Fundamenta Chymica: OR A SURE GUIDE into the high and rare Mysteries OF ALCHEMY; BY L. C. Philomedico Chymicus.  
LONDON Printed by WILLIAM GODBID, for William Barlow, without Aldersgate, 1658.   

To the worshipful and truly worthy Patriot of his Family and Country, WILLAM PITT of Hartly-Westpel in Hampshire, Esq Robert Turner of Holshot, wisheth Felicity.  
Honoured Sir,  
SEpius memini ipse perpendi: I have often involved in my Mind the Worthiness of the Famous AUSONIAN PRINCES in their promotion of ARTS and LEARNING, by their Favourable Aspects, in Candidly accepting the Dedications of generally all AUTHORS and STUDENTS in Liberal SCIENCES; which is no small Encouragement unto them. Seldom do we see the Title of a German DEDICATION, but it is directed, Aliquo serenissimo Principi, etc.  
And this, Sir, I hope will be a sufficient Advocate for me, to present this small Piece to your Worthy Patronage; and I am encouraged thereunto, through my sensibility Generositatis, Benignitatisque tuis nostratibus: You remain the standing- Pillar of your Noble Family, and the Honour of your Country; for which you have your Neighbour's Prayers and Praise: and for my part, my Mite is small: Hanc igitur meae, in te, habeas qualemcúnque sit gratitudinis, & observantiae Testimonium.  
Sir, This is a Piece of Hermetical Philosophy, which is well seasoned with Salt, and I doubt not will at least help you away with the tediousness of some vacant Hours: 'tis a Translation; and if I have erred in Grammar, I submit to your Censure: beseeching the ALL-Eternal to endow you and yours with all Felicity, internal, external, and eternal; for which I am your daily Orator, as I am Revera,  
LONDON, 22 Decemb. 1656. Your most humble Servant, Robert Turner.   

To the Reader, Whose Studies are seasoned with Salt.  
WHEN the rude dark Chaos, and indigesta moles, lay tumbling in darkness, and rolling amongst the undivided waters; when the Spirit of the Great Eternal Elohim, moved above the Face thereof, it seemed good to his Great creating power, to make a Witness of his Glorious Majesty, by framing the spacious Universe: then did he pronounce a fiat Lux, Let there be Light: and no sooner was his will declared, but Light immediately, like a ready swift-winged Herald, soon proclaimed his Embassage to the as-yet unseparated Fire, Air, Earth and Water: and they, as dutiful Subjects, yield ready Obedience to his Glorious Commands; and Light speedily muzzles up darkness, and presents the Creator with a new baptised morning.  
His sacred Power further intending to manifest his Glory, commands a divorce between the Earth and Water; and as a mighty Monarch doth his conquered Enemy, or stubborn Rebel; so he with another fiat, makes that terrible, boundless, fathomless Element, the Sea, become his Prisoner; and confines her swelling waves to their bounds and borders; banishing them from one end of the World to the other, to run up and down in an unsettled motion; that though her brinish Mountains swell never so high, yet further than his great fiat permits, they never dare approach. Then after he had vanquished this terrible (to poor mortals apprehension) adversary, he soon bespreads the Earth with a green robe, embroidered with such variety of glorious flowers, as the greatest Potentate on the earth, with all his Glory, could never attain to the like array. Moreover, did his refulgent Majesty yet further illustrate the beams of his glorious might in bedecking the bespangled azure skies with those powerful Creatures the Sun, Moon, and Stars, which he set for times and seasons, days, months and years; and to divide betwixt day and night: to omit the ready obedience, the Sea, Air, and Earth yielded, in bringing forth fishes, birds and beasts, immediately at his command. Whither now doth my wand'ring Muse soar? What royal Potentate or princely Guest, should now be expected to this glorious Entertainment? Not the Mighty Angels, that excel in strength; but the great Deity, called a triune Council, & commanded the Earth also to bring forth an Epitome of all his voluminous works, the Manual of his glory, Man, a naked puling Creature, born without Sword or Shield; yet into his Soul did the All-eternal breath the Image of Himself, crowned him glory, made him little lower than the Angels, made him Commander of Earth's Empire, gave him an os sublime, a lofty countenance, to view the Stars, and learn to know their powerful influence upon the inferior World.  
Now doth the wise Philosopher, he who is a true contemplator of the divine Wisdom, by a threefold operation, and threesold matter, make his creation, and erect the fabric of his world, with his Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. The Mercury & Sulphur of the Philosophers, hath much been written on, more than needs talked on; but the third and chief principle, was as yet unsupplied.  
Here, Reader, it is fully discussed, and to the intelligent and deserving, will be a great revealed Secret: despised by fools, cracked on by bragging knaves; who indeed like degenerate bastards, unframe the frame, & blot the manual, and deface the Glorious Image of the Almighty.  
Some seek to fill the insatiate Gulf of their unfathomed wills, in vain pleasure: Another seeks to mount the slippery stairs of staggering honour, and to make a perpetuity of his offspring: Another digs in the Earth, and is shipwrecked with covetous dunghil-passions. The actions of all these are not a whit tinctured with the true Salt of the Philosophers; for therein is no such thing.  
Many indeed there are to whom the Philosopher's Study seems ridiculous, because their unseasoned brains cannot apprehend the great mystery thereof: to them I will not bestow time to say a word; nor here tell you the Virtues of Salt: yet you see our natural vulgar common Salt will preserve dead flesh from putrefaction: What then will the true-prepared Philosophical Salt do? It is not meet to tell you here; but if you are worthy of it, the Book will; and Paracelsus told you already.  
Let me entreat you to take notice by the way, that when you find any mention made of heaven, earth, soul, spirits; or our heaven, etc. these are not meant the celestial heaven, or natural earth; but terms used by the Philosophers, to obscure their say from the wicked; spoken with all due and holy reverence to the divine Majesty; of whose glorious Attributes, the true Philosophers and Astrologers are as tender as CL— assical John can be; yet this I thought good to mention, being cautious lest any spark of my flint should touch the wildfire of his beacons; but that my Salt may rather preserve the hopes of my intelligent Reader, to dive through his Studies, to his crowned haven: with which desire I conclude,  
22 Decemb. 1656. R. T.   

To the Reader.  
THis little Treatise Secrets doth unfold,  
More rich, more precious than the Indian Gold:  
Here is the path, which who doth rightly tread,  
To health & wealth it will him safely lead.  
Salt seasoning all things, Light illuminating,  
The universal Spirit vivificating.  
O happy Souls, who first these understood!  
Here's true Philosophy so pure and good,  
And freed from errors, that none need to doubt,  
If they were in them, this would bring them out.  
By Transmutation may be brought to pass,  
The courser Metals, be they Copper, Brass,  
Iron, Led, Tin, to purer, (this is high)  
But 'tis not all that's done by Chemistry:  
For the Elixir, (which renews our youth,  
And age retards, if Spagyricks say truth)  
Is thereby got, if these things may be done,  
Lets Saturn, Venus, turn to Sun & Moon.  
Th' effeminate French our Author hath turned well,  
To manly English; and the Latin Spell  
Is made so easy, that none need to fear  
To understand th' Aenigma's writing there.  
The busy Merchants for their hoped gain,  
To both the Indies, Turkey, France, and Spain;  
Nay all the world, for Gold and Drugs do room,  
Now here, now there; but better stay at home:  
For health and wealth is here; if they'll but look,  
They'll find them both discovered in this Book.  
25 Xbris, 1656. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

To his ingenious Friend, Mr. ROBERT TURNER, on this his laborious and difficult Translation.  
EXpect not (Sir) that I should amply treat  
Of this Discourse, (that cost you pains and sweat)  
Nor hope for yet, from my more duller pen,  
Your Sal should be described to Englishmen.  
The sublime secrets of your Chymick-skill  
May prosper better from your learned quill.  
My fancy's raw, my brain is not endued  
With Art enough to talk of humours crude,  
Nor yet of th' Epilepsy, or the Gout,  
Consumption, Asthmas, or the rabble-rout  
Of Physickterms: I study other things:  
Ergo, I'll leave those unto Chymist-Kings.  
These highborn Fancies do appear to me,  
Like great Sir Urquhart's Genoalogy.  
Nor dare I without Sendivogius Torch,  
Approximate you nearer than the Porch;  
Lest I (presumptuous) should be gazed upon  
By those that have their wedding-Garment on  
But, as man oft feels heat, and sees no fire,  
So I (unskiled) this learned Work admire.  
The learned Physicians, who years consume  
In finding out a Medicine for the Rheum,  
(And when they think themselves to be at rest,  
They dare not write on it, probatum est)  
May learn by this (could they but find the cause)  
To cure diseases by the Chemist's Laws:  
Nor need th' ingenious Operator doubt  
Of perfecting whatever he goes about:  
The lofty Secrets in this Book laid down,  
(Once understood) will save him many a Crown.  
There is a Secret higher yet in this;  
For here is taught what anima mundi is:  
For which the Learned oft have beat their brains,  
And gained nought but labour for their pains  
If men would learn this quicker way, & share  
In Chymick-skill, deal in learned Turner's Ware.  
Jo. Gadbury, Philomath.   

To the learned R. T. on the following Tract.  
WHat rare Discovery? what light is this  
Shines to us by thy Metamorphosis?  
That doth derive an Art to simple man,  
From God and Nature; by which Art he can  
Of all diseases know the perfect ground,  
And render imperfections, whole and sound.  
Thanks therefore, learned Friend, for this our gain,  
Who reap the Harvest of thy polished Brain.  
The Great Elixir sure enjoy you must,  
That thus can raise a subject from the dust  
Of dark oblivion, and then transmute  
His for vesture to an English suit.  
Thus thou hast changed the language nevertheless  
The sense remains, though in another dress  
This thou hast gained hereby; the worl● will see  
Thou art a friend to dame Philosophy:  
And for the labour thou hast undergone,  
To  this Infant in our Albion,  
Succeeding times shall praise what thou hast writ▪  
And future Readers own to thee their wit●  
Mean time, if Zoilus say, thy pen di● halt,  
Conclude, his brain's not seasoned with our Salt.  
Your humble Servant, Owen Crane.   

The Contents.  

BOOK 1.  
Chap. 1 THat the world lives, and is full of life. Page 1  
Chap. 2 The World hath a Spirit, Soul, and Body. Page 16  
Chap. 3 All things are made by the Spirit of the World, of the first matter. Page 19  
Chap. 4 How the Sun is called Father of the mundane Spirit and first matter. Page 23  
Chap. 5 How the Moon is the Mother, etc. Page 32  
Chap. 6 That the root of the Spirit of the World, must be sought in the Air. Page 37  
Chap. 7 How the Earth nourishes this universal Spirit. Page 41  
Chap. 8 The Spirit of the World is the cause of perfection in all. Page 44  
Chap. 9 The specification of the universal Spirit to bodies. Page 49   

BOOK 2.  
Chap. THat the spirit of the world assumes a Body; and, how it is incorporated. Page 54  
Chap. 2 Of the conversion of the Spirit into Earth; and how its virtue remains integrally in this Earth. Page 67  
Chap. 3 Of the separation of Fire from Water, etc. Page 102  
Chap. 4 Of the Spirits ascent into heaven, and descent, etc. Page 160    

A TREATISE OF The Philosopher's true Salt and Secret; And Of the universal Soul or Spirit of the World. BOOK I.  

CHAP. 1. That the World lives, and is full of life.  
PUrposing to comment something on the Spirit of the World, I shall first demonstrate, That the Universe is full of Life and Soul; and here besides, That Nature makes nothing Spirituous, but it also endues it with Life; an● That the World consists in continual and restless alterations of forms; which cannot be without vital motion. We may also take notice, That the same Nature, like a careful as well as a fruitful Mother, embraces and nourisheth the whole World, by distributing to each member a sufficient portion of Life▪ so that nothing occurs in the whole Universe, which she desires not to inform being never idle, but always intent upon her action, which is Vivification.  
This vast Body then, is endued with motion, yea, continually agitated therewith; and this motion cannot be wrought without some vital Spirit: for whatsoever wants Life, is . But here I mean not of violent motion from place to place; but of that, which in reference to a form, is privation; to perfection, imperfection. The vegetation of Plants, and concretion of Stones are effected by the motion of this universal Spirit, agitating this great Mass and the mediation of a certain radica● and nutritive Spirit, whose origine or principle, like some primary procreating cause, resides in the Centre of the Earth; and thence, as from the heart, exerts all vital functions, and extends itself through the whole Body. And this root or principle is included in the bosom of the ancient Demogorgon, that universal Parent; whom, old Poets, those diligent Searchers of Nature's Secrets, have ingeniously described, clothed in a green Cloak, obduced with rust, and covered with thick darkness; feeding all kinds of Animals, into whose belly, the virtues of the Celestial Luminaries, continually descend; penetrating the very bowels of the Earth, and impraegnanting it with all kinds of Creatures; where the elementary qualities and powers offer their services to this old Parent, as to the Producer and Distributer of all things; who continually occupies Iliastus, in dispensing of specifical forms; and Archaeus, in exciting vital heat: which Iliastus and Archaeus, are as it were two Instruments, whereby ●he informs, conserveses and augments all things.  
Here note, That by Iliastus we mean a general Steward that affords matter for all generation; and by Archaeus, natural or radical heat, which digests this matter, and acts upon it.  
This Demogorgon then is he, by whom, as by his Instrument, God produces all things in and under Heaven: so that he containing his Iliastus and Archaeus, does with singular providence, unknown to vulgar Philosophers, and therefore masked under the supplement of occult causes, form and generate, then nourish and preserve all things; exercising the office of a good Housholder or Steward, who hath his Cellar in the bowels of the Earth, and thence draws Life and vigour for his Family. The Earth therefore, which is the Receptacle of Celestial Influences and Virtues, contains i● it the Fountain of this vital Spirit, fro● whose Rivulets, Animals, Minerals, an● Vegetables, derive Life; which communicates to them, sense, essence, an● vegetation, as it finds their matter disposed for motion: and hence such things as are compounded of a more ducible Mass, and fit for such motion, become sensitive and vegetable, and able to generate things like themselves, because they are endued with Life: for Plants, and the like, whose Spirits are not cohibited in too crass and hard matter, increase and multiply; grenerating things like themselves by seed and plantation; but not like Animals, but Minerals, whose Life is neither sensitive nor vegetive, but only essential, because their composition being too hard and gross, too straightly captivates their Spirit, that they cannot produce any thing like themselves, unless they be first purged from their gross impurity, and reduced to the subtlety of their first matter: about which, Aurelius Augurellus, that excellent Poet and Philosopher, writes thus, Lib. 1. Chrysop.  

Haec inter variant, quae nec primordia rerum  
Exlant, quaeque frui vitali sorte negantur,  
Ut media quaecunque sedent lellure metella  
Quique latent miro grati fulgore lapilla.  
Nullo namque genus sobolemve auger putantur  
Semine; sed cunctos aevi torpere per annos;  
Verum haec ipsa etiam secreto vivere quivis  
Sentiat & vitae divino munere fungi:  
Haec & oriri eadem si contemplabitur etsi  
Augeri ex sese penitus increscere cernet,  
 mox e rariis patefactis nosse licebit.  
Quod si non sobolem educunt, non caetera vertunt  
In semet, causa est, quod multa spiritus illic  
Materie abstrusus, vitam qui porrigit omnem,  
Explicat aegre ex se vires in vivida promat  
Has hominum virtus densa sub mole latentes.   

But those that neither Life enjoy, nor yet  
First matter are, but in the Earth do sit,  
As Metals rich, and Stones that precious be,  
Differ from these: for no offspring we see  
They generate, nor kind augment, but lie  
Resting themselves: yet he that shall espy  
Their secret acts, and with himself compute  
Their augmentation, cannot sure conclude,  
That theyare quite void of life for though they do  
No offspring generate, nor turn into  
Themselves, nor other things: yet life they have  
Which is so chained in the closer cave  
Of their dense solid matter, that they can't  
Exert such actions as a brute or Plant.  
Yet if man's skill do quit them of these bonds,  
Their virtue's such, as will make them amends.   
For when these Minerals are pure, they will by their specifical form, though not generate something like themselves, yet work such an alteration and perfection in things like themselves, that they shall equalise the Philosophical Elixir, whose divine virtues, wisemen so much admire, fools so much contemn, because their blind eyes cannot penetrate to the Centre of this Mystery.  
If therefore Animals, Minerals and Vegetables, which constitute the greatest part of this visible World, be full of Life; what Reason have we to think, That the whole is more imperfect than part thereof? But let us sink further into Sublunaries: if the Celestial Bodies give Life to the Inferiors, they must certainly and necessarily be enlivened by the Universal Spirit: for nothing can give that it hath not: of which let us hear Augurellus.  

Hoc etenim quic quid diffunditur uadique●aeli,  
Aeraque & Terras, & la●i marmoris aequo▪  
Intus agi referunt anima: qua vivere mundi  
Cuncta putant ipsumque hac mundum ducere vitam.   

All that's contained under Heaven's Canopy,  
Both fire, air, earth, & eke the boundless sea,  
Are moved, they say, by a most ample Spirit,  
That th'world enlivens, & all that it inherit.   
But natural motion is always conjoined with Life; how then can that produce Life and motion in another, that hath them not in itself? Motion never forsakes that which hath Life; and that which either moves, or is moved always, cannot want Life: The Soul of the Universe moving itself spontaneously, is the fountain and original of all corporal motion; for the most subtle part of this Mundane Soul, soaring high, and inhabiting the Heavens, is continually wheeled about with the Celestial Bodies, which itself circumduces with its proper and continual motion: and for this Reason, the superior Bodies are more lively and perfect then the inferiors, because they are continually moved orbicularly; and that which is moved continually, must needs be immortal. And thus it appears, that the whole World is full of Life; and, that the Life of every species and individual, is but a participation of this Universal Life of the World, which alone may be properly called an Animal, in whose corporal Elements, the seeds of all visible and corporal thing are hidden and included: for we see many Plants grow without precedent seeds, and many Animals produced without copulation of Male with Female. The visible seed of Plants lies in their Grains, of Animals, in their Genitors: Metals also have their seed, but such as is not visible but by true Philosophers, who know how with great industry to extract it from its proper subject. And unless there be a certain procreative faculty in the Elements, wherein Generation is potentially included, many Herbs would scarce germinate on the Earth, much less on high Walls where no seed was ever sown, nor Herb planted; neither would so many kinds of Animals be generated in the Earth or Water without copulation of Sexes, as there are, which do by copulation afterwards, perpetuate their species, though themselves were not generated by the commixion of any Parents; as we see in Snakes generated of Mud; and Flies, and other little Animals, of Excrements. Again, How do Oysters, Sea-Spunges, and other Aquatical Creatures live, which rather merit the name of Plant-animals, then of Fishes? These do not so much live by any particular Life proper to themselves, as by that Universal one, general and common to all; which is more vigorous in subtle Bodies, as more near to it, then in grosser ones, which are more remote from it.  
The World then, created wholly good, by him that is Goodness itself, is not corporal solely, but participates of spirituality and intelligence: (for it is full of all manner of forms:) and, as I said before, hath neither part nor member, but that 's vital; and therefore wisemen have called it a Masculine and Feminine, or Hermaphroditical Animal, one part holding a certain Matrimonial Alligation with another. And hence, by a certain Translation, arises the diversity of Sexes in Plants and Animals; which, in imitation of the World, copulate together, and generate a third like themselves: for the World produces an infinity of little Worlds; for every Body in the World that is generated, is a Microcosm, having distinct parts, virtues, and qualities belonging to a little World. So that every thing hath an inclination to generate a thing like itself, by the right ordering of Action and Passion; which could not be, if all things were not full of Life: for what Generation can proceed from a dead subject, seeing it is neither probable nor possible, that that can communicate Life to another, that wants Life itself?  
We see indeed sometimes, many things are generated without the congress of Male and Female, yea, without the production of either, whereinto the Universal Spirit infuses Life by means of Fomentation; as many by Artifice, who exclude Eggs and Chickens without the sitting of a Hen: and others, who by preparing certain matters, and putrefying them, produce wonderful Animals, as the Basilisk of a Cock's Egg, or of the menstruous matter of a red Hen, Scorpions of the Herb BASIL Bees of Neat● bowels, a kind of Ducks of the Leave● of a certain Tree falling into the Sea (a,) with many things of the like Nature● that merit admiration rather than credit, because they are made out of th● ordinary course of Nature; certain matters in certain seasons and places attracting Life from the Universal Spirit, wherewith the World so abounds that all its actions are vital: insomuch that nothing dies, perishes, or ceases from action, and consequently from Life but immediately some other living thing results out of it: and upon this account, no Body perishes, or is totally annihilated: for if it should, all the parts of the World would by little and little vanish one after another before ou● eyes; especially, considering how many mutations and Ages have gone before us; insomuch, that he that perpends, might admire that there are any relics left in Nature at this time: which 〈◊〉 French Poet, and no little conversant in this secret Philosophy, hints at to his Friend, thus: 

Vostre aspect inegal qui mea fortune change  
Est comme le soliel, contraire en ses effects  
Qui amollit la cire, & indurcit la fang  
Et fait des corps nonveaux de ceux qu'il a defaicts.   

Your aspect in my fortune's changes sways,  
As Phoebus in his effects, whose bright rays  
Waxes do modify, but harden Clayes,  
And from corruption do sound bodies raise.    
(a) Our Author seems here to embrace the vulgar Opinion of the Generation of the Northern Ducks, which the Scots call Claikis, Claiks, or Claik-geeses; and the English, Bernacles: which many other Writers say are generated of the Nuts of a certain Maritimous Tree falling into the prolifical Sea, or of some Shells adhering to putrid pieces of Ships: which thing the learned Lobellius makes mention of (in Advers. Stirp. pag. 456.) where first he seems to assent to, & afterwards to doubt of, and last to conclude, That Fabius Columna had justly refuted this Opinion. Lobellius in the second part of his Work, pag. 259. describes the figure of this Duck or Goose, as also of the Tree and Shells. Olaus Magnus also mentions this kind of Ducks, Lib. 19 Hist. Sextent, cap. 9) But Carolus Clusius seems to have explained the generation of them more rationally, Canctario Exoticorum, pag. 368. where he says, That the Hollanders sailing towards Waygatz, saw some of these Ducks sitting upon their Eggs. Fabius Columna repeats his words: but Ulysses Aldronaldus, Lib. 19 Antithog. cap. 23. towards the end, embraceth the middle sentence, saying, He had rather err with the multitude, then contradict so many famous writers; and therefore he says, These Ducks may be generated of corruption, and afterwards multiply by copulation and incubation, like Mice and other Animals. The generation of Palmer-worms from Plants, may also be well referred to this place, which, whether they be generated naturally, or artificially, feed only upon the Herb whereof they are generated, or to which they are related: as also the Generation of Caterpillars, and then of Butterflies; which afterwards multiply their species by copulation. I saw at Rome in Henricus Corvinus, an eximious Apothechary and Botanist, his Shop, a Butterfly, which they said was made of the corruption of Cypress-Leaves; so elegant and great, that its Wings equalised my little Finger in length, and were all over, as it were, eyed; whereof, as of the Palmer-Worm, you may read Fabius Columna his Observations, Part 2. Stirp. minus Cog. pag. 85.   

CHAP. 2. That the World, because it lives, hath a Spirit, a Soul and a Body.  
THe Body of the World lies open to our senses, but its Spirit lies hid; and in the Spirit its Soul, which cannot be united to its Body, but by the mediation of its Spirit: for the Body is gross, and the Soul subtle, far removed from all corporal qualities. For the unition then of these two, we must find some third participating of both Natures, which must be as it were a corporeal Spirit, because the extremes cannot be conjoined without an intervenient Ligament that hath affinity with both. The Heaven we see is high, the Earth low; the one pure, the other corrupt: How then shall we exalt this impure corruption, and conjoin it with that active purity, without a mean? God we know is infinitely pure, and clean: Man exreamly impure, and defiled with ●ns. Now these could never have been conjoined and reconciled, but by the mediation of Christ Jesus, God-Man, ●hat true attractive Glue of both Nature's. In like manner, this Spirit corporeal, or Body spiritual we speak of, 〈◊〉 the active Glue of Body and Soul: which Soul sits in the Spirit of the World, ●s a spark from and of God's infinite ●ntelligence: for these effective eleva●ions, renovations, mutations, variations, ●nd multiplications of forms, must necessarily arise from intelligence, and ●ot from matter which participates of ●o reason; and therefore cannot cause ●ch formations and specifications. The World than is nourished by this Spirit, ●nd agitated by this Soul, which is infused ●nto it by mediation of this Spirit: which Virgil, following divine Plato's Doctrine, expresses elegantly, Lib. 6. Aeneid.  

Principio Caelum ac Terras composque liquentes,  
Lucentemque Globum Lunae, Titaniaque Astra;  
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per Artus  
Mens agitat molem & magno se corpore miscet.   

The nourishment of th' earth, mountains, and skar●  
Of th'heaven, of planets, & of glistering stars▪  
We attribute to th' Spirit; but to th' Soul,  
That these do move & stir without control   
To which Augurellus also attests in his first Book, saying, 

Ast Animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers  
Mundus at & mundi partes quoque corpore constan  
Spiritus haec inter medius fit, quem neque corpus  
Aut Animam dicas, sed eum qui solus utroque  
Participans in idem simul haec extrema reducat  
Hic igitur Maria ac Terras, atque Aera & Ignem  
Vivereque augerique atque in se cuncta refer  
Semper Aves, semper Stirpes, Animantia semper  
Gignere, perpetuamque sequi per secula prolem, &c   

But since a Soul is incorporeal,  
And all the parts o' th' world we meet witha●  
Are bodies; these two cannot be combined  
Without a mean betwixt Body and Mind  
Which is a Spirit: wherewith the raging seas  
Fire, air, & earth; all plants & fruitful tree  
With animals, are acted; so that they  
Do generate their like, and live for aye, &c     

CHAP. 3. That all things which have Essence and Life, are made by the Spirit of the World, and of the first Matter.  
ALL things are nourished by the same, by which they were produced. Now that all things breathe, live, augment and grow by this Mundane Spirit, resolve and die without it, is plain. Whatsoever therefore subsists, is made by it: and this Spirit is nothing else but a simple and subtle essence, which the Philosophers call a Quintessence, because it may be separated from gross corporeity, and the superfluities of the four Elements, and so made of wonderful activity in its operations; and it is now diffused over all the parts of the World; and through it, the Soul is dilated with all its virtues; which virtues are communicated most to such Bodies as participate most of this Spirit: for the Soul is infused by, and transmitted from the superior Bodies, as from the Sun, which acts most powerfully in this case: for this Spirit being calefied by the heat of the Sun, acquires abundance of Life, which multiplies and enlivens the seeds of all things, which thereby increase and grow to a determinate magnitude, according to the species and form of each thing: upon which account Virgil saith, 

Igneus est ill is vigour & caelestis origo.   

But fiery vigour, and heat celestial,  
Are to these Bodies their original.    
Now this Spirit is by Philosopher's called Mercurius, because it is of many or all forms, producing all kind's o● Bodies; giving to some things a faire● and more lasting; too others, a weake● and more corruptible Life, according to the pre-disposition of the matter upon which account, this fiery vigour proceeding from the Solar beams, is n● alike in all subjects, but diversified as there is more or less of it in the seeds. All matters of purer predispositions, have a purer and more durable Life and Spirit: for every thing delighting in that that 's likest to it, it is more than Reason, that this pure Celestial vigour should penetrate and sink deeper into purer Bodies, and make them more durable and vital. For the proof of which, we need go no further than Gold which, being purer than all other Terrestrial Bodies, participates more of that Celestial Fire, which, penetrating the bowels of the Earth, finds in Minerals the pre-disposed matter (to wit, the Mercury and Sulphur, which Esdras calls, The Earth of Gold) prepared by the action and diligence of Nature, and purged and separated from all inquinations of Terrestrial and adust Dregs: which matter, in the beginning, is only some Sperm or Water mixed with that Sperm, Powder or pure Sulphur; which, acted by the coagulative faculty, thickens by little and little; and in time, by long and continued action of the heat, hardens, and so comes to its perfection, which is naturally simple, tincted with the colour of Fire: for heat is the Progenitor and Parent of Tinctures. If therefore it be certain, that this heat comes from the Sun, as it must needs be indubitable, who can so much contradict Truth and Reason, as to deny the Sun to be the Author and Parent of this perfection? Let us then look higher, and seek more accurately how this perfection may be caused by this mean.   

CHAP. 4. How the Sun is by Hermes called, The Father of the Mundane Spirit; and of the Universal Matter.  
BUt some may here say, If all things proceed from one and the same matter, how can the Sun be called the Parent of this matter, when itself is procreated or produced out of this matter? For answer whereunto, we must consider, That if we speak of the primaeve prejacent matter of all things, it is altogether invisible, and cannot be comprehended but by strong imagination; out of whose vital light and natural heat, this Celestial Sun was produced, with equal light and fiery vigour: which afterwards, strengthening this internal and essential heat, with natural, displayed the beams of his Fire over the whole Universe, illuminating the Stars above him, and vivifying th● things below him. But because the Earth is, as it were, the common Mother of all things, the Sun acts most vigorously upon her, she being the common Receptacle of all Influences, in whose bowels the seeds of all things are absconded; which being agitated and moved by the Sun's heat, come to light: and for this cause, in Winter, when the Sun is furthest absent from us, the Earth being destituted of that vigorous heat which his perpendicular Rays brought with them, she is we see barren, and produces nothing: Whereas in the Spring, when the Sun again reviews our Climate, than she rises from her sleep or death, and receives Life and vigour. The cause of which mutation, must needs be the Universal Spirit full of Life, inhabiting the Earth principally; which, before it can generate any thing, must take up its Inn in some Body, as in the Earth, which is the Body of Bodies: and because all things are nourished and sustained by that which produces them, there must be great affinity and harmony betwixt this Spirit and the Sun. And for this cause ancient Philosophers say, That the Sun in the Springtime, calefies and enlivens his Parent loaden with old age, and almost killed with Winter-cold. Seeing then she is by the Sun fortified, enlivened and impregnated, Hermes had reason to say, That the Sun was the Father of this matter: for being otherwise barren, and without offspring, she now conceives, generates and multiplies her spirituous matter, leading it from incorporality to corporality.  
The Philosopher Hortulanus commenting on Hermes his Table, leaves and omits the radical principles of Nature; and taking his rise by the principles of Chemistry by the Sun, understands the Philosopher's Gold, which he truly calls the Parent of the Philosopher's Stone. For all that are conversant in this Art, learn from Experience and all good Authors, That the true matter and subject of this Stone, hath Gold and Silver in potency, and Quicksilver naturally: which Gold and Silver are much better than those men commonly see and handle, because these are alive, and can increase; the other are dead and if this could not be effected, the matter would never be brought to it● perfection, which this Art promises 〈◊〉 which is indeed so efficacious, as to perfect imperfect Metals. But this same invisible Gold or Silver, which by this Magistery is exalted to so sublime a● degree, cannot communicate its perfection to imperfect Metals, without the help and service of vulgar Gold and Silver. Wherefore Alchemists always adjoin the one or the other, and so make Gold the Father of the Elixir.  
But such as would be further informed in this verity, should diligently evolve good Authors: for it is not my purpose to speak more of it: For it is enough for me, to show, that divine Hermes, with one and the same finger, touches both strings, or under one and the same sentence locks a twofold meaning; which himself declares, when he asserts, That he was called Hermes Trismegistus, because he possessed three parts of the World's knowledge: for having given the Anatomy of this Universal Spirit, (which is the material Author and principle of all the three chief kinds, comprehending the whole of the world) he had attained so much of knowledge and wisdom, that nothing could lie hid from his eyes: and this principle he makes one. So that all things are produced from one, by mediation of one, and adaptation to one. This One then of which he speaks, is that general Spirit whereof I treat: and that One, by which he says, Miracles may be wrought, is the true Mineral matter of the Stone, whereof we spoke even now, which is produced from the first general matter, or universal Spirit, in the Earth, by Nature; which Spirit potentially containing all Celestial virtues in itself, communicates so much to this Mineral matter, as is requisite for the obtaining of its perfection.  
But omitting Chemical Doctrines as much as we may in this Treatise, we say, That this general Spirit is a Stone or Elixir composed by Nature; by mediation whereof, she works all her Miracles: which is much more admirable than the Alchemists Stone, which is only a grant of this universal Spirit, that it may act and perfect things like itself: for being truly Metallical, purified and completed 〈◊〉 Art, it purifies and digests Metals le●● in their impurity for want of digestion But this Physical or natural Stone perpetually restores such things as are produced by Nature, and hourly pr●creates new things, as well in the kind of Animals, as of Vegetables and Minerals; which yet it could not do, without the help and influence of th● heavenly Bodies, especially of the Su● which is the origine and principle of a● faculties and generations. It hath the● the Sun for its Father, and contains i● itself spiritual Gold and Silver, because it is the first matter of Gold and Silve● corporal. And because Air is the medium through which it receives these superior influences, Hermes saith, Tha● the wind carries it in its belly: fo● which cause Raymundus Lullius calls i● Aereal Mercury: but the Earth, like at universal Parent, nourishes it in her fruitful womb: which appears by the production of all things proceeding from the Earth: for if this Spirit were not included therein, she would have no power nor virtue in generation and production; seeing she is properly no more than the common vessel or matrix of these many and different generations: for the general matter or Mercury of them, being, as Philosophers denote, invisible, and almost incorporeal, cannot be made visible and corporeal, but by some subtle artifice; which matter, if it can be extracted out of the Arms of its Nurse, and purged from all accidental superfluities, may (notwithstanding any Reason I can see to the contrary) in the things whereto it is applied, separate things corruptive and heterogeneous, and conserve and multiply things homogeneous and conformable to it.  
It is without doubt, That Authors are misunderstood, when they seem to assert, that Metals only should be usurped to the production of Metals, saying, That the Seeds of Gold are in Gold: for besides that which we have spoken of common Metals, and of those which Philosophers assume to the confection of their Magistery, we dare yet affirm, That without this general Spirit, (which is in all things the sole cause o● vegetation) the faculty innate in a● Metals, of becoming Gold and Silve● can never be deduced to vegetation, o● from potency to act, because Nature produces not itself, but in every operation there must be some agent, and some matter subjacent to the action.  
And this doubless is that fire which Pontanus speaks of, which all Philosophers have concealed and kept under Lock and Key, as the sole Stearn of their actions: for want of which Fire, Pontanus (as himself confesses) erred two hundred times in his practice, though he had to do with the right matter.  
This threefold Mercury then, or sum total, is the first Seed of all Metals, as also of the other two kinds or Genus 's; which is by little and little coagulated, and by the continual action of heat lying in the Mine, hardened and tincted, when it is perfectly pure: but it makes up several species, and acquires divers forms and colours, according to the variety of the place, and adjacent matter, producing Metals, Minerals and Stones, in the bowels; Trees and Plants in the surface of the Earth; as she is animated by the Solar Rays, without which she would be barren: for Nature at first established this for a Law, That the Sun should perpetually nourish and calefie the matter, always moving its threefold faculty, Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral to its effect.  
And this is the Cause why Hermes wrote the Sun its Father.   

CHAP. 5. How the Moon is the Mother of the Spirit of the World, and the Universal Matter.  
LEst any might here be deceived, he must consider, That as one of us, a Microcosm, hath a Body, a Spirit, and a Soul; even so hath the Macrocosm: and seeing nothing exists that wants these three, there must needs be great affinity amongst them; so that no one of them can be found without the other: and though two of them may seem sometimes to be separated from the subject, yet they are only hidden in the third that remains, as a subtle and profound Artist may easily experience, by the examination of Fire. What therefore is Matter, the same is Spirit; and what is Spirit, may (and that not impertinently) be called a Body. If we consider, That they are indivisible, and by Nature's Laws so generated, that they are one and the same thing: by which account it appears, that the matter is not only Matter, or Soul, or Spirit; but refers and represents all, because one is always generated and nourished with the other: so that in the propagation and action of one, the two other are always present.  
When therefore we say, That the Moon ●s the Mother of the Spirit and universal matter, we speak not irrationally, ●or assert any absurdity: but here we must more intimously inquire, whence his Maternity proceeds. Heat and Moisture then are the two Keys of Generation; and Heat performs the office of the Male, but Moisture of the female. Corruption arises upon the action of Heat over Moisture, and Generation follows upon Corruption; ●s we may see in the small Body of an ●gg, wherein, by the heat of Fomentation and Incubation, the Sperm pu●●efies, and afterwards the Chicken is ●agulated and form. The same is so apparent in the Generation of ●an; who, by the help of the natural Heat of the Woman acting upon th● Masculine and Feminine Sperm united in her matrix, is deduced t● a complete Body, perfect in all i● parts.  
By Corruption here, we understand Mutation and passage of one form in●● another, which cannot be effecte● without the mediation of putrefaction (which is the sole medium and way 〈◊〉 Generation) which is also promoted 〈◊〉 the help of some Mercury or Quic● silver, which is the special Conducts of the vegetative faculty: and th● Sperms of all Bodies are aqueous, an● as it were, full of Mercurial humou● and if their innate Heat be borough from potency to act by the external heat of the Sun, then may their Generation be procured by decoction.  
Hence the ancient Philosopher's ●●sert, That the Sun and Man genera●● the Sun, the terrestrial Sun, which Gold; and Man, Man. And it is manifest, That without the heat of t●● Sun, the heat of the Elementary Fire dead and barren. Whence the Sun also called the Master of Life and Generation. Heat then in all Generations comes from the Sun; but radical moisture, by the influence of the Moon; which influence, all sublunaries receive and feel, when this Planet is in its increase or wane. And thus you have an account how and why Hermes called the Sun Father, and the Moon Mother to this universal matter: for the heat of the Sun, and moisture of the Moon, generate all things; because heat and moisture, in a due temperament, cause conception; and upon conception, Life and Generation. And though Fire and Water be contraries, yet one can do no good without the congress of the other: but by their divers actions, all things conceive, and are conceived.  

Ainsi dans l'univers discordante concord  
Aux Generations devient apt & sh' accord.   

If Generation in the world be had,  
Than what erst discord, is in concord made.   
Yet I would not have my Reader suspect, That by too hasty judgement I would abstract Hermes his prime intention, from the broad way of all Alchemists into the by-paths wherein I tread because I know, That all good Philosophers, according to his mind and will say, That the Sun and Moon should b● in conjunction, that they may absolv● perfect Generation: for as Arnoldus d● villa nova in Flore florum, says, The Philosopher's Sperm is not joined to their Body, but by the mediation of their Moo● which Moon is not common Silver; bu● the true matter of their Stone, whic● congregates, and inseparably retains in its belly, Body, which is the Sun and Sperm, which is Mercury. And h● speaks of this Moon in his novum Lume● where he says, That excepting his Mast●● of whom he learned his work, he kne● none that ever operated in the tru● matter; but all were extravagant an● erroneous in the election of their ma●ter, as if they would generate a man 〈◊〉 a dog.   

CHAP. 6. That the Root of the Spirit of the World must be sought in the Air.  
Wind is nothing but Air moved and agitated, as we may learn from the respiration of Animals, which blow Wind when they breath Air. Wind then is Air, and Air is wholly vital, and the breath of Life: for without Air nothing can live or subsist: for whatsoever is deprived thereof, ●is suffocated and dies, yea, Plants themselves that are destituted of free Air, whither, and are in respect of others, dry and dead.  
We therefore have some Reason to say, That Air is a vital Spirit, penetrating all things, communicating Life and consistence to all; binding, moving, and filling all.  
By this Air then, the Universal Spirit that lies hid and shut in all things is generated and manifested; by this it is engrossed, form, and made more apt for Generation: whereo● Calid the Philosopher treating, says not without Reason, That Mineral have their Roots in the Air, thei● Heads and Tops in the Earth. As i● he should have said, The Air causes thi● Spirit to enliven, augment and multiply Minerals in the Earth; though those that have some experience it preparing the Philosopher's Stones may say, That this place should b● otherwise understood: for according to their Doctrine, in their Philosophical Works, there are two parts; on● volatile, which is elevated in form of a vapour, and then condense● and resolved into Water; and thi● they call the Spirit: the other more fi●ed, residing in the bottom of the Vesse● which they call the Body. Rosinus explain this sentence by another of th● same Authors: for he saith, Take th● things off their souls, and exalt them o● high, and reap them in the tops of thei● Mountains, and reduce them to thei● Roots: where the Glosser says, These words are true and clear, without envy and ambiguity; though he declares not what he understands by things whereof he speaks. But by Mountains (saith Rosinus) the Philosopher means Cucurbites; by the tops of their Mountains, Alembics: by reaping, he means, we must receive the Water of the aforesaid things, through the Alembick into the Receptacle: by reducing them to their Roots, he means, That we should reduce the said Water to the Earth whence it arose. This is also confirmed by Morienus, who saith, That the Philosopher's operations consist only in extracting Water from the Earth, and reducing it to the Earth till the Earth putrefy: for the Earth putrefies, when this Water is purified; which, being once pure, will by God's help, direct and perfect the whole Magistry.  
Some have exploded Air out of the order of the Elements, thinking it as glue or lime to conjoin divers Natures; judging it the Spirit or Instrument of the World, because it is the Chariot of the Universal Spirit: for it first receives the influences of all Celestial Bodies, and communicates them to other Elements and mixed Bodies. In the mean while, like some divine Looking-glass, receiving and retaining the species and forms of all natural things, which it carries along with it, and insinuating itself into the pores of Animals, impresses those forms on them, whether they sleep or wake. We learn from Animals and Vegetables, That every Spirit near the Earth, receives its virtue and vigour from the Air: for we see such things increase and extol themselves: the Spirit which gives them Life, doth so much delight in Air, as the place where it had its origine. Hermes also saith, That the Air carries it in its belly. Whereunto Aristotle subscribes, saying, That moist things proceed from the Air, and Terrene things from the moist ones: for Air being next the Earth, humectares it on every side; and the humour thereof being condensed by innate heat, is turned into a certain kind of Earth, which contains Mercury and Sulphur in due proportions.   

CHAP. 7. How the Earth nourishes this Universal Spirit.  
THough this Spirit be infused into, and dwells in superior as well as inferior Bodies, yet it may be best known and discerned in Bodies most evident and near to our view; of which the Earth is nearest, and most vegetable: in it therefore is this Spirit generated, and manifested more copiously: for the Earth is a certain mark, whereto all the Influences, Rays, and Virtues of the superior Bodies tend. It is moreover the Fundament and Basis of the other Elements, containing in itself the seeds and seminal virtues of all things; for which cause it is rightly called the common Mother of all Animals, Vegetables and Minerals. It is therefore impregnated by the Heavens, and produces all things out of its womb; and though this Spirit were expelled, washed away, or separated from it by what way you please, yet the Earth, thus void of Spirit, if left a while in the Air, would again be impregnated by the Celestial virtues and influences, so as to produce some Chystalline stones, and lucent sparks: and by this means, the Spirit which was taken for separated, would again regerminate in the Earth. Impregnation then made by the action of the Heavens, and of the first qualities, doth continually render her generative: for out of her womb come all things sublunary. She produces all things endued with life, preserves, nourishes, and at last resolves them into their own Nature. When she is agitated by these actions, she causes a twofold expiration; one without her, another within her: which expirations egrede from this Terrene Spirit, when moved and calefied by the Celestial heat. The expiration elevated without or above the Earth, if it be humid, causes and produces dew and frost; if dry, wind, thunder, and other dry Aereal impressions: but the expiration included in the Earth, if it be humid, generates liquable Metals and Minerals; if dry, stones, and the like, that are not liquable. All things vegetable proceed from, and are nourished by this Spirit, whereof the Earth is Nurse: for which cause, the ancient Poets call the Earth the common Mother and Nurse of all Creatures.   

CHAP. 8. That the Spirit of the World is the cause of perfection in all.  
THe Universal Spirit is the general Genus, and common to every Genus: for if we cast our eyes into the inferior or elementary World, we see it divided into three subalternals, to wit, animal, vegetable, and mineral kinds, and yet the same in all, only operating diversely according to the diversity of its forms. And hence the infinite variety of Creatures arises; for else there would be only one species in the Universe: but if we perpend the superior and Celestial World, we shall also find, That the Spirit is one, equal in all, and differing in nothing but purity and subtlety: for the Celestial Spirits are procreated of its pure igneous substance, and differ from Terrene ones in corporal grossness: and the Celestial Globes and Luminaries are made of its middle and Aereal substance: it constitutes therefore all things, because it hath in it both the faculties of superior and inferior Bodies, and because it is of an exquisite temper: for this Body is in all the beginning and end of perfection; and if it were destituted of its faculties, it could never perfect any thing: and here we understand simple and natural perfection; and although it be perfect only, according to the intent of Nature, containing in itself the rule, line, action and power of perfection; yet it acquires virtues and faculties above the sphere of natural things, and can deduce things from potency to act. This Spirit altars and penetrates all things, though never so gross; mollifies hard things, hardens soft things, and augments, nourishes and conserveses all things. This Spirit also, being in all Bodies the Author of Generation and Corruption, hath necessarily a threefold operation: for by its dryness, it must enliven; and by its coldness, congeal; and by its moisture, congregate and unite: for which it hath a threefold name imposed on it, desumed from the three kinds of Earth: for they call it vitrifying, salsuginous, and Mercurial because of Salt, Glass, and Mercury, all things are made; though Paracelsu● reckons these principles otherwise, to wit, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, adding Glass as a fourth. As if he should say All things are made of these three first principles, and reduced at last to the fourth as though neither Nature nor Art could produce any thing beyond Glass. But I shall prove my own sentence by Examples and Reason; The Bones of Animals are consolidated and hardened by vitrification, the F●●●h and Nerves concreted by Salt, and united and congregated into one m●●● by the escurial humour. In Vegetables also, the shells of Almonds, Pine-Nuts, Walnuts, and the like; as also of Oysters and Snails in Land and Sea, may be made by vitrification: and the taste demonstrates, That these Bodies are saltish; for nothing wants Salt, but what is insipid; yea, those things are very saltish whereof Glass is made, as Fem Kali, and the like. Some may here object, That it is not Glass, but Salt, that causes the induration of Bones, Shells, and the like, which I have mentioned. Whereunto I answer, That Experience and Reason speak the contrary: for Salt is resolved and melted by the least moisture of Air or Water: but the Bones and Shells before mentioned, resist liquefaction, as they are more or less hardened by this Glass-making faculty: for the ultimate confirmation of which my assertion, I may adduce precious Stones, Adamant and Crystal, which are nothing but Glass elaborated to perfection in the Furnace of Nature. And now, that all things are condensed by Mercury, is so manifest, that it needs no other Testimony, but common Experience. Minerals have enough of Salt, Sulphur and Mercury in them: Stones and such effoded things as acquire not extension and fusion by the Hammer and Fire, have some Salt in them; but this is superated by the adustion of corruptive Sulphur, which comes upon their induration and vitrification. Metals and all ductile things are concreted and condensed by Salt and Mercury; and so much hardened by vitrification, that they bid some resistance to the Hammer, which is indeed more or less, according to their implication with more or less impurity a● adust Earth, which comes upon the coagulation of their Mercury. And th●● we may affirm, that all things are mad● of the ternal number of Glass, Salt an● Mercury, or Water; where Glass is th● cause of hardness, Salt affords matte● and Water causes unition and condensation.   

CHAP. 9 Of the specification of the Universal Spirit to Bodies.  
THe Soul of the World, and its Action and Virtue, is represented in 〈◊〉 things in which it is: this binds and ●njoyns the superior things with the ●feriour: for as many Ideas as the ●eaven contains, so many seminal muse's it obtains; whence, by the Me●●ation of the Spirit, it forms so many ●ecies in the matter. When therefore ●falls out, that any one of these spe●es degenerate, it may, by the Soul within it, and the mediation of the ●●iversal Spirit, be reform, and reduced to its former state; for the Spirit always at hand, and ready for all ●otions. In the mean while, we must ●●t imagine that the intellectual Idea attracted; but rather, that the Soul endued with such a virtue, and alured by the material forms: whi●● cannot seem absurd to any one; for prepares every one his meat and nut●ment, because it is transmutable into 〈◊〉 things by which it is solicited, and w●lingly remains and resides therein. Z●roaster calls the Agreement and H●●mony of the Forms, with the Soul of th● World, Allurements. Whence it appears, That all things and kinds dra● their powers and faculties from th● Soul of the World, not all totally, b● such as respect the seed or propagation, and the like, whereby they germinate or increase. An example here we have in Man, who, feeding only 〈◊〉 Man's meat, acquires not the Nature 〈◊〉 Birds, Fishes, or the like, which 〈◊〉 cats. Many other Animals also fe● upon the same victuals, and yet eve● one attracts that which is proper to h● species: so that it is worthy our admiration, that out of the same Meat, M● can attract what is proper to Man, an● a Bird what is proper to a Bird. An● this is not because there are many an● divers Aliments in one and the sam● dish, but because of the species nourished, which attracts and changes the nu●iment proper to, and convenient for 〈◊〉 self; by mediation whereof, it jennets its like, by virtue of this Soul ●nd seed, which is in it according to its ●ality.  
But we mu●● not think, That in the machine of the Worid, the Spirit, Soul ●nd Body, are things separated: for ●●ese three are always united and conjoined, as is apparent; and by this ●●ion, the whole Spirit and corporal obstance become vital.  
The universal Soul then, feigns and imagines divers forms, which the Spi●●t receiving into the bowels of the ●ements, makes corporeal, and pro●ces. Hence Animals generate only animals; Plants, Plants; and Minerals, Minerals: though not all alike: 〈◊〉 Minerals, as I said before, generate ●ot their like after the same manner 〈◊〉 Plants, because their Spirit is committed by too gross matter; which spirit, if it could be conveniently exacted, and conjoined with Mineral ●atter●, would generate its like, because by its exquisite penetration into imperfect Bodies, through the subtilization of Art, and artificious Graduation of Fire; it brings with it proper and Mineral seeds only, not animal, because repugnan●●o its Nature● yet I will not say, 〈◊〉 it wants th● action of other faculties; but that 〈◊〉 doth not demonstrate them, but according to the species whereto it 〈◊〉 accommodated: for else every thi● would produce its unlike: a Tree wou●● generate a Man; a Plant, a Bull; a M●●tal, an Herb: which I speak only 〈◊〉 respect of the divers specifications 〈◊〉 things.  
For if we consider the most general Genus, it produces in all thin● its like, because, being Mercur● it assumes the Nature of all thin●● wherewith it is mixed. But huma●● Art cannot effect that that is sole● granted to Nature, which alone 〈◊〉 procreate a species: Art may dil●● and multiply it, if it begin its operation at the root of the species, ●●prudent Philosophers do; who, expecting the Spirit from Minerals spec●cated, decently purified, and reduced 〈◊〉 perfection, render it apt to perfect imperfect things.  
And an expert and industrious Artist perpending these things aright, may easily institute admirable Adaptations.   
Finis Libri primi.   

A TREATISE OF The Philosopher's tru● Salt and Secret; And Of the universal Soul or Spirit of the World. BOOK II.  

CHAP. 1. That the Spirit of the World assumes Body; and how it is incorporated.  
WE have I hope sufficiently explicated in the former Boo●●hat all things were not o●ly produced; but also made corpor● by the universal Spirit. We now come to declare what kind of Body this Spirit assumes, and how itself both is, and makes all things corporeal: for that must needs be corporeal which makes all other things such, seeing nothing can give what itself hath not. Let us therefore see with what, and how it is vested with a Body: not that we will here dispute of the incorporation of celestial and supernatural beings, but only of Physical and Sublunary Generations, and of the body of the Earth, which is the sole vessel and true matrix, where the prime and most general Incorporator of things, is itself incorporated.  
I say then, That no body can be made without a precedent Mover, that may diduce potency to act: that which exists not in save potency, may be produced into light, and according to Nature's intent, reach its final term; which is, to make that a body which it would produce. Now this mover can be no other than fire or heat, which moves itself first in the Air; for all Generations begin there, because fire is the most active Element, and consequently mo● subtle and light: whence it is mor● prompt for motion.  
Fire therefore, whose propriety i● through its levity to ascend, and mak● unknown things visible, doth requisitely receive the beginning of its mot●on and action from inferior Bodies that is, from the centre of the Earth where, as we said before, the ol● Demogorgon, and Progenitor of al● things, inhabits; sitting there in hi● Throne, and midst of his Empire: tha● thence he may govern, command, preserve, and divide the essence of Life t● all the parts of that great Spherical Body expanded about him; and that h● may more easily and from equal distance, receive from every Member wha● he wants. The root of Fire is implanted in the fruitful bowels of thi● old Parent: which thence emits a vaporous breath, which Hermes calls th● humid Nature: for vapour is the prim● and next action of fire; with which it is so conjoined, that it cannot be imagine● without it.  
But some may say, If vapour come from fire, how can it be moist, seeing fire is hot and dry? whence acquires it this contrary quality? And here we find nothing absurd, if we do but consider, That fire cannot live and subsist without moisture, which is its aliment, support and subject; without which, fire cannot be conceived: for being by Nature active, and its action indefatigable, it must needs have something to act upon, and never be destitute of this thing.  
Fire then, and coessential moisture, are like Male and Female in all Generations, and are the first Parents of corporification of the Spirit of the World; as hereafter we shall make appear. But Fire is the first Operator, because action precedes passion, though the Patient be inseparably co-existent with the Agent; as the old Stoic Zenon asserts, who thought that the substance of Fire was by Air turned into Water, and there conserved, as the general Sperm, and first universal matter, whence all things were first generated. Thales Milesius, whom the Greeks surnamed the wise, perceiving the matter patiented, said, That Water was the first matter: which Heraclitus attributed to the Sea: and Moses, more illuminated then both, saith, That before the heaven and earth were created, the Spirit of the Lord moved on the face of the waters: calling Fire, because of its noble and pure essence, The Spirit of God. In saying therefore, That Fire is the first principle of beings, I transgress not the limits of Reason and Verity: for it is without doubt, the first Operator, and the last Destroyer and Changer of forms, whose cause it is, even till it hath brought them to their period and first matter, beyond which there is no progress, but only a transformation, as I shall by and by declare, by comparison with visible and familiar beings: the first active potency, which gins to operate in the production of man, is the agitation or motion of heat: which imitating the action of fire (whose Nature is chief separative) draws Sperm from the whole Body (wherein Man's seed is potentially included) and cocts and digests it: thereby rendering it apt for expulsion, and afterwards for Generation and Augmentation; which Generation and Augmentation is always helped by Fire, which is the sole Actor: so that if it should attain the end of its exaltation, being inflamed by the Sulphur of Excrements, and impurity of Aliments, it would absume the radical Moisture, which is the Seat and Preserver of Life: which done, the fire remits not of its power and action, till by resolution and corruption, it brings the Body to Ashes; which nothing can do but fire.  
But that we may make this more palpable, and find out the first matter by the knowledge of the last, let us impose a Body on a common Fire: and we shall see, that what is inflammable in it, will be totally consumed, and redacted to a few Ashes; which Ashes also will participate of a fiery Nature; and for their last subject and matter, turn into a certain Salt, whose sole Parent and Multiplier, Fire must needs be. And though these should be further turned, yet Salt would always be left, in whose internals we may find Fire, which is delighted with its like.  
And by this means, Alchemists find, that there is something in Salt that is incombustible, or secret Elementary Fire, which hath the same actions with primitive Fire: upon which account they call it the Balsam of the Body, because it contains that that gives life; as also, that conserveses and augments it; which is nothing else but a moist vapour, accompanied with moderate heat. Johannes Fontanus in his Philosophical Narrations, (En son Romant Philosophique.) shows, That he was not ignorant of this Secret, where he brings in Nature speaking thus: 

Aucuns disent que feu n'engendre  
De son naturel for'rs que cendre:  
Mais leur reverence sauvee  
Nature est dans le feu autee:  
Et si prover, je le vou loye  
Le sell a Tesmoing je prendoye.   

Some dare t' affirm, that fire can generate  
Nothing but ashes; but those seem to relate  
The truth thereof, who say, that in fires breast  
All Nature's operations are impressed.  
And if hereof a proof you do require,  
Salt gives you proof enough what is in fire.    
And that it participates of moisture, is plain enough from its easy resolution; as also its fullness of heat is demonstrable, from its ready congelation: from which we may observe, That Fire acts, and is united with Fire; as in liquefaction Air acts, and is joined with Air: for how in one subject could the dry imbibe the moist, if there were no innate heat, seeing dryness, as it proceeds from heat, doth naturally imbibe moisture?  
And hence we may easily understand, That the Demogorgon or central Fire, cannot be destitute of moisture on which it may act, and thence elevate a vapour mixed of two qualities, which I call, The Spirit of the World; but many Philosophers Mercury of Merry's, because all other proceed from this naturally: but this elevated vapour is not yet a Body, but a mean betwixt a Body and a Spirit, participating of both Natures; which, whilst it remains in that state, can generate nothing. It is therefore necessary, That it either assume or form a Body, which it thus doth: This subtle vapour, proceeding from dry and moist principles, when it is elevated, penetrates the spungyness of the Earth, wherein it is gradually turned into Mercurial Water by the occurse of the ambient Air, and of the Earth itself; whose surface is far distant from its Centre, where the Fire resides, whence this heat arises. After the like manner, as we see in an Alembick, where the vapour or Spirit to be distilled, runs out. But this vapour and its water, partaking of two principles, heat and moisture, it is engrossed; and by moderate and continued coction, condensed. The principal cause and mean of which action, is innate Fire, which contains this very vapour; and by its continual action, stimulates and compels it to imbibe this moisture, and to coagulate this Water: not in all parts with a like solidity and hardness, nor yet altogether; but first with a mucilaginous and different solidity. Now that which Nature assays to do in the information of Ideas, is, to begin their induration and solidity, which must necessarily hold on in Nature's way, which is a progress from one extreme to another, by intermediate disposition. And Nature thus continuing its digestion, this Mucilage stays, of whose grosser matter Metals are generated in the veins of the Earth, or cavities of Rocks; which differ not in substance, being produced by one and the same seed, but only in accidents, which they take from the diversities of the places and matrices where they are generated. But the more subtle part of this vapour, ascends to the surface of the Earth, where it stays by compulsion; and being in continual agitation, though it can neither regrede nor ascend higher, and finding no solid matter to carry it with it, it is compelled to continue Nature's intention; and therefore serves for the Generation and Corporification of individuals. But that what I have said may be better understood, let us take some one individual, and let us see how it is produced: for this will ascertain us, that the Spirit of the World assumes a Body, and show us how it is incorporated. An Acorn may be long enough set or sown in the Earth, and consume without germination, unless some Agent be near it, that may deduce its occult potency naturally within it, into act. And whence can any one imagine this action to proceed, unless from the central Fire issuing out of Demogorgon's breast? Which Fire attracted and fomented by the Solar Rays, will redouble its force, virtue, and efficacy. Does not then this germination derive its original from Nature's Fire; which elevating and multiplying its vapour, excites the innate heat of the Acorn, which is of its own side resolved into a vapour by the mediation of Air? and this raised vapour is nourished and augmented by the first vapour, which never ceases to act on the matter of the Acorn, till it have brought it to the period of that perfection to which Nature destined it, which is, to make it an Oak: which, when it hath acquired its perfect magnitude, gins, not indeed to die, but to decline, and gradually to return to its first form, even to the Earth; where the same vapour is not idle or deficient: for of the putritude of this Tree, certain Animals, called Horse-lice, with abundance of Worms, are thereby generated; yea, when the Oak is turned into perfect Earth, it causes a new vegetation.  
But if any should say, That the Acorn is augmented and multiplied to this magnitude, he errs: for it is manifest, That in this germination, the Acorn remains whole without diminution; yea, separates itself from the Tree when it is germinated. The Oak than grows not from the augmentation and multiplication of the Acorn; neither is it from addition and abstraction from the adjacent Earth: for then so much of the Earth would be exhausted, as the Trees magnitude is: it must therefore necessarily proceed from some other way & matter, seeing by these ways it cannot. This Spirit then, or Vapour, which is ordained for no other end, is that which is incorporated, and produces this individual, from which the creation, augmentation, and preservation of all things, proceed; and not from the Mass of the Earth, which is nothing but the Excrement of the spirituous and primaeve matter, as it appears by the digestion of the stomach, which rejects Excrements in the same weight and quantity almost that it assumed Meat in, when nevertheless, it hath extracted its proper nutriment from it, which is only the Spirit included in that Mass; which by its siccity, makes itself a Body; and by its humidity, dilates and augments itself.   

CHAP. 2. Of the conversion of this Spirit into Earth; and how its virtue remans' integrally in this Earth.  
THe former Reasons seem sufficiently to evince, That the Spirit of the World assumes a Body: now we should declare how it is corporified; and though in this search, the labour will be great, and effect small, yet shall I endeavour to make this thing comprehensible, especially for their sakes, who in their nativities have had favourable Stars; and are thereby rendered Admirers of these rarer Effects, and Searchers of these occulter Secrets: for in that many learned and curious Men have erred in the inquisition and detection of this Body, arises from hence; That some have believed this knowledge far to exceed Man's capacity, and only attainable by Angels or Devils Others have thought, That it being called, The Spirit of the World, no Ma● should feign to himself any but an Universal Body, because an Universal Spiri● must also have an Universal Body. An● others have thought, That it could no● be perceived, but by conversion of mor● perfect Bodies into their first Sper● and Spirit, by exact and industrious subtiliation: not minding nor considering That Nature admits of no regress; and That Bodies, by how much they ar● more perfect, by so much they are further distant from their principles and fi● corporeity.  
Some are of opinion, That a Quintessence might be extracted from Bodies persuading themselves, That the mo●● subtle and volatile part is that Spi●●● they seek; so erring from the scope which they aim, as if they would se● the East in the West: for they ma●● Bodies spiritual, where they shou● make Spirits corporeal. But seeing th● Spirit is manifestly converted into Terrene Body, and without contradiction or doubt, generates all bodies; it m● therefore be extracted by them, because otherwise, they forsake the direct tract of Nature: and seeing it is made a Terrene Body, it may be perfected by Fire, into something, which the Quintessentials call their Heaven. But corporification gins from the Earth: for the first work of Mercury is to make Earth. Why then do they begin with making of Fire? which would proceed, as if a Man should build a House, and begin at the Roof.  
But such as would reduce Bodies to their first being, pretend; and have more specious Reasons, than those that would redact them to a Quintessence, save that they go in a crooked way that leads them contrary to their meanings: for, besides that Nature never goes backwards, they mind not that they should follow the way of completion, and not of destruction, or reversion to their origines and nativity: for, besides the impossibility of this course, these ways are so long and difficult, that an ordinary term of Life cannot reach their end. Moreover, they can never attain the true and natural first Being this way, but only a fantastical Body, far different from that wherewith Nature effects her productive operations; which is solely, the legitimate Sperm of all Bodies. And if we consider now, That all Bodies are made by Terrification, we must needs grant, That there is some prejacent subject most apt for the making of Earth. But I said, That in the beginning Fire was the first Operator in the World, which elevates a spirituous Vapour, than cocts, dries and incorporates it: for a Body cannot be made without coagulation, which necessarily follows the dryness of Fire: And in what other place can this immassation, desiccation and coagulation be made, save in the Earth, whence all Bodies proceed? The prejacent matter then, must needs be there occluded; for if it be not there, than all Bodies are made of nothing; which is repugnant to Nature's course, which would have every thing to have its principle; and out of nothing, nothing but nothing to proceed.  
This matter or principle than is bound to the Body of the Earth, where it is nourished, engrossed and incorporated; and therefore, such as would extract the Quintessence out of perfect, simple, or imperfect Metals, should do better to open the Matrix of the Mother, and take the Sperm out there, then to kill and destroy her Infants or adult Offspring, while they go about to reduce them to the state wherein they were in time of conception. But if they should open this Matrix, what would they there find? for nothing appears to sight or sense. And many believing this way most profitable, have been deceived, whilst they thought in the bellies of Ours, to find some seed of Gold; which missing of, they despair of their purpose, because they never met with a middle disposition betwixt hardness and softness in Metals. If therefore the eye can discern nothing here, how then is it possible for them to get any thing? This indeed is a work, the other a labour. Such Searchers surely believe not, that the first matter is so subtle and lose a Spirit or Vapour, as that it cannot be reached, save only by intellect and imagination. However, seeing it is contained in the Body of this great Parent, and dwells there, Reason evinces, That it hath something of corporeity in it: and although I have sufficiently declared to subtle intellects of what Nature it is, I shall further add, That the Pores of the Earth are full of this Vapour, which acquires a dry quality by its innate heat, accompanied with some secret moisture, by which it is condensed, and coagulated into a specifical Body: and as this moist Nature, now dried up, was first Water; so it must be reduced into Waters again by Water, which is the sole mean whereby to humectate dry things, as fire is to siccate moist things: which is a work duly observed by Nature in generating Metals: for Water flowing through the Pores of the Earth, finds there a dissoluble substance, wherewith it unites its most simple parts: to which union, all the Elements concur in due proportion.  
This substance then, by its own dissolution is so conjoined, that it of itself condenses through hardness, which is natural to it, because of its innate siccity; and by successive and long decoction, acquires a metallical induration.  
But now this substance being dissoluble, of what other Nature can it participate, but of Salt? for nothing is so dissoluble as Salt; which by how much it is more burned, is by so much easier dissolved, unless it be turned into Glass.  
The first matter then, is Salt; or Salt is the first Body whereby this matter becomes visible or palpable: of which Salt Raymundus speaks, when, in his Testament, he saith, We have before declared, That in the Centre of the Earth, there is a certain Virgin-Earth, and true Element, and that that is Nature's work. Nature therefore is placed in the Centre of every thing: so Salt is this Virgin-Earth which hath yet produced nothing, into which the Spirit of the World is converted by vitrification, that is, by extenuation of its moisture. This is that which gives the form to all things, and without which, nothing could incur into the senses; nothing is coagulated without Salt, nothing congealed. This is that that gives hardness to Gold, as also to the Adamant and all Stones both precious and vulgar, with a Secret vitrifying Virtue. Yea, what is more, we manifestly see, that all Bodies, compounded of the four Elements, return into Salt: for if a Body putrefy, what remains but powder and ashes covering most precious Salt? and if a Body be destroyed by combustion, calcination or incineration, what rests in the last extraction but Salt? Glass-makers do give manifest testimony hereto: whence Arnoldus de villa nova, in his new Chemical Light, speaking of the permanent Water of Philosophers, which Water is dry, and wets the Tangents hand no more than common Quicksilver, saith, Who then can prepare this Water? Well, he may do it who can make Glass.  
The same Author, speaking of the excellency of this dry Water, manifests it sufficiently, when he saith in his Chemical Treatise, which he calls his Philosophical Breviary, That an Operator can no more do any thing without Salt, than an Archer emit an Arrow without a cord or string. And Fons Amantium saith the same: 

Sans sell ne peux metre en effect  
Utile choose pour ton faict.   

I can effect nothing in your rare Art,  
Unless with Salt I'gin to operate.    
All Bodies than are composed of Salt, and, as we said before, the Principles of Composition and Resolution are equal: which concurs with the Philosophers infallible Rule, That the first matter of all things is one with the last: where they allege Ice and Snow for example, which are by heat resolved into Water; out of which, they were by cold congealed. And if I should here suggest the Testimony of all approved Authors to this Verity, my Treatise would end in a Volume: but that I may demonstrate, That this Salt is pure and true Earth, (not such as we tread upon, which I shall hereafter prove to be nothing but the Dregs and Excrements of the other) I must recur to the first Creation, which I shall decipher by a familiar example of an Operation made in imitation of Nature, and by the same Rule and Model by which this great Universe was framed.  
I said before, That Water or the humid Nature, as Hermes calls it, upon which Moses saith, That the Spirit of the Lord moved, was the principle of all things.  
And here the Question will be, How that great and confused heap of Waters was so divided, that this ample and gross Terrestrial Mass proceeded thence; and by what medium so different things were procreated of the Earth?  
I shall answer to these Questions only what experience hath taught me: It is therefore naturally probable, that in the middle of these Waters, by way of separation, there was a certain collection of sediments or settle; wherein I follow the Text of Moses, who saith, That God separated the water from the water: for there are two kinds of Waters, to wit, elevative and congelative Waters: the former than elevating itself in a vapour, left the other fixed in the bottom; as those that coct Sea or Fountain-Salt daily experience: though perhaps it be be true, that the one is made by the attraction of the Sun's Rays, the other by the expulsion of Fire. And here note, That Fire and Heat only are endued with a separative faculty, which they exert either by violent or natural motion. This separation than was made by one of these ways: and to what thing could Moses better compare this Fire (which cannot be otherwise defined then the origine of Universal Light, of Animal heat and vital motion, which gives existence to all things, and preserves them in their being) then to the Spirit of the Lord?  
Let us again consider Nature's Salt in its Chaos, diffused, dissolved, and suffocated in its Water; under what form will it then appear, or with what quality will it affect our gust, but that of bitter Water? and this form and quality it would retain for ever, if it were not separated: but as soon as this elevative Water feels the action of Fire, it gins to fly from it by vaporation; and so the collection is gradually diminished, till only a little heap of Salt be left in the bottom, which comes together as the Earth did in the first Chaos of the Universe.  
And thus we see the first operation of Fire, which is the production of Dryness, that is, of Earth. But as this first Earth remained still coagulated with its Excrements and Dregs by Fire; so this Salt, which is true Earth, retains its Excrements, though it seem pure, white, and full of light: for nothing is generated, nourished and augmented, but it abjects its Recrements of the formation and separation; whereof we shall elsewhere speak. Now this Salt or dry Earth, thus coagulated and settled in the Water, drinks up all its humidity, and is by the continuation of heats action, spontaneously dried: preserving all this while, its innate moisture, by which it is never deserted, and from which it hath its dissolutive virtue. After the accession of this moist and dry temperament, it is apt for production, as the action of Fire shall impel it from potency to effect: and as the Body of this great Earth hath the specifical and productive virtue of individuals; so hath that same we call Salt: not that it can produce Herbs, Metals or Animals, as the other doth; but that it conserveses in its breast the original Seed of all things, as Experience by the operations of Fire, manifests, hereby giving colours, sapours, vegetations, and induration to all these kinds; and also proper Fire which the Sun hath introduced into it, whereby it enlivens and nourishes all things: which I have sometimes observed in the prosecution of a Philosophical operation, whilst I saw in this matter, without other mixtion, all colours distinctly one after another in order, and according to the internals that the Masters of this Art determine, as they should be in the matter and confection of the Philosopher's Stone; together with that sudden fusion which follows upon the attainment of the highest redness, like that of wild Poppy: but it would not produce that admirable effect in changing of Metals; but it exerted such miraculous virtues, by causing universal and natural sweats in Man's Body, that I am afraid to publish them, lest I be branded with the title of a Scharlatane Medicaster, though C.U. my Sovereign good Prince, as an irreprehensible Eye-Witness, may easily vindicate me from that injury: for when the fame of those admirable cures came to his Ears, he was pleased, like a gracious Jupiter, to visit the Habitation of his poor Philemon; induced thereto, I suppose, by the generosity of his mind, and the relation of a good Man, who was so afflicted with divers Dolours, and extenuated with the diuturnity of his grievous Diseases, that nothing but hopes on Divine Providence, or the solace of his imminent Death, could move in him resentment. The true relation, I say, of this Man, so much affected C. V that he diligently took the information of many men, whom I had by this remedy restored to sanity: and if the covetousness or envy of the Man who undertook the cure of the reverend Cardinal, and my Lord's Brother P. M. had not prohibited the use of this Medicament; I persuade myself, by God's Grace and Benediction, it would have conduced to the sanity of many that still lie languishing for want of cures.  
If therefore this Salt have all the qualities of the Earth in it, who will deny it to be Earth; or say, That it may not be called the Universal Spirit made into Earth, as Hermes describes it? But I aver, That this conversion cannot be effected, save by the Artifice of easy practice, but difficult perquisition: for it is without falsity, an act exceeding Man's cogitations, to render that matter visible to the eyes, and tangible to hands, which so many learned and famous Writers in all ages have thought invisible and incomprehensible; of which they have affirmed, That those that labour in this profound Theory, may be able to discourse well and plausibly of its excellency; but should never find and know it in effect. And I profess, amongst all the curious men wherewith I have conversed familiarly this forty years, from which time I have had some knowledge of this matter; I can scarce find six that know aught of it.  
When then I have sufficiently declared how this Salt may be turned into Earth, which is the operation of operations; it rests that I show, That after conversion, its virtue remains entire. Bu● before I enter this Discourse, I shall, as i● is requisite, relate with what virtue thi● Salt or Spirit is of itself endued, that w● may search and find the same in it whe● it is converted into Earth.  
I say therefore, for confirmation of my purpose, That it is without doubt, an● needs no proof, that the continual motion of the Heavens, is for some end for though Physically we may say, Tha● the end for which a thing is moved; i● to acquire another place; yet is motion made for other causes: and the intent 〈◊〉 this motion, is not to go from place 〈◊〉 place only; but so to move, as to o●tain the effect of another End: for the● are two Ends; the one is by Philosopher called the End for which a thing 〈◊〉 made; as the End of Plato's Generation, is for Plato's Soul; and Beatitu● is the End for which Plato studies Virtue. The other End is that to whi● things tend: Thus the End where conjunction of Male or Female tends, Generation; but the End for whic● Generation is made, is a Man or an animal: Thus the End for which Plato went out of Greece into Egypt, was to learn Wisdom; but the End to which he tended, was Egypt.  
The End therefore of the Heaven's motion, is not only to acquire new places, but to influence upon inferior Bodies: for if any one should imagine, that these influences are of no use, or that they are cast into a place where nothing can receive them, he is in an error too gross to be refuted.  
This Celestial Influx is perpetual and continual, because the motion by which it descends, is orbicular; beginning in, and returning to itself. And this is the Reason why the things whereon it influences, and which it produces, are of the same Nature and quality, as without ceasing to receive the power and multiplication of these Virtues which fail not.  
And seeing this Influence is not extended above the Heavens, where nothing is, it must needs be carried toward some inferior thing, that it may act upon: for nothing is passive but what hath a Body; and what other natural Body is there in the World, but Earth? Is not this the Body of Bodies, and that solely that can subsist alone, having in itself all the qualities requisite to a Body, as Longitude, Latitude, Profundity and Superficies? Is not it the Subject and Mark that Nature hath set, whereat to aim all her Darts? where can she better accomplish her works, then on the Earth?  
The Earth therefore is only that inferior Body that receives Celestial Influences, whose faculties and powers, penetrate, calefie, purge, separate, enliven, augment, confer, and restore.  
We need not now dispute, whether the Heavens and Celestial Body's influence upon the Earth: for experience and sense takes away this doubt. This therefore being left as sufficiently known, we shall only declare how they make their influences virtuous. I said before, That they tend directly downwards, and not upwards; and the Earth being the Centre of this Spherical Body, they must needs fall upon her, and fasten their Points there; for the Earth is that Point of the vast World, where all the lives of these influences concentricate. And seeing the Earth is a Body so solid, that it gives solidity to all others, it is requisite that that which penetrates it be very subtle. The Heavens therefore being of most subtle matter, produce alike effects: for the operations ordinarily follow the qualities of the Body that operates. And this penetration would profit nothing, but like a Torrent running over a Field, because of its swift motion, scarce wet the surface, unless it be by somewhat stayed. But seeing it tends infallibly to the Centre, and there is stopped, because there is no lower place whereto it may descend; there it is compelled to subsist and collect itself.  
Hence some have said, That the Centre of the Earth is most precious, because in it all the influences are united; which meeting there, have an infinite potency, not only because they continually flow thither, but because they proceed from Bodies infinite, incorruptible and indeficient in virtue.  
The ancient Poets, who involved their Conceits in Fables, divide the Earth into three parts; assigning the Heaven to Jupiter as firstborn of Saturn, (though some attribute the primogeniture 's right to Neptune, and the election of the superior Kingdom to Jupiter, for certain Sophistical Reasons impertinent to my purpose:) Neptune they make the Lord of the Sea; and that by lot: To Pluto, as the youngest Son, they assign the Earth for Heritage, who is yet thought the richest of the three Brethren, because in his Dominion all the Treasures of the World are contained; yea, he seems to make his two Brothers Tributaries in those things they possess as best. This Son they call, The King of Hell, and to him they give the Elysian Fields, as a delightful place, where the blessed Souls shall follow his Court after death.  
Divines also assert, That Hell and the torture of Souls is in this place; adduced by this Argument: That seeing the Nature of the Stars is fiery, and all their influences concur, there must needs be incredible burn there. Again, That place is infernal, because none is more inferior. But that Souls should be here tormented, and that the heat of this place should be so vehement as they say, is a Solaecism in Reason, and a Contradiction to Philosophical Axionis: for besides that Souls possess no place, according to their own confessions, and that being devested of the earthy part, and corporeal prison, they would naturally elevate themselves, and ascend by virtue of their spiritual levity, which participates more of a fiery than any other quality; they cannot, but with violence, be detained in this subterraneous place, seeing they are light; nor yet, being simple, suffer under the action of Fire, which cannot act on its like.  
Why therefore they should assert, That they descend to this place to be tormented, I see no reason, unless that the burden of their sins, wherewith they are implicated, should detrude and depress them, compelling and forcing them to the Centre of the Earth, or else that sin hath got them under its Dominion, and hath incorporated itself therewith, by some unknown kind of composition, and so make them passable and subject, not to the simple and natural action of Fire, but to some other violent created one, destined by God to that effect: and perhaps the virtue of the Fire we speak of, is by divine Power doubled for this action; which may be proved by Holy Writ.  
But I will not rashly cherish any particular Opinion, or separate myself from the Orthodox Faith; in the defence whereof, I will not only spend my Life, but Industry, by God's assistance: yet I say in my Transient, (that I may further recede from my intended Discourse) That they conclude strangely, that say, Vehement burn arise in this place, because the influences of the Stars concur there: whereunto I would yet yield, if they can evince, That the hea●of the Stars burns and consumes like ou● Culinary Fire, and doth not enliven● conserve and nourish: for if it were such as they imagine, not only the Earth but the whole Universe had been long since burnt to ashes. Those influence indeed in old Demogorgon's bowels calefie; but not with a mortal and destructive, but with a vital heat, which there implants an uniform Virtue; which by mediation of heat, dilates itself through the whole Body of the Earth, being the first moving cause of Generations.  
But we must not here conceive, That it is only the external heat that comes from the Sun, which calefies the Earth, and causes Generation: for in Wintertime, when the Sun is furthest distant, the Earth hath abundance of heat in it, as experience shows, in Fountains, Cisterns, and profound Cells: so that in the coldest Winter-Season, Metals are cocted and indurated; yea, it is credible, that they are then most of all engrossed, because the heat of the Centre is kept in and retained, because of the frigidity of the ambient Air. The Sun's approach, and more perpendicular Aspect, is not the sole cause of vegetation in the Spring; for if so, then doubtless, as its Ascent were more sublime, Vegetations would augment more proportionably to the increase of the heat of the Rays: but the contrary is observed. But because every like attracts its like; and the recess of the one, causes the recess of the other; The Sun by the magnetical Virtue of its Rays, attracts and revokes the heat of the Central Sun, detruded by the rigid cold of the ambient into the interior parts of the Earth: which returning to the surface thereof, affects all things with a vegetative faculty.  
It is not therefore the external heat of the Celestial Sun, but rather the innate heat of the Central Sun, that calefies the profundity of the Earth: for heat is twofold; the one acts by reverberation, which is external; the other by influx and penetration, which is internal, whereof I now speak; whose Nature is to enliven, augment, and conserve by the sustentation of radical moisture contained in this Fire, which I made mention of in the precedent Chapter.  
But that now we may prove this Central Fire not to be so intense, as to torment and burn, let us consider how the Stars do not by their influences cause heat solely, but work other effects: for Saturn is cold and dry, Jupiter hot and moist, the Sun hot and dry, Mars hot and dry, Venus' cold and moist, the Moon moist and cold, and Mercury all in all, participating of all qualities alike.  
Whence we may gather, That all the influences are temperate, equally consisting of heat, cold, moisture and siccity; which thus meeting in moderation, cannot make the place where they meet, immoderate. The Vapour then or Spirit that comes from the Centre, participates of these four: and hence all the qualities of simples have their origine; whereof some calefie, because in them heat is predominant; others dry, because siccity superabounds; others moisten or refrigerate, according to the degree of their moisture or cold: but on the other side. Stars project many other qualities besides these, into the Centre: for they give Being's to those sapours, colours, and odours, which we taste, see, and feel in sublunary things. I say therefore, That the Stars calefie the Centre of the Earth, and that the Universal Spirit dwelling there, participates of this heat; and because it is natural to heat to separate, that separative virtue which divides the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross, and the light from the heavy, and the sweet from the bitter, descends with these influences: which purgative separation, is the cause why all things naturally reject their Excrements, as not being of their substantial parts; which is indeed very requisite, seeing there is nothing in the World, but its Excrements, exceed its natural substance: nay, all that we see and touch, is only the excremental part of things, that obumbrates their occult substance; as we may observe in our Aliments, whose greater Mass turns not into our substance, but goes away by the passages destined for such egress; Nature only extracting the invisible and spiritual succe out of them, which is apt to be converted into ourflesh and substance.  
We may likewise affirm, That this Mass of Earth we tread upon, is nothing but the Excrement of that first substance, which was united in the Chaos; Now encompassing the Centre, and so including it in a Spherical, Equilibrial proportion, that it cannot move or fall: for seeing it is in the lowest of places, it can tend no ways further, unless it should ascend; which is repugnant to its Nature. But in the mean while, I do not say, That the Body of the Earth is nothing but an Excrement: for though it appear wholly excrementitious, yet there lies under its Excrements, a pure substance; which being wholly spiritual, could not become sensible without the administration of some Body; as we see in all things produced: their Seed and first Matter is invisible; but as they are carried in a corporal Mass, and excrementitious substance, we can see them; and no Body can be made without Excrements: for which cause, this substance is separated from the Body of Earth in Generations, by the influence of Celestial heat; retaining nothing of the said Earth, but as much as may be for a sustentacle for it; which from the beginning had no other use, but to serve for a Receptacle and Shop, or rather a Vessel, wherein this spiritual Matter might effect its operations; as we shall largely and plainly demonstrate in the sequel Chapter, where I shall treat of Separation more largely.  
But Separation were to little purpose, if the things separated should remain without action: Nature's scope in Separation, is to enliven and abandon Death, which comes from no other cause but superabundance of Excrements suffocating the pure substance; but here I mean natural, not violent Death: but if the Seeds of things should always lie buried in this excrementitious Earth, nothing would be produced or receive Life: but the Celestial Virtue by its vital influence extracts them; and these being full of Virtue, dilate and promote themselves into all and each several species, as their Nature and Composition require.  
Life then proceeds from Purification, which the Stars effect by their influences, with which the augmentative and restorative faculties descend: for the Stars being in continual motion, they are continually occupied with action, and consequently with vivification, giving Life to Life; which cannot be without Conservation and Restauration: Conservation they give, by sustaining Life indeficiently; Restauration, by restoring what the Generations of individuals consume and spend. And this we may see manifestly in the first Matter incorporated; for being impregnated by Celestial Influences, it is of itself nourished, multiplied and augmented continually.  
And hence it is called a Dragon or Serpent that preys upon itself, always regerminating; which, wherever it be, it takes such root, that the place shall never be quite destitute of it, though it be washed or burned; which is a certain token by which this first Matter may be known.  
These than are the principal Virtues which the Spirit of the World hath, and will always receive from the Celestial Influences, which produce great and admirable effects in all the Members of the Universe.  
But here some may inquire, How that the first matter receiving such pure and potent Influences from Heaven, comes to be conspurcated: with so many vicious qualities; and how it retains them when it hath received them, seeing it is always busied in the actions of vivification, augmentation, conservation, and restauration: for if it separate not, it will die; and if it augment, conserve, and restore not, it will diminish, perish, and debilitate; which it never does.  
Whereunto I answer, That the Stars have a twofold influence; one natural, the other accidental: the natural was communicated to them in their first Creation; and it is that Government of the Universe, which Hermes speaks of, whereby they keep it in its Being, by defending and preserving it by their influences, from destruction and annihilation; wherewith the Spirit of the Universe is continually enriched: which applies them to, and manifests them in all things whereto it gives increase and substance: but the accidental Influence of the Stars, is that which falls out preternaturally, by reason of their different Situations and Aspects: and this is always subject to mutation, and never remains equal: and this hath only power upon the effects of Matter, not upon the Matter itself; for whatever influence happen, though never so malign, the Centre of the Earth intermits not its actions, but absolves them as before, and produceth Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, as well as ever; and if mortifications sometimes fall out from the malignity of some Aspect, they only touch the surface or excrementitious mass of Bodies, and not the interior substance: and such an accident is often changed; so that the influence sometimes operates one thing, sometimes the quite contrary: which the natural and principal influx never does. Whence we may conclude, That the first Matter, as it is simple of itself, receives nothing but those Celestial Virtues, which it also retains and keeps in its Terrification.  
But we must now declare, how it retains them, that we may make good that saying of Hermes, That its Virtue remains entire when it is converted into Earth, because all the Celestial Virtues descend and meet in the Centre of the Earth; which in their course, aim at nothing, but the information of the Matter, which is as it were the Receptacle of the supreme Ideas.  
The same Matter being full of Forms, is diversified not indeed actually, but potentially, into innumerable specifications: and so it is not properly a Body, but as it were a Body or Companion of a Body, whereunto it hath an Appetite, and by information moves to that end: and this motion it hath from the action of Celestial Fire, which I before called, The first Mover in the Chaos: which the old Poets, Orpheus and Hesiod, describe under the Name of Love: And Ronsardus, ou● French Homer or Pindar, thus delineates: 

Le suis amour le grand maistre des dieux,  
Le suis Celuy, qui fait mouvoir les Cieux.  
Le suis Celuy qui governe le monde;  
Qui le premier hors de la mass eclos,  
Donnay lumiere & feudy le Cahos,  
Don't fut basty cette machine ronde.   

If any Rustic know not who I am,  
Love is my name:  
To whom themselves, both Jove and all his train,  
Subjects proclaim.  
I am the hand that moves the heavens, and th' reins  
That Stars direct;  
All that the Earth and Universe contains,  
My nod expect.  
When all a Chaos was, I spread my rays  
Of light about,  
And then divided that which in few days  
The world brought out.    
Seeing then this Matter by its proper Nature and Appetite, tends to incorporation, who can rationally say, That whilst it assumes a Body, it is deprived or swerves from Nature, that by its own virtue causes corporation? and seeing when it takes a Body, it is first turned into Earth; who can deny but this Earth is endued with the same virtue? for though through commixtion and concourse, it partake of some elementary impurities, yet in its Centre it is always pure: so that after its purification, Fire (which is otherwise the most active and potent Element) hath no power to destroy it, because it exceeds this Fire in perfection and subtlety. And hence it so suddenly penetrates Bodies, enlivening them, and augmenting their virtues, by restoring and preserving what is natural in them, to wit, their radical moisture, which by its fiery subtly, it purges and separates from its Excrements that suffocate it. And that I may in a word absolve all, this that most excellent Medicine, which Siracides saith is extracted out of the Earth, and which no wise Man will despise, It is moreover that precious Salt, whereto the Doctor of Doctors compared his Apostles, as to a most exquisite Treasure, produced by the Heavens: for he might as well have said, You are Adamants, Rubies, Pearls, Gold or Silver of the Earth; but that he knew, That all these things, though admirable, contained nothing in them comparable to this general Salt, whereunto all the rest own the homage of their perfections. This Medicine operates like Fire, in consuming the impure, which, as heterogeneous, it disgregates from the homogeneous parts of the pure substance: and seeing the Heaven generated this Virgin in the bowels of the Earth, why should she not retain her Parents virtues; and like an Infant that naturally participates of both Paternal and Maternal Seeds, hold both Paternal and Maternal Humours? for which cause the Ancients called this progeny Androgynos, which is a name common to both Sexes; the Poets, an Hermaphrodite, as being properly neither Male nor Female, but both: and no less properly, may this Virgin be called Uranogaea, or Heaven made into Earth: for being Earth, she hath the Celestial Virtues tied and annexed to her indissolubly, whose admirable faculties she manifests in her operations, whereof I have given sufficient declaration in the precedent Chapters, to all such as armed with any noble spark of ingenuity, will endeavour to adventure to break through the thick woods of darkness and ignorance, or to such as Virgil saith, to whom Heaven has granted access or ingress into the obscure Chaos of the Earth.   

CHAP. 3. Of the Separation of Fire from Water, subtle from thick; and with what industry it should be effected.  
NAture, the most sagacious Agent, shows us by her proper operations, that in all things we must first consider the end for which we undertake any matter, and then find out means to attain the end. A prudent Searcher of Nature's secrets than should have perfect knowledge of the principles, progress, and qualities of matter, both internal and external, lest in his search he confound his end with his means: and forsaking the highway which Nature hath trodden from the Foundation of the World, turn into by-paths, and fantastical unknown and unfrequented tracts.  
Hermes knew the right way well; for he was endued with the perfect knowledge of the World's constitution; who, desirous by Art to follow the footsteps of Nature, prudently imagined, That the Earth was the principle of all things, and the first Creature that was by Separation created in the belly of the Chaos; and thence he made such ingress into the Treasury of Nature's Secrets by the Terrification of this first Matter, which I said before was nourished in the Matrix of the Earth. But as it is not enough for a Builder to have Materials wherewithal to erect an Edifice, unless he know the manner of performing and fitting his Materials to the work: so Hermes was not content to find out convenient matter, but made diligent search for the manner whereby he might prosecute his work in imitation of the chief Operator in the Creation of the Universe, and so form a little World, wherein all the virtues of the greater World were included. Considering therefore, That the thing he purposed to make, must be most, and that he must begin with gross and inferior things to obtain this perfection; he first begun to divide the contrary Natures, by separation of the superfluous and useless parts, to avoid the ruin of his work: where, according to the Adage, it may be truly said, He took the Bird by its Feet: and so going through the right Gate, entered into the Closet of Nature's Secret, without turning: for Separation is the beginning of all things, and the first operation of the Universal Body; segregating the confused Members: by the division of the confused Mass or Chaos, the order and form of Elements first appeared, and took their places: for without Separation, Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, had yet been one; Metals and Minerals, though never so different, would have been contained in one Body; and all Vegetables would have been but one Seed.  
It was therefore necessary, That Nature, for the attainment of that Order and Distinction, wherewith we see the Universe condecorated, should begin with Separation. But that we may descend to particulars, let us see how this sagacious Agent gins all her operations: but for Separation, Generation would neither have beginning nor end: by separation, Aliments augment and conserve every Body. And if I should deduce the proof of this Argument thorough every species, I should without doubt confound myself in the intricacy of this Chaos, and never find exiture, for the infinity of examples: I will therefore lay down this for a Foundation, That Nature gins all her Actions from Separation. But because the knowledge of this is not sufficient, unless withal we know what things she separates, and whence this separative faculty proceeds, we must discuss this matter more exactly, that our discourse may proceed regularly: and before I meddle with any disposition, I think it best to propose some definition of Separation, and declare of how many kinds this Separation is.  
Separation then in general, is nothing but the division and distinction of things dissimilar from one another; as of the Heaven from the Earth, Sun from Moon, and the like; as also of the pure from the impure, heat from cold, dry from moist, and the contrary. And from this Definition, we may draw two sorts of Separation;  
The one of things differing only simply, and not of contraries, as of the parts of the World which were separated at first from the Chaos; or that we may descend to particulars, as of the Wood from the Bark; of Leaves from Fruits, and Roots from Boughs: and this species of Separation may be called simply a Distinction: for these parts are not really divided or separated from each other, whether we have respect to the principal or to the particular members of the World: for though Heaven and Earth seem to be separated from each other in situation, by reason of superiority and inferiority; yet they are not divided one from another, seeing there is a perpetual connexion and affinity betwixt them: as appears by many places of this Book. Whence also Homer, no less Philosopher than Poet, said, That the Earth was bound to Heaven by a golden Chain. But that I may keep to my former example, Leaves and Fruits, Wood and Bark, Boughs and Roots, are not separated and divided as contraries; but only distinguished by their proper places and garnishments, whilst they have a certain affinity and mutual tie; yet so, that the one does not occupy the others place, but that they agree together, and support each other.  
The second species of Separation, is the Solution or Distraction of things totally differing, contrary, or superfluous, which have no natural connexion with the substance of things; as pure and impure, hot and cold, gross and subtle, and the like: not that I would affirm, That these things cannot stand together; but, That their union and mixtion, because of their diversity, causes Destruction, or at least hinders the action of the natural Virtue of the pure substance. And this kind of Separation may be properly called decision or division, which Nature uses in all her productions, that she may set the proper actions and virtues of every thing at liberty.  
The first species is only the distinction of parts truly dissimilar in situation and figure, but homogeneous in virtue and substance: for it is certain, That the Wood, Bark, and all the parts of a Tree, participate of one innate Virtue, which is particularly proper to the Tree, generally common to all its parts: but as to subalternate parts, there may be some difference; for some may receive more or less of the substance or virtue; but none contrary: for one and the same effect produces not things diametrically opposite, out of the same matter: a salutary Plant emits no poisonous faculty. yet that may be salutary to one Body, that's mortal to another. Thus Hellebore nourishes Quails, but kills Men. But one Plant cannot exercise contrary Powers upon one and the same subject: for Hellebore cannot both nourish and kill Quails, nor both intoxicate and nourish Man. The proper virtue of the Plant then, is in the whole Plant; and any part of the Plant may be dissimilar to another in situation and figure, but not contrary in virtue and substance: for the Leaves and Fruits have of the same substance and virtue, though one more than another.  
Here some may object, That Brassica produces different effects: for according to the vulgar opinion, its decoction loses the belly, but its pulp binds the same.  
Whereto I answer, If it be proper for the substance of this Plant to lose, it's impossible that it should also bind; for to speak plainly, the pulp that remains after decoction, is not of the substance of the Plant, as it appears by the concoction of the stomach, which receives the substance of Brassica for Aliment, but rejects its pulp, as an Excrement that hath no nutritive faculty in it; which faculty is wholly in the substance, and in each part of the substance: for the substance hath this propriety, That it admits of no contrary, but only of more or less; which we must also understand of its actions and power, and not of its essence; of which we have an example: in man, no one part is more the part of a Man then another, though it may be greater, or more potent in virtue and action: the same may be seen in simples or Plants; wherein some parts are more or less hot or cold, moist or dry, as their colours and sapours manifest; yet are they not contraries; for one part of a Plant cannot kill through cold, and another of the same, kill through heat; but Experience shows us thus much, That the summities of Boughs, and that Flowers are more subtle in their Operations, than the trunks and inferior parts of the same, because it is proper in every substance, for the more subtle and pure parts to ascend, and the impure to settle and abide next the Excrements: which Nature observes for two Reasons: first, That she may adorn the Plant; and by the variety of its digestion, make it grateful to look to. Secondly, That she may administer to Man or other Animals, what is needful for the conservation of his essence, in a greater or less degree: herein resembling a careful and provident Mother, who prepares all things necessary and convenient, each thing in its degree, as industry or possibility can render it: for she never exceeds simple perfection; and Flowers and Seeds are the most perfect parts in Herbs, which she hath elaborated: which Art beginning where Nature left, may bring to a higher perfection, by the same way that Nature kept, to wit, by Separation; as we shall hereafter further explain.  
Nature therefore by this first kind of Separation, does nothing but distinguish things, for the ornament of their subject, and use of Man, other Animals, or some part of the World, amongst which she hath sown and implanted mutual Love, and Reciprocal Affinity; so that all things do naturally, and out of a kind of sympathy, tend to one another's succour and service.  
But the second kind of Separation is different; for by it, Nature, or Art, in imitation of Nature, divides and segregates contraries; that is, abstracts from the substance, what is not of its essence, but rather averse to it; dwelling with it, though it be not of it; as pure with an impure thing, subtle with gross, substance with its Excrements. And this second kind of Separation is used as the former, for two Reasons also: one is, That, the pure substance be preserved from corruption and death: the other is, that it may more freely exercise its virtues and actions, as being free from its gross dregs: for when that which is impure, possesses and contains that which is substantially pure, it never ceases to oppress it, till it hath quite vanquished and suffocated it, and by that means made way for mortal corruption; which never approaches near simple and pure things, but haunts all fowl and impure ones. Now every substance is of itself simple and pure, and by consequence not subject to corruption and death; as we may observe in all superior things, which are free from Excrements, but inferior Bodies are otherwise; for they lie in the midst of the impure Excrements of this World, which naturally destroy and mortify their Guests, whereas purity enlivens and conserveses: corruptions and mortifications surround men, because of the multitude of Dregs and Excrements they are infested with, which make them live a short and miserable life, as loaden with Aerumnies and Diseases; so that they are here detained as a guilty Malefactor in an obscure filthy Prison, who being dubious betwixt death and hope of Life, lies there obduced with moldiness, infested with vermin, and nourished with immund and corrupt meats: for all Aliments are impure, and carry with them an Executioner, to wit, hidden poison: whence we at length, take our own death in our own hands, and spontaneously kill ourselves, seeing our Aliments have so little of enlivening and nourishing virtue in them, and that so closely enveloped with Excrements, that the digestion of the stomach, though strong, can scarce attract it: now we eating such meats, do ingest poison with the good substance; which entering our Bodies, ceases not to be augmented and accumulated; till it obscure and extinguish the vital Light, or rather Natures legitimate Action, which is Vivification, unless some Medicine or Separation retard or suspend it.  
Corruption then is induced by Excrements; and it may happen two ways: either from the Parent's Seed, who being not well, and by consequence corrupt, produce corrupt Seed; degenerating more from Generation to Generation: but this is so far subject to Medicinal Corruption, as that by help thereof, the course of its activity towards Mortification may be stayed or retarded.  
This Corruption may not improperly be called that Malevolent Satan, who goes about continually seeking whom he may devour: for which cause, this wanders about the Terrestrial Globe or the Excrements of the World, which have their principal seat on the Earth, which also eructate their Corruption upon other Elements: and thus Men living of them and in them, are corrupted in them and by them; and so they produce corrupt Seed, which time renders more and more corrupt: for our age being more vicious and dissolute then that of our Ancestors, hath rendered us worse than they; and the next its probable will be worse than us, and the next more dissolute still.  
The second rise of Corruption is from the continual use of too too excrementitious Aliments, by which our Bodies are depraved; so that this infection will pass from the Parent to the Son, as we see in the Leprosy and other hereditary Diseases. Now these Aliments deduce their Corruption from the place where they are generated: for after the Almighty Creator had disposed the confused Chaos, he so ordered, that the superior Bodies should remain pure and subtle, but the inferior gross and impure, because it is the Nature of pure substances to ascend to the place of their origine, but of Excrements to descend to the Centre.  
And hence it is, That that which is pure in Animals and Vegetables, is elevated and ascends highest, and makes them ascend & increase with it, till it be freed from the Excrementitious Mass, which subjects it to mortal Corruption, and that it may attain the place that is remotest from Excrements, and live without alteration or spot; for the same cause also more spiritual and subtle Creatures inhabit in higher places, as being purer, and finding their Aliments more convenient, and like their natural substance: but such as are corporal, inhabit lower places, where they are immerged in dregs and filth, that have their place in lower parts; whence they are corrupted by that of which they live, which is mixed with mundane Dregs: for whatever the Earth and other Elements (which are the Receptacles of impurities) can produce, is corrupt and maculated; and therefore induces corruption and defilement upon all Bodies that use it for Aliment: And thus Blood acquires an ill disposition, which afterwards beget ill humours; but in some more, in others less; according to the inquinated state of the Parents, and the abuse of the corruptive things, which cause mortality and destruction: for if the Earth and the Fruits thereof were as pure as the Heavens, all Animals would live as long as the Celestial Incolists: But Nature hath ordained this for a Law, That that partakes more of corporeity, should dwell about that that's most corporeal; and that which is more corruptible and inquinated, about that that's likest to it: but the Earth is lowest of Bodies; and therefore most gross and corruptible. Nothing therefore can proceed from it, but what is like it; unless its corruption and impurity be stayed by the Art of Separation, and all its pure substance extracted from its Body; which a true Philosopher may by industry effect.  
It never was, nor yet is, my intent to offend Physicians, to whom I own much honour; yet I, with many learned men, admire, they do not better instruct Apothecaries, that they may be more curious in preparing Medicaments; whilst themselves may observe how oft they have been frustrated in success, when they proceed after the vulgar manner: for they will cure and restore sick and weak Bodies, by offering them a great deal of Pottage; wherein there is yet so much impurities and gross dregs, that very little pure substance, wherein the curative faculty consists, remains; which is so immerged in their Poison, that they have no power against the Disease: neither can Nature help their operation; for she is subdued in this conflict, by the impurity of the Remedy on the one side, and the cause of the Disease on another: which is all one, as if a Man should drive away Corruption by corrupted & corrupting means; which is impossible: for Rain never dries up Rivers, nor Fire extinguish a Flame; nor yet Corruption expel Corruption. They also attempt the Restauration of their Patients debilitated strength, by Aliments of easy digestion, which they think partake of little impurity, and so are not subject to Corruption: never considering, That this way cannot much profit them; for though they use very choice Aliments, yet are they not of much advantage, because they are endued with no action or power that can either exterminate or lessen the morbifical causes, but only refulciate their miserable lives, almost ruined by weakness; never freeing them from death, unless that Nature spontaneously arise and oppose the mortal Machinations of her Enemies, or else the Patient seek help from some exquisite Medicament, brought by some perite Artificers industry to supernatural purity and perfection; which being free from Corruption, may restore the pristine vigour, and by this means, eradicate the cause of the Disease: for every true Medicament should effect two operations, to wit, purge from Corruption, and restore lost Strength; and in this the whole Basis and Art of Medicine consists, though the lesser of the two parts is only in use, to wit, Purgation; the more excellent, to wit, Restauration, being wholly abolished, or through sloth or avarice neglected.  
And that these things are thus carried, is apparent from certain Potions introsumed, which have no other effect, but only to make the Belly laxative, or purge out not that matter that causes the Disease, but some other Excrement, that hath nothing to do with the Disease; or else through the ill preparation, dispensation, or impertinent adaptation of simples, cause superfluous evacuations, to the ruin of Nature, too weak before, but now more enervated, both by reason of vacuity, which it abhors above all things, and also by reason of violent motion caused by such Purges.  
And thus they rather procure Death then Sanity; for Nature can no more endure violent motion than vacuity▪ and she is very impatient of these two her sworn Enemies, which attempt so evidently her destruction.  
And for this cause, common Medicine seldom cures obstinate Diseases by their Compositions, as they commonly prepare them: and if amongst many, any one be cured, this happens not because of Pills, Bowls and Potions; but of the strength of Nature, which is able to overcome the impure quantity mixed with these remedies, and extract something out of their pure substance, commodious for its subsidy: or else, because the poisonous quality of these excrementitious and corruptive things, is rejected and expelled by Nature; which is of that power, that it carries with it some portion of the peccant humour which is like to it, by attraction and sympathy.  
And thus an extraneous Medicament, impugning the Body, moves Nature; which provoked and prepared to resist this her Enemy, rejects and violently impugns what is contrary to her. And now, if a Medicament should always be convenient, and not contrary to Nature, it should be purged from its poison, that is, from its excrementitious Mass.  
Wherefore a Medick should first choose such things, as are convenient for, and hold sympathy with Man's Body; and free them from their impurities, or at least choose such as contain in them the general virtue, or innate purity; which Purification cannot be effected, till the impure and noxious be separated and destroyed, and the pure restored, which lay buried and suffocated under the Excrements.  
But it being none of my Profession to make Medicaments, I will not further treat of this business; but will return into the way whence I have a little swerved. I say therefore, Seeing there is no inferior thing, but that's infected with Poison, immerged in Excrements, and buried in Dregs, that cause its mortification, and hinder the liberty and action of its legitimate substance; Nature is constrained by a certain necessity, to make use of Separation; which is effected by division of the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross, and the salutary from the destructive part. But because this admirable Agent works her operations in darkness, labouring in bodies by a secret digestion, she never exceeds simple perfection; for hereto only is her power extended: whence corporal Elements, being not able to conduce to the highest degree of their proprieties, the Bodies wherein they are included; Philosophers prudently endeavour to separate their substance from their corruptive Mass: and after this Separation in Nature's way, to wit, by Digestion and Sublimation, to carry them to the highest degree of purity; getting them by Regeneration a new form, taking away their former Nature, Qualities, and Proprieties, and changing their impure Bodies into Spirits full of purity, their moisture and cold into dryness and heat: practising and effecting this, not only in some species or simples, but in the great Body of the World also, which is our Universal Spirit: for unless the Universal Nature of all things be renewed, it is impossible to bring it to a state of incorruption. Regeneration then is the first Fruits of Separation: but as a Grain can of itself generate nothing unless it die and putrefy in the Earth, so it is impossible any thing should be renewed or regenerated, save by precedent mortification.  
Mortification then is the first step to Separation, and the only tract to that end: for as long as Bodies remain in their old Corruption and origine, Separation cannot reach them, unless putrefaction and mortification lead the way: which also our Lord Jesus divinely taught, saying, Unless that a Man, like a Grain of Corn, die, he cannot acquit life incorruptible: not as if he meant that life incorruptible should be acquired by death corporal; for then impious and wicked Men, by dying would attain Beatitude with the Good and Just: but he meant that the old Man should die, that is, mortify and separate his old Corruption from him, which he attracted from the Seed of his first Parents.  
And this Corruption is properly intemperance and excess, introduced by the eating of the forbidden Fruit, by which Death entered the World; and since which, Man ceased not to die, because afterwards the Earth and all it produced were infected by the Poison of the fraudulent Serpent hidden in their Aliments, whose enticements led Man to transgression, and to the eating of Fruit wherein death was included.  
And this corrupting Serpent is he that I call Satan, who creeping, and without ceasing going about the Earth, mixes his Poison therewith, and with all things it produces, to wit, Animals, Vegetables and Minerals, with intent to infect the World with his Poison, and tyrannize over Man.  
Upon this intemperance and excess in diet, a privation of Virtue followed: for Vice is nothing but a neglect of what is just, and justice is a temperate desire, and continual progress to good.  
This intemperance then and excess must die in us, because it generates all kind of sin in us, and stimulates us to malice and impiety; and therefore we are enjoined to live soberly, and shun gluttony and drunkenness, the true Authors of all carnal lusts: and that we fast often, to extinguish those internal flames, which move our Senses, and burn our Blood to Corruption.  
The Anatomists of Man, know, that Man is twofold; the one Celestial and immortal, the other Terrestrial and corruptible: and the first is as a Sojourner, the second as a Prisoner.  
But here arises a great Question, How it comes to pass, that the heavenly Man can, whilst buried in this putrid and corrupt Carcase, conserve his essential purity? for it is manifest, That a Liquor, though never so precious and excellent, will lose its sapour and odour, if it be long contained in a stinking Vessel: and Man also, though never so sound, is subject to infection, if he dwell in a pestilent House: a heavenly Man is of himself good and sincere; but as he is joined to the Terrestrial, to whom impurity and vices naturally adhere, he can scarcely remain free from spots.  
The depravation of this essential purity, depends without doubt on the eating the forbidden Fruit; or to speak more expressly, on the intemperance of Aliments, condited with pernicious and contagious Corruption: for which cause, this intemperance & corruption must be mortified, that the old Destroyer of Man may be restrained, & that that may be repaired by newness of life, which makes us like our heavenly Father in incorruption.  
And our Restorer Jesus hath taught us two ways to Regeneration: one by the Water of Baptism, and the other by the Fire of the Holy Ghost. Water washes away the spots, and Fire consumes and separates all impurity from the pure essence: and as his precious Blood (which is true Water indeed) purges away our sins, and saves us from that death, which the mortal corruption of our earthly Parent introduced; so Water dissolves and purges away those excrementitious impurities which corrupt all substances. The Fire of the Holy Spirit consumes and separates the excrementitious impurity of sins, and so the vulgar Fire blots out the impurity of Bodies: which should therefore be mortified, that it may be regenerated: and this Mortification is that Putrefaction and Digestion, which fits it to receive Separation; and this Mortification is then wrought in us, when the Sun of the Holy Spirit rises upon our Hearts, and warms our Centre, consuming by little and little the corrupt affections of old Adam. After the same manner, the Chemical Fire reverberating its flame about the Body that is to be purged, burns and annihilates that that is of an extraneous Nature; and that more or less, as the impurity is more or less obstinate to Separation, which is effected by Distillation.  
This then is the right way which Nature observes in the Regeneration of all things; which will have no laudable effect in Medicine, unless they be gegenerated by Water and Fire. But the same things after this second Nativity are most free in their virtues and actions; whereas before, their vital functions were buried in an excrementitious Mass: and though the benign influences of Heaven had given them much virtue, yet could not they exert it: even so a Man, whilst he is detained in the impure Prison of old Adam, he can produce no good and laudable action.  
But before I proceed further in the practical explication of these things, I must return to my begun-order, to wit, that after I have given the definition of Separation, and declared of how many kinds it is, that now I may show what these kinds are, whence things proceed to be separated, and whence this separative virtue arises. And I have sufficiently demonstrated, That there are in Bodies two parts: the one is an Excrement, the other substance; the one accidental, and the other substantial: for substance simply considered, is wholly pure, and without Corruption; but an Excrement wholly impure, mixing itself with the substance, and contaminating and subverting its purity.  
The Generation and Formation of substance is sufficiently detected in the two first Chapters of this Book: it now rests that I explain the Nature and Qualities of Excrements: where I infer, from the aforesaid Narration, that nothing but Excrements should be separated; supposing this for undeniable, That amongst passable things in this sublunary World, nothing is void and free from Excrements: for when God separated the parts of the World, he commanded, That some should descend to the lowest Region, as partaking of the grossness of the first matter, and that they should there congregate amongst themselves: and of this feculent Mass, the Earth was form, which is nevertheless endued with some part of pure substance, though diffused through its thick crassitude: after that Phoebus had slain the monstrous Python, swelled up with poisonous humours, which was generated of the mud of the Earth; that is, when the innate siccity had imbibed the superfluous humidity, by the operation of natural heat, the Earth begun to feel the actions of this substance included in its breast: which substance is that spirituous matter which is never idle, but always employed about Generations and Vivifications; which may here be properly called the Earth, because the proper and virtuous substance of the Earth, is that alone that by proper corporation generates all Bodies according to individual Ideas; as I have described it in this Ode, out of which I shall take what is convenient for my purpose.  

L' esprit porte sur la face  
De ceste indigeste mass,  
L' aen virounant tout au●our,  
Feit separer la matter  
Pesante de la legiere,  
Et la noire nuict du jour.  
Puis de l'humour a mass  
Le corps plus peasant, & f●oid  
Feit la roundeur compass  
Que d'un serrement estroit  
L'eau ou l'air contrebalance  
D'un poids si ferme & equal  
Que sans souffrir mesme mal  
Ne peur choir en decadence.  
Puis versant l'ame an dedans  
Et les semences du monde  
La feit nurisse faconde  
Du ciel & des feux arden's.   

When yet the world did in a Chaos lie,  
The Spirit full of fiery heat did fly  
About the surface of this shapeless Mass,  
And so fomented it, that what erst was  
One lump without all form, did now begin  
By Separation, which was wrought therein  
By this same Spirit, a multitude to make  
Of Bodies, and likewise of forms to take  
A number almost numberless: and now  
Light things ascend, and heavy things below  
The centre seek to pass: the day breaks out,  
And all the ponderous relics press about  
The centre, where staying themselves they make  
Around terraqueous Globe, which nought can shake  
Out of its place; for 'tis on every side  
Equally balanced, and cannot slide,  
Seeing no over-weight presses one part  
More than another: hereto the Stars impart  
Their influences, which by life and seed  
Make this great Nurse all things to keep and breed.   
And seeing in this Universal Separation, that which is more fiery and subtle, chooses the higher Seat; and ●hat which is gross and massy, the lowest; it follows, that Celestial Body's ●re immortal, as being most remote ●nd separate from all immund Dregs; ●nd that they are crooked, or excavated ●●to rotundity, because they flew up at ●nce: for which cause also, Nature desires a round form for eternal things, a● being most perfect and indeficient: an● on the contrary it follows, that Terrestrial things must be obnoxious 〈◊〉 corruption and death, because contraries are conjoined in their composition to wit, Elements of contrary qualitie● wherewith the impurities or dregs 〈◊〉 the first matter were mixed; which we●● not created pure, as some imagine: s●●● then all that proceeded from the● would be immortal; nay, more, the● could have been no Generation in 〈◊〉 World: for without contrariety 〈◊〉 qualities and impurities, there 〈◊〉 been no alteration nor mutation 〈◊〉 forms; but all would have had one fa●● without distinction: all things wou●●● have remained equally pure and subtle and consequently, without all ornament yea, that I may speak freely, there h●●● been neither matter, nor World create●● It was therefore necessary, That the subtle substance should be mixed with gro●● dregs: for where nothing but purity 〈◊〉 there is no action; because there can 〈◊〉 no action, where there is no patie●● seeing what is pure hath no power o● what is as pure, nor impure over as impure. But Nature being always occupied in separating the pure from the impure, for the preservation of its essence and vital increase, hath this substance mixed with impurity, for its sole subject; which, retaining the state and Nature of its Creation, is not nourished, multiplied or augmented, save with the nutrition, multiplication and accretion of Excrements, which are not consubstantial with it, but only Companions and Sisters of its nativity. And that these things are so, such have experienced, who by Divine Inspiration have found the way to extract this first matter, and to corporate it in imitation of Nature; which, whatever purity, cleanness, and clarity it seems to have, yet is it always loaden with a great quantity of Terrestrial Dregs, which cannot be taken away without great industry.  
I think then, that I have by most valid Arguments demonstrated, That every massy Body is not nourished and preserved by the visible Earth, but by spirituous matter only: whereby we see, that they very much abound with Excrements, and that their whole Mass is nothing else but an Excrement, wherein this spirituous Matter, that's apt for corporation, lurks invisibly: for though we eat and drink, yet all that ingredes our stomaches, goes out alomst in the same quantity that we assumed it in. We do not therefore extract our vital Oil out of its Mass, but that pure essence and substance that lies within it.  
Briefly, That excrementitious part is nothing else but the house of this pure substance, and the vehicle that carries this nutritive Spirit to the place of distribution, there to complete its digestion and requisite Separation. Are not Trees and Plants incorporated with this mass of Excrements? and is not this Mass, the Conduit of their enlivening and vegetative Spirit, and as it were a fulciment that makes them grow? I do not say, That all that is in a Tree, or other individual, is wholly an Excrement; for in every thing, there inhabits some particle of this substance, which I cannot justly call a Body, but only a thing apt for corporation, which Nature cannot work of itself: for though what we see and touch is progenerated of matter apt for corporation; yet this Body is not substantial, and nothing but Excrement is seen. So that Nature suffers nothing of that to appear, that is the vital essence, substance or matter of the thing; but Art, which by industry superates the simple power of Nature, can do it well enough: for an ingenious Naturalist considers this, That though the spirimous matter and substance of things be nowhere pure in natural Creation, yet being mixed with dregs, it may be separated by the digestion of the ventricle, which rejects Excrements, and retains the substance: not as if this Separation were subject to sight, but to the understanding by the appearance of the effect, whereby we find the dregs and Excrements rejected as useless for the conservation of the essence of a Body.  
Moreover, Augmentation, Restauration, and Vivification, coming to Bodies by this substance, ascertain us of this thing, though Nature whereby it acts, hides the operation: the substance then being separable, it must be innately pure and homogeneous, or similar in all its parts; but this purity cannot be manifested by Nature for her operations; for the intentional perfection of things is only simple.  
But an Artist, observing that Heat is the only Medium and Instrument which Nature uses in the attainment of this perfection, and Fire the sole Purger and Separator, tending to perfect purification: and further minding, that in the centre of every Body, some pure substance is contained, which can be naturally separated, if not exactly, yet according to the extent of its faculties, he proposes to himself the same way, and the same Instrument that Nature uses, to wit, Fire; which he so administers, as to destroy, burn or separate the Excrements, without the destruction of the pure substance residing in the centre; which he continues, till it be perfectly pure, and the Fire have no further destructive power over it, but rather acts for its conservation, exaltation, and the introduction of a Tincture and Quality like to it, and so at length convert this whole pure substance into its own proper Nature.  
An Artist then, minding this substance to reside in all things, and that all things may be burned; so that after combustion, Ashes will remain, which the Fire cannot devour, he prudently concludes, That in those Ashes there remains something not subject to the vigour of Fire and Flame. And further incumbent on his work, he finds a kind of Salt, not produced by Fire, but rather the Victor over Fire, like the pure Gold of every  Body. This Salt is the last matter res●ing in the Anatomy of Bodies, and not Ashes; whence this Salt was ultimately extracted, and out of which, nothing can be further extracted: for if by humidity it be turned into Water, by heat it will be again congealed into Salt. Whence we may conclude, That this Water was Mercury, whence all Bodies were first created; and that this Water, hidden in the ashes, hinders their total consumption by combustion, as the universal Mercury in the Bowel● of the Earth, before the production of Bodies.  
Wherefore the learned Ronillascus in his Writings, calls this The Water of Mercurial Fire, because Fire generates, nourishes it; yea, augments its goodness so much more, by how much it remains longer in it: for the ultimate operation of Fire is to make Salt; and Salt is nothing but dry Water, which acquires and conserveses its siccity by Fire, and thence it is of like Nature to it.  
And here I would not have any wonder, That in the beginning of this Book I said, That Fire is not without Moisture; for seeing it is nourished therewith, it must also participate thereof; because all things take their nourishment from that whereof they are made. So that Fire and Moisture are as it were two Correlates; the one whereof cannot exist without the other, no not in imagination: and the Elements have without doubt, such affinity and connexion one with another, and so participate one of another, that any of them may be found in his associate: for the Earth contains Air, Water and Fire; Water, Fire, Air and Earth; Air, Earth, Water and Fire; and Fire, Water, Air and Earth: without which participations, there could be no mutual conversion, and no sympathy or convenience.  
From the Premises we may collect, That nothing is destitute of Excrements, and that Excrement and Substance are the two constitutive parts of a Body; and that nothing but Excrement, as accidental, and not affine to the essence or substance, should be separated. We may likewise gather, That Fire only procures and facilitates this operation.  
But it is time that we proceed and show how this may be done: for it is not enough to say, That Separation is the beginning of the works of Nature and Art, nor to know what things are separable, unless the practice & manner of this operation be also rendered intelligible. I said before, That there were two kinds of Separation: one for Distinction and Ornament, of which I will say no more, because it appertains only to Nature, not to Art: the other is made by Decision or Division, which I shall now explicate. I said before, That all things consist of two parts; Excrement and Substance: Substance is of itself simple and indivisible, whether we take it general for the first Universal matter, or in particular for any species, according to the impression of the Celestial Idea, which is infinite. This Substance or first Matter in every species of compounded Bodies, is one in essence, virtue and quality: and in one and the same subject, one part cannot be of one species, and another of another: but in Excrements it is otherwise; for the better understanding whereof, I will lay the following Rule, That there are but two means or mediums for the completing of all Separations, to wit, Fire and Water: and there are but two things separable in Bodies; the one whereof is separated by Fire, the other by Water. In the first place it is indubitable, That the Nature of Fire is such, as it destroys and consumes all that is combustible; and of Water such, as it washes and cleanses all substance from its impurity that commaculates it: Fire devours all that's volatile, and of an Airy quality, because it is its proper nutriment: but Water divides all that's Terrestrial and gross. Betwixt these two extremes then, there must be some intermediate disposition, which should be kept and conserved, containing nothing that's combustible or impure in it, which may be subjected to these two Warriors. And it is manifest, That Adustion and Dregs are the two Corrupters and Destroyer's of all things; which Divine Hypocrates was not ignorant of, when he said, That all Diseases proceed either from the Air or Aliments; insinuating, that the excess of excrementitious Aliments are apt to receive corruption, and Excrements by Fire exceeding natural heat, are the inflaming and corrupting causes of each Disease: for the Excrements of Aliments, fill Bodies with Terrestrial impurities, and inflammable Air generates sulphureous and adust matter, which easily conceiving hot ardours, consumes and dissipates what is radical and vital with itself; carrying it away, because the greater part of it is volatile, the less adustive. Dregs then, and Adustion, are the two Authors of corruption, and those that hinder the vigour of substantial actions in all things.  
And if we require any Arguments to prove this, the stink of Digestion and Excrements demonstrates it; for that same scented in things that are burned, speaks little of good to be there. The same is also evident in the fumes of Excrements which stinking Bodies emit; for those suppose corruption; and besides the corruption they generate, they also cause these two inconveniences; the one is the hindrance of Penetration, the other of Fixation▪ which two actions are absolutely necessary for the conservation of life: for that which nourishes and supports life, must needs be subtle, that it may by its subtle parts penetrate Bodies, and like a secret Balsam, roborate and augment the light of life in the centre of the Body: for if it were gross, it would rather obstruct, suffocate and extinguish, then penetrate and pass through such narrow ways: and because on the other side it conserveses life in its state, it should in reason be a stable, and no fluxible thing; for if it were volatile, we might every moment expect death, lest it should be introduced by the corruption generated by feculent adustion, which continually lays wait for our life. Grossness then, hinders Ingress, and Adustion, Stability.  
Hence we may take a good admonition for Medicine, to wit, that every true Medicament introsumed for the restoring of strength, and profligating the cause of instant death, should have two properties, to wit, to pierce to the centre of sanity, and preserve the centre, by dilating and deducing it through the whole Body; which the Ancients, with good success, revoked to practise; and not many years ago, the too much hated Paracelsus, who explained their operations to posterity, which were so long kept secret; and let him that will, affirm the contrary, I doubt not to aver, That nothing without the operation of Fire, can be brought to purity and stability; which two parts must be chief observed in making Medicaments: to which Assertion this valid Reason draws me, That no body in its first original and form can be truly Medicinal, as immerged in the corruption of its excrementitious Dregs, because it cannot attain the place & fear of sanity, nor yet preserve sanity, because it wants subtlety to penetrate, and fixedness requisite to the Restauration of what is corrupt and lost, and the conservation of what is restored; which cannot possibly be attained by the common way of preparation, neither in substance, nor in infusion: the impossibilty hereof in substance appears, in that such do not purge without violence, which causes rather perilous weakness, then salutary Restauration: and as to infusions, nothing can thereby be extracted out of simples, but a little introsity, which is innate in all Bodies, with a little of their excrementitious Dregs. Hence infusion attracts not the internal virtue, but only the external sapour of things, which in their centre is quite different from that in their superficial matter: for commonly we see, all infusions are bitter; which we are forced to obdulcorate with Sugar or Honey, because most Apothecaries are not so industrious, as to extract the natural sweetness wherein the Nature of the things consists, from the things they infuse; for all bitterness proceeds from Salt, which hath sweetness at the bottom, which cannot be extracted by simple infusions, but by Fire only, and ingenious Artifice; this sweetness being the very perfection of the Medicine.  
Hence Arnoldus de villa nova saith, That if you know how to dulcorate what is bitter, you have the whole mystery. Which Brucestus was not ignorant of, as appears by his Dialogue, entitled, Demogorgon.  
But this occult sweetness can never be manifested, unless it be quite freed from Terrestrial Excrements, and volatile and Aereal Adustion: for the earthiness thereof, gives it its extraneous sapour arising from the Excrements of Salt, from whose variety, according to the species and place wherein they are generated, the diversity of sapours doth arise: for all sapour comes from Salt; and by how much there is more Salt, by so much is the sapour more intense. And on the other side, that which is volatile and Airy, begets ill and non-natural odours, which send out a stinch, which we perceive in their burning, because of the combustion and inflammation of the unctuous Sulphur: and that volatile matter is an Excrement, is apparent from the stinking fumes of Bodies that are burning, whence smoke proceeds; that adhering to the Chimney or other part, which afterward retain the odour of the  Bodies, and the bitterness of the Excrements of Salt. And this is yet more manifest, by that blackness and obscurity which this fume impresses on all things it touches, which greatly hinders the light and splendour of Nature, which always desires purity and freedom from darkness, as appears by that intense splendour in perfect Bodies, a token of their purity, seeing others, more immerged in impurity, are more obscure; as Metals perfect and imperfect, & precious Stones, demonstrate.  
But if we would avoid long peregrinations, and according to the oracles advice, terminate our curious journeys in ourselves, by seeking out the causes of our Diseases, we should easily find them derived from those infected fumes that obscure the light of our sanity; and thence desume a manifest sign of what is wrought within us: for a sound Man, because of the internal clarity of his natural disposition, hath a clear and lively coloured aspect: but a sick Man, from the first onset of his disease, is pale and plumbeous, his native vigour perishing and decaying: and all these mutations proceed from the fumes of sulphureous and excrementitious Adustion and Inflammation, which extend themselves thorough all the members, and by mediation of the pores, infect the whole Body.  
This paleness may also proceed from Nature, feeling herself aggravated with a disease, and thereupon revoking all the pure and good Blood inwards, that mustering up their forces she may better oppose her enemy, or sustain his assaults: and upon this occasion, the external parts are destitute of their clarity; and in this conflict the external parts remain as it were dead like Earth, & tend to obscurity, because Earth, wherein this battle is begun, is naturally black; as on the contrary, Fire is by Nature clear and white.  
The Earth then on its part, being spisse and obscure, begets blackness and sulphureous, fuliginous, and smoky Adustion, begets obscurity; wherefore both cause corruption, destruction and ruin: and besides these two, nothing in the world procures universal ruin; neither is any inferior Body exempted from these evils, save Gold and precious Stones, which Nature hath brought to what perfection she can.  
And so Death is to other Bodies a perpetual enemy, seeking how to destroy them; but Nature, as a careful Mother, how to preserve her works; who hath armed two potent and nimble Champions to help them, and withstand the Adversaries fury: one whereof is Fire, the expugner of sulphureous Adustion; the other Water, the expeller and driver of Terrestrial dregs. And as Nature is ingenious and subtle in all her operations, so is Art endued with equal subtlety and industry. And there's no other way to Separation instituted by Nature from the beginning, but these two, which Nature herself hath trodden from the nonage of the Universe, whose first seeds, void of form, and confusedly mixed in a Chaos, were dissolved in Water, and by the Spirit of God, the first Mover, moving upon them, divided and distinguished: whence the Separation of light from darkness proceeded, as also of distinct forms from confusion, of generations from barrenness, and of death from life: and if things in the first commixtion were thus confused, as impure with pure, Excrements with Substance, Earth with Heaven, and life with death; all were without action, power, essence and life; and the whole confusion useless.  
An Artist therefore considering this, and observing, That nothing can exert its virtue, till the confusion of its purity and impurity be separated; he takes Water and Fire for his Helpers, and follows Nature's copy, whose operations he should observe with all curiosity, especially in generating Metals, which are by so much the perfecter, by how much they are more digested in the bowels of the Earth. This sentence is then irrefragable, That Water and Fire are the sole general and principal means of Separation: but the composition of things being various, and one thing yielding with more ease than another, we must also act variously upon them; yet so, as not to vary from the plain path, that nature has delineated: For adustion and unctuous Sulphur, making a body inflammable and infective, may be extracted one way out of one body, and terrestrial feculency another way in others. Calcination and Sublimation, were invented to purge adustion; but Distillation and Dissolution, to remove terrestrial feculency; and Descension, for the conservation of weak and easily inflammable bodies: and all these are either effected by fire; as Calcination, Sublimation, and Descension; or by water, as Distillation and Dissolution.  
But because both the Books of ancient and modern writers speak at large of these things, I shall not further labour in their explication, because I can add nothing new, nor yet any ornament or facility to them: it may suffice if I add any thing definitively, and known to myself in general; and that is, that Calcination is invented, for your overcoming of hard and rebellious things, and for continuity, and valid and firm composition, which hinders division, and admits not of easy separation: and hence four conveniencies arise; the combustion of impure and stinking Sulphur, the easy separation of superfluous and extraneous earthiness, the fixation of the internal Sulphur, and more prompt dissolution.  
For it is natural to fire to consume those adustible parts, which are not of the essence of a substance, to facilitate the division and rejection of terrestrial excrements, to fix radical Sulphur, and to multiply salt in bodies, which alone doth afterwards admit dissolution by water.  
I say therefore, that Calcination agrees only to bodies, that because of their continuity scarcely yield; for spirits and volatile things, which fly away by fire, cannot be calcined, unless some fixing thing be added, which is repugnant to their nature.  
Seeing there is no other end in Calcination, then to extract salts, wherein the better part and secret virtue of bodies consist; to which that corruptive adustion adheres, which in sublimation we suffer ro evaporate and fly away, as useless; that the remaining substance may be better freed from terrestrial dregs, and easier educed by fire to purification and stability. It is true also, that sublimation requires some intention of fire; but that happens then chief, when the things to be sublimated are more profoundly mixed with the dregs of some other fixed body, that they may more pertinaciously hold their terrestrial impurities: and this kind of sublimation is most secure, save when we work upon subjects that have their dregs naturally more fixed.  
Descension hath a two fold use, one is to extract Oil out of vegetables without combustion, the other to cleanse fusibles bodies, before they be made volatile; and these are the three kinds of separation made by fire: now we shall speak a little of the other two, Distillation and Dissolution, made by water; and the former of these is made by inclination and straining, that the limpidity of bodies may with water come forth into the water of dissolved vegetables: for that same that's made by an Alembick, appertains to the order of sublimations, which is effected by elevation, and not by ablution. And though some account this for an indifferent and but a mean way, yet I say it should not be rejected, but much esteemed, as that principally which Nature uses in her operations, and which she establishes, as the sole medium for the separation of terrestrial impurity; by which also many things are brought to the height of their perfection, being by this kind of distillation, elevated and sublimated to their purity: Whence some Philosophers have called it a secret sublimation.  
The second operation by water, to wit, dissolution, is effected by moist and moderate heat; as Horse-dung, Saint Mary's Bath, the smoke of boiling water, or by infusion in water, or else by inhumation in moist places: and the end of all these is one, to wit, the reduction of the things calcined into water, that by this liquefaction, the terrestrial matter may by straining, settle in the bottom of the vessel: but this subtle practice, and all of the like kind, should be reiterated; for if any would by continual calcination, separate the more simple parts of the compound, and reduce to salt what hath the essence of salt; he thereby creates much loss, for the intemperate and continual violence of the fire, will sublimate and evaporate a great part of that which is with such labour sought, so that nothing will remain, but a small quantity of the soluble matter, with a great deal of dregs; and besides, that matter may by long abode in the fire, be made into glass: it is better therefore to fly to frequent reiterations, then violate nature by the excess of any precinitancy. I found such an inconvenience once in calcinating common Crystal, which while I desired to purge from its excrements, and by long ignition to reduce to its true essence, I found both it and its excrements made into glass, and thence useless for my purpose: for though Crystal be clear, lucid and transparent, yet in Calcination it first emits black, and then violaceous fumes, as also stinking and sulphureous odours, which sufficiently attest its excrementitious earthiness, as also white fumes following after the true Homogeneity of its substance, which remains clear and fluid in small quantity, till it become true crystalline Salt; yea, by the duration of these last reiterations, its ingrateful scent is changed into a most delicate one, like that of violets-powder. By these reiterations of Calcinations, two more conveniences do yet arise:  
One is, that the thing calcined by assuefaction to the fire, brings stability and subtlety to the Medicaments, as I said before.  
The other, that a body often dissolved, acquires easy penetration, and ready ingression; as also more potent strength to change the state of the patiented, from sickness, to sanity; from weakness, to vigour; from declination, to restauration and perfect health: and these are the ordinary ways of all separations, which have no other scope, than the purging of pure substances from excrements, and elevating of their terrestrial grossness to a fiery purity, and from imperfection to perfection: Which Hermes hints at, when he says, that earth must be separated by fire, and the subtle from the gross; which he says, must be done with great care and animadversion: For when he speaks of the preparation of the universal Spirit after its terrification, and opens the way to the preparation of all individuals, he would signify, that there is something in this earth, which can scarce be retained and conserved; and this is a light and volatile spirit, which is kept by the temperament of fire.  
But on the contrary, it will easily fly away with the separable and more copious volatile part, if in the operation, temperate fire and a good method be not used with much patience; where the Artist should observe this rule with all diligence, that there are three distinct Sulphurs: whereof two are separable, to wit, the external, which perishes by Calcination and Dissolution; and the internal, which vanishes only by decoction; and the third is fixed, which is properly the Sulphur of nature, and the proper subject of its substance: whereunto Philosophers give the name of Agent, Fixed-grain, or Element of fire.  
As to the external Sulphur, it is that first volatile and adustible water; for it is plainly extraneous, and the first nutriment of fire: but the internal is more rooted in, and united to the substance; and therefore yields not, save to intent and continued heat: and therefore it assumes all colours before it egrede; beginning first with black, which is the prime sign of earthiness, adustion, and corruption, and the antecessor of putrefaction and corruption; and then passes through other middle colours, till at length it put on whiteness, which is the airy colour; and then ascends to a fiery colour, or redness, in which the power of art, and dominion of fire, is terminated, and beyond which there is no progress.  
Which thing the Poets fabulously concealed under the unconstant form of Proteus, who turned himself into various monstrous forms, that he might affright those that would captivate him. This variety of colours proceeds from the internal Sulphur, the true author and producer of all tinctures and varieties, which are by Nature or Art observed in any subject. These colours may be also distinctly noted in the decoction of the first universal Subject, as I have above said, That it produced them in my operations: and first, whiteness presents itself, and then Nature's Sulphur appears, which Geber says is white without, and red within: for redness immediately follows this whiteness without all help, save the continuation and augmentation of Fire; whence one Philosopher said, His Stone was a Gold-Ring covered with Silver.  
I would briefly insert these few words about colours, not that I would presume to teach the preparations and observations, which I know necessary for the perfecting of that great and so much praised Philosophers Elixir; but only that I may show the curious Disciples of learned Medea, which induced by profound and ingenious inquisition, seek to enter the secrets of these mysterious Physics, what Sulphurs must be rejected, and what must be retained in all things: I hope, I shall spend that time well, which I have substracted from my houshold-affairs, if I restore any vigour or spark of life, to that languishing part of Natural Philosophy, which envious Men have buried in the Sepulchre of Calumny, under the odious title of abusive Transmutation and falsifying of Metals; though ignorance only stop their eyes from discerning this true mystery, which they load with opprobrious contumelies, and injurious words; grounding their malice only on the malicious lies of impudent dullards, who run about Cities, sell smoke, and obnubilate their false Sophistications under the coat of this fair Virgin; deceiving the eyes of the too credulous Commonalty with their pigments, and by their Syrenical and fraudulent Speeches, precipitating curious Inquirers into Scylla or Charybdis.   

CHAP. 4. Of the Spirits ascent into Heaven, and descent into the Earth.  
THe Almighty Creator of all things, foreseeing from the beginning, that infection and corruption growing with things compounded of Body and Spirit, would move continual and intestine wars, he opposed a remedy to this dissension; whereby the one may be conserved, and the other not destroyed: and seeing the Spirit and Substance were included in a Body, and the Body immerged in corruption, it was impossible that corruption should act upon and prevail over the Body, and yet the Spirit placed in both should be kept free, and incur no danger; but rather, that with the Body it should yield to death's Tyranny, which always intends Nature's destruction, and the prostitution of all individuals: which thing needs no proof, but appears sufficiently manifest, from the natural, and sometimes the immature end of Animals, Vegetables and Minerals, which we see every day by their corruption, when the Body being dead, the Spirit must undergo the same fortune; that is, the virtue that enlivened it, is annihilated: but because the prime Opificer would be admirable in all his works, of his mere goodness and love to Mankind, who from the beginning he predestinated to be the Instrument of his Glory, and to whom he subjected whatever was admirable in the Creation; for his Commodity, I say, he gave certain expedient Remedies, whereby he might not only purify and perfect the things created, but also, preserve and arm himself against the assaults of mortal corruption.  
Knowing then, that the two parts of Man were one created in another, to wit, the Spirit in the Body, and that the Body would be continually infected by corruption, and by sensuality, drawn and alured to intemperance, which infers the true corruption, and weakening of all the members; he foresaw, that the Spirit inhabiting like a Guest in the Body, could not be exempted from its contagious depravation: and we ordinarily see, That Men given to excess of intemperance and sensuality, accustom themselves to ill manners, and take liberty in all corruption, both of Mind and Spirit; neither regarding Love nor Fear to God, Honour or Respect to the World, nor Piety to themselves, nor Charity towards their Neighbours. So that it is impossible, if they be thus bound to inquinations in death, but their Spirits must undergo punishment, as they have participated of pleasure.  
Seeing moreover, all mankind by the fall of our first Parent, obnoxious to death, and thence every Man inevitably to incur total destruction and perdition; he mitigated, or rather redintegrated this Misery by an admirable Remedy, far exceeding our capacity: for knowing Man by his Spirit and his Body to participate of Heaven and of Earth, the Remedy also he made to partake of Heaven and Earth, which is compatible solely to our only Lord, Saviour, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who descended from Heaven into the Earth; and by a mystery incomprehensible by us and common sense, was miraculously made Man without the abdication of his Godhead; because our health could not come from Earth alone, corruption reigning there: but it was necessary, that the Water should come from above, where the Fountain of purity is; he therefore came down, that he might dwell in us, and with us, and conclude us within the terms of justice and temperance; regenerating us to newness of life, by the mutation of our Spirit and Body, and mortifying in us our corruptions and sins, and restoring us to the study of purity of virtue; which could not have been effected save by him alone, the extreme of both Natures; for he is God-Man, that he might conjoin superior with inferior things, which were disjoined by the incomparable distance of life and death, purity and corruption.  
The Earth doubtlessly received this inestimable treasure far exceeding its merit, by a medium that cannot be comprehended, from which he again ascended into Heaven, by the Water of purification, and Fire of the Spirit, without accidents and corporal passions, though he deposed not his Body, but retained it incorruptible and glorious, having acquired immortality by death; who shall again descend from his Father's right-Hand, into the Earth, after the Universal conflagration, to renew the World, and make a Separation betwixt the good destined to life, and the evil condemned to death.  
See now how well the Omnipotent Father, the Father of all compassions, consulted for Man's good; to whose Body, joined with his Soul, he gave an equal Preserver, whom he sent from Heaven, that he might be born on Earth; and whom, by the light of Nature, we ought to seek.  
Seeing Man was therefore endued with Reason and Judgement, that he might acknowledge and comprehend his great gifts: but Man, created heavenly, for the indagation of this benefit, as too forgetful of his birth, lays out that noble and divine Light within him, in searching out frivolous and transitory vanities, and not in the pursuit of solid wisdom and verity.  
Briefly, he had rather follow the inclination of his Terrestrial Geniture, then Divine and Celestial Wisdom, which he neglects as a thing indifferent, and casually sent to him from above. Wherefore the Root of Mankind is as it were extinguished before it grow out, (except some few who have had better Stars, and more favourable Aspects in their Nativity) they desiring the possession of transitory goods, more than the attainment of Divine and precious Gifts, which our fecund Mother Nature hath publicly and in all places fixed, for the conservation of life, hurt, rather than helped, by their abundance immerged in mortal corruption: And it is apparent, That those that are of a higher Spirit, though they look upon the fulgour and splendour of those Mundane Riches, as no way despicable; yet they will not rest in this surface, but seek to Divine Virtue, occluded in the Centre, which hath indeed been cause of great errors both in Medicine and Philosophy, to such as destitute of true light, grope at, and in the dark pass by both.  
Recalling then my mind to the clear light, by whose guidance we may attain that salutary and best remedy, which God ordained particularly for the conservation of mankind, and for the obtaining of Celestial benediction; I shall endeavour with all humility and requisite sincerity, not as a Divine, but as a Disciple of Wisdoms followers, to adumbrate my conceptions in a rude style; which the lovers of verity may accept gratefully, if they find them rational and pleasing.  
I say then, that all understanding communicated to any man from man alone, is uncertain and confused, because man is ordinarily loaden with ignorance and slow resolutions; but that which he receives from the univerial Light, is clear and . For to know absolutely, is to understand a thing by its first causes; and there is no certitude in second causes, till we come to their original: wherefore we cannot know the Nature of a Species, unless we foreknow its Genus; neither can we know the Nature of Microcosmes (which are almost infinite) unless we first find out the Nature of the Macrocosm, that gives them being. Man likewise cannot be known, without the precedent cognition of the world, whose effigies he is; nor yet the great world, unless we know whence and how it was made: For how shall one know a man, whose principle is nothing but a small deformed mucilage? or how shall a man know him that is born, unless he know those that begot him? and here I mean not the second, but the first Parents, to wit, heaven and earth: and unless a man understand the first creation of these, how shall he know them? as an Embryo in a womb, which is nothing but the congregation of a certain humour, which is afterwards form to the example of its parents, and so in progress, till it become perfect: so the Heaven, Earth, and all that is therein, that is, all this great world, is like an Embryo in the Chaos, whence none can have any light, unless he consider the first rudiments and progress of its distinction and formation.  
Let us therefore first go to the Fountain and Spring, that we may thence trace the rivulets that flow from it, and know them, and by examples of forms judge of things form.  
I say therefore, that the prime and absolute creator (who is as a point whence all proceed, and an inexhaustible fountain whence infinite rivulets issue, hath a Nature proper and particular to himself, which is to conserve as well as produce the whole world: for it is the property of a good Author, to produce things; and when he hath procreated them, to conserve and defend them.  
This first Effect, which is Creation, is a secret that we are ignorant of; we understand it not, but by the affinity or likeness it hath to generations.  
But the second is open and manifest to such, at least, as are illuminated, elect, and born of the Spirit; but not to such as are sons of the flesh, lest precious pearls should be trod upon, and cast to swine.  
Jesus Christ our Lord hath perfected the former and more excellent, and taught us, commanding us to imitate him in all good works, whereof he hath set us an ensample: For Nature walks always in the same tract, and never forsakes her ways. As therefore the universal Parent or Conserver, consulted by his providence the common conservation of all things, from the beginning of the world: So Nature from the beginning had her intentions, and was always occupied in continual action about productions: For as it was necessary that the safety of the Spiritual part of man should descend from above, so is it likewise as necessary, that the safety of the Body should come from the same Fountain, because from below, where the seat and habitation of corruption is, neither life nor safety can proceed. For what end do the Heavens, the perpetual Fountain of Restauration and Perfection, by the influence of their virtues flow upon the Body of the Earth, which the benevolent Stars, with their benign Aspects, sympathising with the afflicted society of mankind, do daily graciously prosecute and affect, but to generate in her a durable and enlivening Spirit, which in the Womb of this fecund mother assumes a Body, and manifests and dilates its faculties through all the parts of the world, distributing them to each creature according to its exigency: and hereupon do the particular powers depend, which we must know, by their effects in Herbs, Beasts, Stones, and other things which have drawn their proprieties from this general Spirit, and do miraculously conserve us and other creatures. And as it pleased God to enrich man with the perfection of his own Son, according to the extension of the humane Nature, and yet he would not have any one contaminated with sins and iniquities, to seek remedies and health from man, but from himself the true Fountain, whence all perfection flows: so also Nature, the perfect observer of the Divine will, and imitator of his works, hath not settled the perfect virtue of curation and restauration, in Herbs and particular Creatures, but would have us seek it precisely in the Centre, whence this is communicated to Creatures, to wit, in the Earth, where this enlivening Spirit is generated: for if simples are endued with the virtue of curing, restoring, nourishing, and conserving how much more hath the abundant dispenser of it, whence all these receive it? but that the Earth ●s the treasury and dispenser of these virtues, daily experience gives us suf●ient reasons; for she must needs possess them, else she could not give them.  
It is therefore admirable, that so many egregious men should spend their time in drawing their waters from simple rivulets, far removed from their pure Fountain, and running through a ●uddy current, and not go to the Fountain's head.  
I do not in the mean time contemn special Medicaments, but I would that Generals were more sought after, and particulars not neglected: for though 〈◊〉 General Medicament might salve every Sore, yet particulars merit commendation; especially in external superficiary Diseases, when the Centre of sanity is not afflicted.  
That therefore I may return to my Scope, I say again, the Earth is the Matrix, wherein the Heavens beget that Spirit, that Nourisher, Restorer, and Conserver of Bodies, which alone gives solidity and perfect cure: and how this so potent and efficacious a Spirit should be found and taken, all wise men should direct their cogitations to so useful an inquisition, that they might observe the exemplary Steps, which Nature paces in perfecting her intentions; and hold this for a rule, though God infinitely exceeding Nature, is not bound to natural reason, no more than a Monarch to the Laws himself prescribes, which yet his subject observe without enquiring why he prescribed them: And who hath more faithfully and successfully followed this example, than Hermes Trismegistus? who after the deluge, was first (as some say) that opened to men the mysteries of the perfect knowledge of God, and exactly explicated Natures secrets: for besides that Angellike in his Poemandrum, he explains Divinity, where he manifests the Doctrine of the Creation of the great and small world, its beginning, progress, and duration; he also continues his holy Philosophy with the same hand in his Asclepium, declaring with a spirit and voice prophetical, that the regeneration of man should be wrought by the Mediation of the Son of God, endued with humane ●lesh: he also industriously touches the same Scope in his Tabula Smaragdina, where he saith, that as all things in the world were made out of one subject, by mediation of one God, so his Magistery, which is the chief and general Medicine, may be perfected and completed by adaptation only; which adaptation is nothing else but a Glass, where we may see Divine Meditation enigmatically represented, to show that Nature necessarily follows the steps of her Master.  
He also attests in other Books, That the Author of Regeneration should descend from Heaven, and become Man, and live among Men for their edification. He says also in his Tabula, (which he left as the last Testament and Testimony of the excellency of his thoughts) That this general Spirit, the Conserver of Bodies, shall descend from Heaven, to wit, from the Sun and Moon (which in his Poemandrum, he calls, The principal Rulers in this Mundane Monarchy) to assume a Body in the Earth, which he calls the Spirits Nurse, by the Mediation of the Air, in whose Belly he shall be carried, because the Celestial Influences cannot be communicated to the Earth, unless the Air, which is like an Intercessor, carry them to it: and as the Divine Restorer and Protector of our Souls, in the assumption of humane Flesh, deposed nothing of his Divinity; so (saith he) the Universal Spirit shall retain and keep all its Virtue entire, when it is turned into Earth, that is, when it assumes a Terrestrial Body.  
God also willed his own Son, and our Redeemer, in his assumed Humanity, be as it were regenerated by and with the Water of Baptism, and Fire of the Holy Spirit: not that he needed any such purgation, but because he was to converse with Men contaminated with corruption, that he might in all things yield himself an example of Renovation and Purification; giving Men a visible and ample Testimony, That, according to the Flesh, he was of the same Nature with them: not contaminated or corrupted, but obnoxious to passion, and equally mortal as they.  
In like manner, our fecund Mother Nature, willed her firstborn, though pure in his Centre, That he should be regenerated by Water and Fire, that is, by Separation of the Terrestrial from the fiery part, the spisse from the subtle, and the impure from the pure: which Hermes also aimed at, when he said, That the Earth should be separated from Fire: for what God hath conjoined, Man should not separate; but only the impure and gross from the subtle and pure by Fire.  
And besides this Sense, which first offers itself to our Intellects, there is yet another more occult meaning: for seeing by the Separation of Earth from Fire, he means, that that's gross, from that that's subtle; he seems to hint, that we should separate the natural qualities of these two Elements, by detracting the moist frigidity mixed with heavy Terrestrial things, without which that cold cannot subsist, and by putting on hot siccity, which is of the Nature of Fire, and consequently light and spiritual.  
For which cause, he adds, That it must ascend from Earth to Heaven, that is, from imperfection to perfection: for Paracelsus calls Fire the Firmament: and as nothing can attain perfection, unless it first depose its imperfect, gross, and mortal bark, wherein this cold quality abounds, the cause of all mortification, as heat is of life; so also, prudent Nature observes this Rule, That each subject should sustain and pass the obsure blackness of death, and expect the clear and candid renovation of life and immortality; that is, impassable essence, whereon neither Fire nor corruption hath any power. And assuredly, the acquisition of this life by death is naturally exercised by all Creatures continually; for all Sperm or Seed of Animals is mortified in some Matrix, and of Vegetables in the Earth, before any specification can be made. But if this rule takes place in the members, by how much may we more exactly observe, and directly imitate it in the head? and if the life acquired by mortification, be of any duration, how much more shall that be perpetual, which is principal?  
Jesus Christ taught these things by similitude of a Grain; which he says cannot fructify, unless it first die; signifying the mystery of his Resurrection, which his Death should precede: for he willed Death, that he might rise to a glorious and perpetual Life: therein not only giving example to men, but expressing the whole Idea of Nature.  
That divine and learned Ermite, Morienus Romanus, who is often quoted by modern and natural Philosophers, avers the same of the fixed Grain, whereto Nature hath given power to perfect Metals: for he saith, Unless it putrefy and grow black, it cannot be perfected and completed, but returns to nought.  
I have taken liberty to say thus much, that I may teach the younger sort, how the Creator should be acknowledged by simple Creatures: and because the vulgarity of Men begs this knowledge from remoter things; acting as they do, who seek the perfection of Sciences, from the Scholars of the lowest Form, whereas they should require it from the best Directors and Doctors; I would excite them by these natural coneeptions, that they would convert the principal endowments of their Souls, to the search of the general principle; and that in more exquisite things, such as impart life and preservation to all mortal Creatures.  
Mortification then, necessarily precedes all entrance into life, and principally in this Spirit the firstborn of Nature, when it assumed a Body; for else, no Man could separate it from Body, which hinders its Regeneration to Life, and Pacification of its Essence: not, as though by combustion and destruction it lost its Body in Death, nor yet by Putrefaction; but so, that in Germination, the Putrefaction of Seeds annihilates not that which is corporified in them: for which cause, in the Exaltion of Mercury, or the Universal Spirit, after the first degree, which is made by Separation, all that's corporeal and spiritual becomes volatile, because the sublimatory virtue therein, overcomes the fixing faculty; but the fixed part afterwards retains the volatile with it, being helped by the action of heat; which augmenting the power of the two nobler Elements, destroys the power of the two weaker: which Hermes hints at in a certain Treatise, by a plumous Bird detained with a Bird without Feathers: And Nicholaus Flumellus, by two Dragons, one with and another without Wings.  
But that I may not longer fold myself in these Daedalean Labyrinths, see we not all Vegetables increase, and elevate themselves upwards by virtue of this volatile Spirit? which, as I said before, would carry them higher towards the place whence it came, whereto it hath an appetite, but that it is detained by its proper Earth and corporal Mass, wherein some fixed matter resides.  
But lest some, not sufficiently accustomed to Philosophical terms, should think we contradict ourselves, I will here explicate myself: I say then, That I mean not by this volatile Spirit, that which I before called volatile and separable Sulphur; for that is rather the Author of Corruption than Growth: but that most simple part of the primaeve vapour, which never loses it's subtly, whose Nature is to be elevated, and tend to perfection; for to sublimate, is properly and Philosophically, no more then to perfect and exalt matters from imperfection to perfection. As therefore this Mercury hath an elevable; so hath it a stable substance: the first is naturally innate in it; the second is in its centre or power, yet it cannot compass its effect without the help of Art. And that I may show more plainly, in what ways Nature proceeds in her operations, I think it convenient to add a little about the causes and manner of Fixation.  
Repeating therefore that indubitable Axiom I alleged in the beginning of this Book, as perpetually observed in the World's Constitution, to wit, That all that hath life, hath also some duration; and that nothing is produced under the cope of Heaven, which hath not some kind of life in it: I say, that this Duration must be wrought by Conservation to Perpetuity: for Perpetuation is the scope of Nature; seeing it is the endeavour of every good Opificer, to preserve the work of his hands, till it be corrupted by the injury of time, or the light of its life extinguished by the cold ashes of death, to whose feet all things necessarily prostrate themselves, by this inevitable law, That whatsoever hath beginning, must also have an end. For if all things should remain in their first extreme, that is, in their beginning, without progress to their second extreme, that is, their death, all things had yet been left in their Chaos; or rather, nothing would have consisted in its being; and the principles of all subjects were useless, and destructive to themselves.  
Nature therefore, to eschew these inconveniences, observes the said order and progress of things, existing in continual action and motion, that is, conservation, and perpetuation.  
And now, that which extends life, or conserveses it, cannot subsist against the force of destruction, without some fixation and constancy; and this conservative essence, is in some more fixed then in others; whence they are also of a longer and more durable life, and more difficultly destroyed and mortified; as a Hart and Crow, amongst animals; an Oak, amongst Plants; and Gold, amongst Minerals: and this happens by the more equal and digested commixtion of Elements: so that death, whose property it is to divide and disjoin, cannot so easily enter these compounds, as being firmly united and well digested; and by how much Bodies are more firm thus, by so much they are less subject to the accidents of mortal corruption.  
But Nature being not able of herself to attain this perfection of union and digestion, cannot totally and finally save and preserve Bodies from destruction; but the industry of Art (though Art of itself be nothing without Nature) imitating her in these things, exceeds her in the proper course of her own ways: for observing that conservation and prolongation of life, is attainable by something tending to fixation, which must be effected by union and digestion (for nothing can be fixed but what is Homogeneous, and of one Nature) the Artist labours, that he may find out the thing that is fixable, and deduce it to perfect fixation; which he doth by the same ways, order and operation that Nature uses, to wit, by separating extraneous, and uniting Homogeneous parts, which he absolves by long and ingenious digestion of the things united.  
But because it is impossible for him to separate or extract this from individual and specifical Bodies, because of their firmer union and more compact digestion, he is glad to seek it in the bowels of the Earth, whence all things proceed: for to extract it entire and absolutely virtuous from another place, were a work of no profit, and impossible; and to think how it may be made perfect, is a labour both long and dubious: whence the Poet said well, 
Hic sive nullibi illud est quod querimus.  
Here or nowhere is that we seek.   
And they are doubtlessly deceived, who following crooked and by-paths, stick in the common signification and rind of Philosophical words, and study not to find out the lively marrow of their intentions: They should therefore sacrifice first to the infernal Queen; for there is the Fountain and Spring of all things.  
Wise men begin their works from the root, and not from the branches; choosing, as Doctor Bacon saith, to congeal the thing that Nature begun her first operations about, by a proportionate mixtion, and union of pure living Mercury, with a like quantity of Sulphur, into one Mass: Oh holy words! wherein this good Anglian, or rather Angel, clearly depinged that one and true matter, whereof all Philosophers have writ Volumes under divers figures and Enigmatical Fables; not because they would maliciously hid it, but keep the privilege of this knowledge for learned and pious Men, who by continual study and laborious experience find and adorn it.  
But lest I should move some masters to suspect that I allege this place ignorantly, and understand it improperly; I would have them know, that by that matter which Bacon so ingeniously represents, I mean the universal Spirit whereof I treat; and likewise, that I put a difference between the Father and the Son; or the Genitor, and him that's Generated; or the Producer, and him that is Produced: neither need I blush to say, that I know the one as well as the other: For the Philosopher here would have such inquire after the confection of the Philosopher's Stone, to seek the principle of Minerals; and he paints out the first matter of Metals, prepared, compounded, and specified by Nature.  
But I treat of first matter not yet specified, which may be properly called the first matter of this first matter of Metals, or the most general Genus, so much celebrated by Raymundus Lullius; but I used this sentence for example and authorities sake, yet so as no absurdity lurks therein: for the universal Spirit is the common Parent of Mercury and Sulphur, contained and proportionated by Nature, in this one Philosophical subject.  
But I would have the curious Artist consider two things: first, that by subtle imagination he choose an enlivening Nature, apt for the conservation of all Bodies; the other, that he choose a thing which of itself can enliven, and regenerates. Yet I would not have him to two different & separated Matters, choose the one Agent, and the other Patient; but only one, that may at once be of virtue to enliven, and to be enlivened.  
As to active Vivification, I have said enough; but as to the Passive, I say, That every Principle hath its Original from itself: For if it should have it elsewhere, it were no Principle; and while it gives being to others, it must necessarily, whilst it generates them, draw from itself restauration, and perpetual plenitude: wherefore it is in continual action and motion towards vivification, whereby its destruction is hindered; for it will never forsake itself: and it hath motion in and from itself; which Macrobius also disputed in his Comment upon Scipio's dream, discoursing on the soul of man; though I think his discourse may be better apted to the Soul or Spirit of the world, which is my subject.  
I will therefore borrow this from his Arguments: Whatsoever is moved of it self, is the beginning of motion, and lives continually; and that that lives continually cannot be enlivened but from itself; it is therefore vivificable: but the Spirit of the world is such, because it hath its seat in the Earth, to convert itself into Earth, wherein, as Hermes rightly, all it virtues, actions and qualities remain entire: it follows also, seeing it is vital, that it reassumes life, restoring itself by its own proper power: we find the same also in this universal Mercury, which is always nourished, and restored in its Mine; so that if by any means it be extracted, it always grows to the same form whereof it was before; and wheresoever it is cast, there will be plenty of it always after.  
Not as if it were generated of the Earth, but in the Earth, through whose parts it creeps, extending itself continually by multiplication and vegetation; which the Ancients denote by the Serpent, which Moses says creeps on the Earth, & feeds itself on the dust thereof: and this caused the Cabalists to call him the prince of Sepulchers, because he devours and consumes the Bodies there interred; not that dead Bodies, or the earth, are his aliments, but only the seats where he is fed and nourished. This is the place where he is moved, turned, and twines without ceasing; whereof Medea admonishes Jason, where she says (in Epist. Heroid. Ovidij) 

Pervigil ecce draco squamis crepitantibus horreus,  
Sibilat & torto pectore verrit humum.   

Lo here the Dragon with his horrid Scales,  
Doth watch, and hiss, and blow the very dales.    
Which Rhythms a French Author thus expresses.  

Voy le dragon veillant, de fureur sorcene  
Qui d'escaile crugaten a le corpse entourne,  
Don't le gosier sifflant fumee & feu deserre  
Et qui par replis lors va baliant la terre  
De sa large poitrine en la poudre imprimant  
Les sineux siallons qu'il trace incessament.   

Behold the scaly swelling Dragon lurking,  
Who always listens with a watchful ear  
Who knits his brows, and never shuts his eyes here  
But him that sees his cust tongues, teeth affrights  
With horror; whose wide throat emits such flames,  
As do infect the Air with blackest fumes:  
Behold his many twine, which he deep  
Impresses in the earth, whilst he doth creep,  
And plough the ground with his broad breast, whilst he  
Returns in the same tract continually.   
I adduce these two Considerations, not only to show how Mercury must be sought, but also to confirm, that that which is fixable in it, is nothing else but the enlivening essence, which fixed in due manner, perpetuates and keeps life in all things it enters; by its purity expelling Excrements, and by its perfection, perfecting imperfect things. The end of Fixation, both natural and artificial, is Perpetuation and Conservation, which are effected by the Mediation of that Tincture which Mercury acquires by this Fixation: for that Tincture is Life, and Life is nothing else but that which opens and colours the Body with such a Tincture, as shows it to be vital, and perishes with its death.  
Nature therefore colours Blood, wherein life consists, with a red Tincture: and when the Blood is clearer, and more lively red, the Body is more sound, fair and vigorous: as on the contrary, when the Blood is dense, black, adust with choler, or changed into a false colour, the Body is pained and sick within, and by discolouration gives Testimony thereof without.  
We may observe the same in Vegetables, whose lively vigour consists in greenness; which being changed, we say it is turning or declining towards death. The perfection also, or imperfection of Metals, is discernible by their colours. Gold is endued with a magnetical virtue, which by the splendent fulgor of its tincture, draws man's earth after it: in which Nature spends all her forces, but leaves the victory to Arts industry, which by graduation to the height, which it adds to its natural splendour, makes it far more fulgent; insomuch that it's called the Terrestrial Sun.  
An Artist then may exalt the golden colour to the height of obscure redness; by which augmentation, imperfect Metals in a certain degree, may, by projection of this artificial Tincture, be brought to the height of perfection; so that we see this golden colour introduced by Nature into this Metal, is only the way to that redness, wherein the completion of perfect Virtue lies: for which cause, this Metal, though far excelling others, can communicate no perfection nor conservation to humane Bodies, as a thousand Jugglers and Sluggards in Physics, promise by their Sophistical Fusions, and Fantastical Confections.  
But if more curious Artists work upon this subject, they may make it acquire such a degree of inseparable redness, that by the excess of its heat, it shall work miracles, and yet it shall consume nothing but superfluities, and shall conserve and multiply the substance of Bodies; though Philosophers say, That its heat as much exceeds our common fires, as common fires do innate heat in Animals.  
Paracelsus in his Treatise of Tinctures, extols that highly which is extracted out of Gold by Spirit of Wine, and attributes many singular Virtues to it, as also to that that's made of Antimony and Coral: before which, he yet seems to prefer the Tincture of Mercury, which he says may by perfect Fixation, be brought wholly to a Tincture, so that it will penetrate Bodies, because of its most subtle purity: where I think, he means not that vulgar, but Philosophical Mercury, wherein Art, perfecting Nature, hath wrought these two effects, to wit, perfect Tincture, and complete Fixation.  
Tincture then in proper locution, is the pure substance of things; and Body is nothing but an Excrement: which is also manifest, in that Bodies, after the Separation of their Tincture, are useless, without virtue, and corruptible; no otherwise then a carcase without life, colour or motion.  
Tincture may then be called the scope of Fixation, it attaining by its permanency in fire, a conservative faculty in those Bodies to which it is applied. But the manner of attaining this degree of Fixation, in which the Completion of the whole work consists, is no other, than that fugitive and light things be prudently kept in the Fire, that they may be brought into assuefaction with it, that they may endure most violent heat. And for this cause, good Authors commend Patience to their Disciples, as proceeding from God; but Precipitancy, as from the Devil.  
Take this for an infallible Rule, That unless Calcination go before, nothing can be fixed; and that this should be done, by conjoining the fixable Spirit with something of a convenient Nature, that may retain it in the Fire of Calcination, that by this means it may accustom it to sustain heat by little, till it can endure the ultimate augmentation of Fire, which infers Fixation. And the Reason why we must proceed with such discretion, is, because, if we should too readily precipitate this operation, the special Spirituality, which is the Mother of this Tincture, would fly away, and leave the Body without any impression of the tingent Virtue; so that a new Spirit must of necessity be given to this dead Head, before the desired colour can be introduced, which is one of the Secrets of this Chemical Art: for it is the Spirit, and no other thing, that colours by mediation of Fire; and this Tincture completed and exalted in our Mercury, should be elevated to the height of perfection; that, as Hermes speaks, it may ascend into Heaven; and when it hath sustained all mortal torments, receive a new life; that is, after it hath passed the darksome straits of Putrefaction, it may be elevated to a Resurrection, by the Ablation of all mortiferous and corruptive Accidents. And thus it will attain the height of perfection, which is effected by Separation of Earth from Fire, the subtle from the spiss; and by Fixation of its purged part by gradual heat.  
But that I may speak without ambages and doubts, This ascent into Heaven (which is the Sublimation and Exaltation of its parts to perfection) cannot be effected, unless Separation and Purification go before, and give place to Fixation, as to the scope and ultimate end of Art.  
And here note, That this is done for two ends: one is, That the Tincture may be perpetuated; the other, That the volatile and combustile Sulphur of the Mercury, may be separated and extracted; which cannot be effected, but by the long and continual action of Fire: and this Fire must be regular, lest violent precipitation in the beginning, make the pure Spirit of Mercury, not yet fixed, to ascend: which Comes Trevisanus hints at, saying, That Writers differ about the structure of the Fire, though they all aim at one and the same scope, to wit, That it should be so made, that the fugitive Spirit should fly away, before the persequent suffered any thing from the Fire; that is, that the spiritual part should not leave the corporal, through the ardour of the Fire, which should fix it by the action of common Fire, discreetly applied in its several degrees; wherein the whole of this Art consists.  
But some may say, If Fixation in the Fire communicate Permanency to this penetrating subtlety, how shall it afterwards be sublimated?  
Let such take waxed Wings, and they shall see, that they will have a mind to fly from this Prison, the Earth: But they must mind, lest ascending too high, the Sun melt their Wings, and burn their Feathers, and so precipitate them into the Sea. But let them imitate wise Daedalus, who held the mean betwixt two extremes, because, if he had flown too low, the Water would have loaden his Wings; if too high, the Sun would have melted his Wax. It was the impatience and blind desire Icarus had of overcoming Daedalus, that wrought his ruin.  
And whence came Phaëton's pernicious ruin, when he would govern the Sun, but that he thought himself more apt for this work, than his Father? who admonished him thus: 

Hac sit iter manefesta votae vestigia cernes  
Utque ferant aequos, & Caelum & Terra calores  
Nec preme, nec summum molire per aethera curram  
Altius egressus Caelestia signa cremabis,  
Inferius Terras, medio tutissimus ibis.   

Run where thou seest the marks that I have made  
With these same wheels; and that thou mayst evade  
The danger of burning Heaven, Sea, or Earth,  
Fly not too high, nor yet stoop down beneath  
This tract; for if too high you soar, you'll fire  
The Heavens; if too low, the Earth you'll move with ire;  
Keep then the mean, as safest, in your gyre.    
But the recitation of these Ovidian Verses, are not enough, though they be most true, according to the Opinion of the Ancients; I will rather explicate their intention folded up in the Coat of their Fables, seeing those only serve to the expert in this Art.  
Let the curious than know, That when Hermes says this thing must ascend into Heaven, and again descend to the Earth, and acquire the virtue of both; he means not that the matter should be sublimated to the top of the Vessel, but only that it is necessary, that after perfect fixation, some spiritual portion be applied to it, whereby it may be dissolved, and become altogether spiritual; leaving its Terrestrial consistence, and assuming an airy Nature, which is the Philosopher's Heaven; and when it hath reached this simplicity, be again coagulated and reduced to Earth, by a new coction effected by the same degree of heat, till the Body so embrace the Spirit, that they become one incorporated, and by this means acquire a Celestial subtlety, and a Terrestrial fixation.  
And that we may always note Natures ways; if this Icarus cannot totally elevate himself, he must resartiate his wings, by putting to new wax, new feathers; that is, by reiterated dissolutions, which the Masters of this Ar● so oft repeat, that they seem importunate to all such as understand not the consequence of this repetition; which yet is only, that things might be better united, being mixed by their least particles; which none can effect without the purification both of the Body and Spirit, keeping the Spirit volatile from all Terrestrial impurities, and the Body from all internal Dregs, during this fixation: These things than ascend into heaven by Dissolutions, and descend to the Earth by congelations.  
This Body then glorified, will ascend into Heaven upon the wings of its Spirit, and in the same perfection again descend to the Earth, to separate good from evil, and preserve the one but destroy the other: that is, what Bodies soever it enters, it ejects their impurities, and conserveses their purer substance; for reiterated solutions and fixations, gave it power to enter Bodies. This Hermaphroditical young man, and his delicate Salmacis, must be washed in a Fountain, that they may embrace each other; and Salmacis burning in love, say, When shall the time come, that this fair Young man shall never be separated from me, nor I from him, and that our mutual loves may perpetuate their conjunction in felicity, that so these two Bodies may have one heart and one face? and than we must take care, that the Island Delos remain , and that Apollo and Diana, whom Latona there brought forth, may be both stayed in that place. This fable denotes nothing, but that the dissolved matter, wherein the Philosopher's sun and moon is contained, should again be congealed and fixed.  
I would not have my Reader imagine, that he shall in this Book find the rich Mines of Peru, to satiate his avarice, and make him rich withal; though I have sufficiently demonstrated in several places, to men that have their eyes in their heads, that the way to these riches is not unknown to me. Yet I will not easily be persuaded to undertake so long a journey, for certain reasons, not unlike those that held Trevisanus two years from this enterprise, after he had got the perfect knowledge of this Magistery. Only I have in my mind determined to ratify that most precious confection, or rather inestimable treasure, which benign Nature gives for the sustentation and prolongation of man's life, who from God received privilege to be man's Protector; which I undertake, out of an honourable desire, that I may by my industry advance the public good, when the  Star of experience hath led me to my secure Port, which I would willingly impart to curious Men: For I have so successfully elaborated this Universal Spirit, that with a small quantity, I have restored above a hundred men, consumed with different Diseases, to sanity: and doubtless many excellent wits would have penetrated deeper into this obscure and devious Wood, but that seeing it filled with horrid Monsters, they have been so confounded, as to leave this perilous Path, and forsake their enterprise.  
As Poliphilus hath by a most ingenious pencil expressed; whose generous and undaunted courage, slighting those common terrors, hath effected so much, that both the sides of this black, dark Word, lay open to light; and by whose manuduction you may, notwithstanding all obstacles, arrive safe and and sound at the delicious and grateful habitation of Lady Polia, shut up in the rich Temple of Vesta.  
This I can assert for in dubitable, that the way he held is open to all; but all have not that Ariadne's Clew that he had, to extricate himself out of this labyrinth; neither is every one a Theseus, that he can overcome the Minotaur.  
It is certain that Nature, like a loving Mother, proposes and offers this precious Treasure of life to all; and that God our Universal Father, keeps open the Gate of this fatal Cavern, for the commodity of all men: for the descent to Hell is easy; but then again, to ascend to Heaven, hic labour, hoc opus est: Stay coachman, here's a straw.  
First then, that splendent Branch, Dedicated to the infernal Juno, must be found out, of which Virgil writes.  

Accipe que peragenda prius, latet arbore opacae  
Aureva & foliis & lento vim in ramus  
Junoni inferne dictus sacer, hunc tegit omnis  
Lucus, & obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae,  
Sed non ante datur tellures operta subire,  
Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore faetus.  
Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus  
Instituit, primo acculso non deficit alter  
Aureus & simili frondescit virga metallo.  
Ergo alte vestiga oculis, & rite repertum  
Carpe manu; namque ille volens facilisque sequetur  
Si te fata vocant, aliter non viribus ullis  
Vincere, nec duro poteris convellere ferro.   

First see what you must do: the golden tree  
Which to th'infernal Juno we decree,  
Lies hid under a grove in a deep vale;  
And now you may not pass within the pale  
Of th' Earth's deep Cabinet, until you have  
Snatched from this tree her offspring, which to grave  
Proserpina you must present: the tree  
That gave this fruit, will not long fruitless be:  
For lo, another golden offspring follows;  
Fix your eyes here, and in your hand retain then  
What you do find: if th' fates do favour now,  
You vanquish; but if not, no force will do.   
If therefore Nature be solicitous in hiding these things, lest they should be indifferently prostrated to all, or Hogs get to the honey-pots: no wonder if Ancient and Modern Philosophers, have invented so many enigmatical Figures, and hidden Fables, to cover and  this Science with; For they know well enough, that ceremonious Nature, would never have hid herself under so many different Forms and Species, but have appeared naked, but that her Venerable Secrets would thereby incur that contempt, which always accompanies common things.  
For which cause I also in this Treatise use the same Solennity and Taciturnity, lest I should undergo the same peril that he did, who published the Mysteries of the Elysian Goddesses, which should have been kept Secret and Chaste, and not like common Harlots exposed to public abuse: And whether I have spoken conveniently to my own purpose, or no, such as have made progress in this search, may better judge: for experience is the best Dame.  
In the mean time, I hope none will give a hard interpretation, or pass a bad sentence on me, because I have compared Natural and Chemical operations, with Divine and Christian Mysteries, wherewith they have some conformity: For by this application, I have no way profaned them, but rather Celebrated their Excellences, and pointed at that great care and testimony of our Creator, in ratifying the safety both of Body and Soul together.  
Which reason moved one Author, so that he wrote, that the true Chemistry, which Paracelsus calls Spagiry, follows the Gospel foot by foot; because by the help of this and fire, Nature exerts her most potent faculties; which Ancient Philosophers, as Brachmannus, Gymnosophisters, and all the Egyptians, insinuate in their Theology.  
For all the Magic of Paganism, and all the fables of Poets, signify no more than what this Book Treats of; which the most Learned and subtle Bracescus diligently examined; though envious Toladanus writes the contrary, after he was deceived in an experiment in this Art, which he thought he had wrested from him by his importunity, believing that the spume of Iron was the Philosophers Mercury, because he asserted that it was extracted out of a vile Matter, of small price, which was cast into the streets; not observing, that the discreet Masters of this Art, cloth their Matter with strange Vestments, calling them by all the names of Metals, indiscriminately, and yet without the least fraud: for he that knows this matter, knows also, that it contains the seven Metals in it.  
And I would gladly know, whether they think Cosmopolita meant of the vulgar Steel, when he says, That Neptune shown him under one Rock, two Ours, the one of Gold, the other of Steel.  
The Man was too plain, to harbour such frivolous conceits: but he named his matter thus, because of the conformity with polished Steel. And Bracescus had played the part of a Fool, and not a Philosopher, if he had in one moment opened the whole mystery of his Secret, in the acquiring whereof he had doubtlessly spent two thirds of his life.  
But that I may add something to the explication of these Mythologies, do we not plainly see, That that ancient Demogorgon, the Parent of all the gods, or rather of all the Members of the World, which, they say, inhabits the Centre of the Earth, covered with a green and ferruginous Coat, nourishing all kinds of Animals, is nothing else but the universal Spirit, which by God's command produced the Heaven out of the Chaos, with the Elements and all things therein, which it always hitherto sustains and enlivens? for it truly took up its Habitation in the middle of the Earth, as we have declared in the beginning of this Book, where it sits as it were in its Throne; and thence, as from the Heart of some great Body, and Seat of Life universal, animates and nourishes all things: and that green and ferruginous Coat, is nothing but the surface of the Earth, which is of a blackish and Iron-colour, decked and variegated with divers coloured Herbs and Flowers.  
Virgil, perfectly skilled in all these mystical Secrets, called this Spirit or Soul of the World, Jupiter; whom his Pastorer Damaeta invokes, in his third Eclogue, because, as he saith, all things are full of him. And Pan, that god of the Woods, worshipped by Shepherds, is taken for the same: for besides that this word Pan signifies All, he is also made the God of the Woods, because the Greeks, for the Governor thereof, worshipped the Chaos, which they otherwise call Hyle, that is, a Wood Orpheus bespeaks Pan thus: 

Paul sort le subtle, l'entier, l'universel,  
Tout air, tout eau, tout terre, & tout feu immortel,  
Qui sieds avec le temps dedans un throne mesme,  
Au regne inferieur, au moyen, au supreme.  
Concevant, engendrant, produisant, gardant tout,  
Principe en tout, de tout, qui de tout viens a bout,  
Germe du feu, de l'air, de la terre, de l'onde,  
Grand esprit avivant tous les membres du monde,  
Qui vas du tout en tout les natures changeant  
Pour ame universelle en tous corps te logeant  
Ausquels tu donne estre, & mourirment & vie  
Promant par mille effects ta puissance infinite.   

Pan strong and subtle, great and general,  
That art both Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and all;  
That reign'st always, and over every thing;  
Getting, conceiving, bearing, and keeping  
whatever beginning had, or have an end;  
That Art, both Tree and Fruit, both Foe and Friend;  
The Spirit that doth bind the world's parts,  
That penetrates all Natures, and imparts  
Both life and motion, power to act and will,  
And that dost with thy virtue all things fill.    
Saturn the Son of Heaven and Vesta, which is the Earth, and Husband to Ops his Sister, (which is that co-adjuvant and conservant power of all things) represent Demogorgon; and the Infants that he first devours, and then vomits up again, are they not Bodies, to whom he gives being, and at last reduces them to himself, whence new ones always issue, that by his perpetual vicissitude, the order established in the beginning, may be preserved to the end?  
He is sometimes painted with grey and sordid Hair, his Head covered, with a Sickle in his Hand; and for his Symbol, having a Serpent circularly grated, and holding its Tail in its Mouth: And sure he is old enough, being the Grandfather of all: His Beard and Hairs are white, always growing; which are the things that always germinate: He is sordid, and ill disposed of himself, because of the Terrestrial impurity which adheres to it, by reason of its Sulphureous and Adustive Corruption: His Head is covered, that is, the principle of perfection is closed in the cover of impurity, which makes it known to few: His Sickle is his Penetration & Mordacity, wherewith he penetrates & devours all things: The Serpents biting its tail, is his regenerating nature, whereby he repairs himself; as is storied of the Phoenix, by which name he is also sometimes called: so that he is always conversant in a circular and indeficient increase.  
But methinks I hear some say, That I miss of the intention of Authors in their fabulous description of Saturn; for they mean by Saturn, Led; which is of all Metals the Seniour: which also devours all others by its crudity, because it is full of Salt: for Mordacity arises from Salt, as the Refiners of Metals find in their probations: for it there vomits out the Gold and Silver, which it deglutiated, but could not consume, because in its decoction they received Fixation, so as to resist the weak heat of its Ventricle.  
I do not altogether reject this sense, because it is in some places conformable to the other; and in that it is in all things concordant with what I have given, I hope none will tell me mine is false.  
Maia represented the Earth; so called, because out of her, as a Mother, the universal Spirit, or Mercury, had its origine; and from the pure invisible Seed of Jupiter, which is the Air: for it proceeds really out of these, as the learned Cosmopolita says in his precious Treatises.  
Mercury is commonly painted with Wings, that they may show how she is of a volatile Nature: his Head is covered with a Hat, for the same Reasons that I before gave for Saturn's Head: He carries a caduceous and fatal Rod, encircled with Serpents, both to signify and denote his regenerative faculty, as those Reasons also I gave to Saturn's Serpent. By this Rod, he opens Heaven and Earth, and gives life and death: and that Rod represents powerful Nature: for by ascending into Heaven, and descending to the Earth, he acquires the virtues both of superior and inferior things. By this same power, he draws Souls out of Hell, makes all Eyes yield to Sleep, as Virgil writes of him.  
He is by some also called, Poison and a Theriack, or Life and Death, according to his use and dosis: for Life consists in due temperament and justice; Death, in excess.  
Many other such mysteries are contained in this Heathenish Theology, which have no other scope then that I aim at: all which, if I should here explain, my Treatise would prove a Volume. But I will not defatigate my Reader with frequent repetitions of one and the same thing.  
These may suffice to show, That all Mythological Commentaries, such as these, with their Allegorical and Historical Sense, gave no occasion to Poetical Fictions, as if any Truth were in them: but such things tend chief to show the admirable operations of Chemistry, as amongst others, the Story of Jason and Medea, explicated by Chrysogonus Polydorus. To which Explication I will add, That this Name Medea, that signifies Cogitation, Meditation or Investigation, is derived from a word that denotes a Principle, Origine, or Reason: for all Meditation hath doubtless some Principle or Reason for its Foundation.  
This Medea taught Jason, (that is, an Inquirer) two things, wherein all Philosophy consists: first, The Acquisition of the Golden, that is, the Art of changing Metals and Minerals. And secondly, The Restauration of Bodies weakened with Diseases, readily and perfectly curing them, and bringing them from old Age to Youth and Vigour, by this sole and universal Medicine; expelling all corrupt and corrumpent humours and superfluities from Bodies, which would else bring them to their end.  
Jason endeavoured and perfected these miraculous effects, by the observation of Medea's counsel, after long and laborious Navigation, obnoxious to many perils, both in sailing, in killing the Dragon, and taming the Bulls.  
This Navigation is the laborious Inquisition, and dubious Experience of things, wherein many are exercised all their life long, and cannot arrive at the Port of Nature.  
The monstrous Bulls which he was to tame and subjugate, are the Furnaces wherein the operations are made, which do not ill represent a Bull's Head; and breath out Fire at their Mouth and Eyes, as the Fable hath it: for they must needs have some Transpirations, else the Fire would be extinguished, and the degree of its heat not regulated: for unless some experienced Man regulate the Fire, many things would fall out wrong in the operations, and delude the Operators hopes, as I have experienced; for of nine Vessels, which I reposed in a Furnace, to give it a due degree of heat, I lost eight, and one I conserved: by means whereof, I obtained the said Experiments in curing Diseases.  
The watchful Dragon, is that universal Mercury which Cadmus had learned to kill, that is, fix the Campus Mortis wherein the teeth of the Martial Serpent should be sown, is nothing but a vessel wherein Soldiers, armed with Spears, are elevated.  
But this Vessel should not be a Glass-Alembick, as Polydorus thinks, but made in form of a Cooperculum or Covert, narrow below, and capacious above; made of good Earth, well cocted, and not of Iron or Glass. In whose bottom, Mars his Field must be elevated, rigid with Lances and Spears, representing soldiers provoked and fight.  
And this is only an ingenious Fiction of the Poet, to make the thing somewhat admirable to the vulgar; which yet is so plain and familiar to us, that if I should name what it is, I should make myself ridiculous.  
And when Jason had finished his work, he must needs make the watching Dragon, that kept the Golden Fleece, sleep, that he might no more eructate Fire and Fume; which he did, by suffocating him in the Stygian Waters, that is, by dissolving and fixing him with his Spirit. And then Jason had nothing to do for the possession of the Golden Fleece, and restoring his old Father Aeson to Youth again, but only one business that Medea taught him, that is, the fermentation and conjunction of solar butter, with the paste of prepared Mercury, which is not of itself fit for two such excellent actions; being only Earth, wherein pure ferment produced by Nature, and promoted to perfection, should be sown.  
When he had finished this last work, he saw himself possessor of his twofold Treasury, which he gloriously brought back to the place of his Nativity; by benefit whereof he became very rich, and reduced his aged Father to sanity, by removing his languishments.  
But I will now leave Jason with his Medea, to the enjoyment of their felicity, and only add this, That by the Dragon that watched continually, and vomited fire out of his throat, nothing can be more conveniently denoted, than our Universal Spirit or Mercury, which is the most vivacious and inflammable thing in the world; wherefore it is called burning water, or aqua vitae, because, as Bracescus notes, it always burns before its coagulation; and it is aqua vitae, because it vivifies all things: And if one should look on its superficies, who would think it fixed, and inconsumeable, being so easily inflammable, or vanishing at the least touch of fire? or who would think, that there were any conservative virtue in its Centre? seeing it looks as if it were full of mortal poison, rather than life?  
But as God set a Cherubin, with a flaming Sword, to keep the tree of Life: So Nature set this ignivomous Dragon, in the door of the Garden, to keep the Tree of golden Apples, that is, the knowledge of her hidden Secrets, which our prudent Ancestors would not deliver in writing, but only by word of mouth, to such as they thought worthy of such knowledge: And this is the cause, why those great and admirable Sciences, have in progress of time vanished, and are accounted as Fables and Tales.  
Which thing Esdras considered: for foreknowing that the Israelites should suffer banishments, flights and captivity, he feared lest the secret Mysteries of the Scripture should perish; because without the benefit of writing, men's memory might easily fail.  
He therefore Congregated all the Elders, in number LXX, who with himself wrote all these things in as many Books, as himself attests, saying, That after forty, days the Lord spoke and said, Publish those things which thou hast written, that all may read them: and keep those later LXX Books, that thou mayst deliver them to the Wisemen of thy people: for herein is the vein of Understanding, and the Fountain of Wisdom, and the Flood of Knowledge; and so he did.  
Picus Mirandulanus, the Phoenix of his time for Learning and Knowledge, speaks of those Books with great reverence, in these or the like words.  
These are LXX Cabalistical Books, wherein Esdras said plainly, That the Fountain of all Understanding and Knowledge, was contained, that is, the inestimable Theology, concerning the Supreme Deity, the Fountain of Wisdom, and the entire Metaphysics of intelligences; the stream of Knowledge, that is, the firmest natural Philosophy.  
When these Books had been long kept secret, they were by the command of Xystus the fourth, turned first into Latin, for the benefit of Religion; but this good Work was interrupted by his death: Yet they are had in such veneration amongst the Jews, that no one under forty years of age, may touch them: And this is most admirable, that in those Cabalistical Doctrines, some Heads of Christianism should be contained. Thus Mirandula.  
And now having, I hope, omitted nothing, which might serve to the interpretation of Hermes his Table, or obscure Philosophical Cabala; I shall betake myself to the Port of this unsearchable Ocean, and dry my wet  under the Sunshine of your Favours, wishing well to all; and upon good grounds, judging that the Good, Honour, and Glory of the World, is the true Philosophy.   
FINIS.