PART II.

CERTAIN TREATISES AND APPENDICES ARISING OUT OF THE SEVEN CANONS.
God and Nature do Nothing in Vain.
THE eternal position of all things, independent of time, without beginning or end, operates everywhere. It works essentially where otherwise there is no hope. It accomplishes that which is deemed impossible. What appears beyond belief or hope emerges into truth after a wonderful fashion.
Note on Mercurius Vivus.
Whatever tinges with a white colour has the nature of life, and the properties and power of light, which causally produces life. Whatever, on the other hand, tinges with blackness, or produces black, has a nature in common with death, the properties of darkness, and forces productive of death. The earth with its frigidity is a coagulation and fixation of this kind of hardness. For the house is always dead ; but he who inhabits the house lives. If you can discover the force of this illustration you have conquered.
Tested liquefactive powder. Burn fat verbena.*
Recipe. — Salt nitre, four ounces ; a moiety of sulphur ; tartar, one ounce. Mix and liquefy.
What is to be thought concerning the Congelation of Mercury.
To mortify or congeal Mercury, and afterwards seek to turn it into Luna, and to sublimate it with great labour, is labour in vain, since it involves a dissipation of Sol and Luna existing therein. There is another method, far different and much more concise, whereby, with little waste of Mercury and less expenditure of toil, it is transmuted into Luna without congelation. Any one can at pleasure learn this Art in Alchemy, since it is so simple and easy ; and by it, in a short time, he could make any quantity of silver and
* Verbenas adole pingues, et mascula tura.— Virg., Eel. viii. 65.
The Cesium Philosophorum.
n
gfold. It is tedious to read long descriptions^ and every^body wishes to be advised in straightforward words. Do this, then ; proceed as follow^s, and you will have Sol and Liinai by help whereof you will turn out a verj' rich man. Wait awhile, I beg, while this process is described to you in few words, and keep these words well digested^ so that out of Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter you may make Sol and Luna. There is not, nor ever will be^ any art so easy to find out and practise, and so effective in itself. The method of making Sol and Luna by Alchemy is so prompt that there is no more need of books, or of elaborate instruction, than there would be if one wished to write about last year*s snow.
CONCBRNING THE RECEIPTS OP AlCHEMY.
What, then, shall we say about the receipts of Alchemy, and about the diversity of its vessels and instruments ? These are furnaces, glasses, jars, waters, oils, limes, sulphurs, salts, saltpetres* alums, vitriols, chr>*socoll£e, copper-greens, atraments, auri-pigments, fel vitri, ceruse, red earth, thucia, wax, lutum sapientiEe, pounded glass, verdigris, soot, testge ovorum, crocus of Mars, soap, crystal, chdk, arsenic, antimony, minium, elixir, lazurium, gold- leaf, salt-nitre, sal ammoniac, calamine stone, magnesia, bolus armenus, and many other things. Moreover, concerning preparations, putrefactions, digestions, probations, solutions, cementings, titrations, reverberations, calcinations, graduations, rectifications, amalgamations, purgations, etc., with these alchemical books are crammed. Then, again, concerning herbs, roots, seeds, woods, stones, animals, %vorms, bone dust, snail shells, other shells, and pitch. These and the like, whereof there are some very far-fetched in Alchemy, are mere Incumbrances of work ; since even if Sol and Luna could be made by them they rather hinder and delay than further one*s purpose. But it is not from these— to say the truth— that the Art of making Sol and Luna is to be learnt. So, then, all these things should be passed by, because they have no effect with the five metals, so far as Sol and Luna are concerned. Someone may ask. What, then, is this short and easy way, which involves no difficulty, and yet whereby Sol and Luna can be made ? Our answer is, this has been fully and openly explained in the Seven Canons. It would be lost labour should one seek further to instruct one who does not understand these. It would be impossible to convince such a person that these matters could be so easily understood, but in an occult rather than in an open sense.
The Art is this : After you have made heaven, or the sphere of Saturn, with its life to run over the earth, place on it all the planets, or such, one or more, as you wish, so that the portion of Luna may be the smallest. Let all run, until heaven, or Saturn, has entirely disappeared. Then all those planets will remain dead with their old corruptible bodies, having meanwhile obtained another new, perfect, and incorruptible body.
That body is the spirit of heaven. From it these planets again receive a body and life, and live as before. Take this body from the life and the earth.
liJ
Q. Q.
f
1 14 TAe Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
I Keep it. It is Sol and Luna. Here you have the Art altogether, clear and
S entire. If you do not yet understand it, or are not practised therein, it is
/ well. It is better that it should be kept concealed, and not made public.
» How TO Conjure the Crystal so that all things may be seen in it.
To conjure is nothing else than to observe anything rightly, to know and to understand what it is. The crystal is a figure of the air. Whatever appears in the air, movable or immovable, the same appears also in the speculum or crystal as a wave. For the air, the water, and the crystal, so far as vision is concerned, are one, like a mirror in which an inverted copy of an object is seen.
Concerning the Heat of Mercury.
Those who think that Mercury is of a moist and cold nature are plainly in error, because it is by its nature in the highest degree warm and moist, which is the cause of its being in a constant state of fluidity. If it were of a moist and cold nature it would have the appearance of frozen water, and be always ' hard and solid, so that it would be necessary to liquefy it by the heat of fire,
! as in the case of the other metals. But it does not require this, since it has
liquidity and flux from its own heat naturally inborn in it, which keeps it in a state of perpetual fluidity and renders it ** quick," so that it can neither die, nor be coagulated, nor congealed. And this is well worth noticing, that the \ spirits of the seven metals, or as many of them as have been commingled, as
I . soon as they come into the fire, contend with one another, especially Mercury,
' so that each may put forth its powers and virtues in the endeavour to get the
; mastery in the way of liquefying and transmuting. One seizes on the virtue,
I life, and form of another, and assigns some other nature and form to this one.
f So then the spirits or vapours of the metals are stirred up by the heat to
operate mutually one upon the other, and transmute from one virtue to another, until perfection and purity are attained.
But what must be done besides to Mercury in order that its moisture and heat may be taken away, and in their place such an extreme cold introduced as to congeal, consolidate, and altogether mortify the Mercury? Do what I follows in the sentence subjoined : Take pure Mercury closely shut up in a
f silver pixis. Fill a jar with fragments of lead, in the midst of which place
j the pixis. Let it melt for twenty-four hours, that is, for a natural day. This
I takes away from Mercury his occult heat, adds an external heat, and con-
tributes the internal coldness of Saturn and Luna (which are both planets of a cold nature), whence and whereby the Mercury is compelled to congeal, consolidate, and harden.
Note also that the coldness (which Mercury needs in its consolidation and mortification) is not perceptible by the external sense, as the cold of snow or of ice is, but rather, externally, there is a certain amount of apparent heat. Just in the same way is it with the heat of Mercury, which is the cause of its fluidity. It is not an external heat, perceptible in the same way as one of our
The Ccelum Pkilasopkorum.
J5
qualities. Nay, externally a sort of coldness is perceptible. Whence the Sophists (a race which has more talk than true wisdom) falsely assert that Mercury is cold and of a moist nature, so that they go on and advise us to congeal it by means of heat ; whereas heat only renders it more fluid, as they daily find out to their own loss rather than gain.
True Alchemy which alone, by its unique Art, teaches how to fabricate Sol and Luna from the five imperfect metals, allows no other receipt than this, which well and truly says : Only from metals, in metals, by metab, and with metals, are perfect metals made, for in some things is Luna and in other metals is Sol.
What Materials and Instruments are required in Alchemy. There is need of nothing else but a foundry, bellows, tongs, hammers, cauldrons^ jars, and cupels made from beechen ashes. Afterwards, lay on Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna. Let them operate finally up to Saturn.
The Method of Seeking Minerals.
The hope of finding these in the earth and in stones is most uncertain, and the labour very great* However, since this is the first mode of getting them, it is in no way to be despised, but greatly commended. Such a desire or appetite ought no more to be done away with than the lawful inclination of young people, and those in the prime of life, to matrimony. As the bees long for roses and other flowers for the purpose of making honey and wax, so, too, men — apart from avarice or their own aggrandisement — should seek to extract metal from the earth. He who does not seek it is not likely to find it. God dowers men not only with gold or silver, but also with poverty* squalor, and misery. He has given to some a singular knowledge of metals and minerals, whereby they have obtained an easier and shorter method of fabricating gold and silver, without digging and smelting them, than they were commonly accustomed to, by extracting them from their primitive bodies. And this is the case not only with subterranean substances, but by certain arts and knowledge they have extracted them from the five metals generally (that is to say, from metals excocted from minerals which are imperfect and called metals), viz., from Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, from all of which, and from each of them separately, Sol and Luna can be made, but from one more easily than from another. Note, that Sol and Luna can be made easily from Mercur)% Saturn, and Jupiter, but from Mars and Venus with diflficulty. It is possible to make them, however, but with the addition of Sol and Luna. Out of Magnesium and Saturn comes Luna, and out of Jupiter and Cinnabar pure Sol takes its rise. The skilful artist, however (how well I remember I), will be able by diligent consideration to prepare metals so that, led by a true method of reasoning, he can promote the perfection of metallic transformation more than do the courses of the twelve signs and the seven planets. In such matters it is quite superfluous to
1 6 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
watch these courses, as also their aspects, good or bad days or hours, the prosperous or unlucky condition of this or that planeti for these matters can do no good> and much less can they do harm in the art of natural Alchemy. If otherwise, and you have a feasible process, operate when you please. If, however, there be anything wanting in you or your mode of working, or your understanding, the planets and the stars of heaven will fail you in your work.
If metals remain buried long enough in the earth, not only are they consumed by rust, but by long continuance they are even transmuted into natural stones, and there are a great many of these ; but this is known to few. For there is found in the earth old stone money of the heathens, printed with their different figures. These coins were originally metallic, but jthrough the transmutation brought about by Nature, they were turned into stone.
What Alchemy is.
Alchemy is nothing else but the set purpose, intention, and subtle endeavour to transmute the kinds of the metals from one to another.* According to this, each person, by his own mental grasp, can choose out for himself a better way and Art, and therein find truth, for the man who follows a thing up more intently does find the truth. It is highly necessary to have a correct estimation of stars and of stones, because the star is the informing spirit of all stones. For the Sol and Luna of al! the celestial stars are nothing but one stone in itself; and the terrestrial stone Ijas come forth from the celes- tial stone ; through the same fire, coals, ashes, the same expulsions and re- purgations as that celestial stone, it has been separated and brought, clear and pure in its brightness. The whole ball of the earth is only something thrown off, concrete, mixed, corrupted, ground, and again coagulated, and gradually liquefied into one mass, into a stony work, which has its seat and its rest in the mid«t of the firmamental sphere.
Further it is to be remarked that those precious stones which shall forth- with be set down have the nearest place to the heavenly or sidereal ones in point of perfection, purity, beauty, brightness, virtue, power of withstanding fire, and incorruptibility, and they have been fixed with other stones in the earth, t
They have, therefore, the greatest affinity with heavenly stones and with the stars, because their natures are derived from these. They are found by
* Alchemy b, &o to speak, a kind of lower he&ven, by which the sun is separated froin the moont day ffotti tilght, medicine from poifion, what b> useful from what u refuse*— i?^ Caitca* Therefore learn Alchemy, which k otherwise called Spag^iia. Thb teftches you to discern between the true and the false. Such a Light of Nature b tt that it Is a mode of proof iti all clungs, and walks in light. Frotn this Hgbt of Nature we oxxghl to know ami «pcak, not from mere phantasy^ whence nothing i& begotten save the four humours and their compounds, augmentation, stagnafion^ and decrease, with other trifte man, but rather are ba&ed on a fictilioua and in**curt foundation. -^AirAM/rwiw, Lib. L, c. 3-
f When the occtdt dispenser of Nature in the prime principle$» that is to say, the poteiircy called Ares, has produced the gross and rough genera of $tooe&, and no further grossoess remains^ a diaphanous and subtle substance remains, out of which the Archeus of Nature generates the predoufi stones or ^ Tract IV., c 10.
The Coelum Pfnlosophorum.
17
men in a rude environment, and the common herd {whose property it is to take false views of things) believe that they were produced in the same place where they are foiindi and that they were afterwards polished^ carried aroimd» and sold, and accounted to be great riches, on account of their colours, beauty, and other virtues, A brief description of them follows : —
The Emerald, This is a green transparent stone. It does good to the eyes and the memory* It defends chastit>^ ; and if this be violated by him who carries it, the stone itself does not remain perfect.*
The AdamanL A black crystal called Adamant or else Evax, on account of the joy which It is effectual in impressing on those who carry it. It Is of an obscure and transparent blackness, the colour of iron. It is the hardest of all ; but is dissolved in the blood of a goat. Its size at tlie largest does not exceed that of a hazel nut.f
The Magnet Is an iron stone, and so attracts iron to itself. J
T^ie Pearl The Pearl is not a stone, because it is produced in sea shells. It is of a white colour. Seeing that it grows in animated beings, in men or in fishes, it is not properly of a stony nature, but properly a depraved (other- wise a transmuted) nature supervening upon a perfect work.§
The Jacinth Is a yellow, transparent stone. There is a flower of the same name which, according to the fable of the poets» is said to have been a man. II
The Sapphire Is a stone of a celestial colour and a heavenly nature.H
The Ruby Shines with an Interisely red nature. **
The Carbuncle, A solar stone, shining by its own nature like the sun. tt
The Coral Is a white or red stone, not transparent. It grows in the sea, out of the nature of the ivater and the air, into the form of wood or a shrub ; it hardens in the air, and is not capable of being destroyed in fire. J |
* The body of the Emerald U derived from a kind of petrine Mercury, 1 1 receives from the tame its colour* ooagnlatcd with spirit of Salt. —I bed., c, 12.
t The most concentrated hardness of all ^toocs combines for the generation of the adamants The white adamant has tU body from Mercury^ and its coagiilalion from the Siptrit of Salt. - Ihtf., c. 14,
X FortiBed by experience, which is the mistress of alt things, and b>' mature thcorj^ baAed ofi experience, I oMrm that the Magnet i* a stone which not only imdentaUy attracts §tee1 and iron, but 'ha* also the tame power over the mailer of all disease* in the whole body of tjuin*— /3f Coraliis. See Htrhnttux Tht9>^hra^t*.
f The Pearl is a seed of moUture, It generates milk abundantly in women if they are dcikient Ihereirt.^ Z?*" Aridmta.
1; The Jacinth, or Hyacinth, is a gem of the same genus as the Carbuncle, but is infenor thereto in its natufe. — Dt Eltm*HH* Aqu
^ In the matter of body and colour the Sapphire i* generated from Mercur>' (the prime principle). It is formed over white Sulphur and white Salt from a pallid petrine Mercury. Hence white Sapphires frequently occiu- because a white Mercury concun in ihe fonnaiion. In Uke manner a tute-coloured Mercury soioctunea producer a day-like hue.— Ibid,,, CIS.
• • The Ruby and similar gems possessing a ruddy hue are generated from the red of Sulphur, and their body is of petrine Mercury. For Mercury is the body of ever>' precious stone.— M/i/., c* >j.
tt The Carbuncle is formed of the most transparent matter which is conserved in the three principle*. Mercury Is the body and Sulphur the colouring thereof, with a modicum of the spirit of Salt, on account of the coagulation. AIJ light abounds therein, because Sulphur contains in itself a clcnir quality of Ught, us the art of its IransmutalioQ demonstrates^— /iff/., c 11.
\X There are two species of red C resplendent and brilliant red. As the colours differ, so also do the virtues. There is also a whitish species which is alfnost destitute of eflficacy. In a word, as the Coral dimintshs in redne», so it weakens in its qualities. ^-//r>^n«« Th*ofhrtui%; D§ C^rmittt,
c
1 8 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
The Chalcedony Is a stone made up of different colours, occupying a middle place between obscurity and transparency, mixed also with cloudiness, and liver coloured. It is the lowest of all the precious stones.*
The Topas Is a stone shining by night. It is found among rocks, t
The Amethyst Is a stone of a purple and blood colour. |
The Chrysoprasus Is a stone which appears like fire by night, and like gold by day.
The Crystal Is a white stone, transparent, and very like ice. It is sub- limated, extracted, and produced from other stones. §
As a pledge and firm foundation of this matter, note the following con- clusion. If anyone intelligently and reasonably takes care to exercise himself in learning about the metals, what they are, and whence they are produced : he may know that our metals are nothing else than the best part and the spirit of common stones, that is, pitch, grease, fat, oil, and stone. But this is least pure, uncontaminated, and perfect, so long as it remains hidden or mixtd with the stones. It should therefore be sought and found in the stones, be recog- nised in them, and extracted from them, that is, forcibly drawn out and liquefied. For then it is no longer a stone, but an elaborate and perfect metal, comparable to the stars of heaven, which are themselves, as it were, stones separated from those of earth.
Whoever, therefore, studies minerals and metals must be furnished with such reason and intelligence that he shall not regard only those common and known metals which are found in the depth of the mountains alone. For there is often found at the very surface of the earth such a metal as is not met with at all, or not equally good, in the depths. And so every stone which comes to our view, be it great or small, flint or simple rock, should be carefully investi- gated and weighed with a true balance, according to its nature and properties. Very often a common stone, thrown away and despised, is worth more than a cow. Regard must not always be had to the place of digging from which this stone came forth ; for here the influence of the sky prevails. Everywhere there is presented to us earth, or dust, or sand, which often contain much gold or silver, and this you will mark.
Herb ends the Ccelum Philosophorum.
* The gem Chalced(»iy is extracted from Salt. — CA/rwr/Ya Magna; D» Tumorilmt^ ttc^ Morhi Galliciy Ub. III., c. 6.
t The Topaz is an extract from the minera of Mars, and is a transplanted Iron.— /^V.
t The Amethyst Ls an extract of Salt, while Marble and Chalcedony are extracted from the same principle through the Amethyst.— /^iV/.
I The origin of Crystals is to be referred to water. They contain mthin them a spirit of coagulation wh^eby they are coagulated, as water by the freezing and glacial stars. —Lib, Meteorum^ c 7.
THE BOOK CONCERNING THE TINCTURE OF THE
PHILOSOPHERS
WRITTEN AGAINST THOSE SOPHISTS BORN SINCE THE DELUGE, IN THE AGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD ;
By ph. THEOPHRASTUS BOMBAST, of hohenheim»
Philosopher of the Monarchia^ Prince of Spagyrists^ Chief Astronomer^ Surpassing Physician^ and Trimiegistus of Mechanical Arcafta,
PREFACE.
SINCE you, O Sophist, ever)' where abuse me with such fatuous and menda- cious words, on the ground that being sprung from rude Helvetia I can understand and know nothing : and also because being a duly qualified physician I still wander from one district to another ; therefore I have pro- posed by means of this treatise to disclose to the ignorant and inexperienced : what good arts existed in the first age ; what my art avails against you and yours against me ; what should be thought of each, and how my posterity in this age of grace will imitate me. Look at Hermes, Archelaus, and others in the first age : see what Spagyrists and what Philosophers then existed. By this they testify that their enemies, who are your patrons, O Sophist, at the present time are but mere empty forms and idols. Although this would not be attested by those who are falsely considered your authentic fathers and saints, yet the ancient Emerald Table shews more art and experience in Phil- osophy, Alchemy, Magic, and the like, than could ever be taught by you and your crowd of followers. If you do not yet understand, from the aforesaid facts» what and how great treasures these are, tell me why no prince or king was ever able to subdue the Egyptians. Then tell me why the Emperor Diocletian ordered all the Spagyric books to be burnt (so far as he could lay his hands upon them). Unless the contents of those books had been known* they would have been obliged to bear still his intolerable yoke, — a yoke, O Sophist, which shall one day be put upon the neck of yourself and your colleagues.
From the middle of this age the Monarchy of all the Arts has been at length derived and conferred on me, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Prince of Philosophy and of Medicine. For this purpose I have been chosen by God to
C2
20 The Herfnetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
extinguish and blot out all the phantasies of elaborate and false works, of delusive and presumptuous words, be they the words of Aristotle, Galen, Avicenna, Mesva, or the dogmas of any among their followers. My theory, proceeding as it does from the light of Nature, can never, through its consis- tency, pass away or be changed : but in the fifty-eighth year after its millennium and a half it will then begin to flourish. The practice at the same time following upon the theory will be proved by wonderful and incredible signs, so as to be open to mechanics and common people, and they will thoroughly understand how firm and immovable is that Paracelsic Art against the triflings of the Sophists : though meanwhile that sophistical science has to have its ineptitude propped up and fortified by papal and imperial privileges. In that I am esteemed by you a mendicant and vagabond sophist, the Danube and the Rhine will answer that accusation, though I hold my tongue. Those calumnies of yours falsely devised against me have often displeased many courts and princes, many imperial cities, the knightly order, and the nobility. I have a treasure hidden in a certain city called Weinden, belonging to Forum Julii, at an inn, — a treasure which neither you, Leo of Rome, nor you, Charles the German, could purchase with all your substance. Although the signed star has been applied to the arcanum of your names, it is known to none but the sons of the divine Spagyric Art. So then, you wormy and lousy Sophist, since you deem the monarch of arcana a mere ignorant, fatuous, and prodigal quack, now, in this mid age, I determine in my present treatise to disclose the honourable course of procedure in these matters, the virtues and preparation of the celebrated Tincture of the Philosophers for the use and honour of all who love the truth, and in order that all who despise the true arts may be reduced to poverty. By this arcanum the last age shall be illuminated clearly and compensated for all its losses by the gift of grace and the reward of the spirit of truth, so that since the beginning of the world no similar germination of the intelligence and of wisdom shall ever have been heard of. In the meantime. Vice will not be able to suppress the good, nor will the resources of those vicious persons, many though they be, cause any loss to the upright.
THE BOOK CONCERNING THE TINCTURE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.
CHAPTER h
IPHILIPPUS Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast, say that, by Divine grace, ^ many ways have been sought to the Tincture of the Philosophers, which finally all came to the same scope and end. Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian, approached this task in his own method. Orus, the Greek, observed the same process. Hali, the Arabian* remained firm in his order. But Albertus Mag"nus, the German, followed also a lengthy process* Each one of these advanced in proportion to his own method ; nevertheless, ihey all arrived at one and the same end, at a long fife, so much desired by the philosophers, and also at an honourable sustenance and means of preserving that life in this Valley of Miser>% Now at this time, 1, Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast, Monarch of the Arcana, am endowed by God with special gifts for this end/) that every searcher after this supreme philosophic work may be forced to imitate and to follow me, be he Italian, Pole, Gaul, German, or whatsoever or whosoever he be. Come hither after me, all you philosophers, astronomers, and spagyrists, of however lofty a name ye may be, I will show and open to you, Alchemists and Doctors, who are exalted by me with the most consummate labours, this corporeal regeneration. I will teach you the tincture, the arcanum,* the quintessence, wherein lie hid the foundations of all mysteries and of all works. For every person may and ought to believe in another only in those matters which he has tried by hre* If any one shall have brought forward anything contrary to this method of experimentation in the Spagyric Art or in Medicine, there is no reason for your belief in him, since, experimentally, through the agency of fire, the true is separated from the false. The light of Nature indeed is created in this way, that by means thereof the proof or trial of everything may appear, but only to those who walk in this light. With this light we will teach, by the very best methods of demonstration, that all those who before me have approached this so difiicult province with their own fancies and acute speculations have, to their own loss, incurred the danger of their foolishness. On which account, fromtny standpoint, many rustics have been
* The Afcaniun of a substAnce b not the vktue {virttu} but the ct&ence (mi) ami the potency ij^tinfia% ood is stronger than the virtue ; neveribeless, an old error of the doctors conferred ibe name of virtues upon the potentud tatencev— /*tfrA4Mi'>MM, Lib« IV, Atony things ore elsewhere set forth concerning Lhe Quinlc^i>cnce, l»ut what i» de« •Cfibed b really a separation or extraction of the pure frozn the impure^ not a true quiutcsi^nce, aikt it ii more corrtctly termed an Arcanum.— £'x//ifoiM Tstimt AMirwwimm,
22 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
ennobled ; but, on the other hand, through the speculative and opinionative art of these many nobles have been changed into clowns, and since they carried golden mountains in their head before they had put their hand to the fire. First of all, then, there must be learnt — digestions, distillations, sublimations, reverberations, extractions, solutions, coagulations, fermentations, fixations, and every instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, such as glass vessels, cucurbites, circulators, vessels of Hermes, earthen vessels, baths, blast-furnaces, reverberatories, and instruments of like kind, also marble, coals, and tongs. Thus at length you will be able to profit in Alchemy and in Medicine.
But so long as, relying on fancy and opinion, you cleave to your fictitious books, you are fitted and predestinated for no one of these things.