CHAPTER I.

From what Tinxtures and Leavens are Made*
Whoever wishes to have a tincture of the metals, must take Philosophers' Mercury, and project it to its own end ; that is, into the quick mercury from w^hence it proceeded.* Hence will ensue that the Philosophers* Mercurj^ will be dissolved in the quick mercury, and shall receive its strength, so that the Philosophers' Mercury shall kill the quick mercury and render it fixed in the fire like itself. For there is between these two mercuries as much agreement as between a man and his wife. They are both produced from the gross spirits of metals, except that the body of Sol remains fixed in the fire^ but the quick mercury is not fixed. The one, however, is appropriated to the other as grain or seed to the earth, which we will illustrate by an example, thus: If anyone has sown barley he will gather barley; if corn, corn, etc. None otherwise is it in this Art. If anyone sows Sol he will gather gold, while from Luna he will collect silver, and so with regard to the other metals. In this way we say here tinctures are produced from the metals, that is, from the Philosophers' Mercury and not from quick mercury. But this produces the seed which it had before conceived.!
• NQtwitbstanding, the tincture
t The dead wife of the metal, like an uncultivated field or soi^ if it be maceraEed or revivified by the philo&Qphic plough (ike mfe remaining fixed and incorrupt during the proccsn), it is united io the aforesaid corporal spirit by the griidca of fire, into its own nature and substance, and this with the dead body of the metal Now, \\\vs cannot be done with the crafss spirit of mCTcury, Ajld although the inercurj- or qutck-^ilver of Sol exists and t» fijted, nc\^rlhcleiS the common mercur>', not as yet fixed, never attains to resurrection. For the resurrection of the metal* i* an immortd regeneraiioti, and the medium wbereby tinctures of tliis kind iwe advanced lo their generation. On this aiicount, therefore, it cannot be united lo dead bodies so as to bring about their fixation^ but only to cjclracted spirits, as to those ca«poreal ones above-mentioned, which are subject lo the metals just as common mercur>' is to all metallic spirits. The crass spirit of mercury can no more generate ihL* tincture in its ^iib^tance than a concubine oin bring forth legitimate olfsprtng In the same way must it be judged concerning the crass spirit of tnercur)% until tbe metallic and corponU spirit is produced by means of the natural matter. Without this medium it will he impossible for aiiyihing good or per- fect lo be accomplished in tinctures of this kind the same re»tdt en!ities.-^£>/ TraHsmHtathnibui Mttaihrnm^ c, ]Oi
G
82 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,