COMMENTARY BY HENRI DE LINTHAUT

ON THE "TREASURE OF TREASURES"

BY CHRISTOFLE DE GAMON


1610

(Part 2)

Above all, you must know if you want to be a perfect operator, in which operations you must imitate Nature, and in which not. Otherwise I do not advise you to
begins with us. Because those who ignore it, come to this table as
donkey at supper, are banished from the Consistory of the Philosophers, and do not collect
no fruit of their culture, having the root or their contemplation grafted can
bear fruit. Besides, be diligent before wanting to learn how to medicate diseased & imperfect metals, to regenerate yourselves, & to draw this science from the source of all wisdom, which alone makes it flow to whomever it sees fit. Seek it to bathe in admiration of the marvels of God, and of the operations of Nature, which is his image.

As Hermès says three times great in his canticle. You will procure his glory
& not yours, which is zero. Thus you will begin this journey in order to
bring back assistance to the needy, & relief to the sick.
For where the operation, as Libavius ​​says, is without labor, & the intention bad,
that no one hopes for even the slightest happy success. It is also necessary that
the Argonaut be free from temerity & stupidity, let him know his Pole well & the signs of things, so that if he strays, however slightly from the true road, he can
easily straighten up. He must also be patient, because as the Sage says:

any haste is of the Devil, & many have perished for love
of their impatience in the middle of their race . Avoid all observations of the Stars, except the Bear, assuring yourself that your navigation will be well started if your boat becomes unmoored under pious wishes & prayers, without exceeding the power of Nature, & the ordinary & legitimate sciences, as being also the sole claim of our Poet, who sees himself getting ready; put on the high seas, I will impose silence here.




(a) But I go much further: the (b) Admirable Nature In six
or seven hundred years makes Gold so desirable:
And (c) my bold design wants to show you again
That (d) rather, & better than it, one can make Gold.
You will therefore go (e) guided by gain & lanterns,
Seek for Gold Death in dark caverns:
Caves that first, formerly (f) Fauna went to see,
Unaware of what I want to convey here.
Because what a curious in perils rushes,
When he proceeds badly, proceeds from ignorance.
What a pleasure, wearing, true underground Demon,
The hammer in the brain, the hammer in the hand,
To go searching, searching, through infertile pains,
The deep intestines of high mountains?
What a pleasure to enter, fleeing the bright stars,
Scared to death on Earth, & alive in Hell?
To make a sad face by not finding the mine,
And like the Giants, authors of their ruin,
Overthrow the high mountains, then finally endure?
Overwhelmed under the load, the ire of Jupiter?

a) Certainly our Poet undertakes a bold, long & not without danger journey of
meet several pitfalls threatening shipwreck. In fact his business your is
in no way inferior to that of the Magnanimous Jason & his companion Hercules,
embarked to sail to Colchos, not to remove the Golden Fleece, but
learn this divine art of Medea, as Suidas recites, an art so sublime &
magnificent, which one sees there as in a clear mirror, not only
the university of all Creatures, but the interior of Nature, its power, the
effects, its being. For in the subject of this science is heaped up, as in one
center, all that we see enclosed & scattered around the circumference of this great
World. Of which not being this subject of the nature of Heaven nor of the Elements, the
Philosophers have named it by a particular name, the Soul, middle Nature. And all
just as God, the only Archetype of this World, is present everywhere: this
middle Nature is everywhere the little World of the Philosopher, namely everywhere his
spherical vessel. And as God is great, incomprehensible, & infinite, so
this thing seems almost innumerable in the procreation of its like, &
fear extending the duration with that of the great World. For then the generative virtuality
will be wrested from the hands of Nature by the execution of the irrevocable edict
of the Eternal, sole author of this admirable science, of which some have attributed
invention at Aros, & Mary Prophetess, however with more appearance, at
Hermes Trismegistus. Certainly we must climb higher, to seek the
first source of this river spreading its veins through all the bodies of the
Creatures, which outnumbering millions upon millions, cannot have
been anatomized in centuries, but by those who have confirmed many,
like Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, & many of their descendants. It is this
Adam created by the goodness of him whose power accomplishes the will, &
therefore greatness and truth shine with eternal glory. It is he who
this immortal Wisdom received the knowledge of all things, which more
they approached the origin of the interior of the possessor, the more they were
familiar & domestic. The spirit therefore of him who slumbers, who believes that
one who was not ignorant of Nature, its procedures, and the character it imprints
like a seal of things produced, ignoring the thing itself. We read the
contrary, because the Creator having put before this first King of the World, all
animals subject to him, Adam pronounced as unique Physiognomist, the
courage & magnanimity of the Lion, the cruelty of the Tiger, the voracity of the Wolf, the
the speed of the stag, the cunning of the fox, imposing on them all their own name.
How then would he not have known then the naturalness of metals and the power to which
Nature intended them, to prevent the miseries with which the Creatures threatened him.
already with all his posterity? He, who at all times, notwithstanding the fall of this
wretch, told the hair of our heads, & took care of the useless sparrows,
as revealed to us by the Oracle of the true Apollo, would he have taken away from him the care and the
means serving its necessity? Certainly not. For as soon as he was banished from the happy
stay in the earthly Paradise, he foresaw & warned early, the inconvenience of
hunger & cold, witness the states he taught Cain & Abel. the one who knew
so naturally to choose & discern one's half, from the other animals, for the
propagation of his species, had he failed in the election of things medicinal &
antidote? & slept choosing between minerals, plants, &
animals, letting themselves be overcome in this by several beasts who know their
own medicine?. Would he, without being jealous of his progeny, have wanted
cede, like Esau to Jacob, all the rights of her to his race, and thus relegate
this divine knowledge at the time of Hermes Trismegistus, or of Job? Some
appearance might lead us to believe: hearing Job speak so before of metals, &
Hermes to lay such a solid foundation for this divine science, without any of
their predecessors practiced it. But don't believe that leaving this Royal
exercise, he would rather have fun with Juba teaching how to sing, & making
fifes & violins, or with Tubalcain indulge in copper & iron forging.

But what? It would be too much to attribute everything to this first man & his most
close descendants, this honor must be preferred to a hundred who lived on the
variation of the perfection of previous centuries. Let reason judge if there are
appearance. As for me, leaving my part of this dispute, I stop on this
only from the knowledge of the inner man of Adam, being only after his fall from
all extinguished, but only troubled in power (damage that the continual
transgression to done since come out indeed) proceeds the theory & practice of
our philosophy. So that the Eternal creating the mineral seeds,
vegetal & animal with their infinitely productive virtue, infused in Adam the
very general seed of all sciences serving for use this triple Embryo,
knowledge of which embalms & waters us with a Nectar & an Ambrosia, feeling the greatness & marvels of God & Nature. Great is therefore, and full of majesty the subject why our Poet is going to take us so far. For if it is thus that science is all the most admirable and commendable in proportion as the subject is not sublime: this object must by right hold the first place after true and holy Theology. Because it is not acquired without labor & danger, yet is it necessary that whoever sets out to conquer this rich Fleece, leads with him a Hercules
indomitable: for he will find someone to talk to when he gets off his boat. First
place will oppose him a Geryon with three heads, which tamed, it will have to pass
on the belly to the hydra, which reborn will always resist. After will appear
the cruel Diomedes, riding on four horses, which dispatched, the conqueror will be
very happy, if he can overcome the scratching of the Stymphalid birds, &
defeat the Blackening Boar, subdue the Roaring Lyon, defeat the Bull
bellowing, & finally while hunting, to reach the Stag with brazen feet, & with golden horns, & to lure, by cautelle, the triple doorman out of Hell, in order to freely
tear the desired subject out of its crystalline temple.

b) The Poet wanting to make the greatness of his enterprise better heard, brave here
Nature, reproaching her for the tardiness she uses in the production of the King of
metals, a work in which she most often employs six or seven hundred years. It's that
that also affirms this great Philosopher Isaac Hollandais, saying in his second
book of mineral works, Mercury from the mines is nothing else
only a raw sperm, not being cooked enough in Mine & perhaps should still be there
two or three hundred years before freezing. And when it was frozen at all,
it would remain there for several more years before matter was converted into
lay, & being there should only by a long decoction of natural heat,
it became red powder & was fixed, & this, he said shortly after, would be made Gold in a thousand years, according to God & Nature operating. Of which our Poet may well give
the long term he gives, since this author even gives more to the
Nature in this operation.

c) Your plan is really bold, my Poet, and at all Herculean. Because you
not only undertake to fight the aforesaid monsters, but dare to take
the weapons against the universal Gigantomachy of these false Alchemists, even
against this swarming cohort of four-horned philosophers. Aim
boldly turn the question to these monsters, and to these sworn enemies of Nature.
Show them how great their blindness is, and how they err
the truth of things, not with standing all their babble, & the authority of their masters.
Cross them with this thrust, vividly depicting their presumption of daring to prefer
the vanity of the Peripatetic School, to that of Nature, the image of God, &
equate their frivolous opinions with unreasons based on experience. Make fun of me
boldly of them, which lets captivate under an impious tyranny, their spirit, being
confined by the good pleasure of their tormentors, within bounds, omitted these
miserable to die, would not dare to cross!

d) Here is a testimony that the design of our Poet is bold as he says. Is it
possible to make Gold rather & better suc à Nature? Is it possible to
man to make an apple, a grass, a tree leaf, says the holy Oracle,
to add a cubit to his Stature: & yet made Gold, which is only in the
power of nature? Isn't he afraid we'll fire him now
knocked out by a million ergos? I advise him not to air jerk off however,
since truth, authority and experience are there to support him in this fight.
So here is the truth & the experience by the testimony of two serious
characters, the first of which is Francisques Pincus Mirandole, in his third
book chapter second, & the other Roberta Valens in her book of antiquity &
truth of the chemical art. For a few years , says the said Mirandole ,
deceased Nicolas Mirandole Priest, known to us, old man, of
the order of Friars Minor, man of good life. This one according to
testimony from several, Copper has made money & somewhat
Golden. And the one that's still full of life, which one saw making gold at the said
Brother in Jerusalem . Said Pincus says again: There was a Priest
Apollonian, a man of good reputation of the Order of Preachers, who did not
afraid to affirm that he knew twenty & four infallible means by
which he made Gold, & were written in a public Temple in Rome
these words , AURI EX PLUMBO COLLECTORI. Such has been seen lately
of time in Venice, which by a certain powder, not exceeding the
quantity of a grain of pepper, to transmute a large enough
quantity of quicksilver into Gold. And one of my subjects converted an ounce
of quicksilver to silver, by the quantity of a thing weighing only one
grain, & this in the presence of three witnesses: one of whom speaking to a
of them, I heard that he diligently took care of the projection
& conversion, & that the medicine was of the color of ashes. There is a personage still alive, and one of my friends, who in my presence has made Gold and Silver more than sixty times by metallic things, and has only achieved it by one means, but by several. I have seen a metallic water engendering Gold & Silver by itself, without adding Gold or Silver, Sulfur or Mercury. I have again seen Silver drawn from Copper by the force of a certain water. There is one who draws, when he pleases, pure Gold from his little furnaces, & sells it publicly for very good Gold: & this one is enough is good
cornered. There is also a certain living character, which I saw shooting
Gold, & Silver, Copper by the juice of a certain plant, and
has made himself so comfortable that he walks & maintains himself the equal of a
well-paid gentleman. Another transmuted the Quick Agent into Silver,
which also contained gold. I have seen Cinnabar sometimes taken from Gold,
sometimes Money, without however adding any of them: & have seen
Cinnabar oil by simple administration, occur Or &
Money, however in small quantities. I have also often seen transform
the Mercury of Lead & Copper into good Gold & Silver. I have handled with my hands & seen with my own eyes, the Gold, which in my presence
had been made the Money within about three hours, without changing
Silver into Water or Mercury . The one who will rave more from the experience
proved by these Authors, read their works, and he will find something to be content with.
Arnold de Villeneuve attests by his holy faith to have made, seen & felt the Stone. Of
even Thomas Aquinas, Count Bernard, Arnol, William the
speculator tests that he abandoned in Rome rods or ingots of Gold made
by him to any proof. In the same way wear & protest the disciples of Paracelsus of
their master. And Isaac Hollandais master of the said Paracelsus affirms to have made the
Stone by various works. Rhungius, illustrious Chemist, writes of having seen the silver
chemical: Batiste Porte, Jérôme Rubeus, Dornésius & George Ripley English
certify to have seen the silver made of the two Cinnabars. Likewise the Sieur du Chêne
learned Doctor, Jean des Vogelins, Penot, Henry Conrad, & countless others
all affirm with one voice, the truth of the art of making gold as our
Poet. Libavius ​​writes that he made the Azoth, & says that he did not go beyond, but I
leave the judgment to the children of science. For me, I still believe that he
did not go beyond that since then he has stopped on such a fine path, in
so that the Philosopher says, Who makes our Copper, knows everything well that he does not
know the rest . For he would not have known how to make Azoth without making the copper of
Philosophers. Cayer tells us in his story of peace, that there is today
a disciple of the German Paracelsus, who has reached the perfection of the work, &
is called Hulsterburen, which for having mismanaged his science and his freedom
fell under the power of the Emperor. I myself have seen, witness several
that I can name in this place, draw Gold & Silver from a certain
mineral water, without having added Gold or Silver: I have again seen
transmute the artificial Cinnabar into Silver: & change the iron into less copper
three hours. Which, given the entry I had into this science, by the
Theoretical, made me confess the art to be true, which I had thoughtlessly
blamed, like the others, in my introduction to Forensic Physics. let's come
now to the authority of which Agricola, although he is not fond of Alchemy,
is constrained to alleviate the illustrious authors of this Royal science, in the
presentation of metallic things. I wonder , he said, that there are all
time had so many Alchemists who composed the art of changing a metal
in the other. Herrmolaus Barbarus, adorned with every kind of doctrine, has
produced several by name. But I , he said, will name you some
several, & are Osthares; Hermes Trismegistus, Chanes, Rosin,
Alexandrinus, Democritus, Orus, Chriserichius, Lebichius, Comerius,
Ioannes, Apuleius, Petasius, Pelagius, Africaus, Theophilus, Synesius,
Etienne wrote to the Emperor Héracle, & Heliodore to Theodosius,
Geber, Callides, Rhacaidibus, Veradian, Rhodian, Canides, Merlin,
Raymonf Lukke, Arnauld de Villeneuve, Augustin, Panthee Vénitien,.
Three illustrious women have also dealt with it, & are Cleopatra, the virgin
Taphuntia, & Mary Prophetess. All these Alchemists have usurped a
absolute prayer, except Ioh & Aurele Augurele Ariminense, who have
understood their words under verses .

These are the words of Agrigola, who notwithstanding so many authorities for himself
alleged, does not stop opugnant the truth & the experience, with the barking
troop of zoiles & horned Satyrs'. But is there anything more foolish and iniquitous than to hate what one does not know? Take the thing to be hated, is there however nothing
more abject and ugly than condemning a science in which one has only
heard the least maxim, nor known Nature and its power, minus the
occult properties of metals. But how would they understand what is
beside themselves, who neither feel nor know what in less than twenty-four hours the
Nature operates within themselves, transmuting herbs, plants & all fruits &
edible animals in their blood, & total substance? Moreover, that those who
deny Alchemy to be a true science, read Alchemy's defense of
Libavius, to whom I recommend them. And to conclude this part, let's see
how art can make gold. You must know first of all that there are three
effector causes, which are the beginning, the middle and the end of all
things, which they all hold within themselves, and are God, Nature
& art. Divine triangle, of which God says Nature makes & Art imitates. Thus Nature
commanded by the first cause, produces new things every day,
whose art impressing in itself by design the similarity of things produces
in an admirable way the trace & lineaments of Nature: so that if
the understanding of man was sometimes opilated, you would say that Nature
is failing in its operations. For art, aided by Nature, correct it,
surmounts, & compensates for the lack of it, mainly in this sacred
natural & operative philosophy, combining it in this with medicine, which does not
we can show the truth of what she teaches only through experience. Because by
example said Medicine certifies that Rhubarb purges anger, one cannot
believe nothing, except that having yawned it to a sick person, health ensues, by the
mood distraction. Thus we shall say, that if experience shows that by the
smoke from lead or sulfur from salts Mercury hardens & freezes, & iron is changed into Copper by vitriol, cinnabar converted into an agent by the smoke of
silver, one can prepare a very perfect and homogeneous medicine with metals,
by which we can perfectly stop the Quicksilver, & perfect the
imperfect metals, since mineral compounds freeze Quicksilver, &
reduce to their natural. If corporeal silver, still imperfect, perfects a
imperfect & illegitimate mixture, why, made perfect, & reduced to Elixir, do not
will it be able to cure the other imperfect metals? Likewise Venerian Vitriol,
transforming, or better said, drawing from the occult of Mars this affinity that it
has with copper, Gold, a perfect moral & reduced in medicine, by an exuberant
decoction, by means of the administration of the art, will he not be able to indeed draw the Gold
that the imperfect metals hold in power? It therefore appears for these reasons
that one can as well, even better than Nature, make Gold. Because it is certain,
witness even Aristotle in the fourth of Meteora, that everything that acts as a
eye, is eye. Our Gold which we make by our divine work is like the
mineral, & more perfect, because the art, by still purging the mineral Gold, has by
a double decoction, made up for the defect of Nature, which he also does better
that gold mineralizes the operation of gold. Also the preparation that art adds to that
of Nature is cause that we shorten the time in the production of Gold,
as we will explain more fully below. Anyone who wants to know more
reasons on this subject read Roger Bacon's treatise, De l'admirable
power of art & Nature.

e) The greed for gain is very miserable, when instead of finding something
to provide for the necessity of this life, we throw ourselves without thinking about it into the arms of
Hasty death, or what is worse, in an evil which gradually consumes like
a candle kills without dying. That is why usually these ants
of metallists are subject to shortness of breath, & perish most of them undermined by
consumption, as Agricola says in his Berman, adding that we find in
mines of the Carpathians such a woman who sent seven husbands in repeated nuptials,
which hasty death snatched from him one after another. These in place of gain
really seek death, of which our Poet speaks.

f) Agricola says in his Berman that Faune was son of Pincus & nephew of Jupiter,
& that it was otherwise called Mercury by the Greeks. This would have been the
first to find gold in Crete. For the rest our Poet laughs here pleasantly
ways of those wretched metallists, offering them the true means by which
without danger, & without difficulty, they will be able to find more certain mines &
fruitful than those they seek, most guided by a compass
fallacious.

Now (a) the Wise imitating the most wise Nature,
Take from what has already been cooked by his work,
And with a (b) uncommon fire knows how to shorten time,
And put in days its months, in weeks its years.

a) Count Trevisan says in his responsive epistle on the transmutation of
metals, that there are vegetable things, but mainly sensitive,
most of which generate their like by the competition of the two
seeds mixed in the coction of male & female Natural work,
which the Philosopher, he says, imitates in the generation of Gold. Because man cannot
complete human sperms, but can dispose man to generation
productive. Likewise is that in Gold, and in the generation of the common Mercury,
of which for the inexpressible proportion of its viscous humidity with its earth
unctuous, art cannot imitate Nature in this place, nor contribute to it
productive power. This is why the learned Libavius ​​says in his treatise on the stone
philosophical, that art cannot give an essential power, but is constrained to
to take it from Nature, not as she holds it imperfect in the womb of
Earth, but as it hangs ripe & cooked in the tree: & in this the Sage imitates the very wise Nature, as our Poet says, which takes to make Gold, the
Mercury cooked & digested, & the Sulfur fixed by it.

b) The secret fire of the Philosophers is by them called the Vulcan, by a
comparison of this Vulcan, which according to Diodorus Siculian is the first
inventor of putting Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, & everything that can be forged
of them, in use by the fire: of which happened that these men of fire
dedicated their vows & sacrifices, & for his utility, named him Vulcan, neither more nor less than that idolatrous & Pagan race called war Mars, because he
was the farmer who invented offensive weapons. Now there are several Vulcans or
fires, such as fire against Nature, natural fire, unnatural fire, & the
common.

The fire against Nature is the fire of coal, which violently attempts to fix
of the work, natural fire is the internal and innate fire of things, the unnatural fire
is called servant & external minister, which according to the occasions is done in
several ways, as for the first preparation of the work, by the bath
lamp, or fient, & in the second with ashes. The common fire is the fire of
flame or wood. You must again hear the said fires mystically,
as the natural fire is the Sulfur of the Sun and the Moon. Fire against Nature,
is that against the nature of Mercury, & is strong water, otherwise called Dragon
violent, a very strong fire, which burns like that of Hell, & is the Mercury of the
philosophers which they also call Gehenna fire, by putrefaction
which are tightened the enclosures that worldly fire could not open.
Thus Mercury is bath, lamp, fient, & ashes: but all these fires are
inside the Philosopher's glass. There are still other names for the lights
Chemicals, which according to the various operations have acquired various names,
which I will name here according to the table of fires of the Philosophers, represented by
Libavius ​​in his Pyrotechnics.

There is therefore the so-called fire of principles, which is of two kinds, manifest and occult:
each of which is divided into two parts: namely the manifesto, in celestial &
elementary: the occult which is hidden in natural things, in instrumental
& main, the instrumental is like Gehenna fire, otherwise named
potential caustic, the matter of which being more elaborate, passes into the key of
art, & in celestial menstruation, accommodated for resolution & exaltation: the
main is because of medicine, so that it is analogous to the element of
Stars, & to the natural heat, as of those who are instructed for the
medicinal power, which make quintessences, igneous & celestial oils, & of those who fabricate the Stone, in which is the fire of Mercury, of the Moon & of the
Sun, & so-called font, fire of the Philosophers, according to varying degrees, quicklime,
rubre, tincture, & red elixir, compared to the fire of the Sun, of which Sulfur is called
lively.

Thus, the Philosopher can by the Chemical fire, shorten the time of Nature, by
two ways, namely by the reduction of metals into their first matter, and by
the middle to Heaven or Tartar of the Philosophers (which are two instrumental fires)
& thus remade the said metals again, congealing their Mercury by fire
appropriate, & introducing a new form, by means of natural Sulphur,
red, or white, which can be done in a very short time, and the other still
rather, as by the projection of our divine medicine. In this way we will reduce
not only Nature's years into months, months into weeks, weeks
in days, but years in hours, hours in minutes, and that mainly
by the aforesaid appropriate fire, and which is not common to all Philosophers, as
the others we said. In fact, none of the Philosophers has put this divine agent,
which we must not marvel, if our predecessors have failed, those of today
fail, and those who come will fail. As for me, if I had not felt this fire, and seen its effects, I would not have reached what I know. It's a strange thing that
none or very few Philosophers have spoken of it, since this fire by itself, true subject
of all wonders, & salt without which the spirits cannot penetrate nor
join radically with the bodies. Without this fire a body cannot enter
another, nor any true dye be given, as Isaac the
Dutch by this comparison taken from the second book of his mineral works,
where he places the white cloth & to be dyed instead of the body, the rubre instead of the soul, &
alum instead of spirit, or middle substance as mediator between soul &
the body, without which nothing is done. For if the alum does not enter into the work, the rubre does not
can enter the sheet, but remains fixed apart, and is imperceptibly lost,
whose fabric remains pale. For the color of the rubre is the soul, & the alum
participle of both, which makes (by means of the water represents which our proper fire)
that one enters the other. When the dyer boils the cloth, the alum, and the
rubbed in the water, & when he sees his dye entering the sheet, he suspends it,
so that it dries, then the water goes away & the color remains fixed inside the sheet.
The same procedure must be observed in our works. Because unless our bodies,
minds, & metallic souls be well prepared, they will not enter the root one
on the other, nor will they ever dwell together without the medium of this fire
suitable, armoniacal salt or dry water. What are we poor people thinking of doing?
Evangelizing Alchemists, with so many furnaces & fires fantastically
graduates, otherwise hatch their eggs in the wind, & spend an infinity of splurges
? To make good use of their artificial fire, they would need an egg informed by the
sperm of the Rooster, & this secret fire, & not common, as our Poet says. As well as we have called it water, yet it is not common water, viz.


Ordinary mercury, but as Geber & Aristotle say, dry water, which
as Hermes says, draws itself out of an ugly & stinking menstrual matter, &
find, says Danthyn, in old stables, cesspools & wardrobes. Morien in
says , Our water grows in the mountains and valleys . Of which these mad Alchemists
believe it to be Mercury, but they are mistaken. 'Cause it's dry water
giving input, amassing all the mineral spirits, & when she has done something
conjunction, either vivifying a body by the Physical way, or assembling in it
projection the frozen Mercury, with the tincture, she leaves, leaving them fixed
together. This fire, or dry water is found in everything composed of the Elements
: & if it were not, our science would not be, because we have to do with this fire so much
vegetable works, & animals, than minerals. Therefore, if you want
surely do a great work, a conjunction, fixation or multiplication, it
you need this fire, or dry water. Of which the aforesaid Isaac says, All the works that
I have written are good & commendable, but there are two things I have not
not named, namely the spirit, & the dry water, yet I adjure all
those into whose hands this treaty may fall, and may
hear, to hide this secret: for without the knowledge of it all
worldly art is deceptive & useless: & this secret revealed, you will be able to do perfectly such work as you please, & with little time & work . We will therefore keep this secret secretly locked up in the cabinet of Bias, so as not to disturb the rest of the sacred bones of this great Philosopher.
Dutch, & not incur the wrath of God & the Angels, & the crushing excommunication from their peat of the Philosophers. It is enough to have dealt with this uncommon fire, which our Poet hears, towards which I resume my
path.

For matter it therefore takes Sulfur & Mercury,
Of different sexes, and alike in nature:
Because a gender alone, of itself does not generate anything,
And when God made the Earth King King,
Of the same Nature he formed his female,
So that he would spawn joining her.

It is necessary here to distinguish the remote matter and the average from the true, as
we have done above in the generation of Mercury and of the metals. Certainly this
word matter is so frequent in the mouths of our Alchemists, that I am surprised
than it is already changed in form. Everyone asks for matter, the
lawyer, the doctor, the apothecary, the tailor, the architect, even to the dirty
herdsman. But all these have certain & limited matter, except the folly
Alchemist who never has enough material for the fomenting of a million
whimsical moods, & believe that never the laughing Abderite had so many atoms
in the head, that this matter is multiplied in the brain of the Alchemists.
Today they have chosen a subject for subject, tomorrow they will take one
other, & thus always seeking never find anything. On the contrary the Sage,
firm in its enterprise, and leaning on Nature, neither can nor wants other than
the unique subject engendering his fellow man, who responds to what he is looking for, and is
a thing baked in the belly of the Earth by sulphurous heat. Because the
matter of all things is one, which operates various things
naturally, by major or minor action, by burning or not burning,
& in this all Philosophers agree. Penot names this single material
The spirit of the World, made corporeal, in the belly of the Earth, which receives in itself
all the faculties, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. Because like wax
takes the impression of any form, this matter alone suffers the induction of
property of all natural things. Finally all things came from one, &
return to one. What Hermes Trismegistus affirms when he says, Everything like this
that all things were of one, by the meditation of one, so all
things are created by adaptation of that one thing . This unit therefore
shining not only in this science, but also mystically in the
creation, redemption, & sanctification of man, will serve us as a compass & North Star, to reach the haven of salvation, & a complete bliss.

The first part in this science, is that which approaches more the natural
metallic. Matter therefore resolves into Mercury is nearest & first
matter in this art, since all metals resolve into Mercury. Aim
let us see if this material alone will suffice to generate our work. Mercury
alone could not produce anything, since it awaits to be completed, and to become
metal, and although the Philosophers call it the only matter, it is nevertheless
that the earth where we sow our seed, so that it grows, blossoms & bears
fruit, like the gain of wheat, of which it is necessary to know that

It is a great secret to be able to understand that Mercury is the
menses, & Sulfur the seed of our works .

Thus the principles of Nature are also the principles of art. Because like
you have heard above, Nature takes for the generation of Mercury humidity
viscous & sulphurous earthiness, which make matter remote, & for the most
near, said Mercury now made, to which she adds her Sulfur, or true
agent: yet the Sages, as true children of Nature, sought
something in the minerals; which contains in itself a pure & clean Mercury, & a pure & incombustible Sulphur. And where these two were so mixed, as
being but one thing in due proportion, & frozen so
together, that they can no longer be separated, but are both volatile &
spiritual, they said that was the subject of their Peter. That if the eyes of your
understanding are blocked, you will know the true Sulfur & Mercury, for
I name them briefly, without words ion circuit, & will know because who is
said above, all the metals that crumble in the mines, and their nature. what if
you don't hear me yet, I'll make it to you like a watch, from each to
part, so that you do not think that I wanted to hide anything belonging to
the real introduction to this science. So let's start with Mercury, since
our Poet says that we must take Sulfur & Mercury.
To understand the regiment of the Mercurys, it is necessary to know that there are two
kinds, namely raw Mercury, & the Mercury of bodies, or frozen Mercury, which
are those of the six metals. Raw Mercury is that which Nature has spawned
in the mine, & which the Philosophers call the ostrich born in the Earth, & agrees with the water which does not wet the hands. Frozen Mercury is the
metal itself, principally Gold, which is only a perfectly cooked Mercury &
crafted by Nature. For this leaving him in rest for a little while, we
we will pursue the one who, fleeing, makes fun of our poor at all times
Alchemists, playing the trick of the resurgent Hydra, with which they
condemned poor Mercury as useless in fermenting the moldy dough of their
conceptions, coining this axiom, that the vulgar Mercury, however
prepared does not enter our magisterium. Certainly very great cruelty of
thus condemn this Messenger of the gods, whose right to maintain, we
let's confess that

The vulgar Mercury is only a raw sperm and useless to generation .

But being prepared by the hand of a learned artist, it acquires not only the
name of one of the Mercurys of the Philosophers, but is then a key to the art. It is
why we say

If the preparation of common mercury had been known to the students of
this science, they would not have had to make other Mercury
Philosophers, metallic water, or Heaven, because it's all understood
in its preparation .

If you are surprised by this axiom, Gentlemen Alchemists, you will be
much more if you could taste the fruit of him who says,

Anything from which a Mercury can be drawn is the matter of the Stone .

However, we must not take this too crudely, but consider that it is the
greatest secret of universal science, secret that the ancient philosophers
have always hidden, except Raymond Lully, who says in his Testament, The
Vulgar Mercury is not worth a rotten fig: what I say because
that it is worth a lot . I therefore reveal to you the secret of secrets, & note
diligently the allegorical axiom added above, that the vulgar Mercury is
the menstruation.of the Stone & the Sulfur the form. But this Sulfur is not Sulfur
vulgar, but perfect Mercury. Whence it follows that for our divine work, it
need them both together. For the perfect one is cold & wet patient &
feminine. Yet desiring perfection. But it must be considered here that there is
several kinds of vulgar Mercurys, the worst of which is that found in
the baths, and under the heaps of old hay, which contains these putrefied grasses,
hot, dry, and viscous of this species, like the great Lunar,
Celandine, Adente, & Rattlesnake, & that which is generated by the dew of May, from the broths & dry vapor of the Earth, since the beginning of the
scorching days, until the end of Autumn, and which we see in the evening flowing over the
earth, & light up like candles, & sparkle with fire. This one is so light,
moist, undercooked, & of a Sulfur so far removed from weight, dryness, heaviness,
solidity & decoction of that of metals, that it cannot suffer the slightest
heat, that it does not allow its water to separate, and flies away with it. But our true
Ordinary mercury is composed of another heavier water, and of an earth or
Sulfur more cooked, & is found in the veins of high mountains, like us
we have shown above of which the best is that of the Levant or of Spain, which
we also hear one of our matters in power. so here's
now all the Mercurys of art. The great Rosary gives us four, the
Mercury prepared, Mercury exalted, that of Magnesia, & Azoth, or
Unctuous Mercury: three of which are very necessary, namely Calcining Mercury
the bodies, & is the prepared Mercury, the Mercury sublimating the said bodies, & that to which the ferment is added. This, then, is the role of all our Mercurys, of which we
will speak more particularly in its place: conclusive that of all the
Mercurys, the vulgarly vulgar Mercury can be matter of Stone, being
duly prepared. So we call for the unjust stoppage of the Alchemists
incompetent, to the sovereign Court of Nature, & of the experience made &
authorized by an infinite number of illustrious philosophers.

As there are many vulgar Mercurys, so there are many
Sulphurs. So that as there are seven Mercuries, one vulgar, & six of the
metals, there are also seven principal Sulfurs, viz. the vulgar & six Sulfurs
metallic. Whoever understands this, that in metals is not Sulfur
vulgar, but a metallic, & of the nature of vitriol, will know that the Mercury
vulgar, prepared properly, & as we said will be able to solve the
metals, & thus will only take the mercurial matter, for which it engulfs
all the substance of the metal, overflowing the Sulfur from it, after he has it
separated from the concentric conjunction which is made of the vulgar Mercury & the
bodily. Thus he will be forced to believe that what separates from Quicksilver
after resolution & putrefaction, is the vitriolic & metallic Sulfur, of the
nature of which are the Sulfurs of vulgar vitriol, of alum, and of all kinds
of Attraments, fire stones, & marcasites. But these are useless
works of the Sages, as well as the Mercurys of herbs, baths, and
aforementioned dew. There are still other Sulphurs, such as Orpiment,
red Arsenic, & white Arsenic, from which the artist can draw an average
substance, serving particular works. But for the Brimstones, the whole secret
of these consists of the Sulfur of the metals of which we shall speak elsewhere.
The Sage therefore, says our Poet, takes Sulfur & Mercury for the subject of his
work, which, although they are different in form or sex, are not so in
nature, & it must be so. For as the great King Aros says, Our
medicine is made of two things being of one essence . of which it is necessary
to understand that common Sulfur is not of the nature of Mercury, as
believe the false alchemists. For said Aros says, Our Sulfur is not vulgar,
but fixed, & does not fly, & is of Mercurial nature. This is why Geber says in his Summa, Deep in the nature of Mercury is the Sulfur which
is done by long wait in the veins of the Earth . Because Nature has no other
matter for work than pure Mercurial form, having in itself its Sulfur
homogeneous, fixed & incombustible, as reason, authority, & experience show . This is what Calib, Bendegid, Iesid, & Marie la Juive affirms, when
they say Nature makes the metals of heat & dryness, overcoming the
coldness & moistness of Mercury by altering it. Not that any other substance
perfect, & that in this way the Sulfur seems different in kind from the
Mercury, it is only as much as the man is of the woman, which our
Poet alleges very appropriately, in order to portray his reasons more vividly. Because in the
Creation, God made man, and then woman, and said to them, Make your
substances of similar to you . Then said of the other Creatures, That
each one bears its fruit, which it multiplies, and makes its like . It is
why also God commanded Noah to put in the Ark of each species
of animals, male & female according to its gender, & not otherwise. If this were not, there would be no generation in this art. For Mercury alone generates nothing,
but produces like with like, in which alone he delights. Because

Nature has in her similar nature, a perpetual operation, not
into a different species, less into a diverse genus.

Therefore the more there is diversity in things, the less there is unity, which all the time
is required in our work, in two different forms. Those therefore go away
hide, who want to mix vulgar Sulfur with Mercury, against reason &
Nature, which has never made us see Quicksilver, and vulgar Sulfur
joined together in the mines, though the work of foolish Alchemists claims
marry them together. Because I knew some in Bordeaux who held this couple
illegitimate for three years in the nuptial bed & crystalline, where instead of a child
legitimate, they only spawned a bastard powder & a Cinnabar, however beautiful,
but that was only to pay for the salt that one of them had eaten in a month.
Because you should know that there were three of them in this heroic undertaking, which
distributed among themselves the time of their sentinel, from three to three months, without
move from the stove. But that's not all. The little ones make little ones
follies, but the great of the great, even grandissimes, witnesses two that the
respect that I must forbid them to name here. The same prank was played a
long time by a great German Lord, in The Hague in Holland.
And not long ago an illustrious lady of extraction & wit fomented
this embryo or false germ, near the black market in Beauce, using a fire
flame for a year. So that she titles her husband's wood so much,
that it seemed as if the great Mare of Gargantua had walked there. But the worst
was still that she gave birth only to wind.

Sulfur is dry & hot, agent, & masculine,
And the other wet, cold, female patient.
This (a) different state causes them to give birth,
For above his like, like has no power.
If even empire also on the man had the cold
That he has over the woman, therefore he would not beget.
Sulfur (b) is that Lion, so named of the Sages,
So that the ignorant might ignore their languages:
For if the proud Lion is King of beasts,
Gold with a superb scepter is the King of metals.
(c) The other is that great Dragon with the flying spine, Which, colors,
is filled with Violent Poison:
For feeling the bitter ardor, he (d) suddenly flies away,
And (e) kills, by dissolving, the sovereign metal.


a) It is beyond dispute that where some generation is to be done the
annoyance is necessarily required. As with our topic, drought &
the heat of acting Sulphur, and the coldness and humidity of baking Mercury.
This contrariety, however, is only accidental or exchanging. Because what one
is outwardly, the other is inwardly. Of this different state, says the Poet,
proceeds the generation alleging the copulation of male & female, which
must, however, be of the same species. When the male extends his action on the
female, which receives it, & pregnant, produces the ripe fruit, & desired by their
species: for otherwise they would only breed monsters. But for what he
there is no other female for our Sulfur but the imperfect Mercury, we
let us give for wife, & consequently the perfect to the imperfect, for husband: &
at least the dryness of the Sulfur must exceed four times the humidity of the
Mercury, so that there is action through this diversity, since, as our
Poet, the like has no power over its like. Thus is done the
generation of all things. What our misguided Alchemists cannot
understand, so that the peat of the Philosophers clearly says that it is
must imitate Nature in the design of the child in the womb. Those are
words free from ambiguity, & yet as if stunned & blinded, they
amalgamate raw Mercury with the Moon, thinking to fix them both together,
without guarding each other that both symbolizes in a cold, humid nature
& imperfect. Yet they do not have the wit to interpose an average nature, and the
marry without the consent & blessing of Hymen. But they'd rather put out the fire
by fire, than they will fix them together. Maybe someone will tell me, that I
show him his straying, but do not put him on the straight and narrow. Gold for
put it there I will warn it that before being able to fix the Mercury with the Moon one
would rather make them both volatile. For the Moon is so cold & wet,
(as unfixed) that Mercury could sublimate it with him, drawing it from its
earth. So that there would remain at the bottom only the faeces of the Moon, in
which would be his salt. Note, however, a non-vulgar secret here. If you there
add a greater quantity of raw Mercury, & give the fire a little more
great, it will bring & vivify your Moon, leaving no salt like
in front, but only useless faces. But it's a big deal that ignorance
can't understand this, but wants two such things to cause a
generation without knowing how to introduce the diversity of sex of which our Poet speaks.
Observe then this judgment given by Nature, and published by experience, that

Two similar things generate nothing, & cannot be joined
without a middle.

This medium is the spirit, which is hot & dry, of which being joined with your Moon & the cold & humid Mercury it tempers by its benign heat & dryness the
coldness & dampness of both So is it the only cause that one enters
in the other, & makes itself one body with them, by means of its fair weight
& good governance of exterior fire. If therefore our poor Evangelizing
understood the substance of this well, they would not have so many unfortunate encounters, but
always happy news: for the good success of their amalgamations,
fixations & multiplications, even in larger works.
b) We have above yawned the role of all the Sulphurs, among which we
we rejected the vulgar, & the combustible alders, like, Arsenic
particular, since it has a Sulfur almost similar to that of Gold: Sulfur whose
we can easily produce a particular medicine to cure the imperfect
metals. But as for Sulfur, which the Poet here calls a Lion, its roar
is very difficult to understand, its leg very difficult to catch, and its air
well hidden, whatever faith Alchemists everywhere believe it. What puts them at
this belief is what the ancients said, Our Sulfur is in all things.
But this truth, to be misunderstood, makes them take this false position. Because of
even though every determine thing has in itself its perfect medicine, it is not there.
unprepared, and if one could prepare it, one would not have to seek another
medicine elsewhere, since everyone would have it in himself for his use. Thus he does
could bring to man any disease for which he had no remedy in himself, if he
could take of itself, without detriment to its parts. Likewise must
hear of all kinds of animals & plants. Of which, for example, in the
lead a Sulfur, which prepared, could cure its own Mercury, but would not
yet Gold nor Silver, but an imperfect metal purified & prepared, to receive
entire health of the true Apollo, Lion, or great & universal Sulfur, which would have,
the power to give this medicine that everyone is looking for. Because the man
begets man, the Lion the Lion, & Gold begets Gold, & alone can perfect
the imperfect Mercury. For he has in himself the true incombustible Sulphur, & is the King
Treasures of the mines, like the Lion that of the animals of the Earth, & the Eagle
birds of the air. But one should not think that Gold by itself, alone generates
something & be the Sulfur of which our Poet speaks, remaining in its
metallic. It would be to be seriously mistaken, because it is then Sulfur only in
power, but, duly altered, it becomes true Living Sulfur quickening dead bodies
and ripening them, so that it makes up for Nature's defect, because this
Sulfur is superfluous in its maturity, according to what is perfect in its nature, &
becomes even more fruitful being more cooked, annealed & purified: of which
generate from him several noble Sulfurs by exaltation, as being reduced
in viscosity, it becomes Sulfur fixing Mercury. If it is altered, it fixes, alters &
increases, and then is called mining or multiplying sulfur. If it is redone &
reduced, it multiplies its multiplying virtue: if incerated, Sulfur becomes great &
true Phoenix of Brimstones. Being in base of its putrefaction, it is named Sulfur
black. Being fixed to white, white sulfur: & to red, red sulfur. Finally the
Sulfur is the Sun of the Philosophers, and therefore three Suns. Of which
Avicenna says that no such Sulfur is found on Earth except that of the Sun,
which is also called Leo by the Sages, because the fifth house of the
Sky, is called in Lion, participating in his rare & excellent qualities, of which they
gave him his name. There are still other Sulfurs of the Philosophers, which
are prepared manually, like the juice of our Lunar, Gold sublimated in
form of Arsenic, likewise Silver, & finally all the true tinctures of
metals are Sulfur.

e) They called the Mercury Dragon with the flying spine, as our Poet says,
because it is a very deadly venom to metals. In fact by touching them he kills them,
mainly Gold, when he dissolves it. And this venomous bite is done in the
second operation of the work. Not for something poisonous to enter
in our work, as some think, stopping at the letter, but we must be
careful not to pass the own hour of the birth of our Dragon, which
is the true Mercurial Water, Azoth, or Green Lion, in order to conjoin it with its
own body, which we say leave. It is also venomous as for us, for this
that as venom only harms the human body, if we fail
to join our Dragon to his true Leaven at the appointed time, he is only one
true venom for the harm it brings us.

d) This stealing must not be heard in the first operation nor in the second, because at the
contrary, Mercury must never be separated from Gold, yet we
administer the fire small, lest the disjunction take place instead of the
conjunction, as our alchemists understand it, believing it to be necessary
of sublimation in our divine Magisterium. They do not consider that the
Philosophers have purposely put in many operations to amuse the worthy
of this science: such as solution, reduction, distillation, freezing,
evaporation, inceration, calcination & sublimation, which is done only in
the incineration, of which the Mercury feeling the extreme heat of this great Sulphur,
flies up to the Moon, (which is the Spherical head of the vessel, leaving
said Sulfur, black as coal, yet said Dead Sulfur or Dead Gold) but he
immediately falls on the said mortified Sulphur. What seeing the Sages, they have
called that their sublimation, & is a real sublimation. Yet says Geber in
Peat, When your stone or work will be well joined &
assembly, continually add sublimation to it . What deceives our
people, ignorant that this sublimation or flight of the Dragon is done at the same
closed vessel with the other aforesaid operations, without ever touching it, as well as
thinking that each of these magisteriums needs a particular vessel, and
showing at each stroke, not real children, but bastards of science. It is
why they will not also possess the heritage of the Sages.

So this is really the certain way:
Many in seeking her find great bread,
Not knowing that it is Gold in transformed sperm,
And the very pure quicksilver properly animated.

Our Poet puts here as material Gold transformed into sperm, & Mercury
properly animated. What must be understood in two ways: because it is false to animate the
Mercury manually & naturally, & turn Gold into sperm of
same way: since remaining as it is, it could not be Sulfur nor
seed of the Stone. The first way is manual preparation
said Gold, of which Hermes Trismegistus says, In the beginning do not be
lazy to properly prepare & monetize your Sulfur & your other
ingredients, subtly plumping & conglutinating them together, so
may you join soon. Item Danthen, & Morien say,
Mix the water well with, its earth, the wet with the dry, so that soon
you see the blackness of the Sea. And Isaac Hollander said, My son,
when you want to illustrate your great work, you must
knew all those who are of his kind, & mainly the father,
mother, brother & sister in the nuptial bed, arm to arm, &
mouth to mouth, that they will die immediately: that is to say
will soon putrefy . Because the father & the brother are the same thing, namely
Gold, & mother & sister are Mercury. By this manual preparation, the time of which is greatly shortened, because you steal your material very much, so
that Nature has only to cook it. On the other hand if you essencify your Gold well, you
you will not find the damned earth in the first decoction, but the Mercury
will dissolve Gold without any residence of faeces. Thus he will be perfect master who
will know how to transform his Gold into sperm, before throwing it into the womb of Mercury,
which must also be prepared & animated manually, before joining it with its
Gold or Silver: Because

If the mercury is not prepared & animated, it benefits nothing neither
the universal nor in the particular work .

So before going further, it must be said that it is only animation. animate
manually is nothing but incorporating Mercury with one's mind
metallic, in order to make it fit to receive the soul of the sun and the moon,
as it has been prepared. Moreover, this animation, according to all the Philosophers,
is nothing but pouring a soul into a body. For the vulgar Mercury,
though living in an ever-moving form, does not have that life which is
required, since by this it cannot generate. But he needs a real life,
so that from it he can vivify the dead Mercury within the Sol & the Moon, therefore
to lead it to this action, note that

The Philosophers take the Mercury congealed by Nature, &
animate it, then vivify it by the same means, & thus the binary is made
by the third the first circle of Philosophers.

In this axiom lies one of the greatest secrets of the world. Because he points to the finger
this so precious preparation & animation of the vulgar Mercury. And so we
we said that it is that we reduce to sperm & properly animated Mercury,
as will our Poet according to the first way. It remains to speak of the natural
animation of Mercury, & transformation of Gold into sperm or Mercury. For
hear it well, it should be noted that any generation is made of a corporal & lively,
for neither spirits nor dead bodies beget. It is therefore necessary that
the spirit, or spiritual gold becomes corporeal, the corporeal, spiritual gold, & finally all
two together a spiritual & living Gold. What is done in our secret,
animation, not separately, but by the same & mutual action, especially as
the animation of the Philosophical Mercury is here the transformation of Gold into sperm.
Because

Gold resolves in Mercury, is spirit, soul, & sperm.

This sperm is only a fire infused in the duly prepared Mercury, by which it
acquires a vegetative power, fit to receive the form of its species &
agent, which is the soul. Soul which is an airy, igneous or celestial essence,
distant from the terrestrial substance, and nevertheless said Mercury could not receive
this soul, without a means which is the participating spirit of the terrestrial matter & of
the celestial. It must therefore be understood that just as our Philosophical Mercury
be manually animated, it is still & must be a female body, cold &
humid, with regard to the spirit of Gold, hot, dry & masculine, compared to fire & to the divine soul: which being so contrary to ours, Mercury could not
to give its form without the means of its spirit, which the great Hermes calls wind,
when he says , The wind carries him in his belly . And soon after, the Earth is
his nurse . This earth is but our Philosophical Mercury which, as
being only pure spiritual Gold, is alone fit to conceive & nourish this Gold
divine, by means of the spirit, so that afterwards he will produce for us the son of fire, & this
Courted King of the Sages. Note now that at the time that this animation,
fermentation or conception is done, our real material is born by competition
the sperms of the male & the female, which two sperms are necessary,
not apart but inseparably mixed. Then Nature could not make of this
mixture than a spiritual Gold, lively, & generating its similar, as being the
only end of this matter. So this spermatic union is called first
matter, as said is. For just like the seeds of man &
woman, joined, Nature painting over here only forms the form of a child,
thus Nature cannot give any other form to our matter, on which she labors,
than that of Gold, to which it is disposed, not being able to receive any
else. This glorious matter shows itself in Mercurial form or water (which the
Philosophers call Mer) which Morien says is only Quicksilver exalted by
art on imperfect quicksilver, saying that it is aminated quicksilver. Hey
could also prove by an infinity of reasons that the double Mercury is our
real material that Nature creates for us, helped by our art.

I know (a) that it is necessary to cover, like our Poets,
This celestial secret, of a heap of allegories.
I know that this knowledge of Nature schoolboy,
Wants to surround without noise, his holy brow of laurel.
Maintaining his greatness (b) under sacred silence,
And of its high secrets admire the excellence.

a) The ancient Philosophers were admirable for having known so dexterously
shade science under the pleasant veil of poetic fables. Because if we
believe Empedocles, the entire practice of this art & its matter, is hidden under the
fable of Pyrrha & Deucalion, & particularly the preparation of Sulfur under the flight of Hercules & Anthea. By the conversion of Jupiter into a shower of Gold, the distillation of the Philosophical Gold. Through the eyes of Argus converted into the tail of the
Color-changing Sulfur Peacock. Beneath the fable of Orpheus, the sweetness of
our quintessence & Potable Gold. By the Gorgon stone those who
looked they covered the fixation of the Elixir. And hid the sublimation
Philosopher by Jupin converted into an Eagle, lifting & carrying to Heaven
Ganymede. Beneath the fiction of the golden tree from which, cutting a branch, emerged
another, they concealed the distillation of the Gold of the Philosophers: which they also
covered under Jupiter cutting off his father's genitals. They named the water
Mercurial the chariot of Phaeton. By armed Minerva they heard this water
distilled, which has in itself the very subtle parts of Sulphur. By Vulcan Than Minerva
fled, they hid the Sulfur according to the said water, and its salt in putrefaction. By
the thick cloud with which Jupiter surrounded Io, they heard the little skin
appearing at the beginning of the freezing of the Elixir: & said that the
following black films are the black veils with which Theseus returned
in Athens. Under the flood & the generation of animals, they heard the
generation & distillation of Sulphur. By Mars, our Sulfur, by Juno the air, & sometimes the Element of the Earth. Under Vulcan thrown into Lemnos because of his
deformity, they figured the preparation of our first Black Sulphur. Below
Atalanta they covered our Mercurial water, it isnal & fugitive, from which the
course is stopped by the golden apples thrown by Hippomenes, which are our Sulfurs
fixing & coagulants. And what Theseus anointed the Minotaur's mouth with are the
species of the Sulfurs of the Labyrinth, that is to say of our mud sticking our water
Mercurial, which is the true Minotaur, for being mineral, & thus
participant of both natures.

Here is a part of the fictions of the Poets hiding the main points of our
science. Of which if you want a fuller interpretation, consult Brachesque in
his Dialog of the Demogorgon, & Geber. As for allegories, metaphors &
riddles, they are endless, I will alleviate a few to the relief of
students in this divine art. When therefore the Philosophers say that the work of
Pierre is children's play, and a woman's work, hear for the woman the
land of our Peter, or the Mercury which seems to complete the whole work, & for
the ignorant children who, having done the sublimation, play with the Earth,
which is the base the Stone, & throw it there. On the other hand the Philosophers say that we
find their Stone in the mountains & caves. Item Ripley Philosopher
English says in his book of the twelve doors that the fish and the birds, we
bring the Stone. Proposal whose failure to hear them caused this error
to seek the matter of the Stone in all things. But they must be understood as such,
that as the celestial Sun is everywhere this universal World by its rays,
even our matter, which is the terrestrial Sun or Gold, is everywhere the
vessel, which is the Minor World, the mountains the head of glass, & the
caves the earth residing at the bottom of the glass. The birds are the colors &
ascending & descending spirits, & the fishes the two Mercurys. They say
all clear. Our Stone is in all things: & is true namely in the metals which are
things of stone, as of his kind. What can be understood otherwise,
namely that Nature is in all things, and for that which it has in itself all the
names, Nature is everyone, and the subject of the Philosopher. This is why the
Pierre has many names, & is in all these things, but more in one than in
the other, since the Philosophers ask only for the generative virtue of
metals, of which they say that the rich, which are Gold & Silver, and the poor, the imperfect metals, have this nature of the Stone as well as the others.
But yet the Nature of Gold & Silver is more constant in fire
than that of other metals. Philosophers also seek a fixed thing &
which governs everyone, as the Sun & the Moon do, rightly
what the ancients called the Sun, Lord of the World, containing in itself
life, & virtue to heal all things, producing day & night by its movement, & illuminating the whole world by its light. Yet says the Sun, I am the Stone, or, in me is the Stone . They also say, Make the male & the female a circle, & divide it into a quadrangle, the quadrangle into a triangle, from the triangle make unity . The male & the female are the Gold & the Silver, or the Sulfur & the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is the binary the circle is the solution of these two in first matter. So they are joined
together like two drops of water. The quadrangle are the fourth signs which
appear in the work, the first to the naturally animated Mercury, the second
audit Mercury frozen in dark matter, the third is the work fixed to white, &
the fourth the finished work in red. The triangle are the three colors
capitals, which are in fermentation & inceration, namely black, white &
red, & unity is the work multiplied & incere. Here are the main points
riddles, metaphors & allegories. So we'll explain some more
according to which our Poet will give us the subject of it in the continuation of his work.
b) The Poet says that all these allegories & fictions were introduced to tighten
this sacred secret under the key of silence. For this also Plato buried these
precepts under the blade of remote & mathematical figures, witness his epistle
of the nature of the first Ens, addressed Denis Sicilian. It is necessary , he says, to write by
ambitions & riddles: so that if we were forced to abandon the
book to the Earth dares to the Sea, whoever reads it would not hear it .
This is why the Poets gave rise to so many fables in order to tighten the sweet
Nectar of the Philosophers under the outer bark of their fictions, & keep it
to be swallowed up by the ignoble peat of the ignorant. Pythagoras was not
less careful: because when he received someone in his school, he gave him
for the first precept, not to divulge to the vulgar what was treated in his school.
For this he imposed, for five years, a continual silence on his listeners, the
obliging them to be dumb, so that they could not ask their
Master & less confer together from what they heard from him We read
also that the Egyptians collocated their doctrines & traditions between things
saints which they left by Cabala to their disciples, written in letters
unreadable, as by forms of animals & similar things, being the
true seals of Nature. Thus by these disguises, one has more admired
that heard these sacred things, as our Poet says.

But since I am here, clarity leads me,
Day brings light is more beautiful than night.
It is therefore necessary to purge of its cold nature,
Before fermenting it, feminine Mercury:
Because in his chilly belly, he wouldn't have the power,
By the male leave, never to conceive.
So for a coldly infertile temper,
Many a woman is often rendered barren,
Then losing by its care, its cold quality,
Warmer, by purging itself, loses its sterility.

Our Poet wanting to open the curtain, discovering the main point, & removing the
stone against which our poor Alchemists usually stumble, their
shows how necessary the preparation of Mercury is before mixing it
with Gold, which is its leaven, Sulphur, or leaven. Now note that Mercury has
a certain superfluity of humidity, & leaden, sulphurous parts, &
terrestrial, which he must necessarily remove, although this seems absurd to
those who do not hear the reasons of the Philosophers. However several
deceive in this, and cannot achieve their purpose, not knowing what is
superfluous, nor what Mercury also lacks. I have known some who were good
occupied after amalgamations, fixations & multiplications, one by one
months, the others seven or eight weeks, and sometimes ten months, even a
whole year. The others were so long they couldn't see the end, to have
ignored the preparation of Mercury, so they did not know how to keep at the beginning, at the
middle, & at the end the humidity required, (because of the aqueous superfluity) or the
moderate drought, because of the aforesaid terrestrial parts. So that their
works were either too wet, or too dry & hot. Thus persisting in
the fight, they lost the solution, and finally the ingredient of their materials, even the
time, expense & their works. For this I advise you to mondify &
prepare your Mercury, since in this lies the whole Secret of the work. Because

As vulgar Mercury is the first matter of the natives
metals, thus the prepared Mercury is the first matter not
only of mystical metals, but of our mines, Elixir, &
rock. For he must enter at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end
of all the works of the Philosophers.

This Mercury also has the artist for father & Nature for mother, & is the key
unique to close & open Nature's most Secret cabinets. He penetrates
all metals, & separates their elements, reducing them to their first matter
what the believed Mercury could not do. Yet it is called Gehenna fire,
Mercury of Mercury, Sky of the Philosophers, strong vinegar, metallic brandy,
& for its corroding quality, is said Saltpetre, salt armoniac, rock salt, alum,
vitriol, & common salt. Therefore duly amalgamated with the metals, &
principally with Gold, he never refrains from reducing them to his Nature, invigorating
their mortified Mercury, and separating from them the external agent, which is their
vitriolic sulphur. By this means, (doing the anatomy of metals) you can see
it's just metal. It is also called permanent water, because being
once joined with the said metals by radical solution, it never separates from them.
It is subtle, pure, celestial, entirely free from abundant moisture, &
sulphurous earthiness, yet said, Mercurial Mean substance, spirit of
Mercury, Volatile Gold, Fire of Nature, Mystical Mercury, Mercury born of
Virginal sulphur, children's urine, golden & silvery fountain, animated Mercury,
reducing all bodies that he dissolves into Gold & Silver, by means of his fire
appropriate. He powerfully dissolves metals, yet it is said of him

Our Mercury burns the bodies more than the fire of Hell.

Thus he reduces the Solar body into a pure spirit, which the Philosophers call
Azoth, Unctuous Mercury, Green Lion, &c. and then the second circle of Philosophers is completed. Finally, it constricts all solid bodies, and opens all their
locks. Of which he desires the inner nature of metals, & rising above
all the planets carry them into Heaven with themselves, & make them receive the strength
superior & inferior things, as Hermes says, stripping their nature
terrestrial & clothing them with the celestial, in which the World rejoices. For this
divine quality it happens that he alone can begin & complete all the work of
philosophers, as being only spiritual Gold, which, as we have said above
revivifies corporeal Gold, and then said Gold impregnates spiritual Gold. So
the spirit becomes body, the body spirit, & both become spiritual Gold &
celestial, which after sown & incorporated with its rightful subject, begets Gold
to infinity. It is therefore necessary to prepare your vulgar Mercury, so that it can do
everything above. For otherwise he resembles the barren woman by too many
coldness & humidity, which however fertilizes being purged heated,
according to the degree of female fertility following the very proper comparison that
does our Poet here. Several Philosophers have taught this preparation, some
obscurely, the others clearly, like Geber, Arnaud de Villeneuve, the
great Rosary, good Trevisan, Alanus & others, to which I refer the Reader.

Shall I here refute the common objection,
That art must join to Gold the Mercury of the Moon?
The Moon at the price of Gold seems a female body,
But his dry Mercury is warm & masculine:
For his constancy, in fire, overcomes experiences:
Thus nothing would be born from two male seeds,
That if pure Silver the exalted Mercury,
Is fit to tie well this longed-for knot,
He who hides his bright face under the blond gold,
Can bind less, more cooked, this sacred marriage.
But he who shines, is neither overcooked nor too raw,
For this rare Hymenee, alone, no more virtue.

It is a pleasure to hear our Alchemists boast, one that if he had the Mercury
of the Moon, the other that of Jupiter, the other that of Antimony, the other that of
Sun, art cannot fail him. But the poor people are wrong. Whether they have
the Mercury of the Sol, (because it is the one they most desire) to fix it there
would need its suitable leaven, which would be Gold, (because to give it the leaven of
the Moon, it would be putting the cart before the horse) & they would have to
fix their Gold again. Because

All Mercury in bodies is again reduced to metal by a little
ferment red or white in the appropriate fire, otherwise it retains
always the Mercurial form .

Let them now agree the time & the expense, & they will hardly have
to borrow the filth chests to hold their treasures. That if this defective
happens to the most perfect Mercury of all, what will they do with that of Saturn,
of Jupiter & Venus, which do not have the nature & the power of a perfect metal. He their
should be exalted first of all in the quality of silver Mercury, by Sulfur
white, & after fixing them with red Sulphur, in Gold. Thus the costs, & time would eat up all the profit. The same would happen to them with the Mercury of the
Moon, of which the Poet speaks here, by joining it to Gold to make the work. Because they don't
would only fix the said Mercury in Gold, what for would they need the fire
appropriate. It is therefore madness to think that the great work has been produced with Mercury.
of the Moon, which is masculine, hot & dry, like that of Gold, & even less with that of the Sun. Because it is necessary to know, as our Poet says very well, that the
Moon seems feminine to Gold, which she endures the test of fire,
demonstrates its great decoction, & yet our menstruation needs to be
believed, or otherwise he could not dissolve the Gold, of which he is arrested only
It is necessary, for the great work, that raw Mercury dissolve gold in Mercury.
For its very rawness is the cause of the dissolution, of which the more a Mercury is cooked,
the less it dissolves, and the more it is believed, the more it dissolves. But it also freezes
all the more so later, because its moisture cannot be immediately consumed. Note
therefore these two extremities to the vulgar Mercury, and to that of the perfect bodies, to
knowing that one is too raw, the other too moist, and remaining such cannot
to serve as menstruation: though we need them both. Because that of
Gold gives shape to cold & wet menses, so that over time it
can become perfect, since

Gold dissolved in Mercury physically is spirit, soul, sulfur or form.

So Gold & Silver can only be used as Sulfur, one red, the other
white, & since, as the Poet said above, & we have just shown, that nothing is generated from two seed masses, & that in every generation homogeneous diversity is required, it is necessary to oppose with cooked, very hot & dry Sulphur, the very cold & humid raw Mercury, which cannot be used for menstruation, having no Sulfur at all. Thus the mediocre Mercury, to
knowing the lively, is here required, as being neither too raw nor overcooked, but duly
proportionate to her Sulphur, like the temperate wife of her husband. It's necessary
now see how we can temper our Mercury, & for this
point out this axiom,

The vulgar Mercury asse: by degrees by the naturalness of all
metals, equaling themselves to them, until it reaches its last
perfection, which is Gold.