THE PRACTICE OF Chemical, and Hermetical Physic, for the preservation of health. WRITTEN IN LATIN By josephus Quersitanus, Doctor of Physic. And Translated into English, by Thomas Timme, Minister.  
LONDON. Printed by Thomas Creed, 1605.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, SIR Charles' Blunt, Earl of Devonshire, L. Mounti●y, Lieutenant general of Ireland, M. of the Ordinance, Governor and Captain General of the Town and Garrison of Portsmouth, and the I'll of Portsey, Knight of the noble Order of the Garter, and one of his majesties most honourable privy Council.  
I I may seem (Right Honourable) an admirable and new Paradox, that Halchymie should have concurrence and antiquity with theology, the one seeming mere human, and the other Divine. And yet Moses, that ancient Theologue, describing & expressing the most wonderful Architecture of this great world, 
Genesis 1. 2.  tells us that the Spirit of God moved upon the water: which was an indigested Chaos or mass created before by God, with confused Earth in mixture: yet, by his Halchymicall Extraction, Separation, Sublimation, and Conjunction, so ordered and conjoined again, as they are manifestly seen a part and sundered: in Earth, Fire included, (which is a third Element) and Air, (a fourth) in Water, howbeit invisibly. Of which four Elements, two are fixed, as earth and fire: and two volatile, as water & air.  
That spiritual Motion of the first mover, God, hath inspired all the creatures of this universal world, with that spirit of Life (which may truly be called the spirit of the world) which naturally moveth, 
Eccle. 3. 19  and secretly acteth in all creatures, giving them existence in three, to wit, salt, sulphur, and Mercury, in one Huposiasis. Mercury congealing Sulphur, & sulphur Mercury, neither of them being without their Salt, the chiefest mean by whose help Nature bringeth forth all vegetals, Minerals, & Animals. So that of these 3. whatsoever is in Nature, hath his original, & is compacted of them, and so mingled with the 4. Elements, that they make one body. Therefore this Divine Halchymie, through the operation of the spirit (without the which the elemental & material Character, letter, and form, profiteth not) was the beginning of Time, & of Terrestrial existence, 
Acts 17. 28.  by which all things live, move, and have their being; consisting of body, soul, & spirit, whether they be vegetals, 
1. Thess. 5 23  minerals, or animals: reserving only this difference, 
Heb. 4. 12.  that the souls of men & angels are reasonable & immortal, 
Gen. 1. 16.  according to the Image of God himself, 
Wisd. 11. 17  & the sensuals (as beasts and such like) not so.  
Moreover, as the omnipotent God, hath in the beginning, by his divine wisdom, created the things of the heavens & earth, in weight, number, & measure, depending upon most wonderful proportion & harmony, to serve the time which he hath appointed: so in the fullness & last period of time (which approacheth fast on) the 4. Elements (whereof all creatures consist) having in every of them 2. other Elements, the one putrefying and combustible, the other eternal & incombustible, as the heaven, shall by God's Halchymie be metamorphosed and changed. For the combustible having in them a corrupt stinking feces, or drossy matter, which maketh them subject to corruption, shall in that great & general refining day, 
2. Pet. 3. 10. 13.  be purged through fire: And then God will make new Heavens and a new Earth, 
Apoc. 21. 5.  and bring all things to a crystalline clearness, & will also make the 4. Elements perfect, simple, & fixed in themselves, that all things may be reduced to a Quintessence of Eternity.  
Thus (right Honourable) you see a Paradox, no Paradox, & a Hieroglyphic plainly deciphered. For Halchymie tradeth not alone with transmutation of metals (as ignorant vulgars' think: which error hath made them distaste that noble Science) but she hath also a chirurgical hand in the anatomizing of every mesenteriall vein of whole nature: Gods created handmaid, to conceive and bring forth his Creatures. For it is proper to God alone to create something of nothing: but it is nature's task to form that which he hath created.  
Wherhfore if the fool which hath in his heart said, 
Psal. 14. 1.  There is no God, will put away the mist of ignorance and infidelity, and behold the power and wisdom of God in his creatures, manifested more particularly, and inwardly by the Art of Halchymie, imitating nature in separating from one substance, be it Vegetal, Mimeral, or Animal, these three, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, shall by that mystery, as in glass, discern the holy and most glorious Trinity, in the Unity of one Hupostasis Divine. 
Rom. 1. 20.  For the invisible things of God (saith the Apostle) that is, his eternal power and Godhead, 
Col. 2. 8.  are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works. This Philosophy therefore (my good lord (is not of that kind which tendeth to vanity and deceit, but rather to profit and to edification, inducing first the knowledge of God, & secondly the way to find out true medicine in his creatures.  
Plato saith, that Philosophy is the imitating of God, so farforth as man is able: that we may know God more and more, until we behold him face to face, in the kingdom of heaven. So that the scope of Philosophy, is to seek to glorify God in his wonderful works: to teach a man how to live well, and to be charitably affected in helping our neighbour. 
Gen 30. 37.  This Philosophy natural, 
job. 9 & 26. & 28 &. 37. 38. 39  both speculative & active, is not only to be found in the volume of nature, but also in the sacred Scripture: as in Genesis, in the book of job, in the Psalms, in Syrach, and in other places.  
In the knowledge of this Philosophy, God made Solomon to excel all the kings & Philosophers that were in the world, whereby the Queen of Sheba was alured to take a long journey, to make an experiment of that wisdom, 
2. Cron. 9 2  whereof she had heard so great fame, and found it by effect far greater. 
Mat 12 4.   
Anaxagoras a noble gentleman, but more noble in wisdom and virtue: Crates, Antisthenes, with many others, contemned the pleasures of the world and gave themselves to the study of natural Philosophy. Philosophers have brought more profit to the world than did Ceres, who invented the increase of corn & grain: then did Bacchus, that found out the use of wines: then did Hercules, which rid the world of monsters. For these things belong to the maintenance of bodily life and pleasure: but Philosophy instructeth and nourish▪ the soul itself.  
This philosophy, together with the most rare, excellent & healthful Physic linked to true grounds; and upholden by daily experience, the very marrow of true medicine, & the quintessence of marrow itself, I most humbly present unto your honour's hands, as a jewel of prize, to procure and preserve health: which Ptolomeus the son of Antiochus valued at so high a rate, that he gave to Erasistratus a noble Physician, on hundred talents for the curing of Antiochus.  
My labour herein, be it but as the apple, which Acontius gave to beautiful Cydippe to make known his amorous affection: yet being tendered with no less good will, in all humility I beseech your honour to accept: heartily wishing that as you are a principal pillar of this Common wealth, so it may be a mean to preserve you in health with long life, to your country's good (as heretofore) and to God's glory.  
Thus craving pardon for my bold conceit, I ever resolve to be,  
At your Lordship's Honourable pleasure and command, right humbly T. Timme.   

THE FORE-SPEECH TO the Reader.  
ALbeit the profession of Theology, standeth upon the infallible foundation of God's Word, yet among Divines, there have risen divers opinions and Sects. Among the 〈…〉 people) were pharisees, Saducees, Esseis, and Gaulenists: beside the false worship of Turks, Africans, Tartars, Persians, Cataians', and Indians. Among Christians, there are Papists and Protestants. The Papists, which call themselves Catholics, have divided themselves into Dominicans, Franciscans, jesuits, Seminaries, Seculars, Scotists, Tomists, Occamists, etc. Among Protestants, have sprung up, Anabaptists, Familists, and Brownists.  
As in Divine, so in human Sciences speculative, grounded only upon probable conjectures, there have risen also among the Professors thereof, divers and contrary opinions, & Sectaries. Among the Philosophers, were Stoics, Peripatics, Platonists, Cinnicks, and Epicures. Among Physicians, there are Empirics, Dogmatics, Methodici, or Abbreviators, and Paracelsians.  
The more part of these, plunged in human error, & misled by carnal respects, as singularity, envy, pride and ambition, hath dissented from others of sound and upright judgement. But some of these aiming at perfection, and having the advantage of succession and other helps, have by Time procreated a plain and naked truth. For this latter Age of the world, abounding in all manner of Learning, & with men of mature and pregnant wits, have greatly enlarged, illustrated, and refined all Arts and Sciences.  
If Therefore Endymion's diligence, which first found out the course of the Moon: If Amphion's Musical brain, which first conceived Harmony: If Appolonius Memphites, whose industry first described the Anatomy of man's body: If Chiron, which first discerned the virtue of Herbs, and taught Aesculapius' Physic: If Hermes Trismegistus, the first that reached & attained the ethereal and quintessential Physic: If (I say) these, and many others, in their rare inventions, have deserved singular commendation: then Hypocrates, Galen, Discorides, Valerius Cordus, Paracelsus, learned Quersitanus, & others more, which have added any thing to the enlarging and perfecting of that noble Science of Physic, are to be embraced and honoured, albeit they agree not together in opinion for that they all by their labours have sought the good of mankind. 
Eccle. 38.  Honour therefore the Physician (saith jesus Syrach) for the Lord hath created him, and given men knowledge, that he might be glorified in his wondrous works.  
But some Readers of their works, not carrying this moderation, like Midas, prefer Pan before Apollo, condemning Chemical Physic, Halchymie, and the Spagericke Art, as too curious, dangerous, and desperate to be dealt withal. Alleging also (which is too true) that many Halchymists are notable Sophysticators and deceivers.  
The meaning of some, by these and such like pretences, is nothing else, but like bad and unskilful Herborists, to sow Rocket, and to weed Endive. Yet let such carpers know, that the abuse of Art doth not abrogate the right use thereof. For as if the tree be blasted that blossoms, the fault is in the wind, & not in the root: so the fault is not to be ascribed to Art, which is not in Art, but the Artificer which is unworthy the name. And in very deed, it were to be wished, for common utillities sake, that all such cozoners and deceivers, might be banished out of City and Country, and from all society of honest men, which without lawful allowance, take upon them such professing and practise: or at the least, that they might be restrained, that through their lewdness, that art be not disgraced, which the ancients did not let to call Holy. And for my part, I doubt not, but that one Aomus or other, will recompense me with Balm, and say that I am out of my element, in that I being a professed Divine, should take upon me to meddle with Physic, & to publish that in the vulgar tongue, which was more fit to be in the Latin, as I found it.  
To this I answer, that a generality in human learning, beseemeth a Divine: and of all Sciences none more suitable to profession than Physic, as I could easily prove by many reasons. And therefore the wisdom of Christ appointed the miracles, wrought by himself & his Apostles, to consist chiefly in healing corporal infirmities. S. Luke was both a professed Physician, & an Evangelist. It cannot be but a commendable labour, & a charitable work in whomsoever, to seek by good means to preserve life, 
Luke 14. verse 5.  be it but of thy neighbours Ox, or Ass: This my labour I am sure is well intended, hosoever construed. But a wand thrust never so right into the water, seemeth crooked or broken: even so a bad heart misconceiveth good actions. As concerning the publishing of this in English, I have these Inducements. First, the common good of all men. For even the ignorant shall learn hereby, to have in high reputation (as is fitting) that which before they understood not, & so will the more readily in time of need have recourse to the learned Physician. Moreover, if the knowledge of holy writ be convenient for all sorts of men, as the Physic proper for the soul, why should not natural Philosophy, and Physic speculative, be common likewise to all for the health of the body? 
Num. 11. 29.  Therefore herein, I say as Moses said: Enviest thou for me? I would all the Lords people were Prophets. So I wish, that all which are capable, had the true speculative knowledge of Physic. Then should physic and Philosophy, not only have a more great and general esteem, but also every mean Apothecary, the Physicians left hand, should well understand how to Elixerate, which is greatly to be wished.  
As for the time which I have spent herein, it is my gain: happily extracted from idle time, whereas otherwise for my recreation, I might unhappily have done nothing: and yet have not neglected my pastoral function.  
If therefore (courteous Reader) by this my painful pleasure, thou mayest procure to thyself, but one scruple of knowledge more than before thou hadst, and in time of need, one dram of health, it is that which I seek, wishing thee thy full contentment in all the gifts and graces of God, to thy further profit, and to God's glory: to whose protection, I now leave thee.   

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE PRACTICE of Chemical Physic.  

CHAP. I.  
NOt only Hypocrates, but also all other famous Philosophers which have succeeded him, have received their most principal grounds of Physic & Philosophy, from the Egyptians. For the Egyptians had a most singular knowledge of Astronomy and of the celestial courses, together with the universal Science of the Mathematics, and of such like Sciences. But the more general knowledge of all Sciences, is by Strabo ascribed, before all others, to that admirable Hermes Trimegistus: as doth also Diodorus Siculus, who affirmeth, that the Egyptians were the first inventors of Sciences, taking their original and infallible grounds from the same Hermes, or Mercury: whose divine monuments are to be seen at this day.  
From this ancient Author Hermes, which lived in the first worlds, have sprung up all our Hermetical Philosophers and Physicians, whose traditions, have been received and embraced, not only of all sorts of learned men in all countries, but also by the most noble and famous Princes and Kings, both Greeks, Arabians, and Latins.  
Yet it must be confessed that the most ancient learned Philosophers▪ neither have nor could deliver such a general knowledge, wherein there was not something wanting, and whereof themselves were not ignorant.  
For (to use the words of learned Guido) we are infants carried upon the shoulders of those great and lofty Giants, from whose eminence we do behold, not only those things which they saw, but many other mysteries also, which they saw not. For no man is so sottish as to imagine that those first founders of Physic had attained to the exact & perfect knowledge of Medicine, or of any other Science: which Hypocrates himself acknowledged in his Epistle to Democritus.  
The same Hypocrates, howsoever otherwise singularly learned, and of all learned men for his monuments of Medicine, to be had in great reputation and reverence; yet hath bewrayed his ignorance in minerals, and metalline mysteries: as appeareth in his book of Simp. where he entreating of Quicksilver, affirmeth that he never made tryail thereof, neither inwardly taken, nor outwardly applied: bewraying his error in thinking that Hydrargyre, & Quicksilver, were two several things: supposing that it was a medicine of Silver dissolved into water, like unto potable gold.  
Hereby (I say) he hath bewrayed his ignorance in metalline substance, in that he knew not Hydrargyre, and Quicksilver to be all one. Whereof never any man doubted, except he were so addicted to his teacher, that he would say black is white, because his master saith so, which none of mean wit will do.  
For as we think them worthy of blame, which with new found fantasies & toys, do go about to burn & cover the errors of the reverend fathers & ancients, as do many Empirics and deceivers, under the name and profession of Paracelsians: who also, do too stiffly and falsely ascribe to Paracelsus, as to the only author, the knowledge of hidden things & causes, the finding out of mysteries, & the true preparation of all remedies and medicines: so in like manner they are to be reprehended which hold it sufficient, so as they talk of Galen without all reason, and affirm that he was ignorant of nothing, and that he came to the full knowledge of Medicine.  
It is therefore well said of a learned & well experienced lawyer, that it is a token of great rashness, for wise men, either at the first to subscribe error, or to subvert that which might please, moderated with a temperate resolution. And yet learned men against all truth, do oftentimes bark against ancient writers, thinking it great honour and praise unto them, if they be able in any sort to contend with their greatness.  
Those Philosophers which have written of Chymistrie, have to maintain their Science, Nature, Art, and Experience: by ancient practice derived from the Hebrues, Chaldeis, Egyptians, Persians, greeks, Latins, and Arabians. This Science therefore is not grounded (as some suppose) upon a vain an imaginary speculation, but is found most certain and infallible to the procuring of health, and length of days to many, by the goodness of Almighty God.  
Neither doth this Science only afford, common extractions of oils and waters, by ordinary Distillations, (as many Emperis do imagine) but also most precious Elipirs & Quintessences, much laboured, circulated, and wrought, by digestious concoctions, and fermentations, by the means whereof all impure and corrupt matter is defeked and separated, the evil quality corrected & amended, & that which is bitter, is made sweet. Without the which operations, our bread, beer, & wine, the ordinary and most principal means of our nourishment, become hurtful & pernicious unto us. For if we should eat raw wheat, or hoyled only in water: what & how many diseases would grow in us? For this cause we separate the pure from the impure, that they may be profitable for us, as the meal from the bran, the which meal or flower, we mix with water, we leaven and bake, whereof ariseth a great magistery, namely bread fit for nourishment: and by his artifice, apt to pass and turn into our flesh: in the working whereof, if there be but a little error, it will not be so pleasing to the taste, nor so fitting to nourishment, as is to be seen in bread, either ill seasoned, or not well baked: the which we reject through these defaults.  
The like practice & work is to be used in wines, if we desire to have them fit for our use. For the pure must be separated from the impure, by boilings, digestions, and firmentations, separating from the kernels and skins, the liquor of the grapes, that it may be brought into pure wine.  
This done, and being put into vessels, it worketh new separations, fermentations, disgestions, and purgations, separating the dregs and lées, from the pure substance of the wine; the which so separated, it becometh fine and clear, and is fit to be drank for nourishment: Whereas otherwise taken with the lees & not fined, it breedeth dysentery, fluxes, the stone, pain in the head, and procureth such like diseases.  
chemists therefore imitating nature in these kind of workings, and have learned them in her school: finding by effect in nature's work, that if common & ordinary meats & drinks unprepared, unseasoned, & rude, cannot be taken into our bodies without peril, than Physicians, and Apothecaries, aught to prepare, separate & purge those simples which they shall use for medicine, by art separating the cross impurity, that they may not be more hurtful to the weak and sick, then profitable.  
If Hypocrates or Galen himself, were now again alive, they would exceedingly rejoice to see art so enlarged & augmented by so great and noble addition, and would patronize and uphold with their own hands, that which was hidden from the old fathers in former ages: and rejecting many of these things, which before pleased them, yielding to reason and experience, would gladly embrace the new. For it is evident by their writings, how uncertain and doubtful they be in many things, by reason of the weakness of the foundation whereon they have builded. Whose buildings notwithstanding, utterly to overthrow, no wise and modest Phhlosopher will go about, but will rather endeavour to uphold them, that posterity may well and assuredly know that we were not barren, but endued with the same wit that they had, and that our minds were seasoned with that more noble salt. The which shall appear, it not rejecting the writings of our elders, we shall enrich and adorn them with new inventions.  
For arts come by tradition, and are delivered as it were from hand to hand, and every one adorneth his art with new inventions, according as he excelleth others in dexterity of wit. And albeit, it may be said, that it is an easy matter to add to that which is invented, yet both the Inventors, and also the augmentors, are to be thankfully embraced.   

CHAP. II.  
THere are three principal things mixed in every Natural body: to wit, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. These are the beginnings of all Natural things. But he, from whom all things have their beginning is GOD, upon whom all things do depend, he himself subsisting by himself, and taking the Original of his Essence from no other, and is therefore the first and efficient cause of all things.  
From his first beginning, proceedeth Nature, as the second beginning, made by GOD himself through the power of his word. This Nature, next under God, aught to be religiously esteemed, thought of, inquired, and searched for. The knowledge hereof is very necessary, and will be no less profitable: the search and raunsacking thereof will be sweet and pleasing. The profit which cometh hereby, appeareth in this, that the knowledge of all things which consist thereof, and whereof they borrow thei● name and are called Natural things, proceedeth here-hence whether they be subject to our senses, or above our senses. Hereupon great Philosophers, both Christians and Ethnics have been moved to make the signification of the name of Nature, to sit and serve almost all things. Insomuch that Aristotle himself, in that division which he maketh of Nature, dividing the same into the first and second Nature, and speaking of the first, he calleth it Naturam naturantem. Naturing nature, by which he meaneth God. So in like manner Zeno, a Prince of stoics, openly taught, that Nature was no other thing then God. Therefore the first Naturing nature is God; but the second which properly is said to be Nature, is subdivided into universal and particular. 
Lact. lib. de Ira Dei, cap. 10.  The Universal is that ordinary power of God, diffused throughout the whole world, whereof it is said, 
Plin. lib. 2. cap. 7.  that Nature doth suffer this or that, or doth this or that, as Augustine teacheth in his book De civitate Dei: 
Sen. lib. 4, de bennet. cap. 7.  and Lactantius: and among heathen writers, Pliny and Seneca.  
This universal Nature, is also taken for the divine virtue, which God hath put and implanted in all creatures: by the benefit whereof, certain notes of the Divinity, are to be discerned in them. hereupon some old Fathers were wont to say, All things are full of Gods, as did Heraclitus among others. 
Thomas lib 9 super. 2. lib. de coelo.  Some others take this universal nature, for a certain influence and virtue, whereby the Stars do work in these inferior things: or else for an acting virtue in an universal cause, 
Plato in Timaeo.  that is to say, in a body Celestial.  
Furthermore, that is universal Nature, whereof Plato speaketh when he saith: Nature is a certain force and strength infused throughout all things, the moderator and nourisher of all things, and by itself the beginning of motion and of rest in them. The which Nature Hermes Trimegistus, almost in the same words saith, to be a certain force risen from the first cause, diffused throughout all bodies by itself, the beginning of motion and rest in them.  
This force the Pythagoreans called God. And therefore Virgil, a great follower of the Pythagorean disciplne, wrote thus, saying; The spirit nourisheth inwardly, etc. And the Platonics called the same, the Soul of the world.  
But yet the Platonics have not defined & showed, in what manner, & by what means this Soul of the world, doth moderate and order all these interior things, and doth stir up in the generation of things: neither can they yet determine.  
But the more witty and learned sort of Philosophers, hold & affirm, that this world, which comprehendeth in the circumference and compass thereof the four Elements, & the first beginnings of nature, is a certain great body, whose parts are so knit together among themselves, (even as in one body of a living Creature, all the members do agree) that there is no one part of the parties, of that great body, which is not inlyned, quickened, and sustained, by the benefit of that universal soul, which they have called the soul of the world: affirming also, that if the bodies of living creatures do derive life and being from the soul which is in them; the same is much more done and effected in the far more noble and more excellent body of the whole world, by the means of the more potent and far more excellent soul, with the which this body of the universal world is endued, and by which it subsisteth. For it all the parts of the world have life, (as manifestly appearing it hath) then must it needs follow, that wholly it liveth, for that the parts draw and derive their life from the whole, from the which they being separated, cannot but perish and die. And hereupon they infer, that the Heaven compassing all things, is that Soul, which nourisheth and sustaineth all things. Also, further they affirm, that all the forms, virtues, and faculties of things, by which all things are neurished, sustained, and have their being do come from the world's Soul.  
And as the body and soul are gathered and joined together in one, through the benefit of the Spirits bond, for that it is partaker of both Natures: so the soul and body of the world are knit together by the means of the ethereal Spirits going between, joining each part of the whole into one subsistence. And yet hereof we must not conclude as did Aphrodisaeus and Philoponas, which were Platonists, that the world is a most huge living creature, endued with sense and understanding, wise and happy: the which is a most absurd and false opinion. But the Platonists by the soul of the world, gave us rather to understand a certain spirit, which cherisheth, quickeneth, conserveth, and sustaineth all things, 
Gen. 1.  as it were a certain spirit of that Elohym, or great God, which moved upon the waters: which Plato might remember, as one not ignorant of Moses, and thereupon frame his soul of the world. Whereupon also it must needs come to pass, that all these inferior things, otherwise transitory and infirm, should soon come to destruction, without they were conserved and continued in their being by that divine power, perpetually maintaining and suspecting them: the which being dissevered, a great confusion & perturbation of the whole world arise thereof. Which ruin and destruction, God of his great goodness would prevent, creating that universal Nature, which should defend all this great work, and keep it safe and sound, by his virtue and moderation: and that by the yearly and continual rotation and revolution of the right Heaven, and by the Influences and virtues of the Stars, Planets, and Celestial powers, all things might be well governed, and might constantly remain and abide in full fastness of their estate, until the predestinated time of their dissolution.  
To this ethereal spirit, or rather Divine power, every effectual and Omnipotent, Plato in his Timaeo giveth testimony, when he speaketh thus: When the sempiternal GOD had created this Universal, he put into it certain seeds of reason, & brought in the beginning Life, that he might beget with the world the procreating force. Wherein our explication which I brought before concerning the Soul of the world is confirmed. Which also agreeth with that which the Prophet Moses hath written, and which King David hath in his Psalm, in these words: By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the virtue of them by the spirit of his mouth. By which virtue of the quickening spirit, that great Trimegistus more conversant and exercised in Moses writings, than all other Philosophers, uttered these divine words in his second book, which is called Asclepias: All spirit (saith he) in the world, is acted and governed by the spirit. The spirit telleth all things: the world nourisheth bodies, the spirit giveth them soul. By the spirit all things in the world are ministered, & are made to grow and increase. And after that he saith again: All things have need of this spirit. For it carrieth all things, and it quickeneth & nourisheth all things, according to the dignity of each thing in itself. Life and the spirit is brought forth out of the holy fountain. By which divine words it appeareth plainly, that this eternal and quickening spirit is infused and put into all things: so that it is not observed to deduce and derive the actions, forces, and powers: also all natural things, from the spirits, as from the causes.   

CHAP. III.  
Having spoken sufficiently of the first and second beginning, that is to say of God & universal Nature: God the first cause using that general Nature as his handmaid: it resteth that somewhat be spoken of nature natured, that is to say, of that which is particular. To make an apt and convenient definition whereof, let us know that it is no other thing, than every natural body consisting of form and matter. For of these two causes, and not only of the causes, but also of the parts of the whole compound, all nature, that is to say, every natural body consisteth. For the Peripatetics do think, that whatsoever is the beginning of generation, aught to be called nature by a certain peculiar right. And Aristotle saith, that the same, from whence any thing is made at the first, and whereof it hath the first motion, mutation is the very beginning. 
Metaph. 5.  I say the beginning, from whence the essence of all natural things ariseth. The which nature Aristotle in another place defineth to be the beginning substantial and the cause of motion, and of the rest thereof, 
Cap. 1.  in the which it is at the first, and not by Accidents: the explication of which definition he hath comprehended in eight books. And Aristotle doth rightly call Nature, the cause and the beginning of internal motion. For those things which are made by Nature, and are therefore called natural, have a certain beginning of motion, whereby they are moved of their own accord, not by force. Whereby plainly appeareth the difference between those things which are natural, and which are endued with an effectual spirit; and with power to work by itself: and those things which are made by Art, which have no force nor power of doing, but are dead, and devoided of all sense and motion.  
By these things it appeareth, that things natural are called properly natural existences or beings, and such as have nature. And they are said to have nature, which possess in themselves the beginning of their motion, and of their rest: the which beginning of motion of every thing, is either the form or the matter, whereof we have spoken. Form, which is wholly spiritual, hath all her motion likewise spiritual. So the soul is of this same nature in a living creature, the motions and senses plainly celestial, spiritual, and a light beginning. Whereas the Matter is terrestrial, ponderous, and corporal, the other beginning of natural motion. By whose weight and grossness, the body tendeth downward, so as this kind of motion proceedeth not from the soul, or spiritual form, but from the corporal matter, which is terrestrial and heavy by his own nature. Hereof it cometh, that the name of nature, is given as well to Matter as to Form: but more aptly and conveniently to Form: because Form doth manifestly give to a thing his being, actually: whereas Matter alone cannot perform that.  
For not every living creature, hath sense and motion from that body which is solid, terrestrial and ponderous: but only from the spiritual form: that is to say, the soul moving the body, and informing it with the vital virtues. As for example.  
A horse is in act, and in truth a horse, when he neither moveth, leapeth, nor runneth: but these motions which are spiritual, are the effects & operations of the soul or form, whereas otherwise the body having nothing but the lineaments, and visible form, whereby it seemeth a horse is mere terrestrial, heavy and dead. Howbeit, neither the soul alone of the horse, can be said to be a horse, except it be coupled with the body.  
For both being joined and coupled together make a horse.  
Know therefore that the Form is far more noble and excellent than the Matter: and that Nature as touching her effects and operations, is of that power that it generateth, and giveth being to all things, it putteth matter on the forms, it beautifieth, and suffereth nothing to be corrupted, but preserveth all things in their estate. Th●se her virtues, faculties and powers, she very apparently showeth, when as she worketh and causeth all sorts of beings out of the 〈◊〉, and out of the seeds and beginning of all things, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury: and informeth with great variety of impressions of the vital spirits, colours and taste, and with the properties of such kind of powers and faculties, that it giveth to every thing so much as concerneth the office and dignity thereof, in all sufficiency. The which building and 〈◊〉 of things, so aptly and conveniently form in order, in number, and measure, we may w●ll call divine, not terrestrial and corporal 〈…〉 same be natural, according to the power which God hath given unto Nature.  
And yet we must not think that God hath so forsaken the frame of this world, that he sitteth idle, as having given such admirable and potent ●ffects to nature only, according to the opinion of An●xagoras, Protagoras, and many other Athe●●●i all Philosophers, which acknowledge no other God but Name, as also did the Epicures. 〈◊〉 it they be to be accused and condemned for so wicked an opinion, then do they deserve no small reprehension, which deny nature her parts and offices in working.  
For the offices pecu●●ar both of her first and second cause, are to be attributed to either, according to 〈…〉. Neither are these places of Scripture any thing repugnant. 〈◊〉 is God which worketh all in all. And again: in him we live, move, and have our being. For albeit this is true, yet God hath appointed Nature as a means to fulfil his will, the which Nature he having 〈◊〉 with the virtues of working, he by the same beginneth, furthereth, and perfiteth all things. Therefore the second cause, is called Nature, because by the same, as by a vital instrument, God, who is the first cause worketh all things. For thus God feedeth men with bread, the which he hath endued with a natural faculty of nourishing, that the nature of bread may be said to feed and nourish, whereto he hath predestinated the same, by the form of natural bread.  
Thus therefore these things are to be reconciled, that we acknowledge God to be the first cause of working in all other causes, because he hath made the causes, and hath given power of working, and doth himself work together with them, and that we believe that he stirreth up, provoketh, directeth and moderateth Nature, by the power, force, and unity which he hath given to her, to do all things by her proper motions. So that we must seek the cause and form of all natural actions in Nature, which God hath made potent with spiritual virtues, by which it acteth and worketh in the matter: for that nothing can proceed from the matter itself being dead, which is Vital, or endued with the faculties of working.   

CHAP. IIII  
THis word (Beginning) extendeth very far. For as Arts and Sciences, so also all other things have their proper and set beginnings. Plato entreating of Beginnings, one while appointeth three: namely, God, pattern, and Matter: another while he appointeth two only, that is to say, that which is infinite, and that which is terminable, and to be limited. By the word Infinite, he meaneth Matter: and by the word Terminable, he meaneth Form, as bringing a thing within a certain compass, and restraining a matter excurrent within bonds and limits.  
Aristotle varied not much from the opinion and sentence of his Master, albeit he declared the same in other words, calling that Form which Plato named Terminable. And that which Plato called Infinite; Aristotle nameth, Matter: appointing Privation, by itself, for a third beginning.  
Let it not therefore seem absurd to any, that we appoint three beginnings of all things, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, as if it were thereby intended to overthrow, by our constitution, the beginnings of the ancient Philosophers, whereas we join and agree with them. For if we grant to Aristotle, his beginnings, what difference will there be between him and us. We admit (if you please) the distinction, by which he divideth his beginnings, namely, into the first matter, into the simple matter, and into that which is remote, enduring all alterations of forms, or wherein there is power to be made subject to all forms, and in two contraries, to wit, Form, and Privation: the which ability of taking form, is in the subject.  
We grant that these beginnings, of all other, are the more parciptible in understanding than in sense. As therefore our beginnings, which we appoint out of which all mixed things are compounded and be, cannot by the Aristotelian Philosophers be overthrown: so in like Aristotelian beginnings cannot by ours, be destroyed. For all this whole world is divided into two Globes, to wit, into the inferior Heaven, which is aetherial, and Airy: and into the inferior Globe, which comprehendeth Water and Earth. The superior, which is aetherial hath in it Fire, lightning, and brightness: and this firery Heaven, is a formal and essential Element.  
What things soever are comprehended in these four bodies, which are the Elements and receptacles of all things, are either simple things, or bodies, mixed and compounded of them.  
They are simple which are without mixture, existing apart and several by themselves: of the which all things are made, and into the which all things are resolved. They are compound or corporeat, which both are made of simples, and into simples.  
And simples may be distinguished into those things which are simple forms, and into those which are simple matters: or into those things which are simply formals, and into those which are simply materials. So bodies are divided into material bodies, and into bodies formal.  
Those things which are simply formal are astral and spiritual: the Elements are formal: Seeds are formal: and the three beginnings are formal: that is to say, so spiritual, that they come not within the compass of our 〈◊〉.  
But the formal Elements (whereof we speak●) are they in w●ose closet the astral seeds o● things, and the formal beginnings, are defused and laid up, as in their proper rec●●●●cles: in the which simple and spiritual Elements of seeds, and spiritual beginnings, the 〈◊〉 and quickening Sciences, properties, and roots of propagating 〈◊〉 increase of all things, lie hid, wherein also all habits, 〈◊〉, and figures, qualities, quantities and dimensions, savours, odours and coolours are included, which do bud 〈◊〉 and flourish out of their bosom in their due time, by opertune maturity. And these simple Elements or beginnings, do embrace the spiritual seeds, with so great simphathy and friendship, and do render to the Elements and beginnings, mutual reciprocation of love, that being brought by the parents into some particular kind, or form, they never make an end, (by the recordation of their union with the simple Elements) but that at the last again, the predestination and 〈◊〉 of the natural bodies being consummated, they return back again to their grandfathers, and great grandfathers, and do rest there: even as the floods passing and issuing out of their Element of the sea, & running in their course hither and thither, leaving at the length every where behind them their generation (or their womb exonerated) they return to their beginning again: whereupon by mutual copulation they receive new force and strength to increase their issue.  
And this is the perpetual circulation, by which the heaven is married to the Earth, and the inferior Elements do conjoin with the superior. For the continual vapours arising from the centre of the earth, being expulsed into waters, and being carried from waters into air, by the attraction of the Celestial Stars: and also by the force and appetite of the inferior Elements to bring forth issue, and to conceive from heaven, the seeds passing too and again, at the last the Elements return to their parents full and impregnated with Celestial forms, and do there nourish their seeds, until at the length they bring forth in due season, and do exclude their generation. The which impregnation cometh from no other, than from those astral seeds, and those three several beginnings, Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, furnished and fulfilled with all science, properties, virtues, and tinctures; and do borrow and fit to themselves, out of their spiritual body, a material, and do animate and adorn it with their properties. For it belongeth unto Mercury to give life unto the parts: to Sulphur, to give increase of body: and to Salt, to compact those two together, and to conjoin them into one firm body.  
GOD the Creator of all things, made the world after his own Image, which may plainly appear in this, that albeit the whole world is one, yet it joyeth in the number of three, being framed in order, number, and measure, in whose bosom these three simple bodies were included, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.  
Therefore let us compare the works of God a little with the similitude of the Trinity. The world is divided into these three parts, Intellectual, Celestial, and Elemental. The Elemental (to let the other two alone, as less known unto us) consisteth of Minerals, Vegetables, and animals: beside the which, there is nothing to be found in this world. Of Minerals, there are three differences, Stones, Metals, and mean Minerals. In like manner among Vegetables, there are three sorts: Herbs, Trees, and Plants.  
Also of Animals there are three orders, creeping things, swimming things, and flying things. If we should prosecute every particular at large, we shall find this Teruarie every where and in all the parts thereof. But we will consider of man only in this point.  
Man consisteth of Spirit, Soul, and body: as holy Writ testifieth. The Spirit saith, Hermes is represented by Mercury: the Soul is represented by Sulphur: and the Body, by Salt. 
1. Thes. 5. 23.  The Spirit consisteth of mind, reason, and fantasy. The Soul hath three factulties, natural, vital and Animal. 
Heb. 4. 12.  The Body is cut into three parts in Anatomy: to wit, into head, belly, and members. These have three principal members, whereunto others are subject: the brain, the heart, and the liver. The brain hath three helps to purge by, the mouth, the nostrils, and the ears. The purgers and receivers of uncleanness from the heart, are, the Midry●e, the Lungs, and the great Arteries. The purgers of the liver, are the Milt, the bladder of the Gaul, and the Reins. So there are three principal vessels which do serve the whole body, namely, the Arteries, the Sinews, and the Veins. Further if we consider the head again, it hath three skins. The brain hath three bellies, two soft before, and one hard behind. There are three principal instruments of voice, the throat, the palate, and the kernels. To conclude this point, if all these should be dissevered and separated into their beginnings, they might be resolved into Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, whereof they consist.  
Therefore these three formal beginnings, which we have described by their offices and propertions, albeit they are more spiritual than corporal, yet being joined with simple Elements, they make a material body mixed and compound, they increase and nourish it, and preserve it in his estate unto the predestinated end.  
And seeing the properties, Impressions, and faculties are inset and included in those beginnings, and have those vital qualities of tastes, odours, and colours hidden in them, how material soever those seeds be: yet notwithstanding they rather contend to come near to Form, than to Matter: but the Elements do more cleave and incline to Matter than to Form. And therefore the Philosophers call them properly simple beginnings formal, because they are more principal, adorned and enriched with the first and chief faculties of astral seeds. But the Elements, they call beginnings, material simple. To the one, they attribute actual qualities, and to the other passive. And so of them both, as it were secondarily and so near as may be, all mixed bodies are compounded and do consist.  
If therefore we shall thoroughly discuss and ransack every particular individiall in his kind, and their generation, we shall find that which is said to be true: namely, that some simple beginnings are formal and spiritual: others material, corporal, and visible. And that the Inuisibles are the Elements simple, formal, the astral seeds, and spiritual beginnings. Also that the visibles are all one and the same, but yet covered with a material body. The which two bodies, spiritual and material, invisible and visible, are contained in every Individual, albeit, that which is spiritual, cannot be discerned, but by reason of motion of life, and of functions, and yet is within it.  
These visible and material bodies are of three sorts. 

Seeds.  
Beginnings.  
Elements.    
Of these 3. some are 

Active, as Seeds, and Beginnings.  
Passive, as are the Elements.    
The Active bodies of visible Seeds, wherein there is any virtue, are 

The seeds of living creatures, put forth by Venus.  
The seeds of herbs & trees, in their several cases & trunks.  
The seeds of Mines, overwhelmed with a great heap of impediments.    
All which lie hidden in themselves have Spirits.  
The Active bodies of beginnings, have 

Two moist, 

Mercury.  
Sulphur.    
One dry: Salt.    
Mercury is a sharp liquor, passable, and penetrable, and a most pure & ethereal substantial body: a substance airy, most subtle, quickening, and full of Spirit, the food of life, and the Essence, or term, the next instrument.  
Sulphur is that moist, sweet, oily, clammy, original, which giveth substance to itself: the nourishment of fire, or of natural heat, endued with the force of mollifying, and of giving together.  
Salt, is that dry body, saltish, merely earththy, representing the nature of Salt, endued with wonderful virtues of dissolving, congealing, cleansing, emptying, and with other infinite faculties, which it exerciseth in the Individuals, and separated in other bodies, from their individuals.  
These three beginnings, were by Hermes the most ancient Philosopher, called Spirit, Soul, and Body. Mercury the Spirit, Sulphur the Soul, Salt the Body, as is already said.  
The body is joined with the spirit, by the bond of Sulphur: the soul, for that it hath affinity with both the extremes, as a mean coupling them together. For Mercury is liquid, thin, flexible. Sulphur is a soft oil passable; salt is dry, thick, and stable. The which notwithstanding are so proportionate together, or tempered equally the one with the other, that a manifest sign, and great analogy or convenience is found in this contrariety of beginnings. For Sulphur, or that oily moisture, is (as I have said) a mean, which with his humidity, softness, and fluidity or passablenes, joineth the two extremes, that is to say, fixed salt, and flying Mercury: that is to say, the dryness of salt, and the moistness of Mercury, with his viscus and clammy humidity: the thickness of salt, and the subtlety of Mercury (utterly contrary) with his fluiditie: which holdeth the mean between stable, and flying. Moreover Sulphur, by reason of his exceeding sweetness, doth contemper the sharpness or sowernes of Mercury, and the bitterness of salt: and by his clammynes, doth conjoin the subtle flying of Mercury, with the firmness and fastness of salt.   

CHAP. V. Concerning Salt.  
OF all other, the Philosophical salt is of greatest virtue and force to purge, and is as it were the general cleanser of whole nature, delivering the same from all impurity; whether it be the belly, by siege; the stomach, by vomit; the reins, by urine; or the body, by sweat; opening & cleansing obstructions, coming of what cause soever.  
This kind of purging is very large: whose parts albeit they tend to one end, yet they have as it were divers & contrary effects, proceeding from one subject, which cannot be seen. And as the effects are divers, so are there divers kinds of salts, which according to their diversity, have divers tastes and sundry properties of evacuations, and cleansings, and divers other faculties.  
But among Salts, that which is more bitter and nearest to the taste of Aloes or Gaul, showeth his proper working in purging the belly by siege. Such Salts Chemists call Salt- Niter, or Niterous salts. Saladine, an ancient & great Physician▪ speaking of Salts, saith thus: There are four famous kinds of Salt, to wit, the salt of bread, that is to say Common-salt, salt-gem, salt-naptie, and salt-Indi●. And afterward he saith, that this last is of all other the most better, sharp, and most violent, and therefore of greatest force to purge. And he saith, that all Salt is as it were a spur to other medicines with the which it is mingled: for that it maketh them to work more speedily. Lastly, he saith, that all Salt, bringeth forth gross Phlegmatic humours.  
Among Salts, some are earthy, some watery, and some airy, or such as have in them predominant, either the Element of that earth, of water, or of air: insomuch some of them are fixed, & are of the nature of earth: other some are between fixed & flying, and do retain a certain middle watery property. But Sal Armoniac is of nature spiritual, (as is also the common Armoniac) & of all other most flying & airy.  
And all Salt, whether it be flying, or fixed, is no otherwise dissolved and commixed in waters, than with the water of Water, and if one be a dry water, the other is moist.  
These three kinds of salts, which lie hidden in the secret parts of things, whether they be metalline, vegetable, or animal, and which are principally seated in that element, which produceth his generations out of the earth, they do participate of the nature of the three beginnings. For the common salt, and that which is of the sea, passing through the philter of the earth, and boiled and digested with the heats of the bowels of the same earth, doth participate of the nature of fixed and firm salt, the father and original of all others. But Niter, being partly fixed, and in part volatile, doth participate of the sulphurus beginning of things: even as Sal Amoniac doth participate of the Mercurial beginning spiritual and airy: whose extremes, to wit, fixed and volatile, of the sulphurus salt, or the Niterus, partaker of the volatile nature in part, and partly fixed, are coupled together by intercession. By this strait and wonderful bond of the three beginnings, three divers substances of Salts, of sundry properties, do manifestly appear, like in essence, but not in natures of qualities. For beyond all expectation, a good witty Salt-maker, will extract out of a fat and fertile earth, (by washings) these three kinds of salts: namely, the marine and fixed, which is dissolved in lie made of ashes, the Niterus by itself, which is there coagulated or congealed: and the Armoniac volatile & airy, flying in part out of the Lie, and partly contained in both the salts and therefore hidden from the senses. This may be done by a skilful Salt-maker, albeit he were utterly ignorant of all the mysteries which here are hidden.  
Which three distinct differences of salts, as they are to be found in every fat kind of earth, so out of both the salts, namely the marine and fixed, and the Niterus volatile, they may be thenceforth separated. For those salts, being put into a retort together, or apart by themselves, with a receiver, first by the force of fire stilleth forth a Volatile Salt, sour, sharp and Mercurial: then, with a greater heat, cometh forth a Salt Sulphurus and Niterus, and sweet: the third Salt, which is Salt upon Salt fixed, will not move with any force of fire, but remaineth constantly in the bottom of the glass.  
All tastes are brought forth out of these three sundry salts, common to that triple beginning of things, so as we shall not need to have recourse to hot and cold, moist and dry. For they are procreated out of those beginnings alone. Fixed Salt, consider as it is simple, and without commixtion, maketh simply a salt taste. A Sulphurus Salt also simply understood, yieldeth out of it a sweet oilily taste. But Mercurial Salt, in like sort conceived by itself and apart, representeth a sour taste. All which tastes mixed together in equal proportions, yield a pleasant and delightful taste, without any sense or taste of any of the particulars.  
These three beginnings cannot be found simple in a mixed body, in such wise, but that they have some composition, and do in mixture communicate their qualities together: as may be seen in sea-salt, and salt-péeter, out of the which may be separated not only a salt and sharp taste, but also a sweet taste. And it is certain, that in things sulphurus and oilily, and also in Mercurial liquors, there is to be found a conjunction of such tastes.  
For this cause we affirm, that all fixed Salt of a mixed body, is very brinish and exceeding bitter: the sulphurus, of a fat and sweet taste: and the Mercurial, sour, sharp and fiery. So that upon these simple qualities, salt, sweet, and sour, (which are to be found in all body's mineral, vegetable and animal) all others tastes do depend.  
And as touching the elementary qualities passive, which are as organical and instrumental causes, they little appertain to this matter: whether it be the terrestrial and dry passive quality, & passive coldness, or whether it be the airy moist vapour, the which tastes of this sort, or potent qualities, proceedeth from these three beginnings, do either further to this or that nature, or else do impair and weaken them. To make this plain by manifest reasons, and to lay it open before our eyes, we will begin to entreat of mixed bodies, the which notwithstanding according to the Elements, are most simple.   

CHAP. VI  
IT is already said, that tastes by a certain private right are ascribed to Salts, or to their spirits: which evidently appeareth hereby, that the differences of tastes, are not produced but from the differences of salts: or chose, the differences of salts, are produced from the differences of tastes.  
In the bosom of nature, there are found almost so many kind of salts, as there are variety of tastes. Digged or mineral, and marine Salt, is endued with a salt quality. Niter with a bitter quality: Alum, with a sharp: Vitriol, with a sour: Armoniac, with a sharp and sour quality. But sweet salts do manifestly appear, not only in Manna, and in Sugar, but also in marine salt, and in salt of Vitriol, out of which they are to be separated. And (as we have said) in every of these salts, these three first beginnings, Salt, Sulphur, and Merucry, are contained jointly together: one airy, mercurial, or spiritual, the which is sharp and sour; the other earthly, which is sour, and bitter: and the third oilily & sweet, which is a mean between them both. In Vitriol alone, is manifestly to be seen, eager, sharp, sour, and astringent, for that of all other Salts, it is most corporal.  
But those tastes or qualities, which are mixed with passive and Elementary qualities, have not the full force of every of these, but are made more weak by mixtion: for the sharp (which is not extracted and separated but by the force of the fire with the airy part) is mixed with a mercurial liquor: the sour is mixed with a flegmetique, or watery humour: and the eager, with a terrestrial dryness: the which, the more they have of the Elementary qualities, and the same passive, so much the more weak they are and impaired. But if the active qualities be separated from the passive, as by art it is to be done, than the tart and sower do obtain their full force, and do manifestly and fully burn the tongue with their fires: for the sharp hath a more fiery and burning quality: and the sour, a more watery property. For the sharp partaking of the nature of fire, hath overmuch virtue to attenuate, dissipate, and to fret: the sour, as, airy, watery, & of thin parts, hath virtue to cut, to open, to refrigerate, and also to put away putrefactions. The eager and more tart, which remaineth in the Colchotar (after the extraction of the sharp oilily, and sour water, with the airy parts of the elemental qualities) do possess a nature and force to thicken and bind, by reason of the earthy and gross property.  
But if from that terrestrial part, the pure (which is Salt) be extracted, it will have a salt taste, by the virtue whereof it will be made, both deiective, and vomitive. And in the sweet Sulphur of Vitriol, there is a manifest sweetness, which is plainly stupefactive.  
Finally, in all Salts, almost, (dissevered by Chemical separation) these three are to be discerned, Sower, Sweet, and Bitter, which have force of active qualities, and yet not destitute of the moist passive, terrestrial and gross, but with them, in sundry wise so seasoned and tempered, that they bring to the Salts, varety of tastes.  
And let this serve for demonstration, by which it may plainly appear, that those sundry differences of tastes, are manifestly contained in Salts, both jointly and severally, especially in their spirits: And according to the opinion of Hermes scholars, we deny that those inset and natural qualities, virtues, and properties, are to be arrogated to hot, moist, and dry, but rather to the essences of a nature which is salt, bitter, eager, sharp, sour, tart, sweet, and oilily.  
For there are six hundred frigidities or colds, six hundred heats, humidities, & ●●gities or drinesses, than the which nothing doth more heat, cool, moisten, and dry. But they have never brought any savour or taste to pure or simple water, or to other juices or liquors, which have been destitute of Salt.  
Whatsoever is without Salt, or destitute of a brinish spirit, can never be discerned by taste, but is utterly unsavoury. Yet notwithstanding, it simple water be powered upon ashes, with a little heat, that water will draw unto it saltness, bitterness, or sharpness, more or less, according to the nature of the salt, more or less salt, or bitter, which is contained in the ashes.  
And if any man object, that Honey and Sugar by boiling, or by the force of fire, may be made sharp or bitter: we answer that it cometh so to pass, when the airy sulphurus, and watery parts, which bring and preserve the sweetness do perish and are separated by decoction. But terrestrial Salt, whose faculties are inward, have this property, that of their own nature they possess, this or that sharp or bitter taste, how extreme soever it be. So if thou shalt draw out of onions and garlic a Volatile and airy sharp Mercurial Salt, which ariseth in the superficies & uppermost of their bodies: thou shalt make them more sweet and pleasing, and to put off their sharpness, by which they bite the tongue: but yet they will retain and represent their hot quality, with the which they abound, by reason of their fixed salts. As out of salts, so out of odours also, we may draw certain faculties, without the help of hot qualities. For seeing they are referred to the divers properties of Sulphur, sundry odours do arise therefrom, and not from the qualities. Which if they be sweet and pleasing, the brain receiveth them with pleasure and delight, whereas unpleasant savours or odours, are offensive both to the nose and to the brain, and are rejected. Such is the marcotical and stefactive odour of Poppy, and Hemlock, and such like which do stink, and astonish the brain, by reason (as Physicians affirm) of their cold quality: Wherein they break the Law of their axioms, for that they hold that their odours are of a hot quality, as most true it is. For that which is stupefactive in the Poppeis, and in Opium, is no other thing, but a certain oilily and sulphurus part conceiving flame, (much like to that kind of oil, which is extracted out of the seeds of poppy) the which albeit it do readily burn, yet as it is commonly thought, it showeth most cold effects. The common Physicians, to correct such coldness attributed to Opium, use helps, as is to be seen in their opiate and antidotary medicines, wherein Opium is an Ingredient. Of these kind of compositions Myrepsus describeth above four score: where Euphorbium (which is of a fiery and burning faculty) is no more forborn then either of the Peppers, or such other like caustic and burning simples, of extreme hot quality: when as the true and proper corrector of Opium (that I may so speak) well known to Hermetical Physicians, is Vinegar; which putteth away stupefactive vapours and fumes, that they ascend not to the brain, so suppressing them by the sharpness thereof, that it retaineth them: whereas their hot correctors do more stir them up and multiple them. Hereof come sinister and deadly passions and pains, by reason whereof men are constrained to use the imperfect Laudanum of Empirics, against the deadly danger of such medicines.   

CHAP. VII.  
NOw somewhat shall be said concerning colours. The dogmatical Physicians, that they might not diminish any whit of the qualities of colours, are wont to refer to those qualities a certain variety of colours: and have observed and noted certain frivolous and light observations: as when they say, that in a white onion, or in white wine, a man may judge by the colour a great coldness, than in a read onion, or in red wine. Whereas white sublimate, and Arsnic, albeit they are most white like unto Crystal: yet nevertheless under this whiteness, they foster and hide a most burning and deadly fire. Yea Sugar itself, which is so sweet, white, and pleasant, doth hide in the innermost parts thereof, a wonderful blackness and sharpness, from whence may be extracted most sharp liquors and waters, which will dissolve and break the most hard metals. Therefore it is absurd, to sharp and form colours from hot and cold, which do proceed from the spirits only, or else from the most thin and airy vapours, which lie hid in the Salt: especially in that Salt which by nature is sulphurus, such as is Niter, or saltpeter, as men call it. Niter thoroughly depured and cleansed, will be as white as snow; from which whiteness, may be drawn infinite sorts of colours, most excellent to behold. Which colours come from the only spirits of saltpeter, which are able to pierce the most hard kind of glass, by the force of fire thrust forth in the likeness of volatile meal, and cleaning in the overture of the glass Alembic. By which colours, a man may behold the body of the Alembic to be tained & died, as well within as without in the superficial part: Which colours are of no less variety, then are the flowers of the earth in the time of the Spring. Hereby it appeareth plainly, that this diversity of all colours is to be taken from the spirits, no less nor otherwise, then are all other properties and virtues of all other things to be referred unto them.  
If therefore the foundation of these three things be laid upon three beginnings, & upon their spirits, it will be very firm and stable, in such wise, that in the ignorance of any cause, it shall not be needful to fly to hidden properties.  
If this doctrine, according to the truth thereof, be received, learned, and studied, being upholden also with the authorities of that great Hypocrates, it shall easily drive from us the darkness of ignorance, and shall bring with it the light of knowledge, which will remove all difficulties: For out of this school are learned most certain and infallible Thearemes and Axioms, against which, as against most assured grounds, there can be no opposition or resistance: but will be allowed by the general consent of indifferent judges.  
Let us take an example from Vinegar: whereof many famous Physicians, cannot tell what certainly to affirm. For, because it is sharp, and therefore cooleth, they will have it to be cold. But chose, when they behold the faculty thereof, to be attenuating, cutting, and dissolving, also their pernor and boiling thereof, when it is put upon earth or clay, they are constrained to forsake their opinion, uncertain what to judge thereof. Who, if they had been acquainted with the Hermetical doctrine, they should have known, that the cause of such tartness or sourness in vinegar, cometh by the separation of the spirit, from the wine: as is plainly seen by experience. For the longer that wine standeth in the Sun, or in a hot place, the more by little and little it waxeth sharp; and whatsoever is airy therein, and of the quintessence of the wine, by the force of the heat vaporeth away. This eternal and celestial essence being gone, which was the cause of the wines sweetness (which sweetness hath always joined with it nevertheless, a certain pricking very acceptable to the palate, by reason of a singular temper of sharpness Vitriolated by sweet and Sulphurus spirits, put by the instinct of nature into wine) at the length it waxeth sour: the cause of whose sharpness, is not to be referred to the cold qualities, but to those hidden and sour spirits of Salt, which by the bond of the sulphurus substance, were contained and kept in their office and working in the wine: the which bond being dissolved, the spirits range at will, and do make manifest their nature, which was afore hidden. Hereupon it cometh, that unegers are sharper in one sort, then in another, according as they have in them more or less of the nature of Salt Armoniac, and ●o whit of the sulphurus substance. For simple water devoid of all Salt, can never by reason of the coldness therein wax sour. But as from wine, so from meat, and from ale or beer, and from boiling new wine, may be separated the proper water of life, and ethereal substance, the which being so separated, they become eager, because they contain in themselves a sharp salt of nature.  
Such is that sharp salt, which Philosophers call their Mercury, or Salt Armoniac, Volatile and spiritual (because of all metalline salts, the common Armoniac is most Volatile, such as in the form of most white and salt meal, may be carried up unto the clouds by sublimation, and yet hath a dry and spiritual nature, which the Philosophers call their dry water: because this Salt is so far forth Volatile and flying, that it is lifted up together with the airy or watery vapour, of the which is made the mixture of the compound: and so great is the sharpness of this salt, that one scruple or eighteen or twenty grains of this salt perfectly refined and made most simple, dissolved in a pot of commom water, doth make all the same wonderfully sour.  
And this is the Salt, (the sulphurus essence taken away) which showeth itself evidently to be seen by his sharpness in vinegar, with watery substance. But the more strong the wine shall be, the more sharp the ferment of the vinegar, and the more vehement the tartness thereof will show itself: out of the which the piercing, attenuating, & dissolving spirits, are extracted by a skilful workman: the which forces & faculties cannot proceed from any other thing, then from that spiritual and Volatile salt Armoniac, mixed with a watery humour.  
And to make this more plain, and to prove it by effect, take the most strong Vinegar, white or red: distill the same in Balneo Mariae, till it be dry, with a gentle fire, out of a pint and a half, you shall extract three parts or more, like most clear water, but most sharp and sour, the bottom of the matter as the lose and pheses remaining in the bottom of the glass with the most sharp and biting Salt, the which, because it is fixed, and cleaving to the terrestrial part of the Vinegar, cannot be extracted but by the great violence of the fire. By which mean a most sharp oil, like in nature to Aqua Regia, most corroding and fretting, is extracted, not by reason of the heat of fire, but by the force and power of a brinish substance which is expelled in form of an oil with the Salt from the rest of the ●eces, by fire.  
But leaving that sharp fire of the Lose, let us take in hand to explicate the sowernes of the Vinegar distilled. By a soft and gentle distillation, is first of all extracted, a certain watery elementary phleme, which is drawn out of the whole body almost without taste, leaving in the bottom of the glass, another liquor, far more sour and sharp, and therefore more strong to dissolve, which otherwise before was nothing so sharp, because the Salt Armoniac was tempered and mixed with a watery Phlegm. Whereof if thou desire to know the quantity, take so much of the best Salt Tartar, which is of the same nature, but fixed, by which if thou draw by little and little three pints of this Vinegar distilled, and disph●eamed, to the weight of one ounce, thou shalt find the volatile Salt Armoniac to be conjoined with the sharp fixed Salt: and that which shall be distilled from the same, will become altogether without taste, or a little swéetish, the volatile Salt Armoniac being gone, through the passage in the fixed Salt. So that the said ounce of Salt Tartar, is increased by one scruple or more of volatile Salt, increasing the quantity of the other fixed. Thus that volatile Salt Armoniac which vanisheth out of the Vinegar with the watery and airy substance is retained by passage, in the proper fixed Salt, and there abioeth, and by his absence, despoiling the distilled liquor, of all sourness: the which is therefore of no virtue, or of less efficacy, then pure and simple water. Hereby it appeareth, how little ferment is needful to a great quantity of paste, to acuate and augment the same, as Philosophers speak: without the which, the elementary water will have no sharpness. For if that Salt Armoniac be wanting, as touching the force and virtue thereof, water hath neither tartness, nor taste at all.  
Therefore a Hermetical Philosopher & Physician, which is well acquainted with the lively anatonie of things, will teach, that the sharp, sour, and attenuating taste of vinegar, and the dissolving faculty thereof, ariseth here-hence, because tart things, whether they be waters, or juices, are mixed and infused with salt Armoniac: and that therefore Vinegar, not only in regard of the tarnesse thereof, but also that most thin spirituous sour essence of Salt, do pierce into the most inward parts even of the hard bodies. And if it show forth any cooling effects, it cometh thereof, because the sulphurus, and fiery quality of the wine, that is to say, the Aqua Vitae, is separated: without the separation whereof it can never be made vinegar, and can at no time yield any taste of Aqua Vitae. And that sharpness by which it burneth, is the chariot or carrier away, of the elementary and cold water, by the which it is carried and pierceth into the most inward and secret parts, as we have learned by often experience, that in that water, the same sharpness is contained, and most nearly conjoined therewith.  
Now, as we have showed that the sour and mercurial liquor of things, doth borrow that tartness, from a certain Armoniac salt, and volatile, which ariseth from the fixed: even so the sulphurus and oily liquor, doth receive and taketh his virtue from no other thing, than from that sweet Niterous sulphurus salt, which borroweth the same from fixed salt: so that, in the fixed salt, and out of that salt, that mercurial sourness, and sulphurus virtue do spring, and do receive their fruits therefrom, as from the root and first original.  
As also here it is to be noted, and to be wondered at, that a triple substance is severally to be extracted, out of one and the same Essence: from whence all things created, do suck and draw their faculties, virtues and properties: and that the same do so subsist in one and the same subject, that two others are to be produced from one other. And the same three essences, when they are separated, and coupled together again and united, are then enriched and increased with wonderful virtues and faculties, and have gotten exceeding perfection. The which, the more often that they be separated and united, the more perfect and high degrees of power and force they obtain: in such wise, that it is to be reputed the universal and most excellent Medicine of all others.   

CHAP. VIII. Concerning the excellent goodness of Salt in Medicine, according to ancient prescription.  
IT is manifest in the Writings of Galen, and other Greek Physicians, as also in the Traditions of the Arabians and Latins, with one consent, that Salt is good and profitable, not only to season and sauce meats, but also for Medicine: Albeit in the diet of sick persons, they commanded them to abstain from salt things: They defended the use of Salt, to be necessary for the curing of divers diseases, for that it hath virtue, to cleanse, to open, to cut, and to make shin, to move sweats, to further urine, and to provoke vomit.  
And in this manifold faculty and virtue, it is more profitable than the most of other remedies. For the proof whereof we will bring certain examples of some of the most ancient and famous Physicians.  
First of all Aegineta, 
Lib. de remed. 7. cap. 3  concerning the faculty of Salt, saith thus: All Salt, hath great faculty to dry and to bind: Wherefore it consumeth all whatsoever is moist in men's bodies: and compacteth the rest by binding. For this cause it preserveth from putrefaction. But burnt Salt hath greater force to resolve and consume.  
Oribasius is of the same opinion, 
Lib. colle●. 15.  salts, (saith he) whether they be digged out of the earth, or whether they come out of the sea, have like faculty: and is mixed with two qualities, that is to say, of cleansing, and binding. In this notwithstanding they differ, that salts digged out of the earth, are of a resolving and consuming essence, by reason that they are of more gross parts, and do more bind.  
The same Oribafius, 
Lib. 2. de virtute simp. medi. ad Eutrapi.  saith also, speaking of Aloes, digged and marine salt have all one force, and are mixed of two qualities, the one of cleansing, the other of binding. But it is plain, that both kinds do dry. For the which cause it consumeth all humour in the body, and thickeneth the soiled parts by binding. Burnt salt hath greater force to cleanse: but it doth not contract and thicken so much as the other.  
The flower of salt, hath thinner parts, than burnt salt, and is of a sharp quality and much digesting.  
Aetius hath also almost the same words; 
Tetr. 1. serm. 2. cap. 43. & 4. 6.  saving that he addeth this concerning the froth of salt: The flower of Salt saith he, is frothy, cleaning to the rocks that are next adjoining, and it hath by nature more thin parts, than Salt itself, therefore it can much more attenuate and resolve: but the rest of the substance, cannot thicken as Salt doth.  
Paulus Aegineta, in the same Book and chapter before quoted, writeth that the same ●roth of Salt, is the flower of Salt, and is of more thin parts, and more consuming, then is Salt itself, but doth less compact. By which it doth evidently appear, that the science of Calcination, of attenuation, and of essences, was not unknown to them of old time. For by the working and stirring of the sea, they learned the Art of distillation, by which they separated the more spirituous, from the more gross: even as we see the truth hereof to appear in the experience of charming and working simple milk. For by that means, three sundry substances, are divided one from the other, namely Butter, Curds, and Whey.  
Aetius, 
Ter. ●. serm 1. cap, 24.  speaking of crudity, and of those things which do help concoction, according to the opinion of Galen, and other Physicians, setteth before us salts: In the description whereof, he putteth in, one pound of salt of Cappadocea, the which surmounteth the dose of all other the Ingredients of that composition: the which powdered, he prescribeth to be taken in a rear egg, to the quantity of half a spoonful, fasting in the morning. The effect whereof he showeth in these words: No man can sufficiently commend the worthiness of this medicine, for the helping virtue which it hath in cold distemperatures, correcting raw humours: for the which cause it helpeth the colic, and doth gently loosen the belly.  
He describeth also other salts which loosen the belly, which draw phlegm from the head, with other helps beside. And into one composition, he appointeth to be put of clear dried salt, 144. drams. In the which composition, he added of the flowers of C●amamil, of Coniza, of mountain Calamynt, of the root of the mountain Eringium, of Origan, of Sylphium, of Pepper of each a third part. The which Ingredients put to the quantity of the salt aforesaid, come nothing near to the quantity thereof.  
He appointeth another composition of Salt: where to thirty ounces of parched salt, he appointeth a far less dose of Hyssop, of wild Time, & of Cummine: the continual use whereof, he appointeth in steed of common salt, not only for to make the meat savoury, but also for medicine. For (saith he) who so useth the same continually, shall at no time be troubled with any disease. It helpeth headache, it quickeneth the sight, it cleanseth the breast from phlegm, it maketh good concoction in the stomach, and purgeth the kidneys.  
Hereby it appeareth, that the ancient Physicians did not only use Salt, but also that they made choice of the best and most clear sort, the which also they dried and parched with heat of the fire, to make it the more forcible to help in all obstructions. For Salts are of that power, that they take away all manner putrefaction and corruption of worms, and do put away the original of other vices and diseases, and do amend them. The which being so, what other thing can be found out, for the conservation of life and health, or for the expulsion of all diseases, more profitable.  
Actuarius, also describing certain purgative Salts, doth give unto them great efficacy in helping and easing sundry diseases, 
In lib. de metho. me●●. cap. 9  and 〈◊〉 preventing many sicknesses.  
●yrepsius describeth more than twenty sundry Salts. And among their compositions, he calleth one the Apostles Salt, the which preserveth the sight to a very great age, cleanseth the lungs from tough phlegm, preventing coughs, and enlarging the breath. Another composition he attributeth to Saint Luke the Evangelist, which is almost of the like virtue, the which the Priests of Egypt, (as he saith) used for fullness, that they might be the more fit to apply themselves to their studies: being also of force, to remedy sundry diseases.  
Marcellus Empiricus, described two manner of purging Salts. Many other authors might be alleged, 
Li. de medidica. cap. 30.  as Gregorius Theologus, Plinius Secundus, and others, which have given great commendation to the virtue of Salts, whose words for brevities sake, I omit.   

CHAP. IX. Concerning the extractions of Salts out of all things, and Chemical calcinations and incinerations, known to the ancient Physicians, and used in Medicine.  
THere are some which contemn and deride our Artifice concerning the extractions of Salts. But no wise man will speak against the thing which he knoweth not. For the ancient Physicians, have used calcinations like unto ours: as may appear by the words of Oribasius, when he maketh mention of the Calcination of Tartar, and of the feces of vinegar, put into an earthen pot, close pasted or lated. For he saith that the matter which is to be calcined, being fast luted in a pot, and set over the fire to be baked, so long, until it wax white, Alchimically.  
Plinius Secundus, used the ashes of beasts and fowls, as most singular and familiar remedies.  
All the ancient writers, speak of a little bird like a Wren, which is called Regulus Troglodytes, and have taught that the same being brought into ashes, is singular remedy for the Stone. Also they say, that glass calcined and burnt into ashes, hath the same effect. And many of our later Physicians, do use the ashes of a spoonge, drunk in white wine, for the cure of the Broncoceles, which is a disease arising from the throats kernels, of some called the Hermis of the throat. This they prescribe to be drunk for the space of one whole Moon: which is a most certain experience.  
Aelius propoundeth many and sundry remedies, 
Ter. 1.  which they of old time used, which being calcined and dissolved into ashes, according to the common fashion of Chemists, 
Ser. 2.  he most highly esteemed▪ as secrets of exceeding price. His words are these. It is said, that it hearts horn be burnt and washed, 
Cap. 156.  it cureth the disentery Flux, and the spitting of blood: and is given with great profit to them that have the jaundice: being given in the quantity of two spoonfuls. And in another place he saith: 
Cap. 157.  Some burn the claws of Swine, and give the ashes to those that are tormented with the colic, in drink. Other some say, that Ass' hooves burnt, drunk daily & do cure the falling sickness. Again he saith▪ All burnt bones have power to drive away & to dry up: 
Cap. 161.  but more especially men's bones. Much more might be brought out of Aetius concerning these things, to prove that they of old, did use calcinations and ashes, in divers and sundry maladies. Albeit all ashes in general, so far forth as they contain in them their proper Salt, have power in them to dry up, & to cleanse, yet nevertheless they retain in them some property of that matter out of the which they are extracted.  
And this agreeth with that which Aegineta teacheth, 
Lib. 7. de re medica.  saying: Ashes have not exactly one temperature, but do differ according to the difference of the matter which is brent. And therefore the ashes of sharp things, as of Oaks, or Holme, do bind very much, and do stop the eruption of blood without any other thing. But the ashes of more sharp things, as of the fig, and Tythimal, or spurge, are more sharp and cleansing.  
Oribasius writeth in like manner, 
Coll lib. 15.  saving that he proceedeth further. For he plainly teacheth the Chemical extraction of salt out of such ashes, speaking thus: Ashes (saith he) have in them, partly that which is Earthy, and partly that which is fumie, and these parts are thin, and the ashes steeped or infused in water, and strained, do pass through together: that which remaineth being earthy and weak, and without biting, is made hot, having put of his force in the watering or infusion. And thus Oribasius calleth the separation of the active from the passive & earthy (which he calleth infirm, or weak, but the Chemists, the dead and damned earth) Separation.  
All whatsoever our more skilful Chemists of this age could add unto the Calcinations and I●cinerations of the more ancient, is this one thing, that out of such kind of Ashes (whereof Oribasius maketh mention) they draw out the whole water, and dry it up: and that which remaineth in the bottom, being impure salt, they dissolve again with common water, or with the proper water thereof, (which is better) distilled from it, before the Incineration of the matter, that they may make the same clean and pure, and as clear as Crystal. For they dissolve many times, they filter, and coagulate, not to the uttermost point of dryness: but drawing out only of that water two third parts and more, by the pipe of the alembic, they afterward remove the same from the fire, that ●he salt therein contained, and set in a cold place, may grow into a crystalline I●e, which is the most pure salt of the matter without all doubt. This salt must be gathered together, and separated with a wooden spoon. And if there remain any part of the water, let it be vapoured again, and then put into a vessel to stand in the cold air, where will be congealed a crystalline residence anew, which must be separated again, over and over so many times, until more it can grow into a jelly or Ice. These kind of Is●e recidences, are the true beginning of Salts, vital and qualified with admirable virtues. And this salt hath in it still the other two substantial beginnings, Sulphur, and Mercury. For from the same, the mercurial and sulphurous beginning, the one sweet and unctuous, the other sharp and aetherial, may yet be drawn by a skilful workman the more fixed part, namely that of Salt, remaining still in the bottom. salts have their corporal Impurities, but the spiritual Balsam which lieth hid in them, is the Chemical salt, known to a few. Some of these Salts are bitter as wormwood, some sweet as sugar, some sharp as vitriolls, sour as Quinces or grapes, by whose balsam they are nourished, ●ostered, and conserved. These salts have divers spirits, some resolving, some coniealing: And as they have divers spirits, so do they work sundry and admirable effects.   

CHAP. X. Wherein is proved, that the natural and original moisture in salts, is not consumed by calcination, but that the very forms do lie hid in that constant and vital beginning.  
THe Natural and original moisture, with the which salts are replenished (as is aforesaid) is not consumed with the force of fire, and by Calcination. For it shall be here showed, that all the more forcible tinctures and impressions, and the property of things, together with their most potent qualities and powers, as tastes, odours, colours, with the very forms themselves, & such like, are concluded, and do lie hid, in that firm, constant, & vital beginning.  
For the truth whereof, I will deliver unto you certain demonstrations, oftentimes proved and confirmed by my own experience. One, I learned of a friend which lodged at my house, who was the first Inventor thereof. Another, I received from a most learned & famous Polonian, a skilful Physician, above 26. years since.  
This man was so excellently, and phylosophically skilful in the preparing of the ashes out of all the parts of any manner of plant, with all the Tinctures and Impressions of all the parts of the plant, and would in such wise conserve all their Spirits, and the Authors of all their faculties, that he had above thirty such plants prepared out of their ashes of divers sorts, contained in their several glasses, sealed up with Hermes seal, with the title of each particular plant, and the property thereof, written upon the same. So, as that if a man desired to see a Rose or Marigold, or any other flower, as a red or white poppy, or such like: then would he take the glass wherein the ashes of such a flower was enclosed, whether it were of a Rose, a Marie-golde, a poppy, a Gillyflower, or such like, according as the writing of the glass did demonstrate. And putting the flame of a Candle to the bottom of the glass, by which it was made hot, you might see that most thin and impalpable ashes, or salt, send forth from the bottom of the glass, the manifest form of a Rose, vegetating and growing by little and little, and putting on so fully the form of stalks, leaves and flowers, in such perfect and natural wise in apparent show, that a man would have believed verily, the same to be naturally corporeat, whereas in truth it was the spiritual Idea, endued with a spiritual essence: which served for no other purpose, but to be matched with his fitting earth, that so it might take unto it a more solely body. This shadowed Figure, so soon as the vessel was taken from the fire, turned to his ashes again, and vanishing away, became a Chaos and confused matter.  
When I had seen this secret, & endeavouring with all my might to attain to the same, I spent much time about it, but yet lost my labour. But as touching the demonstration following: I affirm upon my faith and credit, to be most certain, and have often proved and experimented it by myself & may easily be done by any man.  
The Lord de Luynes Formentieres, a man of great account, both for his learning and office, being noble, and of all men singularly beloved, long since departed this life: with whom in his life time, I conversed with great familiarity. This noble man 〈◊〉 very great pains, to search and find out the most excellent secrets of nature, but specially those which appertained, either for the preservation, or for the restoring of health. And seeking long to find such remedies, for that he had languished in a crazed body a great while without any help, and was judged by Physicians to be past cure, he was at the last holpen, and wonderfully restored to health, by one only Lossenge of a certain Chemical electuary of great virtue, which the Lady de la Hone, a most noble and wise matron gave unto him. This Lossenge, provoked him to easy vomit, by which he cast up from his stomach all impurity, tough and discous, like the whites of eggs, diversly coloured, in great quantity: by which he was restored to health again, to his great joy and comfort.  
Hereupon he greatly desireth to know this secret, the which he not only obtained at the hands of that noble Lady, but some others also no less virtuous, by his own endeavour afterwards: the which he used both for his own health, & also for the good of others as need required, in the way of Christian charity. This man coming out of France, in the time of the civil wars, & conversing with me, applied his mind to extract Salt out of metals: that thereby he might prepare a remedy against the stone, dissolving it with crystal. This Salt being mixed with the lie made with ashes of 〈◊〉 metals, by often pouring warm water upon the same, & drawing it through too and again (as women are wont to make their common lie) showed a proof of his essence, included in the lie after this manner.  
The lie being strained through a Filter, & oftentimes very well cleansed, was put into a vessel of earth, having a narrow bottom, and a wide mouth, which is called a Terime. And when the said vessel had stood without the windows in the cold air, by the space o● one night, it grew into an Ice, through the cold of the winter. The window being opened early in the morning, and the lie cleansed, there appeared a mere and firm Ice, wherein there appeared a thousand forms of metals, with all the parts thereto belonging: as leaves, stalks, and roots, being very plain and apparent to the eye of the beholders, in such sort as no man could but acknowledge them to be metals.  
When the noble man beheld this, and gazed upon it, as on a miracle, he hastily ran unto me, and spoke to me in the words of Archymides, crying, I have found, come, and see. And when I came into his workhouse, I took the Ice, and broke of 〈◊〉 good piece, which I handled so warily, that it might not melt with the warmth of my hand, and carried it to men of great worth, which dwelled with us in that City: who beholding the Ice, affirmed most constantly that they were metals, and did no less marvel than I myself did, wondering what it should intend, and from whence, and how so excellent a thing could proceed out of Nature: we all calling to mind this sentence of holy writ: Remember man, that thou art Ashes, and to Ashes again thou shalt return: considering that the forces of such things do lie hid and abide in their ashes, from whence the Resurrection of our Bodies is most assuredly to be expected.  
This gallant experiment being afterwards oftentimes by me wrought, & rightly performed by Art, brought also to my mind that History whereof I spoke before, concerning a Poleland Physician: the which when I saw, I strove, and endeavoured all that I could, with meditation and practice to bring it to pass. And first I thought upon the reasons how so excellent a work might be finished: and what it was, that gave form so perfectly to a Rose, or to any other Plant, according to the very life, with all the Natural colours thereto belonging, in a moment, occasioned through a light heat. I say, I had divers and sundry cogitations with myself how this thing might be. And amyddest these thoughts, and as I was busied in other works, I perceived that the form and figure of a thing is included in his salt, without any colour: and that there are no other colours in water, then watery, that is to say white: And further, that the metals in that I see should be devoid of all colour, saving watery and white, by reason that the Ethereal and Mercurial spirits Vaporous and sulphurous▪ do vanish away, by their assation and calcination in the Sunshine, from the which spirits the colours do arise, as is to be seen in Salt Niter: which all beit white in show, yet put into a close Alembic, and set over the fire in sand to be fixed, it sendeth forth his flying spirits, even through the hard body of the Alembic, of six hundredth several colours, and cleaning to the uttermost part of the vessel like volatile meal. Seeing therefore there lie hid so many sundry colours in saltpeter, (which is a fat salt of the earth) there is no doubt but that the like salts also are contained in all other things, which contain in them their proper colours also drawn out of the power of the earth, which show forth themselves in their due season by the industry of Art.  
Thus after long deliberation had with myself, I fully resolved to make trial hereof. And first I took one whole simple being in this perfect vigour and strength in the spring time, having fullness of juice, and impressions of vital tinctures, which natures are included in the spirits of salts. This simple (I say) I determined to beat in a marble mortar, with his stalks, leaves and flowers, together with the roots, and so to reduce it into a Chaos or confused mass, & to put it into a vessel of glass, closed with Hermes seals, and so to remain to be digested, macerated, and fermented a convenient time, out of the which at the length I might 〈◊〉 those three principles, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, & to separate them according 〈…〉 preserving with all diligence the spirtes: & out of their mercurial and sulphurous liquor active, separating the Elemental water passive, whereby is extracted out of the dry Feces artificially calcined, a Salt, brought to the purity of Crystal, which is a most white ashes, and most full of life.  
Then after this, I would put to this Salt by little and little his Mercurial liquor, which I would distill from it, that I might conjoin with the fixed salt, the volatile armoniac, which is included in that liquor, and from whom the liquor borroweth his whole force, which I perceived to be detained and swallowed up by the fixed salt: for so nature embraceth nature, and like rejoiceth with the like, as salt with salt.  
These things thus finished, that is, these salts being united together again, then would I add by little and little the sulphurous essence, which I would bring into earth soliate, that is to say: the most simple essence, full of all vital Tinctures and properties.  
But wanting leisure to go forward in this course, I have not as yet attained the undoubted experience of this so noble a secret: whereof I will make proof and assay, if God permit, when occasion shallbe given. For seeing it is a matter in nature, and hath been already done, there is no doubt but that it may be done again, by other diligent workmen. Neither do I think that there can be a more ready way of working prepared, than that which I have already spoken of, and which is known and familiar to true Philosophers, and Chemists. For this course observed, every thing well wrought, hath his most effectual and active virtues, and vital qualities. But some other better learned and more exercised in Chemical philosophy than myself, can more readily see this thing, and look further into the workmanship, who having better leisure, may make trial of this working, and find out in very deed the truth and certainty of the artifice. Whereunto if any man by his industry do attain, let him not keep the secret to himself alone, but let him bestow the same upon men of good parts, for the which benefit they shall stant bound forever.  
For albeit, it is a matter more pleasant to behold then profitable, yet it openeth and awaketh the drowsy eyes of the more witty and learned sort of men, to behold and take in hand for greater and more profitable things for mankind: who afterward will guide into the right way, the blind, and such as do err through ignorance, and will step the mouths of evil tongued and malicious men.   

CHAP. XI. Concerning the visible bodies of the Elements.  
IT now resteth that somewhat ●ee said●, concerning the visible Bodies of the Elements, which of all things, as well of Mineral, as of Vegetable, and Animal, do always appear to be two: the one dry, the other moist. The dry is a Sandy earth or ashes, 〈◊〉 of all salt, by reason of the washing of Waters, and is called by the Chemists, Terra damnata, or Damned earth. Because it hath no other force, but that which is drying.  
The m●yste which is called unsavoury Phlegm, is pestered with all Sulphur and Mercury, having no odour or taste, or other vital virtue, which can only moisten, without any other force at all.  
And as these are of no force, so do they only possess passive qualities, and unprofitable. But Air, the third Element, cannot be separated by itself, but doth either vanish into air, or else remaineth mixed Sulphur and Mercury, and doth more chiefly cleave unto Mercury, which is so spiritual, that the most expert workman cannot separate the same from itself alone, but doth always pass away into air, with the air or vapour of that thing, whereof the separation is made: to which air Mercury is straightly combined, that it can never be separated from the same, without it be done by the great industry of a skilful workman, who knoweth that Mercury or salt Armoniac volatile, is so conjoined with air, or with the airy parts, that it doth also breath away with the airy part, and with the same is reduced into spiritual Water, which is known to be the mercurial water, by the sharp, sour, and vehement, which springeth from the Mercury or salt armoniac, of nature spiritual. The which the workman seeking to separate, conjoineth this spiritual liquor, with a Crystalline salt, naturally fixed, from the which, he separateth that airy liquor, by Distillation, which by that separation is utterly spoiled of all force, and remaineth an unsavoury airy liquor, for because that Mercurial spirit possessing the nature of volatile Salt, remaineth fixed, with his proper Salt, with the which he hath the most chief analogy and proportion. And thus the Philosophers testify, that nature is delighted with nature.  
Thus we see how the Elementary air is to be separated from that Mercurial spirit, namely by bringing the Element of air, into water devoid of taste, and by cutting the Mercurial spirit, into the salt, of his proper pre-eminence.  
Furthermore, hereby it appeareth, that Mercury is a certain airy thing, or air itself: and yet somewhat more than the elementary air, which wanting the spirit of Mercury, is a simple airy liquor of no virtue or power, but simply to moisten and penetrate. And so the active qualities do belong to the beginnings, Salt, sulphur, and Mercury, and the passive to the Elements. This thing we have made plain before, by the example of Wine, and Water of life. These things are therefore spoken, that all men may see by the Anatomy and resolution of things, that the element of air, cannot be separated by itself alone, neither is it so to be seen of any, but of the true Philosophers, and by such as are most conversant in this art.  
Thus certain demonstration is made of the visible bodies of things procreated, both out of the seeds and beginnings, and also out of the elements; albeit in the resolution of the bodies, thou dost not discern the visible bodies of the seeds, put a part by themselves. But it is an easy matter to discern the severed parts of those three beginnings, and also of the Elements, in the which parts of the three beginnings, the virtues and powers of actions (wherewith the seeds are endued) are included and mixed together. Whereby it cometh to pass, that their bodies are filled together with the vital forces and faculties of the astral and spiritual seeds, as the receptacle of th●se virtues.  
But the Elemental bodies, have only passive qualities: the which elemental bodies, a workman cannot only separate by themselves, but can also bring them to nothing, in such sort that the passive and material Elements being separated, there shall only remain those three Hypostatical, Formal, and Active beginnings, salt, sulphur, and mercury, which being drawn into one body, do make a mixed body, which the Philosophers call a fifth or a fourth Essence, which is free from all corruption, abounding with quickening spirits: whereas chose, the sole elements separated from those three beginnings, do bring nothing but impurities, corruptions, and mortification.  
In this Chymestry is to be extolled, that imitating nature, it rateth Elements, and their beginnings, by which all the parts of a compund body, are anatomised and made manifest. And yet those natural substances, are not said to be begotten, by such separations, as if they were not before: neither yet as bring before, are they corrupted by the art of separation, but they were in compound, and after separation, they ceased not to be, and to subsist. And as the three beginnings are coupled together, by the benefit of an oylelie liquor joining them in one: so the three Elements, air, Water, and Earth, are combined together, by the coming in of Water as a mean. For water by her analogy and convenience partaketh both of the nature of air, and of earth: whereby it cometh to pass, that one while it is easily turned into air, another while into earth: and so it combyneth both the extremes. In things that have likeness, an alteration is easily made. For, by reason of likeness and consent, air made thick with cold, passeth into water, and water made thin, becometh air: and water also made gross and thick, becometh earth: even as earth also made thin, passeth into water, and is changed.  
Wherefore, forsomuch as air and earth, two extremes, are fitly joined together, by a third, which is water, a mean between them both: Aristotle did more than was needful to appoint a quaternary number of Elements, out of the quaternary number of the four qualities, Hot, Cold, Dry, Moist. Howbeit, it cannot be denied but that he had great probability hereof, as is to be seen in his second book of the generation of living creatures, where he goeth about by many reasons to prove, that it is most necessary for the production of things, to appoint a fourth element, namely Fire, hot and dry.  
But forsomuch as Moses in the first Chapt. of his Genesis (wherein he showeth the creation of all things) maketh no mention of Fire: it is more convenient that we leave it rather to the opinion of the divine Prophet, then to the reasons of an Ethnic Philosopher. And therefore we acknowledge no other Fire than Heaven, & the fiery Region which is so called of burning.  
Therefore it ought to be called the fourth formal Heaven, and essential element, or rather the fourth essence, extracted out of the other elements: because it is endued with far more noble virtues, than the most simple elements. For the Hermetical Philosophers deny that there is a quintessence because there are not four elements, from whence there may be drawn a fifth essence, but three only and no more, out of which a fourth may be extracted. So great is the power of this fourth essence, that it moveth, sharpeneth, and mightily animateth the bodies of the three principles, and of the more gross elements, to come into a perfect mixture of one thing which never after can be divides. Whereupon the Individualls, or simples which cannot be divided, do borrow from Heaven, & from no other, all those forces, faculties, and properties, which they have no show forth. Hereupon it cometh that the proper quality of that essence, is neither dry nor moist, nor cold, nor hot. For it is a far more simple thing, that is to say, a most simple and pure essence, extracted out of the more simple and more subtle beginnings and elements, which maketh a most simple, most pure, most thin, and most swift body, endued with the greatest force of generating, nourishing, increasing, and perfecting, which cometh so near unto the nature of fire, that in very deed the Heaven is no other thing, but a pure and ethereal fi●r, neither is the pure fire, any thing else but Heaven: which the more it overcometh the principles and elements, the more it obtaineth, the more potent, perfect, pure, and simple forces and virtues, 〈…〉 into all things, and furnisheth every thing with his forms and virtues.  
It appeareth therefore by Moses, that there is no other fiery Element, but Heaven, which hath the place of the fourth element, or which is rather a fourth essence extracted out of the more subtle matter and form of the three elements, 
The Heaven of Philosophers.  which is no other thing, but a pure ethereal, and most simple fire, most perfect, and most for different, from the three elements, as imperfect: which fire, is the author of all forms powers, and actions, in all the inferior things of nature, as the first cause, and carrying itself like the p●●ent, toward his offspring: which fire, by his wind carrieth & conveyeth his seeds into the belly of the earth, whereby the generation or fruit is nourished, fostered, groweth, and is at the last thrust forth, out of the lap or bosom of the elements.  
This Heaven, albeit in itself, it is no complexion, that is to say, neither hot nor cold, nor moist, nor dry: yet by his knowledge and predestination, it yieldeth to all things, heat and cold, moistness, and dryness: forsomuch as there are stars which have their most cold and moist spirits, as the Saturnails, and Lunaries: others, most hot and dry, as the solary, and Marshal's: others hot and moist, as the Io●ialls, who by their virtues and complexion (wherewith every Star and Planet is endued) do inform, fashion, a impregnat all these inferior things, in such wise, that some individuals are of this condition and complexion, which they have borrowed and taken from their informing or fashioning planet or star: other some of that which they have obtained from other Planets and Stars. For God hath given to Heaven most simple and perfect seeds, such as are the Stars and Planets, which having in them Vital faculties, and complexions, do power them forth into the lap of the inferior Elements▪ and do animate and form them. Neither doth the Heauen●casse ●casse from his working, nor the astral seeds thereof, because their virtues are never exhausted: neither do they suffer alteration or diminution of faculties, whereby they may 〈◊〉 from procreating or forming, albeit that sometime they do make more or less fruitful than at other some. Hereupon cometh that perpetual Circulation, by the benefit whereof the seeds of the Elements or their matter, are coupled with the seeds of the Stars, setting and putting their contained into the maternal lap, that it may form and bring forth a kindly sprout. For as Heaven is said to work upon the Earth, so also the inferior Elements, do yield and bestow their actions and motions, but not after one manner: for that Heaven in acting suffereth nothing, so far forth as it is equalled, being of a Hemogeniall and most perfect nature: and therefore is incorruptible and Immutable unto the predestinated end of things created.  
But these inferior things do suffer in their action, because they have their formal beginnings, mixed with their materials, subject to change and destruction: whereupon also it cometh to pass, that those things which proceed from them, do in continuance of time decay and perish.  
These things known to a true Physician and Philosopher, he seeketh to restore decayed health, and to preserve the same by the extraction of celestial Essences and Forms, and the elementary separation of the beginnings and materials, from those three formal and spiritual beginnings, the which he●●seth alone, separated from the others, which are heterogenial, or of another kind, that he may work wonderful effects without any impediment.  
And this is the universal Balsamic medicine, wherein all the parts are Homogeneal, or of one kind most pure, most simple, and most spiritual, And being in such simplicity, and most thoroughly cleansed and purged from all gross Feces, and incorrupt, it is called a Quintessence, but more truly and properly a Quartessence, and the celestial stone of the Philosophers.  
But let no man think here, that when I name the Philosopher's stone, (that is to say, that universal medicine) that I mean the transmutation of metals, as if such transmutation, were the chief medicine of man's body: but know rather, that in Man, (which is a little world) there lie hid the mines of Imperfect metals, from whence so many diseases do grow, which by a good faithful and skilful Physician must be brought to Gold and Silver, that is to say, unto perfect purification, by the virtue of so excellent a medicine, if we will have good and prosperous health.  
The Physician therefore, must diligently consider two things, that is to say, that Nature may be disquieted, both by an inward and also by an outward enemy. But this more especially he must foresee, that Nature be not formented with the outward enemy, which then cometh to pass, when a medicine is ministered and given, which is crude, impure, and venomous, and therefore contrary to our nature and spirits. Then on the other side, he must have care that the domestical enemies which are within man's body, be driven out with convenient and fit weapons. For if a remedy be applied which is unfit, than Nature is assailed by two enemies, that is to say, by the external medicine, and by the inward impurity, which remaining long in the body, turneth into poison, if speedy remedy be not had.   

CHAP. XII. Moses in his Genesis showeth the three beginnings Philosophical which are in every thing created.  
WE hold by Moses doctrine, that GOD in the beginning made of nothing a Chaos, or Deep, or Waters, if we please so to call it. From the which Chaos, Deep, or waters, animated with the Spirit of God, God as the great workmaster and Creator, separated first of all Light from Darkness, and this ethereal Heaven, which we behold, as a fifth Essence, or most pure Spirit, or most simple spiritual body. Then he divided Waters, from Waters; that is to say, the more subtle, Airy, and Mercurial liquor, from the more Thick, Clammy, and oilily, or Sulphurous liquor. After that, he extracted and brought forth the Sulphur, that to say, the more gross Waters, from the dry part, which out of the separation standeth like salt, and as yet standeth by itself apart. And yet for all this, those universal parts of the whole Chaos, are not to be separated, but that still every one of them, do retain in themselves, those three beginnings without the which they cannot be, nor yet fulfil their generations. This was the work of God, that he might separate the Pure from the Impure: that is to say, that he might reduce the more pure and Ethereal Mercury, the more pure and inextinguible Sulphur, the more pure, and more fixed salt, into shining and inextinguible Stars and Lights, into a Crystalline and Dyamantine substance, or most simple Body, which is called Heaven, the highest, and fourth formal Element, and that from the same, the Forms as it were seeds, might be powered forth into the most gross elements, to the generation of all things. The which are called the mo●● gross elements, because fr●m them in the division of the Chaos, the most pure part is abstracted and converted and brought to a heaven, and to the fruits thereof.  
All which elements whether it be that most simple fourth, or whether they be those, which are said to be more gross, forsomuch as they consist of those three Hypostatical beginning, they could never be so separated one from the other at the first, nor can now be so separated by any Chemist, but that always still that which remaineth is compounded of them three. The difference is this, that some are most pure, simple, and most spiritual substances of the secret parts, and other some, are more gross and less simple, also a third sort, most gross and material in the highest degree.  
Therefore it must be confessed, that the Heaven, albeit it be most simple, doth consist of those three beginnings, but of the most pure and most spirituous, and altogether formal. Whereby it cometh to pass, that the virtues and powers of Heaven, being wholly spiritual, do easily without impediment piercing into the other Elements, power forth the inferior Elements the spiritual forms: from whence all mortal bodies do obtain the increase both of their virtues, and also of their faculties.  
If we will behold the purity of the Heaven above other Elements, and the perpetual constancy thereof, look then upon those bright and shining fierce, continually glittering and light, to whom the heaven hath given the most pure and extinguible substance of Sulphur, whereof they consist. For such as the heaven is in essence, such and the like fruits hath it brought forth in substance: out of whose vital impressions and influences, they procreate & bring forth some likeness of themselves, in the more gross Elements: but yet according as the matter is more gross or more thin, more durable or more constant, or more transitory.  
And the influences of such fierce, are mercurial spirits: but the light and shining brightness, is Sulphur: their fixed Heavens, or Vitriall and Chrystallyne circles, is a salt body: which circles, are ●●pure, shining and fixed, that a Diamond which partaketh o● the nature of fixed salt, is not of more purity, continuance and perpetuity than they are.  
As touching the Elements of Air, the beginnings thereof are more gross, less pure, and less spiritual and simple, than the beginnings celestial, and yet much more perfect, thin, and penetrating, then are the watery and terrestrial Mercuries and Sulphurs: and is such, that next to heaven it hath the pre-eminence of activity and power, whose forces are to be seen in divers and sundry winds which are mercurial fruits and the spirits of the airy Element: whose sulphurs also are discerned to be pure and bright in burning Comets, which are no perpetual fires or sulphurs, which cannot be put out for degenerating from the nature of Celestial stars and Sulphurs, as from purity & simplicity, into a more gross and impure form.  
Now as concernining Earth which is airy, it is so subtle and thin, that it is very hard to be seen, being diffused throughout the whole Region of the Air: which doth not sent itself to the eye, but in Mannas, in Dews, and in Frosts, as in airy salts. The very same beginnings of air, may also be seen in Meteors: which in it, and out of it▪ are engendered, that is to say, in lightnings, in corruscations, and in thunderings, & in such like. For in that flerie flame which breaketh forth is Sulphur: In the windy spirit, & moistness is Mercury: and in the thunderbolt or stone of the lightning, is salt fixed.  
The fruits also of this nature are Manna celestial, and honey, which Bees do gather from flowers, wherein there is no other thing but Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury of the air: which by a skilful workman are not separated from those without great admiration: yea, the rustic Coridon findeth this by experience to be true, when as he can separate the matter of the Bees work, into wax, which is a matter sulphurus, into honey, which is a Mercurial essence, & into dross, representing the terrestrial self. And thus that superior globe severed into an ethereal and eyrie heaven, hath his three beginnings, yet nevertheless very different in simplicitis and purity.   

CHAP. XIII. Whence is showed, that in this inferior Globe of the World, namely in the Elements of Water and Earth, these three beginnings are plainly to be seen.  
THose three Beginnings, do as yet more plainly show forth themselves in this inferior Globe, by reason of their more gross matter, which is to our eyes more sensible. For out of the Element of Water, the juices and metallic substances do daily break forth in sight: the vapours of whose moisture or juice more spirituous, do set forth Mercury▪ the more dry exhalations, Sulphur: and their coagulated or congealed matter, Salt. Of the which salts Nature doth offer unto us divers kinds of alum, of vitriol, sundry differences, Saltegemme, and salt Armoniac, and many others. There are also many kinds of Sulphurs, of Pitch, and of Bitumen, and of Mercuries, or juices. Moreover the Sea doth witness, that it is not without such Mercurial, Airy and Sulphurous spirits: whose meteors in Castor and Pollux, and in other 〈◊〉 kindled, by reason of their sundry sulphurs and exhalations, do confirm the same: and that the sea is not without his salts, the saltness thereof doth make manifest. The Earth, also doth prove the same, which being like unto a sponge, doth continually draw and suck unto it the salt body thereof: Whereby it cometh to pass, that there are so many kinds of metals and Minerals therein. From this Marine sale, as from the Father and first original, all other sates are derived. And these beginnings are so separated in all other Elements by themselves apart, that no one of them is deprived of the company of another. For in the Marine salt, albeit the nature of salt, doth exceed and over match the nature of the other beginnings, yet it is not destitute of a sulphurous and mercurial essence, as by Chemical experience may be made plain. For he which is a mean Chemist knoweth how to extract out of the same by the force of fire, a sharp Mercurial spirit, which being Ethereal, and therefore most Potente, doth dissolve into liquor, the most firm and hard metal, as Gold, which otherwise cannot be overcome neither with the most vehement fire, nor be consumed with any long continuance of time.  
Furthermore, a workman knoweth how to extract out of the same salt congealed stones, very sweet, and of a Sulphurus nature, which nevertheless have a mighty and admirable force, to dissolve the most hard thing that is. And yet for all this, that which remaineth is Salt. Thus you see plainly that these three beginnings, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, are contained in the Marine Salt.  
The same also is to be sée●● Vitriol, 
Venus and Mars are Copper and Iron.  the which among other Salts is most corporent. For always for the most part figures and Images of Venus and Mars, are to be seen therein and conjoined together.  
In this Vitriol. I say, do plainly appear, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. Whose Mercury altogether ethereal, being by art separated, and made most pure, from the elementary passive 〈◊〉, possesseth a green sharp spirit, of so great an acting and penetrating force, that in a very short time it will dissolve metalyne bodies, and most hard substances, whether they be metals or stones. 
The green Lyon.  And this is that green Lion, which Rypley commendeth so much.  
The Sulphur in Vitriol, is easily discerned by a certain red Ochre, sweet, which is easily separated from the same: which is an asswager of things, and a right actative, and a great mittigator all griefs, and pains▪  
But the Colcotar, or red feces with remaineth in she bottom, after the separation of the ethereal Mercury, and of the sweet Sulphur, contained in it, a most white Salt, the extraction whereof maketh a very good and gentle vomit, fit and profitable for many diseases.  
As these three are found in Vitriol, so also they are to be found in Alum, and in other Salts, as we have showed before concerning common Salt.  
They are also to be seen in common Sulphur, wherein beside the Sulphurus substance, and inflammable matter, there is contained a Mercurial sharpish liquor, so piercing, that it is able to open and unlock the most strong and hard gates of Sol and Lana. 
Sol and Lana, Gold, & Silver.   
But the Salt drawn from the other parts, remaineth in the bottom, as every mean workman knoweth. And such is this sowerish spirit of Slphur, that although it be drawn out of Sulphur, fit to burn, yet it is so unfit to take fire, that it is easily let from burning.  
It happeneth otherwise to common Mercury, which is altogether ethereal and spiritual: (from whence the third begineing of all things which is most spiritual, hath borrowed the name, albeit it is not like unto common Mercury, or to quicksilver in form)▪ For out of the same, both a liquor, and a sweet Sulphur, and also a Salt may be extracted.  
Hereby it is easily judged, that these three principles of Thymists are not the common Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury: but some other thing of nature, more pure and simble, which nevertheless hath some conscience and agreement with common Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury: from whence also our beginnings have taken their name: and not without cause, for that the common are in all mixed things, and in all things most simple and spiritual. For the other being mixed with the more gross substances of bodies, are hindered from being so volatile and spiritual. For that they consist of many unkindly parts, with the which these common spirits are not so holden back.  
Of those three beginnings aforesaid, all metals are compounded, albeit after divers sorts. And this is the cause, that they differ so much one from an other. For in iron, the Sulphur thereof which may be burnt, in that it passeth almost away in sparks & ●●nders by means of the fire, doth exceed in quality the other two beginnings, and doth oversway them: Hereof it cometh, that will be on fire throughout. For the which cause it is called by the old Philosophers, by the name of the Planet Mars, a burning Planet.  
So copper hath great store of Sulphur, but less burning than that of iron, and it hath also much vitriol salt, yet but little quantity of Mercury. But that vitriolated Salt, is that sharp ferment of nature, whereby the generations of all natural things are propagated and increased: whereupon the name of Venus is given to Copper: in whom there is a second quaternarie among the Planets, where are heaped up, nourished, and coagulated spiritually all celestial essences: wherefore this Planet by all the ancient Philosophers is called Venus, the mother of generations, and begotten of the males froth.  
Tin hath in it much ethereal and airy Mercury, but of combustble Sulphur, a small quantity, and the least portion of Salt. And hereof it cometh that Philosophers call the fame Inpiter, because that Planet is altogether airy and ethereal: and therefore Poets appoint him king of the air, and the region of lightning.  
Gold and silver, which of all other metals are most noble and perfect, do also consist of the three foresaid beginnings, but yet mixed in equality, and so perfectly with great purity united, that it may seem that there is one chief and first essence only in them, and not three, of which they consist. For their Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, are so straightly, and by the least things so joined together, that it may seem they are one substance, not three, or consisting of three.  
Notwithstanding most pure Mercury, seemeth to excel and oversway in silver, by which it is made more moist than Gold, which is the most temperate of all other.  
But in Gold, the sulphur which is fixed and incombustible, of a fiery nature, bringeth to pass that it standeth invincible against all force of fire, and looseth not the least wait thereof, because like will never oppress his like, but chose do cherish and preserve one the other: whereby it cometh to pass that it joyeth in the fire, and always cometh out of the same, more pure and noble than it went in. Therefore the name of the Sun is given to gold, because in very deed it is an ethereal fire and brightness. For the Sun is a most fiery shining Planet, giving to all things, by his heat and spirits, life. But silver for the force and property of Mercurial humidity which it hath with the Moon, a Planet full of radical moisture and pregnant, is called by the name of the Moon.  
Lead containeth much Salt, and great plenty of indigested and crude Mercury, but less flying Sulphur: hereupon it cometh, that lead is the examiner of all other metals, which it disperseth into some, as is to be seen by trial, excepting the two perfect metals, gold and silver, which it cannot consume.  
This virtue of consuming the bodies of imperfect metals, it hath from that quality of Crude and flying Mercury, with the which it doth abound: whereas otherwise by the nature of his Sulphur, it is able to do the contrary: that is to say, to coagulate those metallic spirits, and to reduce them into bodies, even as quicksilver being altogether flying by nature, aetherial, and truly Homogeny and spiritual, doth after a sort congeal and fire. So that hereby it appeareth, that it hath in it by nature, the spirit of heat and of cold, and therefore of metallic life and death: which maketh the sentence of Hermes good, when he said, that which is above is all one with that which is beneath. For such as is Saturn in the superior Elements, such also is lead in the inferior: and so of the rest.  
And out of that burning liquor, more ready to burn, than the very Aquavitie, may be separated a Mercury, or a more ethereal spirit by a Matrat with a long neck, by a gentle fire. The which so separated, the rest of the matter of mean substance, which is Sulphurus, oilily, and apt to burn, resideth in the bottom of the glass, with the Niterous and Sulphurus spirit of Salt.  
Out of the black feces, which remain in the bottom of the retort, being reduced according to the Philosophical manner into a calx●, is extracted a fixed Salt, which often times dissolved and Coagulated with his proper phlegm, will at the last become Chyrstalline.  
To this, if there be afterward powered by little and little according to Art, his ethereal spirit, that from hence it may contract and draw the double or triple weight of the volatile, and truly Mercurial salt, in such wise that being cast upon a red hot plate, it do dispearce into fume: thou shalt at the last, by the mean of sublimation, attain to the foliat earth of the Philosophers, which will have a greater brightness and perspicuity, then can be seen in the most rich and orient pearl in the world. This earth the Philosophers call their Mercury▪ the which alone hath admirable properties and faculties.  
Again, if to this be added the oilily liquor of his proper Sulphur also exalted and kept a part by itself, in a just & convenient quality, and if the same be drawn forth with sundry cohobations and extillations, again and again, repeated and iterated, and be reaffunded and distilled, until out of a ternary, there arise a unity: then out of the gross, terrestrial: and material lead, shall arise and spring up a certain celestial and true dissoluer of nature, and a quintessence of admirable virtue and efficacy: the true, lively, and clear shining fountain wherein (as Poets affirm, hiding under a vail their secrets) Vulcan washed Phoebus, and which cleanseth away all impurity, to make a most pure and perfect body, replenished with vital spirits, and full of vegetation: and doth so rid himself from his adamantine fetters with the which he was bound, and hindered from the victory against the Serpent Pytho, and doth in such wise shake off all impediments, that being free from all dusky clouds of darkness, with the which he was covered and overwhelmed, he sendeth forth now unto us his most bright shining light, with the which we are thoroughly refreshed, receiving youthful strength, putting off all imbecility, and like unto that Ason king of Creta, through the help of Media, are thoroughly restored again to young age. So that the same thing which afore was altogether cold without blood, and devoided of life seeming as dead, being washed in this fountain, it ariseth and triumpheth in glory, in might, and furnished with all virtues, and accompanied with an exceeding army of spirits, doth communicate unto us freely his glory and brightness, and doth most mightily restore and corroborated the strength of our radical balsam, with his only loo●● and touch, thoroughly wéeding and rooting out all the causes and seeds of sicknesses lurking in us, and so consuming them, that without all trouble, it preserveth our health, unto the appointed end of our life.  
He which hath ears to hear let him hear attentively, otherwise let him never take his work in hand. For albeit I have showed the way to perfect working more plainly (as I think) then any other hitherto have done, yet thou mayest err except thou be wholly addicted and intent to thy work.  
Thus the way is prepared for true Philosophers, to attain to that great and most excellent mineral work, and to the preparing of that universal medicine out of minerals. And this is the demonstration, by which in all metals and concrete bodies, those three beginnings are to be searched out, and being by art separated, are to be set before our eyes. The which to make it more plain, I thought good to use the example of lead, which of all men is rejected as most vile, whereas notwithstanding the Philosophers have the same in great esteem, because they full well know, what great secrets it containeth within. And therefore they call it their Sun or leprous gold.  
From this tree of Saturn springeth Antimony, as the first branch of the stock, which the Philosophers call their Magnesia, which above all other metallic substances, containeth those three beginnings full of open activity and efficacy. Paracelsus among all other Chemical Philosophers, hath wonderfully ransacked all the parts thereof, and examined the beginnings most diligently, whose substance he hath exalted and commended, above all other metallic substances and especially the Mercury thereof: out of which, as out of the chiefest subject, and more noble matter, he wrought his chiefest and best works. In the praise whereof these are Paracelsus own words: Antimony is the true balm of gold, 
Lib de Aurora.  which the Philosophers call the examiner. And the Poet's fain● that Vulcan washed Phoebus in the same laver, and purged him from all his spots and imperfections, being derived from most pure and perfect Mercury and Sulphur, under a kind of Vitriol, into a metallic form and brightness. He compareth the same also in another place to the matter of gold, concerning whose virtues and effects he delivereth wondere: as that it is the highest and most perfect purger of gold, and his Mercury, of men. His red Sulphur also doth plainly appear, which hath his property, that it will take fire and burn like common Sulphur or Brimstone: the which is especially to be seen in the night, & in a dark place, without any sum, which the common Sulphur is wont to send forth. This Sulphur of Antimony is Solary, and such as is able to gild the superficial part of silver.  
As touching the Salt of Antimony, it is to be separated from the same, whose property consisteth in procuring vomit. For his strength to procure vomit lieth hid in the salt flowers thereof: from the which flowers, if the salt betaken away & separated by virtue of a certain salt, as may be done, then out of the flowers thereof, is made a most excellent purgation without vomiting.  
But the property of the Mercury thereof bringeth no small wonder, which in the liquation or melting of gold with other metals, rejecteth them all, and chooseth the gold to itself, with the which it is mingled and united into one body, in such wise, that it swalloweth up gold, whereas all other metals (except silver) do float aloft, and will not sink into the same. Consider therefore, (saith Arnold,) that thing only which cleaveth to Mercury and to the perfect bodies, and thou hast the full knowledge. And when he hath thus described the devouring Lion, he addeth these words: Because our stone is like to the accidental quicksilver, which carrieth gold before it, and overcometh it: and is the very same which can kill and make alive. And know further, that our coagulated quicksilver, is the father of all the minerals of that our magistery, & is both body & spirit, etc.  
The same three chief beginnings, do offer themselves unto us in other semi minerals, as in Arsenic, orpinent, and such other like: which albeit in their whole substance they be contrary to our nature and spirits, yet by nature they have that spiritual promptness, and flying swiftness, that by their subtlety, they easily convey and mingle and mingle themselves with our spirits, whether they be inwardly taken, or outwardly applied, and do work venomous and mortal effects, and that by reason of the Arsenical Mercury poinson full, or arsenical Sulphur, and arsenical Salt.  
Gems also and precious stones, have in them the virtues and qualities of those three beginnings: by reason of whose fire and brightness, the pure Mercury in them doth shine, cleaving firmly to his fixed Salt, and also to the Sulphur of the same nature, whereby the whole substance of a contrary kind being separated, there ariseth and is made a most pure stone of contrinance like unto gold.  
Of this sort is the most firm and constant Diamond, to whom that good old Saturn hath given the leaden colour of his more pure Mercury, together with the fixed and constant spirits of his more pure Sulphur, and hath so confirmed, congealed and compacted it in all stability, with his crystalline salt, that of all other stones it is the most solid and hardest, by reason of the most firm union of the three principal beginnings and their coherence: which by no art of separation can be disjoined and sundered into the solution of his spiritual beginnings. And this is the cause, that the ancient Physicians had no use thereof in medicine, because it could not be dissolved into his first matter.  
And it is not to be thought, that those ancient Physicians refrained the use thereof, for that they deemed it to be venomous by nature, (as some falsely imagine) which being homogenial and of a 〈◊〉 simple nature, it is wholly celestial, and therefore most pure, and for that cause nothing venomous: but the poison and danger cometh here hence, that being only broken and beaten, and in no sort apt to preparation, taken so into the stomach, and remaining there by reason of his solidity and hardness inconcocted, by continuance of time, and by little and little, it doth fret and tear the laps of the stomach, and so the entrails being floriated, death by a linger consumption ensueth.  
It belongeth to gold, with his Sulphur, to give a red tineture, to Carbuncles, and Rubines, neither doth the difference of their colours come of any other cause, than this, that their Mercuries and Chrystallyne salts, are not defeked and cleansed alike: the which cleansing, the more perfect or imperfect it is, the colour appeareth accordingly, either better, or worse.  
And albeit Silver be outwardly white, yet within, it hath the colour of Azure and blue, by which she giveth her tincture to Sapphires.  
Copper, having outwardly a show of redness, hath a green colour within, (as the Viridgreese that is made thereof doth testify,) by which it giveth greenness unto the Emerand.  
Iron, red within, as his Saffron & yellow colour doth plainly show (and yet, nothing like the colour which gold hath within it) giveth colour to the jacint.  
Tin, albeit it is earthy, yet being partaker of the celestial nature, it giveth unto Agates, divers, and sundry colours.  
From gold, and from other metals, as also from precious stones, their colours may be taken away, by Cementation and Reverberation, by their proper menstrues, which things are well known to Chemists and fire workmen. The which colours and sulphurs so extracted, are very fit for the affects of the brain. The colour of gold, serveth for the affects of the heart. The colour of tin, for the lungs. The colour of Mercury, The colour of lead, for the spleen. The colour of Iron, for the redness. The colour of Copper, for the privy parts.  
The heavenly menstruéese, to despoil metals of their colours and sulphur's natural is this: namely the dew which falleth in the month of May, and his sugar Manna: out of the which two, mixed together, digested, and distilled according to Art, there will come forth a general dissoluer, most fit to despoil stones and metals of their colours. Yea, of only Sugar, or of honey by itself, may be made a dissoluer of metals.  
Now if these three beginnings, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, are to be found in the Heaven, in the Air, and in the Waters, as is all ready showed, who will make any doubt, but that by a far greater reason they are to be found in the earth, and to be made no less apparent, seeing the earth of all other elements, is the most fruitful and plentiful.  
The Mercurial spirits sh●we themselves in the le●ues and fruits; The Sulphurus, in the flowers, seeds, and kernels: The salts, in the wood, bark and roots: and yet so, that each one of those three parts of the tree or plant, severally by themselves, albeit to one is given the mercurial spirit, to another that of Sulphur, and to the third that of Salt, yet every one apart, may as yet be resolved into those three beginnings: without the which they cannot consist, how simple so ever they be. For whatsoever it be, that hath being, within the whole compass and course of nature, do consist, and are profited by these three beginnings.  
And whereas some are said to be mercurial, some Sulphurus, and some Salt, it is therefore, because the Mercurials do contain more Mercury, the Sulphurus more Sulphur, and the Saltish more Salt in them than the others. For some whole trees are to be seen more sulphurus and roseny than other some, as the Pine and Firre-trées, which are always green in the coldest mountains, because they abound with their Sulphurus beginning, being the principal vital instrument of their growing. For there are some other plants, as the Laurel, and the Trees of Oranges, Citrons and Lemons, which continue long green, and yet are subject to cold: because their Sulphur is not so easily dispersed, as is the Sulphur of the fir trees, which are roseny, and are therefore thrice of a more fixed and constant life, furnished against the injuries of times. Furthermore, all Spice-trées, and all fragrant and odoriferous hearts are Sulphurus. And as there are sundry sorts of trees of this kind, so are there an infinite sort of Sulphurs, of the which to entreat here is no place.  
There are other Plants which show forth Salt: which is to be found and felt by their taste: as Celadine, Nettell, Aron, otherwise called Weak Robin, Radish, Mustardseed, Porret, or Leeks, Garlic, Ramsoms, Perficaria, or Arsesmart: which also by the vertus and plenty of their salt, do defend themselves from the wrongs of times.  
Ros Solis (so called) aboundeth with Mercury amongst other Mercurial plants. The which beginning notwithstanding, for somuch as it is flying and spiritual, except it be retained by another more corporeat, that is to say, by a watery or airy liquor, it vanisheth quite out of sight. But being dismembered & thoroughly searched by the Art of Chemistry, in his interior Anatomy, with the separation of the beginnings, it may also be made subject to sense. For Mercury is extracted out of every thing, first of all in his dissection or separation, into a watery vapour: and Sulphur into an oyely: thirdly, out of the remaining feces, brought into ashes, a Salt is extracted, by his proper water, which being most white, & like to crystal, hath the taste of sharp, sour, & biting salt, or such like relish in the mouth: whereby it is found to be true salt, which may be dissolved in water, according to the manner of true salts: differing so much from the other ashes, as life from death: for as much as the feces that remain thereof, are called dead earth, whereas this is replenished with vital actions.  
To conclude, in every kind of plant, & in all the parts thereof, thrice three beginnings are inset and cleaving, endued with sundry properties and faculties, according to the variety of Plants. The which also a skilful Physician useth diversly, that he may fit each one to other, according to equality of matching, and according to his intended purpose.  
Hereby it appeareth how necessary the knowledge of the internal Anatomy of things, which show easily by the impression of things, their properties & virtues, which we may approve & confirm by experience. Let us take for example, the oil or Sulphur of the Boxe-trée, always green and vitriolated, by whose unpleasant odour, the stupefactive Sulphur which is in it, representeth itself unto us. That oil, I say, of the Box, albeit it will easily burn, yet is a great asswager and mittigator of all pains, as coming near to the nature and property of narcoticall or stupefactive sulphur vitriolated, being as available against the falling sickness as Vitriol.  
If we consider the properties of the beginnings of Camphor, it will manifestly appear, (although it do burn in water) by his unpleasant odour, that it hath a cooling property in it, and narcocal or stupefactive: whose oil also, is a good mittigator of pains and grief: when as notwithstanding it showeth forth contrary effects, as at the very first brunt, it seemeth to have a certain fiery quality. By reason of the property which it hath to assuage pains and aches, the Arabians judged the same to cold in the third degree. The experience thereof is easily to be seen in the ache of the teeth. For if a hollow or rotten tooth, be but touched with the oil thereof, it putteth away the pain. The same oil is a most present remedy in pains and grief of the reins, caused by the stone. For thereby the stone is dissolved and avoided, if it be ministered with competent liquor.  
Other are the properties of other Oils: For the oils or Sulphurs of Annis, and of Fennel, are fit to dispearce and drive away windiness.  
The Oils of Cloves, of Nutmegs, of Cinnamon, and of other spices and their Sulphurs, as also the Oils of Mynts, of Ambrosia, of Sage, and Betony, and of such like, are convenient to corroberat, and to warm the brain and stomach.  
So the ole of Pepper, doth attenuat, make thin, dissolve and cut tartarus matters in the body, and humours that are niter Sulphurus and Choleric. And howsoever many do deem the same to be hot, yet it is far more convenient to be given in choleric fevers, and to put away other griefs, as tertians, and such like, than any other altering or cooling syrup.  
In like sort hot and burning oils, may be extracted out the seeds of poppy, Gourds, Melous, Cucumbers, and such like cold things, whose operations notwithstanding do not bring heat, but rather rest and comfortable refreshing.  
And the mercurial spirits of vegetables, are oftentimes conjoined with sulphurus spirits: so that out of Teribinthine, which is almost wholly sulphurus, as also out of Pitch and Rosen a mercurial spirit, or sharp liquor, may be by art extracted, having the force of Vinegar, being well distilled, and likewise power of dissolving the most solid and hard bodies.  
Moreover, in pitch barrels, that mercurial sour liquor is to be found, being separated from the Pitch, which hath the same faculty of dissolving. Also the same sour Mercurial liquor by a gentle fire at the first, may be attracted out of the shavings or chips of the wood, and bark of green trees, especially out of such as are vitriolated, as is the juniper, the Box, the Oak, Guaiacan Tree, and such like: which liquor is of force to dissolve Pearls.  
Out of the which Mercural sharp liquors, may also be made sundry several remedies, apt, both to ferment, digest, and attenuate humours, and also to move sweat, and to provoke urine, to break and drive forth the stone, and very good to cure other affects, especially such as are Mercurial.  
Now leaving to speak of Mercuries and Sulphurs, somewhat shall be said of Salts: It hath been already declared, that generally they serve for the general purgation and evacuation of bodies: whether they move sedges, Urines, or provoke vomit or sweats: or whether they do cleanse, cut, open, or any other way help obstructions.  
Yet notwithstanding, as between Sulphurs and Sulphurs, and between Mercuries and Mercuries, there is great difference: so is there great variety of Salts, and much difference of their virtues and operations. As for example, the salt of the cods of beans, amongst others is exceeding caustic and burning: yet being given in dry quantity in broth, it is very diaphoretical, or dissolving, in such wise, that nothing can work more effectual without hurt or offence of the bowels.  
The Salt of the Ashtrée, doth most mightily open obstructions, most chiefly sitting the diseases of the spleen.  
The salts of Artemisia, (otherwise called the mother of Herbs, and Mugwoort) and of Savin, are most fit to procure the menstrues of women.  
The Salt of Gammock, otherwise called Rest-harrow, Petty whynne, or ground Furze: the salt of Saxifage, Gromel, otherwise called Pearl plant, of Radish, are very proper remedies to break the stone, and to cleanse the kidneys and bladder, from sand.  
Also the Salts Double leaf, otherwise called Goosenest, of clot Burr, and of Cardus Benedictus, which are diaphorical, or dissolving.  
The Salts of Mint, and Wormwood, are good to purge the lappets and tu●●cles of the stomach, and to strengthen and comfort the same. So the Salt of Guaiacine, is by a special property solutive: as the mercury thereof by his tartness doth testify: and the oil or Sulphur thereof hath a purging force.  
Out of the which three beginnings, if the first two spiritual and more simple, that is to say Mercury and Sulphur, be extracted and according to art: and the fixed, which is salt, be also extracted and separated, and be after that brought into one body, (which the Arabians call Elixir) it will be jointly together a medicine provoking sweat, altering, concocting and purging. Which triple motion and operation cometh from one and the same essence of three united in one, giving most assured help, in steed of quicksilver, against the veneril sickness, or French disease.  
The salt of Tartar, is of the same kind that they be, which sharply do vite the tongue, being also oily and sulphurus: yea, it is more sharp than any other: nevertheless if it be mingled with the spirit or sharp oil of vitriol, it can so moderate and correct his sharpness and biting spirit, that of them both there may be made jelly, and thereof a sweet & most pleasing delicate syrup, which availeth much against the gnawing and heat of the stomach, and to ease all pains of the colic.  
All such Mercuries, Sulphur, and salts of Vegetables, do grow and arise from the mercurial and sulphurus spirits of the earth, and from metallic substances, but they are far better, sweeter, and of more noble condition than their parents, from whence they take their original.  
There will be no end of writing, if particularly should be prosecuted, the difference of all beginnings, and their properties and faculties, which the sea and the earth doth procreate. That which is already declared may suffice to stir up the mo●e noble wits to search out the Mysteries of nature, and to follow the study of such excellent Philosophy.  
Thus it is made manifest, that these three biginnings are in Heaven, in the Elements, as in Air, Water, and in Earth, and in bodies elementated, as well of Minerals, as of Vegetables. And now it resteth that it be showed, how the same be in Animals.   

CHAP. XIIII. Wherein is showed, that those three first beginnings, are to be found in all living Creatures.  
FIrst, we will begin with Fowls, whose first beginning is at the Egg. For in Eggs there are more plain testimonies of the nature of Birds, than in any other thing. The white declareth the ethereal Mercury, wherein is the seed and the aetherial spirit, the author of generation, having in the prolifying power, whereof chiefly the Bird is begotten. For this cause it is marvelous, that so many and so great dissolving and attenuating virtues and faculties, do lie hid in the white of an Egg, as in the ethereal Mercury.  
The yeolke of the Egg, (the nourishment of the Bird) is the true Sulphur. But the thin skin and the shell, do not only contain a certain portion of Salt, but also their whole substance is salt: and the same the most fixed and constant of all other salts of nature, so as the same being brought unto blackness, and freed from his combustible sulphur, but calcination, it will endure and abide all force of fire, which is a property belonging to the most fixed salts, and a token of their assured and most constant fixion. This salt daily prepared, is very fit to dissolve and break the Stone, and to avoid it.  
As these three principles are in the Egg, so they pass into the bird. For Mercury is in the blood and flesh: Sulphur in the fat and salt, is in the ligaments, sinews, bones, & more in solid parts.  
And the same beginnings, are more subtle and airy in birds, than in fishes, and terrestrials. As for example, the Sulphur or oily substance of birds, is always of more thin parts, th●● that of fishes or of beasts.  
The same may be said of Fishes, which albeit they be procreated and nourished in the cold water, yet do they not want their hot and burning fatness, apt to burn. And that they have in them Mercury and Salt, no man well advised, will deny.  
All terrestrial living creatures do consist in like sort of these three beginnings: but in a more noble degree of perfection, than in vegetable things, they do appear in them. For the vegetable things which the beasts do feed upon, being more crude, are con●●cted in them, and are turned into their substance, whereby they are made more perfect, and of greater efficacy.  
In Vegetables, there were only those Vegetatives: which in beasts beside the vegetation which they retain, they become also sensative: and therefore of more noble and better nature.  
The Sulphur appeareth in them, by their grease, tallow, and by their unctuous, oily, marrow, and fatness, apt to burn. Their Salts are represented by their bones and more solid and hard parts: even as their Mercuries do appear in their blood, and in their other humours, and vaporous substances. All which those singular parts, are not therefore called Mercury, Sulphurs, and Salts, because they consist of animal Mercury, of animal Sulphur, and of Animal Salt, without the conjunction of the beginnings. But in Mercurals, Mercury: in Sulphurus, Sulphur: in the Saltish, salt doth rule and dominéere. Out of the which three beginnings of beasts, oils, divers liquors, and salts, apt for man's use, both to nourish, and also to heal and cure, may by Chemical art be extracted.   

CHAP. XV. Concerning Man, and the lively anatomy of all his parts and humours, with the virtues and properties of his three beginnings.  
NOw it remaineth that we seek out and search in man, those things, in whom they shall be found to be so much the more subtle and perfect, by how much he excelleth all other creatures in subtlety and excellency. For in him as in a little world are contained these three beginnings, as divers and manifold, as in the great world, but more spirituous, and far better. For Phol●sophers call man, the compendiment or abridgement of the greater world. And Gregory Nazianzen in the beginning of his book, concerning the making of man: saith that God therefore made man after all other things, that he might express in man, as in a small table, all that he had made before at large.  
For as the universal frame of this world is divided into these three parts, namely intellectual, and elementary, the mean between which is the celestial, which doth couple the other two, not only most divers, but also clean contrary, that is to say, that supreme intellectual wholly formal and spiritual, and the elementary, material and corporeat: so in man the like triple world is to be considered, as it is distributed into three parts, notwithstanding most straightly knit together and united: that is to say, the Head, the Breast, and the Belly beneath. The which lower belly comprehendeth those parts which are appointed for generations and nourishment, which is correspondent to the lower elementary world. The middle part, which is the breast, where the heart is seated, the fountain of all motions of life, and of heat, resembleth that celestial middle world, which is the beginning of life, of heat, and of all motions: in the which the Sun hath the pre-eminence, as the heart in the breast. But the highest and supreme part which is the head, or the brain, containeth the original of understanding, of knowledge, and is the seat of reason, like unto the suprem intellectual world, which is the Angelical world. For by this part man is made partaker of the celestial nature of understanding, of the feeling and vegetating soul, and of all the celestial functions, formal and incorruptible: when as otherwise his elementary world, is altogether cross, material, and terrestrial.  
And as man, as touching his substantial form, possesseth all the faculties of the soul, and their degrees, that is to say, the natural which is vegelative: the animal, which is sensative and vital: and the Rational, which God inspired into man, when he had made him: every of the which three contained under them, three other inferiors, whereof to speak in this place is needless: so as concerning the material body of man, there are in him three radical and balsanick essences, out of the which, both the containing parts of the body, as the fleshy and more solid, and also the contained parts, that is to say, the spiritual and fluible parts, are made, compacted, nourished, and do draw their life.  
Salt in them, is the radical beginning of all the solid parts: as being also in the animal seed, it compacteth and congealeth the solid parts, so as it is accounted the foundation of the whole frame.  
But the radical beginning of sweet Sulphur in the animal, which is the natural, moist, original, oylelike, showeth itself, in the fat, grease, and marrow, and such other parts, as well hidden as manifest.  
The radical Mercury, wholly spiritual and ethereal, which is that inset and natural spirit of every part and member, the next instrument of the soul, doth no less declare itself, in maintaining and concerning the animal life, as being the very same, which from the soul is the life powered into the body, which the Sulphurus part nourisheth and sustaineth.  
These three radical essences shut up in the seed of the animal, which we have set forth in the framing of man, both according to form and matter, do procreate in his members three kinds of spirits and faculties. The first faculty is that which is called natural or vegetal, which being chiefly seated in the liver, taketh conservation and nourishment from Salt, that first radical beginning and base of the others. The vital faculty seated in the heart is cherished and sustained by a Sulphurus liquor, the which liquor is the natural moisture and fountain of heat and of life. The animal faculty, wholly Mercurial, ethereal and spiritual, and the principal instrument of the functions of the soul, is placed in the brain: which is defended and conserved by Mercury the third radical beginning, which is wholly ethereal and spiritual.  
Hereby it is plain, that these radical spirits, or substantial and formal beginnings of things, do so mutually embrace one the other, and which is more, the one will beget the other.  
But the terrestrial and solid Salt which is discerned to be in the bones, and in other hard parts, doth compact and knit together with his gluing force, the more soft parts with the hard: even as a windy spirit, or windy air shut up in every body, doth make a living body more light and nimble, than a dead carcase. The which qualities and faculties are wholly elementary, as proceeding rather from matter then form.  
And thus briefly is showed the three beginnings of man and their faculties and powers.  
The body thus compacted and made of these three beginnings, hath need of his daily food and nourishment, whereby it may be preserved. Which nourishment cannot be supplied from any other, then from those things, which are of the same nature, whereof it consisteth. For we are nourished with those things whereof it consist. Nevertheless for so much as the body is weak & tender by his first original, it is not to be fed with the more hard food, but with meat which will easily be concocted and turn to nourishment, containing these three beginnings.  
Such milk which is given to Infants to suck, without art or labour, doth plainly enough show his three beginnings. For the butter showeth the sulphurus substance; the whey showeth mercurial: and the cheese his saltish beginning. This milk being of one and the same essence, containing these three substances, is easily concocted in the stomach of the Infant, and is first turned into a white juice, and then into blood. The which blood, possesseth that which is more formal and radical in these beginnings, separating and abiecting the rest into feces and excrement. Also the same blood being carried into the heart, by the vain called Vena Cana, which is as it were the Pelican of nature, or the vessel circulatory, is yet more subtly concocted, and obtaineth the forces as it were of quintessence, or of a Sulphurus burning Aquavita, which is the original, which is the original of natural & unnatural heat. The same Aquanita being carried from hence by the arteries into the Balneum Maris of the brain, is there exalted again, in a wonderful manner by circulations: and is there changed into a spirit truly ethereal and heavenly, from whence the animal spirit proceedeth, the chief instrument of the soul, for that it cometh more near to that same spiritual nature, then do the other two beginnings. For as from wine, those three beginnings are extracted by a skilful workman (the which also may be done out of milk, with less labour) so in blood (which we rightly compare to wine) are those three beginnings, which by nature herself, executing the office of a true Alchemist, hath prudently and severally distributed and dispearced into all the parts of the body, in such measure as is fitting to every member: giving to the bones, sinews and ligaments, more plenty of the salt substance, then of the others: to the fat, grease, and marrow, the substance Sulphurus: and to the flesh and humours which come out of blood, and to the nourishing and natural spirits, whether fixed, flowing, or wandering, a greater plenty of the Mercurial spirit.  
That first age of infancy overpassed, and greater strength being increased to concoct and digest meat, than the stomach offereth itself to more solid and firm sustenance, as to bread, wine, and such like, coming as well out of the store of vegetables, as of animals, fed and sustained by the same vegetables, which are passed into an animal nature, that is to say sensative, even as a mineral substance is brought into a vegetative.  
It is afore showed, that the vegetables and animals appointed for man's substance, do change and come into his substance and nature with their beginnings whereof they consisted: so as they being devoured and concocted, and turned into that white juice called Chylus, and spread and distributed into the liver, heart, and brain, by divers degrees of concoctions & circulations, that at the length they are changed into spirits, natural, vital, animal, mercurial, sulphurus, and saltish ethereal, and spirituous: by reason whereof man is preserved, and continueth in his state, unto his predestinated time: hereof also may be gathered and understood, the original and generation of the three humours, which come both from the mixture of these beginnings, and also of the Elements. Which are no less different and varying one from the other, whether it be in perfection, or in imperfection, then are those three beginnings different in the degrees of perfection. The first of the profitable humours, whereof we are purposed to speak, is that Chylus or white juice, which is effected and perfected in the stomach, and in the veins next adjoining, especially in the mesaraic veins by the first concoction: the same Chylus consisting of those three beginnings, but as yet very impure, whereof the first beginnings of nourishment are: and the same is the first digestion and separation of the pure from the impure, of those three formal beginnings, and of the three material elements.  
The second of the profitable humours, is blood, arising out of the Chylus, (which is a good juice) being of the first degree of the concocting heat of the liver, and of the veins: whereof cometh a second concoction, and separation of the pure from the impure, notwithstanding of the formal and matertal essence, which is far more subtle and noble than the first concoction and separation.  
The third of the humours, is that which after sundry reterations of the circulations, made by the much vital heat of the heart; doth very far exceed in perfection of concoction: the other two, which may be called the elimentary or nourishing humour of life, and radical Sulphur: the which is disperse by the arteries throughout the whole body, and is turned into the whole body, and is turned into the whole substance thereof, out of the most perfect concoction of all the other; which is the third, and is called the assimilation or resemblance, of the nourishment or nourished.  
It is certain that this humour, is most especially partaker of the purity of the three beginnings, and doth resemble the rectified animal Aquavita, which is separated from all passive element of the animal wine, that is to say, of the blood. For the blood, (which we have already said to be the second profitable humour, and by us compared to pure and refined wine) is freed from the greater part of his terrestrial tartar, whose three beginnings also do exceed the Chylus in purity. Out of which three beginnings by a third concoction and digestion, the Sulphurus animal Aquavita, the airy and most subtle spirit, together with the Salt, depured and made thin, with divers circulations also, and natural concoctions, are extracted. The which being so extracted, that which resteth in the blood (as also in wine) is water without savour or taste, and a Sulphurus tartarlike, and impure feces, which proceed from out of the material elements. In blood, such are these; cold, moist, & mercurial phlegm: yellow, hot, dry, and Sulphurus choler: and melancholy or black choler, not cold, but hot, dry and saltish, which are the ecremental parts of those more pure substances. And yet the same lie not altogether unprofitable, for that they retaining something out of the active qualities, both of the three beginnings, and also of the elements, do serve for somewhat, so far forth as they are material. For choler in that it is introsulphurus, most hot and bitter, especially that which is of the gall overflowing in the capacity or place of the bowels, provoketh the faculty expulsive to cast out. But the phlegm which is sour & mercurial, is profitable to stir up fermentation and appetite: Whereunto also melancholy is not unfit, which is as it were the dregs of the humour of blood, having a certain analogy and similitude with vinegar made out of wine. For it serveth for the first concoction of meats, through the virtue of a certain internal and vitriolated fire lying hid in such a sharp humour, which being stirred up and set on edge with the heat of the stomach, doth readily and quickly confect and destroy the meats, and doth with so great force consume and devour sometime, when it doth superabound, that many times it bringeth a doglike appetite.  
And those excrements which are altogether superfluous, and a burden to nature, will confirm the truth hereof: The which excrements are such as are separated, partly from these three beginnings, and partly from the elements, namely the mercurial vapours, the Sulphurus breathe, and the saltish exhalations, which pass through the skin by sweats, even as Mercury and Sulphur do vanish away by an infensible transpiration. If such separation of excrements be made by little and little, without any violence, they do prolong a happy age even to extreme decrepity. But if on a sudden, and with a more violent force, of some more vehement motion, or sickness, as of inflammation or of a burning fever, they be thrust out, than they shorten age, and do hasten old age, or else do cast headlong into untimely death by soundings and faintings. Moreover, if such kind of excrements be retained in the body, and are stayed by some impediment from their outgoing, by reason of some external cause, as the coldness of the weather, which doth harden and thicken the skin, or by reason of cooling diet, bri●ging obstructions, or other infirmities of the body which are impediments, they become the seeds and roots of sundry and infinite effects.  
The same is to be said of the most vile and filthy excrements, and of the gross dregs of the elementary matter, together unprofitable, terrestrial and filthy.  
For out of watery, crude, and thin excrements: out of excrements airy, and windy: finally out of the more gross and earthy, or most stinking excrements, how corrupt soever they be, yet there are bewrayed in either of them certain prints of their defects, which the more pure substance of the three beginnings procreated, from the which the impure at the length are separated.  
If any man will make trial of the due Anatomy of these things as (amongst others) of urine, which in sicknesses is diligently viewed and observed, he shall find therein a great quantity of Mercurial liquor, sharp, subtle and piercing, which will dissolve the most solid and hard bodies: as also he shall find great plenty of a sulphurus essence conceiving flames: that I may say nothing of the body of Salt, which is evidently enough to be seen in that great plenty of Salt, which is extracted from the same. The which Salt hath so great sharpness, biting, and coroding force and vehemency, that it is more forcible and strong than all other salts of nature.  
These things are most true, and evident to be seen in the Writings of Chrystophorus Parisiensis, a most famous Philosopher, who hath taken great pains in setting forth the several parts of Urines.  
They which shall search diligently in the building and frame of man's body, for another thing than the elements & their qualities, that is to say, hot and cold, moist, and dry: namely, for a mercurial liquor, sulphur, and salt, endued with all kind of vertures, faculties, and properties, the three beginnings, out of the which, the colours, tastes, and odours, and such other things of infinite variety do spring, shall easily understand, that every one of the beginnings by his temperature or the excurreth out of their consort, do procreate sicknesses of divers sorts in the body: as if sulphur do too much exceed, than it bringeth on inflammations and fevers of divers sorts, beside other stupefactive and drowsy affects, which the stupefactive sulphur stirreth up, out of the stupefactive and drunken spirits which it containeth within the same, and being excessive, spreadeth itself throughout the whole body.  
The which is easily to be seen in such as drink too much wine, and in eating of bread that hath much darnel in it: as also in the taking of Camphor, the juices of poppy, of Henbane, and of such like opiates, which bring sleep, by their soporiferus Sulphurs, and not by their cold quality. Also they shall find by their sour and sharp vapours of Mercury, that falling sicknesses, Apoplexies, Palsies, & all kinds of Catarrhs come from thence. The which effects, if they be accompanied with any poison, or malign & contagious spirits, they cannot but must needs bring on, pestilential; venomous, and contagious diseases.  
If they look diligently into Salts, they shall find, that from them do arise inward gnawings, Impostums, ulcers, disenterie fluxes, the Pemoxoides, and such like, so often as they run out of their seats, and are separated from the other beginnings, or do exceed the measure of nature, from whence also do come great annoyances to the body, as by their resolution, the burnings of urine, stranguries, and such like. For according to the variety of Salts, divers kinds of ulcers, impostumes, and other diseases, as divers kinds of Colics, do arise by their sharp and sour spirit.  
Also by the coagulation and congealing of these Salts, are engendered swellings, stones, and knots of the sinews, and an infinite sort of abstructions, whereof many sicknesses do arise. The which coagulated Salts or tartar, forsomuch as they never want their Mercury and Sulphur, rude indigested, and impure, if they be out of measure, and do reach to the uppermost degree of their malignity, they will commix according to their sundry natures and properties, divers effects, the which notwithstanding will seek to come to the full sickness of the qualities and forces of every of the beginnings, which are also wrapped and enfolded the one within the other.  
And herein we depart not from the opinion of Hypocrates, which he hath showed in his book concerning the ancient medicine. For he rejecting their opinion, which tie the beginnings and causes of sicknesses to the elementary qualities, layeth other foundations, namely, Sweet, Sower, Bitter, and Salt, the which we reduce to those three beginnings of all things, arrogating to every of them their singular faculties and properties. For what power or virtue soever is in the nature of Medicines and of sicknesses, and doth move and put itself in action, the same is to be revoked to those three beginnings.  
Yet notwithstanding I deny not, but that some kinds of sicknesses may arise from the elementary qualities, abounding in our body, which do rather come of the excrements and feculent humours, either retained or superabounding, and do certainly rather arise out of such Elements, than out of the beginnings. For out of the abundance of airy and spirituous winds simply, out of thin waters, and terrestrial feces or dregs, we do see divers kinds of effects daily to come: yet notwithstanding such sicknesses have no long continuance, being such as may be easily cured even by Elementary remedies, being either hot or cold, moist or dry. As for example, airy winds shut up in the bowels, and bringing forth the pains of the Colic, are with lysters dispersed and driven away. Surperfluous humidities and thin water is consumned with drying medicines.  
Inflammations coming of a terrestrial and simply gross matter introsulphurus, are extinguished by a simple cooling help.  
And to conclude, we will say with Fernelius, that some sicknesses are merely secret and hidden, which the same Fernelius (as doth also Paracelsus) affirm to be supernatural: which sickness come from the influences of Stars; wherein also is observed somewhat which is divine, or at least more singular and peculiar, than in common sicknesses. Such are the astral and airy effects which happen to some men more than to other, by a certain singular influences of the Stars, or constitution of the heaven, or by the concourse of the evil Planets: who are therefore diversly affected, by the sundry roots, natures and properties of their Ascendentes, producing by their aspects and radiations, convenient fruits in fit times.  
The secret and hidden causes of these kind of diseases, being such as we cannot easily reach unto, like medicines of the same nature, which are endued with a hidden virtue, are to be used. And as there be Celestial, spiritual, and aetherial effects: so also they require spiritual and aetherial remedies: which may elsewhere be taken, then from those three beginnings brought into a spiritual nature. But we have stood too long upon this point.   

CHAP. XVI. Wherein is showed, that the whole force of purging in Medicines, in the Antimonial, Mercurial, and Arsenical Spirits according to every of their several natures.  
AMong Minerals, three kinds of spirits do offer themselves to be viewed and considedered, from their first original: namely, spirits, Mercurial, Arsenical, and Antimonial, which by their own nature are truly simple, formal, fiery, and of wonderful quality and efficacy, and of ready working. Which are to be distinguished as differing among them, and also as rising from the three beginnings different. For the Mercurials as the most subtle, vaporus, airy, and watery, take their original from Mercury: the Arsenicals, as those which are more prosperous, or breathing, more fiery, hot, and meanly volatile, do take their original of sulphur: the Antimonials, of all others the most gross corporeat, and terrestrial, do take their original from Salt. The Mercurials do borrow their Celestia● spirits, from the Sun, from the Moon, and from Mercury, and are by them impregnated & animated. The Arsenicals do receive the spirits of Mars & Venus: even as the Antimonials do contain the spiritual properties & virtues of jupiter and Saturn. By the which virtues of the Celestial, every of the beginnings, being impregnated by the things most fitting for them & by them increased, do obtain greater forces in every of their kinds, and a more corrected and temperate nature.  
For the Mercurials, as endued with more gentle and wholesome spirits, do get a more gentle nature, medicinable and nourishing. The Antimonials, from the intermedials, that is to say, from things partly good, and partly malignant, receive a worse nature, that is to say an intermedial. But the Arsenicals, as stirred up with the worst and most pernicious spirits, bring a mortal and destroying nature, which oftentimes bringeth great detriment. These last, being so fiery, vehement, and violent, do serve to form and to boil metallic and hard substances, and are as fire to give life unto them being half dead, but are in no case fitting to the more gentle and soft bodies, such as are vegetables and Animals.  
Also the spirits themselves, do put on bodies agreeing to their natures. Arsenicals, & Sulphurus, do put on the body of auripigment, & Arsenic: Antimonials, the body of Antimony and of Magnesia, or Loadstone: because among other metallics, these are most corpulent and of grossest substance, of the root of Saturn and vitriol, and which for the same cause are the beings and beginnings of other metals. By the impediment of which bodies, the force and violent activity of the foresaid spirits, is checked and restrained. Neither do they show such violent strength, when they are brought to a simplicity and spirituous thinness. But among corporal spirits, the Mercurials do exceed the Antimonials in benignity and sweetness: and the Arsenicals which are the last, do overcome the other two in violence and malice. For these are wholly fiery for the most part, as is already said, and are therefore most pernicious.  
But the Mercurials, being of all other most simple and thin, are therefore more ready to work. Also Mercury itself consisteth wholly of homogenial or kindly parts, and the same spiritual: and therefore it exceedeth others in readiness of working. And hereupon it is made more fit than others, for an universal purger and cleanser, for that out of his whole substance without any separation of the parts, excellent and the best purgations, of all sorts, without any preparation at all, may be extracted.  
Provided always that you correct a certain hurtful crudity, which it hath in it, and that you allay his too much celerity and promptness in working. This you may do his concoction and fixation.  
Also the spirits, which by a certain mean are fixed and volatile have place, and do show forth themselves in Auripigment, and in Arsenic: out of whose whole substance, without any exquisite separation, are extracted certain solutive spirits, so exceeding sulphurus, fiery, violent, and deadly, that deservedly they are reckoned among the most mortal poisons: whose assaults and vilolence▪ the animal nature, as more delicate and weak, cannot endure, but that by and by it decayeth: whose vehemency, and pernicious quality, can by no art be corrected or made fit for and use.  
But the Antimonial spirits, as more corpulent, and gross than others, do fix their seat in Antimony, because it is the root and original of all other metals, which are more corpulent than other things.  
And yet for all that they do not remain alone, but that being associated and linked to the company of others, as to the society of Mercurials, and Arsenicals of the seven Metals, they bring forth out of themselves, those several kinds. Namely, Led, and Tin, when as the antimonial spirits do exceed in virtue and plenty: Iron, and Copper, when the arsenicals do superabound and overcome: Gold, Silver, and Mercury, when the Mercurials have the victory over others: the which Mercurials, are more spiritual and simple than any others, and most essential: the which being brought to perfect concoction and fixation, do procreate Siliver and Gold, and do make them pure and clean from all antimonial and arsenical Sulphur. For Gold and silver are nothing else but fixed Mercury brought to perfect concoction. And these Metals of gold and silver, when they are wholly fixed and corporeat, having put off that simplicity and thinness of spirits, are destitute of all power of acting or working, neither can they work and perform any thing at all, except they be brought again to their first spirituality, that is to say, into their first matter.  
As for the other four metals, they having as yet not attained that degree of perfection, that is to say, of purity, digestion, concoction, and fixation, albeit they seem to the sent most hard and solid, yet have they not gotten as yet perfect fixation, being full of much impure Sulphur, and such other like kind of heterogenial and unkindly substances, that is to say, of arsenical and antimonials spirits: and do possess a very small portion of the Mercurial spirits, and the same as yet full of impurity.  
Whereby it cometh to pass, that some of them cannot endure the trial of fire, but by the force thereof do turn to ashes and glass, and can never more be reduced by any Art into a metallicke nature: other some, as more volatile and flying than others, do vanish away into fume or smoke.  
The which is well known to all, not only Philosophers, which have seen the nature of metals in the searching out and exercise of these works, but also to every Goldsmith and Myntman, which know how to disperse and send away such metals into smoke, with their Cupels: which Philosophers can bring to pass by divers other means and instruments.  
And out of these kinds of Metals, full of flying spirits, are extracted purges of admirable operations: and the same according to the nature of the spirits abounding or predominating in every of them. Of the flowers or spirits of Tin, and Led, extracted by sublimation, are made purgations, which work wonderfully by dei●ctions, by vomit, by sweats, and by Urines: which may be reckoned among the mean sort, and such as are less hurtful, albeit they be derived from the metallicke nature. Out of Iron and brass, may be extracted very good purgative medicines, well known to them of old time.  
Now to pass from metals to semi-minerals and so metallic juices, infinite purgations also are extracted out of them, according to the force of their spirits. As out of Vitriol, Niter, Salgem, Sal Armoniac, & out of many other such like things, may be extracted both mean and violent Solutives.  
And to make it plain, that all the power and effect of working which is in Mercury, Arsenic and Antimony, these three metallic spirits, & also what virtue partly those four imperfect metals, and all kinds of Salts, juices, and metallicke substances have, do altogether come especially from these kind of spirits: it is hereby manifest, that fixed Mercury, which by no manner of means will move or fly from our heart, and which is sociable and communicable with our spirits, hath no force to purge either by dejecting through the belly, or by provoking to vomit: but is rather fit to procure sweat and urine.  
But when it shall be volatile and flying, by reason of his wonderful spirituality and subtlety, it is made a great mundificative of the body, piercing into all the parts and members thereof.  
So in like manner the glass of Antimony, in that it hath fuming and flying spirits, not fixed, which doth both show forth themselves at the time of the fusion or melting, as also by a certain white exhalation thereof, when being molten it is put upon the Marble Stone, hath also a vehement force of working.  
Whose fusion or melting, if it be so long and oftentimes reiterated, until no more whiteness will come from the same, than it is made utterly void of all working force.  
It will also lose all power of working or purging, if this glass be made most thin in Alchool, and set in the heat of the Sun, by the heat whereof, the more thin spirits do vanish away, and are consumed. And so then in steed of a losing mediciénce, it is made a most excellent Anodine, or procurer of sleep or rest.  
Therefore to show by invincible Arguments, that all purging faculty consisteth in those flying spirits, and is wholly to be attributed unto them, it is most certain, that glass may be made of Antimony and of Lead, and other preparation, as well out of them, as out of metallic matters, whether it be by subliming flowers out of them, or whether it be by extracting of Saffron out of them, by the means of calcination, the which being beaten into fine powder, and in the quantity of ten or twelve Grains infused in water, or in wine by the space of certain hours, and after that the water easily powered from the residence or powder which is in the bottom, and the same liquor so given, there will follow thereof a wonderful purgation, albeit nothing of the quantity of the powder be in weight diminished, because the spirits only (which give no weight to the body) are left to the infusion, whereof cometh that great force of working.  
The which powder may often be put into water or wine to leave therein his purging strength and spirit: and it may so be done a hundred times, until the spirits be clean evacuated: and yet for all this, the powder being dried, there remaineth still the full weight without diminishing. But that powder looseth his force quite and clean of working, if the spirits be wholly exhausted.  
I myself have seen a Ring made of the glass of Lead, which being infused, was to some a perpetual solutive Medicine, so often as they would purge the body.  
So to others, the Regulus of Antimony, made into a pill of the ordinary and common bigness, swallowed down into the stomach, afterward passing through the belly by siege, taken and being washed and well cleansed, swallowed into the stomach again: and so the same washed and swallowed in like sort a hundred times, so often as the body hath need to be purged, it will perform the parts of a solutive Medicine, and yet lose nothing of his weight.  
Hereby it doth evidently appear, that the force of working lieth hidden in certain spirits, which have the same property, even as in other things there is a force and power of altering or of nourishing, and of passing into our substance. Hereof a more assured proof and trial may be made, by the industry of a learned and skilful workman, who quickly and in a moment can take away from them all force of purging, by using a certain fire of nature, either taking away or fixing, the exceeding sharp and penetrating spirits of Mercury and Antimony, and to make remedies of them, which can restore found and perfect health, by gentle and easy sweats, with insensible transpiration, to the consuming of the superfluous humours of our body, as also to the cleansing away of all impurities rather than by any violent and manifest evacuation, to the troubling of the body.  
And as the vegetative being of a middle nature, between the animal and the mineral, by this nature of partaking with both, is turned into sensitive, (even as we see of bread and wine, blood to be made: of blood, sperm or seed, and of séed a man to be borne:) so the mineral (by that general consent of all things among themselves) passeth into vegetative, the vegetables sucking unto them by the roots of the minerals, essential and metallic spirits with the which the whole earth is filled, as is to be seen by so many iron mines, and by such plenty of sundry stones, with the which it aboundeth and which it bringeth forth, which are nothing else but of a metallic substance.  
And albeit simple vegetants, with metallic substances, do draw those mercurialls, antimonials, and arsenicals of a purging nature, (whereof they are called purging medicines, because they abound with a certain garlic bitterness, by reason of the entering of the spirits of Sal●iter terrestrial and metallic by roots into the anatonie of vegetables:) yet are they not altogether so violent, and of so dangerous a spirit, as they were in their first mine & original, as being thin of nature wholly crude, and indigested. For they put of the poison in the vegetable, by their manifold concoction and digestion, and are made more pure, in so much that they have no other inconvenience in them, but the force and effect of purging, except peradventure, they be given out of measure, & in a greater quantity than is fitting. But some are more purgative than others, namely those in whom there is greater plenty of the Mercurial spirits, the which notwithstanding are nothing offensive to our nature. Nevertheless if any vegetable have in it an arsenical spirit, albeit not altogether so pernicious, as is that which is in Arsenic itself, for that it is made more gentle by concoction, yet it is not without the violence and annoyance of the arsenical poison: such are the herbs, Bane wort, Aconitum, and Enphorbium.  
If any vegetable be endued with an Antimonial spirit or wheresoever the antimonial is joined with another spirit, it bringeth violent vomits and sieges: such are the kinds of Helebores and Spurges, and such like: neither is the vegetable without commotion and perturbation, in regard of the violent spirit which it hath in itself.  
And hereof it cometh that such simples of vehement evacuation, do more abound in mountains, in rocks, and in stony places, where the native seat of metallic spirits is, then in the fat and fertile soil. For the correction whereof, and to make them more gentle, and to put off that wild nature of theirs, they are to be transplanted into home gardens. For thereby they borrow another nature and more gentle nourishment, with the which they are tempered, whereby they wax sweet and familiar, whereas otherwise in the mountains, they are without, and destitute of that gentle nourishment, and sufficient heat of the Sun, and of the temperature of the heavens, to concoct and to temper their erudities. For those things which are austere and wild, are wont to be made gentle by digestions and concoctions: and things venomous become whole, so that art imitating nature, digesting and concocting most excellent remedies, are made of deadly poisons and simples. But this cannot be done, without the knowledge of the internal anatomy of things, and without the assured science of their beginnings.   

CHAP. XVII. Concerning potable gold.  
GOld being prepared by the spirit of the Philosophers lead, is easily dissolved into liquor, and deserveth then to be called Potable gold▪ this must needs be more convenient for medicine in the stomach of man, than leaf gold. For how can leaf gold benefit the stomach, or in any sort be profitable for the sick, when the secret kernel is so fast enclosed in the shell, which is so indigestible, that it will not be dissolved in the body of the Ostrich. The body of any thing profiteth little or nothing without the spirit.  
It cannot be denied, but that all actions come from the spirit, for a body devoid of spirits, is empty, rotten, and dead. If the spirits be they which are agents, the body is desired in vain.  
And chose, when the body is an impediment to the spirit, that it cannot utter his force and strength (as appeareth by the working of nature itself, which without the destroying and objecting of the body, cannot change the spirit, that is to say, the nourishment of meat into flesh) then of necessity, the spirit must be delivered from all his impediments, that it may show itself powerful, and not be hindered from his working.  
This appeareth plain by daily experience. For what good doth that thing in the body, which is neither profitable for the nourishment, nor yet for the health thereof?  
Nay, what annoyance doth it not bring to our faculties, which lieth in the stomach undigested, much better than we shall provide for our body, if in time of sickness we take that to nourish and sustain us, which is well concocted and digested by art, and purged from all gross superfluity. For so nature is no manner of way hindered from distributing the same to all the parts, neither hath it any burden in concocting the same, albeit as yet it is requisite for nature to have a more subtle work, that it may turn to the profit of the body. For how much more available to help the sick which are weak of nature is the spirituous substance of a medicine, if it be given, tried and separated from gross impurity, then to be administered with such impurity, which oftentimes cloyeth and overlayeth the strength of the body. He is more blind than any ●●oule which seeth not this. For the spirit whether it be of meat or of medicine, is given in such small quantity, that it bringeth no detriment, but speedy profit in a moment.  
But yet these spirits cannot be given, nor prepared without bodies, for the which cause we prescribe broths & jellies, to be the chariots of the spirits: and we cleanse the bodies, that they being made pure, the spirit may more firmly clean unto them.  
And that they are not despoiled of their first natural humour, it hereby appeareth, because that natural humour is the body of his spirit. But when by our art, the spirits are extracted, we must have diligent care, that none of them fly away into the air and so be lost. For this cause we must look that our vessels be sure, and nothing break out, by violence of the fire: the which spirits, if we can retain, much less can their bodies escape.  
Spirits than are in bodies, and bodies pass into spirits, in such wise that they are corporeat spirits, and spiritual bodies, so as we can give both body and spirit together.  
Furthermore, that the most dry calpes, do still retain their humour and moisture in them, in so much that they may be turned into liquor, daily experience showeth. For glass brought into ashes, and gold brought into a caix, may be restored to the forms of glass and gold again, through the force of fire.  
But here it may be objected (as it is by some) that gold hath no force in it to prolong life, or to corroborate the same, because it is prolonged by only heat remaining in moisture and is also conserved by the reparation of natural moisture. But these faculties or essences (say some) are not in gold, but rather in those things which have lived, as in plants and living things, from whom that force to prolong and preserve life, is to be taken, rather than from gold. And hereupon it is inferred, that there is no life in metals and minerals, but that they are plainly dead.  
I presume no man will deny, that gold is the fruit of his element, or some thing elementated: if a thing elementated, then doth it consist of elements: therefore also of form. For elements do not want their beginnings, which are formal beginnings, giving being, or that which it is, to a thing. For so much as therefore gold is a body elementated, it consisteth of matter and form, by the mixture whereof there ariseth a certain temperature, or some thing of likeness, which is the life of things. Therefore gold and other metals have life.  
Furthermore, whatsoever the eye can see and behold, that hath matter and Form. For form is the external, arising from the internal, which offereth itself to the sense of the eye: if it have form and matter, then hath it also life. Death is said so be the destruction of things, which seemeth to bring the subject to nothing. But for so much as metals are the objects of the senses, it shall be thought amiss that they are brought to destruction. They live therefore because they subsist. And the things which subsist cannot be said to be brought to nothing therefore not dead.  
By these reasons it doth plainly appear, that there is life in metals, because they subsist, and because they consist of Matter and Form, whose mixture and co●iunction is nothing, but by the bond of a certain kind of life, which is drawn from the elements and beginnings, in the which consisteth the life of things. Furthermore, that cannot be said to be without life, which is endued with power of acting. For actions (as we have said) proceed from spirits. In the spirits is life, or else they themselves are life. And wonderful actions do proceed and come from gold, when it is spiritual and separated from the weight of his body: finally, who is he that dare deny life to be in metals which are endued with so many tastes, with so many odours, with so many colours, and with other virtues. Therefore gold is vital. For so Marcilius Ficinus a most witty Philosopher, and a famous Physician, writeth of gold, saying:  
We know that all living things, as well plants as animals, do live and are generated by a certain spirit like unto this, and is always moved, as if it were living, and doth most speedily generate among the elements, because it is most spiritual. But thou wilt say unto me, if the elements and living things do generate and beget, why do not stones and metals beget, which are mean things, between the elements & living things? I answer, because the spirit which is in them is restrained and hindered by a more gross matter, the which if at any time it be rightly separated, & being separated, if it be conserved as the seminary of one thing, it is able to beget unto itself the like: if so be, there be put to it a certain matter of the same kind: the which spirit diligent Physicians, or naturalists separating from gold, at the fire, by a certain sublimation, they will put the same to any kind of metal, and make it quick.  
Thus it is plain by the authority of this learned author, that there is a vital spirit in gold, and a virtue to procreate the like to itself: as also it is confirmed by the testimony of Virgil in the sixth of his Aeneidos: where the Poet saith, that gold doth mount and arise by his virtue into a tree, whose golden boughs do spread far and wide.  
If the mineral coral tree by his life natural, do grow and increase, why is it not as like that gold and other metals do grow by the same life? Seeing metals do draw their beginnings from minerals minerals, from waters, and waters from the sea. Now if fishes shells, pearls, and coral, receive life from their element, which is the sea, why may it not give vital spirits unto gold? There are sundry sorts of life: yea, things which have neither motion nor sense, have life. Our daily food, doth teach us this, from the virtue whereof, we draw sustenance and preserve life, albeit the flesh of beasts and fowls whereof we feed, be first deprived of life and motion. So that there is nothing utterly devoid of life (as we said before) but that which is utterly brought to nothing. For out of the very rottenness of wood, which doth show and threaten the final destruction thereof, worms of divers sorts, are bred and engendered. What need many words, when as Philosophy teacheth us, that out of the corruption of one thing, cometh the generation of another. And why then may not the generation of a vital metal be brought forth out of the corruption of a metallic body, and which is brought into his first matter: when as life in the body, is the last that dieth, if it may die? It is plain then, that there is life in metals.  
But now let us see, whether this life which is in metals may be made fit to preserve our life, in such sort that it may not be extinguished by diseases. The which I will briefly handle and declare. Those things which continue longest in their being, have a more constant and permanent life, then have those things which die in a moment. This is in plants, the other in metals: for plants and herbs, do wither and vanish away in a moment: but metals will continue a thousand years and more. Now how can herbs promise long life, & help of continuance, which they themselves do want? chose, for so much as metals do so long preserve themselves by their long life, why should they not perform the same, being taken into men's bodies?  
The Philosophers say, that gold, of all other metals is most temperate, by the temperatures whereof, the balsam which is in us waxing sick, that is to say degenerating from his temperature by the force of sicknesses, is restored & holpen, in such wise, that the virtue of his medicine doth recall him to his temper, and doth so increase him with strength, that he easily overcometh sickness. Gold is consecrated to the Sun for his colour and brightness, and to jupiter for his temperature, & therefore it can wonderfully temper the natural heat with moisture, preserve the humours from corruption, and bring the Solary and jovial virtue to the spirits and members.  
The best way to make potable gold, is without mixture of any other thing. The next unto potable gold, is that which is beaten into thin leaves, which for want of the other, may be used in medicine cordial, to comfort the heart. The tincture of gold being extracted, doth cleanse and restore the blood. So that hereby the homogenial and kindly parts are gathered together, and the Heterogenial or unkindly are separated. For there is nothing under heaven to be found more homogenial, or simular, of more thin substance, of more temperate nature, & less subject to corruption, or putrefaction, than the very pure substance of metals, or quicksilver. What therefore can be more fit for our Balsam then that spiritual medicine, purged from all impurity, and brought to exquisite subtlety. Doth not a spiritual nature rejoice and embrace a spiritual nature? Why is not gold impaired in the fire, but doth rather joy therein, and is made more pure? Is it not because it is fire? For fire is not thrust out with fire, but they embrace one the other as being of one kind. So in like manner, for so much as our Balsam of life is most pure, and resembleth the nature of fire, why should it not receive his like, and be strengthened thereby? For Geber saith, that gold is a medicine, which maketh the heart merry, & preserut●h the body in youth: the which medicine is no other thing, but a natural heat, multiplied in the fixed substance of Mercury: the virtue of which heat is to gather together (as it is said afore) y● kindly, & to discever and put away all things that are unkindly, conserving the spirits and humours in a man sooner than in the nature of metals, because a man by his proper natural heat doth separate the unkindly superfluities, which metals by their unnatural heat cannot separate.  
But let the reader understand, that our meaning is not to prescribe this Aurum potabile, for continual food, but for medicine only in time of need. For it will suffice, if it be taken once or twice in the year, to prolong our days to Nestorian years, without the irksomeness of sickness.  
The Philosophers have not only called this medicine Aurum potabile, but also the water of life, the Tincture, the precious stone, the medicine which worketh wonderfully upon three sorts of things, namely upon the animal, vegetable, and mineral: for the which cause it is called the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Stone: and the Arabian Astrologians call it the great Elixir.  
Wonderful is the virtue of this medicine: for herewith the body of man being sick, is restored to health, imperfect metals are turned into gold or silver, and vegetables, albeit they are dry and withered, being moistened with this liquor, do wax fresh and green again. This Medicine being a quintessence is almost incorruptible and immortal, temperate, purified by the elements themselves, and separated from the dregs and gross matter of the four elements, which are the most chief cause of corruption, as the Philosophers affirm: which therefore maketh a temperate and sound body, because it is, as it were the spirit of life, by whose force and help, nature doth digest all that is indigested, or expulse the superfluous and offending humours: it suppresseth their qualities, it quickeneth the spirit, it maketh the soft hard, and the hard soft: the thick, thin, and the thin thick: the lean fat, and the fat lean: it maketh the cold, hot, and the hot cold: it moisteneth the dry, and drieth the moist: to conclude, it confirmeth and strengtheneth the natural heat & moisture. And as all Phylosopers do write with one consent, it is an universal medicinable body, whereunto all the particularities of medicines, are reduced and infused.  
For this cause, it is as it were a fineth nature, or essence▪ a most thin soul, most purgative, much resisting for a very long time, putrefaction or corruption, freed from all mortal concretion, a celestial and simple substance of the Elements, brought to to this spiritual nature, by Chemical sublimation.  
And yet for all this, we affirm not that this medicine is altogether incorruptible, for as much as it is made and consisteth of natural things. Nevertheless, it is brought to that subtlety, thinness and simplicity spiritual, that it seemeth to contain nothing in it that is Heterogenial, or unkindly, whereby it may be corrupted: whereby also it cometh to pass, that being given to the sick, it preserveth them a long time in health.  
And for this cause the Philosophers have had this in so great esteem, and have wholly addicted themselves to seek and search out the same, not to make themselves rich, by turning imperfect metals into gold and silver, when as many of them willingly embraced poverty, but rather to heal the diseases and sicknesses of men, and to defend and preserve their lives in long health without grief, unto the time which God hath appointed,  
But leaving this great mystery, which very few attain unto, I will in charity and good will deliver here unto thee, an easy prescription how to make certain waters, of great virtue, which I found written in the Latin tongue, in an ancient copy: serving to keep the body in health, and to deliver it from many infirmities, which I thought good here to insert, as very pertinent so this Treatise, which concerneth (as you have heard) the virtue of Minerals.  
Take of Aqua vitae, distilled with red Wine, lib. 4. Of burnt Salt, lib. 2. Of dead Sulphur, lib. 2. Of white Tartar. z. 2. Of the coals of Flax which groweth in Abella, a Town of Campania in Italy; z. 3. Of Salt Peter, z. 4. Beat all these into fine powder, & sear them: and being mingled together, power on them the aforesaid Aqua vitae, and so put the whole mass to distillation.  

The Virtues of the Distillation.  
THe first distillation, hath virtue of a Balsam to conserve both flesh and Fish, from putrefaction. It cleanseth the face from all freckles and spots, clearing the skin, and making if fairer. It cleanseth the body from Itch and Scabs, and drieth up the tears, and wateriness of the eyes.  
The second distillation expelleth impostumations, and superfluities of the body, fasteneth the teeth which are loose, and taketh away the windiness of the Liver.  
The third taketh away a stinking breath, and purgeth tough phlegm out of the Stomach, and whatsoever is not well digested.  
The fourth expelleth blood which is congealed in the body.  
The fifth healeth and taketh away from man the falling sickness.  
The sixth distillation helpeth all pains about the throat.  
The seventh cureth the pain of the Gout.  
The eight is an excellent Balsam, which see thou keep well.  
The ninth distillation comforteth and preserveth the Liver, if a little gold be dissolved therein.  
After every of the former distillations, the feces must be beaten, and seared as in the beginning.   

Another Water, by which a Physician may work wonders.  
TAke the fyling of Silver, of Brass, of Iron, of Lead, of Steel, of Gold, the sum or froth of Gold, and of Silver, and of Storax: so much of all these as the ability of the man can well afford: put these the first day in the urine of seven years of age: the second day, in white Wine, made hot: the third day, into the juice of Fennel: the fourth day, into the white of an Egg: the fifth day, into woman's milk which giveth a boy suck: the sixth day, into red wine: the seventh day, in seven whites of Eggs. Then put all this into a cupel, and distill it with a soft and gentle fire. That which is distilled keep in a Silver or golden vessel. There cannot be spoken enough in the praise of this water. It cureth all sorts of Leprosy, and wonderfully cleanseth the body. It maketh youth to continue long. Use it to thy comfort, and to the good of thy neighbour.    

CHAP. XVIII. Showing by what remedies sicknesses are to be cured.  
IT is alleged out of the authority of Hypocrates and Galen, that contraries are cured by contraries. But he which affirmeth that contraries are cured by contraries, he shall never easily find out a remedy for sickness: neither was this Hypocrates meaning, as shall be showed anon. It is out of question that sicknesses do arise from the disagreement of the beginnings: and so often as those beginnings do decline from their temper, (which is then called a distemperature) and the one being separated from the consort of the other, taking up his standing by himself, procureth sickness. For when it is not in mixture with the other, (which being joined together, do maintain concord) they then make war upon the body, without any stop or let. I speak not here of simple and bare qualities, but of the very essences wherein are those powers and faculties whereof Hypocrates speaketh, which preserve the health of their Balsam, or to restore it when it is lost.  
Seeing therefore the seeds and properties both of health and of sicknesses, lie hid in the essences, it followeth that they are to be cherished with essences, and not with qualities. The which essences forsomuch as they are mere acting spirits, they are to be repelled with spirits, not with bodies, which are not like them, or which are contrary to them.  
But it is objected, that all things consist of Elements, therefore our bodies also. If then the Element of air do suffer and be out of course in us, shall the same be holpen with the Element of earth? Why then have Physicians so few remedies against the pestilence? Is it because there are none at all? (I confess when God will punish he taketh away the virtue from remedies and medicines.) That is not the cause, I mean the want of remedies, but because ignorant Physicians, know not the causes of the pestilence, and therefore d●e not rightly provide to prevent the same. For seeing they oppose against the pestilence coming of the corruption of the Air, a medicine taken from earth, water or air, or from the earth having a watery original, what marvel is it, if there follow no effect thereof, when as they do not drive away those things which are to be mixed together, but those things which do easily agree and are gathered together. For how can the heaven and the earth be mingled together, to help the distemperature of the Heaven, between the which there is so great distance, as there is between divisible and indivisible, as Plato spoke. Therefore celestial things are to be mingled with celestial things, watery with watery and earthy with earthy, and not chose, otherwise there can be no agreement.  
Consider well, that Heaven, Air, Water, and Earth, are in us, but yet a certain thing also far more excellent, namely, a certain supernatual body, which conserveth all other things in their temperature, whose strength retaineth all other things in their office: whereas imbecility and defect suffereth them to be out of course. What then is to be done in this conflict but to cherish and uphold in his vigour and strength, that supernatural body, that is to say, the Balsam of nature, that all other things subject thereunto, and to whom it giveth life, may by the mean thereof be continued in their estate, firm and sound? But with what things shall the imbecility and defect thereof be restored, but with things of the same likeness?  
Doth Oil increase by putting water therein? Doth not one enemy put another to flight, even as one friend helpeth another?  
All sicknesses come hereof in our body, in what soever they be seated, because the Balsam of nature and life, do there decay and decrease. What else then is to be done, but to help our weak friend? 
Lib. de s●●●●bus.   
Hypocrates saith, that hunger is a sickness. For whatsoever doth put a man to pain, deserveth the name of sickness: whatsoever then assuageth hunger, is a remedy for this sickness, such is all manner of food, wherewith that sickness is cured.  
Therefore according to the opinion of Hypocrates, food is a remedy. But wherefore are meats and drinks sa●de to be medicinal remedies, but because they have natural properties, agreeing with the Balsam of nature, not contrary, whereby the weakened forces and strength are corroborated and the defect thereof restored. After the same manner drink allayeth thirst. Why and how cometh this to pass but only hereof, because as nourishment is all one with that which is nourished, so thirst is all one with the humour wanting, or with drink?  
Hereby we see how wrong their judgement is, which apply contraries to contraries, to strengthen nature, that it may free itself from sickness. Which nature if she should seek help for an enemy, she must needs fall into a greater peril, than if she were to try the combat only with sickness. And yet for all this we reject not the saying of Hypocrates, that contraries, must have contrary remedies: that is to say, by the taking away of the diseaseful impurities, and by the repairing of the strength and natural Balsam, not by calefaction, or refrigeation, by humestation, or exsiccation: not by abstersion, incision, attenuation, & by such other like, too common & familiar so Galen.  
But we are of Hypocrates mind, 
Hip. lib. de Antiq maedicina.  that hunger is cured by meat, thirst with drink, repletion with evacuation, emptiness with refection, labour with rest, and rest with labour. The which of some are not understood, as they are expounded of Galen, who applieth those contrarieties to those bare qualities whereof Hypocrates speaketh, seeing a medicine is nothing else, than an apposition of those things which are desired, & an ablation of those things which do too much abound, according to the sound opinion of Galen here.  
But Hypocrates aimeth at a further matter, in that he would have the disease qualified & driven away, by giving strength to nature against the enemy: which nature being the only Physician and curer of diseases, is to be holpen with such things as are like to the diseases, that so sicknesses and the passions o● sicknesses may be mitigated: even as hunger and thirst, are recreated & assuaged by those remedies, which they greedily desire. But hostile things, that are enemy & contrary, are not desired, but such things as are a friend and familiar. For who will give to his hungry son when he asketh bread, a Scorpion▪ Therefore like and fitting liquors, and nourishments are to be given, which may procure to nature desired rest. For remedies which come out of the same fountain, and out of the same family, which are agreeing and fitting in likeness are to be ministered. For the thirsting spirits of fevers▪ are to be recreated with syrups, with sugars, with pertisan alone, or with wine, because they are not of the same family and affinity with them, therefore neither familiar friends nor kinsmen: but with those tart liquors, which are begotten of the same lineage, which are spiritual not corporal, as are those former, of the which, it certain drops be offered to him which is a thirst, they will by and by slake his thirst, and presently bring such thirsty spirits to their rest. After the same manner, watchings, pains, burning hears, and such like are cured. For when the spirits are thirsty, that is to say, when they desire any thing like to themselves which is wanting, they will never be appeased nor at rest, until they have obtained that which they desire, and have supplied their want. Wherefore they are rightly called, by Hypocrates, contraries: and by Hermetical Physicians, remedies of like sort. For they are Similes, which are drawn from the ●ame anatomy of nature, containing like properties, tinctures, and roots. And on the other side, they are contraries, because they supply the defects, and do satisfy the desires with friendly fullness, appeasing the spirits, and their fitting impurities, seeking to consume them, or to take them away. Therefore these phrases of speech in nature's anatomy, albeit they seem different, and repugnant one to the other, yet in good consent and agreement they are received and admitted. That is to say, that contraries have contrary remedies, & like to their like.  
But to return to our beginning, that is to say to the elements, or to those three hypostatical & formal principles of bodies, namely Salt▪ Sulphur, and Mercury, which is a liquor: for so much as upon them all grievous diseases for the most part do depend, inso much that a common pestilence flying in the outward air cannot invade a man, but it must make a breach and assail one of these. Therefore thou shalt not do more foolishly, if to help him which is grieved with a mercurial sickness, thou use a remedy taken out of Sulphur, then if thou shouldest mingle oil with water, which two will never be mixed or united. And in like sort, thou shalt labour in vain, if thou go about to help Sulphurus sicknesses with a Mercurial medicine: or to put away salt sicknesses with the help of others. For these will never agree together: and being so unlike one to the other, they will never be joined in one, to heal and cure the body, except they be knit in a friendly peace and union, by that supernatural & ethereal body, that is to say, by the Balsam which is common to all things. He therefore which is sick of Mercury, must be holpen with mercurial remedies: as the Epilepsy, and the Apolexi, are to be holpen with vitriolated remedies taken from water. And he which will help sulphurus sickness, must use sulphurus remedies, and sicknesses proceeding of Salt, with medicines taken from Salt. So thou shalt be taught by reason and experience, that things of like sort will agree & be cured with their like. We might yet make these things more plain, & lay the same more open by many reasons and examples: but why should we ease you of that labour which we have vndergon ourselves by diligent reading, searching and experimenting the things of nature, with great expenses, before we attained our desire. Accept my good will in this, which, I freely offer for some ease of thy pains, and for thy profit. And if it fit not thy humour & taste (for all men have not one relish) leave it for those which shall better allow it.   
FINIS.   

THE SECOND part of this Treatise, wherein is contained in some measure, the practice of the Hermetical Physic.  

CHAP. I.  
Salted (whereof hath been spoken before at large) is a thing of such quality, 
All things naturally love Salt.  and so excellent in itself, that all creatures by a certain natural instinct, do desire the same as a Balsam, by which they are preserved, conserved, & do grow and increase. They love it, and like it so well (I say) that they long after it, and do draw it unto them by their breath, and do lick it with their tongue out of walls, and old rubbish. Birds, as Doves and such like, do search after it with their beaks, and will (if they can) attain it, though out of feculent places, which are made ●at by men's excrements and virtues. What huge multitudes of fishes are bread and nourished in the Salt Sea? The which being so apparent. I wonder that men are of so perverse judgement, that they know not, or at least will not acknowledge, 
Salt the Balsam of nature  the admirable effects, of this radical balsam of nature. And who will not admire the virtual properties and qualities of Salt, yea even of that which is extracted out of living creatures: which qualities are to be seen in making liquid, in cleansing, in binding 〈…〉 preserving from 〈◊〉 corruption, and 〈…〉 Are not all these faculties and many others sufficient, 
Salt hath life in it & is animal.  to prove that Salt is a thing animal? And so much the rather, because there have been some chief Philosophers, who have affirmed the Mag●es or Loadstone to be animate▪ or endued with life; only because it hath power to draw ●ron to it. How many faculties far greater than these, yea and the same magnetical also, do we find in Salt, if we look diligently and thoroughly into them? What is greater, and more admirable than the Salt of man's ●ri●e? which after convenient preparation, is made fit to dissolve gold and silver? which by this their sympathy and concordance, ●o sufficiently declare, and manifestly give attraction, and magnetical virtue, occasioned or caused by their conjunction and copulation. Who seeth not those admirable things, which are to be discerned, and which fall out in the preparation thereof, and in the exaltation, whether you respect so great variety of colours, or the coagulations, and dissolutions, when the spirit returneth into the body, and the body passeth again into spirit? Christophorus Parisiensis, that great Philosopher, did not in vain take the subject here-hence, and begin the foundation of his work. Thus I hope I have sufficiently declared, that our Salt may be said to be animate.  
But that it may appear also to be as vegetal, as it is animal; that is to say, 
Salt is also vegetal.  that it is not deprived of the growing faculty, it may hereby be demonstrated, because it is the first moving thing in nature, which maketh to grow, and to multiply, and therefore serveth for the generation of all things: so as with the Poets and ancient Philosophers it may be said, that Venus the mother, and first beginner of all generation, 
Salt the original matter of pearls and coral.  is begotten of the Salt spume or froth of the male, the which also Athenaeus confirmeth. For this cause Venus was called by the greeks Aligene, as affianced to the Salt sea. And also the generation of most precious pearls in the shells of fishes, and of coral springing out of the bowels of hard stones and rocks in the sea, spreading forth branches like a 〈◊〉 do yet more and more confirm this sentence. The●● are the ●●fects, 
Salt the fire of nature.  which that fire of nature, Salt, bringeth forth, yea even in the midst of most cold water.  
But let us see also what it worketh in the earth. The effects which it hath in the earth are these: namely, it heateth and maketh the earth fat: 
The effects of Salt in the earth.  it anima●●th, fortifieth, and giveth power unto it: It increaseth and giveth a vegetating and growing virtue with seed into every thing in the same. For what other thing is it which 〈◊〉 the earth 〈◊〉, and bringeth to pass, that one grain multiplieth into a hundred but a certain stercoration, and spreading of 〈…〉 which cometh from cattle? What other thing openeth the earth and maketh it to sprout ●n the beginning of the spring time after that the Sun is exalted into the sign of Ari●● (which sign is the full of Saturn, and the house of Mars, signs altogether f●ery) but the elevations and subl●●ations of the spirits of the said Salt, and of the balsam of nature? This is 〈…〉 and quickeneth, which maketh to grow, and which 〈◊〉 and joyeth the meadows and the fields, and which produceth that most ample and universal vigour and virtue.  
Who seeth not this in the very a●er also, 
The effects of Salt in the air.  by the sublimations of the spirits of the 〈◊〉 nature of Salt, which spirits being sublenated into air in the said spring time, do fall again in form of a dew, upon corn and all things that spring out of the earth? And who seeth not that these dews arising from the earth, and falling again from the air, is a cause of vegetation and growing. But that the dew is the spirit of the foresaid Salt, and endued with Salt, they which think themselves great Philosophers, against their wills and not without shame, do confess, when they see that the true Philosophers do extract out of the dew a Salt, which dissolveth coral and pearls, no less than doth the Salt▪ which is extracted out of common Salt, out of Salt-Péeter, out of Niter, or out of other Salts which are prepared for the same end.  
Furthermore, the same Salt, may rightly also be said to be vegetal, because it is manifestly found in all vegetables, and because those things in the which it doth most abound, have the longer life and continuance, and do more manifestly show forth the vegetable effects, either in their own proper nature, ●or at such times as they are to serve for use.  
Salt also is well known to be metallic or mineral. And all men know it the better so to be, 
Salts mineral.  for that such sundry and divers kinds of Salts are found in the bowels of the earth: such are Salt, Gem, Alum, Vitriol, Salt niter, and such others more, all which are of metallic nature, 
Salts of divers kinds.  or else do participate much with the same. But a Philosopher knoweth how to 〈◊〉 this thing further, and to find out the innermost 〈…〉 by the help of divers strong waters, which he knoweth how to prepare: which are nothing else, but the spirits of the foresaid Salts which have power to dissolve and to bring metallic bodies into waters, 
Stirring waters.  as is known to every one. I say, that by this dissolution, we may be●●ld the 〈◊〉 sympathy of these Salts, with the metallic nature. For because they are like, they will be well mingled together, conjoined and united, dissolving his like, and associating himself to his like. For strong waters do never work upon wood, or upon any o●her matter, which is not of metallic nature: 
Nature accords with nature.  As it was most truly said of a certain great Philosopher▪ Nature loveth her like, and delighteth in her own nature▪ And by another wittily thus spoken: easy is the passage of things one into the other, which are one in likeness. Sulphur, and other things, which are of an oil like nature, are sooner and better dissolved with oils, as with the oils of Terebinth and of Flax, or Linsede▪ which is most sw●●te, then with that great force, and most violent sharpness of strong waters, which are nothing else but the spirits of Salts, and by consequent do disagree with Sulphur, which is a beginning contrary to the said spirits. Here i● offered large occasion of 〈…〉 i● time and place would serve, but I omit it.  
Let us return to our Salt: 
Salt is fusible  the which if I shall show that it may be molten and dissolved, no less than gold and silver, with the force of fire, and being cold again, may be congealed into a mass, as metals be, than no doubt it will evidently appear, that Salt is of a metallic nature. And this I say is to be do●e, not only in Salt which is sound in mines and in caves of the earth, but also in the very Salt of the Sea. But for so much as the same is better known to them that have but mean skill in metals, then that I shall need at this time to spend much labour about it, I cease to speak any word more thereof.  
Hereby it doth appear very evidently, that this opio●e of Aristotle is false, where he saith, that cold dissolveth the things which are congealed with heat: and that those things which are coagulated by cold, are dissolved by heat. The which notwithstanding we grant to be true on the one part, for that we know well, that Salt which is coagulated or congealed by the heat of the Sun▪ is dissolved in cold water. But it must be confessed also to be true, that Salt, by the vehemency of the heat of fire, is to be dissolved, molten and made fluxible, and to be cast into a molten lump, as easily as metals be.  
Moreover Salts may be extracted out of all calcined metals which are to be dissolved, 
Salts may be extracted out of metals  filtered, and coagulated, after the same manner as are other salts, whether they be common and not molten, or whether they be molten by the force of heat. For it is known to a Chemist of small practice, that out of one pound of calcined lead, ten or twelve ounces of Salt may be extracted. All which things do sufficiently demonstrate and prove, that the nature of Salt is metallic: and that therefore metal is nothing else but a certain ●u●il Salt.  
By that which hath been spoken, it may easily appear, how Salt is animal, vegetal, and mineral, and that it agreeth with that which all the Philosophers have decreed with one consent concerning the matter and subject of the universal Medicine.  
And hereunto tend all other signs, whereby they describe their foresaid matter, albeit most abscurely. All which things to agree with the nature of Salt● as that 〈◊〉 is of small estimation: that it is to be found in every thing, 〈…〉 ourselves: the which is most plain, for so much as there is nothing compounded in universal world, out of the which, and at all times, Salt cannot be extracted.   

CHAP. II. The three principles of all things are contained in Salt, extracted out of the earth.  
But to show now more particularly those things whereof we have spoken generally, namely, that Salt do participate with the animal, vegetal, and mineral nature, we will use a common example, the which notwithstanding, being exactly and diligently weighed and considered by a true Philosopher, is a notable mystery. The which, albeit it be taken from out of the earth, yet it may lift up our eyes to heaven.  
I mean to speak of Niter, which men commonly call saltpeter. I let pass the detestable and pernicious use thereof, invented for the destruction of men: And yet I must confess that it deserveth great admiration, in that it showeth forth so great, and incredible effects, when as we being in these lower parts, it representeth thunderings and lightnings, as if they were in the air aloft. But it we should consider what it is, and of what quality, in his own nature and composition, what divers faculties, and qualities, and effects there are in a thing so vile and so common, it would no doubt make us to wonder out of measure.  
Niter is made and compounded of earth his mother, which bringeth forth the same: or it is taken out of old rubbish grounds, or out of places where stables for beasts have been, or out of such kind of grounds which have been replenished with salt liquor, or with the urine of beasts, rather than out of a lean hungry land, washed with rain, or by some such like occasion, deprived of that radical humour. It is most plentifully extracted from the ground where dove-houses are seated, and out of Pigeons dung: and this is the best Niter of all others: the which is worthy the noting. Whereby it appeareth, that Niter doth participate with the excrements and urines of living creatures.  
For urines are nothing else, but a superfluous separation of the Salt of vegetables, by which, living creatures are nourished and do live. Whereby it evidently appear, how the foresaid Salt doth in kind participate with the nature animal, and vegetable. For as touching that which pertaineth to the mineral, it is not much pertinent to our purpose to speak thereof, saving that we think good to add thus much, that it is extracted out of the earth, which is the reason why it is called Salt-Péeter, when as more properly it should be called the salt of the earth. But let us go forward.  
Nature ministereth matter to Art, whereof Salt-Péeter is compounded: Art cannot make by itself, no more than nature can make Salt-Péeter-pure, and separated from all terrestrilie and heterogeneal or unkindly substance. For that it may produce the same effects which the other produceth, it must be prepared by the industry of workmen. For these make choice of convenient earth, and out of fit places, to them well known, and being filtered, or strained with hot common water, again and again, through the same earth, as lies are usually made with ashes, it cometh to pass that a saltness or brinish taste is mingled therewith, which is proper to all salts.  
Of the which like, or water so distrained, if two thirds or thereabout be vapored away by séething at the fire, and then let cool, the salt will be thickened into an Ice, whereof the maker of Salt-Péeter finisheth his work, purifying the same by sundry dissolutions, and coagulations, that it may lose his fatness quite and clean.  
This common work, being trivial, and no better than mechanical, if it be rightly considered and weighed, is (as I have said already) full of admiration. For by the very same preparation, the three beginnings are extracted out of earth, which may be separated one from the other, and yet nevertheless the whole three, do consist in one and the same essence, and are only distinguished in properties and virtues. 
A Figure of the Trinity.  And herein we may plainly see as in a glass (after a certain manner) that in comprehensible misery of the three persons in one and the same Hypostasis or substance, which make the divine Trinity. For thus it hath pleased the omnipotent Creator, to manifest and show himself a v●●trine, or Trinne, not only herein, that he is found so to be in the nature of earth, but universally in all the works of the creation. For this our comparison of the Salt of the earth is general, and is every where found, and in all things.  
Also in this comparison of Salt, 
Phree distinct natures in Salt.  we may behold three distinct natures, which nevertheless are and do subsist in one and the same essence. For the first nature is Salt common, fixed, and constant: and the other nature is Volatile, Salt, the which alone, the Sal-péeter-man seeketh after.  
This volatile or flying Salt, containeth in it two kinds of Volatile Salt: the other full of Sulphur, easily catching flame, which men call Niter: the other Mercurial, watery, sour, partaking of the nature of Salt Armoniac.  
Wherefore in that most common essence of earth, these three several Salts are found, under one and the same nature of the which three, all vegetables and animals whatsoever do participate. And we determine to place our three hypostatical and substantial beginnings, upon these three Salts, as upon the fundamental grounds, in that our work, concerning the hidden nature of things, and the mysteries of Art, the which we had thought to have published before this time: whereof we thought it convenient to say some thing by the way, because the groundwork and beginnings of Medicines depend upon them.  
Wherefore to the end so large & immensurable doctrine, may the better and more diligently be considered of all men, especially of the wiser sort, than heretofore it hath been, I will set plainly before their eyes, those three distinct natures of Salt, comprehended (as already is said) in one Hupostasis, or substance.  
For the maker of saltpeter, or Niter, to make his salt the more effectual, volatile, and more apt to take fire, taketh away the fatness (as they term it) from the same, and separateth the Salt thereof, which is all one with the sea salt▪ or common salt, which is dissolved into common water: chose, Salt-peted (as men call it) is congealed into such pieces, as we see it to be: and so there is made a visible separation of both the Salts. For the water (wherein the common Salt being defused and dissolved as we said) being evaporated or boiled away, there remaineth a portion of Salt in the bottom, which is somewhat like to our common marine Salt, and of the nature thereof, for it hath the same brinish qualities, 
Two salts appear in the 〈◊〉 of saltpeter.  it is fixed, it melteth not in the fire, neither is it set on fire, and therefore is wholly different from that which is congealed in the same water, which is called saltpeter. The which thing truly deserveth to be diligently considered, not of ordinary Salt-peter-men, which are ignorant of the nature of things, but of Philosophers, if they desire to be reputed, and to be such. To whom it shall manifestly appear, that Salt which by nature and quality (according to the common opinion of Philosophers) is hot and dry, a sulphurus Salt, fiery, and apt to be set on fire, such as is Salt peter, will be coagulated or congealed in water, wherein all other salts are dissolved, no less than that salt which proceeded from the very same essence of saltpeter, may be dissolved in water, as we have said.  
Therefore not without great cause, the admirable nature of saltpeter deserveth to be considered, which comprehendeth in it two volatile parts: the one of Sulphur, the other of Mercury. The Sulphurus part is the soul thereof, 
Two flying parts of saltpeter.  the Mercurial is his spirit.  
The Sulphurus part cometh to that first moving of nature, which is nothing else, but an ethereal fire, which is neither hot nor dry, not consuming like the Elementary fire, but is a certain Celestial fire, and Airy humour, hot and moist, 
Sulphur of Nature.  and such as we may almost behold in Aqua Vitae; a fire, I say, contempered, full of life, which in Vegetables, we call the vegetating soul: in Animals, the hot and moist radical: the natural and unnatural heat, the true Nectar of life, which falling into any subject, whether it be Animal or Vegetable, death by and by ensueth. The which cometh so to pass upon no other cause, but upon the defect of this vital heat, which is the repairer and conserver of life.  
The same vital heat, is also to be found, albeit more obscurely in Minerals: 
The Mercurial part of saltpeter.  which may more easily be comprehended by the sympathy and concordance, which the said saltpeter hath with Metals: as is to be seen in the dissolutions, whereof we have spoken somewhat before.  
Beside that sulphurus part, there is also found in saltpeter, a certain Mercurial of airy nature, and which notwithstanding cannot take fire, but is rather contrary thereunto. This spirit is not hot in quality, but rather cold, as appeareth by the tart and sharp taste thereof: the which sharpness and coldness is wonderful, and is far different from the Elementary coldness: for that it can dissolve bodies, and coagulate spirits, no less than it doth congeal saltpeter: 
The cause of ferment, is sourness.  the which sourness is the general cause of Fermentation, and coagulation of all natural things.  
This same sour and tart spirit, is also found in sulphurs, of the same quality, not burning, nor setting on fire, and which congealeth sulpur, and maketh it firm, which otherwise would be running like Oil. Vitriol, among all the kinds of salt, 
Vitriolis of the nature of Copper.  doth most of all abound with this spirit, because it is of the nature of Venus, or Copper: which sour spirit inconstant Mercury (which notwithstanding always tendeth to his perfection, that is to say, to his coagulation and fixation) full well can make choice of, and attract it to him, that he may be fixed and coagulated, 
The spirit of Vitriol fixeth Mercury.  when it is mixed and sublimed with the same vitriol. Even as Bees suck honey from flowers, as Ripley saith.  
Furthermore, this sharp, sour, and cold spirit, is the cause why Salt-Péeter having his sulphur set on fire, giveth a crack: that so salt-péeter may be of the number of them, whereof Aristotle writeth, as that they are moved with a contrary motion: Which words of his are diligently to be considered. But what do I mean to open the gate of passage into the orchard of the Hesperides, in speaking so plainly of salt-péeter, giving thereby a free access unto the doltish and ignorant? Be not therefore deceived, in taking my words according to the letter. Salt-Péeter of the Philosophers or fusile salt (whereof at the first came the name of Halchymie) is not Salt-Péeter, or that common Niter: yet nevertheless, the composition and wonderful nature thereof, is as it were a certain example, and Lesbian rule our work. Howbeit I have spoken more plainly & manifestly unto you of this matter, than any other which hath gone before me hath done.  
Let therefore Momus from henceforth hold his peace, and let slanderous tongues be hereafter silenced. Also let the ignorant open their ears and eyes, and give good heed to that which followeth, wherein shall be plainly showed many admirable things, and secrets of exceeding great profit. Wherewith be you well satisfied, and take my good will in good part, till hereafter I shall deliver that which shall better content you.   

CHAP. III. Wherein by Examples, the forces and properties of Salt are manifested.  
Ye have seen out of that first remaining Chaos (that is to say, out of that base earth, or out of a matter confused and deformed) an extraction, and separation of a fairer, bright clear, and transparent form: that is to say, of that Salt, which is oped to receive many other forms, and which is endued with divers and wonderful properties.  
Ye have also seen, how out of one, and the same essence, three distinct and several things, yea, three beginnings of Nature are extracted: of the which all bodies are compounded, and with skilful Chemist can extract and separate out of every natural body, that is to say, out of Mineral, Vegetal, and Animal: to wit, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury: principles verily most pure, most simple, and truly Elementary of Nature, all comprehended under one essence of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, which Philosophers are wont to compare with the body, 
Body, soul, and spirit.  Spirit and Soul: for the body is attributed to salt: the spirit to Mercury: and the soul to sulphur: every one to their apt and convenient attribute.  
And the spirit is as it were the mediator, and conserver of the soul with the body, because through the benefit thereof, it is joined and coupled with the soul. And the soul, quickeneth the spirit, and the body.  
ye have also seen in the aforesaid salt, a Hermaphroditical Nature: Male and female: fixed and volatile: Agent and Patient: and which is more, hot and cold: fire and Ice, by mutual friendship and sympathy joined in one, and united into one substance: wherein is to be seen the wonderful nature thereof.  
The properties thereof are no less wonderful: nay, rather much more wonderful. For saltpeter is the especial key and chief Porter, which openeth most hard bodies, and the most solid things, as well stones as Metal: and bringeth gold and silver into liquor, which the proper water extracted out of the whole maffe, without separation of the male or fixed. And as it maketh all bodies metallic, spiritual and volatile: so on the contrary part, it hath virtue to fix and to incorporate spirits, how flying soever they be.  
Who now will not wonder, or rather be amazed, which knoweth that saltpeter is so apt & ready to take fire, by which it passeth into air and smoke, and yet in the mean time seeth that it remaineth liquid and fusible in a red hot crucible, placed in the centre of burning coals? notwithstanding the which most burning heat, it conceiveth no flame, except the flame or fire happen to touch it. And which is more, being of nature so volatile, it is at the length fixed, neither is it overcome by the fire, neither doth it yield be it never so violent and burning, no more than doth the Salamander (if it be true which is reported of that beast) which before notwithstanding it could not abide, nor by any manner of means endure. Thus therefore ye see, that by fire only his nature is transformed.  
Furthermore the same Salt-peter, which was of late rightly prepared and cleansed, so white and Crystalline, (at the least outwardly so appearing) being now put into a fixatorie fire, you shall see that it containeth within it all manner of colours, as green, red, yellow, and white, with many others more. The which if any man will hardly believe, because he will be rather incredulous than docile, I wish him to make trial thereof, and then he shall learn so notable a mystery of Nature, within the space of ten hours, with very little cost.  
And lest ye should take me for some Lycophrone, or Grammarian writer of Tragedies, I will teach you how to work truly and plainly.  
Take of saltpeter the finest and clearest, one pound or two; put it into a glass Alembic with a cover, 
A practice.  and set it in sand: no otherwise than if you should distill Aqua Fortis. Put fire under, and moderate the same by degrees according to Art: she which fire thou shalt increase the third or fourth hour after, in such wise, till the sand appear very hot. This fire in the highest degree thou shalt continue by the space of five or six hours: and then thou shalt find and plainly see, that the spirits of saltpeter, have penetrated the very glass of the Alembic, and that it hath dissoloved the same as well within as without.  
Furthermore the spirits of the saltpeter, which are come through the body of glass, cleaving to the outside thereof like unto flower, ye make take off with a soft feather, and easily gather together in great quantity. This flower is nothing else, but the spirit of saltpeter, wherein ye shall see all sorts of colours very lively expressed.  
That which remaineth in the bottom of the Culcurbit, so white as snow, and wholly fixed, is a special remedy to extinguish all Fevers. It is given from half a drachm to a drachm, dissolved in some convenient liquor. 
A good purgation of bad humours.   
And to speak in a word, this remedy hath not his like, to cut, to cleanse, and to purge, and evacuate the corruptions of humours, and to conserve the body from all pollution of corruption. For seeing it is of the nature of Balsamic Salt, it must needs be endued with such virtues and properties. And in very deed to deal plainly and truly, I cannot if I would, sufficiently extol with praises, the true saltpeter, and Fusile salt of the Philosophers. This Salt, Homer calls divine. And Plato writeth, that this Salt, is a friend and familiar to divine things. And many Philosophers have said, that it is the soul of the universal, the quickening spirit, and that which generateth all things.  
It may peradventure seem that we have been too tedious in the inquisition and speculation, as well of the general, as of the particular, concerning the nature of Salt: but it is so profitable and necessary, that it is the Basis, and foundation of all medicinable faculties (as more at large shallbe showed in his place) that Physicians may have wherewith to busy themselves, and to understand.  
But as touching a Chemical Philosopher, let him know that he ought to bestow his labour most chiefly in fusil Salts, and to remember that Philosophers have not without good cause ever and anon cried; Bake it, Bake it, and bake it again: which is all one, as if they had said, Calcine, calcine, or bring it to ashes.  
And in very deed if we will confess the truth of the matter, all Chemical workings, as Distillations, Calcinations, Reverberations, Dissolutions, Filtrations, Coagulations, Decoctions, Fixations, and such other appertaining to this Science, tend to no other end, than so to bring their bodies into dust or ashes, that they may communicate the spirits of salts and sulphur which have made them (placed nevertheless under one and the same essence) after a certain imperceptible manner, with their metallic water, and true Mercury: and that to this end, that by the infernal virtue and force of Salt, the Mercury may be consumed, boiled, and altered from his vile nature, into a more noble: when as of common Mercury, it is made by the benefit of the spirit of Salt, the Mercury of the Philosophers: which Salt it hath attracted out of the ashes, or calx vine Metallic.  
Even like as it cometh to pass in the lye-wash which is made of ashes and water, the which being oftentimes messhed and drawn away, the ashes leave all their life and strength, communicating all their Salt to the foresaid water: the which water, albeit, it always remaineth fluxile and liquid, yet it abideth not simple and pure water, cold, or of small virtue: but being now made lie, it is become hot, and of a drying quality, cleansing, and of quality wholly active, which is altogether the virtue and faculty of an altering medicine.  
But it is to be considered, of what matter this quick and metallic ashes are to be made. Also of what manner of water the lie is to be prepared, that thou mayest exalt the Salt or Sulphur of the Philosophers, that is to say, the Balsamic medicine, which is full of active qualities like unto thunder, being reduced into a true living calx.  
And whereas at the first, it was a certain dead body void of life, it shall then be made a living body endued with spirit, and medicinal virtue.   

CHAP. FOUR Gold animated, is the chief subject of the metallic Medicine of the Philosophers.  
OF so great power and force is the Philosophical Sulphur of Nature, that it multiplieth and increaseth gold in strength and virtue, being already endued with great perfection, not so much for the equal concurrency of Sulphur and Quicksilver, as in regard of the perfect combination, adequation, equability of Elements, and of the principles which make gold. 
Gold triumpheth in earth, in air and in fire.  And the said principles or beginnings (to wit, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury,) do so order themselves, that the one doth not exceed the other: but being as it were equally balanced and proportionated, they make gold to be incorruptible: in such wise, that neither the earth (being buried therein) can canker, fret and corrupt it, nor the Air alter it, nor yet the fire master it, nor diminish the least part of it.  
And the reason hereof is, for that (as the Philosopher saith) No equal hath any command or mastery over his equal. 
The incorruptibility of gold, maketh it the best Medicine to help a corruptible body.  For because also, in every body equalled and duly preportioned, no action or passion can be found; Also this is only that equality, which Pythagoras called the Mother, the Nurse, and the defender of the concord of all things. This is the cause that in gold and in every perfect body, wherein this equality is, there is a certain incontrollable and incorruptible composition. The which when the ancient Philosophers observed, they sought for that great and incomparable Medicine in gold.  
And because they understood, that gold was of so small compacted and firm composition, that it could not work, and send his effects into our body, so long as it remained in that solidity, they sought & endeavoured to dissolve and break his hard bonds, and by the benefit of vegetable Sulphur, and by the artificious working of the Balsam of life, to bring it to a perfect adequation, that the vegetable spirits of gold, (which now lay hidden as it were idle, might make it of common gold, (which before it was) gold philosophical and medicinable, which having gotten a more perfect vegetation and seminal virtue, may be dissolved into any liquor, and may communicate unto the same that flowing and balsamic perfection, or the Balsam of life, and of our nature.  
And because we are now speaking of the animation of gold, 
The wonderful effects of potable gold.  be it known for a surety, that the ancient Fathers and Philosophers sweat and laboured much to find out the mystery hereof, that they might compound a certain Balsamic Medicine, to vegetate and corroborate, and by the noble adequation, and she integrity of nature thereof, to conserve the radical Balsam, and that Nectar of our life, in good and laudable temperament. But indeed it is not to be wondered at, that gold being delivered from his manacles and fetters, and being made so spiritual and animate, and increased in virtue and strength, doth corroborate nature, and renew the Balsam of our nature, and doth conserve unto the last period of life, being taken in a very small dose, as in the quantity of one or two grains.  
And so much less it is to be marveled at, that forsomuch as by that great adequation of temperature, it doth conveniently agree and communicate with our radical Balsam, it doth check the rule of phlegm, the burning of choler, and the adustion of melancholy, and by his incorruptible virtue, doth preserve our nature, but also to overcome all the diseases which belong to our body. And so much the rather, in regard that the same Balsam of nature, that natural spirit, is the principal cause in us, of all actions, operations, and of motions, not depending upon temperature or mixture, but concerning the same, as Galen himself is compelled to confess, speaking of that our natural heat. Ye must understand (saith he) that Hypocrates calleth that, inset heat, which we call the native spirit in every living thing. Neither hath any other thing form any living creature from the beginning, or increased it, or nourished it unto the appointed time of death, but only this inset or natural heat, which is the cause of all natural works.  
Therefore they can be excused by no manner of means, which contumeliously, & without any reason, do despise, discommend, and caluminat these kind of remedies, which do principally tend to the restoring & corroborating of our radical Balsam, which alone (holpen with the said medicine) is able to separate those things which are unkindly & grievous to nature, & merely heterogenial, by expulsions convenient, & ordinary evacuations: & to retain the homogenial & kindly parts, with the which it doth most especially agree to their further conservation. Whereas, if for the corroborating of man's strength, there could be any use made of leaf gold (the which is nothing else but a certain dead matter, in no sort fit to participate with our nature, & much less able to be digested by our natural heat) which is most commonly in use in all restoring medicines, as in Confectione alkermes, electuario de gemmis, aurea Alexandrina, Diamargariton Aricenna, and in such other like: why I pray you is the use of gold animate disallowed, prescribed in that manner and form already showed? But in good sooth, they do in vain & too unadvisedly discommend, & contemptuously speak against metallic remedies, as if they were no better than poisons: when as the world knoweth, that men which are irrecoverably diseased, when no other common medicines will help, are then sent to Baths, to the Spawe, and to such other waters which are medicinable, in regard they spring from Niter, Alum, Vitriol, Sulphur, Pitch, Antimony, Led, & such like: all which do participate of a substance & spirit metallic, which we have found by experience, to purify & to evacuate our bodies by all manner of evacuation, not without great profit, as we will declare more at large, when we come to speak more particularly of the same in our book concerning the hidden nature of things, and of the mysteries of Art: In the which work we will show plainly and openly, the virtual qualities of those metallic spirits. And it shall be there proved by reason, and also by experience, that those metallic spirits, have the same effects that the foresaid medicinable waters of Bath, 
Baths and waters artificial.  and the S●awe, and other such like have, which are natural and naturally hot: and therewithal we will show plainly, that such waters artificial, by industry may be made at any time, and in any place, and with no less commodity and profit.  
There are a sort of men, which in some measure are to be excused, which being old, and think that they know all things, are ashamed to begin now to learn again: but they which oppose themselves obstinately, and through envy and malice, do carp and cavil, are more out of course, against whom we have nothing to say in our defence but this, that they bewray their gross ignorance and malice.  
But the order and manner of preparing the Medicine, whereof we treat here, was in old time called mineral, in regard that the Philosophical Sulphur or Salt, which serveth for animation or vegetation, is extracted out of the first vegetative spring of mineral nature.  
Many Philosophers have taken Saturn or Led for the mineral subject. Other some have taken the Saturnal Magnesia or Loadstone, which is the first metallic root, and of the stock and kind of vitriol. Isaac Holland, Ripley, and many other Philosophers, have written their works concerning this matter, the which, forsomuch as they are extant, every one that list may read them. For we have no other purpose in this place, but to teach and demonstrate in plain manner, what that Balsam radical is, and that universal medicine, so much spoken of by ancient philosophers, for the conservation of health, and for the curing of diseases in man's body.  
Others (among whom also is Raymund Lul) sought their fire of nature in a vegetable, to animate gold. For this was that which all men especially laboured for, to put life into gold.  
And this is the reason why they all say▪ that there is only one way, and one matter, or Balsamic Sulphur and of nature, which yieldeth active and internal fire, to the same work.  
And among all vegetables, the chiefest is wine. For of all other it partaketh very much of the vitriolated nature: which may be gathered, not so much by that green colour of the unripe clusters of grapes and their sharp fast: as by the saphiric and ready colour of those that are ripe, which appeareth both within and also without, and by the sharp taste: all which things do plainly declare both the external and internal qualities of Vitriol.  
It is also well known that there are certain such waters in Awergne in France, which have the taste of wine with a certain pricking faculty or relish.  
Vinegar also, whereto wines is easily brought, when his sulphurus life is gone, (that is to say, when his spirit is separated) doth represent the tart quality of Vitriol, as doth also other impressions of wine sufficiently known to true Philosophers. 
The Chemical ministries  The which also may be gathered by the concordance and agreement which wine hath with the metallic nature, seeing that as well out of wine as out of Vitriol, the Menstrue of Chemical Art may be prepared, which is able to dissolve metals into liquor.  
These are (I say) the reasons why Raymund Lul, and other famous Philosophers, placed their workings in wine, for the extracting of their Balsamic Sulphur, that thereby they might make true potable gold, and the infallible Balsamic medicine.  
But now we will go forward to open in few words Lullies method, which he so greatly hid in his book of Quintessence, and in other places, which if it be rightly understood, it will easily direct and instruct every true Philosopher, to extract out of all things (and therefore to compound) that Balsamic medicine. 
Balsam is in every thing.  For the scope is every where all one, there is but one end, and there is but one only way, to the composition of that Balsam, or Philosophical Sulphur, which existeth in all things, mineral, vegetable, and animal: howbeit in some more, in other some less.   

CHAP. V. By what Art the Sulphur and Mercury of the Philosophers may be prepared out of a vegetable, to make true potable gold.  
THerefore to the end all things may be duly performed, 
The spirit of wine.  which are required to such working, choice must be made of the best red wine that can be gotten, being made of that vine whose wood is all so red, and of this wine must be taken one hogshead at the least, out of the which thou shalt extract an Aqua vitae, according to the wonted manner, the which thou shalt rectify to the highest perfection. This spirit of wine thou shalt set up in a most cold place, in a vessel very close stopped, lest that it breathe out, by reason of the exceeding subtlety thereof. The remainder of the wine thou shalt distill again, and there will come out of the same a middle Aqua Vitae, if the wine be of the best sort. The which so distilled, keep apart, or by itself. This thou shalt do again with the rest of the wine, separating as afore the Aqua Vitae from his phlegm, every one severally restrained by itself. At the last thou shalt gather the forces which remain in the bottom, out of the which thou shalt draw the last humidutie, by a Balneum vaporosum, or by moist Balneum, or by ashes, until it wax thick and pyththie. These pitchy remainders being put into divers alembics (if they be much) put so much thereto of the reserved phlegm, as may stand above it four or five fingers thick: Put altogether upon a hot Balm, or upon hot ashes: so within few days, the phlegm which afore was white, receiving tincture again, will become very red, having attracted unto it a combustible Sulphur, out of the impure feces or lées of the wine.  
Separate this tincted phlegm by inclination, and keep it by itself if you will, for such uses as hereafter shall be showed.  
After that again power a new quantity of phlegm upon the same feces, in several allembickes, if there be great plenty of them, as is showed afore: that which is tincted with red, separate again as afore, and power it to that which is already tincted and separated.  
Thou shalt continue this so often, until the phlegm will draw no more rudeness with it, and that the feces are now become somewhat white, or Crystalline. The which that thou mayest the more easily know, power upon it an other phlegm, and with thy finger or a clean stick stir them together, that thereby thou mayest see whether any more tincture remaineth. For all must be clean extracted, that the least phlegm being powered upon it, will tinct or colour no more. By which proof thou shalt certainly know, that the residence is very well depured, which in another place we will call the Crystal of tartar: 
The Crystal of Tartar.  because out of all common lées, and by a more easy method, the like crystals are extracted.  
This is a most pleasant and sweet remedy, and if any in the world be acceptable it is this. It doth very readily cleanse the stomach, the liver and the spleen from their impurities, provoking urine, and moving one or two sieges extraordinarily. 
The good effects of the spirit of wine.  But let us return to our work.  
The ●eces aforesaid being now rightly and conveniently prepared and depured as is said, must be put into divers small cucurbits with long necks, and into every one of them, put of the rectified spirit of wine, so much, as that it may stand over it three fingers thick: presently set upon every one of them a small cap or cover, with his receiver, strongly and well luted, Hermetically closed round about, that nothing breath through: then set them upon the hot ashes that they may boil, and distill: pouring in again the same which shall distill forth, and so let them boil again. After that suffer all to cool.  
Then as warily as thou canst by inclination, separate the spirit, that nothing thick or troubled pass forth therewith. And then again, power into every cucurbittel another spirit of wine, and do as thou didst afore. This thou shalt do so often, and continue it, until the feces which by their own proper nature are calcined, begin to wax black and to smoke, if they be put upon a red hot plate. For this is a sign, that the first Phylosophycall calcination is finished, and that the spirit, by the same work, is now become animate by reason of the tart Balsam, and Ferment of nature, contained in the foresaid feces, reduced into Crystal, as is said.  
These animated spirits joined together, and very well reserved, that they breath not, nor issue forth, thou shalt put the foresaid feces into vessels which are called Matrats, like unto round globes, having strait necks, by which the matter is powered in.  
These vessels being Hermetically closed, and stopped, that nothing may vapour forth, let them be covered in sand, in the Furnace of Athanor, which will yield flame, round about the compass of the foresaid vessel. Then put fire thereunto by the continuance of five or six days, until the earth do become as white as snow, and is well calcined and fixed. The which, that thou mayest make the more volatile or flying, and mayest also make the Sulphur and Mercury of the Philosophers, thou mayest if thou wilt divide this thy callixe into two or three cucurbittils of convenient greatness, first weighing the weight of every of the calxes, and pouring upon every of them a forth part of the spirit of wine, animated as aforesaid.  
Put a small head upon each of the cucurbittels, with their several receivers well fitted as afore. Place them in B. M. which is moist, 
B. M. signifieth Balneum ●arie  by the space of one day. After that, the same vessels being set in ashes, put thereto a mean fire that the liquor may distill forth, which whereas afore it was most ardent and most sharp, now it shall come forth altogether without taste, having no other relish upon the tongue and palate, then hath common wel-water: the reason hereof is, for that the foresaid spirit, hath left and forsaken his Balsamic Salt, which afore being mixed with the spirit stilled forth with the Salt of the foresaid Calx: For nature loveth nature, and followeth her in her nature, as Philosophers teach.  
Then again thou shalt power on another spirit of wine animate, as afore, in the same proportion, and the former order of distillation observed, until in taste thou find the foresaid animate spirit, to come forth and to distill, as strong in taste and relish, as it was then when thou pouredst it on.  
For this shall be a sign, that the foresaid fixed Salt, hath retained out of the volatile, so much as shall be sufficient and convenient to retain.  
And now if thou weigh and counterpoise thy matters, thou shalt find that they are increased a third part in weight: as if there were one ounce in every vessel of Calxe, thou shalt find that every of them doth weigh three ounces or more.  
The which is diligently to be observed for sublimation, and for the last working which as yet resteth to be done that the volatill may transcend, and overcome the fixed.  
In the which business that thou mayest proceed the more safely, thou must take s●me of the foresaid Phylosophycal Calxe vine, and cast it upon a red hot plate of iron, and if thou see all the said Calxe to vapour away and to vanish in smoke, like Salarmoniack, thou hast an absolute and perfect work. If otherwise, thou must begin the foresaid work again, and continue it, until the foresaid sign do appear.  
This done, thou shalt put these matters into small long Lymbeckes in form of a Sublimatorie, with heads upon them, and receivers to receive the spiritual sulphurus humidity: and then thou shalt distill it in ashes with a gentle fire, by the space of a whole day: afterward thou shalt increase the fire by a further degree, more & more, so long, until about the end of eighteen hours or twenty, the fire be made sublimatorie, and that thou see the vessels to bèe no more obsucred or darkness with spirits: or with white fumes. And then shall ye see the sublimated matter cleaning to the sides of the glasses, fair and bright, and transparent like unto pearls, or such like. Upon this matter beaten into powder, in a Purphorie mortar of small bigness, thou shalt powder the sulphurus spirit distilled, moistening it by little and little, and boiling or straining the whole by the space of four days in a strong Athanor.  
And thus thou shalt have a pearelike matter, 
A Balsam Radica●.  a Balsam radical, extracted from a Vegetable, the Mercury of the Philosophers, the Sulpur balsamic, and to conclude, that fire of Nature so much commended, and so hidden by all the Philosophers, which with one consent say, Ignis & azoc tibi sufficient: Let Fire, and the Matter suffice thee.  
This only Balsam is the universal medicine, to defend and conserve health, if it be given with some convenient liquor to the quantity of one or two grains. Great and admirable is the virtue thereof, to restore our radical Balsam: the which we affirm to be the Medicine of diseases, even by the common consent of all Physicians.  
But our Lullie and other Philosophers, are not content with this, but proceeding further, do dissolve the foresaid Philosophical Sulphur in a convenient portion of the spirit of wine, rectified to perfection, as afore, and suffer them to be united, and very well coupled together by way of Circulation in a Pelican Hermetically stopped or closed: and within few days, the water is made azure like or Celestial: which being distilled, is of force to dissolve gold, and doth reduce it into the true Calxe of the Philosophers, into a precious liquor, which itterated circulations and distillations, can also pass by the neck of the Allembic or by Retort.  
In the which working, if thou proceed as thou shouldst, thou shalt be able to separate from gold (already phylosophically dissolved and animated) thy philosophical dissolving, which will continually serve for new dissolutions. For very little is lost in every dissolution. 
Potable gold.  And so thou hast the true potable gold: the universal Medicine, which never can be valued being inestimable, nor yet sufficiently commended.  
After the same manner thou shalt make the dissolutions of Pearls, and of precious stones, most general remedies, and deserving to be placed among the chief, if they be dissolved after the order and manner aforesaid, with a natural dissolving. Remedies I say, which can much better confirm and strengthen our nature, than if according to the common manner, they be only powdered and seared, as is wont to be done in those our common preparations and cordial powders.  
But some peradventure will say, that these kind of preparations are too hard, or such as they understand not, or at least care not to understand.  
But this is a vain objection to prevent for excuse of their ignorance, the difficulty of these preparations, and the protract all time, when as the thing is neither difficile, nor long, to them which know how to take it in hand. These things are not to be esteemed, nor labour is to be spared, to attain so excellent & precious medicine, which in so little & small a dose, as in the quantity of one or two grains, can work so great and wonderful effects: which bringeth great commendation and honour to the Physician, and to the sick perfect health and unspeakable solace and joy.  
But to conclude, I will say with Cicero, in his Tusculans: There is no measure of seeking after the truth: and to be weary of seeking, is disgrace, when that which is sought for is most excellent.   

CHAP. VI The way to prepare and make the Balsamic Medicine, out of all things.  
BY the foresaid preparation of sulphur, Balsamic vegetable, which we have before taught, faithfully, plainly, and manifestly, it is easy to understand, after what manner the same Sulphur may be extracted out of every mixed body. In the which body (that I may summarily gather all things together) there is first found a liquor, 
1. Phlegm.  without all odour, 
2. Mercury.  or relishing taste, which is called Phlegm, or passive water. 
3. Sulphur.  Then cometh a liquor which hath taste, colour, odour, and other impressions of virtual qualities, which is called the Hercurial liquor. And after that cometh forth an oily liquor, which floateth aloft, and conceiving flame, which is called Sulphur.  
After the extraction of these three several moistures, there remaineth nothing but ashes, or dry part: out o● the which ashes, 
4. Salt.  being well calcined, Salt is extracted, with his proper Phlegm, messhing oftentimes, and pouring water warmed, upon the foresaid ashes, put into Hypocrates bag, and repeating this so often times, till you perceive a Salt water to come, which hath a brinish taste: after the same manner, as women are wont to make their lye-wash.  
This being done, let the moist be distilled, and the salt will remain in the bottom. The which salt notwithstanding, in this first preparation is not made clean enough, nor sufficiently purified. Wherefore the same distilled water is to be powered up again, that the Salt may again be dissolved in the same: the which so dissolved, filter it, or strain it through a bag oftentimes, as afore, till it be most clear: then coagulate it at a gentle heat. And after this manner thou mayst extract a Salt, clear & pure, out of all vegetable ashes. Upon this Salt being put into an Allembic, power all his mercurial sharp water: let them be digested by the space of one or two days, in the gentle heat of the Balm: and then let them be distilled by ashes, and so the water will distill forth without taste or relish. Because whatsoever it contained of the volatile Salt, will reside in the bottom with his per fixed salt. Go forward therefore in thy working as before I taught thee concerning the wine.  
Or if thou wilt not work so exactly, meshe up again all the mercurial liquor, and make it pass through the foresaid Salt, which will take into it, all that vitriol impression which that water shall have, and the water or liquor, shall have neither relish nor taste, but shall be altogether like to common water. But if thou add so much that the volatile part do exceed the fixed, that is to say, that there be more of the volatile, than of the fixed, (the which thou shalt easily know by weight, because it will be increased threefold, or by trial upon a red hot copper or Iron plate, when this matter being cast upon the same, vapoureth and passeth away in smoke) than thou must sublime it, and it will become the Sal Armoniac of the Philosophers: (so it pleaseth them to call this matter) which will be clear and transparent like pearls.  
Upon this powdered matter, thou shalt power by little and little the oily liquor purified, and thou shalt boil this matter, that of volatile it may be fixed again. Nevertheless, that which shall be fixed, shall be of nature more fusible than wax, and consequences will more easily communicate with spirits and with our natural Balsam, when it is separated from his passive water, and passive earth which are unprofitable.  
Both which matters the Philosophers call the passive Element, 
Elements passive.  because they contain no property in them, neither do they show forth any action. And thus a body or nature is made wholly homogenical & simple: albeit there are to be seen, three distinct natures, the which notwithstanding are of one or the same essence and nature.  
And so a body shall be compounded exactly pure out of those three hypostatical beginnings, namely salt, Mercury, and Sulphur. The which Sulphur in some part is answerable to truly simple, and Elementary fire: Mercury, to Air and to Water: in like manner most simply and truly Elementary: and Salt, to pure Earth, simple and Elementary. The which Earth is not cold and dead, but hot earth, 
Active Elements.  living earth, and full of active, and vegetable qualities.  
Behold then how a perfect and universal Medicine is prepared out of all the things of Nature. The which if thou wilt use for purgation, choose for thy subject some purging simple, if thou wilt, especially corroborate and strengthen, make choice of such things as do yield most comfort. If thou wilt either specially or generally lenify, and mitigate pain, then choose such things as are most lenifying and assuagers of pain.  
And yet know thou this, that in one and the same Remedy only, prepared in this manner, as for example, in the nature of Balsamic Salt, thou hast a cleanser and a purger, and an universal emptier, a corrector of all impurities and corruptions.  
Thou hast also in the particular nature of Sulphur, a general and spiritual anodine or asswager. 
A Medicine particular and general.  In the Mercurial nature, there is an universal comfortative and the same nourishing: All which natures joined together as afore, by the Art and industry of a true Physician and Philosopher, are able to perform and effect all these functions, without any grief and perturbation: and in the mean time it doth corroborate by his Balsamical virtue, or radical Balsam, supplying unto it all means, not only for defence, but also for expulsion and suppression of all diseases.  
And this is the true Medicine, this is the reason of his universality, this is his purity and perfection.  
Neither is there any thing more easy than the preparation thereof, if it be rightly understood. Moreover, so exceeding great is the utility and excellency thereof, that no labour, no pains, no industry, aught to be omitted, or to be reputed hard, whatsoever difficulty or doubts may arise, or be objected.  
But if there be any man, which will not take upon him this labour, albeit most profitable, and ordained for health and the prolonging of man's life, and for the same he may exactly prepare these Balsamic medicines: yet at the least he will by the means thereof, as it were by a certain Director, seek out in general, the evacuating, mundifying, and cleansing faculties, which are in most use, and which chiefly consist in Salts: and in like manner the assuagers, mittigators, aid healers, in Sulphur and Oil: and finally the nourishers, restorers, and comforters in the liquor or Mercury.  
And by the same way and reason it shall be taught, that the true correctors of all remedies, are purifying and coctions only: and that these alone are the true honey and Sugar, to sweeten all things.  
For those things also which are most tart, sharp, and sour, yea and bitter, are by this means made sweet, and all manner of evil quality corrected, and contempered, even as fruits before their perfect concoction, and maturity, are tart, sharp and sour, every one according to their kind and quality.  
So we see, that wines, in whose maturation or ripening the heat of the Sun failed, are made more crude and sharp: which is the reason why some years, wines are made more ripe, acceptable, and better agreeing with nature, albeit they came as well afore, 
〈…〉.  as then, from one vine. Albeit much herein is to be attributed to the region also, and to the place, whereinto the beams of the Sun may make a more strong impression.  
And this may be the cause, that some are sweet, and full of wine, some mean, others very crude, and scarce wine.  
So the Tigurine wines, and others in mountain places, which are cold, are for the most part crude; and must have a for her ripening in their casks, before they can be drunk with pleasure and profit▪ Also the same wines wanting a kindly ripening and concoction, remaining still crude, are so full of lose, and tartarous matter, that the inhabitants which dwell in those places, 
Crude wines breed the stone.  where these wines do grow, are more subject to the disease of the Stone, than others.  
Now, if this defect be to be seen in wine, so greatly nutritive, and agreeing with our nature: what shall we say of Hellebor, and of many other poisonful M●●●nes which spring out of most cold Mountains, and wild, without Tillage, much less are they concocted by the Moon?  
Therefore no marvel that our Hellebor answereth not those effects, 
Hellebore poisonful.  which Hypocrates attributeth unto it. For that which he commendeth in Greece, cometh out of a convenient Region, where no doubt there are Plants and Vines of greater efficacy. Wherefore I have used for a first preparation of Hellebore, to transplant them into gardens, situate in a more temperate 〈◊〉 and place.  
The which how much they differ from those which grow upon wild and cold mountains, 
Transplanting of herbs helpeth their nature.  as do also garden Succory and endive, from the wild, the difference and use, do sufficiently declare.  
But those preparations, which proceed and are done by Art, and the concoctions which Art imitating nature finisheth, are much better, and more contracted and sweetened, as by the preparation following, far more exact than that those common, in which there appeareth nothing but that which is crude and impure, shall manifestly appear, and the thing itself plainly prove.   

CHAP. VII. The virtue, and pre-eminence of the Medicine balsamic.  
SOme Philosophers seek the matter of Medicine in ourselves: othersome in the honey of the animal and Celestial nature: othersome in a certain animal nature, not in act or effect, but in power: which representeth the similitude of the world, and which containeth in his belly Gold and silver, white and red: Sulphur, and Mercury: which Nature the most ancient disposes under God, hath mixed together by due proportion. Out of the which matters▪ by sundry fair and long preparations, they prepared their universal Medicine: which by reason of perfect ●●temperance, adequation, and purity, can contemperate, conserve, and also increase the radical humour, and that quickening Nectar of ours: because in purity of his spiritual nature, he doth communicate with our spirits.  
Furthermore, let us see how much the said Medicine performeth in the driving away diseases, and what infinite multitude of remedies it hath. And first, forsomuch as it may be applied and fitted to all intentions requisity (as may be gathered by that which hath been said afore) and forsomuch as it may be given in so small a dose, which will bring no violent action, nor loathsomeness to our body, nor any kind of perturbation, and yet nevertherlesse worketh exceeding well, according to the disposition of our nature, I see no reason why this universal and most noble Medicine, should not be preferred before these rhapsodies of Medicines.  
Who so useth rightly this Medicine, and in fit time, shall be refreshed and corroborate, and so armed with strength, that from thenceforth he shall more easily and readily shake off his sickness: whereof nature otherwise being destitute, would easily be overcome. Let us use a familiar example that those things which we have hitherto spoken, may more plainly appear to all men.  
We see in our elemental fire, that if thou cast into the same▪ any thing that will easily take flame, as straw, or any such thing which will readily burn and increase the force of burning, which before was almost extinguished, for because it was destitute as it were of nourishment, and wholly as it were overwhelmed of ashes: So also our radical Balsam the fire brand, and burning lamp of the fire of our nature, wanting convenient and proper nourishment whereby it fainteth, or else so overwhelmed by the feces and ashes of obstructions, that it is in danger of suffocation and smothering, or else kindred by some other cause, whereby it cannot exercise living flame for the conservation of our life: then indeed it standeth in need of a calefactor, and restorer of heat, that in better manner and more readily it may show forth the proper qualities and functions. The like reason and consideration also is to be had concerning our natural Balsam, the which being diminished, or being hindered or hurt by any occurrent outwardly, being again increased by that Balsamic medicine, it ariseth est soon, and most perfectly performeth his wonted functions. For seeing that medicinal Balsam is of a certain ethereal nature or a heavenly fire, because it quickeneth and burneth not, nor consumeth: therefore out of hand, as if it were a permanent and certain spiritual water of life, it doth communicate, and is as it were united with our spirit, and doth repair and increase it, by reason of the sympathy, and common likeness therewith. Neither is it to be thought, that this cometh so to pass, for any other cause, but only of this (as was said even now) namely of that friendly convenience, and agreeing friendship, which that Balsamic medicine, hath with our radical Balsam. The which is the only reason why I call the one, Balsam of life, and the other the medicinal Balsam, even for the relative convenience of them both. And yet beside this similitude and familiarity of nature, it hath other particular virtues. For it is endued with great activity, it is spiritual and exceeding piercing: for this cause it doth attenuate and make thin, it doth digest, dissolve, and evacuate these seculent stuffing and ashes, threatening peril of suffocation and choking to the Balsam of life. Moreover, if there be any impurity or corruption, by which it is much offended, by what other means can it be more safely and better rooted out, then by a thing so pure and incorruptible? And if any burning fever do invade the body and the instrumental parts of life about the heart, with what more convenient sharp Syrup, or Syrup of Lemons, canst thou extinguish it, then by the Balsamic sharpness of this our medicine? Let gun-poulder speak for us: and by a sufficient testimony of this thing, which this liquor doth not only extinguish, but also will not suffer it to take flame, but maketh it idle. Witnesses also are the most burning and volatile spirits, which all the Ice of the Northern mountains cannot congeal, and yet are congealed with that liquor in Baln●● Mariae: & yet with all, the same liquor hath this property, that it will attemperate and dissolve the most hard Ice. Is there any pain and grief that would be assuaged? This medicine shall be thy mitigating anodine, and most healthsome Nepenthes. Is there any pestilent poison, or malignant quality to be e●tyrped? There is not a more safe Treacle or Mithridate then this, which is the sum of all Alexipharmacons, & the most chief preservative from all infection. Is the heart to be corroborated, & the spirits to be vegetated? No confection Alkermes, no confection of Hyacinth, is to be preferred before this balsam. To conclude, what more speedy altering medicine can there be found, which is able to correct a distemperature, than that most temperate remedy? To these unspeakable virtues, add yet this one, that this medicine, never bringeth with it a glutting loathsomeness, or perturbation of the body: but quickly, safely, & pleasantly performeth his workings. And the same with so small ado, that whereas in other medicine, ounces, are required, in this a few grains dissolved in wine or in broth, or in other convenient liq●●●, are sufficient to be opposed against the sickness, which produce great and wonderful effects.  
These are those great properties of this universal medicine so much spoken of by the ancient Philosophers. These are the admirable virtues of our said medicinable Balsam, the coadintor, & privy director of our natural Balsam, which is the only mean to conserve our life: which natural Balsam, is the only immediate putter away of sicknesses, and of all corporal infirmities. For if sicknesses (as Galen saith) be an effect against nature, hurting actions, then must it also needs be contrary to our radical Balsam & Nectar of our life, which is nothing else but the same nature or else an instrument so resisting it, & conjoined with it, that without the help hereof, it can intend to do or perform nothing.  
Therefore now whether the functions be diminished, or depraved, or altogether abolished, it cannot otherwise be, but that our said radical Balsam, is in some part hurt, seeing it is certain that all those laudable functions proceed there from. This is that which Hypocrates calleth man's nature. This is that disposer, which maketh the attractions, expulsions, mixtions, separations, and concoctions of meats and drinks. To this chiefly, the same Hypocrates attributeth all the foresaid functions of our body. Not that the same Balsam of our radical, can take upon itself and on his substance, alterations, and that it can suffer, seeing it is of an ethereal and celestial nature, & therefore after a certain manner incorruptible: but because his action is delayed, or hindered by lets, which lie hidden in the internal members and bowels, and which do occupy and trouble the same.  
This is the occasion, this is the beginning, and principal foundation of diseases. 
Objection.  Therefore to take upon me the dispute, and to defend it, thus I determine.  
If such a disease coming upon a man, be to be taken clean away, first of all nature is to be restored to her landable, whole, and wonted state: to the which end, all our cogitations ought to tend. 
Answers.  First of all therefore, we must provide to take away all lets.  
To this the disciples of Hermes Trismegistus answer: All this may be sufficiently performed & done, only by restoring the radical Balsam, for that upon the same all action, & demonstration of health, do depend: the which Balsam being holpen as is convevenient, it will come to pass, that the sick man, within the 〈◊〉 of one hour, shall have and feel more solace, and so much the more, when the same Balsam of life, being holpen with that Balsamic medicine, doth more boldly expulse the enemy: and that in a very short time, I say to the greater joy and comfort of the sick, then can the huge multitude of common potions, powered into the loathing of the patient, bring to pass, and that very hardly in a long time.  
And lest any man might think, that these are our own inventions, 
Galen. Lib. 13. Method.  rashly and inconsiderately broached by us, let us hear what Galen saith. The principal intention (saith he) of the Physician, aught to be to reduce the sick to his natural estate, and that neglecting all other things, his only care must be to conserve that, from whence the faculty of acting cometh. And this consisteth in that natural heat, the which so long as it is of force and not hindered, it preserveth the body in safety, in such wise, that whatsoever happeneth to the body unnaturally, and must be taken away, it is an undoubted axiom, that it standeth in need of a strong natural heat. And albeit in external sicknesses, and in certain others, it may seem that natural heat is little available, as in the removing of flesh which groweth too rank in a wound, or for the reuniting of the lips of a wound, yet for all that, the conjunction and generation of flesh, and the healing thereof, cannot be done without natural heat. This forespeaketh Galen, and very truly. Yea, all his followers will willingly confess, that it is only nature, and that quickening radical Balsam, which showeth forth all those wholesome functions: the which nature both here and before by the authority of Galen, we have rightly called the true healer of all sicknesses: but so far forth nature is holpen, stirred up, and corroborated by all manner help and art of that Balsamic medicine, that it can expel, overcome, and cast out all whatsoever is grievous or contrary unto it. Thus far forth they and we agree together.  
Nevertheless, this also is to be granted, that the same nature is the beginning, and as it were the first moving to all curing: because without the strength and vigour of nature, all medicine is unprofitable and vain. For nature is always one and like to herself, neither is she at any time idle in us, but is perpetually occupied, alway stirring moving, and vegetating, until by too much let, she being hindered, she do work more slowly and weakly. The which impediments and contrarieties, she herself of her own accord, and by her own proper strength goeth about to put away and overcome: But when she hath to do with a most strong enemy, or with many, she sooner and far more easily can overcome them, if she be strengthened with the helps of art, and having convenient means, she shall with greater strength and security prevail.  
To bring which thing to pass, our Balsamic medicine by that exquisite preparation, hath gotten a most pure, quickening, spiritual, strengthening, and kindly nature, which without all exception, is far more convenient and effectual, than other medicines of common Physicians, prepared by no art, by no industry, or dexterity.  
The which, forsomuch as they are yet crude, impure, and gross, and are clogged with a terrestrial thickness, they do rather cloy and overlay nature, before she can extract their malign quality, concoct their crudity, and divide their earthly grossness and impurity: the which being her task and burden, she fainteth before she can receive any help or comfort.  
And that we may not digress from our similitude, let us apply that which is said, to fire, whereof we have spoken before. As we see fire when it is overwhelmed with many ashes, and hindered from taking air, (by which it is nourished) is easily smothered and put out: and that the same again is stirred up, if a man with his hand do take away the ashes, and do blow the sparks which remain, giving free access of the air: here the cause of the fires refreshing and beginning again, is attributed to him which removed the Ashes, when as indeed he was but the instrument of restoring the fire.  
But the principal efficient consisteth in the fire itself, the which he had spread abroad and wound or bellowsed in vain, if it had been quite and clean out. Therefore that renewing is to be attributed to the fire alone which remained, as to the first, next, and inset cause, only the outward ventilation or winding coming between as the instrument.  
Moreover, as we see, that when the fire is so weak, that very few sparks are to be found, that then in vain a great heap of dead coals are cast upon the same to make a speedy fire, which will sooner put altogether out, then make a quick fire.  
But if thou put upon them quick burning coals, they will by and by increase the fire, without fear of extinction: even so in like manner, the principal virtue or function, is alway to be ascribed to our vital or radical Balsam, rather than to the Physician or Medicine, albeit the same may be some help, in putting away the ashy feces, and in dissolving the troubled lées which are an impediment, that so it may more freely have transpiration and air, that by them it be not oppressed and choked.  
Such is this Balsamic Medicine, which being purified, exalted, and brought unto the highest essence and perfection, it doth stir up, refresh, and restore our vital fire, living, but yet languishing, to his former vigour and strength. The which, forsomuch as it doth sooner, more safely, and more pleasantly perform without all comparison then that other ordinary and common Physic, thou shalt not miscompare that of theirs to dead coals, or to green wood, but this of ours as prepared▪ and brought to a Balsam, to a burning coal, which is the sum of our whole disputation.  
Let these things suffice to be spoken concerning the property, quality, & excellency of our Balsamic medicine, which Philosophers prepare out of one thing only, not out of many, whether it be mineral, vegetal, or animal. Of this medicine alone is the saying of the wise man to be understood, 
Syrach. 38. 4  when he saith; The Lord hath created medicine out of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor it. For by this word (Medicine) he understandeth remedy, not the Art of Physic. For it was ordinary and common in those first ages, to use this medicine, taken out of one only matter. But the latter age succeeding, after long search, found out that radical Balsam, and saw by experience, that it was in some thing more, and in other some less. Whatsoever it is, it is known that they of old time did use most simple remedies: neither did they care for so great confusion of compositions and mixtures which fill a whole warehouse and shop, as our Physicians and Apothecaries do at this day.  
And if we will consider of those things which Theophrastus Dioscorides, and others of the ancients have left unto us in writing, concerning medicine, and the virtues of simple remedies, we shall perceive and find, that they used the most simple method and order of curing, and that they had not so much respect to the active or passive qualities, of hot and cold, of dry and moist, out of the which came the original of so many mixtions and confusions. But it is plain and evident, that they attributed to their simples, this and that property, either because they had so learned from others, peradventure by tradition, or else by experience, observing the impressions, forms, and figures of their simples.  
But they of more late time have been so rash of judgement, that they will take upon them to judge of the faculties of simples by their taste and relish, and thereby discern and determine, their first, second, and third qualities, to the which afterward all the virtue of the said simples was attributed. But because they found not this an universal rule always and in all things, and that it did deceive, therefore some fled to the secret and hidden properties, arising from the form, and the whole substance.  
These and such like starting holes and subtleties, have brought upon us great incertainty and doubtfulness, which way to discern and find out those things, which serve for our best good.  
Tell me I pray you (if you can) how many bitter things there are in taste, which nevertheless according to the edict of that rule, are not hot at all? Of this sort among others many more is Opium and Cichory. Again, how many sour things are there, which by their rule should be most cold, which notwithstanding are most hot, as the spirits of Vinegar, of Niter, and of Sulphur? How many sweet things are there in outward taste, which in their internal substance are nothing at all contempered. How many things are outwardly and at the first beginning of taste altogether unsavoury and without relish, which inwardly and in faculty, 
A Dissolving water.  are most sharp and biting, Honey, Cassia, and Sugar, are in their internal substance so hot and violent, that out of them also may be prepared such dissoluers, as are wont to be made out of Aqua Fortis, or Aqua Regalis: which can dissolve gold and silver as speedily as the other.  
Lead yieldeth out no taste to the tongue: 
Copper is red without and greene's within.  and yet his internal substance, is a certain sugared delightful sweetness. So outwardly Copper hath no relish and is of a ruddy colour: but that green where into it is changed, is most sharp.  
We might show of such examples, almost an infinite number, whereunto we must not rashly give credit, nor stand upon taste, nor lean to much upon the exterior qualities and temperament of things. For if they be more inwardly and exactly examined, then by that superficiary and slight manner of tasting and experimenting, and that their inward bowels, be diligently anatomised, they shall be found far otherwise, and oftentimes different, not only in taste, but also in odour, in colour, and in their whole substance.  
But if so be a separation be made of the three hypostatical or substantial essential beginnings, as of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, than there will appear a true and lawful difference of tastes. Because one and the same substance may contain in it several tastes. How then canst thou give a safe judgement of his properties and virtues? As for example, consider well of Guaiacum: whose divers virtues and properties therein contained, thou canst not easily discern by simple taste.  
Neither canst thou allege any certain cause why it should be Diaphoretical, that is to say, apt to provoke sweats: which by the separation of the aforesaid beginnings, thou canst attain unto. For thou shalt find in his mercurial tartness, & in his oily sulphurus, and thinner substance, that faculty to enforce sweat, which is also in juniper, in Box, in Oak, in Ash, and almost in all woods and barks, as also in many other things: but hereafter we will show the cause, why those sharp and sulphurus substances, do provoke sweats. But you may also extract out of the same bitterish Guaiacum, a Salt apt for purgation, and evacuation of humours. The like is to be said of cinnamon, and almost of all other things. For cinnamon hath faculty both to bind and to loose. The opening force consisteth in his sulphurus oily, and thin substance, which being separated from his feces, thou shalt find a substance of the nature of Alum, wonderfully binding.  
Also whereas Opium is bitter, 
Narcotical is Stupefactive.  that cometh by reason of his Salt, from the which being separated by his oil or narcotical Sulphur, it becometh purging no less than out of any other bitter thing, as if out of Gentian century, & such like, the same Salt should be separated and rightly prepared.  
To these bitter Salts is given the name of Salt-gemme as a difference of other salts, whereof there is great diversity of kinds, as more at large shall be showed in another place. But now in few words I say, that some salts are bitter, some sweet, some tart, sour, sharp, austere, pricking, and brinish: whose particular faculty, is rightly attributes to the proper substance of the same Salt, rather than to any other quality, whatsoever the same be.    

THE THIRD PART OF THIS Work: wherein is contained a small Treatise, concerning the Seals and Impressions of things, by Hermetical Philosophers, with much care, and singular diligence, gathered and brought to light.  
ALl men follow not one way to attain to a general knowledge of all things. The way of the Empirics is uncertain, for that it is traced in the darkness of ignorance. These have respect to the external impressions, and to some inset qualitites, especially to those which may be seen, tasted, and smelled. Furthermore, they have great regard to the first qualities, hot, cold, moist and dry: which they have made the beginnings and first foundations of these faculties or virtues.  
But the Hermetical Philosophers and Chemists, leaving those bare qualities of the bodies, sought the foundations of their actions, tastes, odours, and colours, else where. At the last by witty inquisition they knew that there were three distinct substances in every natural elemented body: that is to say, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. And these internal beginnings of things, they called hypostatical virtual, and ordinative beginnings. For in these three hyposta●tical beginnings, th●se foresaid virtual and sensible qualities, are to be found, not by imagination, analogy, or conjecture, but in very deed and in effect. That is to say, tastes in Salt, most chiefly: odours, in Sulphur: colours out of both, but most chiefly out of Mercury: because Mercury hath the volatile Salt of all things, 
Taste, odour, and colours.  joined unto it.  
For there are two kinds of salts, 
Salt of 2. sorts.  the one fixed, other volatile, as shall be showed anon.  
Therefore salt is firm, 
Salt defined.  fixed, and substantifying beginning of all things: and therefore it is compared with the pure Element of Earth. 
Salt and earth.  Because fault is not cold & dry by his own nature (as it is holden of some that the Earth is) the which qualities are the death of things: but it is rather hot, and endued with an active quality, for that it is appointed to serve for the generation of all things.  
Sulphur is compared to fire, 
Sulphur and Fire.  for as fire, so sulphur doth quickly take flame and burn: even as also do all other things, which partake of the nature thereof, such as are Rosinie, fat, and oily.  
Mercury by Analogy answereth the Air, 
Mercury, Air, and Water,  and Water. For not only that dry mineral water, (which is also called Hydrargire and Quicksilver) is called Mercury: but also every water or active liquor endued with any virtue, is also for the excellency thereof called Mercury. The which Mercury, (as we have said) may be likened to either Element, that is to say, to Air, and to Water: to Air, because when it is put to the fire, it is found almost nothing but Air, or a vapour, which vanisheth away. 
Mercury a moist active.  This if you please you may call a moist active.  
And it may be compared to water also, because it is running: and so long as it continueth in his own nature, it is not contained in his own lists, but in the limits of another: which according to Arictotle, is the definition of moist.  
These three beginnings, (I say) are found in all bodies as internal and necessary substances for the composition of a mixed body.  
For seeing the foresaid Mercurial, volatile, and spiritual humidity, cannot easily be conjoined with the earthy, corporeat, and fixed part, by reason of that great difference and contrariety of either of them: it is necessarily required, that there should be a mean, and indifferent partaking of either: that is, as well of the spiritual as of the fixed, to conjoin both in one.  
And this indifferent mean is Sulphur or oil, 
Sulphur the mean to join salt and Mercury.  which holdeth a mean between that which is fixed, and that which is flying. For oils, are never so quickly, so easily, and so well distilled, as are waters: because the substance of Sulphur, or of an oily body is tenax and retentive, and therefore most apt to combined the other two, to effect a good, perfect and equal mixture.  
To make the matter more plain by example. For as a man can never make good closing mortar, of water and sand only, without the mixture of lime, which bindeth the other two together like oil and glue: so Sulphur or the oily substance, is the mediator of Salt and Mercury, and coupleth them both together: neither doth it only couple them to death, but it doth also repress and contemperate the acrimony of Salt, and the sharpness of Mercury, which is found to be very much therein. Much like to the conjunction which the Spirit and quickening moist radical maketh between the soul, and incorporeat substance, and the body, which very much differeth from the same.  
Thus than it appeareth, 
Three natures in one.  after what manner these three natures may consist in one, together, and so to be made a mixed and perfect body. For as salt by itself alone cannot bring this thing to pass: even so neither these two fluxible and moving humours, cannot without Salt by their nature compose a firm, fixed, and solid body.  
Moreover Sulphur most needs be had as a Glue without the which the Mercurial liquor will be swallowed up by the dryness of the terrestrial Salt, and through the violence of the heat of the fire, which by the Sulphur is contained. But the Mercurial humour, is as it were the chariot of the other two, serving to penetrate, and to make the mixture easy and speedy.  
If there be any man, which through obstinacy, or blockishness of wit, doth not well conceive and understand this: let him behold and consider of the blood which is in man's body, how in the same, the whey is as a chariot or mediator, and combiner of the other two beginnings together, as may appear by the preparation and separation thereof.  
Very fitly we may use this example in this place. And hereafter, by infallible and evident demonstration, we will show after what manner, the other two beginnings, beside the whey (which supplieth the place of Mercuries) are in blood. 
Salt causeth Vicers in the body.  When Salt is predominate and beareth the sway, it produceth so many kinds of divers Vicers and many other diseases: beside that portion of salt which passeth through the reins and bladder, by Urines. In like manner we have already showed how Sulphur, or the oily part, is in the same blood. This sulphur being exalted, it causeth sulphurus exhalation, as inflammations, from whence come so many kinds of Fevers. So, Mercurial sublimations raise Rheums and Catarrhs, with other diseases Mercurial.  
chemists determine, that there are sundry kinds of salt, which as they are found apart in nature, s● also in all mixed bodies.  
That is to say, common salt (which the Sea by his secret 〈◊〉 pipes doth convey through the earth:) 
salts of divers sorts.  Salt gem also, Alum (whereof there are divers kinds) Vitriol, Salt-Armoniac, and Salt-Niter, which men commonly call Salt peter.  
Among these salts, two are flying, and are mixed with liquors after an insensible manner: that is to say, Niter, & Salt-Armoniac of nature. Niter doth participate of sulphur, and of the oily liquor of things: Armoniac partaketh of Mercury, or of the Mercurial humour of things.  
And these foresaid salts, (which are found both in earthy, and metallic substances) are derived through the benefit of roots, into herbs, plants, and trees: which because they are always in the earth, they retain the nature most chiefly of fixed salt.  
And after the same manner, the nature of fixed salt, is to be sought for in roots. In flowers also and in leaves, there is great store of the other two flying Salts, which being such, they easily vanish away and come to nothing; when the flowers and leaves do wither and wax dry. But those plants and herbs which take their nourishment from fixed salt, are always kept flourishing and green: and therefore they do the more strongly resist the fainting heat of Summer, and the morifying cold of Winter.  
Moreover, their Roots standing deep in the ground, they do the more easily withstand all external injuries. And when the Spring cometh, and the Sun sendeth forth his heat entering into the sign of Aries, piercing the earth with his quickening beams, he stirreth the same, and causeth her to open her bosom, out of the which at the last she poureth forth abundantly those two liquid beginnings, whereof we have spoken before.  
The liquor, or Mercurial vapour, which is lifted up through the Roots with Salt Armoniac of a volatile nature (by a certain wonderful manner of nature● distilling) and ascending into the trunk, under the bark, (at which time trees may easily be disbarked) raiseth up, quickeneth, and adorneth with green leaves, trees and plants, now hanging down their heads, and half dead. And the other kind of volatile salt. Nitre-sulphurus, mixed with the more volatile sulphur, and oil of nature, doth cloth and deck the whole earth every wherewith sundry sorts of most beautiful flowers.  
And yet we must not think hereupon, that one vaporous liquor, which proceedeth out of the earth, is not partaker of the other, seeing the Mercurial liquor is not without his sulphurus, nor the sulphurus without his Mercurial. And this is the cause why in the vegetable nature, we do see that some do put out their leaves and flowers sooner than other some.  
Nature therefore hath most wisely distributed those beginnings into all things. And experience doth teach, that somethings do partake of this or that, more than some other things. For thou canst not easily draw an oil out of leaves: but a mercurial liquor plentifully out of all: and out of very few, some sulphurus, or oily liquor. The reason is, because Mercury doth carry the rule in leaves, and is their chief nourishment, beginning and foundation as we have already said. 
Mercury is properly extracted from leaves.  But the sulphurus liquor is the cause of the increase & plenty of flowers, but yet the same sulphur is not alone and pure, but mixed with some portion of Mercurial liquor, but with the least quantity of salt.  
For this cause thou mayest extract out of flowers, both Sulphur or oil, and also Mercury, but that oil more volatile: and of Salt, the least quantity. But out of seeds is extracted much of the more fixed Sulphur, 
Sulphur out of Seeds.  but of Mercury and Salt almost nothing. The cause is, for that Sulphur hath given beginning and the principal constitution, (not that volatile Nitrous and airy Sulphur, but that which is indeed oylelike and fat, and which holdeth a mean between fixed and flying: both which lie hid in seeds, even in those seeds which are in great Mercurial herbs and fleshlike fruits, as in Apples, 
Salt out of wood and roots.  Pears, Gourds, and such like. But Salt is in all these, as the most fixed and necessary beginning, for the constitution and compacting of all bodies. But this Salt doth most chiefly re●ide in the wood, and in the root, not as in his centre or proper seat fixed, (for his principal rooting is in the earth) but because it is first and most plentifully communicated to the wood and root. From hence afterward much is derived to the branches and leaves, and but little to the flowers and fruits.  
Whereupon out of many leaves a sufficient quantity of salt may be extracted: but out of flowers and seeds a very small quantity in regard of the others.  
Thus you see after what manner these three beginnings do order and determine all vegetables as hypostatical beginnings, and do bring them forth, conserve, make them to sprout and flourish, and do give unto them divers forces and virtues. It is also evident, that the said three beginnings, are in all things, but in some more, and in other some less.  
Therefore, 
A mixture of the 3. beginnings.  none of those three beginnings is found simple, and alone, which doth not paticipate also with another. For Salt, through the benefit of the other two salts, Niter and Armoniac, containeth in itself an oilily and a Mercurial substance: Sulphur containeth a Salt, and a Mercurial substance: and Mercury a Sulphurus and Salt substance.  
But every one of these retaineth the name of that, whereof 〈◊〉 it doth most partake.  
But yet, if we consider of the matter exactly, we shall find that all the other do spring from salt, 
Salt, the root of the other beginnings.  as from the firm and constant beginning. The nature whereof will enforce us to lift up our eyes to heaven, seeing that from these inferior and natural things, that admirable and venerable Trinity in Unity, is so clearly and evidently to be seen.  
And forasmuch as those three substancefying beginnings are, and commonly be found in all the things of nature, we must not think that they are so in them, as without effect, or utterly spoiled of all virtue: but we must rather be sure of the contrary, namely, that from these chiefly, all the qualities, properties, and vertuals do spring. For whatsoever hath taste, the same if it be bitter cometh from Salt Gem. And such have virtue to cleanse, 
Bitter things do purge.  to evacuate, or purge. So others which have in them bitterness, are found to be such, as have the same from this kind of Salt, and by the benefit thereof, are reckoned among the number of cleansing and purging medicines. Such are all bitter herbs, and their juices. In like manner all galls. For without these three, there can be no due excretion or separating in bodies, of superfluities and excrements. For nature by the conduit of her instrument, called Cholido●●n, casting out into the bowels some quantity of gall, stirreth up the expulser, and provoketh it to send forth the excrements, and also cleanseth, purgeth, and emptieth itself, by itself. The which being undone, the Expulser lieth as it were buried, and overwhelmed, neither is there any good from thence to be looked for.  
And that bitter juices, (as also the very gall itself) are of the nature of Salt, it may easily be gathered hereby, because the guale is oftentimes congealed as a fixed Salt into stones, in his own bladder.  
Also out of bitter herbs, 
Salt extracted out of bitter things.  as out of Wormwood, out of the lesser Centaurie, (which some call the gall of the earth) much Salt is extracted, as they that be workmen know.  
Moreover out of the ●●ules of living creatures, there is a Salt to be extracted very bitter, which purgeth wonderfully. So also there is Salt in urine, which purgeth the blood by the veins, 
Salt in vrin●  which send it into the reins, and from thence by the water pipes into the bladder, and so through the conduit thereto appointed.  
In bitter Opium, which all men affirm to be so notably stuperfective and cold, there is a bitter and Nitrous Salt, which if thou canst separate from his stinking Sulphur (by the means whereof it is so stuperfective) thou shalt make it a notable purger.  
So in like manner the skilful know how to exiract out of Centaury, 
Purgers.  Gentian, Rue, Fumitory, and all such like, very good purgers.  
Salt which is aluminous, giveth a sour taste: Vitriol a stiptic or a stringent taste: Armoniac a sharp taste. And a divers mixture of the same Salts, procureth sundry tastes and relishes: and that most chiefly by the benefit of the two volatile Salts, which of all other will be best mingled, by reason of their subtlety and spiritous substance. Armoniac, which is sharp, is more plentiful in vitriol, and in things vitriolated, then in any other Salt substance or metallic. For that sharp Salt, or that sharpness of nature, is the fermentation thereof, and the cause of coagulations, and of the dissolutions of all things: as we have already touched before, and will in another place more manifestly declare. Therefore it is certain, that those things which are stiptic or stopping, and have outwardly a green colour or vitriolated with an inward sharpness and certain redness, (as is to be seen in Pomegranates, Barberies, and Lemons) it is certain that they have it from vitriol, and from the sharp Salt Armoniac: for the vitriol of nature is outwardly green, and red within, if thou search it by skilful Anatomy.  
So also thou mayest extract out of the bark of the said fruits, as of Granates, a substance coming most near to the virtue of vitriol. 
Dissolving liquors.  And the liquor which is extracted out of their red grains, or out of the juice of Lemons, or fruit of Barberies, hath force to dissolve pearls, and coral, even as the spirit of vitriol hath. And this cometh by the virtue of Salt Armoniac sharp of nature, and by the nature of mixture: but so mixed, as by the industry of the artificer it may be separated, in such wife, that the same Salt Armoniac being extracted, the same liquor will be made sweet and potable, and the Salt remain by itself: the which being again mixed with spring water, or with any other liquor devoid of taste, it will make the same sharp.  
That same sharpness or Salt Armoniac spiritual, is not only found in Vitriol, but also in common Salt, in Niter, yea in Sulphur also itself, as also in all things. For that sharpness is that very same, which coagulateth Sulphur, which is plentifully found therein. For without it, Sulphur will not clean united, but would be running, as are other oylelike liquors.  
The same Salt Armoniac of nature, is manifested unto us, by that extraction of sharp oil, which is drawn out of Sulphur: whose nature is far different from that of the said Sulphur. For it is so far from taking phlegm, that chose, it is a hindrance to gun-poulder, not-suffering it to be inflamed with the touch of fire, 
Dissolving liquor.  as is said already. The same liquor doth dissolve pearls and coral, no less than doth the juice of Lemons, of Barberies, or any other of that nature, the which power it hath by the dissolving virtue of Salt Armoniac of nature which is in it. The like, and by the same reason, doth Vinegar perform. For Wine (as is said afore) partaketh of the nature of Vitriol, more than any other vegetable, and containeth much of the foresaid sharp Salt of nature.  
He which doth exactly consider these things, shall readily, and out of true grounded reasons, dissolve the question, concerning the true and natural quality of Vinegar, which question hath troubled many of the most learned Piysitians. For the dissolving virtue which appeareth to be in Vinegar, even in this, that when clay or earth is put into it, it will as it were boil, argueth that the nature thereof is altogether hot.  
Others on the contrary part, denying Vinegar to be cold, appoint it as a chief remedy to extinguish and repress external Inflammations. Also by the taste, which they affirm to be the effect of coldness, they conclude that Vinegar is cold. But they can very easily end this controversy, which have the perfect knowledge of the nature of Salt Armoniac, which Vinegar containeth mat. For this Salt is the true cause of dissolving virtue.  
But because the ●ame Salt is of force to coagulate spirits, and to dissolve bodies, therefore it is effectual, and a singular remedy against both inward and outward inflammations. For it doth coagulate the Niter Sulphurus exhalations, which stirreth up those inflammations. For such heats and feaverous passions, do proceed out of the spirits only, either Niterous, or Sulphurus, arising out of the Salt●Niter Sulphurus or tartarus of our body, and lifted up into evaporations, which cause such unkindly heats. The which cometh not so to pass when the same spirits be as yet bound together, and lie as it they were buried in their proper bodies, or tartarous feces.  
But if thou wilt yet know more manifestly the corrosive force, 
Dissolving spirits.  and inflaming heat of the said spirits, consider the strong waters, (which are nothing else but the spirits of Niter, and Vitriol) which thou shalt see will dissolve silver, or any hard metal. But if thou put but one only ounce of silver, to one hundred pound weight of Vitriol and Niter, as they are in their own nature and body, yet they will never be able to dissolve it.  
It is therefore manifest, that such violent forces and operations, are only in the spirits, separated, evaporated, and dissolved from their body: the which forces thou shalt by no safer means take away and suppress, then if the same spirits be again incorporated, and coagulated. And this is performed by that Salt Armoniac sharp of nature, which is in Vinegar, as also in other things which have sharpness.  
But peradventure there are some, which now thinking that we have killed ourselves with our own sword, 
Objection.  will infer upon the same example by us alleged, that such essences prepared by Chemists, are all for the most part spiritual, and therefore by consequence, are more violent remedies than is fitting for nature to bear, 
Answer.  and therefore cannot be given with safety. I would have those which make this objection, to be in this wise answered. That the reason is not all one, and therefore the conclusion not good. For it we take the spirit of Vitriol, or of Salt-Péeter, which indeed are spirits partaking of the terrestrial fire, yet nevertheless they may be so swéetened, and mingled with broths or other convenient liquor, that they will be very familiar to nature, grateful, savoury, and gentle, and not without great virtue and efficacy. The juice of Lemons given by itself alone into great plenty, can hurt the stomach. For the which cause our manner is, to mingle it with some liquor, or with sugar, and to bring it into a syrup or julep, no less profitable than pleasing to the stomach.  
But the virtue of the spirit of vitriol is better known at this day, 
The spirit of vitriol and his virtue.  and commended of the most approved Physicians of divers countries, then that the ignorant can detract any thing from the dignity and praise thereof. It is reported very credibly, that in France it is much used and commended for the effects it hath to extinguish burning fevers. And not without just cause: for it is a most singular remedy, not only against fevers, but also against many other contumacious sicknesses, as hereafter in due place, shall be showed: but it is fit, that no other presume to administer it, than such as are expert Physicians, not Emperikes, and such as try conclusions by kill men.  
Furthermore, the sharp spirit, drawn out of Niter alone, or Sulphur (among the metallic Salts) is of the same nature and property. For these do avail no less than the other, to extinguish fevers of what kind soever, by their coagulative virtue, whereby they do tame, 
A remedy against fevers.  subdue, and coagulate, those Sulphurs and burning spirits of our body.  
Moreover, there are other some, which judge us worthy of much reprehension, because we said afore, that one and the self-same sharp Salt Armoniar, 
Objection.  hath both virtue to dissolve, and also to congeal: which being effects contrary, cannot proceed from one and the same cause, according to the common opinion of Philosophers.  
To this we answer, that as we have spoken it, so we will maintain it. And therefore we say again, that this Salt Armoniac sharp of nature, whereof we speak, can both dissolve bodies, and also (which is more to be marveled at) congeal spirits: yea and which is yet more wonderful, even in the midst of fire it can congeal.  
And concerning dissolution, it shall not be necessary that we prove this, because it is well known to persons of very mean skill. And now to say somewhat for the ignorants sake: The spirit of Vitriol or of Sulphur, or of sour Niter, well prepared, and separated from all terrestreitie, doth dissolve coral and pearls.  
By which dissolution, an excellent remedy is made to stop the fluxes hepatic, Lienterie, and Dyssenterie, where the liver hath need of speedy corroboration. But they must necessarily be prepared according to Art. 
A remedy to stop fluxes.   
But now time and reason persuadeth us, that we say somewhat concerning the contrary faculty of this sharpness, which is contrary to the other coagulating effect. To do this, little wit, and less labour will serve. For they which are but meanly seen in the Spargericks Art, and have been Chemists a very short time, or if they be but common Apothecaries, they know this, and have seen it in the preparation of quicksilver: whose liquor and running nature, no exterior coldness, no Elemental frost, how great soever the same be, 
The fixing of quicksilver.  congeal or fix. But if it be sublimed with Vitriol only meanly calcined, it will come to pass, that Mercury or quicksilver which desireth his coagulation as his perfection, by a certain magnetical virtue, draweth into itself that Sulphur, or that Salt Armoniac sharp of nature, by the benefit whereof, of running it is made solid and firm, so as thou mayest easily handle it.  
Being brought into this form, it is commonly called Sublimate. But to make it yet more perfect, those which are careful and skilful workmen, reiterate their sublimations, adding to this new Vitriol, that by his Salt Armoniac of nature, it may be impregnated. And thus at the last it becometh solid, and clear as any Crystal Venis-glasse.  
Spargeric Philosophers, can so despoil again this Mercury so prepared, of his coagulation, or of his sharp Salt Armoniac of nature, that he shall return to his former state, and of fixed shall become movable and running. But he is now perfectly clenged, and is now no more common Mercury or Hydrargyre, 
Mercury of the Philosophers.  but the Philosophers Mercury.  
And now, if the foresaid water be exhaled or vapored, that there may remain nothing but a sharp liquor, like unto the spirit of Vitriol, thou shalt have a liquor more excellent than any Vitriolated spirit, and truly spiritual. And so in steed of a great poison which was mixed with Mercury (which was then nothing but a certain terrestrial corrosive fire) thou shalt now have the true spirit of Vitriol: whose greater and better part vaporeth away, is consumed and lost, if it be extracted according to the common manner, with that great and violent fire by Retort.  
This spirit prepared after the said manner, exceeding good, 
The right spirit of Vitriol: good against the falling evil.  and a special commander of the Epilepste, if it be administered by a skilful Physician, not by an Empiric, with proper and convenient liquor. And this is one trial of the virtue of coagulating Mercury.  
The same coagulating force of his doth manifestly appear in those preparations which are called precipitations, which are made with the sharp spirits of Vitriol and of Sulphur, by the means whereof it may be brought into a powder, which cannot be easily done by fire.  
But that it may appear that this coagulating power of Armoniac of nature, is not o●ely upon Mercury, (over whom it can exercise this power) but nothing at all upon the spirits Niter. 
A remedy for Gangrena, & eating ulcers.  Sulphurus of our bodies, with the which quicksilver hath no sympathy, or convenience) we will show it by a certain other manifest demonstration, and the same most true: as shall appear to them which will try it. And in the same experiment I will also teach a very excellent remedy against Gangrena, and all sorts of cankerous Ulcers: if any be loath to take it inwardly into the body, because of the urine ingredient.  
Take the urine of a boy, between the age of ten and sixteen, which drinketh wine in good quantity: let it be depured according to Art: Add hereunto of Roman, or Hungarian Vitriol (for by these the operation will be the better) I say of the Vitriol, twice so much. Put it to digestion in Balneo Mar, which is moist, by the space of fix or eight days, in one, or in several glass Allembicks. For there is required much matter. This digestion being ended, 
Water for the Ophthalmie.  thou shalt increase the fire of Balne till the water 〈◊〉. Presently set on a head with a receiver, and distill the water.  
And the same which first cometh forth, is an excellent Ophthalmick water for the eyes. The second something more sharp than the former, 
Water to ease the gout.  is excellent good to assuage the pains of the Gout.  
Thus go forward, brging the heat of the Balne, or else by hot ashes, until the matter in the bottom of the Alembic remain like unto honey. The which afterward thou shalt put into an iron vessel, and putting fire under it, stir it continually with an iron spittle, that it clean not too: & this thou shalt continue so long, until all the liquor is vapored away, and that there remaineth only the Salt of Vitriol, and of the urine dry in the bottom, and in a certain mass. This being powdered, put it into a cornute, well luted, having a wide receiver, well closed, that the spirits issue not forth. Then put to a vehement fire, such as is needful for the making of strong water, or the spirit of Vitriol.  
But the fire must be moderated by degrees, until it come to the highest degree, as Art requireth. And then at the last you shall see the receiver filled every where with white spirits, which in that great heat will be congealed as it were into Is●-●ickels, having all bout the body of the receiver: much like unto the hayse or white threads, which in time of frost are congealed out of foggy mists, and do hang upon the trees. These are the spirits of the Salt, which through the vehement heat of the fire, are thus form.  
This Ice may be kept, 
A remedy against observations, and to break the Stone.  after the manner of Salt Niter. Whereof if thou give one scruple or half a scruple, in broth, wine, or other convenient liquor, it will show itself an excellent remedy against all obstructions of the Liver and of the spleen, it provoketh urines, and is also a special remedy against the Stone.  
The same Ice being brought into water (for it will easily be dissolved) is a principal remedy for Inflammations and Gangrenas, 
Gangrena ●ured.  which very suddenly it extinguisheth. Out of this so fair and noble experient, every true Philosopher and Physician, will take occasion of seeking and searching further than the common sort are wont: 
Causes of the Ston●.  and so he may more certainly find out the causes of stones congealed, which are engendered of the same salts or tartarous matter in divers parts of our body.  
He will also have more quick insight into many other diseases which come by the coagulation of the foresaid sharp and Vitciolated spirits, or else of the evaporations of other most sharp spirits, from whence Inflammations, and gouty pains with swellings do spring, by the inward virtue of the thickened spirits aforesaid. These things being thus known, a remedy will easily be found to mitigate, and to dissolve such calculous and stony matter, if we mark and consider diligently, where that sharp virtue lieth hidden, and wherein also the coagulative property of the said spirits are.  
Also the same contemplation, will give occasion to pry into the divers and sundry meteors, which show themselves in man, the little world, out of those continual vapours and exhalations which are lifted up from the lower belly (which we fitly compare with the earth) into the air, that is to say, into the uppermost region of the body, the brain. So it shall appear, that from the Mercurial vapours, thickened into clouds through the coldness of the brain, and by the same not able to be dispressed, do fall sometimes moderate showers, and simple in show, and sometime out of thick clouds abundance of waters. Whereof come either gentle Rheums, o● violent catarrhs, which are called suffocative, because the matter rusheth after a certain violent manner, upon the vital parts. Furthermore, out of the same contemplations thou shalt find the true original of winds, of hail, of snow, whereof cometh the tingling in the ears, the Palsy, the Apoplex, and such like diseases, stirred up from the Mercurial thickened vapours. The which diseases come not (as some doth think) because of coldness only: but the cause also thereof is the sharpness of Salt vitriolated, which being mixed with those Mercurial vapours, doth suddenly coagulate and congeal them: and this is the cause of Apoplexes and such like. For to take an example from our own body, to manifest this thing, the urine which we make, is so replenished with these mercurial humours, mixed with sharp salt, that it hath force and power to coagulate. Wherefore this which we have said must simply be granted unto us that Salt-Armoniac of natural sharp, 
Sal-Armoniac a coagulator and a dissotuer.  hath force to dissolve bodies, and to coagulate spirits, as we have plainly declared in the foresaid experiments.  
But peradventure some young scoffing Scholar, which never knew what Philosophy meant, with great confidence and no shame (as of late one which showed himself an Ass and Calf, and yet of a ripe wit did) dare rise up against us and sa● that in our body, no vitriolated nature can be found, nor an● thing like unto it. But this fellow and such like, we w● teach sufficiently and moderately (if they will not refuse to learne● in our book concerning the hidden nature of things, and the perfection of art, where we will declare this thing, and many other profitable questions, necessary for a true Physician. But yet not to let the matter utterly pass, without some thing spoken concerning this point, I will utter myself in few words.  
First of all I wish, that exact consideration be had, which is that fire of nature, and which is the author of the concoction of meat in our stomach, which dissolveth & changeth the same, and that in so short a time, as neither séething water, nor elementary fire can do, no not in long time. Let them also I pray you consider what is the cause of that doglike appetite which some men have, by which they are wont so readily to consume all the meat in their stomach, that nature hath scarce lawful space to nourish herself: and from whence this insatiable hunger cometh. According to the common opinion, it befalleth some man to have this appetite, by reason of a certain sharp and melancholic humour, which being thrust down into his sides, doth sometimes boil up like most strong vinegar, or rather in deed like oil of vitriol, or like some such dissolving and devouring thing. 
The cause of dogge-like appetite.  For truly, if that sharpness were diligently considered, and thoroughly looked into by Philosophical anatomy, it would easily be judged by good and indifferent men, that it should not more unfitly to be said vitriolated, than melancholic: nay more aptly and better: because melancholy, neither can, nor hath been wont to work such effects, except by the sourness aforesaid. For by this manner of speaking, the dissolving virtue, and all other properties, are in far better sort expressed, which shall easily appear in him which will thoroughly s●ann● and weigh all things.  
And what doth let us now, to call such faculties and humours vitriolated, when as all their properties and forces, do come so near to the nature of vitriol? Shall it be free and permitted to common Physicians, 
Choler, rusty, yellow, and green.  to call choler, Aeruginus, Vitelline, & Proracious, for the likeness & affinity of those things from whence the name is borrowed: and why then shall it not be lawful for us to do the like, and to say that humours are vitriolated, because they partake of the nature of vitriol?  
But let us return is our Meteors which are in our body: having already spoken of them which are raised up by the vapours of mercurial liquors, which have a similitude with the watery, and also with those which proceed out of the mere vapours of the earth of the great world. Now it remaineth that we say something also of the others.  
Therefore even as as the vapours and exhalations sulphurus, Nitrous, or Antimonial, carried up out of the each into the Air and clouds, 
The Philosophical cause of Meteors etc.  do cause fiery Meteors, Corr●scations, Lightnings, thunderings, Comets, and such like: even so also in our bodies, from the fumes and smoky evaporations proceeding from burnt and scorched blood, and from so manifold and divers tartarous, sulphurus, and niterous fumes, with the which our bowels do abound, the like Meteors are produced. For such fuming matter, lying burning in the sides, near to the Liver and the Spléen●, hindered by windiness, being thereof caused, or else stirred up by an immoderate and 〈◊〉 heat, being at the the last lifted up and carried into the brain, 
The cause of madness, Frenzy, and such like.  and therein set an fire, stir up Meteors, long madnesses, burning frenzies, settled melancholies, dote, pains of the head, falling sicknesses, and many such like. Some of these continue long, by reason of the clammy hardiness or abundance of the matter, as madness: other some are sooner gone, as Frenzies: some do more fearsely exercise a man, some more gently, according as the said fuming matters be more or less sharp, abundant, cleaving, Salt, sulphurus, or of quality more or less inflameable, or by any manner of other means hurtful. For there is great diversity of these fumie matters: no less than we see differences of fires and smokes in combustible woods, whereof some are more clammy, some more salt, some sulphurus, and such like diversities.  
The same diversity also is to be seen in the separation of the spirits of Lose, of Ale, of Cider, of Wine, of Hydromel, and of such like drinks, the diversititie whereof doth manifestly appear, by the odours which do abundantly ascend into the nose.  
Also in salts, Sulphurs and oils, which are distilled, the diversity of vapours, (which are nothing but the spirits produced out of many tartarous matters) do manifestly declare the same. For of these, some are sharp, some sour, some biting, some stinking, some odoriferous, some so piercing, that the very odour doth strike the brain, and do cause extraordinary neezing, or else by some other means do hurt the brain, dazzling, dulling, or troubling the spirits, or else by fumes which are sulphurus and stupefactive.  
The same differences are to be made in Antimonials, Arsenicals, and Mineral humours, or vapours, and that out of their effect, either seplic putrefying, or caustic burning, the which effects are in the said fumes, by the means of salt. Such piercing fumes are too well known, and felt of our eyes oftentimes, to which they bring by their sharpness, pains, inflammations, and flowing of tears. Hereupon out of this diversity of fumes, there arise divers passions, in continuance, in malady, and in vemencie, more or less invading and troubling, according to the nature, mineral, and condition of the quality or quantity of the exhalations, and of their substances, which are lifted up with them, as it were in a certain chariot.  
Moreover, we see in the bowels of the earth of the little world, man, no less then in the great world's belly: in the bellies I say of both, almost the same effects are to be seen of Meteors, as well watery as fiery. For example, the Tympany, the swelling of the cods, windiness of the stomach, and belly: all which do represent the winds, rains, and Earthquakes of the earth: and the waters within the body, and between the skin and the flesh, do represent the Sea, the Rivers and Springs of the earth.  
Also there are in man divers fiery Meteors, by reason of the exhalations, of the Niterous and Sulphurus spirits, which being set on fire, stir up such diversities of Fevers and inflammations.  
There are bred also in man, divers metallic substances, as lands, and stones, which are commonly engendered in divers parts of his body, as in his bowels, stomach, gall, spleen, liver, yea, in the lungs and brain: but more often in the reins and bladder, which are the most fertile mines of all the rest.  
There are also procreated in man's body, certain concreate & congealed juices; as many kinds of Sulphurs, but of salts more differences, vitriolated, aluminous, niterous, and Gemmeus. Salt-gemme, or common salt, is plentiful in Salt spittle: sour Salt-Armoniac, in sour phlegm or spittle, and also in a certain kind of sour melancholy: salt vitriolated and of the colour of rusty metal, in choler that is of the same complexion: Salt aluminous, pricking and styptic, in glassy phlegm, of the same quality: Salt niterous and bitter, in bitter choler. Moreover, Urines which are wholly niterous, 
Salts of divers kinds in mands body.  do represent a matter most like to Niter. There are also in this little world, as also in the greater world, found many differences of Salts: as a sugared salt, in sweet phlegm: as also an Arsenical and corroding Salt, in malignant and pestilent humours. From the resolutions of the which salts, but most especially of the stiplick or corroding salts, come certain kinds of Chollickes, which afterwards degenerate into contractions of the bowels: From the corrosive Salts spring divers kinds of disenterie fluxes: from the brinish salts, come the burnings of Vlrines: from the tart Salts, cometh the appetite of the Stomach: from the arsenical Salts, comes Carbuncles cankerous Ulcers, running pocks, & such like. And of the congelations of these salts, comes Gouts, Stones, Scirrhus' hardness, and divers kinds of obstructions, according to the diversity of tartars, and of Salts which are engendered and procreate to nature, in our body. From these things, are the causes of diseases in man's body, to be truly and exactly learned and discerned: without the which we shall in vain seek for remedies.  
But to make all which, hath been hitherto spoken more plain, we will add certain manifest demonstrations, and plain to sense, but yet in as brief manner as I can, seeing we have reserved a more ample and special Treatise of these things to our work, concerning the hidden nature of things.  
It is known and confessed of all, by the Edict of Hippocrates, the chiefest Author of Physicians, that our body consisteth of things containing of things contained, and of things enforcing. The things containing, are the solid and more firm parts, as the bones, gristles, ligaments, flesh, which do contain, and as it were restrain, the more soft and delicate parts.  
The contents are in a twofold difference: some are violent breathing out, and enforcing: (as Physicians speak) othersome moistening, and flowing out. The first sort, are the spirits of our radical Balsam, which they call natural spirits, whether they be firmly fixed in any one part, or whether they have scope and recourse throughout the whole body; generated of the most pure substance spiritual of the Sulphurus liquor, and of the 〈◊〉 of the nourishments of our life. Furthermore, they divide the spirits, into natural, vital, and animal.  
All these, are either natural and pure, or else impure and seculent. The one are of a most pure nature, ethereal and conservers of life: the other gross and impure in comparison of them, subject to alterations, for that they participate much of the seculent impurity of Mercury, and of the liquors of Salt, and also of the aliments of Sulphur: of the which beginnings we do consist, as we said before. The moistening parts are mercucurial liquors, or that which they commonly call humours, as well the natural, profiting and nourishing, which retain somewhat of the spirit of life, as the unprofitable and excremental.  
The outflowing and breathing forth, are the breaths, under which name also we comprehend the vapours, of the which we made mention before: which vapours are a distillation, and that moist evaporation, taken from the more watery part of humoral or mercurial things: or else a dry exhalation; of Sulphurus and tartarous things, and of Salts of our body.  
And such exhalations also are no other thing, but fumes and spiritual smokes, but yet excremental, and therefore superfluous. For beside those first separations, which nature maketh out of the more gross part of nourishments, by the excretion and separation of the ordinary impure feces: there are yet also in the Chylus, or good juice, and in the very blood, which of all other humours are most noble, certain superfluous impurities, which for the same cause Nature separateth.  
Therefore the more mayst superfluities are separated by evaporations, and those only which are separated in the third concoction, which could not be made semblable or like to the nourishing parts. For the which cause nature expelleth them by insensible passages, even through the pores of the skin, that our natural heat may the more freely be wound by the air, and the burning of the heart comforted.  
The breathing superfluities also, do paticipate as much of the dry as of the moist: that is to say, of those which are exhaled and evaporated out of the sulphurus salt matters, and mercurial liquors. Whereof the more thin and breathy part, pass by insensible transpirations: the more watery, by sweats: but the more foul, and that which is feculent, cleaveth to the outside of the skin.  
But now, if such vapouring exhalations be retained still in our body, (the which sometime cometh to pass through the coldness of the air compassing us about, 
The stopping of the pores procureth sickness.  by the shrinking of the skin, by occasion of place, or of age, by intemperate life, by a natural disposition, by the thickness of the skin, or by such like occasions) than it cannot be, but that such bodies shall be subject to many other diseases, than those whereof we have spoken before.  
It is also to be remembered in this place, that in all these evaporations, & ordinary exhalations, somewhat of our substancetying nectar of life, or of our radical Balsam, doth also breath away. The which breathing, if it be gently and sparingly, and without all manner violence and force, but by a certain voluntary continuance, and natural, than our age is prolonged, in the mean time declining to extreme old age by little and little, until all our water of life, or radical oil (which continueth the lamp of our life) be consumed.  
But if the said exhalation or breathing be violently and suddenly enforced, as it cometh to pass in burning fevers, and in many other sicknesses, faintings, passions, and most vehement motions of the spirits of our body, than our life shall be prevented before age. Haereupon cometh the untimely, and in some sort, the violant death of many: and yet the cause of such violence coming from an internal occasion.  
And because it is very pertinent and necessary, that we rightly understand those things which we have now spoken, concerning the natures of the contents in us, that is to say, of the enforcing, moystening, and out-flowing: and so much the rather, because by them we come to the knowledge of our ●pirits, and of our radicial moisture, or nectar of life, and also to the causes of the conservation, prolongation, destruction, and abreviation of our life, I will therefore now declare them all by an example, whereby every one which will give ear, may come to the perfect knowledge of those things.  
And yet we do not much esteem presumptions, probable reasons, or authorities, but we will ground our demonstration upon the very senses themselves, that those things which we speak, may be both seen and felt. And if so be any be so far devoid of shame, that he will yet obstinately contradict us, we will say to him, as sometime A●errho said: One experience, is more of value, than many reasons. Experience cannot be without sense: & he which denieth sense, is worthy to have no use of sense.  
And forasmuch as Aristotle said, that the foundation of all demonstration is in sense, Who is he that dare gainsay it.  
Therefore we will take Wine again for an example, forsomuch as we used the same before. In which wine how apparently and manifestly do such separations; and excrements appear to be made? And this it doth by his own proper nature, that the more easily the nature of either of them, and of both, may manifestly be known by this Analogy and resemblance which it hath with our blood. For by the cleansing of wine, we know the vital Anatomy of our blood: and by the same it will appear which are our natural spirits ethereal, as also which is our native heat, and radical moisture, which two do uphold our body, and defend our life, and of whose help either of them have need: forasmuch as that radical moisture is the food and nourisher of heat, and this same heat subsisteth by the benefit of that moisture.  
Thus these two replenished with spirit, and as it were knit together, are spread and diffused through the whole body. By this same example, the difference between nourishing vital humidity, and that which is unprofitable and excremental, will plainly appear. Furthermore, it will appear which be moist, and which be dry, in that kind of moistures which are outflowing: and which of them are hurtful to our nature, and which profitable. By which anatomy of blood, the reader willing to learn, shall profit more (as I think) because we refer those four humours, (whereof they make blood one) to the very same, and do by a certain analogy and resemblance, compare it therewith. But to come to the 〈◊〉.  
Therefore when the wine is prepared, the clusters of grapes are crushed in the winepress first, and the skins and kernels with the stalks are thrown away. Then the unprofitable cleansings and excrements, being partly by man's industry, and partly by the nature of the wine itself being rejected, the wine is powered into casks and vessels. In these, digestion being made, by his own force, it separateth and purgeth forth together those seculent and more gross superfluities. This done, the wine is all most perfect, and fit for drink and nourishment.  
That first artificial preparation of wine, (which is made by the expression and separation of the Vintners) doth after a certain manner represent unto us, the preparation of wheat, in the which separation, the chaff and the bran being taken away, the rest is ground into meal, that it may be more fit for nourishment. Even so in like manner in our mouths, first preparation of the flesh is made from the bones, or such like: And the expression or grinding is made with the mouth and teeth, then after due chewing, the meat is sent down into the stomach. This is the first resembled preparation of our nourishment, with that first preparation of wine, and wheat, and that which is put into our stomach, answereth that wine, which at the first is put into vessels, & the meal which is ground. Therefore after this, there is another working in the stomach by nature. For whatsoever the stomach receiveth, it concocteth, and digesteth: yea all kind of meats mixed together, like wine in his cask●, or any other kind of drink, made of honey, fruits, barley, or of water wherein divers things are sodden.  
The stomach therefore is that vessel of nature, wherein not only the matter put into it is concocted and digested: but also it is the same which separateth the tartarous feces, and whatsoever is excremental therein, by such passages and vents, as nature hath provided to that end. At the length after much purifying, the blood is cleansed, being the red fountain, and the original of the spirits of our life: even like as wine which thoroughly fined is preferred before all others, which serve for the nourishing and restoring of our life. But let us now proceed. 〈…〉.  
Out of this artificial wine, with the h●●pe of gentle fire, by circulatorie vessels (as they term them) is extracted a fire of nature, which attendeth the radical moisture: namely, a water of life, wholly fiery and ethereal, a quintessence, altogether spiritual, and almost of an incorruptible nature.  
After the very same manner, through the benefit of nature, and by Circulation which is made by the heat of the Heart, and of the Liver, there is generated and extracted in us that quickening fire, accompanied and nourished with his proper unctuous humour, and radical, which is the water of life, and true and quickening Nectar, the quintessence, and almost the ethereal spirit, the incorruptible upholder and conserver of our life.  
This also here by the way cometh to be noted in the operation of the foresaid wine, which is also worthy the marking and admiration: namely, that two or three fiery coals and no more, put under a large vessel or chaldrone, 
Spirit of wine.  (which may contain six gallons, will heat the same wine, and will procure the spirit of wine to distill: when as by that small heat, a much less portion of water, cannot be made blood warm. But which is more to be marveled at and observed, when the same spirit of wine, doth pass through the Colunrina (as they term it) namely by very long cunduites and pipes of brass reforsed, fit for this distillation, it doth so heat them, as also a whole pipeful of cold water-besid● and far● enough from fire, (in the which the said pipes are moistened) that a man may scarce handle them. The which is to be attributed to the great heat which the spirit of wine giveth to the cold water passing through the foresaid pipes. For when all the spirit of wine is distilled forth; although thou put under the said vessel a much more vehement fire, yet thou shalt feel the heat of that water in the vessel contained, to be extinguished and cooled. The which should put us in mind what is the next cause and original of natural or connatural heat in us: for this heat is stirs up in us by the continual circulation of the quickening spirit of our blood.  
When all this water of life is at last distilled forth by a certain internal, external, and violent heat, or else utterly wasted by progress of time, then doth appear the extinction of that quickening heat, and cold death ensueth. But to return to the matter.  
After the extraction of the true Aquavitae, or spirit of wine, (which is the whole purity of those three substantial beginnings) whole liquor representeth Mercury, whose flame, which it readily conceiveth, showeth the Sulphurus nature, and the exceeding strong taste, declareth the spirit of Salt Armoniac) there remaineth great plenty of ●●eame, or of Mercurial water, which as yet containeth some quantity of spirit of wine.  
But the last remainder is no better than unprofitable water, which soon corrupteth in like manner, after the extraction of the water of life, (which is truly spiritual,) from out of our blood, there remaineth in our body, that moist and moistening liquor, which is partly nourishing, and partly excremental, as is said afore. Lastly, there remain over and above the former, the Feces Tartarous residences, and Niterus Sulphurus matter, which contain many stinking Impurities, as also great plenty of Salt.  
The impurities, do sufficiently show the impurities in the eyes, and filthy stinks out of the nostrils, where as divers oils are distilled out of the said feces by vehement fire. And out of the very feces there is extracted Salt, if they be calcined, and the same is also fixed with his proper phlegm, as we have showed afore in the working of the same vegetable. This Salt is made Volatile, with Salt Armoniac, flying contained in his own spirit, or water of life, proceeding as we have already showed.  
In like sort in blood, beside that spirit of life and Mercurial liquor, (which two may in very deed be separated from blood itself, and showed to the eye, after convenient digestions, in the heat of Balne Mary, which resembleth the heat of nature, that it may the better and more easily appear, how the same heat, and the same nature in us, maketh the same separations and operations) I say, beside those two, a certain soft consistence like liquor, will reside in the bottom, wherein thou shalt find many impurities, to be seen and smelled, if the same matter be dried upon a fire of ashes, proportionable to the heat of a fever, and no greater.  
This Niter-Sulphurus stink is that, which manifestly causeth in us fiery meteors, as well in the upper, as in the inferior part of the body, and which bringeth forth innumerable passions and pains beside, as is already showed afore.  
So also by the force of the fire, Sulphurs and oils, thick and gluing like pitch, may be separated out of the feces and tartar of blood, no less than out of wine, so offensive with stink, as thou art not able to abide the odour thereof: whereof, how many diseases may arise in our bodies, every man may easily conjecture.  
This done, there will remain ashes, out of which a Salt is extracted, the which (by the virtue of the Salt Armoniac of nature) may be made Volatile, and the very same which lully calleth the greater Lunary, for the imitation of the vegetable work. This work is very admirable, by which the true Numie, the universal Medicine, and the true Balsam conserving and restoring nature is made. And this is the true and vital anatomy of blood, which by manifest demonstration we have showed, that it hath a great analogy, proportion and resemblance with wine: when as a true Philosopher, as well out of the one as out of the other (saving that the one requireth greater artifice) knoweth how to separate waters of life merely spiritual, which are said to be very forcible and strong: and beside these, Mercurial liquors, which are as well profitable as hurtful, which are also moistening: and finally, which knoweth how to extract vapours, and exhalations fuming, which are called out-flowing.  
Now therefore, if so be in wine, which we easily use to nourish our bodies, and the same pure and clear after the separation of the spirit thereof, we see and behold so many unkindly things, and so impure; how many more gross impurities I pray you shall we find in the Lées of wines cleaning to the casks, and in the gross residence of the same?  
They which know and understand that great and exceeding blackness of wine leef (which is manifestly to be seen in the calcination thereof) and the sepreation of his spirit, and of his oil, red, black and stinking, which is done by distillation, they (I say) can give clear testimony and credibly inform, what a great stink there is in the Sulphur thereof: and how great the acrimony and biting sharpness is in the same tartar or lées, by reason of the Salt which is extracted out of the same, and the oil which is made by the resolution of the same Salt of tartar. And trust me, in the feces of the same wine, there are found, beside the things already spoken, those matters which are more gross, impure and stinking, as they well know, who to calcine them into ashes (which they call clanelated) are compelled to go out of the Cities into the fields, and places further off, by reason of their exceeding infection and stink, with the which they are wont to infect the places near adjoining.  
What marvel is it then, as is showed afore, if in our blood, after the separation of the true spirit, there are found so many unkindly, tartarous, stinking and Sulphurus impurities? But what marvel I say, if more and greater impurities and stinks, are to be found in divers of the Heterogeneal parts of the Chylus, or best matter digested in the stomach for nourishment, from whence blood draweth his first beginning of his composition? That tartar or lées, is of the blood which cleaveth to the vessels of the bowels. Now the feces of the Chylus are nothing else, but that huge heap of excrements of divers sorts, which are in that nourishment existing in divers parts of the body. And when those Niter-Sulphurus and tartarous impurities, cannot by nature be digested, overcome and expelled, they stuff the bowels, they are made the seminary and storehouse of most grievous sicknesses: so that if we will confess the truth, we must of necessity say with great Hipocrates, that sicknesses have both their seeds, and also their roots in our bodies: the which most evidently appeareth by the foresaid comparison of wine and blood. The which standeth upon apparent and sensible foundations, and not upon doubtful figments and Imaginations.  
And as we see in the spring times, when nature putteth forth her flowers, that the lées of wine, are mixed with the wine itself, and do trouble it, and oftentimes corrupt it: and that as in the exceeding heat of the Summer Sun, the more hot Sulphurus part of the same wine, that is, the spirit, may and is wont to vapour away, whereof followeth the corruption of the same wine: even so also, about the same seasons and times, the feces, and tartarous heap mixed with our blood, doth at the last pervert, and corrupt it: hereof cometh the occasion and multiplication of sicknesses. For the spirit of blood being disprearced and separated, both by external and also by internal heat, it must needs be corrupted, to the which corruption, arising of the said causes, the cause of many sicknesses is rather to be referred, then to those bare simple qualities, of hot and cold, dry and moist.  
As therefore we have taught in the separation of the true spirit of wine (which resembleth the celestial and spiritual Nectar of our life) many impurities thereof do manifestly appear: even so, and after the very same sort, it fareth with wheat with fruits, and with meats and drinks prepared of them, and generally with all other vegetable things, proceeding after the same manner as we have said, concerning wine. For they have no light proportion with our blood; according to this saying: We are nourished with those things whereof we consist: which thou mayest aptly turn and say; we consist of those things, wherewith we are nourished. But the one partaketh of the other, or of this or of that more than of the other: as for example, of the spirit, of the Mercurial liquor, of Salt, of the feces, & of the stinking & unprofitable excrements: which is the reason, that out of this or that more commendable kind of meat, the more worthy and commendable blood is generated.  
Therefore to add one example more in steed of a surplusage of weight, let it not be forgotten, that out of Hydromel, Cider, Ale, or such like kind of drinks, & out of their feces, the same preparations and separations, as well of a commendable liquor, as of feces, may be made after the same manner, as we have before showed to be done concerning wine: and that the beginnings and heterogeneal and unnatural parts, may in the same sort be extracted out of these, as out of that other.  
To conclude, thou mayest with better success learn the beginnings of sicknesses, by making a comparison between the preparation and separation of those things which give nourishment unto man, and our blood, then if according to the common manner thou have recourse to the humours, & bare qualities, and so to seek out and discern the causes & originals of sicknesses, by a certain witty contemplation, rather than by that which is more true and infallible.  
Thus we have thought good to set down these things by way of anticipation, concerning the exact, and internal anatomy of humours, & concerning also the artificial examining of them: both that thereby it might appear from whence the natural impressions of things, & the infallible causes of diseases are to be sought, as also that the true Philosophers & Physicians may understand thereby the way to compound prepare, and administer artificially medicines and remedies, which now we intent to show, even according to the order and method of the Dogmatickes. So as we think it not good, utterly to reject the old, nor wholly to follow the new, but to restore the old form of composition of Medicines increased and amended with many of our inventions, experiments, and compositions, for the public good, and for the health of the sick, as also for the instruction of some ignorant Physicians.  

An Elixir of our description. A wonderful remedy to cure inveterate and almost desperate diseases, and to conserve health, and to prolong life, as followeth.  
TAke of the root of Zedoary, of Angelica, of Gentian, of Valerian, Tormentil, or Setfoyle, goats beard, Galanga, the wood Aloes, and citrine or yellow Sanders, of each three Ounces. Of Baume, of red Mint, Maioran, Basil, Hyssop, Germander, Chamepithis, of each half a handful: of Laurel Berries & juniper, of the seeds Peony, of Seseli, or Coming, of Anis, of Mugwoort, of Cardus-Benedictus, of each two ounces: the bark of Citrine, of Missel of the oak, and of all the Mirabolans, of each one Ounce. Cloves, Cinamum, Mace, Ginger, Cubebs, Cardamony, Pepper, long and round, Spikenard, of each one ounce and a half. Aloes Hepat, Myrrh, Olebanum, Mastic, of each six Drachmas. The flowers of Rosemary, of Sage, of Stechadoes, of Marygolds, of Saint Ihons' wort, of centaury the lesser, of betony, of the Linden tree, of each so many as ye can gripe with two fingers and the thumb at twice: of the flowers of Chicory, commonly called Suckary, of red Roses, and of bugloss, of each one gripe in like sort only, of gruat honey, and of white Sugar, of each one pound. Of Aquavitae after the best manner rectified ten pound. Cut that which is to be cut, and beat that which is to be beaten.  
All these things being put into a large Matrat, and close stopped that no breath come forth, set in horse-dung meanly hot, by the space of eight or ten days, to putrefy.  
Being putrefied, let them be hard and well pressed or strained, and put the liquor distrained into an Allembic, and distill it by a Cornute, at aconuenient fire.  
The first water which cometh forth from the distrained liquor will be most clear: keep it by itself for it is precious.  
Thy Receiver being of glass must be of good receipt, and must be passing well closed with the Cornute by the neck, that the least vapour come not forth. And when the receiver beginneth to be darkened, and to be filled with white spirits, thou shalt increase thy fire by degrees a little and a little, according to art, until the said whited spirits appear no more. 
The water of 2. degree. Mercury.   
Then take away the Receiver, that thou mayst put by itself that water which cometh forth the second time, and keep it well: it is called the mother of Balsam, being very profitable to root out many sicknesses, and to conserve health.  
Then again put to thy receiver, 
An Oil.  and increase thy fire by degrees, 
Sulphur.  as thou didst before, so long until at the first, there distill forth a yellow oil: 
Fire.  after that a red oil, the matters in the Matrat remaining dry: and yet not thoroughly dry, lest the liquor which shall distill forth do smell of burning.  
These things done, take that most clear water which came forth first of all in good plenty: power it upon the feces remaining: and make them to digest together by the space of 6. or 7. days, at the heat of Baln-marie, until the water be coloured and wax yellow: 
The Feces.  that is to say, until it hath attracted the more fiery and oily portion of the matter: 
Salt.  and the feces which shall remain, 
Earth.  when they have yielded their whole tincture to the foresaid water, reserve and keep apart to such use as hereafter shall be declared.  
(But if you think good, you may reserve a portion of every of the said liquors to such medicinable uses as is before showed, and use the rest in the progress of the foresaid work, and in the subsequent.)  
After you have drawn the foresaid liquors, & that also which took last tincture from the feces, thou shalt mix them together, that from thence thou mayest extract a far more Elixir of life, than the former, and most precious: proceeding in manner following.  
When thou hast mixed the foresaid three liquors together, 
A most precious Elixir.  thou shalt distill them by a Corrnute, or by a glass Allembic, pretermitting all digestion, using in other than the said mixture: use and follow the same way & order, which thou didst before, separating the Elements, and beginnings of liquors.  
For thou shalt draw out of the first most clear water, which thou shalt reserve by itself, namely, at such time as thou shalt perceive the receiver to be darkened with a cloudy fume: then changing the Receiver, and putting too fire as thou didst before, thou shalt continue it so long, until thou see the liquor to issue forth of yellow colour, the which also thou shalt keep apart as thou didst the former.  
In the mean time while the foresaid distillations, or separations of Elements, that is to say, of the two beginnings, Mercury and Sulphur, are in hand, thou shalt calcine, at a Reverberatorie fire, the Feces which thou reseruedst before: out of the which, being brought to ashes, thou shalt extract salt, according to Art, with thy first most clear water; the water seasoned with his Salt, shall be mingled with the other two liquors which were reserved, that so at the least out of a triangle, thou mayest make a Circle O, as Philosophers speak: that is to say, that out of those three several waters, by circulation (in a Pelican) made according to Art, there may come forth one essence: and so by that means that great Elixir of life, and admirable secret shall be made.  
And not only made, but also by so short a way, so easy, and so well known to true Philosophers, that they know thereby, how, and in what order to make Elixirs out of all things.  
The virtues of this Elixir are unspeakable, both to the curing & also to the preventing of giddinesses in the head, the Falling sickness, Apoplexies, Palsies, madness, Melancholy, the Asthma, and diseases of the Lungs, faintings and soundings, trances, weakness of the stomach, and of other parts, consumptions proceeding of an evil disposition of the bodies, passions proceeding from the gall, and such like heavy and lamentable griefs.  
Certain drops only of this, being given in some convenient breath, and fitting for the sickness. As for example, against the Epilepsy, with water of Peonie; of lilies, Connally, or of flowers of the Linden tree. Against the palsy, with the water Mary golds: against the pestilence with the water of goats beard, or of water of Cardus Benedictus: against the Asthma or tissic, with the water of Scabiose, or of Folefoote, or such like.  
Moreover this Elixir, is of force to restore and conserve our radial Balsam, if four or five drops thereof, be given in broth, wine, or other convenient liquor.  
But peradventure thou wilt say, that the preparation of this Elixir, requireth too much labour, & is too tedious. But it is much better and more necessary to spend the time in things so admirable and of so great importance, than about Medicines that are altogether unprofitable. And yet to serve every man's turn, I will set down the preparation of an other Eilxir, more easy, and peradventure more pleasing, to conserve health, and to prolong life.   

Another Elixir of life most easy to be made.  
TAke the Roots of Gentian slit in pieces, and dried with a gentle heat, also the root of the lesser Centaurie, of each three ounces. Galanga, Cinimon, Mace, Cloves, of each one ounce. Flowers of Sage, of S. john's wort, of each two gripes with two fingers and a thumb. Of the best white wine 6. pound. Infuse these in a glass Matrate, well stopped, by the space of eight days, at a gentle fire of Balne-Marie. Then let them be well strained, & so distilled by a glass Allembic in ashes, till nothing remain but dryness.  
Then power the water distilled upon the feces, that from them thou mayest draw away the whole tincture, in a milk warm Balne-Mary: 
Hypocrates bag, is like the bag where through Hippocras runneth.  Bring the Feces (after the drawing away of the tincture) into ashes, which thou shalt put into Hippocrates bag, pouring the said coloured water oftentimes upon the ashes, that it may draw unto it the proper salt.  
Give of this Elixir the fourth part of a spoonful in some convenient liquor. Use it a long time. It is a special remedy for all consumptions, for the weakness of the stomach, which it purgeth from tough and slimy humours which clean to the same: It stayeth the breeding of worms, and keepeth the body in health. Take of this twice in one week and continue with it.   

A Treacle-water for the head, helping all pains of the same, proper for the Apoplexy, Epilepsy, Palsies, and such like.  
TAke of the roots of Peony, of mistletoe, of common Acorns or Cane, of each three ounces. Of ripe juniparberryes, and of the seeds of Peony, of each, one ounce: Of Cloves and Maces, of each 6. drachmas. Of Castoreum, half an ounce: Of the flowers of Stechadoes, Marigold, Rosemary, Sage, lilies co●●ally, of the Linden tree, of each, two gripes with two fingers and the thumb. Cut that which is to be cut, and beat that which is to be beaten: and infuse them by the space of 3. days, by the heat of a hot Balne, in white wine of the best, 2. pound: and with the waters of Peony, Sage, and of Marygoldes, of each one pound.  
Then straning them hard. To this liquor add of Treacle of Alexandria, ounces 4. of Anacardine confectionem Me●u, one ounce and a half, of Diamosch, and Aromatici Gabriel, of each half an ounce.  
steep or infuse these again, by the space of two or three days, at the fire gentle of Blan▪ M. Then strain them again, and distill them upon ashes to dryness: and thereof a Treacle-water will be made.  
A very small spoonful of this is sufficient to be given at once against the diseases before expressed.   

Another Treacle-water cordial, and comfortable for the heart, very good against all pestiferous effects thereof used, with great profit.  
TAke of the roots of Angelica, of Cloves, of goats beard, of Tormentil or Setfoyle, of Bifolium, or two-blades of Enula campans, of each two ounces. Of yellow Sanders, and of the bark of the same, of each one ounce and a half. Of white Diptani, of Scabiose, of Rus, of goats beard, otherwise called Méedwoort, of each one handful. Of the Flowers of the less Centaur, of S. johns-woort, of Broome, of Violets, of Borage, of bugloss, of Water-Lyllie, of Red Roses, of each, a three finger gripe. Put these into 3. pound of malmsey infused by the space of 4. days, set upon the fire of Baln M. and the juice of Lemons, the water Melissa, Aeetouse, and of Roses mingled with the said Wine, of each one pound. Then strain them.  
In the liqnor distrained, put of Treacle ounces three, of the confection of Hyacinth, one ounce. Of the confection Alchermes, 6. drachmas. Of Diamargarit friged, Diatria Santali, of each 3. drachmas: of Diambre, and Diacoral, of each two drachmas, of Saffron, and Myrrh, of each half a drachm.  
Infuse them again, by the space of two or three days, at the same fire of Baln. M. Then distill them to dryness by fire of ashes: and it will be a Treacle water. But to make it the more effectual, the Salt must be extracted out of the feces which remain, according to art, and then mingled with the foresaid water.   

A water against Poisons, and against all pestilential effects.  
TAke of the Roots of Angelica, of the Carline-thistle, of Setfoyle, & of the Bark of the Olibian Tree, of each two ounces, of Cardus Benedictus, of Méede-woort, called goats beard, of all the Sanders, of each half an ounce: the Treacles of Mythridate, and the confection of Hyacinth, of each 2, ounces: the speces of Diamarg. Frigid, Camphor, of each 2. Drachmas. Let these be grossly beaten or bruised, & put into a glass Allembic, pouring thereon 3. pound of rectified Aqua vitae. Then let them be digested in a vessel well closed, & so distilled by ashes, or a vaporous Baln. This water is wonderful effectual against poisonful and pestilential effects. The quantity which must be given, is half a spoonful.   

An excellent water to be given against Fevers, burning and pestilential.  
TAke of the roots of Angelica, bugloss, of Scorzonerae Ac●●y, one ounce: of the Treacle Alexandrine, 2 ounces: of the juice of Lemons cleansed, of the waters Fumetarie, Goats' beard, and Cardui Benedictus, and of the lesser centaur, of each, ounces 4. Diamar●●. Frigid half an ounce. Let these lie infused by the space of three or 4. days: then let them be distrained and distilled Of the which let the sick drink 4. ounces: and then being well covered in his bed, he shall sweat more than ordinary.   

Principal Remedies to ease the torments and extreme pains of the Gout.  
TAke of the leaves of Missel, which groweth on the Apple-trée, cut or shred very small, half a pound: the flowers of white Mulline, of camomile, of lilies, of Wallwoort, or Danewoort, all the kinds of poppy, with their cases which contain the seed, new gathered, and before they be full ripe, of each one gripe of the 2. fingers and the thumb, of green Frogs, or in steed of them, the jelly or sperm of Frogs, which is to be found in standing waters in the month of March, one pound: the seed of white poppy bruised, 4. ounces: of Crabs of Crafish shells, and all beaten or crushed together, 20. in number: of red Snails, and earth-worms, both well washed in good white wine, of each 4. ounces: of badger's grease ●xe ounces; of Sperma Ceti, 4. ounces: of the oil of violets or water Lilly, newly made, 6 pound: or if you will, in steed of these oils, take so much of oil Olive.  
Put these into a glass vessel, for that purpose convenient, and close stopped set it in horse dung by the space of 7. or 8. days. But if need require more haste, let them boil in a Copper vessel over the fire, by the space of two hours, and then strain them strongly. The which also you shalt do, if they stand in Horse dung to be digested.  
Thou then shalt separate the oil from the watery part thereof according to art: to the which oil, thou shalt add of Saffron 2. ounces, of Camphor, hale an ounce.  
Put all these into a glass vessel, and set them again in Horse dung, or in Balneo, or in the Sun, by the space of 5. days, and thou shalt have a most excellent Balsam to assuage and qualify all pains of the Gout and in the joints.  
I wish that all Apothecaries would prepare this, to be reary at all times for present use: for that they cannot appoint themselves of any thing better than this, which myself have found true by experience.   

A plaster to help and easy all pains of the Gout.  
TAke the marrow or pulp of Cassia four ounces, of new Treacle, the newer the better, half an ounce. The meal of Barley and Oates, of each three ounces. The crumbs of white bread● four ounces: of Cowe-milke, two or three pound.  
Let all these be sodden in the form of a Cataplasm; which thou shalt apply warm to the grieved parts. It thou shalt add one ounce of vitriol calcined, and beaten into the powder, thou shal● make it much better.   

Another Cataplasm.  
TAke the distilled water of white Mulleyn, and of fern, of each half a pound: of calcined vitriol as before, one ounce and a half of Oat meal 4. ounces: Of Saffron two 〈◊〉 make a Cataplasm.   

A water against the pain of the Coute.  
THis water following prepared in due time, will much avail against the greatest pains of the Gout, where there appeareth redness, and much heat●.  
Take of the distilled water of the sperm of Frogs, of Hightaper & of fern, of each one pound and a half. In these infuse Tuttie, and Lytharge of each two ounces: Vitriol calcined and Alum, of each one ounce. Let the grieved parts, be moistened with linen clo●●es wet in the same, applied warm, renewing the same divers times.   

Another excellent water against the Gout.  
TAke of the Soap of Genua, that which is white and good, one ounce. Of liquid Salt, made to run at a strong fire, one ounce and a half: of Vitriol, one ounce: of Acatia, half an ounce. Let them all boil together in a pint of Rose vinegar, or of common vinegar. With this liquor wash both the grieved parts.   

An excellent plaster, which being laid upon the knots and puffs of the Gout, dissolveth them.  
TAke of the oil of Apple Missel, of our description, one or two pound: warm it in a vessel at the fire: being made warm, put into it of shaved or scrape of Soap 4. ounces, let them be well stirred together with a spittle, until the oil and Soap be well incorporated together. After this put thereto Venus' Ceruse, and Lytharge, of each 2. ounces, ever mingling and stirring them with a spattell▪ of Vitriol calcined till it be red, and powdered one ounce▪ Of 〈◊〉 half an ounce. When any of the aforesaid things are put in, stir it well till it come to a convenient thickness for a plaster: which thou shalt apply to the knots: it helpeth not only these▪ but also of callous, and hollow ulcers and pocks.   

An excellent water to the same effect.  
TAke Vns●ickt-Lime, let it lie in Spring water five 〈◊〉 six days, that thou mayest draw out the Salt, Let the water be four or five fingers above the Lime. Of this water take 3. pound: in the which thou shalt quench a red hot plate of Steel, twelve times, and oftener.  
After this, thou shalt put therein of burnt copper brought into powder 3. ounces: of Cinabar, half and ounce. Let them stand by the space of four or five days, in which time the water will be of a green colour, by means of the inward vitriol of the burnt copper. This water is an excellent remedy to qualify and allay suddenly all manner aches and pains.   

A remedy to dissolve the Stone.  
AFter some convenient gentle purgation, let the patient grieved with the Stone, take one little spoonful of this powder following, which not only openeth the conduits provoking urine, but also diminisheth and hindereth the growing of the Stone.  
Take of the kernels which are in Medlars, Gromel, called Milium Solis, the seeds of the great Burr, Saxifrage, Holy-hock, avis seeds, Fennel-séedes, of each three drams: of Crystal stones and of Tartar, fix drams: of the stones which are called commonly Crabs eyes, half an Ounce, of the Salt of ground Furze, one drachm: of Cinnamon one Ounce and a half: of Violated Sugar, two Ounces and a half: mingle these and make a powder. This powder being taken, let the party drink upon it, a little wine juniperated, or of this water following.  
Take of the roots of Eryngium, of ground Furze, and of the five roots apertive, of each one Ounce: of the bark of Lemons, one Ounce and a half: of the four greater cold seeds, of the seeds of Mallows, and Hollihock, of each three Ounces, of the seeds of Saxifrage, of Gromel, of the greater Radish, of the Burdock, and of ripe junipar Berries, of each, Drachmas six: of Askakeng Berries, twenty in number, of Iui●bes six couple, of Dictam, of the flowers of Broome, of Saint john's wort, of betony of the greatest Mallow of each two gripes with the thomb and two fingers: of liquorice, two ounces and a half: of the wood of Caffia, one Ounce: beat and powder that which is to be pouldered: and let them be steeped or infused in water of silver weed, called wild Tansey, and of Parietory of the wall, of each one pound and a half: of the best white wine two pound, and that by the space of four days, in Bal. M. hot: and then let it be strongly strained.  
Into the liquor, put of the Species of Diatragaganthum Frigidum, and of the Trochiscks of Alkakenge, without Opium, of each one Ounce. Let them be digested again at the fire of Baln. Mar, by the space of one or two days: and let them be distilled by a glass Allembic, according to Art. This water also taken by itself alone, c●●teth and thinneth gross matters, and cleanseth the reins and sucking-vaines, and the bladder, from the stopping of sand and gravel, and frieth them from gross humours.  
Of this water by itself alone, the dose to be given at one time is two Ounces, with some convenient syrup.   

another excellent water against the Stone.  
TAke the juice of Radish, of L●●t●ns, of each one pound and a half, of the waters of betony, of wild Tansy, of Saxifrage, of Vervain, of each one pound: of Hydromel, and of Malmsey, two pound. In these liquors mixed together, infuse by the space of four or five days at a gentle fire of Baln. Mar, junipar Berry's ripe and new gathered, being bruised, three Ounces, of Gromel, of the seed of the Burdock, of the greater Radish, of Saxifrage, of Nettles, of Onions, of Anis, of Fenel, of each, one Ounce and a half, the four cold seeds, the seeds of great mallows, of each six drachmas: the species of Lithontri, the Electuary Duis & justini Nicolai, of each half one Ounce: the Calxe of Egge-shels, Cinnamon, of each three Drachmas, of camphor two Drachmas. Let all again be well distrained and then distilled by ashes.  
Two ounces of this water taken, doth wonderfully cleanse the Counduits, provoke urine, and will break and expel the Stone. To this if you add his proper Salt, or one scruple of the extract of betony, it will be a more effectual remedy.    

The conclusion of this Treatise.  
Alchemy or Spagyric, which some account among the four pillars of medicine, and which openeth and demonstrateth the compositions and dissolutions of all bodies, together with their preparations alterations, and exaltations, the same I say is she which is the inventor and Schoolmistress of distillation.  
For Alchemy useth seven works, which are as it were certain degrees, by which as it were by certain necessary instruments, she ordereth and finisheth the transmutations of things. By transmutation I mean, when any thing so foregoeth his outward form, and is so changed, that it is utterly unlike to his former substance and wonted form, but hath put on another form, and hath assumed an other essence, another colour, another virtue, and another nature and properly. As for example, when linen rags are turned into paper: metal into glass: skins or leather into glue: an herb into ashes: ashes into Salt▪ Salt into water, and Mercury so movable, into a fixed body, as into Sinabar, and powder.  

The seven degrees of working are these mentioned before in the Practice.  
1 Calcination, Which is the bringing of any thing to ashes.  
2 Digestion, Is a dissolving of that which is thick into thin, to be purified.  
3 Fermentation, Is a mixing of kindly matter for multiplication▪ or the kindly seasoning, or leavining of a thing.  
4 Distiliation, Is an extraction of a liquor from a body, by heat.  
5 Circulation, Is to rectify any thing to a higher perfection.  
6 Sublimation, Is the lifting up of moist matter, to make it more pure and dry.  
7 Fixation, Is to make that which is flying, to abide with his body.   
Beside these, there are divers other workings, as 

Dissolution, is to dissolve the which is gross  
Putrefaction, is the mean to generation.  
Exaltation, is evaporation of the impure humour.  
Rectification, is a reiterated Distillation to perfection.  
Coagulation is the congealing of moisture.  
Cohobation, is a repetition of Distillation, by which the liquor distilled is powered upon the feces, and distilled again.    
Distillations are divers, according to the diversities of reasons, manners, and of subjects: whereupon arise sundry differences of distillation. The first difference is taken from things, out of which a moisture or liquor may be drawn. For after one manner Honey: after another, Sulphur: after another Wine: after an other Wax: after another Turpentines and Gimmes, as Mastic, Euphorbum, Styrar, and such like: after another, Salts; after another Herbs: after another, roots: after another many seeds are to be distilled.  
The second difference is taken from the diversity of the liquor distilled. For waters, are otherwise extracted then are oils. As for example, out of Herbs, Roots, Flowers and seeds, which are not dry, but growing, waters are extracted by simple distillation, without the admixture of any other liquor. But out of Roots, Herbs, Flowers, and seeds which are dry and odoriferus, the floating oils are not extracted, without the means of some water or other liquor as a help.  
The third difference dependeth upon the matter and fashion of the vessels▪ Upon the matter: for one vessel is of earth, another of brass, another of lead, another of glass.  
Upon the fashion also: for there is one manner of distillation by an Allembic, another by a Cornut, another by a Matrat, and another by a Pelican, and so of others.  
The fourth difference is by the site and placing of the vessel.  
For if it be by a right Cucurbit, which hath a head with a pipe or beak, or whether it be inclining or crooked, we call such distillations, by ascent: or when the neck of one Matrate or cucurbit, is put into the neck of another, that is to say, when the vessels by concourse are so joined together, that one taketh in the mouth of the other, and the same by a divers position: and by these most commonly are distilled those things which do hardly ascend, and have small store of juice.  
Many things also are distilled by descent, that vessel which containeth the matter turned the wrong way, and put into the other, the which manner of working is called by Descent, and is contrary to that which is by Ascent.  
By Descent are distilled Ceates, and sundry kinds of fat wood, as Giraiacum, junipar, and those of rosin sort.  
The fifth difference is, by the degrees of fire, which are four: the first, second, third, and fourth.  
The first is soft and gentle, such is the fire of Balne. M. or of vapour: the second, is of ashes: the third is of sand, or of the dust of iron that falleth from the Smiths hammer in his work at the Stythée. The fourth is of bare fire.  
By the first and second degree of fire, we distill by Ascent: by the third and fourth, we distill by concourse and Descent: Thus oils are distilled out of Salts▪ as out of common Salt, out of Vitriol, and out of such like.  
But before you begin to distill, be sure that you dissolve & putrefy.  
But because mention is made before of Digestion and Fermentation, I will show you plainly, how by these two means you may extract out of Roses a most Fragrant water of life, and so excellent, that one drop thereof, shall give a sweet sent and odour to a great quantity of common water, and will also make the the same most profitable and sweet.  
Therefore take Roses gathered it 〈…〉, when there is neither rain nor 〈◊〉 upon them, but tarry till the Sun with his beams hath 〈◊〉 and taken away that humidity. Gather then of them a good quantity: and then bruise or beat them in a stone 〈◊〉, or else thou shalt put them into a small bonlet of oak, and shalt with diligence press them in with thy hands, in such sort that the vessel may be stuffed full almost to the top. Then stop and close it up, that Digestion may more easily be made, and set in a wine seller by the space of one month, or longer if need require, until thou shalt perceive that the foresaid matter have the odour of tart wine: whereby thou shalt know that the Fermentation is perfected: and so long it must at any hand be delayed until the foresaid sign do appear.  
These things thus finished, take to thee the fourth or fifth part of the Roses Fermented, according to the greatness of thy vessel, which necessarily must be such as the Chemical Distillars do use wherewith they extract their oils, and Aqna-Vitae, the which indeed are large, and of Brass, rather than of Lead, furnished with their refrigeatories (as they term them) which being full of water, the spirits made thick through cold are more easily and commodiously drawn forth: Taking I say, that portion of Fermented Roses, distill them according to the wont manner. That done, separate the feces remaining, which subsist in the bottom of the Allembic, and put so much of the Fermented Roses aforesaid into the same vessel, and power upon them the water extracted before, distilling altogether again, until there appear divers; thy vessel as well closed as may be as is said afore.  
Gather again the dried feces (the which it thou wilt, thou mayest reserve with the former feces) and put the same quantity of the foresaid Roses into the Allembic which thou didst before, upon which again thou shalt pour all the distilled water: And this thou shalt do so often until thou hast distilled all the said fermented Roses.  
These things orderly done, thou shalt take all the distilled water, and shalt distill only the twelfth part thereof, with a gentle fire in a vessel with a long neck or Matrate, or in such a one as Aquavitae is distilled, which is the quantity of all the spirituals almost. As for example, if thou have twelve pound of water, thou shalt only extract one pound, which will be very odoriserus most sweet, and spiritual, as ready to take flame, as is that which is extracted out of wine.  
This water if thou wilt yet make of greater virtue, thou mayest rectified again. But the rest of the water which shall remain in the bottom of the Allembic, will be more fragrant, and better than that which is distilled after the common manner: whereinto also thou mayst convey his Salt and insert it, by bringing the foresaid feces to calcination, & meshing the same oftentimes through Hypocrates sléene or bag with water, whereby it shall more easily draw unto it and retain that Salt. After the same manner also thou mayest draw waters of life out of violets and other flowers, and especially out of them which are hot and odoriferus, as Rosemary, Sage, Betonie: and such other like, which are better and more effectual against sicknesses, then if they be made according to the common order. The least quantity hereof will work wonderful effects.  
If our Apothecaries would acquaint themselves with these Concoctions, Fermentations, and Digestions, and understand them aright, in their workings imitating nature after a certain manner, they should be able to effect divers commendable and profitable preparations. Yea it is not fitting the Apothecary alone to know these things, but for the Physician also the commander and director of the Apothecary, if he respect his humour and the health of his patient.  
But these things at this day are little regarded, insomuch that many Physicians either neglect them, or else disdainfully contemn them, for that they know not what profit such preparations do bring with them. And verily I do not know, what should be the cause of such obstinate disdain & wilful contempt, but mere ignorance: seeing it is well known that nothing is contemned, but of the ignorant.  
And what will not these mad Ignorants contemn, which do also despise the preparations of Medicines? which administer nothing to their sick patients, but those things which are crude, and full of impurities. They rather choose obstinately to go forward in their error, both to their own reproach and damage of the sick, then rightly to follow wholesome admonitions, lest they might be thought not to have been wise enough before, and to have learned more knowledge of others.  
Let them consider the necessity of our life, that they may learn that the same hath constrained us, to seek the preparations of our meats, which are necessary for the sustaining of our bodies: in the preparing whereof, notwithstanding, there is not so great necessity as there ought to be in the preparing of medicines for our health.  
Let them behold the corn which cometh out of the earth, which is not by and by given crude as it is, for food but the chaff and the bran being separated, it is brought to flower: which as yet is not so given to eat, but being first tormented or leavened, ● well kneaded or wrought, it is baked, that it may be bread fit for nourishment. Consider well the fermentation, by which bread is made light, and fit for nourishment: the lighter it is, the wholesomer it is, and the more it is fermented the lighter it will be. The less it is fermented, the heavier it is, and the more unwholesome. If this preparation go not before, but that we only make a mixture of water and flower together, and so presently thrust it into the Oven, in steed of bread, thou shalt prepare a glutinous matter very hurtful to nature. Do you not see how passed a glutinous matter, and starch, also are made only with flower and water? What then thinkest thou will come to pass in thy stomach and bowels, especially in those which are more weak, if such be offered and taken? Surely such as will procreate matter to breed the stone, and will be the seminary of many diseases.  
So necessary and profitable is this Fermentation, that it is very behoveful for an Apothecary to know it: for that it doth attenuate every substance, it looseneth it from his body, and terrestrial impurity, that it may afterwards be made fit to bring forth the true radical Balsam, and the quickening spirit.  
By the benefit of this only Fermentation, are extracted waters of life out of all vegetables whatsoever. After the same manner, by this Fermentation and Leaven of nature, all 〈◊〉 humours of or● body are made thin and subtiled. You know how in holy writ it is said, that a little sour Leaven doth ferment the whole mass.  
By the way of Fermentation, which consisteth in a certain Acetoius liquor of nature, our humours are made thin and disposed to excretion. And therefore there are certain tart things which move sweats, albeit the same by the opinion of Physicians are cold.  
Do we not see that women and ordinary Cooks have attained this knowledge of Fermentation: and thereby provide for sick persons, jellyes made of flesh of fowls, and such like, to restore and strengthen them in the time of their weakness?  
And what are these but extracts? For the terrestrial parts are separated from the more laudable substance, which is more convenient for the sick. And why do not Apothecaries the like in compounding their medicines?  
The nature of the sick man being now weakened, cannot abide crude and fulsome meat, but doth rather loath them, and is more and more weakened by them. How much more will he be offended and hurt by medicines not rightly prepared nor separated from their impure substance? Such impurity must needs be a great hurt and hindrance, that the natural force of the Medicine, cannot encounter with his enemy the sickness, and overcome him.  
What shall we say then of those Medicines, which have not only crudity in them, but also some evil quality, and the same not separated, or rightly prepared: or being corrected, may we be bold to give it? They are wont, (with grief I speak it) too much and too often, I saythey are wont, I mean such decocted, powdered, and mixed Medicines, by no manner of other art prepared, to bring more grief and pain to the sick (that I may say no worse) than solace and help.  
Therefore these kind of preparations, concoctions, I say Digestions, and Fermentations, are not to be despised or neglected. For if these things be done, they are done according to nature's fashion, which useth the same operations to the perfect ripening of fruits, and all things the which it bringeth forth. But let us hasten to conclude this treatise.  
Aristotle in his fourth of Meteors, hath appointed three Pipsias, or kinds of concoction. The first he calleth Pepamsis', which is the concoction of humour in moist seed, made by natural heat: And this is the mean of concocting, ripening, and of making of the seeds of Plants, and of other things to grow, and to bring forth plenty of fruit: and it is a work only belonging to nature, which useth that quickening heat for an Instrument, which heat answereth the element of Stars in proportion, as the said Aristotle saith. Albeit Art cannot imitate this heat, yet it may tread in the steps thereof.  
The second kind of concoction, he calleth Epsesis, or Elixation, which is a concoction made by a moist heat of a thing indifinitely existing in a humour.  
The third and last is Optesis, or Assation, which is the concoction of the same interminate, made by a dry and strange heat.  
These two last concoctions, are made especially by Art, concerning the moderation of which heats, we will hereafter teach the diligent and industrious Apethecaries, I say industrious, and such as follow the prescrips of true Physicians and Art, not Petlars and Sellers of Trifels, which rather desire to make retale of Candles, Lanterns, and all Mercerie-wares, and to fill their shops with trash, than to follow the works of Art.  
Therefore in steed of liberal persons, they are miserable hirelings: souters they are, and not Artificers and lovers of Art, Merchants, and handicrafts men, setting their rest upon pomp, pleasure, and gain. I had rather see an enemy in the City, than one of these base minded fellows. For Citizens know how to beware of an open enemy: but how can a man beware of the falsehood and treachery of these companions which they bring to pass either by ignorance, or by malice or else by negligence: I say who shall take heed of these, but he which banisheth them quite and clean out of the City.  
I speak of deceivers, and such as falsely usurp the name and tittle of Apothecaries, professing that, and yet follow the Trade of Merchandise, and not of honest and good men, which are diligent in their Art, to whom this our labour pertaineth, and to whom these our studies and admonions are dedicated, for the health of many, and for their praise and profit.  
The ancient Physicians and men of the best sort, dealt more warily and provided better for themselves, had this art in great honour, and therefore in their own houses, they prepared medicines with their own hands.  
And we also for our own parts would be loath that some of our secrets, should be cast before these Hogs, and therefore we commonly provide, that they be prepared in our laboratory at home by a kilfull workman, whom we direct and appoint for that purpose.  
Not that we might make thereby the greater gain to ourselves, but for the honour and praise of the Art, and to our friends good, the which all those know, that know us, and have received the benefit from us. But for this time these shall suffice.  
For the Pattern of Furnaces and glasses apt and meet for Distillation, buy Master George Bakers Book our Countryman.  
And if thou be desirous to procure glasses of all sorts for this Art, thou mayst have them at the merchants hand, which sell such in their houses near the Poultry in London.  
THe wind Furnace, must have a hole beneath, one foot deep inward, and one foot and a half upward: and at that height a grate shall be laid, wherein the coals of fire must lie. Also at that height make another mouth, where at thou shalt put in the said coals of fire: and about the same raise up the walls round about ten Inches in height and there also lay two bars of Iron to set the Pan upon, either for Balneum Mariae, or for a dry fire.  

To make thy nourishing Balne.  
TAke chopped Hay and water, and put it into an earthen Pan, then set over it a Trencher with a hole in the midst, to answer the bottom of the glass, which must come within two Inches of the water.   

Concerning Hermes Seal, and the making of divers closiers of glasses.  
FIrst thou shalt know, that of all fastenings or closing up of Glasses, that no v●pours nor spirits go forth, the Seal of Hermes is most noble: which is done in the manner following.  
First, make a little Furnace, with the Instruments belonging. It must have a grate in the bottom to make fire upon. In the midst of the Furnace shall be a hole, to put in the end of a narrow necked Glass, so that the third part of the glass be empty. And if the hole of the Furnace be greater than the glasses neck, close up the hole with clay on every side, round about, so as the mouth of the glass have some liberty. Let thy fire be as far from thy glass as thou canst: and when thy coal fire is ready, put the Glass nearer and nearer, by little and little, till the mouth of thy glass wax red, as it were ready to melt. Then take the red hot tongues, and therewith wring or nip the top close together: whereby it shall be so closed, as if it had no vent 〈◊〉, or came so closed out of the Glass-maker's shop. But take heed when you have so done, that you pull it not too suddenly out of the fire, lest the s●dden cold crack the glass, and mar all. Therefore abate it by little and little, and not at once.  
And when thou wilt open the glass, take a third dipped in brimstone or wax, and wind it 6. or. 7. times about the neck of the glass where thou wouldst have it to break, and set it on fire with a small wax candle, and when it is burnt, power a drop or two of cold water upon it, and it will crack in the sa●● place, that thou mayst take it off.   

Concerning the manner of making Lutes, wherewith to close glasses.  
THe ordinary Lutes wherewith to stop vessels of glass against faint vapours, are these. Take quick lime beaten to ●oulder as fine as may be, and searced: temper it with the white of eggs. Or else mix wheat flower with the white of eggs, spread them upon linen cloth, and wrap it divers times about the mouth or joints of the glass.  
Other Lutes, called Lutum Sapientiae, made for the defence of stronger vapours, either to parget and lute the body of the glasses, or to stop their mouths, or lose their joints: which are to be wrought clear, smooth, and without knots or bladders: in manner following.  
Take potter's earth, with a forth part of shorn floxe added to the same: an eight part of white ashes, with a forth part of dry horse-dung. All these well beaten together with an iron rod.  
This is the right composition of Lutum Sapientiae. There be that do add to this composition, the powder of brick, and of the scales beaten from iron, finely searced.  
And for the more convenient drying of vessels so luted and fenced, you shall boar certain holes in a wooden form, into the which put the necks of thy glasses, that their bottoms and bodies may be dried the better.  
Another most excellent Lute for the like encloser is made of glass and Vermilion, of each like quantity, powdered and searced, then incorporated with varnish, and a little oil of linseed, and making the whole like a soft poultesse which is to be spread on a fine linen cloth, wrap it about the mouth & joints of the glasses, and so suffer them to dry in the Sun. Which albeit, it is a long work, yet it is most sure. For this will serve against the strongest vapours that are.  
Also to compound a Lute, wherewith to make your Furnace that it may not rive, or chap, take chalk and potter's clay, and a quantity of sand, wrought together with woollen 〈◊〉 and horse-dung, incorporated as afore.  
Thus courteous Reader, I have showed thee such secrets in this Art, as neither Quersitanus, Isacus, Hollandus, nor any other Philosopher, have before published in print to my knowledge, but have come to my hands in paper and parchment copies. If thou be industruous, & dost tread the right Hermetical path, thou shalt by the means of these helps, so plainly set before thine eyes without Hieroglyphics and Riddles, to do thyself and thy country good. Thus wishing to thee, as to myself, good success in all thy godly endeavours, I commend them and thee, to the Lord.    
FINIS.