PARACELSUS OF The 

Chemical Transmutation,  
Genealogy and Generation   of Metals & Minerals.  
Also, Of the Urim and Thummim of the Jews.  
WITH An Appendix, of the Virtues and Use of an excellent Water made by Dr. Trigge.  
The second Part of the Mumial Treatise.  
Whereunto is added, Philosophical and Chemical EXPERIMENTS Of that famous Philosopher RAYMUND LULLY; Containing, The right and due Composition of both Elixirs.  
The admirable and perfect way of making the great Stone of the Philosophers, as it was truly taught in Paris, and sometimes practised in England, by the said Raymund Lul, in the time of King EDW. 3.  
Translated into English by R. Turner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
London, Printed for Rich: Moon at the seven Stars, and Hen: Fletcher at the three gilt Cups in Paul's Churchyard. 1657.   

To the Worshipful and worthy Meeaenas WILLIAM BAKEHOUSE Of Swallowfield, In the County of Berks, Esq  
Honoured Sir,  
KNowing you to be a true Son of Hermes, and a delightful Student in the Courts of Urania, it is no small encouragement in this attempt of mine, in choosing you to patronise this piece of Hermetical Philosophy: it is but a Translation, and, as I doubt not but you are well acquainted with the Authors in the original; so I presume you will actum agere, peruse them again in their new Garments; acceptably hearing them speak English. Let me therefore request you to take this little stranger into your tuition and patronage, and with your judicious eye to examine and correct my Erratas; relying upon the candour of your ingenuity and learning, that thereby I may be the better fortified, and securely armed against the batteries of ignorance; and that your protection may quench the fiery Beacons of the envious Critics. And thus wishing both you and your studies a Crown of happiness in this terrene Theatre, and eternal glory everlastingly, I ●ake leave to subscribe myself  
Your humble Servant, Robert Turner. LONDON, 8 November, 1656.   

To the Reader.  
IT's my hard fate to be still deprived of that secessum & otia scribendi, which in things of this nature are required, and the Nasonian Poet much complained for, in his not much-worse than my presence status: he alleges the cause of his condition to crimen only, if it were so much, and not culpa; and that but crimen ingenii neither: as it seems then and now in this Beacon firing age, it is by some accounted, mens tamen non scelerata fuit: mine was, and still is, Crimen indulgentiae minis, fidem adhibendi viris nulla fide, as dear-bought experience manifests; yet to revive the everlasting fame of Paracelsus, and that the English Tyroes may hereafter reap the benefit of his admired and experienced labours, I have reduced another part of his works, viz. this ensuing Treatise, into the English Tongue; and the rather, because his sleeping ashes have been ignominiously unraked out of their silent grave, by one whose scribbling pen was Fuller of scandals than modesty: his head seemed Owl-like Fuller of folly than wit, and his words Fuller of falsehood than truth; else certainly he would not have fallen so foul upon the dead whom he never knew; and if he had, was not capable of making him an answer: but dwarf-like, tramples on a dead Giant.  
His Works, Reader, I freely offer to you, wishing your benefit herein: but those flashing boasters, of which this age affords plenty, whose brains are made of the Mercury (not of Philosophers, but) of Fools, being very well gifted in the faculty of prating and nothing else; I should desire them, till they find their intellect of a more solid capacity, to forbear the profession of this or any liberal Science, which suffers so much dishonour by them, especially Astrology and Physic; and move every one in his Sphere, the Cobbler to his Last and Awl, the Weaver to his Shuttle, and the Heelmaker to his Tools: and seek not to aspire to the Turrets of Minerva, lest their wings fail, and they fall with Icarus, Ovid Trist. Lib. 1.  
Dum petit infirmis nimium sublimia pennis  
Icarus, Icariis nomina fecit Aquis.  
There is also added an additional Treatise, called, Natural Urim and Thummim, The second part of the Mumial Treatise, or Diastatical Medicines of Tentzelius, called, A natural Account of the Tree of Life: with a piece of that famous Philosopher and Chemist, Raymund Lul.  
These being all concordant in Nature, I revived them to posterity, hoping there may yet come a thankful age, in which Learning may see Halcyon days.  
I have composed a Treatise, called, The Woman's Counsellor, modestly treating of diseases incident particularly to them; whereby they may be their own helpers in such private infirmities, as through too much modesty they ofttimes to their own hurt conceal, which will shorty be published: and also the Chemical Experiments of Paracelsus: with many other pieces which time will manifest, for the benefit (I hope) of all Sons of Minerva; which is the desire of  
Robert Turner. November 8, 1656. Natus apud Holshot.   

To his ingenious Friend Mr. Robert Turner, on his Translation of Paracelsus.  
DIana's Darling, born upon the hills  
Of sweet Parnassus, whose rare fame distils  
Crystalline dew, to dip thy learned Pen,  
The Muse's glory, and the praise of men;  
Who will admire at this thy rare Translation,  
Wherewith thou hast enriched the English Nation.  
Not only Metals here thou dost transform,  
Which purblind Ignorance doth reject and scorn;  
But th' Roman Eagle by thy dextrous wit,  
Is made to wear an English garb to fit  
Old Albyon's Sons; who for this gift of thine,  
With Laurel branches will thy brows enshrine:  
The quivering Mirtle-boughs shall crown thy head,  
And in all ages shall thy name be read.  
Why then dost prosecute the brawling Laws,  
To sell thy breath for every wrangling Cause?  
Why wilt thou be with bawling Codrus vexed,  
With Typstaves Base, and shirking slaves perplexed,  
With Pleas, Demurrers, Bills, and Replications,  
With forms of Paupers, and poor Declarations:  
For which thou never reaped due praise or pay,  
But care and trouble; and art kept away  
From fair Vrania's Court, in which thou art  
Worthily honoured by the Sons of Art:  
And for this work of thine, I'll ever sing,  
And praise thy Learning at the Muse's Spring.  
Fran. Jennings.   

To his industrious Friend, M. Robert Turner, on this elaborate & profitable Treatise, and other his painful Translations.  
I've wondered oft, why Scholars those should hate,  
That into English Latin do translate;  
But now the Reason's plain: for every man  
May learn the length of Paracelsus span,  
And turn a Chemist; nay what not,  
That's comprehended in a Physick-Pot,  
But may by easy industry be got?  
I like the man whom Fortune hath made great  
In Learning, and that doth with judgement treat  
Of every thing: and him I also love,  
The meanest talon seeketh to improve.  
There's many a man whose hapless fate it is,  
To know no more of Nature's Mysteries,  
Then Brutish-Beasts; yet God and Nature are  
Not wanting to them, but their Parents care;  
Who all their lives will force them stand before 'em,  
And bring them up in Cavea stultorum.  
But princely Nature from his boundless store,  
Provides a Salve for every dangerous sore:  
And thus hath made our Author's happy Pen,  
The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of good, to unlearned men.  
Go on, good Friend, to other things; for we  
By this thy Book are able to foresee  
Great Paracelsus Learning, Hermes Skill,  
Shall English speak by thy ingenious Quill.  
John Gadbury, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Paracelsus   


Paracelsus OF The TRANSMUTATION OF METALS.  

CHAP. I. Of the Scale of Transmutation.  
TRansmutation is an alteration or changing of the forms of natural things into other forms, as of Metals or Wood, into Stones or Glass; the changing of Stones into Coals, etc. It hath been found out, That Metals that have been first coined into Money, have been by Nature changed under the Ground into a stony substance; and yet have retained the impression of the Image that hath been stamped upon them: and, That the Roots of Oaks, being smitten with Thunder, or some other influence of the Stars, have been turned into true Stones. There do also arise Springs of Rivers in many places, that, by a certain natural poperty, do transform all things whatsoever are cast into them, into hard Stones. These, and suchlike works of Nature, wise men have contemplated, and have thereby learned likewise to do the fame things by Art; by observing the same Order which Nature teacheth by her Instruments. This we see frequently done in many Mountains, That Coals are generated of Stones naturally by a certain Aetnean fire, of which Carpenters have frequent use. So that this last kind of Transmutation, is done by Fire in the Earth; the other before spoken of, by Water and Air: These are the Instruments of Nature, and they are for the Matter, the Motion for the Form. What therefore if a natural Composition, may be made Earth by Fire, and that made Water by Air, and this made Fire by Fire; and that again descending, may be made Air by Air, and then this be made Water by Water, and at last that may be reduced into Earth by Fire? what Transmutation I pray do thou think will come thereof? if you were expert, you would know it. The vulgar and ignorant see not these things; and that for no other cause, but because they do not consider the secrets of Nature. Whosoever therefore together with them is ignorant of, or denieth these things, which Nature hath set before the Eyes of all, how learned or wise soever he would seem to be, he is not worthy of the Name of a Philosopher nor Physician. Whence hath Physic her first Foundation? out of the appearance only, or manifest superficies of natural things? Nothing less: but out of the most occult and hidden secrets of Nature, compared to the most manifest effects. Wherefore as Nature herself is undiscernible by every sense, no otherwise are all her Operations. Who ever saw a Tree to grow, or the Sun or Stars move? No body: But that the Trees have grown, and the Sun and Stars have been moved by a space of time, who knoweth not?  
Therefore Operations in Physic do more chief consist in the Understanding, rather than in the Eyes or the other Senses; although they in their courses are the Directors unto us, that we may make further progress: otherwise between the Philosopher and the Clown there would be no further difference.  
But to return to the purpose: The Scale or Ladder of Transmutation, hath seven Steps or principal Degrees; which are, Cascination, Sublimation, Solution, Putrefaction, Distillation, Coagulation and Tincture.  
Under Calcination are contained these his Members; Reverberation, Cimentation, and Incineration: wherewith, in all Operations, all things are turned into Chalk or into Ashes.  
Therefore in the first Degree of Transmutation, the elementative natural bodies are converted into Earth, with a middle Fire, as the Instrument.  
And here first of all is to be noted the difference between material Elements, and instrumental, of which by the way we shall speak; for these are external, but the other are internal: as when the first Operation is completed, whether it be by Calcination or Reverberation, Cimentation or Incineration. Sublimation succeedeth out of the order of Preparations; which Earth, now being calcined, is converted either into Water or into Air, according to the Nature and property of the thing so to be converted: for if it be of dry things, then chief is to be used the elevation of the Volatile parts from the fixed. Wherefore Sublimation is convenient for things of that Nature.  
But if there ought to be made a separation of moist things, as of Vegetables or Animals, than it is convenient to use Sublimation thereof in the fifth Degree, to wit, Distillation.  
But because in this place it is chief intended to treat of dry things, as Metals and Minerals; the order congruent to their Natures is likewise to be observed.  
Therefore the Volatile part is to be sublimed, as in moist things by Cohobations; that is, by reconjoyning of the parts separated, and by iterating or separating them over again, until they become fixed, and remain within with the parts fixed, and ascend no more, but remain consisting in the substance and form of Oil of or a Stone: for with Solution by the Air, they are turned into Oil; and with Coagulation by Fire, into a Stone.  
Let Sal Armoniak be an example for every Metal; for that in Sublimation successively becomes Stone.  
By this Operation of Sublimations, many corrosives are dulcified, and mollified; and on the contrary, with the addition of another substance. Also many sharp things are sweetened, and many sweet things on the contrary are sharpened: sometimes by themselves, or with other things prepared after this manner.  
Afterwards happens the third Degree, to wit, Solution; and that is twofold: the one of cold, the other of heat.  
Salts, Corrosives, and whatsoever things are calcined, are coagulated by Fire, and then by the coldness of the Air, are resolved into Liquor, Water or Oil, in a moist place, as a Cellar, or in the Air, being placed upon a Marblestone or Glass: But fat and sulphureous things are dissolved by the heat of the Fire; and that which the Fire dissolveth by heat, the same is coagulated by the coldness of the Air: On the contrary, that which is dissolved by the coldness of the Air, is coagulated by the heat of the Fire.  
Note here the Reason wherefore we call the Air cold; which seems to oppose and contradict the Opinion of some Philosophers: for they will have it to be hot and moist: but they consider not whereof the Air consists: doth it not consist of Fire and Water? for what else is the Air, but Water dissolved by Fire? Wherefore from one part thereof, to wit, the Fire, it borroweth heat and dryness; and from the other part, the Water, coldness and moisture: for they are the two chief qualities thereof, and the other two are her Ministers; for there is nothing hot by Nature, which is not also necessary and naturally dry; neither is there any thing cold, which by the same reason is not moist. Whatsoever is besides contingent hereunto, is not by Nature, but by accident.  
It is no otherwise amongst the Elements: the Fire and Water have the chief place, and the Earth borrows her coldness from her Companion, the Water; and her dryness from the Fire: for herself, she is never hot, moist, nor cold, nor dry; but serveth her two other Princes, as the Wax submits to every Seal.  
In like manner we are to judge of the Air; for so the Air receiveth heat and dryness from his Father the Fire, and cold and moisture from his Mother the Water; therefore they are generated as from their Parents, the Fire and Water; the Air Masculine, or rather a Hermaphrodite, and the Earth a Female. And thus far of the natural Instruments and the Matter.  
The fourth Degree is Putrefaction: This for its excellency might deserve the first place, if it were not repugnant to the true order; and a secret in this place hidden to many, and manifested to few. It ought therefore to remain placed in its due Series, even as the links in a Chain; wherein, if one be wanting, the Captive detained therewith escapes and flies away.  
The property therefore of Putrefaction is, that consuming the old Nature of things, it introduceth a new Nature; and sometimes produceth Fruit of another Generation: for all living things die with corruption; and being dead, they putrefy, and again acquire life by the Transmutation of their Generation into them.  
And by it corrosive Spirits are dulcified and mollified, and all Colours are thereby turned into others, and thereby the pure is separated from the unclean.  
Now the Members of Putrefaction are Digestion and Circulation.  
The fifth Degree is Distillation, which is nothing else but a Separation of the moist from the dry; and the thin from the thick.  
The Members hereof are Ascension, Lotion, Imbibition, Cohobation and Fixation.  
Cohobation, which concludeth all the rest, is an often effusion or pouring of the distilled Liquor to its feses, and often distilling it over. As Vitriol with Cohobations is fixed by its own proper Water, and then it is called Allumen Saccarinum; which being dissolved into Liquor, and then putrefied by the space of a Month, and distilled, yields a most sweet and pleasant Water, after the manner of Sugar: which is a most excellent Medicinal secret, far above others, to extinguish the Microcosmical Fire, which happeneth to the Diggers of Metals; which is largely spoken of in the Book De Morbis Fossorum Mineralium, Of the Diseases of the Diggers in Mynes. After the same manner also may any other Minerals and Waters, as Sal Nitrum, be fixed by Cohobations.  
The sixth Degree is Coagulation; which also is twofold: answering contrary to Solution, consisting of heat and dryness, that is, of Air and Fire.  
Again, Coagulation is twofold, as having two parts cold, and as many of hear.  
The first of cold is made of common Air, without Fire: and the last, of the superior Firmament, by the Hy●●al Stone, which congealeth all Waters into Snow and Ice.  
But the first Coagulation of heat is made by industry in Art, observing the gradations of the Fire, and is fixed; but the other Degrees of cold in Alchemy are not fixed.  
The later Coagulation of heat is made by an Aetnean Fire and Mineral under the Earth and under the Mountains, and is gradated by a natural Arch of the Earth. Not unlike to this is the Fire, which being gradated by the Art of Alchemy, is excited and brought to Coagulation.  
Whatsoever is coagulated by this Aetnean Fire, remains fixed, as is manifest by Metals and Minerals; all which consist from the beginning of certain Muscilaginons' matter coagulated by the Aetnean Fire, and the natural Arch and Artifice of the Earth under the Mountains, into Stones, Metals, Pearls, Salts, etc.  
The seventh and last Degree of the Scale or Ladder of Transmutation, is Tincture, the most noble Medicine above all others that are procured by the Chemical Art; whereby all Metallick and humane bodies are dipped into a far more noble, better, and excellent substance then before they were naturally of, and are thereby reduced to the highest Degree of soundness, colour and perfection, and to a more strong and excellent Nature.  
Various are the kinds and species of these Tinctures, in this place lest of all intended to he treated of.  
The Metallick bodies ought first to be removed by Fire from their Coagulation, and to be liquefied; otherwise, they will not receive any active Tincture, unless they be opened. Also all the Tinctures of Metals ought to be fixed substances, easily fusible, and of an incombustible Nature; that being poured upon a fiery Lamen, they may flow forthwith like Wax, and soon penetrate the Metal without smoke, as Oil doth Paper, or as Water enters into a Sponge; so they die that into a white and red colour, remaining in the Fire, and enduring every trial.  
Therefore in the first Degree of Calcination, to come to these Tinctures, the Metals being brought into Alcol, they acquire an easy liquefaction, in the second Degree, to wit, of Solution; and then by Putrefaction and Distillation, their Tinctures may be fixed and made incombustible, and the colours unvariable.  
But to restore, recover, conserve, or renew the Health of humane bodies, they ought to be drawn from Gold, Pearl, Antimony, Sulphur, Vitriol, or the like.  
Various also are the Subjects of the Fire; and they have several and divers Operations in Chemistry: as, one Fire made of the flame of Wood, and this they call living Fire, wherewith is calcined and reverberated the bodies of all Metals and other things: another is a continual heat of a Candle or Lamp, wherewith they fix Volatiles: there is another Fire of Coals, wherewith bodies are cemented, coloured, and purged from their Excrements: also, Gold and Silver are thereby brought to a higher Degree: Venus is refined, and all other Metals are renewed: the fiery Laments of Irons have another Operation; for thereupon is made the trial of Tinctures. Another heat is raised by Fire, by the filings of Iron; another in Ashes; another in Salt; another in Balneo Mariae, wherewith are made many Distillations, Sublimations, and coagulations: There is also another Operation made by Balneum Roris, which sometimes I have elsewhere called, Balneum Vaporosum, wherewith many Solutions of corporal things are made: Then the Venture Equinus hath another Operation, in which are made the chief Putrefactions and Digestions: also, the invisible Fire hath an Operation far beyond all these, that is, of the Beams of the Sun; which plainly appeareth by his Operations, as by a Speculum or Crystal. And of this the Ancients have not made mention.  
By this Fire, the three Principles of every thing may be separated upon a Table of Wood, without any fear of flagration or adustion; and all Metals liquefied without any visible Fire, and all combustibles consumed into Coals and Ashes.  
But the Transmutation of Metals, to bring the imperfect to perfection, cannot be very well done without the Stone or Tincture, of which we will hereafter treat in their due places: And we will also say something of the Transmutation of imperfects into imperfects, bringing them only for the probation of Transmutations. But we shall first treat of the Fire, whereupon hangs the hinges of all the Art: and teach some process of the Stone of Paracelsus.   

CHAP. II. Of the simple Chemical Fire.  
HAving now sufficiently spoken to the wise and ingenious, of the Art of Transmutations by the Scale and Degrees thereof; that the order before spoken of may be kept, it will be necessary in the first initiation, to propose and lay down the manner of the Instruments, before the matter itself, lest that the rude and unskilful should first use the foot in stead of the hand.  
Let them not therefore approach hither, whose understanding hath no eyes, and whose hands cannot serve them; for the feet and the fleshly eye, without a sound and uncorrupted understanding, is altogether ignorant.  
The chiefest Instrument which ought most diligently to be sought after, is the Fire, which being living of its own proper Nature, is not vivified by any other Fire.  
From hence also it comes to pass, that it hath power and virtue to vivify whatsoever else lies hidden in other things.  
As the Sun in the World is created by God, to vivify, stir up and quicken the Fire resting in all other things, as of the ☽, ☿, ♀, ♂, ♃, and ♄: and that he might heat the Spheres of all the other Stars by his Fire; which otherwise have no heat of their own, neither can they give forth any of themselves; for they are dead of themselves; but being kindled by the Solar heat, they live, and give forth their Operations according to their several proprieties.  
For the Sun doth not receive the Light, Life, and Fire which he hath, from any other Star, but only from God that created and ruleth him, so that he always giveth Heat and Life in himself, illuminating every other natural Light.  
Even so is the Fire of the Philosophers secret Furnace to be accounted in the Spagyric Art, which heateth the Furnace and Sphere of the Vessel, and the Fire of the matter, even as the Sun is seen to operate in the universal World, without which nothing can be generated therein.  
In like manner nothing can be effected or brought to pass in this Art, without this simple Fire, it being the chief part and Operation of the whole Art, comprehending all the other parts thereof in itself, and is comprehended of nothing; for it consisteth of itself, not wanting any of the other: but all other Operations whatsoever, are made stand in need of this simple Fire, from which they receive Life, together with the matter itself.  
Paracelsus speaking elsewhere of the simple Fire, saith thus:  
This (saith he) is the Opinion of the most excellent Philosophers, The Fire and Azor are sufficient; for the Fire alone is the whole Work, and the complete Art.  
Some do build their Fire simply of Coals: they err, containing the Vessels therein or thereupon: others in vain attempt it with a Fire of Horse-dung, with the Fire of Coals; they sublime the matter without any medium, and dissolve it not: others have stirred up Heat with Lamps; asserting this to be the secret Fire of the Philosophers, to make their Stone: others have placed it in Balneo, and set this in an Emmet's Nest: some have placed it in Ashes of Juniper; and others have sought this Fire in Calce viva, in Tartar, Vitriol, Nitre, and the like: others have thought it to be in hot burning Water, as,  
Thomas Aquinas falsely speaks of this Fire, saying, That God and his Angels cannot want it. What blasphemy is this? is it not a manifest lie? cannot God want or be without the elementary Fire of hot Water, and be without all the other Creatures when he pleaseth? doth he stand in need of any of them? All those Heats that are stirred up by the means and Fires now spoken of, are altogether unuseful for this purpose. See also that you be not seduced by Arnold de villa nova, who writes of the Fire of Coals; for in this thing he deceives you.  
Almadis saith, That the invisible Sunbeams are sufficient for our Fire. He produceth another example, That the celestial Heat by his reflection and continual motion doth chief make the perfection and coagulation of Mercury. And again, he saith, Make a vaporous, continual, digesting, separating Fire; but not flying or boiling up, but altering and penetrating. Now I have told, and that truly, the whole way of stirring up the Heat of this Fire: if thou art a true Philosopher, thou well understandest: this is it.  
Salmanazer saith, Our Fire is a corrosive Fire, which bringeth an Airy Cloud over our Vessel; in which Cloud, the Beams of this Fire are hid. This due Cahos and humidity of the Cloud being wanting, there is error committed.  
Again, Almadir saith, Unless the Fire heat our Sun by his humour, by the excrement of the mountain, with a temperate Ascension, we shall not be partakers, neither of the white nor red Stone.  
All these things do sufficiently demonstrate unto us the occult Fire of the wise men.  
In brief, this is the matter of our Fire, to wit, That it be kindled by the quiet Spirit of a sensible Fire, which again expelleth the hot Cahos, as from its opposite, above our Philosophical matter: which Heat waxing above our Vessel, temperately urgeth it forwards to the motion of perfect Generation, constantly, without intermission.  
Thus faith Paracelsus of the simple Fire of the Philosophers.   

CHAP. III. Of the multiplicity of the Philosopher's FIRE.  
HAving spoken of the simple Fire, we hold it convenient to treat also of the multiplicity of Fire, and that more copious and clearly then of the other before; for by this later we may attain to a perfect sight, as through a Casement.  
Fire therefore is manifold, as well because of the diversity of the Subject in which it floweth, as that afterwards it is excited in divers other Subjects: it is varied and changed, as the Fire of Ashes, Sand, Balnei, Limatures, etc. have a mediate Heat flowing from an immediate into the Subject-matter of the Instrument, and from hence into the matter subjacent to the Art.  
In this manifold Fire, there is a difference of place; and this is the Reason, Because in all things, there is nothing in the Nature of things that can be seen in all things, and by all things, like one to another; although they are both of the same Species, and their members of the same individuals: as one Metal produceth Gold from that which generateth Silver; another Saturn, Venus, Mars, and every one of them is varied according to the difference of the place from whence they spring and are created; neither are two men, or two members of one body, nor two Leaves of one and the same Tree found alike to one another; and so of other things. The dissimilitude proceedeth not from the first Fire of Creatures, but from the various Rule of the Elements by the Planets, and not by the Sun.  
For by this disposition, the heat is changed in the Elements every moment; and also the form of decompounds from the compounds, and not from the simples.  
Where there is not so great a mixture of the Elements, there is generated Sol; where they are a little more mixed and impure, Luna; and where they are more imperfect, Venus: and so of the rest, according to the mutation of the mixtures, the Mine of every Metal is unlike one another: neither do their Spirits agree in all things one with another; for if they were generated of simple Fire alone, no multiplicity intervening, there would be no difference of their properties and forms, not only in Metals, but in all other Creatures.  
But why there are in use seven Metals and no more, six whereof are solid, and the seventh fluxible and thin; the Reason is given in Philosophy, and not in Chemistry; which is to be reserved to its proper place, that we digress not from our purpose. And thus much of the manifold Philosophical Fire, deduced from Physical Reasons.   

CHAP. IU. Of the visible and local Instruments: and first, of the Spagyric Womb.  
BEfore we come to speak of the matter, it is requisite that we proceed in order to declare what Instruments actual and local are necessary to be used in this Art: the first actual, is the Fire; the first local Instrument is the Furnace, which by the Ancients is called by this Chemical Name, Athanor: this referreth to the Womb in the Spagyric Generation.  
Hermes Trismegistus, although he was not the Inventor of this Art, no less than Paracelsus of Spagyric Medicines, yet he deserveth to be called the Restorer thereof.  
He asserteth, That this Spagyric work (which is the utmost point of the hand of humane Philosophy) taketh its exordium and first beginning from the meditative contemplation of the greater world: intimating, that the Spagyric Athanor ought to be built from the imitation of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth.  
But for the exercise of the ingenious, I shall not think it amiss a little to examine this comparison, whereby I may happily profit the Readers. There is no Physician will deny, but that the Sun doth generate a Sun like to its self: but every one will not confess, That it hath this Generation in its Centre; and especially, the Disciples of those Philosophers, that can give no other Reason of the Aetnean Fires, than what Rustics and Clowns do, according to the appearance thereof to their carnal eyes.  
This Terrene or earthly Sun is kindled and bred by the Fire of the superior; even so is kindled the Centre of our matter, from the Centre of our World or Athanor; which is Fire, bearing a similitude and resemblance with the natural Sun.  
Who seethe not the form and frame of the universal created World, to bear the similitude and likeness of a Furnace: or, that I may speak more reverently, containing the Matrix of a Womb; that is to say, the Elements wherein the Seeds of the Sun and Moon, by their various astral influences are corrupted, concocted and digested, for the Generation of all things?  
But this is plainly manifest to Children, I need not speak it to Philosophers: wherefore I shall not need to urge it any further.  
Therefore we proceed to speak of the manner of the construction and building of our Athanor or Furnace. First, let a Furnace be built six spans high, round within, and of the breadth and bigness of one span; let it be somewhat larger and bigger towards the bottom, then at top; let it be made smooth within, that Coals or such things as are put in, do not stick by the way, but may fall down close to the Grate. To this Furnace you may make one, two or three mouths, as you shall think fit. To every Furnace let a Copper be fitted, with Water: the other matter is to be enclosed within: as the Egg is within the Hen; so is a Glass to be in this womb, for the industry of the Magistery. Then when you will work or operate herewith, having all things diligently prepared, break you Coals about the bigness of Walnuts, and fill up the Turrets to the top, and kindle them at the door beneath; ●●d let the top be kept shut, lest the Coals being kindled at the top or in the middle, de●●●oy the whole work, and they consume and ●●rn all together. Moderate therefore your ●●re with a just proportion, as Nature teacheth in all things. The natural heat will excite and stir up the ferment and the matter lying hid in this Egg.  
Wherefore even as the Sun illuminates the ●reat World, and giveth Light and Life to all the Stars, Elements and Creatures; so doth this Spagyric Fire illustrate and vivify our Instruments, and all the matter of our Furnace, as the sitting of a Hen over her Eggs, animates the young.   

CHAP. V Of the second Spagyric Instrument, which is the Matrix or Philosopher's Egg.  
MAny Philosophers, rashly presuming upon their own Judgements, have misunderstood the right and true occult and secret Vessel of the Philosophers. And worse is that which Aristotle the Chemist (not the Greek Academian) saith, That the matter is to be decocted in a triple Vessel. And more amiss is that which another saith, That the matter in the first separation and first Degree, aught to be included in a Metallick Vessel; in the second Degree of its Coagulation and Dealbation of the Earth, a Glass-Vessel; and in the third Degree, which is Fixation, a Vessel of Earth. Nevertheless, by all these they understand only one Vessel in all Operations, to the perfection of the red Stone.  
Since therefore our Matter is our Radix and Foundation both of the white and red, our Vessel necessarily aught to be made after this manner, that the matter therein may be ruled by the Celestial bodies: for the Celestial influences, and the invisible impressions of the Stars, are chief necessary for this work; otherwise it is impossible to attain to the excellent Oriental. Persian, Chaldean, and Egyptian Stone, by any means; by which Anaxagoras knew the virtues and power of the whole Firmament, & presaged That the great Stone should descend from Heave● upon Earth: which also happened after his death He did very much make known our Vessel to the Cabalists, and that according to the true Geometrical measure and proportion; and how i● ought to be built of a certain Quadrature in 〈◊〉 Circle, whereby the Spirits and soul of our matter being separated from their body, may be elevated in the altitude of their Heaven.  
For if the Vessel be more strait, large● high or low than its due measure and proportion, and then the ruling and operating Spirits and Soul of the matter do desire; the heat of our secret Philosophical Fire, (which is most acute) will too violently excite and provoke the matter to Operation, and sometimes the Vessel will fly into a thousand pieces, not without danger of the body and life of the Operator.  
On the contrary, if the Vessel be too capacious, and more large then for the heat to operate upon the matter according to its proportion, the work will also be frustrate and in vain.  
Therefore our Philosophical Vessel is to be fabricated with greatest industry and diligence.  
But they only understand what the matter of this our Vessel is, who in the first Solution of our fixed and perfect matter, have reduced and brought the same into their first Essence: of which we have spoken enough.  
Let the Operator therefore diligently note what he takes, and what he refuses, in the Solution of the first matter.  
The manner of describing this Vessel is difficult; yet it ought to be of such a form as Nature herself requires, which is to be sought and investigated from one and another. In brief, io must be such, that from the altitude of the Philosophical Heaven, being elevated above the Philosophical Earth, it may operate to bring forth the Fruit of its terrene body.  
It ought to have this form, That when the Fire forces one from the other, there may be a separation and purification of the Elements; so that every one may occupy his own place wherein he remaineth, and that the Sun and the other Planets may exercise their Operations about the terrene Element, and that their course be not impedited in their Circuit, nor stirred up with too violent a motion.  
According to all these things which have been said, it ought to have a proportion of roundness and altitude.  
Those which appertain to the first cleansing and mundification of Mineral bodies, are melting Vessels, Crucibles; lementing Vessels, Cucurbites, and Glasses for Aqua Fortis; which are also necessary for the projection in the last work: but as concerning the Vessel useful for this work, it is necessary that you have a Glass rightly and duly proportioned; for if it be too capacious, or more large than its just and due proportion, the matter, that is, the humidity, is dilated, so that nothing can be produced therefrom. And if it be too narrow or little, and compressing the matter, the growth thereof will be suffocated, that it can produce no Fruit. An example thereof, may be taken from hence: If Corn, or any thing else, be sown in the shade, or under the droppings of an House, what Fruit can be expected therefrom? Wherefore our greatest care ought to be in the adopting and fitting of the Glass; for an error being committed thereby, or therein, is not easily corrected and amended; so that by the impediment thereof, the work is not brought to the wished end.  
Wherefore to two Ounces of the matter, take two Ounces and a half of Glass, or the Philosophical Egg, that is, a Glass of that weight; having regard to the due thickness of the Glass. This being observed, you shall avoid error in this thing.   

CHAP. VI Of the Subject or Philosophical Matter in general.  
HAving hitherto sufficiently spoken of the Chemical Instruments, now harken what Matter you are to choose to begin this Spagyric Work: after that the Vegetables are mortified, the concurrences of the two Metals, that is, Salt and Sulphur, they are transmuted into a Mineral Nature; so that from thence at length results a perfect Mineral.  
For in the Mineral Caverns of the Earth, some Vegetables are found, which by a long succession of time, and a continual heat; have put off the vegetable Nature of Sulphur, and put on a Mineral Nature.  
And this most especially happens, where the most proper Nutriment of these kind of Vegetables is taken away, that they may be afterwards compelled to receive their Aliment from the Sulphur and Salt of the Earth, so long, until that which before was Vegetable, become a perfect Mineral. And from this Mineral condition, a certain Metallick perfect Essence doth sometimes arise, and that by the progress of one Degree unto another.  
But that we may return to speak of the Philosopher's Stone, the matter whereof is most difficult to find out and understand:  
The manner and most certain Rule of this Investigation, and of all other things whatsoever, is a careful and diligent Examination of the Radix and Sperm thereof, whereby is found out the knowledge of the matter.  
Much availing hereunto, is a due and necessary consideration of the beginning and original of Metals, how and after what manner Nature first bringeth them from imperfection to the end of perfection.  
To which consideration it first of all conduceth, the perfect knowledge of the three first Principles whereof Nature createth all things, that is, Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury, naturally permixed into one body, yet so, that in some they are volatile, and in others fixed.  
For as often as the corporal Sal is permixed with the spiritual Mercury, and animate Sulphur, than Nature gins to operate in those Subterranean places, which she hath in stead of her Vessels, by the separating Fire, which separates the crass and impure Sulphur from the pure, and segregates the Earth from the Sal, and the Nubes from the Mercury; reserving the first parts, which Nature decocteth again together into one constant Geogamical body.  
Which Operation is had from the greater mixture and conjunction, by the union of three, to wit, Body, Soul, and Spirit.  
This Union being completed, from thence results pure Mercury; which if it flow through the Subterranean Pores and Veins, and be made obvious to the Sulphur, it is coagulated herewith, according to the condition of the Sulphur.  
Yet nevertheless, it is still Volatile, insomuch that it is scarce decocted into Metal in twenty years afterwards.  
From thence this vulgar Opinion received its original, to wit, that Sulphur and Mercury are the Matter of the Metals, as is manifest by the Relation of the Diggers of Minerals.  
But neither vulgar Mercury, nor common Sulphur, are the Matter of the Metals; but the Mercury and Sulphur of the Philosophers are incorporate and innate in perfect Metals, and in the Forms thereof: so that they never fly from the Fire, nor are depraved by the force of the corruption of the Metals.  
So that by the Dissolution of that natural mixture, our Mercury is tamed and fixed, say the Spagyric Philosophers.  
Therefore under this form of Words, our Mercury out of perfect bodies, and the virtue of the terrene Planets cometh to be extracted: which also Hermes asserts in these words: he saith, That Sol and Luna are the Roots of this Art.  
The Son of Hannel saith, That the Philosopher's Stone is a coagulated water, to wit, in Sol and Luna.  
From whence it plainly appears, That the Matter of our Stone is only Sol and Luna; which is confirmed by this, That every like naturally brings forth and generates his like.  
And as we know there are two Stones, the white and the red; so there are also two Matters of the Stone, Sol and Luna, coupled together in their proper Matrimony, either natural or artificial. And as we see a Man and Woman cannot generate nor produce their like, without the mixture of both their Seeds; so in like manner, our Male Sol, and his Female Luna, cannot conceive nor bring forth any Generation, without their Seed and Sperm.  
From whence our Philosophers have gathered, That there is a third thing necessary, to wit, the Animate Seed both of the Male and Female of the Chemists, without which they judged their whole work vain and ridiculous.  
The Sperm hereof, is Mercury, which by a natural Conjunction of both bodies of Sol and Luna, receiveth and uniteth their Nature into himself.  
Then, at length, and not before, is the matter apt for the congressive Work and Generation, by the Masculine and Feminine force and virtue.  
This hath moved our Philosophers to say, That this Mercury is composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit; and to assume unto itself the nature and propriety of all Elements.  
Wherefore they have asserted their Stone to be an Animal, which also they called their Adam, who beareth his occult and invisible Eve in his own body; from which moment they are united by the power of the Great Maker of all things. For which cause it may worthily be said, That the Mercury of the Philosophers is nothing else, but an abstruse composed Mercury, and not that vulgar Mercury. Therefore they have wisely said, That there is in Mercury whatsoever the wise men do seek after.  
Almadir the Philosopher saith, We extract our Mercury out of one perfect Body, with two perfect natural and incorporate conditions: This extrinsecally produceth his perfection, whereby he resisteth the force of the fire; and by this his perfection is extrinsecally and intrinsically defended from all imperfections.  
By this place of the acute Philosopher, the matter of the Stone is understood to be Adamical, the Microcosmical Garment, the Homogeneous and united matter of the Philosophers.  
These Say of the Philosophers, which before we have made mention of, are merely Golden, and to be had always in great esteem, because they contain in them nothing superfluous, nothing invalid.  
Briefly therefore: The matter of the Philosopher's Stone is nothing else but a fiery and perfect Mercury extracted by Nature and Art, that is, artificially prepared; and is the true Hermaphrodite, Adam, and Microcosm.  
This the wisest of Philosophers, Mercurius Trismegistus, asserting, calleth the Stone an Orphan.  
Therefore our Mercury is he which contains in himself the perfections, power and virtue of Sol; and runneth through the Houses of all the Planets: and in his Regeneration, acquireth the virtue of the superiors and inferiors: and by the Matrimony thereof, he appeareth clothed in their candour and beauty.  
The Arabians, Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, have kept these Mysteries secret and abstruse, denoting them by certain occult Characters and Figures. Some have called this, The Secret of the Philosophers: and Pythagoras, The Philosopher's Stone.  
Whosoever have attained to the knowledge hereof, have adumbrated and shadowed the same, with various enigmatical Figures, and deceitful Similitues and Comparisons, and feigned Words, that the Matter thereof might remain occult to Posterity; so that little or no Knowledge thereof, might be found out.  
But nevertheless some have sufficiently detected this matter and the knowledge thereof, with its preparation, to the ingenious; but notwithstanding in Parables, and under Enigmatical Words and Figures, that they might expel the unworthy from attaining to such a mystery of Art and Nature.  
Nevertheless some few, and such who are apt to apprehend this Art, have sought out the perpetual Balsam of Nature, and the true Stone, but with exceeding great labour and intricate difficulty; which every where occurreth in the investigation hereof. And hence it appears why the sluggish and slothful minds never attain to this work.   

CHAP. VII. Of the Preparation of the Spagyric Matter in general.  
NAture first requireth of the Artist, that the Philosophical Adam be brought into a Mercurial substance, and at length to be regenerated into the Oriental Sol, and Lunary Stone.  
Moreover, it's to be noted, That those common Preparations of Geber, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Rupecissa, Polydore, and the like, are nothing else but particular Solutions, Sublimations, Calcinations, lest of all pertaining to our universal Secret, which wanteth only the most secret Fire of the Philosophers. The Fire therefore and Azor are sufficient for thee.  
The Philosophers make mention of other Preparations, as Putrefaction, Distillation, Sublimation, Ceration, Fixation, etc. which you are to understand only to be certain universal Operations to complete Nature in the said matter; and not only a working in the Philosophical Vessel with the like Fire, and not with common Fire.  
For the white and the red proceed both from one Radix, without any mean: it is dissolved in itself, and copulated by itself, made white and red, black & yellow by itself; it despouseth itself, and is conceived in itself: it is decocted and infunded, ascendeth and descendeth: all which Operations are made by the Fire alone.  
Yet some Philosophers have dissolved the Body of Sol, by the strong essence of Wine, and made it Volatile, that it would ascend by an Alembick; thinking this to be the true Volatile matter of the Philosophers; whereas it is not; although it be a secret not to be despised, to reduce a perfect Metallick Body into a Volatile and spiritual substance: yet they err in the separation of the Elements; for they thought by this way to separate Gold into a subtle, spiritual and elemental virtue: and after their separation, by Circulation and Rectification, again to copulate them into one; but in vain.  
For although one Metal may be separated from another in some sort; nevertheless, every Metal thus separated, may be separated again into another; which parts afterwards by a Pellicanical Circulation or Distillation, can in no wise copulate into one, but will always remain a certain Volatile Matter, and Aurum Potabile, as they call it.  
The cause why these can never attain to their intentions, is this, Because by this way, Nature will not be extracted nor separated with humane disjunctions, as by terrene Glasses and Instruments.  
That only hath known its Operations and the weight of the Elements, whose Separations, Rectifications, and Copulations, are executed without the help of any Operator or Manual Artifice, whilst the matter is contained in the secret Fire, and in the occult Vessel.  
This is the Opinion of the Philosophers, That when they have placed this matter into their secret Fire, it is cherished round about with this Philosophical hear, that beginning to transite into corruption, it waxeth black. This Operation they call Putrefaction; And this Blackness, The Head of the Crow.  
They call the ascending and descending of this matter, their Distillation, Ascension, and Descension: they call Exsiccation, Coagulation; and Dealbation, Calcination.  
And because by a continual hear, the matter is made soft and fluid, they make mention of Ceration. But when it ceaseth to ascend, and remaineth liquid in the bottom, they call it Fixation.  
After this manner therefore, are the Apellations of the Philosophical Operations to be understood, and no otherwise.  
Thus having declared the Instruments, Matter, and Ferment, we proceed in order to the Weights; without observation whereof, our Work is in vain.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the Proportion of the Matter and Form of the Spagyric Stone.  
THe Formal part of our birth is the Mercury of the Philosophers, and the Spirit or Tincture of Sol; but the living part is another material.  
Therefore the Composition of this sacred Adamick Stone, is made after the Adamick Mercury of the wise men; with their Female Eve, by the Matrimony and union of the one and the other Mercury on the third part.  
Therefore the only matter of the Philosophers, consisteth of spiritual, corporal and animal Mercury.  
The corporal Mercury is the subject of Tinctures.  
The spiritual and animal Mercuries, exhibit the means of conjoining them; but in their conjunction, a due proportion is to be observed:  
For if there be taken more of one then of the other, it will be suffocated as Seed sown in the Field; so that it cannot live so long until it be united by the Mercury of the Philosophers, and perfected in the Fire: or on the contrary, if it be too little, there can be no Solution, nor no Fruit.  
Wherefore, see that you take as much of the one as of the other, lest by your ignorance in the proportion, the work be destroyed.  
Let there be taken therefore one part of the Seed to two parts of Earth, or three to four; and there will be no error, but the work will be brought to its desired end in this behalf, so as the rest be moderated accordingly.  
There is a double Reason why the Weight should be observed; the one natural, the other artificial.  
The natural followeth the effect in the Earth by Nature and Concordancy; of which Arnaldus speaks,  
If there shall be added more or less Earth than Nature will suffer, it will suffocate the Soul, and no fruit nor fixation is perceived.  
The like is to be judged of the Water: if there be taken too much or little thereof, it brings an inconvenient loss: for the superfluity thereof makes the matter too humid; and the defect or want thereof, renders it too dry and too hard. If the Vessel be too little, the Tincture is too much pressed; if too large, a pale body evades: if the Fire be made too vehement, the matter is burnt; if too remiss, it hath not power of exsiccating, solving, and calefying the other Elements.  
In these consists the elemental Weight; but the artificial is most occult: when as the Ponderations are included in the Magic Art.  
Between the Spirit, Soul and Body (say the Philosophers) consisteth the Weight with Sulphur, as it were the Rector of the work: for the Soul desireth the Sulphur, and necessarily observeth it, by Reason of the Weight. Which understand after this manner: Our matter is united with red mixed Sulphur, to which is committed the third part of the Regiment until the last Degree, that it maketh on the infinite Operation of the Stone: and persisteth therewith together with his Fire, and consisteth of an equal Weight with the matter itself in all things, and by all things, without any variation of any Degree of Transmutation.  
After therefore the matter is prepared and fitted, and mixed with its proportionate Weight, it ought to be very well concluded and sealed up in the Philosopher's Vessel, and committed to their secret Fire, in which the Philosophical Sun will spring up and arise, and illuminate all things which expect his Light, or hope can desire.  
But because this cannot rightly be understood without a perfect knowledge in the Metals of perfect Tinctures, we proceed now to speak of them.   

CHAP. IX. Of the Tinctures and Spirits of Metals: and first, of the Tincture of the Sun.  
THe Tincture of the Sun obtains the supreme and principal place: which is derived of subtle, pure, and most perfect fire. Wherefore this spirit flieth not from the fire, but remains therein fixed, triumphing and rejoicing: it is not consumed nor burnt thereby, as others; but rather thereby gains more lustre and splendour: it is subject to no Corruption; neither heat, nor cold, nor any other quality, can bring any detriment thereunto: Whereby it comes to pass, that the body which it once putteth on, it defends and preserves from all accidents, Corruption, and diseases, that it may also endure the fire with him without lesion.  
His body hath not these virtues from himself, but from his spirit alone, the efficient cause thereof.  
It is certain, that the body of Sol is Mercury; which can in no wise endure the fire, but immediately flies therefrom.  
Since therefore being in gold, Mercury persists constantly in the fire, and flies not; there is no doubt but the fixing thereof by the spirit, will impress the same virtue in its self.  
What gift and office therefore hath it in Mercury, but that when it is freed from its own body, and taken into a humane body, it should work and operate its effects thereupon? who will deny, but that also it may preserve and keep it safe from all Corruption, diseases and accidents whatsoever, and preserve the body to a long and sound life, as our first parents of old?  
The virtues and propertyes of all other Metals are not otherwise to be known, but by certain and true experience, and not by any other reason of a Subtle intellect: for this wisdom which is conceived by opinion only, is mere foolishness before God and the truth: wherefore they that hope and believe therein, do err, and are deceived.  
Thus fare of the spirit and Tincture of Sol: now let us see what Tincture the Moon hath.  
The spirit of Luna lieth in this white Tincture, as the Red in Sol: And it is also borne of a subtle spirit; but not so perfect as that of Sol. Nevertheless in purity and constancy it fare excelleth the Tinctures of all the other subsequent Metals.  
For  lead consumes itself, and all other Metals with it in the fire, except Sol and Luna; to which it brings no detriment.  
Seeing therefore the spirit of the Moon is of power to preserve the body which it once putteth on, to wit, Mercury, from injury of the fire, and all other accidents, and render the same fixed and constant; it is easily gathered from hence, if it effect this in so instable and volatile a body as Mercury, how much more efficacious and powerful will it operate, being free from its own body, and projected into a humane body? will not that be also defended from many diseases and Corruptions? certainly whatsoever it operates in Mercury, the same it will do in a humane body, and preserve the same to a long and sound life, expelling all diseases which are comprehended under the power thereof; according to the degree thereunto prefixed by nature.  
Certainly by how much the more sublime, subtle and perfect every Medicine is, by so much the more perfectly it cureth in its kind.  
Wherefore ignorant are those Physicians who found their Art chief upon corrupt Medicines, as Vegetables, which are not permanent; but they go about fixed Cures with unconstant means, undertaking that which is impossible for them to perform. But what shall I say more unto these? they have never yet learned otherwise in their Academies.  
The Spirit of Venus is derived of a permixtion of more crass elements than the former: wherefore it is inferior and subject unto them; but it is more perfect than the other Spirits and Tinctures which follow, excelling them in fixation and constancy, not yielding to the fire, nor so subject to be corrupted as the others subsequent: and remaineth more fixed in the fire: which virtue Venus hath not in her own body, but from a Spirit.  
What operation soever it hath in its Mercury, the same it doth also in humane bodies, according to the degree of nature: for it defendeth wounds and ulcers from accidents, and expelleth such diseases as are under its degree and power, and disperseth the root thereof.  
If it be mixed with any other Metals, it breaketh their perfect bodies, that they will not be malleable any more, until they be freed from it.  
The like effect it hath in humane bodies, especially if it be taken for any Disease, not destined unto its degree by nature, it bringeth Contractures of the members.  
Wherhfore the Physician ought perfectly to learn the Natures and Tinctures of Metals, how they agree with the Nature of Bodies, before they venture to give them, lest they endanger their Patient.  
The tincture of Mars, consists of an adustible and crass permixion of the Elements, having a more hard and less tractable substance, than the other imperfects; hardly fusible, but corruptible both with Air and Water, easily subject to be consumed with rust: but in hardness and dryness it abounds above all other Metals, as well perfect as imperfect.  
It torments the body of man, if applied to any disease other than becometh its Nature; yet it wanteth not power and virtue granted to it by God and Nature in its special propriety.  
The Spirit of Jupiter is created of a white pally substance of Fire, by nature intractable with the hammer, but not so much as Mars.  
Being mixed with others, it discontinueth and mixeth with them, especially with Luna, that it will hardly be separated herefrom. The like operation it hath in all other Metals, except in Saturn: if it be taken contrary to its Nature, to operate upon man's body, it afflicts the members with cruel passions and pains, and gnaweth them with such burning, that they cannot exercise their natural faculties: being outwardly applied to Fistula's, Cancers, Carbuncles, and suchlike, which exceed not the degree of its Nature, it is the best remedy expelling every evil.  
The Spirit of Saturn is created of an obscure, tenebrose, and cold permixture of Elements; whereby it comes to pass, that it less endures the Fire then any other.  
It mundifies the bodies of Sol and Luna, and purgeth them from superfluities: it afflicteth the body taken inwardly, more than Tin or Iron; but because it is coagulated with more cold than the other, it operates not so sharply: it hath an excellent faculty to heal Fistula's, Cancers and suchlike ulcers, and many other infirmities. But having performed its operation, unless it depart from the body, together with the disease, it doth more hurt than good. Wherefore let the Physician, that desires to make use hereof, first know with what diseases it agrees, and how it is naturally ordained for Medicine.  
Lastly, the Spirit of Mercury hath no certain determinate form but is subject to all the other, as wax to the impression of a seal; for it receiveth every Spirit whatsoever unto itself; as when the Spirit of Sol is impressed into it, it transites into Sol; if Luna, into Luna; and so of the rest: he putteth on their nature, and embraceth every Metal.  
His body may be compared to the Spirits of other Metals, as the Female to the Male, not by a corporal mixture; but when a Spirit is educed from its Metal, and after the preparation projected into Mercury, then at length he exhibits his transmutation, no otherwise then a dead female of Metal; although it be as an untilled Field or Earth, if it be macerated or vivified with the Philosopher's Plough, (which female in this work remains fixed and uncorrupt) it is united to the said corporal Spirit by the degrees of the fire, into his nature and substance; & this with the dead body of Metal, which with the crass Spirit of Mercury cannot be done.  
And although the body of Sol exist of Mercury or Argent vive, and is fixed; nevertheless, common Mercury not fixed or mortified, never cometh to its Resurrection.  
For the Resurrection of Metals is an immortal Regeneration, and the medium whereby the tinctures are promoted to their generation.  
Wherefore it cannot be united with dead bodies into fixation, but only with extracted Spirits of the corporals before spoken of, which are subject to Metals, as the common Mercury is subject to all Metallick Spirits.  
For the crass Spirit of Mercury doth in no wise generate this tincture in substance, no more than a concubine legitimate issue.  
We are to judge in like manner of the crass Spirit of Mercury, so long until the metallike and corporal Spirit is made by the medium of the natural matter: without this medium, it is impossible to attain to any good and perfect work in these kind of tinctures: moreover, if the fire be too strong, it cannot generate; if too remiss, the same event happens.   

CHAP. X. Of the plain Manifestation of this Art.  
WHen thou wilt make the Heaven or Sphere of Saturn to run with life upon the Earth, impose thereupon all the Planets, or which you will; but let there not be too much of Luna, but add less thereof then of the other.  
Permit them all to run until you see the Heaven of Saturn quite to vanish: by this means, all the Planets will remain of such a consistency, that their ancient and corruptible bodies being dead, they have put on a new, perfect and incorruptible body.  
This is the Spirit of Heaven, by which the said Planets are again made corporal, and living as at first.  
Take this new body from the Life and from the Earth, and this keep; for this is Sol and Luna.  
After this manner thou hast the whole Art made manifest and plain, but if thereby thou dost not know or understand the same, it is well: for so it ought to remain, not vulgarly and indifferently laid open to all.   
Finis de Transmutatione Metallorum.   

Of the Genealogy and Generation of Minerals.  

CHAP. I.  
WHen I had diligently and accurately read the writings of the Ancients concerning the Generation of Minerals; I appredended that they understood not the ultimate matter of them, and by consequence, much less the first. Truly, if the beginning of any matter may rightly be written, certainly the end thereof may very fitly be declared. I have therefore in the first place decreed to propose unto you the ultimate matter of all Minerals, whereby you may easily understand the first, from whence they all deduct their original.  
The first example we shall bring from Medicine, whereby a disease is to be known from the issue, and not from the beginning; in which there is no Science introduced by blindeness, but must be blind likewise: but the end is visible from the issue, to which it is perceived to tend, as to its end proposed to it.  
Furthermore, nothing can be better known, then by a perfect knowledge of the end for which God created it; otherwise, it may come to pass, that the true use of the Creatures of God, may be turned into abuse; for every thing which God hath created, he would have us enjoy, and possess it, according to the right use thereof.  
Therefore learn the last and first matter of things from the fire; for this is the key that unlocketh the Ark of secrets, and maketh every occult thing manifest.  
For example, If a Metal be dissolved in the Fire, it presently shows the first beginning thereof to be a Mercurial water, and not Sulphur, because the resolution thereof flameth not like Rozin. It is demonstrated not to be Salt, because the first beginning of its Resolution is not Friation, besides Liquation and Flagration, as of some terrene stones is seen to be.  
Nevertheless, every Metal hath Sulphur and Sal in him, but Mercury hath the chiefest place therein.  
But it seemed good to God the Creator, to create a watery Element, and from thence to produce every Metal for the use of man, that it should be the Mother thereof; in which as in her womb, the Mineral Fire, Sal and Mercury should be decocted into Metals, Stones and every Mineral substance, although the birth be not of the same existence with the Mother.  
So that the water is unlike its Metallick issue, neither is the Son like the Mother; even as the Earth is not Wood, nor the Wood Earth, although it spring and hath its original from the Earth.  
So likewise are Wood and Iron created by the Water, yet they are not of the same existence as Water.  
Earth also is made of that which it is not in itself, and so likewise is Man.  
So God is one in every thing, and the first and last matter of all things: so great an Artisex in every thing, as hath none before him, neither shall have any after.   

CHAP. II. Of the first and last matter of Minerals.  
THe first beginning with God, was the last matter, which he made the first; as the fruit which should bring forth other fruit that hath in itself the seed: and this seed is in the first matter.  
Likewise, in the ultimate matter of Minerals, is made the first matter; that is, it is made into sperm or seed; which seed is the Element of Water, which is resolved, so that it is made Water.  
Therefore Nature taketh that which is in water, under her power and separation; and what belongs to Metal, she segregates into Metal, every one by himself severally, according to his own nature, with their several genus and species congruent thereunto.  
Therefore where Nature ceases, there the Art of man gins: for the ultimate matter of Nature, is the first nature of man: again, the corruption of Nature by Art, is the ultimate matter of man.  
So wonderfully hath God created Water the first matter of Nature; which, though it be so tender and feeble a substance, yet from thence is created the most solid and durable fruit, as Metals and Stones, etc. as the most hardest and durable from the most soft and feeble: and that Fire should be producted from Water, is beyond the reach of humane capacity; yet not beyond or above the work of Nature.  
Thus having in the first place handled the Regeneration, and Chemical and Natural Operation of Metals, we esteemed it most necessary to add these few words of the natural Generation of Minerals, whereby the Operation thereof may be the easier known.  
This is the Opinion of all Philosophers and Students in this Art, that he that would be an Artist in this Profession, ought most exactly to imitate Nature in all her Operations: And whosoever understands not this, shall never attain to the accomplishment of his desires in this thing. Therefore let him that searcheth a thing so secret and difficult, be a Scholar not only of Art, but of Nature; and it shall be done.   
FINIS.    

Vrim and Thummim shown to be made by Art, and are the same with the Universal Spirit, corporate and fixed.  
THe Truth seems buried, because it brings forth little Fruit; but it is great, and prevaileth, to make all things manifest so far as is possible for men; for in common sense and reason, all agree in mysteries never: so that we may not speak of Science without Knowledge, which breaks the Gates of Brass, and cuts asunder the Bars of Iron, before the eyes of Understanding, that the treasures of darkness may be opened, and the bright and fiery Sword discovered, which turns every way to keep Transgressor's out of Paradise.  
For if we consider wherein the Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies agree, we shall find something objective in the inferior Bodies, whereby they communicate their Celestial Virtue and Influence; which precedent Art doth imitate, to produce a glorious substance of connexed Forms, and of Cleverness, Virtue, and Beauty beyond expression.  
The Mathematicians say, The Celestial Influences do hold and govern every natural Body, and by many unities collect a quantity subsisting without shadow: for the real Virtues affect to be specificate; and as living Fire gives life to other things: which central substance of Celestial Virtues or Form of Metals is the Subject of this short Discourse.  
That Urim and Thummim, which were given in the Mount, cannot be proved that they are the potential from the Creation, may appear; for they were substances, whose Name and Essences did predicate each other, being convertible terms, the Name and Essence one: the words signify Light and Perfection, Knowledge and Holiness, also Manifestation and Truth, even as Science and Essence make one Perfection. It is likely they were before the Law given; for the Almighty God commanded Noah to make a clear Light in the Ark, which some take for a Window; others, for the arching and bowing of the upper Deck, a Cubit: but sigh the Text saith, Day and night shall no more cease; It seems, it did then cease: and whether this were one or more Windows, is uncertain: but when the Windows of Heaven were opened, and the Air darkened by pouring out Rain, the Sun not giving his Light, but prohibited the generative Spirit of the Creatures in the Ark, what exterior cleverness could be expected?  
Therefore some of the Rabbins say, The Hebrew word Zohar, which the Chaldee translate Neher, is not found in the Scripture, but in this place: so that like the word, it seemed to be a rare Light, and that which is generally doubted to be, The Creator commanded Noah to make by Art. Other Hebrew Doctors say, It was a precious Stone hanged in the Ark, which gave light to all living Creatures therein. This the greatest Carbuncle could not do, nor any precious Stone that is only natural.  
But the Universal Spirit, fixed in a transparent Body, shines like the Sun in Glory, and gives sufficient Light to all the Room to read by: therefore it is most probable, this was the Light that God commanded to make, to give Light to all living Creatures: for it is of perpetual durance.  
And whereas Tubal-Cain is said to be a perfect Master of every Artificer in Brass and Iron, which some hold, doth contain the whole and perfect decoction of the Metallick Virtue, wherein the Central Virtue is most abundant, and makes the happy more admired, who walk in the midst of the Stones of Fire; 
Ezek. 28.16.  For where there are two things of one Nature, the chief is to be understood: Therefore in the mention of Fires, pure Fire is preferred.  
The Scarlet Veil in the Temple seemed ever moving, and signified pure Fire, generative and fixed in clear Bodies, as Vrim and Thummim: Although Essences are not without great difficulty made manifest in themselves, yet the clear Vision thereof, makes the possibility unquestionable; as at Elisha's Prayer, his Servant saw the Chariot, and Horses of fire, about his Master, which before he saw not; so are they apparent when the invisible is made visible.  
Some think, 
Exod. 18.30.  that Urim and Thummim were not Artificial, because they are said in the Text to be put in the breastplate, but not to be made: but this point may be cleared by observing the several kinds of making, as betwixt those things made with hands, and those things that are only made visible by effect: for where natural and habitual Virtue do meet together, the perfection is more absolute by a kind of new Generation, as the pure Sulphur of Metal, by an inward power doth purge itself by ebulition; not by the first and remote causes, but by the second and nearer, whereof the Philosophers say, The secret of all secrets is of such a disposition, which cannot be perfected with hands; for it is a transmutation of natural things, from one thing to another. Also it is said, The Artist takes impure Spirits, and by Sublimation, Nature and Art, cleanseth them into bodies pure and fixed: so that the bodily Nature doth eternally predominate; and being more than perfect, doth give perfection to other things.  
Now that these perfections have their beginnings from two Lights, both the Text and the ancient Philosophers make plain; but ignorance and the matter of the Elements are the Iron Gates, which must be cut in pieces, before the invisible be made visible.  
For the natural Urim and Thummim, the Philosophers affirm, what they have seen and done: and that they did nothing save that they did before, and knew: so that a perfect knowledge is especially requisite to make a perfect Art: therefore we are to consider the means to attain to this end.  
The Lord gave Bezaliel Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge: 
Exod. 31.3, 4.  these are the means: for Gold is dissolved by Wisdom, in Contrition, Assation, and Fire. The end is directed to invent works in Gold, Silver and Brass; which is not to be understood according to the found of words, but according to the intent of all Distillation, to extract the inward part, and manifest the central virtue: for where the perfection of the matter is glorious, the perfection of the form is more glorious.  
The Sun and Moon are as the Parents of all inferior bodies and things, which come nearest in virtue and temperature, are more excellent: The Sun's Motion and Virtue doth vivify all inferior bodies; and those things which come nearest in virtue and temperature, are more excellent: the Sun's Motion and Virtue doth vivify all inferior bodies, and the pure form of the terrestrial Sun is said to be all Fire; and therefore doth the celestial Sun communicate most virtue: therefore the incorrupted quality of pure Sulphur being digested in external heat, hath also regal power over all inferior bodies: for the Sun doth infuse his influence into all things; but especially into Gold: and those natural bodies do never show forth their virtues, till they be made spiritual.  
One of the Rabbins saith, They made in the second Temple Urim and Thummim; to the end, they might make up all the eight Ornaments, although they did not inquire by them, because the Holy Ghost was not there; and every Priest that spoke not by the Holy Ghost, & on whom the divine Majesty resteth not, they inquire not by him: so it is with Sacramental Bread, which hath no signification before Consecration.  
But these men had the spirit of Bezaliel, and made these natural, spiritual Bodies: which sovereign Tincture, some say, So purifieth, and causeth the radical humour so to abound, that the Children in the fourth Generation, (yea, as some say, in the tenth) shall perceive the effect of such perfect health of their Ancestors.  
Others say, That if they have once finished this Art, and should live a thousand years, they might give what they will, and when they will, without danger of diminution; as a man that hath Fire may give to his Neighbour without hurt to himself.  
Marcus Vasso said, There was much more mysteries in the Flamines Ceremonies, than they understood. Vesta signified pure Earth, and internal Fire: of which it is said, Vesta is Earth and Fire. Earth undergoeth the name, and so doth Fire: Vesta is both.  
Thus is shown forth in a work done by Fire,  
The mighty Vesta, and her pure Attire.  
Philosophy is nothing but the study of Wisdom considered in a created Nature, as well subject to sense, as invisible, and consequently material; and Wisdoms central Body is the shadow of Wisdoms central Essence; and the moral Interpretation can never exclude the real effects from ocular demonstration: but where Reason hath experience, Faith hath no merit; and without Faith there is no knowledge of any excellent thing; for the end of Faith is Understanding.  
The Rabbins hold every natural beginning to be either matter, or cause of the matter, viz. the four Elements. But here beginnings must be well understood; for there are beginnings of Preparations, and beginnings of Composition, and beginnings of Operation: for the Artist was commanded to devise work in Gold; that is, from the object to the possibility: for if the matter be glorious, the form must be more glorious: and though the spiritual Nature be more operative, yet the bodily Nature must predominate eternally: so that to make the corporal spiritual, and the spiritual corporal, is the whole scope of the intention; yet the spiritual is not first, but the natural: for corruption must put on incorruption, and mortality immortality: for that which is of greatest durance, and most abundant in virtue, doth most excel in Glory and Beauty, and so fittest to make Vrim and Thummim: for power and honour are in his Sanctuary.  
But because the greatest things are not done by strength, or habit of fingering; as also because the intellect doth so far excel the sense: this is a work of a second intention, and the beginning upon the virtue of Elements; that is a pure, bright and clear Water of Putrefaction: for the perfection of every Art, (properly so called) requires a new birth, as that which is sowed is not quickened except it die: but here death is taken for mutation, and not for rotting under the clods.  
Now therefore we must take the Key of Art, and consider the secret of every thing is the Life thereof: Life is a Vapour, and in Vapour is placed the wonder of Art: whatsoever hath heat, agitating and moving in itself by the internal Transmutation, is said to live: this Life the Artist seeks to destroy, and restore an eternal Life, with Glory and Beauty. This Vapour is called, The vegetable Spirit, because it is of degree of heat with the hottest Vegetable; and being decocted till it shine like brightest Steel, you shall see great and marvellous secrets, not by the separation of Elements by themselves, but by predomination and victory of that pure Fire, which like the Celestial Sun enters not materially; but by help of Elemental Fire, sends forth his influence and impression of form.  
Here we must observe difference of perfections: for although ye have now the Fountain of complete white; yet you are not near your chief delight, which is the Fountain of Life, and Centre of the Heart, the universal Spirit, which lives in the radical humidity, and doth naturally vivificate, and is the masculine Seed of the Celestial Sun: here is that Rule made good, Except ye sow in Gold, ye do nothing. Therefore we must take heed what we understand by Gold, whereof there are three sorts, Vulgar, Chemical, and Divine; which is therefore so called, because it is a special Gift of God. The Theosophists are persuaded, by exact diet, and by certain form of prayers at certain times, to obtain the Angel of the Sun to be their Guide and Director.  
The Philosophers advise to take the like matter above Earth, that Nature hath made under the Earth: Others, to search the most precious treasure from a vile thing: all which is easily agreed, if rightly understood: for in the lines following, the same Author saith, The vile thing is from the Sperm of Gold, cast in the matrix of Mercury by a prime conjunction. Others affirm Azoch and Ignis to be sufficient for this high perfection: the which Azoch among the Germans is Silver; with the Macedonians, Iron; with the Greeks, Mercury; with the Hebrews, Tin; with the Tartars, Brass; with the Arabians, Saturn; and with the Indians, Gold. All which being divers in Nature, are potential in one composition: and by the duel of Spirits, the Celestial Gold obtaineth victory over all the rest, and is made (though not with hands) a body shining like the Sun in glory, which is called, Ens omnis privationis expers, or Thummim. This is the Key that made the pure clear Fountain, and of it was made himself; the fair Woman so loving the red Man, she became one with him, and yielded him all glory; who by his Regal power, and sovereign Quality, reigneth over the fourfold Nature eternally: but if any shall understand either common or Chemical Gold to be the substance of this sacred body, he is much mistaken; for a glorious Spirit will not appear, save in a body of his own kind.  
Although pure Manchet be made of the finest Meal, yet Wheat is not excluded; and so Bread is said to be of the second and nearer causes, rather than the remote: notwithstanding, that which is made by the effect, in a successive course, is as certain as that which is made with hands.  
After we fell from unity, we groan under the burden of division, but three makes up the union; first temporary, and afterwards eternally fixed. He that knoweth a thing fully, must know what it was, is, and shall be; so to know the several parts of a successive course, is not a small thing, neither the honour little in the right use of the Creature.  
Air turned into Water by his proper mixture, becomes Wood; and the same Wood, by Water, is turned into a Stone.  
A Spring in Italy called Clytinus, makes Oxen white that drink it: And the River in Hungary, turns Iron into Copper. What excellency things may attain by habitual virtue, or what power when Nature and Art make one perfection, who is able to express?  
If you desire by Art to have a thing of admirable sweetness and odor, you will take a substance of like quality, to exalt into such excellency: the proper quality of Fire and Air is sweetness; it is but appropriate in Earth and Water: what bodies shall we find, where these are most abundant, to be wrought upon? As the Celestial Bodies give no Tincture, yet they are most abundant in Tincture. Air is cause of Life; Mercury is coacted Air, Ethereal, and truly Homogeneal, which doth after a sort congeal and fix: it is called a crude Gold, and Gold affixed, and mature Mercury. And although the crude Quality be cold and dry; & some hold for the excellency of its temperature, That it is all Fire, or like to it, whereby it is dissolved: however, it is at large proved, those bodies are most abundant in pure Fire and Air, whose proper Quality is sweetness. Therefore those are the fittest subjects to make the most precious perfume in the world: and considering, cleverness and brightness is the centre of each thing, and those bodies have both centre and superficies clear and bright, whensoever they are purified by Art, and the bodies made spiritual, and those Spirits corporated again, they must necessarily be Bodies of greatest or clearest Light and Perfection: as one compareth a glorified Body to a clear Lantern with a Taper in it, saying, The more a man excels in virtue, the greater or lesser was the Taper. But the work cannot be manifest without the destruction of the exterior form, and the restitution of a better; which is the glorious substances of Urim and Thummim, which in their being, and Physical use, preserves the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible. Some observe not just difference between Liquification and Solution: but all Corrosives or violent Operations, Nature hates, because there can be no Generation but of like Natures, neither can you have the precious Sperms without Father and Mothers. And although one Vessel is sufficient to perfect the Infant in the Womb; yet Nature hath provided several breasts to nourish it, and different means to exalt it to the strength of a man. How Gold should be burnt, which the Fire cannot consume, is questionable; but every exaltation of this sovereign Spirit, adds a tenfold virtue and power: then take one part of this Spirit, which is become as insensible as dust, and upon molten Gold it turns all into powder; which being drunk in White-wine, openeth the Understanding, increaseth Wisdom, and strengtheneth the Memory: for here is the Vein of Understanding, Fountain of Wisdom, and River of Knowledge.  
The Truth of every thing is said to be his incorrupted Nature; for nothing shall rest eternally visible at the last fire, but that which is of pure virtue and essential purity. Truth and Science is not led by chance or Fortune; but the Spirit of God guides by the Hand of Reason. And it seems the Prophet's esteem of these Stones of Fire: some meaning the Stone of Darkness; and as it were, Fire turned up: Others, the Stone of Tin; and Ezekiel, the Stones of Fire attained by Wisdom: which he differeth from the natural precious Stones, as pure Fire from common Fire. Therefore let modesty allow that possible, whereof he understands not the termination and degrees: neither refuse the Waters of Shiloah, because they go slowly; for they that wade in deep Waters, cannot go fast.  
To obtain the Treasures of Nature, you must follow Nature only, 
Isaiah 8.6.  who gives not the like time to every Generation; but as the Mare hath ten months, the Elephant three; or, as some say, nine years, and fifty, before conjunction: Be patiented therefore in a work of Nature; for thereunto only is promised Victory; and the chief errors in Art are haste and dulness.  
The Regeneration of Man, and the Purification of Metals, have like degrees of Preparation and Operation, to their highest Perfection. The first beginnings of Transmutation or Naturation, is the smallest measure of pure Sulphur, with both Riches and Honour in the lefthand, and length in the right. In natural Generations the form prepares the matter, yet there are precedent Preparations. The beginnings of Transmutation must be distinguished: some are begun of Preparation, and some are begun of Composition. Beginnings of Preparation, in the well of Tears, doth qualify the coldness and dulness of the crude disposition, and tame and subdue the fearful quality of swift flying, and changeth the colour of this eternal Liquor, turning the inside outward, and adding heat by the internal Sulphur of the Homogeneal Body, which is by means of changed Water, because Water by Water, can only be extracted; yet it is excluded in the conclusion: for, though it be a necessary preparation to the alteration following, yet is but the servile and passive, which hath the first operation, being preserved unhurt in weight and purity.  
Beginnings of Composition are those inward Operations and Changes, that follow after that scalding deluge, which by mixing with fixed Sulphur doth dissolve the stubbornness of this Urn; and by help of the external heat, the internal Sulphur is excited by Operation, and purifieth the substance but only to a pale whiteness, more hurtful than profitable to the Body of Man: what these are, shall afterwards appear.  
Again, Sulphur must be distinguished: white Sulphur, and living or reviving Sulphur: white Sulphur is of like Operation, and is perfected by restraining, and healeth almost all diseases, and tingeth to white ad infinitum.  
By knowledge hereof, even mere natural men have believed the Resurrection, become sober, temperate and patiented; not doubting: within the centre of complete white, rests the red Stone of most delight.  
This hath caused men justly to condemn all Cementations, Calcinations, and Citrinations; being enlightened with the glorious object, which is as clear as a Crystal Looking-Glass.  
Reviving Sulphur is the secret of secrets, and the glory of the whole world, and only proper to such whom the Creator hath apted by way of natural disposition; for they do not only mortify, but purify a pure body, quickening it with the same essential form; and are said to make a spiritual Body, because there is no corruption to resist the Spirit; but the bodily Nature, being wholly subject, is, with the Spirit, eternally fixed in a transparent Body shining as the Sun. Therefore the conclusion must be understood of the second, and not of the first: for though a man have never so much white Sulphur, if he have not of this reviving Sulphur, he is as far from the precious Spirit, which hath power over all inferior bodies, as any other: for only that which is of the Nature of the Sun, shall shine like the Sun in glory.  
A Synod of Philosophers adviseth us, in seeking the treasures of Health and Riches, we should show affections to Justice and Prudence; like Solomon, ask Wisdom, Riches were given to him as advantage. Let us search therefore celestial Virtue, which is the centre of all things; so will it be easy to manifest the sovereign Spirit of Health and Riches: for the vegetable Sulphur, is the first Mover in Nature; and only the Mercurial Nature hath power of Metallical Life and Death.  
Crude Mercury is originally a vapour from clear Water and Air, of most strong composition coacted; or Air itself, with a Mercurial Spirit by Nature, flying, Etherial and Homogeneal, having the Spirits of heat and cold; and by exterior and interior heats, doth congeal and fix.  
Also Gold is a fixed Fire, or mature Mercury, and may be made more volative than Mercury; but only by divers Mercuries made. Of Mercury is Nature set on work, the fixed Body loosed, the vegetable Sulphur created, and the universal Spirit fixed. For the Authority of the ancient Writers, Divine and Natural Reasons, assure us, this, and no other is the true course to manifest those Lights, wherein the Creator hath heaped up virtue and power.  
But it's objected, The Philosophers do not agree amongst themselves.  
Answ. Instruments of divers strings make sweet harmony, if they be well tuned: but their Readers do rather seek to overrule them, then by painful industry to find them consent.  
Object. Affirm Contraries?  
Answ. The Artist his intention is to agree contraries.  
Object. They exclude Gold and Mercury from the creation of the Stone.  
Answ. Because their crude matter is from the destruction of the exterior form.  
Object. They say, The virtue of Elements is their materials.  
Answ. Right in respect of their beginnings upon pure bodies.  
Object. All their secrets spring from one vile thing common to rich and poor.  
Answ. Precious things corrupted, are most vile; and Science is common to rich and poor, and hath much use of Calcination or Dust.  
Object. No Metal is required to the making of the Stone.  
Answ. As no part of man to the making of man.  
Object. One thing, one Glass, one Furnace is sufficient.  
Answ. True, when two things of one kind are apted and conjoined.  
Object. Out of one Root proceeds white and red.  
Answ. Even as Male and Female from one Womb.  
Object. The Stone is vegetable, animal, and mineral.  
Answ. Right: joint and several it is said to be vegetable, because in the maturation it is multiplied in virtue and quantity: it is said to be animal, because it increaseth his own kind; and it's said to be Mineral, because his original is from Metal or their Mineral. Here we may remember the Bishop of Otrecht, who lost his life for discovering his secret. Why should we prevent the highest distribution, who hath not made knowledge hereditary, but wrapped things in secret, that we might difference things in being, and in being and use? Nature is even jealous of her supremacy, and abhorreth to see the sensible before the intellectual Treasures preferred.  
This shows the beginning and end of Art, Lux sata est justo cum rectis animo laetitia: Mark what ye sow, for such is your harvest. Light is sown on pure Earth; and some Grain gins to put forth Ears at three joints, some at four; but the Ear never buds until the joints be grown. And what virtue this knotting or fixing gives, consider; for by meditation you may see; by seeing, you may know; by knowing, ye delight; by delighting, ye adhere; by adhering, ye possess; by possessing, ye enjoy the Truth: that is, the incorrupted use made visible. Therefore take heed how ye value: for, 
Part of these things thy mind may prompt thee to,  
And part thy better part may teach thee how to do.   
The making of Urim and Thummim, and the perfection of the Elixir is aptly compared to the fourfold Creation of Mankind: Adam from Earth, Eve from Adam, Abel from both, and Jesus Christ from a Virgin: so man called a living stone, produceth that eternally stony and fiery conquering Spirit called the Elixir, from their proper Earth only, their Adam from their Eve, from both their Virgo, from her only the sovereign and universal Spirit, which doth vivify and preserve all living Creatures, and raiseth the Artist from the dust to sit among Princes.  
Life without sin, is wisdom manifest in the flesh: a Body without shadow, is the universal Spirit corporate. Urim and Thummim were holy Signs within the breastplate to inquire of God in the Temple. Natural Urim and Thummim is a visible quality in a clear Body, which preserveth the Temple of Man's Body incorruptible.  
Is it not prophetical, that all men shall wisely consider the works of God, to the end they may know how to value them rightly, and to make just difference between corporal and spiritual things, 
Psal. 64.9. Psal. 111.8.  and corporate Spirits? for although Spirits possess no place, yet they fail not to fill every part, by contact of their virtue, and in the use altars both quality and quantity: the perfect and distinct knowledge whereof, doth necessarily manifest the things sought after by the proper and appropriate qualities; and from th' causes to the effect, openeth the internal Beauty of a true and natural Essence, as plainly, as by seeing that ye see; and also showeth the terminate, privative and perfect end of every particular act: which is the richest of intellectual Treasures, because Science and Essence are one; and where the several works, and successive are apparent, the time need not be limited (like the men of Bethulia,) for only at Elisha his Prayer, his Servants eyes were opened to see invisible things, which all that rise to glory shall do.  
It was held of old, Nothing deserves the love of an honest man, save the internal Beauty: Therefore they held Love or natural Affection to be the first cause or motion: like as the heat and virtue of the Sun, and of the whole Heavens, hath power in all things created under Heaven, and by their Influence and Radiation, all things increase, grow, live and are conserved; and by their recess, they mourn and whither, fall and droop; yet they do not necessitate any, all their force being most in imperfect things; for a body of equal temper receives little alteration from the Constellations, because the Earth received virtue before the Heavens were adorned with Sun, Moon and Stars: Therefore that is to be distinguished in Reason: so is distant in place, and different things in being, and in being and use: for change of quality brought confusion, and a better change Renovation.  
Historians affirm, The River Nilus vaporeth not, by reason of the long decoction under the Sun, yet is the Water most wholesome and Medicinable; and the Neighbour earth gins to increase in weight the seventeenth of June, (and not before) even then when the River gins to rise: which sympathy of the distant Water and Earth, by the power of Heaven, is not against Nature, although beyond ordinary reach. Therefore for a leading cast, let us observe the concord of Metallical Bodies; which, like the first Male and Female, have not several beginnings, but are all from a Sulphurous vapour, which, by help of Influence, Instrument, Digestion, and Masculine and Feminine virtue, connexing proper and appropriate qualities, they obtain their perfection by the power of God 's Ordinance: yet as every Earth yields not like Metal, so every Metal yields not like central virtue: Therefore according to that creating command, every thing should increase in its proper kind, (not in divers) and time makes the number infinite.  
The Ancients reading the great Volume of the Book of Nature, find no abridgement to assimilate the Majesty of Nature, save Man and the Stone; both which are called, Living Stones: whose original Mortification, Purification, and difficult Exaltation, are of infinite virtue. Then observe also a Celestial and Terrestrial Sun, which they parallel with Man, which because they only are capable of true temper, which is certainly possible, although seldom enjoyed.  
But to gain this precious Treasure of Life and Health, we must make sufficient provision, like men that do deal with great persons; for Gold is Lord of Stones, and noblest of Metals; and by his proper Regiment, doth multiply himself infinitely. Therefore Geber in his Book of Deundation, saith, In Gold are ten parts heat, ten parts humidity, ten parts siccity: which triple perfection makes an absolute unity, Body, Soul, and Spirit, being eternally vivified, because unity is a generical quality of all that is one, and is an effect of the Form which doth produce it: for of all kind of Governments, ten is the most perfect: and for the natural substance, no composition is like to Gold; for it is a most perfect temper, and equal mixion; the miracle of Nature, a Celestial Star, a Terrestrial Sun, the Fountain of Life, the Centre of the Heart, the secret virtue of all Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies, the Masculine and Universal Seed, first and most powerful of the Sulphurous Nature, the great Secret of the Almighty Creator. It hath most Form and Entity; so most Virtue and Operation: in it the Elements are elementized. It is called Sulphur, and Sulphur-Fire: yea, it is said to be all Fire, or like to that in which it is dissolved. And as Light is the Centre of Heaven, and Soul of the World, so Brightness is the Centre, and Celestial Virtue, the Form of Gold; whose admired mixion, nothing merely natural can dissolve, nor any thing artificial, except it agree with it in matter and form, and do remain with it in the recongealation. This virtual Influence, enters potentially, and dwells in the radical humidity; and no other thing, whether from Heaven or Earth, doth nourish the Heart: yet it is not visible, before virtue be matched; for there is best concord, where it is most abundant: but whither shall we mount to match this miracle of Nature?  
The Historians tell us of an eternal Liquor of most strong Coaction, reigned down from Heaven: here is like descent: she is called Hyperiwn, or Daughter of the Sun, a Body of like weight and virtue with Gold; fair, clear, quick, only coacted and brought from the Empire of humidity, to suit the person, which in her crude Nature shows strong Affection, and turns the noblest of Metals into her own colour. Therefore the Artist studies how to disponsate these two.  
And first denudateth the Lady of her frosty Garments, that she may have the first activity, and liquefie her fettered Lord: then are they both in the power of Art to better.  
It is objected, This Heavenborn Hermodactylus or Hydromel, is of a Nature so obstinate and incorrect, she will by no means receive the best impression.  
Consider, Her names signify mixed matter of contrary quality, therefore may be separated: and although her original obscure condition, because it is unknown by the innate affections and subsistence; for it is an Airy Body, or Air itself with Mercurial Spirit, subsisting of internal heat, and external cold. Others say, It is composed of the Spirit of the World, corporate in the womb of the Earth, and apt to receive the qualities and properties of all natural things, as wax impression; and being composed of Spirits, the weight is of greater wonder. Others say, It is a crude Sperm not sufficiently decocted, (yet not to be profaned.) Others call it an immature Gold, which kills itself, and the Father and the Mother, to bring forth a pure Infant: by her they overcome the Fire: she is the perfection of the Universal Medicine: what Conformity, what Similitude, what Identity she holds with the Metallical Urn, being the original matter and substance thereof, and may be coagulated to the equal temper of Gold, is as the whiteness in Snow. Therefore the Ancients magnify the most Blessed, who created such a substance, and gave it such properties as no other thing in Nature doth possess; yet we see it is a vicious matter, which hath superfluous Humidity, proper and appropriate Qualities, separable and inseparable Accidents. Therefore the separable may be removed: to which end, she is included in a Well of Tears, that the Watriness may be vapored, or through long Decoction by Dryness vanquished.  
Then doth it, as it were, congeal, and fix, and become more apt for durance and extension: for whatsoever is contrary to the natural, doth debilitate; and like by his like, is nourished: but heat is contrary to cold, and the natural property of scalding heat, is to weaken and dry. The fresh Water adds power and heat: heat augmented becomes Fire; and Time turns Strength to Corruption.  
This glutinous substance hath natural heat, from which is the Life and Death of the Elements.  
Therefore as common Fire bringeth all things to his own Nature, so the external working upon the internal heat, it doth necessarily obtain victory.  
Therefore if you can believe that heat and dryness shall overcome cold and moisture, that lineary and successive course, hidden to all the World, is open to you.  
Therefore, as Nature delights in Concord, so the Lovers and Searchers into Nature's Work, must be of constant minds, and Gideon-like resolve to raze the City Meroz, not refusing to assist the public good, and then the Marriage: for the Princess never unmasks her Virgin-Beauty, except to him that hath skill and power to espouse her in a bed of Love; which none can do, before the despoliation of the exterior form: but the Obstacles removed, and Nature set on work, the external Decree doth necessitate the effect: for being now warm, and blithe, and apt for new Generation, and pounded with her Lord, grated to Dust, his unnatural softness deceives the sense, and they passionately condole each others Exile, and in their embraces fall in a sound, until their dissolved Bodies show corruption; and the more pure, being corrupted, are more vile.  
The Artist finding them out of their Indian Paradise, corrects their central virtue; and raising them from the Earth, leads them the thorny path to threefold happiness, and by fiery trial, purifieth the Quantity, and changeth the Quality, and so brings them to perfect rest, whereby they have power over the bodies of Men and Metals, and are crowned in token of their dignity and boundless Territories.  
Now considering the rarity of true Knowledge, the Honour and Dignity of things desired; what Spirit is so ignoble to think much either of Cost or Time, when that which is sought is of all Terrestrial Treasure most excellent!  
FINIS.   

An Appendix of the Virtues and Use of an excellent Essential Water made and approved by Stephen Trigge, Student in Physic and Astrology; and by him gained and experimented at Amsterdam, and also in London.  
IN all manner of Fevers, both Pestilential and others; Calentures, Apoplexies, and all Epidemical Diseases, it is a perfect and certain Remedy: and in Quartain and Quotidian Fevers, where the Disease ariseth from Choler.  
It perfectly remedies the Bloody Flux, and all other Fluxes, either of the Stomach or Belly, Vomiting, Scouring, and Excoriation of the Bowels: and where the Stomach is spoiled for want of Appetite, this is a sure Fortification; for it wonderfully strengthens the Stomach, both the vital and animal Spirit, and mightily succours the Heart that is oppressed with heat: And, being taken in Aqua Melissa, it doth speedily help the extreme beating and panting of the Heart: Convulsion-fits and falling Sickness, it cureth safely and speedily, and all manner of heat breaking out in the Face, and any other part of the Body; being either caused by the heat of the Sun, or by some noisome Food taken into the Body, that doth cause putrefaction of the Blood.  
The way to take it is this: in a burning Fever, take of it in Planten-Water, if there be looseness in the Belly, and sweeten it with Syrup of Clove-Gilly-Flowers: and drink it as your constant Drink, till the Fever is abated, and the Appetite recovered.  
In the Calenture, Drink it in Balm-Water, being made far sharper than white-Wine-Vinegar, and mixed with Syrup of Cowslip-Flowers: it must be drunk very often, till the senses come, and the Patient remain cured: which will be in few days; for it penetrateth the Blood, makes it thin, quencheth the Fever, reviveth the Heart and Brain, and quickeneth all the digestive Faculties.  
In the Apoplexy, take it in Betony-Water, and Aqua Vitae, with Syrup of Stoechas: take the Dose as in the Calenture; or stronger, if the Patient be able to bear it, and it shall be holp in forty eight hours, or thereabouts.  
If there be any thing in this World, that will preserve Man, if the Glass of God's determination be not quite run out, this will help.  
Though he be lame over all his Body, his Senses gone, his Speech lost; and to the judgement of many, as dead: yet this precious Liquor will in a wonderful manner restore them speedily and safely.  
In the Scurvy, Canker, Squinancy and Inflammation of the Uuula, this doth excel all ordinary Medicines: for it doth after a wonderful manner quench all Inflammations, and tempereth well the Blood and the Spirit: as,  
In the Scurvy, if it be all over the Body, and most of the Teeth be putrefied, and ready to drop out, and the Gums very much swelled and annoyed, take a little of this Oil once, and dip a little Lint in it upon the end of a Probe, and lightly touch the places with it, and rub the Teeth all over once: then drink the decoction often for eight or nine days together, being made very sharp in Egrimony-water: and the Patient shall be assuredly holp, although he were judged past cure.  
In Convulsion-fits, put it either in Cowslip-flower-water, or black Cherry-water, and mix it with Syrup of red Poppy, and it is a sure help.  
In the Falling-sickness, mix it with Aqua Epileptica, and Syrup of Pionies, and give it often, and it is a sure help, though the Patient hath had it many years.  
In an evil Stomach oppressed with Heat and Wind, and loss of Digestion, mix it with Conserve of red Roses, and a little Mithridate.  
In all loathing of the Stomach, and debility and vomiting, give it in Mint-water, with Syrup of Clove-Gilly-Flowers.  
In all heatings and burn above Nature, as Hectic Fevers, and the like; mix it with Barleywater, and Syrup of Violets.  
In all Lotions for the Mouth or Throat, mix it with Planten-water and Honey of Roses.  
In all manner of Purges that are fulsome, and offending the Stomach with their noisomeness two or three drops of this Liquor put in, doth not only amend that, but it doth also correct the working; so that it shall not corrode, nor hurt the Stomach nor Bowels by his working.  
These and many more Virtues hath this worthy Medicine, in working internal Cures, too many to relate, unless I here meant to write a Volume thereof: But I shall here leave the rest to the Experimenter, and speak somewhat of external Cures done by it.  
As first, In all manner of Ulcers, old Sores, Fistula's, or Gangrenes, Cancers, and Cankers, Noli me tangere, Imposthumes, or evil Pustula's, proceeding from Morbus Gallicus, great Carbuncles, and any other not here related; I shall commend this Sovereign Medicine, but yet very sharp and biting, though sound, pure and perfect, and doth immediately help its own biting and gnawing. The order to use it, is this: it doth both cleanse, incarnate, siccatrize, consolidate, and solder up the Wound, and drieth it, that there fall no accidents: for it doth marvellously defend either from the Humours flowing to the Sore, or from all Inflammations which do often happen, if it be not this way defended.  
In a great and dangerous Canker in the Mouth, there where they seem rotten, and very much eating into great holes, either in the Root of the Tongue, or Roof of the Mouth there where it is.  
Take a little Lint, and dip it in this Liquor, without any addition, and lightly do the Sore all over: then let it remain twelve hours; then do it again as you did before: the smart will be tedious for a time, but it will be over in an hour or less.  
With using this two or three times, the Matter or Core, and all the putrefied substance will fall out: then once more touch the place, and there will no more Cankerous nor corrupted Flesh engender there; for it will defend it: then make a Lotion to wash it with Planten-water, or Honey of Roses, and make it sharp with this Liquor, and wash it two or three times a day: then make an Emulsion to drink with Egrimony-water and Syrup of Violets, and drink it morning and evening; and in nine days the Cure will be perfected: and with this order you may cure all these Diseases and Sores above mentioned. But you must understand, That the more dangerous the Sore is, and the fuller of corrupted and dead flesh it is, the longer the Cure will be before it be perfected.  
Also for Ulcers which are great, old and dangerous, in the Legs, where the humours are apt to flow, there this Oil excelleth all other Medicines.  
Take this Liquor, if it be a Gangrene that eats a hands-bredth in a day, this will assuredly heal, and separate the bad flesh from the good, and bring quickness again in the gangrenated part, and defend the good flesh from being touched with this venomous eating Malady. Where you find such a desperate occasion, take the crude Liquor, and moisten it very well with it, & so let it remain 12 hours: then do it again, and let it rest as before: then do it again; & at 3 or 4 times, it will make separation, & preserv the good; & all that is gangrened will come away together.  
And you need not use any Instrument to scale the Bone; for this will do it of itself, and yet not hurt in the least: as some may conceive, that do not know the true Operation thereof.  
But when there is separation made, then touch the part afflicted once more with this: then make a Lotion to wash it; with Planten-water and Honey of Roses, being made a little sharp with this Water; and make a Salve of Candle-grease dropped in water, and Bees-wax, of equal parts, and spread it upon a linen-cloth, and apply it as a Plaster.  
With this thou shalt perform great Cures, in a fortnight's time, which otherwise may not be cured in a quarter of a years time.  
These, and many more are the Virtues of this excellent Liquor, experienced very well by Mrs. Jordan of Sowowlde in Suffolk, Daughter to Doctor Barnes of Amsterdam, and by me Stephon Trigge, over against Baynards-Castle.  
This Medicine is now prepared, and to be had at the House of Mr. Hepburne Minister, in the Carpenters-yard in Little-Brittain.  
Where are also prepared excellent Pumicils, to cleanse and whiten the Teeth, fasten lose Teeth, and make the Breath sweet.  
Lozenges for all Coughs, Tissicks, Asthmas, Consumptions, or the like: which are also to be had at Mr. Moon's shop at the seven Stars in Paul's Churchyard, with Diet-Drinks, Electuaries, Pills, etc. especially, for all Venereal Distempers; by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

The SECOND PART OF The MUMIAL TREATISE OF TENTZELIUS: Being a natural Account of The TREE of LIFE, And of The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. With, A Mystical Interpretation of that great Secret, to wit, The Cabalistical Concordance of the Tree of Life & Death, of Christ & Adam.  
I Having committed to the World some Precepts and Examples about Mumy spiritual, I hold it no Solaecism to annect this Pleasant, though Mystical Treatise, Of the Nature of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: for they being obscure, this is a Lamp to dilucidate them, scarce credible, Authority to vindicate them, and apparently false Testimony, sufficient to verify them.  
Now whatever knowledge we have of this Scientifical Tree, we decerped it from holy Writ, which saith expressly, Gen. 2 verse 9 That the Tree of life was in the midst of the Garden; and also, the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; and, That those that eat of the fruit thereof, shall be as God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, knowing good and evil. To which the Person of the Father, (speaking to the rest of the Godhead) attests, saying, Lo, Adam is as one of us, knowing good and evil. Which Elocution of the tri-une God, may not be thought ironical, as it might at the first glance seem to be; Seeing then a double and contrary meaning should be implied in the words, as if God had by a mental Reservation, hinted one thing; and by an oral Expression, declared another: pronouncing that for verity, which could be taken for no other than flat falsity; but let God be true: for though on Adam's part it be Metaphorical, in all other respects it is categorical and affirmative: as if God had said, Because Adam, by the enticement of the Serpent, hath eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, and thereby acquired the knowledge of Good and Evil; not that that is compatible only to the Deity, but that that is Philosophical and Communicable; Lo, he is as one of us; that is, he emulates the Omniscients Pansophy in his Measure and Degree. Yea, God the Son elsewhere uses the like Elocution, The Children of this world are wiser in their generation, than the children of light. And that this Interpretation is true, the following words evince irrefragably; and therefore he thrust him out of Paradise, lest knowing the Nature and Faculty of the other Trees, he should put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever.  
If then the Faculty of the vivifical Tree was true, and such a Tree truly natural existed, as had power to confer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, immortality to its Tasters, (as without doubt it did) the Faculty of this scientifical Tree must also be true, and no way feigned; and I need not urge, I think, That Adam and Eve would never have believed the Serpent to their ruin, if the light of their Nature had not also discovered the Fruit of this Tree to be scientifical. It is therefore true and impraegnable, That this Paradisaical Tree was endued with this same Faculty of giving knowledge. So that the Question will now be, Whether this Faculty was infused into it in the Creation, acquired by it after the Creation, or communicated to it by some other means and way. And to lose this Gordian knot, Hic labour, ho●●pus est. And here also the Scripture (though somewhat obscurely) points out a mean to resolve this Quaere: the words are thus, The Serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. Which words are here inserted for no end, that I can find, unless they portend something of moment in this matter. It is further observable, That the Devil came not to Eve in form of an Apple, but of a Serpent, which he knew for subtlety worthy to be preferred before all Beasts, which also Eve judged to have spoken naturally. It is moreover also probable, That the Serpent had his Cavern under or about that Tree; whereof, God being in no wise ignorant, forbade man the use of its Fruit.  
Moreover it is considerable, That in things obscure and dubious, that Explication must be admitted, whereto Sense, Reason, and Experience give suffrage, if it speak not contradiction to the Rule of Faith. Who is he then that can conceive? or what Diver into Nature's secrets hath met with the like Mystery? that he can by some weak resemblance evince the World, how by the eating of a single Apple, her children may suck in more than humane Knowledge. Whereas on the other side, I should very much derogate from man's praecellency, if I should in the least doubt, that the acuteness of his Intellect, could not find out a way how this Faculty might be acquired: and so close with our Sentence, That this Tree became scientifical by way of Transplantation from the Serpent; that is, this Tree and its Fruits had both the spiritual Essence, and the spiritual Virtues of the Serpent, communicated to them, and impressed in them, by virtue of the Serpent's cohabitation with them. For in Nature we find, That many Bodies do not only by their qualities, affect their adjacents, but also infuse their Virtue into them, & endue them with the same Faculty. Thus the Magnet doth not only attract Iron-Rings, but communicates its Virtue to them, and makes them Magnetical; as I can upon Ocular Testimony aver. And thus Vegetables may transume and possess the Proprieties and Affections of Animals, and yet not transgress the Bounds of Nature: of which rank, not only this Treatise affords us many Examples; but Smollius also, (who was our Manuductor into this Opinion) records some, and assigns the Reasons thereof, in his Manual of admirable things.  
Of which same Argument, Theophrastus also treating in his Book of the origine of Sciences, affirms, That our hairy and white Serpents in Germany, are endued with such admirable, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, supernaturally excellent virtues, that they are and will be of special use for the attainment of Knowledge, both natural and occult. And he adds further in the same Book, That the simpler sort think themselves nothing bettered by this his service: and therefore he judges it not Work worth the while, to cast more Pearls before such Swine, being persuaded he hath satisfied the wiser sort.  
By what Art then, this incomparable Treasure may be effoded, the diligent Searcher of Nature shall find, if he seriously perpend the forequoted words, and with unprejudiced thoughts, judiciously consider that noble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & for this purpose most truly-useful pair of little Books one treating of Time, the other of the origine of Sciences: neither will he have cause to say, He hath spent his Oil, if he take time to confer one of them with the other, and judge, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Purple by Purple; because, as in the Book of Time, the Mumy of the Microcosm, is distinctly handled: the four corporal Mumies, being first treated of; and afterwards, the one essential and spiritual of the Microcosm: so again in the Book of the origine of Sciences, the spiritual Mumy of the Serpent, how it may be transplanted into certain Fruits, to make them scientifical for the good of man, takes up the former Treatise; and the later is destined to the corporal Mumies of the Serpent.  
And hence any wise man may easily collect, That the extraction of Mumy spiritual, is in all the same, and differs not according to the diversity of those things whence it is extracted, as Theophrastus shows in his Book of Time; where treating of the spiritual Mumy of the Serpent, he gives us an account, how the Ape, by means thereof, enters league and amity with its utter Enemy the Serpent: nay, I dare affirm, That he that hath the perfect knowledge of the Mumy-spiritual of the Microcosm, and its Consequents, which Theophrastus handles in his Book of Time, shall easily attain the knowledge of all the kinds of serpentine Mumy, but especially of that which he accurately delivers in the first and second Chapter of his Book of the origine of Sciences.  
The way then to get this spiritual Mumy of the Serpent, and according to this former Treatise to transplant it into some Fruits or Grains, and with them to confer it to some man, or the like, is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one and the same with the forementioned ways: take then the sperm, that is, the Eggs of the Serpent, which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Elements and Principles both of their corporal and spiritual Mumy, mix them with fat Earth, and sow some Seed, or plant some Herb fittest for your purpose, in that Earth.  
But for greater efficacies sake, in conferring knowledge, transplant them into some Fruit appropriated to the Brain: Plant therefore a Cherrytree in this Earth; for so it will magnetically attract the Mumial Spirit of the Serpent into its Nutriment, whose Virtue and Quality will appear in the Cherries; out of which, by Vulcan's Hammer, that is, Fire, you may elicit the Spirits, and therewith roborate and acuate the Brain, and no little advance Knowledge.  
This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or seminal part of the Serpent, may, with like success, be transplanted into a Vine, out of whose Grapes you may afterwards extract their Spirits; and after the same manner, the Theriack, and all its Faculties, may, by way of Transplantation, be inserted into the same Fruit, which will be thereby made Theriacal.  
There is yet another way of tranplanting serpentine Mumy into an Herb, thus:  
Take Serpents, and include them in some Glass-Vessel, till they be suffocated and putrefied into some viscid matter, which either transplant into some Tree, or unite with some Earth fit for the reception of Herbs for your purpose.  
You may also by like procession, extract Mumy from Serpents and Snakes, endued not only with other admirable Virtues, but with that also that is proper to the Universal Medicine, which they depose with their gliscent Skins; I mean, that incomparable Remedy for the Morphew, Leprosy, etc. whose Cure can scarce be hoped for from any other Antidote, (scarce, I say, because I verily think, the Essence of sulphureous Vitriol, will conduce no little hereunto.)  
Take Serpents then, and detracting their Sweat and Collunies from them, cut off their Heads and Tails, (which are else of much use to other effects, as well as the other parts) and cast those away; but put their flesh under the stock, amongst the Roots of a Juniper-Tree, and occlude the hole with a knot of a wild Plum-Tree: for thus in Wintertime, the Flesh will by the natural heat of the Juniper, which is temperate, be redacted to its first entity; and in the Spring, the vegetable Spirit of the Juniper, will attract the Balsam thereof to its Nutriment; insomuch, that its Fruits or Berries, will be endued with most eximious Faculties, and enrich their Possessor with a most admirable and excellent remedy against the Leprosy: for which end,  
Take the Berries of the aforesaid Juniper, pour warm Water, with a convenient quantity of Leaven upon them: and thus let them macerate for eight days, till they be reduced into one mixed Mass: for which purpose, agitate them once or twice a day: then distil the Mass through a Vesica; at first with a slower, but gradually with a hotter Fire, till all the Spirit be distilled. And now because this Spirit is mixed with Phlegm, it must be rectified in B. M. through a Cucurbite, and then again through a Phiola; and so you shall have the true Spirit of Juniper.  
Then calcinate the dead Head into Lees, and make Salt thereof by Evaporation; whereof take one pound, and resolving it in the former Phlegm, mix it with a sufficient quantity of good and well-dried Argil, till you may make it into Pastils; which take, and distil in a close Furnace, through a well-beaked Retorta; putting a handful or two of the Berries into the Reptacle. Let your Fire be first slow, for the Phlegm; afterwards, hotter; and at last, so hot, that the Retorta may be made red therewith: for so you may extract all the Spirits. Make Salt again of the dead Head, which mix with Argil, and the fore-extracted Spirit; and then distil it again into Spirit: then so draw this Spirit through a Glass Retorta in a dry Bath, that the Phlegm may be collected apart; and then the great secret may proceed in flave drops, which you must shut up in a Glass with the Seal of Hermes, and then insolate and repose it.  
And thus you have that altogether praiseworthy Remedy: for the Berries of Juniper being of themselves so conducible to the Cure of the Leprosy, that they will not only preserve from it, but also in its initiation, profligate it; they are now by this mystical Art, and the participation of the serpentine Faculty, so much advanced, that they will easily overcome it in its height and strength.  
But thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and by the way: now to our purpose.  
As therefore the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was, by the mediation of the Mumy-spiritual of the Serpent, transplanted into the forbidden Tree; so also by the presidy of some other spiritual Mumy, eternal sanity, or immortality, was from God granted to the Tree of Life, That he that tasted thereof, should live for ever: for which we have God's Testimony, Gen. 3. who therefore cast the Protoplast out of Paradise, lest he should put forth his hand, and taste of the Tree of Life, and live for ever.  
And now we cannot expect, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a written Testimony, to prove that this Tree received its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, its power to give immortality, from some spiritual Mumy: for it is observable, that Scripture in things natural gives rather a hint then a description: for what community hath Athens with Jerusalem? yet Philosophers, those Merchants in Nature's Commonwealth, after much tossing to and fro, on these rugged Seas, arrived at a twofold Port of Verity.  
For, say they, this Tree of Life either received this vivifical faculty, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, immediately from Gods fiat, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by the mediation of something natural. And further seeking into Nature's Storehouse, they conclude with Trismegistus,  
That it is Gold by whose Virtue Life was implanted into this Tree; and this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, impossible: for (unless the Almighty ordain the contrary) Gold is of virtue sufficient to give immortality to man; or at least to prohibit infirmity, till the predestinated term of his Life be come: and the use of this Tree for this purpose, was in no wise prohibited.  
And it is moreover probable, That the first entity or Sperm of Gold, may, as other Mumies, be transplanted into some Vegetable and its Fruit; by whose Energy, they may attain the virtue and efficacy of the Tree of Life: which consideration is founded in Nature; for we see Metals by the mediation of some Vegetables, suffer various Transmutations, as this story may evince. A certain Metal-melter accidentally plucked a flower out of a Field, which, through neglect, he let fall into his Cauldron, where it turned all the melted Brass into pure Gold without any Dross; wherewith the Coppersmith being amazed, he inveighed grievously against the Melter, as though he had dealt Magically with the Metal. And here, though we cannot discern how in the common course of Nature, Metals should be thus changed by the mediation of a Vegetable, yet if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with the strength of our Intellects we seriously and accurately weigh the way and virtue of Transmutation, the scales of ignorance will fall from our eyes: for as Grapes which participate not of any propriety of the Theriack, or of a Viper, are by means of Transplantation, eximiously Theriacal, even so it is in this case.  
The flower indeed in its own Nature, was not of power to work this substantial Transmutation; but when the spermatical virtue of the Metal, was transplanted into this Flower, and united with the vegetable Nature, (for Minerals and Vegetables are not so different from each other, but they may conspire in some potential relation, and symbolical, though occult, affection) then might the Flower communicate its received virtue unto, and work a real change in other Metals; and that not by virtue of the Vegetables Nature barely, but of its Metallical Transplantation: And by this means, we may not only transplant the Essences of other Metals and Minerals, Luna, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sol, into some Tree, Flower, or Plant; but also with their Faculties, by the mediation of such Vegetables, profligate most Diseases incident to man.  
But it doth not a little reflect upon these mysterious Arts and Acts of Prudence, truly Philosophical, that those sluggish Drones, cut out of the dung of this Age, as Bacchus of Jove's thigh, who think our Mysteries main vanities, will not be brought to believe, that the Flower of Salendine, that Swallow-wort, and Gamandraea, wherein the Sperm of Metals is either naturally or artificially impressed, participate of any eximious faculty, or can profligate any great Disease: but let such observe Nature, how she is one in divers things, and various in one thing; how she is vegetative in Metals, and metallical in Vegetables and Animals; and so on the contrary: which we having sufficiently evinced in our Treatise of the Plague, we shall not further enlarge upon it; remembering that we do not now declaim, but Philosophise.  
Let such again attend to those things that cure the Plague, which is a Mineral disease, arising from the resolution of the Arsnical Yliad: how should any Vegetable conduce to the cure of this Disease, seeing the Cure must be Analogical to the Cause, unless some Magnetical or Mumial Impression, or some Astronomical Transplantation, be naturally or artificially conferred on them by the mediation of Celestial Seeds, or by the co-operation of this Mumy sympathetical and truly spiritual? without which influence, those things they call Characters, were of no efficacy, which yet we see by Art and Influence, very efficacious; nay, he that denies this conjunction, must needs confess, that the Queen of the world intercedes, working strong imagination and credit, both in the mind of the Giver and the Receiver, that these are influenced from above. This kind of Transplantation is natural to Gamandraea, for the cure of the Plague; which is most eximious therein, especially in the Climate where it grows: the like Celestial Transplantation appears also in Arsmart, which doth not only by a natural attractive faculty, but by influence also, cure all wounds and ulcers, teeth-aches, and the like affections proceeding from the subtle fluxions of Salt; of which Herb, Theophrastus hath a whole Book. The sanative virtue of the Roots of Succory, is, I think, artificial, by some Mumial sympathetical virtue; because, if they be digged up in the hour and day of Venus, when the Sun is in Leo, they will, if eaten, cure any wound that 's infested with no symptom. The like whereof was of late experienced by the Magnetians, as I was in a Letter informed by a Friend of mine there: thus: A Boy of nine years of age, was to take the Wood of an Ash, and looking towards the East, cut it into splinters; which done, they use it with a form of words to the cure of all joynt-dolors, as Podagry, Chiragry, Gonagry, Toothache also; and all kind of wounds. They rub the teeth with it, and imbue it only in the blood of the wound, and it cures them all.  
And who doubts of the sovereign virtue of the Sambucus or Elder growing on a Willow, gathered in October, a little before new Moon, and cut into nine splinters, but it will cure the falling sickness? (Abbas indeed would have the Root thereof evelled on the Forenoon of St. John Baptists day, and used for an Amulet) the reason whereof, we take to be this: Some Magpie having before denounced the seeds of an Elder-tree, left them mixed with its dung, (which is of efficacy against the falling-sickness) on a willow, where the Sambucus growing up, becomes, by mediation of the Mumy of the dung, a Remedy for this disease.  
And now, that this spiritual sympathetical Mumy may be helped by artifice, is plain in Paracelsus' Zenechdo against the Plague; for though that same consisting chief of Arsenic, hath some resemblance of pestiferous poison; yet as the Loadstone, which hath in it the Spirit of Iron, strongly attracts Iron; so this Diazenech, having in it the active Spirit of the Plague, is by sydereous composition, and formation into certain Figures under the Dragon's head or Scorpion, (when either the Sun or Moon possess either of these Signs) made a most excellent deletery against the Plague; as many by experience can demonstrate, who have been cured by its praesidy, and know its true manner of formation. Thus the Bezor-stone received power against Poison from Jupiter at first; but yet not so valid, as that it could communicate that faculty to others, till by the influence of Scorpio, under whose power it must be form into the resemblance of a Scorpions upper parts: it is not able to communicate its faculty to Mastic or Frankincense. Paeony, which is also called Phoebea, is very good, but not so efficacious unless it be used when the Sun is predominant.  
And how famous is that Martial Ring, which, carried in some fit place, or rubbed on some such part, will allay & cure the pains of the Teeth and Head, the Cramp, Quartain-ague, falling-sickness, Vertigo, Apoplexy, Plague, & other Diseases? insomuch, that the great captain. of Hetruria commanded the Inventor thereof, (a Brother of S. Augustine's order) To sell none to any but himself for some years. Whereas, if this same were form of some long Horse-shooe-nail, pulled out of a Horse's hoof on purpose, in the hour Mars reigns, it would be ready to contract itself to fit the least, and amplify itself for the greatest finger as you would.  
But the common Theriack also, and all things sublunary, are fydereal; yea, it is Solar, and therefore efficacious against Poisons, & all epidemical fluxes: yea, it would be more efficacious, if from the observations of the heavens, some opportune season were chosen for its composition, wherein it might receive the sympathical faculty of the superior Bodies, as Ptolemy, Theophrastus, Albertus, Marsilius, Fixinus, Rogerius, Bacho, Thurnhenserus, Crollius, and the rest of those dexterous Searchers of Nature's secrets, do all along observe.  
Though some are of Opinion, That medics should not trouble themselves herein, and therefore they adore the Goddess Sloth, instead of the Elysian fields, resting themselves in their Fool's Paradise, till some Patient rouse them out of their sleep: but that we may not seem too tedious, we shall leave this natural, and ascend to a more mystical Transplantation, whereby the Almighty transplanted the natural Tree of Life, standing in the Garden of Paradise, into the Mass of Adam, and afterwards into Christ, the true and mystical Tree of Life; who was suspended on the very wood of the natural Tree of Life; and so resuscitates both Adam, and all Mankind, dead in sin, to newness of life. God is indeed wonderful in all his works, as we may learn from the state of corruption, and reparation of Adam; for as Adam by transgression, upon the persuasion and enticement of the Devil and Serpent, attracted to himself, death, eternal damnation, and all kinds of torments, by tasting of the forbidden Tree; so is he redeemed from death eternal, and received into life eternal, by the Tree of Life, and Life itself, Christ Jesus.  
It is more than probable, That Sibylla prophesied of Christ, when she said, That Adam, being now ready to die, desired earnestly a Branch of the Bough of Life, in Paradise; and therefore sent one of his Sons thither to fetch one, that he might escape this eminent death: his Son received a Bough from the Angel; but in the mean time, Adam had changed life with death: and therefore his Son implanted the Bough on his Father's Sepulchre; where, getting sap, it grew into a great Tree, and so attracted the whole Nature of Adam to its nutriment.  
Now also an ancient Doctor in the Eastern Country, and a Bishop of the Church, a little after Christ, amongst many others, detected this venerable mystery also: Noah (saith he) was commanded by God, to carry Adam 's bones and the Tree on his Sepulchre into his Ark, and preserve the original of Mankind: which Noah did with all observance: and when Noah sent his three Sons forth into three parts of the world, he divided Adam 's bones amongst them; giving his Legs and Feet to his youngest Son, his Breast and Arms to his middle Son, and his Head and Skull to his eldest, as such sacred relics of the Father of Mankind, as deserved to be kept, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Now his Firstborn betook himself into the parts near Jerusalem, where he buried Adam 's Skull in a little Mountain, which was therefore called Mount Calvary, because Adam 's Calvaria or Skull was there interred; which the Evangelist therefore calls Golgatha, or, the place of a Skull, in the singular number.  
Moreover, he saith, That the Tree of the Transplantion of Adam, was by remarkable and admirable Providence preserved, and made into a Cross for Christ's crucifixion, and erected directly in that place where Adam 's Skull was buried. So that he who perpends the matter well, shall fnde, that whole Adam, as it were, is recollected in and under the Cross; and so with an admirable tie, conjoined to the vivifical Nature itself: which, how pleasant, efficacious, and full of consolation, let each one consider: for he that deserved death, is present in and under the Cross; and he that repaired Life, yea, that is Life itself, is affixed to the Cross; the true Concordance of life and death, of a sinless Saviour, and sinful man; whereby Life is united to Death, and Christ to Adam, not without the superinfusion of Blood, like Celestial dew, for better and more faecundity; that so Adam and his Posterity eating of the Fruit of this transplanted Tree, might be really transplanted into Christ, and by a certain celestial magnetism and sympathy, attracted to Heaven, translated to Life, and made Heirs of Happiness.  
For which ineffable Grace and Mercy of the Deity, be rendered to the Tri-une God, all Praise, Honour and Benediction, Amen.  
FINIS.   

Philosophical and Chemical EXPERIMENTS OF The Famous PHILOSOPHER Raymund Lul.  
Wherein is contained, The right and true Composition OF Both Elixirs and Universal Medicine: The admirable and perfect way of making the great Stone of the Philosophers, as it was truly taught in Paris, and sometimes practised in England by Raymund Lul in the time of K. Edward the third.  
Now for the the Benefit of all Lovers of Art and Knowledge, carefully translated into English, out of High-German and Latin, by W. W. Student in the Celestial Sciences, and Robert Turner, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
LONDON, Printed by JAMES COTTREL, 1657.   

The Preface to the Reader or Worker.  
Gentle Reader,  
LEt not thy heart be turned from this excellent Science of Alchemy, although it be contemned and made of no account among the rich men of the world, that no man hath ever come to the perfect end and knowledge of it, with a number of untrue reports, to hinder, as much as in them lieth, this most excellent and godly Science, the which hath been finished by many persons, and by this John Fauvere in Paris, the which he left for a testament to his Son, as he had wrote it with his own hand: but true it is, That divers men, for want of the true knowledge of this Science, have brought themselves into great poverty, misery and contempt of this world. To the which I answer, That there be many things that do let and hinder men to find the end of any Science, not only in this, but divers others, as Astronomy, Physic, the profit of the use of the Medicine, with infinite others: And first, this is the chiefest cause many men be of so gross understanding, that they cannot perceive and find out the dark writing of the Philosophers, which is the cause that many times they miss the great benefit, that they made just account of; and moreover, divers envious persons have written Books filled with a number of lies and painted glosses, to draw the most painful men which have laboured in this Science, unto divers errors, to the utter undoing of them, and loss of their goods; the which they have done only of mere malice, because they did not understand the dark Writings of the most ancient and learned Fathers; which is the cause that they would never attain unto the depth of this most learned Science. Also there be many men that will begin things, without attending the end of any one of them; and so have left off confusedly, and so have not only lost their time, but also consumed all that they had: which if they would have begun one thing, and have ended it, they needed not so to have done: and then they cry out, and blame this Science, which is their own fault. Lastly, there be many men that work daily upon receipts that they gather here and there, without seeing or making that which they do work, whether it be agreeing with the Nature of the Science, or from whence the receipts do come or spring, or who have written them; whereby they also consume their substance; which is their own fault, and not the Science. And also, God will not have the Science wrought by some men, and yet they will work it: and thus they lose their goods. And therefore, gentle Reader, if you will keep yourself from damage or loss, so read this Treatise over, not once but many times; so shalt thou find the sweet Kernel or Marrow of the Philosophers, and right Science of Transmutation of Metals that be base, into most pure Metals of Gold and Silver. And therefore think not the reading and studying of this Science or Treatise to be tedious unto thee, considering the great profit thou shalt reap by it. The Lord grant, that thou mayst find it, and use it to the honour of God, and profit of Christ and his poor afflicted Church.  
Raymund Lul   


The Contents of the first Part.  
Chap. 1. TO prepare the Salt for the red and white Elixir.  
Chap. 2. To make the Elixir to the white work.  
Chap. 3. Of the Key of Sciences, and Properties of Salt.  
Chap. 4. The Composition of the red Elixir.  
Chap. 5. The projection with the red Elixir.  
Chap. 6. The Composition of the Cement for Gold.  
Chap. 7. To make Silver heavy as Gold.  
Chap. 8. The difference between the Elixirs and Philosophers Stone.  
Chap. 9 The living and dead Sol and Luna.   

The Contents of the second Part.  
Chap. 1. THe Composition of the Philosopher's Stone.  
Chap. 2. The Elixir of Life.  
Chap. 3. To sublime Mercury to the red Elixir.  
Chap. 4. To sublime Mercury to the white Elixir.  
Chap. 5. To prepare the white Stone upon all Bodies.  
Chap. 6. To make the Lutement to all works.  
Chap. 7. To understand moral and natural Philosophy.  
To draw Spirits out of a ponderous Body or Earth by Distillation.   

Tract. ult.  
Upon Saturn, the Tincture of Gold, the Quintessence and Aurum Potabile, and the matter of the Universal Medicine.    

Philosophical and Chemical EXPERIMENTS OF The Famous Philosopher RAYMUND LULLY.  


CHAP. I. Teacheth, how to prepare the Salt for the white and red Elixir.  
TAke, in the Name of God, great Bay-Salt as it is made out of the Sea; take a good quantity and stamp very small into a stone-Morter: then take Cucurbites of Glass, and pour your Salt therein: then take fair Well-water, and let your Salt resolve into clear water; being all dissolved, then distil it by Filter; that is to say, hang a jag Felt or Woolen-cloath, in the Cucurbite; and let the other and hang in another Glass beside it, set as it were under it, that the Water may drop into it, that the Felt or Cloth will draw out, and that shall be clear as Silver: and when that all the water is dopped over, look to it if that it be very clear; if it be not, filter it again into another Glass, till it be clear or Crystalline: and when it is so, put it into a Glasen Pan, set it upon a Sand-Oven, and let the Water vapour away, till that it do come above like unto white-Salt: then take stone-piss-Pots, or Pots made of Cullen-Earth, such as the drinking Pots be made of, and put the Water and the Salt that remains, therein, and set upon the said Oven, and let it vapour away; and while that it doth dry, stir it with a stick, till that it be very dry, otherways, it will come into a lump or mass: and this being well dried, beat it in a stone-Morter very fine, as you did before, and then put it into a melting Cruse, and set them into a glowing Oven, or Say-Oven, which is an Oven that the Goldsmiths do enamel their Rings in: the Oven being very hot, take the Cruses that be filled with Salt, and set them into the Oven, and let them stand until they be glowing hot; and see that they be no hotter behind than before; if they be, then turn them round with a pair of Goldsmith's Tongues: put but one Pot in the Oven at a time, that you may do them the better; and when that Pot is red glowing hot, take it out, and put in another to be calcined.  
And then, when cold, put it again into your Mortar, and break it as small as you can, the third time, and then set it in the Fire of the Oven to glow as aforesaid, Two or three times glowing, and breaking of it every time in a stone-Morter until seven times, and then put it into Well-water to dissolve, till it be all dissolved into clear water.  
Then distil it by Filter, until it be as clear as Crystal, than set it again upon your Oven to dry, and the Water to vapour until that it be Salt, and stir it with a stick as before-said.  
And when that it is dry, set it to calcine again, as beforesaid, in the Sand-Oven; and when that all the Pots that have the Salt, be all glowing hot, then take them out, and beat them to Powder, as before; and again dissolve into Water.  
Then distil it again by Filter, as before: this shalt thou do so many times, to say, dissolve into Water, and then distil by Filter, and then congeal it into dry Salt, glowing it by Fire: this do without resting until it come to be fat, and that it will melt upon a hot glowing Plate of Luna: and if it will not melt like Wax, you must dissolve, distil, congeal, until that it will come to that point or perfection: and you must be careful, lest that it should melt in the Calcination; for then all your labour is lost. Keep this for a great secret: and such a preparation doth appertain to the Salt, that which is the Riches of this world.  
For otherwise thou shalt never come to the perfect end of any Elixir, without such Salt prepared, as aforesaid, to say, to the white Elixir, nor yet to the red.  
Therefore, my beloved Son, he that doth know the Secrets of this Salt, (to say) his Solution, his Congealation, Distillation and Calcination, and can well understand, knoweth the whole Secrets of Natural Philosophy, and wise men also; that is to say, how and in what manner he ought to dissolve, distil, congeal, and calcine. Therefore let not the labour in preparing of this Salt be grievous unto thee; for without great cost you may learn herein, to distil by Filter, dissolve, congeal, and calcine; and to form all the works that be needful unto thee in this Science.  
So that you come to the principal work, you shall not be to seek or to learn: Therefore be patiented, and leave not off to work, until thou hast brought thy Salt to that pass as I have taught thee before, until it melt upon a hot glowing Plate of Silver, as Wax in the fire: for without this Salt thy labour is in vain; for it is the Key of this Science.   

CHAP. II. Teacheth with this prepared Salt to make the Elixir to the white work.  
TAke of Salt-Peter two parts, and one part of Allome, and distil thereof a strong Water.  
Then take of your prepared Salt so much as you will set to work, and take as much fine Capel Luna as you have of your Salt.  
Beat your Luna into thin Plates, and dissolve into the strong Water a part, in a Glass by itself.  
Likewise your Salt you must dissolve in the said strong Water by itself.  
And when your Luna and Salt is dissolved in both Glasses, put the two clear Waters together, and note that you put no more Water to the dissolution of these two matters, then will dissolve them, and you shall see your Luna fall to the bottom of the Glass, white, like Milk: take the Glass properly, and shake it in your hand, and let it stand, and you shall see your Luna as a green Water to rise; above the which you shall pour properly off into another Viol of Glass: then pour upon it more strong Water, that hath not occupied, and do as aforesaid; putting the green Water off in the first green Water, shaking it, as aforesaid.  
This do until all your Luna be dissolved into green Water, that no Feces remains; otherwise, your work will not be perfected: and when you have all into clear Water without Feces, put the same into a Cucurbite of Glass with a Helm and a Recipient, and Lute it strongly: and when your Lutement is dry, than set your Cucurbite in Balneo, and make fast to the bottom of your Glass a round Certel of Lead, like a Folly; and as your Lutement doth dry, so increase your fire a little to distil of the flame, that there shall remain no more strength in it then common water: and to know this, put a clout in the mouth of the Alimbeck: and when the clout doth begin to look yellow, pull all the fire out of the Oven; for then the Spirits of the strong Water do begin to come.  
Therefore look well to your work, lest your fire be too hot, that no Spirits come out of your Water; otherwise you shall fail in your work. Then let your Glass and Oven stand and cool two hours long: then take off the Helm of your Cucurbite, and have a Cover of Glass that may pass just in the mouth of your Cucurbite, wherein your Medicine is in, fast luted to with Lutement, or with white Wax: then set it in your Sand-Oven, or warm Ashes, not very hot.  
Then take fair Capel Luna beaten very thin into Plates and cut into small pieces, and put in a little at a time till it be dissolved; and when that is dissolved, put in more till it be dissolved also. And thus let your Glass stand in warm Ashes, and look that no Air go out of your Glass nor Cement.  
This nourishing shall continue until it will dissolve no more, but lie in the Glass undissolved two or three days long: and then is your Medicine nourished like a Child in the Mother's Womb.  
Then may you let your Glass wax cold, and you shall understand, without this nourishing the Medicine cannot engender; and therefore it is needful that it be nourished, that it may get strength of Generation: and when your Glass is cold, lute your Glass well with good Lutement, that may endure against Water, the which I will learn thee in a Chapter apart, and let the Lutement dry by itself; then set the Glass in Balneo Mariae, to putrefy forty days long to hold it in such a heat, as the Sun in Summer: for great fire may destroy your Medicine. Therefore let your fire be always of one heat: for in that there doth remain a great secret of the Medicine.  
And within the forty days your Medicine shall be dissolved; and if it be not dissolved in forty days, let it stand longer until it be dissolved: for this is the primest of all the work: for the dissolution is done by heat and moisture, and congealed by heat and drought.  
This Point being obtained, you have the Key of the Chamber, and he is blessed of God that hath this point.  
For this is a token of goodness, for in every Dissolution and Congealation, you do augment your Medicine and Degree: for the first time it will do projection one ounce upon seven, and dissolve and congeal again; one ounce will project upon fourteen ounces, and the third time upon twenty eight ounces.  
And so it goeth forth double in projection every Dissolution and Congealation.  
But you shall understand that the Congealation that cometh of warmth, is no perfect Congealation; but it ought to congeal in the Glass or in the Ampule with heat, (to say) standing in warm Ashes: and therefore, whenas your Medicine is dissolved in your Glass, let it cool; then take it out of your Balneo, and dry your Glass.  
And look well to your Lutements that they be close, without any clefts to let out the Spirits; then set it in your Sand-Oven in Ashes: then put fire in your Oven, and let your fire be no greater, then that you may hold your finger in the Ashes: and so let it stand twenty four hours to congeal; if not congealed in that time, you may let it stand longer; and when you see that it is congealed, give God thanks, and rejoice; for it is ready to do projection in this manner.  
Take to project on,  
Fair red Copper the best that you can get, and take from him his redness, which serveth not in the work: the which you shall do after this manner.  
Beat your Venus into thin Plates, and cut it in small pieces, and anoint them with this paste or pap.  
Take white Arsenic and grind it on a Marblestone with Oil of Tartar, that it be thick like Pap; and with this matter anoint your (Copper) Venus pieces: then take great Bay-salt, and put some part of it into a melting-Pot bottom, and lay your (Copper) Venus pieces upon that: and then Salt upon them, and (Copper) Venus pieces upon that, Stratum super Stratum, till all your Pot is full: and uppermost in your Pot, let there be a good quantity of Salt: take a tile-stone, and make a round Covet for the Pot, and lute it well too; and when the Lutement is dry, set it in an Oven in fire of Calcination for twenty four hours long.  
Then let it cool; and then break your Pot open, and cast the matter that is in your Pot in warm Water, and stir them with your Hand, until the pieces be clean, and that the Water comes fresh from them. Then dry them, and beat them in an Iron Morter, so small as you can. Then put your Venus, so beaten, into a Canvas Bag that is sowed close up, and round like a Ball. Then take fat Clay that is mixed with hair, and therewithal streak over your Bag, thinly, that it may dry; and when that it is dry, streak it over and over again, as it drieth, until your Clay be as thick as a Pot. Then, when your Clay is luted fast about your Canvas, take a small wooden Pin, and put through your Lutement into the Bag, that the small end may remain within the (Copper) Venus.  
Then put the round Ball of (Copper) Venus into another melting-Pot, the wooden Pin downwards; but you must remember to put among your beaten Venus, Sandever, Verne, Salt-peter, (Ana.)  
Then set this Pot in a wide Furnace to melt, and the Venus will melt and run out into the Pot, wherein it doth lie: and then the Venus shall be fair and white like Luna, and shall be profitable in this work: the which, without this work of Preparation, would not be as you should do your projection.  
Take seven ounces of this prepared Venus, and put it into a melting-Pot, and slow it in the highest degree of fire that you can, in a wide Furnace: then put to it one ounce of fine Capel Luna; and when it is melten, as aforesaid, put to it one ounce of your Medicine or Elixir, and nimbly stir it with a wooden stick; but let no Iron come unto it: and when it is well corporated, then take it out, and cast it into an Ingot; so you have the best Luna in the World, to abide all Proofs and Examinations; and it is far more fine than that that comes out of the Earth. When you have finished this Work, give God thanks, and remember the poor.   

CHAP. III. Of the Properties of the Salt, how it is the Key of this Science.  
MY beloved Son, although our Salt be the principal Key of this Science, yet can he not do any good, although he were made melting as Butter, without joining with his Sol or Luna; otherwise, there is no Generation: therefore he must be prepared by himself, and then join unto him Sol or Luna, before you do any projection upon any imperfect Metal, to make them perfect.  
But when you have prepared him by himself, and after joined fine Capel Luna with him, as afore written in the other Chapter; then must the Body that you will project upon, be made clean as aforesaid, and then made living with Luna joined thereto.  
For all unperfect Bodies be called dead, saving Sol and Luna: they be called living, and full made; and the same living Body that we cast on him, or projection withal, we call Featen or Ferment, and that doth make our imperfect Body perfect; and therefore they must be all three joined together, or else there will be no Transmutation. Thus I do shut up the Composition of the white Elixir, and now will begin with the red Elixir.   

CHAP. IU. Teacheth, The Composition of the red Elixir.  
TAke, in the Name of God, as much of our prepared Salt as you think good, and dissolve it in this strong Water.  
Take two parts of good Vitriol, and one part of fine Saltpetre; and put so much Salt into your Water as your Water will dissolve, that there be no Feces remaining, but that it be dissolved and turned into clear Water: then fine Sol, that is passed seven times through the Cement, which I will learn thee in the sixth Chapter: take one part of the Sol that is so passed through the Cement, and two parts of your prepared infusible Salt; but let your Salt be first dissolved in the said Water, as foresaid: then put in your Sol, the which shall dissolve well in the said Water: and when your Sol is dissolved, then set your Glass upon warm Ashes; so shall it dissolve it the better into clear Water.  
Then put of the clear Water in another Glass apart, and put other of that strong Water upon your Sol: This do until you have put it all over into clear Water in the other Glass apart; and that there doth not remain any substance in the bottom undissolved.  
Then work therewith as you have done in the white work, and draw the Phlegmate out with Balneo in such a heat that there go none of the Spirits out, or any strength or sharpness, and do it in all manner, as in the white work; and you must nourish the Medicine in his own matter, that is, with fine Sol, that you have passed seven times through the Cement, making it as thin as you can in Plates; and feed your Medicine therewith, as much as it will eat; and then set it on warm Ashes to congeal.  
Then set it to putrefy fifteen days in Balneo, not making your fire too great; for in the fifteen days it ought to be dissolved: then congeal it on warm Ashes; the which will be done in twenty four hours.  
Do in all things as in the white Elixir aforesaid; for his first Dissolution and Congealation doth fall upon one ounce for twenty eight: and so for the doubling.  
This Elixir ought not to be projected but upon fine Luna prepared, as hereafter shall be learned; to say, That he have weight of Sol, and deafness of sound, like Saturn; so that he shall lack nothing but Colour and Fixation, the which our Elixir shall give him, through the Grace of God.   

CHAP. V Teacheth thee to do projection with the red Elixir.  
MY beloved Son, if thou wilt transmute Luna into Sol, take fine Capel Luna that is prepared, in the Chapter hereafter written, being made without sounding or ringing, and heavy in weight: the which I shall learn thee.  
Take seven ounces of this Luna, and melt it in a melting pot; and being well melten, put unto it one ounce of fine Sol that is passed seven times through the Cement, as I will learn thee hereafter: for there is no Solemnising in the World finer than this, to serve this Science.  
Were it augmented in Colour by our Cement, and when it is well melten together with the Luna, stir it together with a wooden stick; but no Iron, for that will hurt the projection. These two being well mingled together, put into it one ounce of your red Elixir well stirred and mingled together, as aforesaid, with a wooden stick: then take it out, and cast it into an Ingot, and you shall find it to be fine Sol of twenty four Charracts, to pass all proofs, more finer and better than any that comes from the Mines. Give praise to God for his wonderful works.   

CHAP. VI Doth teach the Composition of the Cement for the Sol.  
TAke, in the name of God, of the finest Gold that you can get, one ounce; and melt with it the reddest Venus and fairest that you can get, one ounce: and when these two be well melted together, cast them into an Ingot; and when it is cold, beat it into thin Plates, no thicker than a Crown, and with a pair of Goldsmith's shears cut them in pieces of the bigness of a Royal of Plate, and put them into strong red Wine-vinegar, twenty four hours long: then take old Tiles that have lain a long time in the Sun, and make them into subtle Powder, and sift them through a hairen sieve: then take common Salt that is once dissolved, distilled by Filter, and once well-glowed in the fire, and beaten into a Powder, and passed through a sieve: then take Roman Vitriol, and rubefie it as I shall show thee hereafter: then take good red-wine-vinegar, distilled in a stillatory of Glass: and in that Vinegar, you shall dissolve your Vitriol: then distil it by Filter, very clear: then set it on warm Ashes to congeal or dry, that the Water may vapour away, and you shall find your Vitriol to rest very fair in the bottom: then take a new earthen Pot or Pan, and put your Vitriol therein, and set it on a cool fire, and stir it well with a stick, and so it shall rubefie, and wax red as blood; then let it cool, and make it into Powder, and pass it through a Sieve: and in the same Water, you shall take Spanish Green, or Verdigreece, and dissolve it in distilled Vinegar: then vapour it, and dry it: then glow it in the fire, doing all things as the Vitriol aforesaid: then take as much Salt Armoniac, and dissolve it in red-wine-vinegar that is not distilled: then take of all these substances of Powder alike much, and sprinkle lightly over with the Vinegar, wherein the Salt Armoniac is dissolved; and let there be as much of the Salt Armoniac dissolved, as there is of any of the other parts: then take a melting-Pot, and lay in the bottom of your Pot a good Ground of your Cement, and of your Sol-Venus Plates upon the Cement; so that the Plates do not touch one another: then put more of your Cement-powder upon it, and so Stratum super Stratum, till that the Pot be full: let the uppermost lain be Cement.  
Then take a Tile-stone, and make a Cover just for the mouth of the Pot, making a little hole in the Cover, or else the Salt Armoniac will break your Pot, or blow up the Cover: and when you have made this vent-hole, lute it fast together: and when your Lutement is dry, set it into your winde-Oven, and first give it a small fire two hours long, the next two hours more stronger; and thus still augment your fire, till that you see the Pot be glowing red; and so let it stand in the heat twenty four hours long: then let your Oven cool; and take it out, and open your Pot, and you shall find your Plates augmented in colour.  
The first, my Son, if you will make this work in the Reverber Oven, so make your fire: the first half hour, small fire of coals; and the other time, of dry wood, that may be without smoke; and work in the high Ovens a yard from the ground: and in this manner you must cement your Gold seven times, every time new Pots, and new fresh Powder or Cement, every time melting your Solemnising with new Venus, and beating in Plates as aforesaid; for in every Cement your Venus shall be consumed, and in the Sol no more shall remain of the Venus, but the Tincture and Colour; and your Sol shall keep always his first weight, but his colour shall be so high, that none shall judge it to be Sol; and you shall understand, that if there were so much Luna, being made without sound, and augmented in weight, melted with the said Sol, it would seem to be fine Sol. But I counsel thee not to do it; for in divers melt, it will lose its colour, and come white as afore, because your fixed Elixir, or medium, is not put to it: therefore I counsel thee not to do it; for in the end it will shame his Master; and peradventure bring him in peril of his life, if he should sell it for fine Sol. Therefore look well to thyself, and see that thou use no falsehood.   

CHAP. VII. Teacheth thee to make thy Luna deaf of sound, and heavy of weight, as Sol aforesaid.  
MY beloved Son, Take Vitriol, and distil thereof a strong Water, and dissolve therein Salt Armoniac, as much as it can dissolve; then set it upon warm Ashes, and put into it as much living Sulphur, as there is Salt Armoniac; and then shake it together with your hands, stopping your Glass well, that no Spirits go out, and set it upon Ashes, and lute a Helm upon it with a recipient, and make a proper fire under it, till the Water be distilled forth of the Glass: then let it cool, and take away the Water, and stop the pipe of the Helm fast, that no vent come forth, and make stronger fire: then shall the Sulphur and Salt Armoniac sublime up into the Helm; keep it well: then take fine Capel Luna, and melt it in a melting-Pot, and cast of that sublime upon your Luna three times, stirring it well together in the Pot with a wooden stick, but no Iron; and this shall make your Luna heavy of weight, and deaf of clank, like Sol: and you shall understand, that if you have ten Ounces of Luna, you shall cast one Ounce of this same Powder upon it, stirring it as aforesaid; and if your Luna be black, (as it will be) that is a good token: then cast it out in an Ingot, and quench it in Water; and it shall come blue: then seethe it in Goldsmiths-water (that is made with Tartar and Salt-common) one hour long, and it shall come white as at first: and thus is your Luna prepared to receive your red Elixir.   

CHAP. VIII. Teacheth thee the difference between the Elixir and the great Stone of the Philosophers.  
MY beloved Son, Our Elixir white and red be called Stones and no Stones; for in manner to speak, there is no Stone so full made, as is our great Stone of the Philosophers, that is called Major: for the great Stone is full made, and a perfect work serving to all unperfect Metals: for to transmute them into true fine Sol and Luna after the preparation hereof; for if he be prepared into Luna, so shall he ever set them into Luna: for every one of them doth engender his like: the which great Stone I will learn thee how thou shalt make it, in his place hereafter, if it please the Almighty God. The great Stone that doth serve for the red work, or to Sol, is called, Lapis Philosophorum major; and to the white, it is called Lunary; but the Elixirs be called, Stones and no Stones; but we call them, Elixirs de Sale, that is, Elixirs of Salt, because they be compounded of Salt, to say, of great Bay-Sea-Salt, that is clarified by dissolving and congealing, as is before learned; and also with another Salt that is called Saltpetre, the which doth conjoin himself to the Salt that is in the depth of the Body of Sol, when the Tincture is given him by the Cement. And if the people in times past, had well understood the meaning of this Salt, they had come to the end of their work: but for lack of understanding, they have changed the words of the Philosophers, that say, Our Stone is Stone and no Stone; for they have meant the Elixirs, the which the unlearned have not understood; and they have named it their salt, that is our Salt of Nature that we have spoken of before: our Salt of Wisdom, that is, when it is prepared: our Menstruum; for with the same our Medicine is nourished, as the Child is in the Mother's womb. They call it also, A King, and that noble Salt, and that living Water, or Oil of Grace, and the most precious Water of the most secrets, and the most coming, the which dissolveth Mercury; the same is the Mercury of the Philosophers: and he dissolveth all Bodies of Metals, and it is a Medicine, and the first beginning of the Stone; and it is living Water and living Sulphur; he is the Lord and Master of all Salts, and without him the other have no full power to make perfect any thing; he doth bind and unbind; he doth join the Man with the Wife; he doth change one kind with another, and makes of Bodies, Spirits; and of Spirits, Bodies: and this must all be compounded, and make perfect the Philosopher's stone.   

CHAP. IX. Teacheth, That our Sol and Luna is living, and the Sol and Luna of the Mines be dead.  
MY Son, you shall understand, That our Sol and Luna be living, and these that are of the Mines are dead; and therefore the Solemnising of the Earth is not so good as our Sol that is made by this Science; for our Sol hath in him three things, (to say) a Soul, a Body, and a Spirit: without the which three things, there can no Transmutation be made, the which one alone cannot do; therefore they must be all three together, if any good should be done. And understand, That no man can do any Transmutation with the corruption of the perfect Bodies, that is Sol and Luna: for we take the Spirit of the perfect Bodies, through our Sperm, or our strong Water, and this same Spirits is holden in our Water, that is, our dissolved Salt, which is our menstruum: for where the Mother hath received the Seed, that is, the Sperm of the unperfect Bodies with her menstruum into her Body; so shall it receive no life before the Soul come into it: so do we as Nature doth ask, we conjoin this together, till he come to clear Water without Feces, and then we draw out the simple Phlegmate in Balneo or Ashes; and after, that we put in the Soul, or nourish it with Sol or Luna, according to the making of your Medicine, then be they ready to engender her like; and then we do put them in putrefaction the time afore-written: then is the Spirit and the Soul perfectly made, and the copulation is done; and then, when that we shall do projection upon any unperfect Body or Metal so called, than this Spirit or Medicine doth take to him a Body: and then it is called a Spirit, a Soul, and a Body, which is then living.  
And this Instruction (my beloved Son) I give to thee, that thou mayst know, that our Sol and Luna is living, and those in the Earth or Mines be dead: and also, that thou mayst know, that our Elixir white or red, are not other then spiritual, or a Spirit: the which, when it is cast upon a dead body with the Soul, it is made living; that same then is multiplied and augmented in goodness and perfections; and in him is fulfilled that through accident, which in the Earth it did lack; (to say) that sickness which is got in the earth, is taken away through our Medicine or Elixir red or white: the which we do in this manner; We take, in the Name of God, our Earth or Metal, that is, an unperfect Body, and melt it with a perfect Body or Corpus, the which is our Leaven, with the which we do prepare our paste or dough; and then we cast upon it our Elixir, the which is our Spirit; the which then doth make it perfect, and a living Body or Metal: but the great Stone of the Philosophers, the which I will learn thee hereafter to compound it, and perfectly to make it; the which is of so great strength and power, that be he a dead Body or Metal, doth not only make living and perfect, but also maketh of the same Metal Medicine, to transmute any other unperfect Metal into a perfect; and it doth the same in the twinkling of an eye: so that he may be called, and is, The Riches of the whole World. Herewithal do we conclude the first Part of this Book, to say, The Composition of the Elixirs white and red.    

The true COMPOSITION OF The Great Stone OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. PART II.  

CHAP. I.  
MY beloved Son, I here before opened unto thee the Truth, without leaving any thing needful to be known of the Composition of the Elixirs, the which is the beginning and entrance into the Great Stone of the Philosophers; and this Stone doth convert all Metals unperfect, into perfect Metals of Sol, of twenty four Caracks fine; the Metal being melted that you will transform: and then cast upon him his Leaven, that is, Gold, when that your Stone is made in the red work, and that Gold must be cemented as aforesaid in the other Book, and augmented in colour; that is, if you will melt a hundred ounces of unperfect Metal, then cast upon it Ferment or Leaven, which is Gold; stir it well together, and put no more but one ounce of Gold to the Mass of Metal; and then being well melted, and incorporated together, cast no more but the quantity of a Pease or Fitch of the red Stone upon it: so shall you see, that this Stone shall turn this Mass of Metal, or hundred ounces, into the finest Gold that may be in the World, of twenty four caracts fine, and shall pass all the proofs that men can do upon it, for better than that that doth come out of the Mines. And you shall understand that our Elixirs that we have before mentioned, are not come to their full perfection, but it is the beginning of the white and red stone of the Philosophers: but if you will make it perfect, as hereafter I shall learn you, the white shall transform all Metals into Silver, like as of the red is declared; that is to say, when you have melten the Metal that you will transform, than you must cast into it one ounce of fine Capel Luna, that you have made deaf of sound, and heavy of weight, as it is before declared in the other Book; and when you have well mingled them together with a stick, then cast in to the greatness of a Pease of your white Stone, and you shall find it transformed into very fine Luna, better than any that comes out of the Earth: and if in case you did cast one ounce of your white Stone or of your red upon a hundred ounces of unperfect Metals; so shall that be transformed into the Elixir or Medicine, wherewith you may transform all unperfect Metals into perfect Luna or Sol, after the beginning of your work: for your white doth engender nothing but Luna, andyour red nothing but Sol, and his projection one upon a thousand: that is to say, if you will melt a thousand ounces of unperfect Metals, you need put to it no more than one ounce of this same last Medicine, and it shall set it over into perfect Luna or Sol, better than any that comes out of the Earth, to pass all proofs and examinations that may be done upon it. And herein now following, I will learn thee the composition of both these Stones to the red and white: and I will first begin with the red, and then with the white, which is called Lunaris.   

CHAP. II. The Elixir of life.  
THou shalt take (my beloved Son) the red Elixir here before written, and set it in putrefaction the time of forty days; so that your fire be always of one heat, and not hotter one time then another, night and day: and the same must be done in Balneo Mariae: this time being ended, you shall find your Elixir to be dissolved into clear Water, if that you have kept the fire all the time of one heat: and your Elixir being dissolved into clear Water, then shall you dissolve therein Mercury that is sublimed, as I will learn thee hereafter; and dissolve therein as much of the sublimed Mercury, as the Elixir doth weigh: and see well hereto, that the Spirits fly not out as near as you can: then shake it softly between your hands, without opening the Glass; and take heed that your Glass break not through the force of the Spirits; and lute the mouth of the Glass fast with Lutement that is strong, that it may endure the warmth of Balneum, without opening: the which I will learn thee hereafter in a Chapter a part; and when the Lutement is very dry, than set the Glass in Balneo, to putrefy the time of forty days, as aforesaid, holding the fire of one heat continually the time of forty days and nights as aforesaid. The forty days being ended, look if all be dissolved; if it be not, let it stand longer till it be dissolved; and being all dissolved, let the Balneum cool: and in any case, see you take it not out hot, lest your Glass break: then take it our, and dry your Glass, and set it upon Ashes to congeal, and make your Ashes no hotter than you can suffer your finger to thrust it down to the bottom; and let it so stand the time of twelve days, without taking any thing out of it; but let it remain always in that Glass wherein it was putrefied: and see well to it, that the Lutement be not broken in any place; if it be, lure it well again, that the Spirits fly not out: and the twelve hours being ended, it ought to be congealed, if your fire be well governed; if it be not, let it stand longer, till it be congealed: and when it is congealed, then is the Stone fully made, and perfectly ended, and it is the riches of the whole world. God grant that you may obtain it, and give unto Almighty God a good reckoning of the health of thy Soul, etc.  
My Son, thou shalt understand that Mercury is called a Fountain, and the first matter of all Metals, as in Truth it is, and therefore cannot be done any great Transmutation, without Mercury be joined therewith: there may be made small Augmentations and Transmutations, like as we have spoken before in our Elixir; but they cannot do any high projection, for they do but one upon seven: but when Mercury is put thereto, and so perfectly made, it doth projection in infinitum, as here before is written: whereby it doth appear, that the Mercury is, as aforesaid, the beginning & offspring of all Metals. And therefore, my Son, we take the Elixir, and mingle therewith our purified Mercury, and conjoin these together with our purified Salt, which is our Sperm: so be they so fast bound together, that now, nor never, can they be parted asunder, for they do clasp and enclose together, so friendly as doth the Body and the Soul, if so be ye do it as we have written it. And when these three, to say, Sol, that is, Ferment, with the Salt and the Mercury, be joined together, then do they make perfect all things they be cast upon, not only it doth take away the sickness of the Metal and doth heal it; but it heals all Inconveniencies of men's Bodies; as one grain of this Stone, being drunk with Wine, being made hot, and then the party to go to a warm bed, and to sweat, which shall be incontinent, like as though he did lie in Water, and in three days he shall be made whole of what sickness soever be have. Therefore, he may think himself happy in this world, that hath gotten him this Treasure, and well can keep it secret, and use it godly to the help of the poor; for they be not all Masters, that do advance themselves in this Science to do many things: for many are called, but few are chosen.  
There be many that busy themselves in this Science, but very few that do bring it to a right end: for it may be that it is not God's will: but thou, my Son, have thou no doubt, so long as thou followest these Precepts that I have left thee written in this Treatise, and continue thyself always in labour and exercise, and thou shalt soon come to a perfect end of it, if it please Almighty God: for I have written thee in this Science, the right Treatise and Truth, as I have wrought it with my own hands, and brought it to a perfect end, as many people do know it in this City of Paris, although I have always kept it from thee till now: that have I done for certain causes that I will not open. Therefore comfort thyself, and be patiented, and think not thy labour long; for by diligent labour thou shalt come to the end sooner: with studying and reading there can come none of the knowledge of this Science; but only by labour: the study doth give a man how to work, and how he shall follow Nature in his working: for the end and profit of this Science, is the handiwork: for a Cobbler cannot set a piece on his shoe with reading, but he must put his hands to it, and labour to bring it to a perfect end.   

CHAP. III. Teacheth, to sublime Mercury to the red Elixir.  
MY beloved Son, take one pound of Mercury, one pond of Roman Vitriol, and break the Vitriol to powder; and then take one pound of common Salt that is two times dissolved and distilled by Filter, and vapoured and calcined as aforesaid is learned; and then break them to powder in a stone-Morter: occupy no Iron or Metal in this work; for if you shall, it will mar it: and when that your Mercury is mingled with the other water, with continual stirring, that you see the Mercury no more, but that he is wholly lost in the other substance, then shall you make moist with red-wine-vinegar, but not too much; and dry it then by the fire, or by the Sun; then put the same in a Glass to sublime, that is well luted beneath, and set it on warm ashes, and so long let your Glass remain open: and when you see the mouth of your Glass to look white in the sublimation, or that your Mercury begin to fly up, then take a linen  filled with Cotten-wool, and therewith you shall stop the hole above, as surely as you can; but your Glass must be somewhat high, that the clout with the Cotten that is in the mouth of the Glass do not burn, for than you shall consume your stopple: and then the Glass is well stopped: so augment your fire a little two hours long: and then four hours greater; and at the last so great as your Glass will bear without melting; and so hold your fire in that degree four hours long: then let it cool; and when your Oven and Glass is cooled, then take it out, and break it open, and you shall find your Mercury above in the Helm as white as Snow; and some part shall lie below upon the Feces, very fair and white: then take it up as clean as you can, both that which is flown up, and that that lies in the bottom on the Feces.  
Now to know whether that you have done right or no, take the Mercury so sublimed, and weigh it, and see what is diminished of the first weight: for if it be truly done, it will lack but one ounce in the pound weight; if it want more, it is not well done: for you have made your fire at the first too great, or at the last too small.  
And if at the first your fire were too strong, then is there of your Mercury flown away with the moisture, so that the weight comes short: and if at the later end your fire were too great, it may be that your Glass is melted or cracked with the force of the fire, and then is your sublimation lost: and if at the last your fire were too small, then is there of your Mercury on the Feces, and thereby is your weight diminished.  
Thus shall you understand, that I have found it, that there is but one ounce lacking in a pound weight, being rightly sublimed.  
Then take fresh powder of Vitriol, etc. and mingle your sublimated Mercury herewith, as you have done before, and sublime it again: and this must you do seven times in all points, as before, or at the first; and in every sublimation after the first, it shall diminish one quarter of an ounce, if you have done it right as aforesaid, and no more: and when it is sublimed in this manner as aforesaid, than it is ready to put into the red Elixir, to make the Philosopher's stone therewith.   

CHAP. IU. Teacheth thee to sublime Mercury to the white Elixir.  
MY beloved Son, you shall understand, that the Sublimation of Mercury, serving to the white Stone, is done as the other before in the third Chapter: for the red Stone, there is no other difference, but that you must put in the place of Vitriol, Roch-Allom, Saltpetre, and prepared Salt, as aforesaid and written; and do in all points as in the third Chapter, unto seven times: and then is your Mercury ready and perfect to put to your Elixir, to make the white Stone of the Philosophers.   

CHAP. V Teacheth thee to prepare the white Stone upon all bodies.  
MY beloved Son, you shall take, in the Name of God, your white Elixir, and set it in Balneo to putrefy, the space of fourteen days and nights; and in that space, your Elixir shall be dissolved into clear Water, if that you have governed your fire all the while in like warmth, or else it must stand longer until it be dissolved without Feces: then put of your sublimated Mercury thereto, so much as your Elixir doth weigh.  
Then take it, and shake it properly between your hands, that your Glass breaks not by the force of the Spirit; and look well to your Glass before you do shake it, that it be well luted or stopped, that the Spirits by no means fly out; for if they do, it will mar your work.  
This done, you shall set it well luted with the Lutement I have spoken of in the red Elixir, and set it to putrefy in Balneo forty days, as you have done in the third Elixir or Stone, and in that time it will be dissolved, if that your fire be all that time well governed; for it lieth much in the government of the fire: and when it is well dissolved, set it to congeal as you had in the red Stone, & it shall be congealed in twelve days into the white Stone of the Philosophers: the which will transmute all imperfect bodies into perfect Luna, to pass all proofs and examinations; and it shall be better and more finer Luna, than any that comes out of the Mines.   

CHAP. VI Teacheth thee to make the Lutement serving to these works.  
NOw to make the Lutement, so often spoken of before, that shall not untemper in the moisture and warmth of Water, and also another Lutement that shall keep your Glasses from breaking in the fire; for it must hold against the heat of the fire; and in the first place you shall take the white of Eggs so much as you shall need, and beat them till they be all thin as water; then let it through a sponge with your hand, till that it be clear as Fountain-water: of this same take as much as shall be needful to temper the powders hereafter; take the Flower or the Meal that hangeth or sticketh about the walls of the Mill or Backhouse, commonly called in places beyond the Seas, Stuff-Meal, eleven ounces, Bolarmoniack one quarter of an ounce, Sanguis Dragonis an half quarter of an ounce, white hard Cheese, the parings being done off, one ounce; break all these into powder, and searse them finely through a Sieve of Hair, & temper them with the whites of Eggs, and therewithal lute your Glasses with Linen-clouts dipped in this Lutement, in form of a plaster, & so bound about the helm and mouth of your Glasses, & let it dry by itself. This Lutement doth serve to lute the Helms upon the distilling-Pots; and also to lute the Glasses that you do putrefy in, and dissolve; & also to congeal.  
And now to the other Lutement spoken of before, that doth serve to lute your Glasses, to defend them from great heat of fire, that they shall not break nor melt; for than were your work lost: you shall take to this Lutement good fat Pot-earth, whereof the Potter doth make his Pots, and mix with it a little Sanguis Dragonis, Bolarmoniack, as much as the half of the Earth of the Potter doth come unto; and unsleked Lime as much as half the Potter's Earth; make all these into fine powder apart by themselves, and then temper them all together with whites of Eggs well beaten; & the blood of Oxen alike much, or if you cannot get Ox-blood, you may take Sheeps-blood; then take Linen-clouts, and scrape off the Lint, till you have as much as the Bolarmoniack doth weigh, and then mingle them, and temper them all together, and beat them with a piece of board, till that it be as soft as fine Paste or dough; and with this Lutement, you shall lute your sublimations under that part that standeth in the fire; and also your Glasses wherein you distil your strong Waters; for it will defend them from melting and breaking; and use it to all things that you do occupy in great fire: for you cannot have a better than this, to defend you Glasses against the force of the fire. Now I have written you enough of the Lutements: and in this Chapter I will write in brief a part of Philosophy as well moral as natural.   

CHAP. VII. Teacheth thee understand Philosophy, as well moral as natural.  

MY Son, I have given thee to understand in this Book, and declared all the Philosophy, as well to the red as to the white, so right and simple as possibly I may: for if I could have left to thee any briefer, I would not: for if that I should, thou couldst never have understood it: and therefore I have thought it good to show it thee in plain Words and Reasons, to declare the same, to make thee perfectly to understand to make this work, that thou shouldst impute no fault to me, if that thou shouldst not come to the right knowledge of this Science; but the fault should be in thyself, and in no man else: for I have written it in right and plain Words and Reasons: but take heed that thou be not as many men be, that do think themselves Masters of all Sciences, when that they never saw the Door wherein the Science was learned: but I would have thee use thyself to reading and studying of this Book, and print all these Reasons in thy heart, and then thou mayst go to work with a good and glad courage, and God will bless thy proceeding, if thou wilt serve him and pray to him, as it is thy duty to do; and also thou must have a diligent care to keep God's Commandments: for as I have often said, with bodily pains taking, and diligent labour, both of thy body and mind, thou shalt bring this Stone to a perfect end: for the Philosophers have hidden this Science, and have written it very darkly, and have coloured it over with many parables & dark sentences, that it is almost impossible to come to the understanding of them, without great instructions of others, Masters of this Science, or else through the great gift of God. Therefore I have written this Book, that thou mayst learn the Words and Reasons that I do leave after me, to the end, that thou shalt not fall into any error, but to come to the right end of this Science.  
My Son, thou shalt understand, that there be many Books (written by the Philosophers) remaining after their deaths; of the which they have written the Truth, but in a very dark sense; here in one word, there in another: the which have brought divers men unto great errors, thinking they did understand the meaning very well, when they were furthest from it. Therefore, my beloved Son, through the great love I have to thee, I have thought it good to open this Science unto thee, that thou mayst take heed of the dark say of the Philosophers, & that thou do exercise thyself in this Book: for if thou do observe these my precepts, you shall not come to any error. But I desire thee upon the salvation of thy Soul, that thou do not forget the poor; and in any case to look well to thyself, that thou do not disclose the secrets of this Science to any covetous worldly man; for if thou do, it will turn to thy hurt: for I have declared to thee, as I trust to be saved, upon my Salvation, the thing that my eyes have seen, and my hands have wrought, and my fingers have pulled forth:  
and I have written this Book with my own hand, and set to my name, as I did lie on my death in the year 1432. May 7th. Johannes Strangunere.   

To draw the Spirits out of the ponderous Body or Earth by Distillation.  
MAke a great many plates of new Lead of the quantity of Groats, as thin as a penny; and hang them on a thread, or small Wire, and fill a Body of Glass full of them, and fasten the Thread above the mouth of the Vessel: set thereon a Head, and lute it fast and surely, and put thereto a Receptory, and put it in a Furnace with as easy a heat, that you may always suffer your hand under the bottom thereof, and water shall distil every day from it, fait and clear as Rose-water: and at the last, the said Plates will wax soft, as they were mire, and fall down to the bottom: and then take the Glass, set it in Balneo or Fimo Equino, until the mire be dissolved into black Pitch Liquor: then put it into your Philosopher's Vessel, and mix it, and continue it in easy fire, that it may by Circulation become a dry earth as black as a Raven, which afterwards shall wax as white as Snow; the which is the white Elixir; the which you shall take from the Feces that lie there-under: for as Philosophers say, Totum quod subtile est ascendit sursum in vase, quod spissum manet in fundo.  
Then put the white in a Fixatory luted up, and continue it with more Fire or heat, till it be first grey, and after that citrine as a yellow Flower; and finally, purple-red, the which is the great Elixir that fixeth all Amalgems into Medicine, which altereth all Bodies into Sol and Luna.   

In the Name of God, Amen. Upon Saturn, Philosopher of Holland.  
UNderstand, That out of Lead comes the Stone called Lapis Philosophorum: and therefore, when he is throughly made, he doth projection as well in a man's body as without, of all diseases that come to man, as upon Metals; and in many vegetable Books, is no greater secret than this is: for we find not in Gold a like perfection as we find in Lead: for Lead is in his inner part Sol; and therefore do all Philosophers agree: for he lacketh nothing else, but that his superfluity be taken away from him, and that is his uncleanness: therefore make him clean, and turn his inward part out, and that is his crudeness; and then is he Sol: for vulgar Solemnising cannot be so lightly as Led; for Lead will quickly be dissolved and congealed, and he suffers his Mercury quickly to be drawn from him; & that Mercury which is drawn from him, if it be well clarified and sublimed, as the use is to sublime Mercury; I tell you, That that Mercury is as good as the Mercury drawn from the Sun in all manner of works, and it is better in our work then the Mercury of Sol. Also, if you should take Mercury out of Sol, you should be constrained to open the body of Sol for the space of one whole year, before the said Mercury of a body could be drawn or come out of Le●d: you may draw out this Mercury in fourteen days, and it is as good as the other: and if you should come to make a work of Sol, always you must be two years about it, to do it well; but of Led you may perfect it in thirty or two and thirty weeks at the most, and then be fully ended; the one is as good as the other, and Led costs little or nothing, and is a shorter work, and is less labour, and of one goodness, and is truth: therefore print this in thy heart, and serve God. The same Lead is called of the Philosophers Sol, whereof they had the name until this day, and have kept it secret: for if the thing were known, many would work it, and the thing would be common: for the work is short, and easy, and little of value; and therefore was it kept secret, that the name might be known, lest it might have come to the hands of wicked men, and so much harm might have come thereby, and this holy Science which God hath given to those that love and serve him, should to wicked persons be a means of greater wickedness. As concerning the Lead of Sol and Luna, they have set three Glasses, and all is Lead, but there is no need to join any strange thing, but that only which cometh from him; neither is there any man so poor, but that he may be able to compass this work: for you make of the Salt of Lead with little labour Luna, and with a little longer time Sol, and then they may proceed to make the Philosophers Led. And this is altogether concluded in Lead, as much as is necessary for us; for in him is the perfect Mercury, and in him are all the colours in the world, which shall show itself openly; for in him is the true blackness, whiteness and redness: he is ponderous, and in him is the perfect red and white bodies: look and take example, of all imperfect things the eye of man cannot abide or bear, how little soever, though smaller than a mote, yet it will trouble a man's eye terribly: but if you take Led clean scraped, and made the bigness of a Bean, and put it in your eye, it will neither pain you, or harm you at all; and that is, because its uttermost is not perfect like Sol or other precious Stones, that come out of Paradise, running in the stream: and in like manner Sol, that in him is, you may well perceive by the similitude and many other more, That Lead is our Philosophers Mercury, our Laton: for out of it is drawn in short time, our Mercury, and our Philosophers Mercury, that is, our golden Mercury, with little labour, little cunning, and little charge. And therefore I charge you, and all of you, that know his name, to keep his name secret: for if men knew it, much mischief and trouble would be done. And therefore you shall know our Lead by its hidden name, and you shall know that the water wherein our Lead shall be washed vinegar. This is the Philosopher's Stone whereof all the Philosophers have written many dark Books, but there are divers and many works in the Mineral Led.     

An Abstract our of Doctor Homodlus M S. De Elixir solis Medicina universali. Of the Tincture of Gold, separated from its body, and turned to a Celestial and Spiritual Nature, called a Quintessence within the Aurum Potabile.  

CHAP. I. Of the Matter of the Universal Medicine.  
SInce God hath created all things for man's use, and that in all vegetable, animal and mineral creatures, there is some virtue to be helpful to humane diseases; I thought there might be something among these of incorruptible Nature, which by itself might cure all Diseases, and prolong the life of man to a long age, keeping his humours in a most equal temperament: and by consequence, this thing must be of itself most equally tempered of the four Elements.  
Now seeking this thing in the Vegetables of Animals, I found it not, because that in all of them, there is some one humour predominant over the rest actively or passively: Therefore I turned to Minerals or Metal; but I found the Calx and Calcanth, and other things, being reduced to Ashes, could not be brought back again to their former bodies: And so I conclude, There was no perfect natural composition in them. And finding the perfect Metals thus reducible again to their own bodies, I perceived that in them was some firmer composition then in other things: yet are in all alike; for all the rest of the Metals, except Gold, by a strong Combustion, will be converted into dross and smoke; but Gold is no whit the worse after all Trials: then I concluded, That it was among all the rest incorruptible; and by consequence, of a most equal temperament and composition of Elements.  
And when I understood by Marsillis joining with Metals, could generate, I concluded, That in Gold there was a generative and regenerative virtue: but because I found the matter of Metals to be very gross and earthy, and that thereby this virtue was oppressed and kept, insomuch that it could not work, until it was delivered from the hands of its bodily Imprisonment, I judged, That is was needful to open, rarify, and dissolve the body, that the virtue might actuate. Whence I concluded at last thus: That Gold was the remote matter whereof the universal Medicine was to be made up, and that the Spirit of Gold and Lune, which is also called Lune Quintessence, is the matter whereof it is made up.   

CHAP. II. How to make the Menstruum, and how to circulate it.  
SInce I have declared heretofore the matter of the Universal Medicine, consequently I will open the way how to make the vegetable Menstruum, and how to circulate it, that it may be reduced into Quintessence: by that means of this Menstruum, the true preparation is made, that is also a Physical preparation, to wit, Subution, Putrefaction, Overflowing, Exuberation, Multiplication and Rectification; and that with the Conservative of the former Vegetable, and with the Multiplication of the force: for this is the Menstruum or Vegetable Water, which Raymundus speaketh of in this Codicil.  
Therefore Silver and Gold are dissolved in radical things of their own kind, and in the compound of the Soul of the Art: for this is the matter by which all incurable Diseases are cured under the conservation of their own Nature.  
Therefore this is the way to prepare it:  
Gather the Vegetable Lunary of the Philosophers, in the time when the height of Goffer doth rule, which is the seventh and the first day of the Reign of Corrocay, the Ministerial Spirit of the same height, in the sixth rank, and last three hours before noon, and as many afternoon: when the day is fair, and the sky is clear, then take the Lunary itself, pure and uncorrupted, with its grains, and bray it, and put it in earthen Vessels which are new and well glassed, and which are most carefully covered to be set in a most cold place, and there to be left a whole month, or thereabouts.  
After which time, opening your Vessels, you shall find in the bottom of each of them, the sap of Lunary, which will send forth a most sweet savour: take it and put it in another most clean Vessel from the Feces: and then again you must pour it upon its Feces, and set it again, as before, for the space of eight days in a cold place. After which time, it must be poured out again into another Vessel: and from thence again it must be joined to its Feces: which third time it will be done just the same manner as the second. And so you shall have the sap of Lunary prepared in the best fashion.  
But because Lunary is not found everywhere; therefore, if when your shall have need of it, and it cannot be found, you shall take the sap of it, prepared in the common fashion, and called by Raymund, Black baker, then black; but take of the best: then pour it either way prepared into a Glass-Cucurbite, which is a Great, or into a Pellican-Vessel, with handles on both sides, which is called Circulatory, and put the Vessel; most carefully shut in a Physical Vaporary, and let it there be circulated a whole Month: which time past, take away the blind Head, put on at alembic, and join a Recipient to it; and the Joints being well shut up, distil in Balneo Mariae, a most subtle Spirit from it; which being first lifted up on high, is turned into the similitude of sweat, which maketh no veins: but when the Phlegm shall begin to distil like rain, take away the Cucurbite with the Recipient, and let it cool.  
This being done, transfuse the Spirit from the Recipient into the Cucurbite of Glass: Lose then the first, and putting on the Limbecks Head, distil it in Balneo Mariae, with a most easy fire, till the Spirit be gone out, the Phlegm remaining in the Cucurbite.  
Now when the whole Spirit is purified from the Phlegm, and rectified, and distilled in a Recipient; The Vessel being cooled, pour out the Phlegm from the Cucurbite, how little soever it be: then pour in again into the same Cucurbite, the Spirit; and then distil again in Balneo with a most easy Fire, as of the same, as is beforesaid, so oft till the Spirit be wholly purified from the Phlegm, and perfectly rectified: which Spirit so prepared, if it be fired, will not leave any work of moisture behind it; nay, it will burn a cloth, being made well, and put into it.  
And hitherto have I imparted unto thee the best manner of drawing out the Spirit from the Lunary: which Spirit being shut up most carefully in a Glass, must be set in a cold place: through the Glass shut, it will vanish away: it is subtle and heavenly, though the other part of the Menstruum or Earth of the same thing be prepared: which then being copulated with its own Spirit, maketh the vegetable Menstruum, which is the Basis and chief Foundation of Spagyrical preparations.  
Therefore the way to prepare the Earth is thus:  
After that the Spirit is drawn out by Distillation, and separated from the Lunary, you must take the Cucurbite, wherein the sap of the same thing was best, and put it into the Balneo Mariae, and distil it with a gentle fire, till all the Phlegm be gone out; which you shall know by this, that in the degree of heat, there shall nothing more fall in the Recipient, and the matter in the bottom of the Vessel, shall be sunk down, like Honey, or melted Pitch.  
Then having the Recipient, pour so much of the Phlegm of the same thing upon the Mercurial part, that it swim above at least four finger's breadth; and with a wooden spittle moving the Phlegm with the thick matter, wherein is the potential Mercury, and also the Sulphur vegetable of Nature; mix them, and when the Phlegm shall have drawn its Tincture out into its self, suffer it to rest a little. Then afterward pour out the colourated Phlegm, but warily, lest that the Mercurial part be poured out with it, which doth not serve to our use, but only to the Tincture of the Mereuries, as Raymund saith in the Book of Mercury.  
Here must be noted, We have called the thick Water in the bottom of the Glass, like unto molten Pitch, Mercurial; and also Sulphurial, because that the Sulphur of Nature is potentially hidden in it; which, when any will draw out of it, it is altogether necessary, that it, or rather the purest of it, be separated from the impure, and be brought to the first Mercury of the Philosophers: and then converted into the Sulphur of Nature, as shall be consequently taught: moreover, in the thick Water in the bottom, pour on again so much of the Phlegm, that it be covered the breadth of four fingers; and, as before, mix them together by Agitation, and then evacute the colourated Phlegm by Inclination.  
And this work must be so oft repeated, till the Phlegm hath drawn out the whole Tincture, and the Earth remaineth in the bottom of the Vessel white as Crystal, transparent; which set out to be dried by the fire, or by a heat elemental of fire, not violent.  
Then when it is dried, and made up into a Powder most subtle, put it into a Glass-Vessel, fit and clean: and pour so much of the Spirit that I have heretofore reached you, and prepare upon it, that it may stand four fingers breadth above it.  
Then shut the Vessel with a blind Head, and set it in Balneo to be digested the space of three days; which being done, take away the blind Head, and put to the Cucurbite an Alimbeck, and join a Recipient unto it: and having well shut all the Joints, put the Vessel into a Furnace; and giving it a gentle fire of the second degree, separate from hence the Spirit itself by Distillation; which enclosed carefully in a Glass, shall be kept in a cold place: for it is an animated Spirit.  
Afterwards having increased the fire with a continual course or order till all the Phlegmatic moisture, how little soever it be in the Earth, be exhaled; which Phlegm is to be cast away: for it serveth to no use at all, but unto the earth itself.  
After it be well dried, and again calcined, pour again so much of the new Spirit, that it stand three fingers breath: and having glued the blind Head upon it, put it three days into the Physical Vaporary; which time past, take away the blind Head, and put on a Limbeck: and from thence distil an animated Spirit, which joys to the first, and keep.  
Then afterwards proceed to distil, till all the Phlegm be gone out, and cast; and those operations must be so often renewed, till the Earth appear white and flowing like Wax upon a glowing Plate of Iron: give no smoke at all. The Earth thus prepared, must of necessity be returned into a Calx, giving not a dissolving but a digesting heat of the fire. When this Truth is calcined, you shall put it in a fit Vessel of Glass, which must be set it temperate heat of the fire, the first degree: and in it unto the Earth must be poured one ounce of the animated Spirit: As for example, To one ounce of the Earth, you must put one of the Spirit: which animated Spirit I taught you heretofore to draw out of the Earth itself by Distillation.  
Then shut the Vessel with a blind Head, and suffer it to be digested three days, or so long, till the Earth hath drawn up his Spirit: then taking away the blind Head; and putting on a Limbeck, by Distillation draw out the Phlegmatic and unsavoury moisture, how little soever be in it.  
Then again the second time, give to the same Earth of its own Spirit the seventh part; and putting the blind Head upon it, set the Vessel on the first degree of heat, to be digested three day's space: then taking a way the blue Head, and putting on the Alimbeck, distil all the insipid moisture.  
Thirdly, Add to the same Earth, the fixth part of its own animated Water; and putting on the blue Head, set in digestion for three days: and after that time, removing of the blind Head, and putting on the Alimbeck, distil the superfluous humidities.  
Fourthly, Add again the fifth part of the animated Spirit to his own Earth, digest it, and by Distillation, evacuate the humidity.  
Fifthly, Render the fourth part of the Soul of the Body, and digest it, and draw out the moisture, as I have shown before: and so with the fourth part of it upon the same Earth, prosecute the operation by Unvivistives, Digestion, and Distillations, till the Earth have drunk up all his animated Spirit, and both be reduced to an Homogeneal Body: then take the Earth which is withheld, and white, and put it in a Vessel of Glass, divided into three parts, which being luted, and carefully shut, must be put in a Furnace to the fire of the third degree, the space or a natural day: and so the pure part of it will be separated from the impure, and will be lifted up on high, and the impure part of the Body be left in the bottom as unprofitable, to be cast away, and the pure to be gathered: and this is called by Raymund and other Philosophers, Mercury sublimate, vegetable, Shall Armoniac, and set of Lunary vegetable, wherein are so many and so great virtues, that the humane tongue of man cannot express them.  
Furthermore, All things being severally prepared, to wit, the Spirit and the Earth, it remaineth here to show the way to copulate the Spirit of Lunary, with the Earth of the same prepared, that is, with the Salt or Sulphur of Nature vegetable: but out of the conjunction of these two, one organical Body, to wit, the vegetable menstruum, may be made up: and the way to make it is this:  
Take one pound of the Salt or vegetable Sulphur new prepared, bray it very small, and put it in a Cucurbite of Glass, which is strong and thick, and upon it of the foresaid Spirit of Philosophical Lunary: then shutting the Glass most carefully with a blue Head, so that it hath no Air at all, put it in the Balneo, and let it purify for the space two days: then taking off the blind Head, and putting on a Limbeck, and joining a great Recipient to it; After you have stopped well all the Joints, you shall distil it in the Ashes with a gentle heat, and all will go out by the Limbeck. Nevertheless, if any of the Salt should remain in the bottom, you shall again pour of Spirit newly distilled upon it; and distil it again from hence. And this shall you do so oft, till the whole Earth as a clear Water be brought over the Limbeck; being done, take yet one pound of Salt, put it into the Cucurbite, and pour upon it the same Spirit lastly distilled: cover the Vessel with a blind Head, and set it to purify; and being purified, till all the Sulphur pass over the Limbeck with the Spirit; and that being distilled, take again, as before, of new Salt vegetable one pound; and adding the same Spirit, purify; and then distil all. Fourthly, Take likewise fresh Salt one pound, and pour upon it the Spirit lately distilled, till all pass by the Limbeck, and nothing remain in the Cucurbite; and so the vegetable menstruum shall be made, and perfectly ended, having power to dissolve both the lights, and all other Metals, with the conservation of the vegetable form: but now it is resting to show how the menstruum must be converted unto a celestial Nature or Quintessence: and the way is thus:  
Take the simple menstruum, and pour it into a great and strong Glass-Vessel, that the fifth part of it only be full, or at the most the fourth, and the rest be void: then shut the Vessel with a blind Head; shutting diligently all the Joints, lest the power of the menstruum vanish: being shut, put it in the Physical Bath, or in the Horse-Belly, and let it circulate a whole Month: which time expired, put on your menstruum into another clean Vessel: and do this warily, lest the settling in the bottom by the Circulation be poured out together with the menstruum, but it must be left in the Circulation: so shall you have the menstruum purified, circulated, and celestial, which the Philosophers call, The Heaven, The Crown of Heaven, and, The Quintessence; whose brightness and transparency doth exceed the brightness of all Lunary things, and the sweet smell of it exceedeth all other sweet savours prepared by Nature.  
This Quintessence is the groundwork of all Spagyrical and Physical Preparation: for by the virtue of it, all solid Bodies are corrupted from their own Natures, and are brought to Liquors, Oils, Spirits, Elixirs, Magisteries, Stones and Tinctures. Whence it cometh, That the Spagyric can give to the Physicians the best Medicines.    

Of the manner of dissolving Gold, and of separating the Tincture of it from the Body, or the form from the matter; and also of exuberating or multiplying the same.  
THe manner of composing the vegetable being delivered; and also, of making it celestial: it remaineth that you should be showed how the matter of the Universal Medicine, to wit, Gold, should be prepared with the heavenly menstrual, that it may exercise its virtue upon the Body of Man: the manner to prepare it is this:  
Let Gold be cemented with Antimony, that every Heterogeneal thing be separated from it: then being well purged, reduce it to very small Leaves: then of the foliated or Leafgold take an ounce, and put it into a little Cucurbite of Glass, and pour upon it two ounces of the heavenly menstruum, or of the vegetable Quintessence. This being done, put the Cucurbite closed Hermetically into a Fire of the first degree, and then of the second; so shall the Gold be dissolved, and the menstruum shall draw into itself the Tincture of it, or the colour; and it will become citrine, bright, resplendent, shining, and most acceptable to the sight: then by little and little inclining the Vessel, transfuse the menstruum into another clean Vessel of Glass: but do this warily, lest the Earth or Feces of Gold be not poured out together with the menstruum and Cucurbite: then to the golden Earth, which is settled, pour again two ounces of the menstruum, and shut the Glass with Hermes his Seal, and set it first in a fire of the first degree, and then of a second: and when the menstruum shall have the colour of Gold, ejaculate it into another Vessel of Glass; yet so, that the Earth be not mixed with the menstruum, but may remain in the bottom; and leaving the Feces of the Gold in the Vessel, pour again two ounces of the menstruum upon it; and shutting the Glass Hermetically, set it in the heat of the first, then of the second degree.  
Then empty the golden menstruum into another Vessel, taking heed lest the Feces go out with it together: reiterate these operations so oft as before, till you see the menstruum draws no more of the Tincture of Sol, and that the body of it remain in the bottom white, which will be done in seven times, if you do all these things well.  
Now when all the Tincture of Gold is prepared from his Body, it is requisite that all the dissolutions be joined together, and be put in a fit Vessel: then purify.  
And then lastly, having put on a blind Head: and having shut carefully all the Joints, set it in a Furnace, and give it a heat in the second degree, and exuberate from thence the most precious Liquor of Gold: than you shall have the Tincture of Gold separated from the Body of it, and made volatile, joined with the Heaven or vegetable Quintessence, from which it must be separated, by the way which I will show you in the following Chapter.   

The manner how to separate the Tincture of Gold from the Quintessence vegetable, and the way to circulate the same, that it may be converted into Quintessence, or Celestial Nature and Spiritual, and almost Incorruptible.  
HItherto we have showed you how to draw the Tincture from the Body of the Sun, and how they exuberate it, in a clear and open speech. Now we intent to show how the same Tincture may be separated from the menstruum, which is Celestial, and by Circulation is converted into a Quintessence most fragrant, and in strength most eminent, and incorruptible as the Heavens. To do this, proceed thus:  
Take a Stillatory of Glass, and infuse into it the vegetable Menstruum, which is circulated; in which is the Soul of the Gold: then add to it of the Element of Water in the same thing, to wit, of the Lunary of the Philosophers, so much as is of the menstruum itself: then put your Vessel in a Physical Furnace; and putting an easy fire of the first degree to it, distil from it the vegetable Quintessence, and the Element of Water admixed to it: so the Tincture of Gold shall remain in the bottom like Wax melted, or like the fluid gum, and in colour most like unto a Ruby.  To purify this Tincture from the superfluity of the Elements, and to make it to a Quintessence by Circulation, proceed thus: 
Take a fit Vessel of Glass, and put in it the Tincture of the Sun, most red, exulerated and separated from the vegetable Water, and pour upon it a convenient quantity of the vegetable Quintessence: and having shut the Glass Hermetically, put the Vessel in a Physical Vaporary, and with continual heat, as of the Sun, suffer it to be circulated a sufficient space; which done, you shall see in the bottom of the Glass an Earth like unto Slime, which must most be separated from the Tincture, mixed with the vegetable, as a superfluous thing; which is done by the Distillation of the menstruum with the Tincture in the fire of the second degree: which being done, put the Vessel, containing the Quintessence vegetable, mixed with the Tincture in the Physical Bath; and putting to it the fire of the first degree by Distillation, extract the vegetable Quintessence: and so the Tincture of Gold most beautiful, being purified from the Dregs of the Elements, and Slime of the Earth, and made spiritual and volatile, shall be settled in the bottom of the Circulit, converted into a Quintessence, and into a Celestial and Incorruptible Nature, to which no earthly thing may be compared in smell or sweet favour, nor in virtue and excellent operations. Keep the Quintessence most carefully, as a most precious Treasure: for it is the true potable and mutable Gold, The true Elixir of the Sun, Power, The true Diaphoretical and Universal Medicine, The true Mercury of the Philosophers, without which there is no Transmutation of Metals.   

The way to reduce the liquid and volatile Quintessence of Gold into a fixed Stone, and transparent like to a Ruby, with the multiplication of Celestial Virtues.  
ALthough I have hitherto delivered the true and perfect way to prepare Sol, and to convert it into a Quintessence; so that it serveth for all Medicinal effects universally, and needeth no further preparation: Nevertheless, because the virtues of it may be further augmented, I will now reveal how it may be fixed into a Stone; which by a manifold Solution, Coagulation by heavenly Influences, doth attain unto the highest degree, Perfection and efficacy to all effects both within and without the body of man.  
The way to make it is thus:  
Prepare a Fixatory Vessel of equal bigness with their heads, having heads equally proportionable, whose heads must be disposed, that the head of each one may enter into the belly of each other mutually, and that the mouth of the one Vessel may enter into its own head; but that the mouth of the other may receive within itself the mouth of its own head: then put in each Vessel one part of the Quintessence of Gold; and to each part severally, pour thirteen parts of the Quintessence vegetable; which being done, put the heads upon the Cucurbites, and join the Vessels together as they ought to be; and shutting the Joints most carefully that there an Anchanor; and having given a most temperate heat of the other or second degree, let the Quintessence be so long moved, till the vegetable Water hath laid off the Tincture or Colour of Gold, and shall have ascended and descended no more citrine in colour, but white like a distilled Water, which will be done in three or four weeks at the most: which time being past, and when you have seen the aforesaid sign, then suffer the Furnace to wax cool of itself, then taking the Vessel from the Furnace, open them, and in the bottom of each Glass you shall find a Stone, like unto a Ruby or Carbuncle, which is the potable Gold, congealed through the vegetable virtue; and the purest of the vegetable Sulphur working upon the Quintessence of Gold: from which Stone, by the Inclination of the Vessels, you shall separate the vegetable Waters: then take out both the Stones out of both the Vessels without any moisture, and you shall put it into a fit Vessel very carefully, that it suffer no harm by the Air: and when you would have this Stone to become more pregnant and powerful in operation by Celestial Virtues, proceed thus:  
Bray it in a Marble or Glass-Morter with a Glass-Pestel; and being brayed, put it into a small Glass-Vessel, 〈◊〉 to that effect; and being Hermetically shut, put it into the Physical Bath, and leave it there three days, in which time it will turn into a Water or Liquor very red: which Liquor, put into the Achanor, and suffer it to be digested five days in a temperate heat: and then again it will be conduced, and become a stony substance red, and transparent: from thence take out again the Stone, and bray it to a powder; and then again, put it into a Physical Bath the space of one natural day, and then again it will be dissolved into a most red Liquor; which again put into the Achanor to be digested, the space of two days; which time past, you shall find again a Stone most transparent and like to a Ruby, which may be melted upon a red hot Plate of Iron, and will send forth no smoke at all. Now this same so prepared, hath so many Virtues, that no tongue of man is able to express them.   
FINIS.