a disease arysing from the throates kernells of some called the Hermis of the throate This they prescribe to be drunke for the space of one whole Moone which is a most certaine experience Aelius propoundeth many and sundry remedies which they of olde time vsed which being calcined and dissolued into ashes according to the coÌ„mon fashion of Chymists he most highly estéemed as secrets of excéeding price His words are these It is said that it harts horne be burnt and washed it cureth the disentery Fluxe and the spitting of blood and is giuen with great profit to them that haue the Iaundise being giuen in the quantitie of two spoonefulls And in another place he saith Some burne the clawes of Swine and giue the ashes to those that are tormented with the collicke in drinke Other some say that Asses hooues burnt drunke daily doe cure the falling sicknes Againe he saith All burnt bones haue power to driue away to dry vp but more especially mens bones Much more might be brought out of Aetius concerning these things to proue that they of olde did vse calcinations and ashes in diuers and sundry maladies Albeit all ashes in generall so farre forth as they containe in them their proper Salt haue power in them to dry vp to clense yet neuerthelesse they retaine in them some property of that matter out of the which they are extracted And this agreeth with that which Aegineta teacheth saying Ashes haue not exactly one temperature but do differ according to the difference of the matter which is brent And therfore the ashes of sharp things as of Oakes or Holme do binde very much and do stoppe the eruption of bloud without any other thing But the ashes of more sharp things as of the figge and Tythimal or spurge are more sharpe and cleansing Oribasius wryteth in like manner sauing that he procéedeth further For he plainely teacheth the Chymicall extraction of salt out of such ashes speaking thus Ashes saith hee haue in them partly that which is Earthie and partly that which is fumie and these partes are thinne and the ashes steeped or infused in water and strayned do passe through together that which remaineth being earthie and weake and without byting is made hotte hauing put of his force in the watering or infusion And thus Oribasius calleth the separation of the actiue from the passiue earthie which he calleth infirme or weake but the Chymists the deade and damned earth Seperation All whatsoeuer our more skilfull Chymists of this age could adde vnto the Calcinations and Iâ—cinerations of the more ancient is this one thing that out of such kinde of Ashes whereof Oribasius maketh mention they drawe out the whole water and drye it vp and that which remaineth in the bottome being impure
salt they dissolue againe with common water or with the proper water thereof which is better distilled from it before the Incineration of the matter that they may make the same cleane and pure and as cleere as Christall For they dissolue manie times they fylter and coagulate not to the vttermost poynt of drynesse but drawing out onely of that water twoo thirde partes and more by the pipe of the Alembick they afterward remooue the same from the fire that â—he salt therein contained and set in a colde place may growe into a christalline Iâ—e which is the most pure salt of the matter without all doubt This salt must be gathered together and separated with a woodden spoone And if there remaine any parte of the water let it bee vapoured againe and then putte into a vessell to stand in the colde ayre where will bée coniealed a christalline residence anew which must be seperated againe ouer and ouer so many times vntill more it can growe into a Iellie or Ise These kinde of Isâ—e recidences are the true beginning of Salts vital and qualified with admirable vertues And this salt hath in it still the other twoo substantiall beginnings Sulphur and Mercury For from the same the mercurial and sulphurous beginning the one swéete and vnctuous the other sharpe and Etheriall may yet bée drawen by a skilfull workeman the more fixed parte namely that of Salt remaining still in the bottome Saltes haue their corporall Impurities but the spirituall Balsam which lyeth hidde in them is the Chymicall salte knowen to a fewe Some of these Salts are bytter as wormeâ—ood some swéete as sugar some sharpe as vitriolls sower as Quinces or grapes by whose balsame they are nourished â—ostered and conserued These salts haue diuers spirites some resoluing some coniealing And as they haue diuers spyrits so do they worke sundrie and admirable effects CHAP. X. Wherein is prooued that the naturall and originall moysture in Saltes is not consumed by calcination but that the very formes do lye hidde in that constant and vitall beginning THe Naturall and originall moysture with the which Saltes are replenished as is aforesaid is not consumed with the force of fire and by Calcination For it shall be here shewed that all the more forcible tinctures and impressions and the property of things together with their most potent qualities and powers as tastes odours colours with the very formes themselues such like are concluded and do lie hid in that firme constant vitall beginning For the truth whereof I will deliuer vnto you certaine demonstrations oftentimes prooued and confirmed by my owne experience One I learned of a friend which lodged at my house who was the first Inuentor therof Another I receiued froÌ„ a most learned famous Polonian a skilfull Physitian aboue 26. yeers since This man was so excellently and phylosophically skilfull in the preparing of the ashes out of al the parts of any maner of plant with all the Tinctures and Impressions of all the parts of the plant and would in such wise conserue all their Spirites and the Authours of all their faculties that hée had aboue thirtie such plants prepared out of their ashes of diuers sorts conteyned in their seuerall glasses sealed vp with Hermes seale with the tytle of each particular plant and the propertie thereof written vpon the same So as that if a man desired to sée a Rose or Mary-gold or any other flower as a red or white Poppey or such like then would hée take the glasse wherein the ashes of such a flower was inclosed whether it were of a Rose a Marie-golde a Poppey a Gilly-flower or such like according as the writing of the glasse did demonstrate And putting the flame of a Candell to the bottome of the glasse by which it was made hote you might sée that most thinne and impalpable ashes or salt send foorth from the bottome of the glasse the manifest forme of a Rose vegetating and growing by little and little and putting on so fully the forme of stalkes leaues and flowers in such perfect and naturall wise in apparant shew that a man would haue beléeued verily the same to be naturally corporeat whereas in truth it was the spirituall Idea indued with a spirituall essence which serued for no other purpose but to be matched with his fitting earth that so it might take vnto it a more soly body This shadowed Figure so soone as the vessell was taken from the fire turned to his ashes againe and vanishing away became a Chaos and confused matter When I had séene this secret endeuouring with al my might to attaine to the same I spent much time about it but yet lost my labour But as touching the demonstration following I affirme vpon my faith and credite to be most certaine and haue often proued and experimented it by my selfe may easily be done by any man The Lord de Luynes Formentieres a man of great account both for his learning and office being noble and of all men singularly beloued long since departed this life with whom in his life time I conuersed with great familiaritie This noble man 〈◊〉 very great paines to search and finde out the most excellent secrets of nature but specially those which appertained either for the preseruatioÌ„ or for the restoring of health And séeking long to find such remedies for that he had languished in a crazed body a great while without any helpe and was iudged by Physitians to be past cure he was at the last holpen and wonderfully restored to health by one only Lossenge of a certaine Chymical electuary of great vertue which the Lady de la Hone a most noble and wise matrone gaue vnto him This Lossenge prouoked him to easie vomit by which he cast vp from his stomacke all impurity tough and discous like the whites of egs diuersly coloured in great quantitie by which hee was restored to health againe to his great ioy and comfort Hereupon he greatly desireth to know this secret the which he not onely obtained at the hands of that noble Lady but some others also no lesse vertuous by his own endeuour afterwards the which he vsed both for his owne health also for the good of others as need required in the way of Christian charity This man coÌ„ming out of France in the time of the ciuil wars conuersing with me applyed his mind to extract Salt out of mettals that thereby he might prepare a remedy against the stone dissoluing it with christall This Salt being mixed with the lye made with ashes of 〈◊〉 mettals by often powring warme water vpon the same drawing it through too and againe as women are wont to make their coÌ„mon lye shewed a proofe of his essence included in the lye after this maner The lye being strained through a Filter oftentimes very well clensed was put into a vessell of earth hauing a narrow bottom and a wide mouth which is called a Terime And
mercuriall essence as by Chymicall experience may be made plaine For hée which is a meane Chymist knoweth how to extracte out of the same by the force of fire a sharpe Mercuriall spirite which being Ethereall and therefore moste Potente doth dissolue into liquor the most firme and harde metall as Golde which otherwise cannot be ouercome neither with the most vehement fyer nor bée consumed with any long continuance of time Furthermore a workeman knoweth how to extract out of the same salt congealed stones very sweete and of a Sulphurus nature which neuerthelesse haue a mightie and admirable force to dissolue the most hard thing that is And yet for all this that which remaineth is Salt Thus you see plainely that these thrée beginings Salt Sulphur and Mercury are contained in the Marine Salt The same also is to be séeâ—â— Vitriol the which among other Salts is most corporent For alwayes for the most part figures and Images of Venus and Mars are to be séene therein and conioyned together In this Vitriol I say doe plainely appeare Salt Sulphur and Mercurie Whos 's Mercurie altogether ethereall being by art separated and made most pure from the elementary passiue 〈◊〉 possesseth a gréene sharpe spirit of so great an acting and penetrating force that in a very short time it will dissolue metalyne bodyes and most hard substances whether they be mettals or stones And this is that gréene Lyon which Rypley commendeth so much The Sulphur in Vitriol is easily discerned by a certaine red Ocre swéet which is easily separated from the same which is an asswager of things and a right actatiue and a great mittigator all griefes and paines But the Colcotar or red feces with remayneth in she bottome after the seperation of the ethereall Mercury and of the swéete Sulphur conteyned in it a most white Salt the extraction whereof maketh a very good and gentle vomit fit and profitable for many diseases As these thrée are found in Vitriol so also they are to be found in Allum and in other Salts as we haue shewed before concerning common Salt They are also to be séene in common Sulphur wherein beside the Sulphurus substance and inflamable matter there is contained a Mercuriall sharpish liquor so pearcing that it is able to open and vnlock the most strong and hard gates of Sol and Lana But the Salt drawen from the other parts remaineth in the bottome as euery meane workman knoweth And such is this sowerish spirit of Slphur that although it be drawen out of Sulphur fit to burne yet it is so vnfit to take fier that it is easily let from burning It happeneth otherwise to common Mercurie which is altogether ethereall and spirituall from whence the third begineing of all things which is most spirituall hath borrowed the name albeit it is not like vnto common Mercurie or to quicksiluer in forme For out of the same both a liquor and a swéete Sulphur and also a Salt may be extracted Hereby it is easily iudged that these thrée principles of Thymists are not the common Salt Sulphur and Mercurie but some other thing of nature more pure and simble which neuerthelesse hath some conscience and agréement with coÌ„mon Salt Sulphur and Mercurie from whence also our beginnings haue taken their name and not without cause for that the common are in all mixt things and in all things most simple and spirituall For the other being mixed with the more grosse substances of bodies are hindered from being so volatile and spirituall For that they consist of many vnkindly parts with the which these common spirits are not so holden backe Of those thrée beginnings aforesaid all metalls are compounded albeit after diuers sorts And this is the cause that they differ so much one from an other For in yron the Sulphur thereof which may be burnt in that it passeth almost away in sparkes â—â—nders by meanes of the fier doth excéed in qualitie the other two beginnings and doth ouersway them Hereof it commeth that will be on fier throughout For the which cause it is called by the old Philosophers by the name of the Planet Mars a burning Planet So copper hath great store of Sulphur but lesse burning then that of yron and it hath also much vitriol salt yet but little quantitie of Mercurie But that vitriolated Salt is that sharpe ferment of nature whereby the generations of all naturall things are propagated and increased whereupon the name of Venus is giuen to Copper in whom there is a second quaternarie among the Planets where are heaped vp nourished and coagulated spiritually all celestiall essences wherefore this Planet by all the auncient Phylosophers is called Venus the mother of generations and begotten of the males froth Tinne hath in it much ethereall and aiery Mercury but of combustble Sulphur a small quantitie and the least portion of Salt And hereof it commeth that Philosophers call the fame Inpiter because that Planet is altogether aiery and ethereall and therefore Poets appoint him king of the aier and the region of lightning Gold and siluer which of all other metalls are most noble and perfit do also consist of the thrée foresaid beginnings but yet mixed in equalitie and so perfectly with great purity vnited that it may séeme that there is one chiefe and first essence onely in them and not thrée of which they consist For theyr Salt Sulphur and Mercury are so straitly and by the least things so ioyned together that it may séeme they are one substance not thrée or consisting of thrée Notwithstanding most pure Mercury séemeth to excell and ouersway in siluer by which it is made more moyst then Golde which is the most temperate of all other But in Golde the sulphur which is fixed and incombustible of a fiery nature bringeth to passe that it standeth inuincible against all force of fier and looseth not the least waite thereof because like wil neuer oppresse his like but contrariwise do cherish and preserue one the other whereby it commeth to passe that it ioyeth in the fier and alwaies commeth out of the same more pure and noble then it went in Therefore the name of the Sunne is giuen to gold because in very déede it is an ethereall fier and brightnesse For the Sunne is a most fiery shining Planet giuing to all things by his heat and spirits life But siluer for the force and propertie of Mercuriall humiditie which it hath with the Moone a Planet full of radicall moysture and pregnant is called by the name of the Moone Leade containeth much Salt and great plentie of indigested and crude Mercury but lesse flying Sulphur hereupon it commeth that lead is the examiner of all other metalls which it disperceth into some as is to be séene by tryall excepting the two perfect metalls gold and siluer which it cannot consume This vertue of consuming the bodies of imperfect metalls it hath from that qualitie of Crude and flying Mercury with the which it
doth abound whereas otherwise by the nature of his Sulphur it is able to doe the contrarie that is to say to coagulate those metallick spirits and to reduce them into bodies euen as quicksiluer being altogether flying by nature etheriall and truly Homogeny and spirituall doth after a sort congeale and fire So that hereby it appeareth that it hath in it by nature the spirit of heat and of cold and therefore of metallick life and death which maketh the sentence of Hermes good when he said that which is aboue is all one with that which is beneath For such as is Saturne in the superior Elements such also is lead in the inferiour and so of the rest And out of that burning licquor more ready to burne then the very Aquauitie may be seperated a Mercurie or a more ethereall spirit by a Matrat with a long necke by a gentle fier The which so seperated the rest of the matter of meane substance which is Sulphurus Oylely and apt to burne resideth in the bottome of the glasse with the Niterous and Sulphurus spirit of Salt Out of the blacke feces which remaine in the bottome of the retort being reduced according to the Phylosophicall maner into a calxâ— is extracted a fixed Salt which often times dissolued and Coagulated with his proper fleame will at the last become Chyrstalline To this if there be afterward powred by little and little according to Art his ethereal spirit that from hence it may contract and drawe the double or triple waight of the volatile and truly Mercurial salt in such wise that being cast vpon a red hote plate it doe dispearce into fume thou shalt at the last by the meane of sublimation attaine to the foliat earth of the Phylosophers which will haue a greater brightnesse and perspicuitie then can be séene in the most rich and orient pearle in the world This earth the Phylosophers call their Mercurie the which alone hath admirable properties and faculties Againe if to this be added the oylely liquor of his proper Sulphur also exalted and kept a part by it selfe in a iust conuenient qualitie and if the same be drawen forth with sundry cohobations and extillations againe and againe repeated and iterated and be reaffunded and distilled vntil out of a Ternarie there arise a vnitie then out of the grosse terrestrial and material lead shal arise and spring vp a certaine celestial and true dissoluer of nature and a quintessence of admirable vertue and efficacie the true liuely and cleare shyning fountaine wherein as Poets affirme hyding vnder a vaile their secrets Vulcan washed Phaebus and which clenseth away all impuritie to make a most pure and perfect body replenished with vital spirits and full of vegetation and doth so rid himselfe from his adamantine fetters with the which he was bound and hindered from the victorie aginst the Serpent Pytho and doth in such wise shake off all impediments that being frée from all duskie cloudes of darkenesse with the which he was couered and ouerwhelmed he sendeth forth now vnto vs his most bright shining light with the which wee are throughly refreshed receyuing youthful strength putting off all imbecillitie and like vnto that Ason king of Creta through the helpe of Media are throughly restored againe to young age So that the same thing which afore was altogether cold without blood and deuoided of life séeming as dead being washed in this fountaine it ariseth and triumpheth in glory in might and furnished with all vertues and accompanied with an excéeding army of spirits doth communicate vnto vs fréely his glory and brightnesse and doth most mightily restore and câ—â—â—oborate the strength of our radicall balsome with his onely looâ—â— and touch throughly wéeding and rooting out all the causes and séedes of sicknesses lurking in vs and so consuming them that without al trouble it preserueth our helth vnto the appointed end of our life He which hath eares to heare let him heare attentiuely otherwise let him neuer take his worke in hand For albeit I haue shewed the way to perfect working more plainely as I thinke then any other hitherto haue done yet thou mayest erre except thou be wholely addicted and intent to thy worke Thus the way is prepared for true Phylosophers to attaine to that great and most excellent minerall worke and to the preparing of that vniuersal medicine out of mineralls And this is the demonstration by which in all metalls and concrete bodies those thrée beginnings are to be searched out and being by art seperated are to be set before our eyes The which to make it more plaine I thought good to vse the example of lead which of all men is reiected as most vile whereas notwithstanding the Phylosophers haue the same in great estéeme because they ful wel know what great secrets it containeth within And therefore they cal it their Sunne or leperous gold From this trée of Saturne springeth Antimony as the first branch of the stock which the Phylosophers cal their Magnesia which aboue all other metallick substances containeth those thrée beginnings ful of open actiuitie and efficacie Paracelsus among all other Chymical Phylosophers hath wonderfully ransacked all the parts thereof and examined the beginnings most diligently whose substance he hath exalted and commended aboue al other metallick substances and especially the Mercury therof out of which as out of the chiefest subiect and more noble matter he wrought his chiefest and best works In the praise wherof these are Paracelsus own words Antimony is the true balme of gold which the Phylosophers cal the examiner And the Poets fainâ— that Vulcan washed Phaebus in the same lauer and purged him from al his spots and imperfections being deriued from most pure and perfect Mercury and Sulphur vnder a kinde of Vitriol into a metallick forme and brightnesse Hee compareth the same also in another place to the matter of gold concerning whose vertues and effects he deliuereth wondere as that it is the highest and most perfect purger of gold and his Mercury of men His red Sulphur also doth plainly appeare which hath his property that it wil take fier and burne like common Sulphur or Brimstone the which is especially to be séene in the night in a darke place without any sume which the common Sulphur is woont to send forth This Sulphur of Antimony is Solary and such as is able to gild the superficial part of siluer As touching the Salt of Antimony it is to be seperated from the same whose property consisteth in procuring vomit For his strength to procure vomit lyeth hid in the salte flowers thereof from the which flowers if the salt betaken away seperated by vertue of a certaine salt as may be done then out of the flowers thereof is made a most excellent purgation without vomiting But the property of the Mercury thereof bringeth no smal wonder which in the liquation or melting of gold with other metalls reiecteth them al and chooseth the
there an infinite sort of Sulphurs of the which to entreate here is no place There are other Plants which shew forth Salt which is to be found and felt by their taste as Celadine Nettell Aron otherwise called Weake Robin Radish Mustard-seed Porret or Leekes Garlick Ramsoms Perficaria or Arsesmart which also by the vertus and plenty of their salt doe defend themselues from the wrongs of times Ros Solis so called aboundeth with Mercurie amongst other Mercurial plants The which beginning notwithstanding for somuch as it is flying and spiritual except it be reteined by another more corporeat that is to say by a waterie or aierie liquor it vanisheth quite out of sight But being dismembred throughly searched by the Art of Chymistrie in his interior Anatomy with the separation of the beginnings it may also be made subiect to sense For Mercury is extracted out of euery thing first of all in his dissection or separation into a watery vapour and Sulphur into an oyely thirdly out of the remaining feces brought into ashes a Salt is extracted by his proper water which being most white like to crystall hath the taste of sharpe sower byting salt or such like relish in the mouth wherby it is found to be true salte which may be dissolued in water according to the maner of true salts differing so much from the other ashes as life from death for as much as the feces that remaine thereof are called dead earth whereas this is replenished with vitall actions To conclude in euery kind of plant in all the partes thereof thrise thrée beginnings are inset and cleauing indued with sundry properties and faculties according to the varietie of Plants The which also a skilfull Phisitian vseth diuersly that he may fit each one to other according to equalitie of matching and according to his intended purpose Hereby it appeareth how necessarie the knowledge of the internall Anatomy of things which shew easily by the impression of things their properties vertues which we may approue confirme by experience Let vs take for example the oyle or Sulphur of the Boxe-trée alwayes gréene and vitriolated by whose vnpleasant odour the stupefactiue Sulphur which is in it representeth it selfe vnto vs. That oyle I say of the Boxe albeit it wil easily burne yet is a great asswager and mittigator of all paines as comming nere to the nature and propertie of narcoticall or stupefactiue sulphur vitriolated being as auailable against the falling sicknesse as Vitriol If we consider the properties of the beginnings of Campâ—yre it wil manifestly appeare although it do burne in water by his vnpleasaunt odour that it hath a cooling propertie in it and narcocal or stupefactiue whose oyle also is a good mittigator of paines and griefe when as notwithstanding it sheweth foorth contrary effects as at the very first brunt it séemeth to haue a certaine fierie qualitie By reason of the propertie which it hath to asswage paines and aches the Arabians iudged the same to colde in the third degrée The experience thereof is easily to bée séene in the ache of the téeth For if a hollow or rotten toothe bée but touched with the oyle thereof it putteth away the paine The same oyle is a most present remedie in paines and griefe of the reynes caused by the stone For thereby the stone is dissolued and auoyded if it be ministred with competent liquor Other are the properties of other Oyles For the oyles or Sulphurs of Annis and of Fennel are fit to dispearce and driue away windinesse The Oyles of Cloues of Nutmegges of Cinamon and of other spices and their Sulphurs as also the Oyles of Mynts of Ambrosia of Sage and Betony and of such like are conuenient to corroberat and to warme the braine and stomach So the ole of Pepper doth attenuat make thinne dissolue and cut tartarus matters in the body and humours that are niter Sulphurus and Cholerick And howsoeuer many doe déeme the same to be hote yet it is farre more conuenient to bée giuen in cholericke feuers and to put away other griefes as tertians and such like than any other altering or cooling sirrupe In like sort hote and burning oyles may be extracted out the séedes of Poppey Goordes Melous Cucumbers and such like cold things whose operations notwithstanding doe not bring heate but rather rest and comfortable refreshing And the mercurial spirits of vegetables are oftentimes conioyned with sulphurus spirits so that out of Teribinthine which is almost wholy sulphurus as also out of Pitch and Rosen a mercuriall spirit or sharpe liquor may bée by arte extracted hauing the force of Vinegar being well distilled and likewise power of dissoluing the most solid and hard bodies Moreouer in pitch barrels that mercurial sower liquor is to be found being separated from the Pitch which hath the same facultie of dissoluing Also the same sower Mercurial liquor by a gentle fier at the first may bee attracted out of the shauings or chippes of the wood and barke of gréene trées especially out of such as are vitriolated as is the Iuniper the Boxe the Oake Guaiacan Trée and such like which liquor is of force to dissolue Pearles Out of the which Mercural sharpe liquors may also be made sundry seueral remedies apt both to ferment digest and attenuate humours and also to mooue sweate and to prouoke vrine to breake and driue forth the stone and very good to cure other affects especially such as are Mercurial Now leauing to speake of Mercuries and Sulphurs somewhat shal be sayd of Salts It hath béene already declared that generally they serue for the general purgation and euacuation of bodyes whether they mooue segges Vrines or prouoke vomit or sweates or whether they doe clense cut open or any other way helpe obstructions Yet notwithstanding as betwéene Sulphurs and Sulphurs and betwéene Mercuries and Mercuries there is great difference so is there great varietie of Salts and much difference of their vertues and operations As for example the salt of the coddes of Beanes amongst others is excéeding causticke and burning yet being giuen in drie quantitie in broath it is very diaphoretical or dissoluing in such wise that nothing can worke more effectual without hurt or offence of the bowels The Salt of the Ash-trée doth most mightily open obstructions most chiefely sitting the diseases of the spléene The Saltes of Artemisia otherwise called the mother of Hearbes and Mugwoort and of Sauin are most fit to procure the menstrues of women The Salt of Gammock otherwise called Rest-harrow Petty whynne or ground Furze the salt of Saxifage Gromel otherwise called Pearle plant of Radish are very proper remedies to breake the stone and to clense the kydneys and bladder from sand Also the Salts Double leafe otherwise called Goosenest of clot Burre and of Cardus Benedictus which are diaphoricall or dissoluing The Salts of Mynt and Woorme-wood are good to purge the lappets and tuâ—â—cles of the stomach and to strengthen
and comfort the same So the Salt of Guaiacine is by a speciall propertie solutiue as the mercurie thereof by his tartnesse doth testifie and the oyle or Sulphur thereof hath a purging force Out of the which thrée beginnings if the first two spirituall and more simple that is to say Mercury and Sulphur be extracted and according to arte and the fixed which is salt be also extracted and seperated and be after that brought into one bodie which the Arabians call Elixir it will be ioyntly together a medicine prouoking sweate altering concocting and purging Which tryple motion and operation commeth from one and the same essence of thrée vnited in one giuing most assured helpe in stéed of quicke-siluer against the veneril sicknesse or French disease The salt of Tartar is of the same kinde that they be which sharply do vite the tongue being also oily and sulphurus yea it is more sharpe than any other neuertheles if it be mingled with the spirit or sharpe oile of vitriole it can so moderate and correct his sharpenesse and byting spirit that of them both there may be made Ielly and thereof a swéete most pleasing delicate sirup which auayleth much against the gnawing and heate of the stomach and to ease al paines of the collicke All such Mercuries Sulphur and Saltes of Vegetables doe grow and arise from the mercurial and sulphurus spirits of the earth and from metallick substances but they are farre better swéeter and of more noble condition than their parents from whence they take their original There wil be no ende of writing if particularly should bée prosecuted the difference of all beginnings and their properties and faculties which the sea and the earth doth procreate That which is already declared may suffice to stirre vp the moâ—e noble wits to search out the Mysteries of nature and to follow the study of such excellent Philosophy Thus it is made manifest that these thrée biginnings are in Heauen in the Elements as in Ayre Water and in Earth and in bodies elementated as wel of Minerals as of Vegetables And now it resteth that it be shewed how the same be in Animals CHAP. XIIII Wherein is shewed that those three first beginnings are to be found in all liuing Creatures FIrst we wil beginne with Fowles whose first beginning is at the Egge For in Egges there are more plaine testimonies of the nature of Birdes than in any other thing The white declareth the ethereal Mercurie wherein is the séed and the etherial spirit the author of generation hauing in the prolifying power whereof chiefly the Bird is begotten For this cause it is marueilous that so many and so great dissoluing and attenuating vertues and faculties doe lye hid in the white of an Egge as in the ethereal Mercurie The yeolke of the Egge the nourishment of the Bird is the true Sulphur But the thinne skinne and the shell doe not onely conteyne a certaine portion of Salt but also their whole substance is salt and the same the most fixed and constant of al other salts of nature so as the same being brought vnto blacknesse and freed from his combustible sulphur but calcination it will indure and abide all force of fyer which is a propertie belonging to the most fixed salts and a token of their assured and most constant fixion This salt daily prepared is very fit to dissolue and breake the Stone and to auoyd it As these thrée principles are in the Egge so they passe into the bird For Mercury is in the blood and flesh Sulphur in the fat and salt is in the ligaments sinewes bones more in solid parts And the same beginnings are more subtil and aierie in birds than in fishes and terrestrials As for example the Sulphur or oily substance of birds is alwayes of more thinne parts thâ—â— that of fishes or of beastes The same may be sayd of Fishes which albeit they be procreated and nourished in the cold water yet doe they not want their hote and burning fatnesse apt to burne And that they haue in them Mercury and Salt no man well aduised will denie All terrestriall liuing creatures doe consist in like sort of these thrée beginnings but in a more noble degrée of perfection than in vegetable things they doe appeare in them For the vegetable things which the beastes doe féede vpon being more crude are conâ—â—cted in them and are turned into their substance wherby they are made more perfect and of greater efficacie In Vegetables there were onely those Vegetatiues which in beastes beside the vegetation which they retaine they become also sensatiue and therefore of more noble and better nature The Sulphur appeareth in them by their grease tallow and by their vnctuous oily marrow and fatnesse apt to burne Their Salts are represented by their bones and more solid and hard parts euen as their Mercuries doe appeare in their blood and in their other humors and vaporous substances All which those singular partes are not therefore called Mercurie Sulphurs and Salts because they consist of animal Mercurie of animal Sulphur and of Animal Salt without the coniunction of the beginnings But in Mercurals Mercurie in Sulphurus Sulphur in the Saltish salt doth rule and dominéere Out of the which thrée beginnings of beasts oyles diuers liquours and salts apt for mans vse both to nourish and also to heale and cure may by Chymicall art be extracted CHAP. XV. Concerning Man and the liuely Anathomie of all his parts and humours with the vertues and properties of his three beginnings NOw it remaineth that we séeke out and search in man those things in whom they shall be found to be so much the more subtill and perfect by how much he excelleth all other creatures in subtiltie and excellency For in him as in a little world are contained these thrée beginnings as diuers and manifold as in the great world but more spirituous and farre better For Pholâ—sophers cal man the compendiment or abridgement of the greater world And Gregory Nazianzene in the beginning of his booke concerning the making of man saith that God therfore made man after all other things that he might expresse in man as in a small table all that he had made before at large For as the vniuersal frame of this world is diuided into these thrée parts namely intellectual and elementarie the meane betwéene which is the celestial which doth couple the other two not onely most diuers but also cleane contrary that is to say that supreme intellectual wholy formal and spiritual and the elementary material and corporeat so in man the like triple world is to be considered as it is distributed into thrée parts notwithstanding most straightly knit together and vnited that is to say the Head the Brest and the Belly beneath The which lower belly compreheÌ„deth those parts which are appointed for generations and nourishment which is correspondent to the lower elementarie world The middle part which is the brest where the heart
moysture And as all Phylosopers doe write with one consent it is an vniuersal medicinable body whereunto all the particularities of medicines are reduced and infused For this cause it is as it were a fineth nature or essence a most thinne soule most purgatiue much resisting for a very long time putrifaction or corruption freed from al mortal concretion a celestial and simple substance of the Elements brought to to this spiritual nature by Chymical sublimation And yet for al this we affirme not that this medicine is altogether incorruptible for as much as it is made and consisteth of natural things Neuerthelesse it is brought to that subtiltie thinnesse and simplicitie spiritual that it séemeth to containe nothing in it that is Heterogenial or vnkindely whereby it may be corrupted whereby also it commeth to passe that being giuen to the sicke it preserueth them a long time in health And for this cause the Philosophers haue had this in so great estéeme and haue wholy addicted themselues to seeke and search out the same not to make themselues rich by turning imperfect metals into gold and siluer when as many of them willingly embraced pouertie but rather to heale the diseases and sicknesses of men and to defende and preserue their liues in long health without griefe vnto the time which God hath appointed But leauing this great mysterie which very fewe attaine vnto I wil in charitie and good wil deliuer here vnto thee an easie prescription how to make certaine waters of great vertue which I found written in the Latine tongue in an auncient coppy seruing to kéepe the body in health and to deliuer it from many infirmities which I thought good here to insert as very pertinent so this Treatise which concerneth as you haue heard the vertue of Minerals Take of Aqua vitae distilled with red Wine lib. 4. Of burnt Salt lib. 2. Of dead Sulphur lib. 2. Of white Tartar z. 2. Of the coales of Flaxe which groweth in Abella a Towne of Campania in Italie z. 3. Of Salt Peter z. 4. Beate al these into fine pouder seare them and being mingled together powre on them the aforesaid Aqua vitae and so put the whole masse to distillation The Vertues of the Distillation THe first Distilation hath vertue of a Balsam to conserue both flesh and Fish from putrifaction It clenseth the face from all freckles and spots clearing the skinne and making if fairer It cleanseth the body from Itch and Scabbes and dryeth vp the teares and watrinesse of the eyes The second distillation expelleth impostumations and superfluities of the body fasteneth the téeth which are loose and taketh away the windinesse of the Liuer The third taketh away a stinking breath and purgeth tough flegme out of the Stomach and whatsoeuer is not wel digested The fourth expelleth blood which is congealed in the body The fifth healeth and taketh away from man the faling sicknesse The sixt distillation helpeth al paines about the throate The seuenth cureth the paine of the Goute The eight is an excellent Balsam which sée thou kéepe well The ninth distillation comforteth and preserueth the Liuer if a little gold be dissolued therein After euery of the former distillations the feces must be beaten and searced as in the beginning Another Water by which a Phisitian may worke wonders TAke the fylings of Siluer of Brasse of Iron of Leade of Steele of Gold the summe or froth of Golde and of Siluer and of Storax so much of all these as the abilitie of the man can wel affoorde put these the first day in the vrine of seuen yeares of age the second day in white Wine made hote the third day into the Iuice of Fennel the fourth day into the white of an Egge the fifth day into womans milke which giueth a boy sucke the sixth day into red wine the seuenth day in seuen whites of Egges Then put all this into a cupel and distil it with a soft and gentle fyer That which is distilled kéepe in a Siluer or golden vessel There cannot bée spoken enough in the praise of this water It cureth all sortes of Leprosie and wonderfully clenseth the body It maketh youth to continue long Vse it to thy comfort and to the good of thy neighbour CHAP. XVIII Shewing by what remedies sicknesses are to be cured IT is alleaged out of the authoritie of Hypocrates and Galen that contraries are cured by contraries But hée which affirmeth that contraries are cured by contraries hée shall neuer easily finde out a remedie for sicknesse neither was this Hypocrates meaning as shall bée shewed anon It is out of question that sicknesses doe arise from the disagrement of the beginnings and so often as those beginnings doe decline from their temper which is then called a distemperature and the one being seperated from the consort of the other taking vp his standing by himselfe procureth sicknesse For when it is not in mixture with the other which being ioyned together do maintaine concord they then make warre vpon the body without any stoppe or let I speake not here of simple and bare qualities but of the very essences wherein are those powers and faculties whereof Hypocrates speaketh which preserue the health of their Balsam or to restore it when it is lost Seing therefore the séedes and properties both of health and of sicknesses lye hid in the essences it followeth that they are to be cherished with essences and not with qualities The which essences forsomuch as they are méere acting spirits they are to be repelled with spirits not with bodyes which are not like them or which are contrary to them But it is obiected that al things consist of Elements therefore our bodies also If then the Element of ayer do suffer and be out of course in vs shal the same be holpen with the Element of earth Why then haue Phisitians so fewe remedies against the pestilence Is it because there are none at al I confesse when God wil punish hée taketh away the vertue from remedies and medicines That is not the cause I meane the want of remedies but because ignorant Phisitians know not the causes of the pestilence and therefore dâ—e not rightly prouide to preuent the same For séeing they oppose against the pestilence comming of the corruption of the Ayer a medicine taken from earth water or ayer or from the earth hauing a watery original what maruayle is it if there follow no effect thereof when as they doe not driue away those things which are to bée mixed together but those things which doe easily agrée and are gathered together For how can the heauen and the earth bée mingled together to helpe the distemperature of the Heauen betwéene the which there is so great distance as there is betwéen diuisible and indiuisible as Plato spake Therefore celestiall things are to be mingled with celestial things waterie with waterie and earthie with earthie and not contrariwise otherwise there can be no agréement Consider wel
of the Hesperides in speaking so plainly of salt-péeter giuing thereby a free accesse vnto the doltish and ignorant Be not therefore deceiued in taking my words according to the letter Salt-Péeter of the Phylosophers or fusile salt whereof at the first came the name of Halchymie is not Salt-Péeter or that common Niter yet neuerthelesse the composition and wonderful nature thereof is as it were a certaine example and Lesbian rule our worke Howbeit I haue spoken more plainly manifestly vnto you of this matter then any other which hath gone before me hath done Let therefore Momus from henceforth hold his peace and let slaunderous tongues bée hereafter silenced Also let the ignorant open their eares and eyes and giue good héede to that which followeth wherein shal bée plainly shewed many admirable things and secrets of excéeding great profite Wherewith bée you wel satisfied and take my good will in good part till hereafter I shal deliuer that which shal better content you CHAP. III. Wherein by Examples the forces and properties of Salt are manifested YEe haue séene out of that first remaining Chaos that is to say out of that base earth or out of a matter confused and deformed an extraction and seperation of a fairer bright cléere and transparent forme that is to say of that Salt which is opt to receiue many other formes and which is endued with diuers and wonderfull properties Ye haue also séene how out of one and the same essence thrée distinct and seueral things yea thrée beginnings of Nature are extracted of the which all bodyes are compounded and with skilfull Chymist can extract and seperate out of euery naturâ—ll bodie that is to say out of Mineral Vegetal and Animal to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercurie principles verily most pure most simple and truely Elementarie of Nature all comprehended vnder one essence of Salt Sulphur and Mercurie which Phylosophers are woont to compare with the body Spirit and Soule for the body is attributed to salt the spirit to Mercurie and the soule to sulphur euery one to their apt and conuenient attribute And the spirit is as it were the mediator and conseruer of the soule with the body because through the benefite thereof it is ioyned and coupled with the soule And the soule quickeneth the spirit and the body Yée haue also seene in the aforesaide salt a Hermaphroditicall Nature Male and female fixed and volatil Agent and Pacient and which is more hot and cold fier and Ice by mutual friendship and simpathie ioyned in one and vnited into one substance wherein is to be séene the wonderful nature thereof The properties thereof are no lesse wonderful nay rather much more wonderful For Salt-peter is the especial key and cheife Porter which openeth most hard bodies and the most solid things as wel stones as Metal and bringeth gold and siluer into liquor which the proper water extracted out of the whole maffe without separation of the male or fixed And as it maketh al bodyes metallick spiritual and volatile so on the contrary part it hath vertue to fixe and to incorporate spirits how flying soeuer they bée Who now wil not wonder or rather bée amazed which knoweth that Salt-peter is so apt ready to take fire by which it passeth into ayre and smoake and yet in the meane time seeth that it remaineth liquid and fusible in a red hote crucible placed in the center of burning coales notwithstanding the which most burning heate it conceiueth no flame except the flame or fyre happen to touch it And which is more being of nature so volatil it is at the length fixed neither is it ouercome by the fire neither doth it yéelde bée it neuer so violent and burning no more then doth the Salamander if it be true which is reported of that beast which before notwithstanding it could not abide nor by any manner of meanes indure Thus therefore yée sée that by fire onely his nature is transformed Furthermore the same Saltâ—peter which was of late rightly prepared and clensed so white and Christalline at the least outwardly so appearing being now put into a fixatorie fire you shal sée that it conteineth within it al maner of colours as gréene red yellow and white with many others moe The which if any man wil hardly beléeue because he wil bée rather incredulous than docile I wish him to make tryal thereof and then hée shal learne so notable a mysterie of Nature within the space of tenne houres with very little cost And least yée should take mée for some Lycophrone or Gramarian writer of Tragedies I wil teach you how to worke truely and plainly Take of Salt-peter the finest and clearest one pound or two put it into a glasse Alembic with a couer and set it in sand no otherwise than if you should distil Aqua Fortis Put fyre vnder and moderate the same by degrées according to Art she which fyre thou shalt increase the third or fourth houre after in such wise til the sand appeare very hote This fyre in the highest degrée thou shalt continue by the space of fiue or sixe houres and then thou shalt finde and plainly sée that the spirits of Salt-peter haue penetrated the very glasse of the Alembic and that it hath dissoloued the same as wel within as without Furthermore the spirits of the Salt-peter which are come through the body of glasse cleauing to the out-side therof like vnto flower yée make take off with a soft feather and easilie gather together in great quantitie This flower is nothing else but the spirit of Salt-peter wherein ye shal sée al sorts of colours very liuely expressed That which remaineth in the bottom of the Culcurbit so white as snow and wholy fixed is a special remedie to extinguish al Feauers It is giuen from halfe a drachme to a drachme dissolued in some conuenient liquor And to speake in a word this remedy hath not his like to cut to clense and to purge and euacuate the corruptions of humors and to conserue the body from al pollution of corruption For séeing it is of the nature of Balsamic Salt it must néedes bée indued with such vertues and properties And in very déede to deale plainly and truely I cannot if I would sufficiently extol with prayses the true Salt-peter and Fusile salt of the Phylosophers This Salt Homer cals diuine And Plato writeth that this Salt is a friend and familiar to diuine things And many Phylosophers haue said that it is the soule of the vniuersal the quickening spirit and that which generateth al things It may peraduenture séeme that we haue bene too tedious in the inquisition and speculation as wel of the general as of the particular concerning the nature of Salt but it is so profitable and necessarie that it is the Basis and foundation of al medicinable faculties as more at large shal be shewed in his place that Physitians may haue wherewith to busie themselues and to vnderstand
But as touching a Chymical Philosopher let him know that hée ought to bestowe his labour most chiefely in fusil Salts and to remember that Philosophers haue not without good cause euer and anon cryed Bake it Bake it and bake it againe which is al one as if they had sayd Calcine calcine or bring it to ashes And in very déede if wée wil confesse the trueth of the matter al Chymical workings as Distillations Calcinations Reuerberations Dissolutions Filtrations Coagulations Decoctions Fixations and such other appertaining to this Science tend to no other ende then so to bring their bodies into dust or ashes that they may communicate the spirits of Saltes and sulphur which haue made them placed neuerthelesse vnder one and the same essence after a certaine imperceptible manner with their metallick water and true Mercurie and that to this ende that by the infernal vertue and force of Salt the Mercurie may bée consumed boyled and altered from his vile nature into a more noble when as of common Mercurie it is made by the benefite of the spirit of Salt the Mercurie of the Phylosophers which Salt it hath attracted out of the ashes or calx vine Metallick Euen like as it commeth to passe in the lye-wash which is made of ashes and water the which béeing oftentimes messhed and drawen away the ashes leaue al their life and strength communicating all their Salt to the foresayd water the which water albeit it alwayes remaineth fluxile and liquid yet it abydeth not simple and pure water colde or of smal vertue but béeing now made lye it is become hote and of a drying qualitie clensing and of qualitie wholely actiue which is altogether the vertue and facultie of an altering medicine But it is to bée considered of what matter this quicke and metallick ashes are to bée made Also of what manner of water the lye is to bée prepared that thou mayest exalt the Salt or Sulphur of the Phylosophers that is to say the Balsamick medicine which is ful of actiue qualities like vnto thunder béeing reduced into a true liuing calx And whereas at the first it was a certaine dead body voyde of life it shal then be made a liuing body indued with spirit and medicinal vertue CHAP. IIII. Gold animated is the chiefe subiect of the metallic Medicine of the Philosophers OF so great power and force is the Phylosophical Sulphur of Nature that it multiplyeth and increaseth gold in strength and vertue béeing already indued with great perfection not so much for the equal concurrencie of Sulphur and Quick-siluer as in regard of the perfect combination adequation equabilitie of Elements and of the principles which make gold And the sayd principles or beginnings to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercurie doe so order themselues that the one doth not excéed the other but being as it were equally ballanced and proportionated they make gold to bée incorruptible in such wise that neither the earth béeing buried therein can canker fret and corrupt it nor the Ayre alter it nor yet the fire maister it nor diminish the least part of it And the reason hereof is for that as the Phylosopher saith No equal hath any commaund or maisterie ouer his equal For because also in euery body equalled and duly preportioned no action or passion can be found Also this is onely that equalitie which Pithagoras called the Mother the Nurce and the defender of the concord of al things This is the cause that in gold and in euery perfect body wherein this equalitie is there is a certaine incontrollable and incorruptible composition The which when the ancient Phylosophers obserued they sought for that great and incomparable Medicine in gold And because they vnderstood that gold was of so smal compacted and firme composition that it could not worke and send his effects into our body so long as it remained in that solidity they sought indeuored to dissolue and breake his hard bonds and by the benefit of vegetable Sulphur and by the artificious working of the Balsam of life to bring it to a perfect adequation that the vegetable spirits of gold which now lay hidden as it were idle might make it of common gold which before it was gold phylosophical and medicinable which hauing gotten a more perfect vegetation and seminal vertue may be dissolued into any liquor and may communicate vnto the same that flowing and balsamic perfection or the Balsam of life and of our nature And because we are now speaking of the animation of gold be it known for a surety that the auncient Fathers and Phylosophers sweat and laboured much to find out the mistery hereof that they might compound a certaine Balsamic Medicine to vegetate and corroborate and by the noble adequation and she integritie of nature thereof to conserue the radical Balsam and that Nectar of our life in good and laudable temperament But indéed it is not to be wondered at that gold being deliuered from his mannacles and fetters and being made so spiritual and animate and increased in vertue and strength doth corroborate nature and renue the Balsam of our nature and doth conserue vnto the last period of life being taken in a very smal dose as in the quantity of one or two graines And so much lesse it is to be maruailed at that forsomuch as by that great adequation of temperature it doth conueniently agrée and communicate with our radical Balsam it doth checke the rule of phleame the burning of choller and the adustion of melancholy and by his incorruptible vertue doth preserue our nature but also to ouercome all the diseases which belong to our body And so much the rather in regard that the same Balsam of nature that natural spirit is the principal cause in vs of all actions operations and of motions not depending vpon temperature or mixture but concerning the same as Galen himselfe is compelled to confesse speaking of that our natural heat Ye must vnderstand saith he that Hypocrates calleth that inset heate which we call the natiue spirit in euery liuing thing Neither hath any other thing formed any liuing creature from the beginning or increased it or nourished it vnto the appointed time of death but onely this inset or natural heate which is the cause of all natural workes Therefore they can be excused by no maner of meanes which contumeliously without any reason doe dispise discōmend and caluminat these kind of remedies which doe principally tend to the restoring corroborating of our radical Balsam which alone holpen with the said medicine is able to seperate those things which are vnkindly grieuous to nature méerely heterogenial by expulsions conuenient ordinary euacuations to retaine the homogenial kindly parts with the which it doth most especially agrée to their further conseruation Whereas if for the corroborating of mans strength there could bee any vse made of leafe gold the which is nothing else but a certaine dead matter in no sort
either because they had so learned from others peraduenture by tradition or else by experience obseruing the impressions formes and figures of their simples But they of more late time haue bene so rash of iudgement that they wil take vpon them to iudge of the faculties of simples by their taste and relish and thereby discerne and determine their first second and third qualities to the which afterward all the vertue of the saide simples was attributed But because they found not this an vniuersal rule alwaies and in all things and that it did deceiue therefore some fled to the secret and hidden properties arysing from the forme and the whole substance These and such like starting holes and subtilties haue brought vpon vs great incertainty and doubtfulnesse which way to discerne and find out those things which serue for our best good Tell me I pray you if you can how many bitter things there are in taste which neuerthelesse according to the edict of that rule are not hote at all Of this sort among others many moe is Opium and Cichory Againe how many sowre things are there which by their rule should be most cold which notwithstanding are most hote as the spirits of Vineger of Niter and of Sulphur How many swéet things are there in outward taste which in their internal substance are nothing at all contempered How many things are outwardly and at the first beginning of taste altogether vnsauory and without relish which inwardly and in faculty are most sharpe and byting Honey Cassia and Sugar are in their internal substance so hote and violent that out of them also may be prepared such dissoluers as are woont to be made out of Aqua Fortis or Aqua Regalis which can dissolue gold and siluer as spéedily as the other Lead yéeldeth out no taste to the tongue and yet his internall substance is a certaine sugared delightfull swéetenesse So outwardly Copper hath no relish and is of a ruddie colour but that gréene where into it is changed is most sharpe We might shewe of such examples almost an infinit number whereunto we must not rashly giue credit nor stand vpon taste nor leane to much vpon the exteriour qualities and temperament of things For if they be more inwardly and exactly examined then by that superficiary and slight maner of tasting and experimenting and that their inward bowels be diligently anatomized they shal be found farre otherwise and oftentimes different not onely in taste but also in odour in colour and in their whole substance But if so be a seperation be made of the thrée hypostaticall or substantial essential beginnings as of Salt Sulphur and Mercury then there will appeare a true and lawfull difference of tastes Because one and the same substance may containe in it seuerall tastes How then canst thou giue a safe iudgement of his properties and vertues As for example consider well of Guaiacum whose diuers vertues and properties therein contained thou canst not easily discerne by simple taste Neither canst thou alleage any certaine cause why it should be Diaphoretical that is to say apt to prouoke sweates which by the separation of the aforesaid beginnings thou canst attaine vnto For thou shalt find in his mercurial tartnesse in his oylie sulphurus and thinner substance that facultie to enforce sweate which is also in Iuniper in Boxe in Oake in Ashe and almost in al woodes and barkes as also in many other things but hereafter wée wil shewe the cause why those sharpe and sulphurus substances doe prouoke sweates But you may also extract out of the same bitterish Guaiacum a Salt apt for purgation and euacuation of humours The like is to bée said of Cinamom and almost of all other things For Cinamom hath facultie both to bind and to loose The opening force consisteth in his sulphurus oilie and thinne substance which being separated from his feces thou shalt find a substance of the nature of Allum wonderfully binding Also whereas Opium is bitter that commeth by reason of his Salt from the which being separated by his oile or narcotical Sulphur it becommeth purging no lesse than out of any other bitter thing as if out of Gentian Centorie such like the same Salt should bée separated and rightly prepared To these bitter Salts is giuen the name of Salt-gemme as a difference of other Saltes whereof there is great diuersitie of kindes as more at large shall be shewed in another place But nowe in fewe wordes I say that some Saltes are bitter some sweete some tart sowre sharpe austere pricking and brinish whose particular facultie is rightly attributes to the proper substance of the same Salt rather than to any other qualitie whatsoeuer the same be THE THIRD PART OF THIS Worke wherein is contained a small Treatise concerning the Seales and Impressions of things by Hermeticall Philosophers with much care and singular diligence gathered and brought to light ALl men follow not one way to attaine to a generall knowledge of all things The way of the Empericks is vncertaine for that it is traced in the darkenesse of ignorance These haue respect to the external impressions and to some inset qualitites especially to those which may be séen tasted and smelt Furthermore they haue great regard to the first qualities hote cold moyst and drie which they haue made the beginnings and first foundations of these faculties or vertues But the Hermeticall Phylosophers and Chymists leauing those bare qualities of the bodyes sought the foundations of their actions tastes odours and colours else where At the last by wittie inquisition they knew that there were thrée distinct substances in euery natural elemented body that is to say Salt Sulphur and Mercurie And these internal beginnings of things they called hypostatical vertual and ordinatiue beginnings For in these thrée hypostaâ—tical beginnings thâ—se foresaid vertual and sensible qualities are to be found not by imagination analogie or coniecture but in very déede and in effect That is to say tastes in Salt most chiefly odours in Sulphur colours out of both but most chiefely out of Mercurie because Mercurie hath the volatile Salt of al things ioyned vnto it For there are two kindes of salts the one fixed other volatile as shal be shewed anon Therefore salt is firme fixed and substantifying beginning of al things and therefore it is compared with the pure Element of Earth Because falt is not cold dry by his owne nature as it is holden of some that the Earth is the which qualities are the death of things but it is rather hote and endued with an actiue qualitie for that it is appointed to serue for the generation of all things Sulphur is compared to fire for as fire so sulphur doth quickly take flame and burne euen as also do al other things which partake of the nature thereof such as are Rosinie fat and oylie Mercurie by Analogie answereth the Ayre and Water For
or that more than some other things For thou canst not easily draw an oyle out of leaues but a mercurial liquor plentifully out of al and out of very fewe some sulphurus or oylie liquor The reason is because Mercurie doth carry the rule in leaues and is their chiefe nourishment beginning and foundatioÌ„ as we haue already said But the sulphurus liquor is the cause of the increase plentie of flowers but yet the same sulphur is not alone and pure but mixed with some portion of Mercurial liquor but with the least quantitie of salt For this cause thou maiest extract out of flowers both Sulphur or oyle and also Mercurie but that oyle more volatil and of Salt the least quantity But out of séedes is extracted much of the more fixed Sulphur but of Mercury and Salt almost nothing The cause is for that Sulphur hath giuen beginning and the principal constitution not that volatil Nitrous and airey Sulphur but that which is indéede oyle-like and fat and which holdeth a meane betwéene fixed and flying both which lye hid in séedes euen in those séedes which are in great Mercurial hearbes and fleshlike fruites as in Apples Peares Goordes and such like But Salt is in all these as the most fixed and necessarie beginning for the constitution and compacting of all bodies But this Salt doth most chiefely reâ—ide in the wood and in the roote not as in his center or proper seate fixed for his principal rooting is in the earth but because it is first and most plentifully communicated to the wood and roote From hence afterward much is deriued to the branches and leaues and but little to the flowers and fruites Whereupon out of many leaues a sufficient quantity of salt may be extracted but out of flowers and séedes a very smal quantitie in regard of the others Thus you sée after what maner these thrée beginnings doe order and determine all vegetables as hypostatical beginnings and doe bring them forth conserue make them to sprout and florish and doe giue vnto them diuers forces and vertues It is also euident that the saide thrée beginnings are in all things but in some more and in other some lesse Therefore none of those thrée beginnings is found simple and alone which doth not paticipate also with another For Salt through the benefite of the other two Saltes Niter and Armoniac containeth in it selfe an oylely and a Mercuriall substance Sulphur containeth a Salte and a Mercurial substance and Mercurie a Sulphurus and Salt substance But euery one of these retaineth the name of that whereof 〈◊〉 it doth most partake But yet if we consider of the matter exactly we shal finde that al the other doe spring from salt as from the firme and constant beginning The nature whereof wil enforce vs to lift vp our eyes to heauen seeing that from these inferiour and natural things that admirable and venerable Trinitie in Vnitie is so clearly and euidently to be séene And forasmuch as those thrée substancefying beginnings are and commonly be found in al the things of nature wée must not thinke that they are so in them as without effect or vtterly spoiled of al vertue but wée must rather bée sure of the contrarie namely that from these chiefely al the qualities properties and vertuals doe spring For whatsoeuer hath taste the same if it bée bitter commeth from Salt Gemme And such haue vertue to clense to euacuate or purge So others which haue in them bitternesse are found to bée such as haue the same from this kinde of Salt and by the benefit thereof are reckoned among the number of clensing and purging medicines Such are all bitter hearbes and their Iuices In like maner all gaules For without these thrée ther can be no due excretion or sepâ—rating in bodies of superfluities and excrements For nature by the conduit of her instrument called Cholidoâ—â—n casting out into the bowels some quantitie of gaule stirreth vp the expulser and prouoketh it to sende forth the excrements and also clenseth purgeth and emptieth it selfe by it selfe The which being vndone the Expulser lyeth as it were buried and ouerwhelmed neither is there any good from thence to be looked for And that bitter Iuices as also the very gaule it selfe are of the nature of Salt it may easily bee gathered hereby because the guale is oftentimes congealed as a fixed Salt into stones in his owne bladder Also out of bitter hearbes as out of Woorme-wood out of the lesser Centaurie which some call the gaule of the earth much Salt is extracted as they that be workemen know Moreouer out of the â—â—ules of liuing creatures there is a Salt to bee extracted very bitter which purgeth wonderfully So also there is Salt in vrine which purgeth the blood by the vaines which send it into the reines and from thence by the water pipes into the bladder and so through the conduit thereto appointed In bitter Opium which all men affirme to be so notably stuperfectiue and cold there is a bitter and Nitrous Salt which if thou canst seperate from his stinking Sulphur by the meanes whereof it is so stuperfectiue thou shalt make it a notable purger So in like maner the skilfull know how to exiract out of Centaury Gentian Rue Fumitory and all such like very good purgers Salt which is alluminous giueth a sower taste Vitriol a stiptic or a stringent taste Armoniac a sharpe taste And a diuers mixture of the same Salts procureth sundry tastes and relishes and that most chiefely by the benefit of the two volatile Salts which of all other wil be best mingled by reason of their subtilty and spiritous substance Armoniac which is sharp is more plentiful in vitriol and in things vitriolated then in any other Salt substance or metallick For that sharpe Salt or that sharpenesse of nature is the fermentation thereof and the cause of coagulations and of the dissolutions of all things as we haue already touched before and will in another place more manifestly declare Therefore it is certaine that those things which are stiptick or stopping and haue outwardly a gréene colour or vitriolated with an inward sharpnesse and certaine rednes as is to be seene in Pomegranats Barberies and Limons it is certaine that they haue it from vitriol and from the sharp Salt Armoniac for the vitriol of nature is outwardly gréene and red within if thou search it by skilful Anatomie So also thou maiest extract out of the barke of the said fruits as of Granates a substance comming most néere to the vertue of vitriol And the liquor which is extracted out of their red graines or out of the iuice of Limons or fruite of Barberies hath force to dissolue pearles and corall euen as the spirit of vitriol hath And this commeth by the vertue of Salt Armoniac sharpe of nature and by the nature of mixture but so mixed as by the industrie of the artificer it