Fundamenta Chymica OR A SVRE GVIDE into the high and rare Mysteries OF ALCHYMIE BY L. C. Philomedico Chymicus LONDON Printed by WILLIAM GODBID for William Barlow without Aldersgate 1658. To the worshipful and truly worthy Patriot of his Family and Country WILLAM PITT of Hartly-Westpel in Hampshire Esq Robert Turner of Holshot wisheth Felicity Honoured Sir SEpius memini ipse perpendi I have often involved in my Minde the Worthiness of the Famous AUSONIAN PRINCES in their promotion of ARTS and LEARNING by their Favourable Aspects in Candidly accepting the Dedications of generally all AUTHORS and STUDENTS in Liberal SCIENCES which is no small Encouragement unto them Seldome do we see the Title of a Germane DEDICATION but it is directed Aliquo serenissimo Principi c. And this Sir I hope will be a sufficient Advocate for me to present this small Piece to your VVorthy Patronage and I am encouraged thereunto through my sensibility Generositatis Benignitatisque tuis nostratibus You remain the standing Pillar of your Noble Family and the Honour of your Country for which you have your Neighbours Prayers and Praise and for my part my Mite is small Hanc igitur meae in te habeas qualemcúnque sit gratitudinis observantiae Testimonium Sir This is a Piece of Hermetical Philosophy which is well seasoned with Salt and I doubt not will at least help you away with the tediousness of some vacant Hours 't is a Translation and if I have erred in Grammar I submit to your Censure beseeching the ALL-Eternal to endow you and yours with all Felicity internal external and eternal for which I am your dayly Orator as I am Revera LONDON 22 Decemb. 1656. Your most humble Servant Robert Turner To the Reader Whose Studies are seasoned with Salt WHEN the rude dark Chaos and indigesta moles lay tumbling in darkness and rowling amongst the undivided waters when the Spirit of the Great Eternal Elohim moved above the Face thereof it seemed good to his Great creating power to make a Witness of his Glorious Majesty by framing the spatious Vniverse then did he pronounce a fiat Lux Let there be Light and no sooner was his will declared but Light immediately like a ready swift-wing'd Herald soon proclaim'd his Embassage to the as-yet unseparated Fire Air Earth and Water and they as dutiful Subjects yield ready Obedience to his Glorious Commands and Light speedily muzzles up darkness and presents the Creator with a new baptized morning His sacred Power further intending to manifest his Glory commands a divorce between the Earth and Water and as a mighty Monarch doth his conquered Enemy or stubborn Rebel so he with another fiat makes that terrible boundless fathomless Element the Sea become his Prisoner and confines her swelling waves to their bounds and borders banishing them from one end of the World to the other to run up and down in an unsettled motion that though her brinish Mountains swell never so high yet further then his great fiat permits they never dare approach Then after he had vanquished this terrible to poor mortals apprehension adversary he soon bespreads the Earth with a green robe embroyder'd with such variety of glorious flowers as the greatest Potentate on the earth with all his Glory could never attain to the like array Moreover did his refulgent Majesty yet further illustrate the beams of his glorious might in bedecking the bespangled azure skies with those powerful Creatures the Sun Moon and Stars which he set for times and seasons days months and yeers and to divide betwixt day and night to omit the ready obedience the Sea Air and Earth yielded in bringing forth fishes birds and beasts immediately at his command Whither now doth my wandring Muse soar What royal Potentate or princely Guest should now be expected to this glorious Entertainment Not the Mighty Angels that excel in strength but the great Deity call'd a triune Council commanded the Earth also to bring forth an Epitomy of all his voluminous works the Manual of his glory Man a naked puling Creature born without Sword or Shield yet into his Soul did the All-eternal breath the Image of Himself crown'd him glory made him little lower then the Angels made him Commander of Earths Empire gave him an os sublime a lofty countenance to view the Stars and learn to know their powerful influence upon the inferiour World Now doth the wise Philosopher he who is a true contemplator of the divine Wisdom by a threefold operation and threesold matter make his creation and erect the fabrick of his world with his Salt Sulphur and Mercury The Mercury Sulphur of the Philosophers hath much been written on more then needs talk'd on but the third and chief principle was as yet unsupplied Here Reader it is fully discussed and to the intelligent and deserving will be a great revealed Secret despised by fools crack'd on by bragging knaves who indeed like degenerate bastards unframe the frame blot the manual and deface the Glorious Image of the Almighty Some seek to fill the insatiate Gulf of their unfathom'd wills in vain pleasure Another seeks to mount the slippery stairs of staggering honor and to make a perpetuity of his off-spring Another digs in the Earth and is shipwrack'd with covetous dunghil-passions The actions of all these are not a whit tinctured with the true Salt of the Philosophers for therein is no such thing Many indeed there are to whom the Philosophers Study seems ridiculous because their unseasoned brains cannot apprehend the great mystery thereof to them I will not bestow time to say a word nor here tell you the Vertues of Salt yet you see our natural vulger common Salt will preserve dead flesh from putrefaction What then will the true-prepar'd Philosophical Salt do It is not meet to tell you here but if you are worthy of it the Book will and Paracelsus told you already Let me intreat you to take notice by the way that when you finde any mention made of heaven earth soul spirits or our heaven c. these are not meant the celestial heaven or natural earth but terms used by the Philosophers to obscure their sayings from the wicked spoken with all due and holy reverence to the divine Majesty of whose glorious Attributes the true Philosophers and Astrologers are as tender as CL assical John can be yet this I thought good to mention being cautious lest any spark of my flint should touch the wild-fire of his beacons but that my Salt may rather preserve the hopes of my intelligent Reader to dive through his Studies to his crown'd haven with which desire I conclude 22 Decemb. 1656. R. T. To the Reader THis little Treatise Secrets doth unfold More rich more precious then the Indian Gold Here is the path which who doth rightly tread To health wealth it will him safely lead Salt seasoning all things Light illuminating The universal Spirit vivificating O happy Souls who first
whence all things were first generated Thales Milesius whom the Greeks surnamed the wise perceiving the matter patient said That Water was the first matter which Heraclitus attributed to the Sea and Moses more illuminated then both saith That before the heaven and earth were created the Spirit of the Lord moved on the face of the waters calling Fire because of its noble and pure essence The Spirit of God In saying therefore That Fire is the first principle of beings I transgress not the limits of Reason and Verity for it is without doubt the first Operator and the last Destroyer and Changer of forms whose cause it is even till it hath brought them to their period and first matter beyond which there is no progress but onely a transformation as I shall by and by declare by comparison with visible and familiar beings the first active potency which begins to operate in the production of man is the agitation or motion of heat which imitating the action of fire whose Nature is chiefly separative draws Sperm from the whole Body wherein Man's seed is potentially included and cocts and digests it thereby rendring it apt for expulsion and afterwards for Generation and Augmentation which Generation and Augmentation is alwayes helped by Fire which is the sole Actor so that if it should attain the end of its exaltation being inflamed by the Sulphur of Excrements and impurity of Aliments it would absume the radical Moisture which is the Seat and Preserver of Life which done the fire remits not of its power and action till by resolution and corruption it brings the Body to Ashes which nothing can do but fire But that we may make this more palpable and finde out the first matter by the knowledge of the last let us impose a Body on a common Fire and we shall see that what is inflammable in it will be totally consumed and redacted to a few Ashes which Ashes also will participate of a fiery Nature and for their last subject and matter turn into a certain Salt whose sole Parent and Multiplier Fire must needs be And though these should be further turned yet Salt would alwayes be left in whose internals we may finde Fire which is delighted with its like And by this means Alchymists finde that there is something in Salt that is incombustible or secret Elementary Fire which hath the same actions with primitive Fire upon which account they call it the Balsam of the Body because it contains that that gives life as also that conserves and augments it which is nothing else but a moist vapour accompanied with moderate heat Johannes Fontanus in his Philosophical Narrations En son Romant Philosophique shews That he was not ignorant of this Secret where he brings in Nature speaking thus Aucuns disent que feu n'engendre De son naturel fo rs que cendre Mais leur reverence sauvee Nature est dans le feu autee Et si prover je le vou loye Le sel a Tesmoing je prendoye Some dare t' affirm that fire can generate Nothing but ashes but those seem to relate The truth thereof who say that in fires brest All Natures operations are imprest And if hereof a proof you do require Salt gives you proof enough what is in fire And that it participates of moisture is plain enough from its easie resolution as also its fulness of heat is demonstrable from its ready congelation from which we may observe That Fire acts and is united with Fire as in liquefaction Air acts and is joyned with Air for how in one subject could the dry imbibe the moist if there were no innate heat seeing driness as it proceeds from heat doth naturally imbibe moisture And hence we may easily understand That the Demogorgon or central Fire cannot be destitute of moisture on which it may act and thence elevate a vapour mixed of two qualities which I call The Spirit of the World but many Philosophers Mercury of Merries because all other proceed from this naturally but this elevated vapour is not yet a Body but a mean betwixt a Body and a Spirit participating of both Natures which whilst it remains in that state can generate nothing It is therefore necessary That it either assume or form a Body which it thus doth This subtile vapour proceeding from dry and moist principles when it is elevated penetrates the spungyness of the Earth wherein it is gradually turned into Mercurial Water by the occurse of the ambient Air and of the Earth it self whose surface is far distant from its Centre where the Fire resides whence this heat arises After the like manner as we see in an Alembick where the vapour or Spirit to be distilled runs out But this vapour and its water partaking of two principles heat and moisture it is ingrossed and by moderate and continued coction condensed The principal cause and mean of which action is innate Fire which contains this very vapour and by its continual action stimulates and compels it to imbibe this moisture and to coagulate this Water not in all parts with a like solidity and hardness nor yet altogether but first with a mucilaginous and different solidity Now that which Nature assayes to do in the information of Idea's is to begin their induration and solidity which must necessarily hold on in Natures way which is a progress from one extream to another by intermediate disposition And Nature thus continuing its digestion this Mucilage stays of whose grosser matter Metals are generated in the veins of the Earth or cavities of Rocks which differ not in substance being produced by one and the same seed but onely in accidents which they take from the diversities of the places and matrixes where they are generated But the more subtile part of this vapour ascends to the surface of the Earth where it stays by compulsion and being in continual agitation though it can neither regrede nor ascend higher and finding no solid matter to carry it with it it is compelled to continue Natures intention and therefore serves for the Generation and Corporification of individuals But that what I have said may be better understood let us take some one individual and let us see how it is produced for this will ascertain us that the Spirit of the World assumes a Body and shew us how it is incorporated An Acorn may be long enough set or sown in the Earth and consume without germination unless some Agent be neer it that may deduce its occult potency naturally within it into act And whence can any one imagine this action to proceed unless from the central Fire issuing out of Demogorgon's brest Which Fire attracted and fomented by the Solar Rayes will redouble its force vertue and efficacy Does not then this germination derive its original from Natures Fire which elevating and multiplying its vapour excites the innate heat of the Acorn which is of its own side resolved into a vapour by the mediation
intellects of what Nature it is I shall further add That the Pores of the Earth are full of this Vapour which acquires a dry quality by its innate heat accompanied with some secret moisture by which it is condensed and coagulated into a specifical Body and as this moist Nature now dried up was first Water so it must be reduced into Waters again by Water which is the sole mean whereby to humectate dry things as fire is to siccate moist things which is a work duely observed by Nature in generating Metals for Water flowing through the Pores of the Earth findes there a dissoluble substance wherewith it unites its most simple parts to which union all the Elements concur in due proportion This substance then by its own dissolution is so conjoyned that it of it self condenses through hardness which is natural to it because of its innate siccity and by successive and long decoction acquires a metallical induration But now this substance being dissoluble of what other Nature can it participate but of Salt for nothing is so dissoluble as Salt which by how much it is more burned is by so much easier dissolved unless it be turned into Glass The first matter then is Salt or Salt is the first Body whereby this matter becomes visible or palpable of which Salt Raymundus speaks when in his Testament he saith We have before declared That in the Centre of the Earth there is a certain Virgin-Earth and true Element and that that is Natures work Nature therefore is placed in the Centre of every thing so Salt is this Virgin-Earth which hath yet produced nothing into which the Spirit of the World is converted by vitrification that is by extenuation of its moisture This is that which gives the form to all things and without which nothing could incur into the senses nothing is coagulated without Salt nothing congealed This is that that gives hardness to Gold as also to the Adamant and all Stones both precious and vulgar with a Secret vitrifying Vertue Yea what is more we manifestly see that all Bodies compounded of the four Elements return into Salt for if a Body putrefie what remains but powder and ashes covering most precious Salt and if a Body be destroyed by combustion calcination or incineration what rests in the last extraction but Salt Glass-makers do give manifest testimony hereto whence Arnoldus de villa nova in his new Chymical Light speaking of the permanent Water of Philosophers which Water is dry and wets the Tangents hand no more then common Quicksilver saith Who then can prepare this Water Well he may do it who can make Glass The same Author speaking of the excellency of this dry Water manifests it sufficiently when he saith in his Chymical Treatise which he calls his Philosophical Breviary That an Operator can no more do any thing without Salt then an Archer emit an Arrow without a cord or string And Fons Amantium saith the same Sans sel ne peux metre en effect Utile chose pour ton faict I can effect nothing in your rare Art Unless with Salt I'gin to operate All Bodies then are composed of Salt and as we said before the Principles of Composition and Resolution are equal which concurs with the Philosophers infallible Rule That the first matter of all things is one with the last where they alledge Ice and Snow for example which are by heat resolved into Water out of which they were by cold congealed And if I should here suggest the Testimony of all approved Authors to this Verity my Treatise would end in a Volume but that I may demonstrate That this Salt is pure and true Earth not such as we tread upon which I shall hereafter prove to be nothing but the Dregs and Excrements of the other I must recur to the first Creation which I shall decypher by a familiar example of an Operation made in imitation of Nature and by the same Rule and Model by which this great Universe was framed I said before That Water or the humid Nature as Hermes calls it upon which Moses saith That the Spirit of the Lord moved was the principle of all things And here the Question will be How that great and confused heap of Waters was so divided that this ample and gross Terrestrial Mass proceeded thence and by what medium so different things were procreated of the Earth I shall answer to these Questions onely what experience hath taught me It is therefore naturally probable that in the middle of these Waters by way of separation there was a certain collection of sediments or setlings wherein I follow the Text of Moses who saith That God separated the water from the water for there are two kindes of Waters to wit elevative and congelative Waters the former then elevating it self in a vapour left the other fixed in the botom as those that coct Sea or Fountain-Salt daily experience though perhaps it be be true that the one is made by the attraction of the Suns Rayes the other by the expulsion of Fire And here note That Fire and Heat onely are indued with a separative faculty which they exert either by violent or natural motion This separation then was made by one of these wayes and to what thing could Moses better compare this Fire which cannot be otherwise defined then the origine of Universal Light of Animal heat and vital motion which gives existence to all things and preserves them in their being then to the Spirit of the Lord Let us again consider Natures Salt in its Chaos diffused dissolved and suffocated in its Water under what form will it then appear or with what quality will it affect our gust but that of bitter Water and this form and quality it would retain for ever if it were not separated but as soon as this elevative Water feels the action of Fire it begins to flie from it by vaporation and so the collection is gradually diminished till onely a little heap of Salt be left in the bottom which comes together as the Earth did in the first Chaos of the Universe And thus we see the first operation of Fire which is the production of Driness that is of Earth But as this first Earth remained still coagulated with its Excrements and Dregs by Fire so this Salt which is true Earth retains its Excrements though it seem pure white and full of light for nothing is generated nourished and augmented but it abjects its Recrements of the formation and separation whereof we shall elsewhere speak Now this Salt or dry Earth thus coagulated and setled in the Water drinks up all its humidity and is by the continuation of heats action spontaneously dried preserving all this while its innate moisture by which it is never deserted and from which it hath its dissolutive vertue After the accession of this moist and dry temperament it is apt for production as the action of Fire shall impel it from potency to effect and
found the way to extract this first matter and to corporate it in imitation of Nature which whatever purity cleanness and clarity it seems to have yet is it always loaden with a great quantity of Terrestrial Dregs which cannot be taken away without great industry I think then that I have by most valid Arguments demonstrated That every massy Body is not nourished and preserved by the visible Earth but by spirituous matter onely whereby we see that they very much abound with Excrements and that their whole Mass is nothing else but an Excrement wherein this spirituous Matter that 's apt for corporation lurks invisibly for though we eat and drink yet all that ingredes our stomacks goes out alomst in the same quantity that we assumed it in We do not therefore extract our vital Oyl out of its Mass but that pure essence and substance that lies within it Briefly That excrementitious part is nothing else but the house of this pure substance and the vehicle that carries this nutritive Spirit to the place of distribution there to compleat its digestion and requisite Separation Are not Trees and Plants incorporated with this mass of Excrements and is not this Mass the Conduit of their enlivening and vegetative Spirit and as it were a fulciment that makes them grow I do not say That all that is in a Tree or other individual is wholly an Excrement for in every thing there inhabits some particle of this substance which I cannot justly call a Body but onely a thing apt for corporation which Nature cannot work of it self for though what we see and touch is progenerated of matter apt for corporation yet this Body is not substantial and nothing but Excrement is seen So that Nature suffers nothing of that to appear that is the vital essence substance or matter of the thing but Art which by industry superates the simple power of Nature can do it well enough for an ingenious Naturalist considers this That though the spirimous matter and substance of things be nowhere pure in natural Creation yet being mixed with dregs it may be separated by the digestion of the ventricle which rejects Excrements and retains the substance not as if this Separation were subject to sight but to the understanding by the appearance of the effect whereby we finde the dregs and Excrements rejected as useless for the conservation of the essence of a Body Moreover Augmentation Restauration and Vivification coming to Bodies by this substance ascertain us of this thing though Nature whereby it acts hides the operation the substance then being separable it must be innately pure and homogeneous or similar in all its parts but this purity cannot be manifested by Nature for her operations for the intentional perfection of things is onely simple But an Artist observing that Heat is the onely Medium and Instrument which Nature uses in the attainment of this perfection and Fire the sole Purger and Separator tending to perfect purification and further minding that in the centre of every Body some pure substance is contained which can be naturally separated if not exactly yet according to the extent of its faculties he proposes to himself the same way and the same Instrument that Nature uses to wit Fire which he so administers as to destroy burn or separate the Excrements without the destruction of the pure substance residing in the centre which he continues till it be perfectly pure and the Fire have no further destructive power over it but rather acts for its conservation exaltation and the introduction of a Tincture and Quality like to it and so at length convert this whole pure substance into its own proper Nature An Artist then minding this substance to reside in all things and that all things may be burned so that after combustion Ashes will remain which the Fire cannot devour he prudently concludes That in those Ashes there remains something not subject to the vigour of Fire and Flame And further incumbent on his work he findes a kinde of Salt not produced by Fire but rather the Victor over Fire like the pure Gold of every burnt Body This Salt is the last matter resâ—ing in the Anatomy of Bodies and not Ashes whence this Salt was ultimately extracted and out of which nothing can be further extracted for if by humidity it be turned into Water by heat it will be again congealed into Salt Whence we may conclude That this Water was Mercury whence all Bodies were first created and that this Water hidden in the ashes hinders their total consumption by combustion as the universal Mercury in the Bowelâ— of the Earth before the production of Bodies Wherefore the learned Ronillascus in his Writings calls this The Water of Mercurial Fire because Fire generates nourishes it yea augments its goodness so much more by how much it remains longer in it for the ultimate operation of Fire is to make Salt and Salt is nothing but dry Water which acquires and conserves its siccity by Fire and thence it is of like Nature to it And here I would not have any wonder That in the beginning of this Book I said That Fire is not without Moisture for seeing it is nourished therewith it must also participate thereof because all things take their nourishment from that whereof they are made So that Fire and Moisture are as it were two Correlates the one whereof cannot exist without the other no not in imagination and the Elements have without doubt such affinity and connexion one with another and so participate one of another that any of them may be found in his associate for the Earth contains Air Water and Fire Water Fire Air and Earth Air Earth Water and Fire and Fire Water Air and Earth without which participations there could be no mutual conversion and no sympathy or convenience From the Premises we may collect That nothing is destitute of Excrements and that Excrement and Substance are the two constitutive parts of a Body and that nothing but Excrement as accidental and not affine to the essence or substance should be separated We may likewise gather That Fire onely procures and facilitates this operation But it is time that we proceed and shew how this may be done for it is not enough to say That Separation is the beginning of the works of Nature and Art nor to know what things are separable unless the practise manner of this operation be also rendered intelligible I said before That there were two kindes of Separation one for Distinction and Ornament of which I will say no more because it appertains onely to Nature not to Art the other is made by Decision or Division which I shall now explicate I said before That all things consist of two parts Excrement and Substance Substance is of it self simple and indivisible whether we take it general for the first Universal matter or in particular for any species according to the impression of the Celestial Idea which is
membres du monde Qui vas du tout en tout les natures changeant Pour ame universelle en tous corps te logeant Ausquels tu donne estre mourirment vie Promant par mille effects ta puissance infinit Pan strong and subtile great and general That art both Fire Air Earth Water and all That raign'st alwayes and over every thing Getting conceiving bearing and keeping What'ere beginning had or have an end That Art both Tree and Fruit both Foe and Friend The Spirit that doeth binde the worlds parts That penetrates all Natures and imparts Both life and motion power to act and will And that dost with thy vertue all things fill Saturn the Son of Heaven and Vesta which is the Earth and Husband to Ops his Sister which is that co-adjuvant and conservant power of all things represent Demogorgon and the Infants that he first devours and then vomits up again are they not Bodies to whom he gives being and at last reduces them to himself whence new ones alwayes issue that by his perpetual vicissitude the order established in the beginning may be preserved to the end He is sometimes painted with grey and sordid Hair his Head covered with a Sickle in his Hand and for his Symbole having a Serpent circularly grated and holding its Tail in its Mouth And sure he is old enough being the Grandfather of all His Beard and Hairs are white alwayes growing which are the things that always germinate He is sordid and ill disposed of himself because of the Terrestrial impurity which adheres to it by reason of its Sulphureous and Adustive Corruption His Head is covered that is the principle of perfection is closed in the cover of impurity which makes it known to few His Sickle is his Penetration Mordacity wherewith he penetrates devours all things The Serpents biting its tail is his regenerating nature wherby he repairs himself as is storied of the Phoenix by which name he is also sometimes called so that he is always conversant in a circular and indeficient encrease But methinks I hear some say That I miss of the intention of Authors in their fabulous description of Saturn for they mean by Saturn Lead which is of all Metals the Seniour which also devours all others by its crudity because it is full of Salt for Mordacity arises from Salt as the Refiners of Metals finde in their probations for it there vomits out the Gold and Silver which it deglutiated but could not consume because in its decoction they received Fixation so as to resist the weak heat of its Ventricle I do not altogether reject this sense because it is in some places conformable to the other and in that it is in all things concordant with what I have given I hope none will tell me mine is false Maia represented the Earth so called because out of her as a Mother the universal Spirit or Mercury had its origine and from the pure invisible Seed of Jupiter which is the Air for it proceeds really out of these as the learned Cosmopolita sayes in his precious Treatises Mercury is commonly painted with Wings that they may shew how she is of a volatile Nature his Head is covered with a Hat for the same Reasons that I before gave for Saturn's Head He carries a caduceous and fatal Rod encircled with Serpents both to signifie and denote his regenerative faculty as those Reasons also I gave to Saturn's Serpent By this Rod he opens Heaven and Earth and gives life and death and that Rod represents powerful Nature for by ascending into Heaven and descending to the Earth he acquires the vertues both of superiour and inferiour things By this same power he draws Souls out of Hell makes all Eyes yield to Sleep as Virgil writes of him He is by some also called Poyson and a Theriack or Life and Death according to his use and dosis for Life consists in due temperament and justice Death in excess Many other such mysteries are contained in this Heathenish Theology which have no other scope then that I aim at all which if I should here explain my Treatise would prove a Volume But I will not defatigate my Reader with frequent repetitions of one and the same thing These may suffice to shew That all Mythological Commentaries such as these with their Allegorical and Historical Sense gave no occasion to Poetical Fictions as if any Truth were in them but such things tend chiefly to shew the admirable operations of Chymistry as amongst others the Story of Jason and Medea explicated by Chrysogonus Polydorus To which Explication I will add That this Name Medea that signifies Cogitation Meditation or Investigation is derived from a word that denotes a Principle Origine or Reason for all Meditation hath doubtless some Principle or Reason for its Foundation This Medea taught Jason that is an Inquirer two things wherein all Philosophy consists first The Acquisition of the Golden that is the Art of changing Metals and Minerals And secondly The Restauration of Bodies weakned with Diseases readily and perfectly curing them and bringing them from old Age to Youth and Vigour by this sole and universal Medicine expelling all corrupt and corrumpent humours and superfluities from Bodies which would else bring them to their end Jason endeavoured and perfected these miraculous effects by the observation of Medea's counsel after long and laborious Navigation obnoxious to many perils both in sailing in killing the Dragon and taming the Bulls This Navigation is the laborious Inquisition and dubious Experience of things wherein many are exercised all their life long and cannot arrive at the Port of Nature The monstrous Bulls which he was to tame and subjugate are the Furnaces wherein the operations are made which do not ill represent a Buls Head and breath out Fire at their Mouth and Eyes as the Fable hath it for they must needs have some Transpirations else the Fire would be extinguished and the degree of its heat not regulated for unless some experienced Man regulate the Fire many things would fall out wrong in the operations and delude the Operators hopes as I have experienced for of nine Vessels which I reposed in a Furnace to give it a due degree of heat I lost eight and one I conserved by means whereof I obtained the said Experiments in curing Diseases The watchful Dragon is that universal Mercury which Cadmus had learned to kill that is fix the Campus Mortis wherein the teeth of the Martial Serpent should be sown is nothing but a vessel wherein Souldiers armed with Spears are elevated But this Vessel should not be a Glass-Alembick as Polydorus thinks but made in form of a Cooperculum or Covert narrow below and capacious above made of good Earth well cocted and not of Iron or Glass In whose bottom Mars his Field must be elevated rigid with Lances and Spears representing souldiers provoked and fighting And this is onely an ingenious Fiction of the
and the humour thereof being condensed by innate heat is turned into a certain kinde of Earth which contains Mercury and Sulphur in due proportions CHAP. 7. How the Earth nourishes this Universal Spirit THough this Spirit be infused into and dwells in superiour as well as inferiour Bodies yet it may be best known and discerned in Bodies most evident and neer to our view of which the Earth is neerest and most vegetable in it therefore is this Spirit generated and manifested more copiously for the Earth is a certain mark whereto all the Influences Rayes and Vertues of the superiour Bodies tend It is moreover the Fundament and Basis of the other Elements containing in it self the seeds and seminal vertues of all things for which cause it is rightly called the common Mother of all Animals Vegetables and Minerals It is therefore impregnated by the Heavens and produces all things out of its womb and though this Spirit were expelled washed away or separated from it by what way you please yet the Earth thus void of Spirit if left a while in the Air would again be impregnated by the Celestial vertues and influences so as to produce some Chystalline stones and lucent sparks and by this means the Spirit which was taken for separated would again regerminate in the Earth Impregnation then made by the action of the Heavens and of the first qualities doth continually render her generative for out of her womb come all things sublunary She produces all things endued with life preserves nourishes and at last resolves them into their own Nature When she is agitated by these actions she causes a twofold expiration one without her another within her which expirations egrede from this Terrene Spirit when moved and calefied by the Celestial heat The expiration elevated without or above the Earth if it be humid causes and produces dew and frost if dry winde thunder and other dry Aereal impressions but the expiration included in the Earth if it be humid generates liquable Metals and Minerals if dry stones and the like that are not liquable All things vegetable proceed from and are nourished by this Spirit whereof the Earth is Nurse for which cause the ancient Poets call the Earth the common Mother and Nurse of all Creatures CHAP. 8. That the Spirit of the World is the cause of perfection in all THe Universal Spirit is the general Genus and common to every Genus for if we cast our eyes into the inferiour or elementary World we see it divided into three subalternals to wit animal vegetable and mineral kindes and yet the same in all onely operating diversly according to the diversity of its forms And hence the infinite variety of Creatures arises for else there would be only one species in the Universe but if we perpend the superiour and Celestial World we shall also finde That the Spirit is one equal in all and differing in nothing but purity and subtilty for the Celestial Spirits are procreated of its pure igneous substance and differ from Terrene ones in corporal grosness and the Celestial Globes and Luminaries are made of its middle and Aereal substance it constitutes therefore all things because it hath in it both the faculties of superior and inferior Bodies and because it is of an exquisite temper for this Body is in all the beginning and end of perfection and if it were destituted of its faculties it could never perfect any thing and here we understand simple and natural perfection and although it be perfect onely according to the intent of Nature containing in it self the rule line action and power of perfection yet it acquires vertues and faculties above the sphere of natural things and can deduce things from potency to act This Spirit alters and penetrates all things though never so gross mollifies hard things hardens soft things and augments nourishes and conserves all things This Spirit also being in all Bodies the Author of Generation and Corruption hath necessarily a threefold operation for by its driness it must enliven and by its coldness congeal and by its moisture congregate and unite for which it hath a threefold name imposed on it desumed from the three kindes of Earth for they call it vitrifying salsuginous and Mercurial because of Salt Glass and Mercury all things are made though Paracelsuâ— reckons these principles otherwise to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercury adding Glass as a fourth As if he should say All things are made of these three first principles and reduced at last to the fourth as though neither Nature nor Art could produce any thing beyond Glass But I shall prove my own sentence by Examples and Reason The Bones of Animals are consolidated and hardened by vitrification the Fâ—â—â—h and Nerves concreted by Salt and united and congregated into one mâ—â—â— by the â—â—curial humour In Vegetables also the shells of Almonds Pine-Nuts Wall-Nuts and the like as also of Oysters and Snails in Land and Sea may be made by vitrification and the taste demonstrates That these Bodies are saltish for nothing wants Salt but what is insipid yea those things are very saltish whereof Glass is made as Fem Kali and the like Some may here object That it is not Glass but Salt that causes the induration of Bones Shells and the like which I have mentioned Whereunto I answer That Experience and Reason speak the contrary for Salt is resolved and melted by the least moisture of Air or Water but the Bones and Shells before mentioned resist liquefaction as they are more or less hardened by this Glass-making faculty for the ultimate confirmation of which my assertion I may adduce precious Stones Adamant and Chrystal which are nothing but Glass elaborated to perfection in the Furnace of Nature And now that all things are condensed by Mercury is so manifest that it needs no other Testimony but common Experience Minerals have enough of Salt Sulphur and Mercury in them Stones and such effoded things as acquire not extention and fusion by the Hammer and Fire have some Salt in them but this is superated by the adustion of corruptive Sulphur which comes upon their induration and vitrification Metals and all ductile things are concreted and condensed by Salt and Mercury and so much hardened by vitrification that they bid some râ—sistence to the Hammer which is indeeâ— more or less according to their implâ—cation with more or less impurity aâ— adust Earth which comes upon the câ—agulation of their Mercury And thâ—â— we may affirm that all things are madâ— of the ternal number of Glass Salt anâ— Mercury or Water where Glass is thâ— cause of hardness Salt affords matteâ— and Water causes unition and condeâ—sation CHAP. 9. Of the specification of the Universal Spirit to Bodies THe Soul of the World and its Action and Vertue is represented in 〈◊〉 things in which it is this bindes and â—njoyns the superiour things with the â—feriour for as many Idea's as the â—eaven contains so many seminal â—uses it
obtains whence by the Meâ—â—ation of the Spirit it forms so many â—ecies in the matter When therefore â—falls out that any one of these speâ—es degenerate it may by the Soul â—ithin it and the mediation of the â—â—iversal Spirit be reformed and reâ—â—ced to its former state for the Spirit alwayes at hand and ready for all â—otions In the mean while we must â—â—t imagine that the intellectual Idea attracted but rather that the Soul indued with such a vertue and allured by the material forms whiâ—â— cannot seem absurd to any one for prepares every one his meat and nutâ—ment because it is transmutable into 〈◊〉 things by which it is sollicited and wâ—lingly remains and resides therein Zâ—roaster calls the Agreement and Hâ—â—mony of the Forms with the Soul of thâ— World Allurements Whence it aâ—pears That all things and kindes draâ— their powers and faculties from thâ— Soul of the World not all totally bâ— such as respect the seed or propagâ—tion and the like whereby they germâ—nate or encrease An example here we have in Man who feeding onely 〈◊〉 Man's meat acquires not the Nature 〈◊〉 Birds Fishes or the like which 〈◊〉 cats Many other Animals also feâ— upon the same victuals and yet eveâ— one attracts that which is proper to hâ— species so that it is worthy our admiration that out of the same Meat Mâ— can attract what is proper to Man anâ— a Bird what is proper to a Bird. Anâ— this is not because there are many anâ— diverse Aliments in one and the samâ— dish but because of the species nourishâ—d which attracts and changes the nuâ—iment proper to and convenient for 〈◊〉 self by mediation whereof it geneâ—tes its like by vertue of this Soul â—nd seed which is in it according to its â—ality But we muâ—â— not think That in the â—achine of the Worid the Spirit Soul â—nd Body are things separated for â—â—ese three are alwayes united and â—â—njoyned as is apparent and by this â—â—ion the whole Spirit and corporal â—bstance become vital The universal Soul then feigns and â—â—agines divers forms which the Spiâ—â—t receiving into the bowels of the â—ements makes corporeal and proâ—ces Hence Animals generate onely â—nimals Plants Plants and Mineâ—â—ls Minerals though not all alike 〈◊〉 Minerals as I said before generate â—ot their like after the same manner 〈◊〉 Plants because their Spirit is coâ—â—ited by too gross matter which â—â—irit if it could be conveniently exâ—cted and conjoyned with Mineral â—atterâ— would generate its like beâ—â—use by its exquisite penetration into imperfect Bodies through the subtiliâ—ation of Art and artificious Graduation of Fire it brings with it proper and Mineral seeds onely not animal because repugnanâ—â—o its Natureâ— yet I will not say 〈◊〉 it wants thâ— action of other faculties but that 〈◊〉 doth not demonstrate them but aâ—cording to the species whereto it 〈◊〉 accommodated for else every thiâ— would produce its unlike a Tree wouâ—â— generate a Man a Plant a Bull a Mâ—â—tal an Herb which I speak onely 〈◊〉 respect of the diverse specifications 〈◊〉 things For if we consider the most genâ—ral Genus it produces in all thinâ— its like because being Mercurâ— it assumes the Nature of all thinâ—â— wherewith it is mixed But humaâ—â— Art cannot effect that that is soleâ— granted to Nature which alone 〈◊〉 procreate a species Art may dilâ—â— and multiply it if it begin its opeâ—â—tion at the root of the species â—â—prudent Philosophers do who exâ—â—cting the Spirit from Minerals specâ—cated decently purified and reduced 〈◊〉 perfection render it apt to perfect imperfect things And an expert and industrious Artist perpending these things aright may easily institute admirable Adaptations Finis Libri primi A TREATISE OF The Philosophers truâ— Salt and Secret And Of the universal Soul or Spirit of the World BOOK II. CHAP. 1. That the Spirit of the World assumes Body and how it is incorporated WE have I hope sufficiently eâ—plicated in the former Booâ—â—hat all things were not oâ—ly produced but also made corporâ— by the universal Spirit We now come to declare what kinde of Body this Spirit assumes and how it self both is and makes all things corporeal for that must needs be corporeal which makes all other things such seeing nothing can give what it self hath not Let us therefore see with what and how it is vested with a Body not that we will here dispute of the incorporation of celestial and supernatural beings but onely of Physical and Sublunary Generations and of the body of the Earth which is the sole vessel and true matrix where the prime and most general Incorporator of things is it self incorporated I say then That no body can be made without a precedent Mover that may diduce potency to act that which exists not in save potency may be produced into light and according to Natures intent reach its final term which is to make that a body which it would produce Now this mover can be no other then fire or heat which moves it self first in the Air for all Generations begin there because fire is the most active Element and consequently moâ— subtile and light whence it is morâ— prompt for motion Fire therefore whose propriety iâ— through its levity to ascend and makâ— unknown things visible doth requâ—sitely receive the beginning of its motâ—on and action from inferiour Bodies that is from the centre of the Earth where as we said before the olâ— Demogorgon and Progenitor of alâ— things inhabits sitting there in hiâ— Throne and midst of his Empire thaâ— thence he may govern command preserve and divide the essence of Life tâ— all the parts of that great Spherical Body expanded about him and that hâ— may more easily and from equal distance receive from every Member whaâ— he wants The root of Fire is implanted in the fruitful bowels of thiâ— old Parent which thence emits a vaporous breath which Hermes calls thâ— humid Nature for vapour is the primâ— and next action of fire with which it is so conjoyned that it cannot be imagineâ— without it But some may say If vapour come from fire how can it be moist seeing fire is hot and dry whence acquires it this contrary quality And here we finde nothing absurd if we do but consider That fire cannot live and subsist without moisture which is its aliment support and subject without which fire cannot be conceived for being by Nature active and its action indefatigable it must needs have something to act upon and never be destitute of this thing Fire then and co-essential moisture are like Male and Female in all Generations and are the first Parents of corporification of the Spirit of the World as hereafter we shall make appear But Fire is the first Operator because action precedes passion though the Patient be inseparably co-existent with the Agent as the old Stoick Zenon asserts who thought that the substance of Fire was by Air turned into Water and there conserved as the general Sperm and first universal matter
we should easily finde them derived from those infected fumes that obscure the light of our sanity and thence desume a manifest sign of what is wrought within us for a sound Man because of the internal clarity of his natural disposition hath a cleer and lively coloured aspect but a sick Man from the first onset of his disease is pale and plumbeous his native vigour perishing and decaying and all these mutations proceed from the fumes of sulphureous and excrementitious Adustion and Inflammation which extend themselves thorow all the members and by mediation of the pores infect the whole Body This paleness may also proceed from Nature feeling her self aggravated with a disease and thereupon revoking all the pure and good Blood inwards that mustring up their forces she may better oppose her enemy or sustain his assaults and upon this occasion the external parts are destitute of their clarity and in this conflict the external parts remain as it were dead like Earth tend to obscurity because Earth wherein this battle is begun is naturally black as on the contrary Fire is by Nature clear and white The Earth then on its part being spisse and obscure begets blackness and sulphureous fuliginous and smoaky Adustion begets obscurity wherefore both cause corruption destruction and ruine and besides these two nothing in the world procures universal ruine neither is any inferiour Body exempted from these evils save Gold and precious Stones which Nature hath brought to what perfection she can And so Death is to other Bodies a perpetual enemy seeking how to destroy them but Nature as a careful Mother how to preserve her works who hath armed two potent and nimble Champions to help them and withstand the Adversaries fury one whereof is Fire the expugner of sulphureous Adustion the other Water the expeller and driver of Terrestrial dregs And as Nature is ingenious and subtile in all her operaâ—â—ons so is Art indued with equal subtilty and industry And there 's no other way to Separation instituted by Nature from the beginning but these two which Nature her self hath trodden from the non-age of the Universe whose first seeds void of form and confusedly mixed in a Chaos were dissolved in Water and by the Spirit of God the first Mover moving upon them divided and distinguished whence the Separation of light from darkness proceeded as also of distinct forms from confusion of generations from barreness and of death from life and if things in the first commixtion were thus confused as impure with pure Excrements with Substance Earth with Heaven and life with death all were without action power essence and life and the whole confusion useless An Artist therefore considering this and observing That nothing can exert its vertue till the confusion of its purity and impurity be separated he takes Water and Fire for his Helpers and follows Natures copy whose operations he should observe with all curiosity especially in generating Metals which are by so much the perfecter by how much they are more digested in the bowels of the Earth This sentence is then irrefragable That Water and Fire are the sole general and principal means of Separation but the composition of things being various and one thing yielding with more ease then another we must also act variously upon them yet so as not to vary from the plain path that nature has delineated For adustion and unctuous Sulphur making a body inflammable and infective may be extracted one way out of one body and terrestrial feculency another way in others Calcination and Sublimation were invented to purge adustion but Distillation and Dissolution to remove terrestrial feculency and Descension for the conservation of weak and easily inflammable bodies and all these are either effected by fire as Calcination Sublimation and Descension or by water as Distillation and Dissolution But because both the Books of ancient and modern writers speak at large of these things I shall not further labour in their explication because I can adde nothing new nor yet any ornament or facility to them it may suffice if I adde any thing definitively and known to my self in general and that is that Calcination is invented for your overcoming of hard and rebellious things and for continuity and valid and firm composition which hinders division and admits not of easie separation and hence four conveniencies arise the combustion of impure and stinking Sulphur the easie separation of superfluous and extraneous earthiness the fixation of the internal Sulphur and more prompt dissolution For it is natural to fire to consume those adustible parts which are not of the essence of a substance to facilitate the division and rejection of terrestrial excrements to fix radical Sulphur and to multiply salt in bodies which alone doth afterwards admit dissolution by water I say therefore that Calcination agrees onely to bodies that because of their continuity scarcely yield for spirits and volatile things which flye away by fire cannot be calcined unless some fixing thing be added which is repugnant to their nature Seeing there is no other end in Calcination then to extract salts wherein the better part and secret vertue of bodies consist to which that corruptive adustion adheres which in sublimation we suffer ro evaporate and flie away as useless that the remaining substance may be better freed from terrestrial dregs and easier educed by fire to purification and stability It is true also that sublimation requires some intension of fire but that happens then chiefly when the things to be sublimated are more profoundly mixed with the dregs of some other fixed body that they may more pertinaciously hold their terrestrial impurities and this kind of sublimation is most secure save when we work upon subjects that have their dregs naturally more fixed Descension hath a two fold use one is to extract Oyl out of vegetables without combustion the other to cleanse fusibles bodies before they be made volatile and these are the three kindes of separation made by fire now we shall speak a little of the other two Distillation and Dissolution made by water and the former of these is made by inclination and straining that the limpidity of bodies may with water come forth into the water of dissolved vegetables for that same that 's made by an Alembick appertains to the order of sublimations which is effected by elevation and not by ablution And though some account this for an indifferent and but a mean way yet I say it should not be rejected but much esteemed as that principally which Nature uses in her operations and which she establishes as the sole medium for the separation of terrestrial impurity by which also many things are brought to the height of their perfection being by this kind of distillation elevated and sublimated to their purity Whence some Philosophers have call'd it a secret sublimation The second operation by water to wit dissolution is effected by moist and moderate heat as Horse-dung Saint Maries
Bath the smoak of boyling water or by infusion in water or else by inhumation in moist places and the end of all these is one to wit the reduction of the things calcined into water that by this liquefaction the terrestrial matter may by straining settle in the bottom of the vessel but this subtile practise and all of the like kind should be reiterated for if any would by continual calcination separate the more simple parts of the compound and reduce to salt what hath the essence of salt he thereby creates much loss for the intemperate and continual violence of the fire will sublimate and evaporate a great part of that which is with such labour sought so that nothing will remain but a small quantity of the soluble matter with a great deal of dregs and besides that matter may by long abode in the fire be made into glass it is better therefore to flie to frequent reiterations then violate nature by the excess of any precinitancy I found such an inconvenience once in calcinating common Chrystal which while I desired to purge from its excrements and by long ignition to reduce to its true essence I found both it and its excrements made into glass and thence useless for my purpose for though Chrystal be clear lucid and transparent yet in Calcination it first emits black and then violaceous fumes as also stinking and sulphureous odours which sufficiently attest its excrementitious earthiness as also white fumes following after the true Homogeneity of its substance which remains clear and fluid in small quantity till it become true chrystalline Salt yea by the duration of these last reiterations its ingrateful sent is changed into a most delicate one like that of violets-powder By these reiterations of Calcinations two more conveniences do yet arise One is that the thing calcined by assuefaction to the fire brings stability and subtilty to the Medicaments as I said before The other that a body often dissolved acquires easie penetration and ready ingression as also more potent strength to change the state of the patient from sickness to sanity from weakness to vigour from declination to restauration and perfect health and these are the ordinary ways of all separations which have no other scope then the purging of pure substances from excrements and elevating of their terrestrial grossness to a fiery purity and from imperfection to perfection Which Hermes hints at when he says that earth must be separated by fire and the subtile from the gross which he says must be done with great care and animadversion For when he speaks of the preparation of the universal Spirit after its terrification and opens the way to the preparation of all individuals he would signifie that there is something in this earth which can scarce be retained and conserved and this is a light and volatile spirit which is kept by the temperament of fire But on the contrary it will easily flie away with the separable and more copious volatile part if in the operation temperate fire and a good method be not used with much patience where the Artist should observe this rule with all diligence that there are three distinct Sulphurs whereof two are separable to wit the external which perishes by Calcination and Dissolution and the internal which vanishes onely by decoction and the third is fixed which is properly the Sulphur of nature and the proper subject of its substance whereunto Philosophers give the name of Agent Fixed-grain or Element of fire As to the external Sulphur it is that first volatile and adustible water for it is plainly extraneous and the first nutriment of fire but the internal is more rooted in and united to the substance and therefore yields not save to intent and continued heat and therefore it assumes all colours before it egrede beginning first with black which is the prime sign of earthiness adustion and corruption and the antecessor of putrefaction and corruption and then passes through other middle colours till at length it put on whiteness which is the airy colour and then ascends to a fiery colour or redness in which the power of art and dominion of fire is terminated and beyond which there is no progress Which thing the Poets fabulously concealed under the unconstant form of Proteus who turned himself into various monstrous forms that he might affright those that would captivate him This variety of colours proceeds from the internal Sulphur the true author and producer of all tinctures and varieties which are by Nature or Art observed in any subject These colours may be also distinctly noted in the decoction of the first universal Subject as I have above said That it produced them in my operations and first whiteness presents it self and then Natures Sulphur appears which Geber says is white without and red within for redness immediately follows this whiteness without all help save the continuation and augmentation of Fire whence one Philosopher said His Stone was a Gold-Ring covered with Silver I would briefly insert these few words about colours not that I would presume to teach the preparations and observations which I know necessary for the perfecting of that great and so much praised Philosophers Elixir but onely that I may shew the curious Disciples of learned Medea which induced by profound and ingenious inquisition seek to enter the secrets of these mysterious Physicks what Sulphurs must be rejected and what must be retained in all things I hope I shall spend that time well which I have substracted from my houshold-affairs if I restore any vigour or spark of life to that languishing part of Natural Philosophy which envious Men have buried in the Sepulchre of Calumny under the odious title of abusive Transmutation and falsifying of Metals though ignorance onely stop their eyes from discerning this true mystery which they load with opprobrious contumelies and injurious words grounding their malice onely on the malicious lies of impudent dullards who run about Cities sell smoak and obnubilate their false Sophistications under the coat of this fair Virgin deceiving the eyes of the too credulous Commonalty with their pigments and by their Syrenical and fraudulent Speeches precipitating curious Inquirers into Scylla or Charybdis CHAP. 4. Of the Spirits ascent into Heaven and descent into the Earth THe Almighty Creator of all things foreseeing from the beginning that infection and corruption growing with things compounded of Body and Spirit would move continual and intestine wars he opposed a remedy to this dissention whereby the one may be conserved and the other not destroyed and seeing the Spirit and Substance were included in a Body and the Body immerged in corruption it was impossible that corruption should act upon and prevail over the Body and yet the Spirit placed in both should be kept free and incur no danger but rather that with the Body it should yield to deaths Tyranny which alwayes intends Natures destruction and the prostitution of all individuals which thing