THE ANSWER OF Bernard Trevisan,

TO THE EPISTLE OF Thomas of Bononia,

Physician to King CHARLES THE 8th.

Reverend Doctor, and Honoured Sir, With the tender of all possible Respects and Services be pleased to understand, that I have received your very large and copious Letter by Mr. Awdry, together with the Stone of your most secret Work; which truly is a remarkable argument of your Friendship, by which the confidence you put in me appears manifest and very great, and with how great and piercing a Wit also you are illustrated.

Now then I shall very willingly Answer unto your Epistle: Some things I shall approve, which you have written learnedly and ingeniously, other things I shall briefly touch, and refute strictly and Philosophically, but not arrogantly, and throughly discuss them with submission and respect unto your Honour, and request:

For in this sacred and secret Art, as in others, the truth of the Theory ought to be confirmed by Practical experience. Now therefore, Reverend Doctor, let us visit one another with such Returns and Treatises, since we may not be bodily united. But it is your wisdom as you very well know to know and inspect things by their Causes, for Experience is deceitful when not guided by a previous understanding.

There is necessary to the Students in Philosophy, a strong and discreet meditation, that the Work they undertake may be conveniently brought on to its utmost perfection:

For contingent errors happen unto them who will fall to work, omitting or neglecting the judgment of a mental practice, which the Theory frameth in the mind before the operations proceed to the composure of any Work: For Work must attend Nature, and not Nature follow Work. He then that would effect any thing, must prepare his mind with the knowledge of the Natures and eventual Accidents of things, and afterwards he may safely put his hands to the Work.

And indeed I clearly perceive your mind to be highly instructed in these things, by your Experiment set down fully in your Epistle: For as Water which is cold and moist, if it be well mixt with Vegetables, assumes another quality, and in decoction takes to it and puts on it the quality of the thing wherewith it is throughly mixt; so also Quick-silver assumes different natures and qualities in things familiar unto it, and throughly mixt with it: as if it be joyned to the Sun, the qualities of the Sun; if to the Moon, those of the Moon; if to Venus, of Venus: and so in other kinds of Metals.

Their kinds therefore ought to be decocters therein, and Mercury is their Water, in which by a mutual alteration it assumes in a convertible manner their mutations. And this Water contracts unto it self from them a Nature in a resemblance to Vegetables, decocted in simple Water: though these kinds are not altered in their colour outwardly, under the form of fluidity, in respect of the thickness of the Matter and Earth immersed in, and united proportionably to the Water of Mercury; but we find it otherwise in other diaphanous humidities:

For this altered, Nature is altered, and its colour outwardly is hid under the appearance of Mercury, and is not manifest to the sight. And this you at large discuss and shew, how simple River Water is the first Matter and nourishment of Vegetables, and consequently of all living and sensitive Creatures: therefore if any of them all be decocted in it, it assumes and puts on it self the virtue and propriety of their Nature: wherefore being in it self cold in the highest degree, yet by means of things decocted in it, it works in us the effect of a thing hot in the first degree, that I may use your words.

Moreover, there is nothing that nourisheth more than the Broth or decoction of good Flesh; and if the Water in which Flesh and Herbs are boyled, or the things boyled in Water, be eaten moist, or the simple Water after boyling be taken or drank, it hurts not at all, yea it will profit and help much, although before in its simplicity and nature it would have been hurtful. Now this comes to pass because that Water is not such, as it was before. In like manner Quick-silver is the Matter of all Metals, and is as it were Water, in the Analogy betwixt it, and Vegetables or Animals and receives into it the virtue of those things which in decoction adhere to it, and are throughly mingled with it; which being most cold, may yet in a short time be made most hot: and in the same manner with temperate things may be made temperate, by a most subtle artificial invention. And no Metal adheres better to it than Gold, as you say, and therefore as some think Gold is nothing but Quick-silver, coagulated by the power of Sulphur, &c.

And thence you would conclude, as I think, and well, that if Gold be decocted and dissolved rightly in the natural way of Art, Quick-silver it self will obtain the natural properties of that Gold. But the way of this decoction and solution of Metals, is known to very few, and it manifestly appears: for the cause of this Solution is the moistness of Mercury, restrained by the compactness of an Homogeneal Earth; and contrarywise, the coldness of the Earth, restrained by a Water homogeneal to it self, the Homogeneousness of qualities remaining:

So that there is in it a single dryness, and double coldness, a simple moistness, but under a disproportion of immaturity to the anatical proportion of the ripe digested Sun.

The dissolver therefore differs from the dissolvend in proportion and digestion, and not in matter: because Nature might make this of that, without any additional mixture, as Nature doth wonderfully and simply produce Gold of Quick-silver, as you have learnedly discoursed in your Epistle.

For in Vegetables, the moisture of simple Water is taken for an intrinsick dissolution, that things congealed by Art, might diffuse into it their effects; and the dissolution of things come about with the coagulation of Water, and the coagulation of Water with the dissolution of things, and contrarywise: and so it is likewise in the Mineral Water, and things of its kind.

He therefore that knows the Art and Secret of Dissolution, hath attained the secret point of Art, which is to mingle throughly the kinds, and out of Natures to extract Natures, which are effectually hid in them.

How hath he then found the truth, who destroys the moist nature of Quick-silver? as those Fools who deform its kind from its Metallick disposition or dissolution, and by dissolving its radical moisture, corrupt it, and disproportion Quick-silver from its first Mineral quality, which needs nothing but purity and simple decoction.

For example, they who defile it with Salts, Vitriols, and aluminous things, destroy it, and change it into some other thing, than is the nature of Quick-silver:

For that Seed which Nature by its sagacity and clemency opposed, they endeavour to perfect by violating and destroying it, which undoubtedly is destructive to it, as far as concerns the effect of our Work.

For the Seed in humane and sensitive things, is formed by Nature, and not by Art, but it is joyned by Art, and well mixed; but nothing is to be taken from it, nor added to it, if the same species must be renovated by the procreation of its own kind: so the same Matter must abide and continue, that the same Form may follow, which it doth not otherwise.

Wherefore, excellent Doctor, false and vain is all their doctrine, which altereth Mercury, which is the Seed, before the Metallick species be joyned with it: For if it be dryed up, it dissolves not. What then can it do in the solution of things of own species? For if it be heated beyond its natural digestion, it will not cause nor generate in the Metalline species a Feverish heat as it were, and will impertinently turn cold into hot, and passive into active; and the errour from thence will be incorrigible, and labour lost.

For example, Fools draw corrosive Waters out of inferiour Minerals, into which they cast the species of Metals, and corrode them: For they think that they are therefore dissolved with a natural Solution, which Solution truly requires a permanency of the dissolver and dissolved together, that a new species might result from both the Masculine and Feminine Seed:

I tell you assuredly, that no Water dissolves any Metallick species by a natural Solution, save that which abides with them in matter and form, and which the Metals themselves being dissolved, can recongeal: which thing happens not in Aquafortis, but rather is a defilement of the Compound, that is, of the Body to be dissolved, Neither is that Water proper for Solutions of Bodies, which abides not with them in their Coagulations; and finally Mercury is of this sort, and not Aquafortis, nor that which Fools imagine to be, a lympid and diaphanous Mercurial Water:

For if they divide or obstruct the homogeneity of Mercury, how can the first proportion of the Feminine Seed consist and be preserved?

Because Mercury cannot receive Congelation with the dissolved Body, neither will the true kind be renovated afterwards in the administration of the Art, nay but some other filthy and unprofitable thing. Yet thus they think they dissolve, mistaking Nature, but dissolve not: For the Aquafortis being abstracted, the Body becometh meltable as before, and that Water abides not with, nor subsists in the Body, as its radical moisture.

The Bodies indeed are corroded, but not dissolved; and by how much more they are corroded they are so much more estranged from a Metallick kind. These Solutions therefore are not the foundation of the Art of Transmutation, but the impostures rather of Sophistical Alchymists, who think that this Sacred Art is hid in them.

They say indeed, that they make Solutions, but they cannot make perfect Metallick species, because they do not naturally remain under the first proportion or kind, which Mercury the Water allows in Metallick species.

For Mercury is corrupted with Metals by way of alteration, not dissipation: because Bodies dissolved therein are never separated from it, as in Aquafortis and other corrosives, but one kind puts on and hides another, retaining it secretly and perfectly: so Sol and Lune dissolved, are secretly retained in it. For their nature is hid in Mercury, even unto its condensation, of which they lying hid are the cause, in as much as they are latent in it: and as Mercury dissolves them, and hides them in its belly, so they also congeal it, and what was hard is made soft, what was soft, hard; and yet the kind, that is, Metals and Quick-silver, abide still.

He therefore who thus dissolves, congeals rather, and the corrupted species conjoyned, receive their old-form by an artificial decoction: Notwithstanding this dissolution makes several colours appear, because the species remain as it were dead, yet their intrinsical proportion is permanent and entire. So the Lord in the Gospel speaks by way of similitude of Vegetables, Unless a grain of corn fallen on the earth do dye, it abides alone; but if it dye, it brings forth much fruit: Therefore this alterative corruption hides forms, perfects natures, keeps proportions, and changes colours from the beginning to the end:

For when the Water begins to cover the Earth, the black colour begins to be hid under the white; when the Air covers the Water and the Earth, the citrine colour appears; which is turned to red, when the Fire covers the Air, or the other three Elements. And these last colours abide hiddenly and intrinsically, and appear under the shew of a white Spirit in liquid Mercury, until it be recondensed in the Powder which is in the Bodies: because the Soul lies hid in the Spirit, as in the condensation the Spirit and the Soul lie hid in the Powder or Body.

For there is a corruption in the things to be altered, but no dissipation of parts, unless some superfluous parts be to be rejected as unprofitable for generation, whereupon the Artificer purifies his Work, that digestion may succeed better. This is manifest by example in Grain, for of two grains of Wheat, if the one be cast into good ground, there it putrifies, dies, and loses its external form, but nothing thereof is dissipated, yea in its time it encreases into a multiplicity of Fruit, and there is indeed made a corruption only of the form, and not any dissipation of the matter:

But if the other grain be cast into the Fire, then both matter and form are corrupted, and the whole is dissipated, and that corruption is unprofitable for generation.

Wherefore Water dissolves not Bodies, but those only of its own kind, and by which it may be condensed nor can Bodies be at all nourished to generation, but by their like, which can preserve the species destroyed by that transmuting Body, through the artifice of the Work: though Vegetables are nourished by things of different kinds, yet before they nourish them, they are assimilated (the dissolution of them being first made) according to the proportion of the things which suck and draw them to them. It must be noted therefore, that the Solution of Metals may be made by different ways: one, which Fools know, as is abovesaid, with Foreign things, which abide not with the dissolved Metals, which is rather to be called a corrosive destruction and defilement of the Compound.

The second Solution is made by the power and force of Fire, which is no true Solution, but a melting rather of the colligated Elementary parts: for the outward heat of the Fire, in dissolving the Compound, finds out its intrinsical, natural or native Fire within, which internal and proportional Fire dwells in the Air, therefore it dissolves the Air it self.

But that dissolved Air resides and dwells in the Water, and the Water in the Earth, and the Water it self dissolves the Earth, so that it melts both the active and passive; but this melting is no true Solution, yea it is a dissipation, because the Elements there being homogeneous to one another, and proportionably fixed, by digestion are mixt, and one of them educed out of the power of another generally:

And therefore this falls out even in pure Bodies, in which the Elemental natures are fixed. Wherefore in them the flame of Fire causeth melting, and dissolves that whole Body to fluidity, and not to a separation; because Fire cannot flow, unless the Air consubstantial to it flow; neither doth the Air flow, unless the Water be dissolved; nor doth the Water flow, unless the Earth flow: and contrariwise, as the Earth is dissolved by the Water, so on the contrary side the Water retaineth the Air, and congealeth it: and in the same manner ascending upwards, the Air retaineth the Fire in Congelation, because the more fixt and fixing Elements cause fixation, by acting together on one another; as Earth and Water, and in a contrary manner Fire and Air, act together each on other unto Solution.

But this Solution is called a melting of the Compound, and not properly a Solution of it, because the parts separable from one another in the generation of the Compound, are not dissolved, as is done in the third and truly Philosophick Solution, when the Compound is dissolved in the manner aforesaid, and yet the parts abide unseparated, though separable; so that the virtue of the most digested Elements may be extracted from things to be dissolved by the dissolver, that is, Quick-silver, and the grosser parts in such a dissolution acquire some latitude of subtilty, because the Body is turned into Spirit, and contrariwise the Spirit into Body; fixed things are turned into volatiles, and volatiles to fixed.

For this Solution is possible and natural, that is, by Art of Nature subserving thereto; and this is sole and necessary Solution, in the Work of the Philosophers, which can be done by no other thing than Quick-silver only, with a prudent proportion: so as a good Artificer knowing from within the natures and proportions, ought to make the proportion from his first entrance upon the Work.

For these two, Sir, are sufficient for this Work, and nothing else enters it, nor generates and multiplies, as we have said. Besides, you say that Gold, as most think, is nothing else than Quick-silver coagulated naturally by the force of Sulphur; yet so, that nothing of the Sulphur which generated the Gold, doth remain in the substance of the Gold: as in an humane Embryo, when it is conceived in the Womb, there remains nothing of the Father's Seed, according to Aristotle's opinion, but the Seed of the Man doth only coagulate the menstrual blood of the Woman: in the same manner you say that after Quick-silver is so coagulated, the form of Gold is perfected in it, by virtue of the Heavenly Bodies, and especially of the Sun.

But by your good leave, and with respect I must tell you, we must not think so: For being we are Philosophically perswaded, that Gold is nothing but Mercury anatized, that is, equally digested in the bowels of a Mineral Earth; and the Philosophers have signified, that this very thing is done by the contact of Sulphur coagulating the Mercury, and by reason of its operation, that is, from Mercury being digested and thickned by a proportionate heat. Wherefore we must know, that Gold is Sulphur and Mercury together, that is, the coagulant and the coagulated in one: and nothing added from without thereto, but only a pure digestion or maturation, which multiplies qualities, and excites one Element from another out of their pure possibility into act, no other thing whatsoever being superadded.

But this digestion or matutarion is produced actively, from the superiour Elements, that is, the Fire and Air, which are not actually but potentially in Mercury; which yet being excited and assisted by an external heat, and by the proper and natural digesting heat, the passive Elements in Mercury are by them subtilized, being not only potentially existent, but actually, towards Water it self, and the Water is subtilized towards Air, and Air follows to Fire; and in this proportionable action of Nature, and digestion of Mercury, the Male and Female abide together in closed Natures; the Female truly as it were Earth and Water, the Male as Air and Fire: which Earth and Water the Philosophers do mingle in Gold, but called the Air and Fire a Sulphur as it were therein: neither is there any other Foreign addition in the bowels of the Earth.

And therefore in Art above ground neither is there found and Foreign addition, to digest or condense Mercury into the nature of Gold, or other species of Metals. Therefore the Philosophers have said, that Sulphur and Mercury make Sol, that is, its corporeity and permanency: And therefore it is not hence concluded, that the external artificial heat, stirring up and assisting the proportional intrinsick heat, to digest and ripen the other two less digested and immature Elements in Mercury, namely its Water and Earth, is of the substance of the Compound. For the external heat is not permanent within, with the quantity and weight of the Matter, nor adds any thing thereto: But the intrinsick proportionate natural and simple heat is permanent, with the quantity and weight of the Mercury digested by it; because that heat is an intrinsick and essential part of Mercury it self, to wit, the two more active Elements in it, namely Air and Fire.

Therefore Fools do ill and absurdly understand that saying of the Philosophers, that Sulphur and Mercury beget Sol; because, as is sufficiently known, as neither Air nor Fire in the first Mercurial composition, nor afterwards in the natural Metallick digestion, depart nor are severed from Water and Earth, so neither doth Sulphur (which is no other than Air and Fire) depart nor is separated from Mercury, which is the same with Water and Earth.

And he is not a natural Philosopher who imagines or asserts the contrary: for the digestion of Gold happens and is made of the first Mercurial proportion, without any addition made thereto by Nature under, or Art above ground, as is said. Neither is that repugnant to what we have said, that a pure Sol and clean Mercury must in this Art be conjoyned, because this is not done to that intent to affirm, that there is one Sulphur in Sol, and another in Mercury, or that there is one Mercury in Sol, and another in Mercury, but because the digestion is more mature and perfect in Sol, than Mercury.

And also in the Sun the Sulphur is more mature and digested, and therefore more active than in Mercury: whence the Philosophers have affirmed Sol to be nothing else but Quick-silver matured.

For in Mercury there are only two actual Elements, to wit, Water and Earth, which are passive; but the active Elements, Air and Fire, are only potentially therein. But as it is known when those Air and Fire in a pure Mercury, are deduced from possibility into act, that is, to a due digestion and proportionable concoction, then it becomes Gold.

Wherefore in Gold there are four Elements conjoyned in equal and anatical proportion, in which therefore there is actually a more ripe and active Sulphur, that is, Air and Fire, than in Mercury: Wherefore Gold is by Art dissolved with Mercury, that the unripe may be holpen by the ripe, and so Art decocting, and Nature perfecting, the Composition is ripened by the favour of Christ.

Whence the cause may be derived, why by the help of the Philosophick Art, more perfect, noble, and by many degrees more elevated Gold is made, sooner and in less time, than by the work of Nature. Because Nature doth act and work this by boyling and digesting Mercury alone in the bowels of the Earth, without any assistant: which cannot be brought on to the due proportion of Gold, or any other Metal, in a little time. But our Art helps the work of Nature, by mingling with Mercury ripe Gold, in which is a Sulphur excellently digested, and therefore maturing and quickly digesting Mercury it self, to the anatick proportion of Gold, by subtilizing its Elements: whereupon there follows by Art a wonderful abbreviation of this natural Work.

Wherefore, my Doctor, I return to the former points; we must not imagine, according to their mistake, who say, that the Male Agent himself approaches the Female in the coagulation, and departs afterwards; because, as is known in every generation, the conception is active and passive: Both the active and passive, that is, all the four Elements, must always abide together, otherwise there would be no mixture, and the hope of generating an off-spring would be extinguished. For in every man, the Masculine Seed to the end of his life is called in him the Agent, when it is first mingled with the Feminine; and whether it be shed out, or consumed in him, Nature for its sake doth vegetate, and is wonderfully increased and nourished, and makes to it self in the same mans loins the like specifick Seed.

The like is to be judged of the Feminine Seed in the Women; wherefore both these Seeds abide always, and are to be esteemed for original Agents, and first Patients. Yet there is a various or different nativity or generation of Mixts and Vegetables:

For they are called Simple Mixts, which grow under ground, out of our sight, or about the surface thereof, by the commixture of the Elements alone compounded one with another: or from their first Solution; because they grow not as Vegetables, but how much soever of matter was compact and mixt in them, so much of their first weight is reserved in the same Compounds. For example sake: how much soever at first a mass of some Mercurial substance doth weigh in its Mineral disposition in the bowels of the Earth, so much weight of Gold will abide digested therefrom: and the Scoriae and Faeces rejected from it, will rather be diminished than multiplied, because they receive no nourishment. But there are manifold degrees of this first and simple natural mixture:

The first is, the naked concretion and composition of the four Elements, and that immediate, in which there is not yet any change made, or exaltation of one Element into another: but a simple union of a symbolizing composition of them, persevering and abiding; of which sort Stones are.

The second degree follows upon the first, because from the aforesaid Stones, Minerals about which we discourse are generated, and the more noble subterraneous species emerge and arise from hence: because in these begin the action of Elements, and their mutual transmutation, though their action is not in so great vivacity and virtue as in Vegetables and Sensitives, because they have neither growth nor sense, as we have said before.

The third degree is that which comprehends precious Stones and Gems, because in them is found a perfect and compleat action, from the virtue of the Elements compacted and acting mutually, as I have declared more largely in my Philosophy: where I have perspicuously manifested this third degree, together with the second, to be a mean betwixt the first and second composition of Natural things.

Then another nativity or generation is that which is not accounted to be of Simple Mixts, but Compound Vegetables: which are truly divisible into four kinds, or Classes, as I have discoursed more largely in my other Book which I sent you. For there are Vegetables, but Sensitives more especially, which for the most part beget their like, by the Seeds of the Male and Female for the most part concurring and commixt by copulation; which work of Nature the Philosophick Art imitates in the generation of Gold.

No man can artificially perfect any humane Seed, but we can by Art dispose a man to a productive generation of his like: For the vital Seeds are only digested in a vegetable manner by Nature, in the loins of both Parents; but we can by coition mix the Parents Seeds in natural Vessels, which copulation is as it were an Art disposing and mingling those natural Seeds, to the begetting of Man.

For example sake; the Seed of the Man, as more ripe, perfect and active, is by this artifice joyned with the Seed of the Woman, more immature and in a sort passive; which Seed of the Man, because it actually contains in it the working Elements, to wit, the Air and Fire, is therefore more ripe and active for digestion. But the Female Seed doth more actually contain the undigested and passive Elements, and which therefore are to be digested, as the Earth and Water, which being shed out and mingled together in the natural Vessels of the Female, no Foreign thing being added thereto, (but the external heat of the Woman exciting and helping the proportionable inward heat of the Mans Seed) the active Elements of the Mans Seed, digest and ripen the Feminine Seed, and thence a Man is generated, compleat and perfect according to his Nature.

So it is in our Philosophick Art, which is like this procreation of Man; for as in Mercury of which Gold is by Nature generated in Mineral Vessels a natural conjunction is made of both the Seeds, Male and Female, so by our artifice, an artificial and like conjunction is made of Agents and Patients.

For the active Elements which obtain the name of the Masculine Seed, are naturally conjoyned with the passive Elements, which are as it were the Feminine Seed; but herein the due natural proportion is always to be observed.

Now this first Mercurial digestion is called Conjunction, in which the act riseth out of the possibility, that is, the Masculine from the Feminine, namely the Air and Fire, from the Earth and Water, by means of a pure digestion and subtilization of them. But the Philosophers and ingenious Artificers imitating Nature, besides this natural digestion of the Seeds in Mercury, have by a most subtle invention made another conjunction and digestion, whence they have not generated simple Gold only, but some other far more noble and perfect thing.

For they commanded Gold (in which the Elements are more active) as the Male Seed, to be joyned with Mercury, (in which the passive Elements are existent) that it might be duly dissolved, excluding all Foreign things, save that they used an outward heat, which by helping doth excite the internal natural heat of Gold, to digest actively and ripen Mercury. And so as a Man is generate by Nature, so Gold by Art: Although notwithstanding their Sperm and Seed cannot be generated by Art, because Art knows not proportion of the mixture necessary to procreate Seed; and in Man it knows neither composition, nor mixtion or first proportion, nor the causes of subterraneous things, which flow out from the Earth, where is the proper and natural place of their generation.

But those Seeds produced by Nature are artificially conjoyned, that out of them in a way of composition, that which is to be generated may be produced, in which both the Seeds abide together well mingled, although Aristotle, as you write, seem to think otherwise. Wherefore the Masculine Seed of Mercury, or our Sulphur, goes not away after coagulation, as some falsly affirm; and that this falls out in Mercury, by the force of the Sun especially, and that by its heat chiefly the form of Gold is perfected, as some think in subterraneous places: Yea rather by the force of the motion of its Globe, or of its ••b, and of the whole Heaven universally, because the Solar Rays do only heat the surface of the Earth, and not inwardly those its deep places, in which the generation of several kinds of Metals is brought about; and neither do the influences of Heaven, brought down by the Rays, reach unto those lowermost parts, although the subterraneous motion of the Elements proceed first from the motion of the Heavens, and not from its Rays of light, nor from their heat, nor other influence save motion: but how this comes about, and what is the cause of this motion of subterraneous things, I believe your Reverence is not ignorant, and therefore I forbear it at present.

Therefore the Sun is not the principal cause of Gold, or of its form, though there be a resemblance in names betwixt them; because as the Sun is hotter than the rest of the Planets, so Gold is hotter than any of the Metals, with the like difference of proprieties. The rest of the Planets also have obtained like names, whence this errour of Fools doth arise: For they believe that every one of the seven Planets, generally and specially by its influence doth beget one special kind of Metal, whereunto by a certain propriety it agrees, and is in its nature resembled.

But it happens otherwise in subterraneous things, than in Vegetables, in which Heaven or the Sun is the cause of their generation or augmentation, not only by its motion, but also by reason of the heat of its Rays: For the Sun heats the Vegetables themselves, and the superficies of the Earth, the Elements being very strongly reflected by its Rays to the surface of the Earth, because that its Rays can proceed so far.

To instance: for that from the twelfth Heaven which obtains the utmost degree of height, proceeding to descend lower, there follow always thicker or less subtle Orbs, till you come to the concave of the Orb of the Moon, where alterable things have their place, or the mixt Elements begin, and are terminated under the Hemisphere of things generable and corruptible.

And therefore the more subtle and simple Fire is there found, though not altogether pure: because a simple pure Fire cannot be found apart amongst, the alterable sorts of things, nor any one of the other Elements, albeit in every Compound thing simple Fire may be found, mixed with other simple Elements, else there would not be many Elements, but one only.

Therefore the Rays of the Stars of Heaven, of the Sun especially, pass through the foresaid Regions unrefracted, until they descending farther downwards, are reflected in the Fire by reason of its thickness; afterwards descending farther through the Sphere of the Fire, they by moving it reflect the Fire it self into the Air which is thicker. And in like manner the Rays proceeding perpendicularly to lower things, through the Sphere of Air, into the Water thicker than the Air, from which they are reflected back into the Air.

And so after its manner they are reflected back by the Water moved by them, which also is much better perceived in the Earth, with its thickness above other Elements. By this decoction and reflection the Elements are moved invisibly, though not unperceivably: because we perceive heat by the motion of the Heavens, and it is always reflected from the superiour and subtles Element, into the inferiour and thicker, unto the surface of the Earth, by means of the Rays of the Stars descending perpendicularly from aloft to the lowest things; and things thus reflected being moved, and by the Rays of the Sun reflected, accidental heat is produced in the medium, though sometimes by the Rays of other Stars, other qualities are produced here below, as dryness and coldness, as is manifest in Astronomy; not that the Rays are in themselves hot, but that they are the cause of heat in such manner as we have said.

Now that these things are true, is manifestly known from Astronomy and Perspective, whence it is understood how generations happen in Vegetatives and Sensitives, thus much therefore may suffice. But vain Astrologers have other conceits, and think that the influences of Heaven are from the virtue of its activity, and not from the virtue of its motion: which is false, because the Rays of Heaven produce or effect nothing in the superiour Orbs.

For such Rays cannot be reflected on the aforesaid Orbs, nor be mixed with them, as they are reflected in the Elements and mingled with them not by composition, but by a moving reflection and mixture of the same Elements, as hath been said: but in the supercelestials there is no capacity to receive new qualities, or Foreign impression, although the Rays themselves produce wonderful qualities in the Elements, moved by their reflection.

Wherefore, my Doctor, the Sun in particular is not the cause of the generation of Gold, nor yet is it by means of its heat the cause of Vegetables either above the Earth, or of Mists about its superficies, which namely we know to be heated by the Rays of the Sun, as we have said, which is also agreeable to Astronomy.

But the knowledge of these things, need not any longer disputation, wherefore I pass on to what remains; for if you apply your mind to those things which we have said, you will understand and you will find it true, that by the activity of Sulphur digesting and coagulating Mercury, its form from Gold is specially perfected: but yet you must not think that from any other Metal, or any Star; this may be done, as you have written in your Epistle.

That which we have said, is also to be understood of other Metals, in their kind and manner; but with difference, because in other Metals there is a double Sulphur: One which is superfluous, and may be separated the form of the Metal still remaining: Another Sulphur is an essential part of the Metal, but united to its Quick-silver, and not separable, so that the form of the Metal continues: yet that imperfect and Sulphurous Metal may be perfected by a Medicine corrupting the form of that Metal; and introducing another.

But what we are to think of the duplicity of this Sulphur, which you assert in this Philosophick Art I pray you, my renowned Doctor, without violating the Law of our Friendship, or your Authority, that you would be pleased to consider. This duplicity of Sulphur is not so distinct in Mercury coagulated into divers Metals, that one of them should intrinsically and essentially appertain to the generation of the Metal, and be esteemed an essential part thereof, and the other be ascribed to corruption.

But there is in every Metallick species, equally as in Gold and Silver, a simple and single Sulphur; which is termed Quick-silver, from the first Mercurial composition, as hath been declared in the generation of Gold Because Sulphur, and Quick silver are nothing else but the four Elements in Mercury it self, so or so proportionally disposed, as this or that Metallick species requireth.

But that which is reputed a second Sulphur, and to be rejected, is a certain Scoria and faeculent part in the Metals, contracted in the coagulation of the Mercury; or a certain superfluity, which being unclean and impure, would not in the digestion of the Mercury, endure a congelation to the form of a Metal: because it was not of an homogeneal and proportionable Nature of Mercury, apt to be congealed and digested into a Metal.

But some Philosophers have called this Scoria, a combustible Sulphur, because it cannot subsist, but vanisheth in the testing of Metals, or is separated from them into Faeces

And here I may bring this example: the bloud in Sensitives, and sap in Vegetables, in their coagulation have several and different offices; because some parts of the bloud have a conformity unto Flesh, and therefore may be coagulated and turned into Flesh, and retain the uniform nature of Flesh, and obtain the name of Flesh.

But some parts thereof residing in the pores, are of a superfluous humour, which can in no wise be converted into solid Flesh, and therefore are ejected by Sweat and Medicines, and separated from the true Flesh. But in the Sanguine complexion there are many fewer superfluities, than in others: So we may conclude by way of resemblance, that it is in Gold and other kinds of Metals; that the purer or impurer Mercury, in its first coagulation, contained or contracted more or less superfluities, or natural impurities.

Wherefore the difference is made in the coagulation of Mercury, which specifies and causes divers Metals; and whatever Mercury there is in any sort of Metal, is termed incombustible, and inseparably permanent, though in fixed Bodies it is made volatile by Art, yet by Nature it remains inseparable in an Elemental proportion. But what dross soever was contracted in the Mercury, and mixed with it from the beginning; that is, in the congelation of Mercury in its first composition, by heat digesting it to a Metallick kind; and therefore it is by the test taken away from the Mercury, that is, the homogeneous Mercurial nature, and separated from the Metallick kind as rejectaneous and heterogeneal this is not properly called a Sulphur, but a dross and certain superfluity: because Sulphur is nothing else but a pure act of Air and Fire, warming and digesting, or decocting, the Earth and Water in Mercury, proportionable and homogeneous unto it.

But the dross is that which in the first composition was not pertinent unto the nature of Mercury, nor had a proportion to any Metallick kind in the composition and digestion of the first Elements in Mercury. From these things it is known, that there are not in other sorts of Metals any distinct or more Sulphurs, than are in Gold and Silver, but one only and simple Sulphur; though there are in them more and greater superfluities, than are in Gold.

From hence the truth of your saying is known, that Gold, of all Metals, cleaves most unto Mercury. Now this comes to pass by reason of the purity of both, because in them is less dross, dregs, or superfluity, than in others: For every thing doth naturally desire, by a through mixture and union, to be joyned to a thing of like nature to it, and proportionable in homogeneity, rather than with a thing unequal and unlike to it, as we know; like as Water very easily and without contradiction is quickly joyned to another Water, with an identative and uniting mixture.

Now in Gold there is nothing but Mercury, therefore being there is in it little dross, which is not of a Mercurial nature, as we have shewed there is therein no great resistance, but that a pure Mercury may more easily adhere to Gold and Silver, than to other Metals, in which many superfluities and dross do forbid and hinder other Metals, or their congealed Mercury, any contact, or through mingling with crude Mercury.

For those superfluities, as we have already said, are not of the first composition of Mercury, nor of the same natural or proportional homogeneity: and if happily they be of its composition, yet they are not of its proportion; for whatever is of any things proportion, is not superfluous. Wherefore they cannot be inseparably throughly mingled, neither with Mercury to be coagulated by Art, nor with Mercury coagulated, which in the nature of its Mineralness is joyned with them in the same kind of Metal; being such dross is combustible by Fire, and therefore separable.

What wonder is it then if in those Metals to which they are accidentally superadded, they hinder their natural commixtion and permanent union with coagulated Mercury, or other crude Mercury?

For this very cause Gold it self, though never so pure, can far more difficultly abide with, be joyned and adhere to an unclean and drossie Mercury, coagulated or not coagulated, than with a pure and clean one. Because a simple Nature doth rejoyce in the society of, and is perfected by a simple Nature, that is like to it, and same with it in its first homogeneity and Elemental proportion: but Gold, as hath been said, is nothing else but Mercury thickned by its proper digestion, and Elemental action: therefore albeit in the Earth there be a difference betwixt Gold and Mercury in ripeness, because Gold is more ripe than Mercury yet there is no diversity in their Matter.

Therefore whatsoever Gold hath acquired by the digestion it hath unto maturity, Mercury may acquire the same without any extraneous thing. But Art to breviate and contract the Work, joyns Gold with Mercury, as is said, and out of two Sperms it makes and generates artificially that same thing, which Nature doth create in the Mines of one actual Seed, the identity of the Matter being always everywhere observed, but not the same active power.

And therefore as nothing extraneous to its Nature, doth enter this Work in its first composition, so neither doth any thing multiply it, which is not of the first temperament thereof. Wherefore some men think falsly, that the Philosophers Stone may be composed of divers things, or of all things, and be nourished by them, instead of the aforesaid Sperms, notwithstanding divers names have been imposed on them. Neither doth his Philosophick Work eat any thing, or convert it into its own Nature, which is extraneous, because it doth not vegetate.

Wherefore though there be in the said Philosophick Stone, a Body and a Soul, or a Spirit, it is not therefore vegetably animated as Trees and Plants: For this Stone, as all Minerals, is of the aforesaid first, and not of the second, or any superiour intention or imposition.

But Trees and Plants are of the second imposition, as Vegetables are of the third, fourth, fifth, or last imposition, for mixt things in those four last impositions, do vegetate.

For in them the Elements by many transmutations, and by being oftner alterated, are more subtle; wherefore they are more active and perfect, though they are not more durable and permanent in their permixtion, because the Elements in them are not of a fixt, but dissolvable composition; wherefore they take in their nourishment vegetably.

But our Stone, as also all the Minerals, is of the first imposition; because it vegetates not, nor is vegetably nourished, but nourishment befalls it rather by apposition of a nourishment of a like nature to it, and not by vegetation. For example sake: because, as is manifest by experience, out of a Feminine Seed, to wit, out of Mercury put to it unitively, insensibly and by way of composition this Philosophers Stone is nourished, but by means of a digestive heat. For it takes and assimilates its like unto it self, to be multiplied by way of apposition, and not vegetably; wherefore it becomes weightier in quantity, and more active and perfect in quality: neither doth Fire or heat multiply this our Stone, as its due nourishment, because it is not of its first composition, but heats it by an extrinsical accident: For how can Flame or Fire multiply the Stone it self, or make it of it self more weighty, when it cannot be fixedly and permanently mingled with it, nor is not of its first composition or form?

Nothing therefore nourishes and multiplies the said Stone, to the generation of the same form, except the Feminine Seed, which nourisheth it by means of heat, and nourishes it not vegetably, but by way of apposition and commixtion. He therefore who thus multiplies and nourisheth it, shall not erre, because this multiplier and nourisher is turned into the same kind.

A man may indeed increase the Stone and its weight by extraneous things; but this must be done out of its natural kind, not convertible into it: For that weight would be made besides Nature, that is, not into the same species, nor into the unity of one species, yea it would be an aggregation of divers kinds, and an accidental composition, which might be separated by the Test. But when the Philosophers said, that the Stone might be made of every thing, truly they understood it not, as some perversly interpret them that the Stone might be made of divers things, unlike unto it both in kind and nature; or, which is more absurd, that it might be multiplied by a Flame ministred to it from without: for this reason especially, because Fire and its Flame may by a certain production arise out of every thing: Now the refutation of this opinion is manifest from what hath been said before.

But when the Philosophers say, that the Stone is made of every thing, they mean, that it is made of the four Elements proportionally equalized to one another by a due and natural digestion; out of which four Elements every thing that is generable and corruptible is made.

Therefore by this similitude the Philosophers say our Stone is made out of every thing, that is, out of every Element; because if any one of them were mortified or destroyed, the whole proportion of the Golden Nature would perish, and its kind: and every thing in whatsoever latitude and sort of alterables, is generated out of the four Elements either actually, or potentially mixt: yet it cannot be properly said of every producible thing, but of our Golden Stone, and other things equally mixt, that they are made out of every thing: for this reason especially, because in those things which are not produced by an equal, but by an adequate proportion of the Elements, all the Elements are not actually existent, but in their adequate activity and passion: for some of the Elements are therein either in an active or passive power, and the rest are therein actually.

But in the Philosophers Stone, which is Gold, being it is an uniform Work of Nature, all the four Elements active and passive are actually therein, and permanent in an equal proportion. For the Essence or Nature of Gold, is nothing else but the four Elements equally mixed; not that their form and matter may be said to be therein equal, but their passive and active power; that is, they are each alike and equal not in quantity, but in quality: because that the active doth not exceed the passive in its acting; nor on the other side, the passive doth not exceed the active by suffering more: because there is an equal proportion as to measure in our Gold, or in our Medicine, double hot, double moist, double cold, double dry, and all these are actually therein, by actual action and passion; that is, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, as we have said before.

And all these are said to be alike, and equal in quality, not quantity, because they are equal in actives and passives; and they are therefore durably permanent in Gold, because the passive in it consists permanently in its active, and on the other part the passive rises not up against the active. And they ought not to be alike in quantity; that is, there ought not be so much matter of Fire, as there is matter of Earth: because then the Fire by reason of its quality, would be everywhere of an unequal activity with its passive Earth, and of a far greater.

Wherefore there is in Gold, as to its matter, but not as to its quality, much more of the heavier and more passive Element, than of the lighter and more active; that is, more in quantity: there is in it a greater quantity of Earth, than Water; a greater quantity of Water, than Air; a greater of Air, than Fire: wherefore it is the heaviest of all Metals.

But in this unequal proportion of quantity, there is an equal and like proportion of quality, of hot, dry, moist, and cold, because each of these is in Gold, as hath been said. The cause of which weight is the permanency of the solidity of the Earth and Water, and the solution of an homogeneous Water with the Earth, because Water dissolves an homogeneous Earth.

Also their intrinsical thorow mixture in their very least particles, is the cause of the weight; because the Water as well in Gold, as Quick-silver, suffers not the Earth to have any •res in it: which is otherwise in other Metals, in which pores are insensibly made in their congelation, because of the dross mingled in those Metals all over, rejected by the Mercurial nature and heterogeneous: whereupon their lightness results, which is nothing else but want of matter, and porousness of the same, as weight is nothing else but a solid addition of matter.

Wherefore if there were in an equal commensurative quantity, so much of the solid matter of Fire, as there is of the matter of Earth, Fire would be as weighty as Earth. But the cause of the weight of Saturn, is its immature congelation, because it d••• not yet reject the dross of its parts, whence pores are made in it; but the pure and impure abide through mixt together in it everywhere, as in the first crude Quick-silver, in which the inspissation and coagulation is weak, for that cause Saturn or Lead retains the weight of its Quick-silver, not because of the purity of its solid matter, but because of its immature coagulation or coction.

Wherefore if in this Work you would not destroy the Fire and Air, you must preserve in a distinct and like proportion the heat of the Compound: But if you would not destroy the Air and the Water, then in the same Compound you must cherish the humid: so in the same manner you may preserve the Water and Earth, or the Earth and the Fire, in the said Work, by preserving rightly, and by the artifice of the Philosophick skill, both the cold and dry: because if you destroy any one of them, the proportionab•• form and kind of Gold is lost.

For this cause the Philosophers say, our Gold is made of every thing, that is, of every Element, every Element being intrinsically preserved in it, and actually compounding it: wherefore all the Elements are intrinsically in act or power, the principles of all compounded alterable things, and for that cause are said to be all things.

Furthermore, my Reverend Doctor, for your credits sake, you must understand the sayings of the Philosophers according to the possibility of Nature, and not according to the sound of Words: For they have handled this holy and hidden Art, and its Secrets, under Similitudes, Fables, Riddles, and obscure words, and have hid it purposely, that it might not be exposed to the unlearned, impious, and unworthy.

Furthermore, that I may go on to other Heads of your Epistle, I understand the artifice of your Stone to be a composure from Gold, but from your writing I cannot apprehend it, because you set not down the first original of that Composition.

Therefore I shall not need to handle it more at large, till you instruct me fully and more plainly in its Composition and Operation: For I cannot neither believe that the Elixir, or Philosophers Stone, can consist of the signs appearing in it, and of the properties of the nutritive vegetation of the flaming Fire, which you attribute to it, as I have openly shewed in what I have said already.

But when I received your Work, and the gift of so great a Secret sent unto me, I at once understood your unfeigned love, and free confidence in me. Wherefore for your Friendship sake, I reserve your Stone with me, and keep it as a most acceptable gift, and shall write unto you more concerning it, when you shall declare it to me more manifestly.

But whereas you say, that in your Stone there are three, a Body, Spirit, and Soul, (which is manifest to you by your experience and work) the Philosophers when they said those three natural things were in their artificial Stone, understood it by way of resemblance and experiment:

For they called the Earth, its Body and Bones; because it is an astringent Compound, and restrains the fluid Elements from their raw flexibility, having the Fire also with it symbolically by its driness, But they called the Water and Air, its Spirit; because they are the Elements that moisten and dissolve the Earth. But they called the Air and Fire, the Soul; because they ripen and digest the whole Compound.

And they named them thus, with resemblance unto Humane nature, because in a well-constituted Flesh there ought to be Bones to sustain the Body, and likewise there ought to be in the Flesh a vivacity of vegetable Accidents, which are called its Spirits: contrary to the errors of the Pagan Philosophers, who thought the vital Spirits to be something distinct from the Body compounded, and parts compounding it: so also there must be in Humane Flesh an informing Soul, digesting in man the brutal acts, and to work in him the intellectual work.

But we must understand it otherwise in our Stone, in which the Earth hath the name of the Body, Air and Water obtain the name of Spirit, neither is in it a Soul but because it contains the Air and Fire; which I perceive well, you do perfectly understand.

But the Philosophers divided them in this manner: By a crude Spirit, they extracted a digested Spirit out of the dissolved Body, and they had remaining a fixed mass of Ashes to be farther dissolved, in which they found an incombustible and stony oyliness and gumminess, which they called the Soul; which enlivens, unites, incerates and produces united Natures; and in the Spirit they disjoyned the Natures, so in the Oyl they re-conjoyned them. For our Stone hath not an informing nature, as a Vegetative or a Sensitive, but it hath only a formed form, which form is the very Elements themselves, because it is homogeneous.

But mans Body, and that of other Sensitives, is heterogeneous: For Bones, Flesh, Bloud, Marrow, Hair and Nails, are distinguished differently in it; which is otherwise in Gold, in which whatsoever there is, is found to be of one kind. Wherefore, my Reverend Doctor, the Philosophers speak this by way of similitude, by reason of the administration of Art, and operation of Nature: not because there is a Soul in the Stone, but metaphorically, as you well know nor Spirit, nor Body, as an informing form as it is found in Man, and other Sensitives.

Verily I tell you, that Oyl which naturally incerates and unites Natures, and naturally induces the Medicine into other Bodies that are to be tinged, is not compounded of any other extraneous thing, but out of the bowels of the Body that is to be dissolved: which Oyl retains the colour of its Spirit always, until it be rethickned, and then first of all it puts on the Royal Ensigns, that is, a citrineness and Metalline form, which it manifests to all; in Gold, a Golden, in Silver, a Silver colour and form: which Oyl if it be Sol, being dissolved, is perceived to be red inwardly, though outwardly it appear white, under the form of liquid Quick-silver.

Now some think to compound an Oyl as generous and powerful as this Oyl is, namely out of Mercury throughly dryed, or out of the substance of Tin, or Body of the Sun, commixed with ingredients of divers kinds; but for what concerns our Work, their Experiment is fallacious.

They can indeed reduce the species of Metals into a kind of Oyl, but they cannot at any hand reduce them into a Metallick kind, observing and keeping the proportion of the things to be mixed sound and entire. But that Oyl may be profitable for Medicine to sensitive Creatures, because the nature of Gold is dissolved therein; but yet impertinently and unprofitably as to our Philosophick Work. Besides, my Honoured Doctor, that I may lightly touch on the remaining Heads of your Epistle, you must diligently and wisely observe, that Fire and Azor, wash Laton: But Azor is not raw Quick-silver simply extracted out of the Mine, but it is that which is extracted by Quick-silver it self, out of the dissolved Bodies; which is found to be more ripe upon tryal.

Wherefore if Laton be an unclean Body, it is depurated by such an Azor, which you write that you have had formerly; and by this Laton purified by Azor, we make our Medicine for curing every sick person.

Indeed this Azor is made of the Elixir, because Elixir is nothing else but a Body resolved into a Mercurial Water; after white resolution, Azor is extracted out of it, that is, an animated Spirit.

And it is called Elixir, from E, which is out of, and Lixis, which is Water, because all things are made out of this Water: and Elixir is the second part in the Philosophick Work, as Rebis is the first in the same Work.

But the Tincture constitutes the third Work; for as the matter of this Composition produces divers effects, so it obtain• different names one after another. Thence it manifestly appears, that Azor is not requisite to the Elixir, because in this Work the Elixir goes before Azor, and not the contrary; like as Water procedes the Oyl, and the Spirit the Soul:

For Azor is drawn and extracted out of the Elixir, as Oyl out of Water, and not contrariwise; as mention is made elsewhere. For example sake; as in the Art of Physick, pure simple Fountain-water, by boyling in the first concoction, is joyned with the•• Flesh of a Chicken, and thence in the first degree of concoction we obtain a Broth, a good and perfect decoction, the humid, watry and airy parts of the Chicken being actually dissolved in the aforesaid Water; though there be other Elements therein also actually.

But that it may be made a much more perfect Medicine, and more generous for restoring man's sick Body unto health, the decocted Body of the Chick is beaten into a mash, with the said Water already altered into a boyled Broth, or with part of it, and is distilled by a stronger decoction, whence a Broth and decoction will be made much more noble and generous, partaking of the whole nature of the Chicken: Because by this second decoction not only the moist parts, but the hot parts, that is, its aerial and fiery parts, being melted into the Broth or decoction, are throughly mingled and dissolved: and therefore the whole virtue of the Chick is in such a decoction extracted into the aforesaid Liquor.

So it falls out in the Philosophick Work, because the crude Mineral Spirit, like Water, is joyned with its Body, to dissolve it in its first decoction: whence it is called Rebis, because it is compounded of two, or a double thing, to wit, of the Masculine and Feminine Seed, that is, of the thing to be dissolved, though it be one thing and matter:

whence the Verses, Rebis is two things joyn'd, yet it's but one Dissolv'd to their first Seeds, the Sun or Moon.

Now out of these two things dissolved together, the Elixir is compounded, that is, a tinged Water: whence the Verses, Pure Bodies are of Lixis made by Art; Hence Greeks Elixir term its second-part.

Out of this Elixir, my Venerable Doctor, as out of the first Broth or B•llion of a simple decoction, Azor is extracted, to wit, by a stronger and iterated distillation: which Azor resembles and participates the nature of its Body from which it was extracted, which is hot, and retains its virtue in it self, namely an Oylie nature, which is hot and moist, because it is actual Fire and Air; though all the Elements are in it in Essence, and by Composition.

Medicines therefore to cure the Bodies of Sensitives, may be composed out of the said Metals by several artifices; but they are not pertinent to the Philosophick Work, as the Elixir is to Azor: that is, the vital Spirit and fugitive Soul are not diaphanous, nor transparent as the clear tear from the Eye: nor every dissolving Spirit, though they be each of higher Natures than another, according to their degrees, as the Soul is higher than the crude Spirit, being they are not of one form. For as the Soul lies hid under the species of a dissolved Spirit, before its re-inspissation, for the Soul being extracted out of the Body, always appeareth like Quick-silver so after its inspislation the Soul and Body lie hid under the species of a Body.

Your Worship hath seen an Experiment thereof, in the Powder sometime sent to that King whose Physician you are; in which Experiment, Quick-silver was found in the species of Quick-silver, but if that which remained in the bottom had been coagulated, it would certainly have assumed the same form of Powder: But that Powder must be called a Tincture nominally only, not that it is a Medicine for Metals, for it is not yet perfectly fixt; yet as a Medicine for Men, it is of very good force.

But the fixt Medicine without all doubt exceeds this humane Medicine in all virtues, both as to Metals, and to Men; which cannot come to pass in a clear diaphanous and transparent Liquor: Because if the aforesaid Elixir and Azor, that is, Spirit and Soul, did appear in, and had a transparency, now the Earth as to its proportion had left the Water, and had been separated from it, which had thickned and coagulated its parts, causing an opacity in the Elixir and Azor, and making a congealable Metallick form to consist.

For in the condensing of fixed Metallick species, the condenser must act upon the condensable, and the coagulating upon the coagulable; which cannot be in the aforesaid diaphanous and clear Water.

But it happens otherwise in Vegetables, in which a simple and diaphanous Water is thickned by decoction into the Vegetables themselves: which yet by the Test of the Fire doth at length vanish and evaporate, because it is not permanent and fixed in its composition, because it had not with it an Earth naturally homogeneal to it in its composition, as Quick-silver hath: which Earth indeed is the cause of permanent fixation in homogeneous things: wherefore simple Water cannot by coagulation be so fixed with Vegetables, as Mercury with Metals.

If therefore Mercury should be reduced to a transparency in the Work of the Philosophers, it would by good reason remain of an uncoagulable substance; nor would it be congealed upon Laton to a Metallick form, species and proportion, which carries not with, nor in it self its own congelation, namely Water the Earth: which Earth (as was said) is Mercurial, and the first cause of Inspissation, Coagulation, and Fixation.

If then this Water abide destitute of Metallick proportion, how should it be possible that such like species should be produced from this Composition?

They also erre who think to extract a limpid transparent Water out of Mercury, and out of it to work many wonderful things: For be it so that they can perfect such a Water, that Work would conduce nothing either to Nature or proportion, nor could it restore or build up any perfect kind of Metal: For so soon as Mercury is throughly changed from his first Nature, so soon he is forbidden entrance into our Philosophick Work, because he hath lost his Spermatick and Metallick Nature.

From these things it is manifest, what truth there is in your opinion, and in what it is contrary and improper, when you say, there must be had (as I think) to perfect the highest Elixir, a Gum in which are all things necessary thereunto, and containing the four Elements, and it is a most clear Water as a tear from the Eye, made Spiritual, &c. which make Gold to be a mere Spirit: For a Body penetrates not a Body, but a subtle congealed Spiritual substance, which penetrates and colours a Body.

Let it be so as you say, my Venerable Doctor, that Natures are not joyned but in a Gum or Oylie substance, and equal proportioned, having a Spiritual Nature, the Elements being yet fixedly shut up in it; unto which Gumminess the whole Philosophers Stone is at last reduced by Inceration, under a gentle flux, after the manner of an Inceration resembling all the Elements, standing like Copper and in the nature of Copper, existing also in a subtle Spiritual Nature penetrating and colouring Metallick Bodies.

For this Stone in the sublimation of the first crude Body, hath not lost its kind, namely of the same Spirit, neither yet in the perfect and great Gum doth it lose its first Nature: Therefore Gum and Oyl belong not otherwise unto this Work, but as Elements equally proportioned shut up together, resolvable, united in the Oylie viscosity of the Earth, retained, buried, inseparably mixt.

For this Gum or Oyl first is extracted out of the Body, drawn into an incinerated Spirit, till the superfluous humidity of the Water be turned into Air, and one Element be excited from another Element by digestion, and what was of an Aqueous form, become of an Oylie nature: and so the whole Stone at last assumes the name of Gum and Sulphur.

For Geber teacheth this, when he saith, as you have written in your Epistle, If any person know to joyn and friendly unite our Sulphur unto Bodies, he hath found one of the greatest Secrets, and one way of perfection: as if he should say, If any man can reduce a Body to this, that it may be made a Gum which may be throughly mingled with other imperfect Bodies, he hath found the greatest Secret of Nature, &c. because this perfect Stone is a Gum and a Sulphur, as is known by what we have already said.

But you must know, that Geber with highest prudence and wonderful artifice hides the truth under a Veil, intermingling with it many obscurities and falsities, which those who are ignorant at first appearance imagine to be truth: yet he speaking like a Philosopher secretly under this craft, doth openly, learnedly and Philosophically describe the truth: wherefore the unexperienced and Sophisters, not understanding his mind and wit, nor the nature of the thing, do perversly turn aside to the vulgar exposition and sound of the words.

For he saith, If thou knowest that, we have said something to thee; but if thou knowest not, we have said nothing to thee. Wherefore in reading Philosophick Books, consider especially the possibility of Nature; notwithstanding some Writers of this Art have also sometimes erred, and have happened sometimes to have handled it, as to the natural truth, either ill or ambiguously.

As it may be observed that Arnoldus de Villa Nova hath said, in a Book which he called his Rosary. that raw Mercury, that is, Quick-silver, which in its own nature is cold and moist, by Sublimation may be made hot and dry; afterwards being revived, it becomes hot and moist like the complexion of Man. You will say then, what wonder is it if it be joyned with the Sun, that it likewise becomes of the nature of the Sun?

For Mercury is of a convertible nature, as the Heavenly Mercury, which is such as the Planet is with which it is in Conjunction. For that Arnoldus, though in other Sciences he were a Reverend and Ingenious Doctor, yet in this Art he handled Experiments only, without the learning of the Causes.

Now when he saith, that in the first Sublimation the crude Spirit is sublimed from the inferiour salt Minerals, and that Mercury it self, which in its own nature is cold and moist, becomes a Powder of an hot and dry nature, as he saith, this yet conduces nothing to our Work. But let it be so, that he makes of Mercury such a Powder as he speaks of, that is, throughly dried and hot by sublimation from Salts; yet those Purifications are vain and impertinent to our Work, yea as to the perfecting of our Work they are hurtful.

For though these inferiour Minerals communicate with Metals in their nature, yet not in kind and proportion: For the superiour and inferiour Minerals, in their nativity and subterraneous formation, are of one and the same constitution universally, and therefore of the same nature; but they differ in proportion, quality, and kind or form.

Wherefore if Mercury be distilled with those inferiour Minerals, and throughly dried, then his internal nature is confounded and disproportioned, and is hindred and made unprofitable, as to the effect of a Feminine Seed, and invalid for our Metallick Work.

For so soon as he is turned into the form of a Powder, except from his Body of Sol or Luna so soon he undergoes a through driness, unprofitable to the Philosophick Work.

Yet I deny not, but that a drossie and impure Mercury may and ought, by a simple Salt, be sublimed or purged once or oftner, according to a due Philosophick experience, to take from it its dross and outward Mineral impurity, so that notwithstanding the fluidity and radical humidity of Mercury may always remain unaltered: For the Mercurial kind and form in such a Work, ought to remain uncorrupted, as hath been said already.

Nor ought its outward form to be reduced into a throughly dried Powder; because its external form being corrupted, shews its internal nature to be confounded, unless it be in the way of generation that it be altered, as may be manifestly seen in the signs which appear in the Work of the natural way. For there are Sublimations of Mercury from its own proper Bodies, which are conjoyned and mingled with it, by an Amalgamation with it in its most inward parts, from which being oftentimes raised and reunited, it rejects and loses its superfluities, and is not confounded in its nature; and afterwards it is very agreeable to the Philosophick Work, and powerful to dissolve Metallick species; yet it is not greatly altered intrinsically for the Philosophick Work, unless it be altered by fixed Bodies dissolved in it.

But wonderful things may be done in Medicines for Sensitives from this dried Powder, whether it be reduced into an Oyl, or into Water, or it abide in a Powder; but it is not at all pertinent to the Philosophick Experiment. And therefore it must be universally noted, that so soon as Mercury is turned into a Powder, of whatever sort, contrary to the nature of its Body to be dissolved, so soon will it be unprofitable to the Philosophick Work.

There are certain deceiving Sophisters, who by joyning Venus to it, or adding other species, make a Sophistick Work; that is, they give unto imperfect Copper a colour, but not natural; they induce indeed a kind of an apparency, but not a true nature, that is, transmutation: like as he that paints a dead Image, or composes a Statue of Wood, which appears only, but is not; and as much as a living differs from an Image and Picture, so much differs their Work from the Philosophick.

Hence this mixture perseveres not in the Test of the Fire, though it be Mineral; because Nature attracts it not from a proportionable digestion, nor hath Art vehemently decocted it to an alteration of the mixt natures: wherefore that Copper appears to be superficially only, and not permanently and intrinsically tinged.

Wherefore we must not adhere to the Experiments of deceitful Sophisters, because the truth of the natural Art confutes this Sophistick Work, and shews it to be false. And if you will instance farther, and say, that as the said Armaldus by Sublimation purged away the dross of Mercury, and dried it in its nature; so also as you say he by reviving it, moistned it again, and made the Mercury it self hot and moist, and in its nature conformable to its Body.

This hinders not my Reverend Doctor nor refutes the truth of the Philosophick Art, yea rather an errour appears in the Natural Art: For, as is manifest, Arnaldus doth teach, if you regard the found of his words, that Mercury thus throughly dried, is revived by hot water into which it is cast; and he saith that it is made hot and moist, when it was first sublimed hot and dry.

But what true Philosopher would say, that Mercury or any other Metal, is changed in nature and internal quality by simple Water, however hot or boyling, or that it could thence acquire its natural humidity, and so be revived?

Therefore Mercury in this revival acquires nothing, because common Water neither decocts nor alters it, because it neither hath entrance nor ingress into it, and that which neither hath entrance nor ingress, alters not; because every thing to be altered, must first be throughly mingled. For indeed such a Water may wipe away from it some superficial dross swimming upon it, but cannot infuse into it a new quality: For what nature soever Mercury reduced into a Powder, and mortified by Sublimations, retained, such nature altogether it retains revived by Water.

Now this I would have to be spoken in honour and respect unto the said Arnaldus; but I contemplate and defend the truth of Nature and Experience. Furthermore, honoured Doctor, that I may by this my Answer satisfie your Epistle, and put an end thereto, I humbly entreat you that you would take in good part, and favourably bear what I have written, not by way of Confutation, but Disputation: But if I have answered any thing that offends you, take it yet in good part and favourably, or signifie it to me in writing, and I will satisfie you to my power, as the most true Doctor our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, blessed for ever and ever, shall give and teach me.

Thanks be to Christ.

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The Preface Epistle of Bernard of Trevisan, to the noble Doctor and most learned Philosopher Thomas of Bononia.

My Friend,
IF I had any thing more noble, imagine you with what good will I should dedicate it to thee, for having considered the wonderful virtue of this Science in its height, which you are not ignorant of, therefore was I willing to dedicate this my Labour unto thee, intreating thee to accept it with as good a will as I give it unto thee, and conclude that whilst I give thee this my Labour, that I have given a greater Treasure than was ever ordained by the good pleasure of the omnipotent God, according to the course of Nature.

There is a way truly of arriving to an Universal Knowledge, which we commonly call the Philosophers Stone, and thou shalt find it in this my little Booka, little, I say, in words, but great and high in substance also it containeth entirely every Science, that is to say, the beginning and ending.

Thou shalt find this my Book divided into four parts, and thou mayst judge thereof after thou hast well understood it.

Farewell.

From Tresne, May 12. 1453.

FINIS.

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This Epistle I have caused to be printed, not for the signification thereof either as to quality or quantity, but only to prevent the mistaking the one Epistle for the other; and could I have found more Epistles between these two most excellent Authors, I should not have hesitated their publication, but conclude that they would have been as welcom to our English Philosophers, as any either Ancient or Modern Writers.

Vale. W. C. Bibl.

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A brief Rehearsal of the Preparation of the Philosophers Stone.

Recipe {sal armoniac}, and sublime him from his Earthly substance, and then dissolve him into his former substance: then if it be to the Red Work take Sol, if it be to the White Work take Luna, and dissolve it in the said Mercury, until they be both one Mercury, which will not be without Putrefaction; then separate the Elements, and decoct them according to their due proportion.

Note, this Sulphur Philosophorum is the Earth of the Elements calcined, sublimed and fixed; then it is coloured with either Sol or Luna, according as thy Work is, the which Sol or Luna is added to fresh or other Mercury after the order of Amalgama; then fixing the Sulphur and the Elements, and that new Sol which is called the Earth, according to their due proportion; the which Names of weight shall not be made mention of here, for the love of him that taught it me, and lest too common it should be; for if it should be named in two Books, then all the World would decay in Husbandry and Industry, if not in Honesty, which I pray God prevent.

Amen.

FINIS