part is added to it by accident, and is to be naturally separated

from it after the conniption (putrefaction) of it ; wherefore it
is manifest that such ai'gent vive is not in the whole substance
of it natural, in the first reception of it, nor is depurated to the
full, unless it be depurated by the ingenuity of art. C 5. p. 10.
Codicilli.

As to this purification of argent vive, or the green lion, Rip-
ley thus : wherefore saith he, this mercury, the corrosive spirit
of common vitriol, is by Raymund called, our lire against na-
ture ; nevertheless the same thing happens in some measure
to this mercury, (the acidity of vitriol,) as also to the other
(vegetable mercury, or green lion,) which is our natural fire.
$ot both of the*a are hidden in the middle or centre of

198 Alchemical Treatises.

their bodies, that is, between the phlegmatic water on one
side, and terrestrial crassitude on the other side, nor are they
obtained without the great industry of philosophy, and so
those parts can avail ns nothing, except only their middle sub-
stance. For saith Raymond, we take neither of the first prin-
ciples, because they are too simple, nor of the last, because they
are too gross and feculent, but only of the middle; wherein is
the tincture, and true oil, separated from unclean terrcstreity,
and phlegmatic water. Therefore saith Raymond thus : the
unctuous moisture, is the near matter of our physical argent vive,
page 289, Papillae Alchym.

Argent vive, or the green lion, is purified by common vitriol,
as thus : When the argent vive is put in a dry vitriolated
vapour, (spirit of vitriol) which is a sharp water, it is pre-
sently dissolved by the incision and penetration, caused by the
sharpness, being manifestly strong, and in dissolving, is converted
into the nature of terrestrial vitriol, not taking a metallic, nor
a clear ccelestial form, as appears after the evaporation of
the said water, and the congelation of it in the form of yel-
low chrystals, which yellowness proceeds from the sharp sul-
phurous terrcstreity, which was beyond measure mixed in the
said water by atoms, with an homogeneous universality and
simplicity, which simplicity was taken and bound by the said
terrcstreity, with the alteration of the light, clarity, and
lucidity into obscurity, &c. Cap. 89. Theor. Test. 141. vol.
4. Th. Chyni. Son, the thick vitriolated vapours from which
vitriol is produced, is very sharp and pontick, and therefore
penetrates the parts of the sulphur, and argent vive being de-
purated, and penetrating, tingeth that purified matter, con-
gealing it into the form of that vitriolated and yellow ter-
restrial vapour, which is mixed with them. Wherefore what
we have said is manifest, that is, this is the great gate, namely,
that the terrestrial virtues must not excel the ccelestial,
but on the contrary, if you will have the thing desired, cap.
85. Theor. Test, page 137, of the same volume. You may re-
member that you would put nothing with the menstrual, (the
matter of the menstruum) but that which proceeded from it at
the beginning of its mixtion ; for if you add an incongruous
thing, it will presently be corrupted by the incongruous nature,
nor will you ever have that which you would have. Gold and
silver, and mcrcur}r are dissolved in our menstrual, because
it participates with them in proximity and vicinity of the first
nature, aud from hence will you extract a white fume, which
is our sulphur, and the green lion, which is your unguent,
and the stinking water, which is our argent vive. But it is
requisite for the green lion to be thoroughly dissolved in the
acjua foetens, or stinking water, before you can have the
said fume, which is our sulphur, which sulphur is indeed the

Wcidcnfdd on Paracelsus. 109

same way dissolved from the body, congealing the spirit in the
form of a dry water, which we call stone, and the highest me-
dium of all our work, which is the connexion and aggregation
oi' both natures, that is, of body and spirit. !Son, this wa-
ter is called aqua ignis, or it' you had rather ignisaqua, that
undeclinable word, because it burns geld and silver better than
elementary fhv can do, and because it contains in it heat of a
terrestrial nature, which dissolves without violence, which
common fire cannot do. Wherefore we enjoin you to make the
magistery of the hottest things you can get in nature, and you
will have a hot water, which dissolveth all things, cap. 59.
Theor. Test, page £8, of the same volume.

These sayings Ripley comprehends in short, thus: these words,
saith he, may serve a wise man in order to know and acquire
the green lion. But this noble infant is called green lion, be-
cause being dissolved, it is clothed in a green garment. Yet out
of the green lion of fools, vitriol, is extracted by a violent
fire, that water which we call aqua fortis, spirit of vitriol, in
which the said lion ought to be elixirated. For all
alrhymieal gold is made of corrosives, &c. page 139, Me-
dulla Phil.

This argent vive, green lion, philosophers lead, &c. being
purified with vitriol, must be further matured or calcined into a
red colour, minium, lead calcined, sericon, &c. E. that is, vitrio-
lated azoth, page 15. Theor. '1 est. the fourth medium or prin-
ciple is a substance produced from its mine, and in it, more near
to the nature of metals, which is by some called calcantis, and
azoth vitreus, mercury vitriolated, or azoquean vitriol, which is
the earth and mine of metals, and is by another name called
urisius, of shining white and red within, black and green openly,
having the colour of a venomous lizard, immediately gene-
rated out of argent vive, the matter aforesaid impregnated
with the said hot and dry sulphurous vapour (of common vitriol)
in its resolution congealed into a lizard, in which azoth vi-
triolated is the form and species of the stinking spirit in its
mixtion, the mineral heat of which is multiplied, which is the
life of metal, and is signified by E. cap. 3. Theor. Testam. page
\% volume 4. Theat. Chym. And a little after : in the work of
nature is argent vive, but not such as is found upon the earth,
nor will be, till it be first turned into an apostcmated and veno-
mous blood. In the same place ; you must know, son, that by
art and nature argent vive is congealed by an acute water, un-
derstand therefore philosophically, because it" it were not sharp
and acute, it could not penetrate, which is the first action in
dissolution, after which dissolution it is returned into an aposte-
matcd blood, by the mutation of its own nature into another.
►Son, there are two things, which ought to stick together by the
Agreement of contrariety, one pure, the other impure ; the hn-

200 Alchemical Treatises.

pure recedes, fire being an enemy, by reason of its corruption %
the other remains in fire, because of its purity, being transn. ut-
eri into blood, and this is our argent vive, and our whole se-
cret, clothed with a tripartite garment, that is, black, whit.",
and red, and that alone we want for the purpose of our magis-
tery, argent vive containing all that is necessary for a quintes-
sence. There is in mercury whatsoever wise men seek ; for
under the shadow of it lies a fifth substance ; for the substance
of it is pure and incombustible ; and all of it is nothing else but
gold and silver, not common metals, but airy, beip<; in mercury.
or the green lion, melted and fused within and without by vir-
tue of the fire against nature, and afterwards purified and se-
parated from all its original blemish and pollution; lor that gold
which is incombustible, remains fused and liquid, and imparts its
golden nature in the said mercury, &c. Cap. 62. Theor. Test, page
10.3. volume 4. Th. Chym.

Out of this philosophical minium, calcined lead, or seneon
only, the adepts sometimes distilled their menstruums ; for exam-
ple, the first of this kind in Numb. 5-9. Sometimes they dissolved
this minium in distilled vinegar, which being drawn off, they re-
duced it into gum adrop, or Lully's azoquean vitriol, out of which
they then distilled the stinking menstruum, or menstruum foetens,
in Numb. 60. Sometimes they dissolved gum adrop per deliquium
first, and then distilled it. The thirteenth way of practising, saith
Itipley, as it here appears, is very curious, and that is in sa-
turn, philosophical, rubified in a glass vessel stopped, to prevent
respiration, with a strong and continual fire, till it becomes red.
Take therefore that rubified saturn, and pour a good quantity
of distilled vinegar upon it, and shake it very often every day
for a month, (a week) then separate the vinegar by a filter,
and take only that which is clear without feces, and put it in
balneo to distil, and after the separation of the vinegar, you
will find at the bottom of the vessel a white or sky-coloured
water, which take, and being put in a bladder five double, to
keep out the water, dissolve it in balneo into a cristalline water ;
put that water in a distillatory, and if you will, separate the
elements from it, or distil the dissolved water, which rectify in
a circulatory, and the earth which remained in the bottom, in
the distillation, calcine, till it grows like a sponge, and then is it
very fit to re-assume its mercury separated from it, that a new
generation may be made, and a son brought forth, which is
called king of fire, and which is so great in the love of all the
philosophers, cap. 17. Philos. page 220. Of this work Ripley made
mention: cap. 4. of the same book, page 194, saying, there is
moreover another work in gum produced by vinegar from red
saturn, out of which is the separation of the elements made, af-
ter it is dissolved in bladders. The menstruums of gum adrop,
which way soever made, were called stinking menstruums, be^

Weidenfclcl on Paracelsus. 201

cause of the stinking smell. This water, saith Ripley, hath a
most sharp taste, and partly also a stinking smell, and therefore
is called stinking menstruum. Assa faetida also is so called from
the smell, which our mercury hath when it is newly extracted out
of its polluted body, because that smell is like assa fsctida, ac-
cording to the philosopher, who saith ; that stink is worst be-
fore the preparation of this water, which after the circulating of
it into a quintessence, and good preparation, it is pleasant and
very delectable, and becomes a medicine against the leprosy, and
all other diseases, without which i^old vive, you can never make
the true potable gold, which is the elixir of life and metals, Adrop.
Phil, page o48. vol. 6. Theat Chym.

These menstruums they called white fume, because of their
white and opake colour. It is also called white fume, saith Ripley,
nor without cause, for in distillation a white fume goeth out
first, before the red tincture, which ascending into the alem-
bick, makes the glass white as milk, from whence it is also call-
ed lac yirginiS} or virgin's milk. In the same place ; out of the
red fume or red tincture, otherwise called the blood of the green
lion, the adepts did by rectification alone prepare two mercuries,
namely, red and white. Upon this occasion, saith Ripley, I will
teach you a general rule ; if you would make the white elixir,
you must of necessity divide your tincture, the blood of the
green lion, into two parts, whereof one must be kept for the reel
work, but the other distilled with a gentle fire ; and you will
obtain a white water, which is our white tincture, our eagle,
our mercury and virgin's milk. When you have these two tinc-
tures, or the white and red mercury, you will be able to practise
upon their own earth, or upon the calx of metals ; for the phi-
losophers say, we need not care what substance the earth is of, Sec.
Adr. Phil. p. 554?. vol. 6. Theat. Chemicum.

Let us therefore desist from further pursuit of the said green
lion, which we have pursued through the meads and forest of
Diana, through the way of philosophical saturn, even to the
vineyards of philosophy. This most pleasant place is allowed the
disciples of this art, to recreate themselves here, after so much
pains and sweat, dangers of fortune and life, exercising the work
of women, and the sports of children, being content with the most
red blood of the lion, and eating the white or red grapes of
Diana, the' wine of which being purified, is the most secret secret,
of all the more secret Chymy ; as being the white or red wine of
Lull}', the nectar of the ancients, and their only desire, the pe-
culiar refreshment of the adopted sons ; but the heart-breaking,
and stumbling-block of the scornful and ignorant.

Bb

Operis Mago Cabbalistici ct Tlicosophici.
By George Von Welling. — Hamburgh, 1735,

OF THE HEAVENLY MERCURY.

That the universal mercury, which is also salt and suljj/uir?
is to be found in all things even in the minutest atoms, and
is the spirit and upholder of all things ; must not be unknown
to those who are versed in the true art oi separating. "When
this mercury is separated from any body, there remains only
a gross saltish sulphur, which is without life. Its form is won-
derful, in all creatures ; the earthly fire makes it fly from all
things visible or invisible ; it is not easily described, but is well
known to the wise. Whoever knows this wonderful phoenix
by her feathers, may readily find and prepare the cords where-
by this universal, though rarely-seen bird, may be caught.
To those who have a knowledge of nature, this is sufficient
information ; yet we say that the colours of these feathers arc
like the rainbow, yellow, green, and red, blended in shades
according to their origin and share of the light. It is properly
called the sulphur of the light of nature, the spirit and soul of all
things ; without this nothing can be performed in the secret
philosophy, and whoever has it, will not want the salt and
sulphur of the wise, and may then easily accomplish the art :
for the perpetual workings of nature, will shew the fire which is
necessary, and its degrees.

We have described the heavenly mercury, and how necessary
it Is to the tincture or stone of the wise ; in the mineral salt
sulphur and mercury, it is verily not to be found. Without this
heavenly mercury, no being on earth can exist ; not that wc
understand by the spirit of a vegetable animal or mineral, the
heavenly mercury. These are mercuries comparatively accord-
ing to their physical principles, in which the heavenly mercury
is concealed in an aerial water, like a highly rectified spirit
which divides a body in the minutest particles, but does not
melt it into its first matter ; for that melting is only possible to
the heavenly mercury, which can dissolve all bodies without
violence to their nature and projpevties.

From this the sophistical alchemists may learn how useless
their dissolvents are, that tear, rend, and destroy bodies,— »

Von Welling. 203

To the true dissolvent belongs this wonderful mercury, which is
also salt and sulphur : the sort of a net that is to be used to
catch this bird, is a high question, because it appears now in the
form of a spirit ; then as a smoke or moisture as flour, salt,
and sulphur. An experienced bird-catcher is always diligent
to have at hand good call-birds, of the same sort as those he
intends to catch, and places them among the flock. Of gold,
only you can make gold ; but of lead you can make mercury
by a ferment : like loves its like. By contrary things, nothing
is to be obtained ; one thing gives this — another, that. —
Whosoever has this mercury, as it is congealed in its own
minera, the same has a magnet through which he may obtain
his object, and catch this bird, according to his pleasure, whether
it is in the form of a spirit, smoke, damp, or else as the stone
Jaspes. Rev. 21. v. 11.

That nothing can be obtained in the high philosophy without
the universal mercury, is well known ; but this mercury is sel-
dom described by the wise, except in such wonderful enigmas,
that it requires divine inspiration to understand them with
all their different views and meanings. It is a universal dis-
solvent ; in its first form a fire, which cannot be withstood by
earthly bodies ; but when it is by the artist's hand brought to the
form of congealed ice : it is a wonderful secret in medicine, and
of great power. It is not found naturally in such a congealed
icy form, but is easily brought thereto, if what was said of the
magnet has been understood. Whosoever has this mercury,
he has the true saline water which is necessary to dissolve the
true gold for the highest aurum potabile. When metallic
gold is dissolved therein, it is also potable ; but is only a
specific, and the same may be said of silver, and the other
metals.

A LETTER

To the true Disciples of Hermes, containing

SIX PRINCIPAL KEYS of the Secret Philosophy.

By a French Adept,
JVhose name is concealed in the anagram, Dives sicut ardens S —

If I writ this letter to persuade those to the truth of our phi-
losophy, who imagine that it is only a vain idea, and a mere
paradox, I would follow the example of many masters in this
great art ; I would endeavour to convince those sort of wits of
their errors, by demon strath)!; to them the solidness of the prin-
ciples of our science supported by the laws, and by the opera-
tions of nature, and I would speak but slightly of what be-
longs to the practice ; but as I have a quite different design,
and that I write only for you, the wise disciples of Hermes, and
true sons of the art, my only intention is to serve you as a guide
in a way so difficult to be followed. Our practice is in effect
a track in the sands, where one ought to conduct one's self ra-
ther by the North Star, than by any footsteps which are seen
imprinted there. The confusion of the tracks, which an almost
infinite number of people have left there, is so great, and one
finds so many different paths, which almost all of them lead into
most frightful desarts, that it is almost impossible not to stray
from the true road, which only the sages favoured by Heaven
have happily known how to find out and to discover.

This confusion stops the sons of art at once; some in the be-
ginning, others in the middle of this philosophical course, and
some even when they approach near the end of this painful jour-
ney, and when they begin to discover the happy end of their
undertaking ; but perceive not, that the little of the way
which remains for them to go, is the most difficult. They know
not that the envious of their good fortune have dug ditches and
precipices in the middle of the way, and that for want of know-
ing the secret windings, whereby the wise avoid those dangerous
snares, they unhappily lose all the advantage which they had got,
at the same time, when they imagined to have surmounted all the
difficulties.

I vow sincerely to you, that the practice of our art is the most

Six Keys. 205

difficult tiling of the world, not in regard to its operations, but
in respect of the difficulties which are in it, to learn it distinctly
from the books of the philosophers; for if on one side it is called
with reason the play of children, on the other it requires in
those who search for the truth by their labour, and their study,
a profound knowledge of the principles, and of the operations of
nature in the three kinds; but particularly in the mineral and
metallic kind. It is a great point to iind out the true matter,
which is the subject of our work ; you must for this pierce through
a thousand obscure vails, wherewith it has been spread over ;
you must distinguish it by its proper name, among a million ot
uncommon names, whereby the philosophers have differently
expressed it ; you must understand all the properties of it, and
judge of all the degrees of perfection, which the art is ca-
pable of giving to it ; you must know the secret fire of the wise,
which is the only agent which can open, sublime, purify, and
disperse the matter to be reduced into water ; you must for this
penetrate into the divine source of the celestial water, which
operates the solution, the animation and purification of the
stone ; you must know how to convert our metallic water into
an incombustible oil, by the entire solution of the body, from
whence it draws its original; and to effect this, you must make
the conversion of the elements, the separation, and the re-union
of the three principles ; you must learn to know how to make
thereof a white mercury, and a citrine mercury; — you must
fix this mercury, nourish it with its own blood, to the end that
it may be converted into the fixt sulphur of the philosophers.
These are the fundamental points of our art ; the rest of the
work is found clearly enough taught in the books of the philoso-
phers, that we have no need of an ampler explanation.

As there are three kingdoms (or reigns) in nature, so there
are also three medicines in our art which make three different
works in the practice, and which are nevertheless but three
different degrees, which raise our elixir to its highest per-
fection. These important operations of the three works, are
by all philosophers reserved under the key of the secret, to the
end that the sacred mysteries of our divine philosophy may
not be revealed to the profane ; — but to you who are the
sons of the science, and can understand the language of the
wise, the> locks shall be opened, arid you shall have the
keys of the precious treasures of nature and of art, if you
apply all your mind to the understanding of what I do design
to tell you, in terms as intelligible as is necessary for those,
who are predestinated as you are, to the knowledge of these
sublime mysteries. I will put into your hands six keys,
wherewith you may enter into the sanctuary of philosophy,
open all its recesses, and arrive at the understanding of the most
hidden truths,

«0o Alchemical Treatises.

The First Key.

The first key is, that which opens the dark prisons, in which
the sulphur is shut up ; this is it which knows how to extract
the seed out of the body, and which forms the stone of the
philosophers, by the conjunction of the male with the female;
of the spirit with the body ; of sulphur with mercury. Hermes
has manifestly demonstrated the operation of this first key, by
these words : in the cayerns of the metals there is hidden, the
stone which is venerable, bright in colour, a mind sublime,
and an open sea. This stone has a bright glittering* it con-
tains a spirit or a sublime original, it is the sea of the wise, in
which they fish for their mysterious fish. The same philosor
pher does still more particularly take notice of the nativity of
this admirable stone, when he says : the king shall come out
of the fire, and shall rejoice in his marriage, and the hidden
things shall be laid open. It is a king crowned with glory,
who has his nativity in the fire, who is pleased with the union of
the spouse, which is given to him. It is this union which makes
manifest that which before was hidden.

But before I go any further, I have a counsel to give you^
which will be of no small advantage to you ; that is, to re-
flect, that the operations of each of the three works, having a
great deal of analogy and relation to one another ; the philoso-
phers do designedly speak in equivocal terms, to the end that
those who have not lynx's eyes, may pursue wrong, and be lost
in this labyrinth, from whence it is very hard to get out. In
effect, when one imagines, that they speak of one work, they
often treat of another ; take heed, therefore, not to be de-
ceived herein ; for it is a truth, that in each work the wise artist
ought to dissolve the body with the spirit ; he must cut off the
raven's head, whiten the black, and rubify the white ; yet it is
properly in the first operation, that the wise artist cuts off the
head of the black dragon, and of the raven. Hermes says,
that it is from thence that our art takes its beginning. What is
born of the crow, is the beginning of this art. Consider, that
it is by the separation of the black, foul, and stinking fume of
the blackest black, that our astral, white, and resplendent stone
is formed, which containeth in its veins the blood of the pelican ;
it is at this first purification of the stone, and at this shining
whiteness, that the first key of the first work is ended.

The Second Key.

The second key dissolves the compound, or the stone, and
begins the separation of the elements iu a philosophical maiv?

Six Keys. 207

uer ; this separation of the elements is not made but by raising
up the subtile and pure parts above the thick and terrestrial
parts. He who knows how to sublime the stone philosophically,
justly deserves the name of a philosopher, since he knows the
fire of the wise, which is the only instrument, which can work
this sublimation. No philosopher has ever openly revealed
this secret lire, and this powerful agent, which works all the
wonders of the art ; he who shall not understand it, and not
know how to distinguish it by the characters wherewith I have
endeavoured to point it out in the discourse of Eudoxus and
Pyrophilus, ought to make a stand here, and pray to God to
make it clear to him ; for the knowledge of this great secret,
is rather a gift of heaven, than a light acquired by the force of
reasoning ; let him, nevertheless, read the writings of the phi-
losophers ; let him meditate, and above all let him pray ; ther«
is no difficulty, which may not in the end be made clear by work,
meditation, and prayer.

Without the sublimation of the stone, the conversion of the
elements, and the extraction of the principles is impossible ; —
and this conversion, which makes water of earth, air of water,
and fire of air, is the only way whereby our mercury can
be prepared. Apply yourself then to know this secret fire,
which dissolves the stone naturally, and without violence, and
makes it dissolve into water in the great sea of the wise, by the
distillation which is made by the rays of the sun, and of the moon.
It is in this manner that the stone, which according to Hermes,
is the vine of the wise, becomes their wine, which by the opera-
tions of art, produces their rectified water of life, and their most
sharp vinegar. This father of our philosophy cits out con-
cerning this mystery ; O blessed watery form, which dissolvest
the elements ! The elements of the stone could not be dis-
solved, but by this water wholly divine ; nor could a perfect
dissolution be made of it, but after a proportioned digestion
and putrefaction, at which the second key of the first work
k ended.

The Third Key.

The third key comprehends of itself alone a longer train of
operations, than all the rest together. The philosophers have
spoken very little of it, seeing the perfection of our mercury
depends thereon ; the sincerest themselves, as Artephius, Trevisan,
Flamel, have passed in silence the preparations of our mercury,
and there is hardly one found, who has not feigned instead .of
showing the longest and the most important of the opera-
tions of our practice. With a design to lend you a hand in this
part of the way, which you have to go, where for want of light it

308 Alchemical Treatises.

U impossible to follow the true road, I will enlarge my-
self more than the philosophers have done, on this third key,
or at least I will follow in an order that which they have said of
this subject so confusedly, that without the inspiration of Heaven,
or without the help of a faithful friend, one remains undoubtedly
in this labyrinth, without being able to find a happy deliverance
from thence. I am sure that you who are the true sons of the
science, will receive aver}' great satisfaction in the explaining of
these hidden mysteries, which regard the separation, and the
purification of the principles of our mercury, which is made
by a perfect dissolution and glorification of the body, whence
it had its nativity, and by the intimate union of the soul
with its body, of whom the spirit is the only tie which
works this conjunction ; this is the intention, and the essential
point of the operations of this key, which terminate at
the generation of a new substance, infinitely nobler than
the first.

After that the wise artist has made a spring of living water
come out of the stone, that he has pressed out the juice of the vine
of the philosophers, and that he has made their wine, he ought
to take notice, that in this homogenous substance, which ap-
pears under the form of water, there are three different substances,
and three natural principles of all bodies : salt, sulphur, and
mercury, which are the spirit, the soul, and the body, and
though they appear pure and perfectly united together, there
still wants much of their being so ; — for when by distillation
we draw the water, which is the soul and the spirit, the
body remains in the bottom of the vessel like a dead, black, and
dreggy earth, which nevertheless is not to be despised; — for in
our subject there is nothing which is not good. The philosopher,
John Pontanus, protests, that the very superfluities of the stone
are converted into a true essence ; that he who pretends to sepa-
rate any thing from our subject, knows nothing in philosophy,
and that all which is therein of superfluous, unclean, dreggy, and
in fine, the whole substance of the compound is made per-
fect by the action of our fire. This advice opens the eyes of
those, who to make an exact purification of the elements, and
of the principles, persuade themselves, that they must only take
the subtile, and cast away the heavy ; but the sons of the sci-
ence ought not to be ignorant, that the fire, and the sulphur are
hidden in the centre of the earth, and that you must wash it
exactly with its spirit, to extract out of it the balm, viz. the
fixed salt, which is the blood of our stone. This is the essen-
tial mystery of this operation, which is not accomplished till af-
ter a convenient digestion, and a slow distillation. Follo\r
then, ye sons of art, the command which the truth-telling Hermes
gives ye, who says in this place : But with this watery soul, we
must mix our vinegar, that we may possess the sulphureous form ;

Six Kajs. 209

for when the compound is dissolved, it is the key of restoration.
You know that nothing is more contrary than fire anil water ;—
but yet the wise artist must make peace between the enemies,
who at the bottom (or radically) love one another vehemently.
Cosmopolite has told the manner thereof in a few words : the
things therefore being purged, make fire and water to be friends,,
which they will easily do in their earth which had ascended with,
them. Be then attentive on this point, moisten oftentimes the
earth with its water* and you will obtain what you seek. Must
not the body be dissolved by the water, and the earth be pene-
trated with its humidity to be made proper for generation ? —
According to the philosophers, the spirit is Eve; the body is
Adam, they ought to be joined for the propagation of their spe-
cies. Hermes says the same thing in other terms ; tor water
is the strongest nature, which surmounts and excites the
fixed nature in the body, that is, rejoices it. In effect, these
two substances, which are of the same nature, but of two diffe-
rent sexes, embrace one another with the same love, and the
^ame satisfaction, as the male and the female, and ascend insen-
sibly together, leaving but a little fieces in the bottom of the
vessel ; so that the soul, the spirit, and the body, after an
exact purification, appear at last inseparably united under
a more noble and more perfect form than it was before,
and as different from its first liquid form, as the alcohol of
wine exactly rectified, and acuated with its salt, is different
from the substance of the wine from whence it has been drawn ;
this comparison is not only very fitting, but it furthermore gives
the sons of science a precise knowledge of the operations of this
third key.

Our water is a living spring, which comes out of the stone,
by a natural miracle of our philosophy. The first of all is
the water which issueth out of this stone. It is Hermes who
hath pronounced this great truth. He acknowledges further,
that this water is the foundation of our art. The philosophers
give it many names; for sometimes they call it wine, some-
times water of life, sometimes vinegar, sometimes oil, accord-
ing to the different degrees of preparation, or according to the
diverse effects, which it is capable of producing. Yet I let
you know, that it is properly called the vinegar of the wise,
and that in the distillation of this divine liquor there happens
the same thing, as in that of common vinegar; — you may
from this draw a great instruction ; the water and the phlegm
ascend first ; the oily substance, in which the efficacy ot our
water consists, comes the last. It is this middle substance
between earth and water, which in the generation of the philo-
sophical child, does the office of the male. Hermes makes us
take particular notice of it by these intelligible words: the indif-
ferent unguent, which is fire, is the medium between the faeces and
the water. He is not content to give these lights to his scholars,

cc

210 Alchemical Treatises.

he shows fnrther in his smaragdine table, in what manner they
ought to conduct themselves in this operation. You shall separate
the earth from the fire, the subtile from the thick, sweetly, and
with great skill. Take care above all things not to smother the
fire of the earth by the waters of the deluge. This separa-
tion, or rather this extraction, must be done with a great deal
of judgment.

It is therefore necessary to dissolve the body entirely, to
extract all its humidity from it, which contain- this precious sul<-
phur, this balm of nature, and this wonderful unguent, with-
out which you ought not to hope ever to see in your vessel this
blackness so desired by all the philosophers. Reduce then the
whole compound into water, and make a perfect union of the
Volatile with the fixed ; it is a precept of Senior, which deserves
you should give attention to it. The highest fume, says he,
ought to»be reduced to the lowest, and the divine water is the
king descending from Heaven, it is the reducer of the soul to
its body, which it at length revives. The balm of life is hid
in these unclean faeces; you ought to wash them with this celes-
tial water, until you have removed away the blackness from
them, and then your water shall be animated with this fiery
essence, which works all the wonders of our art. I cannot give
you a better counsel about it than that of the great Trismegistus;
you must drive away from the water, the fume which is upon it,
the blackness from the unguent, and death from the faeces. —
"But the only means to succeed in this operation is taught you
by the same philosopher, who adds immediately ; and this by
dissolution, which 'being done, we have the greatest philoso-
phy, and the secret of all secrets.

But that you may not be deceived with the term of the com-
pound, I will tell you, that the philosophers have two sorts of
compounds. The' first is the compound of nature ; it is that
whereof I have spoke in the first key ; for it is nature which
makes it, in a manner incomprehensible to the artist, who does
nothing but lend a hand to nature, by the adhibition of external
things, by the means of which she brings Forth and produces
this admirable compound. The second is the compound of
art ; it is the wise man who makes it by the secret union of
the fixed with the volatile, perfectly conjoined with all the pru-
dence which car. be acquired by the lights of a profound philo-
sophy. The compound of art is not altogether the same in
the second, as in the third work ; yet it is always the
artist who makes it. Gebor defines it a mixture of argent vive
and sulphur, ihat is to say, of the volatile and the fixed, which
acting on one another are volatilized and fixed reciprocally into
a perfect fixity. Consider the example of nature, you will see
that the earth will never produce fruit, if it be not penetrated
v,ith its humidity, and that the humidity would remain

Six Keys. 211

always barren, if it were not retained and fixed by the dryness
of the earth.

You ought then to be certain, that one cannot have any good
success in our art ; if you do not in the first work purify
I he serpent, born of the slime of the earth. If you do not
whiten these foul and black feces, to separate from thence the
white sulphur, the sal-armoniac of the wise, which is their chaste
Diana, who washes herself in the bath. All this mystery
is but the' extraction of the fixed salt of our compound, in
which the whole energy of our mercury consists. The water
which ascends by distillation, carries up with it a part of this
fiery salt : so that the affusion of the water on the body reiterated
many limes, impregnates, fattens, and fertilizes our mercury,
and makes it fitting to be fixed, which is the end of the second
work. One cannot better explain this truth, than Hermes has
done by these words: when I saw that the water began by de-
grees to become thicker and harder, I did rejoice, fori certainly
knew that I should find what I sought for.

Though vou might have but a very indifferent knowledge of
our art, what I am going to tell you will be more than suf-
ficient, to make you apprehend, that all the operations of this
key, which put an end to the first work, are no other than to
digest, distil, cohobate, dissolve, separate, and conjoin, the
whole with sweetness and patience. Thus you will have not
only an entire extraction of the juice of 'the vine of the wise;
but furthermore, you will possess the true water of life ; and
I let you know, that the more you shall rectify it, and the more
you shall work upon it, the more penetration and virtue it will
acquire ; the philosophers have not given it the name of the
water of life, but because it gives life to the metals. It is
properly called the great Lundfitt, because its brightness where-
with it shines. They also call it a sulphureous substance, a balm,
a gum, the viscous humidity, and the most sharp vinegar of the
philosophers, &c.

It is not without reason that the philosophers give this mer-
curial liquor the name of a pontic water, and of a most sharp
vinegar. Its exuberant ponticity is the true character of its
virtue. There happens also in its distillation, as I have al-
ready said, the same thing which happens in that of vinegar. —
The phlegm and the water arise first, the sulphureous and the
saline parts ascend the last ; separate the phlegm from the water,
unite the water and the fire together, the mercury with the sul-
phur, and you shall see at last the blackest black, you wiil whiten
the raven, and rubify the swan.

Since I speak only to you, ye true scholars of Hermes,
1 will reveal to you one secret, which you will not find entirely
in the books of the philosophers. Some of them only say, that
of their liquor they make two mercuries, the one white, and

I2]2 Alchemical Treatises.

the other red. Flamel has said more particular})', that one
must make use of the citrine mercury, to make the imbibitions to
the red ; he gives notice to the sons of art, not to be deceived
in this point; he assures you also, that lie had therein been
himself deceived, if Abraham the Jew had not informed him of*
it. Other philosophers have taught, that the white mercury is
the bath of the moon, and that the red mercury is the bath ot
the sun ; but there are none who have been willing to shew dis-
tinctly to the sons of the science, by what way they may get
these two mercuries ; if you apprehended me well, you have this
point already cleared up to you. The Iunaria is the white
mercury, the most sharp vinegar is the red mercury; but the bet-
ter,^ determine these two mercuries, feed them with flesh of
their own species ; the blood of innocents, whose throats are
cut, that is to say, the spirits of the bodies, are the bath where
the sun and moon go to bath themselves.

I have unfolded to you a great mystery, if you reflect well
on it ; the philosophers, who have spoken thereof, have passed
over this important point very slightly. Cosmopolite has very
wittily mentioned it by an ingenious allegory, speaking of the
purification of mercury : this will be done, says he, if you shall
give our old man gold and silver to swallow, that he consume
them, and at length he also dying be burnt. He makes an end
of describing the whole magistery in these terms ; let his ashes be
strowed into the water ; boil it until it is enough, and you have
a medicine to cure the leprosy. You must not be ignorant, that
our old man is our mercury, that this name agrees with him,
because he is- the first matter of all the metals ; the same phi-
losopher says, that he is their water, to which he gives the
name of steel, and of the loadstone, and he adds for a greater
confirmation of what I am about to discover to you : if gold cou-
ples with it eleven times, it sends forth its seed, and is weakened
almost to death ; the chalybs conceives and begets a son more
glorious than the father. Behold then a great mystery, which I
reveal to you without any enigma; this is the secret of the two
mercuries, which contain the two tinctures. Keep them sepa-
rately, and do not confound their species, for fear they should
beget a monstrous lineage.

1 not only speak to you more intelligibly than any philosopher
has done, but I also reveal to you all which is the most
essential in the practice of our art; if you meditate thereon,
if; ou apply yourself to understand it well ; but above all, if you
work according to those lights which I give you, I in no wise
doijbt, but you will obtain what you seek for; and if you come
not to these knowledges, by the way which I have pointed out
to you, I am very well assured that you will hardly arrive afc
your design by only reading the philosophers. Therefore despair
of nothing ; search the source of the liquor of the sages.

Six Keys. 213

which contains all -which is necessary for the work ; it is hid-
den under the stone; strike upon it with the rod of magic lire,
and a clear fountain will issue out of it; do afterwards as I
have shewn you, prepare the bath of the kino- with the
blood of the innocents, and you will have the animated mer-
cury of the wise, which never loses its virtue, if you keep it in
a vessel well closed. Hern es says, that there is so much
sympathy between the purified bodies and the spirits, that
they never quit one another when they arc u«ki d together ; —
because this union resembles that of the soul with the glorified
body, alter which faith tells us, that there shall be no more se-
paration nor death. Because the spirits desire to be in the cleansed
bodies, but having had them, they enliven them, aid dwell in
them. You see by this the merit of chis precious liquor, to which
the philosophers have given more than a thousand different
names : it is the water of life of the wise, the water of Diana, the
great lunaria, the water of argent vive ; it is our mercurv,
our incombustible oil, which in the cold is congealed like
ice, and is melted with heat like butter. Hermes calls it the
foliated earth, or the earth of leaves, not without a great deal
of reason; for if you well observe, it is all lea vy; in a word,
it is the most clear fountain, which Count Trevisan makes men-
tion of; in fine, it is the great alkahest which radically dissolves
the metals ; it is the true permanent water, which after having
radically dissolved them, is inseparably united to them, and in-
creases the weight and the tincture.

The Fourth Key.

The fourth key of the art, is the entrance of the second work ;
it is that which reduces our water into earth ; there is but this
only water in the world, which by a bare boiling can be con-
verted into earth, because the mercury of the wise carries in its
centre its own sulphur, which coagulates it. The terrification
of the spirit is the only operation of this work ; boil then
with patience; if you have proceeded well, you will not be a lono"
time without seeing the marks of this coagulation, and if they
appear not in their time, they will never appear ; because it is
an undoubted sign, that you have failed in some essential
thing in the first operations ; for to corponfy the spirit, which
is our mercury, you must have well dissolved the body in which
the sulphur, which coagulates the mercury, is inclosed. Hermes
assures, that our mercurial water shall obtain all the virtues
which the philosophers attribute to it, when it shall be changed
into earth. Its force will be entire, if it shall be converted
into earth. An earth admirable for its fertility ; the land of

§14 Alchemical Treatises.

promise of the wise, who knowing how to make the clew of
heaven fall upon it, myke it produce fruits of an inestimable
price. Cosmopolite very well expresses the advantages of
this blessed earth ; he who knows how to congeal water in beat,
and to join a spirit with it, shall truly find a thing a thou-
sand times more precious than gold, and every thing. Nothing
comes near the worth of this earth, and of this spirit, perfectly
bound together according to the rules of our art ; they are the
true mercury, and the true sulphur of the philosophers, the liv-
ing male, and the living female, who contain the seed which
only can beget a son more illustrious than his parents. Then
cultivate diligently this precious earth, moisten it often with its
own humidity, dry it as often, and you will not less augment
its virtues, than its weight, and its fertility.

The Fijth Key.

The fifth key of our work is the fermentation of the stone
with the perfect body, to make thereof the medicine of the third
order. I will say nothing in particular of the operation of the
third work ; except, that the perfect body is a necessa^ leaven
of our paste ; that the spirit ought to make the union of the
paste with the leaven ; in the same maimer as water moistens
the meal, and dissolves the leaven to compose a fermented
paste fit to make bread. This comparison is very proper ; —
Hermes first made it, saying ; for as a paste cannot be fermented
without a ferment, so when you shall have sublimed, cleansed,
and separated the foulness from the feces; when you would join
them, put a ferment in them, and make the water earth, that
the paste may be made a ferment. On the subject of fermenta-
tion, the philosopher repeats here the whole work, and shews
that just so as the whole lump of the paste becomes all leaven, by
the action of the ferment, which has been added to it; so all
the philosophical confection becomes by this operation a leaven
proper to ferment a new matter, and to multiply it even to
infinity.

If you observe well how bread is made, you will find the
proportions which you ought to keep among the matters, which
compose our philosophical paste. Do not the bakers put more
meal than leaven, and more water than the leaven and the meal ?
The laws of nature are the rules you ought to follow in the
practice gf our whole magistery. I have given you upon all the
principal points, all the instructions which are necessary for-
you, so that it would be superfluous to tell you more of it, par-
ticularly concerning the last operations, about which the phik>-

Six Keys. 215

sophers have boon less reserved, than on the first, which are the
foundations of the art.

The Sixth Key.

■ The sixth key teaches the multiplication of the stone, by
the reiteration of the same operation, which consists but in
opening and shutting, dissolving and coagulating, imbibing
and (tying: whereby the virtues of the stone are infinitely aug-
mented. As my design has not been to describe entirely the
practice <u the three medicines, but only to instruct yon in the
m rt in?] drtant operations concerning the preparation of mer-
cury, which the philosophers commonly pass over in silence, to
hi le . se mysteries from the profane, which are only for the
wise ; i wiu tarry no longer upon this point, and I will tell
Jroi nothing more of what relates to the projection of the me*
dicine, oca use the success you expect depends not thereon. —
1 have not given you very full instructions but on the third key*
use it contains a long train of operations, which, though
sii le and natural, require a great understanding of the laws of
nature, and of the qualities of our matter, as well as a perfect
knowledge of chemistry, and of the different degrees of heat,
which are fitting for these operations.

1 have conducted you by the straight way without any wind-
ing ; and if you have well minded the road which I have
pointed you out, I am sure that you will go straight to the end
without straying. Take this in good part from me in the design
which I had of sparing you a thousand labours, and a thousand
troubles, which I myself have undergone in this painful journey
for want of an assistance, such as this which I give you in this
letter, which comes from a sincere heart, and a tender affection
for all the true sons of the science. I should much bewail you,
if like me, after having known the true matter, you should
spend fifteen years entirely in work, in study, and in meditation,
without being able to extract out of the stone, the precious juice
wluch it incloses in its bosom, lor want of knowing the secret fire
of the wise, which makes to run out of this plant (dry and wi-
thered in appearance) a water which wets not the hands, and
which by a magical union of the dry water of the sea of the wise,
is dissolved into a viscous water, into a mercurial liquor, which
is the beginning, the foundation, and the key of our art ; convert,
separate, and purify the elements as I have taught you, and yon
will possess the true mercury of the philosophers, which will give
you the fixed sulphur, and the universal medicine.

But I give you notice, that after you shnll be arrived at the
knowledge of the secret fire of the wise, yet still you shall not at-
tain your point at your first career. I have erred many years in

216 Alchemical Treatises.

the way which remains to be gone, to arrive at the mysterious
fountain wher* the king bathes himself, is made young again,
and retakes a new life exempt from all sorts of infirmities. Be-
sides this you must know how to purify, to heat, and to animate
the royal batii ; it is to lend you a hand in this secret way, that I
have expatiated on the third key, where all these operations are
described. I wish with all my heart, that the instructions which
I have given you, may make you go directly to the end. But
remember, ye sons of the science, that the knowledge of our ma-
gistery comes rather by the inspiration of heaven, than from
the lights which we can get by ourselves. This truth is acknow-
ledged by a 1 philosophers ; it is for that reason that it is not
enough to work ; pray daily, read good books, and meditate
night and day on the operations ol nature, and on what she
may be able to do when she is assisted by the help of our art, and
by these means you will succeed without doubt in your undertak-
ing. This is all which I had to say to you in this letter. I was
not willing to make you such a long discourse as the matter seemed
to demand ; neither have I told you any thing but what is essen-
tial to our art; so that if you know our stone, which is the only
matter of our stone, and if you have the understanding of our
fire which is both secret and natural, you have the keys of the
art, and you can calcine our stone; not by the common calcina-
tion which is made by the violence of fire, but by a philosophical
calcination which is purely natural.

Yet observe this with the most enlightened philosophers, that
there is this difference between the common calcination which is
made by the force of fire, and the natural calcination ; that the
first destroys the body, and consumes the greatest part of its ra-
dical humidity ; but the second does not only preserve the humi-
dity of the body in calcining it, but still it considerably aug-
ments it.

Experience will give you knowledge in the practice of this great
truth, for you will in effect find that this philosophical calcina-
tion, which sublimes and distils the stone in calcining it, much
augments its humidity ; the reason is, that the igneous spirit of
the natural lire is corporified in the substances which are ana-
logoustoit. Our stone is an astral fire, which sympathizes with
the natural fire, and which as a true salamander receives its na-
tivity, is nourished and grows in the elementary fire, which is
geometrically proportioned to it.

SIR GEORGE RIPLEY'S

Twelve Gates of Alchemy,
(abridged.)

O hygh yncomprchensyble and gloryous Magcste,

Whose luminos bemes obtundyth our speculation ;

One-hode in substance, O Tryne hode in Deite,

Of hierarchycall jubylestes the gratulant gloryfyeation ,

O pytewouse puryfyer ofsoules and puer perpetuation $

O deviaunt fro danger, O drawer most deboner ;

Pro thys envyos valey of vanyte, O our Exalter.

O power, O wysdom, O goodness inexplycable ;

Support me, tech me, and be my Governour,

That never my lyvyng be to thee dysplycable,

But that I aquyte me to thee as a trew professor .

Att thys begynnyng good Lord here my prayer ;

Be nygh with grace for to enforce my wyll,

Graunt well that 1 may my entent fulfyll.

In the begynnyng when thou madyst all of nought,

A globose mater and darke under confusyon,

By thee Begynner mervelously was wrought,

Conteynyng naturally all thyngs withoute dyvysyon,

Of whych thou madyst in six d ayes dere dy sty nction ;

As Genesys apertly doth recordc

Then Heavyn and Erth perfeytyd were wyth thy word*

So thorow thy wyll and power owte of one mase

Confusyd was made all thyngs that being ys :

Butyn thy glory afore as maker thou was,

Now ys and shall be wythout end I wvs :

And puryfyed sowls upp to thy blys

Shall come a piyncyple, thys may be one,

For the declaryng of our Stone.

For as of one mase was made all thyng,

Ryght soe must hyt in our practyse be,

All our secrets of one Image must spryng ;

hi phylosophers bokes therefore who lust tose,

2J8 Alchemical Treatises.

Our stone ys caliyd the lessc world one and three.

Magnesia also of Sulphure and Mercury,

Propotionat by nature most perfytly.

Thys stone alsoe tcil thee 1 dare,

Is the vapour of mettalls potentyall,

How thou shall gett hyt thou must beware:

For invysible is truly thys menstruall :

Howbehytt with the second water phylosophyealt,

By seperatyon of elements yt may appeare,

To svsjht in forme of water cieerc.

Of our menstrue by labour exuberate

And wyth hyt may be made sulphure of nature

If itt be well and kyndly acuale;

And cyrculate into a spryt pure.

Then to dyssolve thou must be sure

Thy base wyth hyt indyvers wyse,

As thou shalt know by thy practyse.

THE FIRST GATE

Of Calcination.

CaTcinacion is the purgaeyon of our stone,,

Restauryng also of hys naturall heate ;

Of radyeall moysture it lesyth none ;

Indueyng solucion into our stone most mete,

After philosophy I you behytc,

Do not after the comyn gyse,

Wyth sulphure and salts preparat in dyvers wyse>

Nether with corrosyves nor with fire alone,

Nor with vyneger nor water ardent,

Nether with the vapour of lede our stone

Is calcyned to our intente :

All they to ealcyne whych so be bent

Fro thys hard scyence withdraw theyre hond?

Till they our calcyning better understonde.

lor by such calcynyug theyre bodyes be shent,-

Whych mynysheth the moysture of our stone £•

Therefore when bodyes to powder be brent,

Dry as askys of tre or bone,

Of such calx then wyll we none,

For moysture we multiply radyeall,

In ealcynyng, mynyshyng none at alL,

Twelve Gates. 219

And for a sure ground of our trew calcynacyon,

Woofbh wyttyly kynde only with kynde ;

For kynd to kynde hath appetyble inclynacyoh ;

Who knowelh not thys yn knowledge is but blynd :

He may forth wander as my&t doth wyth the wynd ;

Woting never wyth perfytnes where to lygfot,

Because he cannot conseve our words aryght.

And we make calxes unctious both whyte and red,

Of three degrees or our base be perfyt ;

Fluxybls as wcx, ells stond they lyttle in sted ;

By ryght long proccsse as phylosophcrs wryte,

A ycre we take or more for our respite.

For in lesse space our calxe wyll not be made,

Able to tayne with colour whych vjVt not vade<

If the water bo equull in proporcyon

To the crthe whych here in dew mesure,

Of hym shall spryng a new burgyon ;

Both whyte and red in pure tyncture,

AVhych in the lyre shall ever endure;

Kyll than the quyck, the ded revyve,

Make Trynyte unyte vvythout any strwe.

Thys ys the best and the surest proporcyon.

For here ys lest of the part spyrytuall,

The better therefore shall be solucyon ;

Then yf thou dyd it wyth water small,

Thyne erth over glutyn whych losyth all:

Take heede therefore to potters loome,

And make you never to nesh thy womc.

Thus under the moysture of the moone,

And under the temperate hete of the sonnes

Thy elements shalbe incynerate sone,

And then thow hast the maistery wone ;

Thanke God thy worke was then begon ;

Pore there thow hast one token trew,

Whych fyrst in blacknes to thee wyll shew.

THE SECOND GATE.

Of Solution.

But yet I trow thou understandyst not utterly
The very secrett of phylosopers dyssolucion ;
Therefore conceve me I counccll thee wyttyly :
For I wyll tell thee trewly wythoutdelusyon ;
Our solucyon ys cause of our congelacyon ;
For the dissolucyon on the one syde corporail
Causyth congelacyon on the other side spyrytuall.

220 Alchemical Tnaftses.

And we dyssolvc into water whych weytyth no hand-

For when the erthys integrally yncyncrat ;

Then ys the water congelvd, thys understand ;

For the elements be so concatenat.

That when the body fro hys fyrst forme ys altevate r-

A new forme ys inducyd immediately,

For notbyng being wythout all forme ys utterly.

And here a secret to thee I wyll dysclose,

Whych ys the ground of our secvets all ;

And yf thou hyt not know thou shalt but lose

Thy labour and costs both great and small,

Take hede therefore in errour that thou not fall :

The more thyne erth and the lease thy water be,

The rather and better solucyon shall thou see.

Behold how yse to water doth relent,

And so hyt must, for water hyt was before ;

Ryght soe agayne to water our erth is bent,

And water thereby congelyd for evermore,

For after all phylosophers whych ever was bore :

Every mettall was ons water mynerall,

Thcreforewyth water they turne to water all.

And in oncglasse must be done all thys thyng,

Lyke to an egg in shape, and closyd well,

Then must you know the mesure of fyryng ;

The whych unknowen thy warke ys lost ech dele,

Lett never thy glasse be hotter then thow may feele :

And suffer styll in thy bare hand to holde

For dread of losyngas philosophers have the told.

Yett to my doetryne furthermore intend,

Beware thy glasse thou never opyn ne meve

Fro thy begynnyng, tyll thou have made an end ;

If thou do contrary thy warke may never cheve :

Thus in thys Chapter whych ys so breve,

I have the taught thy trew solution ;

Now to the thyrdgate goe, for thys ys won.

TOE THIRD GATE.

Of Separation.

Separacyon, doth ech parte from other devyde,

The subtill fro thegroce, fro the thyck the thyii ;

But separacyon manual! look thou put asyde :

For that pertaynyth to folys whych lyttyll good don wyn*

But in our separacyon nature doth not blyn :

Making dyvysyon of qualytes elemcnull

Into the tyfth degree tyll they be turned all.

Twelve Gates. %Zl

Do thys wyth hete csy and mesuryng

Fyrst wyth moyst fyre, and after wyth the dry :

The flewme by pacyence owt drawyng;

And after that thy other natures wyttyly,

Dry up thyne erth tyll hyt be thrysty :

By calcenyng els thou laboryst all in vayne,

And then make hyt drynke up his moysture agaynej

Whvch yf they were not by craft made quick,

And the; .atnes wyth water drawn out ;

And so the thyn dyssevered from the thyke,

Thcu should never bryng thys worke about :

Yf thou wylt speed therefore wythout doubt,

lleyse up thy byrds out of theyre nest,

And after agayne bryng them downe to rest.

Now to help thee in at thys gate,

rj li ast secret I wyll tell to thee;

Thy w ater must be seven tymes subtymate,

shall no kyndly dyssolucyon be,
Nor ] utryfyyng shall thou none see,
Like lyquyd pytch nor colours apperyng,
For lack of fyre wythin thy glasse workyng.
Fower fyers there be whych you must understands
Natural!, innaturall, against nature, alsoe
Elementall whych doth bren the brond ;
These foure fyres use we and no mo :
Fyre against nature must doe thy bodyes wo;
Thatys our dragon as I thee tell,
Fersely brennyng as fyre of hell.
Fyre of nature ys the thyrd menstruall,
That fyre ys naturally in every thyng;
But fyre occasionat we call innatiu all,
And hete of askys and balnys for putrefying :
Wythout these lyres thou may not bryng
To putrefaccyon for to be seperat,
Thy matters togeather proportyonat.
Therefore make fyre thy glasse wythin,
"Whych brennyth the bodyes more then fyre
Elementall ; yf thou wylt wyn
Our secret accordyng to thy desyre,
Then shall thy seeds both roote and spyre,
By help of fyre occasionate,
That kyndly after they may be seperato

222 Alchemical Treatises.

THE FOURTH GATE.

Of Conjunction.

Of two conjunccions phylosophers don menfyon make,
Groce when the body with Mercury ys reincendat,
But let hyt passe, and to the second tent thou take,
"Which as I sayd ys after separacion celebrat :
In whych the partys be lest whych lest so collygate ;
And so promotyd unto most perlyt temperance,
Then never alter may be among them repugnance.
Thus causyth separacion trew conjunccion to be had
Of water, ayre, earth, and lyre,
But that every element may into other be lad,
And so abyde for ever to thy desyre ;
Do as done laborours with clay and myer,
Temper them thyke, and make them not to thyn,
lor so to up drying thou shalt the rather wyn.
And whan thy vessle hath stond b}- monyths five,
And clowds and cbypsys be passed ech one ;
That lyght apperen increase thy hete then blyve,
T}dl bryght and shyneing in whytnesse be thy stonCj
Then may thou opyn thy glasse anone,
And fede thy chyld whych ys then ybore
"Wyth mylke and mete ay more and more.
For now both moyst and. dry be so contemperate.
That of the water erth hath recevyd imprcssyon ;
Whych never assundcr after that may be seperatCj
And ryght soe water to erth hath given ingressyon,
That both together to dwell hath made professyon :
And water of erth hath purchasyd retentive,
They lower be made one never more to strive.
And in two thyngs all our entent doth hing,
In dry and moyst whych be contraryous two ;
In dry that hyt the moyst to fyxing bryng,
In moyst that hyt geve lyquyfaccion the erth unto,
That of them thus contemperate may forth go
A temperament not so thyk as the body ys,
Mother so thyn as water wythout mys.

Twelve Gates. 223

THE FIFTH GATE.

Of Putr ejection.

Now bcgynnytli the chapter of putrefaccion,

Wvthout whych pole no sede may multiply,

Whych must be done only by contynuall accyon

Of hete in the body, moyst, not manually,

For bodies ells may not be alterat naturally :

iSyth Chrystdo it wytnes, wythowt the grayne of whete

Dye in the ground, encrese may thou not gete.

And in lykewv.se wythoul thy matter do putrefyc,

It may in no wyse trewly be alterate,

Nor thyne elements may be devyded kyndly ;

Nor thy conjunction of them portytly eelebrat :

That thy labor therefore be not frustrate,

The prevyte of putrefying well understond,

Or ever thou take thys warke in bond.

And therefore as I have seyd afore

Theyn elements comyxt and wysely coequat,

Thou keepe intemperat heate, eschuyng evermore,

That they by violent hete be never ineynerat ;

To powder dry unprofytably rubyfycate,

But into powder blaeke as a crowes byll

Wyth hete of balne, or ells of our dounghyll.

To tyme that nyghts be past nynty,

In moyst hete kepe them fro eny thyng ;

Sonc after by blacknes thow shalt espy

That they draw fast to putrefying,

Whych thow shalt after many colers bryng

To perfyt whytenes wyth pacyence esyly,

And so thy sede in hys nature shall multeply.

Thys tyme of conceptyon wyth esye hete abyde,

The blacknes showing shall tell the when they dye j

For they together lyke lyquyd Pyche thattyde,

Shall swell and burbyll, setyll, and putrelye,

Shynirig colors therin thou shalt espye :

Lyke to the raynbow mervelose unto syght,

The water then begynnyth to dry upryght.

For in moyst bodys hete noryshyng temperate*.

Ingendryth blacknes syrst of all which ys

Of kyndly commyxyon to the tokyn assygnate ;

And of trew putrefying, remembei tliys,

For then to alter perfytiy thou may not mysse ;

And thus by the gate of biacknes thou must cum in

To lyght of Paradyce in whytenes yf thou vvylt wyo*

324 Alchemical Treatises.

For fyrst the son in liys uprysyng obscurate
Shalbe, and passe the waters of Noyes fiud
On erth, whyeh were a hundred dayes contynuate
And fyfiy, away or all thys waters yode,
Ryght so our waters as wyse men understode
Shall passe, that thou wyth Davyd may say
Abierunt in sicco Jlumincjc : bare thys away.

THE SIXTH GATE.

Of Congelation.

Of congelacyon I nede not much to wryte,

But what yt ys now I wyll fyrst declare :

It ys of soft thyngs induracyon of colour whyte?

And confyxacyon of spyrits whych fleyng are :

How to congele thee nedyth not much to care

For elements wyll knyt together sone,

So that putrefaccyon be kyndly done.

For when the matter ys made parfyt whyte,

Then wyll thy spryte wyth the body congelyd be ;

But of that tyme thou must have long respyte,

Yer yt appere congelyd lyke pearles unto the,

Such congelacyon be glad for to see ;

And after lyke graynys red as blod,

Rychyr then any worldly good.

1 he erthly grosnes therefore fyrst mortyfyed

In moystnes, blacknes ingendryd ys ;

Thys pryncypell majr not be denyed,

For naturall philosophers so seyth I wys,

"Whych had, of Avhytenes thou may not mys-;

And into whytenes yf" thou congele hyt ons,

Thou hast a stone most presyose of all stonys.

But here thou must another secret knowe,

How the philosophers chyld in the ayre ys borne ;

Bcsy thee not to fast at the cole to blowe,

And take that nether for mock nor skorne,

But trust me truly else thy work ys all forlorne j

Wvthout thyne erth wyth water revyvyd be,

Our trew congelyng shalt thou never see.

Twelve Gates. 225

THE SEVENTH GATE.
Of Cibatlon.

Thretyriies thus must thouturne about thy whele

Abowte kepying the rewle of the scyd cibacyon,

And then as sone as yt the fyre doth fele,

Lvke wax yt wylbq redy unto lyquacyon ;

Tnys chapter neuyth not longer protestacion ;

For I have told thee the dyatory. most convenyent

After thyne elements be made equypolent.

And also how thou to whytenes shaltbryng thy gold,

.Most lvke in fyguro to the lenys of an hawthorn tre,

Callyd Magnesya afore as I have told;

And our whyte sulfur wythowte conbustebyllyte,

Whych fro the fyer away wyll never fle ;

And thus the seventh gate as thow desyred

In the upspryng of the son ys con query d.

THE EIGHTH GATE.

Of Sublimation.

Tn Miblymacyon fyrst beware of one thyng,
That thou sublyme not to the top of thy vessel!,
For without vyolence thou shnlt yt not downe bryng
Ageyne, but there yt wyll abyde and dwell ;
So hyt rejoysyth wyth refrvgeracion I the tell ;
Kepe hyt therfore wyth temperat hete adowne
Full forty dayes, tyll hyt wex black abowen.
And sublymacyon we make for causys thre,
The fyrst cause ys to make the body spirituall %
The second that the spryt may corporall be,
And becom fyx wyth hyt and substancyall ;
The thyrd cause ys that fro hys fylth orygAnall
He may beclensyd, and hys fatnys sulphuryose
Be mynyshyd in hym whych ys infectuose.
Then when they thus togeder depuryd be,
They wyll sublyme up whyter then snow;
That syght wyll gi'etly comfort the ;
For than anon parfytly shalt thou know
Thy sprytts shall so be a downe I throw;
That thys gate to the shalbe unlockyd,
Out of thys gate many one be shuyt a#d raockyd.

226 Alchemical Treatises.

THE NINTH GATE?.

Of Fermentation,

That poynt therfore I wyll dysclosc to thee,

X.ooke how thou dydyst wyth thy unparfyt body,'

And do so wyth thy parfyt bodys in every degre ;

That ys to sey fy rst thou them putrefy e

Her prymary qualytes destroying utterly }

For thys ys" wholey to our enteilt,

That fyrst thou alter before thou ferment.

To thy compound make ferment the fowcrth parte,

Whych ferments be only of son and mone ;

If thou therfore be master of thys arte,

Thy fermentaciori lat thys be doile,'

Fyx water and erth together sone :

And when the medcyn as wax doth flowe,

Than uppon Malgams loke thou hyt throw.

And when all that together ys myxyd

Above thy glasse well closyd make thy fyre,

And so contenew hyt tyll all be fyxid,

And well fermented to desyre ;

Than make projeccyon after thy pleasure:

For that ys medcyn than ech dele parfyt,

Thus must you ferment both red and whyte^

And understood that ther be ferments three,

Two be of bodys in nature clene,

Whych must be altryd as I have told thee ;

The thyrd most secret of whych I mene,

Ys the fyrst erth to hys owne water grene :

And therfore when the lyon* doth thurst,

Make hym dryrike fyll hys belly burst.

But wyth thy bace after my doctrynepreperatj

Whych ys our calx, thys must be don ;

For when our bodys be sO calcenat,

That water wyll to oyle dyssolte them sone ;

Make therfore oyle of son and mone

Which ys ferment most fragrant for to smell,

Ami so the ninth gate ys conquered of thys castelk

Twelve Gates. '#&<

THE TENTH GATE.

Of Exaltation.

Yf thou tlierfore thy bodys wyll cxaltat,

Fyrst wyth the spryts of lyfe thou them augment,

Tyll tyme thy erth be well subtylyate,

By naturall rectyfyyng of eche element;

Flym up exaltyng into thei^xanamect :

Than much more presyose shall they be than gold,

Because they of the quyntessence do hold.

For when the cold .hath overcuin the hete,

Then into water the ayre shall turnyd be;

And so two contrarys together shall mete,

Tyll ether wyth other ryght well agre,

So into ayre thy water as I tell the ;

When hete of cold hath gott (kxmy.nacyon,

Shalbe convertyd by craft of cyrculacion.

And of the fyer -then ayer have thou shall,

By losyng putrefyyng and sublymyng;

And Iyer thou hast of the erth materyall :

Thyne elements by craft thus dysseveryng,

Most specyally the erth well calcenyng :

And when they be eche on made pure,

Then do thevhold all of the fvfth nature.

THE ELEVENTH GATE.

Of ^Multiplication.

And why thou may thy medcyn mulleply,

Infynytly the cause forsoth ys thys.

Forytys fyer whych tynedwyll never dye :

Dwellyngwyth the a^ fyer doth in housys,

Of whych one sparke may make more fyers I-wys ;

As musk in pygments, and other spycys mo,

In vertue multyplyeth and our medcyn ryght so.

So he ys ryche the whych fyer hath les or more,

Because he may so gretly multeply;

And ryght so ryche ys he whych any parte hath in store

Of our elixers whych be augmentable infynytly :

One way yf thou dyssolve our powders dry,

And oft tymes of them make congelacyon,

Of hyt in goodncs thou makyst then augmentacyon.

22S Alchemical Treatises.

The second way both in goodnes and in quantyte,

Hyt multyplycth by iterat fermentacion,

As in that chapter I showyd playnly unto the,

By dyvers manners of natural I operacyon,

And also in the chapter of our cybacyon :

Where thou may know how thou shalt multcply

Thy medcyn wyth mercury infynytly.

THE TWELFTH GATE.

Of Projection.

In projeccyon hyt shalbe provyd yf our practise be profytabl*
Of whycli yt behovy th me the secrets here to mere,
Therfore yf thy tyncture be sure and not varyable,
By a Jyttyllof thy medcyn thus shall thou prevc
Wyth mettall or wyth mercury as pyche yt wyll cleve :
And tynct in projeccj-on all fycrs to abyde,
And sone yt wyll enter and spred hym full wyde.
But many for ignorans doth mar that they made,
When on mettalls unclensyd projeccyon they make,
For be cause of corrupcyon theyr tinctures must rade ;
Whych the wold not awey fyrst fro the bodys take,
Whych after projeccyon be bryttyl, bloe, anil blacke ;
That thy tyncture therfore may evermore last,
Uppon ferment thy medcyn loke tyrst that thou cast.

JOHN PONTANUS,

or THE

Sophie Fire.

1. I, John Pontaxus, have travelled through many coun-
tries, that I might know the certainty of the philosophers stone;
and passing through the universe, I found many deceivers, but
no true philosophers, which put me upon incessant studying,
and making many doubts, till at length I found out the truth.
But when f attained the knowledge of the matter in general)
yet I erred at least two hundred times, before I could attain to
know the singular thing itself, with the work and practice
iheioof.

2. First, I began with the putrefaction of the matter, which
I continued for nine months together, and obtained nothing. —
I then for some certain time proved a Balneum Marine, but in
vain. After that, I used a fire of calcination for three months
space, and still found myself out of the way. I essayed all sorts
of distillations and sublimations, as the philosophers, Geber,
Archelaus, and all the rest of them have prescribed, and yet
found nothing: In sum, I attempted to perfect the whole work
of alchemy by all imaginable and likely means, as by horse-dung,
baths, ashes, and other heats of divers kinds, all which are
found in the philosophers books, yet without any success.—
I yet continually for three years together studied the books of
philosophers, and that chiefly in Hermes, whose concise words
comprehend the sum of the whole matter, viz. the secret of the
philosophers stone, by an obscure way of speaking, of what is
superipr, and what is inferior, to wit, of heaven and of earth. —
TheiLiore our operation which brings the matter into being, in
t.i first, second, and third work, is not the heat of a bath, nor
horse-dung, nor ashes, nor of the other fires, which philosopher^
excogitate in their books. Shall I demand then, what it is that
perfect;: the work, since the wise men have thus concealed it ? —
Truly, being moved with a generous spirit, I will declare it, with
the complement of the whole work.

3. The Lapis Philosophorum, therefore, is but one, though
it has many names, which before you conceive them, will be very
difficult. For it is watery, airy, fiery, earthy : it is salt, sul-
phur, mercury, and phlegm ; it is sulphureous, yet is argent
vivo , it has many superfluities, which are turned into the true
essence, by the help of our fire. He which separates any thing
from the subject or matter, thinking it to be necessary, * wholly

230 Alchemical Treatises.

errs in his philosophy. That which is snperfluous, unclean,
filth}', feculent, and in a word, the whole substance of the sub-
ject is transmuted cm' changed into a perfect, fixed, and spiritual
body, by the help of our fire, which the wise men never revealed,
and therefore it is, that few attain to this art, as thinking that to
be superfluous and impure, which is not.

4. It behoves us now to enquire after the properties of oarmfire9
and how it agrees with our matter, according to that which I have
said, viz. that a transmutation may be made, though the fire is
not such as io burn the matter, separating nothing from it, nor
/dividing the pure parts from the impure, as the philosophers
teach, but transmuting and changing the whole subject into pu-
rity. Nor does it sublime after the manner of Geber's sublima-
tion, nor the sublimations or distillations of Arnoldus, or others;
but it is perfected in a short time. It is a matter mineral, equal',
continuous, vapours or fumes not, unless too much provoked :
partakes of sulphur, and k taken otherwise than from matter; —
it destroys all things, dissolves, congeals, coagulates and cal-
cines, adapted to penetrate, and is a compendium, without any
great cost. And that is the fire, with a gentle heat, soft or
remiss, by which the whole work is <|>erfected, together with all
the proper .sublimations. They who read Geber, with all the
rest of the philosophers, though they should survive an hundred
thousand years, yet would they not be able to comprehend it,
for that this fire is found by a profound cogitation only, which be-
ing once apprehended, may be gathered out of books, and not
^before.

,5. The error, therefore, in this work, proceeds chiefly from
-a not knowing, or understanding of the true fire, which is one
of the moving principles that transmutes the whole matter
into the true philosophers stone ; and therefore diligently find
it out. Had I found that first, I had never been two hundred
times mistaken in the pursuit of the matter I so long sought after.
For which cause sake, I wonder 'hot that so many, and so great
men, have not attained unto the work. They have erred,
they A& err, and they will err; because the philosophers,
Artcphius only excepted, have concealed the principal or proper
agent. And unless I had read Artcphius, and sensibly under*
i-tood his speech, I had never arrived to the complement of the
work.

6. Now the practical part is this : Let the matter be taken
and diligently ground with a philosophical contrition, put it upon
the fire, with such a proportion of heat, that it only excite or
Stir up the matter ; and in a short time that fire, without
any laying on of hands, will -complete the whole work, bcr
cause it putrefies, corrupts, generates, and perfects, and makes
the three principal colours, viz. the black, white, and red to
appear. And by the means of this our fire, the medicine will

Pontcmus. £31

be multiplied, by addition of the crude matter, not onTy iri
quantity, but also in quality or virtue. Therefore seek out
this fire with all thy industry, for having Once found it,
thou shalt accomplish thy desire, because it performs the
Whole work, and is the true key of all the philosophers, which
they never yet revealed. Consider well of what I have spo-
ken concerning the properties of this fire, and thou must know
it, otherwise it will be hid from thine eyes.

7. Being moved with generosity, I have written these
things, but that I might speak plainly, this fire is not trans-
muted with the matter, because it is nothing of the matter,
as I have before declared. And these things I thought fit to
speak, as a warning to the prudent sons of art, that they
spend not their money unprofitably, but may know what they
ought to look after ; for by this only they may attain to the
perfection of this secret* and by no other means.

Farewell,

THE STONE OF FIRE.

FROM

BASIL VALENTINE.

tVnoSoF-VEri desires to become a perfect anatomist of anti-
mony, the first thing to be considered by him is solution of
the body; and in order to this, he must take it in a convenient
place, and propose to himself the right way, that he be not se-
duced into devious paths. Secondly, he must observe the go-
vernance of the fire, taking care that it be neither too much,
nor too little, or too hot, or too cold. For the sum of all is
sited in sn exact governance of the fire ; by which the vivifying
•pirits of antimony are extracted, and loosed from their bonds,
and so rendered capable to manifest their effects operatively. —
Also, he must take great care, that this operative virtue be not
mortified, and perish by adustion.

Kirkringius — Believe not only Basilius, but me also, with
the same faith aud sincerity affirming to you ; this is the first
ley, this is the principal part of the whole art, this opens to
you the first gate, this will also unlock the last, which leads to
the palace of the king. But as I said, not only believe, but
also consider and observe. Here you stand in the entrance, if
you miss the door, all your course will be error, all your haste
ruin, and all your wisdom foolishness. He who obtains this
key, and knows the method, which is called manual operation,
by which to use it, and hath strength to turn the same, will
acquire riches, and an open passage unto the mysteries of
chemistry.

Bash. — Therefore preparation of antimony consists in the
key of alchemy, by which it is dissolved, opened, divided, and
separated. Also in extracting its essence, and in vivifying its
mercury ; which mercury must afterwards be precipitated into
a fixed powder. Likewise by art and a due method, of it may-
be made an oil. The same is visible in other preparations, de-
rived from the spagyric art and alchemy; as for example:
if any one would make beer of barley, wheat, or other corn,
all these degrees must be most perfectly known to him, before he
can from those grains extract their most subtile essence and
virtue, and reduce the same into a most efficacious drink. First,
the grains must be so long steeped in water, as until they be
able sufficiently, to open tuid resolve themselves, as I, when

Jlasil of Antimony. 233

1 was a young man, travelling into England and Holland, di-
ligently observed to be done in those places ; this is called
putrefaction and corruption. This key being used, the water
is drawn off from the grain, and the macerated corn is laid on
heaps close together, and left so for a due time, until it spon-
taneously conceive heat, and by the same heat germinating, the
grains adhere each to other ; this is digestion. This being finish-
ed, the grains which adhered in their germination, are sepa-
rated, and dried, either in the air, or by heat of fire, and so
hardened. This is reverberation, and coagulation. When the
corn is thus prepared, it is carried to the mill, that it may be
broke and ground small ; this is vegetable calcination. After-
wards, by heat of fire cocting these grains, the more noble
spirit of them is extracted, and the water is imbibed with the
same ; which without the aforesaid preparation could not have
been. In this way the crude water is converted into beer, and
this operation (though I speak but rudely) is and is called dis-
tillation. The hops, when added to the beer, is the vegetable
salt thereof, which conserves and preserves from all contraries,
endeavouring to corrupt the same.

After all these works are performed, a new separation is made
by clarification, viz. of the drink, in this manner : a little yest
or ferment is added, which excites an internal motion and heat
in the beer, so that it is elevated in itself, and by the help of
time, separation of the dense from the rare, and of the pure
from the impure is made; and by this means the beer acquires
a constant virtue in operating, so that it penetrates and effects
all those ends, for which it was made and brought into use ;
which before could not have been, because the spirit, the opera-
tor was hindered, by its own impurity, from effecting its proper
work.

In wine also doth not experience teach the same ? That
cannot, before the time come, in which the impurities may be
separated from it, so very perfectly and efficaciously perform its
own work, as after separation of the pure from the impure :—
which by drunkenness is manifest ; for beer or wine unsettled,
and not purified, give not forth from themselves so much spirit
for inebriating, as after clarification. But of this no more. —
After all the aforesaid, a new operation may be instituted, by
vegetable sublimation, for separation of the spirit of the wine or
beer, and for preparing it by distillation into another drink
of burning wine, which may also be made of the lees or
dregs of wine and beer. When this is done, the operative
virtue is separated from its own body, and the spirit being ex-
tracted by fire, forsakes its own unprofitable dead habitation!, in
which it was eommodiously hospited before. Now, ll tins burn-
ing wine, or spirit of wine, be rectified, an exaltation is made
by often distilling it. and by a certain method of operating, the

* r f

234 ^Alchemical Treatises.

pure part, free from all phlegm or aquosity, may be so concen-
tered, and as it were condensed, as one measure of it may effect
more, than twenty or more could have done belbrc. For it
sooner inebriates, and is swift, volatile and subtile for penetrat-
ing and operating.

Here I admonish you, whosoever you are, who desire to be
taught by my writings, and hope to obtain riches and a true
medicine from antimony, that you would not carelessly peruse
my intention, in which is no letter writ in vain, and which hath
not a certain singular signification for your instruction.

Kirkringius — Come hither you traveller, stay your journey
here. Contemn not or slightly pass over this tautological, but
Hot impertinent, admonition ; often in your mind nave recourse
to this description of beer ; search, contemplate, and weigh all
things, perhaps in this turbid and fumous gulf, you will find
the fish you look not for. If in this light you yet be blind,
I know not any collyrium will profit you ; if with so certain a
manuduction you cannot pass on to the work itselC I know not
who will lend you a staflfj or what demonstration can direct the
journey of a stupid man. Believe, read, meditate, labour,
and spare the use of so many chemical books, which distract
you with the error of various ways ; this one tells you all
things.

Basil — When most hard steel is struck with an hard and
solid flint, fire excites fire by vehement commotion, and accen-
sion, drawing forth the occult sulphur, or the occult fire is ma-
nifested by that vehement commotion, and enkindled by the air
so, as it truly and efficaciously burns ; but the salt remains in
the ashes, and the mercury thence takes its flight together with
the burning sulphur.

Kikkringius — You, who read this most simple comparison
of steel and a flint, slack the reins of your admiration, and se-
riously ask yourself, whether there can be found out any way or
method, by which from this stone and cold iron may be extracted
a substance, of which one only grain (but why do I speak of a
grain ?) of which the hundredth part of a grain can in a very
short time convert a great mass of some rude matter, into the
most splendid and most precious of all things; yea, into fire
most profitable for mankind. This is possible, "and is daily
done, when the fixed is made volatile, and the volatile again
fixed. He that hath understanding, let him understand,
and cease to defame the admirable virtues of chemical
works.

Basil — So here also understand, that antimony ought in
a certain method so to be handled, as its mercury may be
separated from the sulphur thereof, in a natural manner. —
Now as fire, which lies absconded in matter, unless it be made
manifest, and can be demonstrated, is profitable for nothingr

Basil of Antimony. 235

is not, as I may say, tangible by the hands, nor can it effect
any tiling to purpose ; so medicine can effect nothing thai; is
excellent, unless it be first separated from its grossness, rectified
and so discharged of impurities, clarified ar<.' 1 r< uglit to light
by due preparation, as is manifest in all tilings : tor when se-
paration of the pure from the impure is made, and ai! that is
mountainous or terrestrial is segregated from the pure mcL;i!, then
the desired harvest is to be expected. Hence it is manifest, that
fire can effect nothing, before it is in a certain manner opened
and set at liberty, that it may operate. Therefore, to compre-
hend much in few words, I say, this is the condition of
antimony.

Its transparent redness is assigned to the carbuncle, rub)',
and coral ; its whiteness, to the diamond and crystal ; its blue
colour, to the sapphire ; green, to the emerald ; yellow, to the
jacinth ; its black, to the granate, which stone contains in itself
a certain blackness occultly absconded. But as to metals, the
black is assigned to saturn, the red to iron, the yellow to gold,
the green to copper, the blue to silver, the white to mercury,
and its mixture of various colours is attributed to Jupiter. But
as all the colours of all metals and precicus stones are clearly
found in antimony, so also all the powers and yirtues of medicine
are no less shewed in it, than the colours aforesaid.

There is an extraction of antimony made in this manner.
Grind crude (pure) antimony to powder, and pour (distil)
upon it strong vinegar, not of wine, but made of its own
minera, and expose the mixture in a vessel well closed to a
solar heat ; then, after some time the vinegar will be tinged
with a blood-like colour ; pour (distil) off this extraction
clear, filter it, and distil by alembicli in sand : then again,
in distilling, it shews admirable coloui's, pleasant to the sight,
and wonderful in aspect. This oil at length becomes red as
blood, and leaves many faeces, and prevails against many in-
firmities.

Take crude Hungarian antimony, put that ground to a
subtile powder, into a glass cucurbit with a flat bottom,
and pour thereon the true vinegar of philosophers, rendered
more acid with its own salt. Then set the cucurbit firmly
closed in horse-dung, or B. M. to putrify the matter for forty
days, in which time the body resolves itself, and the vinegar
contracts a colour red as blood.

Melt the minera of antimony, and purify it, grind it to a
subfile powder, this matter put into a round glass, which is
called a phial, having a long neck, pour upon it distilled
water, that the vessel may be half full. Then having well
closed the vessel, set it to putrity in horse-dung, until the
minera begin to wax hot, and cast out a froth to the superficies ;
then it is time to take it out ; for that is a sign the body is opened ,

236 Alchemical Treatises.

This digested matter put into a cucurbit, which well close, and
extract the water, which will have an acid taste. When all the
water is come off, intend the fire, and a sublimate will ascend ;
this again grind with the fa?ces, and again pour on the same wa-
ter, and a second time abstract it, then it will be more sharp.
This operation must be repeated, until the water be made as
acid, as any other sharp distilled vinegar of wine. But the
sublimate, the oftener the operation is repeated, the more it is
diminished. When you have obtained this acid vinegar, take
fresh minera as before, and pour this vinegar on it, so as it
may sfan1 above it three fingers; put it into a pelican, and
digest it two days in heat, then the vinegar becomes red, and
much more sharp than before. Cant this clean off, and distil
it without addition in B. M. The vinegar comes off white,
and the redness remains in the bottom, which extracted with
spirit of wine, is an excellent medicine. Again rectify the
vinegar in B. M. that it may be freed from its phlegm ; lastly,
dissolve in it its proper salt, viz. four parts of it, to one
of the salt, and force it strongly by ashes ; then the vinegar
becomes more sharp, and acquires greater strength, and
virtue.

The star is thus made : Put Hungarian antimony nine parts
upon iron red-hot four parts, melt these together with two parte
of nitre added in spoonfulls for half an hour, pour out the whole
into a hot greased iron mortar, when cold take out the regulus,
and separate it from all the scoria; break this regulus to pieces,
and add to it when melted as much of nitre as before, and pour
it out. Repeat this labour the third time ; then the regulus
purgetli itself, and becomes pure and clear. Note, if you have
rightly performed the fusion, you will see a fair star on the
regulus shining like cupellate silver, a proof that the matter has
taken a new structure in rays like the sun and moon, irom the
centre to the circumference.

Sir Humphry Davy, page 400, Elements of Chemistry,
writes : Basil Valentine is the first chemist who has described
the process of extracting antimony from the sulphuret, though
it does not appear that he was. the inventor of this process. To
procure antimony, the common antimony sold by druggists,
which appears as a series of chrystals like needles possessing the
metallic brilliancy, and which are composed of the metal and
sulphur, are ignited with half their weight of iron filings
( Boerhaave says nails) and a quarter of their weight of nitre added
(in spoonfulls) when they are in fusion, the antimony will be
found at the bottom. This is to be ignited for about twenty
minutes with twice its weight of tartar, when the pure metal
will be produced.

ONE HUNDRED APHORISMS

Demonstrating the Preparation of the
GRAND ELIXIR.

By BARO URBIGERUS.

1. The hermetic science consists only in the right know-
lodge of the first matter of the philosophers, which is in the
mineral kingdom, not yet determined by nature.

2. An undetermined matter being the beginning of all metals
and minerals, it follows, that as soon as any one shall be so
happy, as to know and conceive it, he shall easily comprehend
also their natures, qualities, and properties.

3. Although some persons, possessed with foolish notions,
dream, that the first matter is to be found only in some par-
ticular places, at such and such times of the year, and by the
virtue of a magical magnet; yet we are most certain, accord-
ing to our divine master, Hermes, that all these suppositions
being false, it is to be found every where, at all times, and only
by our science.

4. The hermetic art consists in the true manipulation of our
undetermined subject, which before it can be brought to the
Highest degree of perfection, must of necessity undergo all our
cli mical operations.

5. Our chemical operations are these, amalgamation, subli-
mation, dissolution, filtration, cohobation, distillation, separa-
tion, reverberation, imbibition, and digestion.

6. When we call all these operations ours, they are not at all to
be understood according to the common operations of the. so-
phisters of metals, whose industry consists only in' disguising of
subjects from their form, and their nature ; but ours are really
to transfigure our subject, yet conserving its nature, quality, and
property.

7. This our subject, after its having passed through all those
artificial operations, which always imitate nature, is called the

238 Alchemical Treatises.

philosophers stone, or the fifth essence of metals, being com-
pounded of the essence of their four elements.

8. The metals and minerals, which nature has already deter-
mined, although they should be retrogradated into running
mercury, water, and vapour ; yet can they by no means be taken
for the first matter of the philosophers.

9. Our true and real matter is only a vapour, impregnated
with the metallic seed, yet undetermined, created by God Al-
mighty, generated by the concurrence and influence of the as-
tnuns, contained in the bowels of the earth, as the matrix of all
created things,

10. This our matter is called undetermined, because, being a
medium between a metal and a mineral, and being neither of
them, it has in it power 'to produce both, according to the sub-
ject, it meets withal.

11. Such a metallic vapour, congealed and nourished in the
bowels of the earth, is called the undetermined, and when it
enchants the serpent with the beauty of its internal and addi-
tional fire, the determined green dragon of the philosophers; and
without the true knowledge and right manipulation of it, nothing
can be done in our art.

12. This green dragon is the natural gold of the philosophers,
exceedingly different from the vulgar, which is corporeal and
dead, being come to the period of its perfection according to
nature, and therefore incapable of generating, unless it be first
generated itself by our mercurial water ; but ours is spiritual,
and living, having the generative faculty in itself, and in its own
nature, and having received the masculine quality from the
Creator of all things.

13. Our gold is called natural, because it is not to be made by
art, and since it is known to none, but the true disciples of Hermes,
who understand how to separate it from its original lump ;
it is called also philosophical ; and if God had not been
so gracious, as to create this first chaos to our hand, all our
skill and art in the construction of the great elixir would be in
vain.

14-. Out of this our gold, or undetermined green dragon,
without the addition of any other created thing whatsoever,
we know how through our universal menstruum to extract all
our elements, or principles, necessary for the performance
of our great work ; which is our first way of preparing the
gr^rd elixir ; and since this our first chaos is to be had
v.lchout any expencc, as costing only the trouble of digging it out
of the mines, this is not unfitly called the only way of the
poor.

15. The operations in this our first way being in a manner
the same with those of our second, which is, when we join our
determined dragon with our serpent, we shall (to avoid repe-

Crbigerus. 239

titions) in the subsequent aphorisms give instructions for them
both together.

16. Our serpent, which is also contained in the bowels of
the earth, being of all created tilings whatsoever, the nearest
subject of a feminine nature to our dragon, through their co-
pulation such an antral and metallic seed, containing our ele-
ments, is also to be brought forth, as can, though with somewhat
more of expence and time, perform the whole mystery of
Hermes.

17. Since our serpent is of all created things, the nearest
subject of feminine nature to our dragon, she is after her
copulation to be taken for the basis of our philosophical work ;
tor out of her bowels, without the help of any other metal or
mineral, we must draw our principles or elements, necessaiy
to our work, being retrogradatcd by the universal men-
struum.

18. This feminine subject cannot be rctrogradatcd, unless to
free her from her impurities, and heterogeneous qualities, she is
first actuated by her homogeneous ones, that she may be in a
better capacity to receive the spiritual love of our green
dragon.

19. After our serpent has been bound with her chain, pe-
netrated with the blood of our green dragon, and driven nine,
or ten times through the combustible fire into the elementary
air, if you do not find her to be exceeding furious, and
extremely penetrating, it is a sign, that you do not
hit our subject, the notion of the homogenea, or their pro-
portion.

20. If this furious serpent, after it has been dissolved by the
universal menstruum, filtrated, evaporated, and congealed nine
or ten times, does not come over in a cloud, and turn into our
virgin milk, or metallic argentine water, not corrosive at all,
and yet insensibly, and invisibly devouring every thing, that
comes near it, it is plainly to be seen, that you err in the notion
of our universal menstruum.

21. The serpent, of which I now speak, is our true water of
the clouds, or the real eagle and mercury of the philosophers,
greatly different from the vulgar, which- is corporeal, gross,
dead, and full of heterogeneous qualities, and a subject fallen
from its sphere, like unripe fruit from the tree ; but ours is spi-
ritual, transparent, living, residing in its own sphere, like a
king on his throne.

22. Though the vulgar mercury is such an unripe fruit, cor-
poreal, and dead ; yet if you know how to amalgamate it with
our dragon, and to retrogradate it with the universal men-
struum, you may assure yourself, that out of this also you shall
be able to prepare a sophic mercury, with which you shall
certainly produce the great elixir, discover the secret of secrets,-

240 Alchemical Treatises.

unlock the'most difficult locks, and command all the treasures
in the world.

23. Our mercury is called the mercury of the philosophers,
because it is a subject, which is not to be found ready prepared
to our hand ; for it must of necessity be made by our philoso-
phical preparations, out of the first chaos ; and although it is,
artificial, yet is it naturally prepared, nature, which is
imitated ill the preparation of it, contributing likewise there-
unto.

24. Since our subject cannot be called the fiery serpent of the
philosophers, nor have the power of overcoming any created
thing, before it has received such virtue and quality from our
green dragon, and the universal menstruum, by which itself
is first overcome, devoured, and buried in their bowels, out of
which being born again, it is made capable of the same, it
follows, that such a virtue of killing and vivifying is natural to
our dragon and the universal menstruum.

25. The universal menstruum of the philosophers is that
celestial one, without which nothing can live nor subsist in this
world. It is also that noble champion, which delivers the
uncorrupted virgin, Andromeda, who was with a strong chain
fastened to the rock in the power of the dragon, of whose spiri-
tual love having admitted, for fear of being eternally ruined
and devoured by him, which could not have been avoided, if
this noble champion had not come to her assistance. She is to be
delivered of a child, which will be the wonder of wonders, and
prodigy of nature.

26. If our virgin in her confinement, before she is set at
liberty, does not manifest her extreme beauty with all her
internal, divers, delicate natural colours, wonderfully charm-
ing, and very pleasant to the eye, it signifies, that she
has not sufficiently enjoyed the spiritual company of the
dragon.

27. If the universal menstruum has not totally delivered
the virgin from the claws of the dragon, it is a sign, either
that she was not sufficiently free from her heterogeneous qua-
lities, or that she had not received from the external heat a suffi-
cient penetrating quality, or that the universal menstruum was
too weak to perform its undertaking.

28. To know, whether the amalgamation, sublimation, dis-
solution, filtration, coagulation, and distillation have been
natural and philosophical, the whole body of the serpent
must come over spiritual and transparent, leaving only some
few and very light faeces at the bottom, which can by no art
be reduced either into a running mercury, or any other kind of
metallic substance.

29. After all these above-mentioned operations, and the se-
paration, if our serpent, being amalgamated with any metal,

Urbigerus. 241

'C3

pure ( r impure, cannot suffer the fusion, it will be in vain for
you to go any farther with it : for you may assure yourself, that
you do not walk in the true paths of the hermetic art.

30. Our philosophical distillations consist only in the right
separation of our spiritual and mercurial water from all its
poisonous oily substance, which is of no use at all in our art, and
from the caput mortuum, which is left behind after the first dis-
tillation.

81; If after the first distillation, an exceedingly corrosive
and extremely penetrating red oil docs not ascend, (which
as soon as it begins to appear in the neck of the retort, the
receiver must be changed) it signifies, that the distillation has
not been rightly performed, and by consequence, that the
internal fire of our metallic vaporous water, being
burnt up, and corroded by its poisonous vapour, and the
outward fire, is still mixed with it, and with the caput
mart num.

32. In case you should commit so great an error in the per-
formance of this first distillation, although it will never be in
your power to prepare the mercury duplex of the philosophers,
unless you should begin the whole work again from the very
beginning; yet, if you have any farther skill in our art, you may
easily prepare our mercury simplex, with which you will effect
gr at and miraculous things.

33. This blood red oil with its only fumes penetrates every
part and atom of all metals and minerals, and principally of
gold, out of which dissolution one may easily extract the right
tincture or essence with highly rectified spirit of wine, and bring
it over the alembic with it; which is indeed a great medicine for
human bodies.

34-. A deep blood-red tincture of excellent virtue is to be
extracted also out of the above-mentioned caput moriuum, ac-
cidentally and unfortunately intermixed with the internal sul-
phur of our mercurial water, and with the red oil, with
nighly rectified spirit of wine : with which after it has been
evaporated to a powder, imbibed, and philosophically di-
gested, you may assure yourself of having the medicine of medi-
cines, next to the great elixir, by which you may imperceptibly
and quickly cure all sorts of distempers, to the great admiration
of all Galenists, and to the astonishment of all vulgar
chemists.

35. The most part of the philosophers, whilst their intention
was to go farther to the noblest perfection of our celestial
art, either employed this red oil, brought to a potability,
for internal medicines, or to external diseases without any
farther preparation of it, till they had obtained the great
elixir.

242 Alchemical Treatises.

36. If tire caput morluum has not the magnetic quality in
attracting the spirilus mundi into itself from the astrums, it is
a sign, that at the end of the distillation of the red oil the
Outward fire was so violent, as quite to burn up the magnet,
which is contained in the first fasces of our mercurial
water.

37. After the first distillation, if the least part of the virgin
mercurial water can by any art whatsoever be brought to
running mercury, or any other kind of a metallic substance, it
is an evident sign, that either the subject, or its preparation
and reduction into water, has not been real, natural, or philo-
sophical.

3S. The above-mentioned spirilus mundi, although of no use
at all in this our great work, is yet a great menstruum in extract-
ing of tinctures out of metals, minerals, animals, and vegetables,
and in performing great things in the art, volatilizing all fixed
bodies, and principally gold.

39. A great many pretenders to the true hermetic knowledge,
prepare menstruums to dissolve common mercury, and to turn
it into water several manner of ways, and by several additions
of salts, sulphurs, metals, and minerals ; but, since all those
preparations arc sophistical, any one, expert in our art, will be
able to reduce it to its running quality again.

40. The quality of our mercurial water being to volatilize all
fixed bodies, and to fix all those, that are volatile, fixing itself
with those that are fixed, according to the proportion of it, dis-
solving its own body, it unites inseparably with it, conserving
always its own qualities and properties, and receives no aug-
mentation from any other created thing, but only from its crude
body.

41. Our mercurial water has such a sympathy with the astrums,
that, if it is not kept very close, and hermetically sealed, it
will in a very short time, like a winged serpent, fly away in a
wonderful manner to its own sphere, carrying along with
it all the elements and principles of metals, and not
leaving so much as one single drop, or the least remainder,,
behind.

42. Several pretenders to the magical science prepare magical
magnets, to draw from the air, and (as they pretend) from
the astrums such menstruums, as they think necessary for
ihe production of the great elixir ; but their magnets being,
compounded of several determinate things, although their
menstruums are great dissolvents, yet we do on assured know-
ledge affirm, that they can never perform any real experiment in
our art.

A.°,. Some are of opinion, that, unless the operator is master
in the magical science, and fundamentally understands all its ex-
peri«aenttSj he will never be able by any other art whatsoever to

Cihigcrus. 243

bring forth any such tilings, as can produce the v:.niv.
elixir. -Now, although we do not deny, that the magical know-
ledge is required to attain to ike highest degree of perfection
In all sciences, yet we are most certain, that it is not at all neces-
sary to the formation of the grand elixir upon animals, metals,
precious stones, and vegetables.

44. Our virgin miik, or metallic water, being brought to a
perfect spirituality, and excellent diaphanity, is called the
true chaos of the philosophers ; for out of that alone, with-
out any addition of any created, or artificially prepared thing,
we are to prepare and separate all the elements, which
are required to the formation of our philosophical mi-
crocosm.

45. To understand aright, how out ol this our chaos, we are
to form our philosophical microcosm, we must first of neces-
sity rightly comprehend the great mystery and proceeding
in the creation of the microcosm : — it being extremely ne-
cessary to imitate and use the very same method in the cre-
ation of our little one, that the Creator of all things has used
in the formation of the great one.

46. When our chaos or celestial water has purified itself from
its own gross and palpable body, it is called the heaven of the
philosophers, and the palpable body the earth, which is
void, empty, and dark. And if our divine spirit, which is
cairied upon the face of the waters, did not bring forth out
of the palpable body that precious metallic seed, we should
never be able by any art whatsoever to go on any farther with
the perfect creation of our microcosm according to our
intent.

47. This heaven of the philosophers, after it has separated
itself from the earth, containing our philosophical seed, and
the magnet of our salt of nature, and from the superfluous
waters, is called the mercury simplex of the wise man : — for
whosoever attains it, at the same time attains also the know-
ledge and power of retrogradating metals, minerals, &c. so as to
reduce them to their first being, to perfect imperfect bodies, and to
vivify dead ones, conserving always its own property and quality
to itself, and to produce the great elixir according to the usual way
of the philosophers.

48. After we have separated the water from the waters, by
which I mean the mercurial celestial water from the superfluous
water, which is the phlegm, by the blessing of God and the in-
fusion of our holy spirit, we do not in the least doubt, but we
shall be able to bring forth out of our earth such fruits and
subjects, with which we shall certainly perform the whole
creation, carrying our work to the highest degree of per-
fection.

49. Our mercurial water being of the same brightness with

244 Alchemical Treatises.

the heavens, and our palpable gross body, which did separate
itself from our celestial water, having the same properties
and quality with the earth, none, but ignorantjs, will deny
them to be the right heaven and true earth of the philo-
sophers.

50. If, after the separation of the spirit from the super-
fluous waters, the world, in which it is contained, docs not ap-
pear mighty clear, and full of light, and of the same brightness
with our celestial water, it is a sign, that the separation is
not fully performed, the spirit being still intermixed witli the
waters.

51. If in the space of nine or ten weeks, or two philosophi-
cal months at longest, our mercurial water has not done sepa-
rating itself from all its own earth, containing the metallic
seed, it is an evident sign, that you have either erred in the
working of it, or that its digestion, having been too violent,
has confounded and burnt up the principal subject of the
creation.

52. This philosophic earth, containing our principal subject,
after it has been separated from all the waters, is very
gently to be dried by some external heat, to free it from its
extraneous humidity, that it may be in a proper capacity to
receive the celestial moisture of our argentine water, to
which it unites its most noble fruits, with which our phi-
losophical microcosm is generated, nourished, and satu-
rated.

53. If the earth, after it has been reverberated, humected
with our celestial moisture, does not presently enrich our
air with the divine expected fruits, you must certainly be-
lieve, that in the drying of it the external heat has been so
violent, as to burn up the internal heat and nature of the earth,
and consequently spoil your undertaking as to the performance
of the whole mystery of the creation, according to the noblest,
richest, shortest, most natural, and secretest ways of the philo-
sophers.

54. In case the earth should be totally destroyed by the violent
external heat, although it is most certain, you cannot carry
on our noble Creation any farther with it ; yet if you know how
to amalgamate our mercury simplex with your common gold,
which is dissolved, vivified, and renewed by it, you may be sure
of effecting the great elixir, although neither so quick, so natural,
nor so rich, as you might have done without it. And this is our
third way.

55. 1 he amalgamation of our mercury simplex with common
gold, consists only in the right proportion, and in the indissoluble
union of both, which is done without any external heat in a very
short time, without which exact proportion and right union,
nothing of any moment is to be expected from their marriage.

Urbinerus. 245

5G. Know then, that this right proportion is ten parts of our
mercury simplex to one of your finest common gold in filings,
which is dissolved in it, like ice in common water, alter an imper-
ceptible manner, and as soon as the dissolution is over, the coa-
gulation and putrefaction presently follow, which effects if you
find not, it is a sign, that the mercury exceeds its due proportion.
Now when your gold has been thus well amalgamated, united,
putrified, and inseparably digested with our mercury simplex, you
will then have only our philosophical sulphur, in which time one
might easily have performed the whole work, working without
common gold.

57. Although our mercury simplex is exceedingly spiritual and
volatile, yet since it is the right agent, o'gesting the seed or es-
sence of all metals and minerals, it will, though undigested, natu-
rally adhere to any of them, although corporeal, that
shall come near it, and will never leave it, unless it be
forced away by the test, though kept in a great fusion for many
hours.

58. This mercury simplex, which before its retrogradation,
was of a feminine nature, and before it left all its own earth, was
hermaphroditic, being powerful in both sexes, is now become of
a feminine quality again, and although it has lost the masculine
visible fire, yet it has conserved its own, which is invisible to us,
and with which it performs visible operations in digest-
ing of imperfect metals, after its determination with any of
them.

59. If this our mercury, the proportion rightly observed,
should bo amalgamated with any imperfect metal, being first
determined with a fixed one, it will regenerate and perfect
the same, not losing the least particle of its virtue or quan-
tity ; — which metal, after the digestion of a philosophical
month, will, as most philosophers teach, be able to resist
all manner of trials, and will be far better than any natural
pne.

60. The determination of our mercury simplex with any
of the fixed bodies, is to be done by dissolving a small quantity
of filings of red or white according to the colour and quali y
of the metal, that you desire to meliorate, and if you do not
err in the separation and union of the subjects, you may assure
yourself of obtaining your desire after a philosophical di-
gestion.

61. To examine aright, whether the mercury simplex is
rightly prepared, or come to its perfection, one only drop j ut
upon a red-hot plate of copper, must whiten it through and
through, and must not part with it, although brought into a
great fusion ; which, if you find it does not, it will be a plain
demonstration, that cither your mercury is not well prepared; or
that it has not yet done separating itself from its own earth.

§46 Alchemical Treatises.

62. If your mercury simplex, put upon its own dried
earth, does not presently unite with the essence of metals, appear-
ing deeper than any blood, and shining brighter than any fire,
which is a mark of the reception of its own internal fire, and
that the eagle has sacked the blood of our red-lion, it is ait
evident sign, that you have erred in the manipulation of the
earth.

63. This mercury, thus impregnated with its essence, or
sulphur of metals, is called the mercury duplex of the philoso-
phers, which is of a far greater quality, and virtue than the
simplex, with whose imbibitions in the salt of nature, after its
being saturated with the simplex, the whole mystery of the
creation of the philosophical microcosm is maintained and.
perfected.

6i. To kncwr, whether your mercury duplex is philosophi-
cally prepared, and sufficiently impregnated with its own in-
ternal natural fire, put one single drop of it upon a red-
hot plate of fine silver : and if the silver is not by thio
drop penetrated through and through with a deep-red
tincture, enduring the greatest fire of fusion, it will signify,
that you either fail in the preparation of it. or that you have not
given it time enough to receive a full saturation out of its own
earth.

65. This deep-red tincture, extracted out of our philoso-
phical earth, is called our sulphur, our undigested, essentifi-
cated gold, our internal elementary fire, and our red-lion ; —
for without its help and concurrence, our philosophical
■world cannot be nourished, digested, or accomplished, being
the right ground, and true essence of the whole work of our
creation.

66. When the earth has lost its soul, the remainder of it is
the true magnet, attracting the salt of nature from the com-
bi^tible fire after a violent calcination for several hours : —
which salt, after its purification and clarification, is called the
clarified earth or salt of the philosophers, which, uniting itself
with our single and double mercury, after their digestion,
is called by our master, Hermes, the universal spirit
earthified.

67. The extraction, purification, and clarification of our
earth or salt of nature, is to be performed by our mercury sim-
plex ; which, being put upon the reverberated earth, will pre-
sently draw it to itself, and unite itself with it, yet separable by
gentle distillation, after which the clarified salt of the philosophers
is at hand.

68. Although we use our mercury simplex in the extraction of
its own soul out of its body, and for the clarification of the latter ;
yet, since it is a philosophical and perpetual menstruum, it loses
nothing of its connatural prerogatives, nor does in the least dimi-

Urbigerm* 247

"6

nisli in quantity, being our true alkahest, as Paracelsus is pleased
to call it.

69. Those three principles, or elements of our chaos, per-
fectly separated from their impurities, and brought, to their
highest perfection, are rightly called the three Herculean works ;
for after the preparation of them, all the labour, trouble, and dan-
ger will be past.

70. Some foolish operators pretend, that our great elixir is
to be prepared in a very easy manner, .and without any trou-
ble at all, to whom we will, with our master, Hermes, briefly
answer ; that such impostors neither know our matter, nor the
right preparation of it. Yet we do not deny, but any
healthy person, of what age soever he may be, may under-
go all our Herculean labours, necessary to the performance
of it.

71. These our operations are therefore called Herculean
in respect to the rest of the work, which is exceeding easy,
and without the least trouble or danger, being for that
reason called childrens' play, because a child or a woman,
that has any sense, may easily work it, and bring it to the
highest perfection, according to the saying of all true philo-
sophers.

72. Although all those above-mentioned operations are, ac-
cording to the common opinion of the philosophers, esteemed
difficult and dangerous ; yet we can upon our conscience
assure you, that we have ourselves alone, without the help of
any creature living, prepared them all on a common kitchen
fire, as is very well known to several co-adepts, our
friends, who could not but admire and approve of our in-
dustry.

73. No true adept or perfect artist can deny, but that the
whole work of the great elixir, may from the very begin-
ning to the end, be performed on one only furnace, in one
only sort of vessel, and by one only person alone, at a very
small charge.

74. Some impostors would persuade the vulgar, that gold,
silver, and many other ingredients, are required to the making
of the grand elixir according to our noblest ways : which the
doctrines of all the philosophers, and our own infallible rules,
clearly shew to be false : for it is most certain, that we neither
use any of their ingredients, nor yet any silver or gold, unless as
we have mentioned in our third way, till we come to the fermen-
tation of our elixirs.

75. We do with all true philosophers assure you, that all
tilings, necessary for our philosophical work, besides the
fuel, vesscis, and some few instruments, belonging to the furnace,
are to be purchased for less than the cxpence of one single gui-
nea, and that every where, and at all times of the year.

248 Alchemical Treatises.

76. Since neither gold nor silver is to be used at all iu the
formation and cibation of our philosophical work, it follows,
that the old and common saying of some authors, viz. M that
■without working with gold, it is an impossible thing to make-
gold," proves to be only a false notion of men, who understood
not our art.

77. When our Herculean works arc brought to perfection,
which is, when our three principles, or elements are prepared,
purified and perfected, unless the philosophical and inseparable
union of them is exactly performed, the great mystery of our cre-
ation is not to be expected.

78. Our principles or elements being brought to a perfect
and inseparable union and digestion, it is called the triple mer-
cury of the philosophers, which being finished, the whole crea-
tion and formation of our work is crowned.

79. All our work of the creation from its very begin-
ning to its perfect end may, on our certain knowledge, be
perfected in less than nine months by any skilful and careful
artist, that follows our rules, unless some accident should
happen in the preparation of our Herculean works ; which
to prevent, wre wrought them ourselves in an earthen vessel,
which we count far better and surer than any glass, and
■which is most agreeable to the practice of the most ancient phi-
losophers.

80. Before you come to the union of your elements, your cla-
rified earth is before all things to be digested in a moderate and
continual heat of ashes, to free it from any unnatural moisture,
that it might have attracted after its purification, to be in a fit ca-
pacity to receive your mercury simplex, by which it is to be nou-
rished in its infancy.

81. If your clarified earth, after it has been digested
the space of a whole month, does not appear exceeding
dry, subtile, and frangible, it will signify, that you have
failed in the purification or clarification of it, or that the
external moisture, it had attracted, is not yet parted
from it.

82. Take great care, that you do not begin your imbi-
bitions of your earth, before you find it to be very wrell
purified, clarified, dried, and brought to be very subtile,
and extremely frangible : — for it would be a great detriment
as well to your work, as to your mercury, and, although it
should not spoil your work, yet it would be to you a great loss
of time.

83. After our clarified earth has been brought to a
perfect purity, dryness, and frangibility, it is to be imbibed
with the eighth part of our mercury simplex, or virgin's milk,
which will in a very short time be soaked into it, as into a
sponge, which shews the hungry state of our infant ; —

Urbigerus. 2W

find then the fire is to be continued, till the infant is hungry
again.

84-. If in the space of two or three days, or four, at the
farthest, the infant does not shew itself to be extreme hungry
by becoming very dry and frangible again, it will be an
evident sign, that you have overcome it by your excessive feed-
ing of it.

85. Great care is to be taken also in the feeding of the noble
infant; for if you do not well observe all our infallible rules,
you will never be able to bring it to a perfect maturity ; for in
the notion and proportion of our imbibitions, and the manage-
ment of them, the prosperous and unfailable end of our work is
to be expected.

86. It is always to be observed, that the fire be very moderate,
as long as you are making your imbibitions, for fear of forcing
any part of your mercury to leave the earth ; for as a moderate
heat makes the union between the soul and the body, and perfect*
all the work ; so on the contrary a too violent heat disunites and
destroys all.

87. Tlie infant being dry, the imbibition is to be repeated
again, and this method is to be used, until the matter has re-
ceived its weight of the mercury ; at which time if you do not
find it to flow like wax, and be whiter than any snow, and very
fixed, you must proceed with your imbibitions, until you perceive
the same.

88. The imbibitions are not to be made any oftener, than
once every three or four days, in which time you will find
your matter, having soaked up all your mercury, to be in
great want of food, which must be supplied, until it be satu-
rated ; the mark of which will be, when it flows like wax.
again.

89. Your matter being brought to a perfect flexibility, in-
comparable whiteness, and unalterable fixedness, know then,
that you have perfectioned the white elixir, which, being
fermented with fine silver in filings, will be in a capacity
to transmute ail inferior metals into the finest silver in the
world.

90. Before the white elixir is fermented with common
silver, you may multiply it, as well in virtue, as in quantity,
by the continuation of imbibitions with the mercury simplex,
by which it may by degrees be brought ad iiiftnitwn in its
virtue.

91. The white elixir being brought to its degree of maturity,
desiring to go on to its highest degree of perfection, instead ot
fermenting it with silver, it must be cibated with its own ffcsh
and blood, which is the double mercury, by which being nou-
rished, multiplied in quality and quantity, and digested th*
»vhole work is accomplished.

Hb.

250 Alchemical Treatises.

&%.■ As soon as the first imbibition is made, yon will see a
great alteration in your vessel ; for there will be nothing-
seen but a cloud, filling the whole space of the vessel, the
fixed being in controversy with the volatile, and the volatile with
the fixed.' The volatile is conqueror at the beginning, but at last
by its own internal fire, conjoined with the external, both are
united, and fixed inseparably together.

93. It is to be observed, that the glass vessel, which must be
oval, with a neck half a foot long, and very strong, be of a fit
bigness, and of such capacity, that your matter, when it is put
into the vessel, may take up only the third part of it, leaving
the other two vacant ; tor, if it should be too big, it would be a
great hinderance in performing the work, and if too little, it
would break into a thousand pieces.

94. After you have cibated the noble elixir with your
double mercury, before it can come to its perfect fixed-
ness, it must of necessity wander through all the states and
colours of nature, by which we are to judge its being and tem-
perament.

95. The constant and essential colours, that appear in the
digestion of the matter, and before it comes to a perfection,
arc three* viz. black, which signifies the putrefaction and
conjunction of the elements ; — white* which demonstrates
its purification ; — and red, which denotes its maturation. —
The rest of the colours, that appear and disappear in
the progress of the work, are only accidental, and uncon-
stant.

96. By every cibation of its own flesh and blood, rege-
neration of its colours, and digestion, the infant will grow
stronger and stronger, that at last being fully saturated
and digested, it is called the great elixir of the philoso-
phers, with which you will be able to perform won-
ders in all the Regions, as well animal, as mineral, and
vegetable.

97. When your elixir is brought to a fluxibility, and a
perfect fixedness, if you desire to make a medicine upon metals,
you must determinate or ferment "-it with common gold in
filings, in which determination' it will vitrify, and then you
will have an incomparable medicine, capable to trans-
mute all imperfect metals into the purest gold, according
to the doctrine of all the philosophers, though ourselves
never designed any thing, but an universal remedy for the
t ure of all curable diseases, incident to human bodies, as is well
kvown to our friends, who have enjoyed the benefit of these
our labours.

95. It is to be observed in the fermentation, that the elixir
exceed • not the ferment in quantity, otherwise the sponsal
ftgainenj vf it calmot be actually performed, and whw the

Urbigerus. 2'.>l

ferment is predominant oyer the elixir, all will be presently
turned into dust. The best method of fermentation is to take
one part of the elixir, and put it into the midst of ten parts of"
gold in filings, ccst tL rough antimony, to free it from all its
impurities, and to keep it in a eirculary fire for the space of six
hours, so increasing the fire by degrees, that the two last hours
it be in a good fusion, and when cold, you will find all your
matter exceeding frangible, and of the ^colour of the granate-
stone.

99. Common mercury, amalgamated with lead, is counted
the most proper subject for making projection, which being in
fusion, your fermented matter being divided into three parts,
one part of it rolled in wax, is to be flung upon the amalgam: —
then presently cover the crucible, and continue the fire, until
you hear the noise of the separation and union : then the
second and third part, as before, and being kept for
two hours in a continual fire of fusion, let it cool by
itself.

100. Whoever shall presume to prepare the great elixir,
accordine to our most secret ways, without following and ob-
serving all these our infallible rules, will certainly find himself
mightily mistaken at last, having after a great deal of trouble,
charges, and pain, reaped nothing but discontent ; and on the
contrary they, that shall walk in our true and infallible paths,
shall with very little trouble and expences attain to their desired
end, which we cordially wish to all those, who are sincere wellr
wisliers to the hermetic philosophy.

THE SUMMARY. OF PHILOSOPHY.

Written by Nicholas Flame!, in 1409.

If you would know bow metals are transmuted, you must un-
derstand from what matter they are generated, and how they
are formed in the mines ; and that you may not err, you must
see and observe, how those transmutations are performed in the
bowels or veins of the earth.

Minerals taken out of the earth, may be changed, if before-
hand they be spiritualized, and reduced into their sulphureous
and argent vive nature, which are the swo sperms, composed
of the elements, the one masculine, the other feminine. —
The male sulphur, is nothing but fire and air ; and the true
sulphur is as a fire, but not the vulgar, which contains no me-
tallic substance. The feminine sperm is argent vive, which is
nothing but earth and water ; these two sperms the ancient
sages called two dragons or serpents, of which, the one is
winged, the other not. Sulphur not flying the fire, is without
wings ; the winged serpent is argent vive, borne up by the wind,
therefore in her certain hour she flies from the fire, not having
fixity enough to endure it. Now if these two sperms, separated
from themselves, be united again, by powerful nature, in the
potentiality of mercury, which is the metalinc fire : being thus
united, it is called by the philosophers the flying dragon ; —
because the dragon kindled by its fire, while he Hies by little
and little, fills the air with his fire, and poisonous vapours. —
The same thing doth mercury ; for being placed upon an ex-
terior fire, and in its place in a vessel ; it sets on fire its inside,
which is hidden in its profundity ; by which may be seen, how
the external fire does burn and inflame the natural mercury. —
And then you may see how the poisonous vapour breaks out
into the air, with a most stinking and pernicious poison ; which
is nothing else but the head of the dragon, which hastily goes out
of Babylon.

But other philosophers have compared this mercury, with a
flying lion, because a lion is a devourer of other creatures, and
delights himself in his voracity of every thing, except that
which is able to resist his violence and fury. So also does
mercury, which has in itself such a power/ force, and opera-

Flamel. 253

tion, to spoil and devastate a metal of its form, and to devour
it. Mercury being to<> much influenced, devours and hides
metals in its belly ; but which of them so ever it be, it is cer-
tain, that it consumes it not, for in their nature they are per-
fect, and much more indurate. But mercury has in itself a sub-
stance of perfecting sol and luna ; am! all the imperfect bodies or
metals, proceed from argent vive ; therefore the ancients called
it the mother of metals ; whence it follows, that in its own prin
nipl'C and centre, being formed, it has a double metallic sub
stance. And first, the substance of the interior; then the sub
stance of sol, which is not like the other metals: of these two
substances, argent vive is loaned, which in its body is spiritually
nourished. As soon then as nature hns formed argent vive,
of the two after-named spirits, then it endeavours to make them
perfect and corporeal ; but when the spirits are of strength,
and the two sperms awakened out of their centrnl principle,
then they desire to assume their own bodies. Which being
done, argent vive the mother must die, and being thus natu-
rally mortified, cannot (as dead things cannot) quicken itself as
belore. But there are some proud philosophers, who in obscure
words affirm, that we ought to transmute both perfect and im-
perfect bodies into running argent vive ; this is the serpent's
subtlety, and you may be in danger of being bit by it. It is
true, that argent vive may transmute an imperfect body, as lead
or tin; and may without much labour, multiply in a quantity;
but thereby it diminishes or loses its own perfection, and may no
more for this reason be called argent vive But if by art it
may be mortified, that it can no more vivify itself then it will
be changed into another thing, as in cinnabar, or sublimate is
done. For when it is by the art coagulated, whether sooner or
later, yet then its two bodies assume not a fixed body,
nor can they conserve it, as we may see in the bowels of the
earth.

Lest any one therefore should err, there are in the veins of lead
some fixed grains or particles of fine sol and luna mixed in its
substance of nourishment.

The first coagulation of argent vive is the mine of saturn; and
most fit and proper it is to bring him unto perfection and
fixation ; for the mine of saturn is not without fixed particles of
gold, which particles were imparted to it by nature. So in itself
it may be multiplied and brought to perfection, and a vast
power or strength, as I have tried, and therefore affirm it. —
So long as it is not separated from its mine, viz. its argent vive,
but well kept, (lor every metal which is in its mine, the same is
an argent vive) then may it multiply itself, for that it has sub-
etance from its mercury, or argent vive, but it will be like some
green immature fruit on a tree, which the blossom being past,
becomes an unripe fruit, and then a larger apple. Now if any

251 Alchemical Treatises.

one plucks this unripe fruit from the tree, then its first forming
would be frustrate, nor would it grow larger nor ripe ; for man
knows not how to give substance, nourishment, or maturity, so
well as internal nature, while the fruit yet hangs on the tree,
which feeds it 'with substance and nourishment, till the determined
maturity is accomplished.

And so long also does the fruit draw sap or moisture for it$
augmentation and nourishment, till it comes to its perfect ma-
turity. So is it with sol ; for if by nature, a grain, or grain?
are made, and it is reduced to its argent vive, then also by the
same it is daily, without ceasing, sustained and supplied, and re-
duced intp its place, viz. argent vive, as he is in himself ; and
then must you wait till he shall obtain some substance from his
mercury as it happens in the fruit of trees. For as the
argent vive, both of perfect and imperfect bodies is a tree,
so they can have no more nourishment, otherwise than from their
own mercury.

If therefore you would gather fruit from argent vive, viz. pure
sol and luna, if they be disjoined from their mercury; think not
that you, like as nature did in the beginning, may again conjoin
and multiply, and without change, augment them. For if me-
tals be separated from their mine, then they, like the fruit of
trees too soon gathered, never come to their perfection, as nature
and experience makes it appear. For if an apple or pear be
once plucked off from the tree, it would then be a great vanity
to attempt to fasten it to the tree again, expecting it to encrease
and grow ripe ; and experience testifies, that the more it is han-
dled, the more it withereth. And so it is also with metals : for
if you should take the vulgar spl and luna, endeavouring to re-
duce them into argent vive, you would wholly play the fool, for
there is no artifice yet found, whereby it can be performed.—
Though you should use many waters, and cements, or other
things infinitely of that kind, yet would you continually err,
and that would befal you, which would him that should tie unripe
fruit to their trees.

Yet some philosophers have said truly, that if sol and luna,
by a right mercury, or argent vive be rightly conjoined, they
will make all imperfect metals perfect ; but in this thing most
men have erred, who having these three vegetables, animals, and
minerals, which in one thing are conjoined ; for that they con-
sidered not, that the philosophers speak not of vulgar.sol, luna,
and mercury, which are all dead, and receive no more substance
or increase from nature, but remain the same in their
own essence, without the possibility of bringing others to per-
fection.

They are fruits plucked offfrom their trees before their time,
and are therefore of no value or estimation. Therefore seek
the fruit in the tree, that leads them straight to it, whose fruit

Flam el. 255

is daily made greater with increase, so long as the tree bears it..
This work is seen with joy and satisfaction ; and by this means
one may transplant the tree without gathering the fruit, fixing it
into a moister, better, and a more fruitful place, which in one
day will give more nourishment to the fruit, than it received other-
wise in an hundred, years.

In this therefore it is understood, that mcrcuiy, the muck
commended tree must be taken, which has in its power indis-
solvably sol and luna ; and then transplanted into another soil
nearer the sun, that thence it may gain its profitable increase,
for which thing, dew docs abundantly suffice ; for where it was
placed before, it was so weakened by cold and wind, that little
fruit could be expected from it, and where it long stood and
brought forth no fruit at all.

And indeed the philosophers have a garden, where the sun as
well morning as evening remains with a most sweet dew, with-
out ceasing, with which it is sprinkled and moistened ; — whose
earth brings forth trees and fruits, which are transplanted thither,
which also receive descent and nourishment from the pleasant
meadows. And this is done daily, and there they are both
corroborated and quickened, without ever fading ; and this more
in one year, than in a thousand, where the cold affects them. —
Take them therefore, aud night and day cherish them in a dis-
tillatory fire ; but not with a fire of wood or coals, but in a clear
transparent fire, not unlike the sun, which is never hotter than
is requisite, but is always alike ; for a vapour is the dew, and seed
of metals, which ought not to be altered.

Fruits, if they be too hot, and without dew or moisture, they
abide on the boughs, but without coming to perfection, only wi-
thering or dwindling away. But if they be fed with heat and
due moisture on their trees, then they prove elegant and fruitful;
for heat and moisture are the elements of all earthly things, ani-
mal, vegetable, and mineral. Therefore fires of wood and coal
produce or help not metals ; those are violent fires, which nou-
rish not as the heat of the sun does, that conserves all corporeal
things ; for that it is natural which they follow.

But a philosopher acts not what nature does ; for nature
where she rules, forms all vegetables, animals, and minerals, in
their own degrees. Men, do not after the same sort, by their
arts make natural things. When nature has finished her work
about them ; then by our art they are made more perfect. —
In thi6 manner the ancient sages and philosophers, for our in-
formation, wrought on luna and mercury her true mother, of
which they made the mercury of the philosophers, which in its
operation is much stronger than the natural mercury. For this
is serviceable only to the simple, perfect, imperfect, hot and
cold metals ; but our mercury, the philosophers stone, is useful
•'wi the more than perfect, imperfect bodies, or n$cta)>. Also th it

256 •Alchemical Treatises.

the sun may perfect and nourish them •without diminution, ad-
dition, or immutation, as they were created or formed by nature,
and so leaves them, not neglecting any thing.

I will not now say, that the philosophers conjoin the tree, for
the better perfecting their mercury, as some unskilful in the
nature of things, and unlearned chemists affirm, who take com-
mon sol, luna, and mercury, and so unnaturally handle them,
till they vanish in smoak. These men endeavour to make the
philosophers mercury, but they never attain it, which is the
first matter of the stone, and the first minera thereof. If you
would come hither and find good, and to the mountain of the
seaven, where there is no plain,, you would betake yourself;
from the highest, you must look downward to the sixth, which
you will see afar off. In the height of this mountain, you will
find a royal herb triumphing, which some have called mineral,
some vegetable, some saturnine. But let its bones or ribs be left,
and let a pure clean broth be taken from it, so will the better part
of your work be done.

This is the right and subtle mercury of the philosophers,
which you are to take, which will make first the white work, and
then the red. If you have well understood me, both of them
are nothing else, as they term them, but the practice, which is
so easy and so simple, that a woman sitting by her distaff may
perfect it. As if in winter she would put her eggs under a hen,
and not wash them, because eggs are put under a hen without
washing them, and no more labour is required about them, than
that they should be every day turned, that the chickens may
be the better and sooner hatched, concerning the which enough
is said.

But that I may follow the example, first, wash not the mercury,
but take it, and with its like, which is fire, place it in the ashes,
which is straw, and in one glass which is the nest, without any
other thing in a convenient alembic, which is the house, from
whence will come forth a chicken, which with its blood will free
thee from all diseases, and with its flesh will nourish thee, and
with its feathers will clothe thee, and keep thee warm from the
injuries of the cold and ambient air. For this cause I have
written this present treatise, that you may search with the greater
desire, and want in the right way. And I have written this
small book, this summary, that you might the better compre-
hend the smings and writings of the philosophers, which I be-
lieve you will much better understand for time to come.

THE HERMETIC MERCURIES

OF
RAYMOND LULLY,

With a Preface mid Notes from J. S. Wcidenfeld.

Great indeed, yea vast is the treasure of our chymy ; but
altogether inaccessible to those who have not the keys thereof;
by which alone the adepts themselves could either dissolve or
coagulate bodies. If you know not the way of dissolving our
body, it is in vain to operate, is the advice of Dionysius
Zacharias, page 79S, vol. 1, Th. Chym. But he that knows
the art and secret of dissolution, has attained to the secret
of the art, saith Bernard, page 40, suce Epistolae. For this
cause it is, saith Parisinus, that the wise men say, to know
the celestial water, which reduceth our body into a spirit, is
the chief mystery of this art, in Eluc. page 212. vol. 1. Th.
Chym. For without these dissolvents, things heterogeneous can
never be perfectly mixed. Coral, though ever so finely pulve-
rized, cannot be mixed with the purest powder of pearls ; yea
gold mixeth not with silver, much less with bodies less perfect,
though both be melted together ; the particles of each do indeed
touch one another in their extreme parts, being in a mass or heap
consisting of things heterogeneous, yet they are and do remain
all distinct, unblemished, and unaltered in their figures and pro-
perties, no otherwise than as a heap composed of barley and oats.
But in the more secret chyinv there is no body, no heterogeneity,
but what hath its own peculiar dissolvent, and with which as
being homogeneous to it, it runs into one concrete, rejoicing in
the inseparable properties of either. Metals are not only the
matter, but are also called by Lully, the form of the stone ; yet
without these dissolvents they signify nothing. The form, saith
he, which is the eiticient principle, former and transformer of all
other forms of less virtue and power, is described by C.
(metals) cannot of itself only be the magistcry of the greater
work, &c. Very commodious it is for that principle to be
known, because hereby the understanding knows it to be one

I i

258 Alchemical Treatises.

of the two substances, from which our infant is produced, hav-
ing in it the condition of a male, from which proceeds a sperm
in the belly of our D. (or dissolvent,) Lul. Dist. 3. Lib. Ess.
Heaven or mercury is the fourth principle signified by D.
It is the cause and principle moving C. (metals) from power to
action, ruling and governing them in its belly, as the woman
' the infant which she procreates in her matrix. And in this point
knows the understanding of an artist, that D. (dissolvent) hath
action upon C. ruling, governing, and reducing them into
action, even as the heavens above do by their motion, bring
things elementary into action. And an artist is to understand
that of the two substances, of winch our stone is compounded,
and' by which it is generated, tin's, namely, D. (dissolvent)
is the more principal, Ibid. In the Book de Medicinis secretis,
page 336, he goes on ; you must know, saith he, that hitherto
I have nottold you the most secret thing and matter of the whole
magistery, which is our incorruptible quintessence, extracted
out of white, or red wine, which we call celestial crown, and the
dissolvent after the sublimations, putrefactions, and final depu-
tation of it; which quintessence is indeed the foundation, prin-
cipal matter, and magistery of all medicinal things. My son. if
you have it, you will have the magistery of the whole thing, with-
out which nothing can be done,-

Alchemic Spirit of JVine—Zil). de qiiinta esscntiaj

Take wine red or white, neither too little nor too much thereof
find distil an aqua ardens, as the custom isy and then rectify it
for better purification. But I tell you it is enough to rectify it
three times, and stop it close, that the burning spirit may not
exhale. Take therefore that, and put it in a circulating vessel,
which is called the vessel of Hermes, and stop the hole very close
with olibamim or mastic being soft, or quick lime mixed with
the white of eggs, and if a continual heat be administered to it
by continual circulations, our quintessence will be separated in
the colour of heaven, which may be seen by a diametrical line,
*-bich divide-; the upper part, that is the quintessence, from the
lower, namely, from the faeces, which are of a muddy colour.
Circulation being continued many days, the hole which you
stopped with the said matter, must be opened, and a wonder-
ful scent will issue out, so as that no fragrancy of the world cat*
be. oompavud'-to it.

Raymond LuUy. 2»9

WsiDKNf i.t.n — Among the dissolvents of the adopts, no one
as made .without the vegetable mercury, or spirit ot philoso-
phical wine; for it is the foundation, beginning and end of them

all. Yea it is according to the various and distinct degrees of its
strength, sometimes the least, sometimes the greatest oi all the
dissolvents. It is the least and weakest, when it doth by its sim-
ple unctuoMty dissolve only the unctuous or oily parts ot vege-
tables, but either reject or leave untouched the remainder being
Jess oily and heterogeneous to itself; it becomes the strongest
when we temper its unctuosity with arids, (that is, dry tilings,
not oily) for so it is made homogeneous to things dry-oily, and
to things merely dry. In respect of which homogeneity, the
dissolvents of the adepts differ from the common, because they
do by reason of the said homogeneity, remain with the things
dissolved inseparably : yea, are augmented by them, biit not
with the least saturation, transmuted and melted into a third
substance, and so cannot part without the diminution or de-
struction of their former virtues. You are not to take the
spirit of common wine, though ever so much rectified, for the
philosophical spirit of wine; for so the following dissolvents
would be erroneous and seducing.

Common wine is hot, but there is another sort much hotter,
whose whole substance is by reason, of its aerity most easily kindled
by fire, and the tartar of this unctuous humour is thick ; for so
saith Raymond; that tartar is blacker than the tartar from the
black grapes of Catalonia ; whereupon it is called Nigrum
nigrius Nigro ; that is, black blacker than black : and this hu-
midity being unctuous, doth therefore better agree with the
unctuosity of metals, than the spirit extracted from common
wine, because by its liquefactive virtue, metals are dissolved
into water, which operation the spirit of common wiuc cannot
perform.

It is necessary to observe that the spirit of philosophical wine.
appears in two forms, cither like an oil swimming upon all li-
quors, or like the spirit of common wine (to the nature ol which
it comes sometimes nearer, and therefore doth from the analogy
borrow its name) not swhnming upon watery liquors, but mixib.e
with them and its own phlegm : yet separable by simple distilla-
tion, it easily by this means leaving its phlegms behind it ; but it
being rectified, and kindled, it burns wholly away, it affords us
the common sign of perfect rectification of the common spirit, but
however, they are not two, but que only spirit, differing in degree
of purity and subtilty. Distinction must be made between the
first and second spirit of philosophical wine, father and son. —
The first doth in its preparation require laborem sophias, the
most secret, difficult, and dangerous Work of all true chemistry.
The second is easily made with the former spirit according to the
rule of perfect chemistry.

SCO Alchemical Treatises.

Our vegetable dissolvent, saith Lully, the celestial animal,
which is called quintessence, preserves flesh from corruption,
comforts things elemented, restores former youth, vivifys the
spirit, digests the crude, hardeneth the sort, rarifies the hard,
fattens the lean, wasteth the fat, cools the hot, heats the cold,
dries the moist, moistens also the dry; one and the same thing
can do contrary operations. The act of one thing is diversified
according to the nature of the receiver ; as the heat of the sun,
which hath contrary operations; as in drying clay, and melting
wax ; yet the act of the sun is one in itself and not contrary
to itself.

Like heaven, it receives the forms of all things. As the
universal form (the macrocosmical heaven) hath an appetite
to every form, so the quintessence (of philosophical wine)
to every complexion; whereby it is evidently manifest, that the
quintessence of things is said to be of that complexion to which it
is adjoined ; if joined to hot, hot ; if to cold, cold, &c. This
therefore the philosophers called heaven ; because as heaven
affords us sometimes heat, sometimes moisture, &c. so the
quintessence in. mens' bodies at the artist's pleasure, &c. —
Distinct. 1. Lib. Essentia?. To this heaven we apply its stars ;
which are plants, stones and metals, to communicate to us life
and health, Ibid.

Like heaven, it moveth all things from power to act. —
Therefore heaven or our mercury is the cause and principle
moving C. (metals) from power to act ; and in this point
knows the understanding of an artist, that D. (our heaven).
hath action upon C. ruling and governing, and reducing it
into action ; as heaven brines that which is in elemental
things, by its own motion into action, &c. For we call it
heaven, by reason of its motion ; because as the upper heaven
moves the universal form, and first matter, and elements,
and senses, to compound elemented individuals ; so D. moves
C and the four elements to M. (the sulphur of nature, or phi-
losophers mercury) or to Q. (the tincture) Distinct. 3. de quarto
principio Libri Essentia?.

Like heaven, it is incorruptible. Aqua vita? is the soul
and life of bodies, by which our stone is vivified ; therefore we
call it heaven, and quintessence, and incombustible oil, and by
its infinite other names, because it is incorruptible almost, as
heaven, in the continual circulation of its motion, page 145,
Elueid. Testam.

It is of the colour and clarity of heaven. Heaven or our mer-
cury is the fourth principle in this art, and is signified by D. of
an azure colour and line, and is signified by that colour, because
it is celestial, and of a celestial nature, as we said before in the
description of it, Dist. 3. Lib. Essentia.

Raymond Lully. 261

Alchemic Spirit of Spice — vol. 3. p. 193, Thcat. Chem.

First you must know, that the matter of our stone, or of all
the stones of the philosophers, to< ether with precious stones,
which are generated or compounded by art, is this metallic soul,
cud our dissolvent rectified and acuated, or the lunaria ccelica,
which among the philosophers is called vegetable mercury, pro-
duced from wine red or white, as is clearly manifest, being re-
vealed to us by God, in our Figura Individ uorum, Distinct. 3.
Libri. Quint. Essent. &c.

But first, it is expedient to draw our dissolvent by art from
death, that is, the impurities and phlegm of wine, by the office
of an alembic, and to acuate it in distillation with pertinent ve-
getables; such as arc apium sylvestre, squilia, solatrum, carduus,
oliandrum, piper nigrum, euphorbium, viticeliaor flammula, and
pyrethrum, an equal quantity of all, and pulverized. Then
the dissolvent must be circulated continually for the space often
days in B. M.

Weidenfeld. — The unctuous spirit of philosophical
wine attracts none but the unctuous essences of vegetables.
Essences being thus extracted, as also all other oily things,
crude or expressed, and all distilled of both kingdoms,
animal and vegetable, this spirit of wine doth by simple
digestion divide into two distinct parts, two oils pr fats,
whereof one is the essence of the thing, the other the body. —
The essence so made we named the second spirit of wine. Both
essences, this by division, and that by extraction prepared, are by
longer digestion made one with the aforesaid spirit of wine. For
those thiugs which are of one and the same purity, and of a symbo-
lical nature, are easily mixed together, and that inseparably, and
so an essence made by an essence, is joined to that essence. And if
we protract digestion further, one of the fats, namely, the body
less oily, and therefore left hitherto, is at length received also into
a symbolical nature, by reason of which mixtion, not only is the
spirit multiplied, but also made fitter for the dissolutions of dry
things, because the particles of this body less oily incline to dry-
ness ; concerning which way we treat in this receipt, in the pre-
scription of which, the oil drawn out of oily vegetables, is by
distillation together with the spirit of philosophical wine, circu-
lated into a magistery, by which the spirit of wine is multiplied,
and made more homogeneous to dry bodies. There is the same
dissolvent, but a little otherwise described in his Natural Magic,
p. 358, thus ; take nigrum nigrius nigro, and distil ten or eight

262 Alchemical Treatises.

parts of the same in a glass vessel, and in the first distillation
you must receive only one halt'; this again distil, and hereof
take a fourth part.; and the third distillation you must take in
a manner all, and so distil that part eight or nine times, and it
will be perfect, but not rectified under one and twenty distil-
lations. Take of this water a quarter of a pound, and acuate
the same by distilling it with the vegetables, which are
apium svlvestre ; and so of the rest, of which was spoken
above.

The matter of which this dissolvent is made, is called wine in
the former receipt : the dissolvent must be extracted from the
death of wine ; but in the latter it is called nigrum nigrius
nigro. To these two Lully adds a third synonimous, p. 1. Test.
novissimi. Take red wine, which we call the liquor of lunaria and
nigrum nigrius nigro.

Wine, lunaria, nigrum nigrius nigro, the matter oi th«
dissolvent of vegetable mercury or soul of metals, is not com-
mon, but philosophical wine; nor is the spirit of this wine
the common, but philosophical aqua ardens. The unctuous
spirit of philosophical wine acuated, that is, tempered with the
common unetuosity of vegetable oils ; mix, digest, and distil any
common distilled oil with the spirit of philosophical wine, and
you will obtain a dissolvent of the second kind much sooner; yea,
yon will make the same in a moment, if you mix the essence
(■spirit) of philosophical wine with the magistery of an oily ve-
getable. One oily vegetable (saffron or macis) of so many, is
sufficient for the acuation of the spirit of philosophical wine \
nor yet will you err, if you take treacle ; which spirit of treacle,
made with this spirit of wine, will be a dissolvent of this kind..
These dissolvents arc medicines.

The Alchemic Spirit of Honey — Cap. 19. Lib. Mcrcur.

Take of aqua vita?, and put into this vegetable humidity
a third part of a honey-comb, with all its substance, wax,
and honey together, ferment, or digest it in a gentle heat
for three hours, and the longer it stands, the better it is : then
let it be distilled in balnco, and repeat the distillation and fer-
mentation nine times, renewing the comb every second dis-
til lation.

Raymond Lully. 2G3

WeidENFELD — The spirit of philosophical wine hath in dry
things no dissolving faculty without attrition. This acuitioh is the
mystery of the art, being difficult and tedious. It is best made with
crude honey, white sugar-candy, and manna purified. Such dis-
solvents as these are somewhat hard to be made with crude tar-
tar. Lully by aqua vk;e, Parisinus by the celestial and ardent
spirit, Guido by spirit of wine, and Paracelsus by the alcool of
wine, meant not common aqua ardens, which if a man try, he
will by his own experience find.

Hitherto of things oily acuating the spirit of philosophical
wine : — now follow those things which" arc less oily, volatile
►alls, which though they seem not to be oily, yet that they are
bo is easily demonstrated by the following preparations of salts
harmoniac, whose earths, otherwise most fixed and flowing like
wax, are by the unctuosity alone of the dissolvent made volatile,
but this will not now be our inquiry. It sufficeth us to use cruda
and common sal armoniac, salt of urine, blood, &c. for the
acuition of the spirit of philosophical wine, which salts do by
their aridity alter the unctuosity of this spirit, more than the
aforesaid oily matters, and consequently make the vegetable dis*
solvent stronger.

The Alchemic Spirit of Urine — Exp. 8.

Take of the animated spirit (of urine) one part, and of
aqua vitas perfectly rectified four parts, which pour upon
the animated spirit, and forthwitli stop the vessel, that it
may not respire, which vessel must be a large bottle, which
shake and move with your hands, so in the twinkling of an
eye or moment, you will see all the water converted into salt; —
but if any part of phlegm be in the philosophical aqua vita?,
it will be immediately separated from the salt in the form of
water ; the aqua vitas therefore ought to be very well purged!
from all phlegm, that, when the work is done, no matter may
remain with the salt, but be wholly converted, which will be
better and more useful, and by this means you will have the
animal and vegetable salt, which we will call coagulativc and
gelative sulphur, because it hath the property and virtue of
dissolving the two luminaries, and reducing them from power
to act, their vegetative aud germiriative form being pre-
served.

264r Alchemical Treatises,

Alchemic Spirit of Tartar — Exp. 34.

Take the best aqua vita?, rectified so, as to burn a linen
cloth, as you have seen, operating with me, and therefore
no need of amplifying to you the magistery of this water.
Take therefore of aqua vita? four pounds, and put it in a
glass urinal (cucurbit) which is very sound ; — then take of
the vegetable salt sublimed of the second experiment (vola-
tile salt of tartar) one pound, grind very well, and put it in
the aqua vitas, lute the vessel with its antenotorium (blind
alembic) firmly, with wax gummed, that nothing may re-
spire, then putrify two natural days ; after that take away the
antenotorium, and put on an alembic with its receiver, the
joints being very close, and distil upon hot ashes. Take no-
tice, that the receiver must be very large and sound, that it
may not be broken by the force of the aqua vita?, and thus con-
tinue your distillation with a slow fire, till all be distilled
through the alembic. But if any part of the salt remain in
the bottom of the vessel, pour it again upon the water now
lately distilled, and distil as before, making the joints as close
as may be ; the distillation repeat in this order, till all the salt
be passed through the alembic in the form of clear water. —
Then put of the aforesaid salt one other pound into an urinal,
and pour the same distilled water to it ; cover the vessel with itj
antenotorium, as before, putrify as before, then distil as before ;
and when all the salt is passed over with the water, take again
as before of new vegetable salt one pound, and pass it all
through the alembic again, as before, with the distilled water ;
and by this means you will have those four pounds of aqua vita?
united with three pounds of the vegetable salt, which hath
the power of dissolving the two luminaries (gold and silver)
and all the other metals, with preservation of the vegetable
form. But now we intend to reduce this simple dissolvent into
a celestial form : — Take therefore this simple dissolvent, and
put it in a sound glass vessel, (a circulatory) four parts of which
must be empty, but the fifth full : stop the vessel so as not to
evaporate, and circulate in dung or balneo sixty natural days ;
and by this method will ycu have a clarified dissolvent, in
which you will see a sediment, wherefore empty the celestial
water into another vessel, and have a care that no sediment
pass over with the water, which you must keep very close in
balneo.

Raymond Lully. 2G5

Spirit of the Adepts Sal Harmoniac.

Lully having prescribed several acuators of the spirit of philo-
sophical wine, speaks at length of acuating this spirit with these
salts philosophically volatilized. ' Let,' saith he, ' our dissolvent,
which is the quintessence of wine, be depurated from all
phlegm, and acuatcd with the philosophers armoniac, because
it cannot otherwise dissolve gold, nor precious stones ; but let
the philosophers sal armoniac be well purified, that is, sub-
limed, and cleansed from all terrestreity and uncleanness, accord-
ing to the manner of the philosophers ; of which philosophical
sal armoniac we have indeed treated largely in our book, De in-
tentione Alchemistarum, dedicated to the most illustrious King
Robert, in the chapter dc Salibus Armoniac, &c. and in Clau-
sura Testamenti, otherwise called Vade mecum, in the chapter
which begins, Partus Vera? Terrae. There you may read from
first to last the magistery of making and purifying, together
with the virtues and energies of this salt. And know, my son,
that whatsoever we write in that chapter, we mean that salt
and nothing else : Read and peruse that chapter, because no-
thing can be done in the magistery without that salt, for that
is the thing with which we acuate our dissolvent, to dissolve
gold, and precious stones, and pearls, as well for human medi-
cines, as for a metallic and lapidific magistery, and to make pearls
and precious stones.'

These sal armoniacs are called sulphurs of nature. In.
the preparation of philosophical wine there is an earth found,
which is called sulphur, existent in the vegetable mercury, coagu-
lating its own mercury; for the sake of which earth, they called
every other exanimated and fixed earth, sulphur; but the animat-
ed spirit (essence, tincture, &c.) they termed mercury, to be coa-
gulated by this sulphur, but both of them being reduced into one
body, and sublimed, they called sulphur of nature, not more
fixed, but sublimed.

Alchemic Spirit of Quicksilver — Nov. Test am.

Take of common argent vive one pound, put it in a glass
vessel, and pour upon it of the vegetable dissolvent so much
as to swim four fingers above it, set it in balneo or dung six days,
and it will be all dissolved into a glorious water, elevate the*.

k k

266 Alchemical Treatises.

dissolvent gently by balneo, and at the bottom of the vessel
will remain the light of pearls, and soul of metals. This we
meant in the chapter which begins : Oportet nos cum eo incipere,
& cum eo fin ire. Then take of this glorious water of argent
vive one pound, and mix it with two pounds of the vegetable
dissolvent, coclificatcd, and it will all become one water, with
which you will dissolve all bodies, as well perfect as imperfect, for
the production of our sulphur.

Mercuriatc of Silver— Exp. 24.

Put common mercury in those vessels', (Wolf's apparatus)
and distil with repetition, till it turns all into water, as
I taught you above ; then take four ounces of this mercurial
water, and therein dissolve one ounce of the vegetable mercury
of the fifth experiment (salt of tartar sublimed, or vegetable
sal armoniac made of the salt of tartar) pass it through an
alembic, together with the aforesaid mercurial water, then in
every four ounces of the water, dissolve one ounce of mercury
as before prepared, (that is vegetable) putrify eight clays, then,
distil by ashes, increase the fire at last, that so it may pass into
that which was distilled, in which dissolve half an ounce of
silver cupellated, then putrify three days, then distil in ashes,
and lastly increase the fire a little, that all the clearness, of
whiteness of the luna may go over by an airy resolution in this'
distillation.

Weidenfeld — These dissolvents are stronger than all the an-
tecedent, as being acuated with better arids, or dry things, and
therefore do not extract the essences, but dissolve the whole body
into a magistery. These dissolvents arc the magisteries of metals
and minerals, and therefore medicines. The sal armoniacs of metals
are made the same ways as vegetable sal armoniacs. Every one
of them is properly called philosophers mercury, or mercury of
the mercury of gold, silver, iron, &C. sublimed; the mercury
of antimony, common sulphur, &c. sublimed, because lika
common mercury sublimed, it is most easily resuscitated by hot
water or vinegar, into the running mercury of gold, silver, iron,
antimony, &c.

Mercurial waters are called ignes gehennae, by reason of this
fiery nature of argent vive, the corrosive specific was because of
the mercurial water called by Paracelsus ignis gehennae. Libro.
de Specif, page 29. The. cimilatwnj inajus, prepared from

Raymond Lully. 267

mercury, lie calls a living fire, most extreme fire, and ccelcstial
lire.

If you would bring into action, saith he, (the life of antimony
hidden in its regains) you must resuscitate that life with iis
like living fire, or metallic vinegar, with which fire many of
the philosophers proceeded several ways, but agreeing in the
foundation, they ai' hit the intended mark, Sec. Yet that fire,
or corporal life in common mercury, is found much more per-
fect ami sublime, which manifestly proves by its flowing, that
there is a most absolute fire, and coelestial life hidden in it;
wherefore whoever desires to graduate his metallic heaven
(the arcanum lapidis, or antimonii) to the highest, and reduce
it to action, he must first extract the first liquid being, as the
coeiestial fire, quintessence, and metallic acetum acerrimum out
of the corporal life, (common mercury) ecc. Libro. 10. Archie!.
cup. 6. p. 39.

Hermetic JSIercury of Pearls.

Take the liquor of lunaria of the third or second rectifica-
tion, (philosophical aqua aniens rectified) pour it upon ar-
gent vive, so as to swim three fingers above it, and putrify three
natural days, and a great part of it will be dissolved with the
water of lunaria, which decant, and pour fresh liqnor upon
the fasces, putrify in dung or balnco, and repeat till all the
mercury is reduced into water, then join all the distillations to-
gether, and draw off in balneo, and when you see it in a manner
thick, so as to be half a pound of the water of mercury and
argent vive, (vegetable and mineral) putrify six natural days,
then put in pearls, and they will within ten hours be dissolved,
then exuberate them by the way, which I taught in the exube-
ration of metals, till they be converted into a sal armoniac, or
sulphur naturae of pearls, whereof dissolve one ounce in a
pound of its dissolvent aforesaid, and distil four times, then put
in pearls, and they will in half a quarter of an hour be dissolved,
by reason of the greater subtlety of the dissolvent. As silver
is joined to the mercurial dissolvent made by the three fire-hot
vessels, for the Neapolitan dissolvent, (which may be so called,
because it was revealed to Lully at Neapolis by Arnold de villa
nova) so this dissolvent for pearls is made of the sal armoniac
of pearls, and the mercurial dissolvent, or glorious water of mer-
cury, which if they be circulated together a convenient tune, vow
will make thereof a coslum perlatum.

26S Alchemical Treatises.

"Weidenfeld — Hitherto we have by argent vive acuated cither
the spirit of philosophical wine, or dissolvents made with this spirit,
which had so good a faculty of dissolving, that most of the atJ
being content with these mercui'ial waters, desisted from inquiring
after stronger dissolvents. The mercurial water, which Liilly
terms glorious, he saith, is sufficient, yen, a proper dissolvent
to make the philosophers mercury, or metallic sal armoniac, out
of all metals and minerals. You must know, saith he, my son !
that in the truth and faith of God, no sulphur of nature of any
metal can be sublimed without this water of common argent vive.
Test. Noviss. p. 12. .

But in this ninth kind of dissolvents, the adepts made yet
other dissolvents, adding moreover divers bodies, according to
the intended several uses to the aforesaid mercurial waters. Lully,
to make a more noble dissolvent for the dissolution of gold, added
silver to the mercurial dissolvent. If perhaps he wanted a dis-
solvent for pearls, he joined pearls with the mercurial dissolvent ;
if he had a mind to make aurum potabile, he prepared a dissolvent
out of gold and silver, as more suitable to this purpose, yet with
some mercurial dissolvent, and so of others.

Dissolvents may and ought to be made according to the de-
signed uses, for they are desired not only to dissolve bodies pro-
miscuously, but rightly also, that the tinctures of things dissolved
may not by any heterogeneous tinctures of the dissolvents be in-
quinated, but rather illustrated. These dissolvents being once
compounded, the oftener the composition is repeated by adding
new matter, are endowed with so much a greater virtue ; whereas
on the contrary it is manifest, that common dissolvents are this
way debilitated. These dissolvents are most fragrant, and of ex-
ceeding sweetness and redness, yet nevertheless called acetum
acerrimum, which dissolves gold into a spirit. These dissolvents
are the essences or magisteries of metals made by magisterics or
essences, and mixed together into compounded circulatums. —
These compounded circulatums may be made not only of gold
and silver, but also of imperfect metals and minerals ; and sal
armoniac may be made of corals, or other arids, as well as
pearls.

The first matter of mercury is a poison, wherefore it is not to
be used for human medicines, but metals only, yet ifthisincal-
cinated dissolvent be circulated as the rest, it becomes harmless,
and an excellent medicine.

Raymond Lully. 26 J

Alchemic Gems of the Mcinls.

Take the water of mercury, made by the way, which we
declared in our New Testament, (Numb. 7) and in that water,
soil ! vou must dissolve one half ounce of the purest lima, after
the filtered dissolution, separate the water from the feces (distil
the dissolvent from the silver through an alembic) in which the
limosity of the silver will ascend; this water, son ! resolves all
other bodies, and argent vive itself, by virtue of which, son !
pearls arc reformed by the way which I told you in our Testa-
mentum, and in the Compendium super Testamentum & Codi-
cillum missum Regi Roberto,

The second water is thus made: take half an ounce of lead,
and of the aforesaid water as much as sufiicclh, when you see
the lead dissolved, separate the water by filtered distillation,
(filter the dissolution of the lead) and throw out the faeces, as
nothing worth, then distil the water by balneo (draw off the dis-
solvent in balneo) and keep the faeces (the dissolved lead) for
occasion.

The third water is thus made : take of copper one ounce,
and dissolve it in as much of the first water as you please, and
let it rest in its vessel, in a cold place, for a natural day, then
separate the green water through a filter, and pour out the first
faeces, (that which remains in the filter must be cast away)
then distil the water through an alembic, and keep the second
faeces.

The fourth water is thus made : take one ounce of the
purest tin of Cornwall, which is purer than any other, and
dissolve it in a quantity of the first waiter, and distil (through
a filter) that water (dissolution) with its limosity, and the faeces
which remain cast away, then distil the water through an
alembic, and keep (the residue, or tin dissolved) the second
faeces.

The fifth water is thus made : take of the purest iron
one ounce, and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of the
first water, then distil through a filter, and cast away the
faeces, distil the water through an alembic, and keep the second
faeces.

The sixth water is thus made : take of the purest gold one
ounce, and dissolve it as I told you in my Testamentum, that is,
with pure lunaria (the simple vegetable dissolvent without ar-
gent vive and silver) mixed with such a weight of the fifth
water, (now prepared from i2-on) and do as you did with the
other.

270 Alchemical Treatises.

You may also, son ! dissolve all those metals in this order r
Having made the first water, in it dissolve the metal, which
wc commanded you to dissolve after the second way, (to wit lead)
then do with it as wc told you before. In this second
water dissolve the third metal, (copper) and in the water of
the third metal dissolve the fourth metal, (tin) and in the
water of the fourth metal dissolve the fifth metal, (iron)
and in the water of the fifth metal dissolve the sixth metal,
(gold.)

Take which of those waters you like best to dissolve a metal.
Son ! these limosities of metals are called quintessences, or
mineral mercury, which the philosophers esteemed in the al-
chemical work (in alchemical tinctures) and the lapidific, (in
the making of precious stones) and in the medicinal work (in the
preparing of medicines.) But son ! in the alchemical work
those quintessences ought to be more subtil, and to be done by
dividing the elements, but in (making precious) stones, the
quintessence (aforesaid) are not so, in such a subtil matter, but
in medicine either of them (this two-fold way of preparing) may
be used.

Having spoken of the quintessences of minerals (of metallic
waters) now we are to make them, it is now convenient to speak
ex the division of them in general- And my son ! do thus ;
when your metals are dissolved, you must divide every water

ing first filtered and distilled from its remainder) and every di-
vided water (now distilled) into two parts, and one part of every
part you must put with its own faeces (the remaining metal which
the water had left in distillation) into a glass alembic, and distil
a limus deserti, which is air made out oi two bodies, (or metals)
in the furnace, which we designed you first with a gentle
fire, shining with great mineral lustre, and with great limosity
appropriated to receive celestial virtues : and put every one
of those waters into a glass vessel, with a long neck and round,
and then stop the mouth of it with common wax, and after that
with mastic, and every of those vessels put in the open air so,
as that neither stone, nor any other hurtful thing may touch
the glass. Sou ! take the material fasces, from which you
resolved the limus, which are the second faeces left in the distil-
lation of the waters which you pat in the air. (Take the caput
norluum from the distillation of every limus desertus. or the third
iiecesj i'ov the first remaining in the filter were cast away, from the
second the limus desertus was distilled ; now the faeces of the limus
tiesertus, are those which he here calls the second) and put them
in a gi ;ss vessel with a long neck, which may contain two
hands L read th, and put in part of its own water, which was
reserved From thai aforesaid limous substance, and stop the ves-
sels with a stopple of wax, and with leather and mastic, as y 014
*iid to the oilier, and bury them (water of metals) in a

Raymond Lull?/. 271

garden, in an earth half a yard deep, and put also something
about the neck of the vessels, which may appear above ground,
for the preservation of them, and let them be there for one
whole year. Son ! the waters which arc put into the earth
are of one nature, and those which are put in the air of ano-
ther ; for son ! those which are put into the earth have a har-
dening, coagulating, and fixing virtue and quality ; and those
which are in the air, have the virtue and property of being har-
dened, coagulated, and fixed. The year being ended, you will
June all that is desired in the world for this work, &c. Lib. Quint.
Essen. Canon. 43.

WeidenfelO — Hitherto we have mixed or tempered the
unctuous spirit of philosophical- wine with things oily, dry-oily,
oilv-drv, and purely dry, and reduced them to divers kinds of ve-
getable dissolvents ; in which we have exhibited dissolvents every
Way absolute and perfect, in smell, taste, and colour incomparable,
dissolving without hissing or effervescence, and permanent with
things dissolved. Now follow in order, those which are called mi-
neral dissolvents, which though they be of a stinking smell, of an
acid or corrosive taste, and for the most part of a milky and opake
colour, and dissolve bodies with very great violence and corrosion,
yet nevertheless having the same spirit of philosophical w-ine, as
the vegetable dissolvents for their foundation, are therefore as
permanent as they, yea better than they as to the abbreviation of
time ; for the acidity of mineral salts (for which corrosive or acid
dissolvents are called rninera) cannot destroy the nature of the
spirit of wine, nor the nature of the vegetable dissolvent, but by
corroding makes the particles of dry bodies more apt to unite
themselves with the oily spirit of philosophical wine ; but if that
acidity be taken away, it becomes that which it was before,
namely, either the spirit of philosophical wine, or a vegetable
dissolvent.

The method, which we used in the vegetable dissolvents, we will
as near as we can observe also in these mineral dissolvents. In the
vegetable we extracted from the philosophical wine an aqua ar-
dens, from which we did by circulation separate an oil or essence
of wine, which is our spirit of wine, which then by acuating clivers
ways we reduced into the precedent kinds of vegetable dissolvents ;
but in the mineral we will begin with philosophical grapes, the
matter itself of philosophical wine, which is elsewhere called green
lion, adrop, Sec. Though the discourse of this matter appertains
not to this place, yet if any thing presents itself to us either in the
receipts themselves, or elsewhere, which may tend to a more clear
manifestation of it, we will not conceal it : but on the contrary
have determined to illustrate and explain things so, as not only
to make you more assured of the use and necessity of this
spirit promised to you, but moreover also, that you may have

212 Alchemical Treatises.

some certain notions before-hand of its conception, substance,
nativity, &c.

Spirit of the Adepts Vitriol — JSIagia Kat. p. 359,

Take of the earth D. (azoquean vitriol) five ounces and a half,
and of the water C. (of salt peter animated) two ounces and a half,
and being all mixed, grind the matter fine upon a marble,
then put it in a glass vessel with an alembic upon it, and distil
the whole substance, first making a gentle fire, and encrease it
till the alembic loseth its colour, or no more distils : then cease
and let it cool, gather the water, keep it in a hot and moist
place, and have a care that it respires not. This water,
though made of a contemptible thing, hath the power of
converting bodies into their first matter, which being joined
to the vegetable virtue, is of much perfection, and must be
put into practice presently after it is distilled, that the spirit
which is subtil and of a strange nature, may not be lost by
the air.

Alchemic Spirit of Nitric Acid — Elite. Test. p. 117.

Vitriol one part, nitre one part, allum a fourth part, mix
them all well together, and distil with a gentle fire, till the
liquor is gone over, then give a stronger, and lastly most
strong, till the alembic grows white, for then is the aqua
fort is prepared. Then put it in a large cucurbit, and pour
trpon it four ounces of aqua vitoe (philos. aqua ardens) four times
distilled, and put an alembic on with its receiver, then will it
make great noises, boiling exceeding violently without fire, and
therefore the waters ought to be mixed by little and little. Put
on an alembic with its receiver, and distil the water in balneo,
that a matter mav remain alone at the bottom of the vessel in the
form of ice; pour back the water, and distil again, and this re-
peat nine times, then will an oil or matter like ice remain in the
bottom.

Raymond Lully. 273

Weidenfeld — From the receipt we observe these remarkable
things : 1. That the spirit of philosophical wine dissolved in an
acid spirit, is a mineral dissolvent. Our aqua fortis, our vinegar,
distilled vinegar, vinegar mixed with the spirit of wine, our spirit
of salt, sulphur, &c. 2. That the spirit of the same wine, is with
very great ebullition dissolved in an acid, and therefore you
ought to be exceeding careful lest you pour too much of the spirit
of philosophical wine upon the aqua fortis, and vice versa : For
it would be more safe to distil the aqua fortis upon the spirit of
philosophical wine, as Paracelsus adviseth. 3. That aquafortis
mixed with the spirit of wine, may be taken instead of vinegar
mixed with the spirit of wine, or spirit of salt mixed with the
spirit of wine, &c. in chemical works especially. 4. That the
more these dissolvents are abstracted from the acid debilitated
in dissolution, the stronger they are made. 5. That the adepts
used also corrosive dissolvents or aqua fortis. There are some,
not only common ignorant operators, but adepts also, who not
knowing the preparation and use of these dissolvents, have writ-
ten against these corrosive dissolvents.

Parisinus, a faithful disciple of Lully, explains his meaning
thus : those things that are objected by us against aqua fortisses,
namely, that they are of no efficacy in the art, and nevertheless
are taught by Lully, are to be otherwise understood. For he
this way puts a difference between the vulgar and philosophical
aqua fortisses, &c. And therefore Raymond rejecting sharp
waters, means the aqua fortisses of separation, but not those of
the philosophers, cap. C. Lib. 1. Elucid. page 206, vol. 6. Th.
Chem.

Our annotations upon the receipts are : That these dissolvents
are better made of aqua fortis, it being an acid stronger than the
rest. Yet that they may be also made of any other acid less
strong, as distilled vinegar, spirit of salt, sulphur, &c. These
are the best of all the simple mineral dissolvents, both in the
facility of making, and excellency of virtue. It is equal, whe-
ther the metal be first dissolved in common aqua fortis, and then
the vegetable sal armoniac added, or the said salt first, and then
the metal.

That these aqua regisses differ from the common, in that
they dissolve all metals promiscuously, silver as well as gold, and
reduce the same not into a calx, but oil, which cannot be said
of common aqua regis. Metals dissolved in these dis-
solvents and sublimed, become the greatest poisons belonging
to this art.

274 Alchemical Treatises.

Alchemic Spirit of Vitriolic Acid — Epis. Accurt. p. 327.

The spirit of vitriol is more dry and thick, than the
spirit of the quintessence of aqua ardens, and great affinity
there is between the spirit of vitriol, and the nature of gold,
because they are both derived from the same principles
with minerals. The spirit therefore of vitriol being joined
with the spirit of aqua ardens, inspissates it, and makes
it suddenly adhere to gold, so as to be fixed with it ; —
and believe me, this is a very excellent way of abbre-
viation.

Dissolvents compounded of the Spirit of Philosophical
Wine and tinging Minerals.

Weidenfeld. — The antecedent kind contained mineral dis-
solvents, compounded of acid spirits containing a metallic tinc-
ture in them ; in this present wc use the bodies of these spirits, to
make the dissolvents a degree better. For a tincture, for example,
extracted out of the dry part or body of vitriol distilled, with the
spirit of philosophical wine is an essence, which being in the same
distillation dissolved in its own acid part, produced a dissolvent
of this kind ; whereas in the precedent kind, that ^mall quan-
tity of copper, dissolved or contained in common spirit of vitriol,
and elevated with a violent fire, is by the spirit of philoso-
phical wine, reduced not into the essence, but magistery,
little effectual as well through the smallness of its quantity as
tincture.

Alchemic Spiiit of Vitriol and Cinnadar~*p. 371,
Magia. Nat.

After the fourth distillation of the water aforesaid,
(aqua vita* or ardens made of philosophical wine) distil

Raymond Lully. 275

seven times with an equal weight of good cinnabar and
vitriol, putting in nev» things every time constantly, and
drying the matter of the stone (vitriol and cinnabar) well
in every distillation, before vou pour in the aqua (vitae)
&c. &c.

Take of the (last mentioned) dissolvent, four pounds, and put
in one pound of mercury vive, put the matter in balneo or horse
dung six days, and it will be all converted into water, distil
by balneo, and you will have a mercurial water, truly mi-
neral.

Weidenfeld. — These dissolvents do by continued cohoba-
tions become most red, shining by night so, that men at supper
want no other light;— permanent and multiplying the philoso-
phers stone.

The dissolutions of metals performed by these mercurial
dissolvents, have been by the adepts sometimes called amalga-
mations. You must know, saith Isaacus, that this is the best
solution, that ever was found in the world, for herein is no
error of proportion and weight. For nature errs not. —
For when mercury is dissolved, it dissolves other metals also,
as is rightly taught in other places. Nor will it dissolve
more than it is able, nor will it receive more of a body
into it, than its nature can bear. For whatsoever has no need
of it, it cannot dissolve. And it is the best amalgamation
that can be found. 2. Oper. Min. Cap. 103, p. 494, vol. 3. Th.
Chem.

The Compound fragrant and fcetid Mercuries.

Take of the vegetable water acuated (Numb. 3,) one ounce,
put it in a phial with a long neck, into which you pour three
ounces of the water (Numb. 4,) and suddenly cover the
phial with its cover, luted close with wax, then place it
well in a balneo, the space of two natural days, and in that
time, the whole vegetable will be converted into a clear
water.

Weidenfeld. — These dissolvents are the mixtures of divers
dissolvents. They may be made of all vegetable and mineral
dissolvents, being mixed together at the artists pleasure. Yet
they are made the better, the more tinging the dissolvents were,
and they do by digestion become sweet and pure.

276

Alchemical Treatises.

Despise not these Receipts of dissolvents offered to vcu.
but rather read and peruse them, and every where endeavour to
find out the chemical truth ; those which you do not understand,
or esteem, castaway: for if one only kind, or any one receipt
please you, it is sufficient. For we will easily prove that by
that one, all the secrets of the more secret chemy may be
prepared.

To make these things more easy to you, I will here contract
into a breviary, and reduce them into twelve conclusions : —