CHAPTER VHL

Concerning Increase and Multiplication.
The niultiplying of this fermentation should be noted, which is performed in the following manner. Let it be dissolved in its own moisture, and after- wards subjected to the regimen of fire as before. It will act on its own humidity more quickly than it previously did, and will transmute into its own substance, just as a little leaven seems to transmute into leaven the whole of a large quantity of flour. Wherefore it is an unspeakable treasure on the earth, of which the universe has not the equal, as Augurellus witnesses.
Conclusion.
This secret was accounted by the old Fathers who possessed it as among the most occult, lest it should get into the hands of wicked men, who by its aid would be able more abundantly to fulfil their own wickedness and crimes. We, therefore, ask you, whoever have attained to this gift of God, that, imitating
88 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
these Fathers, you will treat and preserve this divine mystery in the most secret manner possible, for if you tread it under foot, or scatter your pearls before swine, be sure that you will hear pronounced against you the severe sentence of God, the supreme avenger.
But to those who, by the special grace of God, abstain most from all vices, this* Art will be more constantly and more fully revealed than to any others. For with a man of this kind more wisdom is found than with a thou- sand sons of the world, by whom this Art is in no way discovered.
Whoever shall have found this secret and gift of God, let him praise the most high God, the Father and Son, with the Holy Spirit. And from this God alone let him implore grace, by which he may He able to use that gift to God's glory and to the good of his fellow-man. The merciful God grant that this may be so for the sake of Jesus Christ His Son, and our Saviour !
Here ends the Book concerning the Spirits of the Planets.
THE ECONOMY OF MINERALS/ Elsewhere called the Genealogy of Minerals.
PREFACE TO THE READER.
ALTHOUGH order seems to demand that we should have treated of the generation of minerals and metals before speaking" of their transmu- tations : still, since theor}^ cannot be more lucidly taught than by its practice, I have thought it best for those who study this art to begin from the very beginning. For, above all else, Alchemy is a subject which is not com- prised in mere words, but only in elaborate facts ; just as is the case with the rest of those arts, familiarity' with which is gained rather by putting them in practice than by any mere demonstrations. It is true that these demonstra- tions do a very great deal for those who are some way advanced rather than for initiates. For these it is best that from the very first they should have a finger in the pie (as the saying is), and gradually learn from the very mistakes they make. Nobody ever acquired even the easiest art without making such blunders ; and certainly no one wilJ be able to follow up Alchemy without making mistakes before he gets at the truth* No one, again, will ever enter the true path so long as he holds back from the goal through fear of making a false step, or fails to correct his own errors by imitating the course of Nature. It will not be so easy to learn if we fail to compare alchemical with natural methods. So, then, it was thought well to let artificial Alchemy precede the natural, so that we may recall those who are venturing forth in this art to the genealogy of minerals, as if to a safe anchorage. It seemed opportune, nay» even necessary, to provide some such anchorage for this pur- pose in the case of those who are studying Alchemy*