The Staircase of the Wise - Book 3
Cunctipotens Autor Lucis Omnia Regit
The Almighty Author of Light Rules All Things
the staircase of the sages book third
of the number of four
of the four elements,
and of the four elements which are in the matter of the
Stone of the philosophers.
chapter I.
What the number Four comprises. Why the Number of Four is Preferred to the Number of Three. That the Four Elements cannot be found separately. Of the Separation of Light from Darkness in the Work of the Philosophers. Demonstration by the work of the Philosophers that the Elements cannot be apart. What it is that the operating spark within the matter of the Stone of the Philosophers. That the artist must proceed in the same way with the work of the Philosophers as Nature proceeds within the Great World.
We have dealt amicably with Unity and the number Two, which being put together make the number Three: if we add the number Four to that by the rule of addition we shall find the number Seven all the same as d a center and of Six semi-diameters, of the same extent of the foot of the compass, there is formed a Hexagonal Geometrical figure, composed of seven points, as we have formerly mentioned more fully and with more circumstances, which would be boring to repeat, since our intention is to deal here particularly with the number Four, from which I will begin, if you please, our discourse which I will try to base like the others on Theory, you can also continue your interview,that you had taken the trouble to start on the demonstrative foundations and to verify them by experiments as you have done before.
I don't mind: you just have to start.
Those who follow the doctrine of Pythagoras prefer the Number four to all the virtues of all the numbers, since it is a foundation and a root of all the other Numbers.
This Number means or firmness according to the demonstration of the Square figure.
The Number of Four fills with four terms any simple progress of Numbers: namely with a unit 1. with a 2. as also with a 3. and with a 4. which being assembled by addition, it becomes the perfect number of Ten, as we have said elsewhere and as we then proved by the addition of these four numbers.
The Number of Four even includes the Number of the letters of the holy name of God, since almost all the nations of the World write the most holy name of the Lord by Four Letters.
As the Arabs write it with the letters ALLA; the Persians of the letters SIRE; the ORSI Mages; the Greeks ; the Latin DEUS; the German GODTs; the French GOD; the Spaniards DIOS, and so the others.
The Number of Four also includes in itself the Four Elements: Fire; the air ; Water and Earth. Likewise the first Four Qualities: Heat; Cold, Drought, and Humidity.
From which come the Four Moods: as are Sanguine Mood, Anger; Phlegm and Melancholy: of which we will try to speak more particularly next, and will make our beginning of four Elements.
But before starting the matter of the Elements; it seems to me, under your best advice, that you would do well to bring here beforehand the reasons why you come to prefer the Number of Four to the Number of Three, seeing that the latter follows immediately in the Arithmetic to the Number of Two .
I answer you: That it pleased Almighty God to hold this order himself at the creation of the world: for after the Number Two, namely after light and Darkness, he caused Heaven and Earth, the Sky comprising Two operative Elements, and the Earth two suffering. The sky having included in it the light or Element Fire, and the Air; and Earth the Element of Water and Earth; and from these Four there he causes the Number of Three to be produced, namely the plants, Animals and Minerals, which are grown and come from them, and which have their nourishment and their maintenance by means of the Three Principles, which are like second Elements , as are sulphur, mercury, and salt, which maintenance for the said three Kingdoms this Great God will, no doubt, cause to last so long as the circulation of the Elements will last,
It is the same in our work of the Philosophers, as I will show you next.
We are therefore certain that the Three Principles, Sulphur, Mercury and Salt have their origin and have come from the conjunction of the Four Elements, as the Four Elements of the conjunction of the First Matter and the Universal Form, which are the Simple Principles of Nature; that the Elements as well as the Principles, or second Elements, are nothing else than the First Matter, which has received Form in different ways; and that Second Matter comes from the commixtion of the Elements, which is most subject to accidents and which comes to suffer the turns and vicissitudes of generation and corruption.
Trimegiste says well in few words, but which are very effective, and which deserve to be well considered.
Quod est superius simile est ei quod est inferius. That is to say: What is above is similar to what is below.
For the things above and below are well made and created of the same Form and the same Matter, but in regard to their place, their commixture and their perfection they are very different.
Mr. J. d'Espagnet speaks very pleasantly and intelligibly of the First Matter of the Stone of the Philosophers in comparison with this very ancient and first mass, from which all things have come, when he says:
Antiquae illius massae confusae feu Materiae Primae specimen aliquod nobis Nature reliquit in Aqua sicca manus non madesaciente, quae ex Terrae vomicis aut etiam lacubus scaturiens, multiplici rerum semine praegnans effluit, totat, calore etiam levissimo, volatilis; ex qua cum suo masculo copulata qui intrinseca Elementa eruete et ingeniose separare, ac iterum conjungere noverit, pretiosissimum Naturae et artis arcanum, imo coe lestis essentiae compendium adeptum se jactet.
That is to say: Nature leaves us some sign or mark of this very old confused mass of the First Matter in this Water which does not wet the hands, which being impregnated with several kinds of seeds of things, flows from the cavities and from the depths of the earth, being volatile even by a very small fire; he who ingeniously knows how to separate and rejoin the intrinsic Elements of her, when she is copulated with her male, he can boast of having acquired the most precious secret of Nature and of art, and even an abridgment of a celestial essence.
The Four Elements cannot be found or acquired each apart and separated from any commixtion and these Elements are not simple nor apart, but rather inseparably mingled together; so much so that the Earth, the Air and the Water are rather perfecting Elements, or perfecting particles, and bodies, than Elements, which can very truly be called receptacles and mothers of the Elements: for Nature makes use of for the work of the generation of the Elements such that they are impalpable and incomprehensible to the senses, because of their subtlety and incorporeality, until they are assembled and joined to a matter, or thick body.
It is thus also with our work of the Philosophers: but I must tell you in passing, that the Elements, of which Nature makes use for the generation of Animals, are more subtle, invisible and insensible, as we have mentioned it formerly when discussing the generation of animals.
I agree with you, and what is worthy of admiration is that all compounds nevertheless allow themselves to be reduced to sensible Elements, which is what Lucretius expresses very well when he says: Ex insensilibus omnia consitunt Principiis. That is to say: All things are made of insentient Principles.
All mixtures or compounds seem outwardly to be composed of only two Elements, namely the Element of Water and Earth, but the other two Elements are hidden under these in virtue and in power, since Air, being invisible to our gaze, is in some way counted among spiritual beings; and the Fire of Nature cannot be touched or separated by any artifice, since it is the Formal Principle, for the Nature of the Forms cannot be subjected to the judgment of the senses because it is spiritual.
I have just told you that it is the same in our Work of the Philosophers, as you please share with us through your Theory, and if you wish to hear the experiences recited, I will relate them to you.
Fort Volontiers.
So have a little patience to listen to me. Since you have confirmed by fairly solid reasons that the Number Four should be preferred in rank to the Number Three, there will be no need to repeat them, nor to refute them, but I will only add the things that experience discovered it for me in the work of the Philosophers.
When I began to make the separation of the Light from the Darkness of our Chaos, I saw that the Air and the Water presented themselves above Matter like a dew, or like a sweat, and this very slowly and gently: that the Fire joined to the Earth went little by little downwards towards the bottom; That the Fire unites at the beginning so firmly with the Earth, that it does not allow itself to be separated from it, and that it does not want to be raised above, in front of only the First color (understand the Black, the Darkness or the Putrefaction) is quite past or precipitated, and the color White, or the color of Light, is discovered; it is then that the Fire Element comes to light, which makes itself known enough by its glow, by its color, and by the operations it performs through and within the other Elements,
Thus separates the Number of Four, (meaning the Four Elements) from our Chaos, and thus is produced the Number of Three (namely the Three Principles, Sulphur, Mercury and Salt) by this operation or separation; and thus are generated the second Elements from the First Elements; who allow themselves to be exalted and perfected by art in more subtle and better Principles, until an Artist gives birth to a being of eternal duration and perfection, by his wise conduct, and who is resistant to the Elements without being subject to any change.
What you liked to say in front of the Elements, and particularly that the said Elements cannot be found each apart and without any commixtion; that the common Elements should rather be called matrices or receptacles of the first Elements, and that Nature makes use of the Elements impalpable and insensible to the senses, and quasi-spiritual; this is very true, because we find it all the same in the work of the Ancients, since the generation of the Stone of the Philosophers, according to the words of the true Scholars, must be done within the common Elements, with them, by the same Elements , but what made the impregnation in the matrix of metals in the beginning, and what makes the moving spark, or the seed of their sperm, operative, and what keeps it in this vegetating state until the time of the nativity of this Philosophical fruit, it is nothing other than the interior astral Elements, or Light of Heaven, which act continually within the common Elements as within the 'Air, Water, Fire and Earth of matter, and this by the help of the Artist and by the external material fire; and it is these same Elements which, acting thus, tend to the entire perfection of the Philosophical child, who must come in perfection, without doing any detriment to his mother, which are the four vulgar Elements, just like the fruit of an animal occurs in perfection, without doing any harm to its father and mother. who continually act within the common Elements as within the Air, Water, Fire and Earth of matter, and this by the help of the Artist and by the exterior material fire; and it is these same Elements which, acting thus, tend to the entire perfection of the Philosophical child, who must come in perfection, without doing any detriment to his mother, which are the four vulgar Elements, just like the fruit of an animal occurs in perfection, without doing any harm to its father and mother. who continually act within the common Elements as within the Air, Water, Fire and Earth of matter, and this by the help of the Artist and by the exterior material fire; and it is these same Elements which, acting thus, tend to the entire perfection of the Philosophical child, who must come in perfection, without doing any detriment to his mother, which are the four vulgar Elements, just like the fruit of an animal occurs in perfection, without doing any harm to its father and mother.
If the Four Elements could be separated together (which Wise Mother Nature never permitted) our fruit would enjoy as little growth as a tree or other vegetable, which being only entirely deprived for a moment of time of Only one of the Elements would immediately be reduced to a state from which no increase could ever be expected. Think a little, I beg you, if the Element of Fire were missing, if the vegetable, being deprived of the vegetable soul, which consists of the Elemental Fire, would not die immediately? If he were deprived of Air, if he would not perish immediately, since the Medium Vonjungendi duo extrema, which are Fire and Water being removed, he could no longer be made to redo any conjunction, and consequently there could be no more growth, because the Air is that which unites the Fire and the Water to the Earth, and which is attracted from the vegetable, by a magnetine virtue, which is innate to it, and this by the veins and pores which serve as its power grow and increase through it in quantity and quality. If the Element of Water were not, in what way could the vegetative throw and spread its root in the Earth and by what way could the Air conduct the Fire, which is the main food of its vegetative soul, for his interview? would it not be immediately reduced to its Principles? And if the Earth were to fail, on what would the plant rest? If you object to me that there are indeed plants which grow on Water and in Water, which multiply there, and which in no way touch the Earth? I'll give you the answer,
It is thus, and all the same with our vegetable of the Philosophers; for if the Artist did not govern the Four Elements, which are within our work, in the same manner as wise Mother Nature does, according to the ordinances of that great God, whom it pleased him to establish from the beginning for the maintenance and for the government of the Macrocosm or great World, we would certainly work in vain, and would never have to hope for any happy success: but in case we let our Air light up very gently from our Sun, according to the Wise Mother Nature; that we make penetrate our Air thus impregnated inside our Water, and that we let soak our Earth of these said Elements impregnated in this way; that we make it very gently sweat, by means of the natural commotion of our Sun and our central fire, so much that it is watered by night with dew, and then being dried by day that it becomes dry so much that it begins to split as a rich and fertile earth bursts and splits by the heat of the Sun: that then afterward it be watered with fertile rain, dried up again, and so continued by watering it and drying it; thus our vegetable will grow and rise from our Earth, as it does with a common vegetable according to the course of Nature. and let it be so continued by watering and drying it; thus our vegetable will grow and rise from our Earth, as it does with a common vegetable according to the course of Nature. and let it be so continued by watering and drying it; thus our vegetable will grow and rise from our Earth, as it does with a common vegetable according to the course of Nature.
See, my very dear, how closely our work corresponds to the works of Nature in the Vegetable, Animal and Mineral Kingdom.
This being said enough of the Elements in general, let us pass at this time to the particular Elements and advancing with our foot on the fourth Step we will begin again our discourse of the highest Element, namely Fire, which will not come badly here afterwards, seeing that we have already dealt somewhat with Generation, and that this Element will represent, after God and after his vicar, the Sun, the principal person in our History of Nature.
Your intention is good: I am very happy with it; you will rest a little, if you please, while waiting for me to make the beginning of this discourse, and to begin this active matter.
I will obey you.
Author Mundi Omnipotens Rex
Author of the Almighty King of the World
the staircase of the wise.
THE fourth degree.
of the element of fire.
and the fire of the philosophers.
chapter I.
That the Prophets and Philosophers have often compared God to a Fire, and that they even said to be a Fire. That there is no other Element of Fire than that of the Sun. That all the principles of generation come from the Sun. The sun is the first operator in the World. The generations are of different qualities in proportion as the Sun is near or far. Examples of this at Vegetable Kingdom. In the Animal Kingdom. And in the Mineral Kingdom. When man receives the reasonable soul. Why God Ordained His Dwelling Place Mainly in Fire.
Fire is the highest, the most excellent and the most worthy of the Four Elements, and for this reason Moses the Prophet, Trimegist, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists, and an infinity of Wise men did not only compare God even to a fire, but they also said he was a fire, since this great almighty God often manifested himself in the form of fire, as we began to say above, and as we will try to verify again more here by passages of Holy Scripture.
For in the 16th Chapter, 15th verse of the 4th Book of Moses, called Numbers, is written.
The fire coming out of the Lord consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered the infusion.
At IL of Chronicles C. 21.v.16. The Lord answered David with fire from Heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
Psalm 18.v.9. Smoke rose from his nostrils and fire from his consuming mouth, and coal blazed from him.
And in v.13. From the light that was in front of him these great clouds left, and coal of fire.
Ps.80.v.2. O Shepherd of Israel, you who sit between the Cherubim show your splendor.
v.4. O Lord bring us back and make your face shine and we will be delivered.
v.5. O Lord God of hosts how long will you smoke against the prayer of your people?
Ps.84.v.12. The Lord God is Sun and Shield to us.
Ps.97.v.2. Cloud and darkness are around him; justice and judgment are the basis of his seat. The fire travels in front of him and ignites all around his adversaries.
v.5. The mountains as wax by the presence of the Eternal.
Ps.104.v.2. He wears light like a garment, and spreads the heavens like a curtain.
Jesaiah c.33.v.14. Which of us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Ch.60.v. You will no longer have the sun for your light of day, but the Lord will be for you for eternal light, and your God for your magnificence.
Ezekiel Ch.34.v.2 The Earth shone with its glory.
Ezra L.4Ch.2v.35. Be prepared for the wages of the kingdom: for everlasting light will shine upon you.
Ch.8.v.23. Whose gaze dries the abysses, and indignation makes the mountains lower.
J.Syrach. Ch.23.v.25. He does not know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun.
Saint John Ch.Iv4. In the word was life, and the life was the light of men.
Ch.12.v.46. I am the light who came into the world so that whoever believes in me does not remain in darkness.
Acts of the Apostles. Ch.2.v.3. And appeared to them split tongues as of fire, and rested on each one of them.
Ch.26.v.13. I saw, O Roy, on the way at noon a light from Heaven greater than the splendor of the sun shining around me, etc.
Saint Paul to Timothy Ep.Ic6.v.16. The Lord of Lords who alone has immortality and dwells in inaccessible light, whom none of men has seen, and cannot see.
To the Hebrews. Ch.12.v.29. Also our God is a consuming Fire.
The Spirit of St John Ch.Iv5. We announce to you that God is light and there is no darkness in him.
A very large number of scholars believed that the Element Fire had its own sphere around and above the Air, and this opinion is still accepted by most of the Philosophers of those times: but those who hear to the true Philosophy of Moses, and of Hermes Trimegiste, They know no other fire of Nature than the light of the sun: and it is doubtless for this reason that Moses made no mention in his Genesis of the Element Fire as he did Earth, Water and Sky, because he said that Light (which was the true fire of nature) was created on the first day.
When the great God had separated the Light from the Darkness at the beginning of the Creation of the World, and from the Light he had formed the sun, he then gave it also life-giving heat, that he might communicate and make all others bodies of the universe partakers of the igneous spirit of the benevolence of its heat, for it is from the heat of the sun that all the Principles of life and generation generally flow. Monsieur d'Espagnet speaks very ingeniously of the sun, in sua Physica restitua, when he says:
Sol creatoris universi est oculus, quo sensibiles suas creatura sensibiliter intuetur, quo blandientes amoris sui radios in eas essundit quo se conspicuum illis exhibet, vix enim insensibilem autorem natura sensibilis agnovisset: propterea corpus tam nobile gloria sua indutum sibi nobisque singere vouit, cujus radii Divinity nearby sunt spiritus and vita. Ab illo universali Naturae principio calor omnis insitus tam in Elementa quam mixta destuit, qui ignis nomem meruit; ubicunque enim calor spontaneus, motus naturalis, aut vit hospitatur, ibi suum ignem, tanquam eorum principium, et primium Elementorum motorem Natura occultavit, a quo Elementa etiam sensibilia, feu Mundi nostri Pronvinciae Elementantur, et velut animantur; arctius tamen terrae utero constrictus, propter ejus densitatem et frigiditatem, in haeret.
That's to say :
The sun is the eye of the Creator of the universe, by which he perceptibly looks at his sentient creatures, by which he pours the flattering rays of his love upon them: by which he makes himself manifest to them; for sensitive Nature would hardly have recognized an insensitive author; this is why he wanted to make a body so noble and clothed in his glory for him and for us, whose rays, being very close to the Divinity, are spirit and life. All heat which is everywhere descends from this universal Principle of Nature, as well within the Elements as within the mixtures, which has deserved the name of fire; for where it lodges a voluntary heat, a natural movement or life, it is there where Nature has occulted its fire, as their Principles, and as the first mover of the Elements, from which, even the sensible Elements, where the Provinces of our world receive their Elements and become animated beings; this fire, however, stands more closely at the center or womb of the Earth because of its coldness and solidity.
The sun fills with its spirit and its vivifying virtue all the other Elements, Principles and compounds. He assembles the Elements at the work of generation, he unites them and vivifies them, because the fire of Nature is the first operator in the world, he has his residence in the sun and pours his virtues by his rays, by and with the Air in the Water, and by means of those there in the Earth, and by all those here within the seeds of the plants of the Animals and the Minerals, so that they may infinitely grow and multiply, so that I say, that the sun, being the prime mover and operator of Nature, comes to do all its operations by its heat in proportion as it is near or far from the Earth, for so nearer as its light extends its heat toward the earth, so much the faster,
You will be able to take very apparent examples of what I have just said in all the Three Kingdoms of the Earth.
And Considering first the Vegetable Kingdom; it will be found that the vegetables which grow in India and other places where the sun causes great heat, are much greater in body and in virtue than those which grow here in the Netherlands. That hemlock and other poisonous herbs not only kill those who eat them in those countries, but even kill by smell, from which animals eat here without receiving any harm. Let the trees come into this country several armfuls thick, which being dug here to their greatest perfection are hardly thicker than an armful.
Touching the Animal Kingdom: looking at men as well as all kinds of other animals, they will be seen to be much more robust and endowed with much more spirit than are those of these Lands here. Would we really find men here who could take each other with one hand by an arm or by a leg to wrap him around his head or throw him against a tree or against a wall as there are a in the countries of Brasil to whom it is easy to do? Aren't there serpents so awful in size that they can devour whole men, swine, and deer, of which there are not to be found here that are little more than the thickness of 'an arm. Spiders the size of two fists, who even have the boldness to attack and fight against sea crabs, and who can even overcome them? and what is more, that birds the size of thrushes can be arrested and caught in their nets? as is to be seen in the voyages of the Indies, and as the truth has recently been confirmed to me of a man who had lived seven years in the West Indies; and you know the biggest spiders in these countries here are not the size of a fingertip.
And considering Minerals, Metals and Stones, how precious are gems and how much gold, silver and precious stones are found in warm countries. One must be quite amazed, and remain horrified with astonishment when one reads the books which have written of the great power, the riches and the magnificence of the great Turk, the Emperor of China, Japan and the great Mogul, of the King of Persia and of several other great Princes of India, of whom I remember, among other things, a story that I read some time ago, of the last King of Peru, who had made, at the time of the birth of his son, a golden chain of such weight that it could not be lifted from two hundred of the strongest of the nation of Peru,
What prodigious amount of gold the Spaniards received when they occupied the Lands of Peru is almost inexpressible, and cannot be said in few words, but we will spare such and other rare stories of the same caliber for another time, when we speak of the three Kingdoms in particular: I beg you, my dearest, to consider against what I have just said how little gold, and other metals, silver , and gems that the heat of the sun comes to operate and produce in the soil of the Netherlands, and if it is well worth remembering.
You can see in all that we have reported here how and how unevenly this powerful ruler and rector of the World, the Sun, comes to shed its virtues and its gifts in proportion to its presence or its absence, and this according to the ordinances he receives from his creator.
It seems that Virgil was also of our opinion, when he said:
India hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum,
Et quae marmoreosert monstra sub aquore Pontus,
Igneus est illis vigor et coelestis origo
Seminibus.
That is to say: Hence is the kingdom of men and brutes, and the lives of birds: In the monsters of the sea have igneous or fiery vigor. And the seeds have a heavenly origin.
Sendivogius speaking of the Element of Fire:
Ignis, inquit, est Elementum purissimum, et omnium dignissimum, plenum adhaerentis unctuosae corrosivitatis, penetrans, digerens, corrodens, maxim adhaerns, extra visible, intus vero invisible, fixissimum: Est clidum et siccum et temperatur Earth. Ejus omnium purissima substancia et essentia cum Throno Divinae Majestatis in creatione primum elevata est: ex minus purissima ejus substantia Angeli creati sunt. Impura et unctuosa in centro Terrae ad continuandum motus operationem, a summo creatore sapientissimo relicta et inclusa est, quam nos gehennam vocamus.
That is to say: Fire is the purest and most worthy Element of all, it is full of a greasy corrosive, it is penetrating, externally visible, but internally invisible, very fixed; it is hot and dry, and allows itself to be tempered by the Earth. All of its purest substance and essence rose in creation with the Throne of Divine Majesty. Angels are created from his less pure substance. The impure and unctuous or greasy is left and locked up from the most high and most wise creator within the center of the Earth, to continue the operation of the motion, which we call Gehenna or Hell.
It is in the Fire that the vital reasons, and the intellect are understood, which man receives from his creator with the first infusion of life being in the vegetative state, and it is then that man is endowed by God with a reasonable soul, and it is for him that he is called the image of God.
It is also not without great reasons that our Almighty God placed the seat of His Divine Majesty in the Fire; for that is why he cannot suffer anything impure, compound, or stained; No man can even look at or approach this great God since the very subtle and very pure fire, which surrounds his most Holy Divine Majesty, must be presumed and believed to be so concentrated, that it is impossible and quite contrary to his nature to suffer anything compounded near him, without resolving him in a moment to his principles.
chapter II.
That the Fires below have their origin from the Fires above. What is fire and how fire comes manifest. The kinds of fires which are found within Animals, within Vegetables, and within Minerals.
You have, it seems to me, fairly solidly and fairly well discussed the Element of Fire, and particularly its origin; Light ; Of the Sun, and of its influences within compounds, and of its operations in ices: you had even ascended with your spirit to the glorious fire which surrounds the Throne of the Creator; but you spoke very little of the material, terrestrial, central, sulphurous, mineral and mercurial fires.
It is true, but I have reserved them for you, so that you may solve them with the key of your experiences.
Very well: I will therefore undertake it according to the small capacity of my mind, and will try to make it my beginning from the circumference of the Earth, to finish it in the center of it, since our work of the Philosophers must be principally produced in perfection by the central Fire of the Earth, notwithstanding that all kinds of Fires, both those above and those below have great sympathy together, and that the fires below have their origin of those above.
You have indeed touched something of the Fire which is hidden within the Animals insofar as it descended from the Fire or from the Light of the Sun; that he makes them partakers of the Light and of the life, and even in such a way that they have in their power to multiply him infinitely by means of transplantation and generation. But what kind of fires there are still in the Animals besides this, you have not yet mentioned; and since there are more than one kind, by way of our Chemical Anatomy, which are useful and necessary to know to amateurs of natural science, it will not be inappropriate to communicate them to you here by my experiences.
You must know: First, that all kinds of burning matter are called Fire, when they are lit by any burning fire, such as common fire which is used for cooking meats, or a fire caused by a sudden emotion, or by a contrition of hardwoods, or by the conjunction of two contrary materials and concentrated in virtue. For the superfluities of Nature which are found in men and other animals, as are the hair, the nails, the callous skin, and (without loss of respect to you) the excrement being dried, as well as the seven capital parts of them, as are the Heart, the Brain, the Liver, the Lungs, the Nerves and the Veins, the hard and soft bones, the muscles and the ligaments, with all the matters that the bodies of animals can yield more, being (I say ) well dried, change into fire and ashes just as well as dry wood or other burning materials: And the reasons why this is done are none other; if not, that we can draw, by our chemical art, from all kinds of animal bodies, a very perfect sulfur, and which is quite equal to that which is used to make matches, as I will show you by my experiences here next.
Second: There is a Kind of Moist Fire within the animals, which is fermenting, digesting and separating the meats and nutrients into pure and impure matter, perfecting the pure into chyle, the chyle into blood, and the blood into food. and a general upkeep of the aforesaid seven capital parts of the Animals, and up to the production not only of the sperm, but also even up to a support and reconciliation of the vital spirits, and separating the impure ones by emunctories and particularly by sweat, through urine and stool.
Tiercement: A fire is drawn from the bodies of Animals which is very similar to that of the spirit of wine which is prepared in the following way.
Take the bodies of some animals, separate them into the superfluities of nature and the excrements, chop them finely, cook them so long with common water that your matter has become tasteless, and the water has drawn out all the substance. ; cool this liquor until it is clean to ferment it according to the art, let it work well, and then draw the spirit from it through the still, and you will receive from it a spirit which will not only be drinkable, but which can also be ignited in the same way as the spirit of wine.
In the fourth place: One can draw a moist Fire from the bodies of Animals, and particularly, from their hair, nails, horns, and from their urine, which is capable of producing beautiful effects in medicine by virtue of its great spirituality, and more particularly still, when it has been put to ferment according to the art, when it makes for itself such a subtle spirit, that it not only penetrates the whole body internally like a flash, but is also capable of bringing with it and of driving the sulfurs of vegetables into the bodies of animals, and of curing them of their ills almost in a moment of time, of which we shall discuss more fully.
In fifth place. There is a fire within the animals, which we can truly call the true receptacle of the radical humidity, since it is that which arrests and binds the radical humidity within itself, and it is that which is the main bond of the whole composite body which binds the Elements together, and yet the Elements come to be separated, and they are already separated, this fire remains eternally persistent, and resists even so vigorously against the all-devouring and all-destroying material fire , that he cannot only dissolve the ashes of the bodies of burnt animals, and perfect them into a diaphanous body like that of glass or a Crystal, but which is even capable of arresting their volatile sulphur, and of fixing and elevate it to a white, clear, transparent, fire-resistant matter like a Crystal.
You speak of things almost so rare and so admirable as one recites Fish Echiné or Remora, which, it is said, can stop a ship in full sail in an instant, and render it motionless almost at the same instant.
It is hardly necessary; and when I tell you, that one can render the burning spirit, which is drawn from the juice of the bodies of animals, (as we have just said) not only corporeal but also resistant to fire, and this by means of a fire which is in the same bodies of the animals, you will sharpen the ears well still in another way, and will perhaps not believe any more of it but of the aforesaid Remora fish, notwithstanding that it is feasible and quite often passed by our hands, as we will say elsewhere later when we begin our discourse on salts.
In Sixth place: I have found another kind of Fire in the bodies of animals, which attacks and dissolves for the most part the bodies of plants, Animals and Minerals in wet way as well as in dry way, since this fire is of the nature of saltpeter and that it can perform all the operations attributed to saltpeter.
In the Seventh place: I can say that the bodies of Animals are endowed with yet another fire, which is of the nature of the salt of the sea
. actually be drawn.
Let us see a little at this time of what kinds of Fires that the Plants are impregnated.
Plants are endowed with two different kinds of Fires, in addition to this spark of their virtues and their qualities which they have received by the first infusion of the sun or light. One being volatile and the other fixed. The volatile is of three kinds, namely; a fiery spirit, an oil, and a volatile spirit or salt. Fixed fire is of two kinds: an Acid and an Alkali.
We find that the spiritual Fire is discovered when the vegetables are chopped, fermented and distilled, because it is then that the spirit passes very willingly through the still, as if it were a spirit of wine, and leaves itself in the same way. ignite by the vapors of sulphur, as we have said above of the moist animal fire.
The second Fire which is found in vegetables is their oil, which can also be ignited, although it can likewise be reduced by art to a material resistant to fire, as we said when we spoke of fire. animal.
The Third Fire which the vegetables contain is their spirit and their volatile salt which operate in the same way as the spirit of urine, but it is to be observed that some vegetables give more, others less volatile salt. , in proportion to their quality which they received in the beginning.
The Fourth Fire is discovered in acidic salt, from which the artist knows how to draw a spirit of salt or Our to use it for Mercurial or sulphurous objects as he sees fit.
The Fifth Fire which is in vegetables, is the fixed salt which remains in the ashes of burnt vegetables, which comes out of them by means of common water. This salt is called, with good reason, fixed salt, because it is able to dissolve even the fixed Earth and to help it to arrive at a fixed and fire-resistant matter like glass.
We still have the Mineral Fire which is found by our anatomy within the minerals and within the metals and which is truly a sour or corrosive humidity, since all the metals and minerals allow themselves to be dissolved by such a humid and vaporous fire, which could not be done, if there were not such a fire hidden within the fixed and volatile salts of metals and minerals, for each thing loves its like, and delights in the particles of these false humid or saline spirits know so well how to penetrate and enter into the pores of metals and minerals, that they come immediately to attack the salts, which are joined and united with their Sulfur and their Mercury per minima, and that he melts them very willingly with them, and in their own nature,because the greater part of the bodies of metals is a coagulated fixed salt, and because they also possess very differently a little or a lot of fixed or volatile salt, in proportion to their different qualities.
It is to be noticed here, that this moist fire which is found in the Mineral Kingdom, is of two kinds. One kind being of the nature of Sulphur, the other of that of Mercury.
The metals which we judge to be more of the Nature of Mercury than Sulfur are: Lead, Tin, Iron, Copper, Silver, and quicksilver, as it seems to me to appear by that. , that the said metals allow themselves to be very easily attacked, melted and dissolved by the sulphurous damp fires, because the sulphur, like the male, acts very willingly in the female, which is the Mercury, since it embraces her and accept with great love.
And that gold contains more sulfur than mercury, this is evident from this, that it in no way allows itself to be united by sulfurous solvents, but that on the contrary it very willingly allows itself to be absorbed, melted and dissolved by moist mercurial fires; for you will cook gold for a long time with a spirit of saltpeter, with a spirit of vinegar, or of vitriol: or you will roast it an infinity of time with saltpeter or with corporeal vitriol before the gold is diminished by ice of the gravity of a single grain, or that on the contrary these spirits attack and dissolve most of them very willingly, the aforementioned Lead, Tin, Iron, Copper, Silver and Quicksilver.
You shall boil the above metals, and especially Saturn, Mercury, and the Moon, as long with royal water, or with some other moist fire, where there is sea salt added, without it coming out. lets dissolve very little, whereas the Gold joins very willingly with them.
What is said here of metals and their solvents can also be understood of minerals; since minerals are nothing but imperfect metals as imperfect metals are also on the way to achieving the perfection of Gold.
I do not find it appropriate to talk more about this matter here, nor to touch all the minerals in particular in this place, the matter being too ample for the interview that we have started on the Element of Fire: we are left only to mention a little more a kind of Fire, which is the Central Fire, which we use in our work of the Philosophers, and then we will try to finish our discourse with this Element.
chapter III.
What is the Central fire of the Earth. That the fire of the Philosophers is similar to the central fire. Difference between the common fire and the fire of the Philosophers. Confirmation of the Wet Fire Philosophers. That the aspect of the three capital colors must suffice for the confirmation of the truth of the Stone of the Philosophers.
The Central Fire of the Earth is nothing other than a moist fire of the nature of both Sulfur and Mercury, and therefore loving both sulfurous mixtures and Mercurials in the Vegetable, Animal and Mineral Kingdoms; and we can say, that our moist fire, which we use in our work of the Philosophers, is a fire of the same nature, for as the Central fire of the Earth comes to share and to give indifferently by the aid of the sun, to all sulfurous and Mercurial vegetables, and likewise to all Animals and Minerals, their beginning, their growth, their perfection, their declination, their change and their separation into their Principles; so does our fire of the Philosophers all in the same way, since it operates indifferently in the Metallic Kingdom, dissolving, coagulating,
Our fire is not of the Nature of common Fire, which is contrary to all kind of generation, for it destroys and annihilates all kinds of combustible sulfurs which are in vegetables, in Animals, and in Minerals, and even lives of them, and may justly be called a hereditary enemy of the whole nature of the Mixed, for it has not a body of its own, but only possesses a foreign body, to which the kindled flame and the fatty sulfur coming to fail, it is extinguished and vanishes. Our fire, I say, which we use for the work of the Philosophers, is not such a fire, because it must always improve our matter, and exalt it in quality; what the true Philosophers unanimously confirm to us; let us see what the Father of the Philosophers says about it.
Hermes Trimegiste, in Libro de Compositione.
From cavernis, inquit, metallorum which is Lapis venerabilis, calore splendidus, mens sublimis et mare patens, ponite eum in igne humido, et coquere facite qui calorem humoris augmentat, et incombustionis siccitatem necat, so appareat radix, deinde rubedinem et partem levem ab eo extracted. etc.
That is to say: The venerable Stone which is taken from the Caverns of metals, which is splendid in heat, which has a sublime soul and which is an open sea, put it in the moist fire, and cook it , let the heat of its temper increase, and the dryness of incombustibility die, until the root appears, then afterwards draw out the Redness and the light part, etc.
Anonymus, De Massa Solis and Lunae.
Tota hujus artis efficacia consistit in igne suo, which is humidus.
That is to say: All the efficacy of this art consists in its fire, which is moist.
Anonymus, De Principiis Naturae et artis Chymicae.
Radix auri aliud non est quam humorosa et inguis vaporeitas collecta ex duabus naturis, Argento vivo et Sulphure.
That is to say: The root of Gold is nothing but a moist and greasy vapour, assembled from the two natures, Quicksilver and Sulphur.
Sendivogius in Tractatu de Sulphure.
Sulfur et Mercurius sunt minera Argenti vivi (conjuncta tamen) quod Argentum vivum habet posse metalla solvere, occidere et vivificare, quam potestatem accepit a sulphure acetoso suae propiae naturae.
That is to say: Sulfur and quicksilver are the mine of quicksilver (yet joined together) which quicksilver has the power to dissolve, kill and revive metals, which power it has received from sulfur of its own nature.
Senior Zadith.
Aqua Philosophorum est caput operis eorum, et clavis, et vita corporis defuncti eorum, quae est terra eorum benedicta sitiens. And sicut Aer is calidus et humidus, similater Aqua eorum is calida et humida, and is ignis Lapidis, and is ignis circumdans, and humiditas Aquae eorum is Aqua.
That is to say: The water of the Philosophers is the chief of their work, and the key, and the life of their deceased body, which is their holy land, which is thirsty. And as the Air is hot and moist, so also is their hot and moist Water, and is the fire of the Stone, and is the surrounding fire, and the moisture of their Water is Water.
Hermes.
Ignis quem tibi monstravimus is Aqua.
That is to say: The Fire that we have shown you is Water.
Senior Zadith.
Arvenit in hanc aquam praeparatione prima virtus superior et inferior.
That is to say: The superior and inferior virtue arrived in this Water by the first preparation.
The same: Nominavit Hermes Aquam Philosophorum Albam Aurum, ideo quod anima tingens latet in Aqua illorum Alba, cum dominator ei spiritus calore suo et albedine.
That is to say: Hermès called this Eau Blanche des Philosophes de l'Or; because the soul that dyes is hidden within their white Water, when the spirit dominates over it by its warmth and by its whiteness.
The same: Tinctura est tota Aqua tingens.
All the dye is Tincture Water.
Bernardus.
Scias quod Aqua nostra Mercuralis sit via, et ignis adurens, mortificans et restringens aurum plus quam ignis communis: Et proptera, quanto melius cum eo miscetur, fricatur et teritur, tanto plus ipsum destruit, et aqua viva ignea plus attenuatur.
That is to say: Know that our Mercurial Water is living, and burning fire, mortifying and restring gold more than common fire; And for this reason, so much the better it is mixed, rubbed and crushed with it, so much the more it destroys it, and when more it is made small by this igneous Living Water.
Rosine.
Cerum habeas, quod nulla tinctura sit unquam, nisi per Aquam sulphuris mundam.
That is to say: You may be assured that no tincture is ever made except by pure water of sulphur.
Petrus Bonus.
Aqua Sulphuris is Argentum vivum de sulphure composito extractum, est Aqua viva, et hoc est quod proprie dicitur, Lac Virginis, Aqua sincea, coelestis and gloriosa.
Sulfur Water is quicksilver extracted from compound sulphur, and is living Water, and this is what is properly speaking the virginal milk, the sincere, celestial and glorious Water.
My beloved ! I know very well that Fire is an Element which must be considered in the work of the Philosophers of all true Philosophers for a moist fire partaking of the nature of Sulfur and Mercury. This is why it seems to me, (under your best opinion) that it is not necessary for you to take the trouble to cite a greater number of authors to verify and thereby further establish your feeling, but according to my judgment, that what you have just demonstrated by your experiments must suffice: namely, that the three capital colors come in order by means of our moist fire which is our matter, and that the metals can be conducted by it into such a state that they can no longer be reduced to metals.
You also know what Sendivogius assures of the destruction of metals when he speaks of it in these terms:
Qui ita metalla scit destruere ut per amplius non sint metalla, est ad maximum pervenit arcanum.
That is to say: He who knows how to destroy metals so much that they are no longer metals, he has reached the greatest mystery.
And Paracelsus: Facilius est metalla construere quam destruere.
That is to say: It is easier to build metals than to destroy them.
It is true, you have seen all these authors and many others with you: let us therefore break this point and move on to the Element of Air, or do you think that we will extend our discourse a little further on this matter?
chapter IV.
Underground fires and mountains ablaze all over the earth. In Asia. In Africa and America. That the central fire is quite different from that of the burning mountains.
As you will please: it is very true that our intention is to be short and simple in our discourse, and we both also know very well that there is no need to use many circumstances for those who have the knowledge of the art, since they hoist them, and flee them; it seems to me, however, that it would not be disagreeable to the curious reader, if we extended our discussion a little further to the subterranean fire, and to other places and mountains which shed fire.
You touch this subject well, and I also don't find it inappropriate for us to express our feelings a little in what way the underground fires like that of Mount Etna, Vesuvius, Mount Hecla and other mountains can burn so long and so continuously: where does such a conflagration come from: how does it extinguish and rekindle; as also how it can happen that such great accidents, alterations and diseases occur to the Earth and to Plants, Animals and Minerals: And other all that, to deepen if those are well founded who maintain that the subterranean Fire, and that which kindles within the mountains and within the conduits of the Earth, to know whether it is also of a corrupting and consuming property like that of the flame.
We agree, and you are right to speak in this way, for it seems to me as well as you that we would pass and end our discourse on the Element of Fire too soon, if we did not marvel as well as so many others, of the prodigious and terrible effects which our great God makes appear and produce by means of the underground fire, for the hair stands on end when one hears those who have seen and visited the burning mountains speak: or else when we come to read the books of those who wrote the stories.
What marvels do we not tell of the mountain of Etna in Sicily, always burning? who is not terrified of its admirable and its horrible effects?
The perpendicular height of icelle is, according to the measurement of Macrobius and Clavius, thirty thousand paces: one sees on the tip of icelle only ashes and pumice stones, but looking towards the foot of this mountain they seem beautiful meadows, vineyards and pine forests.
The largest opening is judged to comprise a circumference of twelve leagues, and it seems that its hollow descends to the underworld.
This hole seems to be a horrible abyss, and the mountain gives out not only there, but also from all sides, a smoke and a flame with such a terrible roar as if from it came lightning and thunder. , of such fury, that this furious noise and glare is capable of making the boldest of aeration and terror prostrate to the ground, and make them make prayers to God, may it please the Divine Majesty that they may return safe and sound as from an abyss of Hell.
There are seen rocks burned like spongy pumice: Concavities which are capable of containing a number of more than thirty thousand men: A great quantity of very large red pumice stones and other matters such as are those which separate from iron and from other metals to forging.
There you see passages and paths through which molten metals are poured, which are burned like cloudy glass, and which are not transparent: And, what is worthy of admiration, is that the snow always remains. on the top of it without blending.
We can let those who have seen it and who have climbed it judge how dangerous it is to climb such a mountain, since they tell of it, not without great fright of those who hear it, that many people, both spiritual and temporal, who believe they ascend it out of curiosity to see it, have fallen into hollows and caverns which were lightly covered with ashes and are swallowed up there and perish miserably.
Nor is it a little dangerous to be found on this mountain or near it when the air is rough or the wind is high, because there is then such a movement in the snow. and to the ashes, that all who are about may be assured that they will be covered and suffocated.
The Histories mention that there are cavities and holes in Mount Etna, through which the minerals and molten metals flow, which are sometimes the width of a thousand paces, sometimes two thousand, and sometimes three and a half miles. four thousand paces, and that sometimes the length of eighteen thousand paces, so that one cannot be sufficiently astonished whence such a prodigious quantity of molten matter can have come.
It is no less worthy of admiration than stones the size of an entire house, and red as coals are sometimes thrown from the depths of the mountain for the extent of many leagues.
As also: that the sea is in places boiling by the movement of the subterranean fire like a pot or like a cauldron which is on the fire and this of the extent sometimes of several leagues, and that it is also in places elevated by the height of a few spikes.
These admirable movements are not only proper and common to Mount Etna, but the Mounts Vesuvius and Stongilus in Sicily are of the same nature, which are judged by several, that notwithstanding that they are far apart from each other, that they yet communicate the burning matter together through subterranean conduits, as much of Italy is but a combination of sulfur and salt.
I do not doubt that all the other burning mountains in Europe, in Asia, in Africa and in America are composed by Nature of the same matter, because they throw fire and make the same effects as this.
I will show you the greater part of all the Earth, and continuing those of Europe, I will tell you: that there is one in Germany in the country of Meissen which is a mountain of coal which sometimes throws smoke and fire.
In Laplande there are also high mountains that throw and vomit flame like Mount Etna.
In Iceland there is the Mountain of Hecla, which is known to almost everyone, its summit being always covered with snow, and its foot so hot, that no one dares to approach the distance of several miles without danger. It throws a quantity of stones and ashes so great, that all the soil which is around is rendered sterile, since it is covered with them: When the inhabitants around hear the terrible howls and imagine that the souls of the damned suffer torments there, and that is why they make such lamentable cries.
In Greenland, near the Arctic Pole, there is a Burning Mountain, which gives from its foot a fountain so hot that those of the monks of a cloister, which is not far from the mountain, are not. not only heated, as by ovens, but also that meats and bread are cooked by its heat. There are gardens there which produce (because of this heat) all kinds of flowers and fruits. This water flows through these gardens into a haven not far from there, which never freezes because of its heat; which is why it happens that there are so many birds and fish there that the inhabitants can easily feed themselves.
There are places in the Islands of Finland, Norway, Laplande and other quarters, of the Sea as well as of the Earth, places where the Earth produces grass, flowers and fruits which are clean and good. to feed men and animals, and that in other places, which are not far from there, one finds only snow and ice; and that the sea is in places always open, without being frozen, or that it is at the same time, little space of these places, always frozen, and the ice thick sometimes up to seventy or eighty fathoms.
In Asia.
There is an island in Persia, called Oemusium, the whole earth of which is almost filled with subterranean Fire: travel at night.
In Meda, near the capital city Sufa, fire comes out of the ground with such fury with such a horrible noise as if it came out through fifteen chimneys.
And in Tartary, on the side of Muscovy, are very common burning openings.
In the Kingdoms of Hindustan, Mogor, Tibet and in the great Kingdom of China, underground fires and burning mountains are very common: There are even in the country of China whole countrysides from which fire comes from a natural way, that the inhabitants of these countries put their pots on these small pits or cavities of fire to cook their meats thereon.
In Japan there is a mountain which vomits day and night such smoke and such great fire, that it cannot be seen only by those of the famous city of Firando, which is the distance of sixty-and-a-half miles from it. ten miles, but let it give light and light up the whole island like a torch.
The islands of the Philippines and the whole Archipelago of St. Lazarus are so full of subterranean fire that it is discovered in quantity in the cavities and depths of the flat countryside.
In the Island of Java there is a mountain, the conflagration of which was long quiet years, but awoke in the year 1586, by a discharge of burning sulfur so violent that there were ten thousand men around neighbors who were killed.
On the Island of Timor there was a mountain, called Picus, of such height that one could see the flame on the sea more than three hundred leagues away. This mountain was attacked in the year 1636 by an earthquake so severe that it was sunk together with the island into the sea, as if the sea had swallowed it up. Gonnapi Mountain on one of the Bandana Islands reignited with such fury, after burning seventeen years long, that it threw up such a prodigious quantity of large stones, ashes, pumice stones and sulphurous stones, that it seemed that the whole sea was covered with them, and that it burned with them, and that all the fish and other animals that were in the vicinity perished.
On the island of Ternate, which is one of the islands of the Moluccas, there is a mountain that pierces the clouds, the upper part of which is still burning.
In the islands of Mauritius, and particularly from the spelunks of the Thola Mountain, so much ash and such large stones are thrown down that they do not yield to the tallest trees, and the opening appears like the mouth of Hell.
In Africa.
Eight principal burning mountains have been discovered in Africa, besides a number of spelunks and sulphurous cavities. There are some in Abassia: one in Libya: two in Monopata: and four in the countries of Angola, Congo and Guinea.
The Atlantic sea has under it so great a quantity of subterranean fire that fires still issue from it today, and great flames out of the water, of which Columbus and Vesputius experienced the cruelties.
The Iles Terzère are almost uninhabitable due to the vehemence of the large amount of underground fire.
On the Canary Islands there is the famous mountain of Picus, which is of a surprising height and always throws a terrible fire.
There are fifteen burning mountains in the Kingdom of Chile, of which there are some which caused this Kingdom so much misfortune in the year 1645, that there were so many cities upset and swallowed up, that time does not does not allow us to recount this story here.
There are in the Kingdom of Peru Six flaming mountains besides a quantity of burning spelunks, and these mountains are of an excessive height.
America.
Five burning mountains have been sighted in North America, which are partly in New Spain, and partly in California and other places.
There is no need for you to take the trouble to give a great account here of a number of burning mountains, seeing that I have read as well as you, what Franciscus Ricardi wrote about it: Andreas Perez: Alphonsus d'Ovale: P. Tursselinus: Massejus: Martinus Martinius: N. Zerretus: Olaus: Kircherus: Nieuhof: Montanus: Blaeu: Dapper: Baldcus: Zeilerus, and many others; what they wrote, I say, of the sulphurous subterranean fires and the burning mountains; you also know well that there is enough burning matter everywhere, such as wood, peat and coal: but that these fires would be of the nature and of the same property of the Central fire of the Earth, and that the aforesaid fires would be lit on all sides only from the Central fire, as many modern philosophers or naturalists (or who want to pass as such) would argue, this is not consistent with the fire operations of the philosophers, nor would copper serpents with stills on them be required to prevent the 'Sea water to rise with its salt, when one wants to sweeten it by distillation, like a certain modern author who has written a number of beautiful volumes takes the assurance of teaching.
No, my beloved, all these kinds of fires have nothing in common with the Central fire of the Earth, nor with that of the Philosophers, which (as we have already said) are moist fires and which make the metals amend. and minerals, whereas the aforesaid only destroy and corrupt everything.
this is not consistent with the operations of the fire of the Philosophers, any more than it would be required copper serpents with stills on them to prevent the Sea water from rising with its salt, when one wants to sweeten it by distillation , like a certain modern author who has written a number of beautiful volumes takes the assurance of teaching.
No, my beloved, all these kinds of fires have nothing in common with the Central fire of the Earth, nor with that of the Philosophers, which (as we have already said) are moist fires and which make the metals amend. and minerals, whereas the aforesaid only destroy and corrupt everything. this is not consistent with the operations of the fire of the Philosophers, any more than it would be required copper serpents with stills on them to prevent the Sea water from rising with its salt, when one wants to sweeten it by distillation , like a certain modern author who has written a number of beautiful volumes takes the assurance of teaching.
No, my beloved, all these kinds of fires have nothing in common with the Central fire of the Earth, nor with that of the Philosophers, which (as we have already said) are moist fires and which make the metals amend. and minerals, whereas the aforesaid only destroy and corrupt everything. like a certain modern author who has written many fine volumes takes the assurance of teaching.
No, my beloved, all these kinds of fires have nothing in common with the Central fire of the Earth, nor with that of the Philosophers, which (as we have already said) are moist fires and which make the metals amend. and minerals, whereas the aforesaid only destroy and corrupt everything. like a certain modern author who has written many fine volumes takes the assurance of teaching.
No, my beloved, all these kinds of fires have nothing in common with the Central fire of the Earth, nor with that of the Philosophers, which (as we have already said) are moist fires and which make the metals amend. and minerals, whereas the aforesaid only destroy and corrupt everything.
chapter V.
How fire can be kindled in subterranean places. How underground conflagrations can last so long. How earthquakes and other alterations are made.
That the earth's central moist fire can ignite common sulfur and all burnable compounds must be understood and accepted with a grain of salt (as they say) because it can be, that materials, which are easily a be kindled, never accept the central fire; and that it can also happen that the central fire lights them very easily, as we have said quite amply before; but it is time to observe and demonstrate here, how, from where, and in what manner the aforesaid conflagrations take place in the conduits of the mountains and of the Earth, which it seems to me usually happens in this manner. .
Matter within the conduits of the Earth which readily receives fire, such as common sulphur, is very easily ignited by lightning and by the touching of stones which come to fall upon each other and cause flame as it is to be seen in gunflints, and other hard stones when struck together, there being no matter in the world more willingly to embrace flame than common sulphur, as is known to all world ; but how the lightning is formed in the air by the general mover of all things, we have given sufficient elucidation above.
It seems to me that there is no need to philosophize much in this place, how lightning ignites sulfur with great ease, since it is even well enough known to soldiers, who want to be sure of the discharge from their guns, add a little bit of sulfur to the gunpowder.
It also seems (alas) only too much in the world, how much the powder magazines are chased by lightning, and how much damage and misfortunes sulfur comes to cause everywhere because of its great susceptibility to fire, like the annual experiences could tell us a very large number of stories. Pray how wonderful it would be, if in hot countries, as in Italy and innumerable other countries, where sulfur possesses not only mountains, but entire countries, provinces and kingdoms, and where the animals can hardly stand a moment of the day in the sun; let the sulphur, I say, be kindled there by lightning, and let the lightning be in those places the cause of conflagrations and subterranean fires, seeing that in Germany, in England,
I maintain that the fire is ordinarily kindled at the places mentioned in the manner just mentioned, though there are several ways by which the sulfur may be kindled; and what further confirms my support is that the engine is usually very large in these sulphurous countries, and that the sulfur there is very dry and susceptible, since the humidity is not abundant but rare; Water itself will serve as an example to us; for you know that a large expanse of Water, like a sea or the like, very willingly receives moist air to attract it and to conceive its humidity and wateriness; so does the very subtle fire of the sun and of the lightning alike, by extending itself greedily into the oleaginousness of sulphur, which is far removed from their own nature.
I can very well understand how the fire must be conceived from the mountains and the sulphurous underground countries, but I will gladly hear your opinion of the continuation and the long duration of these conflagrations.
Very well: I will make you understand. I am surprised that you are asking me such a simple request, because I want to believe that you have sometimes lit sulphur, pitch, buckwheat, arcanson, wax, oil or other material susceptible to fire; and that you have seen that matter gives off flame only insofar as the air can touch the surface of it, and that this matter is not consumed all at once, as gunpowder does, but thus little little by little, and so long as the vessel provides material: For example:
Take a crucible filled with sulphur: a bowl filled with the spirit of wine or some other matter which easily conceives the flame: light the matter by a match or by some other fire from above, and you will see that your matter will not burn. all of a sudden, but little by little and so long that the matter will last, and only the top of the matter will give off flame until everything is consumed, and there is no nothing remains in the crucible or in the bowl, which must continue to burn and give off a flame in proportion to the quantity of the material that you have provided, until your tool is completely discharged from the food of the flame, which will cease when its maintenance runs out.
It is all the same, concavities of the Earth, which are filled and blocked by common sulfur, and by other bituminous matters, which are sublimated or raw in these conduits or underground hollows: For like a pot or a crucible several inches high, being filled with sulphur, is able to sustain the flame for a few hours; so that any conduit or hollow in the earth filled with sulfur being kindled, may not only continue to burn for a day, a week, a month, a year, but for many years and even for many centuries. .
Did you understand;
I understood it very well. You have spoken well enough and made it clear how burning matter can conceive fire and how long it can continue to burn at mountains and underground places which are filled with sulfur or sulphurous matter, and this on a large scale as well as in small, unless the ashes, stones or some other obstacle come to deprive the fire of the soul of the air, and thus smother it; but since you have heard through the stories that I have given myself the honor of reciting to you above, that terrible alterations occur by subterranean fire, both on the Earth and in the waters, and that even animals , who are there about, sometimes come to be suffocated and perish miserably,
Do these things surprise you? Pray don't they seem strange to you, when you put yourself in thought, what alterations cannot be caused, if it happens that the sulfur is burned and consumed from the subterranean fire, below the surface of the earth, or from some mountain, of the extent of eight or ten leagues or more, and let this earth, as if vaulted, come to be precipitated, with trees, houses, lakes, rivers and animals upon it, within a fire of sulfur of the extent can be of the same of several leagues, and that thus the cold joins so suddenly with the heat and the humidity with the dryness; think, I say, if these so terrible encounters must not cause marvelous effects and terrible alterations? Think a little, I beg you, that it is necessary, necessarily,
Nor should it seem strange to you when you hear that it sometimes happens that subterranean conduits filled with common salt, or saltpetre, or vitriol, or alum, or other salts, come to fall in the burning chasms, and that by the conjunction of them there is astonishment at efforts so strange, as the stories tell of them; for you know that a few pounds of gunpowder can do great damage, because of the conjunction of sulfur and saltpeter, which properly make this powder: how much greater destruction would not be a precipitation of several hundreds of thousands of pounds of sulfur burning in a huge amount of molten saltpeter, or a few million pounds of saltpeter in a spelunk of molten sulfur,
When you see that it happens that the animals of the earth and in the sea come to be smothered, and to perish where these terrible movements are made by that of the underground fire, what wonder is that? seeing that it often happens, that there are minerals of Antimony, Arsenic, Orpiment, Mercury, Cinnabar and others mixed among the materials which come to be immersed in the aforesaid burning sulfurs, and thereby sublimate and extend like spirits through the waters, through the Earth, and into the Air, where they kill all living things they meet.
Spend your thoughts a little further on this matter, if you will, and you will soon cease to admire the prodigious stories which tell of so many miraculous effects which are caused by subterranean fires, for you have handled the coals as well as me, and understanding perfectly well the chemical operations, the marvelous effects of nature in the great world cannot seem strange to you, although you pretend, with the common people, that they are incomprehensible to you.
I want to believe with you that you and I are almost equally learned in the natural sciences, and that our speeches only serve to give instructions to the ignorant: it seems to me, however, that we are still far from We have not treated clearly enough how the central fire does its operations in and on the earth.
It is true: but it seems to me (under your best advice) that it will come better when we deal more particularly with the Three Kingdoms of Nature, and that it is enough in this place, that we have taught, what it is only the Central Fire of the Earth, and this Fire differs greatly from the common fire, and from many of the others above Specified.
So let's finish our discussion of the Element of Fire and make a beginning of the Element of Air.