chapter 12, they have a pure and perfect Mercurius within them

and a red and white Sulphur? For Avicenna saith that in every gold there is a red sulphur. But such sulphur is not found on the whole earth except in these two bodies. Therefore we very subtly prepare these two Corpora, that we may obtain the Sulphur and Mercury from such Materia, as gold and silver have from beneath the earth. They are luminous bodies, and coloring rays are in them, which tinge other bodies in true red and white, according to their preparation. For as Arnoldus, Rosar., lib. 1, chap. 5, saith: Our masterly skill aideth the perfect bodies and maketh perfect the imperfect ones, without a mixture of any other thing. Now, since gold is the noblest of all metals, so is the Tinctur of the redness, the coloring and transforming of every Corpus. But the silver is the Yinctur of whiteness, which coloreth all Corpora true white.
Now let the good-hearted reader be informed that such metals as gold and silver are not the Materia of our stone in their metallic form; they are the medium between them and our great stone. Hear therefore what Bernardus Count of Trevisan hath to say in another part of his book: They will do well to keep
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silent who do not produce our Tinctur, but another, which is not true, not plausible, and good for nothing; and let those be silent who claim that there is another sulphur than ours hidden in the belly of Magnesia.
And let those also be silent who want to extract an Argentum vivum from anything other than the derment or red knight, and want to extract another water other than our ever- lasting one which doth not mix with anything unless it be of its own nature, and doth not melt or dissolve anything unless it be of its own metallic nature. For there is no vinegar other than ours; no other management other than ours; no other Sublimation other than ours; no other dissolution other than ours; no other putrefaction other than ours; no other Materia other than ours.
Therefore renounce the alum, salts, vitriol, and all other Arramenta, borax, strong water, and all herbs, animals, beasts, and whatever may come from them, hair, blood, urine, human seed, flesh, eggs, and mineral stones, and every metal by itself alone. Even if the beginning of our Materia is from them, it should at the same time, according to all the aforesaid Philosophers, be based upon Mercury, which will be found in no other thing than metals. As appeareth from Geber, ef al.
But still they are not our stone so long as they are in their metallic form. For it is impossible that the one, yea, the very same Materia should have two forms at the same time. For how could the stone, which hath a worthy and medium form, be between the metal and the Mercury, if they be not destroyed beforehand, and their metallic form hath not been taken from them? Wherefore saith Raymundus Lullius in chapter 56 of his Testament: Therefore the good artist taketh the metals as mediums in the work of masterly skill, and especially doth he take Sol and Luna, and he taketh these because they have both come to a moderate uniformity and great purity of their sul- phureous and mercurial substances, and because they are boiled, pure, and well-timed through Nature's working, to which propor- tion the artist would struggle in vain if he should attempt to accomplish his purpose from the natural beginning without effective means.
And furthermore he saith in his Codicil: Without these two, namely gold and silver, the art cannot be brought to perfec- tion, because in them is the purest substance of Sulphur, which Nature hath completely purified. In effecting this purification, art is much less effective than Nature, and it could never achieve it, as hard as it might try.
Our medicine can be made from these two bodies, if they are prepared with their Sulphur or Arsenicum, but not without them. And he saith in the preface to his Clavicule: I advise you, O my friends, that ye work with nothing but Sol and Luna, to reduce them again to their first Materia; namely, into our Sulphur and Mercury. For, saith Arnoldus, lib. 1. Rosar. chapter 7, from these bodies the very white and red Sulphur will be extracted, because therein in the greatest quality is the purest sulphureous substance, cleansed by Nature to the highest degree.
Thus saith Nicarus in the Turba Philosophorum; | bid the followers (of the Art) to take the gold that they want to increase and renew, then divide the water into two parts, and take one part in such a way that the gold is concentrated in it. For the metal, when it falleth into this water, will be called the Ferment of the gold. But why doth the Philosopher here call the water his gold, when he saith: When the metal falleth into this water, it shall be the Ferment of the gold? Let this be known to my art-seeking followers: That the Philosopher's gold is not common gold. Senior saith, and it is written in the first exercise of the Turba: As the Mercurius is the origin of all metals, so also is the sun the end and last of all metals; and all metals, whether they be pure or impure, are in their innermost Sol, Luna, and Mercurius. But one is a true sun, which is extracted from it.
And therefore thou understandest that the Philosopher's gold, although extracted from them, is a quite different gold from the common sun or gold. So also saith the Aurora consurgens,