III. Now kiiow my son, that the philosophers chain up (the

matter) with a strong chain, or band, when they make it to con-
tend with the fire : because the spirits in the washed bodies,
desire to dwell therein, and to rejoice there. In these habitat
tions, they vivify themselves, and dwell therein, and the bodies
hold, or contain them, nor from them can they ever be separated.
Then the dead elements are revived, and the compositum, or
compounded bodies are tinged and altered, and by wonderful
operations, they are made permanent, or fixed, as the philoso-
pher saith. O beautiful and permanent, or fixed water, the
formator of the royal elements, who having obtained (with thy
brethren joined with a modei'ate government) the tincture, hast
found a place of rest. Our stone is a most pretious thing, yet
cast forth upon the dunghill. It is most dear and valuable, yet
vile and the most vile ; (i. e. found among the most vile things).
Because it behoves us to kill two argent vive's together, and yet
to value, prize, and esteem them, viz. the argent vive of auri-
pigment, and the oriental argent vive magnesia. O nature,
the greatest, the creator of natures, which makest, containest,
and separajtest natures in a middle principle ! Our stone corner
with light, and with light it is generated, and then it generate-?
or brings forth the black clouds or darkness which is the mother
of all things.

But when we conjoin the crowned king to our red daughter,
and in a gentle fire, not yet too great or hurtful, she does con-
ceive, and will bring forth a faithful and excellent son ; which
she does feed with a little heat, and nourishes the permanant or
fixed matter, making it to abide even the greatest fire. But
when you send forth the fire upon the leaves or enfoldingsof the
sulphur, the boundary of hearts docs enter in above it, is washed

S72 Alchemical Treatises.

in the same, and Ins putrefied and stinking matter is extracted;
then he is altered or changed, and his tincture by the help of
the fire remains red as flesh. But our son the begotten king,
doth take his tincture from the fire; and death, and the sea, and
darkness fly away from him. The dragon flics from the beams
of the sun, who observes the holes or passaged, where they
enter in ; and our dead son lives. The king comes from the
fire, and rejoices with his wife, laving open the hidden tilings;
and obscured virgins milk. Now the son vivified, or made to
live, is made a warrior of the fire, and supcrexcellent in his
tinctures; for the son has got the blessing, haying also the root
of the matter in \ilm. Come ye sons of wisdom, and rejoice ;
be ye glad and exceeding joyful together; for death- has received
its consummation, and the son does reign, he is invested with
his red garment, and the scarlet colour is put on.