THE EUPHRATES OR THE WATERS OF THE EAST

EUGENE PHILALETHE
(THOMAS VAUGHAN)

London, 1655


Advice to the reader
I have, reader, I suppose this is not unknown to you, these last few years, in several small treatises, delivered my judgment on philosophy. I say of course about philosophy, because - alchemy - in its current acceptance and as the torture of metals - I have never believed in it, and even less have I studied it. On this point my books, read attentively, will give you the proof, for I refer you there to a subject which is universal, the foundation of all Nature, the matter of which all things are made, and of which being made, they feed.

This, I presume, cannot be a metal, and I have therefore always decried alchemy in the vulgar sense, so that I have thought it proper to make it known to alchemists, lest, by carefully reading my writings, they do not begin to misinterpret certain passages which do not conform to the judgment of their author. From there you can see what my ideas were when I started writing. And I must tell you that now they are always the same, that my long experience has not weakened them at all, but has confirmed them invincibly.

In order that you may know how frank I am, I freely confess that in my practice I have deviated from my own principles, for having failed in my first attempts, I left aside the real subject and contented myself with following the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. From there you can see what my ideas were when I started writing. And I must tell you that now they are always the same, that my long experience has not weakened them at all, but has confirmed them invincibly.

In order that you may know how frank I am, I freely confess that in my practice I have deviated from my own principles, for having failed in my first attempts, I left aside the real subject and contented myself with following the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. From there you can see what my ideas were when I started writing. And I must tell you that now they are always the same, that my long experience has not weakened them at all, but has confirmed them invincibly. In order that you may know how frank I am, I freely confess that in my practice I have deviated from my own principles, for having failed in my first attempts, I left aside the real subject and contented myself with following the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals.

How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. that my long experience has not at all weakened them, but has invincibly confirmed them. In order that you may know how frank I am, I freely confess that in my practice I have deviated from my own principles, for having failed in my first attempts, I left aside the real subject and contented myself with following the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. that my long experience has not at all weakened them, but has invincibly confirmed them.

In order that you may know how frank I am, I freely confess that in my practice I have deviated from my own principles, for having failed in my first attempts, I left aside the real subject and contented myself with following the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. I left the real subject aside and just followed the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here. I left the real subject aside and just followed the noise of those who don't want to hear about anything but metals. How much I labored in vain in this fetid and repugnant school for a total of three years, I will not tell you here.

Well I took it, I ended up leaving it to take the path of this clear light that I had stupidly abandoned. I never conceived that in metals were great secrets, unless they were first reduced by a suitable solvent. To seek in metals this solvent or the matter of which it is made, is not only an error, but folly. I have, for the sake of truth and to justify my previous innocent speeches, added to these this little piece which perhaps is such and contains so much that the world has not yet seen published. In fact, it is not a tenth of what I had originally expected, but wise considerations led me to abstain, as my sudden and abrupt conclusion will inform you. At any rate, what I reserve now as to the philosophical mysteries, can then be assigned to our Meteorology; as for the theological mysteries, we will write them for our private use in our Philosophy of Grace.

I don't have much more to say, but if I can add something to satisfy you, I can assure you that there is nothing asserted here that is not the result of my own experience. I can indeed speak for myself, for it was with great labor that I uprooted the truth from the earth, and I had no one to instruct me. I wouldn't want you to build mountains on the foundations I've laid here, especially not mountains of gold. But if it is the medicine you wish to build on these foundations, then I have shown you the rock and the basis of this famous art, which is so professed and so little understood. Here you will find that the true object of this art is demonstrated, and if you are not too obtuse, that it is sufficiently laid bare. Here God Himself and the Word of God lead you there. in blessed visions, and imparted it for the use of man.

I will conclude with this warning: if you want to know Nature, beware of antimony and vulgar metals. Seek only that very first mixture of elements that Nature makes in the great world. Search it, say I, while it is fresh and new, and having found it, hide it. As for the use of this, do not seek it exclusively in books, but rather beg it from the hands of God, for it is properly speaking His gift, and no one has ever obtained it without it. clear and sensitive assistance from above. Do not neglect my advice in this, even if it may seem ridiculous to those who think themselves above wisdom and who deride divine graces. Many men in this world live without God. They do not receive His visitation, and therefore laugh at those who seek Him, and much more laugh at those who have found Him. Saint Paul gloried in His revelations, but whoever does not do the same, will find himself among the sectarians and Anabaptists. But don't let these things fool you: if you serve God, you serve a good master, and He will not withhold your wages. Farewell in Jesus Christ.

The Euphrates

It is written in these living oracles which we have received and believed, that there is an angel of the waters Revelation XVI, and this seems to be said in a general sense, as if the angel mentioned there had presided over all this element . Elsewhere we find an angel limited to a more particular office, as one who descended in a certain season and stirred the waters of the pool of Bethesda John V, . In fact, it is nothing strange for angels to visit and stir this element on which the Spirit of God moved in the beginning.

I do not cite these places as if they were relevant to my purpose, nor entirely made for it, even though I know that they are not against it. I quote them as generalities, to show that God is intimate with matter, though He is not bound to it, and that is my whole point.

However, I do know that Prince Avicenna counted Saint John the Evangelist among the alchemists, and that if certain passages of the Apocalypse were solicited - and this no further than their own meaning leads them - it would prove somewhat difficult to refute his opinion. Certainly I am one who has very honorable thoughts on Nature, and if I avoid controversies such as these, it is because I would not like to offend weak consciences.

For there are people who, though they dare not think that the majesty of God was diminished in that He made the world, yet dare to think that the majesty of His Word is very debased if applied to this which He has made - an opinion which indeed contains in itself a very dangerous blasphemy,

I must confess that I am very much in favor of finding out what the Scripture applies to, and for whom it was written, if not for us and our education. For if those who are healthy - as testified by our Savior - do not need a physician Mark II, then God has caused the Scriptures to be written neither for Himself nor for His angels, but for those creatures who, having lost their first state, had since fallen into corruption.

If, therefore, the scripture was written for us, we are much concerned as to what use we shall make of it, and that is what we can deduce from the different conditions of man, before and after his fall. Before his fall man was a glorious creature, having received from God immortality and perfect knowledge; but in and after his fall, he exchanged immortality for death and knowledge for ignorance. As for our redemption from this fall, we cannot - with regard to death - hope for it in this world, God having decreed that all men must one day die.

But as far as our ignorance is concerned, we can - and we should - eliminate it in this life, for without the knowledge of God no one can be saved, especially as it is both the cause and the deposit of our future immortality. It remains then that our ignorance must be partly undone even in this life before we can undo our mortality. And it is certainly for this purpose that the Scripture was written, namely that it is by it that we can attain the knowledge of God and return to Him from whom we have fallen.

And here no one get mad at me if I ask how scripture teaches us to know God just tells us there is a God, and leaves the rest up to us? Does it teach us - if I may say what I think - to know God by His works, or without His works? If it is by His works, then it is by natural things, for they are His works, and no one else's. If it's without His works, I want to know what kind of teaching that is, because I still haven't found it.

If it is said that it is by inspiration, I also say that God can teach us in this way, but not the Scripture, because certainly the Scripture has never inspired anyone, although it is come itself by inspiration. But if it be answered that in Scripture we have the testimony of inspired men, I say that answer misses my question, for I am not speaking here of the mere authority or the mere testimony of Scripture, but I speak of this doctrine by which it proves what it bears witness to, for in such a doctrine Scripture abounds. I am sure that Moses proves God by His creation, and God proves Himself to Moses by transforming his rod into a serpent, and the serpent into a rod Exodus VII, -.

And to the Egyptians He gives more terrible displays of His power and sovereignty over Nature by turning their rivers into blood Exodus VII, - and the dust of their land into lice, through cattle pestilence, through pustules and sores. tumors and the death of their first-born, by the various plagues of frogs, grasshoppers, hail, fire, thunder and darkness - all these were but great natural works by which He proved His Divinity, as He Himself said: "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I will stretch out my hand over Egypt” Exodus VII, . When He reveals Himself to Cyrus, He does so not by a mere assertion that He is God, but He proves Himself to be such by the world He has made. “I am the Lord, he said, and there is no other, there is no God but me; I girded you when you did not know me” Isaiah XLV, . “I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil it is I the Lord who do all these things.

I made the earth and created the man who is on it: it is I, it is my hands that have spread the heavens,

Let every man read these majestic and philosophical admonitions between God and Job Job XXXVIII to XLI, or in a word, let him reread the two Testaments, and he will find - if he reads attentively, that the Scripture, from one end to the other, uses Nature, and has in fact discovered natural mysteries such as are not found in any of the philosophers. And this will appear in the next discourse. As for me, I am not afraid to say that Nature is so much a matter of Scripture that - for me - the Spirit of God in these sacred oracles seems to be concerned not only with the restitution of man in particular , but even of the redemption of Nature in general. Therefore we must not confine this restitution to our own kind, unless we also confine the corruption there, which undoubtedly we cannot do.

For it is obvious that corruption has not only taken hold of man, but also of the world, because of man Genesis III, . If it is therefore true that man has a Saviour, it is also true that all creation has the same Saviour, God having reconciled all things to Himself in Jesus Christ. And if it is true that we are looking for the redemption of our body and a new man, it is also true that we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness resides. For it is not man alone who must be renewed at the general restoration, but also the world at the same time as man, according to what is written: “Behold, I make all things new” Revelation XXI, .

I am not saying this to disparage the man or to pair him with any other creature, for I know he is the main subject of the restoration, as it was in the fall, the ensuing corruption in the elements being but a chain which this prisoner drags behind him. But I say this to show that God is concerned with the restitution of Nature in general, and not only of man, who, although he is the noblest part of it, is certainly only a small part. of nature.

Is Scripture therefore misused, much less than debased, when applied to the object of salvation, namely Nature, for it is the latter that God would save and redeem from the present depravities to which is she prone? In truth, when I read the Scripture, I find nothing there but what concerns Nature and natural things. For when she mentions regeneration, enlightenment and grace or any other spiritual gift, she does so, not precisely, but to Nature, for what does all this mean but a new influence of the spirit, descending from God to assist Nature, and to free us from those corruptions by which we have long been oppressed?

I suppose it will not be denied that God is more metaphysical than any Scripture, and yet in the work of salvation it would be great ungodliness to separate God from Nature, for then God would have nothing more to save and indeed nothing to work on. How much more absurd it is in the ministry of Nature to separate Scripture from Nature, for to whom, I pray thee, is Scripture addressed? And even, to whom is salvation administered if Nature is taken away? I do not doubt that man is in Nature, and not above it, and I leave the scholastics to resolve him into whatever parts they desire, all those parts proving to be natural, since God alone is truly metaphysical.

I would gladly learn from our adversaries how they first came to know that Nature was corrupt, for if Scripture taught them this physical truth, why can't it teach them more? But that it was Scripture that instructed them is quite undeniable. Imagine a doctor who has such skills that allow him to establish the true temperament of his patient and how his illness has disturbed him. Doesn't he do it for a good purpose? Without a doubt, yes.

And it is towards a no lesser goal that tends my opinion on the Spirit of God, whose patient is Nature, who gives us in Scripture a physiognomy of Nature, which he has certainly done in all respects. , whether we look at the past, present or future aspect of the world. Imagine a doctor who has such skills that allow him to establish the true temperament of his patient and how his illness has disturbed him. Doesn't he do it for a good purpose? Without a doubt, yes.

And it is towards a no lesser goal that tends my opinion on the Spirit of God, whose patient is Nature, who gives us in Scripture a physiognomy of Nature, which he has certainly done in all respects. , whether we look at the past, present or future aspect of the world. Imagine a doctor who has such skills that allow him to establish the true temperament of his patient and how his illness has disturbed him. Doesn't he do it for a good purpose? Without a doubt, yes. And it is towards a no lesser goal that tends my opinion on the Spirit of God, whose patient is Nature, who gives us in Scripture a physiognomy of Nature, which he has certainly done in all respects. , whether we look at the past, present or future aspect of the world.

As for me, I hold this assurance from philosophy, according to which all the mysteries of Nature consist in the knowledge of this corruption which is mentioned in the Scripture and which followed the fall, namely to know what it is and where it resides principally, as well as knowing which is the substance which most resists it and retards it - by being the least endowed with it - for it is in these two things that the advantages of life and death consist.

In short, experience and reason based on this have taught me that philosophy and religion are one and the same science. But we have occupied ourselves with knowledge as we would with rivers and wells which, channeled into several conduits, we cause to take several directions to flow, and which, by this accident, come to have several names.

We see that God in His work has united spirit with matter, the visible with the invisible, and it is from this union of spiritual and natural substances that a perfect compound is born, whose very nature and being consist of this union. How then is it possible to demonstrate the nature of this compound by a divided theory of spirit alone and matter alone? For if the nature of a compound consists in the composition of spirit and matter, then we must not seek that nature in their separation, but in their mixture and combination, and in their mingled and mutual actions and passions. .

Moreover, who has ever seen a spirit without matter or a matter without spirit, who could give us a true theory of the two principles in their simplicity? Surely no one on earth. It is exactly the same with religion, for if by evasion we confine religion to God in the abstract, who - I ask - has ever known Him so? Or who received such a religion from Him, and yet did not transmit it to us? In truth, if we consider God in the abstract, and as He is in Himself, we cannot say anything positively about Him, but we can perhaps say something negatively about Him, as Dionysius did. the Areopagite Treatise on Mystical Theology, ch. H. That is, we can affirm what He is not, but we cannot affirm what He is. and yet did not pass it on to us?

In truth, if we consider God in the abstract, and as He is in Himself, we cannot say anything positively about Him, but we can perhaps say something negatively about Him, as Dionysius did. the Areopagite Treatise on Mystical Theology, ch. H. That is, we can affirm what He is not, but we cannot affirm what He is. and yet did not pass it on to us? In truth, if we consider God in the abstract, and as He is in Himself, we cannot say anything positively about Him, but we can perhaps say something negatively about Him, as Dionysius did. the Areopagite Treatise on Mystical Theology, ch. H. That is, we can affirm what He is not, but we cannot affirm what He is..

But if by religion we understand the doctrine of salvation as laid down in Scripture, then it is true that it is a mixed doctrine, involving both God and Nature. And here I have no doubt in affirming that the mystery of salvation can never be fully understood without philosophy - not in its proper extent - for it is an application of God to Nature, and a conversion of Nature in God, and it is in these two movements and their milieus that all spiritual and natural knowledge is understood.

To speak therefore of God without Nature is more than we can do, for that is not how we have known Him, and to speak of Nature without God is more than we can do, for we would be robbing God of His glory and attribute Its effects to Nature, which properly belong to God and to the Spirit of God Who works in Nature. This is why we will use an intermediate form of speech between these two extremes, and this form the Scriptures have taught us, because the prophets and the apostles did not use any other.

Let no one, therefore, be offended if in this discourse we use Scripture to prove philosophy and philosophy to prove religious science, for verily our knowledge is such that our religious science is not without Nature, and our philosophy does not go without God. However, I dare not think that most people will complain about this step, although I cannot imagine why they would, because when I bring together Scripture and philosophy, I only bring together God and Nature, union approved with certainty by God, even if it were condemned by men. I will not quarrel with this perverse ignorance, however shameless, for besides Scripture I have other reasons which have brought me, impartial and serious, this discourse.

I have been staying in this great factory that the wealthy call the world for years now, and certainly I have spent my time there as a traveler, not to acquire it, but to observe it. There is practically nothing in him that did not give me the opportunity for a few thoughts, but what occupied me quickly and much was the continual action of fire on water. This speculation - somehow - surprised me in my early youth, long before I saw college. And it was certainly Nature, whose pupil I was, that had then awakened in me many notions that I encountered later in Platonic philosophy.

I will not refrain from writing how I had imagined a certain practice on the water from which I expected, even at the time of my childhood, miracles, but certainly neither gold nor silver, for I did not even think of it, nor any artifice of covetousness. This consideration that I had when I was a child has since made me examine children, in particular what they thought of these elements that we see around us, and that is how I learned a lot of them, to know that Nature in her simplicity is much wiser than some men are with their learned tricks and tricks. In truth, I felt obligated to prove all things, so that I could achieve my legitimate desires.

But lest you think that I have only conversed with children, I will admit that I have also conversed with children and madmen, that is to say, as I interpret it, with children and men, for the latter are not in all things as wise as the former. A child, I suppose, pure from birth, before education altered and fermented him, is a subject which has not been much considered, for men do not respect him until he's company for them, and that's when they actually waste him. However, I would tend to think, from what I have read, that the natural disposition of children, before it was corrupted by usages and manners, is one of those things that the ancients philosophers got busy, and even with some curiosity. I will not express here what I have found through my own experience,

But to return from this digression to the principles initially proposed, namely fire and water, I will borrow my introduction to the subject from my famous fellow-citizen, Rice of Chester who, speaking of this art, expresses himself thus: "This Art," he says, "belongs to occult philosophy, and to that part of philosophy which deals with meteors."

The said Art discourses not only on the elements, but also on the things that these produce. Look for this, for it is a great secret”.

These words, if the mysteries which they imply and to which they relate were distinctly laid down on paper, would form an endless discourse, for they contain all that Nature does, and all that Art can do. But may we, with order and as far as conscience permits, express what they mean. We affirm first that God is the principal and only Author of all things, Who by His Word and His Spirit formed and manifested those things which at present we cannot see.

As for the matter from which He formed them, since it is a substance pre-existing not only to ourselves, but also to the world, most people may think that knowing it is impossible, for how shall we know a thing which was so long before us, and which does not now exist for us, nor ever was, in their opinion, from the creation? To this objection which, at first sight, may seem invincible, we will return an answer which will shatter it, for we will show how and by what means we have come to know this matter, and not only to know it, but after long labors , to see it, to hold it in hand and to taste it.

It is quite evident that every individual, and I suppose man himself, is made by a seed, and that this seed, when the body is realized, no longer appears, for it is changed and transformed into a body. However, this same body then produces a seed, which is exactly the same in Nature as the original first seed from which the body was made. I therefore presume that whoever would like to know the generation of man does not need to go back to Adam to know the first seed, because if Nature always offers the same thing, what is the use of this sterile retrogradation? So it is with the world, for originally it was made of a seed - moisture or viscous seminal water. But this seed - as we said in our aphorisms - disappeared during creation, because the Spirit of God who moved above it transformed it and made it the world.

However, this same world now produces and engenders from its body a secondary seed, which is the same in essence and substance as the primitive general seed of which the world was made. And if anyone asks what use Nature makes of this general seed and why she produces it, I answer that it is not to make another world out of it, but to maintain this world with which it is already made. For Almighty God has decreed that His creatures be nourished with the same matter from which they were formed, and in this is verified this maxim which otherwise would be very false: "It is by these very things of which we consist that we are also fed”. We do not look much for where our food comes from, nor that of the animals, because these two kinds of provisions are obvious.

But what nourishes the grass, the plants, the wheat and all kinds of trees, as well as their fruits? What restores and nourishes the earth, when these copious and innumerable products have for the greater part of the year lived sucking her breasts and almost exhausting her? I'm afraid they'll say what they think, and say it's the water, but what they are good at talking about will appear hereafter. when these copious and innumerable products have for the greater part of the year lived sucking her breasts and almost exhausting her? I'm afraid they'll say what they think, and say it's the water, but what they are good at talking about will appear hereafter. when these copious and innumerable products have for the greater part of the year lived sucking her breasts and almost exhausting her? I'm afraid they'll say what they think, and say it's the water, but what they are good at talking about will appear hereafter.

It is even certain that what we feed on, as well as the animals, comes entirely from the same source, but before this food comes to us, it is changed, for the animals feed on particular things, but the vegetables extract this sperm immediately in its universal celestial form. However, I would not want this to be understood as if this seed were only for nourishment, for many things are made of it, especially the subterranean family of minerals and metals. For this thing is not water, save in sight, but coagulable thick moisture, or a mixture of fire, air, and pure earth, it is true covered with water, and that is why it is seen and known only by few people.

In plants, it often appears, because they do not feed - as some people think - on water, but on this seminal viscosity which is hidden in water. They draw it to their roots, and from there it goes up into the branches; but sometimes it happens that it escapes through the bark where, on encountering the cold air, it remains and freezes into gum. This freezing is not sudden, but requires some time, for if you find it while it is cool, it is excessively subtle, though glutinous, moisture, for it will twist into thin threads like hair, and if it passes to the branches, it will take the form in time of a plum or a cherry.

she climbs in the branches; but sometimes it happens that it escapes through the bark where, on encountering the cold air, it remains and freezes into gum. This freezing is not sudden, but requires some time, for if you find it while it is cool, it is excessively subtle, though glutinous, moisture, for it will twist into thin threads like hair, and if it passes to the branches, it will take the form in time of a plum or a cherry. she climbs in the branches; but sometimes it happens that it escapes through the bark where, on encountering the cold air, it remains and freezes into gum. This freezing is not sudden, but requires some time, for if you find it while it is cool, it is excessively subtle, though glutinous,

moisture, for it will twist into thin threads like hair, and if it passes to the branches, it will take the form in time of a plum or a cherry.

This happens to it in the cold and on the surface of the ground, but in the bowels of the earth it is frozen by sulphurous heat into metals, and if the place of its freezing is pure, then it is frozen into a clear metal, for this sperm is impregnated with light and it is full of Astral Fire, from which all metals derive their luster. The same could be said of pearls and precious stones, this astral seed being the mother of all these. For where it is mineralized by itself and without physical admixture, it pours and pours out its fires, and it contains so much heaven that, if we were not acquainted with the conspiracy, we would wonder how it could love the earth. Let us now resume in a few words what we have said, and this all the more so as we would like to explain our method, has drawn a certain figure which fully responds to those words which we have previously quoted from Rhaesus Cestrensis.

We have already mentioned two principles, God and Nature, or God and the created world, because of the third principle or chaos which was pre-existent to the world, we will say no more. But, instead, we will have recourse to the secondary sperm or chaos, which is now and which comes from the visible world. For we will base our discourse on nothing that is not visible, and in the foreground we place the Divine Majesty, Who is the one and central Eternal Principle, Architect of all.
This figure is by Raymond Lully : in its center we see the Hyle or First Matter, of which the world was made. In this Hyle, says Raymond Lully, all the elements and all the natural principles - both the means and the extremes - were mixed potentially "in a confused form of water". And this primitive spermatic ocean fills all this space that today we attribute to the air, because - he says - "it extended to the lunar circle". From this central Hyle, with which we have now finished, have arisen all those principles and all those bodies which are found indicated in the circumference of the figure, and it is here that our philosophy begins.


First, above the Hyle are seen the elements, or the visible created world, the parts of which are commonly called the elements, viz. earth, water, air and sky - for there is no no other fire than that will-o'-the-wisp which Aristotle lit under the moon. From the elements on the right, by rarefaction and resolution of their substance, we see derived another principle, namely, the vapors of the elements or clouds, vapors in which the lower and higher natures meet and marry, and that is their mixture results in that secondary sperm or philosophical chaos that we seek. Alongside the clouds or vapors of the elements, we find in the figure a third principle, namely, clear water which proceeds immediately from the clouds. "And that - says Lully - is the substance that resembles quicksilver, which is found in truth flowing and flowing on the earth”.

The fourth principle, which nature immediately generates by congealing the substance or viscosity of the aqueous universal Mercury, is the vitreous Azoth, which is a certain igneous, sulphurous, masculine mineral. And this is philosophical gold - sulfur, earth and male - just as viscous water is Mercury and female. The rest of the principles which are arranged in the figure are artificial principles, and cannot be known or manifested without the Art, except the seventh and last principle, which is either gold or silver, for these are perfect metals and ferments which specify the medicine - which of itself is universal - and reduce it to a particular disposition and effect.

which nature immediately generates by congealing the substance or viscosity of the aqueous universal Mercury, is vitreous Azoth, which is a certain igneous, sulfurous, masculine ore. And this is philosophical gold - sulfur, earth and male - just as viscous water is Mercury and female. The rest of the principles which are arranged in the figure are artificial principles, and cannot be known or manifested without the Art, except the seventh and last principle, which is either gold or silver, for these are perfect metals and ferments which specify the medicine - which of itself is universal - and reduce it to a particular disposition and effect. which nature immediately generates by congealing the substance or viscosity of the aqueous universal Mercury, is vitreous Azoth, which is a certain igneous, sulphurous, masculine ore.

And this is philosophical gold - sulfur, earth and male - just as viscous water is Mercury and female. The rest of the principles which are arranged in the figure are artificial principles, and cannot be known or manifested without the Art, except the seventh and last principle, which is either gold or silver, for these are perfect metals and ferments which specify the medicine - which of itself is universal - and reduce it to a particular disposition and effect. sulphurous, masculine. And this is philosophical gold - sulfur, earth and male - just as viscous water is Mercury and female. The rest of the principles which are arranged in the figure are artificial principles, and cannot be known or manifested without the Art, except the seventh and last principle, which is either gold or silver, for these are perfect metals and ferments which specify the medicine - which of itself is universal - and reduce it to a particular disposition and effect.

sulphurous, masculine. And this is philosophical gold - sulfur, earth and male - just as viscous water is Mercury and female. The rest of the principles which are arranged in the figure are artificial principles, and cannot be known or manifested without the Art, except the seventh and last principle, which is either gold or silver, for these are perfect metals and ferments which specify the medicine - which of itself is universal - and reduce it to a particular disposition and effect.

So far we have felt it appropriate to play fair with you, but as far as the practical part of this figure is concerned, we will leave it aside, because we would rather say nothing than say something that does not would not be understood. I dare to affirm that there are writers who rejoice in the enigmas they pose, and who take particular pleasure in multiplying the difficulties, which are already sufficiently numerous. For my part, I will not put your understanding to the test. You can rely on their author, and thus expose yourself to no other danger than that to which I myself was previously exposed.

We will now return again to our theory and, as an introduction, we affirm that it is fire which initiates all movement, and it is movement which initiates generation. For if the elements, or parts of this material world, were all within their own limits, such an interruption would produce nothing. To prevent this, the Almighty God placed in the heart of the world, namely in the earth, as he did in the heart of every other creature, a vital fire, which Paracelsus calls the Archaea., and Sendivogius the Central Sun.

This fire - lest it consume its own body, the earth - it covered it with thick, oily, salty water, which we call the sea. For sea water, as we have experienced, not to mention its salt, is full of a sulphurous, volatile fat, which does not extinguish the fire like vulgar water, but which feeds it. We see that things are similarly provided for in the bodies of animals, whose heat or life is tempered by salty sulphurous moisture—namely, by blood—and blood is tempered by respiration, as the sea is by the wind and the air.

Above this Archaeus or central fire, God has placed His sky, the sun and the stars, just as He has placed the head and the eyes above the heart. Because between man and the world, the agreement that reigns is not small, for he who does not know one cannot know the other. We can also observe that the wind passes between the lower and upper fires, that is, between the central sun and the celestial sun. And in man, the breath has all freedom and all movement between the heart and the eyes, that is to say between the fire and the light which is in us. We see, moreover, in man and in the world, a very equal correspondence of effects, for, like the blood, the sea has a constant pulsation or agitation, the two spirits being in motion and working alike in their body.

the breath has all freedom and all movement between the heart and the eyes, that is to say between the fire and the light which is in us. We see, moreover, in man and in the world, a very equal correspondence of effects, for, like the blood, the sea has a constant pulsation or agitation, the two spirits being in motion and working alike in their body. the breath has all freedom and all movement between the heart and the eyes, that is to say between the fire and the light which is in us. We see, moreover, in man and in the world, a very equal correspondence of effects, for, like the blood, the sea has a constant pulsation or agitation, the two spirits being in motion and working alike in their body.

Nor should we neglect another consideration, that the light of the world is in the upper parts of it, namely the sun and the stars. But the original fire from which these sparks fly does not appear, but lives imprisoned in the earth. In the same way it is certain that all the brilliance of man is in his face, because it is there that he emits his light, in the eyes, but the first source of this, namely this fire which is in the heart is no more visible than he who is in the earth. We can simply state this, that these two fires are manifested to reason by the same effects, namely, by the pulsation which one causes in the blood and the other in the sea, to which may be added that perspiration or evaporation of humors which these two spirits produce in the same way in their respective bodies.

And in order that we may further prove that these dullnesses of Archaea and Central Sun are not empty words, let us consider only what strong heat is necessary for this sublimation of vapors and exhalations, for it is not l simple water that is thrown into the air, but an abundance of salt and oil with water. If anyone thinks that it is the sun that can do this, I must tell him that he does not know what the operations of the sun are, nor what it is used for in Nature. The sun only serves to dry up the superfluous humidity that the night leaves behind on the outside of things, because this makes all the plants cold and flabby, it hampers their digestion and maturity.

But the sun, with a sharp heat, removing this foreign humidity, favors their concoction and helps to ripen what is raw. It must be done with very gentle heat, not such a heat that it makes the earth smoke and pulls clouds out of it, for that would not ripen things, but rather burn and calcine them. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel. But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it.

with brisk heat, removing that extraneous moisture, promotes their concoction and helps ripen what is raw. It must be done with very gentle heat, not such a heat that it makes the earth smoke and pulls clouds out of it, for that would not ripen things, but rather burn and calcine them. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel. But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it. with brisk heat, removing that extraneous moisture, promotes their concoction and helps ripen what is raw.

It must be done with very gentle heat, not such a heat that it makes the earth smoke and pulls clouds out of it, for that would not ripen things, but rather burn and calcine them. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel. But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it. It must be done with very gentle heat, not such a heat that it makes the earth smoke and pulls clouds out of it, for that would not ripen things, but rather burn and calcine them. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel.

But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it. It must be done with very gentle heat, not such a heat that it makes the earth smoke and pulls clouds out of it, for that would not ripen things, but rather burn and calcine them. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel.

But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel. But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it. We know that if we stay in the sun for a long time, we will eventually faint, and that common fire will not burn in the light of it, because the sun - which is the true element of fire - attracts it, so that gradually it sinks and gives up its fuel. But if one carries the fire out of the sun, then it will apply itself more strongly to the fuel, it will unite with it and burn it.

The same is true of the earth, for as long as the heat of the sun is present, the heat of the earth is more concerned with the heat of the sun than with its own body. For, as Sendivogius aptly wrote, "the rays join the rays on the surface of the earth." It is on the surface of the earth that the rays of the two luminaries meet, and there is such a conspiracy between fire and fire, that the central fire - freeing itself to meet the celestial fire - suffers a kind of ecstasy, and does not pay much attention to his own body.

Let me put it this way, for there is such an affinity between these two fires that they prefer to join with each other rather than with a third nature. But this can only be in part, and by means of an influence, God having confined one to the center and the other to the circumference. I could demonstrate this sympathy by a very noble magnetism, which I saw with admiration, between the sun and the sweet oil, or rather between the fire and the soul of the nitre. And here I will tell you that the earth is full of nitre.

And even, I must affirm that the pure land is nothing but nitre, whose entrails are full of wind, air and fire, and which differs no more from the sky than the root of a tree. which lodges in the clay does not do so with its branches which grow in the sun. This attraction of fire to fire is the real reason why the heat of the earth is so weak in summer and so strong in winter. For in winter, when the sun is absent, the central fire keeps entirely within the earth, and, irritated by a hostile invasion of cold, it heats the waters more vigorously, so that the exhalations and clouds are much more abundant in winter than in summer, which could not be if the sun were the cause.

Add to this that a dry external heat, like that of the sun, falling immediately upon the earth, must necessarily burn the earth before it can make it smoke. But an inner fire, which is mixed with the moisture of the earth, cannot burn, no matter how intense, because it is moderated by water and tempered with moist heat. And without a doubt, such a fire can very naturally resolve certain parts of the earth and make them exhale, as our internal heat moistened by blood makes us sweat without violence. Add to this that a dry external heat, like that of the sun, falling immediately upon the earth, must necessarily burn the earth before it can make it smoke. But an inner fire, which is mixed with the moisture of the earth, cannot burn, no matter how intense, because it is moderated by water and tempered with moist heat. And without a doubt, such a fire can very naturally resolve certain parts of the earth and make them exhale, as our internal heat moistened by blood makes us sweat without violence.

Add to this that a dry external heat, like that of the sun, falling immediately upon the earth, must necessarily burn the earth before it can make it smoke. But an inner fire, which is mixed with the moisture of the earth, cannot burn, no matter how intense, because it is moderated by water and tempered with moist heat. And without a doubt, such a fire can very naturally resolve certain parts of the earth and make them exhale, as our internal heat moistened by blood makes us sweat without violence. for it is moderated by water and tempered with moist heat. And without a doubt, such a fire can very naturally resolve certain parts of the earth and make them exhale, as our internal heat moistened by blood makes us sweat without violence. for it is moderated by water and tempered with moist heat. And without a doubt, such a fire can very naturally resolve certain parts of the earth and make them exhale, as our internal heat moistened by blood makes us sweat without violence.

To reduce all this to a corollary, we affirm that in winter God seals the surface of the earth with frost and cold, as one would seal a vase, to preserve there the freezing sperm moisture, which otherwise could fly away with the coarser vapours, which are profusely released at this time, fill the sphere with the air and absorb like so many sponges the vital celestial influences. For we must know that Nature begins to permeate the earth about the end of autumn and continues it all winter, the subtle igneous influx of the sky being then condensed by the cold and the humidity of the moon, which reigns throughout the winter, and which is higher than the sun. This can be seen in the snow which, falling when it freezes hard, is picked up while it is fresh, and digested in a closed vessel for twenty-four hours. If we then open the vase while the solution is hot, we perceive while breathing the water all the odors of the world, which are surely much more pleasant than in the flowers of May.

Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap. Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. If we then open the vase while the solution is hot, we perceive while breathing the water all the odors of the world, which are surely much more pleasant than in the flowers of May.

Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap. Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. If we then open the vase while the solution is hot, we perceive while breathing the water all the odors of the world, which are surely much more pleasant than in the flowers of May.

Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap. Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. one perceives by breathing the water all the smells of the world, which are surely much more pleasant than in the flowers of May.

Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap. Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. one perceives by breathing the water all the smells of the world, which are surely much more pleasant than in the flowers of May. Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap.

Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap.

Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body.

This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. Look at the bottom of the vase and you will find a greasy, gray deposit, which is not unlike white soap. Separate the phlegm from it by a gentle distillation in the bath, and put the residue in a tightly stoppered matrass, in the dry heat of ashes.

Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you. Keep it warm for an hour or two, and suddenly the vase will fly apart, for the wind - life or spirit - is not well established in the body. This is where you can see Nature's first trials, but if you know how to work on water, you will find greater things than I have told you.

Magnesia therefore, as Sendivogius wrote, is engendered winter, and not without reason, for it is then that the heat of the earth is strongest and best able to digest the food that descends from the sky and concoct it into a viscous semen . But during the seasons of spring and summer, when the sun has driven away the frost and the central and celestial luminaries have - by their mutual mixture and convergence of rays - relaxed and dilated the pores of the earth, then a way allowing the sperm to rise more freely, which by sublimating and rising is attracted and intercepted by the vegetable kingdom, of which it is the immediate food.

To return therefore to these first words of Rhaesus Cestrensis, we will say that this sperm is made of the vapors or clouds, and the vapors are made by the elevation and the depression of the elements, and not only of the elements, but also - according to his expression - "elementary", that is to say bodies composed of the elements. And this has a double meaning, for we must know that the earth is charged with many particular natures, such as minerals of all kinds and the remains of corpses, because our bodies too reside in the earth once the spirit of life left. All this, as well as the earth itself, undergoes a rarefaction and a resolution of substance, for in these vapours, says Raymond Lully, "all the bodies produced by the elements are resolved, so that they may enter into a generation new ".

This reminds me of an opinion which I once read among the Cabalists, that this mass, or body which we have arrived at by attraction and transmutation of food, does not rise again in resurrection. But it is from this seminal particle which originally, by attracting the food, covered itself with it, that a new body will be born, and this seminal particle - they say - is hidden somewhere in the bones, and not in that part that crumbles to dust. In truth, we see that the bones are very permanent and durable, and this Joseph was not unaware of when, dying in Egypt, he gave this commandment to his brothers: “You shall bring up my bones from here” Genesis L, .

We know that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt nearly four hundred years after the death of Joseph, and during all this time his bones were not consumed, but were carried away into the land of Canaan, as it is written: “Moses took with him the bones of Joseph; for Joseph had made the children of Israel swear, saying, "God will visit you, and you will carry away my bones with you from here." »

Certainly, if we judge correctly, we must confess that this seminal particle is our only fundamental matter, the rest being only an accretion which comes from the foreign substance of food and drink. What loss then is it if we leave aside this corrupted secretion or addition of matter, for cannot He, the One who originally made us from this seminal particle, remake us from it?

This opinion, in my opinion, is not to displease St. Paul in his discourse to the Corinthians Cor. XV, -, where he would like to show them the way in which the resurrection takes place, and with what bodies the dead rise: “Fool! What you sow does not come back to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body to come, but a simple grain, for example, wheat or some other plant; and God gives him the body he wanted, to each seed a particular body”. Because that's what the original text means. And here, to you who are cantankerous readers, please excuse me, for I am not delivering this as my personal feeling, but as the tradition of the Jews, who were in their time a very learned people and who knew more than any other nation on the mysteries of God and Nature.

To pick up where we left off, you should know that when the central sun sublimates vapours, these vapors not only participate in the nature of earth and water, but various other particular minerals, including earth and water are full. To make this clearer, vapors - so properly named - rise from the sea and from all fresh waters. They partake of the substance and qualities of the minerals which are in the water, some being bituminous, some saline, some mercurial, all being moist and phlegmatic.

On the contrary, the exhalations that come from the earth are dry, because the earth is warmer and more mineral than water. These igneous, terrestrial fumes, meeting the cold vapors of water, often produce some of the most terrible storms, some being nitrous, some arsenical, some sulphurous, all being hot, and some, because of their sulfur, flammable.

These two things - I mean the terrestrial exhalations and the aqueous vapor - meet in this vast circulatory air, where the contrary aspects of hot and cold are mixed, like the agent and the patient, or the Sulfur and the Mercury. The particular natures and vapors which they have acquired from the minerals are resolved by the wind and totally reduced to general principles. It is strange to consider what powerful faculty of resolution is in the wind or in the air, for the wind is nothing but air stirred up by fire, just as we see in the man that the movement of respiration is caused by heat, as well as by that of blood, both proceeding from the same warm principle of life. It is thus certain that the life of the world causes the wind or a commotion in the air as well as a flux in the sea, for these two things are seas and have their fluxes, as we shall prove more fully elsewhere.

The air therefore, as we have said, resolves all things and especially the wind, for it resolves all salts into water, and if this solution is distilled, we shall find a certain part of the salt reduced to fresh water. As for the residue, if it is exposed to the wind, it will resolve again, and you can distill it a second time. In a word, if you repeat this process, you will turn the whole body of salt into volatile sweet water, no different from vulgar water either to sight or taste. And here you must not think that your salt is wasted,

This practice, if properly understood, sufficiently explains the nature of air, but he who knows where to find frozen air and who can dissolve it by heat into viscous water, he has achieved something 'excellent. I could say much more about this marvelous and spiritual element, whose penetrating and resolving power I once witnessed in the following simple experience. Common quicksilver has a miraculous union of the two parts, and of all compounds it is the strongest except gold, for however much you distil it in a retort a hundred times, it will still be quicksilver. money, despite all these repeated rarefactions of his body.

But if you take a thousand times its weight and spray it just once in the open air, it will never become quicksilver again, for the fumes rise in the wind, where they will suffer total dissolution and fall back as mere rainwater. This is the very reason why also the vapors of the elements rise up to the middle region of the air, because there the wind is very cold and has the most freedom, and in no other place their resolution - this to which Nature tends - cannot be accomplished. This, if we understand it, is a very noble secret of Nature, of which Job was not ignorant, when - complaining of the decrepitudes of his body - he expressed himself thus: "You carry me on a breath, do it to me ride, and you dissolve my substance” Job XXX, .

We have so far shown you how fire rarefies all things, and how wind and air resolve them even more than fire, as we have indicated by the example of quicksilver. This is what we have elsewhere indicated in very emulatory terms, namely that the circumferences expand and the centers contract, that the higher ones dissolve and the lower ones coagulate, and that we should use an indeterminate agent until what we find one determined.

For it is true that the mercurial dissolving faculty is found in the air and aerial things, and that the sulphurous freezing virtue is found in the earth, that is to say in natures and mineral substances that God has hidden. In the ground. Take therefore the water of the air, which is a great solvent, and ferment it with earth; then, conversely, ferment the earth with water. Or, to speak more obscurely, ferment Mercury with Sulphur, and Sulfur with Mercury. Know that this ability to freeze is greatly aided by heat, particularly in those places where sperm cannot exhale and where the heat is tempered. But if the place is open and the heat is excessive, then it dissipates. It now remains for us to speak of the two passive material elements, that is to say, earth and water, for these are the bodies which undergo fire and whose parts are perpetually regenerated by a circular rarefaction and condensation.

Such is the advice of the R.+C. brothers, that those who would be versed in this Art study the elements and their operation before researching the dyes of the metals. It is indeed desirable that we do so, because then we would not have so many prompters and so few philosophers. But here the question may be asked, who is the one who studies the elements in order to observe and imitate their operations? Because in the universities, we study them only to arrive at a false book theory, of which we can make no other use than charlatanism, argument and fuss. Truly, the doctrine of the scholars has corrupted and perverted even the desire for knowledge which God has implanted in man. For the traditions we receive there from our superiors bring with them the fear of the teacher, and this engenders in us an opinion of the degree of certainty of their teaching, so that a scholar cannot all his life achieve much reason and confidence by ignoring the lesson of his instructor.

I have often wondered how thoughtful minds can think that Aristotle's philosophy is perfect, when it consists of simple words without other effects. For, in truth, the falsity and insufficiency of a purely notional knowledge is so patent that no connoisseur will want to claim it. This is something well known to physicians who, once caught up in this merry-go-round, are obliged to leave it to lend faith to new principles, if they want to be such as their profession demands. Aristotle will tell us very seriously: “Where the philosopher ends, the doctor begins. But I would admire what assistance a physician might receive from this philosopher whose science tells us that "science is not concerned with particulars," for without particulars a physician can do nothing.

But seriously, didn't Aristotle's science – if there ever was a science – emanate from particulars, or did it descend immediately from universals? If she descended immediately from the universals, how did he come to know them? Did he know the genus before knowing the species, or the species before the individuals? I do not think so. He first knew the individual and having observed its nature and property, he applied this to the whole species or, to put it sensibly, to all individuals of that genus. And this application has made general this knowledge which at first was particular, as deduced from a particular object. This is the truth, and Aristotle will tell us, although he himself contradicted himself, for elsewhere he affirms: "There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the sense", this which, if true, then implies that "science is not concerned with particulars" is false.

I'm done with him for the moment, and as for me, I learned a long time ago, not from Aristotle, but from Roger Bacon., that generalities are of little value, and that they should not be followed except by the reason of particulars. This is evident in all practices and professions which lead all things to the benefit of man. For Nature herself has imprinted universal notions and conceptions in every soul, whether educated or not, so that we need not study universals. This was observed by our brother Roger Bacon, when he said:

"In general conceptions of the soul, the crowd agrees with the wise, but in particulars and specialties, it is in disagreement and wander”. It is for this very reason that he condemns Aristotle and Galen, "for they occupied themselves with generals and universals, and continued thus to their old age, consuming their lives in vulgar and worthless things, not discerning the paths leading to these great secrets”. Let's not be like those pagans, even if in this point most of the world follows them. Let us rather follow the ways of Nature, for having imprinted these universals on our minds, she did not do so in vain, but in order that we might apply them to sensible outer particulars, and thus attain a true experiential knowledge, which in this life is our only crown and perfection.

If someone stuck to the pure theory of agriculture and only read Virgil's Georgics, never putting his hand to the plow, I guess that theory couldn't help him get his daily bread. . If we stick to notions and names of things, without ever touching the things themselves, it is probable that we will not produce effects, that we will not cure illnesses, realizations without which philosophy is useless and impossible. is not to be counted among the things that are necessary for us.

How false this is, God knows, and man can also know just by considering these two obstructions to life, sickness and poverty. But it is not only effects that are lacking in Aristotle's philosophy, but even his theory is largely wrong; and where it is true, it is so light and superficial that it does not advance us at all. Aristotle is not one of our helpers, believe him, but the very obstacle to all natural discoveries, and he has long since not only obstructed the truth, but smothered it. One could say many things about this character and his ignorance, as filthy as it is perverse.

I forget to mention his atheism and the eminence of his malevolence, which not only damaged the reputation of the ancient philosophers - whose books this writer burned - but also the happiness and progress of posterity, whom 'he deprived of his monuments among the oldest, among the most excellent and among the most inestimable. it is so light and superficial that it does not advance us at all. Aristotle is not one of our helpers, believe him, but the very obstacle to all natural discoveries, and he has long since not only obstructed the truth, but smothered it. One could say many things about this character and his ignorance, as filthy as it is perverse.

I forget to mention his atheism and the eminence of his malevolence, which not only damaged the reputation of the ancient philosophers - whose books this writer burned - but also the happiness and progress of posterity, whom 'he deprived of his monuments among the oldest, among the most excellent and among the most inestimable. it is so light and superficial that it does not advance us at all. Aristotle is not one of our helpers, believe him, but the very obstacle to all natural discoveries, and he has long since not only obstructed the truth, but smothered it. One could say many things about this character and his ignorance, as filthy as it is perverse.

I forget to mention his atheism and the eminence of his malevolence, which not only damaged the reputation of the ancient philosophers - whose books this writer burned - but also the happiness and progress of posterity, whom 'he deprived of his monuments among the oldest, among the most excellent and among the most inestimable. but the very obstacle to all natural discovery, and it has long since not only obstructed truth, but smothered it. One could say many things about this character and his ignorance, as filthy as it is perverse.

I forget to mention his atheism and the eminence of his malevolence, which not only damaged the reputation of the ancient philosophers - whose books this writer burned - but also the happiness and progress of posterity, whom 'he deprived of his monuments among the oldest, among the most excellent and among the most inestimable. but the very obstacle to all natural discovery, and it has long since not only obstructed truth, but smothered it. One could say many things about this character and his ignorance, as filthy as it is perverse.

I forget to mention his atheism and the eminence of his malevolence, which not only damaged the reputation of the ancient philosophers - whose books this writer burned - but also the happiness and progress of posterity, whom 'he deprived of his monuments among the oldest, among the most excellent and among the most inestimable.

I have digressed to this point to correct this bad apple, which has contaminated an innumerable herd, and all the more so because of a recent and slavish attempt by some of his friends, who recognize him as their dictator and father of their human wisdom - and indeed he is. But when they tell us, we who write against him, that we are only restoring old heresies, when in fact we are opposing an atheist, moreover an atheist who has denied the creation of the world and the dear immortality of our souls, they must allow us to be a little angry with them, since we must impute this heretic to them, because they are the people who support him.

In the meantime, if they are serious and find us guilty of heresy, let them show us publicly how, and we will be sure to give them an explanation of our understanding and their misinterpretations. For our part, we would not have worried them at that time if one of them had not obscurely and timidly indicated that we were teaching a new philosophy and a new religious science. To that, I will make no other answer than this: that before undertaking to judge in what philosophy or religious science is new, he should first endeavor to understand the old. But this takes me out of my way and, in order to return to the question dealt with, I will now resume my discourse on earth and water, which are with certainty sensible substances, and not universals or chimeras, like the imagine the Peripatetics when they couple Nature with nothingness.

By earth, I do not mean that impure and filthy body on which we walk, but a purer, simpler element, namely the central and natural salt nitre. This salt is fixed or permanent in the fire, and it is the sulfur of Nature, by which she retains and congeals her Mercury. When these two meet, I mean pure earth and water, then the earth thickens the water, and conversely the water steals the earth. And out of these two things emerges a third - neither as thick as earth nor as thin as water, but of medium texture and viscous, and this is called Mercury, which is nothing other than a compound of water and salt.

For we must know that these two things are the prime materials of Nature, without which she cannot produce sperm or semen. And that's not all, for when the seed is made, it will never grow and become a body, nor can it be reduced and disposed for a later generation, unless these two materials are present and also co-operate with it. This is what we can see throughout the year, by frequent and daily experience. For when it rains, this celestial water meets the nitre which is in the earth, and dissolves it.

The nitre, with this pungency, sours the water, so that this nitrous water dissolves all the seeds that are in the ground. This is how the solution is the key to generation, not only in our Art, but also in Nature, which is the Art of God. We need say no more about the earth, for these few words, if properly understood, suffice and carry a deeper meaning than the ordinary reader realizes. I know that there is another eastern solar earth, which is all golden and sulphurous, and yet which is not gold, but a base, despicable thing, which costs nothing, because it is enough to pick it up to get it.

It is the land of Ethiopia, which includes all colors. It is this Androdamas of Democritus, the green Duenech, sulfur that never touched the fire, which - if resolved - then becomes our vitreous Azoth or vitriol of philosophical Venus which includes all colors. It is this Androdamas of Democritus, the green Duenech, sulfur that never touched the fire, which - if resolved - then becomes our vitreous Azoth or vitriol of philosophical Venus which includes all colors. It is this Androdamas of Democritus, the green Duenech, sulfur that never touched the fire, which - if resolved - then becomes our vitreous Azoth or vitriol of philosophical Venus.

Enough about the nature of the earth. We will now talk about water. This element is the channel or vehicle of all influences whatever they may be, for whatever outpouring proceeds from the earthly center, that same rises and is carried within it to the air. And conversely everything that comes from the sky descends into it down to the earth, because it is in its entrails that the lower and higher natures meet and mingle, nor can they manifest themselves without a singular artifice. Hence it follows that all that is pure in the earth, all that she receives from the water.

By this I mean those pure substances which philosophers call decomposed. For the eagle leaves its egg, that is, the water leaves its viscosity in the earth, and this viscosity is concocted into countless other minerals and nitre. We have previously spoken to you of two suns or fires, the celestial and the central. Now these dispense their effusions or influences, and meet in the vapor of water. For Vulcan or the terrestrial sun causes the water to rise in the region of the air, and here the water is spread under the upper fires, as it is exposed to the eye of the sun and to the emissions which all the fixed stars and the planets rule over it - and this, in a naked, rarefied and open body.

The air in truth is that temple where the lower intermarry with the higher, for it is there that the celestial light descends and unites with the oily air humidity, which is hidden in the bowels of the water. This light being warmer than water, it swells it, vitalizes her and increases her seminal and viscous moisture, so that she is ready to deposit her sperm or viscosity, provided she is united with her appropriate male. But this cannot be done unless she returns to her own country, I mean the earth, because that is where the "collastrum" - or the male - resides. It is for this purpose that she descends there again, and immediately the male seizes her, and her sulphurous igneous substance unites with the viscosity of it. And here observe that this Sulfur is the father of all metallic generations, for it gives the igneous masculine soul, while the water gives the body, namely the viscosity or aqueous celestial nitre of which, by coagulation, the body is made. . We must know, moreover, that in this Sulfur there is an impure, foreign heat, which gnaws and corrodes this aqueous Venus, seeking to transform it into impure sulphur, such as is her own body. But this cannot be because of the celestial seed or light hidden in the watery nitre, which will not allow such a thing. For as soon as the earth's sulphurous heat sets to work,

Then observe that the tincture or soul of Sulfur cannot be regenerated in its impure body, but that it must abandon this dark terrestrial carcass, and put on a new and purified body, before being united with the light of heaven. This new body came from the water, because it was the water that brought it down from the sky. And it is certain that it is with water and the Spirit that we must all be regenerated, which has caused learned theologians to affirm that it was not the element of water that was cursed, but only that of the earth. Nor can I omit here the doctrine of Saint John, who makes water one of those three witnesses who bear witness to God here on earth I John V, -:

"He is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water only, but with water and with blood; and it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who testify to the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are one”. And quite appropriately, there is this speech of Saint Paul, according to which God “in the past generations, left all the nations to follow their ways; yet he did not fail, he says, to testify to himself by his benefits, giving you rains and fertile seasons from heaven, filling your hearts with nourishment and gaiety” Acts XIV, -.

These blessings or benefits that come down from God are not a form of words, like the blessings of men. They are all spirit and all essence, and their vehicles are the visible natural substances. And these are the blessings the patriarch wished for his son: “May God give you dew from the sky above and grease from the earth below” Genesis XXVII, . He was not unaware of these blessings which the God of Nature had enclosed in these natural things, and this is why he says in the same place: "Jacob came near and kissed him." Isaac smelled his clothes; then he blesses him and says: "Behold, the odor of my son is like the odor of a field which the Eternal has blessed" Genesis XXVII, . And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “When land drinks up the frequent rains that come to it and produces plants useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives its share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -.

He was not unaware of these blessings which the God of Nature had enclosed in these natural things, and this is why he says in the same place: "Jacob came near and kissed him." Isaac smelled his clothes; then he blesses him and says: "Behold, the odor of my son is like the odor of a field which the Eternal has blessed" Genesis XXVII, . And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “When land drinks up the frequent rains that come to it and produces plants useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives its share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -. He was not unaware of these blessings which the God of Nature had enclosed in these natural things, and this is why he says in the same place: "Jacob came near and kissed him."

Isaac smelled his clothes; then he blesses him and says: "Behold, the odor of my son is like the odor of a field which the Eternal has blessed" Genesis XXVII, . And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “When land drinks up the frequent rains that come to it and produces plants useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives its share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -. Isaac smelled his clothes; then he blesses him and says: "Behold, the odor of my son is like the odor of a field which the Eternal has blessed" Genesis XXVII, . And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “When land drinks up the frequent rains that come to it and produces plants useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives its share of blessing from God.

But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -. Isaac smelled his clothes; then he blesses him and says: "Behold, the odor of my son is like the odor of a field which the Eternal has blessed" Genesis XXVII, . And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “When land drinks up the frequent rains that come to it and produces plants useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives its share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -. she receives her share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -. she receives her share of blessing from God. But if she bears thorns and thistles, she is reprobate and close to curse; and finally they burn it” Heb. VI, -.

To explain what this blessing is, we remember having written elsewhere that water has a double aspect, circumferential and central. At the circumference, it is raw, volatile and phlegmatic, but in the center it is more concocted or cooked, viscous, airy and igneous. This central part is soft and salty, externally white and lunar, but internally red and solar. Nor can it be extracted well without a lunar or solar magnet, of which it is the nourishment, and with which it has a marvelous sympathy. Whence this obscure saying of the philosophers who, when they describe their Mercury to us, give it this characteristic as very natural, that of adhering to bodies or metals. And as Pythagoras says in the Peat of the Philosophers: “She follows and reaches her companion without fire as the magnet draws iron”.

This is why it is written in the same book that “great is the affinity between Magnesia and iron”. We actually believe by common experience that if an ordinary stone is left in ordinary water for a long time, a certain mud sticks to it which the water deposits. But in spite of all this and all that they say, we must necessarily affirm that even their Mercury does not adhere to the vulgar metals, and in this word Mercury, as in all other words, they are not unambiguously nor subtle.

There indeed resides one of their mysteries in the water, a confusing mystery, by which many scholars have been perplexed. And now, since we mentioned it, we don't mind talking about it reasonably. There is nothing so frequent and in truth nothing so considerable in their books as fire and water, but the reciprocal and confused use of these two terms intrigues many, like when they tell us that their water is their fire. On this they have written so strangely that I have sometimes been angry with them, but among them all I have found one who has a good reason to satisfy me. This author confesses that he failed some two hundred times, despite his knowledge of real matter, and this because he did not know fire or the agent by which matter is transformed.

These misfortunes led him, it seems, to feel commiseration for posterity, but I must say that he took the liberty and expressed his opinion in his own way. “Our fire, he says, is mineral, equal, continuous; it does not emit steam, unless the heat is too great. It partakes of sulphur, it dissolves, calcines and freezes everything. It is found by art, not by industry, it comes from elsewhere than matter. Finally, he adds to all this what we should have paid the greatest attention to: “This fire, he says, does not alter or transmute with matter”. He certainly thought he had said enough, and in truth he had, but for those who already know this fire.

As for me, I discovered a certain stinking mineral water, which partakes of the nature of Sulphur, and whose preparation is done by art, which does not come from the essential parts of matter, but from its accidental and accidental parts. which does not evaporate, unless it is overheated, which dissolves, calcines and freezes everything, but which is not frozen, because finally it is expelled by the fire of Nature and leaves in windy fumes . This menstrual, sulphurous fire, against Nature, taught me how natural our work is, for it does here what vulgar water does in the great world. In this respect it is called by some philosophers "phlegm, dew, cloudy water", not certainly that it is such, so let us not be deceived by false interpretations. "This fire is called cloud water," he said, "because it is distilled like the dew of May, and it is water in very subtle parts. But this same water is also a very acidic vinegar, which transforms the body into the spirit without mixture. And since vinegar is of various qualities - for example, just as it penetrates the depths and has an astringent effect - this water dissolves and coagulates, although it is not itself frozen, not being a firm substance. That's enough for terms, let's get back to the thing itself.

I said that this fire does in the vase what vulgar water does in the great world, for just as this phlegmatic element does not coagulate, neither is it at all diminished despite this infinite number of individuals that nature always produces; it is the same in our work. For our water is not transformed either, even if the matter is transformed in its entrails, and our very principles are engendered there - namely the philosophical Sulfur and Mercury. No one should be surprised either that I affirm that common water is not coagulable by heat at least, for in this I do not speak inconsiderately. I know that there are coagulable natures in water, however these are not parts of water, but parts of other elements.

Nor will I deny that a certain phlegm - and even a very large quantity and sometimes all of it - can be retained by mixture with other natures and seem to coagulate into stones, these sometimes transparent. But coagulation in this sense - namely by mixing parts, as in flour and water - I do not pay attention to. By coagulation I mean a transmutation of the substance of mere water into earth or air, and this cannot be in mere water. I know that there is a water which of itself, without any foreign addition, will coagulate by gentle heat into a fusible salt, more precious than gold. But it is not water that the eye sees, it is another invisible humidity, which in fact is everywhere, "but which is not seen," says Sendivogius, "until the artist chooses to manifest it”.

The commerce which is maintained between heaven and earth by the rise and volatility of water can sufficiently instruct us of what dangerous consequence would be the coagulation of this element. It is therefore improbable that the wise God of Nature would make this humidity coagulable, the use and function of which require it to be otherwise. For if in the essence of water - insofar as it is simple water - there were an astringent, congealing faculty, it would arrive by degrees at a total fixation, and then there would be no more of later generation, neither of sperm nor of body. Here is the reason: if water were fixed, there would be neither vapor nor cloud, and without vapor, there could be no sperm, because the elements can only meet to form sperm in a vapor.

For example, the earth cannot rise unless the water is first rarefied, for it is in the bowels of the water that the earth is elevated, and if the earth does not rise, having removed its gross body and being subtilized and purged by water, then the air does not become incorporated into it, because the humidity of the water introduces the air into the rarefied and dissolved earth. And here again, just as the water reconciled the air with the earth, so the air reconciles the water with the fire, as if they were returning the courtesy to each other. For the air - with its unctuousness and its grease - introduces fire into the water, the fire following the air and sticking to it, for it is its fuel and food.

It now remains for us to observe that the vapor of water was the place or the matrix where the three other elements had met, without which they would never have united. For that vapor was the vehicle that brought up the pure virgin land to marry with the sun and the moon. And now she brings it back down into her entrails, impregnated with the milk of the one and the blood of the other, namely air and fire, which principles are predominant in these two higher luminaries.

But a wise person will be able to correct me and say that this vapor, thus impregnated, can now be coagulated and fixed, with the help of these hot principles which are air and fire. To this I answer that the seminal viscous part can do it, but the phlegm never, and I will show it to you by an example. When this vapor is completely permeated, it no longer remains in this region, but immediately returns to the earth from which it rose. But how does she get back there? Certainly not in a violent, stormy rush, like rain, but - as I have written elsewhere - it falls and insinuates itself everywhere invisibly and silently. For if it is a vapor such as I have spoken of, "in which an astral seed of a certain weight is fashioned", then it is neither heard of nor seen for a long time. But in order to pursue what I have promised to prove, I will take the example of the common dew, because the dew has in it a small dose of the astral fire. We therefore see that this moisture descends in silence, for the fire it contains rarefies it in the form of air and will not allow it to condense into water at this height, as does the vapor of rain. But when it has descended near the earth, it mixes with other coarse vapours, borrowing a large quantity of phlegm from them, it finally settles in drops.

Before going any further, consider here these words of the son of Sirach: "Look, he said, at all the works of the Most High, and there are two against two, one against the other" Ecclesiastic XLII, . In this he agrees with that little fragment found under the name of Moses, where God instructs him thus: "You know that I have created an accomplice and an opposite to every creature." I will not affirm conclusively that Moses is the author of this passage, nor that God instructed him in these very words, but I affirm that these words express the truth of God and allude to the great mysteries of His wisdom. I will not omit here either a considerable peculiarity, namely that this passage contains Hebrew words, which proves that the author was a Jew, if not Moses.

But let's move on to the author, and come to what he means: I declare that God created water to oppose it to the earth, which appears from their different textures and qualities. For the earth is coarse and solid, the water subtle and fluid. And the earth has in it a coagulating, astringent power, just as water has in it in part a softening, dissolving faculty. The earth therefore closes in on itself and encloses the fire within itself, so that there can be no generation or vegetation unless the earth is open, so that the fire can work there freely. This is what we can see in a grain of wheat, where the astringent, earthly faculty has linked all the other elements and finished them in a compact dry body. Now this body, as long as it is dry, or as our Savior says, "as long as it remains alone" John XII, that is to say, as long as it is without water, cannot bear fruit. .

It is therefore water that dissolves, and life follows dissolution, for no sooner is the body open than the spirit stirs in it, perceiving in the dissolvent, or dew-water, another spirit, to which it wants to be united. This spirit is the air, enclosed in the dew or water, which air is called in the books of the philosopher "the water of our sea, the water of life which does not wet the hands". But who will believe that there is dry water hidden in the humidity? Certainly not much, and this is what Sendivogius tells us about certain sophists of his acquaintance: “They do not want to believe that water is in our sea, and yet they want to be recognized philosophers”.

I myself have known many philosophers like these, of whom I can say exactly the same thing. But let's get back to our business it's called eau de vie, for this air includes in itself a fire, which is the universal life, not yet specified, and is therefore attuned with all particular lives and is well disposed towards all kinds of creatures. Now the particular specified fire or life of the grain, which is the vegetable magnet, attracts to itself the universal fire or life, which is hidden in the water, and with the fire it attracts the air, which is the garment or body. of fire, called by the Platonists "chariot of the soul" and sometimes "cloud of descending fire".

Here, then, is the foundation on which is built the whole mystery of natural increase and multiplication, for the body of the grain of wheat is increased by the nourishment of air, not simple but decomposed, which air is carried into water and is a kind of soft volatile salt. The fire, or the life of the grain, is fortified by the universal fire, and this fire is included in the air, as the air is in the water. And here we can observe that it is not water alone that leads to the generation or regeneration of things, but water and fire - that is, water and spirit, or water that has life in it. And this, if properly understood, is a valuable guide to the science of God.

In conclusion, the sum of all that we would like to say is this: the roots and seeds of all vegetables are placed in the earth, in the midst of this fountain of dew, as a lamp is placed in the midst of oil, and the fire or life of the seed draws to itself the Abryssach or Lessa - I mean the juice or gum of water - just as the fire of a lamp attracts the oil that is around it. Now, when all the air is drawn out of the water, then the attraction ceases, and the concoction or transmutation begins.

But if the coarse water, which is the vehicle of the air, remains with the seeds, then it prevents the concoction, and therefore the sun and the Archaea jointly expel it, so that it flies away and returns to the region of air, where again she fills her entrails with this astral milk, then descends as before. This is the reason why there is such a vicissitude of showers and sunny periods in Nature, for the showers cause the aerial food to fall and, once the plants have attracted it, the sunny periods cause the coarse water, which otherwise would prevent digestion and freezing.

Such, then, is the process which vulgar water carries on, but if it could be coagulated, this process would cease, and all life would cease with it. For many years I have thought of water as a bird flying to and from its nest, feeding its young and seeking food for them. This is not a new invention on my part, because scholars have thought the same thing before me. It is in this respect that this milky humidity which is in her crystalline breasts is called by some of them the milk of the birds, and they have left in writing that "it is the birds which bring them their stone".

For many years I have thought of water as a bird flying to and from its nest, feeding its young and seeking food for them. This is not a new invention on my part, because scholars have thought the same thing before me. It is in this respect that this milky humidity which is in her crystalline breasts is called by some of them the milk of the birds, and they have left in writing that "it is the birds which bring them their stone".

For many years I have thought of water as a bird flying to and from its nest, feeding its young and seeking food for them. This is not a new invention on my part, because scholars have thought the same thing before me. It is in this respect that this milky humidity which is in her crystalline breasts is called by some of them the milk of the birds, and they have left in writing that "it is the birds which bring them their stone".

In closing, observe that there is a great difference between this vulgar water and our chymic water or fire, mentioned previously by Pontanus, because our water helps coagulation, and the other prevents it. For if the phlegm or gross spirit stays with the air, the air will never freeze. This is why Sendivogius says: "All water would be congealed by heat, if it were without spirit." And so I demonstrated my position, that common water cannot be frozen.

There is now nothing left, and there is nothing to prevent us from being able to conclude surely and infallibly that mere coarse water nourishes nothing, but it is the 'gum or freezable part in it that nourishes all things. For it is the astral balm, and the moist elemental radical which, being composed of lower and higher, is a restorer of both minds and bodies. It is that general vital nutriment which God Himself supplies to all His creatures, and which is annually produced and manifested in the elements by the invisible operation of His Spirit who works in all.

He has in him all the anatomy of heaven and earth, whose belly is full of light and life, and when he enters the lower parts of the world he covers them with a certain viridity, makes them bloom into flowers and offers us something very much like the Paradise we have lost. In a word, it is not a human concoction, but something prepared by the Divine Spirit; it is not made for vegetables only, but also for the man to whom God has in time given it to eat. This is what Scripture tells us, whose authority goes beyond Aristotle and Galen. For this is what I read in Exodus XVI, -: “In the evening quails were seen to come up and cover the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When this dew had dissipated, something small was seen on the surface of the desert, like grains, like frost on the ground. The children of Israel saw it, and they said to one another, “What is this? because they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them: “It is the bread that the Lord gives you for food”. »

Any child knows that dew settles in round drops, and here Moses tells us that once the phlegmatic dampness is removed, the freezing part - which remains - is a little round thing, for it still retains the shape of the drop in which it was hidden. This freezing part is oily and fusible, and with this the Scripture also agrees, telling us that "when the sun made its heat felt, the rest liquefied" Exodus XVI, . It is moreover of very easy and rapid alteration, and consequently easily transmutable or convertible into any form, and it is for this reason that Moses ordered the people not to leave any until morning. “They did not listen to Moses and many of them - says the text - kept some until the morning; but there were worms in it and everything became foul” Exodus XVI, from which we can infer that it is to a certain degree animal.

So we see that the Spirit of God is always dealing with the water, and that up to this hour he is not only moving over it, but also in it. I do not doubt that this is the basis of this profound question that - among many others - God proposed to Job Job XXXVIII, "Does the rain have a father?" Who generates the drops of dew? It is worth observing that the children of Israel, when they saw this thing - although they did not know it - said to themselves: "It is manna".

For what argues for this but the manna - as the word suggests - was a secret gift from God, which they did not know, but which they had previously heard of by tradition from their fathers, and perhaps from such a description as Hermes gives in the Zaradi, namely that it "ascends from the earth to the sky" and "descends from the sky to the earth". And that's what would've made them call it manna, because it was coming down with the dew. I do not doubt that Moses knew it well, although the common people did not know what it was. For the golden calf could not be burned and reduced to powder with ordinary fire, but with the fire of the altar, which was not that of the kitchen.

This is evident in the Maccabees, where it is written that this fire was hidden in a pit and that for many years it was kept safe there during the captivity II Maccabees I, -: "For when our fathers were taken into Persia, the pious priests of that time, having taken fire from the altar, hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry well, and laid it there so securely, that this place remained unknown to all. After many years had elapsed, when such was the good pleasure of God, Nehemiah, sent back to Judea by the king of Persia, caused the descendants of the priests who had hidden it to seek fire. But who is crazy enough to hide common fire in a pit and expect to find it there many years later? Isn't that the best way to extinguish it and rather drown it in a well than bury it in a pit? We do not doubt, as for us, that this fire was very different from the vulgar fire, and this is what the text also tells us, because when it came up from the pit, it was not fire but a thick water II Maccabees I, -.

The truth is that this mystery belonged to the Jewish Church, the priests and the prophets having received it from the patriarchs - I mean from Abraham,. These were the men who sowed the world and instructed posterity, and these and none other must be those ancient and first philosophers whom Zadith calls "the Ancients of the world", from whom he quotes certain expressions..

We will now repeat - before we finish - all that we have said, and this in a few words, so as to be in agreement with Nature and the parts of the world, as they have been manifested to us by experience. . We have found with certainty that there is nothing above that is not exactly the same as here below, but in a grosser, more material texture, for God has ordained that the gross and physical semen of the lower ones offer a body to the animating and subtle influx of their superiors.

Now God has not decreed a union of sperms, except those which proceed from bodies which are of the same nature and of the same species, for His very word bears witness that He hates the confusion or the mixture of seeds which are different or of another kind Leviticus XIX, “You shall observe my laws. Thou shalt not couple cattle of different species; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear a garment made of two kinds of threads”. It is therefore not without wisdom that the priests or - as Proclus tells us - the founders of the ancient priesthood, affirm that "Heaven is on earth, but after the manner of earthly things, and earth is in the heaven, but after the manner of heavenly things,” for otherwise things could not be of the same kind. So we say that in this universe there are four luminaries, two of which are celestial and two central.

The celestials are the sun and the moon, and are known to everyone. The centrals are in fact not known, and therefore not believed, because one is covered with earth and the other with water. In the center of the earth therefore is hidden a fire which is solar in nature, but grosser than that which is in the sun. And in the belly of the water is carried a viscous, coarse air, of a menstrual and lunar nature, but not so bright and subtle as that which is in the moon. In short, the central sun projects into the belly of the water a hot masculine salt. And the water, in receiving it, adds its feminine seminal viscosity to it, and transports it on its wings into the region of the air. We thus see how the material part of the seed is made, and now the sky gives life to this body, the moon giving it the spirit and the sun giving it the soul. And thus are the four luminaries gathered, the higher ones contributing that which in the seed is subtle and vital, and the lower than that which is corporeal and material. This seed is carried invisibly in the belly of the wind and is manifested in water - I mean in crystal clear water - and it is from water that it must be extracted, for there is no there is no other body under the sky where she can be.

I myself have looked for it in the common metals, in quicksilver, antimony and the regulus of antimony, and also in the regulus of Mars, Venus and Saturn, as well as in the regulus of all the bodies. But I wasted my trouble, because I looked for her where she was not. I ran into all these mistakes after I came to know the real stuff, for having failed in my first attempts at it, I left it for something hard to find, and this prevarication on my part m brought many inconveniences. I indeed imagined that a vitriol made of these four imperfect bodies - antimony, iron, lead and copper - could be this vitreous Azoth of Lully, whose spirit or water he so magnified in his will.

This in fact sounds good and can swell a young head to the point of becoming a poet and, like the demon of Delphi, can tell a lie in heroic verse. No less indiscreet for me was that speech of Parmenides in the Peat: "Take copper or lead for grease or blackness, and tin for liquefaction." What on the face of it could this mean if not antimony? And what can be this tin which comes from it by liquefaction if not regulates it? This made me work for a long time on this filthy body, without profit, supposing indeed that the antimony regulus was the white lead or the philosophical tin. But so that we are not deceived, all these parables are in connection with another mineral and not with vulgar antimony, which Peat condemns in these terms: "Note," says Cambar, or observe, which the envious have called the Antimony Stone”.

But the name given to him by the envious is certainly not that. And Basil Valentine, in his Chariot Triomphal, which he wrote in praise of antimony, tells us that "It has not been granted by God that philosophical Mercury, the first substance, quicksilver and the first water of the perfect metals, of which is composed the great Stone of the ancient philosophers, either found in antimony or extracted from it”. And the same Basil, a little later, speaking of the Star of Mars, expresses himself thus: "Many considered that this star was the true matter of the Stone of the philosophers and believed that they had thought correctly, because Nature formed it of her own free will. I deny this, for such people have left the royal road to borrow impassable rocks where wild goats and birds of prey have made their residence. One should not attribute to this star the fact that it is the material of the noblest Stone, although a very excellent medicine is hidden there. .

It therefore remains, reader, that we leave aside all vulgar metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, antimony and quicksilver, for if we look for sperm in any of these metals, we will never find it because we look for it "in the metals of common men, where it is not", as Sendivogius told us. We must therefore look for another body, which is not vulgar, nor is it made, by mixture or otherwise, of any metal which is vulgar. On the contrary, it is a certain black Sulfur made by Nature and which has never touched fire. It is this body about which Albert the Great wrote this:

"A certain metallic body exists in the nature of things, it dissolves and decomposes easily, a happy doctor will prove it to you, if you know the preparation". And after him, his disciple Thomas Aquinas, speaking of the same ore, quotes these remarkable words of another philosopher: "There is a certain species of metal which the crowd has never discovered". It is this metal that we must look for, and it is difficult to find, because we do not have to dig to reach it. Because if we know where it is, we just have to bend down and pick it up for free. Yet it is neither Glauber's antimony neither the vulgar lead nor the flint nor the marl of Pierre Fabre who, after he had exhausted himself and had deceived his readers by discourses on antimony and the sublimation of salts of vulgar metals, ended by seeking Sulfur in this clod of earth which he calls marl. But let us pass over these madnesses, and come to a conclusion: I declare that this Black Sulfur is the male who, once found, puts us in the next position of looking for the female.

And here observe that God Almighty in particular bodies has made no difference between the sexes, except in the animal kingdom, for in plants and minerals there is no such thing. We see that in the grains of cereals, suppose of wheat, there is no division between male and female, for the truth is that they are all male, and God has granted them no other female than the universal female, namely water, whose viscous general seed joining with the particular seed and the spirit which is in the grain, is thus fermented and congealed into the same nature as the grain itself, and it is thus that the wheat. It is the same with the metals, because each of them is masculine, sulphurous and angry. Nor did God ordain that either of them propagate and multiply the other, either naturally or artificially, though we do not deny that they can be multiplied by the aid of that seed in which God placed the blessing of multiplication.

In the metals, therefore, there is no distinction or difference between the sexes, so that from them it is impossible to extract male and female sperm, since these can only be extracted of bodies that are male and female, what metals are not. For if they were, they would spread without art, God having so ordained. It is clear that the metals - being neither male nor female - engender in themselves no seed, and therefore they cannot give what they do not have. For the truth is that the seed from which they come is that general seed of the elements, namely a certain humidity which appears, as Sendivogius tells us, in the form of greasy water. This water is their seed, their mother and their female, for out of this they were originally made, and if in this they were again dissolved, then the child would draw the mother to him and would convert it totally into its own nature. And conversely,

Such is the way, and apart from this there is no other, for there is no water under the sky - from whatever body it may be drawn - which does not have in it the multiplying virtue, if not this unique water that God has blessed. And here, though I seem to speak indiscriminately of metals, I do not mean vulgar metals, for their spirits have been mortified by fire.

Take then our Sulphur, which has never touched the fire, and whose life is fully in it. Join this living male to a living female, for it is in this - as I have elsewhere suggested - that all the mystery resides, namely in the union of a particular spirit with the universal spirit, the means by which Nature is strangely exalted and multiplied. Work therefore to unite these two substantially and completely, which you cannot miss if you know the applications. For suffer me to reveal a secret to you - that of the application of actives to passives - I mean the way to do it - is the greatest difficulty in all art.
Farewell, Reader, and take advantage of these works of mine, which I communicate to you free of charge, I assure you, and not on purpose, for I do not seek my personal glory, but that of God, as well as your benefit.

Brief appendix as an exhortation to the reader

It was not my intention to add anything to what has already been written, but when I reflect on the vexations I myself have endured in the pursuit of this science, I begin to think that I haven't said enough. To be a little clearer, therefore, know, Reader, that whoever seeks the Philosophical Mercury in metals of whatever kind is already out of the way. For this Philosophical Mercury of which we speak so much is a water; however in the metals, there is no water, because the Sulfur there not only congealed it, but it also dried it up.

This is evident in common quicksilver and antimony, which of all metallic bodies are the coarsest; and yet, gross as they are, their water is dried up by their fire. For if we force them into a state of evaporation, this evaporation is not established in a liquid spirit, but in dry flowers. This is what prompted the philosophers to look for a coarser ore, whose evaporation was humid and would settle in water, not yet being controlled by Sulphur.

Of such there was none, except the Mother of Mercury or First Matter, of which Nature makes the vulgar mercury, and it is this which they also called quicksilver and viscous water, for it is as it is. In this ore, the mercury vapor was not so dry, but it would turn into water, and with this water they dissolved the metallic bodies, because the wet evaporation of this ore reduced the metallic dry evaporations, so that the two turned into a single water, and this is what they called their Philosophical Mercury and the double Mercury..

For my part, I do not deny that antimony can be reduced to mercurial water, even if I do not know to what end, because neither our Mercury nor our Tincture comes from it, if one can believe Basil Valentin. It is true, the philosophers use it, but as a simple instrument which disappears again, and so they even use the cooking fire, but it is neither their matter nor their subject, and even less vulgar gold, as some ignoramuses would like to believe.

There is in fact another antimony, which is our Sulfur and the subject of all the Art. But it's so hard to find – and when we found it, it's so hard to prepare – that it almost drove me to despair. However, if you seriously consider what I have written, and what I have overlooked in some places, both deliberately and cautiously, then verily neither the thing itself nor its preparation can be hidden.

Finally, know that the philosophers have two Mercurys, or two waters, the First and the Second. Their First Mercury is the spirit of our Antimony, and here understand me correctly. Their Second Mercury is the spirit of philosophical Mercury and Venus, and this is self-sufficient. But to reduce the duration, the philosophers ferment it with common gold. I have now said more than discretion can allow, but it is also the sense of the difficulties I have encountered that have brought me this far. Be that as it may, be careful in your interpretation, lest the name of antimony deceive you, in which case you might be drawn into a fruitless waste of time and substance.

That's all I have to say, and now it's up to you to use it. If you can believe it, that's good; otherwise, abstain completely from this Art, otherwise you will live to punish your own unbelief. otherwise you might be drawn into a sterile waste of time and substance. That's all I have to say, and now it's up to you to use it. If you can believe it, that's good; otherwise, abstain completely from this Art, otherwise you will live to punish your own unbelief. otherwise you might be drawn into a sterile waste of time and substance. That's all I have to say, and now it's up to you to use it. If you can believe it, that's good; otherwise, abstain completely from this Art, otherwise you will live to punish your own unbelief.