M. Stahl lost themselves in continual obscurity and innumer-

able contradictions. Perhaps he speaks only of the common chemists and physicists; but in that case he should have made an exception of the Hermetic Chemists, whom he has doubtless read, and whom he has so happily met, in his Treatise on Five and Light, printed with the French transla- tion of his Lzthogeognosta. M. Stahl had studied them care- fully. He furnishes a proof of this, not only by having reasoned as they on this matter, but by the great number of quotations which he has made from them in his Treatise enti- tled: Fundamenta Chemie dogmatice et experimentalis. He gives to Mercury the name Dry Water, name which the Her- metic Philosophers give to theirs. Basil Valentin, Phila- lethes, and several others, are quoted in this respect. He even distinguishes the common chemist from the Hermetic Chemist, (part 1, page 124), by naming the first Physic? com- munes, and the second Chymzcz aliz. In the same part of the same work, (fage 2), he says that Isaac of Holland, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Raymond Lully, Basil Valentin, Trithéme, Paracelsus, etc., have made themselves commendable in Chemical Art.
Far from scorning and rejecting as faults, as do so many others, all that these authors say, this able man contents
* Fixed Fire, Fire inherent to bodies. It is the inflammable matter, or Sulphur- principle of substances. ... This quality is found in all the beings in Nature. It abounds in the fatty or oily parts of the animal, these parts the most susceptible of inflammation. M. Wipacher, (Dissertation imprimée parmi les Eléments de Chymie de Boerhave), regards the animal spirits as an igneous matter, to which he gives the name of Automatic Phlogiston.
Pernety, Dict. Mytho-Herm. p. 281.
Of the Operations of Wature. 91
himself with speaking as they, and says, (p. /§3), that they have expressed themselves in enigmas and allegories, in order to conceal their secret from the people, and that they seem to have affected contradiction only to place ignorant readers upon the wrong track. He enlarges still more on this matter, (f. 279), where he calls the Hermetic Chemists by the name of Philosophers. One can employ this denomi- nation after such a great man. We will have occasion to speak of Mr. Pott, in treating of Light and its effects.
The proximity of the Water and the Earth causes them to be almost always mingled. The Water dilutes the Earth; the Earth thickens the Water; from them is formed clay. If this mixture is exposed to a lively heat, each visible element returns to its sphere, and the form of the body is destroyed.
Placed between the Earth and the Air, Water is really the cause of the revolutions, the disorder, the tumult, and the ruin which we remark in the air and the earth. It obscures the air by black and dangerous vapours, it inundates the earth: it carries corruption into both, and by its abundance or scarcity, it disturbs the order of the seasons and of Nature. Finally, it is the cause of as many misfortunes as benefits.
Some of the ancients have said that the sun presided | ‘especially over Fire, and the moon over Water, because they regarded the sun as the source of the Fire of Nature, and the moon as the principle of moisture. This has caused Hippocrates to say, (Lz. 7, de Divtd.), that the elements of Fire and of Water could do all, because they contained all.
Sublimation, distillation and concoction are three instruments or methods of operating which Nature employs to perfect her works. By the first she throws off the superfluous moisture, which
Of the Operations
of ature.
92 The Great Art.
would smother the Fire, and hinder its action in the earth, its matrix.
By distillation she returns to the earth the moisture of which vegetation, or heat, have deprived it. Sublimation is made by the elevation of vapours in the air, where they are condensed into clouds. The second is made by rain and dew. Fair weather succeeds rain, and rain fair weather, alternately; a continual rain would inundate everything: perpetual fair weather would wither all. Rain falls drop by drop, because if poured down too abundantly it would destroy all, as a gardener who would water his grains by bucket full. Thus Nature distributes her benefits with weight, measure and proportion.
Concoction is a digestion of the crude humours instilled in the bowels of the Earth, a ripening, and a conversion of this humour into food by means of its secret fire.
These three operations are so connected, that the end of one is the beginning of the other. The aim of sublimation is to convert a heavy thing into a light one; and exhalation into vapour; to reduce a thick and impure substance, and to despoil it of its faeces;* to cause these vapours to assume the virtues and properties of superior things; and finally to free the Earth of a superfluous humour which would hinder its productions.
Scarcely are these vapours sublimated, when they are con- densed into rain, and spiritual and invisible though they were, they become a moment after a dense and aqueous body, to fall again on the Earth and to soak it with the celestial nectar by which it has been impregnated during its abode in the air. As soon as the Earth has received it, Nature works to digest and to ripen it.
* Which Sir Ripley calls Terra damnata, it is also designated as Caput Mortuum. They are the heterogeneous parts of a Composite, those which remain from the body after the elimination of its pure philosophical elements. E. B.
Of the Operations of Mature. 93
Each animal, the lowest worm, is a little world in which all these things take place. If man seeks the world outside of himself, he will find it everywhere. The Creator has made an infinity of them from the same matter; their form alone is different. Thus humility becomes Man, and glory belongs to God only.
Water contains a ferment, a spirit, a life, by which it has become impregnated while wandering through the air, which proceeds from the superior natures to the inferior, and which is finally deposited in the bosom of the Earth. This ferment is a germ of life, without which men, animals and vegetables could not live and could not produce. Every- thing in Nature breathes; and man does not live by bread alone, but by this aerial spirit which he continually inhales. :
God and Nature, His minister, alone know how to com- mand the primal material elements of bodies. Art could not approach them. But the three, which result from them, become sensible in the resolution of the Mixts. Chemists name them Sulphur, Salt and Mercury.* These are the ele- ments principied. Mercury is formed by the mixture of Water and Earth; Sulphur, of Earth and Air; Salt, of Air and Water condensed. The Fire of Nature is added to these as a formal principle. Mercury is composed of an oily, viscous Earth and a limpid Water; Sulphur of very dry, very subtle Earth, mixed with the moisture of the Air;
* Sulphur in a metal represents its colour, combustibility, its faculty of attack- ing other metals, its hardness.
Mercury: its brilliancy, volatility, fusibility, malleability.
Salt: mean uniting Sulphur and Mercury.—Sulphur, Mercury, Salt are conse- quently abstract words serving to designate the ensemble of properties.
F. Jollivet-Castelot: Comment on devient Alchimiste, Paris, 1897.
The Universal Sulphur is invariably considered as the father. To a certain point of view, Mercury is the mother, and Salt the child.
Stanislas de Guaita: La Clef dela Magie Noire, p. 727.
94 Ube Great Art.
Salt of a thick, ponderous Earth and a crude Air which finds itself entangled with it. (See the Physzque Souterraine, by Beccher).
Democritus* has said that all the Mixts were composed of atoms; this belief seems not to be far from the truth, when we notice what reason dictates and experience demonstrates to us. This philosopher, as the others, has verified, under this obscure manner of explaining himself, the true mixture of the Elements, which in order to be conformable to the operations of Nature, must be made intimately, or, as we say, per minima et actu tndivisibilia corpuscula. Without this the parts would not make acontinuous whole. The Mixts are resolved into a very subtle vapour by artificial distillation; and is not Nature amore skilful workman than the most experienced man? This is all that Democritus has wished to
say.
We notice three manners of being, (Cosmop. Nov. lum. Chem. Tr. 7), which constitute three genera, or three classes, called Azzgdoms, the Animal, the Vegetable and the Mineral. Minerals are pro- duced in the earth alone; vegetables have their roots in the earth, and rise in the water and the air; animals are born in the air, the water and the earth; and air is a life-principle of all.
Whatsoever different the Mixts appear to be as to their exterior form, they do not differ in principle, (Cosmop. Tract. 2), the Earth and Water serve as a basis for all, and the Air enters into their composition only as an instrument, as does Fire. The Light acts upon the Air, the Air on the Water,
*Greek Mystagogue and Alchemist, born in Thrace 460 B. C., founder of the atomic system.
Of the General
Aspects of mMirxts.
The Mineral. 95
the Water on the Earth. Water often becomes the instru- ment of mixture in works of Art, but this mixture is only superficial; we see it in bread, bricks, etc. There is another intimate mixtion which Beccher calls Central, (Phys. sud. sect. [.,ch. 4). tis that one by which the Water is so mixed with the Earth that they can not be separated without de- stroying the form of the Mixt. We will not enter into the detail of the different degrees of this cohesion, as we wish to be brief. All this can be seen in the work just quoted.
Of the Differences between the Three Ringdoms.
We say ordinary of minerals that they exist, and not that they live, as we say of animals and vegetables; nevertheless we may say that the metals derive life in some manner from the minerals, either because in their generation there is, so to speak, a union of male and female under the name of Sulphur and Mercury, which by fermentation, circulation and continuous concoction, are purified by the aid of the Salt in Nature, and finally are formed into a mass which we call metals; or because the perfect metals contain a principle of life, or innate Fire, which become weak and without movement under the hard exterior which encloses it; a principle which is concealed there as a treasure, until being freed by a philosophical solution of this exterior, it is developed and exalted by a vegetative movement, to the highest degree of perfection which Art can give it.
The
Mineral.
96 The Great Art.
A vegetative soul or spirit animates plants; by it they grow and multiply. But they are deprived of the feeling and movement of animals. Their germs are hermaphrodite, although natural- ists have remarked two sexes in almost all vegetables. The vegetative and incorruptible spirit is developed in the fer- mentation and putrefaction of the germs. When the grain decavs in the earth without germinating, this spirit joins its sphere again.
The Wegetable.
Animals have, above minerals and vegetables, a sensitive soul, the principle of their life and movement. They are, one may say, the com- plement of Nature as far as sublunary beings are concerned. God has distinguished and separated the two sexes in this kingdom, so that from two there should come athird. Thus in the most perfect things is manifested more perfectly the image of the Trinity.
Man is the sovereign prince of this lower world. All his faculties are admirable. The troubles which rise in his mind, his agitations, his anxieties are as the winds, the lightnings, the thunders, the whirlwinds and meteors which take place in the Macrocosm. His heart, his blood, all his body even, are agitated by them, but they are as the trembling of the earth and everything proves in him that he is truly the epitome of the Universe. Was not David right in exclaim- ing that God is infinitely admirable in all His works, (Psalm gi, v. 6 and 138, v. I4)?
The Animal.
All perfect Mixts which have life, have a soul, or spirit, and a body. The body is com- posed of clay, or Earth and Water; the soul, which gives form to the Mixts, is a spark of the Fire of Nature, —
Of the Soul
of Wixts.
Of the Soul of Mixts. 97
or an imperceptible ray of Light, which acts in the Mixts according to the actual arrangement of the Matter, and the perfection of the specific organs in each of them. If the beasts have a soul, it differs from their mind only in degree.
The specific forms of the composites, or, if one prefers, their soul, preserve some knowledge of their origin. The soul of Man reflects often upon the divine Light. It seems to wish to penetrate into that sanctuary, accessible to God alone: it strives continually to reach it, and finally returns to it. The souls of animals, these beings, which a secret motive of Heavens has placed here below, and which derive their organization from the treasures of the sun, the souls of animals seem to have a sympathy with this star by the dif- ferent omens of its rising, of its setting, even of the move- ment of the heavens, and of the changes of temperature in the air, which their movements announce to us.
Supported by the air, and almost entirely aerial, the souls of vegetables push the head of their stalk as high as possible, as if eager to return to their native land.
Rocks, stones, formed of Water and of Earth, are baked in the earth as in a potter’s oven, this is why they incline to the earth as if making parts of it. But the precious stones and metals are more favored by celestial influences; the first are as the tears of Heaven, anda congealed celestial dew; for this reason the Ancients attributed to them so many virtues. The sun and the stars seem to have also a particular care for the metals, and one would say that Nature leaves to them the duty to give them their form. The soul of metals is, we may say, imprisoned in their material envelope; the Philosopher’s Fire can draw it from this envelope and make it producea son worthy of the sun, and an admirable quintessence, which draws Heavens near to us.
Light is the principle of life, and shadow of death. The
98 The Great Art.
souls of the Mixts are rays of Light, and their bodies are abysses of shadows. Everything lives by Light, and every- thing which dies is deprived of it. It is because of this prin- ciple, to which we pay so little attention, that we say com- monly of a dead man, z/ a perdu la lumiére, (he has lost Oe light); and as Saint John says, “Light zs the life of men,” (Evang., ch. I).
Each composite has faculties which are panties tonite far as animals are concerned, we need only to reflect upon their actions to be convinced of this. Thetime of mating, which is so well known to them, the just distribution of parts in the progeny; the use which they make of each member; the attention and care which they give to the nourishment and defense of their young; their different affections, of pleasure, of fear, of good will toward their masters, their dis- position to receive instructions, their skill in procuring the necessaries of life, their prudence in shunning that which could injure them, and many other things which an observer may notice, prove that their soul is endowed with a kind of reasoning.
Vegetables have also a mental faculty, and a method of knowing and foreseeing. The vital faculties are with them the care of producing their like, the multiplicative, nutritive, augmentative, sensitive and other virtues. Their idea is manifested in the presage of the weather, and the knowledge of the temperature which is favorable to them to germinate and shoot forth their stalks; their strict observation of climatic changes, as laws of Nature, in the choice of the aspect of the heavens which is suitable for them; in the manner of burying their roots; of elevating their stalks; of extending their branches; of developing theirleaves; of form- ing and coloring their fruits; of transmuting the elements into food; of infusing into their germs a prolific virtue.
Generation and Corruption of the Mixts. 99
Why do certain plants grow only in certain seasons, although one sows them as soon as they are mature, or they are sown by the natural fall of their grains? They have their vegetative principle, and yet they will develop it only at certain times, unless art furnishes them that which they would find in the season suitable for them. Why doesa plant sown in bad ground, adjacent to good soil, why does it direct its roots to the side of the latter? What teaches an onion placed in the earth, germ downwards, to direct it towards the air? Why do ivy and other plants of the same species, direct their feeble branches towards the trees which can sustain them? Why does the pumpkin push its fruit with all its strength towards a vase of water placed near it? What is it that teaches plants, in which one remarks the two sexes, to place themselves almost always the male near the female, and often very much inclined toward each other? Let us confess that all this passes our understanding; that Nature is not blind, and that she is governed by Wisdom.
Be tae Goveration Everything returns to its principle. Each | and Corruption | individual exists in potentiality in the mat- aldaeiahi erial world before appearing in its individual form, and will return inits timeand in its order to the point whence it has departed, as the rivers in the sea, to be born again in their turn, (Zccles., ch. [. v. 5). It 1s perhaps thus that Pythagoras understood his metempsychosis which has not been comprehended.
When the Mixt is dissolved, because of the weakness of the corruptible elements which compose it, the ethereal part abandons it, and returns to its native country. Then derangement, disorder and confusion take place in the parts
100 The Great Art.
of the corpse, because of the absence of that which preserved order in it. Death, corruption, take possession of it, until this matter receives anew the celestial influences, which reuniting the scattered Elements, will render them suitable for a new generation.
This vivifying spirit does not separate from matter during generative putrefaction, because it is not an entire and perfect corruption, as that which produces the destruction of the Mixt. It is a corruption combined and caused by this same spirit, to give to matter the form which suits the indi- vidual which it is to animate. It is some time in a state of inactivity, as we see in the germs; but it only needs to be excited. As soon as it is, it places the matter in movement; and the more it acts, the more it acquires new forces until it has finished the perfecting of the Mixt.
Let the materialists, the ridiculous partisans of chance in the formation and preservation of composites, examine what we have said, and reflect upon it seriously and without preju- dice; and let them then say how an imaginary being, can be the efficient cause of something real and so well combined. Let them follow this Nature step by step, her processes, the means that she employs and her results. They will see, if they do not close their eyes to the light, that the genera- tion of the composites has a determined time; that everything in the Universe is made by weight and measure, and that only an Infinite Wisdom could preside over it.
The Elements begin their generation by putrefaction. They are resolved into a humid nature or First Matter; then chaos is made, and from this chaos generation. Thus rightly do Physicists say that preservation is a continual creation since the generation of each individual corresponds to the creation and preservation of the Macrocosm. Nature is al- ways consistent; she has only one right way, from which
Generation and Corruption of the Mizts. 101
she departs only because of insurmountable obstacles, then she makes monsters.
Life is the harmonious result of the union of Matter with) Form, which constitutes the perfection of the individual. Death is the appointed limit where the disunion and separa- tion of Form from Matter takes place. One begins to die as soon as this separation begins, and the dissolution of the Mixt is the end.
Everything which lives, whether vegetable or animal, has need of nourishment for its preservation, and there are two kinds of food. Vegetables are nourished not less on air than on water and earth. The bosom of the earth would soon be exhausted if not continually replenished with the Ethereal Milk. Moses expresses this perfectly in the terms of the benediction which he gave to the sons of Joseph: De benedic- tione Domini terra egus,; de pomis celi et rore atque abysso subjacente, de pomts fructuum Solis et Lune; de poms collium aternorum, de vertice antiquorum montium: et de frugibus terra, et de plenitudine ejus, etc., (Deuter. 3}).
Would Nature have taken the care to place the lungs, those admirable and indefatigable bellows, near the heart simply to refresh it? No, they have a more important office: it is to inhale and to transmit to the heart this ethereal spirit, which comes to the aid of the vital spirits; repairs! their loss and multiplies them sometimes. This is why we breathe oftener when much agitated, because a greater waste of spirits then takes place, and Nature seeks to repair this loss. |
Philosophers give the name of sfzrzts, or spirttual natures, not only to immaterial beings, who can be known only by the intellect, such as angels and demons, but also to those which, although material, cannot be perceived by the senses because of their great tenuity. Pure air, or Ether, is of this
102 Che Great Art.
nature, as are the influences of celestial bodies, Innate Fire, seminal, vital, vegetable spirits, etc. They are the ministers of Nature, who seems to act upon Matter only by means of them.
_ The Fire of Nature is manifested in animals only by the heat which it excites. When it is withdrawn death takes its place, the elementary body or corpse remains entire until putrefaction begins. This Fire is too weak in the vegetables to become apparent even to the sense of touch. :
We do not know what is the nature of common fire; its matter is so tenuous that it is manifested only by the other bodies to which it attaches itself. Coal is not fire, nor is the wood which burns, nor the flame, which is only an inflamed smoke. It appears to be extinguished and to vanish when food is lacking to it. It must be an effect of Light on combustible bodies.
The origin of Light proves to us its spiritual
Of Ligbt.* nature. Before matter began to receive its
form, God created Light; it was immediately
diffused in matter, which served as the wick for its mainte-
nance. The manifestation of Light was, we may say, the
act which God exercised upon Matter; the first marriage of the Creator with the creature, of the spirit with the body.
At first diffused everywhere, Light seemed to collect in the
sun, aS several rays unite ina point. The light of the sun
is consequently a luminous spirit, inseparably attached to
*It is the Universal Agent, the Universal Plastic Mediator, the common recep- tacle of vibrations, of Movement and of the images of Form, Maya.
This Universal Agent, is the Od 3) of the Hebrews and of Chevalier deReichem- bach, the Astral Light of the Martinists. The use and manipulation of this force constitutes the Grand Arcanum of Practical Magic.
F, Jollivet-Castelot, Comment On devient Alchimiste, p. 282.
The Universal Light when magnetizing the world, is called Astral Light : when it forms the metals, it is named AzorH or Sophic Mercury. ... Eliphas Lévi,
Of Light. 103
this star, whose rays are clothed with particles of Ether in order to become sensible to our eyes. They are streams which flow continually from an inexhaustible source, and which diffuse themselves throughout the vast extent of the Universe.
Yet, we must not conclude that these rays are purely spiritual. They are corporified with Ether, as the flame with the smoke. If we furnish in our hearths a perpetually smoky fuel we will have a perpetual flame.
The nature of Light is to flow continually: and we have agreed to call rays those effluxions of the sun mixed with Ether. Yet, we must not confound Light with the ray, or with the splendour and brightness. Light is the cause; brightness the effect.
When a lighted candle is extinguished the igneous and luminous spirit, which inflames the wick, is not lost, as is commonly believed. Its action simply disappears when food is lacking to it. It is diffused in the air, which is the receptacle of Light, and of the spiritual nature of the material world.
So bodies return by resolution to the matter whence they have been derived; so also, the natural forms of individuals return to the universal forms, or Light, which is the vivifying spirit of the Universe. One must not confound this spirit with the rays of the sun, since there are only the vehicle of it. It penetrates even to the center of the earth, when the sun is not on our horizon.
Light is for us a vivid image of Divinity. Divine love being unable, to speak thus, to contain itself in itself; has been diffused outside itself and multiplied in creation. So Light is not confined to luminous bodies: it is scattered, it is multiplied, it is as God, an inexhaustible source of benefit. It is communicated always without any diminution; it seems
104 The Great Art.
even to acquire new strength by this communication, as a master who, by imparting knowledge to his pupil, strengthens his own.
This igneous spirit, born into bodies by the rays, is easily distinguished fromthem. The latter are communicated only as long as they find in their way no opaque bodies which arrest their course. The former penetrates even the most dense bodies, since we feel the heat on the side of a wall opposite to that on which the rays fall, although they have not been able to penetrate it. This heat exists even after the rays have disappeared with the luminous body.
Every transparent body, glass especially, transmits this igneous and luminous spirit without transmitting the rays: this is why the air, which is behind, in furnishing a new body to this spirit, becomes illuminated and forms new rays, which are diffused as the first ones. Besides, every transparent body, while serving as a means to transmit this spirit, not only finds itself enlightened, but becomes luminous; and this increase of brightness is easily manifested to those who notice it. This augmentation of splendour would not take place, if the transparent body transmitted the rays as it receives them.
Mr. Pott appears to have adopted these ideas of the Her- metic Philosophers regarding Light, in his Essay: Of chemical and physical observations on the properties and effects of Light and Fire. He has agreed perfectly with d’Espagnet, whose sentiments I here analyze and who lived about a century and a half ago. The observations which this learned professor of Berlin brings forward, all agree in proving the truth of what we have said. He calls Light the eveat and marvellous agent of Nature. He says that its substance, because of the tenuity of its parts, cannot be examined by number, measure or weight; that chemistry cannot expose its exterior form, because it cannot be thought of in any substance, much less
Of Light. 105
expressed; that its dignity and excellence are announced in the Sacred Scriptures, where God causes Himself to be called by the name of Light and of Fire: since it is said that God is Light, that He dwells in Light; that Light is His Vest- ment; that life consists in Light, that He makes His angels flames of Fire, etc., and finally, that several persons regard Light rather as a spiritual being than a corporeal substance.
In reflecting on Light, the first thing, says this author, which is presented to my eyes and my mind, is the Light of the sun; and I presume that the sun is the source of all the Light found in Nature; that all Light returns to it as in its circle of revolutions, and that from it it is sent anew upon our globe.
I do not think, adds he, that the sun contains a burning, destructive fire; but it encloses a substance luminous, pure, simple and concentrated, which enlightens all. I regard Light as a substance which delights, which animates, and which produces brightness; in a word, I regard it as the first instrument which God employed, and as the one which He still employs in Nature. Whence comes the worship which some pagans have rendered to the sun; whence the fable of Prometheus, who stole Fire from Heaven, to communicate it to the earth.
Although Mr. Pott does not approve apparently, he does, in reality, support the sentiment of those who make Ether a vehicle of the substance of Light, because, says he, they mul- tiply beings without necessity. But if Light isa simple being, as he avows, could it be manifested except through some sensible substance? It has the property of penetrating very subtle bodies by its tenuity, which is superior to that of the air, and by its progressive movement, which is more rapid than we can imagine; but he does not dare to decide whether it is due to a spiritual substance, although he is certain that the moving principle is as ancient as this substance itself.
106 The Great Art.
Movement, as movement, does not produce Light, but manifests it in suitable substances. It shows itself only in mobile bodies, that is to say, in an extremely subtle matter, adapted to the rapid movement, whether this matter flows immediately from the sun, or its atmosphere, and penetrates to us; or whether, (which appears, says he, more probable), the sun puts in movement those extremely subtle substances of which our atmosphere is full.
This is, then, a vehicle of Light, and a vehicle which does not differ from Ether; since this Savant adds, further on: “Tt 7s also the cause of the movement of Light which acts on our Ether, and which comes principally and most efficaciously from the sun,” This vehicle is not, even according to him, a being multiplied without necessity.
He distinguishes Fire from Light, and notes their differ- ences; but after having said that Light produces brightness, he here confounds the latter with the luminous principle, as one may conclude from the instances which he relates. I would have concluded from them that there is a Fire and a Light which do not burn, that is to say, which do not destroy the bodies in which they are adherent; but not that there is a Light without Fire. This lack of distinction between the principle, or cause of the splendour and brightness, and the effect of this cause, is the source of an infinite number of errors in regard to this matter.
Perhaps it is only the mistake of the translator who may have employed the terms Light and brightness, indifferently as being synonymous. I would be much inclined to believe this, since Mr. Pott, immediately after having related the different phenomena of phosphorescent substances, rotten wood, glow worms, burned clay rubbed, etc., says, that the substance of Light in its purity, or separated from every other body, does not permit itself to be perceived; that we
Of Light. 107
treat it surrounded by an envelope, and that we know its presence only by induction. This is to distinguish Light, properly speaking, from the brightness which is the effect of it. With this distinction it is easy to explain a great num- ber of phenomena which would remain incomprehensible without it. ©
Heat, although the effect of movement, is, we may say, identified with it. Light being the principle of Fire, is the principle of movement and of heat. The latter being only a lesser degree of Fire, or the movement produced by a more moderate Fire, more distant from the affected body, it is to this movement that water owes its fluidity, since without this cause it becomes ice.
One must not confound elementary Fire with the fire of the cook-stove, and one must observe that the former becomes an actual burning fire only when combined with combustible substances; of itself it gives neither flame, nor Light. Thus the Phlogiston, ora substance oily, sulphurous, resinous, is not the principle, but simply the matter suitable to maintain and manifest it.*
The arguments of Mr. Pott prove that the opinions of d’Espagnet and other Hermetic Philosophers, in regard to Fire and Light, are very reasonable and conformable to the most exact Physico-chemical observations, since they agree with this learned professor of Chemistry in the Academy of Sciences and Belles-Lettres of Berlin. So these Philoso- phers understood Nature: and since they understood her, why not try to lift the obscure veil under which they have concealed her processes by their enigmatical, allegorical and
*A substance quite analogous to the Philosopher’s Fire is Oxygen, a gas without the presence of which combustion is impossible, although incombustible itself; and quite opposite to Hydrogen, which burns in the air although incapable of maintaining combustion. E. B.
Sa a
108 The Great Att.
mythical discourses, rather than to scorn their reasonings because they appear unintelligible, or to accuse them of ignorance and deceit ?
The igneous spirit, the vivifying principle gives life and vigour to the Mixts, but this Fire would soon consume them, if its activity was not tempered by the aqueous humour which binds them together. This moisture circulates continually in all things. It makes a revolution in the Universe, by means of which some of the Mixts are formed, or nourished, or even in- creased in volume, while its evaporation and absence causes others to perish.
All the machinery of the world composes only one body, all the parts of which are bound by means which partake of the nature of the extremes. This bond is hidden, this knot is secret; but it is not the less real, and it is by means of it that all these parts lend themselves to mutual aid, since there
Of the Preservation of Mixts.
'is a relation, and a true commerce between them. The emissary spirits of the superior natures make and maintain
this communication; some go away while others come; some return to their source while others descend from it; the last come takes their place, the others depart in their turn, still others succeed them; and by this continual flux and reflux Nature is renewed and maintained. These are the wings of Mercury, by the aid of which this messenger of the gods made such frequent visits to the inhabitants of the Heavens and the Earth.
This circular succession of spirits is made by two means,
_rarefication and condensation, which Nature employs to
_spiritualize bodies and to corporify spirits; or, if one wishes, ‘to thin the gross elements, to open them, to elevate them to
Of the Moist Radical. 109
the subtle nature of spiritual matters, and then make them | return to the nature of the gross and corporeal elements. They undergo continually such metamorphosis. The air fur- nishes water a thin aerial substance which begins to corpori- fy; water communicates it to the earth, where it 1s corporified still more. It then becomes food for mineral and vegetables. In the latter it becomes stalk, bark, leaves, flowers, fruit, in a word, a corporeal palpable substance.
In the animal, Nature separates the most subtle, the most spiritual part of solid and liquid food, to change it in the principle of nourishment. It changes and specifies the purest substance into sperm, flesh, bone, etc., and leaves the grossest and most heterogeneous parts for the excrements. Art imitates Nature in her resolutions and compositions.
The life and preservation of individuals con- sists in the close union of form and matter. The knot, the bond, which forms this union, consists in that of the Innate Fire with the Humid Radical. This humidity is the purest, the most digested portion of matter, and an oil extremely rectified by the alembics of Nature. The germs of things contain much of this Moist Radical, in which a spark of celestial Fire is nourished; and when placed ina suitable matrix, causes, when constantly aided, all that is necessary for production.
We find something immortal in this Humid Radical; the death of the Mixts does not cause it to vanish or to disappear. It resists even the most violent fire, since it may be found in the ashes of burned corpses.
Of the
Moist tRadical.*
*Or Viscous Moisture. It is the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is the basis of all the beings of the three kingdoms of Nature; but which is more particularly the seed and basis of metals when philosophically prepared for Hermetic Work.
Pernety. Dict. Myth. Herm. p. 202.
110 The Great Art.
Each Mixt contains two moistures, the one of which we have just spoken, and an elementary moisture, in part aqueous, in part aerial. The latter yields to the violence of fire; it vanishes in smoke, in vapours, and when it is entirely evap- orated the body is only ashes, or parts separated the one from the other.
Not so with the Moist Radical; as it constitutes the basis of the Mixts, it braves the tyranny of fire, it suffers martyr- dom with insurmountable courage, and remains obstinately attached to the ashes of the Mixt; which indicates plainly its great purity.
Experience has shown to glass-makers, people usually very ignorant concerning Nature, that this Moisture is concealed in ashes. They have found by means of fire the secret of manifesting it, so far as art and the violence of artificial fire © are capable. To make glass the ashes must be fused, and there could be no fusion where there is no moisture.
Without knowing that the salts extracted from ashes contain the greatest virtue of the Mixts, laborers burn the stubble and grass to increase the fertility of their fields. Proof that this Humid Radical is inaccessible to the attacks of fire; that it is the principle of generation, the basis of the Mixts, and that its virtue, its active fire, remains torpid only until the earth,common matrix of principles, develops its faculties, which we see daily in seeds.
This Radical Balm is the ferment of Nature, which is ‘scattered through the whole mass of individuals. It is an ineffaceable tincture, which has the property of multiplying and which penetrates even its grossest detritus, since one employs it successfully to manure lands and to increase their fertility.
One can rightly conjecture, that this basis, this root of the Mixts, which survives their destruction, is a part of the
Of the Moist Radical. 111
First Matter, the purest and indestructible portion stamped with the seal of Light from which it received form. For the marriage of this First Matter with its form is indissoluble, and all the elements corporified as individuals derive their origin from it. Indeed was not such a matter necessary to serve as the incorruptible basis, and as the cubic root to corruptible Mixts, to be able to be their principle, constant, perpetual and yet material, around which would turn contin- ually the vicissitudes and changes which material beings experience daily?
If one was permitted to conjecture and to penetrate the obscurity of the future, would one not say that this unalterable substance is the foundation of the material world, and the ferment of its immortality, by means of which it will exist even after its destruction, after having passed through the tyranny of fire, and after having been cleansed of its original defects, in order to be renewed and to become incorruptible and unalterable for all eternity?
It seems that Light has as yet worked only upon it, and that it has left the rest in shadows. So it preserves always a spark of it, which it is only necessary to excite.
But the Innate Fire is very different from Moisture. It partakes of the spirituality of Light, and the Humid Radical is of a nature midway between the extremely subtle and spiritual matter of Light, and gross, elementary, corporeal
matter. It partakes of the nature of both, and connects
these two extremes. It is the seal of the visible and palpable treaty of light and shadows; the point of union and of commerce between the Heavens and the Earth.
Thus one cannot, without error, confound this Humid Radical with Innate Fire, The latter is the inhabitant, the former the habitation, the dwelling. It is, in all the Mixts, the laboratory of Vulcan; the hearth on which is preserved
112 The Great Art.
that immortal Fire, the prime-motor created from all the fac- ulties of individuals; the universal Balm, the most precious Elixir of Nature, the perfectly sublimated Mercury of Life, which Nature distributes by weight and measure to all the Mixts. He who will know how to extract this treasure from the heart, and from the Azdden center of the productions of this lower world, to despoil it of its thick elementary shell, which conceals it from our eyes; and to draw it from the dark prison in which it is enclosed and inactive, may boast of knowing how to make the most precious MEDICcINE to relieve the human body.
Of the The superior and inferior bodies of the ‘harmony World having the same source, and the same matter as a principle, have preserved a sym- pathy which causes that the purest, the noblest, the strongest, communicate to those who are less so all the perfection of which they are susceptible. But when the organs of the Mixts are badly arranged, naturally or through accidents, this communication is hindered: the order established for this commerce is deranged; the feeble, being less aided, be- comes weaker, succumbs, and becomes the principle of its own ruin, mole ruzt sud. (Cosmop. Tract 2).
The four qualities of Elements, cold, heat, dryness and moisture, are, we may say, the harmonic tones in Nature. They are not more contrary than the grave tone in music is to the acute; but they are different, and separated by inter-
of the Universe.
Of the Harmony of the Universe. 113
vals, or middle tones, which connect the two extremes. Just as by these middle tones a very beautiful harmony may be composed, so Nature can combine the qualities of the Ele- ments, so that from them may result a temperament* which constitutes that of the Mixts.
Properly speaking, there is no repose in Nature, (Cosmop. Tract 4). She cannot remain idle; and if she should permit real repose to succeed Movement for a single instant, all the machinery of the Universe would fall in ruin. Movement has, we may say, drawn it from nothingness; repose would replunge it into nothingness. That to which we give the name repose, is only Movement less rapid, less sensible. Movement is then continual in each part as in the whole. Nature acts always in the interior of the Mixts. Even corpses are not in repose, since they are corrupted, and since corruption cannot take place without Movement.
Order and uniformity reign in the manner of Movement, the machinery of the World; but there are different degrees in this Movement, which is unequal and different in differ- ent and unequal things. Geometry even demands this law of inequality: and we may say that celestial bodies have an equal Movement in geometric ratio, namely, in proportion to the difference of their size, their distance and their nature.
We easily perceive in the course of the seasons that the methods which Nature employs differ only in appearance.
Of Movement.
*Temperament, in Music, is the name given by the theorists of the XVIIIth century, to that which modern musicians call Tonality, viz., “the ensemble of the mysterious laws which govern the rapports existing between sounds, whether heard successively or simultaneously.” E. B.
114 The Great Art.
During the winter she appears without Movement, dead, or at least torpid. Yet, it is during this dead season, (morte saison), that she prepares, digests, covers the seeds, and disposes them for generation. She gives birth, to speak thus, in the spring; she nourishes and rears in the summer. She even ripens certain fruits; she keeps others for the autumn, when they have need of a longer digestion. At the end of this season everything decays, in order to be disposed for a new generation.
Man experiences in this life the changes of the four seasons. His winter is not the time of old age, as we usually say, itis that which he spends in the womb of his mother without action and in shadows, because he has not yet enjoyed the benefits of solar light. Scarcely is he born when he begins to grow: he enters into his spring; which lasts until he is capable of ripening his fruits. Then his summer succeeds; he strengthens himself, he digests, he develops the principle of life which is to give it to others. When his fruit is ripe, autumn takes possession of him; he dries up, he withers, he bends towards the principle to which his nature draws him, he falls into it, he dies, he is no more.
From the unequal and varied distance of the sun proceed the differences of the seasons. The Philosopher who wishes to imitate the processes of Nature in the operations of the Great Work, must meditate on them very seriously.
I will not here enter into the detail of the different Move- , ments of celestial bodies. Moses has explained only that _ which concerns the globe we inhabit. He has said almost ~ nothing of other planets, doubtless in order that human curi- osity should find matter for admiration, rather than subjects for dispute. The inordinate desire to know all still tyrannizes over the feeble mind of Man. He does not know how to conduct himself, yet he is mad enough to prescribe for the
Of Movement. 115
Creator rules to conduct the Universe. He makes systems, and speaks in such a decisive tone, that one would say that God has consulted him to draw the world from nothingness, and that he has suggested to the Creator the laws which preserve the harmony of its general and particular Move- ments. Happily the arguments of these pretended philoso- phers have no effect upon this harmony. We would have reason to fear consequences as grievous for us, as those which one draws from their principles are ridiculous. Let us calm ourselves: the world will continue in its course as long as it will please its Creator to preserve it. Let us not lose the time of a life as short as ours in disputing about things of which we are ignorant. Let us rather seek the remedy for the ills which overwhelm us: let us implore | Him who has created the Medicine of the Earth, to permit us { to know it; and that after having favored us with this won- | derful knowledge we should use it only for the advantage of | our neighbour, through love of the Sovereign Being, to whom alone be glory through all the ages.
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