SECOND TREATISE OF VULGAR ANTIMONY

Alexander von Suchten


1575

Dedicated to the Honorable Johan Baptista, of Seebach


Most Honored Lord, following your urgent requests, I can only satisfy you, considering that you entertain great lust and love to learn the mysteries of Nature, which in our times has been known to few and deeply hidden in darkness. . Though many of them were written by the ancients, for their books mention them, though they were written in the Hermetic style, and are of no interest except to those who have studied in the Hermetic schools or have been chosen by God to know such mysteries.

Therefore these secrets, which torment you, lie at the bottom a deep well, fastened with strong bolts, which no man has opened except he has received the key from the hands of the spirit of truth.

I will not mention the magic Antimony of the ancient philosophers, for men would understand little or nothing of it, but I will speak of the vulgar Antimony, of which you only desire to be instructed and which I am desirous of teaching you. is, 2° Of what parts it is composed, 3° In what it must be dissolved again. In this writing you must understand me literally, and I will not use any metaphors, allegories or similarities, but will only describe Antimony in a simple way, so that you will not be disappointed in the operations, which is carried out in accordance with the literal sense, and you will get what I write. Thus you will be able to judge whether in the vulgar Antimony are or are not the mysteries, of which the Magi and Paracelsus wrote.

Antimony, when it comes from the mines, is not as pure as it should be, because it is mixed with stone from the mines, and I have never seen pure from the mines.

Therefore before being used, it must be purged. This purgation is effected by digestion. Digestion is a sulphurous fire, the best sulfur is metallic sulphur, although the Artists purge it with a vegetable fire, which is tartar, however this digestion is not Natural.

But the reason why the tartar separates the regulus from the slag, is due to the fact that the sulfur of the Antimony is more vegetal than metallic. But you must purge it with the sulfur that comes from quicksilver, and not with salts. For this metallic sulfur in the quick antimonial silver into quick silver, then from this quick silver, is made pure gold. Now this metallic sulfur which purges Antimony, is found only in Mars, and nowhere else, and this purgation is done in this way: Take 4 ounces of Mars (I use nails which are neither big nor thick) , put them in a strong crucible, put in a blast furnace, and leave them till you see them soften, then throw 8 ounces of Antimony into the crucible, and make a strong fire, let Mars melt well in Antimony, then throw a handful of saltpetre, let melt in the crucible which must be of sufficient size so that the matter does not overflow, leave until everything is in beautiful cast iron. Then pour into a regulus cone, the regulus will go down to the bottom. When the material is cooled, take it and separate the regulus from the slag which looks like marcasite, by striking it. Keep the dross, until you learn their usefulness, because a secret is hidden in them, of which I will not speak now. hitting him. Keep the dross, until you learn their usefulness, because a secret is hidden in them, of which I will not speak now. hitting him. Keep the dross, until you learn their usefulness, because a secret is hidden in them, of which I will not speak now.

Put this regulus in a crucible and melt it again, and when it is molten, throw in an ounce and a half of Antimony, and let it melt well together, then put in as much saltpetre as you have. put previously, let melt, throw in a regulus cone, separate the regulus from the slag: this regulus is sharper and clearer than the first. The slag can be discarded as it is of no value.

Melt this regule for the third time, then when it is well melted add a spoonful of saltpetre to it, when it has melted like oil on the metal, which requires a strong fire, otherwise it remains coagulated at the surface, throw in the cornet and separate the regulus from the slag: this regulus is even purer than the preceding one; as for the slag, they are of no use.

Melt this regulus a fourth time, when it is melted and shines like silver, add saltpetre to it, and let it react, then throw into the cone and separate the regulus from the slag. If the slag is golden yellow in color, then it will be fine; the spelter is white like silver and will be marked with a star on its surface. This king, if you have worked correctly, will weigh four ounces, and this work can be accomplished in two hours.

In the preparation of vulgar Antimony, you must observe this: what separates the Antimony from its faeces? You must not think that it is the saltpeter that does the work, but you must know that the Antimony extracted the soul of Mars, which is its better sulfur, and reduced it to Mercury. This Mercury is nothing but fire, and performs the operations of fire, namely digesting raw Mercury from Antimony, and separating the metal from the mineral. You must also note that the Mercury of Mars is hidden in the purged Antimony, in the whiteness of the antimonial Mercury; for the silvery whiteness, which you see in this Regulus, is not its sulphur, but its quicksilver, in which is hidden the Mercury of Mars, which is nothing but gold. This Mercury of Mars is nothing but a spirit or an air in the said Mercury of Antimony,

Now if you understand what kind of fire purged the vulgar Antimony, you will also have to understand, what is the fire, which purges and digests the Magical Antimony, where dwells the true philosophical gold, which we call potable gold, which in the end also separates from the Mercury of the philosophers, just as gold separates from quicksilver from Antimony.

It is therefore necessary that you look at Nature, how she works, then you will find, what Nature is, and that she is not only in vulgar metals, but also in everything, and mainly in the philosophical metals which are known to the Magus.

Chemists purge Antimony with iron, when they have purged it they do not know what they have achieved, nor do they understand the operation of Nature, nor do they understand what Nature is here, and have no mind to learn it.

Having separated the pure Antimony from its mineral impurities, you must know that in this Antimony there is already an excrement, which is nothing but a foul sulphur, this sulfur being separated, the Antimony is then brought back to its primordial matter, which is nothing but fire, and this fire is quicksilver, and from this quicksilver are made the greatest secrets of all Nature. Here Plato recommends us to be silent. See Nicolas Allobroe, it is easy to separate the sulfur from the purged Antimony, but here a great knowledge is hidden, and I will show what it is necessary to know for this work, for the rest I hesitate for certain reasons.

In order that a thing which is dead may be brought back to life again, and in order for that which causes death to be separated from life, that thing must contain two virtues to quicken and separate; and these two must be one in virtue but two in number. For all the mysteries come from a single fountain, and issue from a single essence, are disposed by the will of God. This Divine Will is what specifies any creature, an Entity that cannot be apprehended by any sense, just as God cannot be apprehended.

Now quicksilver is dead in Antimony, he must be revived, and restored to the state he was in before he was killed, in which life was abundant and indestructible. Nothing that is dead, cannot be raised to life, that writes or teaches anything else, is not a philosopher; the life which had fled, if revived, is a ferment of living things, by which it is made alive, and this thing is its increase and its magic multiplication. Whence it follows that in living things there is something possessing a transmuting quality for the quality of the thing which is elevated, for the will of God that all things should die, is specific to creatures, so that after death they can multiply indefinitely.

Going further, this living thing serves our work, and for this operation by which imperfect metals are transmuted into gold, it must also have the specific, and no Art can perform it without Regeneration, which some chemists nevertheless claim. crazy. For if there was no specifier there, how could it be transmuted? and hence no seed could sprout or increase, for that would be contrary to Nature.

Therefore living things must be of the nature of water, as can be seen when a seed is buried in the ground it is revived by water, which is to say that here the seed is a dead water, which the other water or humidity revivifies, and it is the ferment of water which gives water its specific Nature, and consequently, from one seed is born an infinite number of seeds.

To understand this in our present work: the quicksilver of Antimony, of Saturn, of Jupiter is dead, and can never be revived except by vulgar quicksilver. In this way the corruption, regeneration, and multiplication of metallic forms takes place.

One can ask here that since the water multiplies the seed in the earth, and transmutes it into multiple seeds, if the quicksilver multiplied by the metals can be again put back into metal with the vulgar Mercury. I reply that this is impossible with the base metals, but with the philosophical metals it is easily done. Because our Mercury gives its specific, and receives it again thanks to the Art, which means that it becomes again gold and silver, such as it was first. But why can't it be with vulgar metals? There are several reasons for this, which I will not mention here.

Now if the Mercury of Antimony must be sharpened by quicksilver, which cannot be done without mixing, for we see that its regulus does not mix with common quicksilver, for the reason that the sulfur which is in the regulus, which is also metallic, has no affinity with vulgar quicksilver and prevents mixing; consequently it is necessary to use a mediator between the vulgar quicksilver and the Mercury of Antimony, and this said mediator must have separating qualities which are not in the vulgar quicksilver, because there is no specific in it, and the separating quality is that specific by which the Mercury is coagulated. God created quicksilver in the will, and in nothing else: There is therefore vulgar quicksilver, and that of the philosophers. These two are available to the will of man,

Therefore take one ounce of the purest Moon there is, of the Regulus mentioned above half an ounce, wait until the moon is well molten and shining in the crucible, after which add the regulus, they will melt promptly together and will look like vulgar quicksilver, pour into an ingot mold, and you will thus have a mass of the color of Saturn. This metallic mass must be finely pulverized, and it is easy to powder it: then take five ounces of the purest quicksilver, put in a vial, and after having introduced the quicksilver, put the powder there, let in a bain-marie for a day and a night, then the powder will have penetrated into the vulgar quicksilver, mix them well. The powder having been incorporated into the vulgar quicksilver, pour the mixture on a marble and amalgamate it well,

Put this amalgam in a wooden bowl, and pour water over it, grind it with a pestle, then the water becomes black, remove this water and put in new one, grind until the water becomes black, remove the water and add new; these washings must be continued until the amalgam remains white. The blackness which is removed from the amalgam, collects in black powder at the bottom of the water, you will keep this powder and throw away the water. Put the amalgam again in a vial, and leave it overnight in the bath, remove it from the vial, and wash it again, it will give a new blackness which must be put with the other. Continue these washings until no more darkness comes. You can also grind the amalgam with pure white salt, then the blackness will go away faster.

The amalgam being purified again, put it in a flask in the bath during the night, then wash it again. Repeat this work until the amalgam no longer gives any blackness during the washes, it will then be clean, pure and white.

Observe that the darker the amalgam gives, the more Mercury of the Antimony is dissolved. As soon as no darkness appears in the lotions, distill in a retort of glass, the vivid Lunar Mercury will pass, and if you have operated correctly, then your Moon will remain in the retort pure and white. But if there is still a Saturnian color in the Moon, then this is a sign that it still contains Antimony, therefore it must be washed as often and as long, until the blackness disappear. Before distillation, the receiving flask should be filled with cold water, then you will find pure quicksilver, which is three in one, namely: vulgar quicksilver, Antimony quicksilver, and Mercury Of March. And you should know this, that the Mercury of Mars does not transmute the other two into its Nature, as the other metals do; the reason is that the Mercury of Mars is neither universally nor radically united with the other two, but separates itself from the other two as we shall soon see.

For this reason this quicksilver is not called Mercury of Mars, but Mercury of Antimony, for Antimony is full of Mercury. But the quicksilver of Mars, which resides hidden in the Mercury of Antimony, is a volatile gold. But so that you not only believe this, but also see it with your eyes, take a little of this pure and washed amalgam, and visibly evaporate the bright silver of the Moon from it, then the volatile gold remains, for the Mercury of Mars combined with the Mercury of the Moon, has dyed the Moon the color of the best gold, but because this gold is not fixed, the fire evaporates the tincture of the Moon. Here it must be well observed, that the volatile gold tints only the Moon in the Sun, but not in a fixed Sun. Those who understand the reason for this, no sophistication of Alchemy will be hidden from them, when they want to dye the Moon into the Sun. For they fully understand that the Mercury gives the tincture, but being transmuted into a metal it loses its tingent quality, and also becomes fixed, it is then a metal, for metals are nothing but a fixed and coagulated Mercury . But this work by which the Mercury of Mars tints the Moon, is a subtle manual work; whoever will perform this work must be a great expert in the handling of fire. Therefore you must be very careful in this, I have often done it and sometimes missed it. But this work by which the Mercury of Mars tints the Moon, is a subtle manual work; whoever will perform this work must be a great expert in the handling of fire. Therefore you must be very careful in this, I have often done it and sometimes missed it. But this work by which the Mercury of Mars tints the Moon, is a subtle manual work; whoever will perform this work must be a great expert in the handling of fire. Therefore you must be very careful in this, I have often done it and sometimes missed it.

Now, how the Mercury of Mars becomes fixed in corporeal gold, and the Mercury of Antimony before any other metal is transmuted into their Natures, I will not conceal from you. Because everyone can see in this work, what are the metals, and the one whose five senses are not already occulted (I speak here of the true coagulation and not of the sophistical one), will be able to conceive that he is impossible to make the Sun from Venus, or to make the Moon from Saturn or Jupiter. Then he will also perceive that the vulgar Mercury will not be coagulated artificially, except the quicksilver of the metals, which has already been coagulated, but only by the Mercury of Mars. For in the Mercury of Mars is found the Nature of the last fixation, and not in Saturn, Jupiter and Venus.

It does not bother me that the Chemists have written many volumes on this subject, what the Alchemical Authors have claimed and said about transmutations is of another kind, therefore of this sophistication, I can write and say like Paracelsus , that those who take Alchemy literally, are like those who thresh straw which contains no grains.

Now you must observe that the Mercury mentioned above, which is distilled from the Moon, penetrates the metals and separates the elements from the metals, which are their Mercury and Sulphur, which the vulgar Mercury does not do, unless it be vivified and sharpened by the Mercury of Antimony, and transmuted into its being and its Nature, by this operation as we told you.

You must also observe that each metal has its own Nature, and that each dissolution is done in a different way from the others. I can pull Mercury from Saturn in an hour, but from Venus I can barely do it in two months, so practice is of great importance.

I must show here the way to practice with the Mercury of Venus, for the reason and the place that you can find the gold, which comes from Mars and remains imprisoned in the Mercury of Venus, it is from this that I have mentioned. This Gold is nothing but a mercurial spirit, which is in Mars as the soul is in man. But because this Gold is no longer corporeal, as it was formerly in Mars, but by the mercurial spirit of Antimony it has become spirit, it cannot be made corporeal again except by the saline spirit. of Venus. This spirit is not the Mercury of Venus, nor its sulphur, but a mediator between the two. When this mediator is extracted from Venus, then the parts, which are Mercury and Sulfur separate. The Mercury of Venus resides in the Mercury of Antimony,

Take two pounds of the best Vitriol of Hungary, dissolve it in common water, put it in a strong pot on the fire, and throw in half a handful of iron laminae, let it boil together for half a quarter of an hour, then add in it the Mercury which is distilled from the Moon, then Venus, which the iron has extracted thanks to this quicksilver, will amalgamate itself, wash this amalgam well and remove all the laminae of Mars from it. This amalgam having been made very clean, then let it dry, then being dry put it in a flask, then put it in a bain-marie, leave it for a week, then the amalgam will become gray black, then remove it and wash it well, as one washes amalgams, in a wooden bowl. Separate the powder that you remove by washing separately. Put the amalgam back in the bath for a week, and at the end of this time wash it again as before. This operation must be performed three times; but if your intention is to dissolve Venus entirely in Mercury and sulphur, the operation must be repeated more often, until the amalgam becomes pure quicksilver, which is not a rapid operation.

When this amalgam has been passed three times through the bain-marie, and washed three times, then distil from it the quicksilver of Venus, as you have previously done with the Moon. This is called the Mercury of Venus, because it is no longer vulgar Mercury, nor the Mercury of Antimony, because thanks to the Mercury of Venus, it is fermented and transmuted into Mercury of Venus. This Mercury of Venus is a marvelous Mercury, as can be seen when used in chemical operations. The precipitate which is made of this Mercury is of transcendent beauty, marvelous to the sight of chemists, but as beautiful as it is, it is a violent poison in medicine, pay close attention to it, so do not be disappointed with its beauty.

In this Mercury of Venus dwells the Sun of Mars, of which I have often made mention, though concealed, it desires the frigidity of the Moon, by which it must be coagulated, with a fixed and perpetual coagulation of the Sun, and the manner to make this coagulation is carried out thus.

Take two parts of fine Moon, in which there is no gold, and four parts of this Mercury of Venus, make an amalgam of them. And so that you can easily make this amalgam, dissolve the Moon in the common etching, and precipitate it with Venus, as one usually does, then the Moon falls to the bottom, and is a beautiful subtle powder which amalgamates easily on marble with the Mercury of Venus. This amalgam must be washed until perfectly white, then put in a vial, and placed in a boiling water bath for twenty-four hours; it then becomes black as coal; remove it, grind it on the marble, and wash it well. This blackness is the soul of Mars, which is drawn from the spirit of Antimony and coagulates into Gold in this operation. This gold still contains faeces of sulphur, which separate them from the Mercury of Venus by this coagulation. For the Mercury of Venus is always green in the surfaces, this greenness is coagulated with the Sun (some say the Moon) and is separated from quicksilver, and reduced into a body. Thus do we find the spirit of Mars, thus we see what it was and what it will become.

He now who is busy working, draws the conclusions, how much Mercury there is in a pound of Mars, as much gold he will find and not more. He will also find that the price of the expenditure is higher than that of the gold obtained. The quicksilver which is in other metals, cannot be coagulated into gold, but remains continuously quick, for the reason which we have before described. Thus vulgar quicksilver is sharpened by the Mercury of Antimony which is drawn from the Mercury of all other imperfect metals, and they transmute it into their own Nature. How it happened with Venus, I thought fit to say here because of the Sun of Mars, which is used in this work to clear the Antimony. You have also heard how this gold is removed again, and made visible to view,

Now I will talk about the medicines that are derived from vulgar Antimony, then in conclusion I will discover for you by fraternal affection, what one can still do with this Antimony Regulus. For I dare boldly affirm this truth, for I know it well, and would write of it as a warning, so that if God grant you grace, you may understand, what has disappointed so many, including very educated, and captivated them until the day they died.

Now from the second part of Antimony, which is its sulphur, you must observe that it is a lubricity which is comparable to the fire which is hidden in the coal. Therefore take the blackness which you have removed from the washing of the amalgam of the Moon and the Antimony, dry it in the Sun, or otherwise by gentle heat, then it becomes a powder of Saturnian color, on which adheres still a little vulgar Mercury, which remained with her during the washing. Now you can spread this powder in a closed hearth, in the same way as a charcoal burner makes charcoal, then the powder will turn black like pulverized charcoal. But if you can't do that, it doesn't matter. Take the Saturnian color powder, put it in a pot, and put it on the fire, without the pot being glowing, neither inside nor outside, then the Mercury flies away, the powder is ignited by the heat and does not burn as sulfur does with a flame, but like a coal glowing that makes no flame. Having thus glowed, there remains a powder in the pot, which can be reduced to spelter. Weigh this powder and you will see how much Antimony is dissolved in these parts, and if you can convert this powder into black powder by evaporating the Mercury, then you can know how much Antimony is transformed into antimonial Mercury, and how much sulfur burning was in this quicksilver, then you will have the perfect knowledge of Antimony: that is, of its quicksilver and its sulphur. the powder is ignited by the heat and does not burn as sulfur does with a flame, but like a glowing coal which makes no flame. Having thus glowed, there remains a powder in the pot, which can be reduced to spelter. Weigh this powder and you will see how much Antimony is dissolved in these parts, and if you can convert this powder into black powder by evaporating the Mercury, then you can know how much Antimony is transformed into antimonial Mercury, and how much sulfur burning was in this quicksilver, then you will have the perfect knowledge of Antimony: that is, of its quicksilver and its sulphur. the powder is ignited by the heat and does not burn as sulfur does with a flame, but like a glowing coal which makes no flame. Having thus glowed, there remains a powder in the pot, which can be reduced to spelter. Weigh this powder and you will see how much Antimony is dissolved in these parts, and if you can convert this powder into black powder by evaporating the Mercury, then you can know how much Antimony is transformed into antimonial Mercury, and how much sulfur burning was in this quicksilver, then you will have the perfect knowledge of Antimony: that is, of its quicksilver and its sulphur. which can be reduced in regulates. Weigh this powder and you will see how much Antimony is dissolved in these parts, and if you can convert this powder into black powder by evaporating the Mercury, then you can know how much Antimony is transformed into antimonial Mercury, and how much sulfur burning was in this quicksilver, then you will have the perfect knowledge of Antimony: that is, of its quicksilver and its sulphur. which can be reduced in regulates. Weigh this powder and you will see how much Antimony is dissolved in these parts, and if you can convert this powder into black powder by evaporating the Mercury, then you can know how much Antimony is transformed into antimonial Mercury, and how much sulfur burning was in this quicksilver, then you will have the perfect knowledge of Antimony: that is, of its quicksilver and its sulphur.

I have said enough, and that must suffice, what is Antimony, how common Antimony is prepared, fermented and sharpened so that it can also dissolve other metals and this according to their Nature.

The conditions of operation for copper have been sufficiently demonstrated by means of example, but how the Mercury of other metals may be drawn by the Mercury of Antimony, I commend to your skill and knowledge of fire, for it was not my intention to reveal everything. You know that many have prepared Antimony for medicine in different ways, but I have never seen a man who took note of these medical mysteries. These poor men imagine, that all that has been written about Antimony, has been written about common Antimony, which if examined is not true, therefore we must admit that Antimony medicine is something very different. Because for the philosophers Antimony is their Mercury, and in it are contained all the medicines,

The medicinal Quintessence, is not contained in the vulgar Antimony, it contains only the element of water, whose essence is a medicine against all the diseases which come from the microcosmic fire.

Now the medicines of this Antimony are not in its Mercury but in its fire, of which I spoke before, which you can understand in this way: There is a firein wood, which we use for cooking, to cook our meals; Antimony is also a fire with which we prepare our medicine, which medicine receives through the essence of its Elements, and through the same essence the elemental heat in our illnesses. In the same way, the Galenics undertake to expel the heat by the purse and the chicory, and all the simple coolants, which are not capable of the desired work, and the heat of the disease disappears of itself naturally. The virtue of this medicine is not only in common antimony, but in all sorts of things, the mother of which is the element of water. Consequently medicine is as little attached to this Antimony as the cook is to beech wood, or to firewood, to cook his meats.

Therefore this essential medicine is also present in other things than in Antimony, in the Hermetic way it is called Gold or Sun. But the medicine which is prepared from this fire of Antimony, nothing can be said here, it is known to God and to those to whom God reveals it, the Sages call it the Mercury of the philosophers, it is an essence that can transmute into the Nature of any of the elements. Because it is known that this Antimony purges strongly from above and from below, this is not done by the essence, but by the body which adheres to the essence. Whoever can separate the essence from the body, he will have put his finger on the thing and he will have such a medicine that it will not purge either above or below, but will do the work without purging, and then by a strong calcination, the spirit of salt, which is the cause of the metallic fusion, is extracted from it, and no longer causes diarrhea or vomiting, but only works by sweating. But it is not yet medicine, for calcined Antimony, which is a poison, like all other heavily calcined metals are, and taken internally like Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, or digested into sulfur metallic, which is blood red and fixed in the fire, is not what the artist seeks, consequently all is lost although one undertakes with him the path of medicine, unless the essence is separated of his bodies and be administered to the patient in a manner appropriate to the disease.

There are still some secrets which are in the said regulus, and I must tell you the wonders of them; he who has not tried it will hardly believe it. God will not cause these things to become common, nor to be published, especially in these troubled times, when honor and ignominy, virtue and vice, lies and truth are confused indiscriminately.

We are not now seeking the truth, but only our own which is why our senses are disturbed by envying and hating each other, which causes the destruction of our kingdom and which we cause by ourselves. I only warn you about what I am now going to reveal to you, and which you will have to understand outside of my writings, because I tell you, not everything can be said in writing, because of the fools and the sophists who persuade themselves themselves that they were elected to the council of Jupiter.

You will be able to note in this the sincerity of my dispositions towards you, I hope with all my heart that you will know as much as I have learned by experience, and I hope that time will produce this effect, for in At this moment I cannot teach you, but your own experiences will bear witness to my intentions.

Know that I can be as good as my words, know also, that this regulates has disappointed the best modern chemical philosophers. For it is such a strange mineral, as there is no other in the world, that it will transform the best man into an ass, as has happened to me, and as I have seen , and that happened to my companion. In my treatise on the mysteries of Antimony, which at this time no one will understand, I mentioned that a metal could be made with it.

Concerning this particular, I did not worry about it at the time, and was only looking for what could be a medicine. Now know that any metal can be made from this Regulus, such as Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon and the Sun, and that those made must be in sight, in fusion, hammering, cupellation with Antimony, as good as natural metals.

The lead that is made of it on all examinations shows only a slightly higher hardness than that of natural lead. But lead, which is made from unwashed raw Antimony, is not of this hardness.

Tin made by Antimony is very beautiful, and sustains contact before coagulation as well as the finest silver. He instantly receives the Nature of Jupiter, and quickly turns into tin. It is the same with Venus: for as soon as the fragrance of Venus is generated, it penetrates the Regulus and adopts the Nature of Venus. This operation is carried out so suddenly that I was very surprised, I can transform an ounce of regulus into Venus before you can swallow an egg.

Mars and Antimony are of the same temperament, therefore Antimony quickly becomes Mars and the Mars of Antimony can easily be made; it is the same with Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, which can be reduced to Antimony, however the fastest way is to do it with Mars. I made from this regulus the four metals, the other two, gold and silver, I saw it made by close friends.

The Antimony Moon is beautiful, fusible, malleable, like any other Natural silver, and can be mixed with lead, and does not lose anything on the cup. I thought for a long time that it was the best silver, but my friend pointed out to me that it was heavier than the other silver, than I thought. I took this silver and tried to dissolve it in strong water made of vitriol and saltpeter, but there was no dissolution, I then put it in royal water and it dissolved there completely, then I thought that it would become Gold if I reduced it, I found a white powder as for the tin which one calcines in strong water, when I reduced this powder, it was transformed into milky glass; I then thought it was very good money. But this proof was not enough for me, I hoped for better. I took four ounces of this silver, and amalgamated it with common Mercury, and left it thus a month in a lukewarm bath, it turned black on the surface, and was reasonably hard, I took it and broke it with a hammer, being broken into pieces, I crushed it into powder, and by continually crushing it it again became an amalgam as before, which filled me with joy. I removed the Mercury from it by the retort, and found my Moon again. I amalgamated this Moon a second time, but not with vulgar Mercury, but with antimonial Mercury, of which I have spoken before. I put this amalgam like the first in the bath for three days and three nights in the bath, I then found that the amalgam became more and more soft, after eight days it was in the vase similar to liquid lead, and consequently I kept it in the fire for a month. Then, I took it out and distilled it in a retort, the silver and the Antimony came together, having become Mercury. I thus found that the Moon, made from the Regulus, was nothing else than a coagulated Mercury, which in the metallic species is not firm, but becomes black, and becomes a Mercury, which is enough to torment any chemist.

Now we come to gold and what happened to me with him is wonderful to hear. When I showed my companion, who was sure he had won the prize, what his Moon was, he didn't want to believe me. He took on the job himself, and finally found the truth, beginning to doubt the gold. And also he said, though I tried it many times, I will not commit anything to you, but take half an ounce of gold and try it as you wish in the way that the goldsmiths do, and let it be. be good gold.

So I took the gold, and brought it to the goldsmith and asked him what kind of gold it was, he replied that it was good gold, and that it could pass for gold. gold, both in the touchstone and at the sound of the hammer.

Nevertheless I took the gold and added two ounces of silver to it, graduated it and separated it with etching, the silver dissolved and the gold fell to the bottom, so this test was correct. I mixed the powder of gold with raw Antimony, made a regulus of it, melted it in a crucible, and threw saltpeter into it, took the Antimony from the gold and cupped it with lead. This test was also conclusive. In this Cupelled Gold I mixed it a second time with Antimony and sulphur, I took the spelter and went to the goldsmith before blowing because I needed a forge. This test also showed that the gold was good, which any chemist should rejoice in.

But because the silver had disappointed me so much, I dared not believe in this Gold, so I rolled it, then amalgamated it with my lively Antimony silver. I then put it in a lukewarm bath in digestion, and observed that the amalgam did not harden, but remained soft, I was surprised, and left it there for four weeks, and found the amalgam softer than the first time . Then I put it in a crucible over a moderate fire, making the crucible hot but not incandescent, and suddenly the quicksilver flew out of the gold, and I cannot see it, but I supposed that the Mercury had turned or coagulated into gold, but when I weighed the Gold, I found only two half-ounce drachmas at first, and thought that therefore two drachmas had gone away and that it only two drachmas remained. I tried these two drachmas again with the Mercury of Antimony as I did before, and at the end when I evaporated the quicksilver, then I found my two drachmas again, I was very happy with it and hoped that my mate would let me have some, and formed dreams of mountains of gold in my mind, and brought good news to my mate. But he was not happy about it, but was almost frightened. Well, he said, I had a lot of trouble and work with this gold, and spent more to get it than I dare say; I must not desire what cannot be. But isn't this a beautiful sophistication, if greedy alchemists were to know the secret of this gold, which comes and goes, deceives one today and another tomorrow. The gold that remained did not come from the regulus, but is an addition to Natural gold. For I cannot coagulate the regulus into gold, unless good gold be added to this gold and keep it in the test, but not for the other; I don't know how to push it further, and I now understand very clearly why it cannot be, which I have long hoped and sought. So my companion lost his courage, and I was frightened by the work, remember the sulfur of Antimony, which coagulates its Mercury, it is not radically united with it, therefore it does not reside with it. him ; if you too were to try it, this regulus will not be lead, tin, copper, or iron, but will become Mercury again, which no one can coagulate into good metal, as some speculate and suppose it is possible,

But this is a foolish hope from those who are not experienced in Alchemy, get their knowledge only from books, and hearsay, and make their own conclusions, but when they come to fire they find of their madness. Tell me when a dead thing comes alive again, where does Nature stop? in death or in life? Who did he get first? death or life? If everything must be brought back to a unique and immutable principle, who therefore seeks them in living metals? But I do not need to speak to you in this way, nor to speak of you, but to speak of the Alchemists for whom we must pray to God, so that he delivers them from such madness.

In this way we conferred more together, and because I had never been so perplexed to follow alchemy to the letter like a bible, not knowing what spirit was guiding me, I doubted more than I believed. Therefore I considered the reasons by which the early philosophers described Alchemy and conferred greatly with my companion, who was greatly experienced and acquainted with Vulcan, our Antimony, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Sun and Moon, in which everything is found true what the chemist attributes to the Alchemical art, and I have good hope to abandon this chimera, and to take into consideration the philosophical metals.

Now concerning you my very dear friend, there is one more thing which remains here, which I will not hide from you but will reveal to you.

Chemists such as Rhasis, Petrus Bonus de Ferrara, Bernard le Trevisan, the author of the Dialogue and many others, when they searched in these imperfect metals and were well aware of them, they indicated that it was practically impossible to make gold artificially, except from quicksilver coagulated and fixed by its own intrinsic sulphur. They also understood very well by all their operations that the Mercury could not be fixed in the sun, unless it was dissolved and introduced into the Mercury.

They had this opinion from the fact that they saw how the quicksilver Nature of Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, could not fix the outer sulphur, which clung to them, nor could it be brought there by Art. . Then they thought that one should take a quicksilver which is apparently a perfect fixation, and that this quicksilver must be mixed with the vulgar quicksilver or other metal, so that both form only one single individual. . But as this mixture could not be made with the common Sun, they considered the Sun of Mars, and undertook to mix it with the vulgar Antimony, so that they were made inseparable and that the gold remained always with the Mercury, and Mercury with gold, which is done when the gold is coagulated again with the quick and fixed silver.

In this practice everyone had their own way, according to their design and spent a lot of time on it. But I know further that each of them died before they could come to the end of their speculation, which caused the wise Hermes Trismegistus to call Alchemy an eternal mistress when he wrote of her: Chemistry is courted by much, and is chaste, she has many familiar servants, who guard their mistress with perpetual vigilance, and in her name rescue and guard her from the intercourse of importunate lovers, and therefore have never been touched by any. Vanity, cunning, deception, sophistry, envy, false confidence, lying, madness, poverty, despair, flight, exile, and begging are the servants of chemistry, who conceal their mistress, so as to keep her safe and inviolate, and prostitute themselves to greedy, voluptuous, and wanton lovers. So far, whoever does not believe this honest man, put him to the test and satisfy his dreams, as I have done and so many others. What I told you here, I do it thanks to my own knowledge. Anyone who is inclined to spend time and money will find it too. Thus ends what I promised you to write about Antimony, and what the ancients sought and found in this Mercury of Antimony, and which I faithfully taught you, from which you can judge whether or not this mineral is known to me. Those who pride themselves on being able to extract Mercury from metals without quicksilver, make it clear that they are not philosophers, for they know not the meaning of corruption, regeneration, and multiplication of natural things. And if they carefully consider their work, they will have to note their disappointment. Let the vain remain vain, believe no more in these things, then you will see with your eyes and you will remember forever, what Nature can do, and you will easily get yourself out of this Labyrinth. Finally, I implore you, do not take the fact that it is so long in this treatise. The conditions which are mine at present do not leave me the leisure to write on this subject, and I have put this down hastily on paper. When I have more time I will undertake other more important writings which I have kept secret until now. And if they carefully consider their work, they will have to note their disappointment. Let the vain remain vain, believe no more in these things, then you will see with your eyes and you will remember forever, what Nature can do, and you will easily get yourself out of this Labyrinth. Finally, I implore you, do not take the fact that it is so long in this treatise. The conditions which are mine at present do not leave me the leisure to write on this subject, and I have put this down hastily on paper. When I have more time I will undertake other more important writings which I have kept secret until now. And if they carefully consider their work, they will have to note their disappointment. Let the vain remain vain, believe no more in these things, then you will see with your eyes and you will remember forever, what Nature can do, and you will easily get yourself out of this Labyrinth. Finally, I implore you, do not take the fact that it is so long in this treatise. The conditions which are mine at present do not leave me the leisure to write on this subject, and I have put this down hastily on paper. When I have more time I will undertake other more important writings which I have kept secret until now. what Nature can do, and you will easily get yourself out of this Labyrinth. Finally, I implore you, do not take the fact that it is so long in this treatise. The conditions which are mine at present do not leave me the leisure to write on this subject, and I have put this down hastily on paper. When I have more time I will undertake other more important writings which I have kept secret until now. what Nature can do, and you will easily get yourself out of this Labyrinth. Finally, I implore you, do not take the fact that it is so long in this treatise. The conditions which are mine at present do not leave me the leisure to write on this subject, and I have put this down hastily on paper. When I have more time I will undertake other more important writings which I have kept secret until now.

The eternal and omnipotent god enlightens the right-thinking, with his sane mind, and kindly delivers them from the bonds of deep darkness and sterile madness of supposed chemists, and frees them with narrow minds. Amen.

End of the Second Treatise on Vulgar Antimony.


Additions

How to make Antimony salt.

Take some good Hungarian Antimony, pulverize it into an impalpable powder, and calcine it over a charcoal fire, stirring constantly, until it is white and smokeless, and can endure a reasonable heat. Then put it in a crucible on the fire, and melt it so that it becomes a transparent yellow glass.

This glass should be pulverized, put in a vial, and good distilled vinegar is poured over it, and left in a hot bath, the vinegar extracts the tincture of the Antimony and becomes strongly tinted. This tincture of Antimony is then prepared, and may be used with success in medicine, and mention has been made of this in the Triumphant Chariot of Antimony.by Basil Valentine. And I refer the reader to it. All the tincture being extracted, and the vinegar no longer dyeing itself, dry the remaining powder well, which appears black, grind with it some common yellow sulfur in the same quantity, put it all in a well-lit crucible, and leave it to cool. moderate heat, until the sulfur is burnt off, then grind the remaining matter finely, and put on it distilled vinegar, extract the salt, and dulcify the acidity by distilling it often, and clarify it by the spirit of wine , so that the salt becomes clear and white. If you have proceeded well in this work, then you have a very perfect and effective salt of Antimony. There is, however, another way of making Antimony salt, which will be found described elsewhere.


The use of antimony salt.

This salt of Antimony is a magnificent operation, for administered in equal quantity, it does almost all the things that the salt of Gold does. It purges the whole body of man, cleans the blood, consumes the bad phlegms, which cross and run through the open wounds, it cures venereal diseases, if one takes four grains of it in distilled water made with the sarsparilla, and the patient must sweat. Use this daily until improvement. The water is made for, take finely grated Lignum Guaiatum, soak with the spirit of wine and put in a vial, close well, and put in a gentle heat for several days, this being done add a reasonable quantity of fumiforie or d scabious water, let it digest together in the bath for a fortnight,

This water can be used with Antimony salt. It is also used with success in many other diseases of which it will be spoken in another place, and a doctor can easily guess, that the comprehension of the virtues hidden in the Lignum Guaiatum, which carries out its work in the diseases. There is another way to distil water and oil from Lignum Gaiatum, but describing it here is pointless.

Antimony salt cures leprosy and other diseases, which take root in the human body. It also cures gout, weakness of limbs, strengthens the heart and strengthens the body of man, administered in a spoonful of spirit of wine or tinted water, restores strength in man, and opens impostumes ( ie abscesses - note of LAT ) which are open towards the interior of the body. It cleans all wounds and ulcers if put inside, and is applied as a plaster.

Dissolved in good distilled vinegar and applied, it alleviates the pains of incurable wounds in a short time, and admirably, if taken with wormwood or carduz water, it cures chronic fevers, which are deeply established and cannot be stopped, and particularly cures quartan fevers. Taken in wormwood or mint water, it gives good digestion and strengthens memory if administered in proper vehicles.

This salt is also used in Alchemy for the transmutation of the lower metals, if you add to it the smoothness of the rays of the Sun, when the chemical pantheon presumes to drive this chariot as described by the chemical poets. For the glorious invention of the poets, who established the Gods in the celestial skies, are nothing but a parabolic presentation of the most secret arts of chemistry, for example when Apollo kills the serpent Python, or the adultery of Mars and Venus. . And I think and am convinced that poetic fictions have always concealed chemical operations. When the poets speak of the loves and liaisons of the Gods and Goddesses, and introduce into them many metamorphoses and transformations, we must not understand the fiction literally, for we would ignore the wise antiquity,