APOLOGY OF THE GREAT WORK

OR

ELIXIR OF PHILOSOPHERS

VULGARLY SAID

PHILOSOPHER'S STONE

Where the possibility of this Work
is demonstrated very clearly AND THE DOOR OF TRUE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IS COMPLETELY OPEN



by Monsieur l'Abbé Dom Belin
Paris, P. de Bresche
1659




To Monsignor Charles de Gorvod Archbishop of Besançon,
Prince of the Holy Empire, Marquis de Marnay, etc.


My lord,

The work that I dedicate to Your Highness has not yet seen the light of day because there are few people to whom it conforms. I spent less time composing it than determining to whom I would offer it, and it would still be in obscurity if I did not have the honor of knowing you. It is hard to believe that there can be a General Agent in Nature and one cannot also persuade oneself that there are men who are universal in their achievements. However, I had to find one marked in this rich corner in order to dedicate this work. You have favored me, Monsignor, in this meeting, since you appear to the eyes of the most enlightened with this advantage. I have seen so much connection in your person with the subject I am defending that if I addressed this Apology to others, I could be blamed for imprudence and poor conduct. The Sages call it their Great Work whose power knows no bounds and whose effects are priceless. He acts in the three kingdoms of Nature in a totally divine way since he drives out the faults he encounters and gives them the beauties they do not have. Nothing can stop me from saying. Monsignor, may the wisest look upon you as their mirror, and may your illustrious birth, joined to all the fine qualities which can elevate a man, compel them to believe that you are. one where Art and Nature worked with care and exhausted themselves with pleasure. We also know that your power and your authority have no limits since they extend everywhere and that, in the three orders which compose a perfect state, you can undertake everything and execute everything. The Church considers you and follows you as its Beacon and its Head, the Nobility honors you as its Adornment, and the whole Third Estate regards you as a Protector. And we can think that as our Great Work produces Gold in the metallic kingdom, makes flowers and fruits grow in the vegetable world, restores and preserves health among men, you give birth to love in the Third Estate by your gentleness, you animate the hearts of the Nobles by your generosity and you happily maintain the Church in its luster by your prudence. If you have been seen several times to preside over the States of your Province, it has not been by choice, but by your merit. And if the desire for the honor natural to all could not shake anyone to make him compete with you on the occasions of recognizing your virtue, it is a tribute that all men owe him and a public acknowledgment that all that the Province has that is finest and most glorious can only crown with dignity your chief and that everyone is persuaded that they must defer to you with reason and esteem themselves below you with justice. So you have. Monsignor, in your actions and in yourself, there is a great deal of connection with our work, and I cannot be blamed for the freedom I take to address you in defense of it. Rather, I have reason to believe that if a whole Province has given public testimony to your eminent qualities, everyone will do me good to leave an eternal mark in my writings. I admire my happiness on this occasion since, expecting you to give only a few slight proofs of my respect, I am doing good to the public and gaining glory for myself. I oblige a whole Province, making it appear just and virtuous by the account of the honor which it returns to you; I procure fame and love, publishing the truths which most please him. But what is most glorious to me is that I make known to all the earth that I am with respect, Monsignor,

From Your Most Illustrious Greatness and Lordship, The Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant,

Dom Belin, Abbot, etc.


Foreword


Since ignorance and falsehood combat the beautiful truths more strongly than ever, one should not be surprised if my zeal lights up more for their defense. It is a fate given to Nature to be persecuted in its finest works, and to Art to be blamed in its richest enterprises.
It seems that time, which puts an end to the most inveterate evils, instead of removing them, gives it new strength every day, and that, increasing the number of the ignorant, it also increases the rigors of its pernicious effects.
The Great Work of the Sages holds the first rank among beautiful things; Nature without Art cannot complete it, Art without Nature dares not undertake it, and it is a masterpiece that limits the power of both. Its effects are so miraculous that the health it procures and preserves for the living, the perfection it gives to all the compounds of Nature, and the great riches it produces in a wholly divine fashion are not its highest marvels. If God made him the most perfect agent of Nature, we can say without fear that he received the same power from Heaven for morals. If it purifies bodies, it enlightens minds; if he brings the mixtures to the highest point of their perfection, he can elevate our understandings to the highest knowledge, whence it is that several Philosophers have recognized in this work an accomplished symbol of the most adorable mysteries of Religion: it is the Savior of the great world, since it purges all things of original stains and repairs by its virtue the disorder of their temperament, and in this it represents Jesus Christ. It subsists in a perfect ternary of three pure principles, really distinct, and which are but one and the same nature, and in this it is a beautiful symbol of the sacred Triad. He is originally the universal Spirit of the world embodied in a virgin earth, being the first production or the first mixture of the elements at the first point of his birth, to mark us and represent a humanized Word in the flanks of a Virgin and clothed with a corporeal nature. He is worked in his first preparation, he sheds his blood, he dies, he surrenders his spirit, he is buried in his vessel, he rises glorious, he ascends quintessentially to heaven to examine the saints and the sick, destroying the central impurity of some and exalting the principles of others, in which he depicts to us the works and torments of the Saviour, the shedding of his blood on the Cross, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension and his second coming to judge the living and the dead, so that this It is not without reason that he is called by the Sages the Savior of the great world, and the figure of that of our souls. One can justly say that if it produces wonders in Nature, introducing a very great purity into the bodies, it also works miracles in morals, illuminating our minds with the highest light. Much more, if we believe in Raimond Lully, it has the power to drive out the demons which, enemies of order, cannot support the marvelous accord of its principles and its perfect symmetry. If God has subjected the Demon to the smallest bodily things, lowering precisely below his rank the one who has insolently wanted to raise himself above himself, as we notice in the gall of the fish of Tobit and in various simples whose odors drive away the devils, it is probable that they are subjected to the most noble body of all Nature, where Heaven and Earth agree to contain their richest treasures.
All these marvels which have charmed the hearts of the Sages, have irritated the minds of the ignorant who, unable to raise their thoughts above the reach of meaning, have always endeavored to make this Elixir of life pass for some learned reverie, some chimera and some illusion. They cannot understand that an elementary substance can cure all sorts of ailments and even all those great illnesses that doctors vulgarly call incurable. They do not conceive that, by the use of this Universal Medicine, one can preserve complete health and prolong one's life. They find it difficult to persuade themselves that this Medicine can act on all the bodies of Nature in such an astonishing way. They cannot imagine that the minerals,
This deplorable ignorance has taken such strong root in our days that the greatest lights are not too brilliant to dissipate it. And since it took birth in the world a long time ago, its darkness is thicker. It has swelled like the streams the farther they are from their sources, and I can say that it has reached a point where the plan to purge the minds of our century of it might pass for a kind of temerity and presumption.
Nevertheless, the truth and reality of the Philosopher's Elixir seem so obvious to me that I would rather expose myself to the censorship of the ignorant than keep silent. If I draw upon me by this design a troop of unjust and senseless persecutors, I hope to engage the most knowledgeable in my defense, and perhaps those who will be more angry against me, in the face of this Apology, will surrender one day by the force of its reasonings.
And if in the beginning of his reading they regard me as anathema, at the end they will treat me as a friend of Philosophy. Thus I will have the honor of having opened the door to a work so rich and so advantageous, and in such a way that those who, immersed in error, have worked until now only by a blind desire and without a reasonable foundation on false and remote matters, to the detriment of their time, their pains and their property, will be able to happily know the true and the subject from which it must be extracted. At least I will have the pleasure of having worked for the good of the public, fought the lie and sided with the truth. These are the main reasons which commit me to this undertaking and which oblige me to show everyone, to the great contempt of the ignorant,


PART ONE: Apologetic Arguments

I

The four Elements

And in order to proceed clearly and methodically, it is first to be supposed as very true that all sublunary things are simple or compound. The simple are those which compose the mixed; composites are those which proceed from the mixture of simples. Simples are those which contain only one predominant quality of the four radicals; composites are those which are mixed of these first four. These simple substances are called Elements, because they are the first principles of which everything else is composed. And, indeed, we know that all the mixtures only are composed of hot, cold, dry and humid, whence it comes that these four Elements being opposed and acting by reason of their contrariety against each other, alter each other doubly, and by remission and by intention, and by this double alteration change the first and true temperament necessary for the duration of each thing and make another fit to produce a new mixture. Also we notice that beings which have no opposites are immortal and not subject to corruption provided that, moreover, there is no other cause which can destroy them, as it would happen in the rational soul if it were not able to act outside its body. I mean that in this case it would be mortal although it has no opposite, because being being only for action, it cannot subsist in the state of not being able to act. Also we notice that beings which have no opposites are immortal and not subject to corruption provided that, moreover, there is no other cause which can destroy them, as it would happen in the rational soul if it were not able to act outside its body. I mean that in this case it would be mortal although it has no opposite, because being being only for action, it cannot subsist in the state of not being able to act. Also we notice that beings which have no opposites are immortal and not subject to corruption provided that, moreover, there is no other cause which can destroy them, as it would happen in the rational soul if it were not able to act outside its body. I mean that in this case it would be mortal although it has no opposite, because being being only for action, it cannot subsist in the state of not being able to act.
I do not say, however, that the first four qualities are contrary in all their extent, since everywhere they agree to compose all temperaments. I only want to say that they only fight each other to a certain degree under which we must however admit a certain latitude, temperament not consisting in an indivisible thing. But when they leave this latitude, they sufficiently destroy the temperament which preserves the mixture and compose another. And thence comes that general corruption which we see in all the compounds of this lower region.


II

The Three Principles

It is certain, in the second place, that all the compounds of these four Elements are reduced to three Principles, namely, to Sulphur, Salt and Mercury which, according to their various mixtures, compose all sublunary things, although infinite in number, in properties and in virtues. It is a fine subject for meditation and a worthy reason to admire the Author of Nature, to see that this great variety of flowers, leaves and fruits, of gems and metals, this diversity of species among animals, only comes from the various mixture of three things. This truth seems very obvious, since in the resolution of all compounds we see these three things and nothing more. We see in it a terrestrial part, an aqueous and a sulphurous part. We see there a body, a soul and a spirit and in this ternary we likewise see the quaternary of the four qualities and elements. The body is made up of earth and water, and we call it Mercury; the soul is composed of air and fire, and we call it Sulphur. Salt is like matter, Sulfur like form, and Mercury the unifying means, for, as body and soul participate in qualities that are too distant and opposed, Mercury, which participates in the qualities of soul and body, serves as a mediator; and as it is water and air, and as it is water it partakes of the body, and as it is air it approaches the soul, hence it makes the connection of Salt with Sulphur, of the body with the soul. And it is true that according to the mixture of these three things, of this Salt, of this Sulfur and this Mercury, one on the other and one with the other, proceeds this admirable diversity of all things. And in order not to forget anything, I will tell you that this mixture is made, in three ways, according to the three different actions which meet between the Elements, namely: the action of fire on the air, of the air on the water and of the water on the earth which, like the base and the purely passive principle, cannot act and does not act. The action of fire on air makes Sulphur, the action of air on water makes Mercury and the action of water on earth makes Salt. And because there are only these three kinds of actions between the Elements, there can be only these three things in all the compounds of the lower nature. namely: the action of fire on air, of air on water and of water on earth which, like the base and the purely passive principle, cannot and does not act. The action of fire on air makes Sulphur, the action of air on water makes Mercury and the action of water on earth makes Salt. And because there are only these three kinds of actions between the Elements, there can be only these three things in all the compounds of the lower nature. namely: the action of fire on air, of air on water and of water on earth which, like the base and the purely passive principle, cannot and does not act. The action of fire on air makes Sulphur, the action of air on water makes Mercury and the action of water on earth makes Salt. And because there are only these three kinds of actions between the Elements, there can be only these three things in all the compounds of the lower nature.
This is also why we see that all the mixtures here below are preserved, nourished and maintained only by these three Principles, especially since each thing is nourished, maintained and preserved by the same Principles of which it is composed. It seems to the eyes of the ignorant that all the mixed feed on a thousand different things, but not to the eyes of the Philosophers who recognize only one food for all the mixed here below. As they are composed of Salt, Sulfur and Mercury, they feed only on Salt, Sulfur and Mercury; and although these three things seem so diversified, it is because Nature sweetens her works and dresses them variously to satisfy the different temperaments of all things. She acts like a skilful cook who, with the same thing, makes all different stews and prepares the same foods in a thousand different ways. All these different species which astonish us by their diversity are but one and the same thing variously seasoned and mixed. Minerals, plants and animals seem to be conserved and nourished differently; however, they all have only one food composed of Sulphur, Salt and Mercury. The same thing which preserves makes plants grow and elevates, preserves and nourishes metals, minerals and animals, and this common food is the balm of Nature, composed of these three things which do everything, preserve everything and are everywhere. He is drawn into our gardens by our herbs, into our beds by our flowers, into our mountains and caves by our mines, and, among animals, by the stomachs. It becomes plant in gardens, flower in flowerbeds, metal in mines and animal in our body. Plants and minerals suck it into the earth immediately and animals suck it through the plants and animals themselves; as the mineral and vegetable natures are not so perfect as the animal, and sensitive, they suck it without preparation and less determined; but because animals are more perfect and exercise the operations of the senses, they suck it more prepared, more advanced and more in conformity with their temperament; but it is always the same balm prepared differently which nourishes and preserves them each in its own way and according to its constitution; and, though often shrouded in grime, filth impurities, the natural virtue and warmth of each thing does not fail to attract it to itself when it is strong enough and separates in a completely miraculous way all these heterogeneous and foreign envelopes: whence is it that we see by experience that animals apparently throw as much excrement as they have taken in food. It's because they retain only this balm which is in everything and which is in very small quantities. This remnant is only a disguise, a box or, if you will, a prison where he is locked up. This universal food was represented to us by the Manna which contained all sorts of flavors and which suited the taste of all these peoples in the desert. We also notice that the lands which do not have this balm, which the vulgar call Salt, are sterile and yield nothing and that everything dies as it lacks this balm.
If therefore all is preserved by this balm made of Salt, Sulfur and Mercury, and if we discover these three things, and nothing more, in the resolutions of all the compounds, it is a very evident mark that all is made and composed of these three things.


III

The Matrix and the Universal Vessel of Nature

Since everything is composed of these three Principles, Sulphur, Salt and Mercury, following, as we have said, the three diverse actions of the Elements, there must necessarily be a general compound of these three things which proceeds immediately from them, because as soon as the Elements act on each other, they do not act to first bring their mixture to the highest degree to which Nature can attain; especially since acting wisely in everything she does, she walks step by step and she advances from degree to degree; she never jumps in her works, she always passes through the middle, and this is observed and noticed in all the operations she produces in her three kingdoms; his intention is indeed to go to the most perfect, but not without going through the circles that lead him there. When she works in the mines, it does not claim to make Lead, Tin, Mercury, Iron, Copper, or even Silver, but only Gold. But as it is always wise and follows the movements of its author, it does not intend to make Gold first and in its first step; and, working in the kingdom of plants, she wants to make herbs and perfect trees, but not in a day; among animals she claims to form, raise and organize a body with all the beauty she can, but not without taking many different steps. And as, working in a particular and determined realm, it goes step by step, so before passing into the particular, it begins with the general and with the first action of its Elements; it makes a universal and general mixture which is found all over the world, this element being the matrix and the universal vessel of Nature and, of this general mixture, all the others are composed; it is from him that they take their birth, it is by him that they rise, that they are maintained, that they are preserved and nourished; it forms and enriches minerals and metals; it composes and causes plants to grow; he makes and feeds the animals. It is this first work of the Elements esteemed by the Sages more than all the Gold in the world; it is that vile and precious subject; it is this matter which is not the first, but almost the first; it is this dough which makes all the baked breads of Nature; it is this Gold of the Philosophers, it is the seed of Gold, it is this mineral stone, vegetal and animal and which however is not mineral, vegetable or animal; it is this Mercury which includes all that the Sages seek, it is this water which does not wet the hands; it is this Protheus who dresses in all colors; it is this poison and it is this antidote, it is this fire of nature, it is this bath of the King and Queen, it is this son of the Sun and the Moon, it is the Androgea of ​​the Sages, it is this hermaphroditic Venus which contains the two sexes, the male and the female, the cold, the dry, the humid and the hot, in a word, it is the matter and the subject of the Sages.


IV

Nature's work

But Nature has its limits and limits in all its operations, both because of the impurities, stains and refuse that it cannot separate in its composition and first mixture of the Elements into its Principles, as for the indisposition of the material or the place where it works to make its mixture and for the lack of the heat necessary to reiterate and push its same operations further. Hence its first general compound is impure and less elevated and therefore its Principles remain general. This general Sulphur, this general Mercury and this general Salt of which all the particular mixtures are composed participate in the same impurity and imperfection of their birth. It is a stain or an original sin that they draw from their source, it is a defilement which comes from the father and the mother and which is communicated to all the particular mixtures by way of generation. The dross, faeces, earthiness, sulphurity, phlegm and other similar impurities, which we see in imperfect metals, are effects of this sin. Roughness, sourness, crudity, indigestion, immaturity and other similar defects which are noticed in vegetables are streams from this source. The diseases and infirmities which animals suffer are marks of this venom, and there is nothing in all sublunary nature which has not been conceived and begotten with this original sin and stain. Even Gold, which is the most perfect compound here below, was not conceived without this spot and the conception of the purest was not immaculate. It is true that its Salt, its Sulfur and its Mercury are the purest. However, they are not exempt from certain central spots, less coarse than those which are met with in other metals, as appears from their solutions. Moreover, it is not so high as it could be, having in the mixture and constitution of its three Principles only the weight, the tint and the fixation which are necessary for it and not being able to communicate any to others. And we notice that all the mixtures which are made of other metals and minerals with Gold, although purified by their cements and other processes, are not augments of this Gold, but that after all these works we always find Gold in the same state as it was before and the metals which we have mixed are in no way exalted. We also see that nature remains for hundreds of years making the finest and richest of its mixtures or elementary compounds. It is because of its original impurities which dampen the force and vigor of the actions of Nature, that the latter, lacking the heat necessary to carry and push its digestions to the point it wishes, is forced to continue the same work to do in a long time what it would do in a short time by stronger and more vigorous operations.


V

Art work

Now if this general mixture, impure in its birth and which infects all the particular mixtures with its first venom, being their foundation, their nourishment and food, were free from its original impurities and stains and if the mixture of the Principles which are its composition were exalted in themselves and made more perfect, it is certain that it would have the power to exalt, elevate and perfect; for if, in its weakness and in its imperfect mixture, it makes, it nourishes, it raises and preserves so many beautiful and diverse species in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom, what would it not do if its mixture were pure and perfect? No doubt it would produce much more beautiful mixes, it would nourish them more abundantly, preserve them more strongly and raise them more highly, But it is true, and no one can ever doubt it, that Art, joining with Nature, can give this perfection and this purity in addition to all the defects of Nature. This it can and does do first when it separates the stains and filth of the three general Principles, furnishing them with a more suitable matter, place or vessel than is that in which Nature operates, which is filled with filth and a thousand kinds of filth. Secondly, by administering a fire more proportionate, stronger and which he handles more at his pleasure and as he wishes, to reiterate advantageously and with addition the same operations that Nature practices in her works and her mixture which are digestion, evaporation and distillation, purifying the three Principles by rejecting the dirt and the coarser parts of Salt, the superfluous aquosities of Mercury and the adustible parts of Sulphur.


VII

The Universal Medicine and the Elixir of the Philosophers

If Art and Nature, or rather if Nature aided by Art can make the general mixture very perfect, it is indubitable that being applied to particular, impure and imperfect mixtures, Art will perfect them and bring their Principles to their ultimate purity. Being joined with the imperfect metals, it will make Gold, which is Nature's term for the mineral kind. Likewise, it will make vegetables capable of producing promptly the best fruits of their kind and will cure animals of all diseases and will be the panacea, the universal Medicine for all the mixtures and compounds of Nature, because the good, by essential inclination towards what is similar and proportioned to it, joins and attaches itself to it and therefore, the very great good which is in this perfect mixture, finding in the particular mixtures something good, he embraces it and unites himself closely to it; and thus by uniting with it, it increases and augments it; and, for the contrary reason, having a much stronger essential aversion against evil, it rejects all the evil which it encounters in the mixtures and, consequently, it purifies, it perfects, it exalts, it preserves, it heals all the subjects where it is sufficiently and properly applied.
It is on these foundations that all the Philosophers relied when they attributed so much marvel to their Elixir, when they said that being applied to Gold it exalted its tincture and its fixation with exuberance, so that it could communicate it abundantly to imperfect metals; that by throwing a grain or thereabouts into water and watering all sorts of plants, he caused them to produce their best fruit in a short time, and even in the depths of winter; that being drunk in the liquors suitable for the diseases of the human body, it healed very quickly, broke the calculus, cleansed the leprosy, soothed the drops, purified the blood, comforted the natural heat, repaired the radical humidity, chased away bad weather and, in a word, gave health, the strength and all the vigor the animal might have; that being joined to the glass, it made it very malleable; to the crystal, that he made a diamond of it; to the complexion, that it embellished it marvelously; to jewels, that it increased their hardness, their brilliance, their color, their beauty and their price.
It is also not without reason that they said that this Elixir could be multiplied in quantity and in virtue up to infinity, since the more a subject is digested, distilled and evaporated, the more it is purified and exalted; and Art can repeat these three operations as much as it wants; it can also administer several times the Principles which compose it and which, therefore, multiply it.
It is on these same foundations that I lean to close the mouths of our presumptuous ignoramuses who dare to enter into compromise with the Sages of the time and of Antiquity and think of triumphing over the truth by frivolous reasons which they oppose to the unshakable and assured principles of Philosophy. Let them not get angry again if I call their strongest objections frivolous and frivolous. This is the sweetest epithet I can give them and, in order to make it confess to themselves and confound them more, although they are not worthy to stop our minds and do not deserve an answer, let us examine them all in detail and in particular, and do their honor to answer them to their confusion, to the advantage of the truth which, not being able to be conquered, shines out all the more as it is persecuted and crossed,


PART TWO: Answers to objections


First objection

The first feature of ignorance in this encounter is to say that, from the birth of the world until our days, we do not find that anyone has accomplished this Work and that, for this reason, we must believe that the enterprise is vain and the success impossible. I leave it to everyone to judge whether this first objection is not altogether ridiculous, and whether it is reasoning like a clever man to conclude the impossible by the negation of a fact. Whoever would say that God cannot create new creatures if he wanted to because he has not yet created them, that the King cannot make armies of a hundred thousand men because he has not yet raised so many, would he not justly pass for meaningless? It is a maxim in Logic that the consequence is vicious, which infers, by the privation of the act, a power failure. Thus, when it were true that no one has ever done the Great Work of the Sages, one could not infer that success is impossible.
But far from it that we have to grant that this Work has not been done; rather we must and can reasonably believe that many Philosophers favored by the grace of Heaven have seen it, handled it, accomplished it, and happily used it. Otherwise, it would be necessary to revoke in doubt the writings of several great personages who assure it with oath. If the report of two or three witnesses, taken even from the common people, is authentic among men, if that of a man of honor and merit renders a reasonable belief, with all the more reason the report of more than a hundred great men illustrious in piety, in virtue, in science, gives a very probable testimony that this work has been done, and we owe much more to their authority than to the imagination of a vulgar fool who makes the senses the arbiter of all beliefs. The great Hermes, called Mercury Trismegistus, who had all the knowledge of Nature, who even rose to the point of discovering some rays of the ineffable mystery of the sacred Triad, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Solomon, Calid, king of the Egyptians, Geber, king of the Arabs, Roman Morienus among the Ancients, Arthéphius, Synésius, Raymond Lully, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Bernard, count of T Révisan, Roger Bacon, Basile Valentin and so many other personages marked in the best corner of all the centuries, who all assure not only that this work is possible, but that they have completed and perfected it, and who have used it for their health, have lived longer than the common man and have assisted their neighbor, are they not more credible than the most reinforced troops of the ignorant? Certainly,


Second Objection

If this Great Work of Chemistry were possible, which promises entire health and a great abundance of wealth, those who devote themselves with passion to this science should be the richest and healthiest in the world. We see, however, that usually they are the most infirm and the poorest. To be honest, to promise to cure gout, leprosy, dropsy, paralysis and other diseases that are called incurable and to be gout, leprosy, paralytic, gritty and dropsical, to promise mountains of gold and not have the ground, to be naked and covered with lice, is to expose oneself to the laughter of everyone and to pass for ridicule in one's proposals, deceitful in one's promises and committing censorship. ure of the public this Art of making Gold and healing.
To tell the truth, if those who work on this masterpiece of chemistry, with happy success, were the most infirm and the poorest, this second objection would pass in my mind as invincible. But to say that the art of healing and of making Gold is chimerical because a thousand sorts of scoundrels, pretending to acquire the theory and the practice of it, occupy themselves all their lives in seeking the means of doing this by quite remote means, blowing day and night, sweating without rest after their tincture, their fixing of Moon and Mercury, their extraction of Mercury, Saturn and Antimony, their circulation, their essence, their powder and amalgamation of diverse and foreign matters and which nevertheless eat and dissipate their good and that of their friends whom they deceive by a thousand vain hopes and whom God allows to be deceived as a punishment for their ambition and then, filled with mercurial and arsenical fumes, of their matters or their coals, become gouty, podiatric and poisoned with chronic diseases, this would be a very bad reasoning. And then, it is certain that those who work successfully live hidden and unknown and those who work in vain occur everywhere. Prudence inseparably accompanies those scholars who possess this gift of God, and vanity and ostentation are attached to those who seek and find only smoke. These are always poor and infirm, but the others enjoy with pleasure and richly the fruit of their labors. Do not therefore say that those who devote themselves to this divine science are poor and infirm; say only that those who devote themselves to it in vain live in poverty and in languor and often die in contempt and infamy, because for those who practice it learnedly and wisely, since prudence keeps them closed and covered, you do not know them and cannot pass an entire judgment on them; and if you were happy enough to know them, you would notice prudence in their conduct, charity in their actions, probity in their morals, modesty in their bearing, restraint in their words, and all the marks of good health in their countenance. Do not therefore say that those who devote themselves to this divine science are poor and infirm; say only that those who devote themselves to it in vain live in poverty and in languor and often die in contempt and infamy, because for those who practice it learnedly and wisely, since prudence keeps them closed and covered, you do not know them and cannot pass an entire judgment on them; and if you were happy enough to know them, you would notice prudence in their conduct, charity in their actions, probity in their morals, modesty in their bearing, restraint in their words, and all the marks of good health in their countenance. Do not therefore say that those who devote themselves to this divine science are poor and infirm; say only that those who devote themselves to it in vain live in poverty and in languor and often die in contempt and infamy, because for those who practice it learnedly and wisely, since prudence keeps them closed and covered, you do not know them and cannot pass an entire judgment on them; and if you were happy enough to know them, you would notice prudence in their conduct, charity in their actions, probity in their morals, modesty in their bearing, restraint in their words, and all the marks of good health in their countenance. for as for those who practice it skilfully and wisely, since prudence keeps them closed and covered, you do not know them and cannot make an entire judgment of them; and if you were happy enough to know them, you would notice prudence in their conduct, charity in their actions, probity in their morals, modesty in their bearing, restraint in their words, and all the marks of good health in their countenance. for as for those who practice it skilfully and wisely, since prudence keeps them closed and covered, you do not know them and cannot make an entire judgment of them; and if you were happy enough to know them, you would notice prudence in their conduct, charity in their actions, probity in their morals, modesty in their bearing, restraint in their words, and all the marks of good health in their countenance.


Third Objection

But you will still say that it is not only those whom I call scoundrels who labor in vain in this work; that all the centuries have seen some who passed for scholars and great men and who, after having spent thirty and forty years in search of this great Elixir, have found nothing true and real and have loudly confessed that it was a presumption to undertake it, a vanity to hope for it and folly to spend a lot of time on it. That if so many men of merit who have had public approbation and who, with the point of their minds, have penetrated the most hidden and sublime truths have exhausted themselves in this search and have brought back only a very sensible displeasure at having wasted their time and their oil on it, is it not a very strong conjecture to cast doubt on the possibility of art?
It is not difficult to answer this point. First, it is a question whether several great learned persons in Philosophy have labored there in vain. I put in fact that, if one is really learned, one works in secret, and that it is only the ignorant who pride themselves on publishing their work, displaying large laboratories to lure and catch the strongest among the curious and, consequently, that one cannot easily know if several learned men have worked without succeeding. But suppose, indeed, that all the centuries have seen some who, with very great enlightenment, have found in this work a stumbling block rather than an Elixir of life, what can you draw from it except that all those who work will not succeed, and I willingly grant it. But if by that you think to make people believe that Art is not possible, you deserve to be laughed at. Anyone who would say: a thousand people and even the most expert in the art of navigation have undertaken the voyage of America without ever being able to arrive there, therefore this voyage is impossible, would we not send him back to the first rudiments of Logic?
The greatest minds are not infallible and all of our greatest lights are mixed with darkness and darkness. The work of the Philosophers is a simple work of Nature, and most of the great minds of the world happen to stray from simplicity and, being too subtle in thought and action, vanish in their conceptions and stray from the straight path of Nature. Moreover, the minds of men are limited. They are enlightened in some things and blind in others, even the highest are fools in the least matters. They will reason marvelously, they will be admired in their speeches in general subjects and, if it is even a little necessary to descend into the particular, they lose the tramontane and find all their finest reasoning defective. For example, if one makes a speech on some primary quality, a good mind will speak wonders. He will say that the quality of the dry is opposed to that of the wet, that the more a thing is dry, the less it is easy to solve. Speaking thus in general, he will persuade everything he says and strive to persuade others. But if he comes to apply this theory, no doubt he will become blind. He will see that the stone is dry by nature and that indeed for this reason, being put in water, it does not resolve. But he will also see that the stone being calcined is drier than it was before, since the fire carried off the little moisture it had, and yet it is more easily calcined; and yet it is drier calcined than not, and here are these beautiful speculations reversed: to tell you that the greatest minds, or who pass for such because of their subtleties and fine speeches, are stopped at the first step when they have to apply their principles. Thus all those who are esteemed for great personages or are not, in fact, or their too great subtlety leads them astray from the path of truth where they find bounds and limits in their undertakings. So it would be no great wonder if many of these so-called great men had undertaken this Elixir of Life and had not succeeded well, but that also would not be a reasonable basis for reversing its possibility. are stopped at the first step when they have to apply their principles. Thus all those who are esteemed for great personages or are not, in fact, or their too great subtlety leads them astray from the path of truth where they find bounds and limits in their undertakings. So it would be no great wonder if many of these so-called great men had undertaken this Elixir of Life and had not succeeded well, but that also would not be a reasonable basis for reversing its possibility. are stopped at the first step when they have to apply their principles. Thus all those who are esteemed for great personages or are not, in fact, or their too great subtlety leads them astray from the path of truth where they find bounds and limits in their undertakings. So it would be no great wonder if many of these so-called great men had undertaken this Elixir of Life and had not succeeded well, but that also would not be a reasonable basis for reversing its possibility.


Fourth Objection

How does it come about that this occupation is blamed by everyone and even by the wisest? How does it come about that being mad or deceitful and looking for the Philosopher's Stone is the same thing in public opinion?
When you tell me that the Sages blame those who occupy themselves with the research and practice of this Work, it is as if you were telling me that the most virtuous blame the most heroic action of virtue, the most just, the noblest effect of justice, since this work is one of the principal effects of Wisdom and that is why it is called the secret of the Sages, the work of the Learned, the Great Work of the Art and Nature and the Stone of the Philosophers. If you said that those who pass for Wise and who are not do not approve of this occupation, I would still agree with you, but that would be a weak reason to condemn it.
I likewise admit that most of the world condemns it, but far from it that it is necessary to draw from this that it is blameworthy. Rather, I draw from it a reason for its justification since, as Scripture says, the world is full of fools, and fools cannot approve of what proceeds from Wisdom.
It is for this reason that beautiful things are always crossed, that the best designs find no support and that the highest truths are despised and are not known. Do we not know that the very truth, having descended from heaven to earth to manifest itself and make itself known, met only persecutors when it spoke, to enlighten the minds of humans, of the highest and divine doctrines. We asked for signs, we saw murmurs and uprisings in the cities and we had to justify these words with a thousand deaths, a thousand martyrs and a thousand bloodsheds.
On the contrary, a false prophet has no sooner appeared to publish his reveries and his lies than in a short time he has infected and profaned an entire holy land. Man is now universally corrupt in all his powers, and as the disorder of his will causes him to incline to the side of good, or to prefer apparent goods to the true, so the disorder of his understanding leads him to embrace the rate rather than the true, to despise the truth and love the lie: whence it is that public approval is not always the voice of God, and that which is blamed by most men is often glorious and worthy of praise.
I am well aware that you will add that this universal blame is not without foundation and that the deceits and deceits of those who profess this Art, the great inconveniences which come from it every day and which have come from it at all times are voices which cry loudly against Art and against Artists. But I will also answer you that this foundation “is so weak that it falls by itself. I confess that great abuses have slipped into the practice of this Art and that many ignoramuses, presuming their strength and rising above their reach, have always wanted to mingle among the Sages, study in their schools, occupy themselves with reading their books and trying to practice their greatest secrets, but having no other guides than their feeble reasoning, they have taken the writings of the Philosophers literally,
But if it were necessary to condemn all the professions into which abuse slips, doubtless the most holy and legitimate would be subject to censorship. The magistrates should be banned since we notice in the most famous senates unbearable abuses in the administration of justice. It would be necessary to ruin the cloisters, overthrow the temples and abolish the holiest institutes since abuses take place there. It is an evil which appears to everyone that the greatest abuses usually follow and accompany the noblest professions. It does not, however, proceed from the nature of employments and professions, but from the malice and weakness of men, who are so easy to get into disorder that the slightest wind makes them fall into it. If therefore we notice abuses, and very great abuses in the Art of the Philosophers, it is rather a reason for approving it than for condemning it. And, moreover, all this says nothing against its truth and its possibility.


Fifth objection

It does not appear that all the compounds of the Universe, almost infinite in number, which are filled with a thousand impurities, subject to a thousand kinds of different diseases, stained with a thousand stains, can be healed, purified and cleansed by a single remedy. We clearly notice in each thing specific properties and that each simple animal and mineral has its own qualities for some particular evil, but Medicine has not yet discovered any which contains the properties of all together. She does say that rhubarb purges bile, agaric, pituite, that chicory is specific for liver diseases, minium solis for calculus, peony against epilepsy, sundew for the lungs and attributes particular qualities and virtues to all individuals.
In truth, this fifth objection being based on appearance, I am not surprised if it has nothing true except appearance. You say that there is no likelihood that a remedy can be universal and general. And tell me why you would rather admit a universal food which nourishes all the subjects of elementary Nature, which is all in all, all everywhere and all with all, which elevates the mineral, makes the plants grow and nourishes the animal? Do not all sublunary things live and are preserved by a single balm of Nature which the vulgar call Salt? If everyone obviously sees and knows this universal food, why can't we say that there can be a universal remedy in the same way since there is nothing to do but exalt this food and elevate it so much by the operations of Art, imitating Nature, that from food it becomes medicine, as we exalt wine and its spirit so that it is no longer an ordinary drink, but a sovereign heart? Thus being, before its exaltation, a universal food, it will be after its elevation a universal remedy, for as it acts only in two ways, first supporting Nature, secondly introducing a perfect temperament into everything by its perfect mixture of elements, its action and its virtue must be universal, so much so that by acting in the first way, I mean by supporting Nature, it makes her vigorous and strong enough to reject what is contrary to her in any way whatsoever. Nature being fortified, she universally combats all evils that attack her, and when she is strong enough, she is always victorious.
Secondly, by acting by the introduction of a perfect temperament into the mixture, it drives out indifferently all the diseases which corrupt the subject where it is applied because the diseases consist only in bad weather and, from these two ways of acting, we very clearly collect a universal virtue in this remedy. He is the son of the Sun and the Moon, says the great Hermes, he retains Nature from his father and his mother, and as the power of these two principal causes is universal, his virtue is likewise general.
Say no more then that there is no appearance that a single remedy can have a universal power over all the diseases of the compounds of Nature, lest it be said that there is no appearance that you have common sense and, if you have no other reasons, surrender to the force of our reasonings.


Sixth Objection

No, ignorance is not yet sufficiently humbled, it is conquered, but it is not convinced. She still has one trait left that she saved for the last as her Achilles. Since it's his last breath, let's give him the opportunity to see it expire.
She finally said, after having struggled in vain, that if there were a universal Medicine, therefore incorruptible, man could make himself immortal. Making himself immortal, he would give the lie to Scripture, he would contradict Saint Paul, he would call for the death sentence pronounced against all men, which cannot fall into the mind of a wise man and a Christian. He would make himself immortal because, as long as the mixture of his three principles, of his Sulphur, of his Salt and of his Mercury, is perfect, he will never be sick, at least ab intrinsico. Not being ill, he will never die. Now is it that the Medicine we suppose puts and preserves the humors and the four elementary qualities in perfect accord? It maintains the perfect mixture, as we have said, of its three Principles: Sulphur, Salt and Mercury.
This is no doubt the last effort of ignorance and lies against the truth, but I assure myself that it will die here like the candle, giving off some special sparkle. I persuade myself that it is on this dungeon that our greatest enemies stand strong and think of gaining victory; but they must be disillusioned.
First, what harm in believing that a man could be immortal by the use of some remedy, if the Tree of Life in the earthly Paradise had produced this effect? There is no repugnance that a thing cannot make a man immortal, this immortality being only ab extrinseco, as the School speaks, and not being properly speaking an immortality, so that, even if a man should never die by the use of our Medicine, he would still be mortal ab intrinseco, having in himself the Elements which have in them the principle and the root of mortality. When a man would never laugh, he would not stop being laughable for that, having in himself the principle of laughability. Likewise, when a man never died, he would still be mortal, having the form and principle of mortality. Immortality ab extrinseco is not repugnant to the creature; otherwise, no external power, not even that of God, could preserve it in Eternity, and it is not equally repugnant that a creature by its virtue should communicate and produce this immortality; otherwise, the story of the Tree of Life would not be true, which we cannot allege without crime. And no doubt, if this Tree of Life was not the same thing as the Elixir of the Philosophers, it was at least something similar. It was a fruit which must necessarily have the Elements perfectly mixed since it had to preserve a perfect temperament for man. And nothing can naturally preserve a temperament of this kind except by means of the perfect mixture of Elements.
And from this we can derive in passing a moral reason: why this great secret is communicated to so few people and that of a hundred thousand who seek it, not one finds it, of a thousand who acquire knowledge of it, barely two or three succeed in practice. It is that being like a Tree of Life in the ground and, consequently, one of the advantages, of the innocence of the first man, sin deprives us of it as well as of the other happinesses that God had attached to this state of glory and beauty. There are only souls chosen and looked upon by God with a more loving eye who receive this grace, who penetrate into this secret and who complete it happily. Others whose souls are not entirely purified nor marked by virtue, who have ambition in their hearts, vanity in their minds, who consider this treasure only as a means of maintaining their luxury and their debauchery, of taking their wanton pleasures, of satisfying their passions and do not know that it is necessary to bring back and render to God what comes from him, are prevented and diverted by something similar to the Seraphim who, with a sword of fire, is interposed to guard the entrance to the earthly Paradise. Indeed, I am fully persuaded that God will never allow a wicked, ill-intentioned man to possess this secret; even when he possesses it, having learned it either from a friend or from obstinate readings of the Philosophers, I firmly believe that he will never put it into execution or, if God blesses his work, he will never use it. Let us hold as a certain maxim that God only reveals it to a good man or so that he may become a good man, for I put in fact that the knowledge and possession of this Great Work is not one of the least means of grace to straighten a man, especially since, first, having the knowledge of this Work, he knows all Nature which is, as the Apostle says, a step to ascend more easily to the knowledge of God; secondly, possessing this secret, both in effect and in theory, he has nothing more to possess in the earth. It is a treasure that contains all the others since it gives health and wealth, sources of all the other goods that men adore. That if he has nothing more to desire and to possess on earth, as the spirit of man is not yet filled, nothing being able to fill it but God — and a million worlds not being enough to fill the natural capacity of our soul, even as much as it knows and possesses creatures, the less it is filled and the more these worlds it knows are beautiful and admirable, so much the less it is satisfied, especially since the knowledge of effects and of the most beautiful effects excites our desires to know the cause of so many beautiful effects; and thus the possession of all creatures, instead of filling and satisfying it, only increases its thirst, increases its desires and redoubles its movements. She wants to go to the source and no longer stop at small streams; it wants to reach this first motor; she despises her finest effects and the Philosopher's Stone no longer seems like anything to her; she wants to join her first principle. In a word, she seeks God alone, God alone being able to fill and content her, having in this secret all that she can hope for and desire on earth. And, knowing that she is less filled than ever by the reason we have just said, she casts her eyes on the side of Heaven, so that the possession of this secret is a great means to a spirit even slightly enlightened to be holy and to become a good man. But imperceptibly this moral digression would lead me out of the subject if I were not careful. Let us therefore return to our subject and say that the Elixir of the Philosophers, being a very perfect substance which has in itself a very perfect mixture of Elements and, therefore, being a second Tree of Life not produced by Nature like the first, but by Nature aided by Art, it can prevent man from dying, it could give him immortality ab intrinseco, and that in this there is neither absurdity nor inconvenience and, therefore, it is not too strong an objection against the possibility of Art , when it is said that man would make himself immortal since there would be no inconvenience in granting this consequence. Nevertheless, I do not grant it. Rather it must be said that although our Elixir has the power to impart that immortality of which we have spoken, being applied sufficiently and wisely, however, he has not done so since the death sentence pronounced against all mankind and signified to our first Father. God has limited not her power, but the use and exercise of her power, by not allowing the Artist to push her to the highest degree of her perfection, to which degree alone she is capable of this effect, for there is a latitude in the perfection of the temperament; or else by not permitting its use to subjects who are quite disposed to this exaltation, as would be, for example, a young man at the age of twenty, in whom the three Principles are mixed by Nature, as it should, to make a good temperament and are not yet debilitated, and one is neither stronger nor weaker than necessary. In this one, our Elixir would do wonders because, finding a subject composed perfectly in its Principles, that is to say which has all the Sulfur it needs, all the Mercury and all the Salt it needs, the Elixir, exalting and perfecting these three Principles in accordance with the temperament and the subject, no doubt he would immortalize such a subject; but not being administered by God's permission so expediently, neither in a subject, nor in an age, nor in such a suitable time, it does not immortalize, but only preserves health long and prolongs life. For example, a man, whether young or old, will be constituted by Nature in a certain temperament that the dry will greatly dominate, or the hot, or the cold, or the humid; or there will be either little or too much Sulphur, of Salt or Mercury and so will not be of a good temperament which demands a certain equality in the weight of Nature; as our Elixir acts in accordance with the subject and the Nature of things, exalts and perfects them, it will exalt the dry, the hot, the cold and the humid of this man, his Sulphur, his Salt and his Mercury, but always in accordance with his temperament and his natural constitution. It will purify these three Principles, but it will not change their disposition; otherwise, in its application, it could change the species, because, as the various mixture of these three Principles makes the diversity, if the Elixir changed the mixture which makes such a compound, it would make another one. its Sulphur, its Salt and its Mercury, but always in accordance with its temperament and its natural constitution. It will purify these three Principles, but it will not change their disposition; otherwise, in its application, it could change the species, because, as the various mixture of these three Principles makes the diversity, if the Elixir changed the mixture which makes such a compound, it would make another one. its Sulphur, its Salt and its Mercury, but always in accordance with its temperament and its natural constitution. It will purify these three Principles, but it will not change their disposition; otherwise, in its application, it could change the species, because, as the various mixture of these three Principles makes the diversity, if the Elixir changed the mixture which makes such a compound, it would make another one.
Whence it comes that having all received from Nature a certain temperament and a singular mixture of our Elements, the Elixir only purifies, exalts and perfects them, but does not change them. Thus it will prolong life, but will not make immortal, especially since, as long as this mixture remains, the source of immortality is not dried up. What deceives our enemies on this point is that they imagine that the Elixir gives an absolutely perfect temperament, without having regard to the first temperament of our births, and that is not true: otherwise, being applied to the seed of a flower, a tulip or a rose, it would make something which would be neither tulip nor rose. It only perfects the Principles of the tulip or the rose and gives to this rose all the best temperament that it can have according to its natural constitution. The same must be said with regard to men and the other compounds of the sublunary nature. You see then how this objection which seemed so strong in its beginning was founded only on the ignorance and the lack of light of the enemies of the truth.
Let us therefore conclude in favor of Philosophy and to the confusion of all those owls who cannot bear the clarity of the most beautiful days, and let us say that reason publishes and establishes the possibility of the Philosopher's Elixir, that falsehood labors in vain to destroy it.
If it is possible by Nature aided by Art, that we no longer blame those fine minds raised above the common and who have shaken off all the dust of the School, when we know that they curiously seek the knowledge of this divine Science.
Let there be no more effort to decry those who, already illuminated by the rays of Wisdom, put their hand to the Work and take an innocent pleasure in seeing Nature at work.
Let us rather give them eulogies and prepare wreaths for them, since they use their time to leave to the public what Art and Nature have most precious.
Let us make a wise discernment of false and true Philosophers, to eradicate some and honor others; that we detest the abuses brought into chemistry by all these unfortunate prompters, circulators and imposters, but that we do not fail to love and approve of this wholly divine Art.
It would be desirable for the good of our neighbour, that these pests be banished from the public, that those who give them asylums be punished with exemplary practice, that the homes of a thousand foolishly curious people be visited often, who, under the pretext of professing Medicine which they have never learned and other professions which require keeping furnaces, vessels and other instruments which can decide on both sides, escape in pernicious trades to all the world. world and, by their criminal conduct, procure for the Sages, who occupy themselves innocently, crosses and persecutions.
The work of the Sages does not require such large laboratories, so many kinds of instruments and furnaces; it is a simple work of Nature, hostile to so many inventions, so many artifices and subtleties. Our ancient Philosophers who were lucky enough to get through it didn't make so many faces and didn't bring so much ceremony. As they were wise, they were also lovers of simplicity and enemies of too subtle artifices. If it were my intention here to speak of the practice of this Work, I would let everyone know that it is very simple and natural and that one does not need to be very chemical in the way one is at present to begin it, continue it and finish it happily. But having undertaken only to defend him against his slanderers, I will reserve this design for another meeting. Don't think, however, that I want to boast of having the practice as much as the theory. No, I do not promise to declare it to you with all the particular operations which suppose an experience, but to tell you them in general and to make you see sufficiently by it how this Work is simple, natural and far from all the ambiguities which meet in the houses of our Public prompters and deceivers.
It is true that one must be entirely one's own and that this divine employment requires a whole man and possesses him entirely. It is a hermit's work, it is the occupation of a solitary, it is the exercise of a man who knows the world and has said a last farewell to it. Another who will be engaged in the world, embarrassed in business, engaged in trade, employed in commerce, occupied in offices and in dignities, must not undertake it and, if he undertakes it, his labors will be useless and his hopes vain. The surest thing is to expect from Heaven the means, the opportunities and even the thoughts or inspirations to go about it, because, since it is a gift from God that he gives to whoever he wants, we must hope everything from his goodness, expect everything from his grace and relate everything to his conduct.