LITTLE TREATMENT OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DISSOLUTIONS AND COAGULATIONS

COLONNA

How impossible it is for us to have a perfect knowledge of natural things, if we do not know their different Solutions & Coagulations, & the simple way nature uses to decompose them, & to then carry them to a new generation; the Ancient Sages could not give us better advice to arrive at this knowledge, than that of dissolving & coagulating , solve & coagula, since without these two different operations, in vain would we attempt to perfect the Beings that the Creator has subjected to us as much for his glory as for our needs.

We have always been so convinced of this important necessity, that we have used all sorts of means to achieve a real dissolution, according to the different ends we have in view. There must be no doubt that those who have understood the true meaning of these two words to dissolve and to coagulate have happily accomplished the intention of the Philosophers, but also one must not be surprised if those who have misunderstood , remained in confusion, for not having been able to know the difference between natural dissolutions and coagulations and artificial ones, that we are going to explain in a few words, what we will not do for scholars, and even less for those who believe themselves to be; but well for those who aspire to Science, and who will have our good will for pleasant.

We will first speak of artificial and unnatural Dissolutions & Coagulations, and then we will speak of those which look natural, and of the agents which suit them.

The first are made by acidic waters which render the hard bodies phthalic into subtle parts, which being spread invisibly in these liquors, can then be separated from them into impalpable powder, by means of some alkali, either coagulated by heat by evaporation of humidity, or coagulated by cold into vitriols which take their name from the dissolved choie.

know how to execute them as well as the most skilful of our chemists. They are said to be against nature, because they do so with violence & ebullience, which often spoil & corrupt the nature of the subject by consuming its germ & its radical humidity. It is easy to see that these operations are contrary to the intention of true philosophers , since everything that is violent is repugnant to nature, and that inanimate parts are incapable of generation, would be superfluous to dwell further on this matter, it is better to pass suddenly to natural operations, and to the means of achieving it.

When we speak of dissolving & coagulating naturally, we do not claim to imply that art has no part in it, on the contrary, when nature presents us with a mixture which she has left in a certain degree of proportionate perfection. in its species, it is up to us to examine what more this wise operator could have done with it, if it had not been prevented, and, to what use we are permitted to employ it.

If we consider it closely, assuming the subject to be first-order metallic, that she could have made of it this precious metal that most of the world seeks with so much avidity, because if we are to believe the Sages, all metals are in their interior good gold & good silver, to which it lacks only the cooking. We shall learn that if it did not succeed in this it is either by the fault of the climate, or by the bad weather of its matrix, or there was found either too much water, or too much land.

It is therefore necessary to come to a separation and an exact purification, and for that it is necessary that art begin where nature ended, that it continue its work in concert with it, that it follow it step by step. not, because for the little that it deviates from it, it is no longer an art, the word art signifies the method of doing something well on one's own , as Aristotle himself remarks.

One will operate very naturally and very artistically if one begins with the radical dissolution of the subject with a solvent which is homogeneous to it and of its same nature, which joining with love to the substance of the thing dissolved, unite together if perfectly, that Art can no longer separate them from it, it will happen in such a solution, that the impure sulfurs (which are usually the subject on which deceived chymists occupy themselves) will separate it from themselves, because they have no analogy with such an agent.

In this operation full of gentleness, the matter is reincruded & increased considerably, while preserving its germ & its radical humidity: the matter being thus corrupted & reduced in its principles, it will not fail to carry itself to generation; for corruption is always followed by generation; the seed of plants, and the seed of animals in their womb, are fairly well-known examples.

If they were not corrupted, nothing could be expected of them. It results from this, that if we dissolve Philosophically, that means, naturally, we will coagulate in the same way, thus our operations will be in order & according to the idea of ​​the Sages; solve & coagulate. We must dissolve & coagulate from beginning to end.

The more we begin these works over again, the more our matter will acquire degrees of perfection, because its principles will be exalted, and will multiply more and more, which will give it an infinite extension in quality as in quantity; We have just explained what a radical and natural dissolution is, according to the idea that the Ancients left us, and that experience has confirmed to us. It is appropriate to dwell a little on an operation which is the key to an art which enables us to know all of nature, so that we are not reproached for writing without knowledge of the cause.

We will say that as Doctors recognize three kinds of dissolution of food, before it is converted into Blood for the food and preservation of the animal, the first of which, which is simply a preparation, made by the means of mastication and saliva, which is a kind of solvent, these foods being then carried into the ventricle, they find there another liquor which, having separated from the mass of blood, flows from a large number of glands, with which is sprinkled the inner membrane of this viscus, this fertilized liquor which is still a solvent, working on the food to dispose it to enter the intestines through the pilorus,Or they receive their perfection by the pancreatic liquor, which being joined to the two others, and serves to divide the different substances which form the Chyle.

In the same way, we count three, dissolutions of our raw body, which we dispose of in the first place, by the crushing and division of its coarsest parts, this is what is called the first disposition of matter. Secondly we have added to it our menstruation by means of which it is dehydrated, & is reincrusted by fermentation in our stomach, where it must stay for some time & where there is a new separation of the sulphurous impurity & fuel, then we dissolve it for the third time in a certain liquor from which it receives all its perfection to be converted into chyle, then into blood.

It is not that these three dissolutions act differently on our subject, the agent always being the same from the beginning to the end: but it is that by these linearly continued operations , our matter is purified more and more. more, by separating from its terrestrials, & becomes more fit to receive this marvelous spirit which gives life to all beings in this vast Universe, a spirit so admirable that it is embodied in as many different ways, as there are of different magnets which attract it after they themselves have been formed.

Aer generat magnetem - Air generates a magnet (says the Cosmopolitan) magnes vero generat vel facit apparere aerem nostrum; est aqua roris nostri ex qua extrabitur salpetroe Phylosophorum qua omnes res crescunt & nutriuntur (but our air generates or causes to appear magnets; it is the water of our dew from which the saltpetre of Phylosophores will be extracted all things grow and are nourished.).

We would hardly be satisfied if, after having dealt with dissolution , we did not say a word about the solvent, as the instrumental and absolutely necessary cause in an operation of this importance. We say that the menses which must serve for the dissolution, is a water, which is called the water of the metals, because it is of the nature of these bodies.

This water is mercurial & volatile, Philosophers, not a water that wets the hands, but a subtle, cold, raw smoke, some call it volatile mineral salt, which mixes like a vapor with the sulphurous and unctuous smoke, and which receives its form.

This is what Marie, the sister of Moses, means when she says that the sulfurous smoke takes the mercury smoke, which is confirmed by Arnaud de Villeneuve, who says, that as nature produces the metals of sulfur & mercury , art produces it in the same way. Finally, as a single vegetal water receives all the forms of the seeds of the Plants, in the same way, the water of the metals receives the form of several & different sulfurs of the minerals, & freezes them.

according to its dignity. It is obvious that the Sperm without menstruation can never reach a perfect generation, which is to be understood from the mineral kingdom in which menstruation as vegetable water (called from the word vegeto & not from the vegetable kingdom , as B. Valentin has skilfully distinguished it) is necessary, so that the substantial metallic sulfurs, namely of the Sun, and of the Moon, can be inserted there.

Some difficulties may be encountered here that require a little clarification for those who are not yet initiated in the understanding of the terms of our Philosophy is that we have said that our menstruation is a water which does not wet the hands, it is indeed the truth if one considers it stripped of a common water which is not of its essence. In this art it must be considered as a volatile salt, or if you want as a Smoke very ready to attach itself to a sulfur of its nature to make together only one same body, one same soul & one same spirit.

When we say that it is the water of the metals, it is not that it is drawn from the metals, but it is because it is the only water which sympathizes with them, which is able to purify them & to perfect them, we will be asked, perhaps , where this water can come from, since it is not drawn from the metals, and that its essential parts have so much relation to those of these mixtures? that's a question we're going to answer.

It is not so necessary for us to know whence this menstruation can originally come, as it is useful for us to learn in what subject nature places it, for it would be of little satisfaction to an impatient reader, if we guided his spirit in the vast expanse of the air, to go there to seek a thing which is commonly found on earth: it is true that nature has taken care to hide it from us in all the subjects which contain it, and that although it is within our reach, we would also be hard pressed to find it without a profound, meditation, than it would be not to find it after having known it.

It appears that of all those who have put this menstruum into use, some have prepared it, mediante aere, from a being not specified in the nature of any of the kingdoms, which is very possible, others have found it in plants, after having excited in them a certain movement in a completely natural way, & no one has taken the trouble to look for it in the kingdom of metals, because to draw a menstruation from it, these mixed would have been reincrudated themselves by an external agent. The plants are all the more clean there, as their all volatile substances being able to get rid with facility of their accidents, (after having acquired an impression produced in them by this exterior movement) are more disposed to join those of the metals, by reincruding them and volatilizing them by the conformity of their nature.

Those who have some tincture of our Spagyric are not unaware that vegetables, besides an elementary water, have a double salt, and a double sulfur which are volatile by nature, and fixed by accident, only of these two sulfurs, one is proper to vegetables & the other is mineral, which shows itself in the coals, & whitens them, because the salt is there in equilibrium, one can extract it as good as that of the earth, it is even purer, as it is shown in the experiments which makes us know that the minerals enter with the water for the food of the plants After that we should not be surprised if we have found sometimes in the herbs, tin, silver, & mercury, it is true that these metals were not part of the compound & that they were accidentally enclosed in their pores, however the sulfur which is in the coal is not there in the same way, but quite naturally. Whence we see that the metallic principles are found in vegetables, what we say of sulphur, the same can be said of the other principles.

It is well known that herbs take on different qualities depending on the difference in the terroir that produces them.

The wine which the philosopher Calistene called the Blood of the earth, can serve us as an example of it, it is to be presumed that a naturalist who knows how to taste it, will not be mistaken in his conjectures. Who can doubt that plants are in commerce with minerals and minerals with plants , since they are nourished with food which is common to them? a good Artist is not unaware of the secret of uniting them together with an inseparable union, which would be absolutely impossible if they were of such a different nature as some people have imagined.

finally the art of naturally fixing the volatile substance of plants by metals, and that of volatilizing, and of making the metals vegetate by plants.

We conclude that we must derive our menstruation from this unspecified thing or else from the subjects which will seem to us the most suitable for our purpose among the vegetables, which will give us this substance which being well purified, will be very ready to extract this naturally.

much-desired metallic essence. We have only to say a word touching the matter of the Philosophers, and of the subject which contains it. We have sufficiently shown in our preceding writings that this matter is the essential salt of metals.

imperfect, and that these same metals are the subjects which contain it, and which we could authorize by the testimony of the Masters of the Art, if it were necessary, (there is one however which contains it with qualities excellent, that he well deserves that we abandon his companions to attach ourselves only to him, if we knew him) & why it would be superfluous to say anything else about it, except that we want to warn the Artists, that they have to prepare the metals of which they will have chosen to extract their seed, because they must be prepared differently according to their constitution cold or humid, hot or seiche,taking care not to harm to their germ.

Some are due to a certain smoothness that must be removed to facilitate the agent's action on his patient. The others, being exempt, require nothing more than a simple spraying.

The material being extracted, purified, animated, we will have this unique material to which we attribute so many different actions , which are done by themselves in a single vessel & in a single furnace, without the Artist putting the hand.

The so-called scholars who publish that there is another, entirely prepared by nature, which is neither animal, nor vegetable, nor mineral, being able to purify itself, and carry out the other operations which it needs to her perfection without the help of the artist than the simple administration of an exciting fire, would not be sorry that we had given in their opinion; but as we have only wished to speak of things which are of our knowledge, we still wish to confess our ignorance with regard to those which are unknown to us.

If this matter in question is really existing, visible, palpable, having body, soul, spirit, and in the form that it is depicted to us, why can't we find it? but if it subsists only in the imagination of speculators, how pitiful these speculators are to spend most of their time maintaining paradoxes! These people despise often the feeling of those who follow another System than their own, although without foundation. It would be necessary to please them to write enigmatically & to obscure a matter impenetrable by itself: A book in their regard would be all the more estimable, as it would be less intelligible, than matters to them since they are incapable of seeking the truth of our art in manipulations.

There are people of another character, who far from giving into beings of chimerical reason, seek this truth by more solid ways, they would gladly put their hand to work, but as one must be instructed beforehand, they have this defect of not being attached enough to the study, always finding the clearest books too obscure , it is not easy to satisfy them all.

Be that as it may, there will be some who will stick to the middle, and who will be content to find one, which, more exempt than the others from quotations and equivocal terms, gives enough light to make some progress in a Science as abstract as the one we are dealing with. It is true that two words that could be added to it would shed more light, and that it would be of great service to those who would like, as they say, to find the pieces ready prepared; but it's not fair to make a secret public which has not yet been declared, and will never be so to the letter: we would be reproached with too much advantage, as we have already done, of writing too clearly.

Although we have depicted the subjects more intelligibly than has not been done, yet we are persuaded that the goal will not be achieved without a special grace from him who is the Master of it. One would have reason to doubt, judging by appearances, if we gave it ourselves. How many writers write books which treat of sciences which they do not know, particularly natural philosophy, of which so much has been written, good or bad!

what we answer what we have already replied to those who asked us, that it is up to them to know it, & that they could not without temerity undertake to decide on it, one would have to be up to date to judge it sanely (because it does not is not the same with this knowledge as with that of good Paintings which only requires judgment, but in that in question, in addition to the good judgment with which one must be provided, it is still necessary to have manipulated for a long time as a naturalist, & not not like ordinary chemists do,) this is why it will be useless henceforth to ask us this question, it is something that does not concern them as long as the usefulness they can derive from reading the writings,assumed they were there bring a new spirit free from the errors of a false Philosophy.

It must be admitted that there are people so well informed about their opinion and their alleged ability to read a lot that they would not want to change themselves for a Geber. It would be to be hoped that they would remain in mere speculation, because the practice would often be very fatal to them. There is a good deal of the appearance that they do not retain a certain medium in the understanding of books, for although they should not be understood literally, it does not follow that one should encounter a mystery in every line, never thought.

If our Art is an imitation of nature, as it is true, & if such Commentators were believed, what trouble & what confusion would we not see in the Universe! Let us read dear Inquisitors; but let us strip ourselves first of this self-esteem which is an inevitable pitfall to our advancement.

Let us read the books, but while reading them, let us attach ourselves to what has a relation to the operations of nature, and let what has none be unworthy of our attention, when we have made some progress by the letter, put the hand in operations, & never take a decisive tone with others, that experience has not made us certain; but let us not deceive ourselves by false appearances, for the spirits of darkness sometimes take the form of the spirits of light, to test those who are not on their guard:

which we can avoid if God gives us the grace.