part inside, and let it be polished, so that the coals, when put in, may not

stick through the roughness of the surface, but may be able easily to fall down through the grating while they are being burnt. To equalise this let there be two or three holes, with which two or three lateral or uterine furnaces — or, if you like, a single one — shall correspond : the breadth of the mouths should be
Di Transmutatiouibus Meiallorum.
285
four fingers. To every furnace let a brazen vessel be fitted, and these are to be filled with water. Let the others be shut up ; as the o^gg in the hen^ so is the glass in its uterus for the work of the magtstery. Then, when you are going to work, and all has been carefully prepared, ha%^ing broken coals into pieces the size of walnuts, or a little larger, fill up the turrets with these and kindle the fire at the door beneath ; but let the top be kept shut, so that the coals at the top or in the middle may not be kindled, thus stirring up a heat that shall destroy the whole work^ and burn everything together. When the heat shall appear to exceed what is proper, it can be controlled by applying a small brick or tile to the mouth ; on the other hand, if it be too slack, let the coals be stirred up w^ith an iron rod beneath the grating, The fire can be still more readily controlled by registers (which are called governors). Experience teaches the uses of those things which are necessary in prepa- rations before you have arrived at this stage. The fire, then, having been regulated to a just proportion, as Nature teaches in all things, the heat will cause a fermentation, and by-and-bye this will affect the matter lying hid in the ^%%.
Henceforwardsi just as the sun in the great universe shines, illuminates, and gives life to the rest of the stars and to the elements^ so the spagyric fire, illuminating its athanor, with all the instruments, and warming the sea-bath, acts just like a hen which hatches its animated ^g^.
But 1 hear a giant roaring like a lion against the furnace, and seeking Paracelsus to devour him, *'See," says he, *'how he contradicts himself! Just now he told us, and that w^th considerable seventy, not to build a fire with coals ; now he is teaching the use of coals for this art of his ! ** You have touched the matter, no doubt, but only in the same way as you have judged that the other writings of Paracelsus are contradictory. Open the other eye, my one-eyed friend, or you will act the part of a blind man passing a judgment about colours. Can you not see what is the meaning of this partlcle^simple and without middle meaning — added to the interdiction of coals ? Do you not see how Paracelsus, though dead, answers you and his other calumniators in his living works, saying — ** You, who adjudge me to err, yourselves err, even when judged by yourselves. Have 1 not often admonished you, and those like you, envious people that you are, in almost all my works, not to pass over even a little word which you have not thoroughly appropriated, lest the same thing happens to you, giants, fighting with my pigmy homunculus, as formerly happened to Goliath fighting with the boy David? Take care, I say, lest you collide with this stone of ours as the great mystery, and sink down with it to the abyss whereto you would consign me ! " Thus seems Paracelsus to thunder forth in his tomb. We must not, my brothers, speak unfairly of the dead, even of those whose deserts were small. Let them all remain at rest, and all await their deeds. It is easy to carp, but to avoid judgment to-day is difiicult ; at the last it will be impossible. What are you which I am not, or what am I which you are not ? Again,
286 The Hermetic and Alchemical Wriiings of Paracelsus,
what has happened to both of us save that which may occur to another, namely, to err ? We are all men ; and error happens to men more than it does to brutes without reason, who are stirred solely by the promptings of Nature. I confess that I err in very many things, and you err. It is yours to confess it, and mine to admonish, not to judge. Be it your duty, as it is mine, not enviously to disclose those things of your brothers which have not been duly done, before that, with a certain amount of modesty, you have admonished him according to the discipline of true philosophy, otherwise neither you, nor he, nor I, If we act in a contrary manner, are worthy of the name of philosophy. But this philosophic discipline (alas, that it should be so !) is impugned even by the most learned : and so much has the dogma of heathen philosophers prevailed, being at the present day very celebrated among these people, that they do not take a comprehensive glance at %vhat is without and within ; they display nothing beyond a mere ambition for honour and renown. This is the chief end of their study and toil. Hence it has come about that everybody tries to get credit for himself by tripping up or blackening the character of somebody else. But these wretched people do not consider that no great ill can be done which will not incur a greater punishment still, at least if we are all foolish together, and nobody even approaches wisdom. Many are wise, a few ver^^ wise, who still preserve no medium. Let us look to it, then» lest what we parade as wisdom may» even in this our day and generation, be turned by the good God into open folly, and that through our own efforts. If, then, we have erred at all, and our own conscience tells us that we have done so, by which error on our part it seems only too likely that we may mislead others, let us in the presence of God and men retract, and that without reserve. The wisest of men are ever ready to acknowledge their common error, but stubborn men and fools are not ready to do this. Every made course seems the straight road for them, and vice versd.
The following passage appears as a sequel to the Treasure of Treasures, which, in a somewhat modified form, occupies the thirteenth chapter of the Convenes* It may be entitled
The Phoenix of the Philosophers.
The exposition of the cabalists has, under the name of the PhtDenix, that it is the Flying Eagle, whose feathers fly without the wind, and bear the body of the phcenix to its nest, in %vhich is nourished the element of fire. Its young peck out their mother's eyes with their beak, and there is produced a whiteness in its separated sphere. In this consists the life of its heart and the balsam of its intestines. According to the Cabalists this refers to the sulphur of cinnabar, to which Paracelsus alludes. Verj^ lately, when electrum was being treated, I referred the reader to cinnabar, and not without cause, since it has the greatest affinity therewith. What is cinnabar but a composition or mixture of two minerals, sulphur and quicksilver ? What, too, is electrum
De Transmutaiionibns Metallorum,
287
but a mixture of two or morej whether minerals or metals ? The sulphur of Sol, therefore, joined artificially with philosophic Mercury of Luna,— why should not this be electrum, why not cinnabar? Whether each is made by Nature or by chemistry, the component parts do not differ.
The last citation wiiich it will be necessary to make is the fifteenth chapter of the Congeries. It is an exceed ing^ly concise abridgement of the fifth book of the Archidoxies as regards the section on the Stone of the Philosophers^ and it is inserted at this point as an illustration of the method of the editor. It is called
A Very Brief Process for Attaining the Stone.
I neither am nor wish to be a teacher or a follower of that Stone which is taught in different ways by very many. Leaving, thereforej this process for its attainment, I have proposed to describe in verj^ few words that which has been discovered by me through practice and experience. This^ no less than the other, affects the bodies of men, though it is not prepared by the same process. Take, then, mercury, otherwise the element of mercury, and separate the pure from the impure* Afterwards let it be reverberated even to whiteness, and sublimate this with sal ammoniac until it is resolved. Let it be calcined and dissolved again, and digested in a pelican for one month, being afterwards coagulated into a body. This is no longer burnt, or in any way consumed, but remains in the same condition. The bodies penetrated by it are permanent in the cineritium, so that they cannot be reduced to nothing or be altered ; but it takes away, as we have often said, all super- fluous qualities both from sensible and insensible things.
Although I have here set down a very brief way and process, it requires long labour, and one that is involved in many intricate circumstances j demanding, at the same time, an operator who is unassailable by fatigue, and in the highest degree diligent and expert.
APPENDIX VI,
THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT OF PARACELSUS.
IN the nineteenth chapter of his Rituel de la Haute Magie^ Eliphas Levi observes that "amongst the rare and precious books which contain the mysteries of the Great Arcanum, there must be placed in the first rank the Chemical Pathway^ or Mamial of Paracelsus, which contains all the mysteries of demonstrative physics and of the most secret cabala. This manuscript work, unique and priceless, exists in the library of the Vatican. A transcription of it was made by Sendivogius, and this was made use of by Baron Tschoudy for the compilation of the Hermetic Catechism contained in his work entitled The Burning Star, This catechism, which we point out to instructed cabalists, as a substitute for the incomparable treatise of Paracelsus, contains all the veritable principles of the great work, after so satisfactory and explicit a manner that a person must be absolutely wanting in that quality of intelligence which is requisite for ocultism if they fail to attain the absolute truth when jhey have studied it." The manuscript to which reference is made in this interesting citation, is still an unedited treasure, although, as will be seen in the next appendix, there has been at least one Manual attributed to Paracelsus, which has been in print for four centuries. In the absence of the Vatican treatise, the student who desires to make acquaintance with a work of Paracelsus which adepts in the Art of Alchemy seem to prefer before all published writings of the same author, must make shift with the Hermetic Catechism, as suggested by Eliphas Levi. He will find it an exceedingly^^ succinct, and simple presentation of the fundamental alchemical theories. Though it may not initiate the reader, whatever the quality of his intelligence, into the mystery of the Great Arcanum, it is, in its way, very lucid and direct. Whether this merit belongs to Paracelsus or his interpreter, is an unprofitable subject of speculation in the absence of the original text, which few persons have had the opportunity or disposition 4^ to consult. The work of Baron Tschoudy was published in two volumes at Hamburg, in 1 785, and later on there was another edition at Paris. Having regard to its period, it is a sensible, though somewhat romantic, attempt to trace back Free Masonry to its historical origin, while, over and above this, it constitutes a valuable hand-book of the analogies which subsist between that system and Hermetic science, more especially Alchemy. The catechism itself,
A Short Catechism of AkhemyK
289
which is the most important section of the Burning Star^ teems with analogies of this kind, which^ of course, are the creation of the editor, and are suppressed in the translation which follows, in part because they exceed the intention of the present work, and in part for other reasons.
A Short Catechism of Alchemy
Founded on the Manual of Paracelsus preserved in the
Vatican Library.
Q» What is the chief study of a Philosopher?
A* It is the investigation of the operations of Nature.
Q. What is the end of Nature ?
A, God, Who is also its beginning.
Q. Whence are all things derived ?
A. From one and indivisible Nature.
Q. into how many regions is Nature separated ?
A. Into four palmar)^ regions,
Q. Which are they ?
A. The dry» the moist, the warm, and the cold, which are the four elementary qualities, whence all things originate.
Q. How is Nature different iated ?
A, Into male and female*
Q. To what may we compare Nature? /
A. To Mercury.
Q. Give a concise definition of Nature.
A. It is not visible, though it operates visibly; for it is simply a volatile spirit, fulfilling its ofHce in bodies, and animated by the universal spirit — the divine breath, the central and universal fire, which vivifies all things that exist.
Q, What should be the qualities possessed by the examiners of Nature ?
A. They should be like unto Nature herself. That is to say, they should be truthful, simple, patient, and persevering.
Q. What matters should subsequently engross their attention ?
A. The philosophers should most carefully ascertain whether their designs are in harmony with Nature, and of a possible and attainable kind ; if they would accomplish by their own power anything that is usually performed by the power of Nature, they must imitate her in every detail.
Q. What method must be followed in order to produce something which shall be developed to a superior degree than Nature herself develops it.^
A. The manner of its improvement must be studied, and this is invariably operated by means of a like nature. For example, if it be desired to develop the intrinsic virtue of a given metal beyond its natural condition, the chemist must avail himself of the metallic nature itself » and must be able to discrim- inate between its male and female differentiations.
U
290 The nermeiic and Aichrmical If filings of Paracelsus.
Q. Where does the metallic nature store her seeds ?
A. Id the four elements.
Q. With what materials can the philosopher alone accomplish anything?
A. With the germ of the given matter \ this is its elixir or quintessence, more precious by far^ and more useful^ to the artist, than is Nature herself. Before the philosopher has extracted the seed, or germ, Nature, In his behalf, will be ready to perform her duty.
Q. What is the germ, or seed, of any substance ?
A. It is the most subtle and perfect decoction and digestion of the sub- stance itself; or, rather^ it is the Balm of Sulphur, which is identical with the Radical Moisture of Metals,
Q, By what is this seed, or germ, engendered ?
A. By the four elements, subject to the will of the Supreme Being, and through the direct intervention of the imagination of Nature.
Q. After what manner do the four elements operate ?
A. By means of an incessant and uniform motion, each one, according to its quality, depositing its seed in the centre of the earth, where it is sub- jected to action and digested, and is subsequently expelled in an outward direction by the laws of movement
Q. What do the philosophers understand by the centre of the earth ?
A. A certain void place where nothing may repose, and the existence of which is assumed.
Q. Where, then, do the four elements expel and deposit their seeds?
A. In the ex-centre, or in the margin and circumference of the centre, which, after it has appropriated a portion, casts out the surplus into the region of excrement, scoriae, fire, and formless chaos.
Q* Illustrate this teaching by an example.
A» Take any level table, and set in its centre a vase filled with water; surround the vase with several things of various colours, especially salt, taking care that a proper distance intervenes betw^een them all. Then pour out the water from the vase, and it will flow in streams here and there ; one will encounter a substance of a red colour, and will assume a tinge of red; another Will pass over the salt, and will contract a saline flavour ; for it is certain that water does not modify the places which it traverses, but the diverse charac- teristics of places change the nature of water. In the same way the seed which is deposited by the four elements at the centre of the earth is subject to a variety of modifications in the places through which it passes, so that every existing substance is produced in the likeness of its channel, and when a seed on its arrival at a certain point encounters pure earth and pure water, a pure substance results, but the contrary in an opposite case. *
Q, After what manner do the elements procreate this seed?
A, \xi order to the complete elucidation of this point, it must be observed that there are two gross and heavy elements and two that are volatile in character. Two, in h'ke manner, are dry and two humid, one out of the four
A Short Catechism of Alchemy,
291
being actually excessively dnr, and the other excessh^ely moist. They are also masculine and feminine. Now, each of them has a marked tendency to reproduce its own species within its own sphere. Moreover, they are never in repose, but are perpetually interacting, and each of them separates, of and by itself^ the most subtle portion thereof. Their general place of meeting is in the centre, even the centre of the Archeus^ that servant of Nature, where coming to mix their several seeds, they agitate and finally expel them to the exterior,
y. What is the true and the first matter o^ all metals ?
A, The first matter, properly so called, is dual in its essence, or is in itself of a twofold nature ; one, nevertheless, cannot create a metal without the concurrence of the other. The first and the palmary essence is an aerial humidity, blended with a warm air, in the form of a fatty water, which adheres to all substances indiscriminately, whether they are pure or impure.
Q. How has this humidity been named by Philosophers ?
A* Mercury,
Q. By what is it governed ?
A, By the rays of the Sun and Moon.
Q. What is the second matter ?
A. The warmth of the earth— otherw^ise, that dry heat which is termed Sulphur by the Philosophers.
Q. Can the entire material body be converted into seed?
A. lis eight-hundredth part only — that, namely, which is secreted in the centre of the body in question, and may, for example, be seen in a grain of wheat.
Q. Of what use is the bulk of the matter as regards its seed?
A. It is useful as a safeguard against excessive heat, cold, moisture, or aridity, and* in general* all hurtful inclemency, against which it acts as an envelope.
Q. Would those artists who pretend to reduce the whole matter of any body into seed derive any advantage from the process, supposing it w^ere possible to perform it ?
A, None ; on the contrary, their labour w*ould be wholly unproductive, because nothing that is good can be accomplished by a deviation from natural methods.
Q. What, therefore, should be done?
A. The matter must be effectively separated from its impurities, for there is no metal, how^ pure soever, which is entirely free from Imperfections, though their extent varies. Now all superfluities, cortices, and see rite must be peeled off and purged out from the matter in order to discover its seed.
Q, What should receive the most careful attention of the Philosopher ?
A. Assuredly, the end of Nature, and this is by no means to be looked for in the vulgar metals, because, these having issued already from the hands of the fashioner, it is no longer to be found therein,
ua
292 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Q. For what precise reason ?
A. Because Ihe vulgar metals, and chiefly gold, are absolutely dead, while ours, on the contrary, are absolutely living, and possess a soul.
Q, What is the life of metals ?
A. It is no other substance than fire, when they are as yet imbedded in the mines.
Q. What is their death ?
A, Their life and death are in reality one principle, for they die, as they live, by fire, but their death is from a fire of fusion*
Q. After what manner are metals conceived in the womb of the earth ?
A. When the four elements have developed their power or virtue in the centre of the earth, and have deposited their seed, the Archeus of Nature, in the course of a distillatory' process, sublimes them superficially by the warmth and eoerg>' of the perpetual movement,
Q. Into what does the wind resolve itself when it is distilled through the pores of the earth ?
A. It resolves itself into water, whence all things spring \ in this state it is merely a humid vapour, out of which there is subsequently evolved the principiated principle of all substances, which also serves as the first matter of the Philosophers,
Q. What then is this principiated principle, which is made use of as the first matter by the Children of Knowledge in the philosophic achievement?
A, It is this identical matter, which, the moment it is conceived, receives a permanent and unchangeable form,
Q. Are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, etc, separately endowed with individual seed?
A. One is common to them all ; their differences are to be accounted for by the locality from which they are derived, not to speak of the fact that Nature completes her work with far greater rapidity in the procreation of silver than in that of gold, and so of the other metals, each in its own proportion.
Q, How is gold formed in the bo%vels of the earth ?
A, When this vapour, of which we have spoken, is sublimed in the centre of the earth, and when it has passed through warm and pure places, where a certain sulphureous grease adheres to the channels, then this vapour, which the Philosophers have denominated their Mercury, becomes adapted and joined to this grease, which it sublimes with itself; from such amalgamation there is produced a certain unctuousness, which, abandoning the vaporous form, assumes that of grease, and is sublimised in other places, which have been cleansed by this preceding vapour, and the earth whereof has con* sequently been rendered more subtle, pure, and humid ; it fills the pores of this earth, is joined thereto, and gold is produced as a result,
Q. How is Saturn engendered?
A. It occurs when the said unctuosityj or grease, passes through places which are totally impure and cold.
A Short Catechism of Alchemy.
293
Q, How is Venus brought forth ?
A. She is produced in localities where the earth itself is pure, but is mingled with impure sulphur.
Q. What power does the vapour, which we have recently mentioned, possess in the centre of the earth ?
A. By its continual progress it has the power of perpetually rarefying whatsoever is crude and impure, and of successively attracting to itself all that is pure around it*
Q. What is the seed of the first matter of all things ?
A* The first matter of things, that is to say, the matter of principiating principles is begotten by Nature, without the assistance of any other seed ; in other words, Nature receives the matter from the elements, whence it sub- sequently brings forth the seed.
Q, What, absolutely speaking, is therefore the seed of things?
A. The seed in a body is no other thing than a congealed air, or a humid vapour, which is useless except it be dissoh^ed by a warm vapour.
Q. How is the generation of seed comprised in the metallic kingdom?
A. By the artifice of Archem the four elements, in the first generation of Nature, distil a ponderous vapour of water into the centre of the earth ; this is the seed of metals, and it is called Mercury, not on account of its essence, but because of its fluidity, and the facility with which it will adhere to each and every thing.
Q, Why is this vapour compared to sulphur?
A. Because of its internal heat.
Q. From what species of Mercury are we to conclude that the metals are composed ?
A. The reference is exclusively to the Mercury of the Philosophers, and in no sense to the common or vulgar substance, which cannot become a seed, seeing that, like other metals, it already contains its own seed.
Q. What, therefore, must actually be accepted as the subject of our matter ?
A. The seed alone, otherwise the fixed grain, and not the whole body, which is diflfcrentiated into Sulphur, or living male, and into Mercury, or living female.
Q. What operation must be afterwards performed ?
A. They must be joined together, so that they may form a germ, after which they will proceed to the procreation of a fruit which is conformed to their nature.
Q. What is the part of the artist in this operation?
A. The artist must do nothing but separate that which is subtle from that which is gross.
Q. To what, therefore, is the whole philosophic combination reduced ?
A. The development of one into two, and the reduction of two into one, and nothing further.
ik
294 The Hertnetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
Q, Whither must we turn for the seed and life of metals and minerals ?
A. The seed of minerals is properly the water which exists in the centre and the heart of the minerals.
Q. How does Nature operate by the help of Art ?
A. Ever}' seed, whatsoever its kind, is useless, unless by Nature or Art it is placed in a suitable matrix, where it receives its life by the coction of the germ, and by the congelation of the pure particle, or fixed grain.
Q. How is the seed subsequently nourished and preser\ed ?
A. By the warmth of its body.
Q. What is therefore performed by the artist in the mineral kingdom ?
A. He finishes what cannot be finished by Nature on account of the crudity of the air, which has permeated the pores of all bodies by its x-iolence, but on the surface and not in the bowels of the earth.
Q. What correspondence have the metals among themselves ?
A. It is necessary for a proper comprehension of the nature of this correspondence to consider the position of the planets, and to pay attention to Saturn, which is the highest of all, and then is succeeded by Jupiter, next by Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercur}-, and, lastly, by the Moon. It must be obser\'ed that the influential virtues of the planets do not ascend but descend, and ex- perience teaches us that Mars can be easily converted into Venus, not Venus into Mars, which is of a lower sphere. So, also, Jupiter can be easily trans- muted into Mercury, because Jupiter is superior to Mercury, the one being second after the firmament, the other second above the earth, and Saturn is highest of all, while the Moon is lowest. The Sun enters into all, but it is never ameliorated by its inferiors. It is clear that there is a large corres- pondence between Saturn and the Moon, in the middle of which is the Sun ; but to all these changes the Philosopher should strive to administer the Sun.
Q. When the Philosophers speak of gold and silver, from which they extract their matter, are we to suppose that they refer to the vulgar gold and silver?
A. By no means ; vulgar silver and gold are dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life.
Q. What is the object of research among the Philosophers ?
A. Proficiency in the art of perfecting what Nature has left imperfect in the mineral kingdom, and the attainment of the treasure of the Philosophical Stone.
Q. What is this Stone ?
A. The Stone is nothing else than the radical humidity of the elements, perfectly purified and educed into a sovereign fixation, which causes it to perform such great things for health, life being resident exclusively in the humid radical.
Q. In what does the secret of accomplishing this admirable work consist ?
A. It consists in knowing how to educe from potentiality into act ivity the innate warmth, or the fire of Nature, which is enclosed in the centre of the radical humidity.
A Shoj't Catechhtn of Alchemy,
?95
Q. What are the precautions which must be made use of to ^ard against failure in the work ?
A. Great pains must be taken to eliminate excrements from the matter^ and to conserve nothing but the kerne!, which contains all the virtue of the compound.
Q. Why does this medicine heal every species of disease?
A. It is not on account of the variety of its qualities, but simply because it powerfully fortifies the natural warmth^ which it gently stimulates, while other physics irritate it by too violent an action
Q. How can you demonstrate to me the truth of the art in the matter of the tincture ?
A. Firstly, its truth is founded on the fact that the physical powder, lieing composed of the same substance as the metals, namely^ quicksilver, has the faculty of combining with these in fusion, one nature easily embracing another which is like itself Secondly^ seeing that the imperfection of the base meta!s is owing to the crudeness of their quicksilver, and to that alone, the physical powder, which is a ripe and decocted quicksilver, and, in itself a pure fire, can easily communicate to them its own maturity, and can transmute them into its nature, after it has attracted their crude humidity, that is to say, their quick- silver, which is the sole substance that transmutes them, the rest being nothing but scoriae and excrements, which are rejected in projection.
Q. What road should the Philosopher follow that he may attain to the knowledge and execution of the physical work ?
A. That precisely which was followed by the Great Architect ot the Universe in the creation of the world, by observing how the chaos was evolved*
Q. What was the matter of the chaos?
A. It could be nothing else than a humid vapour, because water alone enters into all created substances, which all finish in a strange term, this term being a proper subject for the impression of all forms.
Q. Give me an example to illustrate what you have just stated*
A. An example may be found in the special productions of composite substances, the seeds of which invariably begin by resolving themselves into a certain humour, which is the chaos of the particular matter, whence issues, by a kind of irradiation, the complete form of the plant. Moreover, it should be observed that Holy Scripture makes no mention of anything except water as the materitU subject w^hereupon the Spirit of God brooded, nor of anything except light as the universal form of things.
Q. What profit may the Philosopher derive from these considerations, and what should he especially remark in the method of creation which was pursued by the Supreme Being?
A. In the first place he should observe the matter out of which the world was made j he w^Ill see that out of this confused mass, the Sovereign Artist began by extracting light, that this light in the same moment dissolved the
2g6 The Hermetic and Akiiernkal Writings of Paracelsus,
darkness which covered the face of the earth, and that it served as the universal form of the matter. He will then easily perceive that In the generation of all composite substances, a species of irradiation takes place, and a separation of light and darkness, wherein Nature is an undeviatlng copyist of her Creator, The Philosopher will equally understand after what manner, by the action of this light, the empyrean, or firmament which divides the superior and inferior waters, was subsequently produced ; how the sky was studded with luminous bodies ; and how the necessity for the moon arose, which was owing to the space intervening between the things above and the things below ; for the moon is an intermediate torch between the superior and the inferior worlds, receiving the celestial influences and communicating them to the earth. Finally he will understand how the Creator, in the gathering of the waters, produced drj' land.
Q, How many heavens can you enumerate ?
A, Properly there is one only, which is the firmament that divides the waters from the waters. Nevertheless, three are admitted, of which the first is the space that is above the clouds. In this heaven the waters are rarefied, and fall upon the fixed stars, and it is also in this space that the planets and wandering stars perform their revolutions* The second heaven is the firmament of the fixed stars, while the third is the abode of the super- celestial waters.
Q. Why is the rarefaction of the waters confined to the first heaven ?
A. Because it is in the nature of rarefied substances to ascend, and because God^ in His eternal laws, has assigned its proper sphere to txtty- thing.
Q. Why does each celestial body invariably revolve about an axis ?
A, It is by reason of the primeval impetus which it received, and by virtue of the same law which will cause any heavy substance suspended from a thread to turn with the same velocity, if the power which impels its motion be always equal.
Q, Why do the superior waters never descend?
A. Because of their extreme rarefaction. It is for this reason that a skilled chemist can derive more profit from the study of rarefaction than from any other science whatsoever.
Q. What is the matter of the firmament ?
A. It is properly air, which is more suitable than water as a medium of light.
Q. After the separation of the waters from the dry earth* w^hat was performed by the Creator to originate generation?
A. He created a certain light which w^as destined for this office ; He placed it in the central fire, and moderated this fire by the humidity of water and by the coldness of earth, so as to keep a check upon its energy and adapt it to His design.
Q. What is the action of this central fire ?
A Short Catechism of Alchemy,
297
A. It continually operates upon the nearest humid matter, which it exalts into vapour ; now this vapour is the mercur).* of Nature and the first matter of the three kingdoms,
Q. How is the sulphur of Nature subsequently formed ?
A. By the interaction of the central fire and the mercurial vapour.
Q* How is tlie salt of the sea produced?
A. By the action of the same fire upon aqueous humidity, %vhen the aerial humidity, which is contained therein, has been exhaled*
Q. What should be done by a truly wise Philosopher when he has once mastered the foundation and the order in the procedure of the Great Architect of the Universe in the construction of all that exists in Nature?
A. He should, as far as may be possible, become a faithful copyist of his Creator. In the physical chaos he should make his chaos such as the original actually was ; he should separate the light from the darkness : he should form his firmament for the separation of the waters which are above from the waters which are below, and should successively accomplish, point by point, the entire sequence of the creative act.
Q. With what is this grand and sublime operation performed?
A. With one single corpuscle, or minute body, which, so to speak, contains nothing but fiEces^ filth, and abominations, but whence a certain tenebrous and mercurial humidity is extracted, which contains in itself all that is required by the Philosopher, because, as a fact, he is in search of nothing but the true Mercur}-.
Q. What kind of mercury, therefore, must he make use of in performing the work ?
A. Of a mercury which, as such, is not found on the earth, but is ex- tracted from bodieSj yet not from vulgar mercury, as it has been falsely said.
Q, Why is the latter unfitted to the needs of our work?
A. Because the wise artist must take notice that vulgar mercury has an insufficient quantity of sulphur, and he should consequently operate upon a body created by Nature, in which Nature herself has united the sulphur and mercury that it is the work of the artist to separate.
Q. What must he subsequently do?
A. He must purify them and join them anew together,
Q, How do you denominate the body of which we have been speaking?
A, The Rude Stone, or Chaos, or Iliaste^ or Hyle— that confused mass which is known but universally despised,
Q, As you have told ipe that Mercury is the one thing which the Philosopher must absolutely understand, will you give me a circumstantial description ot it, so as to avoid misconception?
A. In respect of its nature, our Mercury is dual — fixed and volatile ; in regard to its motion, it is also dual, for it has a motion of ascent and of descent; by that of descent, it is the influence of plants, by which it stimu- lates the drooping fire of Nature, and this is its first office previous to
2gS The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
congelation. By its ascensional movement, it rises, seeking to be purified, and as this is after congelation, it is considered to be the radical moisture of substances, which, beneath its vile scoriae, still preserves the nobility of its first origin,
Q. How many species of moisture do you suppose to be in each composite thing ?
A. There are three — the Elementary, which is properly the vase of the other elements ; the Radical, which » accurately speaking, is the oil, or balm, in which the entire virtue of the subject is resident— lastly, the Alimentary, the true natural dissolvent, which draws up the drooping internal fire, causing corruption and blackness by its humidity, and fostering and sustaining the subject,
Q* How many species of Mercur}- arc there known to the Philosophers ?
A. The Mercury of the Philosophers may be regarded under four aspects ; the first is entitled the Mercury of bodies, which is actually their concealed seed ; the second is the Mercury of Nature, which is the Bath or Vase of the Philosophers, otherwise the humid radical ; to the third has been applied the designation, Mercury ^^ the Philosophers, because it is found in their laboratory and in their minera. It is the sphere of Saturn ; it is the Diana of the Wise ; it is the true salt of metals, after the acquisition of which the true philosophic work may be truly said to have begun. In its fourth aspect, it is called Common Mercur)', which yet is not that of the Vulgar, but rather is properly the true air of the Philosophers, the true middle substance of water, the true secret and concealed fire, called also common fire, because it is common to all niiner^e^ for it is the substance of metals, and thence do they derive their quantity and quality.
Q. How many operations are comprised in our work?
A, There is one only, w'hich may be resolved into sublimation, and sublimation, according to Gebcr, is nothing other than the elevation of the dry matter by the mediation of fire, with adherence to its own vase.
Q, What precaution should be taken in reading the Hermetic Philo- sophers ?
A. Great care* above aJl, must be observed upon this point, lest what they say upon the subject should be interpreted literally and in accordance with the mere sound of the w^ords: For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,
Q. What books should be read in order to have an acquaintance with our science?
A. Among the ancients, all the works of Hermes should especially be studied; in the next place, a certain book, entitled The Pa smge of the Red Sea ^ and another, The Enirauce into ike Promised Land. Paracelsus also should be read before all among elder writers, and, among other treatises, his Chemical Pathway, or the Alauual of Paracelsus, which contains all the mysteries of demonstrative physics and the most arcane Kabbalah. This rare and unique manuscript work exists only in the Vatican Library, but Sendivogius had the
A Short Catechism of Alchemy*
good fortune to take a copy of it, which has helped in the illumination o\ the sages of our order* Secondly, Raymond Lully must be read, and his Vade Mecum above all, his dialogue called the Tree of Lifi\ his testament, and his codiciL There must, however, be a certain precaution exercised in respect to the two last, because, like those of Geber, and also of Arnold de Villanova, they abound in false recipes and futile fictions, which seem to have been inserted with the object of more effectually disguising the truth from the ignorant. In the third place, the lurba Phiiosophorumy which is a collection of ancient authors, contains much that is materially good, though there is much also which is valueless. Among mediaeval writers Zachary, Trevisan, Roger Bacon, and a certain anonymous author, whose book is entitled The Philosophers^ should be held especially high in the estimation of the student. Among moderns the most worthy to be prized are John Fabricius, F*ran de Nation, and Jean D'Espagnet, who wrote Physics Restored^ though, to say the truth, he has imported some false precepts and fallacious opinions into his treatise*
Q. When may the Philosopher venture to undertake the work?
A. When he is, theoretically, able to extract, by means of a crude spirit, a digested spirit out of a body in dissolution, which digested spirit he must again rejoin to the vital oil.
Q. Explain me this theory in a clearer manner.
A. It may be demonstrated more completely in the actual process ; the great experiment may be undertaken when the Philosopher, by the medium of a vegetable menstruum, united to a mineral menstruum, is qualified to dissolve a third essential menstruum, with which menstruum s united he must wash the earth, and then exalt it into a celestial quintessence, to compose the sulphureous thunderbolt, which instantaneously penetrates substances and destroys their excrements.
Q. Have those persons a proper acquaintance with Nature who pretend to make use of vulgar gold for seed, and of vulgar mercury for the dissolvent, or the earth in which it should be sown ?
A, Assuredly not, because neither the one nor the other possesses the external agent^gold, because it has been deprived of it by decoction, and mercury because it has never had it.
Q. In seeking this auriferous seed elsewhere than in gold itself, is there no danger of producing a species of monster, since one appears to be departing from Nature?
A. It is undoubtedly true that in gold is contained the auriferous seed, and that in a more perfect condilion than it is found in any other body ; but this does not force us to make use oi vulgar gotd» for such a seed is equally found in each of the other metals, and is nothing else but that fixed grain which Nature has infused in the first congelation of mercury, all metals having one origin and a common substance, as will be ultimately unveiled to those who become worthy of receiving it by application and assiduous study.
298 The Htrmetic and AIcArmuai IVriiings 0/ Paractlsus.
congelation. By !t> ascensionsd movement, it rises, seeking^ to be purified, and as this is after congelation. :l is considered to be the radical moisture of substances, which, beneath i:> v:!e scoriae, still preserves the nobility of its first origin.
Q. How many species of mo:>:ure dx> you suppose to be in each composite thint: ?
A. There are three— the Elementary, which is properly the vase of the other elements ; the Radical, w hich, accurately speaking, is the oil, or balm, in which the entire virtue of the subject is resident— lastly, the Alimentary, the true natural dissolvent, which draws up the drooping internal fire, causing corruption and blackness K* its humidity, and fostering and sustaining the subject.
Q. How many species of Mercur> are there known to the Philosophers ?
A. The Mercur}- ox the Philosophers may be regarded under four aspects ; the first is entitled the Mercury- ox bodies, which is actually their concealed seed : the second is the Mercury- of Nature, which is the Bath or Vase of the Philosophers, othenvise the humid radical ; to the third has been applied the desijrr.ation. Mercury- cf the Philosophers, because it is found in their laboratory- and in their minera. It is the sphere of Saturn ; it is the Diana of the \Vi>e ; :: is the tme salt of metals, after the acquisition of which the true philosophic work m.ay be truly said to have b^^n. In its fourth aspect, i: is called Common Mercur^-. which yet is not that of the Vuljjar. but rather :> properly the true air oX the Philosophers, the true middle substance of water, the :r^c secret and concealed fire, called also common fire, because it :> cor::ir.on to al". miners, for it is the substance of metals, and thence do they der:\ e their cuar.tity and quality.
^. How many c^perations are comprised in our work?
A. There is one only, which may be resolved into sublimaticr., and sublimation, according: to Geber. is nothing other than the elei-ation of the matter by the mediation of nre, with adherence to its own \"as«-
Sj. What precaution should be taken in reading the Hermetic Philo^ sophers r
A. Great care, aS?ve all, must be obser\-ed upon this point, lest vhat they s,iy upon the subject should be interpreted liieraJh" and in accordance with the mere sound o: the words: For the letter killeth. but the spirit giv«tli lifcu
^. What books >hould be read in order to have an acquaintance with our science ?
A. Amonj; the ancients, all the works of Hermes should studied; :.-i the ncx: place, a certain book, entitled Tk^ PoMsagit ^ ik^ ^rd . and ano:>er. 7";.- }\ '::-,:-- 1 :*::: :\c F^c'kzWJ JLi^J, fWmoBlsus al>o re.id K:Vre ..1 atv.vV^ elcer \vr::er>. and. amon^ other 1 /*.;;.:.%.;:. or :re X. :-.:.,:: of i\.rac*:l>us. which den-tonstr.i.ixe rr:\> cs ar^ the n-.ost .\rcar.e Kabbalah, ^ n:,\::uscr!p: uork e\:>:> orlx :- the Vatican Libnr
3CM3 The Hemtetic and Akhankal Writings of Paracelsus,
Q. What follows from this doctrine?
A. It follows thatj although the seed is more perfect in gold, it may be extracted much more easily from another body than from gold itself, other bodies being more open, that is to say» less digested, and less restricted in their humidity.
Q. Give me an example taken from Nature.
A. Vulgar gold may be likened to a fruit which, having come to a perfect maturity, has been cut off from its tree, and though it contains a most perfect and well-digested seed, notwithstanding, should anyone set it in the ground, with a view to its multiplicationj much time, trouble, and attention will be consumed in the development of its vegetative capabilities. On the other hand, if a cutting, or a root, be taken from the same tree, and similarly planted, in a short time, and with no trouble, it will spring up and produce much fruit.
Q. Is it necessary that an amateur of this science should understand the formation of metals in the bowels of the earth if he wishes to complete his w^ork ?
A. So indispensable is such a knowledge that should anyone fail, before all other studies, to apply himself to its attainment, and to imitate Nature point by point therein, he \v\\\ never succeed in accomplishing anything but what is worthless.
Q. How, then, does Nature deposit metals in the bowels of the earth, and of what does she compose them ?
A. Nature manufactures them all out of sulphur and mercury » and forms them by their double vapour.
Q. What do you mean by this double vapour, and how can metals be formed thereby ?
A. In order to a complete understanding of this question, it must first be stated that mercurial vapour is united to sulphureous vapour in a cavernous place which contains a saline w^ater, which serves as their matrix. Thus is formed, firstly, the Vitriol of Nature ; secondly, by the commotion of the elements, there is developed out of this Vitriol of Nature a new vapour, which is neither mercurial nor sulphureous, yet is allied to both these natures, and this, passing through places to which the grease of sulphur adheres, is joined therewith, and out of their union a glutinous substance is produced, otherwise, a formless mass, which is permeated by the vapour that fills these cavernous places. By this vapour, acting through the sulphur it contains, are produced the perfect metals, provided that the vapour and the locality are pure. If the locality and the vapour are impure, imperfect metals result. The terms perfection and imperfection have reference to various degrees of concoction.
Q. What is contained in this vapour?
A. A spirit of light and a spirit of fire, of the nature of the celestial bodies, which properly should be considered as the form of the universe.
A Short Catechism of Alchemy.
301
Q, What does this vapour represent?
A. This vapour, thus impregnated by the universal spirit, represents, in a fairly complete way, the original Chaos, which contained all that was required for the original creation, that is, universal matter and universal form.
Q. And one cannotj notwithstanding, make use of vulgar mercury in the process ?
A. No, because vulgar mercury, as already made plain, is devoid of external agent.
Q. Whence comes it that common mercury is without its external agent?
A» Because in the exaltation of the double vapour, the commotion has been so great and searching, that the spirit^ or agent, has evaporated, as occurs, with very close similarity, in the fusion of metals. The result is that the unique mercurial part is deprived of its masculine or sulphureous agent, and consequently can never be transmuted into gold by Nature.
Q. How many species of gold are distinguished by the Philosophers?
A. Three sorts : — Astral Gold, Elementary Gold, and Vulgar Gold,
Q. What is astral gold ?
A. Astral Gold has its centre in the sun, which communicates it by its rays to all inferior beings. It is an igneous substance, which receives a continual emanation of solar corpuscles that penetrate all things sentient, vegetable, and mineral.
Q. What do you refer to under the term Elementary Gold ?
A. This is the most pure and fixed portion of the elements, and of all that is composed of them. All sublunary beings included in the three kingdoms contain in their inmost centre a precious grain of this elementary gold.
Q. Give me some description of Vulgar Gold ?
A. It is the most beautiful metal of our acquaintance, the best that Nature can produce, as perfect as it is unalterable in itself.
Q. Of w*hat species of* gold is the Stone of the Philosophers ?
A. It is of the second species, as being the most pure portion of all the metallic elements after its purification, when it is termed living philosophical gold. A perfect equilibrium and equality of the four elements enter into the Physical Stone, and four things are indispensable for the accomplishment of the work, namely, composition, allocation, mixture, and union, which, once performed according to the rules of art, will beget the lawful Son of the Sun, and the Phcenix which eternally rises out of its own ashes.
Q. What is actually the living gold of the Philosophers?
A. It is exclusively the fire of Mercury, or that igneous virtue, contained in the radical moisture, to %vhich it has already communicated the fixity and the nature of the sulphur, whence it has emanated, the mercurial character of the whole substance of philosophical sulphur permitting it to be alterna- tively termed mercurj\
302 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
Q. What other name is also given by the Philosophers to their living gold?
A. They also term it their living sulphur, and their true fire ; they recognize its existence in all bodies, and there is nothing that can subsist without it.
Q. Where must we look for our living gold, our living sulphur, and our true fire ?
A. In the house of Mercury.
Q. By what is this fire nourished ?
A. • By the air.
Q. Give me a comparative illustration of the power of this fire ?
A. To exemplify the attraction of this interior fire, there is no better comparison than that which is derived from the thunderbolt, which originally is simply a dry, terrestrial exhalation, united to a humid vapour. By exaltation, and by assuming the igneous nature, it acts on the humidity which is inherent to it ; this it attracts to itself, transmutes it into its own nature, and then rapidly precipitates itself to the earth, where it is attracted by a fixed nature which is like unto its own.
Q. What should be done by the Philosopher after he has extracted his Mercury ?
A. He should develop it from potentiality into activity.
Q. Cannot Nature perform this of herself ?
A. No ; because she stops short after the first sublimation, and out of the matter which is thus disposed do the metals engender.
Q. What do the Philosophers understand by their gold and silver ?
A. The Philosophers apply to their Sulphur the name of Gold, and to their Mercury the name of Silver.
Q. Whence are they derived ?
A. I have already stated that they are derived from a homogeneous body wherein they are found in great abundance, whence also Philosophers know how to extract both by an admirable, and entirely philosophical, process.
Q. When this operation has been duly performed, to what other point of the practice must they next apply themselves ?
A. To the confection of the philosophical amalgam, which must be done with great care, but can only be accomplished after the preparation and sublima- tion of the Mercury.
Q. When should your matter be combined with the living gold ?
A. During the period of amalgamation only, that is to say, Sulphur is introduced into it by means of the amalgamation, and thenceforth there is one substance; the process is shortened by the addition of Sulphur, while the tincture at the same time is augmented.
Q. What is contained in the centre of the radical moisture ?
A. It contains and conceals Sulphur, which is covered with a hard rind.
Q. What must be done to apply it to the Great Work ?
A Short Catechism of Alchemy.
303
A, It must be drawn out of its bonds with consummate skill, and by the method of putrefaction.
Q. Does Nature, in her work in the mines, possess a menstruum which is adapted to the dissolution and liberation of this sulphur?
A. No; because there is no local movement. Could Nature, unassisted, dissolve, putrefy, and purify the metallic body, she would herself provide us with the Physical Stone, which is Sulphur exalted and increased in virtue,
Q. Can you elucidate this doctrine by an example?
A. By an enlarg"ement of the previous comparison of a fruit, or a seed, which, in the first place, is put into the earth for its solution^ and afterguards for its multiplication. Now, the Philosopher, who is in a position to discern what is good seed, extracts it from its centre, consigns it to its proper earth, when it has been well cured and prepared, and therein he rarefies it in such a manner that its prolific virtue is increased and indefinitely multiplied.
Q. In what does the whole secret of the seed consist?
A. In the true knowledge of its proper earth.
Q. What do you understand by the seed in the work of the Philosophers ?
A. I understand the interior heat, or the specific spirit, which is enclosed in the humid radical, which, in other words, is the middle substance of living silver, the proper sperm of metals, whicli contains its own seed*
Q. How do you set free the sulphur from its bonds?
A. By putrefaction.
Q, What Is the earth of minerals?
A. It is their proper menstruum.
Q, What pains must be taken by the Philosopher to extract that part w*hich he requires ?
A. He must take great pains to eliminate the fetid vapours and impure sulphurs, after which the seed must be injected.
Q. By what indication may the Artist be assured that he is in the right road at the beginning of his work?
A. When he finds that the dissolvent and the thing dissolved are converted into one form and one matter at the period of dissolution.
Q, How many solutions do you count in the Philosophic Work?
A, There are three. The first solution is that which reduces the crude and metallic body into its elements of sulphur and of living silver ; the second is that of the physical body, and the third is the solution of the mineral earth,
Q. How is the metallic body reduced by the first solution into mercur>% and then into sulphur ?
A. By the secret artificial fire, which is the Burning Star.
Q» How is this operation performed?
A, By extracting from the subject, in the first place, the mercur)' or vapour of the elements, and, after purification, by using it to liberate the sulphur from its bonds, by corruption, of which blackness is the indication.
Q. How is the second solution performed ?
304 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
A. When the physical body is resolved into the two substances previously mentioned, and has acquired the celestial nature.
Q. What is the name which is applied by Philosophers to the Matter during this period ?
A. It is called their Physical Chaos, and it is, in fact, the true First Matter, a name which can hardly be applied before the conjunction of the male— which is sulphur — with the female — which is silver.
Q. To what does the third solution refer ?
A. It is the humectation of the mineral earth, and it is closely bound up with multiplication.
Q. What fire must be made use of in our work ?
A. That fire which is used by Nature.
Q. What is the potency of this fire ?
A. It dissolves everything that is in the world, because it is the principle of all dissolution and corruption.
Q. Why is it also termed Mercury ?
A. Because it is in its nature aerial, and a most subtle vapour, which par- takes at the same time of sulphur, whence it has contracted some contamination.
Q. Where is this fire concealed ?
A. It is concealed in the subject of art.
Q. Who is it that is familiar with, and can produce, this fire?
A. It is known to the wise, who can both produce it and purify it.
Q. What is the essential potency and characteristic of this fire ?
A. It is excessively dry, and is continually in motion ; it seeks only to disintegrate and to educe things from potentiality into actuality ; it is that, in a word, which coming upon solid places in mines, circulates in a vaporous torm upon the matter, and dissolves it.
Q. How may this fire be most easily distinguished ?
A. By the sulphureous excrements in which it is enveloped, and by the saline environment with which it is clothed.
Q. What must be added to this fire so as to accentuate its capacity for incineration in the feminine species ?
A. On account of its extreme dr}'ness it requires to be moistened.
Q. How many philosophical fires do you enumerate ?
A. There are in all three — the natural, the unnatural, and the contra- natural.
Q. Explain to me these three species of fires.
A. The natural fire is the masculine fire, or the chief agent ; the unnatural is the feminine, which is the dissolvent of Nature, nourishing a white smoke, and assuming that form. This smoke is quickly dissipated, unless much care be exercised, and it is almost incombustible, though by philosophical sub- limation it becomes corporeal and resplendent. The contra-natural fire is that which disintegrates compounds, and has the power to unbind what has been bound very closely by Nature.
A Short Catechism of Alc/temy,
305
Q, Where is our matter to be found ?
A. It is to be found everj'where^ but it must specially be sought in met- allic nature, where it is more easily available than elsewhere.
Q. What kind must be preferred before all others ?
A. The most mature, the most appropriate, and the easiest ; but care* be- fore all things, must be taken that the metallic essence shall be present, not only potentially but In actuality, and that there \n^ moreover, a metallic splendour.
Q» Is everything contained in this subject?
A. Yes ; but Nature, at the same time, must be assisted, so that the work may be perfected and hastened, and this by the means which are familiar to the higher grades of experiment.
Q. Is this subject exceedingly precious ?
A, It is vile, and originally is without native elegance ; should anyone say that it is saleable, it is the species to which they refer, but, fundamentaUvt it is not saleable, because it is useful in our work alone.
Q. What does our Matter contain ?
A. It contains Salt, Sulphur, and Mercurjv.
Q* What operation is it most important to be able to perform ?
A. The successive extraction of the Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.
Q, How is that done ?
A. By sole and perfect sublimation.
Q. What is in the first place extracted ?
A. Mercury in the form of a white smoke.
Q, What follows?
A, Igneous water, or Sulphur.
Q. What then ?
A. Dissolution with purified salt, in the first place volatilising that which is fixed, and afterwards fixing that which is volatile into a precious earth, which is the Vase of the Philosophers, and is wholly perfect.
Q. When must the Philosopher begin his enterprise ?
A, At the moment of daybreak, for his energy must never be relaxed*
Q. When may he take his rest ?
A. When the work has come to its perfection*
Q. At what hour is the end of the work ?
A. High noon, that is to say, the moment when the Sun is in its fullest power, and the Son of the Day-Star in its most brilliant splendour.
Q. What is the pass-word of Magnesia?
A. You know whether I can or should answer i— I reserve my speech,
Q. Give me the greeting of the Philosophers.
A. Begin ; I will reply to you.
Q, Are you an apprentice Philosopher ?
A, My friends, and the wise, know me.
Q. What is the age of a Philosopher ?
A. From the moment of his researches to that of his discoveries, the Philosopher does not age* v
APPENDIX VII.
[The manuscript of Paracelsus which is preserved in the Vatican Library is not the only treatise which is attributed to him under the title of MantiaL The octavo volume, which has already supplied the material for the fourth appendix, contains two extensive collections of processes, the one devoted to chemistry and the other to medicine, which are respectively described as the Primum and the Secundum Manuale. The latter is wholly outside the scope of this translation, but the first, which here follows, would have assuredly deserved a position of palmary importance in its proper section if there were not grave reason to doubt its genuine character. The preface has already stated that there are no satisfactory rules for distinguishing between the authentic and forged writings which pass under the name of Paracelsus. The early date of the Basle octavo might be regarded as in favour of its contents ; it contains the Archidoxies, which are themselves indisputable, and it will be seen that the Primum Manuale claims to have been printed direct from an autograph manuscript. At the same time it does not correspond in any traceable manner with what is known of the Vatican treatise, and its "demonstrative physics" would appear to belong rather to the most sus- picious section of alchemical literature than to serious experimental records. While this, of course, is an individual opinion, it is based upon a somewhat wide acquaintance with the great masters of alchemy, and on the evidence of other writings contained in the present volume which are less open to question. But whatever its actual value, it would by no means be right to exclude it because it is of doubtful authenticity, or because it is not in correspondence with what is known concerning a manuscript to which few have an opportunity of access. It has been, therefore, reserved to an appendix, where it may be accepted for what it is worth. If it be really a work of Paracelsus, the veils of the great mystery have been folded very thickly, and are not of an inviting texture.]
A MANUAL OF PARACELSUS THE GREAT,
Thai most excellent Philosopher and Doctor of both kinds of Medicine ;
THAT IS,
A Thesaurus of Special Alchemical Experiments under the Autograph OF THE Author himself — Paracelsus.
The Work on Mercury for Luna and Sol, which I have done WITH my Own Hands.
TAKE of calcined tartar 2lb., and of quicklime ilb. Mix together. Place, in a vessel well luted, in a potter*s furnace, that it may be calcined and rendered white. Dissolve that matter in the following lixivium. Let it stand until the calx in the bottom shall become tartar turned into water. Then distil by a filter ; afterwards take the lixivium and place on it lib. of ^gg shell with ilb. of quicklime. Make all boil together, so that it may become a stone. Put this to be again calcined as before, and also place it again in the lixivium ; dissolve and distil it by the filter. Treat it again with Qg% shell and quicklime, as above, and repeat this three or four times ; lastly, take the lixivium distilled by the filter, and make it boil until it is congealed. Let that tartar be calcined by itself for 15 or 16 hours ; then dissolve it into an oil, and thus you will have oil of tartar. Then take the Mercury, sublimate it with quicklime and ^gg shell and calcined sulphur three or four times. Imbibe it nine times with the aforesaid oil, and sublimate it. What remains at the bottom, preserve in a glass vessel. What ascends, imbibe another nine times, sublimate, and preserve what remains. Imbibe yet again, and continue doing so until nothing ascends. Then take the mercury, pound it well, and imbibe it yet once again. Then dissolve it into an oil in a cold cellar. When all is dissolved put in 6 oz., i oz. of silver foil. Place it in horse-dung, that it may be dissolved into water, and, when dissolved, coagulate it into Luna.
Into Sol. In the place of Luna take Sol, and in the imbibition of the Mercury add
crocus of Mars, that it may become red.
V2
3o8 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Thb Lixivium in made thus : ft Quicklime
Wood ashes Egg shell of each a sufficient quantity ; and boil to the thickness you know to be sufficient.
The Work of Sulphur, according to our Operation. ft Sulphur lib.
Crocus of Mars ilb. Colcothar Jib. Place in a glazed vessel, and boil with the aforesaid lixivium until it be well reddened. Then distil, calcine the remains, repeat operation, and do the same twelve times, or even more, till one part of it becomes red and the other remains white. Let that whiteness be distilled by itself so long as it does not burn. Then mix with oil of tartar, and let it fix the mercury. It will congeal it if it be boiled therein, and will be fixed by sublimation and putrefaction, so that one part tinges a hundred parts. Take the red part of that oil, place it on silver foil, and let it stand for a week. Afterwards purify by ashes, and you will have good and excellent Sol. Or boil mercury in the same and a similar result follows. Hamelius first made a lixivium, and says that out of ten pounds there is scarcely one of tartar. Let it be very acid.
Concerning Mercury.
Take mercury, and pound it with egg-shells. Boil it with oil of tartar, and afterwards sublimate it. Repeat this fifty times. Then take that mercury, and imbibe it with oil of Luna. Having done this, add a little of the oil of tartar and sublimated mercury. Mix all together and put in a flask, well luted, on a gentle fire for 24 hours, and then for four hours on a fierce fire. You will then find a stone which will perform wonders. Dissolve this in water, and the water tinges to Luna. Dissolve in it as much Luna as possible, and afterwards coagulate.
To Reduce the Dust of Metals into Ashes.
Take of the dust of the metal i quartal ; borax, tartar, i quartal each ; imbibe with oil of tartar, and afterwards dissolve.
Concerning Stelliones or Spotted Lizards. If stelliones are distilled by descent, they yield an oil, of which it is said that it should fix mercur}' and convert it into Sol.
Another. We believe that the ashes of a stellio should convert Luna into Sol, if they be projected on Luna.
Another. If you pour into their stomach, by means of a reed, a quantity of Mercurius vivusy put it into a luted vessel, and burn it, you will find fixed mercury, which is Luna. Take particular notice of these stelliones.
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Concerning Lizards. As we have prescribed in the case of stelliones^ so do we also write con- cerning common lizards. The virtue of these animals should be carefully noted.
To Cut Iron with Iron. Take a leek, a radish, and some earth-worms. Distil the water from them, in which dissolve a small knife as long as may be necessar>%
An Opinion on tbb Fixation of Spirits. We have an opinion that the fixation of niercur)^ can in no way be better effected than In the following : Take the white of eggs and purify it with vitriol, alum, salt of nitre, and colcothar. Distil it again and again. Then distil w^ith calcined tartar and the ashes of eggs from three to six times. Then imbibe the mercury from the colcothar and calcined tartar with the aforesaid oil until it remains on red-hot iron. Place that mercury in a glass vessel and dissolve it in water. That water dissolves Luna, When it has been dissolved, put it again to digest until it is altogether turned to water. Coagulate this with water and project this stone, whereupon it is dissolved and converted into Luna. It will last for even But if you desire to turn it to a red colour, take gold instead of Luna, and it is coloured red with water of the crocus of Mars. Investigate concerning the calx of Luna and fixed arsenic.
The Preparation of Tuthia for Perpetual Redness. Take some green tuthta and pound it. Mix it w^'th salt, and place it on a fire, in a well luted crucible, for a day and a night, AftenA^ards open crucible and sweeten the compound. Repeat this process ; then scatter Luna upon it, and it will be reddened for ever.
For Fixing all Spirits.
Take of the salt of tartar, vitriol, and saltpetre i IK each, of common salt, wood ashes, oak ashes, vine-wood, and aminon 5 lb. or 6 lb. each, with 1 lb. of calcined tartar, quicklime, and alum. Pour acetum over this, and let it stand for three days. Constantly shake it, and afterwards set it to boil for an hour.. Then let it be luted and leave it to stand for fifteen days, it being shaken fi\Q times in each day* Then distil it by means of a filter, and keep it* You can pour in fresh acetum upon it until the virtue is thoroughly extracted, Then place spirit in that water, congeal and dissolve it, and it will be congealed.
The Fixation of Spirits.
Take of prepared common salt, sweet water, prepared salt of alcali, sal ammoniac, oil of urine, and tartar, 1 lb. each, and of honey 5 lb. Place these in a glass vessel in horse-dung for a period of eight days. Afterwards take them out and let them boil gradually in succession. Then you will find a clear white stone- Project this in acetum, and it is turned into water. With this water imbibe the spirits and the calcined bodies \ thus mercury is converted into Luna.
3IO The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings 0/ Paracelsus.
The Fixation of Spirits.
Imbibe the spirit with oil of tartar, and then the oil is distilled or extracted from it. Keep doing this until it will stand a somewhat strong fire. Take the sublimated spirit, etc., and pound it on marble with oil of tartar. Place it in an alembic upon the sublimating furnace, and distil the oil from it until it is perfectly dried. Do this until nothing is evaporated from the coal. Afterwards put it in a phial and plunge it in dung for ten days, until it is consumed into water. Afterwards put it in a hot furnace with a clear fire until it is congealed.
Note, that you can fix the spirit with oil of sulphur, or of sal ammoniac, and with water of white vitriol. But for conversion into Sol it must be treated with water of tartar.
How Spirits should be Dissolved. Put into water eggshell, salt of alcali, and sal ammoniac. This water is poured on the warm or fused Spirit and it becomes a powder. Afterwards dissolve and congeal it. Dissolve nine times and it will be fixed.
The Fixation of Salts and of Spirits so that thev will remain in the fire and melt like lead. Dissolve salt in acetum and place therein mercury at pleasure, sulphur, and arsenic, and they will melt together.
Concerning Lixivia.
Make a lixivium as strong as possible, pour oil on it, and let it stand for
two days. Shake it frequently, and it will be converted into milk. Having
done this, try whether it will stand the fire. If it does, well and good ; but
if not, put it on again until it does stand, and it will be fixed. Do this for
seven days, imbibing and drying it over a slow fire. It will then flow like
lead.
Concerning the Virtue of Oil of Tartar.
Distil the oil from crude tartar. It avails in all diseases of the joints and
of the spleen, whilst it also absorbs ulcers.
The Fixation and Tincture of Spirits. Take of calcined tartar one part, of water of the body quantum suff. Let it boil, and note that it is well imbibed with oil of tartar. Distil until it is dried, and repeat this as long as the ingredients remain in the fire. Afterwards take the spirit, pound it, and place it within a glass vessel in horse dung. Let it remain for ten days, desiccate over fire the water thence produced, and thus it will be fixed. Note that you can fix spirits with oil of sulphur or with water of sal ammoniac, or with water of white vitriol. Distemper the water of tartar in the sun with crocus of Mars, as above, etc.
To Dissolve Tartar in one hour without a Furnace. Take marble and place upon it some tartar. Let it stand in water as long as possible, but so that the water shall not touch the tartar, and it will soon be dissolved.
W Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
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Note Concerning Minerals. Note concerning alcalii which has been made from the strongest lixivium. If a mineral be imbibed therewith in a glass vessel, it will be fixed.
Another Method of Combustion, which holds good for all Minerals.
Take Mineral, 4 lbs.
Calcined Tartar, i quartal.
Flour, J4 It?.
Bruised Glass^ 1 lb.
Good lute and oil, quant, suff. Make a ball the size of your fist. Dry it and burn it for ten hours in a closed vessel or a hollow globe. Having done this, break and w^ash it, imbibe it with litharge and anatron in Saturn, with glass or sand strewn over it, for two or three hours. Afterwards It must be fulminated ; but note this, that it should be imbibed with the sand until no smoke ascends, and then fulminated.
Note on the above. Every mineral should be first evaporated in Saturn before it is placed in the ashes.
For Sulphureous and Antimoniac Minerals, Distil the sulphureous or antimoniac minerals by descent for 6 or 8 hours. Then the sulphur is distilled by descent, and the mineral holds Luna or Sol, which is purged by lead, as you well know how.
But if a lixivium is put into the lower vessel, then the sulphur is converted into an oil.*
To Separate Luna from Venus in Money.
Take equal parts of arsenic and saltpetre. Dissolve by successive degrees over a slow fire. Then the money in a state of flux is put in, piece by piece, and left in a state of fusion for about a quarter of an hour. Four In a regulus, and the Luna is separated from the Venus.
The Coagulation of Mercury.
Fill an egg-shaped crucible with mercury, fasten the opening with a lute,
then place It in an open vessel. Four on lead, and put it to cool. Thus you
will have it coagulated.
To Redden Sulphur.
Let it be distilled by descent, and afterwards let water be placed in the
lower vessel. The sulphur will adhere* and will be coloured red.
My own Recipe.
Take Sublimated Mercury, Ibt ij.
Sublimated Sal Ammoniac, lb* i.
Crude Tartar, lb. ij.
Calcined Tartar, lb. ilj.
Mix together and place in a glass vessel in cold water, so that it may be
dissolved. When dissolved put in it 6 oz. of calx of Luna. Let this dissolve,
* From thu point ihc recipes are given partly in L.itin and poiHy in German, the greater paurt being oflten in ihe tatter Umguoge.
3 1 2 T}u Hermetic and AlcJiemical Writings of Paracelsus.
and when you have done so, coagulate. Dissolve and coagulate a second
time.
In Alchemy.
Take Oil of Antimony, iiij. parts Auripigment, i. part Crocus of Mars, i. part Salt of Nitre, i. part Reddened Flos Aeris, i. part Let them be imbibed with oil of antimony and dried, until the whole of the oil is imbibed. Take of these powders 3iij., and of Luna 5 s. Let them remain continuously for 12 hours in a state of fusion. You will find in the separation of the strong waters, Ix. d. of good gold, or more ^^ by the side of ^^ white or yellow arsenic, ^^^y the fusion of sulphur .... lily. Take of this oil half an ounce, of fixed sulphur and sal ammoniac 3 i., and of burnt salt 3 ij«
A Cement of Part with the Part. Take 3 iiij. each of Bolus Armenus Fixed Salt of Nitre Fused and prepared Common Salt Red Vitriol. Si. each of
Sal Ammoniac Flos Aeris. 5i. each of
Burnt Brass Red Calamine Stone. Let the powders be imbibed with urine, and the/arr cum parte of Sol and Luna be cemented for twelve hours. Then let it stand in a state of flux for six hours. Let this process be repeated by cementing three times, and you will have Sol of 24 degrees according to every test.
Given by the Grace of God. Take Oxide of Vitriol \
Flos Aeris j- \ part each.
Sal Ammoniac i Ematite i. oz. Boil in a glass vessel and dry to a powder. Place in dung or a cellarium, that it may be dissolved to water. Coagulate this water to a powder. Then take i. part of gold, ii. or iii. of silver. Dissolve and project \ oz. of this over viii. oz. projected in a state of flux. The more it is burnt, the better it will be.
A Very Good Cement in Sol. Take calcined Venus, vitriol calcined to a gray colour, and use a common salt. Let Sol be cemented in it 12 or 6 or 8, and it will then be graduated to the highest point.
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Fixed Oil. Take equal parts of salt, of nitre, and of quick lime. Burn it well for one hour, then dissolve and filter it, and it will be coag^ulated. Do the same with oil of tartar. Take equal parts of both. Dissolve in dung or in a bath.
Solution of Gold by Marcasites. Take Antimony x. parts.
iij. parts each.
Common Sulphur /
Crude Tartar
Common Salt fused ij. Let them flow together into a black mass. Put them at the same time to be melted with the marcasites. Pour in the regulus, and purify In a cinder fire.
The Projection of Luna.
Take of golden marcasite and of stibium equal parts. Pour them together into a fusorium 27, From the fusorium it is extinguished in strong alcali. Project in succession, and you will find much Sol in the separalion of the strong waters.
The Fixation of Antimony. Take Antimony i. lb. Saltpetre ilb. Put them to melt together in a tigillum, and the mixture will become fixed. It no longer consumes gold or silver, nor is evaporated by fire, and is of a red colour.
Water giving Weight to Sol and Luna. [Also if you wish to give weight to a silver or gold cup,]
A Great Secret. Take Calx of egg-shells Jij. Sal Ammoniac 2A ozs. Let these be mixed by impastation. Leave the mixture in a damp place that it may be dissolved. Distil by a filter. Then dip gold or silver therein, and they will acquire three times their original weight.
A Good Mode of Whitening, which will stand the Fire, and the
Test of Lead. Take Sublimated Mercury ^iv.
Sublimated Arsenic | u ?■* Calcined Luiia ) ^*
Sal Ammoniac Bviij. Sublimate three or four times, and afterwards add the clear part of eggs^ cooked quant suff. Pound the whole together until it be dissolved After* wards distil in an alembic and congeal. If it be then dissolved in a bath, it will have more strength, and let there be placed therein one part in too of purified copper, tin, or mercury.
314 The Hermetic and AlcJumical Writings of Paracelsus.
For Minerals not Fixed. Take the unfixed mineral Common Salt Flour in equal parts. Let them be pounded together and moistened, so as to be- come a thick mass. Let it be dried by the fire, afterwards pounded, washed, and fulminated.
Method of Calcining Mercury and the Preparation of Mercury
WITH MaRCASITES.
Take Salt of Nitre Calcined Alum I lb. each. Take aquafortis, neither more nor less in quantity. Take the marcasite in powder, and place it in a phial with three ounces of Mercury. Pour upon it the aquafortis aforesaid, and let the phial be closed with sealing- wax. When the mercur>' ceases to move and to leap about, then wash it well, dry it, with it take equal parts of litharge and calcined tartar. Mix all, reduce to a fluid together, afterwards by ash fire.
From the golden marcasite is made Sol, and from the silver, Luna.
A Test for the said Work over Marcasite.
Take marcasite, and place it in a tigillum with Mercury over the coals.
Thus the Mercury becomes hard and red, and the marcasite fluid. Then it
is strong.
Another Method for the above.
Place it in lead previously washed. If the lead renders it hard as Luna,
and divisible when struck, it is good. Lord Leonhardus Sems (gave) the
above.
Note. Take of Cinnabar i. lb.
of Arsenical Sulphur \ equal quantities, viz.,
of Calcinated Tartar ) i. quartal.
of Alcohol of Soot J V, 1. IK
of Twice-prepared Salt ( *
of Saltpetre to the weight of all.
Let them be mixed, pounded, and imbibed several times with water of eggs
or albumen of tartar. Let them stand in flux for three hours. Then kindle.
After this liquefy the mixture for four hours in a very strong fire. Proceed
to wash and purge by cineritium, and you will have the Treasure of the
World.
Of Zinc.
Take aquafortis in which Luna is dissolved ; afterwards imbibe with zinc ; next by means of the cineritium. Also imbibe and fulminate the dross in the glass.
For Minerals which do not readily Melt.
Extract alcali out of the capiU nwrtuum^ with which alcali every mineral is forcibly dissolved.
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Concerning Minerals out of Arsenic.
Take^ pound well, and lute into slime by vicediam. Afterwards burn in the fire till the smoke ceases. Then it will be sublimated.
Another Method* Take equal quantities of slime and of mlnera. Make a small pellet about the size of a bean. Let it be imbibed successively into Saturn, and afterwards fulminated.
Another Method for Augmenting Minerals, Take of minera and of slime equal quantities. Let them be mingled, placed in ajar, and well luted. Burn three days and nights. After this it will be fulminated and augmented.
For Sulphurous Antimoniacal Minerals.
Take of minera i. lb., of saltpetre \ lb. Burn for an hour. Afterwards
w^ash. Reduce to lead with litharge, and afterwards by means of the
cineritium.
Note.
Take of filings of Venus twelve parts; of laminated Jupiter one part.
Next make the following powder : —
Take xxxij* lb. of Sulphur Sand
iij, lb. of Caput Mortuum
i. lb. of Sulphur
Pound them with the said filings. Make two layers of this powder. Distil in
a wind furnace. Let it become a black powder. Next smelt it with half a
part fz. Pour the regulus. Join to it three ounces of Luna in a cineiitium
of light. Then you will have your Luna and 7^ oz. in cineritium.
Reduction of the Minera. Take of minera i lb., of minium lb. i. Cause them to stand in flux half an hour. Then infrigidate. Combine in equal quantities with litharge. Imbibe in Saturn and fulminate. You will then find one dram of Luna and more than half an ounce of pure gold. Dross makes up the larger proportion.
Digestion op the Moon.
Take of Alum v. lb.
of Saltpetre | , ,... „
of Vitriol 1 "'='' "'J- "^-
of Verdigris iij. oz.
-, , -. . of Cinnabar ij* oz.
Make aquafortis.
Afterwards take of Cinnabar \
crude Mercury \ xv. lb. each
reddened Vitriol )
Let the aquafortis above-mentioned be poured over these recipes. Distil and
at length purge. Also take iij. lb. of this water. Let there be dissolved
therein two marcs of Luna. Afterwards let it stand on the cinders thirty
days. You will then find tit. oz. of good gold.
3i6 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Water Fixing Mercury— A True Recipe.
Take of Sal Ammoniac \
Alcali > equal quantities.
Saltpetre )
Imbibe them with burnt wine and distil. This water fixes Mercury.
Digestion of Luna. Dissolve four ounces of lead, and as it melts a little, inject four ounces of quicksilver. Pulverise, imbibe with oil of tartar into a paste. Pulverise again. Then put the whole aforesaid amalgam in the tigillum. Place above viij. oz. of fixed sulphur. Dissolve thoroughly, mix, afterwards pour out and pulverise. Imbibe thrice with oil of tartar. Dissolve as before. Then take one ounce of purged Luna. Sprinkle gradually over it one ounce of the said powder. You will then find the weight of two grains of good gold.
Separation of Gold from the Cup.
Take of white calcined Tartar i. oz. Sal Ammoniac ij. oz. Let an oil be produced in the cellarium. Then boil the roots of pyrethrum in vinegar for a long time. Take of oil and water equal quantities. Put them into the cup. Note^ of sublimated sulphur see elsewhere.
For the Cineritium. Take of Cinder three parts
of Brick pounded and strained, two parts Also take again three parts of cinders, with one part of melted salt boiled with one part 27 oz. of small nails. It produces the equivalent of one talent.
To RENDER Iron unusually Hard. Distil water from radish and maw worms. Extinguish twice or thrice, and gems can be cut with it.
To make Light without Fire. Take cantharides, putrefy it in dung, and distil it. Put this water into a hollow crystal, and there will be sufficient light to read by.
For the White and Red. Take Vitriol Rom. lb. j. Saltpetre lb. vj. Cinnabar oz. iij. Distil as aquafortis. But collect the second water, which is saffron-coloured ; divide it into two parts, and in the first part dissolve i. oz. of sublimated mercury, in the other part i. oz. of silver filings. Let it dissolve and close it carefully. Having done this, let it distil over a very slow fire by means of an alembic until only a third part of it remains.
Afterwards put it into a good vessel of glass, and place this in cold, damp earth for fifteen days. Then the aforesaid matter falls to the bottom like a
A Manual of Par ace ism the Great,
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small, dear, and crystalline stone. Next, by means of a filter extract the water, so that the stones may remain, and place these* in a well-closed glass vessel, thoroughly luted, for ^\^ days in dung, and let them be dissolved into water.
Take this water, put it in another vessel, and place the vessel in some other earth with a moderate light. Make a very slow fire underneath, scarcely more than the light of a lamp, for the space of three days, and that water will be hardened to the consistence of a stone. Take that stone once more and pulverise it on cleansed marble. Then place it in a glass vessel in dung for 30 days. Let it be again dissolved into water and hardened once more by fire in the manner aforesaid. Then once more dissolve it under dung as before, and keep on dissolving and congealing it until it is dissolved in one day. Then you will be better able to congeal and dissolve it. And it will be a water which congeals mercury into true Luna at every trial One part of Luna is deposited for every thousand parts of mercurj^
And if vou wish to Multiply. Take the aforesaid aqua fortis in such quantity that you can dissolve in it 40 oz. of Luna in plates. Put it in a vessel by itself, and the same quantity of sublimated mercurj^ by itself in another vessel. Leave it until it is dissolved in the w^ater mentioned above. Into the water named before put one ounce of the elixir already described, which has stood for 12 days, while being made. Put all these ingredients, in a %vell-closed glass vessel, under the earth, in a cold, damp spot, for nine days ; then all will descend to the bottom of the vessel in the form of a crj'stalline stone. Extract the water by means of an alembic in the method described above, and place the stones in warm dung for nine days as before. They will then be dissolved into water. Then know^ that this is the water of Luna and Mercurius, and that one ounce of the medicine should be viij. And the saffron medicine which falls will be one on a thousand. For Sol it is made thus : — Take Vitriol Rom. lb. i.
Saltpetre lb. \.
Cinnabar lb. \
Distil, as before, a second prepared water. In one part dissolve quick mercury, as much as you will. Then draw off" the water by an alembic, and the calcined mercury will remain at the bottom. Burn this in the fire, as you know how, and it will be like blood* It may be dissolved perhaps In aqua fortis and make this red. Having done this, take viij. oz. of the red water itself and i. oz. of the aforesaid medicine. What you have placed therein will descend to the bottom, in the shape of a crystalline stone. Then draw oflF the water by means of a filter, as before, and the stones will remain at the bottom. Then take the aforesaid stones, put I hem in a well-closed glass vessel, under warm dung for nine days, and it will be dissolved into a water. This medicine gives one part for every one thousand parts of quick mercury-
3i8 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
Another Good Method.
Make an amalgam of best mercury, carefully washed, iii. parts, and of good Luna i. part. Then wash very carefully with salt and acetum, until all blackness disappears. Pound the amalgam on a stone, and dry it. Steep it in urine after wrapping in linen rag. Take an alembic placed on ashes in a furnace, and make a moderate fire of coals, so that you can touch the top of the urine with the hand. Keep on thus decocting and pounding until it is thoroughly black, for this is a good sign. Then wash it in the water of com- mon salt, thoroughly pure, until no blackness appears. Then once more pound, decoct, wash, and dry on linen rag until all blackness has disappeared. Put it then in a glass vessel for sublimation, when it ascends to the sides of the glass, and the Luna with it. Leave it to cool, and again mix all together ; pound and decoct twelve times in succession. Then place it in a vesica with a long neck, together with sublimated sal ammoniac. Pound it with the said amalgam, and let the sal ammoniac be dissolved in warm water, or, better still, in aqua vitae. Afterwards let the vesica be luted and dissolve in warm dung, changing the dung every week so that the matter shall be thoroughly dissolved, and it then becomes an elixir. Afterwards put it in urine to evap- orate, and when the water is evaporated increase the fire, so that all the sal ammoniac may ascend, and the medicine may remain fixed in the bottom. Then remove the sal ammoniac, and congeal the medicine with a slow fire, as if it were Sol, for several days, and the thing is done.
If you wish to multiply this elixir, place one part with loo parts of quick mercury, purified and heated in a crucible. Melt it completely over a slow fire and it becomes friable Luna. If you put one part of this to loo parts of quick mercury it will become purest Sol.
Red Oil which fixes Luna and Sol, and from which the Carbuncle
IS made. Take Crocus Arabicus Calcanthus Arabian Verdigris Litharge
Red Calcined Tin, iij. oz. each Quick Sulphur Citrine Arsenic
Red Sublimated Calx, lbs. ij. each Prepared Sal Ammoniac Saltpetre, distilled and rectified with distilled Red Animal Oil, lb. j. each. Let these ingredients be covered with wax, and, when they have been thus treated twice, put the mixture to dissolve, until a pure red water is produced. Then let it be distilled in an alembic ; and with this water imbibe the quick- silver aforesaid. Then dissolve and distil it as before, and waxen with it the sulphur and the arsenic. Leave it to dissolve and to distil until it be clear and
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red, and coagulates of its own accord in the vessel of coagulation. When it
has been coagulated, waxen it as above. Reduce it over a slow fire with the
addition of animal oil until it will pour out like wax. Project one ounce of it
on 100 parts of Luna or Jupiter, If there be mercury or anything else therein^
tinge it, and it will be coagulated, producing gold better than that of Nature.
Hereby also carbuncles can be made out of crystals.
The Gradation of Luna.
Take Sal Ammoniac, oz. i,
Alumen Jameni, 02, i.
Flos j^ris, oz. ij.
Vitriol Rom.» oz, J
Saltpetre, oz, 4
Tuchia, oz. i.
Make an aqua fortis. Then pulverise thoroughly the dregs. Dissolve i.
part of Sol and i. part of Luna, and project y^ a dram thereupon. Afterwards
granulate per sturbam in the aforesaid strong water, and thus, beyond any
doubtj you will have gold that will answer any test up to xxiiij. degrees.
Perpetual Water,
Take the calx of eggs. Dissolve it with the while of eggs for three
weeks. This water placed on a brass plate heated to redness wil! acquire
perpetual whiteness.
Another Mode.
Dissolve the calx of eggs with alumen jamenum, sugar, and common salt.
Distil once in an alembic, and it serves for Luna.
Precious Water.
Take Salt of Nitre 1 , ^ c- 1 * • S ^'J« 02s. each
Sal Ammoniac }
Honey, cooked and skimmed, v. oz.
Boy's Urine, xv. oz.
Let these be mixed ; place them in a furnace for two days. Then congeal for
one day and dissolve ; and it will be perfect water, which congeals mercury
that has been purified and heated. It will also transmute brass into good
Luna.
The Strong Water called the Oil of the Philosophers.
Take one part each of Vitriol Rom., and salt of nitre. Pulverise them
and mix with charcoal made from linden wood. Moisten with acetum ; then
pound, dissolve, and distil, when it will become an ardent water.
For Sol.
Dissolve cinnabar with water of sal ammoniac, vitriol, and salt of nitre
unVil it is perfectly fixed and becomes red, which will be after three or four
dissolutions, Put this for sublimation with the same quantity of sal
ammoniac. Repeat the sublimations until it be poured forth. Then dissolve
in acetum, having previously dissolved plumose alum in the bath. Continue
until it be as fluid as wax^ and part of it tinges prepared Luna.
320 Tlu Hemutic and AUhemual Wriiimgs of Paracelsus.
CoK?c2.u. Mercl-zics. Take zneciz &nd diisolve :t :n aq'.ia for:ls. Tben r^e Lena, and dissolve that, Jo'»n them tog^ether. and strain them as jou kncv how. Sublimate the arsenic from the body, and it ^-ill become a sort of mass. Pat it into a damp place, and it will be dissolved lr,zo mercurv.
Corporal Mercury. Take any body you wxil and two parts of arsenic. Pulverise, and then sublimate them. Place in hot water and it will come forth as mercunr.
Corporal Mercl~rv from the Metals. Take of any metal one part and of purified white arsenic another part. Make thin plates, place them one over the other in layers, and let them be regulated first of all in a slow fire, successively made stronger until it begins to smoke. Then pour quickly into cold water, and you will find mercury. Mercl-rv from Jupiter axd Satvrx. Put layer for layer of quicklime and metal, and place them in a sublimatory. Set on the fire, and sublimate as you know how. The mercury ascends, ad- hering to the alembic, and is quickened.
Corporal Mercury from Saturn. Dissolve Saturn and put salt upon it. Shake it until it turns to a powder. Then wash it with warm water and dr\' it. Afterwards put it in a glass vessel and pour upon it the white of eggs and water of sal ammoniac. Lute it, put it in horse dung for two days, then take it out, and you will have what you require.
The Mercury of Saturn according to the Experiment of Hamelius.
Take thin plates of Saturn, placed layer by layer ni-ith common salt in a vessel. Bury it for eight days in the ground. Dilute n^nth common water, and then a part of the mercury will be found at once. Repeat the process with the rest.
Mercury of all the Metals.
Take some sal ammoniac, flos aeris, vitriol, and plates of any kind of metal. Put them in layers, and sublimate them. Place the sublimated portion in acetum, and you will find Mercurius vivus. Do this until all the plates are turned into mercury.
Mercury from all Bodies.
Take the calx of any metal and place it in acetum, in which there are tn^'o
parts of the calx of the body and one part of sal ammoniac. Place these in
dung for seven days, and the body becomes mercury. If an amalgam is made
from it, together with Sol and Luna, by degrees natural mercury is fixed
with it.
Corporal Mercury.
Take Saturn, and dissolve it in a tigillum. When it is dissolved, scatter
over it sal ammoniac, and stir it with a spatula until it becomes a powder.
Afterwards project the powder in boiling water, and the salt will be dissolved
^ Manual of Paracelsus ike Great,
3^1
In the water. Then desiccate pulverised lead in the bottom, and put it with white of eggs into a glass vessel for 62 days. Afterwards remove the water, and you will find the mercury in a fluid state at the bottom.
Another Method. Take a sufficient quantity of sulphur and linseed oil. Boil the mixture until it comes to the form of a vapour* Put in it plates of Saturn, and it is converted into Mercury in three days.
Corporal Mercury from Luna.
Take plates of fulminated Luna ; dissolve in aquafortis. Extract the aquafortis by means of an alembic, and wash the calx with fresh water. Mix with it sal ammoniac, alcali, and oil of tartar. Blend all together on marble and pound thoroughly for three or four hours. Then the body gains a souL Collect this soul carefully, and the four elements.
Th!s is the Foundation about which all the Philosophers have
Written. If you cannot pound them so long on marble, then after you have done so for two days, and the soul does not shew any desire for the body, place all together in a glass vessel, and put it in dung for four weeks. Afterwards set the glass vessel in a capella and abstract the water until all moisture has disappeared. Strengthen the fire, and the blessed water ascends. Collect this carefully, and if any remains in the alembic, remove it with a feather. If the body is not totally abstracted, add more oil of tartar, put it in a glass vessel with other simples, as before, pound it well, and set it in dung for eight days. Thus the whole will be extracted.
Corporal Mercury from Saturn. Take Saturn, put it in a patella, and when it Is slightly dissolved, stir it well with an iron spatula. Afterwards let it be divided into minute parts and salted with salt. When this is done let it be again dissolved. Pour warm water over it, and it attracts the water to itself. Then take calx of marble, put it in a closed glass vessel, well luted ; set it in horse dung, let it stand for a month, renewing the dung each week, and it is transmuted into Mercury.
To Convert White Sol into Aloth. Take oil of vitriol by descent, calcined oil of tartar, and sal ammoniac in equal parts. Mix them» adding calx of Luna, and place in a phial. Set this in horse dung or in a bath of Mary for four weeks, that it may putrefy. Open the vessel and put equal weights of pounded sal ammoniac and salt of alcali, with oil of vitriol. Putrefy as before for four weeks, and the body will be entirely converted into Aloth.
Corporal Mercury. Take vitriol, saltpetre, and alum. Make aquafortis as you know. Then take capui mortuum and extract its salt with common water. Reverberate the caput mortuum a second time, again extracting the salt. Repeat this
W
322 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
process, the oftener the better. Afterwards take the earth that remains. Pour over it aquafortis. Leave it to stand for one day. Then force it through the alembic in that aquafortis. Dissolve the moon. Abstract the phlegm through the alembic in the bath. Afterwards take good sal alcali, reverberate it, and dissolve in oil. Then take good oil of tartar, and afterwards dissolved sal ammoniac, which has been six times sublimated. Take equal quantities of these three oils. Pound away the calx therewith, put in a cupel. Pour the oils over to the height of a finger. Place in horse dung fifteen days. Then set over cinders. Drive at first gently, afterwards violently. Then there ascends a white powder, which proves from a marc to two ounces of Luna. This makes living with brandy or sunst.
Receipt op the Bishop of Strasburg. Take of filings of Luna two ounces. Dissolve in aquafortis. Then abstract thence into the third part of the water through the alembic. Put in a cold place, where white pebbles collect ; take them and weigh them. Then take so much of salt of tartar, and half as much of sublimated sal ammoniac, and putrefy them in dung, whereupon the pebbles will become mercury. Dry it by means of fustian (?) cloth. If it does not become Mercury, sublimate it, whereupon you will have Mercury out of Luna.
Freising.
Take of aquafortis one part out of two parts of vitriol, and one part of alumen. In it dissolve Luna, then excoct the calx. Then take of the burnt salt of tartar two parts, common salt one part, salt alcali, salt of urine one part each.
Pound these salts together with the calx of the moon, and let the quantity of the salts of the moon be as much as of all the salts. Dissolve it all in water ; next put therein wheat meal and a little brandy. Let it become dry as glass (?). Then sublimate it. Thus Luna Mercurius is produced.
Note.
Take leaves of Luna beaten extremely thin, a finger's length and the breadth of a creutzer, put it into a mortar (?) and reverberate it nine consecutive days, purify it from the sulphur which then comes forth, and reverberate it five' or six times, or until Luna yields no more sulphur. This takes place when the leaves become black.
Impaste this sulphur with quintessence of wine, and there will be quick- silver. Reverberate it with wood of oak or birch.
The Original has. Dissolve tartar in aquafortis, then let it evaporate and be coagulated. Then dissolve it out of a stone into an oil. Pour it upon sulphur of the moon. Stir it in a vessel with a hard wooden spoon, and you have Mercury of the body.
A Manual of Paracelsus tJie Great, 2>^i
Mercury of the Body, Take of sal ammoniac one part, o^ Mercury sublimated one part, of calx of lime one part. Pound the sal ammoniac and mercury well together; let them melt jjently. Put in the Luna, speedily take it out again (and place) on a dish with water, and stir it. Then dr}^ it with a towel or leather; You will then have Mercury of the Moon, true and good.
Another Method, Take saltpetre which has been well purified. Pound it well and put it into a cucurbit. Set it among warm ashes, whereupon the saltpetre will boil like water. Then take the calcined Luna and put it into water. Let it stand thus, care being taken lest the ashes be too hot. Then mercury of silver w^ill be produced. Strain through a cloth and collect the mercur>\
Corporal Mercury. Vitriol also, if it be distilled alone into water and a quantity of filings be placed therein, will in the course of time become Mercur}-,
Another Method.
With Mercui^^ sublimate seven times, pound calx or cinder of every metal ; add flour and water. It will descend, for it will turn into living Mercur)', Reduce to a cinder after solution and repercussion* cleansing it thoroughly of saltness and spirits of aquafortis*
Take filings of Luna. Afterwards take Mercur)\ which you must wash with salt and vinegar. Cook Mercury with vinegar and salt. Take three parts of this and of filings of Luna one. Make an amalgam and pound well for two hours on a smooth stone. Then let the Mercury evaporate. After- wards remove the vinegar and salt with warm water. Calcine that calx of Luna twenty hours, and there will be a woolly Luna. After which calcination put in the distilled vinegar. Then make the remaining calx, working as above. Then take the extracted Luna, pound it with some tartar, and it wHIl be live Mercury.
Note.
Dissolve filings of Luna in aquafortis, draw the third part through the alembic and put it in a cold place, where crj'stals collect. Take it and weigh it; add the same quantity of sulphur and half that quantity of sal ammoniac, etc., as see above, in the Bishop s art.
Another. Take the calx of any metal, place it in vinegar, wherein let there be distilled two parts of sulphur, of sal ammoniac one part, and of Mercury sublimate one part. Let it be placed in dung or in the bath eight or ten days, then let it be distilled among the cinders, and Mercury will ascend. With this there is an amalgam of Luna or di Sol, and you will tinge all bodies. Take of subli- mated Mercury, which see, pound it with steel filings, out of sal ammoniac, put it into a wet place, and let it be dissolved into oil without water.
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Note. A tincture must be made after the manner in which oil is extracted from vitrioL I>et it come over a slow fire. Then take a quantity of sublimed mer- cury^ and prtpart it over a similar fire, till it shall ha%-e become white. Take 4mt part r/f the filings of the body of Luna, with two parts of the Eagle and of ftaJ ammoniac. Mix them well in a crucible, which seal, and set over a good coal fire. When the contents are completely melted remove them, let them cofil, and then prei^s through a cloth. Then take mercury ; let it remain in
A Manual of Paracelsus Uu Great.
325
the cloth ; expel thoroughly by means of Satiirni take a portion of mercurial water and a portion of running Mercury. On account of the low temperature, take care to cover the body produced. Its formation must take place in the water. Afterwards effect its digestion, sealing well, until a powder results. Dissolve this in the cold and coagulate it in the warmth. Perform this twice at least, and you will have a powder which is potent for tinging.
Again. Take vitrioli and pound it thoroughly. Place it in a glass vase, well covered so as to prevent exhalation. Set it above the furnace and keep up a slow fire below for a whole day, and you w^ill find it turned into w^ater* Then take filings of Mars, well washed in sweet water until all the vitriol depart; after which pound heavily in the mortar. Sprinkle the said filings with water of vitriol, then leave to dissolve for two or three days, whereupon there will result a calx of those filings, but at the bottom of the vessel you will discover Mercury*
Mkrcury of the Body. Make aquafortis out
Of Vitriol i. lb. Of Salt Nitre i. lb. Of Calcinated Alunien ^ lb. And if the alembic becomes red, take the red spirits separately ; in it dissolve the body of the sun and moon, so far as they are capable oi dissolution. Of the same take one part, and four parts of extracted tartar, with quintessence of wine as aforesaid. Or, put the hot tartar into the quintessence to the extent that the quintessence w^ill receive it. Of the same quintessence, together with the extracted tartar, take, as said above, four parts. Then pour the aquafortis, w^ith the body, into the quintessence, for the first time by drops, and set it in Ihe bath for eight days. Then boil it clear, that no dross may remain with it. Extract this once, and again pour on (the aquafortis), until it becomes a transparent oil. Then it is genuine. Next take the earth previously stirred, and extract its phlegm into the sand. Then give a subliming fire, whereupon the body will arise* Cleanse it and make it living in vinegar or boiling wine. Place in the same Mercury the aforesaid oil separately until it is all brought over ; then it will tinge.
Mercltrv of the Body. Take of Sublimated Mercury four parts, Sal Ammoniac tw^o parts,
Mercur>^ of Venus, or preferably Salts of Urine, two part5| Calx of Luna pounded with the salts. Let them remain in putrefaction for eight days.
Another Method. Take of calx of Luna pounded with the same quantity of sal ammoniac* Sublimate three or four times. Then wash the sal ammoniac from it. Drive the calx through a retort with a small fire, and you will have mercury-.
526 The Hermetic and Alchemical Wt^tings of Paracelsus,
Augment, Take of corporal mercur}- four parts, and of fine Sol or Luna one part. Make an amalgam in a copper vessel, with an ordinary bath. Then leave it to digest eight days. When it is fixed, augment it with common mercur>' again, about three times* Afterwards augment it with crude mercury (but perhaps mercury sublimated and rectified is the best). Do this continually, and in eight days it will also be fixed, Or» dissolve Mercury in aquafortis, then let it drive over, and you will again vivify It with that augment.
To MAKE FIXED AUGMENT.
Dissolve Luna in aquafortis, permit half of the water to evaporate ; if crystals collect, place them in a glass cup in a cellar, and an oil will be produced. Imbibe it with a small augment. Place for eight days on hot cinders with little heat, the glass being open. Afterwards subject it to a powerful fire and pulverise well.
Reduction. Take of Minium one part,
Ceruse (otherwise litharge) on^ part, The Fixed Augment one part. Pound the three things w^el! together. Put into a well-luted crucible, and smelt thoroughly for an hour. Then cool and clear away the regulus.
Mercury or the Bodies. Take equal quantities of tartar and of vinegar. Put them in a phial, with long neck, into oil of vitriol. Inject calx of any metal. Stir, and leave to stand eight days. Next inject sal alkali and sal ammoniac in the same quantity as in the previous recipes. Place on dung thirty days, and you will find at the bottom calx converted into Quicksilver.
Note. Take of Mercur>' sublimate half a pound, of Sal ammoniac an equal quantity. Pound well and put them together in a glass. Let it be well luted. Put it in carei/cfjf in warm sand. Kindle a mild fire beneath. Thus it will become one (solid) mass. Remove this ; pound it small ; and put in a damp compartment to dissolve. Afterwards take of filings of Luna one marc. Put it in water. This also becomes water. Coagulate on soft ashes, and reduce to powder, of which inject one part upon ten of Mercury, of purged Jupiter, or of crude Mercury.
Mercury of Jupiter. Liquefy Jupiter. Then inject the same quantity of Mercury, and thus make an amalgam. Next let them be well pulverised and thoroughly incor- porated with water of sal ammoniac, tartar, salt of urine, and the same quantity of common salt. Place in a flask, well sealed up, and set in dung for twenty days, when it will be converted into Mercurj*.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
327
Augment on Mercury of Saturn.
Take of Mercury of Saturn Ji. of Sol 3 s, The amalgam^ if kept at a moderate temperature for eight days, changes into a brown powder, which becomes the finest gold* Add to it half-an-ounce of common Mercury. Again let it stand for eight days, when again it becomes a brown or a red powder, and so on with common Mercury. The case is the same for Luna, and for Mercury of Jupiter with Luna, The whole process must occupy eight days.
Note.
Dissolve Luna in any quantity of aquafortis, and in vinegar dissolve cal- cined tartar. Then pour the two solutions properly together, in such a manner that none may run over. Afterwards pour it into a phial, which must be well luted at the top. Set it in horse dung to putrefy for fourteen days. After- wards put in an (earthen) pan till it becomes inodorous. Precipitate to the bottom whatsoever adheres to the upper part of the pan, and let it cook thus until it becomes as thick as a pottage. Then let it become cold, and stir it under the tartar. If mercury collects, remove it. Then take a measure of water and gradually %vash off the tartar, whereupon all the mercury will collect.
Corporal Mercury.
Take of Luna out of sweetened aquafortis Ji. of Sal ammoniac Js. Mix, Pour over them oil of tartar, which must stand over them to the height of two fingers. Put into a glass well luted, and leave to putrefy four weeks. Extract the humidity from it. Sublimate the remainder. Whatsoever ascends is to be put in warm water, vinegar, or oil of tartar, and thus you will have Mercury.
Oil of Tartar is Produced as Follows.
Take of calcined tartar. Pour upon it the quintessence. Allow it to stand for twenty-four hours. Pour out again until at last no more oil remains in the faeces.
Mercury of the Body-
Take sal alkali, and pour upon it pure urine of youths, so that it may be dissolved therein. Distil through the filter, and coagulate. Afterwards take some sal ammoniac and tw^ice that quantity of Mercury sublimate. Found them together, and place them over a glass slab to dissolve. Afterwards take the water thus dissolved, and pour it into a glass. Place the glass in the bath of Mary, that the aquosity may be consumed and vanish. You must then test it by means of the blade of a knife, as you know. After\vards place therein leaves of Sol, Luna, V^enus, Jupiter, or Saturn, for the space of an ordinary day. It will then be converted into Mercury,
328 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Mercury of Saturn.
Take of Sal ammoniac half-an-ounce.
of Calcined Saturn two ounces.
of Sal manipulum ) ,
- ^ , . , , > one ounce each,
of Calcined alumen )
Mix all together. Put into a glass with a narrow neck, and underneath, at
the bottom, put a quantity of genuine mercury. Afterwards place the matter
on the top. Close the glass securely. Set in horse dung for four weeks.
Then it will become Mercury.
Another Method. Take of calcined Saturn, smear with sap of henbane, dry it, and smear it until it resembles a paste. Then set over a slow fire until the humidity departs. Subsequently, increase the fire, and Quicksilver will come forth.
Salt of Urine for Mercury of the Body. Take of the urine of a man who continually drinks wine, and distil it through the bath. Completely dry the faeces. Then you will have the salt of urine. Then take two ounces of the water of life, four times rectified. In this dissolve half-an-ounce of salt of urine and half-an-ounce of calcined Luna. Pound the calx subtly with burnt salt, the more the better. Cleanse that calx with hot water. Then you must put it into the aforesaid water of life. Let it putrefy fourteen days in dung. Afterwards distil the water of life from the calx. Pound with a little oil of tartar, and it will become Quicksilver.
Mercury of the Moon. Dissolve Luna in aquafortis. Pour in sal ammoniac. Thus Luna is sent down to the bottom. Take one part of this calx. Take an equal part of Mercury sublimate and sal ammoniac. Place in hot cinders, and in three days there will be Mercury of the Moon.
To Convert Metals into Mercury. Take Mercury sublimated seven times, and add to it the same quantity of the purest flour of wheat. Pound them together and saturate the matter with a little pure water. Place in a vessel and subject them to a slow fire, that the moisture may evaporate. This having been done, put the matter into a circular furnace (retort) with the neck of the glass downward. Drive it by descent, and the Mercury will descend. And that Mercury being heated devours all metals, until they are reduced to Mercury.
Mercury out of Bodies. Take of Salt of Tartar Sii- Sal Ammoniac .^i. Calcined Saturn .^i. Luna or Sol Si. Mix all these together and pour over them good vinegar, and let it be distilled. However, let it swim on the top (the height of) one palm or thereabouts. Seal
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329
in equal proportions.
the vessel hermetically. Set in a warm place for a month. Afterwards place in hot cinders, and thence distil the vinegar. Next make a strong fire, where- upon the Mercury will ascend. Collect it» and use it as you will.
Mercury of the Moon. Dissolve Luna in aquafortis. Extract the moisture, even to the spirits. Pour fresh aquafortis upon it. Do this thrice. Then let it dry. Put it with the same weight of four salts in a cellar to dissolve until it will not melt any more. Then put in a glass. Leave it to putrefy for four weeks. Then strain it offt like an aquafortis. Whatever remains behind dissolve again on the stone, putrefy, and strain as before ; reduce the residue » and then take the following salts^ —
Oil of Salt Alkali
Oil of Tartar
Oil of Common Salt
Oil of Sal Ammoniac Pour all together. Then it is prepared as above.
Mercury of the Body. Let an amalgam of any body be cooked in very strong vinegar and fixed by sal ammoniac for fourteen days, when it will become Mercury ; or let it be decocted in water of ^^gs and sal ammoniac, and it will become Mercury in
one day.
Another Method.
Take Luna or Sol, calcined or otherwise, and dissolve in aquafortis made out of one part of Mercury, one part of saltpetre, and half a part of $ . Then cause the water in the bath to evaporate, whereupon Luna or Sol will remain at the bottom like an oil. However, to dissolve the Sun add to the aquafortis one part of sal ammoniac. Next add to the said Sol or Luna^ thus dissolved, tartar and distilled water of life. When it has been seven times imbibed and dried at the same time» dilute it, and let the water of life be distilled» so that it may float on the top to the height of three fingers. Afterwards leave to putrefy for eight days in dung or in a bath. Then the water being evaporated over the fire, let an alembic be placed above and set on a good subliming fire. The living and running Mercury will ascend into the receptacle.
Augment in Luna by Count William in Sager.
To MAKE Sol out of Luna. Take one ounce of 5, of n » and of sal ammoniac. Make a powder out of them. Put into a cucurbite, close it up with a small cloth. Set it in warm sand, so that it (the sand) may melt. Add a part of the calx of Luna. Stir to and fro» whereupon there will settle a liquid matter at the bottom. Cleanse the same from its impurity with warm water. Then take the J, wash it clean, and although a little silver may still be present, make no mistake in the work. Thus out of every metal you may make >. Take of ' one marc. Put it in
330 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
a glass. Pour upon it three ounces of the hereafter to be described aquafortis. Put it in the bath of Mary for six days and nights. Then extract the water and preserve the matter at the bottom. Afterwards take two parts of sulphur and three parts [the original leaves a blank], and impaste over a fire, as cinnabar is made. Pound this very small, then boil it in oil of tartar, accord- ing to the process described above, until all the sulphur be excocted hard, and do not burn. Of cinnabar add one marc to the above S, which is to remain in the water. Pound it together. Put it into a glass, but pour six parts of the said aquafortis upon it. Let it stand, however, in the bath of Mary, or in hot sand, for seven days, to digest. Then excoct the water and pound the matter to powder. Fix the powder by the fixation to be described hereafter. Take thin plates of Saturn and place in alternate layers with the powder. Take vitriol, saltpetre, and verdigris in equal quantities. Perlute well. Set it to glow in a fire of calcination, that is, of circulation, for sixteen days, that it may always glow gently. Then reduce it and refine it, whereupon you will have and find a great augment in the Luna, and there will be much Sol therein. To pour on the aquafortis, do as follows : —
Take of Saltpetre 1
^ . , J o t A • { each one pound,
of Alumen and Sal Ammoniac ^ ^
of Alumen Plumosum, half a pound.
Make aquafortis and extract its moisture.
The Oil of Tartar.
Take of oil of tartar two pounds, and of oil of vitriol, extracted by descent,
or of oil of calcinated vitriol, two pounds. In this excoct the cinnabar, as
explained above.
Mercury of the Body.
Take Luna and dissolve in aquafortis. Then dissolve salt in ordinary water, so that it may become thoroughly salt. Pour such a quantity of this salt water as to look like milk upon the aquafortis. Leave for a day and a night ; thereupon the sweet moon descends and will be dried. Take Jviij. of boiling wine. Inject Jiiij* of calcined tartar and two of sal ammoniac. Distil through the alembic, and the crystals will pass over into the wine ; dissolve about eight parts of sal alcali ; pour this solution over the -^ ), which must go over. Leave for eight days to putrefy. Take it out and extract the moisture. Afterwards lute the glass, and put it in ashes. Give it a vehement fire. Then the Luna will ascend in the form of a powder. Clear this put of the glas??, and put it in oil of tartar. Thus in a single night, without fail, there will be produced Quicksilver.
Mercury of Sol or Luna.
Take tartar, dissolve, filter, and coagulate again. Place by the fire, that the aquosity may be perfectly removed. Afterwards imbibe with the quint- essence four times. Let it stand twenty-four hours. After this pour away the fifth essence again and add another. Repeat the process four times. Then cause the quintessence to evaporate in the fire, and into this oil place
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
331
calx of the Sun or Moon* Then the Quicksilver, in twelve hours» will be produced, as Maulperger has told us.
Otherwise.
Make an aquafortis out of two pounds of vitriol, two pounds of salnitre» and one pound of alum. Take one pound of this aquafortis. Dissolve therein two ounces of sal ammoniac. When this has been effected, next take twelve parts of sublimated mercury. Then dissoh^e it in aquafortis. After this put the aquafortis into a cucurbite, which must be well sealed up. Leave it to putrefy for fourteen days. Next distil it, as you know. Place the calx of the Sun or Moon in the water. Then you must imbibe the h-) three or four times in the oil of tartar, and thoroughly dry it again. Afterwards place it in the said water. Leave it to digest for several days, and the calx will be Quicsilver.
Mercury of the Body,
Dissolve Luna in aquafortis^ sweeten with sweet water, next place the
calx, when washed in sal ammoniac (fixed), and suffer to flow in the glass.
Stir vigorously with a skewer until it becomes somewhat black. Next place
it in hot water, and let the salt be dissolved, whereupon the calx will remain
at the bottom. Then distil the water, and afterwards the calx and sal
ammoniac. Next imbibe the calx in oil of tartar, dry it, and imbibe again.
Repeat the process thrice. Afterwards pour over it the oi! of tartar, that it
may float on the top to the height of two fingers. Let it stand for a natural
day. Then pour out the black oil of tartar, and pour another above. Do as
before, and repeat the process until the oil of tartar becomes clear. Pour out
the oil, and place the calx of Luna in a glass with a long neck. Pour over it
equal quantities of sal ammoniac, oil of tartar, and vinegar. Leave them to
putrefy for fifteen days. Afterwards place the alembic above. Distil the
vinegar from the matter ; then sublime the sal ammoniae Thus there will
remain at the bottom tartar, with salt of the Moon. Then take the matter,
wash it with vinegar until the blackness no longer appears. Dr>' the matter
and cover il. Place it in layers in the tigiilum» with leaves of pure silver,
until the tigillum be filled. Next set the box on a jar wherein is water,
as explained below. Also, when you have found the extracted Mercur}-,
imbibe it with vinegar and salt, and wash the same extracted Mercury even as
common Mercur>\
And Notice.
Make an amalgam with extracted Mercury, by the addition of Mercury, sublimated and revivified. Let it stand by a slow fire over the cinders, and you will see Mercury ascending. Make it descend by turning the fixator}- until it is fixed and remains with the extracted Mercury at the bottom. Then add another sublimated and revivified Mercur)'. Fix it, and again add fresh sublimated Mercury, and so multiply infinitely.
Also.
Invariably place a liltlc dissolved Luna between the extracted Mercury and revivified Mercur>'.
332 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Mercury of the Body. Take of Vitriol and
of Saltpetre equal quantities ;
of Calcined alum half a pound. Make aqua fortis. Dissolve in it filings of Luna, as much as you like. Inject a little salt, and Luna is precipitated. Dr)- the calx. Place in a cucurbite. If there be five ounces, add two ounces of sal ammoniac and one of calcined tartar. Pour upon these strong vinegar. Let it stand on the top more than the height of two fingers. Place it in horse-dung for four weeks. Afterwards distil as aqua fortis. Then vinegar will ascend first, and afterwards Mercury of the Moon. Collect it with the hare's foot, and you will have Mercury. Take as much hereof as you wish, and put it into the egg of the Philosophers. Close perfectly. Place in a cupel of the wood of the ash. Subject it to a slow fire until a black powder emerges. Afterwards increase the fire until a white powder follows. Add to it half the quantity you require of the corporal Mercury, and the third part of reverberated calx of the Sun. Digest it until it becomes a red powder. Then you will obtain what you desire.
Extraction of Mercury of the Moon.
Take of calx of Luna one mark ; of oil of Tartar and sal ammoniac two
drams each (or six drams). Mix in a well-closed glass. Put the glass into cold
water. Then the calx of Luna becomes solid like a cheese. Next let it stand a
day and a night. Then leave it in horse-dung for three weeks. Afterwards take
it out, and place it in the bath of Mary for fourteen days. Next set it for three
days on cinders, that the water may evaporate, and the matter be completely
dried. Then take the matter from the glass. Pour fiercely boiling water
over it. Pound it about some time. Thus it will become living Mercur}-,
and there will be scarce four parts out of one marc. That which remains
reduce again
Otherwise.
Take Luna dissolved in aqua fortis. Then dissolve tartar into vinegar in
the same quantity as Luna. Pour the two solutions together by drops, lest it
should crackle. Gently extract the moisture. Then extract from it a strong
Mercury of the Moon. Thereupon, a greyish powder attaches itself thereto.
Take it, and rub with oil of tartar in your fingers, and it becomes living
Mercury.
Otherwise.
Take dissolved Luna, and dissolve tartar in the quintessence of wine. Let the quintessence be four times as much as the aqua fortis. Unite these solutions and there is a ready union, without any commotion. They combine like an adhesive tincture. Take them out, dr}% and sublimate. Then the living Mercury comes forth and is produced.
Mercury.
Take Mercury seven times sublimated and revivified, as you know, and place in a warm stove-bath. Supply the same with leaves of Luna to devour.
A Manuul of Paracelsus the Great, ^i^^
When they have thus been arrang^ed in the stove-bath, you wtll perceive that the said Luna has been totally transformed into powder, which is the medicine over the Mercury 3. [ ? to the third grade.] Then having thus collocated the said Mercury, you are to nourish it with common purged Mercury, so that it may digest welJ in its hot bath. Thus, also, common purged Mercury is converted into a powder which is a Mercur)^ over other Mercury 3. You may cause it to revert into a body, as you know* A!so, you must know that the above mentioned Mercury, if placed in dung, will for a time be converted into oil, Congelate and waxen this with incombustible oil, and its virtue will be infinitely augmented.
Make the attempt, and you will see Marvels. The process of congealing It without medicine consists in filling a strong vessel to the top therewith, the head of the vessel being closed with salt, lime, and yolk of t^g. Let it be permitted to dry, and underneath let a fire be kindled from morning till night. Afterwards examine it, and should you find it fluxible, kindle a fire underneath it for another day. Then extract it, and you will have the same stone, which melts like lead, and is white as silver, nor does it differ therefrom, except that it melts quickly. Melt it again and project it into dissolved salt, until it hardens and becomes silver.
Mercury out of Luna, Dissolve Luna in aquafortis. Then entirely distil the water from it. Dissolve in this water the same quantity of sal ammoniac^ and afterwards an equal amount of Mercury sublimate. Let it be distilled through an alembic. This is the qualified water. Place the same over calx of Sol or Luna. etc.. wherein there must be dissolved sal ammoniac and oil of tartar. Mingle these together in a long-necked vessel. Let the same stand in dung or the bath, and it will be turned into Mercury.
Mercury op Jupiter.
Take of Mercur\' subl. l\]. Mercury crude. 5j* Jupiter 5ij. Pound together for five or six hours. The crude will then be converted into water, and Jupiter Into Mercury. Preserve all these. Take of Luna j. part,
Common Mercury \ Body of Jupiter > iiij, parts each- Mercury subl. ) Make an augment, as you know ; place in the glass vessel. Apply at first a slow fire. Afterwards increase it.
Oil of Arcanum. Take some honey with juniper and celandine. Distil thrice (ten times) oil of flax with sulphur, also distilled thrice (water caudi magnae mirandse.
; >i The HermitiC tnd A^ckem-cmL /Trrirz^T if P^naisms.
Clicscar
Cnife Tartar
>-ntiniCfi7 r^j^Til *fwi reneTP rite priscrictlcn :hrc2. .\fanriris :ak3 rt rns aii IhLJ.. -rf rjil rf tartar an«i aadtncny. -with bciHrnj' irltie grmcretf aad TradctiatBd a ?He vitSiwn, Ih.ij, ; -A cid -t antlmiinj. iiicurrrararf. cSsrlTed. ami red, saw parts of a IH,. > 'iiiarta.'e : if r*«i icedei ^f acuadsrtla Js v Lcc aJ rfiese be Trfrifif rcgedBer ';nt^ one 7e^*tr ->f ^xxl ;?^st«- A^!:^nr:l^i5 take > quartal cf ul nmrrrtrmr^ of tifcit perre, '--»f :sf^>sd %alt. aH :iince ^r^:car»d by rie jalx ct csmestarfco. wirii CAnf inuai d^.-^^uyi'^tlcn in red rfne^par. and ry disriTTarrc rfi r j ug ! t a. ttZter, and Civa^irafxtn with croas^ of Uari ccc^saled ami ive tfaies fused. Of alcali of corrtcttd t3irT.^r, and cf alcaU of corrected *cct Ib«s Of red ar^ensc sobE- nukted, dst^Ted, arid cor^^ealed. Is.;. ; and of the afcresafd ctl as sacft as there i«. tjer an thene be mfn^led together aad dissclTed into 2 gfawy and let it heccjfne a red and rerj thick cil. gtldEsg^ all thxn^. and ererjwbere mair^wg m^7tilo*j% \n^Tt:%% and tincture of the Soxu Bat this is coc yet perfected. In f/rder to ^tren^hen it, dry into :t by the distiTTarioii of the alembic tkese »pirh% :
Take of Antimony, j. quart.
CdlcottaLr .
Salpetre ^ lb. j. each.
Calcined .\Iuni ; Do thi% thrice ; next remove the moisture by means of the bath, and an oil will remain^ which it will be lawful to call the arcanum of Christ.
Water of Mercvrv— .\ Verv Great .Arcaxux.
Take of Mercury from salt of tartar, as often as it does not ascend, this takes place the Mrventh time ; likewise, take sublimated arsenic and sublimated sal ammoniac, Ib.j, of each. Let them be imbibed frequently with oil of the salt of iilcali of tartar. Afterwards dissolve over marble into water. Then take M% much A% there is of this water, and of sublimated sal ammoniac as before. Of Mercury nnd arsenic take lb,j. Again dissolve into water. In this water dis«»olve ij. ounces of Luna and one quartal of alcali of soot and of best prepared salt. Mix them tc^ether, and coagulate them, by means of an exceedingly f^entle fire, into a stone. Imbibe this with water of eggs. Correct and fix very many times. Dissolve again, and coagulate. Imbibe fi^fiin, and do this eight times or more, when you will have the miraculous Mtone of tincture. Also let it be imbibed to the red with the oil of the
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
arcanum, so that it may become red ; for this is an arcanum not known to all, because it coagulates and fixes Mercur}' into genuine Luna.
Notable Elixir. Take Ib.s. of dragon's blood and IbJ. of most white sal peregrinum* Dis- solve it seven times in water of pomeg^ranates. Let the calx be imbibed, and then frequently dry and desiccate. Afterwards dissolve sal ammoniac in water of atrament. With this water pound the calx. Dissolve for three days. Afterwards congeal in ashes to the elixir. One part changes thousands of prepared Saturn into best Sol, which will be better than the mineral.
Elixir at the White,
Take of fixed sublimated Mercur}^ j. part, and of white sublimated arsenic
half a part. Imbibe both with water of eggs, and desiccate five times.
Pound as many times, and as often again desiccate, when it will ultimately be
converted into a white cr}'stal plate. Take of the same one part. Take one
part of this recipe and project over xxx. parts of Venus, or iron burnt
through arsenic, and reduced to a solid substance, when it will become silver,
perfect under any test.
Another Elixir.
Take of Fixed Mercury sublimate Ib.j.
Fixed arsenic \
e 1 ■ f Ib.s. each.
Sal ammoniac J
Imbibe all these with water of eggs, afterwards place in a glass, and on the top as much of the water as floats above. Close up the glass vessel with wax. Place it in warm horse-dung for fifteen days. Afterwards take it out, and you will find the whole dissolved into water. Take this water and distil through the alembic, Next put the water thus purified in a small vessel. Then devitreate and place over cool ashes ; leave it there till it is converted into a plate, which plate does not fear the force of f\TQ, It is upright and deep, tinging and permanent ; ]. part changes loo parts of every body into the purest Luna.
Note.
Water of eggs distilled seven times, and sulphur imbibed therewith over the stone make it fixed and fluxible ; thereby Mercury will be congealed.
Elixir for Luna,
Take some calx of eggs, calcined tartar, and alumen lamenum. Dissolve them in boys' urine. Then take that powder and dissolve at the bottom of a crucible. Over that powder set Mercury sublimate, so as to completely close it. This having been effected, perfectly close the glass crucible with another crucible by luting it so that the smoke may not escape. Then place by the fire for one hour, and it becomes beautiful Mercury of Luna, which then undergoes increment.
Concerning Luna and Venus.
Place them in layers and layers with sal ammoniac and laminated Venus. Also lute the tigillum thoroughly, and place on the furnace for three hours.
one half ounce.
336 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Afterwards wash the plates with water, and distil by descent ; that is, let them be granulated per scobam, if not sufficiently whitened. Repeat the process as before ; after, add two parts and a half of Luna, and it will stand any test. 1 here is a very great secret m partuularibuSy in which every one may recover their outlay.
Notable Elixir. Take of Mercury ij. ounces.
Jewish stone
Sal ammoniac
Common' salt
Antimony
Pound each separately and mix. Set in layers, first the powders, and the
Mercury on the top. Let the tigillum be in such a manner luted and placed
to digest that the ^ does not escape. Arrange coals above and beneath.
Afterwards take and place on the cineritium ; then purge, and you will have
perfect Luna.
Removal of Copper.
Take of Oil of tartar )
Arsenic \ ^ •'*
Place over fire in the cinders in a glass vessel, so that they may become
one mass. Pound it, and dissolve it over marble into water. If there be Ib.j. of
this water, inject j. of white and blind arsenic. Congeal in a glass vessel with
a slow fire, of which elixir j. part whitens vj. of copper, and as much of
Luna, whence you will rejoice. ,
Note conxerning Sulphur. Take very strong lixivium in any quantity. Distil through a filter. Place in devitreated matter with gallow-stone. Add as much sulphur as you like, and it will be a thin pottage. Leave it to stand for two days. Afterwards cause it to boil for two days, when it will become blood. Distil through the alembic, and you will find at the bottom the sacred divinity. It converts Venus into Sol. Mix it with natural Sol. N.B.
Malleable Mercury. Cause sulphur to boil in oil ; then pour in Mercur}'. Immediately take it out, and you will find a mass which a hammer will flatten. It does not fear the fire, and you will be able to mingle it with Sol and Luna, with a third part — [lacuna].
Fixation of Mercury. Take equal quantities of sal alcali, ammoniac, and nitre. Let them be imbibed well with boiling wine and water distilled through the alembic. This compound fixes Mercury.
Note concerning a Pyxis. Construct a pyxis of iron. Inject Mercury with the sap of gladiolus. It will then audibly groan. When it ceases to cry out, put j. lb. of Mercury into
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
the tigillum, j. lb. of pure tin, and half an ounce of pure Saturn ; let them be dissolved together. This silver stands all tests.
Elixir Making an Incredible Quantity of Gold, Take liij, of new Saturn and ? j* of pure Sol. Melt them together. Place
on the cineritium in a cask, with Saturn, from morning till evening, until you have expended iij. lbs, of living sulphur, and you will see the same. Out of this project two parts of aqua fortis, and you will have the matter from gold of the usual colour and frangible. This is the medicine, and is called the elixir for the sun. Place j. part over x» of Luna, and it will be ©. Should you place the first part over tw^o of Luna, there will be aumm fiorenorum tran- scending credibility.
Water of Mercury.
Place iij. parts of Mercury subL and iiij. parts of sal ammoniac in a luted
glass vessel. Let it become a mass and dissolve this in oiL Take that
water and close well ; also add j, part of filings of Luna. Dissolve the whole
together in water. Then take that water and congeah One part changes at
least Ixvj. parts of Jupiter or crude Mercury, which \x\\\ be the best Luna,
standing every test.
True Elixir.
Take Ib.ij. of purged Jupiter and Ib.j. of purged Mercury. Dissolve Jupiter,
and put in Ib.s. of Mercur>^ and arsenic sublimated. Afterwards pound them
with Ib.s, of sal ammoniac. Place in cucurbit with the addition of the
strongest vinegar. Keep that which is distilled. Afterwards increase the fire
until it be sublimated. Also pour vinegar over them again, and proceed as
above seven times, or until nothing more be sublimated. Then leave to
decakine. Dissolve in vinegar and distiL That which remains at the bottom
pound and dissolve into water over the stone, and coagulate in due fashion.
j, part changes xxx. parts of Venus, which passes through every test.
For Luna.
Take of Arsenic )
Tartar '
Living calx \
Prepared salt \
Let them be pulverised and placed in a luted vessel over a slow fire. After*
wards break and collect the powder. Next dissolve j. lb. each of Luna and
Venus. Also project Js. of this powder, and it will be good Luna.
Tincture for Luna.
Take of Salt thrice sublimated ^
Mercury six times sublimated
Calcined Luna
Water of Sal ammoniac
compounded and rubified
Imbibe altogether in a glass vessel. Afterwards place in cucurbit and distil at
first with a slow fire, next w^ith a moderate one, for the space of three days.
Ib.j. each* quart.j. each.
Y Ib.j.
338 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Then if it shall have cooled, extract, and when it has thus been distilled, add another pound of water of sal ammoniac, again dissolving as before, restoring to it its water, which had been distilled from the faeces, so that it may be thrice imbibed or distilled, or till iij.lb. of sal ammoniac be consumed. Afterwards you will find at the bottom of the vessel a crystal plate which tinges and is stable and permanent. One part of it tinges i,ooo of Venus into Luna.
To REMOVE Venus. Take iiij. parts of oil of tartar, and j. part of white arsenic. Imbibe them repeatedly until the oil has been consumed. Afterwards dissolve vj. parts of purged Venus with glass and of elixir part j. Make Luna. Let there be added afterwards iij parts of Luna.
Luna out of Mercury.
Take of Living Mercury
Salt fixed by calx and
dissolved eight times \ part j. each.
Alcali of soot
Crude tartar ^
Pound, mingle, and bum. Mix after combustion. Place in layers, and let them
melt for four hours. Then Mercury will yield Luna, and it will be perfect
Luna.
For Luna.
Take a tigillum well luted, and at the bottom place sulphur. Also suspend
Mercury in a hempen bag above ; next let it be everywhere luted. Afterwards
set on the fire for one day, or until moisture ceases to appear. The smoke of
sulphur then passes into Mercury ; next repeat the process and make ij. {stc).
Afterwards take of this Mercury one half ounce, and project over Ib.j, of purged
Venus, when it will be natural Luna.
Elixir for Sol. Take Vitriol \
Crocus of Mars > j. part each.
Flower of Copper )
Prepared sal ammoniac.
Prepared haematite. Let them be pulverised and mixed together. Dissolve in a tigillum until the aquosity is consumed, and it becomes a powder. Aften^'ards set in a glass vessel on horse dung for several days, or in a damp cellar. Let water be pro- duced. Congeal it with a slow fire. Afterwards take j. part of Sol and ij. or iij. of Luna. Melt, and over xvj. parts of this Luna project one part of Elixir. Thus, the more it is burnt the better. It will be perfect and most beautiful
gold.
Cement.
Take of Antimony, Ib.j.
Salpetre, Ib.ij.
Calcined tartar, Ib.j.
A Manual of Paracelsus ihe Great.
339
Melt together, and inject lb,j. of pounded if, (otherwise tin), and immediately let it be melted* Dissolve again, as above» and mett, until it is very red, one part over two parts of Mercury in flux (of Venus perhaps).
Oil of Antimony.
Antimony converted into oil in a very strong lixivium out of clavellated
cinders ^x^s spirits.
Fixation of Mercury into Red*
Take equal quantities of salt tartar and sal nitre. Make a strong
lixivium. Injecl sublimated Mercury. Make it boil, and when it has dried
up, pour lixivium in again until it is rubified. Waxen it with calx of Luna.
To Permanently Rectify Mercury, Take saltpetre, sal alkali^ cinnabar* alum, flower of copper, and sulphur Let it be imbibed with water of life. Afterwards let it become aquafortis. This water dissolves Mercury, and all bodies with Mercury will remain in the form of a crocus colour; if it has been calcined half a day, it will be redder than cinnabar ; it does not diminish in weight, and is dissolved into extremely red water. Afterwards coagulate and, when coagulated, reduce with salt- petre ; it thus becomes gold. If further coagulated and dissolved, one part tinges parts (number omitted) of Luna permanently.
Projection of Luna. Take of Cadmia v
Salpetre J Sj- each.
Calcined alum J Melt in luted tigiilum ox%
Note* Oil of iron colours citrine, the oil of chalybs red, and that of lead red*
Best Borax. Take Alum \
Calcined tartar / equal quantities.
Sublimated salmiax / Let them boil in water together ; afterwards let them be strained through a tightened bag. Then let them boiJ in alcali. You will subsequently have BoraXf which dissolves all metals.
Perpetual Augment, Take j.lb. of Luna, cemented and purged by means of salt» and iiij.lb. of Mercury purged with salt. Make an amalgam, place in a phial over cinders in a cupel on a slow fire (and avoid closing) for one day, that the vapour may evaporate. Afterwards place over the amalgam as much as there is of fixed saltpetre with yolk of eggs ; imbibe thrice or more times over the fire ; cook until it is dried up. Imbibe again as before until it be fixed. Afterwards lute it well, and suffer it to stand in a slow fire for eight days. Take out the matter, when you will find it white and hard as crystal. Pound this well ; add half the weight oi purged gold ; place iigain in glass vessel, as above, and
X2
340 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
once more superpose the same quantity of fixed saltpetre ; permit the moisture to evaporate, as before, and set it to stand for six days. So the process g'oes on for ever.
Reduction to the Same. Take the matter and imbibe the same with oil of albumen of eggs, for the white stage, but for the red with yolk of eggs. Add the same quantity of borax to the tigillum. Melt, afterwards cement.
Note to the Same. Cinnabar distilled by descent is the best Mercury.
Another. To reduce it with raw albumen of eggs, pound and let it become a hard paste. Cause this to melt with borax, as above.
Water of Nitre. This retains Mercury.
Fixation. Take White Tartar '
White Arsenic - in equal quantities. Fused Salt Boil well in vinegar ; add the same quantity of pounded Venetian glass. Let it become a powder. Take one part of it, and of the amalgam two ounces. Place in a luted tigillum, and let it melt for one hour, afterwards proceed by cineritium.
\ \oz. each.
Permanent Elixir for the White by Cineritium. Take of Sal Ammoniac
Sublimated Mercury
Live Calx, loz. Mix together, place in a glass vessel, and permit evaporation. Afterwards lute and increase the fire, so that it is kindled, and you will find Mercury over the calx with sal ammoniac ; also pour over warm water. Next, cause evaporation ; again pour on warm water, and it will be possible for the tartar to dissolve. The calx will then arise from the Mercury, and the Mercury will remain at the bottom like snow. Perform this operation twice, and let the sal ammoniac and Mercury be fixed. Afterwards take half an ounce of calx of Luna out of aquafortis, and half an ounce of this powder. Dissolve each of these by itself in aquafortis, and afterwards abstract the aquafortis. Place the matter in a glass pitcher. Pour over a strong alkaline lixivium and coagulate, and so again, etc. Do this four or five times. Afterwards put the matter in a glass vessel, and again pour over it aquafortis and abstract. Do this three times or more, and it will be a hard stone. Also afterwards add Luna ; then it preserves the white copper in the lead over the capella. Also, over Mars take half an ounce of white powder of copper. Let it be projected in flux. Also that powder fixes Mercury which has been coagulated without metal.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great. 341
Note. Take Saltpetre v
Alum ! in equal quantities.
Sal Ammoniac ' Make a powder and a pottage, so to speak, with water, and unge clinodisa^ which are mixed with gold and silver, and it will be a gold colour.
Projection of Luna. Take of Burnt Alum \
Sal Ammoniac \ eight ounces.
Vitriol J
of Red Jaspis, Jiiij. Cause them to melt together and become a powder. Take 5s. of this over eight ounces of Luna, and you will have much gold in eight ounces of Luna.
Fixation of Cinnabar. Take Cinnabar \
Litharge j- 3j. each. Antimony -' Place in an iron pan to boil with strong vinegar. Arrange in layers with Luna. Let a tigillum be luted. Place it by a slow fire for two hours, and the cinnabar will be fixed into gold ; but finally make a fire in a wind furnace.
Production. Take Good Gold
Granulated Venus |* j. part each.
Red Sulphur, sublimated by Crocus of Mars Melt the gold and copper. Project one part of sulphur, and when it is con- sumed in the fusibilum, take the regulus and add again the same quantity of Venus. Once more pour on three parts of sulphur. Melt again. Take the regulus and add copper, as before. Do this thirty times, and it will be perfect gold, and of the best colour.
Note. I have written as many praises of this powder as I could.
Also. Grade together with Sol white and red melted together.
Pars cum Parte of Master Thomas.
Take equal quantities of Sol and Luna. Make plates of them.
Take Haematite ^
Sal Ammoniac /
Evaporated Vitriol )
^ . r 3 111* each.
Saltpetre ) ^
Bolus Armenus ^
Alum / ^^*
Verdigris, one-sixteenth part
Tutia, Imparts.
V
342 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Make a most subtle powder. Afterwards take lb. j. of vitriol. Distil it* Imbibe the powders in a thrice-devitreated jar. Afterwards take powders and make a layer in the tigillum as thick as a coulter, after having saturated the Luna in the aforesaid water. Thus arrange layer over layer. Perlute the tigillum and set in a circular fire for three hours. Make this cement thrice, and you will have the Sun in all your operations Then take this gold with three parts of Luna well weighed. Place in aquafortis, and it will be con- verted in the following manner.
Aquafortis, wherein Luna, When placed, becomes Gold.
Take Vitriol )
Saltpetre \
Alum 5j.
Precipitate aquafortis with crude Mercury. It afterwards converts Luna into
Sol.
Albatio Bambergensis.
Take any quantity of Jupiter, and the same of living Mercury. Make an
amalgam. Then take sulphur if for the red stage, or arsenic if for the white,
and sal ammoniac, all in equal quantities. Pound thoroughly. Place in a
well-luted vessel. Sublime for half a day with a slow fire, afterwards with a
fiercer fire for a whole day, next with an exceedingly strong one for two days.
Then take what is sublimated, and set apart. Let that which has not been
sublimated undergo a further process. Then sublime the same from salt well
prepared, twice or thrice, until it becomes as snow. Take two parts of these
species and one part of filings of Luna. Arrange in layers in a glass vessel,
which must afterwards be luted. Burn with a fierce fire, so that they may be
melted together. Afterwards pound, dissolve, and coagulate, at least three
times, and it will be an Elixir of which one part tinges eight parts of purged
Venus into best Luna.
Arsenic Sublimed becomes as Luna. Sublimate it from calx of eggs^ and it becomes just like silver.
Note. Sublime Mercury sublimated from Saturn ; it makes lead like Luna.
Fixation of Luna. Imbibe cinnabar with oil of tartar, afterwards cement Luna, melt it with borax, and immediately in coloritio. [This process seems to be unfinished.]
Sublimation of Mercury. Take aquafortis, in which dissolve as much Mercury as you please. Then add the same quantity of common salt. Abstract aquafortis through the alembic. Then increase the fire, so that the Mercury may be sublimed ; an exceedingly fierce fire must then be employed, arrange in layers with that Mercury and plates of Jupiter on a humid place, when the Mercury will become water
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great
343
Fixed Luna. Let Luna be cemented for six days in crocus of Mars. Let it not be further affected by aqyafortis, and it will take the tincture. Fixation of Mercury out of R. Take Mercury par. vj. Borax |iiij. Impaste properly tog^ether until the Mercury is completely invisible. Pound and sublimate until ascension altogether ceases, repeating the process till this takes place ; then cool. Break the sublimator>\ Fulminate that which is found at the bottom thereof. You will then have the best Luna ; also in the first eight ounces of this Luna you will have 2^ ounces of best SoL
Note of Master Albertus* Prepare salt by frequent dissolution in fire, melting and congeaJing. Repeat this until it melts like wax, fifteen times employing a filter, etc. Also afterwards take itij. parts of borax, and pound it with well-calcined alum. Pound it again, even seven times. Then take the said salt and white borax in equal quantities. Put it in a glass vessel moderately warm. Then a tincture is produced from this. One part of it is projected over 30 of Mercury, and the same becomes Luna, commencing to flow immediately with the tincture. Blow strongly so that the Mercury may make its way through. Melt, and you will have Luna. Notice care/ulfy.
Fixation op Luna.
Dissolve eight ounces of Luna in aquafortis. Afterwards congeaL Add to this calx the same quantity of Mercury sublimated. Sublime 15 times, as frequently imbibing and drying, until all that is there is imbibed. Afterwards reduce the dross into a body with oil of tartar, and you will have Luna to the weight of the gold, and it stands in cement.
Note for Luna.
Take a globule of earth and fill it with Mercur>\ Put it into Saturn for three or four hours. Afterwards Saturn attracts Mercury to itself. Over this Saturn and Mercury project fixed borax with saltpetre into the tigillum. Next fulminate in a furnace of wind. This will test the Luna.
Water of Mercury.
Take equal parts of tartar and mercur>% sublimate thrice, and pound on marble. Then dissolve. The metal is dissolved in that water in one hour, but the matter is to be distilled in water. Afterwards take of pure gold and pure Luna equal parts. Dissolve in the aforesaid water. Then take on^ part each of borax and camphor* Reverberate one-half of these, distil the water from them and keep it. Next take one drop of this water and project it in the water wherein the body has been dissolved. Place it on a slow fire for seven days, and it will become milk. Replace this, and make in turn two or three drops. Repeat this process until it no longer grows white, but another red liquid remains. Coagulate this ; then Lake one part of the white powder and
344 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
project it over thirty parts of Venus, when it is rendered white, and answers every test. Finally, take the red powder, project it over the above-mentioned white, and the whole will become red.
Secret Note. Take filings of Venus and put them in wax for three days and nights. Take one pound thereof, four of vitriol, and five of sulphur. Mix ; lute between two bricks in a carefully watched furnace, and note the result.
In the Distillation of Vitriol for Fixation. Place camphor in a glass vessel containing oil, and it will become fixed.
Note on Pars cum Parte. Pour pars cum parte several times into blessed oil. It gains in grade and acquires great softness.
RUBIFICATION.
Take vitriol and pound it small on marble. Imbibe it with wine to the consistence of a paste. Then take two stone dishes, one somewhat larger than the other. Place therein imbibed vitriol, and lute with a material composed of dung and gravel. Put it in a furnace for the space of a natural day, and the thing is done.
The Purification of Tin. •
Project three or four times over oil of tartar.
Note. Oil of tartar is that which is made for common use ; but if a plate of copper be frequently placed in it, it becomes white.
For Broken Coins. Take sal ammoniac, place it in the crack and the lesion disappears over a coal fire.
Sal Ammoniac is made thus. Take twenty parts of urine passed by a wine-drinker. Skim and let it cool. Add one pound of sublimated dung and two pounds of salt. Mix these and let it stand for three days ; then boil until coagulated.
For Reddening Crystal. Take olive oil and quicklime in any quantity, and shake them well together. Then take two parts of salt alkali and one part of common salt. Mix these so that the oil shall float on the top to the depth of one finger. Distil over a slow fire and let it cool. Set a light to it, and, if it burns, the process is not complete. Repeat until it no longer kindles, and then it is made ready for rubifying the crystal.
Fixation of Mercury. Sublimate with quicklime until complete.
For Gilding. Distil the yolk of eggs. It is converted into a red oil which gilds money and lasts for ever.
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345
Sal Ammoniac.
Take one pound of sal ammoniac, pour on it acetum and wine* distil by means of a filter, and add ten pounds of sublimated dung. Set it to boil, when it will be desiccated. Pour urine on it agfain until a twentieth part of it js consumed. Then add pure water and dissolve. Take the clear water and lay a^ide the dregs. Boil and dry, either tn the sun or in shade.
Sal Borax.
Take calcined tartar. Pour on it warm water* Pass this through a straining'bag until the upper part is clarified. Then take common salt dissolved in water, add one part of this, and afterwards boil in an iron dish until it is thickened. Then place in a vessel and desiccate until it becomes friable. Thus you will have borax, which place in glass.
Another Method. Take one-third part of crude tartar. Sift thoroughly, and add six parts of prepared common salt. Boil for a day, until it is converted into water. Set to cool, and distil by means of a filter, after\vards let it boil until hardened, and you will have the verj^ best borax.
Sal Borax for Goldsmiths. Take one part each of starch mastic and sulphur. Of this mixture take two parts, pulverise and boil until thickened. Set it in a glass vessel to putrefy for four weeks, and you will have borax.
Sal Borax. Take Calcined Tartar, lb. \. Quick Lime, lb, ij. Wood Ashes, lb, j. Crude Tartar, lb, i\. Prepared Common Salt, lb, vj. Boil' all together, distil in a filter, and coagulate. Thus is obtained excellent borax.
Lazuriom.
Take one part of sal ammoniac, two parts of sulphur, and two of mercur)'. Mix, and proceed as directed above with cinnabar, until a purple smoke ascends ; then leave off.
Another and Better Method. Take lapis lazuli* Heat and pound it. Then take two and a half parts of pitch, goat suet, and oil of laurel. Dissolve these together.
Another Method. Take sa! ammoniac and pulverize it. Amalgamate this with four parts of mercur}^ and place it in a glass vessel closely luted. Sublimate for one hour. Then gradually increase it to the smoke of citron wood ; afterwards diminish. Finally^ you will discover lazurium at the bottom.
Another, Take sulphur and raercury% Amalgamate as above, and sublimate.
346 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Flos Aeris. Take filings of Venus, urine, and sal ammoniac. Mix them together, desiccate, and imbibe a second time.
CiNNABRIUM.
Take sulphur, dissolve one part thereof and two parts of mercury. Cool them, place them in a glazed vessel, and sublimate. First of all a purple smoke ascends, and afterwards a red one. Then cease.
To MAKE Marble. Take quicklime and extract the lixivium with wine. With this is imbibed calcined and pounded flint. Forthwith it is susceptible of colour.
Corals are made thus :
Take of minium one part and of cinnabar half a part, but of quicklime and
lime of flint five parts each, with a sufficient quantity of the above-mentioned
lixivium and the white of eggs. Add as much salt as you please, and finally
boil in linseed oil.
Factitious Corals.
Take of good gypsum two parts, pure lime half a part, minium and
cinnabar half a part each, white of eg^ quant, suff. Form and dry.
Pearls from Chalk.
Put chalk in the fire until it is friable. Mix with white of eggs and shape.
Then harden, and afterwards moisten with spittle. Whiten with silver tablets
and again harden with fine powder, either in the sun or over a coal fire, as
you please.
To MAKE Pearls better than Natural Ones.
Take mother of pearl and pulverize it very small, afterwards adding fine flour. Mix and temper this with Maydew. Shape according to pleasure. Then give them to hungry pigeons to eat. Wash their dung, and you will discover very flne pearls. But notice that the pigeons should be kept for three days without anything to eat
Another Mode.
Take mother of pearl, boil and wash it well. Then take the same quantity of crystal, pound it small and mix with the white of eggs. Shape and dry. Afterguards boil thoroughly in linseed oil, and wash with white wine. Afterwards dry in the sun, or over a fire.
Note for Luna. Take of arsenic and of sublimated mercury one part each, and sublimate them by themselves. Add an equal weight of quick lime. Imbibe with water of fixed sal ammoniac, then cover with wax and place on the fire. Sublimate thrice, and keep in a closed vessel. Afterguards desiccate it, and project one part over twenty-five of purified Venus. Thus Luna will be produced.
Ruby. Take 4lb. of strongest acetum, not distilled, and in it put one P of atramentum. Distil this after the manner of aquafortis, and at last with a
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347
very strong 6re, so that the spirit may ascend. Take four parts of this acetum, and place it in a glass vessel, into which put one part of filing of Mars. Stir it with a rod, and the mixture begins to boil %vithout fire. Set it apart to stand and you will see a pellicle form and float on the surface. Collect this and put it on one side. Then stir the mixture again for an hour, and once more collect the pellicle. Do this as often as necessar)'', and put this matter, which is yellow, like gold, into a firmly luted crucible, to be calcined for tw^elve hours. Then take it again ^ pounds and dissolve it in fresh acetum as before. Collect once more» as directed, the pellicle floating on the surface ; again dissolve and calcine as above, and repeat this process three times. Afterwards dissolve in aquafortis, which dissolves gold, and reduce the water three times* Then it becomes a medicament which tinges Luna to Sol. One part thereof fall upon two hundred parts of Luna.
Aqua Ardens ; or Water of Mercury. Take half a pound of sal ammoniac, a suf!icient quantity of tartar and live sulphur, with one pound of common salt, and a quart of good white wine* Place all these in a well-luted vessel and submit to the fire, perhaps somewhat severely. Then keep the water well away from the wind. This purifies metals and converts mercury into pure Luna.
Water op Sulphur. Take \ lb. of sulphur and 4i lb. of saltpetre. Place these in a wxlMuted vessel, and put in the ashes for twenty-four hours. Remove and pulverise. Then mix one- fourth of this with 3 oz. of pure water ; whereupon the water is turned to a red colour, and money can be coloured therewith into the semblance of most beautiful SoL
AURUM MUSICUM.
Take of tin and of sulphur each one-third part, amalgamate, and pulverise. Afterwards wash, first with lixivium and then with pure water, until no dirt comes off. Then dry. Next take two pounds of Mercurius vivus and the same quantity of sal ammoniac. Mortify the mercurius with acetum, and at the same time wash it, as before. Then place it in a well-luted phial, so that the glass vessel be half full. Heat it in sand for four hours until you see a golden smoke ascend.
Wonders of Antimonv.
Take antimony and purify it with calcined tartar. Afterwards make aqua- fortis* Dissolve it in the water, and congelate, either in the aquafortis or by itself. Then it will be an oil incapable of mixture— oil or stone— in the proportion of one part on three parts of Saturn ; and it will be silver answ*ering perfectly to every test.
Wonderful Aqua Ardens. Take old red wine ; and put in a glazed vessel one part of auripigment, half of quick sulphur, and a fourth of quicklime. Mix together; afterwards distil by means of a rose alembic and the thing is done.
348 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
The Virtues of this Water. Whoever places his finger in it is burnt as by a light. In like manner, a rag placed in it burns like a candle, and is not extinguished by water. .
Augmentation. Make an amalgam of mercury and Luna. Then fill a vessel with quick- lime. Take equal parts of salt of alkali and of litharge. Put layer on layer and let it stand for a day and a night. Afterwards let it dissolve.
On Red Venus.
Take equal parts of crushed beans and of crude tartar, together with a quantity of tutia exceeding one of those parts. Mix all well together and place layer upon layer with plates of Venus which have been laid all night in acetum. Pour it over the layer, and let it shape wherever it can be poured. You will see the result.
Calcination of Jove and Saturn to White.
Make layer upon layer with quicklime and the above-mentioned metals. Cement by night, then take again, dissolve, and pour into a lixivium of quick- lime, acetum, and vine-ashes. It will then be as Luna.
To Reduce Calcined Bodies to their Original Matter. Take one-fifth of the metal and two pounds of borax of tartar. Pour together, and place in an iron vessel. It will be as Luna, and can easily become Sol and Luna if first imbibed with oil of tartar.
Calcination of Sol and Luna. Take filing of Sol and place it in acetum for nine days. Then put it in water of sal ammoniac. Imbibe well ; then desiccate, and continue the process as long as you please.
The Devil in Alchemy. Dissolve, fix, coagulate, and reiterate.
Water of Salt of Alcall Take alkali, sal ammoniac, and egg-shell. Pound together with good acetum, and dissolve at the same time.
Purification of Sulphur. Take pounded sulphur, pour on it acetum and wine, let it boil for a day, and skim it. Then pour in urine and boil for two hours. Do this until it ceases to froth. Whatever body there is does not float in the urine, but the urine is clear and sufficient for the purpose.
The Sublimation and Fixation of Sulphur, so that it becomes White. Take of sulphur as much as you will, and pound it. Pour acetum upon it. Heat it until all fatness is removed, and then lay it aside. Secondly, heat it as before in boys' urine, and draw off the fatness. Next, pound it with prepared alum, place it in a sublimatory and sublimate for three hours. Then the white sulphur ascends like snow, and flows down upon the coals just as a snow storm.
A Manual of Paracehus the Gnat. 349
Oil of Vitriol,
Take as much vitriol as you will, and distil it by descent. It renders a bright green oil, and is called milk of mercury. But it must have a large fire j it is like in its nature to balsam.
Another Method. Distil vitriol with an alembic over a very strong fire for three days and nights. Let it be imbibed thrice with its dregs» and be distilled from them. Afterwards distil ^s^ or six times, and thus a great arcanum is produced.
Correction of this Process.
After the third distillation mix with it a half portion of vinum ardens, and
distil as aforesaid.
Another very Expeditious Mode.
Take vitriol and distil it vigorously by descent, afterwards by an alembic, and then by a balneum Maria;. Finally, do this twice or thrice by means of a retort, and the method is subtle. Some say they have seen the oil of vitriol distilled until a whiteness like milk supervened.
Preparation of Common Salt,
Make layer on layer with quicklime. Let it be cemented well, distil by a
filtre, and coagulate.
Another.
Take urine, quicklime, and salt ; reduce to water and boiL Then put
them in a vessel, project to water, and coagulate. Place again in the vessel,
do as before, and it is ignited at length whether it suffice or not.
Fusion of a Marchasite,
Take three-tenths of the Marchasite, \ of Saturn, iij.J of Venus, and
iiij.ri of Scoria of Iron. At the same time it is poured upon iiij. of Luna, C
of Saturn, and II of Venus.
Alkali is made thus :
Take wood ashes, quicklime, and the ash of beans. Extract the lixivium
and coagulate.
The Sublimation of Sal Ammoniac.
Take of the salt itself and of pulverised Mars, equal parts, and sublimate.
Crocus of Mars, Take aquafortis, not too strong. Place it on filings of Mars ; let it stand for some days. Then heat it over a coal fire and it is made red.
Another Method. Take Antimony, filings of Mars, and crude tartar. Dissolve them together, and a good crocus is produced.
Sal Borax of the Philosophers in which all Metals and Glass
ARE Fused. Take lac tauri purified by a filter, alkali, borax, gem-salt , and goat's blood, equal parts of each. Mix with water, put in a phial, and desiccate. Then Venus or any other substance, whether metal or glass, is fused therein.
350 The Hermetic afid Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Saltpetre. Take quicklime and warm water. Stir for six days and distil by means of a filter. Place it in Q until it is consumed and you will have saltpetre.
The Solution of Sol from Silver. Take one part of calcined tartar with two parts of sal ammoniac. Place them on marble and then in a glass vessel. Then take the root of pellitory, pound it with acetum and strain it off. Mix this in the above mentioned water, and put the water in a gilded cup. The Sol is dissolved from the silver and is again reduced with borax.
The Softening of Iron and all Metals.
Take of alum, sal ammoniac, and tartar, equal parts. Put in good
acetum over a fire and extinguish the metal.
Solution without Antimony.
Take Venus which has gold in it, and sprinkle on it the following powder:
put it over a fire and let it melt. Then pour into a fusibulum and you will
find gold or Luna. Purify over ashes.
Item.
Take one part of saltpetre with three parts of sulphur and do with
copper as above.
Water of Gradation.
Take two parts of vitriol, one part of alum, and half a part of antimony. Distil.
Fixation of Mercury.
Take a vessel, in which put quicklime quant, stiff, ^ and in the middle of this lime place coagulated mercur>'. Heat for five hours, and it will be fixed.
Ready Method of Coagulation. Take the pounded root and portions of the herb hermodactyl. Heat mercury, pour it over, and it will be coagulated.
The Fixation of Arsenic. Take of tartar, quicklime, glass, arid arsenic equal parts. Imbibe with oil of tartar, and sublimate in a vessel after the usual method. When the whiteness ascends, leave off.
Gilding.
Stamped money is entirely gilded in the juice of the aurearia and remains for some time.
Cement.
Take Vitriol, j. part.
Sal Ammoniac, \
Verdigris, \ ij. parts each.
Alum, j
Saltpetre, ^ part. Pound in an iron mortar. Mix over coals and a black powder will result. It gives a great smoke ; and when the powder is desiccated, make layer on layer with Sol. It is graduated to twenty-four degrees.
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351
Fixation of Saltpetre. Take the purest saltpetre. Distil by means of an alembic and a portion of the saltpetre will remain at the bottom. Take one part of this and two parts of quicklime. Dissolve on stone, coag-ulate, and the thing Is done.
Perfect Fixation of Luna.
Take of this saltpetre two parts and of Luna one part. Let them melt. When the saltpetre becomes like glass, increase the fire until the saltpetre is consumed. Add crocus of Mars and let it be consumed as before. After- wards pour it through antimony as is necessar)% and let it be fulminated. Then it will be Luna fixed and white.
The Coagulation of Mercury, pkoducing Venus. Take equal parts of Mercury and Venus as much as you like. Boll them in water for three hours and stir continually Afterwards take the Mercury, put it into a linen rag, let it stand for a night, and it will be coagulated as Venus.
Another Coagulation of Mercury. Take an egg-shaped crucible, and fill it with Mercury. Lute it, place it in a patella, pour lead over it, and let it cool. Then take it out, and you have coagulated Mercury.
Purification of Metals. Take two parts of antimony, and two parts each of vitriol and saltpetre. Pound well a moderate weight of filings from the metal, and cement over a slow fire for about an hour. Then let It be heated for 15 hours, and after- wards fulminated. It will be diminished one«third part.
Cement from above. Take equal parts of saltpetre, sal ammoniac, verdigris, common salt, and alum. Pound them together and imbibe them three times with urine. After* wards with a portion of this make layer on layer for six hours, in the end with a strong fire. Then you will have a golden regulus, but it will not stand in the cinerltium.
Oil which tinges Luna into Sol. Take antimony 5. j., with Ib.^ of sublimaled Mercury. From this pro- ceeds a red oil which has the property of gilding.
Oil tinging Brass into Gold of 24 degrees. Take the very strongest lixivium and distil by means of a rose alembic. Then place it in a glass vessel and add saltpetre, sulphur, and crocus of Mars j. 3. or more, etc., so that the lixivium may float on the surface to the depth of one finger. Let it stand until it sinks to the bottom. This is done over a coal fire and it will become red like blood. Afterwards take it from the fire and let it cool. Place it again in an alembic and distil it until whiteness super- venes. What remains at the bottom is a tincture, and is a most wonderful production, possessing tlie virtue of natural gold.
352 The Hermitic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Perfect Fixatiox op Luxa.
Take cinnabar, gem-salc, and common salt. Pound them well with plates of Luna. Lute them layer on laver, place on a fire of cement for six hours, then purify by cineritium and repeat this process thrice. Afterwards place in cement for i8 hours and you have fixed Luna.
Take of this Luna three parts, of pure Sol one part, and dissolve them together. Its colour is not diminished in aqua fortis, but remains there.
Glorious Oil of Sol. Take very strong lixi\-ium and distil it in an alembic with sulphur, colcothar, and crocus of Mars, equal parts of each. Dissolve in the lixivium, and after\«'ards place it on the fire, making it boil until it grows red. Next distil it twelve times, or oftener, until whiteness comes forth. What remains in the bottom is a fixed oil and tinges everything to Sol.
St. Thom.\s Acuixas. I have ver\* often sublimated Mercury until it became fixed. I afterwards dissolved it in water into its primal matter. In this water I placed calx of Luna and fixed arsenic. This I now dissolved in horsedung and coagulated, whereupon it became a stone of tincture.
Water of Mercury. Take of fixed Mercury 3^. 5., with the same quantity of saltpetre- Pulverise them together. Then place them in a linen cloth in horsedung, with glass below. Above all this put a cloth as a covering, setting the horsedung on all sides above and below. Let it remain for ti^'o weeks, and then poimd it until quite white. It will be sufficient for Luna.
Water of Sal Ammoniac
Take sal ammoniac, the same quantity of ^%% shell, and a little acetum.
Pound these together. Dissolve them afterwards on marble and you will
have water of sal ammoniac.
Lac Virgixis.
Take pulverised litharge, together with a sufficient quantity of acetum.
Let them boil well. Afteru'ards distil with a white filter. Pour it on again,
and distil until the water grows clear. Then take some sal ammoniac and
anatron. Treat these in the same way, and afteru^ards mix them together.
Then is produced lac virginis.
Purgation of Venus after the Greek Method. Dissolve Venus and project on it some purified sulphur or arsenic, until it no longer emits any smoke.
For Recovering Luna in Antimony.
Take of Antimony j. d , of Tartar ij. C3 • Pound together with Sulphur
IIj. Pulverise, and melt.
Aqua Fortis.
Take equal parts of vitriol, sulphur, and alum. Distil first with a gentle
and at last a very strong fire. If you wish to have it stronger, substitute
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353
calcined alum for the a!um» and citrine colcothar for the vitrioK Then you will have ver}' strong aquafortis. Aquafortis also made from vitriol alone has a wonderful odour as pleasant as musk. This aquafortis dissolves all metals except Sol. If it be desired to dissolve Sol, !et there be added to the distilled aquafortis a little sal ammoniac, or common salt. Let these be dissolved tofi^ether, and then it converts all metals into water.
The Operation Boni Thematis, Take of sublimated fixed Mercury two parts, of calx Lunie one part. Pound these with water of sal ammoniac, and desiccate seven times ; then dissolve. After this distil the water by a balneum Mariae and place this w^ater in a glass vessel. Set it in the ashes of a sublimatory furnace until the water is entirely consumed, when the tincture will remain. Take one part to a hundred parts of purged Venus, or of Mars for Luna,
For Sol. Take Calx Sol is and Crocus of Mars in place of the water of sal ammoniac.
The Operation Bon^ Rapacis. Take hardened. Boil in white of eggs, and you will have excellent Luna.
For the Same. Take Mercurius vivus and put it in menstrual blood, with an equal quantity of juice from cornflowers and a little euphorbium. Let it stand for four days» and it will coagulate for working.
Calx Pekegrinorum, or Marine Calx.
Take the bones of large fishes, or signum peregrinorura, or cockle shells* Reduce to a calx, and when it has acquired whiteness you will have the Calx Peregrinorum,
Papua Tincture.
Take of vinum ardens quantum stiff. y and of pounded antimony as much as you wnll. Wash in the usual way. Take the more subtle portion, and project on dissolved Luna. It becomes in some part Sol, as I myself have seen.
The Work of the Noble Canon in Alchemy.
We have seen when we cemented pars cum parte, and the golden regulus w^as placed in the cement» that the result was, as it were, the best gold. But it did not remain in the cineritium as pars cum parte. Nevertheless it did remain in aquafortis. Thus we made a cement on fixed Luna, and placed that Luna in aquafortis, when it deposited for us a large residuum. When, however, this was fulminated, it grew white again as Luna, Once more we placed it in aquafortis, and not the least thing remained for us in that aqua- fortis. We believe that the matter in the cementations is either nothing at all, or is not cemented sufficiently, or its realgar is not fixed enough.
V
354 2^ Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Calcination of all Gems. Take any quantity you like of each gem. Pulverise it and mix with sulphur. Set fire to it ; thus it burns, and you have the calx of that gem. If it be necessary, wash it, and the powder will be white.
How Bones may be Cut. Take wood ashes and quicklime in equal parts, quant, stiff. Boil the bones herein until they are softened.
Softening of Metals and Ivory. Take the strongest lixivium of alkali and place in it the metal for fourteen days, when it will be softened. Take it out again, cool it in water, and it will once more become hard. Place ivory in the same way, having previously added the strongest acetum.
To Gild Metals. Smear the metal with varnish, and then place upon it a plate of Sol.
To Whiten Venus. Take aquafortis and dissolve Luna in it. Then with pounded tartar and common salt make a pulp and desiccate it. Thus it can be used with acetum. Some add sal ammoniac, smear the Venus, and heat it, continuing the process until the result is satisfactory.
Light Shining without Fire. Take the eye of a goat, put it in water, and place a mirror above it.
Another.
Take some lixivium made out of the best quicklime. Place therein alum
and camphor. Put it in a glass vessel with live Mercury and set a mirror
above.
Water of Common Salt and Water of Saltpetre.
Take some of this with tile and distil it. This water is said to have a
marvellous power of fixation. If Luna is melted in it and common salt, it can
be distilled with honey.
White.
Take alcalum, with juice of white onions. Steep Mars therein, and it
becomes Luna.
Method of Quartation.
Take one part of Sol, and let two or three parts of Luna be made into
plates and put into aquafortis. This is the most consummate and excellent
test of gold.
Colouring.
Take a little fios aeris and sal ammoniac. Make them into a paste with
acetum. It is one method of testing and colouring gold.
How A Cloth cannot be Burnt in the Fire. Moisten the cloth with salt water. Let it dry of itself. Prepare it care- fully with white of egg. Afterwards desiccate it, and the effect is produced.
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355
When Glass is Destroyed by Fire. Take a half portion of minium, quicklime, and flour. Mix with white of eggs. Apply a cloth moistened with it, and place it for a short time on the fire.
Lute. Take ten parts of well-prepared lute, three parts of cows' hair, five parts of horse-dung, three parts of goat *s blood, three parts each of quicklime and common salt, six parts of iron filings, and of white of egg and gypsum a sufficient quantity. Thus is made a lute.
Another for Luting Broken Glass. Take equal parts of calcined Hint, quicklime, common salt, and white of eggs. Mix these together, and then take a cloth, place it therein, and smear the glass or fracture. Let it harden ; then smear it in water with linseed oil, and a better lute could scarcely be found.
A VERY STRONG LUTE, WHICH IS PROOF AGAINST FiRE.
This is made out of bullock's blood, quicklime, and salt. It is inde- structible in fire.
An Excellent Method of Luting Glass.
Take sufficient quantities of Venetian glass, finely pounded, and oil of tartan Make a pulp ; lute the fracture and place it before the fire to melt.
To Make MiniuxM.
Take of Saturn as much as you please, dissolve it to ashes and it becomes citron-coloured. Afterwards pound it, place it in a vessel over a moderate fire, and it will be coloured red.
The Process of Sulphur.
Take of this powder 5. j. Pour over it linseed oil, place it in an iron pan, and let it boil. It gives a red froth and grows thick. Pour it out and it becomes a red substance as thick as hepar. Put the particles into which it is divided into an iron pan with laterine oil and boil it thoroughly for two hours. Afterwards place it in a glass vessel on ashes for three days. Then the sulphur is converted into an oil. Take the glass vessel again and put it in cokl water for three days and three nights. Then distil it, first of all over a slow fire, but increasing the heat until it is sufficient. Thoroughly calcine the dregs, which are called the caput mortuum. Imbibe with the first water. Then distil for seven hours. Do this again until the redness of the oil is changed to white, which will take place in three hours. Finally, take again the aforesaid oil ; distil it by itself for seven hours, and the process is complete.
Then take a plate of Venus and dip it in the said oil. If it is transmuted into Luna, well and good. If not, distil again until this takes place with the said calcined faeces. Or:
Imbibe the faeces frequently with the said oil. Let it flow over a copper plate and it becomes white. Afterwards take one part of the faeces, and X^x^
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A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
357
aforesaid elixir and of calx peregrinorum. Pound these two together and imbibe with water of mercury ; desiccate, imbibe frequently, and it will coagulate. Finally take one part of this to two hundred parts of Venus, and you will have the best Sol that can be found.
Mode of fl^rther increasing this augmentation Boni Thematis* Take white of eggs with the same quantity of quicklime. Pound with orpiment water, imbibe, and coagulate. Add water of sal ammoniac, and putrefy in dung for five days. Strain through a cloth and desiccate. This elixir tinges Venus into Sol.
Item. Take some of this elixirt ^^% shell, and peahen^s eggs calcined. Once more imbibe with orpiment water for ten hours. Desiccate, pound with water of prepared salt, and putrefy for one day. Desiccate again, and one part tinges a hundred parts of Venus to Sol.
A Tincture most Effectual for the White and Red. Take of calcined sulphur, white and fixed, two parts, of fixed sublimated mercury ten parts. Take also some w^ater of sal amimontac and imbibe frequently. Then put it in a glass vessel into horse-dung for fifteen days. Place a little on heated iron and it will melt like wax. Coagulate with a slow fire. Next take one part of this elixir to a hundred parts of Venus purified for SoL Imbibe with w^ater of sal ammoniac, adding continually a little crocus of Mars until the powder grows red, whereupon putrefy it in dung. Then melt in iron* Take one part to one hundred parts of purified Mars, and it becomes gold better than that of Nature.
Operation por Sol, Take Live Mercury, viij. parts.
Sublimated and Fixed (? Mercury), iiij. parts.
Calcined Luna» ij. parts
White Arsenic, j, part. Pulverise, put in a silver box, lute well, place in a vessel, and pour over it Saturn for ^v^ days in one solution. Then take out the box and you will find a white powder. Pound this with water of sal ammoniac, desiccate, and putrefy for fifteen days until it melts like w^ax over red hot iron. Take 3.J. of it to one mark of purified Venus. Pour together and it will be true Luna*
For Sol. Then redden the sulphur with crocus of Mars. Instead of the calx Lunae take calx of Sol, and place it in the box. The substance must afterwards be more carefully strained and putrefied for a longer time.
White. Take Luna, 3 J. Jove, jj.5. Saturn, iij.3.
358 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writiiigs of Paracelsus.
Fuse these until they are thoroughly melted. Let them cool a little ; then project 5s., or somewhat more, of warm Mercury, and you will have the white.
Fix.\TioN OF Mercury.
Take a silver phial of any capacity you like, and place in it Mercury until it is a third or half full. Close it up with bread, salt, and white of ^g^. Then place it among burning coals. Heat it, and then immediately plunge it into hot water. Continue to do this for an hour, when it will give a sound like the hissing of a goose. Then it is sufficient. Take it out, and it will be silver.
Augmentation of Luna.
Make an amalgam of Jove and Mercury, mix it w^ith pounded salt, and wash it until no blackness appears. Take this amalgam, put it in a sublimatory, and sublimate the Mercury- from the Jove. Then take of the Mercury thus sublimated four loth. Dissolve in aquafortis 21 {sic) crocus of Luna, 2 16 (sic) loth, of Venus, and dissolve each separately by itself. When all are dissolved mix the whole in one glass vessel, distil the water from the dregs, pour over it fresh aquafortis as before, re-distil the water from the dregs, and afterwards wash with fresh water. Next, dissolve sal ammoniac in acetum, pour this on the dregs, and let it stand throughout the night. Then distil it once more from the dregs by means of an alembic, and reduce the faeces with sal alkali and common salt. Purify the body you have in the cineritium, and you will find six loth, of most excellent Luna.
Water for Gilding.
Make aquafortis out of one part of vitriol, one part of saltpetre, and four parts of alum. Into the water so made put four loth, of sal ammoniac. Re-distil. In the same water dissolve an amalgam of Mercury and Sol, as the goldsmiths are accustomed to form amalgams. Let this stand for eight or fifteen days. Let the water boil down to one third of its volume. When you wish to gild dip a pencil into that water, stir it briskly, and paint over whatever you please. Then let it dry, and afterwards burn it, as the gold- smiths do.
To Blot Out Writing.
Take Roman Vitriol, j. 5. Usifur, 54. Jamen Alum, i^lb. Distil a strong water from these. At first it is white ; and this you must collect by itself. When you wish to erase any writing, moisten a cloth with this water, touch the letters, and they are obliterated.
Cement. Take Reddened Vitriol \
Verdigris f „ ,
Burnt Brass ^^'^'^ °''^ P^^*'
Sal Ammoniac /
Alum, to make ilb. weight of all.
A Manual of Paracelsus ike Great.
359
Make layer on layer for eight hours in a closed vessel, and afterwards dip it in urine.
To Make Precious Stones,
Take very white silex, calcined and pulverised, one part, and three parts of minium. Place within a crucible in a brisk fire. Then let it cool of itself, and you will have a precious stone. It is coloured as an emerald by ashes of Venus.
Cement as Pars Cum Parte.
Take of Bloodstone ) . „ .^
r T, , A J'ltJ' J5- each.
of Bolus Armenus )
of Vitriol » a quarter, j. 2. Pulverise. Then take half a part of the Sun or the Moon. Make plates. Then arrange in layers, as you know, and remove by smoke. Take from the fire, when you will have the best Hungarian Sun. It has been tested by me.
White. Take of Venus, Ib.j, of Luna, Ib.s. Melt. Afterwards sprinkle Ib.ij. of salt ammoniac and IbJj. of pure salt. Pro- ject upon it j. quartal *Let it stand for one hour ; repeat until eight hours have passed and it is made. Out of that Luna you can make anything you desire. Beautiful Mercury brought over from Mercury. Take Luna and Mercury equal parts. Dissolve in aquafortis : then abstract the water so that it may remain as a thick pottage. Dissolve this pottage again for eight days^ and it will be converted into water. Abstract as before and again resolve four times, when you will ultimately have water which persists through all tests, and makes out of Mercury a Luna which re- mains everywhere* A drop or i^ to 2 oz. of Mercury heated to evaporation. Note the Sulphurous Work, Boil sulphur well in vinegar or urine. Wash it well. Afterwards dissolve it over the ftre and project as much as possible over the fire. Place it in a luted instrument and burn gently in a slow fire for 30 days, when you w*ill have at the bottom a Mercury which is not very red* Dissolve in an open glass vessel into oil. This oil tinges in a marvellous manner. Good and Proved Lazurium. Take of Live Mercury, any quantity, o'i Sulphur, a third part. of Sal Ammoniac* one part. Mix. Burn like cinnabar, and when you see a purple smoke, take out and mollify the lazurium with boiling water.
Water which makes Mars fluid and also boils is Air. Take Camphor,
Salt of Glasst Vitriol » Boiling Wine, Distil, as you know, and keep well.
36o The Hermetic and Alclumical Writings of Paracelsus.
Water which makes Luna into Sol- Take red vinegar, sublimated, and live calx. Boil. Then put in that vinegar sal ammoniac and vitriol, dissolve and distil through the alembic. Extinguish plates of Luna therein and it will be converted within and without into the Sun.
For Luna. Extinguish Mercury twelve times in human blood, and it will be hardened. Afterwards boil it in the yolk of eggs for one hour, when it will become good Luna.
Firm Tincture. Take Ib.j. of sal alkali, the same quantity of calx of eggs, two parts of clavellated cinder, also four parts of the dew of heaven. Decoct all these to the third part. Afterwards thrice distil through the alembic. Perform this diligently and you will have very strong water, with which Mercury and all bodies of metals are dissolved.
Take of the above water, Ib.j. of Foliated Luna, 5j. Place in cinders for three days, and the Luna will be converted into water.
Place Mercury, sublimated and well pulverized, in a phial among the .ashes. Pour over some of the said water made from Luna, and it will be congealed. Continue this process, imbibing and desiccating until half part of the water is consumed Ib.s. Afterwards place powder from Mercury into the fixatory. Digest slowly. On the third day augment the fire, making it exceedingly fierce, and you will find an everlasting tincture, one part of which falls over loo parts of crude Mercury, when it will be good Luna standing every weighing and hammering, and lasting for ever.
Concerning the Oil of Sulphur. Take of Oil, one-fourth, of Sulphur, Ib.ij. Make a hepar. Boil it in lixivium so that the oil may be abstracted ; after- wards that which remains at the bottom must be distilled through the retort, sectmdario per lateres. Make sufficient oil.
Pars Cum Parte. Take Antimony prepared in Oil of Tartar, Jj. Prepared Salt of Nitre, \ Prepared Common Salt, \ 5s. each. Plumose Alum, )
Let these ingredients be well mixed twice or thrice and imbibed in oil of tartar, whence will be formed a powder, which place layer by layer with Luna in a cementing fire for six hours ; and, when this has been done, let it be sublimated. Then take one ounce of this and half an ounce of pure Sol. Let these be pounded together and formed into plates ; and then make layer on layer with the following powder :
Haematite, Vitriol, Pound these together and let them be imbibed with oleum laudis ten times or more, when they form a powden Place them layer by layer in the fire for twelve hours. Afterwards take the regxilus^ sublimate, add three parts of Venus, and place in the following water of gradation :— Take Vitriol,
Saltpetre, J j,lb. each.
Alum,
Plumose Alum»
Calcined Alum,
Cinnabar,
Sulphur,
Verdigris, j.lb.
Antimony, vj.J
Distil twice, that is, once from the caput mortuum and from the residuum
which is found at the bottom- Fulminate ; and you will have Sol so good
as to answer every test.
Fixation of Mercury.
Take oil of tartar boiled in best lixivium^ and distil through filter. Next
boil till it attains to an oily consistency » and place in a good glass.
Take of the said Lixivium, one pocale.
of Sulmiax, five times sublimated, one pound.
of Mercury, sublimated seven times, Ibj.
of very strong Water of the Fount, half a pocale.
Let them be mixed together in a Venetian vase. Allow them to stand for a
day, so that the boiling may cease. Inject upon the oil Jiij. of Luna in horse
dung for a month, and the whole will be converted into oil. This oil tinges
all things into Luna, can be coagulated into a stone, and is the water of
Mercury. Projection.
Of Common Prepared Salt, \
Saltpetre, \ 5J.
Sal Alkali, )
Prepared Sal Ammoniac,
Albumen, \ js*
Vitriol,
Verdigris, jiij.
Crocus of MarS| Jj.
Cinnabar, Js.
Prepared Antimony, jij*
362 The Hemutic and AUtumual Writings of Paracelsus.
>fake a powder -Brhich :s to be :rr.b:bed with oil cf antxmonv and tartar (and uHne: of Mercur.- ten tiires. Pre; err ever ihem rij. of Luna and jiij- Disso!ve for six hc-jr^. Aftemards let it be fulnunated and placed in aqua- fortis, or cen:ent£d as you know.
Preparation of Salts. Make it with quicklime, and by means q\ a lixi\'ium. as you know. Let it be twice or thrice imibibed with oil of tartar, but the other in oil of tartar.
Concerning Talc. Let it be cemented a whole day with common salt, .\fterwards let the talc be collected from the salt and most subtly pounded. Let it be put in a bag. Let there be poured over it a ver\- strong lixivium. Let it be poured over again, until the calx is dissolved. Then it falls in the lixivium to the bottom. Dr)' previously very well. .Afterwards let it be dissolved into oil. It coagulates ^fercury into Luna, and similarly Jupiter.
Digestion of Luna. Take Saltpetre, j
Vitriol, ( JJ'-J-
Cinnabar, ^iiij. Make a strong water. Let this water be divided. In one part let there be Luna, in the other cinnabar. Let them be dissolved by the addition of sal ammoniac and then joined together. Let them be digested for fourteen days and the matter distilled. Then let it be reduced, and you will have a double quantity of Luna. Each loto oi the salt will have a loto and a half.
Concerning Talc. Let it be cemented with common salt a whole day in aquafortis. After- wards the talc must be collected, most subtly pounded, and put in a bag. Let it be melted over a ver}' strong lye, and let the process be repeated until the talc is dissolved. It then falls in the lye to the bottom. Dry previously well, then dissolve into an oil. It coagulates Mercur>' into Luna, and Jupiter
likewise.
Separation of Sol and Luna.
Take Antimony, Jviij.
Filings of Mars, Jvj.
Crude Tartar, jiiij.
Common Salt prepared in fluxion, Jiiij. Pound all together and fuse in a tigillum. Then there will be a black sub- stance, which also grind to a powder. Take equal parts of this and of Luna. Fuse the Luna until it appears bright and clear, that is, with the powder. Place in cupel with lead, and the antimony entirely evaporates. Afterwards purge by means of a cineritium.
Concerning Scoria of Luna. Take scorias and powders in equal quantities. Melt until you have cocted the silver. Let this process be thoroughly carried out, then refine.
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363
The Fixation of Cinnabar in one day.
Take of beechen ashes viij. parts, of quick lime j. part Make a lixivium, in which dissolve of salt nitre, sa!t of vitriol, and verdigfris^ each j. part ; of flower of alum and calcined tartar, \ part each. Dissolve these ; boil the cinnabar therein for a whole day, and it will be fixed.
On Antimony.
Imbibe the mineral in Saturn, Afterwards scatter sand upon it. Then the sand attracts the antimony to itself. When it becomes scoria, remove it with a spatula and sprinkle sand again, as before, until it will no longer evaporate* Then fulminate*
Concerning the Solution of Magnesia.
Take one part thereof, and of sublimated Mercury ij. parts. Grind, mix
together, and disti! by an alembic. Then a thick and fat water, like linseed
oil, is distilled. This tinges Mercury in itself. Then it tinges all bodies
projected into it.
Fixation of Antimony.
Take Salt of Alkali, ij, oz.
Salt of Nitre, j. oz.
Antimony, lb. j.
Melt together, then let them stand to cool, and the antimony will be fixed.
Oil of Antimony and Mercury, fixing Spirits and of itself DISSOLVING Bodies. Take Mercury, iv. lbs. Antimony, j. lb. Dissolve as you know how. This oil dissolves metals.
Oil of Borax. Put borax into a glacis vessel and dissolve it. I.et it be pulverised, hardened, and placed inside another glass vessel, in a balneum Mari®. It is converted into an oil which fixes all spirits.
Oil of Gold. Take Sulphur, j. part.
Quick Lime, viij* parts* Let these be decocted in water and the decoction becomes red. Distil by an alembic, and there remains at the bottom the redness of sulphur. This is called the oil of gold.
Water by which all Spirits are fixed.
Take sal ammoniaCt J amen us, and vitriol. Distil by alembic. Then take
any spirit, dissolve it in water, abstract it, imbibe it thrice, and it will be
fixed.
Another.
Take Antimony,
Crocus of Sulphur,
Sal Ammoniac, iiij. parts.
j. part each.
364 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paraalsus.
Imbibe with strong acetum ; at last dry it, and then mix with water of fixed sal ammoniac. Abstract, and distil.
Fixation of Sulphur. Grind it with salt of tartar or crude tartar, together with common salt and salt of nitre in equal parts. Dissolve with the water of common salt and congeal. Put it in a vessel, lute, and set it in the fire. Let it get red-hot, afterwards dissolve in fresh water, distil with a filter ; congeal a second and third time, and the sulphur will become capable of being melted like wax.
Sublimation to Sol with Sulphur.
Take Live Sulphur \
Roman Vitriol \ equal parts.
Verdigris )
Imbibe with the water of common salt. Sublimate thrice. Or, take equal
parts of Sulphur, Honey, and Alkali. Let them boil for one day. This mixture makes Sol out of Luna.
Water of Antimony (Sulphur) for Sol. Grind it, and take thereof iij. parts, with one part of sal ammoniac. Place it within a glass vessel, well luted, on ashes for one day. Then pound it in hot water, and it will become like blood. If it were boiled in a lixivium perhaps it would be better.
Fixation of Sulphur. Take sulphur and honey. Imbibe and dry over a slow fire. Then let it boil well in a strong lixivium. Wash the substance until the water appears clear. Renew this process seven times, and you will find the sulphur white like crystal. Afterwards take prepared common salt and the same quantity of sal ammoniac and sulphur. Let these be well ground together twice. Then dissolve with white of ^%%y and congeal. Distil by means of a filter, and cool. Repeat this three times, and j. part changes xxx. parts of warmed mercury into permanent Luna.
Fixed Oil of Sulphur. Take it, let it boil in alkali for one day, and be sublimated over a slow fire. Having done this, moisten it with acetum four times, abstract by means of a filter, and again moisten three times. It is afterwards abstracted by means of an alembic, and will then be fixed. Let it be dissolved into an oil on marble. Then take the body of the sulphur, dissolve it with oil, and congeal. One part tinges three parts to Luna, and that Luna has many of the properties of gold.
The Whitening and Fixation of Cinobrium. Take it, together with calcined alum and prepared common salt. Pound together with vinum ardens, dry, and sublimate. Then it is whitened and fixed.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
365
Fixation of Spirits-
Take quicklime, sa!t of alkali, and oil mixed therewith. Distil, and
imbibe the spirits with test water, repeating the process until it melts on the plate.
Water of Mercury Fixing all Spirits.
Take Mercury, j, marc,
Sal Ammoniac, ij. marc* Rub the two together into a glass vessel o%'er a slow fire, and it will become a hard mass* Pound this and it will become a powder, which dissolve in water. Then take j. marc, of pure Luna or Sol carefully made into plates. Put this in the aforesaid water ; and this water fixes all spirits.
To Fuse Bones.
Take any quantity of bones and burn them into lime. Having done this, carefully pound it Take of this Ib.iiij., of quicklime ^Ib. Mix them together in the powder. Afterwards dissolve some bitumen in a moderate quantity of wine, until the whole of it is melted away. Then place the bones therein, and stir briskly into a thick pulp. Afterwards pour into a mould made of paper. First, however, let it be smeared w^ith oil ; set it to cool, and it will be hardened like ivor>\ You can, in course of fusion, give it any colour with minium, flos aeris, or any other tints you like- To Mak£ a Mould for Casting all kinds of Images*
Pound tiles very fine, and boil them in strong lixivium so that they form an exceedingly thin paste. Dry this and strain it carefully. Afterwards make a water from the white of eggs. Then let it be pressed on a machine, and it will dry from the top.
To Colour Glass. Take tartar, wood ashes, and quicklime* Make an alkali from them. Take thereof j. part, dissolve in iij. parts of colour in water (r/V). Coagulate, and again dissolve with the colour. Do this three or four times until the stone shall be thoroughly coloured. Afterwards melt glass with the aforesaid stone. It ivill be coloured by the stone, and thus you can fuse crj^staU
A Method of Colouring whereby Softened Crystal can bb Tinted and Hardened like a Precious Stone.
Take alkali made from tartar, j. part : sublimated salmiax, \ part : colour ij. parts. Pound well together, dissolve in water, and again pour the colour thereupon, repeating the process until the colour is sufficiently deep. Then it will be coagulated into a stone. Pound this \ery fine, and mix it with a cry^stal that has been previously softened with oil of tartar. The red colour is made with cinnabar, and becomes equally red therewith ; the citron-colour is made from saffron^ and the green with sap-green.
366 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
How EVERY Stone can be transmuted into a clear one, though it be itself opaque, and whereby you can tinge a body, both Crystal and all similar Bodies. Example. Take of ematite stone, very finely pounded, ij. parts. Let it boil fiercely in a lixivium (previously prepared from tartar, wood ashes, and quicklime) for half a day, so that it may be alkalised. Then sprinkle over it iij. parts each of sublimated sal ammoniac and also crude sal ammoniac. Dry overa veryslow fire. Afterwards dissolve in water in a damp cellar, and what remains on the stone imbibe again with that water, repeating the operation until the whole is turned into oil. Then put it into a glass vessel and sublimate from the oil itself the sal ammoniac which is not fixed. When you see it has ascended and is no longer in the oil, then pound the stone, and boil it still further in the lixivium for six or eight hours ; and then again, as before, dissolve with the sal ammoniac, both sublimated and crude, then by the sublimation of the lixivium and the solution of the sal ammoniac it is changed into a thick oil. Then those spirits which are not fixed are separated from it, as the sal ammoniac by sublimation, in the way before specified. The lixivium will not be separated ; but add water, which has been distilled by a filter ; then the oil will remain at the bottom, and the lixivium will be raised up with the water. Thus it will be separated, and you will have the oil of the stone alone. It is better, however, not to separate the alkali, but to let it remain in the oil.
Description of the Adept's Fire.
Take Vitriol, \
Alum, \ j. lb. each.
Saltpetre, )
Calcined Alum, ) , ,, ,
^ , . , .r. . . } i 1^- each. Calcmed Vitriol, J *
Distil in aquafortis for 30 hours. Afterwards take Ib.ij. of the following
strong water :— Calcined Alum, \
Calcined Vitriol, ) I lb. each.
Saltpetre, \\ lb.
Distil as above and renew thrice. Having done this, dissolve in the following
strong water :
Sal Ammoniac, ij. quarts.
Salmiax, j. quart.
Sublimated Mercury, j.
Calcined Tartar and its Alkali {no quantity given).
Sublimated Arsenic, j. quart. After each has been separately dissolved, let it be distilled by a bath and poured over twice. Afterwards let it be hardened a little and dissolve in a moist bath into a water In this water dissolve iij. parts of Luna, or as much as will dissolve. Coagulate into a hard stone and let this boil in a very strong lixivium into most potent water until it is alkalised. Dissolve and coagulate as long as you please.
A Mantial of Paracelsus the Great. 367
For Luna.
• equal parts of each.
Take Sal Ammoniac,
Vitriol,
Rock Alum,
Salt of Alkali or Tartar, Sublimate in a glass vessel. One part tinges six parts of purified brass. Then add Luna.
The Purification of Brass is effected thus : With Acetum, Salt, and Tartar.
Oil of Sulphur. Take three pounds of Hepar Sulphur. Boil it in a lixivium of soap ; afterwards add Rubified Vitriol, Ib.ij.
Calcined Alum, Ib.j.
Glass, Ib.ji.
Crocus of Mars, j. quart.
Verdigris, j. quart. Mix well into one mass. Distil by an alembic, having previously putrefied for three days ; and with a very strong fire, so that the spirit may be energetically expelled. Set aside the white part. Pour that which is red upon the caput mortuum again. Re-distil ; and keep doing this until no whiteness comes forth. Then thoroughly reverberate the caput mortuum. Distil it ; and repeat this process until it no longer burns in the fire. Putrefy from the white oil. These tinge in a wonderful manner.
Mode in which Sol is produced with Pars cum Parte. Take Antimony, ij. parts.
Common Salt, iij. parts. Vitriol,
Alum, S ^' ^^'''
Grind to a powder. Take ij. parts of this, and j. part of filings of Luna. Mix together, and place in a tigillum on a slow fire for two hours. Then place it in a very strong fire for another two hours, and melt it in glass. Afterwards imbibe in Saturn and purify by means of a cineritium. Next convert it into plates, and put them layer on layer with this powder. Then take
Common Salt, fused,
Salt of Nitre,
Alum,
Vitriol,
Ematite,
Flos Aeris,
Calaminaris,
Tutia,
Cinnabrium,
Minium,
Burnt Brass,
^ lb. of each.
^ oz. of each.
368 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Dry by the fire. Make into a powder. Imbibe three or four times with urine. Place in a luted tigillum and set in a graduated fire for six hours. On the last day {sic) put in the regulus, having purified it by a cineritium. Wash it again and cement it, until it is proof against aquafortis. Then take of that Luna {sic) iij. parts, of pure Sol j. part, of copper ij. parts. Dissolve together and cement for ten hours. Let the regulus be dissolved into iiij. parts, and placed in the aquafortis to be hereafter described. Then you will have a residuum of Sol perfect according to every test.
The Aqua Fortis. Take Vitriol, \
Saltpetre, > j.lb. each. Alum, J
Antimony, 4 ss. Cinabrium, 5 4 vij. Verdigris, 5 ss. Distil all these into a water.
For Beauty of Face.
Take Oil of Tartar and Dragaganth. Make an ointment and besmear the face therewith once. Then remove it.
Note Concerning Cements.
Take laminated Luna and let it be cemented with species of cements twice or thrice. Afterwards add one part of purged Venus. Dissolve in water of gradation, and you will have gold if it remains its time, namely, until it acquires a red colour. Note that pars cum parte is made as above.
Note.
Place verdigris in ashes so that it may grow white. Then extinguish in vinegar, when it will become red. Afterwards pound, wash thoroughly, and desiccate again. Tutty is made as above, and becomes red. Also let colcothar be imbibed with vinegar as above. Also take Js. of cinnabar and 5j. of vitriol as above. Next let the vitriol be imbibed with vinegar after the manner of a pottage. Divide it into two parts. Let one part be placed at the bottom of the tigillum. Arrange cinnabar above in layers, well luted. Place by the fire, so that it may not glow, for two hours. Afterwards pound well. Also take 5ij. of crocus of Mars. Wash in the manner of ceruse. Take the more subtle portion. Desiccate and imbibe with vinegar. Thus dry twice that which floats above.
Also take of Crocus of Mars,
of Tutia, ' 5J' each.
of Verdigris,
of Vitriol, prepared as above, Jj. Mix together, pounding well.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
369
Fixed Venus, Take of Filings of Iron, of Antimony, of Venus. Place in a tigillum well luted. Let it stand twelve hours In flux. Afterwards infrig-idate and fulminate the king with the same quantity of Saturn. You will then find 12 lotones of fixed Venus of j.lb. It makes no more scoria, nor is further destroyed by R. You can make it red or white.
To THE White with Metallic Arsenic. Let it be fixed by means of imbibition of the oil of eggs and of tartar until the tincture be made.
Crocus op Mars. Take any quantity of Mars, and the same of saltpetre. Make it burn and become red. Let it also become sulphur* etc. Also take ,^j.s. of sal ammoniac^ Pound. Also take 5IJ. of glass, prepared and pounded as above. Mix and imbibe with vinegar tw^ice. Also take iiij.oz. of filings of Mars and two ounces of red vitriol. Make crocus with vinegar, as you have seen. Let the oil of Mars be distilled. Imbibe sal ammoniac as before until it reddens. Take of antimony h. j., well pounded, and of tartar h. j. Mix well. Next dry. Shut up in a jar^ so that it may not grow white on the coals. Leave for two hours. Afterwards pound it and pour vinum ardem over it, so that it may be inebriated. Place it in a phial for a night and a day. Next distil. Pour over it again, and distil by a slow fire.
To Soften Glass. Take Lybisticum. Press out the sap. Cause the glass to boil in this.
This is the Method of Making Luna. Take j*lb, of Mercury. Heat it» and pour over it the following water : Take common salt j. lb., saltpetre], quart Grind them, and then bake j* quart of lime. Mix well in an iron dish over a slow fire until it froths, for one hour. Remove from the fire and cool, Mix all together, and dip it into oil twice. Fulminate this Mercury in a cineritium, and you will rejoice for ever.
Correction of Oil of Tartar, for Beauty and for Luna. Make layer on layer with tartar and lime. Burn well. Then filter for two hours. Lastly dissolve^ and you will have corrected oil of tartar*
Note. Take equal parts of sulphur and Mercury. Form a paste tike amalgam. Then mix with salt. Let them remain in gentle fluxion for half an hour or thereabouts. Then burn ; afterwards wash. The Mercury which you find there grind with a salve of Aza, wax, vintim ardcns^ etc., until it is burnt. Finally reduce in a cineritium with borax, and you will have Luna without any doubt.
370 The Hermetic and Alchefnical Writings of Paracelsus.
Water of Fixation.
Rectify the white of eggs with their own shell four times. Take of this
Ib.j., of well purified Sol j. 5, and sal ammoniac j. 3. Boil them well with
urine. Dissolve these together and distil by means of an alembic. Imbibe
therewith sulphur and arsenic, sublimate until fixed, and you will have an
elixir.
Note. Take Cinnabar, Ib.j.
Sulphur, \
Arsenic, / Ib.iiij.
Calcined Tartar, / Alkali of Soot, lb. J. Salt, nine times prepared, lb. J. Salt Nitre, the same weight as all the rest together. Mix, pound, and moisten several times with the water of eggs or albumen of tartar. Let them remain in a state of fusion for three hours. Afterwards kindle and warm, when it readily dissolves the saltnitre ; one part of subli- mated Mercury and two parts of sulphur must be stirred continually with a stick. It then speedily loses its smell. The salts are prepaped by frequently evaporating the acetum or urine. Afterwards melt them so as to mix for four hours over a very strong fire. Then wash and purge over ashes ; and you will have the Treasure of the World.
Reduction. Take Goldsmith's Borax, part j. Assafoetida^ Sarcocolla,
Oxicroceus, \ parts ij. Wax, Galbanum,
Dissolve the gums in vinum ardens, mix with the borax, as above, and it is burnt at the same time. If it does not melt, add more borax until it melts.
Oil which Fixes and Tinges. Take Linseed Oil,
Honey, )
Yolk of Eggs, oz.vj.
Eggshell and Quicklime, each j. quart.
Colcothar, Saltpetre, and ) , ..
Calcined Alum, } ^^ch y. quarts.
Antimony and Tartar, each lb. J.
Juniper Wood, 4. Pound, mix, and distil. Having done this drive out the spirits of nitre, alum, colcothar, and antimony until the water or oil becomes red and thick. Then warm the tartar and antimony, and pour in the oil that the spirit may thus be more reddened. Add iiij. parts of aquafortis, so that the oil may thereby be
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great. 371
more fixed. It would be well, too, if this oil were previously rectified from the calx of the eggs and its own fixed spirits by renovating and distilling six times. Lastly, take of this oil j lb. and ten parts of fixed salt. Let it be fixed by ten cementations, solutions, and fusions, and as often by nitre. At the same time take one quart, each of alkali fuliginisp Jamen alum, and sulphur of tartar. If the sulphur has been imbibed with nitre it renders it red and more fixed, and gives it ingress. Take of this sulphur j. part ; of coagulated Mercury ij. parts. Cement for four hours, and It becomes gold more perfect than that of Nature, In like manner all spirits are fixed by this method. They perform w^onders, do the like, and ingress and tincture are added to all species. It turns to Sol the calx of Luna when placed upon it, and equally fixed copper in the same manner. It fixes calcined or sublimated Mercury, both into a body and into a tincture, that is, an elixir. This oil can be coagulated over a very slow fire, and you will then have a stone» the virtue of which is to turn into pure Sol. Luna, fixed Venus, and all metals prepared for it. It fixes also cinnabar into Sol.
Caput Mortuum for the subject of this Sublimation.
Take Arsenic, \
Sulphur, \ j.lb, each.
Crude Tartar, J
Salt, fused and prepared, Ib.ij.
Saltpetre to the weight of all Dissolve over a slow fire with Ib.j, of crude antimony, until two hours are completed. Then kindle, and let them melt for an hour. Let this caput mortuum be Imbibed with the said oil. No better caput has been discovered.
Ready Method for Coagulating Mercury.
Take it when made very warm» steep frequently in warm oil, and it will be hardened.
Arsenicus Matellinus.
Take Quicklime, i
Common Salt, J J* P* Calcined Tartar, ij. p. Mix with the clear part of eggs. Make into pills, and distil by descent.
White Cinabrium. Take equal parts of Alum,
Calcined Tartar, Common Salt, Cinabrium. Sublimate all these. It will become four times as white. It also becomes white in a strong capitellum if you boil it for a night. Jupiter steeped in oil of tartar 7, or more, becomes good, etc.
Z2
372 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Note. For making Ice easily Fusible in Fire, and such also as IS NOT Dissolved by Water. Take aquafortis made from saltpetre and alum, together with oil oi tartar, j.lb. each. Pour all together ; then put into them a little vinum ardens, and the whole will coagulate into an ice by the power of fire.
Oil which we use for Projection on Melted Luna. Take Purest Gold, j. loth.
Sal Ammoniac, iij. loth. Oil of Antimony, x. loth. Aquafortis, quant, stiff. Dissolve, as you know how. Having done this, let it putrefy for seven days, and distil by a bath, continually renewing the whole until the aforesaid materials are converted into a thick oil. Of this take x. loth., with purest gold ij. loth. Dissolve at the same time iiij. loth, each of sublimated Mercury and fixed sublimated sal ammoniac. Proceed as above with fresh aqua fortis, and all these ingredients are converted into a thick oil. In this oil dissolve as much gold as possible. The oil will then transmute into gold all metals on which it is projected, and if it be coagulated into a stone it tinges it beyond measure. By this method you can proceed to silver. Mercury will be fixed with white of eggs, and in the same manner sal ammoniac. A Wonderful Cement by one Stone over Luna. Take Crocus of Mars, j loth. Haematite, ij. loth. Verdigris, v. loth. Pulverise well and boil in a very strong lixivium for ten hours, so that it may be alkalised. Having done so, take of this alkali ^Ib., of sal ammoniac iiij. loth., and of sublimated salmiax j. loth. Mix together and dissolve on marble into a watery oil. Pour the oil thus made on the dregs, and keep doing this until the whole matter is turned into water. This being done, coagulate it into a stone, w^hich sublimate in order that the sal ammoniac may evaporate, and the matter alone may remain. Then once more boil the stone in very strong red lixivium. Again add the aforesaid weight, dissolve into oil, and again coagulate the oil, sublimate the sal ammoniac from it, and do this over and over again until the matter of the species flows from them on the marble. Take this water, coagulate it afresh, dissolve it again and put it in j. quartal of powder or j. loth, of water of ducat-gold. When it is dissolved coagulate it. This stone is eflfectual in cements, and eflfectual also in projections. It also tinges crj'stal.
Cement by which half of Luna becomes Sol. Take Hematite, v. loth. • Flos Aeris, ij. loth.
Crocus of Mars, iiij. loth. Sal Ammoniac, iij. loth. Nitre, ij. loth.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
373
Boil and desiccate. Afterwards imbibe nine times with oil of antimony ; then with equal parts of this powder and of Luna make layer upon (ayer. Having done this lay aside the Luna and fulminate it. Then it is separated by means oE successive applications of water and purged by a cineritium. Take Antimony, Ib.vj,
Verdigris, lb J.
Calcined Vitriol, Ib/ij.
Calcined Alum, Ib.j.
Saltpetre, Ib.iij,
Sublimated Mercury, lb.i. Distil, and there issues forth a strong red water which tinges everything into Soi.
Cement whereby four parts of Luna become perfect Gold. Take Luna, iiij. loth. Venus, j. loth. Make thin plates and form layer on layer with the following powder* Take : ij. loth, each of red vitrio!, calcined alum, and saltpetre ; j. loth, each of verdigris, haematite, and tutia, with iij, loth, of sal ammoniac. Dry by evaporation over a slow fire, and imbibe several times with white of ^^^s. Make into a powder, and cement the Luna for seven hours in a graduated fire. Afterwards put it into a cineritium with the following strong water.
Take Saltpetre,
Alum,
Calcined Alum, j* quart
Cinnabar,
Sulphur,
Verdigris and Calami naris, each j. quart.
White of eggs boiled in calx of eggs» Ikiij. Mix, and make into a strong water. Distil again Ib.ij. of the aforesaid faeces with lb. I of calcined alum and one quartal of plumose alum. After a gradation of twenty-four hours reduce with borax> and there will result the most perfect gold.
Zalusia. Dissolve calcined alum, etc., as also calx of alum. Mix with white sugar and camphor, imbibe with quintessence, and burn. Then the camphor is burnt out and consumed, while the alum is transmuted into oil Place it in aqua vitse.
Oil of Vitriol for all Weakness. Make vitriol up to redness. Dip that calx in common acetum, as far as it can be dissolved* Pour out that which is dissolved and keep it. That which is not dissolved dissolve again with fresh acetum, as above, unlil the whole is dissolved. Then let the acetum evaporate to dryness. Calcine the moisture from it anew. Then place it for distillation and you will have an
ib.j.
Ib.i.
374 ^^^ Hermetic and Alchemkal Writings of Paracelsus.
oil. Over this pour the rectified quintessence and place in a bath for putrefying. The superfluous part remains at the bottom. Pour this off clear, and you will have the quintessence by means of the alembic. The oil, of a deep red colour, remains at the bottom.
Salt of Tartar. Calcine tartar to whiteness. Dissolve in cooked urine. Filter, coagulate, and you will have salt of tartar. Take it soon ; let it dissolve in oil. Dissolve the other part in white vinegar and coagulate into a salt.
Antimony. Take of Antimony ij. p. of Fused Salt, j. p. Let them be melted until the water ceases to redden and the antimony becomes white. Put the froth in a glass. Coagulate it. Next place it in a long cap-pot, extract it with an iron scraper, and repeat the process until it becomes white to a powder and then red again. Then take one marc of Jupiter. Sprinkle thereon a quint of this powder when the metal is in flux. Then reflne on the test.
Crocus of Mars. Dissolve in aquafortis. Then distil the aquafortis from thence. Take as much sal ammoniac as crocus, and sublimate four times from the crocus. Afterwards put the whole substance in acetum to dissolve in a slow heat for two days. Distil the solution by a Alter, and then cause the acetum to evaporate. Afterwards strengthen the fire. The sal ammoniac retires, and the crocus remains in a fluid state at the bottom.
Water of Mercury.
Take crude Mercury j.lb. Put it in a cucurbit to distil. Give it a slow
fire, and a single drop will come forth. Pour this back ; distil again, and two
drops will come forth. Pour these back again, and continue this process until
the whole is converted into water. This water penetrates and dissolves
bodies.
Note.
Take crude tartar and pound it well. Then distil through an alembic.
Pour its water again upon the faeces, and distil again until a water or oil
collects ; then put the same into another receptacle. Afterward rectify it.
Take live calx in the same quantity as red oil. Pound it thoroughly. Then
extract the water through the alembic until no more faeces remain at the
bottom. Next put half as much sulphur into the oil. Putrefy for ten days.
Afterwards again distil. Then make an amalgam out of one part of Luna
and five parts of Mercury. Heat and extinguish in oil six times. Then
Mercury is fixed, and there are many arcana in it.
Note. The calx of the body is cast into a fluxion of saltpetre over the fire. Dis- solve in a cold chamber. It falls on the bodies.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
375
two parts each.
Water of Luna, Make an aquafortis out of one pound of saltpetre and two of vitriol. Dissolve therein half an ounce of Luna j then dissolve a common salt in warm water. Pour into it aquafortis with Luna, when it will be precipitated. Then extract the water from it, and dry it. Add to the dissolved half ounce one ounce of sugar-candy. Pour upon it again a fresh supply of aquafortis. Extract the moisture therefrom in a bath. Afterwards put it in a sand cupel and extract the water of the moon through the alembic. If it does not ascend more than once, pour the ascended water thereupon until all shall have passed through.
The Fixation of Arsenic. Take two parts of alum and one part of saltpetre. Make a water by means of an alembic, and put into the water a part of sublimated arsenic. Distil to a fixed water.
Fixation of Mercury. Take of Fixed Arsenic, of Sal Ammoniac, of Fixed Sulphur, one part. Melt them together. Then take one marc of Mercury. Warm it. Next put it into the melted matter therein. Wait an hour. Then refine it in Saturn on the test. Vou lose nothing, and you will have more than two parts of the Sun. You may then also take the Mercur}' which is coagulated with the smoke of Saturn.
True Albatio. Take of Sublimated Zaibach, x- parts.
White Sublimated Ky brick, iij. parts. Sal Ammoniac, iij. parts. Imbibe frequently with water of sal ammoniac, and dry until they are white and roasted. Again imbibe and roast. At length take water of the eagle, that is, sal ammoniac, double the amount of the powders. Put it to dissolve under moderately warm dung for three weeks. Then take it out of the dung and congelate it into white powders. Of these project one part Oin loo parts of purged Venus, and the whole will become silver. These are the truest experiments of many philosophers who have worked by Zaibach, Kybrick, and the eagle. For these are three great spirits. Thus prepared, they tinge.
To Fix Sulphur. Take as much aquafortis as you w^ish. Inject jj. of live sulphur and the same quantity of pulverised alum. Dissolve in water, when the sulphur w^ill become red as blood and f^xed. This water dissolves alt bodies.
Note. Mercury is called honey, calcined Luna, the assistance. Mercury is called water. Thus Plato*
Water of
376 The Hermetic and Alclieynical Writings of Paracelsus.
Fixing Salt. Take Quick Lime, ij. parts. Soft Smegma, j. part Wood Ashes, \ part. Also some ashes from the dregs of wine. Reduce all these to powder so that they may become a strong lixivium. Strain through a filter ; coagulate, and you will have fixing salt, concerning which see below also.
Fixing Oil. Take of olive oil three parts, of quicklime two parts, and of sal ammoniac one part. Mix all together and distil the oil from them. Do this three times, always renewing the dregs.
Soft Soap. Take twelve scutellae of water, in which place one scutella of wood ashes. Boil until dissolved. Then add half a scutella and boil until the water is reduced one-third. Remove from the fire and distil by a filter. Then to two parts of the water thus strained off add a third part of oil 9. Do this by evaporating over a fire.
Coagulation of Mercury.
Make an amalgam from one part of Luna and five parts of purified Mercury. Place it in a glass vessel with a narrow neck which is well smeared below with the lute of wisdom. Place under the amalgam in the glass one layer of salt previously prepared, and also above. Afterwards pour over it the oil previously prepared to the height of three fingers, and let it boil over a slow fire for seven days.
Note.
In art we find two co-operators by whose means our working is more easily fulfilled. The one is the destroyer, that is to say, sal ammoniac. But sulphur and arsenic reduced to an oil promote the work. The property of sulphur is to coagulate Mercury. But the property of arsenic is only to inspire and vivify the stone, if it be prepared in due manner. Hence, whoever omits to prepare the oil of Mercury should take the oil of arsenic in its place. But when a philosopher speaks of joining in matrimony the body and the spirit by sal ammoniac, he speaks of the oil extracted from Mercury.
Solution of Bodies. Dissolve honey over a fire, and pour over it tiles heated and pounded so as to imbibe the moisture. Then distil by an alembic, and a saffron- coloured water will be produced, because otherwise the honey cannot be distilled. Into this water let the spirits of aquafortis enter, that is to say, equal parts of vitriol and saltpetre. Then dissolve Luna and Sol in that water, and get ready also an ounce of prepared common salt. Then this converted material can be eaten or drunk without injury, because it is aurum potabile.
A Manual of Paracelsus ike Great.
377
NoTA Bene. That you may know the Recipe for Solution.
Take a clean doth, like ticken or fustian, as much as an ell in lengfth ; pour on it a pint of good vvinCi and with the wine mix about a half pint of good brandy. Tear the fustian or the cloth at first into fragments. Let it remain thus three days. Afterwards take it out and dry it on a board. When it has dried take one tatter after another on a small stick. Burn it as if to make tinder* Put the burnt tatters one by one into a brazen basin. Place in a cellar, when Ihe whole will speedily become an oil Then amal- gamate Luna or Sol with three parts of Mercury, Let the Mercury e%^aporate again Place a calx upon the slab. Pound it with brandy. Then take twice the quantity of the above oil^ and twice the quantity of the body of Mercury* Temper it thoroughly on a table made of Saturn. Set it subsequently in a moist place, when you will soon find oil of the body, which use as you know
how,
Luna Fixed by Me.
Take saltpetre, antimony, and arsenic, and imbibe them well with oil of tartar, so that they may be thoroughly mixed. Dry them somewhat. After- wards melt them in a tigillum, first over a slow fire and then over a stronger one. Pound the whole together into powders. Take of these one-fifth to one loth., or more if you like, and you have, etc. (j/V).
Sol is the first which is not altered by fire, nay, it is improved by fire, and cannot (otherwise) become a great or perfect elixir, which is of eternal duration, the rectifier and lightener of all bodies, and is joined with Mars and Saturn. But it cannot be joined with Mars except Mars be filed, but with Saturn it is joined as it is/'
A Noble Work,
Take Saturn and melt it. Before it hardens project an equal amount of Mercury. Wash this amalgam thoroughly with water and salt, afterwards with pure water. Grind on a stone, and afterwards add as much sal ammoniacum as there is mercury. Place it in a damp, warm place. When it is entirely dissolved take sublimated arsenic. Imbibe it by pounding it thoroughly on the stone with the aforesaid water. Set it to dissolve, but remember that there should be something there to lighten it. Let it stand until it is quite cold. This preparation serves as a means of lightening when it is projected on one hundred parts of Venus and on two hundred of Saturn. But note that you always ought to place in it salt of alkali, so that the spirit may penetrate better and enter through the whole body.
FlX,\TI0N AND RuBinCATlON OF MeRCURV.
Take bloodstone, mix it with sal ammoniac and sublimate it. Then the sal ammoniac ascends red, but the stone will remain at the bottom black. Then, having once sublimated the Mercury, grind it with that sal ammoniac, and sublimate it. The mercury will remain at the bottom fused and red.
* The text jU this point, and in many places throughout the latter part of the colkcuoD, feems exceedingly corrupt.
378 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Note. Calcine the cinnabar well with vitriol and salt, when it all goes into the metal.
Note.
With regard to what will not readily enter into lead, nothing having been taken out, boil the matters in strong alkali. Add thereto as much as you like of vitriol, and it enters in.
Water of Mercury.
Take of mercury sublimated and of antimony Jiiij. each. Break each in pieces separately. Put together in a well-luted retort Set in a sand ; apply a gentle fire. Refine over. Should it attach itself in the tube, ease it with a coal. Increase the fire until it no longer comes over. When it is cold put the matter upon a stone. Pound it small. Should Mercury still remain, remove it Then put again into a retort. Refine more effectually than previously, even until all the mercury has become water. Thus you may also make oil of antimony. Take the matter in a glass. Pound small. Pound the moisture. Do this continually and distil until a red oil comes over.
Fixation.
Take of Mercury Sublimate, part j.
Sulphur, part ij.
Break up together. Put in a cucurbit. Set it in sand. Let the smell go
out, at first weak, afterwards stronger. Should the sulphur not lose its smell,
stir with a piece of wood ; it will then lose its smell soon.
Proof.
Set it upon a plate. Should it not smell it is fixed ; if it does, take equal
quantities of sulphur and mercury. Pound together, as at first, until it is
fixed.
Reduce as Follows.
Take one part both of litharge and of Mercury, and a small quantity of
sulphur. Put the Mercury into the crucible and thoroughly lute. Apply at
first a small fire, then a stronger, until it melts. Afterwards let it cool.
Wash the Luna. Refine in Saturn. Then separate in aquafortis.
White. Take the white of forty eggs, break up well and boil. Then distil the water through a cloth. Afterwards take Ib.j. of Mercury sublimate, and the same quantity of arsenic. Impaste frequently with the aforesaid water, and dry sufficently. Afterwards (another copy has) let Ib.j. of sal ammoniac be added twice. Pour the water over the pounded powder to the height of a finger or two. Set in horse dung in a closed glass for fifteen days. Take out on the sixteenth day, and you will find an aqueous mass. Coagulate this in cinders. Of this j. part tinges one hundred of the bodies, and especially of purged Venus, to which if there be added three or four parts of Luna, it will become perfect Luna. If you add a ferment the Luna will be still more perfect.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
379
Oil of Mercury and of the Sun for Gilding. Take of Sal Ammoniac^ \ oz.
Mercury Sublimate, ]. quint, which are to be well pounded together. Put into a hard boiled egfg. Then remove the yolk, and make under or through the floor a small hole with a barrel of a pen. Put the egg on a small glass to eliminate the humour. Do the same with calx of the Sun. Take one quarter of the Sun. Paint it with Mercury. Put therein salt pounded small. Let the Mercury lose its smell. Boii the salt with hot water from the calx. Then take twice as much sal ammoniac as calx. Put this also in an q^%% with a small hole. Set it as before to dissolve into an oil, but should the sal ammoniac not melt readily, moisten it with brandy.
Oil of Vitriol. Pour aquafortis on carefully-calcined vitriol Let it stand in putrefaction for fourteen days. Afterwards let the phlegma of the aquafortis be removed^ and the oil remains at the bottom.
To Extract the Quintessence of Luna, Saturn, or Jove.
Put tartar and sal ammoniac into acetum in a well-closed glass vessel. Put in this the ashes of Saturn, Jove, or Luna. Seal thoroughly and set in warm dung for eight days. Afterwards distil, and the acetum comes first, next the quintessence of the calx, after the manner of quicksilver.
Aquafortis on Venus, to make Luna. Take of Salt,
of Hungarian White Vitriol,
of Alum,
of Arsenic,
Pound small according to the proper manner Make aquafortis. Dissolve
therein as much as you like of Venus, and you will have silver to the quantity
of one-haJf.
Elixir.
Take equal parts of Sol, Luna, Mars, and Venus, Melt them and make plates of them, which suspend over acetum. Scrape off the green which will be formed there. Do this until the plates are entirely consumed and turned into green, A portion of this green on lo parts of Luna transmutes it into the appearance of Sol. If you wash this green with warm water, and after- wards mix with it some water of sal ammoniac, letting it stand for seven days, and dissolve, its effect is doubled If, too, in place of sal ammoniac you added aqua fcetida, that is, Mercur>% and then operated, as with the water of sal ammoniac, you would certify your work ; nor can you make any mistake on account of the metallic substances being combined in a philosophic
way. Note this well.
Another.
Rubify vitriol, pound it, and dissolve it in acetum. Then sublimate sal
ammoniac over a slow fire, and add what is sublimated to the aforesaid red
. j. lb. each.
380 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
water in equal weight. Give it a slow fire cautiously for three days, and it will be coagulated and fixed. If it be not fixed, then repeat, and it will become a deeper red. Fix it until it is completely fixed, which you will prove on a plate of copper. Put three parts of this powder to eight parts of Sol, and a sort of fermentation will be produced, one part of which tinges thirty parts of Luna into Sol ; and that Sol will change sixty parts of Luna into Sol in my opinion. Add antimony as above ; it will then be much better.
One Part of Tincture on Ten Parts of Luna in Sol. Take of Verdigris, \
of Mercury, > j.lb. each, of Vitriol, ) Mix thoroughly together. Distil a water out of them, from which Mercury proceeds into the alembic. Take the alembic from it. Subject the other in a glass to a good fire, so that it may become red. Take it out. Make it into a powder. Pour its own water back into it again, and put on the fire. Let the water lose the smell thereof, so that it may become red as scarlet. Pulverise. Melt a ducat in a crucible. Incorporate the powder thoroughly with it, or melt it upon it. Take the gold and throw it upon ten ducats of silver, and melt. Thus it arrives at the twenty-fourth grade. I believe that if a ducat had been first resolved in water of Mercury, and again coagulated with the former powders and resolved, and that three times, it ought to tinge the powders.
Water of Mercury. Mercury thrice sublimated from tartar is thereby turned into water in a cucurbit in hot ashes.
Particular. Take red vitriol, put it while still warm in strong acetum, and dissolve. Add crocus of Mars and leave it thus for eight days.- Then take verdigris, grind it very fine, and imbibe it with the former liquid. Next take sulphur, and kill Mercury just as if you wished to make cinabrium, or else take cinabrium itself and sal ammoniac equal in quantity to the above-mentioned ingredients. Grind all together, and place on porphyry to be dissolved. Coagulate the solution. Take one part of that powder to ten parts of Luna, and it will become Sol. Add the Spirit of Venus, and it will perhaps be so much the better.
Aquafortis Purging all Metals and Fixing Sublimated Spirits.
Take vitriol, alum, sal ammoniac, and oil of tartar. If you put a metal over warm ashes it is soon melted. It fixes sublimated spirits and purges them from all superfluity.
A Marvellous Fact about Mercury. Take salt of tartar and sulphur in equal parts, and sublimate both together. They will then ascend together into the glass. Take some of that sulphur and sublimated salt, ground small, and place them in a sublimatory on
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
381
crude Mercury. Sublimate them tog^ether ; then you wili find the sulphur and the salt of tartar above in the glass sublimatory, while the Mercury remains at the bottom, and nobody can ever more revivify it. Take two parts of white sulphur, and also dissolve \V At lengfth mix them together, and congelate. Take also j. 5 of these powders to 200 (or else 100) 5 of Mercury made warm, and caused to melt. Then you will find Luna.
Cement.
Take one part of common p , as it is in itself, two parts of tile dust, M, Make regal cement
Water fixing all Spirits and dissolving all Metals- Take alum, verdigris, and orpiment, j, oz. each : sal ammoniac and vitriol ij. oz. each : cinnabar 4 oz. Make a strong water.
The Fixation of Orpiment,
Pound it and distemper it with crepinc oil Pound again, imbibei desic- cate, and pound over a stone. . Preserve for use. Then put in the fire and melt. If you put heated Mercury therein it will become coagulated and hard. Then take it, place it in a glass, and close securely* Set it over a slow fire for seven days (otherwise seven hours), and it becomes good gold.
How the Spirits of Water are produced : or concerning the
Aquification of all Spirits and all Bodies.
Take of Calx of the Shells of Eggs, 1 . , ,
- « I A - \ h pound each.
of Sal Ammoniac, J
(I should take fixed saJ ammoniac)
Put into a copper vessel. Cover wxll with the lid of Venus* Subject to a fire
of coals. This smelts the matter. Then pour over the stone. Pound most
minutely. Set to dissolve over the stone. Take j. ounce of this water. Pour
over whatever spirit you will which flows in the crucible. It is then converted
into a powder. Dissolve the same in water. Do this nine times. Then the
waters are fixed. Take as much as there is of this water. Pour it over the
Sun melting in the crucible. It is thereupon converted into powder, which
then dissolves in water. The case is the same with Luna, Mercury, and other
bodies, Vou have all waters fixed to work with them.
Water of Vitriol : very good for the Red.
Take vitriol, verdigris, sal ammoniac, sulphur, and, if you will, antimony also. Grind these together and distil with an alembic, until the whole of the water shall pass away, for this helps greatly to redness, and is marv^ellous for the above [sic) work of one day.
Elixir.
When sublimated fixed arsenic, sublimated fixed Mercury, and calx of Luna are covered over with water of sal ammoniac and dissolved with it, then is formed an elixir for every purified metal, and it tinges 100. This is the secret of the Greeks.
382 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
The Work of One Day for the Red. Take v. parts of * and grind in a brazen mortar with j. part of sulphur. Place this in a vessel enclosed for four hours in a baker's oven. Afterwards pound and imbibe with water of atramentum and of sal ammoniac Of this project j. part on xxx. parts of Luna, and thus it will be coloured. If you melt this Luna with Sol it will be very good.
Another for Saturn. Take Pure Live Sulphur, j. part.
Crude Mercury, ij. parts.
Prepared Vitriol, ij. 5. First of all join the sulphur with the vitriol, pulverised in acetum over a slow fire so that it may be resolved. Next add Mercury, by well incorporating it with them, and stirring it with a rod. Then it will be black amalgam. Take this from the fire and grind it to an impalpable powder. Place in a glass vessel well luted with a good seal. Give it a moderate heat for two weeks. Then increase the fire for one week. Break the glass and pound it, giving it continuous heat, until you have a bright red colour. Then cool and pound, placing it in another great and strong vessel, well luted in the midst, and closed with its hermetic seal. Give it a very strong fire for one week, until you see the substance melted like wax or oil. Then refrigerate and take out that most precious substance. If it does not turn to oil as is here described, dissolve it with rectified aqua vitas, and coagulate three or four times until the oil remains in the fire. Then melt viij.lbs. of Saturn and viij.lbs. of Mercury. Make an amalgam, as you know how, by fusion, and project j.lb. of this medicine leaving it to melt for a quarter of an hour by mixing it with wood. Afterwards cool the black substance; one part thereof tinges the viij.lbs. of Saturn and the viij.lbs. of Mercury into a medicine. Melt again viij.lbs. of Saturn and viij.lbs. of Mercury. Take of this medicament one part, do again as above, and you will find Sol.
Augmentation for Sol. Take Saturn. Melt, and pour over it an equal quantity of Mercury. Then take the same quantity of white arsenic. Mix it with Saturn and Mercury, and let it become a powder. Then take three parts of Luna. Melt in * . Inject the powder gradually, and little by little, until it completely enters. Stir it well with a stick. Then purge in a cineritium.
A Secret for the Solution of Sol or Luna. Pound thoroughly calx of Luna or Sol with sal ammoniac. Place it in a glass vessel with the mouth open over hot ashes, and dry with a moderate heat until there shall be seen a white mass in which is no plated Luna. Next place in dung or a bath of Maria for nine or twelve natural days. Thus it is dissolved into water, which putrefy for the proper time. Afterwards congeal and dissolve it ; and thus you will have the Stone.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great,
383
equal quantities.
jJb.
Or Better. Fernient the water thus produced with filings of Luna, or with little lumps of Luna or Sol, with an equal quantity of Mercury dissolved and then re-converted to Stone, in the way you understand. Then dissolve the Luna in the aforesaid water ; congeal it frequently according to your lofty intelli* gence, until, if you shall have operated rightly, the perfect Philosophers* Stone is produced. Also take care that the volatile part does not exceed that of the fixed body. This is the First Secret Way.
Water of Mercury. Take of Mercury,
of Sugar Candy, Pound them together. Leave the whole to putrefy for ten days. Distil it
through the alembic twice and you have sublimated arsenic.
Sublimated Arsenic, Take of Crude Arsenic,
of Soap»
Pound the arsenic well. Mix these together, and so sublimate once or twice. This arsenic dissolves well in aquafortis and is good to fix.
Item. Take equal parts of crude sulphur and mastich.
OR,
Take equal parts of sulphur and white sugar. Distil^ and there will come a water or an oil. Take thrice distilled aqua vitae, and place in it two parts of saltpetre. Distil to a water. It dissoh^es all bodies and renders Mercury fixed in one hour.
Dissolving Water.
Dissolve glass gall in an aquafortis. The same water dissolves all spirits, arsenic, sulphur, cinnabar, Mercury, etc.
Note. Calcine Luna with orpiment. Sprinkle the same powder upon Mercury sublimate. Thus it becomes fin% silver.
Note. Take equal parts of orpiment and vitriol. Melt together so that a red powder is produced, of which project some on Luna in a state of fiuXt and you will find fine gold.
Extraction of the QinNXEssENCB from all Metals. Take acetum distilled from wine and sal ammoniac fixed in it. It extracts the quintessence from all metals and is a secret.
Calcination and Solution of Sol. Take laudanum well ground (x/r), stratify it with Sol perfectly divided into leaves, and burn it. Then the Sol is reduced to a calx, which is to be forthwith dissolved in the quintessence of wine. Let it be distilled by ashes
384 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
and it will go over through the alembic. If you wish to have pure Sol by itself alone, then put it into water, and distil gently ; it will pass over as a quintessence, and remain in the bottom as gold of a citron colour. If you wish it for aurum potabile, use it with the quintessence of wine and rectify ; but if for a tincture, you can make these two fixed as you know how ; or otherwise, if you join dissolved gold together with its own quintessence to rectified oil of vitriol. Then there is produced a tincture which rejuvenates human bodies, and will transmute all metallic bodies into perfect gold. With this Mercury dissolve white sugar in quintessence of wine. Place at once in it the calx of Sol burnt by laudanum and it is wholly dissolved. These solutions avail for all purposes.
Oil of TARTi^R which dissolves itself in heat. Take calcined tartar, or, as I think better, salt of tartar. Pour over it- rectified water of life. Let it stand 24 hours in the bath. Extract the water from it, and add fresh aqua vitae continually. Let it putrefy for 24 hours, as before, and extract it. Do this until it dissolves itself into an oil. Then take crude Mercury (and possibly prepared with Saturn). Inject two drops of that oil and you have etc. This recipe is the best medicine for an old wound.
Augment,
Take of Filings of Luna, \ oz.
of Crude purged Mercury, i^ oz.
Amalgamate. Add a third part of sublimated Mercury. Place in a jar or
glass. Pour on oil of tartar so as to stand higher than two fingers. Shut
up ; place over a fire, and apply a slow heat for six days, until the matter be
hardened. Take out. Pound on a stone. Place again in the vessel. Add
more oil as before. Set again over a slow fire of five or six coals. Rule the
fire for three days and it will be fixed. Then test. Refine a small quantity in
Saturn, but what you do not reduce augment with Mercury, and work as
before.
Oil of Tartar is made as follows.
Dissolve calcined tartar in good wine vinegar. Distil through the filter.
Cause the vinegar to evaporate. Dissolve again, doing so ten times. At
length permit the salt to melt by itself into an oil, which use for the above
digestion.
Oil of Luna.
Take of Verdigris, )
roil « ^y* each,
of Sulphur, ) ^•'
Pound, place in a glass cucurbit. Make therefrom a water like an aqua- fortis, with a gentle fire at first, latterly with a stronger. Next take Jij. of Luna dissolved in common aquafortis. Pour the former water thereupon. Extract the water together with the aquafortis through the alembic even unto the olitet, and the matter becomes brown in a glass ; thus the Luna in the Keldt (?) becomes hard, and melts in the warmth like an oil or wax. To the same Luna add viij, oz. of purged § . Place in a cucurbit of glass, lute well.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
385
Set in sand, at first with a gentle fire, for eight days until the matter unifies itself ; afterwards increase the grade of heat Although the matter does not ascend, yet it becomes fixed, and half a part of it remains.
For the Ashes of Luna. Put Luna in a crucible to melt, and when it is in a state of fluxion project on it salt of alkali, thus purging it. Then make filings from it, and calcine them in an open reverberatory apparatus for six days. Thus the salt is extracted, which coagulate and again dissolve. One part thereof coagulates and fixes 40 parts of Mercury^, and that Mercury, being coagulated, tinges 50 parts of purified Venus into real gold.
Oil op Sulphur. Take Sulphur, \
Tartar, > IbJ, each.
Glassgall, / Pound together. Melt. Immediately it liquefies extract it with an iron spoon, and put into a strong lye. Thus it dissolves, and the lye becomes red.
To Fix Saltpetre.
Take Ib.j. of saltpetre in a vitrified vessel. Melt slowly. Sprinkle into flux thereupon one ounce of feathery alum {alumeti piumosmn). Thus it is fixed, and soon becomes an oil The aiumen plumosum must previously be pounded small.
Coagulation of Mercury.
Take arum in May. Pound it with a wooden hammer. Then distil a water from it. Pour it thereupon, even to the fourth time. Pound the fasces continually, and let the water be consumed. Then make seitele die drtichne (?). Put Mercury in a crucible. When the bubbling commences, throw the powder thereupon. Thus the Mercury coagulates itself into Luna.
Oil of Mercury. Dissolve Mercury in aquafortis. Allow it to boil. Protect it from the fire and stir for three hours in an open glass. Then take the Mercury out. Dr)'. Pound upon a stone. Put it into a moist cellar. Thus it becomes an oil or water*
King. Take aiumen de plumiu Place vinegar over it and distil into water. This water clarifies new and immature pearls.
Note* Cement.
Make the king out of naphtha and marcasite, that is, antimony made
white ; the latter becomes black as amber^ the other white as Luna. Cement
therewith Sol and Luna with pounded glass and salt for twenty-four
hourS; etc.
AA
386 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Fixed Lcna, Discovered by Mb. Take Saltpetre, Antimony, Sublimated Arsenic. Imbibe thoroughly with oil of tartar, mixing intimately. Dry slightly. After- wards melt in a crucible, first with a slow fire, then with a strong one. Grind the whole of this to powder. Take j. quint over 5j., or more, if you like, and you attain the result.
Note.
Take equal parts of common salt rendered fluid like wax by a candle, and
sulphur. Place in a strong glass phial or in a crucible, setting fire above and
below it. Then it will be incorporated. One part of this suffices for 60
parts of Mercury.
Or,
If it be incorporated with sublimated Mercury, or several times with
sublimated arsenic, and then be itself sublimated, it works wonders.
' The Extraction of Mercury.
! Take aquafortis, to which join common water, lest it be too strong, and
i sal ammoniac. If you evaporate this water you have oil of antimony, with
which you can test anything.
Note.
When you wish to Dissolve Mercury Sublimate and White
Marcasite (perhaps Bismuth).
Put the sal ammoniac into aquafortis, and they will dissolve ; otherwise
they will not Aquafortis is made of vitriol, saltpetre, alumen, cinnabar, and
verdigris.
Note,
Take oil of tartar and oil ss over amalgam of Luna and Mercury in equal
quantities. Mercury will then be fixed as Hans Rormeyer has stated.
The Secret Philosophical Water Coagulating Mercury and
Fixing Luna. Make aquafortis out of vitriol and saltpetre in equal quantities. Take away the first water. Take Ib.j. of the other. Add viij. parts of verdigris and viij. parts of vitriol beaten small. Seal up well, and put in a bath for nine days. Afterwards distil through a filter. This water dissolves all bodies and coagulates Mercury. It is the secret of the philosophers. Place (? upon) plates the Moon.
Augment of the Moon. Take j. marc of Mercury. Impaste with Jj. of sulphur and one ounce of arsenic. Then pound with them four ounces of iron filings. Make cinnabar with it all. Take up j. marc, of Luna and oz. iij. of cinnabar. Should the Luna have remained in the test, throw it upon it and it augments itself.
A Mantml of Paracelsus the Great
387
Note. Take Ib.j. of sugar candy. Put il in a tin can. Pour therein four parts of good white wine. Put this all in a kettle wkh water* Close the cans (sic) well with the upper cowh Then boil so that at least one can may be well boiled. Then pour again another can of wine upon the remaining matter. Do this in the same fashion five times and you will have the oil. Lay the species therein as you will. Take one ounce of oil or of any species of aromatic. Pour a wine into it again, as above, and let it boil as before. Then you will find a black matter at the bottom of it ; extract the oil by means of a filter, and reserve for use as you know. Lay the species according to your pleasure in the oil. Boil it and you will have an artificial balsam. Take a drop or two thereof Imbibe with wine and it tinges itself.
Of the Water which dissolves Sol or Luna. Take calx of the Sun or Moon. Pound it. Cleanse with water of salt alkali. Place in a dissolving vessel, and when it has been dissolved you will have perennial water. This water fixes spirits and coagulates Mercury. (Perhaps alkali of the Philosophers would be better.)
Note.
Take a common aquafortis. Dissolve Luna therein, Place impasted Mercury with sulphur, as you know* Extract it eight times, and prove in the cineritium. If you add oil of soap thereto, it will then be made*
Oil of Soap. Shave the soap small. Add to it beaten tile. Distil through retort. Prick the leaves [sic). It fixes all spirits.
Salpetra Lupi.
Take equal parts of vitriol, saltpetrei and alum. Make aquafortis and dissolve in it as much Mercury as possible. Then extract the water by an alembic, and finally give a great fire of sublimation, so that the spirits may go out of the w^ater. Having cooled the vessel, let what was sublimated and what remained at the bottom be again dissolved in the same water, which extract once more by an alembic Do this f\\e times, always giving at the end a fire of sublimation, and at the fifth time it does not ascend. It remains at the bottom as red as blood. Keep this.
Next take sal ammoniac sublimated once by iron filings, j.lb.; and of the above-mentioned Mercury an equal w^eight* Sublimate five times. Then put it on marble to be dissolved, and let it become a red oil, which also preserve.
Take Sol which has been calcined and ?^yQ times sublimated, with an equal weight of the above-mentioned sal ammoniac. Put this to dissolve ; and you will have a red liquid, which you must retain. Then take oil of Mercury j.J, liquor solis j.5* Mix and coagulate* Take one part of this medicine, project it on twenty-five parts of calcined Luna, and you have Sol always remaining at twenty-four degrees.
388 The Hernutic and Alchemical Writings 0/ Paracelsus.
Note. Take of Calx of Luna, \
of Saltpetre, > each part j.
of Salt Alkali, )
Pound the three substances well upon a stone. Put them in a crucible. Set on a gentle fire until all melts. Then pour out of the crucible on a stone. Next, pound it to a small pjvder. Leave the matter with the stone in a damp cellar. When it dissolves in water, take one part of this and one part of water of Mercury. Put both waters together in one glass. Leave in a moderate temperature to coagulate. One part of the powder tinges xij. parts of revivified Mercury.
Fixation of Venus. Make a sharp alkali of puch ashes and quicklime. Take of Arsenic, Ib.j. (alias qq). of Saltpetre, Ib.j. of Calcined Tartar, Jiiij. of Mercury Sublimate,
of Orpiment, ) ^^'
Make powders. Pour four parts of the lye therein. Let it boil as dry as a powder. Melt Venus. Add an equal weight of the powders in flux there- upon. It will then be fixed Venus.
Antimony.
Take some that has been subtly ground. Distil therefrom an ordinary aquafortis, until it becomes white. Next pour the quintessence thereupon. Distil it until it becomes fixed. This proves it.
Take the antimony and calcine well. If it does not diminish in weight it is right. Next, pound it small and pour the quintessence thereupon, when it extracts to itself a certain substance. This you must pour into the same glass vessel ; it tinges Mercury into Luna, and it is the fourth part of gold.
Water of Mercury. Take Mercury sublimate, pound it small ; imbibe a few times, say, five or six, with oil of vitriol. Continue to pound it dry seven times. Put it in a thoroughly luted glass. Pour upon it six times the weight of oil of vitriol, together with the moisture. Place it in a distilling stove. Distil it as an aquafortis, at first gently, then stronger, and strongest last of all. Then the third part of the sublimated Mercury distils away, and the other stands up beautiful and brilliant like a small oriental pearl in a distillatory ; it is such beautiful sublimated Mercury as can never before have been seen. Then proceed continuously as long as you please. Next, gradually extract the phlegm in the bath. Then you will have water of Mercury, which is above all waters. Ferment this with ^oul of the Sun. Coagulate and dissolve, fix and coagulate, and it will tinge if God has so willed it.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great.
389
Augment of the Sln and Moon, good and short*
5S. each.
Take of VitrioU
of Verdigris,
of Alum,
of Saltpetre,
of Caluerey, 3J' Pound alj together and place the powders in the crucible. Moon over them. Place ihc powders again on the top. coals for two hours an'd pour together. Then it is right.
Put the Sun and Set among ignited
The above-named Fixation.
Take Calchied Tartar, Ib.j,
Saltpetre, Ibj.
with one measure of acetum distilled by the filter, and extract the salt with the
said acid, with which imbibe the amalgam, until the acetum with the salt shall
harden. After every imbibition let the acetum evaporate, and so the amalgam
will be fixed. Also, if you will, imbibe arsenic, and even sulphur, with oil of
tartar three or four times, and add to the former. Thus beyond a doubt w^ill
be obtained the fixation of the amalgamated Mercury. Lastly, melt all, and
at length purify.
The Hermetic Bird.
Take two pounds of strong lixivium, and put therein iiij.oz. of sal
ammoniac, with iij.oz. of sulphur. (If the sal ammoniac and sulphur be fixed,
and you add salt of alkali, it will be an oil coagulating Mercury.) Set to boil
on a slow fire, constantly stirring it until all is turned into water red as blood.
Distil by 3 and keep enclosed in glass for future use.
0[L OF Luna Dissolving Sol. Take of aquafortis from vitriol j. lb., arsenic j. lb., and stibium j. lb. Purify these by dissolving a little Luna therein. Then take water of alum and pour on that Luna in the glass. It will form a substance white and resembling cheese. Remove this carefully with a spoon. Then you will have water of Luna, to which add aqua vita;, and distil the moisture thence in a bath. Thus you will find the oil of Luna, wherein you will be able to dissolve gold* Convert into an oil, coagulate, and you will attain your desire.
A Good Aquafortis. Take vinegar and cinnabar in sufficient quantities. Dissolve sublimated Mercur>% Coagulate, and you will find alnmen chatinum^ winch is made out of glass. Take the same quantity of arsenic out of iron to sublime.
Attinkar of Venus.
Take one part of Luna, filed and calcined by means of salt into subtle
powders ; also one part of Mercury, purged by vinegar and salt. Make an
amalgam in vinegar, and afterwards pour into hot w^ater. Then take it and
press it delicately out. Next take exactly double the quantity of both. Put
390 The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
them together in an ^gg with a long neck Set on hot ashes over a gentle fire. Let the humidity come out first. Then thoroughly lute the neck, and the neck shall emerge (sic) on the side through the cupel. In order to pound it sublimate it away ; let it stand continually for four hours, and stir the Qgg. Do this for nine days. Then remove and take exactly the same quantity of arsenic as there was of Luna at first. Let the moisture previously escape. Then seal up, and treat in all respects as before for nine days. Then take sal ammoniac sublimated by itself in the same quantity as the matter. Remove the sal ammoniac. Dissolve that which is at the bottom in the white of eggs, as you know, while that which will not dissolve is to be dried. Take again the same weight of sal ammoniac. Pound together. Sublimate the arsenic again therefrom, and dissolve it once more in the small trough. Con- tinue this until it is all dissolved. Then put it all together into the egg. Lute it if the moisture has departed. Treat it as before for nine days, stirring it about. Thus it all becomes fixed. Ultimately it melts in the glass like an enamel, of which one part out of ten parts of purged Venus will be perfect Luna.
To Augment the Tincture.
If you have a quint, put it in a crucible. Stir it continually with a small piece of wood. Afterwards, when it is hot, set it on a ^oz. of Mercury. Leave it thus to stand in the fire until you can no longer perceive any smoke. When it is again ready, treat in this manner successively, according to the amount of the weight of the tincture.
When a Thing contains Gold or anything else and will not
Separate.
In this case cast a lump of arsenic twice or thrice upon it ; it then speedily departs and becomes fair.
For Saturn.
Take it in filings dissolved with acetum. Distil it by the tongue and again by the alembic. What remains in the bottom dissolve again in acetum, filter and distil by an alembic. Keep on until the Saturn remains at the bottom as a fused oil. Possibly the oil of Jove could be produced in the same way.
Flowers of Bodies.
Take the dregs of wine. Place them in a vessel to the thickness of five fingers. Let there be in the middle of the vessel a circulus, and on the circulus place a wooden cross. On this cross put plates, and let the aperture of the vessel be smeared with the lute of wisdom. Place in a hot furnace for seven days. On the eighth day take it out and put aside the flower, washing it with a brush, or simply in water. Let the water subside, strain it through a cloth, and dry the flower. Then operate as before with the plates.
A Manual of Paracelsus the GrtaU
391
Note.
Make an extract of lemons in a clean vessel. Put g^old filing's therein. If water is produced during the night, this is the gold for leprosy, and it keeps a man young.
Also,
Crush green sloes in a pan.
Amalgamation,
Take equal quantities of orpiment and vitrioL Smelt together so as to
produce a powder* Take one part and throw it upon Luna when it melts,
and you will find Luna.
Another.
Take bismuth in any quantity as calcined tartar and pitch (?). Melt and found three or four times. Then add to the bismuth this wilderness. Take one part thereof and one part of Luna. Purge by Saturn and you will have Luna.
Also the part cum parte * w^ill be tincture over Luna, But if the
flower of Luna be added to Mercury sublimate or arsenic, and be prepared
according to art, it will become a tincture over Venus. Each of them tinges
one hundred parts.
Note.
Liquefy the body Zidar in a large crucible and take it out wnth an iron
spoon, projecting it upon a flat stone. There will be plates which you can
select according to your pleasure for the above-mentioned operation.
To Extract the Soul. Take Luna and let it melt. Whilst in flux project within it some talc, which attracts the soul of Luna. Then extract the soul in thrice distilled ace- tum. The Luna wjll be fixed if it be frequently melted with some more talc. Note when the soul is extracted. Then lake earth and extract from it the combustible oil. Pour on the earth distilled phlegma and extract from it its salt. Then take the spirit in which is the souli plant it by degrees in the earth| always with an eighth part of water. Imbibe the earth and continually repeat this, always drying it with a gentle heat night and day, until it has drunk up as much as it can. Afterwards distil (otherwise sublimate) as you know how, and as you have the intention.
Sol and Luna. Take filings of Sol or Luna, and place them in a glass vessel. Pour thereon a sufficient quantity of undistilled acetum, and let it stand four or f\y^ days to putrefy. After this pour away the acetum and wash the filings well with common salt so that it may be pure. Dry on a stone, and then imbibe with water of sal ammoniac. Grind, dry in the sun, and keep doing this as often in the day as you can until the substance shall become black. Before this many colours supervene, to which you need pay no heed. When the substance is after some difficulty coagulated on the stone in the sun, after it
392 The Hermetic and Alchemical WHtings of Paracelsus.
has come to the point *that it can be dissolved with * in the sun, it suffices. Now put the stone with the substance into a cellar, and it is resolved entirely into oil in the course of the night. Set this oil in dung for five days to putrefy. Then distil with an alembic in a warm and moist place.
Having done this, take a clean sponge, dip it in water of sal ammoniac, which changes over the oil. Thus extract the sal ammoniac. After this is extracted, press the sponge in the hand, and having entirely drawn off the sal ammoniac water from the oil, pour on it common tepid water, and you will remove thus all saltness with the sponge, until you perceive nothing saline remaining and the whole of the oil is sweet.
Precipitation. Take of Calcined Alum, |
of Saltpetre, ) ^^"^ J*
Melt them. Two ounces thereof fall upon one marc of Luna. The Luna does not in anywise weaken aquafortis.
Tincture. Take thin plates of Sol in any quantity you like, place them in oil and boil in one glass vessel. Put in it sublimated wine, kindle it, let it burn, and it will become calx of gold. Do this thrice or oftener. Take the calx, grind it well on a stone with an equal quantity of fixed sal ammoniac ; place in it a modicum of strong acetum. Having ground these ingredients, put them in a glass vessel carefully closed with the lute of wisdom. Set this in horse dung for eight days and a red water will be produced. Take sublimated Mercury, place it in water and grind on a stone. It becomes a red powder. Place it in dung for eight days and it will become a water. Congelate this and then one part tinges one hundred parts of Luna.
Tested Augment of Luna. Take of Well-calcined Alum, Ib.j. of Saltpetre, Ib.ij. Make aquafortis and purge. Take of that 4 oz. In this dissolve ^ij. of Luna. Take again of the aforesaid water Jij. Add thereto a little sal ammoniac, and in that water dissolve ij. ounces of metallic or crystalline arsenic. Again take two ounces, with the addition of sal ammoniac, and dissolve ij. ounces of sublimated Mercury. Preserve these waters specially, each by itself. Then dissolve in the said aquafortis Ib.j. of purged Venus, which solution takes place, say, in twenty-four lotones. These being dissolved, conjoin all the waters in a grand cucurbit. Pour a fourth part of water thereon. Let it stand three hours to mix. Afterwards distil the water from it by means of an alembic, the faeces will then remain moistened at the bottom. Dry these by means of a slowly burning fire. Then take saltpetre and melted salt. Mix them under the powder in a crucible. Set it in a wind furnace. Melt together. Pour it into a receiver or crucible smeared with honey or suet. Crush and refine upon the test ; you will then have twelve ounces of Luna.
A Manual of Paracelsus the Great. 393
Cement Regal, Take of Brick Dust* two parts, of Sak, one part. Moisten with vinegfar ; grade therein.
Physical Water. Take sal ammoniac, which lias been thrice sublimated, distilled, and coag^ulated, and then once more let it be resolved and distilled* Let the process be repeated thrice. If it has been dissolved in aqua vitae, distilled^ coagulated^ and finally resolved^ it dissolves all calcined and burnt bodies^ as also all calcined and sublimated bodies^ with a man-ellous solution, in a crucible on the firep within the space of a single hour, and this by the help
of God and by virtue of Him^
Item.
Let us compound our Philosophic water by the help of God and His
virtue. Take of sal ammoniac » dissolved and thrice distilled, vj. drams, and of
rectified oil vj. drams. Mix together and imbibe six of the aforesaid plates by
degrees on porphyry^ or on a glass table until it has thoroughly imbibed p and
when aJl is absorbed, put it in a glass vessel under horse-dung for three days.
On the fourth day project this on three pounds of the aqua vitse already
described, and put in a venter equinus for fifteen days. On the sixteenth day
you will find the plate dissolved into a white w^ater like milk. Change the
dung every fourth day, complete this water, and this is the philosophic oil,
a water penetrating and quieting, lighting candles and illuminating the
house, and whereby all philosophers are sustained. Herewith every volatile
substance is restrained from escaping, such as Mercury, Sulphur, and
Arsenic.
The White.
Take equal quantities of Mercurialis and Saccharum. Mix and let stand for nine days. After this extract the oil according to the fashion of lay people. That is perfect, if perfectly produced. If It be placed in a glass globe it shines by night, and makes a beautiful colour on the face of a man or a woman. If anyone drinks of this oil every morningj though he be 100 years old, he shall have the complexion of a young man, all his limbs will be light » and he will not be able to be out of spirits. Taking this oil for 40 days on an empty stomach perfectly cures epilepsy of 40 years* standing. So, too, asthma. The w^hite strengthens man's nerves beyond all other kinds. Mixed with castor oil and applied to the bone it removes all contraction of the limbs, and cures paralysis of the nerves. For these reasons we put it forward as precious. One drop of this white put in the eye every morning clears the eyes and keeps them healthy.
Item.
Take white (? cadmia), gold leaf, oriental pearls, and rhabarbarum in equal parts. Grind together. This is the best medicine for leprosy, which It entirely cures if it be taken each morning on an empty stomach. It produces
394 'I^he Hermetic afid Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus,
a good colour, but care must be taken to drink little and only good wine. A man should use this medicine until his complexion is good, and he himself will be perfectly healthy, please God.
Otherwise Take equal parts of Mercurialis and Meter. Mix so that the Mercury shall be previously heated. Then allow to stand for nine days. Afterwards extract the oil according to the mode of the lay people. This oil is perfect, etc.
A Light which always Burns. Take any quantity of sugar, and an equal amount of Mercury. Mix thoroughly and leave it to stand for 13 or 14 days. Afterwards distil as an oil. Then take a small linen cloth and press it through. If it were put in a glass it would shine like a light.
Fixation of Mercury. Take alum and dregs of wine. Dissolve in urine, and distil by a filter. Then resolve sulphur in it by boiling. Place Mercury in it and let it boil with a gentle fire, continually stirring it, so that it may escape the fire.
Note. — Certain fommUB and qtiantities which occur in the Manual of Paracelsus are either peculiar to the treatise or have long fallen into disuse^ and it is difficult to identify their meaning.
Here ends the First Volume of the Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
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