BOOK III.

Concerning the Preservation of Natltral Things.
IN order that a thing: may be preserved and defended from injur}% it is neces- sary that first of all its enemy should be known, so that It may be shielded therefrom, and that it may not be hurt or corrupted by it, in its substance, virtue, force, or in any other way suffer loss. A g-ood deal depends upon this, then^ that the enemy of all natural things should be recognised ; for who can guard himself against loss and adverse chance if he is ignorant of his enemy ? Surely, no one. It is therefore necessary that such enemy should be known. There are many enemies ; and it is just as necessary to know the bad as the good. Who, in fact, can know the good without a knowledge of the evil ? No one- No one who has never been sick knows how great a treasure health is. Who knows what joy is, that was never sad or sorrowful ? And who knows rightly about what God is, who knows nothing about the devi!? Wherefore since God has made known to us the enemy of our soul, that is, the devil, He also points out to us the enemy of our life, that is, death, which is the enemy of our body, of our health, the enemy of medicine, and of all natural things. He has made known this enemy to us and also how and by what means we must escape htm. For as there is no disease against which there has not been created and discovered a medicine which cures and drives it away, so there is always one thing placed over against another — one water ov-^er against another, one stone over against another, one mineral over against another, one poison over against another, one metal over against another — and the same in many other matters, all of which it is not necessary to recount here.
But it ought to be known how, and by what means, each several thing is preserv^ed and guarded from loss : that many things, for instance, have to be kept for a long time in the earth. All roots, especially, remain for a long while in the earth fruitful and uncorrupted. In like manner, herbs and flowers and all fruits keep undecayed and green in water. So also many other fruits, and especially apples, can be preserved in water» and protected from every decay, until new apples are produced.
So also flesh and blood, which very soon putrefy and become rancid, can be kept in cold spring water ; and not only so, but by the co-optation of renewed and fresh spring water they can be transmuted into a quintessence,
Camerning the Nature of Things.
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and conserved for ever from decay and bad odour without any balsam. And not only does this process preserve flesh and blood, but {so to say) it preserves all other kinds of flesh and bloody and especially the body of man, from all decay and from many diseases which arise from decay, better than the common mumia does,* But in order that blood may be preserved of itself from decay and ill odour, and not as a quintessence ; and in order, also, to protect other blood, as aforesaid, you must use this process : Let the blood be separated from its phlegm, which moves of itself, and is driven to the surface. Draw off this water by a dexterous inclination of the vessel, and add to the blood a sufficient quantity of the water of salt, which we teach you in our Chirurgia Magna how to make.t This water at once mingles with the blood, and so conserves the blood that it never putrefies or grows rancid, but remains fresh and exceedingly red after many years, just as well as on the first day ; w^hich, indeed, is a great marvel. But if you do not know ho%v to prepare this water, or have none at hand, pour on a sufficient quantity of the best and most excellent balsam, which produces the same effect. Now this blood is the Balsam of Balsams, and is called the Arcanum of Blood. It is of such great and wonderful virtue as would be incredible were we to mention it. Therefore you will keep this occult, as a great secret in medicine.
In the conservation of metals the first thing to learn is what are their enemies, so that they may be thereby the better kept from loss* The principal enemies of metals, then, are all strong waters ; all aqu® regiEC, all corrosives and salts, shew their hostility in this circumstance, that they mortify all metals, calcine them, corrupt them, and reduce them to nothing, Crude sulphur shews its hostility by its smoke ; for by its smoke it takes away the colour and redness from Venus, and renders it white. From white metals, as Luna, Jupiter* Saturn, and Mars, it takes away their whiteness and reddens them, or induces in them a reddish colour. From gold it takes away the agreeable yellowness and golden tint, renders it black, and makes it as uncomely as possible.
Antimony shews its hostility in this : that it spoils all metals w4th which it isHquefied in the fire, and with which it is mixed ; it deprives and robs them ; moreover, like the sulphur, it robs metals of their genuine colour and substitutes another.
Quicksilver, on the other hand, exercises a hostile force upon the metals with which it is conjoined, in that it invades and dissolves them so that it makes an amalgam from them. Moreover, its smoke, which wx call the soot of Mercury, makes all metals immalleable and fragile ; it calcines them and whitens all red and gold coloured metals. It is the chief enemy of iron and
• According to one eirpknatton ; ^umia w mati himself. Munib k balsam, which beak wounth,~/'araMvrnirf^ - D* Ofigimi Marh^mms Lib, ILtC. a. The virtues of all herb* are found in ihJA Munna.— Z?^ Origin* McrhttrtttH iHtfttibiifum^ LiK IV. Whoever se al>o all other creature* whatsoever — /^iV, Now, thi* is Mumia : If a mjui be deprived of life, then hi* ffower hursts forth in potencies and nacural arcanin. - Hid,
t This process will be fbumi in Uie tecofid footnote o«i p. 76 of the present volume.
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132 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings 0/ Paracelsus.
steel, for if common mercur)* touches a steel rod, or if the rod be anointed with mercurial oil, it can afterwards be broken like glass and cut off. This is indeed a g^reat secret and must be kept strictly occult. In the same way, too, the mag-net should be guarded and kept from Mercur)-, for it exerts hostility on It as on Mars. For every magnet which common mercury touches, or which is anointed with mercurial oiI» or only placed in Mercur>% never afterwards attracts iron** Let no one be surprised at this ; there is a natural cause for it, seeing that Mercury extracts the spirit of iron which the magnet holds latent in itself. Wherefore also the spirit of iron in the magnet attracts the body of Mars to itself; and this happens not only in the magnet but in all other natural things, so that the foreign spirit w^hich is in an alien body, which is not of its own nature, always attracts a body agreeing w^ith its own nature. This should be known not only of the magnet, but of all natural bodies, such as minerals^ stones, herbs^ roots, men, and animals.
After this it should be known that metals exercise hostility amongst each other, and mutually hate one another from their inborn nature ; as you see in the case of Saturn, which is the principal enemy of Sol^ from its congenital nature. It breaks up all the members of gold, renders it deformed, weak, and destroys and corrupts it even to the death, more than it does any other metal. It also hates tin, and is an enemy of all the metals, for it renders them degen- erate, unmalleable, hard and unfit, if it be mixed with either of them in fire or Bux.
Since, therefore, you have now heard about the enemies of the metals, learn, moreover, about their preservation and conservation, which guard the metals from all loss and corruption, and, in addition, strengthen them in their nature and virtue, while they graduate them more highly in colour. First, then, it ought to be known concerning gold that it cannot be better and more beautifully preserved than in boys' urine, in which has been dissolved sal am- moniac, or in the water of sal ammoniac alone. In these, w^ith time, it acquires such a high grade of colour as cannot be surpassed. Silver cannot be better preserved and conserved than if it be boiled in common water or ace turn in u^hich have been dissolved tartar and salt. In this way any old silver, though blackened and stained, is renewed, If It is boiled thus. Of iron and steel the best and most useful conservative and preservative is fresh, not salted, lard from a gelded sow. This protects all iron and steel from rust if they are anointed therewith once every month. In like manner, if iron be liquefied with fixed arsenic, and occasionally reduced to a flux, it can be so renewed and fixed that, like silver, it never rusts. Copper can be conserved and preserved if only it be mixed with sublimated Mercury, or anointed with oil of salt, so
•So, also^i I is affirmed that if Ute magnet be steeped in Karllc it mil be deprived of its attractive virtue.— l>r Mitrhis AmtHtium, c. 5. Shauld anyone make use of a magnet while he is wearing a sappfalrc, it will eflfecl nothing till the gem be removedl. The same quality «eems to reside in carabc^ coagulale of gum, rcsIn, and there*
Concerning the Nature of Things.
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that for the future it gives forth no vitriol or verdigris, nor does it become of a green colour.
Lead cannot be conserved better than in cold water, and in a damp place, such is its nature. But for the conservation of the magnet nothing is better than filings of iron or steel. If the magnet be placed in these, not only does not its force decrease, but it grows more and more every day.
As to the conservation of salts, and all those substances which are of a salt nature, and are comprised under the name of salt, of which there are more than a hundred, it is well to know that they must be kept in a warm and dry place, and guarded well from the air in wooden chests. They must not be placed on glass, stone, or metal » By these they are dissoh^ed and turn into water and amalgam ; but this does not occur in wood.
Moreover, you should learn the method of conserving certain waters and liquids by means ot pressed herbs, roots, and other fruits and growing things, which easily absorb all mustiness and mould just as if a skin were wrapped around them. Let these waters, or other liquids, be placed in a glass vessel, nar- row at the top and wider below. Let the vessel be filled to the top and then some drops of olive oil added, so that all the water or liquid may be covered. The oil will float at the top, and, in this way, will protect the liquid or the water a long time from mustiness or mould. No water or liquid, if it be covered with oil, can ev^er become mouldy or smell badly. In this way also two waters, two liquids, two wines, can be kept separately in one vessel, so that they shall not mix ; and not only two, but three, four, five, or still more, if only oil be between them, for they are separated by the oil as by a wall, which does not suffer them to be conjoined and united. For oil and water are two contraries, and neither can mingle with the other. As the oil does not allow the waters to mix, so, on the other hand, the water prevents the oils from blending.
For the conservation and preservation of cloth and garments from moth, so that they may not eat them or settle in them, nothing is better than mastix, camphor, ambergris, or musk : but the best is civet^ which not only preser\'es from moth, but drives away and puts to flight moths, with other wornis, fleas, lice, and bugs.
All timbers can be conserved, as in buildings or bridges, so that they shall never decay, whether they be in water, under water, or out of the water, in the ground, under the ground, or out of the ground, whether exposed to rain or wind, air, snow, or ice, in summer or winter, and moreover, preventing them from decaying or worms breeding in them when felled. The method of conservation in this case is that grand arcanum against all putrefactions, and so remarkable a secret that no other can compare with it. It is none other than the oil of sulphur, the process for making which is as follows : — Let common yellow sulphur be pulverised and placed in a cucurbite. Over it pour as much aqua- fortis as will cover four fingers across. Abstract this by distillation three or four times, the last time until it is completely drj'. Let the sulphur which remains at the bottom* and fs of a dark reddish colour, be placed in marble or
134 The Hermetic and Alcheviical Writings of Paraceisus.
glass and easily dissolved into an oil. This is a great secret in the conservation of timber so that it may never decay and may be protected from worms. For if sulphur be prepared as aforesaid, and turned into an oil, it afterwards tinges the timber which has been anointed with it so that it can never be obliterated. Many other things, also, can be conserved and preserved from decay in this oil of sulphur, especially ropes and cables in ships and on the masts of ships, in chariots, fishing-nets, birdcatchers* and hunters* snares, and other like things which are being frequently used in water and rain, and would otherwise be liable to decay and break ; so also with linen cloths and other similar things.
The conservation of potable things, too, should be noticed, under w^hich we comprise wine, beer, hydromel, vinegar, and milk. If we wish to keep these five unharmed and in their virtue, it is necessary to know their chief enemy- This is none other than unclean women at the time of their monthly courses. They corrupt these things if they handle or have anything to do with them, if they look at them, or Breathe on them. The wine is changed and becomes thick, beer and hydromel turn sour, vinegar is weakened and loses its acidity, milk also becomes sour and clotted.
Thts» therefore, should be well known before anything is said specially about the conservation of one of these things in particular. Moreover, the chief preservative of wine is sulphur and oil of sulphur* by means of which alJ wnne can be preserved for a verj^ long time, so that it neither thickens nor is in any way changed »
The means of conserving beer is by oil of gar}^ophyllon, if a few drops of it are put in, so that one measure has two or three drops. Better still is the oil of benedicta garyophyllata, which preserves beer from acidity. The pre- servative for hydromel is the oil of sugar^ which must be used in the same way * as the oil of garj'ophylion or the benedicta.
The preservative of vinegar is oil of ginger, and of milk the expressed oil of almonds. These two must be used as described above.
The presen^ative of cheese is the herb liypericon or perforata, which protects all cheeses from worms. If it be placed against the cheese and touches it, no w^orm is produced in it, and if some have been alread}' produced, they die and drop out of the cheese.
Honey has no special preservative^ only it must be protected from its enemy. Its chief enemy is bread. If ever so small a quantity of bread made from flour be put or fall into it, the whole honey is turned into ants, and perishes entirely.
CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THINGS,