II. Now my son, before all things, I admonish thee to fear

God, in whom is the blessing of your imder takings ; and the
uniting and disposing of every thing which you segregate, put
together, or design for this purpose. Whatever I speak or
writs, consider it, and reason about it in your mind: I advise
not them who are depraved in their reason and understanding,
nor the ignorant, or insipid of judgment. Lay hold of my in-
structions, and meditate upon them ; and so fit your mind and
understanding to conceive what I say, as if you yourself were
the author of these things I write. For to what nature is hot,
if it shall be made cold, it shall do hurt or injury to it ; so in
like manner, he to whom reason is become a guide, does shut
against himself, the door of ignorance, lest he should be securely
deceived. Take (my son) the flying bird, and drown it flying;
then divide, separate, or cleanse it from its filth, which keeps
it in death ; expel it, and put it away from it, that it may be
made living, and answer thee, not by flying in the regions above,
but truly by forbearing to fly. If therefore you shall deliver it

Hermes Tiismcgtetus. 369

out of its imprisonment, and then afterwards you shall order
and govern it, according to the number of days I shall note to
you, according to reason ; and then it shall be a companion to
thee, and by it, thou shalt be made great and powerful. Ex-
tract from the sun beams the shadow, and the sordid matter,
by that which makes the clouds hang over it, and corrupts it,
and keeps it from the light, because by its torture and red fiery
heat, or redness it is burned.

Take this redness- corrupted with the water (which resembles
the matter, holding the fire as in a live coal) from it: as often
as you take this redness corrupted in water, away from it, so
often you have the redness purified, then will it associate itself,
viz. become fixed, and tinged, in which station it will rest for
ever. Return the coal, being extinct in its life, to the water,
in the thirty days I note to thee, so will you have a crowned
king, resting upon the fountain or well, but drawing it from the
auripigment, and wanting the humour or moisture: now have I
made the hearts of the attentive, who hope in thee, glad, and
their eyes beholding thee, in the hope of that which thou pos-
sessest ? Now the water was first in the air, then in the earth;
restore thou it then, to the superior places, through its own
meanders or passages, and (not foolishly or indiscreetly) change
or alter it : and then to the former spirit gathered in its redness,
you must carefully and leisurely join it. Know thou my son,
that the fat of our earth is sulphur ; that sulphur is auripigment,
siretz, or colcothar, of which auripigment, sulphurs, and such
like, some are more vile or mean than others, in which there is
a difference or diversity. Of this kind also is the fat of glewy
substances; to wit, of hair, nails, hoofs, and sulphur itself;
oil of Peter, and the brain or marrow, which is auripigment.
Of the same kind also is the cats or lions claw, which is siretz:
the fat of the white bodies, and the fat of the two oriental ar-
gent vives, which sulphurs are caught hold of, and retained by
the bodies. I say more, that this sulphur does tinge and fix;
and is contained and held by the conjunctions of the tinctures.
Fats also tinge, but withal they fly away, in the body which is
contained, which is a conjunction of fugitives only with sulphurs
and aluminous bodies, which also contain and hold the fugitive
matter.

The order, method, management and disposition of the matter
sought after by the philosophers, is but one, in our egg. Now
this, in the hens egg, is in no wise to be found. But lest so
much of the divine wisdom, as is seen in a hens egg, should not
be distinguished ; we make in imitation thereof, a composition
from the four elements, jointly fitted and compacted together.
isTow in a hens egg, there is the greatest help that may be, for
herein is a nearness of the matters in their natures : a spiritu-
ality, and gathering, and joining together of the elements, and
the earth which is gold in its nature. The son saith to him, the

z z

370 Alchemical Treatises.

sulphurs which are convenient or fit for our work, are they
coelestial or terrestrial, heavenly or earthly? To whom Hermes
answers : some of them are heavenly, and some are from the
earth. The son saith, father, I think the heart in the superiors
to preiiote heaven ; in the inferiors, the earth. To whom Hermes
saith : it is not so, the masculine truly is the heaven of the fe-
minine: and the feminine the earth of the masculine. The son
saith, father, which of these is more worthy, one than another,
whether is the heaven or the earth? The father answers: both
want the help of one another; but a nodNffii k proposed by pre-
cepts. But if thou shalt say, th-at wisdom or the wise man does
rule or command among all mankind ,* to this Hermes : the in-
thffcrent or ordinary things are better with them, because every
nature delights, or desires to be joined in society with its own
kind. We find even in wisdom itself that equal things are
joined together. The son saith ;. but what is the main among
them ? To whom Hermes, tvnd answers : to every thing in nature,
there are three things from two, X- The beginning. 2. The
middle. 3. The end, viz. First, the profitable and necessary
■water. Secondly, the fat or oil. Thirdly,, the faeces, or earth,
which remains below. But the dragon dwells in, or inhabits in
ail these things. And his houses arc the darkness and blackness
in them ; and by them he ascends into the air, which is their
heaven: buH while the fame or vapour remains in them, they
are not perpetual, pcrmananU remaining or fixed. Take but
away the fume or vapor from the water; and the blackness from
the fat or *uiphur, and death from the ftcccs r and by dissolu-
tion, you shall possess a triumphant gift, even that in and by
which the possessors- live.

Now the temperate fat or sulphur which is the fire, is the
medium or middle nature, between the fasces and the water, and
the through searcher of the water : the fats are called sulphurs,.
for between fire, oil, and sulphur, there is so little difference,
that t?iere is a propinquity, or nearness; because as the fire does-
burn, so also docs the sulphur. All the wisdom of the world is
comprehended within this, learning the art is placed in these
wonderful hidden. efementsr which it does obtain, finish or com-
pleat. It behoves him therefore, who would be introduced into
this our hidden wisdom, to quit himself from the usurpation of
vicer to be just and good, of a profound reason, and ready at
hand to help mankind r of a serene a-nd pleasing countenance,,
courteous in his conversation* %& others 'T and to himself a faithful
keeper of the arcanums, being once revealed to him. And this
know, that except you know how to mortify and induce genera-
lion, to vivify the spirit, to cleanse, and introduce light, how
things fight and contend one with another, are made colourless
and freed from their defedations, or spots and foulnesses, like as
from blackness and dai'kness, you know nothing, nor can you
peribrzu any thing. But this you may know, that this great

Hermes Trimcghtus. 371

arcanum is a matter of so great worth, that even kings them-
selves shall venerate it; the which secrets, it behoves us to keep
close, and to hide them from every profane and worthless person.
Understand also that our stone is conjoined with, and composed
of many things, of various colours, and ot' four elements, which
it behoves us to divide and cut in pieces, and to disjoint them ;
and partly to mortify the nature in the same, which is in it.
And also to keep safe the water and the lire dwelling therein,
which does contain its own water, drawn from the four elements,
and their waters; this is not water in its form, but fire, contain-
ing in a strong and pure vessel, the ascending waters ; lest the
spirits should fly away from the bodies, for by this means are
they made tinging and permanant, or fixed O blessed water
in the form of sea, which element thou dissolvest ! Now it be-
hoves ns, with this watery soul, to possess a sulphurous form,
and to mix or join the same with our vinegar. For when by the
power of the water, the composiium also is dissolved, you have
the key of the restoration; then death and blackness fly awa\,
and wisdom proceeds on to the finishing ,of the work.