CHAPTER II.

Concerning the Multiplicity of Fire from whence spring the varieties of Metals.
Having first written concerning the simple fire which lives and subsists per scy it now remains to speak of a manifold spirit or fire which is the cause of variety or diversity of creatures, so that not one can be found exactly like
* Fire is not to be regarded as an element, and so there is a distinction between fire and the firmament, which latter is an element. Fire is a matter which cooks and disintegrates, reducing into the ultimate matter, and, in this sense, fire and death are alike. For fire, like death, consumes and devours everything. Therefore, fire cannot be an element, but it can be, and is, a visible and sensible death. The other death is invbible, and is seen by no man. — Lib. Met tor urn y c. i.
t The congeries Dt TranstHutationibus yteteUlcmm^ to which reference has already been made, gives the following variation in the reading at this point : Just so in the Spagyric art is this fire of athanor and the secret fire of the philosophers, which heats the furnace, the sphere of the vessel, and the fire of the matter, just as the sun is seen to operate in the whole world.
X All arcana derive from the firmament. — Fragmenta Modus Phtirmacandi^ Lib. II., Tract i. But that fire
which is an element b the firmament, and the stars are the fruits thereof.— Z.ti^. Mtttorum^ c i.
Concerning Ote Spirits of the Planets.
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another and identical in every part. This may be seen in the case of metals where no one has another exactly like itself. The Sun produces gold ; the Moon another and widely different metal, namely, silver ; Mars, another, namely, iron ; Jupiter, tin ; Venus, copper; and Saturn yet another, namely, lead; so that all these are unlike. In the same way does it hold good with men and other creatures, and the cause of this diversity is the manifoldness i:il fire. For example, the Venter Equinus produces one kind of creature through the moderate heat generated by its corruption ; the Balneum Mtiris produces another ; ashes another; sand, in like manner, another; the flame of fire another; coals another, and so on. This variety of creatures is not produced by the first simple fire, but from the regimen of the elements, which is various » not from the son, but from the courses of the seven planets. And this is the reason why the universe contains no likeness amongst its individuals. For as the heat is changed every hour and minute, so all other things var>% For this transmu- tation takes place in the elements^ on the bodies whereof it is impressed by this fire. Where there is no great mixture of the elements, Sol is produced ; where it is a little more dense, Luna ; where still more so, Venus ; and thus according to the diversity of mixtures are produced different metals, so that no metal appears in its mineral exactly like another. It should be known, therefore, that this variety of metal is occasioned by the mixture of the elements, because that the spirits of these elements are found to be diverse and without likeness : whereas* if they were born of simple fire they would be so much alike that one could not be distinguished from another. But the manifold fire intervening, variety' of form is introduced among creatures. Hence it may be easily gathered why so many and such varied forms of metals are found, and why no one is like another.*