Courses of Hermetic Philosophy or Alchemy

COURSES OF HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY

or

ALCHEMY

*
in nineteen lessons ,

Dealing with the theory and practice of this science, as well as several other indispensable operations, to arrive at the find of the Philosopher's Stone, or metallic transmutations, which have been hidden up to this day in all the writings of the hermetic philosophers.

Followed by explanations of a few articles

From the first five chapters of Genesis,
by Moses; and of three additions

proving three lives in man, perfect animal,

New and curious work, and very necessary to enlighten all those who wish to penetrate into this occult science, and who work to acquire it;

or path open
to those who want to make a big fortune.

By LP Francois Cambriel,

From Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, department of the Eastern Pyrenees;
Born at the Tour de France, November 18, 1764;
and former cloth manufacturer, in Limoux, department of Aude.

Dominus memor follows nostri;
And benedisit nobis.

Work finished in January 1829, and from the reign of Charles X,
King of France, the fifth.

First edition.

PARIS.

1843.

*

The AUTHOR did not think it necessary to precede this Treatise and Course on Alchemy with a preface, nor to state the reasons which compelled him to make it public.

Nor did he think he should dedicate it to anyone; not wishing, like many authors, to be advocated or supported by the credit of some great character.

To whom could he dedicate this key of alchemy, to give a mark of his recognition? To a man! .. he found none who was not incredulous, hard, inhuman, deceitful and flattering: all sought only to surprise him, to deprive him of the secret of secrets.

He has always found only men who are not inclined to help him or be useful to him, to finish his alchemical work: he therefore has no mark of recognition to give to anyone.

To fulfill justly and completely this sacred duty of gratitude, he must dedicate to God, the author of every gift, this present treasure of hermetic philosophy: a science which he holds only from himself.

The envious, after having read this work, will become angry; because they will not have been able to arrive at this degree of happiness themselves, and they will believe that they cannot better avenge themselves for their fruitless researches than by inveighing against the favored creature and by making hermetic science pass for false; they will wither with rage! they will die! And the alchemy will remain.

But the grateful philosopher, who has always put his trust in God, and who has obtained it only by dint of perseverance and prayers, will thank him and bless him all the days of his life, for having been kind enough to give him such a great mark of his love. To have taken him out of the state of humiliation, misery and privation in which he had remained for many years, and to have made him triumph over all his enemies, as well as all the proud men and unbelieving parents who had completely despised him, abandoned him!

If some amateur of alchemy, after having carefully read the following nineteen lessons, by forming the complete course, recognizes him as a... (as he will be able to judge by the theory and practice that his work contains) and wishes to speak to him, please contact the printer of the present, who will give him his address, or M. Rivet, rue Judas, n° 8, Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève.

SUMMARY OF THE GREAT WORK.

HE who, by a little long and tiring work, will be able to extract metals, their leafy red earth and will know, by a natural means (known only to hermetic philosophers), to join it to purified mercurial water, to make it all, fluidifying earth; and that to finish and complete his work, he will be able, by means of fire, and by his virtue, to freeze and turn into stone these two united waters: that one can boast of having made a great discovery; to have found a very precious thing, and of greater value than all the gold in the world, and than anything else: since he will have found the universal medicine (principle of all that has life) with which he can keep himself always in good health, and prolong his days by a lot.

The means of obtaining this precious discovery are completely shown and explained in the following nineteen lessons: it will therefore be necessary to read them, and reread them often, and with great attention.

§ First lesson.

IN June 1819, Louis-Paul-François Cambriel caused a notice to be inserted in the Petites Affiches, similar to the one at the end of this treatise, entitled (Offer of a great benefit), and he received, in response, the letter, a copy of which is hereafter: Signed, EBK Paris, June 19, 1819. of the Small Posters of the 18th current, offer to make the sum requested ; but it puts there for condition, that the profit proposed, is only of the refunding of the principal loaned: plus a sum equal to the principal: the whole to be obtained in two years;

2° That the author of the discovery states, in a letter that he will address to Mr EBK, at the lemonade of the Café des Arts, n° 9, rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré; the precise object of its discovery, as well as the chemical principles on which it is based; 3° The lender undertakes immediately, and he is ready to put the said undertaking in the best

form, for the safety of the author of the discovery, and not to make now, nor in the future, and under any pretext, any disclosure, any use of the said discovery

they will be able to enter into personal and intimate communication.

I have the honor to greet you,

EBK”

Copy of the letter from Louis-Paul-François Cambriel to Mr EBK, whom he believed to be a hermetic philosopher, in response to his letter of the 19th, and by which he wants to prove to him that he is in the case of fulfilling the offer he made by Les Petites Affiches.

Paris, June 24, 1819.

“Sir,

I hasten to reply to the letter that Mr. EBK did me the honor of writing to me, and I will try (although I never learned chemistry in school) to prove to him the possibility of metallic transmutation, so discredited.

I believe that (if I have understood the meaning of his letter correctly) that is all he requires of me; at least for the present, except fulfilling at our first sight all the other conditions that he might desire.

The object and the discovery itself, is as I say above, the philosopher's stone, which I arrived at, with the help of God, the help of a friend, and by hard and continuous work for twenty-seven years (1).

It is a matter of making, by the labor of twenty-four months, a red powder like the poppy or powder of projection which, like the flower to curdle milk, operates on common mercury heated in a crucible, the same effect as the flower to curdle has on milk: and in an hour, a pinch of this red powder like a pinch of tobacco put in the said crucible (in which one will have put four pounds of mercury), will curdle it or fix it and reduce it to the finest gold at twenty-four four carats and more, which will seem extraordinary, even impossible, although natural and very true.

To make this red powder of projection, it is necessary (which will appear impossible to any man, when he judges alchemy as the common man judges it) to succeed by dint of work in softening and rendering into water, by a natural solution, a stone which, although composed of two, even of three, is always only one, and which by a repeated destruction: washings, sublimations, same distillations, gives the red sulfur or fixed body, essential coagulate (or the booklet of gold of Trévisan, hermetic philosopher) which is reduced to water by said solution. — Which gives us double water, animated water, the rebis of hermetic philosophers, finally the philosopher's mercury.

But one can only succeed in acquiring this divine water by putting the fixed body in its own earth or soft mountain, of which Sendivogius speaks another hermetic philosopher (well prepared by a long and painful work), and after having suffered much by the fire of the kitchens. — Only then did we succeed in bringing the water back to its source and bringing the child back into its mother's womb.

The fable teaches us that Vulcan caught Mars and Venus in adultery in his net. — If the hermetic philosopher does not do like Vulcan, and if he does not use it in his operation, he will never succeed in obtaining the stone of the philosophers, which he cannot do without.

He must therefore stretch his net, and know how to take advantage of the only favorable moment to surprise and catch the adulterers, because he must know that there is only one hour for that, after which one must not wait for another in his place (says Zachaire, another hermetic philosopher from France). Then we no longer catch anything, and the lovers destroy and evaporate.

When once animated water is made, and has acquired its perfection by the union of the principiant elements, and the power to return to earth by the virtue which it has acquired, produced also from the union which has naturally taken place of the principiated elements, contained and hidden in the natures, and by the alliance of natural fire with unnatural fire, which alliance has procured for us the water so desired, containing in it a third fire, called fire of unnatural, bearing with him all the principles of life, acquired and manifested by the effect of fermentation; finally the double water and the first union of the superior waters with the inferior waters contained in the metals.—And as everything in this world manifests its qualities by the odor which exhales from it, as cold and dew give off a different odor, as garlic and onion spread a very strong smell, so our water also spreads a very strong smell which announces its perfection and its end, which rejoices us. And it is then and by these signs that we are convinced that this perfect water will give us in the space of nine months the much desired child who will come with very ruddy cheeks, and who will chase away the leprosy of metals in an hour (after he has gained a little strength) by making them look like him and radiant like him.

This is the real powder of projection, which, when it comes out, will render much greater service in curing sick creatures, and restoring to them the vigor of youth.This is the true enemy of all the diseases with which man finds himself attacked, either by those produced by his bad way of life, or by those which he brings at birth or original, which come to us as well as to the metals only because of the first disobedience. Which would not be, if our first mother, Eve, had been content to eat only the fruit of the tree of life, instead of eating and uniting with the one who was to lead her to death.

This tree of life which bears such good fruit, is produced only from this double tree, called the tree of science and alliance, of good and evil or composed of two, one good, the other bad; one fixed, the other fleeing; one hard, the other brittle; one white, the other red; one male, the other female;finally matter and form. —And yet all this is one, and is the product of one; but in him are the two natures, the three principles, the four qualities, and also contains in him the universal principle, that divine spirit which the Almighty used to form and create all things, which, at the time of the separation from the first chaos of which it was a part, and according to the order and will of the Almighty moved on the lower waters, and asked only to execute and fulfill the blessing and will of the Creator:

But before obtaining this dear child, our work must pass through all the colors, putrefaction must make black appear (certain mark of success), and white, green, yellow and red follow one another, and that in the interval of the appearance of all these colors, and before the second and last meeting of the superior waters of the metals with the inferior waters (which before were separated by the firmament of the hermetic philosophers), the dew of May comes to moisten our embryo and the dispose to this perfect union, from which will result the universal medicine or panacea and the powder of projection.

That, my dear sir, is what a hermetic philosopher can write of his science to answer to the honor of your letter.

I will add however that, if one does not know how to unite the perfect bodies by the mysterious number of philosophers (2) the work will go very badly, and there will be either too much, or too little dryness, and the marriage (to form this union) not being made according to the rules of nature, the product will never fulfill the desires of the plowing philosopher, it will therefore be for the loss of his money, his trouble and his time.

If what I said is a little too obscure, and we can't fix ourselves well to begin with, let's do the hard soft and the hard soft.

Or else: let us take fixed earth or male gold, and make it wings to reduce it to volatile water;then, that by a long time we manage to fix this volatile water, and to return it to the ground as our father Hermes teaches us (which we will achieve by administering to it a heat at the same degree as that of man).

Or else, if after a long coction we succeed in cutting off its wings and preventing it from flying, then we will see the end of its work, and it will only be necessary to increase its quantity and virtue, which we will achieve by putting it back several times in the same earth from which it originated.

The desires of the plowing philosopher will then be accomplished, since he will possess everything.

And if God, very good and very great, gives to man (as I am convinced by myself) (3) such a great mark of his love, let him always thank him for it.may he give him continual thanksgiving for it, and may he try to make himself always worthy of it by good conduct, extending a helping hand to all those who will need it and who will deserve it. — Praise be to Almighty God who never abandons those who put their trust in him.

If by my present answer (although very muddled and very clear at the same time) I have been able to satisfy the person who had the kindness to write to me, may he answer me and give me his address, as well as the day and time at which I will be able to have a philosophical conference with him; by this means, it will be easy for me to iron out any doubts that may remain (which I have not been able to clarify here), and manage to fix his opinion on the one who has the honor of being his very humble servant, Louis CAMBRIEL

. »

I. I began my alchemical research the same year that General Buonaparte returned from Egypt, and destroyed the Directory which had made it its principle to impoverish and weaken France, and to humiliate the French people whom this great man, before his departure for Egypt, had left covered with glory. — After about three years, this great man having arrived in Paris by a miracle, put an end to the evil, all our defeats, and threw back with usury, on all our united enemies, the humiliations with which they had showered us during his absence. — He was named First Consul, mounted a strong army, and restored to France, which the unhappy Directory had reduced to within a stone's throw of its ruin, its first glory, and as a nation the first rank.— He crossed Mount Saint-Bernard with the strong army he had gathered in the camp of Dijon, attacked and destroyed the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo. — Victorious as he had always been, thirteen or fourteen strongholds in Italy were handed over to him, and so were we. French, we were for the second time masters of this beautiful country. — After this great victory, I went for the second time to Paris to continue my alchemical work there, and I stayed there long enough to witness the great love and confidence that the French had for this great general, most of whom carried it so far as to proclaim himEmperor of the French, a title of which he had made himself worthy.

— I was present at his coronation, at his marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria, I was there also while this general (valiant as never before) won a number of victories over the armies of Prussia, Austria and Russia, and brought the French to such a high point of glory, that France, which had been sold, betrayed by the Directory, was so enlarged by itself that its limits extended from Naples, Trieste, Venice, Rome, Genoa, to e and including Holland, and to such a point of prosperity and glory, that all nations desired to be our allies and friends, and wished to be part of this vast empire. — Triumphant and wealthy, France had only been brought to this high point of triumph by courage,the talent and the love that this great general had for the French, and to which they owed their wealth, and that too much ingratitude towards him proves to us how frivolous and little grateful the Frenchman is. "He had filled the city of Paris with fortune, and when the allied enemies presented themselves under these walls, it was this same city that abandoned him."

— He was only betrayed in France by those whom he had overburdened with wealth, and by the English among whom he had gone, and this by the abuse of the laws established in that country, which they would never have transgressed, and which the poorest English sailor would have enjoyed, were disregarded by this nation in favor of the man who had placed himself with too much confidence in their hands, and who in consequence of this abuse was deported to the island of Saint Helena, where he was continually mistreated there by Governor Hudson Low, and in which he ended his days 1 — My own desire is that God reward him for all the good he has done us, as well as that which he intended to do us

. — Amen.

The widow of the Marquis Duchilau, former Admiral of France, told me the following anecdote several times:

"When the Emperor Napoleon went to England, accompanied by several of his generals, he thought it prudent to leave them for 48 hours, and to go, without telling them of his intention, with only one of them in a campaign where the Marquis Duchilau, former admiral of France, had retired. The latter made some difficulty in receiving him, on account of the Bourbons, to whom he was very attached; but, seeing that Napoleon persisted in wishing to speak to him, he

consented .

Being together, the Emperor said to him: Honest Admiral, the confidence which I have in you strongly impelled me, before going to England, to come to consult you to know of you, who fought for many years this nation and who know it perfectly, if I must put myself or not in their hands, and if I will be made to enjoy the advantage of their laws, especially that of habeas corpus. I left my friends to come and consult you on what I should do: speak to me frankly.

'As a frank man,' the admiral told him, 'I would tell you that you shouldn't go to people who will abuse your trust. You are their enemy, do not count on their generosity; give up your project, such is my advice: I could not give you a better one. "So what shall I do!" where should I go,"You must go to Bordeaux." I will give you a letter for a captain; he is a man who owes me his life; without me he would have been hanged. Change your costume and go quickly to his place. I charge him to take you to the open sea and to put you in the first vessel he will doubtless find: which will transport you to America, you alone. He is a discreet man, you have nothing to fear; he will do everything for me, in recognition of the service I have rendered him:

Napoleon accepted this advice with pleasure and left the admiral, determined to follow it. If he had followed him, what annoyance he would have been spared.Doubtless those who accompanied him believed too much in English generosity and urged him to go to London, still counting on the complete execution of their laws. Credulous and confident Frenchmen

, trust this nation! count on English generosity!..... It is in Saint Helena that you will be given the proof! it is in this island that the governor made the Emperor Napoleon enjoy it completely.

2. This number is just an assembly of V to C and V.

3. I would never have succeeded in finding the necessary and indispensable operations to make the philosopher's stone, and to obtain universal medicine (I who knew nothing of chemistry). If God, who in all the times of my life, gave me marks of his love, had not inspired me in three different times, and four years apart from one inspiration to another, the way to do well the alchemical operation which I did not know, and which I could never have found on my own, if a loud voice (which was always preceded by a strong gust of wind in my right ear), and which for the first time I heard very well, being in my bed & seven o'clock in the morning (reflecting on my work which I could not continue) came to straighten me up and said to myself: You have to go about it in such a way. I followed the inspiration,

This inspiration, which was the first, only came to me after having consulted the three greatest chemists in Paris, who could not give me the means I asked of them. "It happened to me in the house of Madame la Veuve Brocard, rue des Boucheries-Saint-Germain in Paris."

The second inspiration, was preceded like the first, by a strong taste of wind in my right ear: it was at midday, and in the back of a diligence, between Lyon and Paris, where I was going to continue my alchemical work. — I was warned in this way: You are deceiving him, the hermetic books say like that.

And the third inspiration, which was rather a vision, came to enlighten me four years later in the house of the widow Maçon, rue Mazarine, No. 60, at the tennis court.— The operation and the perfection of the work I was doing presented themselves before my eyes, and my sense of smell, by the odor which was exhaled from it, proved to me (as it is said in Nicolas Flamel of Paris) that it was good and well done, and gave me the conviction that I had reached the end of the first part of my alchemical work or of the stone of the first order, which delighted me very much. I am therefore right to say that I am convinced by myself of the love that God grants to his creatures.

To convince those who will read me, that I write no lie in this present Treatise on Alchemy, I will add to the above note another great mark of love that God had the kindness to grant me during my childhood, of which I have not spoken to anyone, and which I believe I am obliged to make known to my fellow men.

A faithful picture of the first principle of what has been created, of the perfections of God, creator of the universe, and of movement, consequently of life, of everything placed in the sight of men by his creature.

Louis-Paul-Francois Cambriel.

Many of those who will read this table, will be able and will believe to have the right to say that this table is not faithful as I say it.

How could the said Cambriel suppose and convince himself of the truth of the perfections of the Almighty? Has he been to heaven? Did some celestial spirit instruct him? It doesn't seem possible.

I will respond to these observations that I am telling the truth, but that I do not want to say how I learned this truth.

At one time in my life, God, who has always given me signs of his love, wanted me to paint a faithful picture of his bodily perfections as far as sight is concerned, but spiritual as regards him.

He wanted me to be convinced of this myself, in order to be able to convince those who will read me, that God is like man, like his creature.

We are therefore, as it is said in the Holy Scriptures, created in the image and likeness of God, and we must glorify ourselves in it, and not doubt it for three reasons: the first, because the child always resembles his father in everything; the second, because we were created immortal like him; and the third, because our body is more perfect in its interior than in its exterior, and because we had within us an immortal body, which only became mortal by the first disobedience, an immortal soul, belonging to the divinity itself, and an earthly spirit, allying the heavenly soul with the earthly body forming the creature, and uniting by its mediocrity the high with the low, the heavenly with the earthly.

GOD IS of a height and build as could be the most perfect man, being six feet six inches in height, proportioned in every part that composes him, but still more perfect than the most perfect man whom I compare to him.

He is majestic, his skin the color of a candle flame; her feet, her knees, her thighs, her calves are so perfect, that whatever I say, I will always be below to be able to represent perfection.

The nails of his feet are of incomparable beauty, the most beautiful ivory cannot be compared to them.

The calves of his legs are so beautiful, so perfect, and since he is all spirit, I saw through it as through the clearest crystal.

But what is most beautiful in all this beauty of united perfections is the arrangement of the muscles which form it. They are arranged like little pears, three by three, two up and one down or in the middle of the first two, and in each muscle one sees only a continual movement of gaseous rays of light, which intersect in all directions and without separating, ascending and descending, form and make appear a million perfections within each muscle.

In this way, that the Almighty, according to my idea, my judgment, according to what I have seen, is all movement, without however moving, all perfections, all life.

He is the principle of movement, consequently the principle of the life of all that has been created, and of all that he will want to create again. Such is my idea of ​​the perfections of God, and one cannot form a more faithful picture, more true of what I put forward, than by examining the interior perfections of his creature, of his children.

According to the faithful table of the perfections of God, we will add three movements.

The first movement is God himself, creator of the universe. It is the first principle of heat, and heat the life principle of everything.

The second is elementary movement. It is multiplying, and aided by the solar rays or third movement, it ferments all seeds; of the three kingdoms, and manifests itself only by their productions and growth; he participates and depends on the first, he will be as long as the world lasts.

The third movement is the movement of the rays of the sun, helping and strengthening every creature weakened by old age.

The first movement is eternal like God, its principle.

The other two depending on it will be only as much as the almighty Creator wills. Which will fix the end of time and the beginning of eternity.

Cold, the product of rest, is the opposite of the last two movements;it is the principle of death, and demonstrates it wherever it dominates.

§ Second Lesson.

Passing one day in front of Notre-Dame de Paris, I examined with great attention the beautiful sculptures with which the three doors are adorned, and I saw at one of these three doors a hieroglyph of the most beautiful, of which I had never noticed, and for several days in a row I was going to consult it to be able to give the detail of all that it represented, at which I arrived - By what follows, the reader will be convinced of it, and even better by transporting himself to the scene. .

At one of the three large entrance doors of the Notre-Dame church, cathedral of Paris, and on the one on the side of the Hôtel Dieu, is carved on a large stone in the middle of the said entrance door, and opposite the Parvis, the hieroglyph above, representing as clearly as possible (for those who know how to explain the hieroglyphs) all the work, and the product or the result of the philosopher's stone. — This hieroglyph was sculpted during the erection of this beautiful church, founded by Guillaume, bishop of Paris, and I will explain as best I can to make myself useful, and help the amateurs of hermetic philosophy, and make myself known to my fellow men.

I

At the bottom of this hieroglyph, which is carved on a long and large square of stone, is on the left side of the side of the Hotel Dieu, two small solid and projecting circles, representing the raw metallic natures or coming out of the mine (which will have to be prepared by several fusions and saline helpers).

II

On the opposite side are also the same two circles or natures, but worked and cleared of the dirt they bring from the mines, which were used in their creation.

III

And opposite the side of the Parvis, are also the same two circles or natures, but perfected or totally freed from their filth by means of previous fusions. The first represent the metallic bodies that must be taken to begin the hermetic work.

The second worked, show us their inner virtue, and relate to this man who is in a box, who being surrounded and covered with flames of fire, takes birth in the fire.

And the third, perfected or totally freed from their filth, relates to the Babylonian dragon or philosopher's mercury, in which are united all the virtues of the metallic natures.

This dragon is in front of the Court and above this man who is surrounded and covered with flame of fire, and the end of the tail of this dragon holds this man, to designate that he comes out of him and that he is produced from it, and his two claws embrace the athanor to designate that he is there or must be put there in digestion, and his head ends and lies below the feet of the bishop.

It should not be thought that it is a corpse in a coffin, if it were so it would be lying flat, instead it is almost straight and is surrounded and covered with flames of fire (1).

I will therefore say that of this man who was born in fire, and by the work of flying eagles represented by several flowers formed of four joined leaves which surround the bottom of his body, and is produced the Babylonian dragon of which Nicolas Flamel, hermetic philosopher of the city of Paris speaks; or the philosopher's mercury.

This philosopher's mercury is put in a glass egg, and this egg is put in digestion or in long boiling in the athanor, or furnace finished in the round or vault, on which are placed the feet of the bishop, and under which (as I said) is the head of the dragon (2) - From this mercury results the life represented by the bishop who is above the said dragon.

And to prove that it is really that, I will say that if it were a bishop (and not a resemblance or demonstration of life), it would have been placed so that its feet were placed flat and on a flat ground, and not on the vault or dome which covers the athanor. — He is therefore represented as coming out of the athanor or lamp furnace, in which the philosopher's mercury has been digested.

This bishop puts a finger to his mouth, to say to those who see him and who come to learn about what he represents: If you recognize me and guess what I represent by this hieroglyph, shut up! Don't say anything! — So he represented everything that was necessary, as well as all the manual operations to be able to make the philosopher's stone; but he represented nothing of what concerns the multiplication of this divine stone. 'Like him, I'll keep quiet, I won't say a word.

I will only say that the result of the work of alchemy is life itself, and that this life is represented (as it is said above) by the bishop who is placed on the vault of the Athanor.

The philosopher's stone (which today is regarded only as madness in the eyes of a large number of men) can only be made by bringing together the blood (or metallic spirits) contained in natures. To obtain it, it will be (as it is said by Nicolas Flamel) to cut the throat, to assassinate several innocents (3) to draw from them, and to push it of power in action, this vital blood which we need, which we must put (after it will have been separated and well purified of its carnal or terrestrial parts) in bottles with long neck, to succeed in obtaining from it the panacea and the powder of projection which we desire, which we will be able to possess only after having cut the throat of several necessary innocents.

§Third Lesson.

M. de Gabriac, sub-prefect of Vigan, department of Gard, being in Paris, went every evening to the company of the minister, the Comte de Cases. There were assembled several solicitors of places, and while waiting to obtain them, they always conversed about the philosopher's stone and the means of increasing their fortune; a taste which need breeders in all men. He informed me of their conversation, and said to me: It is only you who can tell me the proofs that I must provide to defend myself, and to prove to one, the existence of the philosopher's stone; to the other, who does not doubt it, what metallic transmutation is; drinking gold, and other terms which confuse us, and which cause the greatest number of this society to doubt the truth of this science.“Since the truth is one, and that by reading the hermetic books, one sees there that the philosophers dealing with this science, use several names instead of using only one to express the same thing. — That's what makes people go astray when talking about this science, and end up doubting it. 'As for me, I believe in it firmly by everything you told me at the time. to write you a letter with which you will defend yourself, and you will prove its reality, as well as the great virtues it has within it .— That's what makes people go astray when talking about this science, and end up doubting it. 'As for me, I believe in it firmly by everything you told me at the time. “I answered him everything I would tell you to convince these gentlemen of the truth of the philosopher's stone; you would forget it: I am going to write you a letter with which you will defend yourself, and you will prove its reality, as well as the great virtues it has within it. - Which I did immediately. — That's what makes people go astray when talking about this science, and end up doubting it.

'As for me, I believe in it firmly by everything you told me at the time.“I answered him everything I would tell you to convince these gentlemen of the truth of the philosopher's stone; you would forget it: I am going to write you a letter with which you will defend yourself, and you will prove its reality, as well as the great virtues it has within it. - Which I did immediately. and you will prove its reality, as well as the great virtues it has within it. - Which I did immediately. and you will prove its reality, as well as the great virtues it has within it. - Which I did immediately.

To M. de Gabriac, sub-prefect of Vigan, department of Gard, presently in Paris.
Paris, February 2, 1820.

“Sir,

You will find below the technical terms which the hermetic philosophers of all countries have used, and which they have generally recognized among themselves to designate (although in different languages) the hermetic work and its product, generally known as the philosopher's stone, or occult stone: and as far as my knowledge in this science could allow me. Who are:

1° Philosopher's stone, or occult stone;
2. Medicine of the three kingdoms, or universal medicine;
3° Metallic transmutation;
4° Potable gold, panacea gold.

First state

By the word philosopher's stone, or occult stone: these same chemists, in all their works dealing with this science, have intended to designate the materials and operations required by hermetic chemistry, the aim of which is to obtain. by a long and tiring work, a red powder (in which resides the virtue of fixing mercury), or an exalted gold: as would be the brandy reduced and pushed to three-six; with regard to wine, its principle or vehicle.

Second state

This red powder has many names and properties, and in the second perfect state (which is always, as we have said, an exalted gold), assumes that of medicine of the three kingdoms, or universal medicine: and is generally recognized thus by all hermetic philosophers.

Third estate and first job

When ordinary men speak of the philosopher's stone, we mean to speak of metallic transmutation, or the elevation of ordinary metals into perfect gold. — The hermetic philosophers designate this operation, or first use, only by the word metallic transmutation. And it is always this same red powder (which then takes the name of powder of projection, or medicine of metals) which is the principle and the ferment of metallic transmutation, which always retains the name of medicine of the three kingdoms, or universal medicine. — This operation only takes an hour.
Fourth estate and second job

In the second use it takes the name of potable gold and of panacea, or of universal medicine for animals and plants. — And it is always this same red powder (to a degree known only to hermetic philosophers), which is diluted in half a glass of water, or some other vehicle, and which is given to the patient (or which is poured over the root of the plant), by virtue of which one succeeds in curing him of whatever illness he finds himself attacked: which seems impossible although very true.

In this fourth state and second employment, the patient is cured in a day or a month, according to the gravity of the disease.

This divine panacea does even more: it puts the aged, decrepit man, who uses it for a time known only to philosophers, in a state of complete health and strength;it restores to it its youth and its freshness, and it restores it to a perfect state: that is to say, freed from all germs of disease.

In this fourth and same state, used on the vegetable, certain plants grow in twenty-four hours, leaves, flowers and fruits in perfect maturity: which must be regarded as a miracle of nature.

So the words:

1° Philosopher's stone, or occult stone;

2. Medicine of the three kingdoms, or universal medicine;

3° Metallic transmutation;

4° Potable gold, or panacea: are the same and designate the work and the product of the magisterium of the hermetic philosophers, or of the great work: the thing itself and its virtues.

It is therefore not surprising that men who are unaware of the work of alchemy confuse the words which the adepts use and will always use to designate the philosopher's stone and its virtue in the kingdom where it is used. — This can only be exactly explained and designated by true hermetic philosophers. — Any other person (although very learned in the other sciences) can only stray into this one, of which the Hermetic philosophers have written and spoken only in riddles, and in a manner always very obscure. — That, my dear sir and friend, is what I can tell you to clarify and properly apply to each state and use of the philosopher's stone its proper names (as well as the virtues of universal medicine) generally confused by all men.

I salute you,

L. CAMBRIEL.

§ Fourth Lesson.

Of metallic fermentation, of its needs, and of the great advantages which it produces.

Without fermentation, the seed of metals would not acquire the virtue of multiplying: it is therefore indispensable. — It is she who, in the vegetable kingdom, develops and manifests the vital and vegetative virtue: without this virtue neither of the two vegetable and animal kingdoms could either be born or multiply. — The mineral kingdom can only achieve this with the help and assistance of the artist, of whom it cannot do without, having no visible movement.

It is therefore necessary that the artist, plowing in the work of alchemy, does not miss the fermentation, and does not believe he can do without it. — He must convince himself that all sperm, all semen, of whatever kingdom they may be, can only produce their fellows, and push out their germ with the help of putrefaction which enables the semen to be able to develop. — The artist must examine the grain of wheat and vegetables, the artist must examine the grain of wheat and vegetables, which, although placed in the earth, which is their matrix, their mother: if they do not swell there and do not rot, their vital germ will never grow, will not manifest itself to produce their similar and multiply them.A learned man, the Abbé Sausse, chaplain to Louis XVIII, King of France, whom I made an acquaintance with, had worked for more than thirty years on the philosopher's stone: he was like the greatest number of researchers who always imagine that they have succeeded or hope to succeed. This abbot had managed to collect many rays of the celestial sun, having the color and the dryness of the metallic form. Surprised by such a resemblance to the Trevisan golden booklet, I could refrain from expressing to him my astonishment at his discovery; recognizing him the most advanced of all those who labored to discover the philosopher's stone, and the one who had approached it the most: of which and he was very satisfied. having the color and dryness of the metallic form.Surprised by such a resemblance to the Trevisan golden booklet, I could refrain from expressing to him my astonishment at his discovery; recognizing him the most advanced of all those who labored to discover the philosopher's stone, and the one who had approached it the most: of which and he was very satisfied. having the color and dryness of the metallic form.

Surprised by such a resemblance to the Trevisan golden booklet, I could refrain from expressing to him my astonishment at his discovery; recognizing him the most advanced of all those who labored to discover the philosopher's stone, and the one who had approached it the most: of which and he was very satisfied.

As a true man, I could not help saying to him: my dear abbot, it is because you have found this that you will not be able to finish the philosopher's stone. - And why not, he answered me, if as you say, I already have the solar rays, which are the form and the male, without which one cannot fertilize the feminine matter to succeed in making the philosopher's stone. I tell him, you are mistaken: - and to convince you, my dear abbé, that you are in error, pay close attention to what I am going to tell you. The philosopher's stone cannot be made without the metallic male and female (and helpers) who are its two natures. But it is necessary, as in the animal kingdom, that its two natures operate jointly,and unite their fires in the same second to produce the orific child which must come out of them; and that the union of their seeds results in a third product which we will name moist radical; after it has been cleansed of its impurities and has acquired in them by fermentation the desired virtue, without which the male seed and the female matter remain cold and benumbed, and cannot manifest the life which is in them; nor that multiplicative virtue which is visible to hermetic philosophers only through the eyes of the imaginative mind. without which the masculine seed and the feminine matter remain cold and dull, and cannot manifest the life that is in them;nor that multiplicative virtue which is visible to hermetic philosophers only through the eyes of the imaginative mind. without which the masculine seed and the feminine matter remain cold and dull, and cannot manifest the life that is in them; nor that multiplicative virtue which is visible to hermetic philosophers only through the eyes of the imaginative mind.

What I am telling you, my dear abbot, annoys you; but I made it a point to tell the truth, and I always will.

To give you a proof of what I am telling you, and of the sincerity of my observations, I am going to give you an easy picture. I tell him; however, work always, never deviate from the metallic kingdom, follow nature which, all powerful as she is, can do nothing, produce nothing in any of the three kingdoms without the fermentative virtue which is the means she uses: which in the animal kingdom only (after having given to natures the existence, the temporal life, the only one that nature gives them), facilitates them, helps them, and puts them in a position to be able of themselves to succeed in multiplying.

Let us suppose that a man had taken it into his head to be able to engender his fellow man, by going about it differently than one should go about it naturally, and that to achieve this, he had gone to Versailles to seek and obtain male semen, which he would have received and put in a bottle. "And to procure the material or feminine seed, he went to get it at Fontainebleau." — And that having brought to Paris and into his dwelling the seeds of the two natures, he had imagined himself obtaining a child from them by their union alone without this indispensable virtue, essential for begetting, which cannot, as we have already said, be introduced there by fermentation, which only manifests itself after the union of the two seeds put in the same second, in the womb of their reign.

It is therefore fermentation that adds to this confection or compost; this generative and multiplicative virtue which can only be added to it by this single matter. — Only then is this union of the two seeds called first matter.

Convinced by my observation that he was in error, and that he was very far from having what he desired; he begged me, begged me to tell him and to give him the means to be able to achieve this meeting well, to obtain this virtue that one cannot have otherwise. I replied that I had come to see him, that I was not asking him for any of his secrets, and that I could not give him mine.

This saddened and disgusted him for several months of alchemical work.

What does not happen in the same way to the other two kingdoms, since they need to be helped by man. It is therefore fermentation alone which procures this virtue, and which facilitates the metallic form enclosed in metals (after it is extracted from them and placed in its own earth or womb), the means of manifesting the power that God gave her to fertilize the feminine matter, to make it grow and to cause it to multiply . But it is necessary to distinguish the degree of this fermentation, and in order not to deviate from it in this work, it will be necessary to reflect well on its three different degrees; which are very well explained in the 3rd volume of the Egyptian and Greek Fables Unveiled, by Pernety.

The above note gives me the desire to see the government issue an ordinance which expressly defines the burial of anyone without the putrefaction of the body having manifested itself. Then one would be quite convinced that the elements earth and water which constituted the body, have separated from those air and fire which animated it, and that there is no longer in it any terrestrial, vegetative life, which served as a link and united the perishable material body with the immortal, divine soul, as was said above.

By this precaution the man would not be exposed to being buried alive: which sometimes happens to those who die suddenly by some attack of apoplexy or other.

Men who have been exhumed have been seen to live for several more years in good health, as well as others who, having been buried alive, were found to have gnawed and eaten their fists.

80 years ago in a village hospital, a sick person who was thought to be dead and over whom a sheet had been thrown, was visited six hours later by a charitable lady who threw holy water on him: the latter said to him: what a good soul sent you here to bring me back to life!... Which greatly surprised the charitable lady.

Another less ancient resurrection or impediment to dying happened to Mr. Candy, from Lyon, during his first trip to Paris, he was then 18 years old, and had a dancer from the Opera for his mistress: an illness took him, he became so ill that the assistants saw him dead. —Her good friend, sorry for her loss, goes to find M. Leriche, farrier and hermetic philosopher, rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, near the Abbey, whom she knows has brought other people back to life; solicits him, begs him to come and give his care, his aid to his deceased friend; he promises it, and goes immediately to the dead man's house. As he was going up the stairs, a person coming down said to him: Mr. Leriche, he is useless to go up, he has been dead for six hours."Since I am here," replied M. Leriche, I'm going up; what he did: saw the corpse, touched it and found it cold in every part of its body, except in the pit of the stomach where it still found a little warmth: so he said, there is still hope. Quickly, he makes a big fire, prepares everything, gives his care, heats the body and anoints it entirely with universal medicine dissolved in the spirit of wine, and an hour and a half after having operated in the same way, presents a mirror to the mouth of the alleged dead, who was covered and stained with his breath and breath: which made him say, he will live. —Heat the bed, and when the patient had given a stronger sign of return to life, he had him put in it.— Continue to administer to him internally a little universal medicine which he made him swallow, and the man who had been buried eighteen hours later was restored to life. Since then he has been doing well, and no serious illness has affected him. He is 84 years old, and has been living in Paris for the second time in 40 years. His body no doubt fortified by universal medicine; was put and still stands in a state of perfect health (3).

One can convince oneself of the truth of what I am saying by going to Place du Chevalier du Guet, N° 6, where the said resurrected remains. We will find him working as a mechanic, and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself;he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son. and no serious disease has reached him. He is 84 years old, and has been living in Paris for the second time in 40 years. His body no doubt fortified by universal medicine; was put and still stands in a state of perfect health (3). One can convince oneself of the truth of what I am saying by going to Place du Chevalier du Guet, N° 6, where the said resurrected remains. We will find him working as a mechanic, and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself;he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son. and no serious disease has reached him. He is 84 years old, and has been living in Paris for the second time in 40 years. His body no doubt fortified by universal medicine; was put and still stands in a state of perfect health (3). One can convince oneself of the truth of what I am saying by going to Place du Chevalier du Guet, N° 6, where the said resurrected remains. We will find him working as a mechanic, and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself;he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son. His body no doubt fortified by universal medicine; was put and still stands in a state of perfect health (3).

One can convince oneself of the truth of what I am saying by going to Place du Chevalier du Guet, N° 6, where the said resurrected remains. We will find him working as a mechanic, and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself; he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son.His body no doubt fortified by universal medicine; was put and still stands in a state of perfect health (3). One can convince oneself of the truth of what I am saying by going to Place du Chevalier du Guet, N° 6, where the said resurrected remains. We will find him working as a mechanic, and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself; he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son. and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself;he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son. and we will know the truth from Mr. Candy himself; he will be happy to tell it, he will even add very curious things relating to my narration concerning Mr. Leriche, blacksmith and hermetic philosopher, as well as the reason which caused the death of the latter's son.

If the body of Mr. Candy had been without a small part of this terrestrial vegetative life, the celestial life could not have remained there, and the universal medicine which was administered to him by the philosopher would have operated nothing: because it is a fundamental principle that life operates only on life by increasing it, and never on a dead body, consequently deprived of this terrestrial, elementary spirit, or first life.

1. We recognize the good and true fermentation in the metallic kingdom, by the strong odor which is exhaled from it. And in the animal kingdom, it manifests itself in women, newly fertilized, by a desire to spit, and sometimes to vomit continually; by weakness and stomach-aches, occasioned by the vapors which rise in their womb; finally, by a total indifference of themselves and of all previous tastes.

2. Man has two lives within him: the first, terrestrial and vegetative (which I am dealing with), therefore subject to perish: it comes to him from his father and mother. The second, celestial, divine, consequently eternal, like its author. The first ends one day by the separation of the same elements which produced it; what I call bodily death, or visible cessation of life. The second, which the author of all things sends to the creature after it has been conceived and formed in the human womb, by virtue of the male seed, is immortal. It leaves this source of light to come and unite itself with this newly formed body; and to make him partakers of the celestial glory, as a creature formed in the image and likeness of God;and to make us little gods, without, however, this separation from the light and gift of God in any way diminishing its power, its virtue, its perfection. It is like a lighted candle which never loses its brightness, although it gives and communicates its light to a million other candles; who, like the first, can communicate it, multiply it infinitely. Such is the idea I was able to form of the Divinity; which being all light, never loses a spark of it, whatever gifts it makes of it. The first life of man is an earthly spirit, the second is a heavenly spirit. Both constitute by their union a perfect animal body. And though man's body is celestially animated, it is doomed to end.However, the material body of man still retains within it a small part of that immortality which God granted to human nature at the time of creation; and which we have lost only by the first disobedience, which small part of immortality is shown (when the body of the animal, perfect or imperfect, is put in the earth), by the production which the whole dead body manifests by the effect of corruption, either in worms which have life, or in herbs, on which other animals feed, which gave rise to metempsychosis.

The immortal does not leave the body of the perfect animal and does not separate from it; as long as it retains within itself a small part of this earthly, vegetative or first life,which is the result and production of the second degree of the fermentation or putrefaction of the seeds which contained it; and a spirit produced by the elements, which serves as a medium between the material human body, and the divine soul which gives it perfection. It is therefore this other terrestrial spirit (which is called, in every imperfect animal, iustinel), which unites the material, perishable human body with the divine, eternal soul: the high with the low, the celestial with the terrestrial, which is seen only in the animal kingdom, and in man only. Other animals having only vegetative life, and earthly spirit, or instinct, are deprived of this advantage.It is therefore this other terrestrial spirit (which is called, in every imperfect animal, iustinel), which unites the material, perishable human body with the divine, eternal soul: the high with the low, the celestial with the terrestrial, which is seen only in the animal kingdom, and in man only. Other animals having only vegetative life, and earthly spirit, or instinct, are deprived of this advantage. It is therefore this other terrestrial spirit (which is called, in every imperfect animal, iustinel), which unites the material, perishable human body with the divine, eternal soul: the high with the low, the celestial with the terrestrial, which is seen only in the animal kingdom, and in man only.Other animals having only vegetative life, and earthly spirit, or instinct, are deprived of this advantage.

3. The body of Mr. Candi, by the great virtue of universal medicine, was so strongly purified of all germs of disease, and so fortified, that in the two trips he made to Turkey and Egypt, a few years later, he was twice attacked there by plague (having been put with the plague-stricken), and he was cured of it without taking any remedy. He still has all his black hair, although he is eighty-four years old.

§ Fifth Lesson.

Visible principles necessary for the work, of the destruction of which a chaos is composed.

First chapter.

I. Salt, sulfur and metallic mercury. “They must be purified by themselves.

II. The male, the female, and the melting and purifying nitre salt. — Read wisely.

III. The philosophers stone or their compound. Foundation of the Philosopher's Stone. — Destroy, purify and unite, then you will have the stone of the philosophers.

IV. Damp chaos, where all the elements will be confused. — Dry it; bring them out in order, and make a new stone.

The raw material of the philosopher's stone is obtained only by the union of the spirits contained in the metallic bodies: I mean, that the perfection of the thing which can perfect all things comes from the union and the purification of the spirits contained in the productions left imperfect by nature.

It is therefore in perfect bodies that you will find, if you know how to open metals, this first seed, containing the universal spirit of the philosopher's stone. “Let Vulcan join you, he will be useful to you; but nevertheless be wary of him, because he could abuse your confidence if you granted it to him entirely; therefore be very reserved with him.

Second Chapter.
Of the three ways of operating, necessary to succeed in perfecting the hermetic work.

We will manage to finish this divine work, by following exactly the following three ways of operating:

The first consists in reducing a stone, or philosophical gold, into water: because in any generation the seeds of all the three Kingdoms, represent only humidity and hold more of the element of water, than of the three others.

The second consists in perfectly purifying the product of materials, principle; of all dirt.
And the third consists in making the coction of the philosopher's mercury in a round vessel with a long neck, hermetically closed, by elixation and assation.

When the philosophical metals, the sun and the moon, have been reduced to mercurial water and this water will have been thoroughly cleaned of all faeces, it will be digested in an athanor and the appropriate fire will be administered there, conforming to the third way of operating. — Everything therefore consists in reducing the philosophical metals to water, and then, by a long digestion, in reducing this water to stone, from which it took its origin: that is its end.

Third Chapter.
From where it is necessary to leave to begin the work of alchemy.

The best way to proceed, to arrive with less difficulty in finding the philosopher's stone, is to start from a known principle, in order to be able to arrive at the unknown that we seek: which is the universal medicine and the powder of projection; and it will always be in vain that we work to achieve it, if we start from an unknown principle.

It will therefore be necessary to start from a good path, which is the known principle, in order to be able to arrive at the unknown goal to which one wishes to arrive. — The right path is hardly followed. Many of those who work at the philosopher's stone imagine that they will arrive there without knowing the necessary principles, or the two hermetic serpents which alone contain and are at the base of the first seed of the metals. — The known, are the metallic male and female; the unknown is universal medicine and projection powder. — And that's where researchers want to arrive without taking any pains: what they will never achieve, as long as they don't start from the known principle which is the only way to be able to arrive at the unknown, which is the finished work.

Fourth Chapter.
Two ways: dry and wet.

When the hermetic philosophers speak of two ways to do the work, they do not mean that one must choose one of the two, as do many amateurs who imagine that one is longer than the other. — Well, they show that the work must begin by the wet way, by reducing the philosophical metals to water; and that it must be continued and finished by the dry way, by reducing this water (which has become the first seed) to stone. — Which is achieved by means of the exterior fire which aids and excites the interior fire, or that of unnatural, and the sea capable of reducing this water to stone, by drying it by its hot virtue.

My goal in doing this Alchemy Course was not to mislead amateurs; different in my way of writing from that of my predecessors, I will not present two ways, as they did, or two different ways to arrive at the same result: but only one. — And although the philosophers say that there are two ways or means to get there, we must not, however, take everything they say as true: they have reasons for speaking thus; they cannot be explained clearly, because the science must be kept hidden. I hide it too; and despite that, I am very convinced that I am explaining myself too clearly: which makes me fear that one day my fellow men will reproach me for what I have written.

Fifth Chapter.
Of the operations necessary to succeed in making the separation well, and the joining together of the principles for the work.

The fusion, the marriages, the pulverization, the distillation, the whitening, the sublimation and the calcination, as well as the separation and reunions of the principles, do not always designate a whole operation of the work; but apart, and are essential to achieve a good end. — So the vessel, the male and the female, the body and the spirit, the dry thing which must be picked up and what must contain it, are not always separate things: the Hermetic philosophers know how to unite and separate them according to the need of the moment. But because the work is too long by doing the above operations separately;and that it could be greatly shortened by performing two operations at the same time, and that it could be further shortened by performing three or four by one (at which I have arrived, after having worked for a long time to find the way that worked well for me). I invite those who work and seek to discover this beautiful science, to find this means; and if they succeed, then it will be easy for them to do the magisterium perfectly. But they must take care that the lime, metals, salts, spirit and sulphur, which for fourteen years I have sometimes prepared and purified separately (which obliged me to use several furnaces at the same time), do not separate and evaporate;I warn them not to make under the vase, containing them, a fire that suits the different materials united there. "That's the only way to shorten it and do it well." to find this way; and if they succeed, then it will be easy for them to do the magisterium perfectly. But they must take care that the lime, metals, salts, spirit and sulphur, which for fourteen years I have sometimes prepared and purified separately (which obliged me to use several furnaces at the same time), do not separate and evaporate; I warn them not to make under the vase, containing them, a fire that suits the different materials united there.

"That's the only way to shorten it and do it well." to find this way;and if they succeed, then it will be easy for them to do the magisterium perfectly. But they must take care that the lime, metals, salts, spirit and sulphur, which for fourteen years I have sometimes prepared and purified separately (which obliged me to use several furnaces at the same time), do not separate and evaporate; I warn them not to make under the vase, containing them, a fire that suits the different materials united there. "That's the only way to shorten it and do it well." that for fourteen years I have sometimes prepared and purified separately (which obliged me to use several furnaces at the same time), do not separate and do not evaporate; I warn them not to make under the vase, containing them, a fire that suits the different materials united there."That's the only way to shorten it and do it well." that for fourteen years I have sometimes prepared and purified separately (which obliged me to use several furnaces at the same time), do not separate and do not evaporate; I warn them not to make under the vase, containing them, a fire that suits the different materials united there. "That's the only way to shorten it and do it well."

§ Sixth Lesson.

First chapter.
Philosophical mountain.

It is essential to see it or to imagine it, and even more to be able to climb it. — It is therefore necessary that, in order to be able to complete the hermetic work (which is a gift from God), the philosopher must manage to make his flying eagles ascend, walk and leap there. It is on this mountain, that the eagles or hermetic birds will strip themselves of their bad feathers and will acquire there an all white plumage, a little golden inside. Let's bring our birds there; let them ascend it by gradation, and do not allow them to move away from each other.If we succeed in being able to make them traverse the said mountain to its summit and to bring them down slowly, we will be very near the end of our work (since only then will they have succeeded in whitening their wings perfectly, which will serve as sheets and as a bed in which the hermetic spouses must sleep (Apollo and Diana), and our happiness will only be the continuation and the end of it; it is through patience and the help of God that we will succeed .

Second Chapter.
Metallic chaos containing the principles of the work.

The alchemists, in order not to get lost in the long work of the great work, are obliged to recognize and compose several chaoses, and to direct themselves according to the number. And it is almost always from their destruction, composition and coction of a single one, that their elixir (their medicine) must issue; which cannot be perfect if it unites in itself the four qualities of the elements, nor gives us this divine medicine, only after having passed through all its colors, each of which marks the denomination of a particular element of which it must be composed. — The first consist of the destruction of the perfect bodies or metals, of the sun and the moon, which in this operation must be destroyed separately, and the others, after having been united into a single body.— The second consists of the perfect purification of the first and their union with their spirit. — The former are usually dry, hot. — The latter are almost always wet. And it is on their perfect purification, alliance and reunion of the four elements, that the success of our hermetic work depends.

Third Chapter.
Artwork flying eagles.

We will divide the flying eagles into several parts.

The first as preparatory,

The second as essential,

And the third as final: consequently indispensable.

By this detail we will be able to convince the amateurs plowing at work, as we ourselves are, that the work of alchemy could not reach its perfection without these three ways of operating. — They must therefore be equal, progressive and slow. — Finally, the hermetic, plowing philosopher must penetrate himself although the success of his alchemical work depends on it.

Fourth Chapter.
Conduct and proportion to keep during practice.

In using the materials, we will pay close attention to the quantity, quality and purity; and we will follow by whole, half, fraction, etc., increases, additions, washings, scraping off dirt, and we will only use pure, clean water, and we will dry the white paste in the sun and on very clean white paper.

We will pay a lot of attention to the detonations that our matter will cause by the separation of the principles (necessary separation) that the fire will be made, and we will take care to push it always only until the fusion, or sometimes to the perfect dryness of the matter remaining in the vessel used for the operation: it is essential.And we will realize the loss, reduction, or increase of the remaining matter, by means of the scales which we cannot do without and which must always be permanently.

§ Seventh Lesson.

First chapter.
Principal elements and principalized elements.

Hermetic philosophers, different from school philosophers and chemists, admit and recognize only four elements: earth, water, air and fire; and are convinced that these are the pricipiant elements. From these four principiant elements, there result the principiated elements, or the three principles, which are: salt, sulfur and mercury. And of these three united, perfect mercury, or the first matter of metals.

Of these three principles (which we often happen to touch with our hands), nature forms the two natures; the male and the female, and these last two, in some operations of hermetic work, manifest the metallic salt and sulfur of which they are composed; and joined with mercury, they are the foundation of our work. They are therefore alone sufficient to procreate their fellows, and to multiply them ad infinitum, as God has willed. In these two natures, which contain the principles of our work, are found the qualities and virtues of the four principiating elements, as well as those of the three principles, or principiated elements.

These two natures no longer existing, having changed form, are no longer part of the hermetic genealogical tree, just as in Genesis Cain and Abel are forgotten, though they were necessary, having been recognized as the foundation and stock of human posterity. Ours are also of metallic and alchemical posterity… What injustice to forget them?

Second Chapter.
Bodies and minds needed to do the work.

Without the metallic bodies, we will never have the necessary soul or vital spirits. It is therefore from the bodies that we will have to take them out, and to take them out, we will have to open them: and by this operation we will be convinced of the truth of science.

Without the extraction of the spirits contained in the first bodies, which by taking them out with the help of Vulcan, sometimes form a new one: the essential and perfect union of the said principle spirits, which are hidden there, with those which are separated from them, would never be made, and the first matter of metals would be lacking.

It will therefore be necessary, to obtain this first matter of metals, to reduce all the new bodies into spirit, into water, and by this means we will hide, from all those who are unworthy of it, the means of finding and seeing the truth of alchemy, and then we will corporify these united spirits.

Destroy, form, purify and unite. It will therefore be by the union of spirits drawn from perfect bodies that we will manage to work the miracles of a single thing, as our father Hermes showed us.

Third Chapter.
Fires in general and sublimations.

There are three inner fires, and three outer fires, or three ways of employing them or making use of them, and two of uniting them.

There are also three sublimations, or three ways of doing them.

There are also three ways to direct the fires.

On their union and their direction and use depends the success of the hermetic work.

§ Eighth Lesson.

First chapter.
Treatise on Salt, First Principle, by Order of Work.

Salt, which is generally acknowledged to be the first principle in our work, is always found invisible, or seen only by the eyes of the imagination, though real, except that by some clumsy stroke (and at the time of its formation) the artist makes it visible; it is always more favorable to us when it is invisible. — But what is difficult to understand is that, of three essential principles, two of which are always visible and palpable, salt, not being so, and not ought not to be, since it is produced only by the bodily destruction of its brothers, is placed in the first rank, plays (although always remaining hidden behind the philosophical curtain), the first role, and becomes the indispensable object of our work; it must be so, since it is recognized as a fundamental principle,in all philosophical operations; that of two, there must always be produced a third, who himself becomes first, and then he is the depositary of the virtues of his fathers and mother, to represent them if need be.

This salt cannot be better represented than that which grows on the ground, and which one often sees in the cellars when one goes down there, which is only a nitre suitable for the manufacture of gunpowder.

Do not think for that that the one I am dealing with is the common nitre, nor the sea salt, nor the salt of tartar; that which I am dealing with, although vegetable, animal and mineral, belongs more to this last kingdom, since it is its base, and is always incombustible; advantage that other salts do not have.— It must therefore be found incombustible and capable of being reduced to mercurial water, whence it is drawn; because it is also a fundamental principle, that to achieve metallic transmutation, it is necessary that the corporeal principles serving our work, become again what they were before; that is to say, they must change form and become water again.

It is therefore necessary to work the material until we have extracted from it this invisible salt, which is only a metallic spirit, which it will be necessary to free from its impurities, so that it preserves in itself this love for its brothers, and cannot become ungrateful of the virtue which it will have to fix; advantage that it will only be up to them. — It will therefore only be when he is reduced to mercury that he will be able to manifest his virtue. Then, in concert with sulfur and mercury, with which it must be united, it can be regarded as being on the way to acquiring by coction, the power to exercise its power; which, the projection powder of which it will be an essential part, will contain perfectly.

Second Chapter.
Sulfur treaty, second principle: by order of work.

Sulfur was looked up for the second principle in the work of alchemy; its virtues are to give liquid matter shape and color. — It is dull red, and spotted with white; it is easily reduced to powder, because of its dryness, but worked until more than it is necessary, it becomes again metal, malleable.

Unhappy is the artist, when he pushes him to this point, which is proof of his ignorance, his lack of experience and the waste of his time. In this state he cannot be useful to us, having resumed his corporeal form, which made him lose the virtue and the advantage of being able to return to his first principles. What we need are liquid spirits (but not bodies) or products resembling them and capable of becoming so.

Third Chapter.
Treaty of Mercury; third principle: by order of work.

Mercury, which is recognized as the third principle of the work, could be put first, since it is only by it that the hermetic philosopher manages to open the metal, and to make the invisible visible, and that it is also only by its means, that the union of the other two principles is made. — It is therefore he who receives the other two, and who feeds them; it is he who is the vase in which they bathe: he is therefore water; and it is in this water that the fixed grain is put to putrefy there, and that it pushes its germ.

Observation.

When I treated of the three principles, salt, sulfur and mercury, I did not hear of those of which our two natures are formed by nature; but many of those (although the same ones) who in the course of the work (beginning with the first marriage, until the second, or better said, until the double water) form the leafy earth; from which the earth of the leaves is produced.

§ Ninth Lesson.

First chapter.
First nature of hot fire.

The male has always been regarded, by all hermetic philosophers, for the first nature without which the cold matter, or the female, could not be fertilized. — It must therefore be chosen healthy and vigorous; it is of very great price when no imperfection does not diminish in it the quality of prolific virtue, or of formative spirit necessary to work the mineral menstrual matter and to arrive at the desired perfection. - We must open this male, without however killing him (because nothing dead can serve our work), and draw from him his blood or this form, and this spirit, or hot natural fire which we cannot do without. “It is easily achieved, but not without difficulty. Our male is rough and very often intractable;but we manage to soften him by giving him a beautiful, young and tender female, to which he goes. He is a passionate lover of fair sex; to promise it to him and to give it to him is the only way to soften what is rough and fierce in him: he is indomitable without that. — Different from man, he is in love even in decrepit age; and the hot sperm that is in him does not diminish in strength or virtue, however old he may be. It can therefore be taken at any age, provided that it is beautiful, well made and free of its coarse hair. It will be necessary to give him a wife: because nothing in this world comes from a male without union with his female. It is this second nature that we will deal with in the next chapter.— Different from man, he is in love even in decrepit age; and the hot sperm that is in him does not diminish in strength or virtue, however old he may be. It can therefore be taken at any age, provided that it is beautiful, well made and free of its coarse hair. It will be necessary to give him a wife: because nothing in this world comes from a male without union with his female. It is this second nature that we will deal with in the next chapter.

— Different from man, he is in love even in decrepit age; and the hot sperm that is in him does not diminish in strength or virtue, however old he may be. It can therefore be taken at any age, provided that it is beautiful, well made and free of its coarse hair.It will be necessary to give him a wife: because nothing in this world comes from a male without union with his female. It is this second nature that we will deal with in the next chapter.

Second Chapter.
Second nature, or cold, damp fire.

The female has been regarded, by all hermetic philosophers, as second nature (it contains cold unnatural fire); its qualities are to be cold and damp, though hot by temperament; her periods are very corrosive. — You have to choose her beautiful, shiny, white skin. — Although very loving, she is very often indifferent and fickle. — This defect, which is naturally too attached in her, very often does not allow her to unite with her husband; she pushes him away. — Delicate like our little mistresses; full of pretensions and pride, the husband they want to give her cannot please her: but by dressing him and making him beautiful, she allows herself to be approached."And although there is a natural and loving love between them, they cannot be united, if Vulcan, who is the matchmaker of our beautiful marriages, did not find himself humiliated and his self-esteem wounded by not succeeding in making this beautiful bond; from which, as from that of Dejodée, the most beautiful children are to be born. 'He must therefore use finesse, arrange for them one, and even several interviews; which he achieves with a few little lies pardonable to one who, like Vulcan, has such good intentions .— He manages to unite our beautiful spouses and takes care to leave them only their finest garments, and combines them so strongly that their opposite virtues (cold and hot), he makes of them a product which is of very great price, and from which the hermetic and experienced philosopher knows how to draw the greatest benefit for the philosophical work. — Vulcan, although lame (being unaccustomed to women, having married Venus the most beautiful), becomes a being to be feared; he could very well fall in love with the allied object and put division in our beautiful couple.

— To prevent this misfortune, the laboring philosopher takes care never to leave him alone: ​​either with the wife or with the husband.This precaution is not a useless precaution, if we want peace and if we want to be certain that our husband can convince himself of being the father of the child that his wife will bring into the world, and that he can also be assured that his child, for whom he has sacrificed his entire existence, will not enjoy a valetudinary life, but indeed the long, vigorous and powerful life that he gave to him and communicated in forming him. — Because, as I said above, she is very fickle, and that suits him a little; this revives the cares of her husband; this gives her a sort of authority over him, which however must end up being entirely ceded to the husband: because it is a fundamental principle that form must prevail over matter, and this is even by right.And so that all this is done in order and that everything is well observed, and that the product is of good quality and of the right kind, it will be necessary above all to wash our metals in a very sour vinegar, or, failing that, in the urine of old Saturn or else in that of a young child; in which they will delight and put off their original sin, and be made fitter to become and show themselves perfect. because it is a fundamental principle that the form must prevail over the material, and it is even by right.And so that all this is done in order and that everything is well observed, and that the product is of good quality and of the right kind, it will be necessary above all to wash our metals in a very sour vinegar, or, failing that, in the urine of old Saturn or else in that of a young child; in which they will delight and put off their original sin, and be made fitter to become and show themselves perfect.

because it is a fundamental principle that the form must prevail over the material, and it is even by right.And so that all this is done in order and that everything is well observed, and that the product is of good quality and of the right kind, it will be necessary above all to wash our metals in a very sour vinegar, or, failing that, in the urine of old Saturn or else in that of a young child; in which they will delight and put off their original sin, and be made fitter to become and show themselves perfect. in the urine of old Saturn or in that of a young child; in which they will delight and put off their original sin, and be made fitter to become and show themselves perfect. in the urine of old Saturn or in that of a young child; in which they will delight and put off their original sin, and be made fitter to become and show themselves perfect.

*

§ Tenth Lesson.

From the Philosopher's Stone and the Philosopher's Stone.

Two stones, beginning and end of the philosophical work, confuse the amateurs of this science so much that they do not know which of the two is the good one; they form a thousand ideas of it. — In order not to deceive them in their research and at the same time make it easy for them to achieve it, I will tell them that both are necessary and that we cannot do without them. The first, which is the stone of the philosophers, traces the path for us to arrive at the philosopher's stone, and is not separated from it; it is the principle of the work of alchemy, as the other is its end.

I will add to it, to clarify what I wrote about it above and to help amateurs plowing in hermetic science, that the stone of the philosophers is so necessary to make the stone philosopher, that one cannot do without it and that one cannot supplement it with something else.

It is therefore necessary that the ploughing philosopher, do as the locksmith who is obliged to make a key to open the lock that he must do at the same time. — Likewise, the ploughing philosopher must imitate the locksmith; he must begin by making a key to open the hermetic lock;and this essential key, which is nothing other than the stone of philosophers of the first order, when it is well made, will serve him and enable him to visit all the interior cabinets hidden from beginners and amateurs of alchemy), and will provide him with the means of opening and closing at will, or of representing to himself the most secret part of philosophy: and then he will succeed much more easily in making the philosopher's stone, at which he alone aims.

It is therefore necessary, I repeat, that he do like the locksmith: that he begins his alchemical work with this key, which, although not made of any metal (but indeed of the union and confusion, or mixture of the four qualities of the metallic elements), becomes indispensable to him in order to succeed.

It is true that it is very easy to find this essential key, and that only true adepts recognize it and find it much more easily when they want to use it than those who are amateurs; although these often pass their whole life in search of it by a continual reading of hermetic books. — Any other person, although possessing great knowledge, will always be mistaken: nature has so strongly concealed it in her cabinets.

Reflect on what I have said above, and never employ principles or matters of a foreign realm to that which you wish to raise and push to its perfection.

§ Eleventh Lesson.

First chapter.
Sublimation and airtight laundry.

Sublimation, according to Geber, a Hermetic philosopher, is the elevation which takes place by fire of a dry thing: so that it attaches itself to the vessel. As it is only philosophers who understand Geber and who, through their knowledge, see what he meant in these few words; that, moreover, they know and have held in their hands the dry thing and the vessel: it is therefore not from them that he has hidden this operation of alchemy; but good for beginners.

To speak to them with less finesse, I will tell them that sublimation is an operation by which the philosopher (following the example of the woman who does the laundry) cleans, washes, purifies, separates and finally frees his philosophical linen from all dirt, heterogeneity and rubbish, and disposes it by this work to receive perfection. — Its perfection consists in making it white, if the linen has a white background; or else to make it red, if the linen has been naturally dyed that color. — If the dyer (I mean the philosopher) knew well how to know the hour and the moment to communicate and unite to it one of these two colors, and likewise both at the same time, the result can only be white or red.

Second Chapter.
Inner fires contained in one of the last chaos.

We have treated in a previous chapter of the three fires; of the manner of directing and uniting them: but as we have not said everything and that we have not extended enough, we will add the following chapter to it. Hermetic philosophers recognize three fires in their work, which are visible only to the eyes of the imagination: consequently spiritual. The first is the natural male fire, trainer, agent. — The second is the feminine, material, patient unnatural fire. And the third is the unnatural fire, produced by the union of the first two, always ready to putrefy at a suitable heat: consequently to procreate the philosophical child. — And we can say that these three fires are together containers and contained;and that they cannot have come from any other place than the sun and the moon, for by their union, the care and the work of the artist, to form and compose the stone of the philosophers of the first order, of which they alone are the principles. This third fire is the philosophical fire; it is mineral and not always equal; it is the soul of our philosopher's stone, being composed as it is said above, of the two joined fires.

§ Twelfth Lesson.

Leafy earth and leaf earth.

Leaf soil is all the plowing philosophizing sets out to get; because this earth contains in it all that is necessary for the work and salt, sulfur and mercury in its base and the foundation, and because the purification and the clearance of the superfluities of the leafy earth has taken place by the flying eagles of Philalete, and the proportions of the principles constituting the philosopher's mercury have been observed there by the council of the cosmopolitan.

We must therefore first aspire to possess the leafy earth, since it contains everything and we can have everything through it, and it is also through it that we obtain the much desired leafy earth. “But to get there, we have a lot of work to do, cares and sorrows to bear; many errors to repair, and many operations to begin again before arriving at the end.

Also, it is not without great reason that the hermetic philosophers have said: that happy and very happy was he to whom God gave the knowledge necessary to discover the work and the operations of hermetic science, since this gift was a very great mark of his love and that nothing in the world could be compared to him.

This leafy earth is not found on the earth: the philosopher must make it manifest by creating it, or better said by taking it out of where it is. — Our father Hermes gives us the means, when he tells us that it is the earth that has been picked up. Nature cannot give it to us by herself; it is necessary that the man favored by God put his hands in it, and that this divine product be the result of his work (with which alone he will succeed in making the earth of the leaves). — The metals and the minerals, the salts, the sulfurs and the mercurys contribute to it mutually and help each other in the same way;the artist purifies, releases, units, grinds, separates, distills, pulverizes, amalgamates, kneads and is in his work (which is also that of nature) like an army general, full of zeal and courage, Vulcan does not play the smallest part in it, since he is too often the cause of the artist's joy or concern

; but coaxing it and remaining always close to it, one draws from it what one desires; and though he is our friend, when we are present, we must fear him; he is like the men of today who always give wrong to the absent and who abandon him: it is therefore necessary not to leave him.

The vases and the ways of placing them, contribute much to success, and the season when it is necessary to unite our male with his female, contributes no less.Everything I say must be observed, as well as taking good care that our young spouses enter their beds naked, so that nothing impure can taint their offspring there.

Their bedroom must be divided into four parts: three of which for the ascending parents, and the fourth for their bed, which must be composed of earth and water; and the sheets must be made of sheets of silver that the flying eagles will have carried in their beaks, and which by their union, will form the said sheets in which our young spouses will be well wrapped. Would it be a fatality for the artist, to have a female for first child, instead of a male that he desires (1).

In the work of God our creator, the male was before the female, and she was made and created only from a part of the male; in ours, which is the small image of the great work of God, the whole female can be reduced to male if you want.

In his great work God created woman from man; in ours, which is a small image of it, the woman becomes a man according to the will of the artist. As it was the will of God to make the woman of the man, God created them immortal; our work or its product, which are hermetic children, are also hermetic. God commanded them to grow and multiply; ours grow and multiply ad infinitum, which proves that our work comes from God and touches heaven at one end and earth at the other: it is therefore terrestrial and celestial. Attach yourselves therefore, unbelieving men, to possess such a great treasure; since possessing it you have nothing more to desire on earth.Work, seek, do not be discouraged and do not leave the kingdom that you want to raise: because nothing improves except in its similar and with itself,

If you discover some of what I say above, you can achieve it; but it won't be without a lot of trouble: if you're not determined to take it, don't start looking. This science is not acquired without difficulty; you will succeed and obtain it with less difficulty, if you know the means and the place where you can find the leafy red earth, or else from where it must be taken out in order to make it into leafy earth: the latter cannot be made without the former; when one has it, the disposition alone suffices;and, joined with her mother, she will give you double water: the goodness of which you will recognize by the strong odor that will exhale from it, as well as the love she has for the said mother with whom she is pleased, unites and marries naturally. Experience will demonstrate, to the drilling artist,

1. Here I only hear of the powder of projection, which I personify, as having to be used to transmute the base metals into silver or gold.

§ Thirteenth Lesson.

First chapter.
Of the sowing of the philosophers, and of the proper time to make them.

Like the laborers of the fields, the hermetic philosopher is obliged to work the philosophical earth for five months, to lay it out and prepare it to receive the formative grain. — This preparation and disposal can only be done by amending this earth by long work, and by removing all the superfluities which render it dropsical and poisonous. The cleanest time to do this sowing is the same as that of the plowman of the fields, or any other time which would give us an equal heat or temperature.

Second Chapter.
Philosophical Earth Solution .

The solution is the reduction of the earth of the philosophers, in water. But before telling how to do it, let's consider the following. The elemental ocean feeds the fish it holds within; likewise the philosophical ocean, this sea of ​​the wise, also feeds the fish of the philosophers. If you can get this far, the solution will be as easy for you to make, as it would be easy for you to reduce the ice to water from which it was formed.

By this operation (which is only a liquefaction of bodies) the metallic spirits grow to the highest degree of perfection: one giving and communicating its virtue and ignity; and the other by receiving it;and these spirits being homogeneous, they improve themselves so much by this union, that they are reduced from power to act, and are completely released from the bonds which held them bound and preventing them from acting.

It is here that one can find and demonstrate well to unbelievers, how great is the power that God has given to the hermetic philosopher man; since he imitates and does the same as his father, Almighty God: Who converts petram in stagna, et rupem in fontes aquarum.

Third Chapter.
Food and births of the hermetic child.

As the animal child feeds in the womb of its mother on the same matter or menstrual blood from which it was formed, so also the metallic child feeds in the womb of the mercury which is its mother, its own earth; of this same mercury which was used in its formation. And this child, who in his first birth is produced only of perfect metals, can only be made visible after having deprived his father (who is a healthy and vigorous old man) of all his strength, and having caused him to succumb, by taking away all his prolific virtue and seizing it. Also, in this begetting, the father (full of love for his child, of whom he is still an essential part) must disappear; that his bodily form be changed to spiritual, so that he is not part of the hermetic family tree.— Finally, it must become a principle of itself;that he enters the mineral matrix, to feed there on the same menstrual blood from which he was formed (or else on this same blood which destroyed him to make another himself, and that he grows there in strength and virtue, which will prepare us for the second birth of the hermetic metallic child. on earth will be able to deprive us of. What I say above, must convince and well persuade the amateurs of occult science; that to reach the end of the hermetic work, it is necessary that the plowing philosopher know how to make two marriages,and that of these two marriages there are produced only two births and only one child. If he knows how to make the two alliances which are indispensable, he will be able to have the hermetic child; who, as I said, will have had two births. Only then will he be recognized by all followers as a true disciple of Hermes.

§ Fourteenth Lesson.

First chapter.
Comparison chapter.

Our earth, or philosopher's mercury; during and after its coction, perhaps compared to the terrestrial globe created by Almighty God. — From ours, as from that of the creator, there rise vapors at the beginning which, condensing, form clouds which darken and veil throughout their duration the solar light which must issue from it. But it will be different with these two earths (of which ours is only a very small sample, and an abbreviation of the first), when the creator wants to put an end to this terrestrial and corruptible world.“Then he will purify it and restore to it its first beauty and clarity, so that the earth will again become transparent as it was in its beginning, and in the same perfection as it was when it came out of his hands, or before it was cursed because of the first sin. — Likewise our earth, which is the image and epitome of this great world, when it has reached the redness of the poppy or poppy of the field, which will announce its perfection and the proof that it contains in it life, which it will have the power to communicate to all the productions of the three kingdoms and to make them enjoy (by increasing in them their vital spirit, weakened or dissipated, which alone could maintain them in a perfect state of life), will no longer allow any vapor to rise, and there will no longer be formed clouds in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature.

when it will have reached the redness of the poppy or poppy of the field, which will announce its perfection and the proof that it contains in it the life, which it will have the power to communicate to all the productions of the three kingdoms and to make them enjoy (by increasing in them their vital spirit, weakened or dissipated, which alone could maintain them in a perfect state of life), will not let any more rise any vapor, and it will not form any more clouds in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature. when it will have reached the redness of the poppy or poppy of the field, which will announce its perfection and the proof that it contains in it the life, which it will have the power to communicate to all the productions of the three kingdoms and to make them enjoy (by increasing in them their vital spirit, weakened or dissipated, which alone could maintain them in a perfect state of life), will not let any more rise any vapor, and it will not form any more clouds in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature.

which it will have the power to communicate to all the productions of the three kingdoms and to make them enjoy (by increasing in them their vital spirit, weakened or dissipated, which alone could maintain them in a perfect state of life), will no longer allow any vapor to rise, and there will no longer be clouds formed in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature. which it will have the power to communicate to all the productions of the three kingdoms and to make them enjoy (by increasing in them their vital spirit, weakened or dissipated, which alone could maintain them in a perfect state of life), will no longer allow any vapor to rise, and there will no longer be clouds formed in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature. and no more clouds will form in our globe; and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature. and no more clouds will form in our globe;and all obscurity will cease, when by coction it will be brought to its perfection, clearness and perfect purity (1), which will give it omnipotence and the power to purify, perfect and preserve the productions of the three kingdoms of nature.

1. Our alchemical work, which is composed only of metallic waters, which being reduced to a fixed and indestructible earth, shows us the past and the future, and proves to us that it is the image and figure of what God will do with the universe at the end of time, since then will be fulfilled the promise that the Almighty has made and that we are waiting for, which is to make new heavens and a new earth where justice will make its dwelling, which will have no end. This is announced by Saint Peter in his second epistle, article 13, chapter 3.

Second Chapter.
Difference of the first chaos and what it contained (with which God created the world), from that of the hermetic philosophers.

The first, to be created, needed only the will of the Almighty, who composed it of two opposites: rest and movement.

And the heat-producing movement, life principle of all that was to be created upon the separation of these two opposites forming the first chaos, manifested the four elements containing the unmultiplied creative light, together with their contrary qualities (1), of which qualities: coldness, heat, humidity and dryness, each was elemental; and which, until the creation, had only been in potency in chaos, were in act.

The chaos of the hermetic philosophers is a continuation of this first will by which God grants his creature the means to compose this chaos.This cannot and cannot be done without the union of opposites (cold and heat) in a single mass by the mysterious number of alchemists: without however the virtues contained separately in the bodies employed losing anything by this union which, on the contrary, increases infinitely.

The first chaos contained the four elements destined to be the first principles of all the productions or mixtures of the three kingdoms of nature, having the necessary virtues (which they derived only from movement, principle of the first principles) (2) to preserve and multiply them, and by this means, to maintain and always continue creation.

Ours, or the chaos of the hermetic philosophers, also contains the four qualities of the elements, the same principles, and also contains within itself all that is necessary for the making of the philosophical work: but needs the hands of the artist and a long work to be able to completely purify the metallic principles which composed it, and by this means to be able to free it from the bonds which held it bound and prevented it from acting: that is to say, to be able, by purification and reunion, to make it from power to act, from a state of rest to that of movement. How to achieve this is detailed in the previous chapters.

1. We are forced to recognize or distinguish three lights which almost form one.

2. The virtues which the four elements contain, and which they communicate to all the mixtures, can only be the virtues and properties of movement, which was the first principle willed by the creator.

I

The first is the divine, eternal, unmultiplied light by which all was created.

II

The second is the elementary, engendering, multiplying light, principle of life of any mixture.

III

The third is the solar light illuminating the world, and preserving and nourishing all that has been produced by the elements or second light. It facilitates and provokes, or better said, excites the inner elemental fire of the natures and compels it to multiply. — This third light is not hot by itself, its true quality or virtue is only movement, since it is only by the rays that the sun continually darts towards the earth, that it warms and preserves life in everything.

It was formed only by the assembly of the scattered parts of the first divine light, which is itself (as I believe I have proved in the faithful picture of the perfections of the Almighty) only movement.

From the third solar light, or from its rays multiplied or collected by means of a telescope, is produced the corrosive fire of the kitchens or the destructive Vulcan.

This corrosive fire can only be the result of a multiplication of the joined rays of sunlight, which then lost the sweet virtue of preserving and giving life, to take the disadvantage of destroying what the same rays of sunlight caused the elements to produce. - Then one could compare this degree of destructive fire (to make oneself less obscure) to the 3/6 or rectified spirit of wine itself produces brandy, with regard to wine its vehicle which one drinks from full glasses without hurting, to this same 3/6 or rectified spirit which one can only drink in very small quantities because of the corrosive force which it has acquired by the union of the spirit particles which the wine contained.

And all this will prove to us that good and evil are always united, and that they issue from the same principle, from the same chaos, that life and death occupy the same body, and are only the result of movement and rest, which by the combat of their different qualities preserve or destroy all the mixtures almost always containing these two extremes, these two enemies.

The elemental vital fire which is the vehicle of the primary light of life is found everywhere. What appears dead to our eyes very often contains life, light; it is imprisoned in all the bodies produced by nature: metals contain it, plants and animals alike; but it does not act or operate equally in each kingdom.

In the mineral kingdom, this light or vital fire is there bound, imprisoned, and is very abundant there and forms its seed; and only makes itself manifest to the artist, in the work of Alchemy, by the union of the form of this kingdom with its matter; and exercises its power, its virtue, only after having been freed from all the impurities that nature had mixed in it.

This same fire and light, or seed life, in the vegetable kingdom is there in small quantity; it is manifested only by the birth and growth of the products of this kingdom.

And in the animal kingdom this fire, principle of life, this light, is abundant there; and as there is also the principle of the multiplication of this kingdom (as in the other two).Then, if it is weak, it is governed there; if he is strong, he governs there, because of his great strength and virtue, bringing the animal to multiplied enjoyment; and thereby pushing it to its own destruction.

All that we have said above, proves to us that the first light, or eternal divine light, collected, and not multiplied, which was, and which is always first principle of movement, was produced and formed the Celestial sun, which is itself only movement; and that it is only by the movement of the rays which it darts towards the terrestrial globe, that the heat of the atmosphere is produced; and this heat produced continually by motion, its principle, was, is, and always will be the principle of all mixture, or of all that has or comes to life in the three kingdoms of nature. Without this heat, there is no living being: no product.

Until creation, rest alone had exercised its empire over everything that could have existed; and nothing could be born or grow. The movement which was the principle of the first principles changed everything, hindered and opposed the empire which rest had exercised; and by means of the four elements, imparted Heat; the life.

Which then engaged between him, and the rest, a combat produced from their opposite qualities which must last as long as the created world; one not wanting to yield to the other; and in front (for the maintenance of the order of nature); always contesting each other; never agree. — and it is this combat which establishes true perpetual motion; so often sought by men;and never found by any.

Everything was therefore by virtue of the heat created alive. The first fault changed this first perfection, and subjected created matter to having to return to rest, or death, from which it had been issued by the virtue of heat, produced by the force of movement: and it was then that time began, which preceded eternity.

Third Chapter.
Of the life hidden in the metallic elements composing the first perfect bodies.

As the liable elements and agents, contained in the metallic bodies serving the work, can only be reunited after having been perfectly purified of all their faeces, it will be necessary above all to purify them separately, and clean them of all that is bad in them. Then, being no longer bound by the faeces and finding themselves disengaged and free, it will be very easy to make the perfect union without which one could not do the hermetic work. —Then these purified elements, having become living spirits, and aided by solar or other heat, acquire the great advantage of giving, of continuing, of increasing and restoring life to the material bodies which have lost it: and by fermentation, that of manifesting it in our mercury and increasing it there by putrefaction.Then we must believe that fermentation manifests it,

§ Fifteenth Lesson.

The Existence of the Most Holy Trinity is proven and demonstrated real by alchemy.

In the three treatises which I have made separately of each principle, and which are necessary for the work, I have not been able to make much difference in their virtue and potency. Different in shape, in color, they are not different in power: their power is almost the same. — They all three came from the same root, and cannot be separated from it: also, they cannot act separately, and they need to be reunited in order to be able to exercise and demonstrate to the artist who purified them, the virtue and the power that they hold from the four metallic elements.In all his works God has represented himself ternary, therefore, such as he is …., just as in all the productions of nature (which is only his will), and in particular in the work and hermetic product which is the representation in small of the work of the great God, where he is very strongly recognized by all the followers . Salt, sulfur and mercury are three distinct principles; and united, they form only one mercury which contains the virtues of all three. He must therefore be regarded as uniting in himself the will, the power and the virtue of sulfur and metallic salt: as God the father unites in him the will and the power of God the son, and of God the Holy Spirit, who, although distinguished in three persons, are never separated, and always make only one almighty God (1) as well as salt, sulfur and mercury, although three principles sometimes separated in the hermetic work make only one mercury by their union.

This assures us, proves and demonstrates to us the existence of the Holy Trinity, which manifests itself in all the productions of the three kingdoms of nature by salt, sulfur and mercury, which contain almost all mixtures and which are their constituent principles.

1. It seems to me that instead of saying three persons in God, one would perhaps have said better: the three divine perfections; the three qualities of a single God.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three personified essences, three things which are one; three perfections of God, proceeding from one and the same principle;which form the divine Trinity: because from one of these three come the other two; exist through it; merge in it and are not separated from it: because the unity in God could not form, at the same time, three separate persons and he: but indeed, three qualities; three virtues; three benefits.

And as the creator of all things manifested himself as a ternary in all the mixtures, or productions of the three kingdoms of nature, I could not give myself a stronger proof of the existence of the Most Holy Trinity; that by telling myself (as I see it proved in the work of Alchemy) that perfect mercury is the foundation; the first visible principle and the first quality;in the mineral kingdom, which contains the other two principles, salt and sulphur; which by their union form only one mercury, which is the root to which the three different qualities are attached and found united.

Then, one can compare the perfect metallic mercury, foundation of this kingdom; to the Father, as creator: the metallic salt having the quality of fixing; to the Son, as redeemer: and metallic sulfur having the virtue of coloring, or of dyeing; to the Holy Spirit as to sanctify. And all this will prove to us, disprove us, that these three qualities, these three benefits, these three perfections, or these three persons, always united in God, are and form the perfection of the divine perfections; and not three Gods, operating, or exercising separately, the omnipotence of one God.

It is therefore himself who is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

In Saint John the Evangelist, we find:

Chapter XX.— Verse 22.
Jesus Christ said to his apostles, after having breathed on them: receive the Holy Spirit; my words are the spirit of life, and are the same as those of my father, who sent me.

Chapter X. — Verse 30.
My father and I are one.

Chapter XII. — Verse 45.
Whoever sees me, sees him who feels me.

Chapter XIV. — Verse 10, 11, 9, 24.
If I do the works of my father, you must believe that the father is in me, and I am in the father.

Chapter VIII. — Verse 29.
He who sent me is with me, and has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.
Chapter VIII. — Verse 16.
If I judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone: ​​but I and my father, who sent me.

Chapter XVI. — Verse 28.
I came out of my father, and came into the world; now I leave the world, and return to my father.

Then it is proved by what is said above: that the word proceeds from the father, and the Holy Spirit from the word: and that the word is the word of the father; and the Holy Spirit, the word of father and son.

§ Sixteenth Lesson.

First chapter.
Everything you need at work.

In the work to make the philosopher's stone we always have fusions to make, salts to use to purify and melt the materials used for the work; washes, amalgams, a metallic paste that must be brought to perfection and whiteness: which we achieve by means of very good distilled vinegar.

We usually only use mercury, and those that can be used are sold. — One can use those revived from cinnabar, and even also from that which could be extracted from antimony. We make use of the bodies or the spirits they contain. — We use salts, sulfur and mercury, furnaces, mortars, crucibles, cloths, flasks, shovels and tweezers, charcoal: one could, to save money, use that of stone: a lot of elementary water. Dew water cannot serve us, it suffices for us to see it descend as rain, and to see it rise again in the air: but the waters used must be well filtered, very clear and very purified. We reject the dross to make everything clean. We use metals that must always be chosen to be pure, holy and vigorous:without these precautions one wastes one's time and money. And in all the operations and during the work we need to take a lot of patience, and also to pay a lot of attention to everything, as well as to the correct weight of the materials that we use. Finally, the person working on the great work must understand that the alchemical work can only be done by means of fire, and that he must only use coals, salts and sulfur to make the fusions and purifications of the materials he will use.

Second Chapter.
Of the marriages of metals, and of that of Venus with Vulcan.

In some lessons of this present course of alchemy we speak about alliances of metals, mixtures, amalgams and marriages. We speak of the marriage of the fixed with the fleeting, of the white with the red, of the weak with the strong, of the gold with the silver, of the red man and the white woman, and of that of Apollo with Diana: but we say nothing of the marriage of Venus with the blade Vulcan.- And although all the marriages above are necessary to succeed in making the philosopher's stone perfectly, the hermetic marriage of Venus with Vulcan is no less so, since it is from this marriage alone that an essential child must be born, who must be made beautiful and perfect so that he can succeed, by the great advantages he will have acquired, in making an alliance with one of his ascendant parents, from which will be born our hermetic Isaac, which must multiply ad infinitum .- To make the marriages of which we above, we united a male with his female, and it was proved that the female carries and furnishes the matter, and that the male forms this matter by the virtue which is in him: and these two virtues, of the female and the male, is only a fire, a spirit which is in metals and minerals, and which is part of them. So, when lovers of hermetic science want to work to make this marriage, they must realize that Venus and Vulcan are two personified fires that will have to be extracted from metals; and one will never be mistaken in this operation if one considers the manner in which the animal kingdom multiplies, and how the father engenders his child.- What is not done by the mixture and union (in the same second) of the two opposite fires in quality that the two fleshes contain. — It is therefore necessary in the metallic kingdom to operate in the same way. — It is not necessary to combine the materials of metals, but rather to unite the separate spirits which they contain.

And this spirit, this fire, which each of them contains, when, by their union, it shall have formed a third; the latter, having first become the seed of metals, will be inclined to multiply. "And although we are talking about Vulcan, we do not mean that, in making this marriage, we must bring in no flammable matter, no burning coal."— We must only use this light, this fire, this vital spirit (contained in potency in the metals and minerals, and in action in our elixir), which, by its virtue,

This light, this fire or this spirit which one extracts from metals and minerals and which one makes manifest, it is necessary to collect it, to gather it; and to conduct oneself well in this operation, one must imitate the creator who gathered the dissipated light to form the celestial sun; in the same way, the hermetic philosophers must gather this light, this dispersed vital fire to make of it their hermetic sun, which, at the end of the coction of the philosopher's mercury, will spread its luminous rays everywhere: which will mark the end of the work for us. Venus did not marry all of them, only one is her husband, and all three, as parents and allies, facilitated both marriages and helped them to prosper and triumph over jealous enemies of their future happiness.

Before starting it will be necessary to reflect on all these different marriages, and to settle well so as not to make the second the first, nor the first the second; it will be necessary to make them and to place them in their rank, and to follow in this the order which has been maintained and observed by all hermetic philosophers. — Ordinarily one begins with that of Venus with Vulcan, and afterwards (or immediately if one wishes) one continues with that of Diana with Apollo; but as this last marriage has in it something indecent, because of the complete and necessary nudity in which Diane must be found: we will not say how to do it. Hermetic philosophers recognize three Vulcans necessary to make the philosopher's stone: some help in it, and others are a constituent part of it.C The first, it is the metallic Vulcan contained in the natures necessary for the work, which is always bound and imprisoned in the metals, and which we must set free so that it can exercise its power. The second is the humid elemental Vulcan forming the principal chaos of our work, which is recognized by hermetic philosophers only by the fire of unnatural. And the third is the useful Vulcan in all kitchens. These three fires are necessary to make the philosopher's stone. We can't do without it. which is recognized by hermetic philosophers only by unnatural fire. And the third is the Vulcan useful in all kitchens. These three fires are necessary to make the philosopher's stone. We can't do without it.which is recognized by hermetic philosophers only by unnatural fire. And the third is the Vulcan useful in all kitchens. These three fires are necessary to make the philosopher's stone. We can't do without it.

One is sometimes destructive: the others, always conservative in their productions.

And in all this we see that the good is always united with the bad, that they follow each other and that they need to be together although having different, opposite qualities. — This is the union of evil with good, forming, according to Moses, the tree of knowledge; from which must come the tree of life, or universal medicine.

§ Seventeenth Lesson.

Meeting of the theory, as well as all the operations necessary to make and finish the hermetic work. — In 19 parts.

I.

Mercury, which is white outside, is very red outside; it is the matter of metals. What proves it to us is that by fusion, the bodies or metals represent in a crucible only a mercury, which freezes by the cold (1).

II.

In metals and minerals, there are two fires: one is lost by fusion, the other is a fire which never abandons them; he always stays with them, and is part of them; he preserves them and protects them from being destroyed by kitchen fires. This fire is nothing else than the virtue that salt and sulfur communicate to them, by fixing their mercury.

III.

Metals therefore have a fire that Vulcan cannot destroy, and over which he has no power; gold and other metals are preserved only by him; if it were otherwise, the metals once melted would no longer be suitable for forging. It is thus necessary that this fire or spirit which is in them, puts them at the shelter of the destroying fire.

IV.

It is therefore proved that the fire of fusion cannot destroy the virtue and fixity of the mercury which the metal contains; it resists any attack. The metal has, moreover, in it, an immortal soul which it brings from the mines, and which it preserves, the only one necessary.

v.

The philosopher's stone can only be made of metals or minerals; nothing else enters it, except helpers: attention. And it is necessary that the metals used to make it, become again mercurial water. What makes say to the hermetic philosophers, that it is necessary that the water goes up towards its source, and that the child returns in the belly of its mother, which is mercury. And this mercury, this water is only the product of the second marriage; and in this second marriage the water serves as the vehicle of the form, and by their union constitutes the first matter, or seed of the metals.

It is therefore then that the principle or mercury tree was grafted on, this branch, which being the same thing, but not of the same quality, communicates by this union to the material tree, the masculine virtue which it lacked.

VI.

Hermetic Science is never clearly explained, all the philosophers have written and spoken of it only through figures and allegories; some even concealed its principles, so much did they fear doing harm. If they had explained themselves clearly, they would have destroyed the general order, they would have created disorder in the four parts of the world.

VII.

He who has found the essential key to the work cannot go astray in the work, and he is sure to bring it to perfection; provided, however, that he knows and acts by alchemical addition.

VIII.

The philosopher's stone is not found by chance; once you have done it, you can never forget the principles you used, nor the manual operations to achieve it.

IX.

Mercury serves as mud, matter and food; the sulfur tints, colors and heats, and the salt fixes the whole: and this operation is only done together, and by their union; they help each other. This is the virtue of the three principles; which they can exercise only when they are reduced from power to act: which is only, when they have returned to mercury, their principle.

X.

Hermetic philosophers give their stone different names, which is only because of the different operations through which it is passed to arrive at its perfection.

We can convince ourselves that they are true, if we consider the different names given to man, such as: fetus, child, little boy, young man, marriageable man, old, old man, lapsed, etc., and it is always man we are talking about: names with which the philosopher's stone and its work have some relationship.

XI.

Any seed that emerges from the metallic kingdom has soul and life. To have this soul, this life which one cannot do without, it will be necessary to open (by means of fire and nitre salt or other) the metal or mineral which contains it. And by doing so, one can obtain the proof, or the path to truth that one seeks. So having reached this point, it will be easy for us, by letting ourselves be directed by the solar star which will be presented, not to get lost, and to arrive (as the three Magi did) at the cradle of our beautiful child, and to be able to draw from it what we desire.

XII.

The philosopher's stone is made and can only be made of mercury, it alone suffices; but it must be doubled, or fertilized. And these two joined mercurys, which are the foundation of our work, before their union, are named by certain philosophers, the two white smokes, one which rises and the other which descends; and these two fumes are a wind, in the womb of which our philosophical child is born, pushes its germ, is nourished by it and is perfected there.

This is why all hermetic philosophers agree on matter, on time, on the matrix, on the mercury, and on the bodies serving in our work. Any other water or anything else from a foreign kingdom cannot be admitted for work. We sometimes speak of the May dew, and although this dew has great virtue and rejoices the philosopher when he sees it descends, we must not take them literally.

XIII.

By the marriage of the king with the queen, the metals are separated from heterogeneous matters, and are purified of their impure sulphur. By this operation, the compound is partly purified of any bad alloy which nature had introduced into it. However, these impure sulfurs were necessary to form the materials used for our work; the male and the female. When the animal child comes into the world, doesn't he come with a lot of dirt? These filth were necessary to form him in his mother's womb.This is why the Hermetic philosophers observe that the form or agent ceases to work the passive matter, when it has finished forming it or fixed it, and that it ceases its movement and action only when it has infused its virtue into it: then it separates itself from it, and does not form a material part of the product; his virtue alone remains there.

XIV.

All flesh born of the metallic earth will be dissolved, and (2) will return to the earth, so that the terrestrial salt which is in it, and which is an essential part of it, aided by an external heat, can cause a new germ to be produced in this new earth: for if a new earth were not made, we could not observe a new germ, without which there can be no new birth and perfect, nor multiplication in the work of alchemy.

XV.

The imperfect metals do not always carry with them the vital and multiplicative virtue; what is perfect by nature sometimes remains at this point. We must therefore leave the perfect metals to make the philosopher's stone, and take only those which are on the way to getting there, I mean, the philosophical gold and silver.

XIV.

Everything was created perfect by the author of all things. — The corrosive fire furnishes us with an example of this, which ceases to act when it has reduced everything to ashes, and when it has no more combustible matter to work with. — The imperfection is only the result of the curse that God poured on the earth, and on all that it contains and produces, because of the first sin.

XVII.

The end that the hermetic philosopher proposes in working with the philosopher's stone, is to obtain a product in which resides the virtue of fixing and dyeing the mercury of metals, and of pushing them to the perfection of fine gold, or a medicine to cure, as well as animals and plants, diseases that nature has not been able to release or exempt them, as well as those that they acquire by a bad way of living; and this cure is only done by increasing in them their vital spirit, which then makes them live without any indisposition.

XVIII.

The fluidifying earth, which the plowing philosopher must extract from the metals, when it is purified of the coarse parts, must be joined to the universal matter which will serve as its vehicle. Then by this operation will become first matter or first seed of the metallic kingdom, and will contain the form, the soul, and will be called the universal spirit of alchemy. And this first matter or first seed (although perfect) will only be able to manifest its virtue, nor produce its germ by means of putrefaction, which will communicate to it and will add to it the facility of multiplying to infinity.

XIX.

By the union of the three principles, and by the action of their different virtues and qualities, is produced the first fermentation, which introduces into the seed which is the result of it (then having become the first seed) the means of arriving at the second degree, which is putrefaction; which gives it and communicates to it the power to develop, to produce its germ and to manifest the life which was hidden in the first natures, serving to make it.

1. Mercury is, in its interior, only a fugitive red gold. 'I've convinced myself of that by twenty-seven years' work, during which I've seen him, at least a hundred times, all red as ox blood. — The Hermetic philosophers are therefore right to call it the fugitive red gold. — Those who do not work in hermetic chemistry, not being able to convince themselves of the truth, are not wrong to believe the contrary.

2. The dissolution of the metallic flesh must be done in such a way that it retains its vital spirit; what we will achieve, by doing it by itself, and by its means or virtue.

§ Eighteenth Lesson.

First chapter.
Man can make himself almost immortal by the use of universal medicine; and wait on earth, until the coming of Jesus Christ, who will come to judge the living and the dead.

In the fourth lesson of this present Alchemy Course, and in the second note, I demonstrated that man had two lives within him which made him perfect and distinguished him from other animals: one terrestrial and vegetative, and the other celestial and immortal. - Which forced me to report a resurrection or prevention of death in the person of Mr. Candy, mechanic of the city of Lyon; and of which I have given the address, so that the incredulous can convince themselves of the truth of what I have advanced.

But as this resurrection was brought about only by the virtue of the universal medicine which was administered to him by M. Leriche, farrier and hermetic philosopher, residing in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in Paris;before the body of the said deceased Candy had totally lost the terrestrial vegetative life or first life, which united the immortal divine soul with her material body, in which this first life still retained her although deceased. I thought I had to think carefully if, by continuing to use this same universal medicine in the same resuscitated body, we could not make it live much longer still.

And after having carefully examined everything that can be done advantageously, by the use, at the appropriate time, of this divine medicine or panacea, I am convinced that the man who had been created in the image and likeness of God, consequently perfect and immortal like him, could manage by the use of this universal medicine (principle of life and enemy of death) to preserve in him this immortality for several centuries; to keep always in good health, and to go even until the coming of Jesus Christ, to be judged on earth with all the living and the dead.

Here is how I was able to convince myself of this truth:

“Almighty God, embracing the past, the present and the future, by creating man in his image and likeness, wanted to make him perfect; and he could only have been perfect by creating him immortal, otherwise man would not have been distinguished, nor different from other animals: which was neither in the will nor in the plan of the Creator.

Man, therefore, having been created perfect and immortal, lost this great advantage (because of the first sin) only in his material part composing him; also, he is only in this part only that he was condemned to sufferings, privations and death. Then there remained in him only the divine soul, which is immortal;which, as I said and proved in the second note of the fourth lesson, only leaves the material, perishable body when the latter no longer has in it vegetative life or first life: which makes the union of the divine soul with matter.

Man, before suffering the bodily death to which he has been condemned, can, by the use of universal medicine, remove this death from himself and prolong his days in good health for several centuries; but though he has this great advantage, he must end one day; and it was only after he finished and suffered the condemnation that the first sin deserved him:

which is bodily death or elementary separation, which man (in whose material body there always remains a little heat, which is the end of his vital principle or first life) cannot dispense with undergoing, since God willed it so and his only son, Jesus Christ, submitted to it. It is only then that man, who has paid the tribute to which his material body has been condemned, is restored to the same point of perfection from which he had fallen, and finds himself on the way and free to be able to enjoy this immortality which the Almighty had given him in creating him. "So he can then, having come back to life by the same means that was used in favor of Mr. Candy de Lyon, ward off death and prolong one's life even more by the use of this divine universal medicine taken appropriately (1);to which he will arrive by means of the first life (which unites the extremes) to which universal medicine communicates, gives and continues the means of being able to retain the divine, immortal soul in its material body. — But to bring it back to life after it is dead and has undergone elementary separation, one must first operate and use universal medicine on the dead body, as M. Leriche, hermetic philosopher, did when he resuscitated Mr. Candy; who having suffered bodily death, could (if he had universal medicine to be able to feed his body with it) live in good health, and prolong his days until the advent of Jesus Christ (2).

If, then, men can make themselves almost immortal in this world, which is only a passage to return us to the other, they must not doubt (as do many) that our material bodies will be glorified and made like the body of Jesus Christ, of which we are the members, and that we will eternally enjoy the glory of God our creator, and to see him face to face: which will only happen when man has entirely satisfied divine justice.

In order therefore to prove and establish a good basis that man can succeed in prolonging his days, even after his death, he must be considered in two ways, or as having been created twice: By the first, he must be considered as issuing from the hands of God who, to make him perfect, immortal and resembling himself, created him from the purest elements

;animated it with his breath; united him with an immortal soul, a spark of himself, and gave him the terrestrial paradise, corresponding to the celestial paradise, as his abode. But since man cannot multiply himself, God gave him a wife whom he took from himself. Then these two primary beings, issuing from the same root, were but one and the same flesh composed of the same elementary matter, and formed but one and the same body; and this body, to fulfill the plan of the Creator, received this blessing, this order: "Increase and multiply." But

by a fatality of which it is not possible for man to realize, the first inexperienced man became guilty by sin: a sin which was rather the product of wickedness than of love;goodness and belief, than ingratitude (3).

By the second, then having been rendered guilty by sin, he must be considered to have fallen from bodily immortality and condemned to death, or elemental separation; therefore to leave this land stricken with a curse, and on which he was to remain eternally.

By the first, the first man had no vegetative terrestrial life or first life in him, to unite his material body with the celestial soul; he had no need of it, since his body had been formed of incorruptible elements and had been animated by God, consequently perfect and immortal; and that whatever he ate was likewise very pure, like the principles from which he was created.Also, in this first human perfection, one could not have distinguished the matter from the form, since the soul or the celestial and immortal life which had been given to him by the Creator was of the same principle and had the same purity as the matter which had served for the formation of his body, and to which the celestial life which animated it had been and remained united without the necessity of a middle spirit.

By the second, after his fall the man was cursed, as well as his posterity; and he was condemned to labor, suffering, sickness, and bodily death. And it was only then, that his fallen material body was distinguished and below the immortal soul that God had given him;which, because of its great and perfect purity, could no longer remain united with a body degraded and defiled by sin. But so that the divine soul, immortal, could remain united with the material body fallen from its purity; and that man, by multiplying by begetting, could preserve perfection and the power to make himself almost immortal on earth by the virtue of universal medicine. The man bodily received a new life produced by the putrefaction of the seeds contained in the elements of which he was composed, but perishable, which I have called terrestrial vegetative life, or first life (4), by means of which his fallen material body could be always united with the immortal divine soul.By this second gift, God left in man, sinner through weakness, the immortality with which he had clothed and filled him; without which he would not have been perfect, nor worthy of his Creator.

It is therefore proven that man has two lives within him: one mortal and the other immortal, and that he also unites in him a perishable material body, a vegetative terrestrial life and an immortal celestial life: which makes him perfect.

As long as the terrestrial life or first life, which is only a heat, an elemental fire, remains in the body of the deceased man (which leaves him only when his body is completely cold in all its parts), the immortal divine soul is still a part of it.

Man can therefore (by means of this first life which he still preserves in his body after having undergone the bodily death or elementary separation to which he was condemned) return to life, by making use of the universal medicine which God has placed in the metals and minerals, which has the virtue of communicating, increasing and continuing, to the vegetative terrestrial life or first life (which only abandons the material body, as I have said, when it is completely cold in all its parts), the power to retain in the said material body of man the immortal divine soul: which could not be, if universal medicine did not draw its origin from the purest elements not subject to corruption (of which the first man was composed); which makes it equal to the divine soul. Both, as we said,are two sisters who issue from the same source and from the will of the same power; and it is this kinship which gives universal medicine the means of maintaining, continuing and increasing the terrestrial vegetative life or first life of the human bodies which are at the point of losing it, by combining and uniting the extremes and by granting the opposites: the materials and the spirits the components.

Second Chapter.

To operate well, it is necessary to take care, before the total cooling of the material body, to help and to increase by universal medicine this first terrestrial life and heat, or elementary fire which remains in the body of the man; and by administering to him a sufficient quantity at the right time, it will not be difficult to achieve this and thereby make him live always. Which will be as easy to do, as it is easy to prevent a burning lamp from going out; which is achieved by continually supplying it with sufficient oil which serves it as nourishment and preserves its life.

It is therefore necessary, when man has breathed his last and suffered the bodily death to which he was condemned, not to wait until his body is totally cold in order to be able to call him back to life;it must immediately be anointed several times externally with the universal medicine dissolved in the spirit of wine, and also give it a little internally, which will be dissolved in a weaker vehicle. This operation, to be well done, must be done in front of a large fire and sheltered from the wind; it is also necessary that the body of the man, soaked and anointed with dissolved medicine, be dried several times by means of the heat of the fire near which it will be placed and surrounded, and until it gives a visible mark of return to life, we will operate in the same way. Then we'll put him in a warm bed, and when he has fully recovered life he may keep himself alive and healthy, full of youth and strength.It is the means that God grants to the hermetic philosophical man to preserve himself on earth until the coming of Jesus Christ; which is a very great mark of his love for the creature.

Third Chapter.

To be convinced of the possibility of being able to revive or resuscitate man and keep him alive for a long time on earth, we must reflect on the difficulty that some animals have in dying, and others, when they are dead, find it easy to come back to life.

Here are examples that support my system:

“The cicadas die and come back or reproduce from their seed. The cicadas when they have ceased to sing during the summer die a few days afterwards; their body dries up and falls to earth in several pieces, which are mixed with them by means of the plow, and these pieces are their seed from which they come back to life in the earth which serves as their matrix. The past winter, they come out small and white, vegetate and turn black; and when they are large, they climb trees and olive trees, sing for fifteen days in a row and die a few days later. “

Snakes are very difficult to die. “

The polyps, according to Réaumur the naturalist, although divided into several parts, live equally in all the parts or pieces. »

“The flies, although dead in the water, come back to life by covering them with finely crushed sea salt. We saw on the port au vin, in Paris, a large quantity of flies which had just been taken out of a barrel full of wine newly arrived from Spain, and which had been left on the said barrel to resume life a few hours after the means of the heat of the sun which revived them; however, they had been dead for at least three months. “

The toads, although pierced in the middle of the belly, still live for several days. “

In the sixth volume of the Philosophical Dictionary of Voltaire, article Polypes, page 175, one finds there; Look at the snail that walks a month, two whole months, after they cut off its head;and to which then a head returns furnished with all the organs that the first possessed. If therefore in certain insects, reptiles and other animals there is a double principle of life, which brings them near to immortality, we must not doubt that in man created in the image and likeness of God there is also a principle of still greater immortality, without which, as I have said, the human creature could not be perfect, nor could he become almost immortal on earth . It is with the possibility of human immortality, in the eyes of a very large number of judicious men, as with many other advantages given to man; which they completely doubt: for the sole reason that these advantages have not been demonstrated in their presence.

Men, in general, believe only what they see, and many are very inclined to persuade themselves that it is permissible for them to doubt all that they do not see: it is an incredulity which many men persist in keeping; and whatever great knowledge they have, one could tell them that they are not always right to doubt everything. They would judge much healthier if they believed that man can achieve anything when God, who created him, allows it. Quid retribuam domino, pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi!

1. The virtue of universal medicine, which the hermetic philosopher derives from the metals and minerals in which God has placed it, is so great that it is invaluable in its power to render man almost immortal on earth, by always keeping the elements which constitute him at an equal temperature, and by strengthening and increasing his terrestrial vegetative life, or first life, by means of which first life the union of the terrestrial body with the celestial soul is maintained. The amateurs of hermetic chemistry who seek in the other two kingdoms, this universal medicine; work unnecessarily; they deceive themselves: and if they manage to extract something from these two kingdoms, it can only be a product that fire can destroy.— Gold and silver alone, being indestructible, can give them the desired object.

2. What I am advancing here should surprise no one, since it is recognized by all hermetic philosophers that universal medicine is the enemy of death, being of the same nature and purity as the celestial soul. They are two immortal sisters, issued from the same principle, and who have received great benefits from the Creator. One, from a vixen to the perfect man; and the other, to be able to keep it always on earth in good health.

3. Inversion noted in the original text. (NDE)

4. This second life, which the first man received from his Creator after sinning, became the first vegetative earthly life in all his descendants, and formed in him a second human perfection.It was given to him only after having rendered himself worthy of the first, which made him perfect and immortal on earth; which formed his first perfection, and made him almost equal to his Creator. The descendants of the first man, born by begetting in the first sin of which he was guilty by weakness, could only enjoy the second gift, and could only multiply in imperfection, I mean by means of the putrefaction of the seeds contained in matter, which the first sin had made subject to corruption, to death.

§ Nineteenth Lesson.

Letters written to two notable people and offers made to several to make them make a great profit.

First letter.

Paris, August 26, 1823.

TO MONSIEUR, TO HIMSELF

"Monsieur,

" An extraordinary discovery, to which men in general add no belief, on which a large number of volumes have been written, and to the work and research of which many scholars, rich men have too often devoted themselves in vain: recognized by some, rejected by others, finally the philosopher's stone and universal medicine.

- Here, sir, my discovery that I want to finish, and that my lack of pecuniary means puts me in the case of not being able.

Several people with whom I spoke about it, promised me to provide the necessary money; a few days of reflection or bad advice given, were enough to not do it.

“Others were disgusted with it on the advice of those they had told about it. —Finally, it was the same with others who, having fortune and great names, led by their natural knowledge to believe in the possibility of metallic transmutation, not only offered me the little money I needed, but much more; and although that I could do nothing with them because of their too lofty pretensions which they carried so far as to demand of me that I would show them this divine science; and whatever reason I gave them to prove to them that I could not, and should not, give anyone a science which I held only by divine inspiration, they have always persisted in wanting it.

If you, sir, whom a colossal fortune puts in the situation of not holding on to money, want to help me by small advances, I will not offer you money like others, since you do not need it; but I will offer you something more precious than all the gold in the world; universal medicine, the panacea, both for you and for your children, with which you will maintain your life and your health, and will live fifty more years without any infirmity by the use of this divine medicine which I offer you with good heart, and in recognition of the confidence which you will grant me, and which time will prove to you that I deserve.

If you like my offer, please answer me and believe me, sir, your very humble servant,

Louis CAMBRIEL. »

“PS I warn you, sir, that my approach and my offer, which may seem insidious to some men, will never be made to you by anyone, however many years you may live.

Those who are wounded with this divine medicine do not need anyone's money. - I alone find myself (although possessor of such a great secret) obliged by my needs to make this great offer, and which after careful consideration, you will not refuse, I believe.
SAID. »

Second Letter.

Extraordinary offer that the undersigned allows himself to make to HRH Monsignor the Prince of Condé.

I have many times consulted with myself, whether or not I should discover myself, and make an extraordinary offer without exposing myself to repentance.— After careful consideration, I convinced myself that by addressing myself to a religious prince and naturally inclined to be useful to his fellows, I would only have to congratulate myself. "In this firm persuasion, I have decided to write you the following letter:

'My Lord,

To offer your Royal Highness the advantage of living sixty years more and in good health (I mean without being subject to illnesses during all this time), to bring him back to the age of thirty-six or forty, was the means of enabling him to leave after him descendants and prolong his posterity. This, my lord, is what I come to propose to you, not only for you personally, but even for the person in whom you would be most interested

.

My offer may seem bizarre, mad, will give rise to ridicule, but it will be no less frank.

It is in fairy tales (you may say to me) that we find the Fountain of Youth. “That's true, but she's represented there only as a fabulous thing and not at all real, although it is very true that she exists; and that is what I can assure you, monseigneur, since I have the good fortune to possess the means of making it visible and of making you enjoy it. — It is the true universal medicine created by God, by the virtue of which all illness is cured, all old age is rejuvenated: since by its means and virtue man becomes young again and frees himself from all germs of disease by restoring his freshness and restoring him to a perfect state.

You will perhaps point out to me, monseigneur, that it is rare for a man to live more than a century, and that time proves to us that men in general do not go further.

I will reply to this observation, that time and experience are against me and against my offer; but that if we go back to the first centuries which followed the creation of man, we will see there that our first fathers lived three hundred, five hundred and even up to eight hundred years.

Could not the man of today have the same advantages as the man of then?Would God have deprived us of being able to bless him for a long time on this earth? I cannot believe it, everything tells me the opposite, and if the man dies so early it is because he could not enjoy the universal medicine so discredited in this world, or did not want to take the trouble to look for it. — The means of finding it are everywhere... two thousand volumes dealing with it, and written by men of all nations and in all languages ​​​​should convince us of its existence. Moses, the legislator of the Jews, dealt with it in Genesis, the chapter on creation, designating it by the tree of life and that of the science of good and evil.

Why and what reason would God have had to deprive man of today of this great advantage, when he blessed all human posterity in the person of Adam and in the three principles serving as the basis of his procreation, and when the three kingdoms were created for him alone. - It is not in the principles nor will of the Almighty, after having (because of the first sin) punished man by work, privations and sufferings, to deprive him of the advantages which he had given him. — He only wanted that men in general should not have them in order to deprive them of the means of doing harm by using them badly;but he willed (as is proved to us by all the books dealing with this divine science) that some creature should possess them and use them as the hermetic philosophers do for the advantage of some other creature; and of this I am convinced myself.

Dwell further on my proposal, and to prove it possible, support it with the names of those who possessed this great secret, either in France, by Arnaud de Villeneuve, the Count of Saint-Germain, Zachaire and Flamel of Paris. — In Germany, by Basile Valentin. — In England, by Philalethes. — In Italy, by the Trevisan and by the author of the Egyptian and Greek Fables Unveiled, by Pernety. 'In Egypt, by Hermes and many others, that might bore you.- I will stop and end by telling you that, if my proposal can please you and that you please enjoy the advantages which will result from it, the expenses to be made are almost nothing and will not exceed 6000 fr. — This sum is more than enough to work, house, and support me for two years, enough time to reach the end.

Please, sir, honor me with your answer, while waiting for this great advantage;
I have the honor to be most perfectly, of HRH Monsignor the Prince of Condé,” The very humble and very obedient servant,

Louis CAMBRIEL. Paris
, November 14, 1825.

Third Chapter.

The author of the present treatise on alchemy that we have just read, not being able to cover by himself the expenses required for the hermetic work which requires approximately two years of time, had the following notice inserted several times in the Small Posters (Offer of a great benefit), and he had the inconvenience of finding only incredulous men although strongly attached to earthly goods. None wanted to trust him; they even doubted the truth of science, and despised the offers made to them to partake of the great virtues contained therein. Only two people believed it was possible and offered him 6,000 fr. ; but they put on this hard condition (which he could not accept) that he would show them the hermetic chemistry in full,and that all the operations would be done before them; what he could not do nor should not do.

They stubbornly persevered in their request, that's what prevented everything.

He offered in time and by letters the great advantages of universal medicine to learned, distinguished men, finally to great personages, even to millionaires; they added so little belief to it that his offers did not even merit the honor of an answer. How many advantages they have deprived themselves of! They no doubt took him for an exalted man, for a visionary!

Offer of great benefit.

It has always been recognized by most men that the philosopher's stone was impossible to find; that it was only a chimera, a madness, and that all those who sought it (although wise and prudent) had always attracted no other merit than that of being classed among madmen.

As we are convinced of the contrary by long experience, and as we have succeeded by the work of twenty-seven years in finding the means of being able to reduce all ordinary metals to fine gold, and as we have assured ourselves of the truth of the metallic transmutation of this divine science, we are not afraid of exposing ourselves to the ridicule of those who will not have wanted to take the trouble to convince themselves of its reality.

We therefore dare to offer twenty-five thousand francs in profit for each thousand francs lent, to anyone who will want to place his trust in us, and who will want to provide us with 6,000 francs, a sum sufficient to complete our discovery, which sum will only be given to us in seventeen payments, one each month, except the first which will be 1,200 francs.

If this offer, which seems in its approach as difficult to fulfill as the discovery itself, can please some lover of fortune, or assure him in advance who will only have to praise himself for having entered into business with the proposing, who will give on his morality all the information that one could desire.

If big business which undertakes all sorts of speculations, and always with much less advantage, and which exposes large capitals to gain 10, 15 and at most 30 per cent. 100, finds in this offer a strong enough benefit, he can accept part of it, or the whole offer.

Address, postage free, to LC.., at M. Rivet, carpenter, rue Judas, n° 8, in Paris.

EXPLANATION OF SOME ARTICLES OF THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS OF GENESIS.

If all those who have sought to discover the true meaning of the articles of the first five chapters of Genesis (which have so embarrassed researchers, as M. Freret says, in his critical examination of the apologists, chapter XI), and if these gentlemen, learned as they were, had known or believed in the philosopher's stone and in universal medicine, its product, they would have regarded these obscure articles, as hiding alchemical truths, and then they would have arrived to find the hidden meaning of all that Moses had written about it.

This legislator was an alchemist; he couldn't write any clearer. It dealt with hermetic science, and used its idiom to demonstrate at the same time the creation of the universe, by the Almighty.

His sister, Mary the Prophetess, was also an alchemist. These two great personages, placed by God to lead and give laws to his people of Israel, should have proved to these same seekers of truth that hermetic science was real, that it had been, and that it would always be, and that they should not have persisted, as the scholars of today do, in doubting this divine science (by the sole reason that they did not know it); if they had been led by faith, they would not have regarded it as false or unfindable, and would have experienced no difficulty, and would have become familiar with all the articles of the first chapters of creation, which they found only fabulous or inexplicable. “The waters above the firmament; the days before” the sun;and several other things of this nature would not have surprised them. »

I will try in this chapter and following, to demonstrate the hidden meaning of it; explain them as far as the hermetic science will allow me, and prove to the incredulous of alchemy the truth of this divine science, by the very obscurities which the learned have found in the articles of the first five chapters of Genesis.

First, Second and Third Day of Creation.

God, first of all, created light and two paradises; heavenly paradise and earthly paradise. And these two paradises were separated by the separating firmament, or sky; and the whole formed and was called the universe; and God said, let there be light, and there was light.

God worked the first three days of creation, by the glare of that same scattered light, which he had created on the first day, and he did not gather it together, or separate it from the darkness, on the fourth day; that to form the celestial sun, "(as do the hermetic philosophers, who also gather the light contained in the metals, to form their hermetic sun.)" And then the days were separated from the darkness, or from the night.God therefore needed for the first days of his work only scattered light, produced by movement; of himself, which with darkness or rest, formed the divine chaos, and God, by disentangling this chaos, created everything from it.

And although it seems true that there could not have been days before the sun, it will not be impossible to prove that the creator was able to work the first three days he did before the sun; and that he has been or willed to be enlightened, in his work, only by the scattered light, and that this first light, having been picked up or collected, the celestial sun was formed from it, and that then, as before, there was evening and morning.

God says that the firmament be made in the midst of the waters, and that it divides the waters from the waters;what was done. And the firmament dividing the waters or sky, it was made two luminous bodies, to illuminate the earth or earthly paradise.

God then made two great luminaries, one to rule over the day, the other over the night. Which was done on the fourth day of creation.

“The sun and the moon, created by God, are well distinguished, and more beautiful, and more perfect than the other stars, and above all. The sun illuminates us during the day, the moon illuminates us during the night, but not always, because it is not always illuminated by the great star, the sun. “

Likewise in the hermetic work, the sun or the gold, which is its father, or its agent;and the moon or the silver, which is its mother, or its patient, fail to produce the aurific child, or the perfection and end of the work; that when the moon or silver has received from the sun or from gold that first light, that virtue, that solar form, which the husband, or the gold of the philosophers, communicates to it. “

And that even the lunar star also illuminates the earth or the globe only by the reflected light of the sun.In the same way our moon, our philosophical silver, only illuminates and perfects the work when it has shown and proved to the artist that the sun or gold has united with it, and that the latter has been impregnated by the natural fire of gold, and that it derives all its virtue, its fecundity, only from the metallic sun its husband, and that then both bathe, or can bathe, in the same source. »

Sixth day of creation.

God created man in his own image and likeness; he created him male and female; he wounds them and says to them: increase and multiply.

"Adam was therefore created in the image of God, and was placed in the delightful garden, which was in the earthly paradise, which God had created on the first day, to keep and cultivate it. And in the middle of this same garden were planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The land of the delightful garden that was in the earthly paradise created by the Almighty was a red land, the color of fire, spotted with white

.It was the Adamic land, from which Adam our first father was formed and received life, in the said paradise, which became, because of the first sin, the terrestrial globe and the habitation of men. “

The Garden of the hermetic philosophers, which is the same as that designated by Moses in Genesis, is composed only of this red earth; and these gentlemen work no other soil than that which has this color. “

These same philosophers, in all their writings, place this famous garden wherever they are; never in a fixed place on the globe. “ The second, the third and the fourth do not need to be designated: the first alone suffices to prove the truth of what we advance, and which Moses obscured. »

“Moses, in Genesis, placed it in the earthly paradise, but did not designate the place. He only said, that in the middle of this delicious garden, one saw there a spring of living water, which watered this garden, and which was divided into four large rivers; which represented the four metallic elements, which by their union composed and formed this divine source (or the tree of life) and fountain of Youth and rejuvenation, and were called the first, Phison, and it is that which flows around the country of Hevilah, where there comes gold, and the gold of this land or river, is very good. It is also there that the bdelion and the onyx stone are found, today we say philosopher's stone. »

This famous garden, which has always been hidden from men, represents and contains the purified alchemical principles, the operations or work and the resulting product, which is universal medicine, or the tree of life designated by Moses. Adam

was put in this delightful garden to guard and cultivate it. “Adam here represents the hermetic philosopher, to whom God gave science, so that he could work for several months the philosophical earth making up the garden of the alchemists. The

woman that God gave to man was formed from only one of his ribs. “This proves to us the marriage of the two mercurys issuing from the same root, or that of gold with silver; and also that Adam and Eve are one and the same Adamic flesh. »

The creator worked six days, and stayed on the seventh.

1st. “This represents all of us the six metals; and rested the seventh, which represents the gold or perfection of the metallic kingdom. »

2nd. — “Wheat, wine and oil are the perfection of the vegetable kingdom. »

3rd. “Man and woman are the perfection of the animal kingdom. Adam

, our first father, did not have to bother about the countries where the first river flowed, nor did he have to look for the reason. “This river, or Phison, had very good gold in it, and there was also the stone of onyx;that is to say, by means of this philosophical gold, one could manage to make the philosopher's stone (or the onyx stone), the only name by which alchemists designate the great work, and can manage to change imperfect metals into gold, a perfect metal. Adam

had been created immortal in his elemental material part, as had Eve; without that, he would not have been different from other animals: which could not enter into the plan, nor the will of Creator, since he had created him in his image and likeness. He was therefore created perfect like his father; and he became mortal in his elementary material part, only after having eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which God had strongly recommended him not to eat.

Adam having been made guilty by his disobedience and having sinned, the Lord said: Behold Adam who has become like one of us, drive him out of the delicious garden which is in the earthly paradise, so that he cannot approach nor eat of the fruit of the tree of life which would make him live eternally; which would have thwarted the will of the Creator and had paralyzed the death sentence which the first sin had earned him. "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents and contains (as it has been said) the first principles or the metallic elements necessary to make the philosopher's stone and to obtain the tree of life, or the universal medicine, of which Adam was deprived because of his sin.Which proves to us that the man who was created immortal can, by virtue of the tree of life or universal medicine, enjoy on earth its first perfection. Adam was only fallen from his perfection and expelled from the delicious garden, which was in the earthly paradise, because he had listened too much to the flatteries and lies of the serpent (or of the devil, named Vérin) who managed to deceive Eve, our first mother, and to make her conceive the first child Cain ; which killed Abel, legitimate child, by envy of his virtue. “Here the materials, to make the philosopher's stone, are personified; and the death of Abel, by Cain, represents that in hermetic labor one matter kills the other and seizes its virtue.

And the earth, or Mercury, then opened its mouth and received the blood of Abel, when the hand of Cain spilled it. »

Cain having not obtained forgiveness for his crime complains to God, and tells him that whoever finds him will kill him. God then put a sign on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.

“This shows us and gives us the proof of the orific virtue of his brother Abel which he had seized. If really a creature, named Cain, had been the murderer of Abel, his brother, another creature; God would not have put a mark on Cain, and would not have prevented a fratricide from being punished.

And who could have killed Cain? There was only him on earth.

“This proves to us and demonstrates to us a hermetic secret proof, and must make it clear and prove to the unbelievers that this beautiful allegory or mark on Cain, treats and hides an alchemical secret. »

In the genealogy of the children of Adam, we see that it is Seth, the second legitimate child of Adam, who forms the human posterity.

“We no longer speak of Cain or Abel, because in alchemy the materials or natures that merge together form a third of which only we speak, the first having produced it are no longer anything. “

There is something hidden, obscure in this union or marriage of materials. This can therefore only prove an alchemical operation. Of the work of nature, and of

the Waters above and above the Firmament, and of part of what happens and is seen in the egg of the philosophers, during the coction of their philosopher's mercury.

“The work to make the philosopher's stone is distinguished as a work of art or manual work, and as a work of nature. The first lasts about five or six months, the second that of nature nine months, and the third which is also of nature, four, six or seven months, according to the will or the time of the artist. »

"And it is at the beginning of the work of nature which lasts nine months, or that of the coction of the philosopher's mercury in the egg, where one sees only waters in the globe: and that these waters rise in vapors, descend again in drizzle, and fall back on those which are at the bottom or at the bottom of the globe, and that then this operation of nature proves to us and demonstrates to us that the superior waters, of which the celestial paradise is composed, are separated by the firmament or sky, from those which with the earth form the terrestrial paradise or globe, although both issue from the same principle, from the same root, and their difference is and consists only in their purity.Then it is a truth recognized by all hermetic philosophers, that there are waters above and below the divine firmament and also that of the alchemists, and that the celestial paradise was formed only of the purest, most rarefied waters, and the globe or earthly paradise of others. 1.

“This same earth or Mercury, which having been empty and without beauty, was, by this murder, made beautiful, worthy of perfections and proper to the metallic generation: having been impregnated with the masculine solar form. »

Of the Universal Deluge.

The deluge of Genesis, by Moses, and the deluge of the hermetic philosophers are two deluges which form or make only one real one.

After the waters of the flood, by Moses, were diminished and almost dried up by the winds that God caused to blow, and the earth appeared a little, Noah opened the window of the ark, and let the raven go, which, having gone out, did not return.

Seven days after the crow came out, Noah brought out the dove to see if the waters had ceased to cover the earth; but the dove having been unable to find where to set foot, because the earth was still a little covered with water, she came back to him, and Noah stretching out his arm took him and put him back in the ark. He waited another seven days, and again sent the dove out of the ark; she came to him towards evening, carrying in her beak an olive branch whose leaves were all green.

Noah then recognized that the waters had receded from off the earth. He waited another seven days, and he again sent the dove away, which no longer came to him. And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

“Then likewise the waters of the flood of the hermetic philosophers are all changed into earth by the virtue of the natural formative fire. “

Note well that the crow represents the black color, or the putrefaction of the elementary principles of the two mercury (or of the waters forming the hermetic deluge) that the philosopher put in the egg, and that then the earth begins to appear a little. So

the raven found land he could stay on, so he didn't come back into the ark again. “What is essential, and which must happen for the success of the work of alchemy, because the crow must no longer enter the hermetic ark, and the black color or putrefaction must not be repeated; and this black color is only perfectly black on the fiftieth day. »

The dove that Noah brought out of the ark seven days after the crow, found nothing dry enough, so she came back to him, which forced Noah to send her back again seven days later, and the same evening she came back to him, carrying in her beak an olive branch whose leaves were all green.

“This proves to us that at the end of the color black, or of the putrefaction of our mercury, or of the waters of the flood of the philosophers, the colors blue, yellow, orange and green present themselves a little and form the hermetic rainbow. Noah

again sent the dove away for the third time, which did not return to him.

“This shows us that in the colors blue, yellow, orange and green (which is the one that lasts longer than the others), there is no more humidity in the egg of the philosophers, that the waters have become terrified, and that the white color will begin to show itself. And the green color that appears then, shows that the stone of the philosophers has a vegetative soul (which closes a mystery of alchemy), which prepares and precedes the white, main color. »

After the flood of Genesis, by Moses, or its end, God made and established a covenant with the men who had been saved from it, and promised not to cause any more living animal to perish by the waters, because, he said, there will be no more flood which exterminates the earth. — This is the sign of the covenant which I establish for ever between myself and you, as well as with all the animals which are with you. I will put my rainbow in the clouds, so that it will be the sign of the covenant that I have made with the earth.

Who will believe that the Creator of the universe has made a covenant with the earth, his workmanship?

It is with men that he would have made the covenant, if God had made one.

“Here are the two mercurys, or the waters forming the hermetic deluge, which then are reduced to earth or white universal medicine. “

Moses, as a hermetic philosopher, did not think it necessary to explain himself more clearly. "

And when I shall have covered the sky with clouds, my bow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember the covenant which I have made with you, and every soul that lives and animates the flesh (it was necessary to say spirit), and there will be no more in the future a deluge which destroys all flesh that lives in its waters.

“The deluge of the hermetic philosophers also has its rainbow which proves to the artist that the waters have receded, and that there will be no more rain, and that the vapors which rose to the highest point of the globe or egg, and descended in rain have ceased, and that the rainbow of alchemy, visible in the glass globe, will no longer show itself, because all the waters forming the hermetic deluge have changed into fixed, white earth, having life. If neither Greek nor Latin history speaks of the

universal deluge (as Saint Augustine says), we must take the deluge of the Genesis of Moses only as a hermetic allegory; what we believe to have proved by all that we have said, to my fellows, ancient and modern traveling on earth.

I could have in this present course of alchemy, where no manual operation has been hidden, added to it the means of making the philosopher's stone with half the time it takes.

I have read in the works of hermetic philosophers that only two philosophers succeeded in doing so, but did not write down the way to make the others reach it; they kept the discovery to themselves.

I had a strong reason which prevented me from showing the means. People will perhaps tax me with jealousy, but if you pay close attention to my nineteen lessons you will see that I am not, since I believe I have explained myself too well, made myself too clear.

However, if I can manage to find one of my fellows, and if he wishes to grant me his friendship, to give him a proof of mine, I will show him the way to shorten by half the time to do the work of natural philosophy which I hold only from God.

I am nearly eighty years old, my strength is so weakened, that I will be forced in spite of myself, if my fellow men do not strengthen me, to take a young and strong amateur to do the first operations, not being able to do them myself, which will force me to show what I have always hidden; to which I shall not be obliged, if my fellows treat me as their equal.

Third addition.

Continuing also from the second note of the fourth lesson, and like the first and second (also apart from Alchemy): dealing with the union of the two seeds, the male and the female; forming the first seed of the animal kingdom: and of its perfect or imperfect results.

The natural fire contained in the seed of the male and the unnatural fire contained in that of the female, by their great force, are both so prone to multiply, that they often bring the man and the woman to unite carnally. So in this combat of love, in this carnal union, one could say that there is a challenge, a desire to win, to surpass oneself in strength to procreate their fellow man.

By the union of these two seeds, each of which has an opposite fire in quality, a compost is formed which becomes the first seed, or the chaos of the animal kingdom. This chaos or first seed contains the fire against nature, and perfectly acquires the virtue of multiplying only by fermentation; and this fermentation only manifests itself, only takes place after the female, during her union, has received in her womb the natural formative fire that the male injects into her; which units with his menstrual blood and forms the compost, and the vital spirits which were contained separately in each nature are, by their union, greatly increased in this compost or chaos.—Then the form, or natural fire of the male or masculine semen, is dissolved and devoured by the corrosive virtue of the menstrual semen; and the animal germ is produced from it, only a few days later, only by the virtue and effect of the putrefaction of the compost containing the unnatural fire formed by the mixture of fires contrary in quality. Which then causes the female stomach pains and spitting, and demonstrates that the animal germ is developing and that the product which must result from it can only be perfect.— But if, on the contrary, the fermentation of the two seeds forming the compost or animal chaos is pushed to the third degree, which is corruption, by its too great action, the compost produced by the union of the two seeds is destroyed, as well as the germ which it was to produce: and the result is then only a false germ, a carnal mass not proper for anything, nourishing and increasing, like the child who should be born from it, of the same menstrual blood from which it was produced.

Summary of what has been said in the three preceding additions, dealing with three lives in man, the perfect animal.

The imperfect animal man is perfect animal only when he has received two animations: the first terrestrial, the other celestial.

The first terrestrial, which makes it an imperfect animal and gives it the first life, is an elementary spirit.

The second, which makes him and makes him a perfect animal and gives him the second life, is a celestial spirit; and this celestial spirit can only unite and ally itself with matter, or earthly body, after the latter, earthly body, has received the first earthly life which is an elementary spirit, which spirit facilitates the union of these two extremes.And this second animation or second life is only sent by God to the imperfect animal to animate it celestially, to make it a perfect animal, worthy of it, and to differentiate it from other animals which have only the first material life or elementary spirit within them.

And this second animation or second life, which made man an imperfect animal, a perfect animal, could only take place by a means or medium, which is only part of the virtue and power of the earthly spirit “elementary or first life of the imperfect animal; which, holding as elementary terrestrial spirit of the top and the bottom, could combine and unite the extremes: the celestial spirit with the terrestrial body.— This alliance and union of matter or of the earthly body, with the celestial spirit or soul, could not, as I have said, be effected except by the earthly spirit or first life. When this union was made, the perfect animal man united two lives; which were only produced in him by the union of the terrestrial body with the soul or celestial spirit. And these two lives or these two spirits united always form or produce also a third life in him; which is in his seed for his own multiplication: then the perfect animal man has three lives in him.

We will add to all that we have written in this work of Alchemy, several essential extracts composed by the philosophers my predecessors: they will be useful to the amateurs, let us begin, to work with Alchemy or occult science.

Sons of science, if you want to convert or transmute bodies, from imperfect to perfect, if this transmutation can be done by any matter whatsoever, it must necessarily be done by spirits. — Hermes.

II

The soul or tint of metals is very necessary for the work. To obtain it, it is necessary to open the metals and sixteen by a fine retz this soul which will come out of it. — Hermes.

III

Anything at the beginning of which you have not seen the truth is utterly deceptive and useless. — Moryan.

IV

We will not do the magisterium if we do not know how to reduce the sun and the moon into a single body. — Moryan.

V

This stone is enveloped in several colors which hide it; but there is only one which marks its birth and its entire perfection. Know what that color is and never say anything about it. — Hermes.

VII

My son, take the male gold, submerge it in its menstrual blood, and separate it from its rust that kills it, and make it alive and free; then, go on and help him get out of a second affliction after having gotten him out of a first. Then you will have made a friend who will be very grateful to you. — Hermes.

VII

The stone that is extracted from the sun and the moon, by an entirely natural means, and which is made visible and palpable, is a stone that must be honored. It is hidden in caves or in the depths of perfect metals; its color makes it dazzling; she has a life that she manifests to the artist, who serves as her midwife. Its brilliance and its beauty demonstrate perfectly that it is a soul or a sublime spirit, and an open sea, on which the philosopher must travel, and be careful not to be shipwrecked if he wants to succeed in enjoying all the goods that it contains in it. — Hermes.

VIII

Dough cannot be fermented unleavened. From solid earth make water, until the elixir resulting from it becomes leaven, as the dough becomes leaven by the leaven which one has mixed with it.

IX

When the pure brass is baked by a strong fire, and it appears to shine like the eyes of the fish, then one must hope that in this state it can return to its original nature.

X

The first operation of the magisterium is coupling; the second, design; the third, pregnancy; the fourth, work or work; the fifth, food. If there is no mating, there will be no conception; there being no conception, there will be no pregnancy; there being no pregnancy, there will be no childbirth. The order of this operation resembles the production of man. — Moryan.

XI

Know that the magisterium needs to be created and done twice, and that they are two actions, and two operations so linked with each other, that when one is completed, the other begins, and everything is completed in it.

XII

There is only one first and principal substance, which is the matter of the magisterium; that this matter becomes one; that this one is made with it, and that nothing is added to it or taken away from it. — Moryan.

XIII

The stone, although it is born from the destruction of metals, it is prior to them, since it is the matter from which all metals have been formed. The secret of the art consists in knowing how to extract from metals this first material or metallic germ which must vegetate by the fecundity of the water of the philosophical sea.

XIV

The humidity of perfect bodies, which is the first matter from which they were made, must return and appear, and what is hidden must be made apparent and manifest. This is what is called reincruding the bodies, that is to say uncooking and softening them until they are stripped of their hard and dry corporeality; especially since what is dry is neither incoming nor tingent, having no dye for itself alone. And one only achieves this softening after having united the fixed with the fleeing by means of the first dissolving water, and after having made and composed one of the first chaoses, and having made Cambar manifest.

XV

The sun and moon bodies being dissolved by our water, are called quicksilver. Now, this quicksilver is not without sulphur, nor sulfur without the nature of the luminaries, that is to say of the sun and the moon, because these luminaries are, as to form, the principal means or media by which nature passes to perfect and to accomplish its generation. And this quicksilver is called salt honored animate, and impregnated, and fire, because this salt is only a fire, and the fire is only a sulfur, and the sulfur is only a quicksilver which was drawn from the sun and the moon by our water, and reduced to a stone of high price. I mean it is the material of the luminaries, which has been altered, changed and raised from a base and low condition to a high nobility.Notice that this white sulfur is the father of the metals; and their mother, that it is our mercury, the mine of gold, the soul, the ferment, the mineral virtue, the living body, the perfect medicine, our sulfur and our quicksilver. That is to say, it is sulfur from sulfur, quicksilver from quicksilver, and mercury from mercury.

XVI

Gold contains all metals in perfection; it is he who vivifies them, because it is he who is the leaven of the elixir; and the latter cannot be perfect without having gone through all
its colors.

XVII

Brass is a main part of permanent water, and it is its tincture. And, know that the times of the earth are in the water, and the water is always until you put the earth on it.

XVIII

Sulfur has two different substances in it: its flammable part must be separated and detached from that which is not, as well as the faeces or terrestrial impurities.

XIX

It is necessary to remove from the mercury an earthly, impure substance, and a superfluous and volatile humidity or aquosity, which evaporate in the fire without igniting (and which have been united to the principles of their composition; and this is the earthiness of their sulfur and the impurity of their quicksilver: the other impurities do not occur at this first mixture, or first mixture of their principles, until afterwards). This operation can only be done by sublimation, the fire raising and consuming all that is volatile.There is also only its middle substance alone which is useful, which has the property of neither burning nor being consumed in fire, and which fixes what has been united of the volatile in it, and prevents the bodies to which it is united, from being burned, since it remains and perseveres in the fire.

XX

Keep then the quicksilver which is made in interior places or cabinets, that is to say in the principles of the metals which are composed of it, and in which it is coagulated; for it is this quicksilver which is said to be of the earth which remains.

XXI

This stone is called the stone of the wise, which will have to be put in a damp fire, in which its virtues will multiply.

XXII

I say further that sulfur tints and fixes, and that it is contained and enclosed, and that it is made by the union of tinctures.

XXIII

The sulfurs which are suitable for our work are celestial and terrestrial. The male is the sky of the female, and the female is the earth of the male; they need each other; for the mediocre is the best, because only mediocre and temperate things unite.

XXIV

The goods that you contain within you, oh our elixir, are invaluable, divine; and it is in you alone that the hermetic philosophers put their hope.

XXV

The magisterium is not discovered or obtained either by violence or by threats, and only those who love God can acquire it; for God only reveals this divine and pure science to his faithful servants, who must not entrust it to anyone. — It is a gift from God which he gives only to whom he pleases, who must humble themselves before him, giving him continual signs of gratitude, submission and love. They must always convince themselves that they derive such great good from him alone, and use it only according to the orders of his holy will, and always keep it secret in their hearts, when they have discovered it.

XXVI

These secrets must be hidden from all the wicked.

END