THE SUM OF PERFECTION BOOK 1

or the abridgement of the perfect magisterium of

GEBER

Arab philosopher


Author: 13th century Latin apocryphal signed GEBER, Arab philosopher.

Translated into French in the 17th century.


There is no indication that this is a transcription

of the work of the Arab philosopher DJÂBER - VIII - IXth C. .



DIVIDED INTO TWO BOOKS.

BOOK ONE

FOREWORD AND CHAPTER I

Of the manner of teaching the Art of Chemistry, and of those who are capable of learning it.

I have briefly reduced to this Sum of Perfection all the Science of Chemistry, or of the Transmutation of Metals. In my other Books, I had made several Collections which I had drawn and abridged from the Writings of the Ancients: but in this one I have completed what I had only sketched in those. I have added to it in a few words what I had omitted in the others; I put there throughout what I had said elsewhere only imperfectly, and I declared there entirely and in the same places what I had concealed in my other Works. And I did it in order to discover to intelligent and wise people the fulfillment and perfection of such an excellent and noble part of Philosophy. So, O my dear Son! I can assure you with truth that in the General Chapters of this Book, I have sufficiently applied the Process of this Art in its entirety and without any diminution. And I protest before God, that whoever will work as this Book teaches to do, will have the satisfaction of having found the true end of this Art, and of arriving at it. But, my Dear, I also warn you that he who ignores the natural Principles of Philosophy, is very far from this Knowledge, because the true foundation, on which he must base his plan, lacks him; as on the contrary is very close to it who already knows the natural Principles of Minerals. It is not that for that he still has the true root, nor the profitable end of this very hidden Art: but having more facility to discover the Principles of it than that which forms some project of our Work without knowing the way nor the manner of it, he is also closer than he is to entering this Science. But he who knows all the Principles of Nature, what are the Causes of Minerals, and in what way Nature forms them, there is very little to say that he does not know the entire Work, although without this little there which he lacks, it is absolutely impossible to do our Magisterium. Because Art cannot imitate Nature in all its Operations, but only imitates her as much as possible. And here is a Secret that I reveal to you, my Son, which is that those who seek this Art, and the Artists themselves, all fail in that they claim to imitate Nature in all the extent and in all the differences and properties of her action. Apply yourself therefore carefully to study our Books, and attach yourself above all to this one. Consider and meditate on my words carefully and very often, that having become familiar to you with our manner of speaking, and hearing our particular idiom or language, you may penetrate into our true intention and discover it. Because you will find in the Books on which to make a Project assured of what you seek; you will learn there to avoid all errors, and by this same means you will know how you can imitate Nature in the artifice of our Work.


CHAPTER II

Division of this book into four parts.

Here is the order that I will keep in this book: First, I will speak succinctly of the obstacles which can prevent the Artist from succeeding and reaching the true end (of the Art). To which I will add the qualities that those who want to apply themselves to it must have. Secondly, I will convince the Ignorant and the Sophists, who, because they cannot understand this Art, and because by all the researches they make of it, they never derive from it the advantage nor the profit which they had proposed, claim to destroy the truth of it, while maintaining that it is nothing at all. For this purpose I shall first set forth all their reasons, which I shall destroy so evidently that there is no one of common sense who sees that whatever they allege against has neither in whole nor in part any semblance of truth. Thirdly, I will treat of the natural Principles, that is to say of the Principles of which Nature serves to make its productions; I will explain the manner in which they mingle together in the Mixtes, according as he knows himself by the Works of Nature; and I will speak of their Effects according to the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers. In the fourth and last place, I will declare what are the Principles which we must employ for the Composition of our Magisterium, in what way we can imitate Nature, and the manner of mixing and altering these Principles according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. that is to say of the Principles of which Nature serves to make its productions; I will explain the manner in which they mingle together in the Mixtes, according as he knows himself by the Works of Nature; and I will speak of their Effects according to the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers. In the fourth and last place, I will declare what are the Principles which we must employ for the Composition of our Magisterium, in what way we can imitate Nature, and the manner of mixing and altering these Principles according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. that is to say of the Principles of which Nature serves to make its productions; I will explain the manner in which they mingle together in the Mixtes, according as he knows himself by the Works of Nature; and I will speak of their Effects according to the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers. In the fourth and last place, I will declare what are the Principles which we must employ for the Composition of our Magisterium, in what way we can imitate Nature, and the manner of mixing and altering these Principles according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. according as he knows himself by the Works of Nature; and I will speak of their Effects according to the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers. In the fourth and last place, I will declare what are the Principles which we must employ for the Composition of our Magisterium, in what way we can imitate Nature, and the manner of mixing and altering these Principles according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. according as he knows himself by the Works of Nature; and I will speak of their Effects according to the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers. In the fourth and last place, I will declare what are the Principles which we must employ for the Composition of our Magisterium, in what way we can imitate Nature, and the manner of mixing and altering these Principles according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. and the manner of blending and altering these Principles according to the ordinary course and mode of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work. and the manner of blending and altering these Principles according to the ordinary course and mode of acting of Nature; with their Causes and the manifest Experiences that can be made of them, in order to give the means to the industrious Artist to apply these things, and to make use of them for the use of our Work.



FIRST PART OF THE FIRST BOOK

Impediments to this Art.



CHAPTER III

Impediments Division.

These impediments generally come either from the natural impotence of the Artist, or from the fact that he does not have the means to make the necessary expense, or from the fact that he cannot attend to it because of his other occupations. With regard to the natural impotence of the Artist, it comes, or from his organs, which are either weak, or quite corrupt; or it comes from his mind, which cannot act freely, either by the bad disposition of the same organs, which are either perverted, or spoiled, as I have said, as is seen in Fools and Insensates; or because the mind is full of fancies, and passes easily from one opinion to another quite contrary; or finally that he does not know what he wants precisely, nor what to have to determine


CHAPTER IV

Impediments to the Work, which can come from the bad arrangement of the Body of the artist

These are roughly what are the Impediments to this Work. We will now examine them in detail, and one after the other. I therefore say that the Artist will never be able to do our Work, if he does not have his whole and healthy organs: for example, if he is blind, or if his hands and feet are crippled; because having to be the Minister of Nature, he will not be able to help himself to do the necessary work, and without which the Work cannot be perfect. It will be the same, if his body is infirm or sick, like those who have a fever, or who are ladres, whose limbs fall in pieces; if he is in decrepitude, and in extreme old age: for it is certain that a Man who will have some of these imperfections will not be able by himself, (and working alone), to do the Work, nor to lead it to its ultimate perfection.


CHAPTER V

Impediments which come from the mind.

These are the Impediments that the Artist may have from the Body. Those which may occur to him on the side of the Spirit are still more considerable and more harmful to the accomplishment of the Work. Here they are. A Man whose mind is not naturally good enough to search subtly for natural Principles, and to discover what are the foundations of Nature, and the artifices by which one can imitate this great Worker in her Operations, that one will never find. The true root, nor the beginning of this most precious Art. For there are many who are hard-headed, who have not the Spirit to do any research, who find it difficult to conceive what is most clearly told to them, and in the most intelligible and most used terms; and who can only with difficulty understand the works that are usually done before their eyes. There are others who easily conceive everything they want, and who, because of this facility they have, often believing they have discovered the truth, they obstinately clash with their senses, although what they imagine is only a vain, absurd fantasy, and quite remote from reason; because it has no conformity with the Natural Principles. This is because these People, having their heads filled with imaginations and vapours, are incapable of receiving the impressions and the true notions of natural things. There are also those who do not have a firm or steady mind, who pass easily from one opinion and one purpose to another; who sometimes believe a thing as certain, and who cling to it without any reason; then they immediately change their feeling and their will, with just as little foundation. And as they have fickle minds, they undertake several works that they only sketch, without ever completing any. There are others, stupid as Beasts, who cannot understand any truth about natural things; as are Fools, Fools and Children. Others simply have contempt for our Science, not being able to believe that it is Possible; and these, Science despises all the same, and she keeps them away from her, as unworthy of ever achieving the accomplishment of such a precious Work Finally, there are those who are misers and slaves to their money. These would like to find our Art, they are convinced that it is true, and they even seek it by reasoning; but they fear the expense, and their avarice causes them to do nothing. All these People will never know our Work. For how could those who are ignorant of it, or who do not care to seek it, have knowledge of it?


CHAPTER VI

External impediments.

After having spoken in the two preceding chapters of all the Obstacles Arising from the two essential parts of man, which can prevent him from succeeding in this Work, it remains for us to say a word about the Hindrances which, coming to him from without, can all the same make his plan useless. There are witty and skilful People, who are not even ignorant in the Works of Nature, who follow her and imitate her in her principles, and in all her Operations, as far as one can; and who besides that, have the imagination strong enough to penetrate into all the things that are done regularly here below by the actions of Nature. And yet these People, with all these lights and all these advantages, are forced to abandon the Magisterium, admirable as it is, and they cannot work there, to be in the last necessity, and not to be able to make the least expense. There are others who are curious about this Science; but either because they are either embarrassed in the vanities of the world, or occupied in great employments, or overwhelmed with cares; or because they give themselves entirely to the business of life, our Science flees them and moves away from them. These are all the Obstacles that prevent Men from succeeding in our Art.


CHAPTER VII

Conclusion of this first part. What should be the artist.

We see by the things we have just said, that the one who wants to apply himself to our Work must have several qualities. First, he must be learned and consummate in Natural Philosophy. For although he was rich, had a good mind and a great inclination for our Art, he will never know it, not having studied or learned natural Philosophy: because this Science will give him lights and openings that his mind, however lively it may be, could not suggest to him. And so study will repair the defect of natural intelligence. Secondly, the Artist must naturally have a lively, penetrating and industrious mind, because even if he possessed all the Sciences, if he naturally lacks industry and skill, he will never be a Philosopher. For coming to fail in his work, he will remedy it immediately by his industry; which he would not do if, to correct his fault, he had no other aid than his Science alone. As by Science, which he will have acquired, it will be equally easy for him to avoid many faults into which he could fall without it, and if he had only his own industry to guarantee him. Because Art and Spirit mutually help each other, and make up for each other's shortcomings. It is still necessary that our Artist be firm and resolute in what he will have undertaken, and that he not amuse himself in incessantly changing, sometimes doing one try and sometimes another. Being very certain that our Art does not consist in the plurality of things. And it is certainly not in this that its perfection lies. For there is only one Stone, only one Medicine, and only one Cooking:
One of the things which is still very necessary for the Artist, is that he must attach himself carefully to his work, until he has entirely finished it; and he must not abandon it half-done, otherwise his Work, thus imperfect, instead of giving him profit and instruction, would only cause him damage and despair.
It is still necessary for an Artist to know the Principles and the main Roots, which are of the essence of our Work. Because those who don't know where to start, will never find the end. This is why I will speak to you well throughout all these Principles in this Book, and what I will say about them will be quite clear and intelligible to the Wise and the Discerning, and will suffice to give them the intelligible of our Art.
It is necessary, moreover, that the Artist is moderate, and that he is not subject to losing his temper, for fear that coming to be annoyed, he spoils, in his anger, the work he would have begun.
It is no less necessary for him to preserve and save his money, which he must not waste in foolish and inopportune expenditure, on the vain confidence of the success of his Work, lest if he should not succeed he should fall into necessity and despair; or that perhaps, when by his industry and his reasoning he would approach the truth, and would have almost discovered it, he would not have the wherewithal to put it into execution, for having inconsiderately exhausted himself. It is the same with those who, knowing nothing, when they begin to apply themselves to this Art, overspend and ruin themselves in a thousand useless things. Because if they come then to discover the truth, and the true way which it is necessary to hold, they do not have what to be able to work. Which afflicts them in two ways; and because they have vainly spent their money, and have lost the means of acquiring easily and soon such an admirable Science. This Science is therefore not for the Poor nor for the Wretched; on the contrary, it is their Enemy, and is entirely opposed to them.
But I warn you that it is not necessary that you spend your wealth on this research For I assure you that if you know once the Principles of this Art, and that you understand well what I will teach you, you will arrive at the entire perfection of the Work without it costing you little, and without you being obliged to make any considerable expense in all your work. After that, if you lose your money for having despised to follow the advice and the teachings that I give you in this Book, you will be wrong to curse me and blame me, for which you will have to impute only your ignorance and your foolish presumption.
Here is another very important piece of advice that I still have to give you. Do not amuse yourself with the Sophistications that can be made in this Art; but apply yourself only to the one perfection. Because our Art depends only on God alone, who gives it and who takes it away from whomever he pleases. And since he is all-powerful and infinitely adorable, and just as much as merciful, he would infallibly punish you for the deceptions you would make by your sophistical Works. And not only would he not allow you to have knowledge of our Art, but he would blind you and cause you to fall further into error, and from error he would plunge you into misery and misfortune, from which you would never emerge. And certainly there is nothing so miserable and so unhappy as a Man to whom God refuses the grace of being able to know and see the truth, and to know if he has done well or badly, after having worked for a long time, and having pushed his Work until the end because he always remains in error. And although he works incessantly, he never emerges from the misery and misfortune in which he finds himself; and thus losing the greatest consolation and the greatest joy one can have in this World, he spends his whole life in poverty and in affliction, without having the means to arise or being able to console himself.
Besides, when you work, take good care of all the signs that appear in each Operation or Cooking; retain them carefully in your memory, and try to discover the Cause of them, by attentively studying the Books of this Science.
These are the qualities necessary for a true Artist. That if he lacks any, I advise him not to apply himself to our Art.

End of the first part of the first book


SECOND PART OF THE FIRST BOOK

Where are reported and refuted the Reasons of those who deny the Art of Chemistry.



CHAPTER VIII

Division of what will be contained in this second Part.

Having treated in the first Part of this Book of what can prevent success in our Art; and having spoken sufficiently of the qualities which must be possessed by him who wishes to apply himself to them, according to the order which we have proposed, we must now examine what the Sophists and the Ignorant have to say against the possibility of our Science. So let's first see what their reasons are, and then we'll refute them, making it clear to intelligent People that there's nothing solid or real about them.


CHAPTER IX

Reasons of those who simply deny art.

There are two kinds of People who deny our Art, and who try to destroy it. Some deny it absolutely, and others only deny it on various suppositions which they make. Here is how the former reason.
1. All things, they say, are distinguished into several different Species. And that comes from the fact that in the composition of the Mixed the Elements are not mixed nor united in the same proportion in all. Thus, what makes a Horse of a different species than that of a man is that the proportion of the Elements is quite different in the composition of a Horse than in that of a Man. It is generally the same with the other differences which are noticed in all things, and it is therefore the same in the Minerals. For the mixture and proportion of the Elements in the Mixts is what gives them form and perfection; and thus this is what makes it different from other things. Now it is certain that this proportion is entirely unknown to us. How then can we form a Mixed, and make the mixture and the composition? That if it be true, as indeed it is, that we do not know what is the true proportion of the Elements in Gold and in Silver, it necessarily follows from this that we shall never know how they should be formed. And therefore, they conclude, the Art you say, which makes Gold and Silver, is useless and impossible.
2. Besides, even if we knew exactly the true proportion of the Elements, and how much each of them enters into the Composition of Gold and Silver, we would not know for that reason how to mix and unite these same Elements together to make these two Metals; because Nature forming them only in the Mines, which are hidden in the depths of the Earth, we do not see her working. Not knowing therefore how the mixture of the Elements is made, in the composition of Gold and Silver, it is certain, consequently, that we cannot make them.
3. But supposing that we knew exactly, and the proportion of the Elements, and the manner of mixing them, it would not follow that by making their mixture, we could well proportion the heat, which is the Agent by means of which the Mixed is made such as it is, and is made perfect. Because to form Metals, Nature uses for each of them a certain degree of heat which is unknown to us. Nor do we know all the other different efficient Causes, without whose concurrence Nature could neither produce nor complete her Works. And therefore, since all these things are unknown to us, it obviously follows that we must also be ignorant of the manner of doing the Magisterium.
4. Besides these reasons which they allege, they still make use of experience. Because they say firstly that for more than a thousand years in this, we know that several very wise Persons applied themselves to the research of this Science; so that if it could have been done by any means, it is doubtless that for such a long time it should have been done more than a thousand times; however, we have never heard of it. They say secondly that there are several Princes and several Kings who lacked neither wealth nor very learned and very enlightened Men, who passionately wished to find this Art, who however never found it, whatever study and whatever expense they made for it. Which is convincing proof that this is just pure imagination.
5. Moreover, the Philosophers who have pretended to teach this Science in their Books have not yet taught it, and we have never been able to discover this truth there. Which obviously shows that this Science is nothing at all.
6. Here is another of their reasons. We cannot imitate Nature in the weakest and most easily destroyed Compositions. For example, we cannot make a Horse, nor any other similar Mixed, although they are of a very weak Composition, and which is almost sensitive. So with all the more reason we would be able to make of it the mixture of the two Metals, which is very strong; as is seen by the great difficulty there is in resolving them, and in reducing them to their own Elements and their first Principles. Besides that we could not even know their mixture, neither by our senses, nor by any test.
7. We do not see, they say, that one species changes into another, nor that it can be reduced to it by any artifice. For example, that an Ox be made into a Goat. How, then, can one change Metals which are of different kinds among themselves into one another, and Lead into Silver? This is something that sounds ridiculous and is quite far from the truth, based on the very Principles of Nature.
8. They say further: It is certain that Nature employs a thousand years to purify the imperfect Metals, and to give them the perfection of Gold. How then can a Man, who ordinarily does not live a hundred years, be able to live long enough to transmute the imperfect Metals into Gold, since he would need a thousand years to do so? What if we wanted to say that the Philosophers achieve in a short time, by their Art, what Nature does only in a great number of years, because in many things Art compensates for the lack of Nature. They reply that this cannot be done, especially in Metals; because the Metals being made only of very subtle vapours, and thus needing, for their cooking, only a temperate heat, which also thickens in themselves their particular humidity, so that it does not escape or leave them, by any heat whatsoever, and that they do not remain deprived of this humidity, which is nothing other than Mercury, which gives them malleability and extension, it is certain that if by artifice we want to shorten the time that Nature takes to cook Minerals, and metallic Bodies, this can only be done by using a stronger heat than that which Nature uses. And so this excessive heat, instead of also thickening the Mercury, which is the metallic humidity, it will dissolve it and dissipate it, bringing it out of the composition. For it is an assured Maxim, that only gentle and moderate heat can thicken the humidity (Mercurial) and make it take Body, nor who makes a perfect mixture of it; and that too violent a heat destroys it.
9. They make yet another objection. The Being and the perfection of things come, they say, from the Stars, as being the first Causes which, in the sublunary Bodies, influence Form and perfection, and which impress in Matter the movement which tends towards generation and production, to produce or to destroy the Individuals of the Species. Now this is done suddenly and in an instant (when a single or several Stars, by their regular movement, have arrived in the Firmament at a certain fixed and determined point, from which comes Being or form and perfection.) For all things here below receive in a moment their Form and their Being from a certain position of the Stars. And since there are several of these positions, and not just one, and all of which are different from each other, just as their Effects are so different from each other, it is not possible that one can notice or distinguish exactly such a diversity, and such a great difference of positions; because there being an infinity of them, they are unknown to us. What appearance therefore that a Philosopher compensates and repairs in his Work the defect which will arrive there, not to know the difference of the various positions where the Stars are found successively by their continual movement But suppose that a Philosopher knows even certainly what is the true position of one or more Stars which gives perfection to metals; he will not yet do for that what he claims. For artifice cannot in an instant prepare or dispose any Matter whatsoever to receive a form. Because the layout, that one gives to Matter, is a movement which can only be made successively and little by little. And therefore, the Stars influencing the Form in an instant, and the Artist not being able in an instant to arrange the Matter to receive it, it is certain that the Matter, on which one claims to introduce the Form of Gold, will never receive it.
10. Finally, we see, they say, that regularly in natural things it is much easier to destroy a thing than to make it. But it is constant that it is a very difficult thing to destroy Gold: How then to pretend to do it?
It is for these reasons, and for some others, which have no more appearance, that those who simply deny our Art, claim to show its impossibility. But all these reasons are only Fallacies, which I will refute after having first established the true intention for the accomplishment of our Work. After which I will also relate and refute the reasons of those who deny this Art under certain conditions.


CHAPTER X

That Art should not and cannot even imitate Nature exactly in all the extent of her different actions; where it is spoken of the Principles of Metals.

Before answering all these questions, it is necessary to notice the Principles which serve as Matter and as a foundation for Nature to form the Metals, and which according to some Philosophers are Sulfur and Quicksilver, have a composition and a very strong and tight union together. And hence it is very difficult to dissolve and define these Principles. Because these two Matters being mixed, they only thicken and harden together as much as is necessary to be made malleable (that is to say, to be able to be extended under the hammer) without breaking, without disuniting, only because their mixing and their digestion taking place in the Mines only little by little, only successively and for a long time, by a very gentle and very moderate heat which thickens them; nothing of their viscous humidity is lost or exhaled.
But we must take for a general and assured Maxim: First, that no moist Matter can thicken before its finest parts evaporate and the coarsest remain, if in the Composition there is more Wet than Dry. Secondly, that the true and exact mixture of the Dry and the Humid consists in the Humid being tempered by the Dry, and the Dry by the Humid; and that of the two there be made a single Substance, which is homogeneous in all its parts, which is tempered between the hard and the soft, and which can expand under the hammer. Which only happens by the mixing, which is done for a long time, of the sticky and viscous Wet, and a very subtle Earth, which mix together exactly in their least parts, until the Wet is the same thing as the Dry, and the Dry the same as the Wet. Now, this subtle substance, which we have said should be exhaled from the Humid, does not dissolve and evaporate suddenly; but this is done slowly and gradually, and over several thousand years; because the Substance of the Principles of which Nature makes use is homogeneous and entirely uniform; that is to say, entirely similar. If, then, this subtle Substance suddenly exhaled, as the Humid is not a different thing from the Dry (since, because of their so exact mixture, they are both but one and the same thing), it is doubtless that the Humid could only be exhaled with the Dry: and thus everything would go up in smoke; and in the resolution which would be made of the Humid, it could not be detached nor separated from the Dry, being so strongly united with each other. We have a convincing experience of this in the Sublimation of Spirits. For these Spirits coming to resolve suddenly by Sublimation (that is to say, a part of these Spirits, which rise in the Vessel, detaching themselves from the other which remains at the bottom) the Humid is not separated from the Dry, nor the Dry from the Humid, so that they are entirely divided into the parts of which they are made, that is to say separated in their first Principles; but their Substance rises entirely, or if there is any dissolution of their parts, it is but very little. It is therefore true that what makes Metals (or their Matter) thicken is the evaporation which takes place successively and also of the subtle and vaporous Humidity. But we cannot make this thickening in the way that Nature does; and therefore we cannot imitate Nature in this. Also it is not possible for us to imitate it in all the differences of its properties: as we said in the foreword of this Book. We therefore do not claim to imitate Nature with regard to her Principles, neither in the proportion she keeps when she mixes the Elements, nor in the way in which she mixes them with each other, nor in the equality of the heat by which she thickens and corporifies the Metals, especially since these are all things that are impossible for us, and which are absolutely unknown to us. This being presupposed, we will now refute the reasons of those who, through their ignorance, deny such an excellent Art. Also it is not possible for us to imitate it in all the differences of its properties: as we said in the foreword of this Book. We therefore do not claim to imitate Nature with regard to her Principles, neither in the proportion she keeps when she mixes the Elements, nor in the way in which she mixes them with each other, nor in the equality of the heat by which she thickens and corporifies the Metals, especially since these are all things that are impossible for us, and which are absolutely unknown to us. This being presupposed, we will now refute the reasons of those who, through their ignorance, deny such an excellent Art. Also it is not possible for us to imitate it in all the differences of its properties: as we said in the foreword of this Book. We therefore do not claim to imitate Nature with regard to her Principles, neither in the proportion she keeps when she mixes the Elements, nor in the way in which she mixes them with each other, nor in the equality of the heat by which she thickens and corporifies the Metals, especially since these are all things that are impossible for us, and which are absolutely unknown to us. This being presupposed, we will now refute the reasons of those who, through their ignorance, deny such an excellent Art. We therefore do not claim to imitate Nature with regard to her Principles, neither in the proportion she keeps when she mixes the Elements, nor in the way in which she mixes them with each other, nor in the equality of the heat by which she thickens and corporifies the Metals, especially since these are all things that are impossible for us, and which are absolutely unknown to us. This being presupposed, we will now refute the reasons of those who, through their ignorance, deny such an excellent Art. We therefore do not claim to imitate Nature with regard to her Principles, neither in the proportion she keeps when she mixes the Elements, nor in the way in which she mixes them with each other, nor in the equality of the heat by which she thickens and corporifies the Metals, especially since these are all things that are impossible for us, and which are absolutely unknown to us. This being presupposed, we will now refute the reasons of those who, through their ignorance, deny such an excellent Art.


CHAPTER XI

Refutation of the Reasons of those who deny the Art absolutely.

When they say then that we do not know the proportion of the Elements, that we do not know in what way they are mixed, that we do not know exactly the degree of the heat which thickens and corporifies the Metals, and that several other causes, as well as the accidents which Nature produces by her actions, are unknown to us: we remain in agreement. But it does not follow that our Science is impossible. For if we cannot know all these things, we also do not care to know them; since the knowledge that we would have of it could be of no use to our Work: and that to do it, we use another Principle and another way of producing the Metals; how we can imitate Nature.
To their objection that Philosophers and Kings have sought this Science in vain, I answer in a word that this is not true; because it is certain that there were Kings (although very few), especially among the Ancients, who knew it, and that in our time, even, if there are wise Persons who found it by their own industry. But they did not want to reveal it either orally or in writing to these kinds of People, as being unworthy. So that these People, having never known anyone who knew about it, falsely imagined that no one ever knew about it.
As for what they say with so little reason that, being unable to imitate Nature in the weakest mixtures which she makes of the Elements, as in the composition of an Ass and an Ox, it follows that we can still less imitate her in the mixtures which are stronger (such as those of Metals), it is easy to make them see that they are seriously mistaken in several things: they do, or on a consequence they draw from more to less. This consequence is not of necessity, but of contingency; that is, it does not necessarily conclude; but it only proves that it can be, as it can be in several instances. And so it is not a conviction that can force us to admit the impossibility of our Art. Secondly, there is another way of letting them know their error, in that they do not show that there is any resemblance, not even apparent, between the weak composition of the Animals and the strong and tight mixture of the Minerals. And the reason is because what gives perfection to Animals and Plants, which have a weak Composition, is not the proportion (of the Elements), nor the Matter which is mixed in proportion, nor the qualities of this Matter of which the mixture is made, nor the very mixture which is the effect of the action and the passion of its qualities, and which is only the union and the assembly of the first qualities. It is, I say, none of these things which gives perfection to Animals and Vegetables: but, according to the opinion of many, it is the sensitive and vegetative Soul, which comes from the secrets of Nature; that is to say, either of the Quintessence, or of the first Agent. What we advance on the feeling of many, because it is something that we admit that is hidden and unknown to us. This is why, even though the composition of Animals and Vegetables is weak, we can nevertheless neither make them nor give them perfection; because we cannot give them the Soul, which is what makes them perfect. Hence it is obvious that if we cannot give perfection to an Ox, or to a Goat, the defect does not come from the fact that we cannot mix it, but from the Soul, which we cannot give to them. For as regards making a Composition less strong, or stronger, like making a less weak one, or a weaker one, we will easily come to the end of it by our artifice, by imitating the way and the course of Nature. It is therefore not true what they say, that there is more perfection in Metals than in living things; since, on the contrary, there are less of them, because the perfection of the Metals consists more in the proportion and in the composition of the Elements than in anything else: that is to say, in the Soul, which gives life. And therefore, as Metals have less perfection than Animals and Vegetables, it is also easier for us to perfect them than they. This is how God diversifies the perfections of his creatures. For in those whose natural composition is weak, he has placed a nobler and greater perfection, by means of the soul he has given them. And to those whose composition he has made stronger and firmer (as are the Stones and the Minerals), he has given them a much lesser and less noble perfection, because it consists only in the sole manner of their mixing. The comparison they make is therefore neither fair nor good; for the composition of an Ox and a Goat is not what prevents us from forming an Ox and a Goat; but it is the Form (or the Soul) which gives perfection to this Ox and to this Goat, which is more excellent and more unknown than is the Form which gives perfection to Metal. The comparison they make is therefore neither fair nor good; for the composition of an Ox and a Goat is not what prevents us from forming an Ox and a Goat; but it is the Form (or the Soul) which gives perfection to this Ox and to this Goat, which is more excellent and more unknown than is the Form which gives perfection to Metal. The comparison they make is therefore neither fair nor good; for the composition of an Ox and a Goat is not what prevents us from forming an Ox and a Goat; but it is the Form (or the Soul) which gives perfection to this Ox and to this Goat, which is more excellent and more unknown than is the Form which gives perfection to Metal.
They are not truer when they say that one species does not change into another species. For one Species changes into another when an Individual of one Species changes into the Individual of another. For we see that a Worm changes naturally, and even by artifice, into a Fly, which is of a different Species from the Worm. From a bull, which is suffocated, honeyflies are born. Wheat degenerates into Tares, and from a dead Dog Worms are formed, by the fermentation of putrefaction. It is true that it is not we who make them; but it is Nature, to which we supply the necessary things to act. It is the same with the Transmutation of Metals. It is not we who transmute them, it is Nature, to which, by our artifice, we prepare Matter and lay out the ways for it; because of itself it always acts unfailingly, and we are only its Ministers in the Operations that we make it perform by our Art.
They pretend to strengthen this reasoning by another, which is not less imaginary, by saying that Nature employs a thousand years to form and to perfect the Metals, which is a term to which the life of a Man could not reach. To which I reply that according to the opinion of the ancient Philosophers, it is true that Nature, acting on these Principles, takes that long. But whether Nature makes the perfection of Metals in a thousand years, or in more time, or in less, or even in a moment, that does nothing against us; because we cannot imitate Nature in her Principles; as we have already proved, and as we will show more fully in the sequel. There are some, however, who are even wise and well-enlightened, who maintain that Nature will soon perform her Operation; i.e. in one day, and even in less time. But if that were true, it would be no less impossible for us to imitate Nature, in the mixture of these Principles, as we have sufficiently proved. The surplus of their reasoning being true, I also do not wish to contest it.
To what they say that the production and perfection of Metals comes from the position of one or more Stars, which we do not know, I answer that we do not worry about the position or the movement of the Stars, and that this knowledge would be of no use to us in our Art, and consequently it is not necessary. For there is no species of things subject to generation and corruption, of which there are not particular ones every day which are produced, and others which are not destroyed or corrupted. Which obviously shows that the position of the Stars is every day very clean, as much for the production as for the destruction of particular things, in all kinds of Species. There is therefore no need for the Artist to observe, nor that he waits for the position of the Stars; although nevertheless it could serve But it suffices to prepare things for Nature, so that she, who is wise and provident, disposes them to the proper positions, and to the favorable aspects of the mobile Bodies. For Nature could not do her action, nor give perfection to anything without the movement and position of mobile Bodies. And thus, if you prepare your artifice as it should be for Nature, and if you take good care that everything that must be done in the Magisterium is well disposed, it is doubtless that it will receive its perfection from Nature, in a position which will be suitable for it, without your observing this position. and favorable aspects of Mobile Corps. For Nature could not do her action, nor give perfection to anything without the movement and position of mobile Bodies. And thus, if you prepare your artifice as it should be for Nature, and if you take good care that everything that must be done in the Magisterium is well disposed, it is doubtless that it will receive its perfection from Nature, in a position which will be suitable for it, without your observing this position. and favorable aspects of Mobile Corps. For Nature could not do her action, nor give perfection to anything without the movement and position of mobile Bodies. And thus, if you prepare your artifice as it should be for Nature, and if you take good care that everything that must be done in the Magisterium is well disposed, it is doubtless that it will receive its perfection from Nature, in a position which will be suitable for it, without your observing this position.
Also when we see a Worm being formed from a Dog, or from another rotten Animal, we need not immediately observe the position of the Stars to know how this Worm was produced. but it suffices only to notice the qualities of the air in which this Rotting Animal is, and the other Causes which are its rotting, without the concurrence of the position of the Stars. And that alone teaches us all that must be done to produce Worms in imitation of Nature. Because Nature finds by itself the position of the Stars which is necessary for this, even though it is unknown to us.
For the other Objection they make, saying that perfection is acquired in an instant, and while our preparation cannot be made in an instant, it necessarily follows from this that the Great Work cannot be perfected by artifice, and consequently that the Art of Chemistry is nothing at all. I answer that they are not reasonable, and that is speaking in Beasts and not in Men. For the propositions from which they draw this consequence have no connection with it. So their reasoning is like saying: A Donkey runs, therefore you are a Goat. And the reason is, that although the preparation cannot be made in an instant, this does not prevent the Form or the perfection from arriving in an instant to the thing which is prepared to receive it. For preparation is not perfection; but it is an ability or a disposition to receive the Form.
Finally, they allege as a last reason that it is easier for the Art to destroy natural things than to make them: thus, as they maintain that we cannot destroy Gold, they conclude that it is even less possible for us to do it. To which I answer that their reasoning does not necessarily conclude to force us to believe that one cannot make Gold by artifices For it is true that as it is difficult to destroy it, it is even more difficult to do it: But it does not follow from there that it is impossible. And the difficulty there is in destroying Gold comes from the fact that its parts having a strong union between them, it is obvious that its dissolution must be difficult to do. And therefore it is difficult to dissolve gold. And the error in which they are in believing that it is impossible to make gold comes only from the fact that they do not know the artifice of dissolving it, following the ordinary way of acting of Nature. They could well have known, by various tests which they will have made to destroy Gold, that the Composition of Gold was very strong; but they did not recognize how far this force could go, and what could overcome it, and cause it to dissolve.
I have, it seems to me, sufficiently answered the imaginary reasons of the Sophists: It remains now, my Son, to fulfill what I have promised you, which is to examine the reasons which have those who deny our Art on certain conditions, and according to some suppositions which they make. Then we will deal with the Principles which Nature uses in the Composition of Metals, which we will examine still more thoroughly in the sequel; after which we will speak of the Principles of our Magisterium, and we will deal first with each of its Principles in particular, reserving ourselves to make a general Discourse of them in the following Book. Let us begin by putting the reasons of the former, and by refuting them.


CHAPTER XII.

Different Feelings from those who assume the true Art.

Those who assume that this Art is true are not all of the same opinion. This means that there are different opinions concerning the real Matter to do the Work. For some maintain that it must be taken in the Spirits. Others assure that it is in the Bodies, or Metals, that it is found: Others in Salts and Aluns, Nitres and Borax. And others, finally, say that it is in all vegetable things that it must be sought. Of all these People, there are some who tell the truth in part, but who are also wrong in part; and there are others who err in everything, and who deceive all who read their Books, and who follow their Doctrine. Such a great diversity of false opinions has given me much trouble and caused me to spend a great deal of money. And it was only by long conjecture, and after several very painful and very tiresome experiments, that I have developed the truth among so many falsehoods. I can even say that false opinions have often led me astray from the right path on which I was, because they were opposed to my reasoning, and have often thrown me into despair. May all these Deceivers therefore be cursed forever, since by their false Doctrine they have left all Posterity only subjects to give them curses, and instead of teaching the truth, they have left in their Writings only diabolical errors and lies to deceive all those who apply themselves to Philosophy. And cursed me myself if I do not correct their errors, and if in dealing with this Science, I do not speak and teach the truth entirely, as much as can be done in a thing so admirable. For our Magisterium must not be treated in terms that are quite obscure; nor should it also be explained so clearly that it is intelligible to all. I will therefore teach it in such a way that it will not be hidden from the Sages, although it is nevertheless very obscure to mediocre minds; but for the Stupid and the Fools, I declare that they will never be able to understand anything about it.
Back to our topic. Those who believed that the Matter of our Work had to be taken from the Spirits are different among themselves. For some have said that it was in quicksilver, others in sulphur, and others in arsenic, which has a great affinity with the latter. Some have maintained that it was in the Marcassites, others in the tutia, others in Magnesia, and still others in the Salt Ammonia. There is no less diversity between those who believed that it was in Bodies or Metals that this Matter was found; because there are some who said it was Saturn, others Jupiter, and still others, someone from the other Bodies. There are still others who assert that it must be sought in the Glass; others in Precious Stones; others in Salts, in different kinds of Alums, Niters and Borax. Finally, there are others who believe that Art is made indiscriminately from all kinds of Plants; so that in the different suppositions which they make, they are all opposed to each other, and those who do not believe any of these different opinions, or who oppose any of them, persuade themselves that by this means they are absolutely destroying Science. And to tell the truth, neither one nor the other say almost anything real.


CHAPTER XIII

Reasons of those who deny that the Art is in Sulphur.

Those who believed that Sulfur was our true Matter, after having worked on this Mineral without knowing in what consists the perfection of its preparation, have left their imperfect Work. Because they imagined that by cleaning and purifying it, it would be perfectly prepared. And as this preparation is done by Sublimation, they believed that there was only to sublimate the Sulfur to give it all the perfection that it can acquire by the preparation, and that it was the same thing of Arsenic, which is similar to Sulphur. But coming to make the projection, they saw that their Sulphur, thus prepared, instead of altering the metallic Bodies and transmuting them, as it had to do, burned and went away in smoke, and that not only did it not attach itself inseparably to the Metals, but even that it separated from it in a short time, without anything at all remaining; and that the Bodies, on which they had made the projection, were more impure than they were before. As they therefore saw that they had made a mistake in doing their Work, and being nevertheless persuaded (for having long thought and ruminated upon it) that Science consisted in Sulfur alone, and not being there, and believing moreover that it cannot be found in anything else, they inserted from there what was impossible.


CHAPTER XIV

Refutation of what has just been said.

This is the reasoning of those who seek our Science in Sulphur. But it is easy to make known in a few words to these People that they understand nothing at all in the Magisterium: and because they suppose that the only vulgar Sulfur is our Matter, and because even though what they suppose was true, they are mistaken in the way of preparing it, believing that there is nothing else to do but to sublimate it. Resembling in this a Man who from his birth until his old age would have remained shut up in a house: who would imagine that everyone would not have more space than the house where he would be, and that there would be nothing else in the World than what he sees in this house. Because these People have never worked on several Materials, and they have never applied themselves to many operations, nor have they taken much pains to experiment. Thus they could not know from where our Matter must be drawn and from where it cannot be taken. And since, moreover, they have not worked much, they also do not know what is the Operation necessary to give perfection to the Work, and which are those which cannot give it. But what caused their Work to remain imperfect is (after their preparation) their Sulfur remained edible and volatile, which is what spoils and corrupts metallic Bodies instead of perfecting them. they also do not know what is the Operation necessary to give perfection to the Work, and which are those which cannot give it. But what caused their Work to remain imperfect is (after their preparation) their Sulfur remained edible and volatile, which is what spoils and corrupts metallic Bodies instead of perfecting them. they also do not know what is the Operation necessary to give perfection to the Work, and which are those which cannot give it. But what caused their Work to remain imperfect is (after their preparation) their Sulfur remained edible and volatile, which is what spoils and corrupts metallic Bodies instead of perfecting them.


CHAPTER XV

Reasons of those who deny that arsenic is the Matter of Art, and their Refutation

There are others who, being persuaded that our Medicine must necessarily be found in Sulfur and in arsenic, which is similar to it, and considering more attentively than the first what prevented its perfection, they not only purged it of its burning sulphurity by sublimating it, but they also tried to strip it of its earthiness, or of its terrestrial and gross parts, having nevertheless been unable to remove its volatility. And these were deceived as well as the others, when they wanted to come to projection, because their Medicine was not intimately nor strongly united to the Bodies on which they threw it; but it evaporated little by little, and left the Metallic Bodies as they were and without any change. Which made them say, like the first, that Science was nothing. We also give them the same answer that we have already made to the first; and we further assure that our Science is true, by what we know it beyond doubt, from having seen it with our eyes, and touched it with our own hands.


CHAPTER XVI

Reasons of those who deny that the Matter of Art is in Sulphur, Quicksilver, Tutia, Magnesia, Marcasite, Salt Ammoniac; and their Refutation.

Others have been found who, having penetrated further into the nature of Sulphur, have purified it, taken away its volatility and its adustion, and have by this means made it fixed, terrestrial and dead: so that when put on the fire, it did not melt well, but it vitrified. What was Cause that in the projection that they made of this Medicine on the Bodies, it could not mingle with them, nor consequently alter them nor change. From which they draw the same conclusion as the first (that Art is impossible, and we also answer them as we did to the first, that they left the Work imperfect and truncated, not knowing how it should be completed; because they did not know how to make their Medicine entering and penetrating, which is its last perfection. It is the same with the preparation of the other Spirits, and the same faults are made there, except that in the Argent-vive and in the Tutie, we are delivered from the greatest work that there is to do (in the preparation of the others), which is to take away the addiction from them. For these two things have no edible and inflammable Sulphur: but they have only Volatile Matter and an impure earthiness.
With regard to the Magnesias and the Marcassites, they all have an adustible Sulphur, and the Marcasite has even more than the Magnesia. They are all equally volatile, but Quicksilver and Salt Ammonia are more so than Magnesia. Sulfur is less volatile than Quicksilver or Salt Ammoniac; Arsenic, which resembles Sulphur, is less volatile than it, Marcasite less than Arsenic; Magnesia is not so much as Marcasite, and Tutia is less so than Magnesia, and than all the other Spirits. All of these things have volatility, but some have more than others. And it is this volatility that all the Spirits have which has caused those who wanted to experiment and work on them, to be seriously mistaken in the Operations they made to prepare them, and in the projection they tried to make of it. And from there they inferred the impossibility of Art, just like those, whom we have said, who supposed the Work in Sulphur. So we have nothing else to reply to them than what we have already replied to those.


CHAPTER XVII

Reasons of those who deny that the Matter of Art is in the Spirits, conjointly with the Bodies which they must fix.

There are others who, having applied themselves to making experiments, have tried to fix the Spirits in the Bodies, without having previously given any preparation to the Spirits to arrest their volatility: but having been mistaken all the same, they have had only displeasure and sorrow. So that, despairing of success, they were forced to despise Science and declaim against it, as believing it to be false. What disturbed them, and which threw them into this incredulity, was that in the fusion of Bodies, which is only done by a violent fire, the Spirits that are then thrown on it, not being able to bear the ardor of the fire because of their volatility which has not been removed from them, do not attach themselves strongly to the Bodies, but leave them and evaporate, and it is only the Bodies that remain all alone in the fire. These People are still sometimes abused in other ways. For it often happens that the bodies themselves leave the fire with the spirits; because the Spirits which are not fixed, and whose parts are very subtle, having attached themselves and united intimately to the Bodies, these Spirits, coming to evaporate by the violence of the fire, necessarily remove and carry the Bodies with them (because in this Composition of Bodies and Spirits, there is more volatile than fixed). Which makes them say, like the first, that the Work is impossible. To which we also respond as we did to what the first ones said. having attached themselves and united intimately to the Bodies, these Spirits, coming to evaporate by the violence of the fire, necessarily remove and carry the Bodies with them (because in this Composition of Bodies and Spirits, there is more volatile than fixed). Which makes them say, like the first, that the Work is impossible. To which we also respond as we did to what the first ones said. having attached themselves and united intimately to the Bodies, these Spirits, coming to evaporate by the violence of the fire, necessarily remove and carry the Bodies with them (because in this Composition of Bodies and Spirits, there is more volatile than fixed). Which makes them say, like the first, that the Work is impossible. To which we also respond as we did to what the first ones said.
Here is the cause of their error. The Philosopher says: Son of Science, if you want to make the Conversion or Transmutation of Bodies, from imperfect to perfect, if this Transmutation can be done by any matter whatsoever, it must necessarily be done by Spirits. Now it is not possible for the spirits, which are not previously fixed, to attach themselves and unite themselves so well to the bodies that their union can be of any use; as was said above, since they are exhaled and flee into the fire, and they leave the bodies without having changed them in any way, and without having removed any of their impurities. That if the Spirits are made fixed, they are still useless; because in this state they cannot penetrate the Bodies, being by the fixation become Earth, which has no point of fusion. And even if they appear to be fixed, after having penetrated the Bodies, because being in a weak heat they do not evaporate, they are however not fixed; because being put in a strong heat, they separate themselves from the Bodies, or else and they and the Bodies go away together in smoke. Therefore, since Art cannot be found in the nearest Matter, and which has the greatest affinity with Metals, with all the more reason will it not be found in a distant and foreign Matter. And therefore it cannot be found in anything. since Art cannot be found in the nearest Matter, and which has the greatest affinity with Metals, with all the more reason will it not be found in a distant and foreign Matter. And therefore it cannot be found in anything. since Art cannot be found in the nearest Matter, and which has the greatest affinity with Metals, with all the more reason will it not be found in a distant and foreign Matter. And therefore it cannot be found in anything.
This is their reasoning. To which I reply that they don't know everything one can know about it: That's why they don't find everything that can be done. And because they cannot do what they do not know, they derive from their incapacity a proof, which they believe to be very strong, of the impossibility of Art.


CHAPTER XVIII

Of those who deny that the matter of Art is found in Bodies, and primarily in white lead, or tin, which is called Jupiter, and their refutation.

Some have believed that the Matter of Art is found in the Bodies: but having tried to work there, they have been mistaken, because they believe that the two Kinds of Lead, that is to say, the livid or black, and the white (which does not however have a clean and pure whiteness), were very similar and approached very much the nature of the Sun and the Moon; the livid much of the Sun, and not so much of the Moon; and white much of the Moon, and little of the Sun. This is what made some of them believe that Jupiter differed from the Moon only in that it had the jack, that it was soft, and that it melted very quickly. So that imagining that its so prompt fusion and its softness came only from a superfluous humidity which it had; and that what was causing it to cry was a volatile Quicksilver, which was intermingled in its Substance: they put it on the fire and calcined it, after which they held it in such a fire as it could suffer, until its lime had become white. But after that, wanting to restore it to its first state, that is to say, to restore it to a malleable Body, as it was before, they could not do it: which persuaded them that it was an impossible thing. Others have caused Corps to regain a little of its lime by a very violent fire; but they found that it still had the jack, as before, and that it was just as easy to melt, and that made them believe that these two faults could not be taken away from it in that way, and that it was impossible to find a means of hardening it. after which they held him in such a fire as he could endure, until his lime had turned white. But after that, wanting to restore it to its first state, that is to say, to restore it to a malleable Body, as it was before, they could not do it: which persuaded them that it was an impossible thing. Others have caused Corps to regain a little of its lime by a very violent fire; but they found that it still had the jack, as before, and that it was just as easy to melt, and that made them believe that these two faults could not be taken away from it in that way, and that it was impossible to find a means of hardening it. after which they held him in such a fire as he could endure, until his lime had turned white. But after that, wanting to restore it to its first state, that is to say, to restore it to a malleable Body, as it was before, they could not do it: which persuaded them that it was an impossible thing. Others have caused Corps to regain a little of its lime by a very violent fire; but they found that it still had the jack, as before, and that it was just as easy to melt, and that made them believe that these two faults could not be taken away from it in that way, and that it was impossible to find a means of hardening it. they could not do it: which persuaded them that it was an impossible thing. Others have caused Corps to regain a little of its lime by a very violent fire; but they found that it still had the jack, as before, and that it was just as easy to melt, and that made them believe that these two faults could not be taken away from it in that way, and that it was impossible to find a means of hardening it. they could not do it: which persuaded them that it was an impossible thing. Others have caused Corps to regain a little of its lime by a very violent fire; but they found that it still had the jack, as before, and that it was just as easy to melt, and that made them believe that these two faults could not be taken away from it in that way, and that it was impossible to find a means of hardening it.
Others, having persisted in working on this Metal, calcined it and restored it to its first state, then removing its Scoria, they recalcined it at greater heat, and put it back a second time in Body: so that by repeating these operations, they found that it had hardened, and that it no longer had the jack. But having been unable to completely remove its prompt fusion, they falsely persuaded themselves that it could not be done.
There have been others, who having tried to give it hardness, and to make it in a state of being able to be melted only with difficulty, by mixing with it hard Bodies, were mistaken all the same, because it made sour and brittle any Bodies that were added to it; without all the preparations they were able to give them being of any use to them. So having been unable to give it perfection, neither by the mixture of the hard Bodies, nor by any regime of fire, being put off by the length of time it would take to discover the Magisterium (which they believe to find there), they assured that it was an impossible thing.
Others, finally, having taken it into their heads to mix several different drugs with Tin, and seeing that not only was it not changed, and that they had no relation or affinity with it, but on the contrary they spoiled it, and had an effect quite contrary to what they expected, they threw away the Books out of spite, and shaking their heads, they said that our divine Art was nothing but pure nonsense. And to all these People I answer as I have already done to the others above.


CHAPTER XIX

Reasons of those who deny that the Art is in Lead.

One does not succeed better in working on Lead. It is true that being mixed with Bodies, it does not make them brittle as Tin does, and that after its calcination it regains body, and returns to its nature rather than itself. But those who work on this Metal cannot take away its darkness, because they do not know how. Thus they cannot give it any whiteness that is permanent, and whatever they may have imagined, it was not possible for them to unite it so strongly to the Fixed Bodies that, being mixed with them, it did not flee with great fire. And what, in the preparation of this Metal, has most deceived those who have believed that Science could only be found in it alone, is that after it has been twice calcined, and as many times put back into the Body, so far from hardening it in any way, that, on the contrary, it becomes softer than it was before; and that with all this he loses none of his bad qualities, which are the darkness and the facility he has for suddenly melting away. This is why, having been unable to do anything good with this Metal, in which they had believed that one could easily find the truest and nearest Matter of Science, they concluded from there that Art was only a pure imagination. In such a way that these People being in the same error as those of whom we have just spoken, we will answer them only the same thing. in which they had believed that one could easily find the truest and nearest Matter of Science, they concluded from there that Art was only a pure imagination. In such a way that these People being in the same error as those of whom we have just spoken, we will answer them only the same thing. in which they had believed that one could easily find the truest and nearest Matter of Science, they concluded from there that Art was only a pure imagination. In such a way that these People being in the same error as those of whom we have just spoken, we will answer them only the same thing.


CHAPTER XX

Reasons of those who maintain that Art is not in the mixture of hard Bodies with hard ones, and of soft ones with soft ones.

There are those who have tried to mix the hard Bodies together, and the soft ones also together, because of the resemblance between them, and who have believed that by this means they would perfect each other, and that thus they would be mutually transmuted. But they have been similarly deceived, because that is not possible. To mix, for example, Copper or some other similar Metal with Gold and Silver, these imperfect Metals are not truly transmuted into Gold or Silver for that; and they cannot sustain a violent fire for long without separating from the perfect ones, which always remain, whereas the imperfect ones are either entirely consumed, or reduced to their first nature, which they take up again. There are nevertheless some which last and which subsist longer in the composition and in the mixture that one makes of them: and others less, for the reasons which we will explain later. The bad successes, that by their ignorance these People have had, in all their scrambles, forced them to doubt the truth of Science, and to maintain that it was only an imposture.


CHAPTER XXI

Why those who have mixed the hard Bodies with the soft ones, and the perfect ones with the imperfect ones have denied Science.

There were others who searched further, and who thought they had found better. These have imagined, by unifying the hard Bodies with the soft ones, to find the means of giving this composition a stable hardness in any test, and also of giving perfection to the imperfect Metals, by uniting them all the same with the perfect ones; and that generally they would transmute, and be transmuted one by the other with true transmutation. For this purpose, they tried to find the resemblance and the affinity which is between the Metals, by subtilizing the coarse and hard Bodies; such are Copper and Iron, and by thickening those of which the substance is finer, as is Tin and Lead, which is its like. What they tried to do (both by drugs they added to it) and by the diet of fire. But those who made these tests were mistaken in the mixture which they made of the Bodies. For either they made their composition entirely sour and brittle, or else they found it too soft, without having been altered by the mixture of the hard Bodies, or too hard without having been changed by the soft Bodies which they had mixed in it. And thus, having been unable to meet the suitability nor the affinity of the Metals, they said that the Art was only a supposition.



CHAPTER XXII

That Art is found neither in the extraction of the soul (or Tincture), nor in the regime of fire.

Others having considered the thing still more closely, claimed to alter or change the Bodies by the extraction of their Souls (that is to say, of their Tinctures), and by this same means to alter still all the other Bodies. But whatever attempts they made, they could not succeed. And so they have been deceived in their hope and in their operations, as well as those who have tried to give perfection to the imperfect by the regime of fire alone. This caused some and others to believe Art was impossible. And to all these we make the same answer as we made above.


CHAPTER XXIII

Reasons of those who maintain that the Art is neither in the Glass nor in the Jewels.

Those who believed that the Matter of Art had to be found in Glass and in Jewels, having imagined that these two things could alter Bodies, were mistaken all the same. Because what does not enter the Bodies and does not penetrate them, cannot alter them, nor make any change in them. Now it is certain that neither Glass nor Gemstones, not being truly fusible, can either enter Bodies or penetrate them. And therefore, these two things cannot alter the Bodies. And though those who worked on it made every effort to unite the Glass with the Bodies, when they could have done it (although it is a very difficult thing), they would not have done for it what they claimed. 'Cause all they could have done, it would have been to vitrify the Bodies (that is to say, to reduce them to a Matter similar to Glass, transparent and brittle as glass is). However, although this defect comes from the Matter which they use, they attribute it to Science, and they maintain that it cannot do anything else. So they infer, hence it is false. But I answer to these People that, not working on the true Matter, one should not be astonished if they finish badly and if they do not succeed; besides that they are not right to accuse Science of their own error. hence it is false. But I answer to these People that, not working on the true Matter, one should not be astonished if they finish badly and if they do not succeed; besides that they are not right to accuse Science of their own error. hence it is false. But I answer to these People that, not working on the true Matter, one should not be astonished if they finish badly and if they do not succeed; besides that they are not right to accuse Science of their own error.


CHAPTER XXIV

Motive of those who deny that the Art is in the Mineral means, in the Vegetables, and in the mixture of anything whatsoever.

Here are others who imagine that they will do the Work with Salts, Alums, Nitres and Borax; but whatever operation they may do on these Minerals, I am sure they will not find what they are looking for. And therefore, if after having made experiments on these Matters by their Solution, their Coagulation, their Assation, and by several other operations, they find almost nothing that can be used for Transmutation, they must not infer from this that this divine Art is not true, since it is an Art which is necessarily done, and that there are many who know it. It is not that, taking all this in general, one cannot find in it enough to make some alteration; but it would be necessary to go to look for it very far. and take great pains for it.
Those who maintain that the Work can be made of all Plants, would succeed even more with difficulty. Thus, although what they say is possible, it can nevertheless be said that it is an impossible thing with regard to them. Because their life would not be enough to be able to do what they claim. And so, if these People never find the Work by using only Plants, they must not conclude for that that it can never be done by any other means.
For the rest, all those whose errors we have just reported have each supposed only one Matter to be the true one, and they have generally condemned all the others, and we have refuted them all one after the other. There are several, and even almost an infinity of others, who claim that to do the Work, one must make a Composition of all these various things, or at least of the greater part, and mix them in different proportions. But these people are quite ignorant and don't know what they want to do. We can even say that they are infinitely mistaken, because there is an infinity of different things which can be mixed with each other, and they can be mixed in so many kinds, and in so many different proportions, that these manners and proportions are all the same infinite in number. And from this it evidently follows that they can be mistaken in an infinity of ways; either in excess or in less. Although they can straighten themselves out, provided they begin to work in true Matter. As for me, without having fun making long speeches on this, refuting this infinity, I will teach in a few words all of Science, and what can be used to know it. And by this means, the wise Persons who hear me, will be able to avoid an infinity of errors that they would commit in the choice of Matter and in their work. But we will first examine the Natural Principles of Metals; we will give the Definition of it, and we will report the Causes of it, as expedient for our divine Magisterium; as I had hoped at the beginning of this Book.

End of the second part.




THIRD PART OF THE FIRST BOOK

Natural principles and their effects.


CHAPTER XXV

Natural Principles and Metallic Bodies, according to the opinion of the Ancients.

According to the opinion of the Ancients, who, like us, maintained the truth of our Art, I say that the first natural Principles, I mean those which Nature uses to form Metals, are the fetid Spirit and Living Water, which is otherwise called Dry Water. Now I said before that there are two fetid Spirits, one which is white inside, and red outside; and the other which is black. Both, however, in the Work of the Magisterium, have a disposition to turn red. I will explain succinctly, but sufficiently and without omitting anything, the Nature of these two Principles, how and of what Matter they are formed. I will be obliged, for this purpose, to extend my Discourse, and to make a particular Chapter of each natural Principle. However, these Principles generally have this in common, that each of them is of a very strong Composition, and of a Substance which is uniform and homogeneous: because in their Composition the smallest parts of the Earth are so and so strongly united with the smallest parts of Air, Water and Fire, that none of them. they cannot be separated from any of the others, in the resolution that is made of the whole Compound. On the contrary, they all resolve together, and with each other, because of the close connection they have as a whole, having been mingled and united by their simplest and smallest parts. And this by means of the natural heat, which in the bowels of the Earth, has been condensed and multiplied also, according to the course and the ordinary way of acting of Nature, and as their Essence requires it.


CHAPTER XXI

On the Natural Principles of Metals, according to the opinion of the Moderns.

There are others who are not of this feeling, and who believe that neither Quicksilver nor Sulphur, as they naturally are, are not the Principles (i.e. the proximate Matter of Metals), but must first be weathered and changed into earthly Matter. Thus they maintain that the Principle which Nature uses to form the Metals is quite a different thing from Fetid Spirit (i.e. Sulphur) and Fleeting Spirit (or Quicksilver). And what compelled them to believe it was firstly that in the Silver Mines, and in those of other Metals, one has never found a Quicksilver nor a Sulfur such as we see them and as Nature has produced them; and that, on the contrary, we only find them made as they are separately, and each in its particular Mine. Secondly because, they say, that one does not go from one extremity to the other without passing through a disposition which holds the middle (between these two extremities). And therefore, it is impossible (for a Matter) to pass from the softness of Quicksilver to the hardness of any of the Metals, except by an average arrangement between the softness of one and the hardness of the other. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. that one does not go from one extremity to the other without passing through a disposition which holds the middle (between these two extremities). And therefore, it is impossible (for a Matter) to pass from the softness of Quicksilver to the hardness of any of the Metals, except by an average arrangement between the softness of one and the hardness of the other. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. that one does not go from one extremity to the other without passing through a disposition which holds the middle (between these two extremities). And therefore, it is impossible (for a Matter) to pass from the softness of Quicksilver to the hardness of any of the Metals, except by an average arrangement between the softness of one and the hardness of the other. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. it is impossible (for a Matter) to pass from the softness of Quicksilver to the hardness of any of the Metals, except by an average arrangement between the softness of one and the hardness of the other. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. it is impossible (for a Matter) to pass from the softness of Quicksilver to the hardness of any of the Metals, except by an average arrangement between the softness of one and the hardness of the other. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way. Now in the Mines one does not find any Matter which has this consistency between the hard and the soft, and which participates equally in these two things. Whence they conclude that neither Quicksilver nor Sulfur are the Principles which Nature employs to form Metals; but that it must be something that is done by altering their Essence; which naturally changes into an earthly Substance. Which, according to them, is done in this way.
Quicksilver and Sulfur change first into a kind of Earth. And then, from these two terrestrial Substances, there issues a very subtle and very pure vapor by means of the heat reinforced in the entrails of the Earth, and this double vapor is next Matter, or the principle of Metals. For this vapor being cooked and digested by the temperate heat of the Mine, it becomes a certain kind of Earth, and by this means it becomes in some way fixed. After which the Mineral Water coming to flow through the Mine, and the pores of the Earth, it dissolves it and thus unites with it also, by a natural and solid union. They therefore say that the Water, which flows through the cavities of the Earth, coming to find an earthly Substance, easy to dissolve, it dissolves it and unites with it in equal proportion, until this Substance thus dissolved from the Earth, and the Water which flows therein and which dissolves it, do one and the same thing by a natural union, and until these two things are changed into a Metallic nature, in which all the Elements meet in a necessary proportion; being mixed and united therein by their smallest parts, until from this mixture there is made a uniform and homogeneous Substance. Then this mixture thickens and hardens into Metal, by a continual and long digestion of the heat of the Mines. This is their opinion, which is not quite in conformity with the truth, although it comes very close to it. and that these two things be changed into a Metallic nature, in which all the Elements meet in a necessary proportion; being mixed and united therein by their smallest parts, until from this mixture there is made a uniform and homogeneous Substance. Then this mixture thickens and hardens into Metal, by a continual and long digestion of the heat of the Mines. This is their opinion, which is not quite in conformity with the truth, although it comes very close to it. and that these two things be changed into a Metallic nature, in which all the Elements meet in a necessary proportion; being mixed and united therein by their smallest parts, until from this mixture there is made a uniform and homogeneous Substance. Then this mixture thickens and hardens into Metal, by a continual and long digestion of the heat of the Mines. This is their opinion, which is not quite in conformity with the truth, although it comes very close to it.


CHAPTER XXVII

Division of what is to be said of the three Principles.

We have said in general what are the natural Principles of Metals; it must now be dealt with in particular. Thus, as there are three Principles, we will make a Chapter of each, the first of which will be Sulphur, the second of Arsenic, and the third of Quicksilver. After which we will speak of the Metals, which are the effects, and which are formed from these Principles and we will all the same make a particular Chapter of each of them. And finally we will speak of the foundations and operations of the Magisterium, and we will declare their causes.


CHAPTER XXVIII

Sulphur.

Sulfur is a fat from the Earth which has been thickened in the Mines by means of moderate cooking, until it becomes hard and dry, and then it is called Sulphur. Now Sulfur has a very strong composition, and it is of a Substance which is similar and homogeneous in all its parts. This is why one cannot extract the oil from it by distillation, as one does with other things which have it. And those who undertake to calcine it without losing any of its substance which is useful and considerable lose their trouble, being able to be calcined only with great artifice, and (without) a great dissipation of its substance taking place. For out of a hundred pounds of Sulfur that will be calcined, barely three will be left after the calcination. Nor can it be fixed unless it has been calcined beforehand. Nevertheless, by mixing it with some other substance, one can prevent it from flying away and fleeing so quickly, and protect it from adustion. It will burn even when mixed. But if we wanted to draw from him the Matter of the Work, by preparing it by himself, we would not succeed. because it is perfected only when mixed with something else, and without it the Magisterium takes so long to complete that one is forced to abandon the Work. That if we join it with its equal, Arsenic, it changes into Tincture, and it gives to each Metal the weight of perfect Metals; he takes away his impurities, and he makes him resplendent. It is made perfect by means of the Magisterium, without which it can do nothing of all that I have just said on the contrary, it spoils and blackens the Bodies with which it is mixed. This is why it should never be used without the Magisterium.
But if, in the preparation, we can find the means of mixing it and joining it amicably to the Bodies, that is to say of uniting it so well with them that it can no longer be separated from them, we will discover by this means one of the great Secrets of Nature; and we will know one of the paths to perfection: because there are several paths which tend and lead to the same effect. However, there is one that is more perfect than the other.
Another effect of Sulfur is that it certainly increases the weight of whatever Metal is calcined with it, and that with Sulfur one can make Copper look like Gold. It also joins with Mercury. And if we sublimate them both together, we make Cinnabar. Finally, all bodies or metals are easily calcined with sulphur, except gold and tin; and the first even more difficult than the other. But it is not true that Sulfur can truly coagulate, and with some profit, Quicksilver in Sun and Moon, and that this is done easily and without much artifice, as some Fools have imagined. Nevertheless, Metals which have less Quicksilver, and consequently less moisture, are calcined more easily by Sulphur; and on the contrary, those who have a lot of Quicksilver or moisture, its also more difficult to calcine. But I protest by the most high God, that it is the Sulfur which illuminates, that is to say which gives luster, and which perfects all Bodies, or Metals; because he himself is Light and Tincture.
Sulfur has this more than it dissolves only with difficulty; because among its parts, there are none which are of the nature of Salt, having only oilseeds, which do not dissolve easily in Water. I will explain the reason hereafter in the Chapter of the Dissolvent, where I will show clearly what can be dissolved in Water, and what cannot be.
Moreover, the Sulfur sublimates itself, because it is a Spirit. If we mix it with Venus, and make a composition of the two, we make a very beautiful violet color. It mingles all the same with Mercury. and by cooking it makes a very agreeable Azur. It should not however be imagined for that that the Sulfur can itself be used to make the Work of the Philosophers. For that would be an error, as I will make clear in what follows. To choose it, it must be solid and clear. That's enough for Sulphur.


CHAPTER XXIX

Arsenic.

Arsenic is made all the same of a subtle Matter, and it is very similar to Sulphur. This is why it should not be defined otherwise. There is, however, this difference between them, that Arsenic easily gives the white Tincture, and with great difficulty the red; whereas Sulfur easily tints red, and with difficulty white. Now there are two kinds of Sulfur and Arsenic; one which is yellow and the other red, which both serve our Art, the other species being useless there. Arsenic is fixed like Sulphur; but both sublimate better if they are mixed with metals reduced to lime. But neither Sulfur nor Arsenic is the Matter that gives perfection to our Work, because they are not perfect to be able to give perfection. They can nevertheless contribute to it with conditions.


CHAPTER XXX

Quicksilver.

Quicksilver, which according to the usage of the Ancients is otherwise called Mercury, is a viscous Water, made of a very subtle sulphurous white Earth, and of a very clear Water, which have been cooked and digested in the bowels of the Earth by the natural heat of the Mines, and mixed and united very exactly in their least parts, until the Humidity has been equally tempered by the Dry, and the Dry by the Hum. idea. This is why it flows very easily over an equal and smooth surface, because of the fluidity and humidity of its Water: and it does not attach itself to what it touches, although its matter is viscous and sticky; because the dryness that is enclosed in it tempers this humidity and prevents it from attaching itself to what it touches. It is he who, according to the opinion of some ancients, being joined with Sulphur, is the Matter of Metals. It attaches easily to Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun; more difficult to the Moon, and more difficult still to Venus than to the Moon, but never to Mars, except by artifice; and from there one can discover a great secret. For it is a friend of the Metals, and being of their nature, it easily unites with them, and it serves as a means or medium to join the Tinctures: And there is only Gold alone which goes to the bottom of Mercury, and which is drowned in it. It dissolves Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and Venus, and these Metals mingle with it, and without it no Metal can be gilded. It fixes itself, and it becomes a Tincture of a very exuberant redness, to perfect the imperfect Bodies, and of a very great splendor: And it never separates from the Body to which it is joined, while it remains in its nature.


CHAPTER XXXI

Of the Effects of the Natural Principles, which are the Metallic Bodies.

We have now to speak of the Metallic Bodies, which are the effects, and which are formed from these Principles. There are six in all: Gold, Silver, Lead, Tin, Brass or Copper, and Iron. Metal is a fusible mineral body, forging and expanding under the hammer in any dimension. It is of a tight substance, and of a very strong and firm composition. The Metals have great affinity between them. The perfect, however, do not communicate perfection to the imperfect, being mingled with them. For example, if one mixes Lead with Gold, when these two Metals are in fusion, the Lead will not become Gold by this mixture. Because by putting after this Composition in the fire, the Lead will separate from the Gold and will be consumed, partly by evaporation, and partly by adustion, the Gold remaining entirely in this Operation which is one of its tests. It is the same with the other Imperfect Metals, according to the ordinary way of Nature. But it is not so in our Magisterium, where the Perfect helps and perfects the Imperfect, and where the Imperfect receives perfection from itself, without anything extraneous being added to it, and where finally the Imperfect is still raised to perfection by our same Magisterium. And I call God to witness that in this Magisterium the Perfect and the Imperfect change and perfect each other; that they are changed and perfected one by the other, and that each of them perfects itself, without the aid of any other. where the Perfect helps and perfects the Imperfect, and where the Imperfect receives perfection from itself, without anything extraneous being added to it, and where finally the Imperfect is still raised to perfection by our same Magisterium. And I call God to witness that in this Magisterium the Perfect and the Imperfect change and perfect each other; that they are changed and perfected one by the other, and that each of them perfects itself, without the aid of any other. where the Perfect helps and perfects the Imperfect, and where the Imperfect receives perfection from itself, without anything extraneous being added to it, and where finally the Imperfect is still raised to perfection by our same Magisterium. And I call God to witness that in this Magisterium the Perfect and the Imperfect change and perfect each other; that they are changed and perfected one by the other, and that each of them perfects itself, without the aid of any other.



CHAPTER XXXII

Sun or Gold.

We have spoken in general of Bodies, or of Metals; it is now necessary to make a Discourse particular to each of them. Let's start with Gold. Gold is a heavy yellow metallic body, which has no sound, and very brilliant, which has also been digested in the Mine and washed for a long time by a mineral Water, which extends under the hammer, which melts by the heat of the fire, and which, without being diminished, suffers the Cup and the Cement. This is the Definition of Gold, from which it must be inferred that nothing should be meant. Now, if it does not have all the Causes and Differences or Properties which are contained in this Definition, it is nevertheless certain that what can truly and radically give the Tincture, the uniformity and the purity of Gold to any Metal whatsoever, can generally of all Metals make Gold of it. And I noticed that Copper, having been converted into Gold by an effect of Nature, it follows that it can also be so by artifice. For I have seen in the Copper Mines, whence flowed Water which, carrying with it very loose flakes of Copper, and having washed and cleaned them continually and for a long time; this Water then coming to dry up, and these flakes having remained three years or so in very dry Sand, I recognized, I say, that these flakes were cooked and digested by the heat of the Sun, and I found among these same flakes very pure Gold. Which made me believe that having been cleansed by the flowing Water, and then also digested by the heat of the Sun, in the dryness of the Sand, they had acquired the homogeneity and uniformity which we see that Gold has in all its parts.
Gold is still the most precious of all Metals, and it is gold which gives the red Tincture, because it communicates its Tincture and its perfection to all the other metallic Bodies. It is calcined, and even dissolved; but this is done without any use, and it is a Medicine which rejoices and preserves the Body in the vigor of youth. Gold breaks and breaks to pieces easily, if mixed with Mercury; the smell of Lead also has the same effect. Of all the Metals there are none which effectively approach its Substance than Jupiter and the Moon, nor which mingle better with it. Saturn resembles it in weight, and in that it has no sound, no. more than him, and that he is as good as him free from rust and rot. Venus approaches more Gold by Color, as it is still more like him in power; and after it the Moon, then Jupiter and Saturn, and finally Mars least of all. And therein lies one of Nature's secrets. Spirits can also be mixed and united with Gold, and it makes them fixed by a great artifice, which will never fall into the mind of a Man who will have a sure intelligence and who will be stupefied.


CHAPTER XXXIII

Of the Moon or Silver.

The Moon, ordinarily called Silver, is a white Metallic Body of pure whiteness, which is sharp, hard, ringing, which suffers the Cupel, which extends under the hammer, and which is fusible by the heat of the fire. The Moon is therefore the Tincture of whiteness. She hardens Jupiter, and by artifice she changes him into his nature. It mingles with the Sun, without making it sour or brittle, but unless one knows its artifice, it does not remain with it in all trials. Who could nevertheless subtle it, then thicken it and fix it, then uniting it to Gold, it remains with it in the fire, and it is no longer separated from it at all. It is put on the juice of acids, such as vinegar, salt ammonia and verjuice, and a very beautiful celestial blue is made of it. Silver is a very noble Body, but it is less so than Gold. It has its particular and separate Mine, although sometimes it is found in the Mines of other Metals; but that Silver is not so good as the other. It can be calcined and dissolved by great labor, but it can be of no avail.


CHAPTER XXXIV

From Saturn or Lead.

Lead is a blackish, metallic, terrestrial, heavy body, which has no sound, and very little whiteness, but a lot of lividity, which suffers neither Cup nor Cement, which is soft and easy to spread on the hammer, without much effort; and finally which melts easily without igniting beforehand,. nor blush in the fire. Some ignoramuses imagine that by its nature lead approaches gold, and that it is very similar to it; but they are People who have neither sense nor understanding, and who cannot of themselves discover any truth, nor infer it from things which are a little subtle: thus they judge only according to their sense, and according to external appearances. Because what obliges them to believe that there is a great affinity between this Metal and Gold is that they see that it is very heavy, that it has no sound, nor does it rot any more than gold. But they are manifestly mistaken in this; as we will see next. Lead has a lot of earthiness; therefore it is washed, and by this means it is changed into Tin. Which shows that Tin is closer than him to perfection. One burns Lead, and it becomes Minium, and by putting it on the vapor of Vinegar, it becomes White Lead; and although it is very far from perfection, it nevertheless changes very easily into Silver by our Art, and in the transmutation which is made of it, it does not retain the same weight that it had when it was Lead: but its weight diminishes, and it is reduced to the true weight of Silver, and this is done by means of the Magisterium. Lead is also used to test the Silver in the Cup, we will explain the reason for this below.


CHAPTER XXXV

From Jupiter or Tin.

Pewter is a white Metallic Body of an impure whiteness, livid, a little ringing, participating in a little earthiness, which radically has the Jack in itself. It is soft, and melts easily and suddenly without reddening in the fire; it suffers neither the Cup nor the Cement, and extends in all dimensions under the hammer; so that it can be cut into very loose leaves. Jupiter, therefore, of all the imperfect bodies or metals, is the one which has the most natural resemblance to the perfect bodies, and which comes closest to the Sun and the Moon. But yet more of the Moon than of the Sun, as I will make clear below. Moreover, as this Metal has received a lot of whiteness through the Principles of its composition, this causes it to whiten the other Bodies or Metals which are not white. It nevertheless has this defect that it makes sour and brittle the Bodies to which it is joined, except Saturn and the very pure Sun. Jupiter still has this property, that it attaches itself strongly to the Sun and the Moon. This is why fi is not easily separated from it in trials. In the Transmutation which is made of it by our Magisterium, it receives a red Tincture, which makes it very brilliant, and it acquires the true weight of Gold. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. apart from Saturn and the very pure Sun. Jupiter still has this property, that it attaches itself strongly to the Sun and the Moon. This is why fi is not easily separated from it in trials. In the Transmutation which is made of it by our Magisterium, it receives a red Tincture, which makes it very brilliant, and it acquires the true weight of Gold. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. apart from Saturn and the very pure Sun. Jupiter still has this property, that it attaches itself strongly to the Sun and the Moon. This is why fi is not easily separated from it in trials. In the Transmutation which is made of it by our Magisterium, it receives a red Tincture, which makes it very brilliant, and it acquires the true weight of Gold. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. This is why fi is not easily separated from it in trials. In the Transmutation which is made of it by our Magisterium, it receives a red Tincture, which makes it very brilliant, and it acquires the true weight of Gold. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. This is why fi is not easily separated from it in trials. In the Transmutation which is made of it by our Magisterium, it receives a red Tincture, which makes it very brilliant, and it acquires the true weight of Gold. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them. It can be hardened and purified more easily than Saturn, as I will say next. And who would know the Secret of taking away from him the defect he has of making sour and brittle (the Metals with which he is mixed), he would have an infallible means of becoming rich soon. Because having a great affinity with the Sun and the Moon, it would become attached to them, without ever being able to be separated from them.



CHAPTER XXXVI

From Venus or Copper.

Venus is a livid metallic Body, which bears much of an obscure redness, which reddens in the fire, extends under the hammer, resounds strongly, and suffers neither Cup nor Cement. Venus therefore contains in appearance, in the depth of her Substance, the color and the essence of Gold. It is forged and ignited without melting, as silver and gold do. From which we can derive a Secret. For it is the middle of the Sun and the Moon; it is easily changed into one or the other of these two Metals, and the transmutation which is made of it is very good, without much waste, and is easy to do. She has a very great affinity with the Tutie, which gives her a good color of Gold; where you can profit from. And since it does not need to be hardened to be able to blush in the fire without melting, one must use it rather than the other Metals, in the small Work and in the average (of which it will be spoken in the second Book), but not in the large one. It nevertheless has a defect, which Jupiter does not have, which is that it easily becomes livid, and that acrid and acid things stain it. And it's no small trick to be able to remove that flaw from her, so deeply rooted is it in her.


CHAPTER XXXVII

Of Mars or Iron.

Mars or Iron is a very livid metallic body, which has little redness, which partakes of an impure whiteness, which is hard and inflammable, which is not fuseable at least by fusion, which is done directly (or without addition), which is malleable, and which has a lot of sound. But Iron is hard work (and difficult to work with), because it cannot be melted. That if we melt it without adding the Medicine which changes its nature, we will join it to the Sun and the Moon, and it cannot be separated from them by any test whatsoever, except with great artifice. That if we prepare it before joining it (to the imperfect bodies), we can no longer find a way to separate it; provided that, without changing its nature and its fixity, only the impurities it has are removed. It can therefore easily be used as a Dye for red, but hardly for white; and if we mix it with the Sun and the Moon, it does not change their color; on the contrary, it increases it in quantity.


CHAPTER XXXVIII

On the difference of the Imperfect Metals with respect to perfection.

From what we have just said, it is evident that of all the imperfect bodies, Jupiter is the most dazzling, the most luminous, and has the most perfection. Thus, in the transmutation, it changes into Sun and Moon with much less waste than not one. But though the work that is made of it is not difficult to do, yet the work is long, because it melts very quickly. After Jupiter, Venus transmutes most perfectly. It is nevertheless difficult to handle: but the work is rather made of it than that of Jupiter. Saturn comes next, because it does not transmute so well or so perfectly as Venus; yet it handles very easily, but the work done on it lasts a very long time, and takes a long time to do. Finally Mars is that of all the Imperfect Metals which is transmuted with the most waste, who is the hardest to handle, and the one whose work lasts the longest. The less, therefore, the imperfect bodies have the disposition to be quickly melted, such as Venus and Mars, the more difficult they are to be transmuted. And those who blend more easily receive transmutation very easily. Those also who are more livid, more impure, and who have the most earthly filth, are transmuted with more difficulty, and receive the least perfection. Now all the differences of perfections which we have just noticed are found in the least and the middle Work only: for in the Great Work, all the perfections are equal; that is to say that the Imperfect Metals, which are transmuted, all receive the same and equal perfection, although they are not as easily and as completely transmuted as each other, as we have just seen. It remains to say what is the disposition, in the Imperfect Metals, which makes some of them easier to handle than others, and that the work is either longer or shorter.
We have spoken of the Natural Principles of Metallic Bodies, and we have treated of each of these Principles and Bodies separately in as many particular Chapters, and we have advanced nothing which is not in conformity with the feeling and the doctrine of those who have penetrated into the depths of nature, and who have seen it uncovered, and which we have not learned and tested by the long and laborious experiments which we have made of it. It now remains, for the accomplishment of this Work, to explain in order, in this last Part, all the Principles of the Magisterium, and to discover the perfection which we have seen, and to declare the Causes thereof.

End of the third part.



FOURTH AND FINAL PART OF THE FIRST BOOK

Which treats of the artificial Principles of Art.


CHAPTER XXXIX

Division of the things contained in this Part, where it is spoken in passing of the perfection, of which it will be treated in the second book.

We have two things to do in this last Part. Firstly to speak of the (artificial) Principles of the Magisterium, and secondly of perfection. These Principles are the various Operations which the Artist uses to make the Magisterium. There are several kinds, for Sublimation, Descension, Distillation, Coagulation, Fixation, and Ceration, are so many particular Operations, and they are all different from one another. We will deal with each separately. As for perfection; it consists in having the knowledge of several things: first of those by means of which one can perfect the Work; secondly of those which contribute to perfection; then of the very thing which gives the ultimate perfection. And finally things by means of which we know if the Magisterium has all the perfection it should have, or if it does not. The things by which one arrives at the accomplishment of the Work consist in a manifest Substance, in the likewise manifest colors, and in the Weights of each of the Bodies (or Metals) which must be transmuted, and of those which must not receive transmutation, considering them in the Root of their nature; I mean as they are naturally, without any artifice; and considering them also in their Root, such as they can become by artifice; by considering again the Principles of these same Bodies, according to their depth, and such as they are in their interior; and according to their manifest or outward, as they are in their nature, both without artifice and by artifice. For if we did not know the Bodies and their Principles in the depths, and in the exterior of their nature, such as they can be by artifice, and such as they are without artifice, we would not know what is superfluous in them, nor what approaches them to perfection, nor what distances them from it; and thus one could never arrive at the perfection of their transmutation.
The consideration of the things which help to perfection consists in knowing, first, the nature of the things which we see by themselves and without artifice attaching themselves to the Body, and causing some change in it, as are Marcasite, Magnesia, Tutia, Antimony and Lazuli Stone. Secondly to know what cleanses the Bodies, without however attaching oneself to it, such as are the Salts, the Alums, the Nitres, the Borax and all the other things which are of the same nature. And finally to know the vitrification, which purifies and cleans by the resemblance of nature.
With regard to what makes perfection, it consists in the choice of pure Substance, it is a Matter which took its origin from the Matter of Quicksilver, and which was produced from it. This matter, however, is not Quicksilver in its nature, or such as it is naturally, nor in all its Substance; but that's only part of it. Still, it is not a part of the Argent-vive to take it as it is presently, that is to say when it comes out of the Mine, but when our Stone is made. For it is our Stone which illuminates and which prevents the imperfect Metals from being burned, and from fleeing from the fire, which is a mark of perfection.
Finally, what makes known whether the Magisterium has or does not have all its perfection, consists in the tests that are made by the Cup, by the Cement, by the ignition, by the exposure that one makes of the transmuted Metal on the vapor of the Acids, by the Extinction, by the addition or the mixture of the Sulfur which burns the Bodies; by the Reduction which is made of Bodies (in their own nature) after having been calcined; and finally by the ease or the difficulty that the Corps have in attaching themselves to quicksilver. We are going to explain all these things, with their Causes, and with easy experiments, whereby it will be known that in all that I have said, I have said nothing that is not true. Because these experiences will be so obvious that there will be no one who will disagree.

CHAPTER XL

Of Sublimation in general, and why it was invented.

The reason for which Sublimation was imagined and invented was because neither the Ancients nor we have found anything, and those who will come after us will never be able to find anything that can unite with bodies except Spirits, or at least that which has the nature of Body and Spirit together. no perfect color, or corrupt them entirely, and burn them, and blacken them. And this more or less according to the diversity of the Spirits. For there are Spirits which burn and blacken, such as Sulphur, Arsenic and Marcasite; and those corrupt and completely defile the Bodies. And there are others that don't burn but are volatile, and which flee by the heat, such as are all kinds of Tuties and Quicksilver. And those only give Bodies imperfect Colors. Here are the reasons. The first kind of Spirits burn and blacken (the Bodies on which they are projected), or because they have not been deprived of their adustive and burning oiliness which is easily inflamed, and consequently which blackens; or because they have been left their earthiness, which darkens all the same. And what makes the second kind of Spirits not give a Color which is perfect, is the only earthiness (which has not been taken from them), and which gives the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. And those only give Bodies imperfect Colors. Here are the reasons. The first kind of Spirits burn and blacken (the Bodies on which they are projected), or because they have not been deprived of their adustive and burning oiliness which is easily inflamed, and consequently which blackens; or because they have been left their earthiness, which darkens all the same. And what makes the second kind of Spirits not give a Color which is perfect, is the only earthiness (which has not been taken from them), and which gives the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. And those only give Bodies imperfect Colors. Here are the reasons. The first kind of Spirits burn and blacken (the Bodies on which they are projected), or because they have not been deprived of their adustive and burning oiliness which is easily inflamed, and consequently which blackens; or because they have been left their earthiness, which darkens all the same. And what makes the second kind of Spirits not give a Color which is perfect, is the only earthiness (which has not been taken from them), and which gives the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. or because they have not been deprived of their adustive and burning unctuosity, which catches fire easily, and consequently turns black; or because they have been left their earthiness, which darkens all the same. And what makes the second kind of Spirits not give a Color which is perfect, is the only earthiness (which has not been taken from them), and which gives the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. or because they have not been deprived of their adustive and burning unctuosity, which catches fire easily, and consequently turns black; or because they have been left their earthiness, which darkens all the same. And what makes the second kind of Spirits not give a Color which is perfect, is the only earthiness (which has not been taken from them), and which gives the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. and which gives to the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect. and which gives to the Bodies a livid and blackish Color, when it is projected on them. Adustion also has the same effect.
To avoid these inconveniences, the Chemists have devised a means of removing oiliness (which is what causes adustion) from the Spirits who have it, and of removing from all Spirits in general the earthly faeces which cause this livid color. What they could not do by any other operation than by Sublimation alone. For fire, in elevating spirits, when one sublimates them, always elevates their most subtle parts. And therefore the coarser parts remain in the bottom of the vessel. Which obviously shows that Sublimation purifies the Spirits, by separating from them the earthiness which prevented them from entering; that is to say, they could not penetrate the Bodies, and which was the cause of the imperfect and impure color that these Spirits communicated to them. Now we clearly see that by Sublimation the spirits are stripped of this earthiness; because having been sublimated, they are more resplendent and more diaphanous; that they enter and penetrate with more facility in the thickness of the Bodies, and that they do not print an unpleasant color to them, as they made before having been sublimated. It is also evident that Sublimation removes the Adustion from the Spirits because the Arsenic, which, before being sublimated, was bad and immediately caught fire; after having been, it no longer ignites: but being put on the fire, it evaporates without burning. What is done all the same in the Sulphur, as one will find it, if one wants to test it. Chemists having therefore noticed that there were only spirits alone which, by attaching themselves to bodies and penetrating them, can change and alter them; and having found nothing that they could substitute for the Spirits, and with which they could have the same effect, it was necessary to prepare and purify them by Sublimation, having only this Operation which could do so. And therefore that was the cause for which it was invented. We are now going to say what it is, and how it is done, without omitting anything.


CHAPTER XLI

What Sublimation is. how is that of sulfur and arsenic made, and of the three degrees of fire which must be observed in it.

Sublimation is the raising of a dry thing by fire, so that it attaches itself to the vessel. There are various kinds, according to the difference of the Spirits that one must sublimate. For one is made with a strong ignition, or inflammation of the (Vessel and Matter), the other with a mediocre fire; and the other finally by a slow and gentle fire. Sulfur and Arsenic must be sublimated in this latter way. For as they have two kinds of parts, the one very subtle, and the other gross, all of which are joined together equally and very strongly, if these two kinds of Spirits were to be sublimated by a violent fire, all their Substance would rise without any separation of their subtle parts from the gross; it would even rise not only without being purified, but still being all black and burnt. In order therefore to be able to separate the earthly and impure Substance of these Spirits from the subtle part, it is necessary to use two means. The first is to have a well-proportioned diet of fire, and the other is to purify these two Spirits by mixing them with faeces, because the faeces with which they are mixed (having previously ground the whole thing into powder) cling to the coarser parts and retain them with them, sunken in the bottom of the Aludel (i.e. Sublimation Vessel) and prevent them from rising. This is why the Artist must use three different degrees of fire for the Sublimation of these Spirits. The former must be proportioned so that only what has been altered, purified, and made more lucid, rises, and that we clearly see that what rises is effectively purified and cleansed by the earthly faeces that we have mixed with it. The second degree of fire consists in raising and sublimating by a stronger fire all that is of pure Substance, which, in the first Sublimation, remained involved in the faeces, so that the Aludel and the faeces themselves redden, which the Artist will notice visibly. The third degree is to make a very gentle fire, without mixing any more faeces with what has already been sublimated and purified by their means and their mixture in the preceding Sublimations; so that almost nothing rises from it, and what will rise by this degree of fire is very subtle. Which is an absolutely useless thing in the Work, because it is that which in Arsenic and Sulfur causes them to ignite and burn.
Besides, it is easy to show that what is most subtle is what renders adustible, or causes adustion. For fire easily changes in its nature all that is like it. Now in all things that are adustible, that is to say, things that burn easily, all that is subtle in them is more like fire, and that which is still more subtle is still more like it: And consequently, what will be very subtle will also be much more so. Experience proves it all the same. For Sulfur and Arsenic, which have not been sublimated, inflame and catch fire first, and Sulfur still rather than Arsenic; but when they have been sublimated, they no longer ignite directly, that is to say by themselves; but they melt and liquefy, then they evaporate and exhale without igniting.



CHAPTER XLII

Of the Feces of the Metallic Bodies, which must be added to the Spirits to sublimate them, and what must be their quantity and their quality.

It is necessary to take the faeces of a Matter which has the most relation with the Spirits which one wishes to sublimate and with which they can mingle better and more intimately; because a Matter, to which the Spirits will unite more exactly, will retain their faeces and their earthiness much better when they are sublimated, than another which would have no affinity with them. And the reason is pretty self-evident. It is, moreover, easy to show that it is necessary to mix faeces in the Sublimation of Spirits; because if Sulfur and Arsenic were sublimated with the faeces of something fixed, their Substance would necessarily sublimate entirely without being purified and without any separation of the pure from the impure, as those who have experienced it know. Now that the faeces must have a relation with these two spirits, and that they mingle together exactly and in all their substance, the reason is because if this mixture did not take place in this way, it would be better not to add anything to it: because the substance of the spirits would rise and sublimate entirely, without there being any separation of the pure from the impure, and without being in any way purified. For since when one sublimates these Spirits without mixing them with the faeces, their Substance rises and is all sublimated, the same thing would also have to happen by sublimating them with faeces with which they would not be perfectly mixed. I speak of it as learned, and as having seen it by experience. For having made my Sublimation without adding faeces to it, or by putting any in it, without the spirits uniting with them even in the depths, I lost my trouble, not having found that the spirits had been purified after having been sublimated in this way. But having sublimated them afterwards with the Lime of some Metallic Body, my Operation succeeded well, and I found that these Spirits had been easily and perfectly purified by this means. The faeces must therefore be taken from the Lime of Metals, because with these Limes, Sublimation is easily done, and it is very difficult to do with anything else whatsoever. There is therefore nothing that can be used instead of these faeces or these limes. It is not that Sublimation cannot absolutely be done without the Lime of the Bodies, but I can assure you that without that it is very difficult, and of a work to despair those who will do it, because of its length. It is true that Sublimation which is done without faeces and without any Lime of the Bodies has this advantage that it is more abundant, whereas it is still much less with Limes. But also there is not so much trouble, and it does not take so long to do it.
After Lime of Bodies, there is nothing more usefully used in Sublimation than prepared Salts, and all that is of the same nature as them. Because with the Salts, the Sublimation is very abundant, and one very easily separates what has been sublimated from the faeces and from the Salts, because these dissolve, which nothing else does that is used as an interlude.
As for the proportion of the faeces, they must be put in equal quantity, that is to say weight for weight, with what must be sublimated. But it will suffice for an Artist, who will know his profession even a little, to put only half the faeces in proportion to what he will sublimate. And he'll do a clever Man wrong if he's wrong. But an expert Artist will put only a very small portion of faeces, with respect to what he must sublimate: because the less there will be, the more abundant will be the Sublimation, provided however that the fire is reduced in proportion to the diminution of the faeces. For it is necessary to give fire in the Sublimation, in proportion to the faeces. So you have to make the fire low, when there is little faeces, and increase it if there is more, and make it strong when there is a lot.
But because one cannot measure fire, and a Man, who is not an Artist, can easily be mistaken in it, as much because of the various proportion of the faeces (which one must observe) as because of the difference of the Furnaces, and of the wood which one uses, and even of the diversity of the Vessels, and of the manner of adjusting them in the Furnace: which are things to which the Artist must carefully take heed. Here is a general rule that one must follow for all this. You must first make a very gentle fire, to draw out all the phlegm in what you want to sublimate. After which, if by this first degree of fire we see that something other than phlegm has risen, the fire should not be increased suddenly, but little by little, in order to be able to draw, by the same degree of very gentle fire, the most subtle part of Matter which one sublimates, and which must either be set aside or thrown away, because that is what causes the adustion. And it will be necessary to increase the fire when it has risen somewhat from this subtle part, or at least a quantity which is not considerable. To know it, one will only have to pass a strip of cloth or a tube wrapped in silk or wool, through the hole at the top of the Aludel. For if only a little sticks to the tongue, or if what sticks to it is very pure, it will be a sign that the fire is too soft, and that it must be increased. That if, on the contrary, a lot of it clings to it, or if what will cling to it is impure, it is a sign that the fire is too strong, and that it must be diminished. But if he clings to a lot of it, and pure good, we will have found the true degree of fire, according to the proportion of faeces. Now we will know, by removing the tongue of the Aludel if what sublimates is pure or impure: As of the quantity and the purity or the impurity of what will be attached to it, we can easily imagine finding there what must be the true regime of fire in all Sublimation without being able to be mistaken.
With regard to the nature of the faeces, which one must use for the Sublimation, the best are the Scales or Flakes of Iron, or else of Burned Copper, which are commonly called (Æs Ustum) because having less humidity, they drink Sulfur and Arsenic more easily, and attach themselves more strongly to them, as those who have experienced it know.


CHAPTER XLIII

Mistakes that can be made, and that must be avoided, with regard to the quantity of faeces and the disposition of the Furnace by sublimating Sulfur and arsenic. Of the manner of making the Fourneaux, and of what wood one must use.

In order, therefore, that the Artist avoid all the faults he might make out of ignorance in sublimating these two Spirits, I first warn him that if he mixes in them a lot of faeces, nothing of the Spirit will sublimate, unless he increases the fire in proportion, as I have already said in teaching how to proportion the fire well. That if there is very little faeces or that these faeces are not lime of the Metals, and if it fails to find the proportion of the fire, the Spirits, which one wants to sublimate, will all rise such as they are, without being in any way purified. I still taught the way to find this proportion. One can still miss by the Fourneau. For a great Furnace makes a great fire, and if it is small, it makes a small one, provided that the wood that is put in it, and that the Registers (or the holes) that are made in the Furnaces to give air, be made in proportion. So if we put a lot of Matter to sublimate on a small Furnace, it would not give enough heat to be able to raise it. And if you put a little in a big Furnace, the too big fire would dissipate all the Matter, and reduce it to smoke. Similarly, when the Furnace is very thick, it makes a strong tight fire, and if it is thin, the fire is rare and weak; and in this one can also be mistaken. If the Logs of the Furnace are large, it will make a bright and large fire, and the fire will be weak if they are small. Likewise, when the Vessel is landed, if there is a large distance between it and the sides of the Furnace, it will make a large fire, which will be less if there is less space between them.
To avoid them, the Artist must make his Furnace conform to the degree of fire he wants to give. Thus, if he wants to make a strong and violent fire, he must make his Furnace thick with large Registers, and so wide that he has a large space between his Sublimation Vessel and the sides of the Furnace. That if he wants his fire to be mediocre or weak, he must give all these things a more mediocre and smaller extent.
I will teach you the way to find all these proportions, and the one that will be the most suitable for whatever Operation you want to do, and I will tell you how you must experience it to be sure.
So if you want to make a great Sublimation, you must have an Aludel so big that all the Matter you put in the bottom of your Vessel only takes up a span of height. You will then put this Aludel in a Furnace so wide that, the Vessel being placed in the middle, there is at least two inches of distance between it and the sides of the Furnace, in which it will be necessary to make holes, or Registers, which are spaced equally, so that the heat is communicated equally everywhere. Afterwards you shall put an inch thick iron bar in the middle of the Furnace, which shall be strongly supported on both sides and raised above the bottom of the Furnace by a good span, on which you shall place your Aludel, which you shall join from space to space to the Furnace, so that it may be firmer. So make a fire, and take care if the smoke comes out well, and if the flame goes freely through all the Furnace, and if it is all around the Aludel. For if so, it will be a mark that the proportion is well observed; otherwise the proportion is not good, and the Registers will have to be enlarged. After which, if the operation is done better, it will be fine that way; otherwise the fault will come from the fact that there will not be enough interval between the Fourneau and the Aludel. Thus it will be necessary to rake the sides of the Furnace, to give more opening and day; then try what it will do by continuing to rake the sides of the Furnace and enlarge the Registers until there is no smoke left within, the flame appears clear around the Aludel, and the smoke issues freely through the Registers. This instruction is enough, whatever quantity of Matter that one wants to sublimate,
As for the thickness of the Furnace, it depends on the fire you want to make there. Because if your fire must be large, the Furnace must have more thickness; and this thickness must always be of a good span. That if the fire is mediocre, the Furnace will be thick enough the breadth of your hand. And if the fire is small, it will suffice that the Furnace be two inches thick. This same proportion must still take wood which the Artist uses. For solid, tight wood makes a strong fire, which lasts a long time. The one that is spongy and light makes a weak fire that does not last long. The dry wood makes a big fire, but it does not last long. Green wood, on the contrary, makes the fire weak and lasts a long time.
It is therefore by the space between the Aludel and the sides of the Furnace, by the size and the smallness of the Registers, by the thickness or the delicacy of the walls of the Furnace, and by the diversity of the wood, that we will truly know the various regimes and the different degrees of fire. As it will be from the opening, large or small, as well of the Registers as of the Doors, by which one puts the wood in the Furnace, and of the quantity and difference of the wood which one uses, that one will know what must be precisely the duration of the fire, and how much each kind of fire will also last, in the same degree. Which is very necessary and of great use to the Artist; because this knowledge will save him more trouble than you can imagine. This is why we must put into practice, and experience all that we have just said; only practice and exercise can make a Man skilful and expert in all these things.

CHAPTER XLIV

What material and what shape the Aludel should be.

To have a good Aludel, or Sublimatory Vessel, it must be made of glass and very thick. For it would not be good of any other material, having only glass which is capable of retaining the spirits, preventing them from exhaling and being consumed by fire; because glass has no pores; whereas other matters being porous, the spirits come out and leave little by little through their pores. Metals themselves are worthless in making these sorts of Vessels; because the spirits having a great affinity with them, they penetrate them, attach themselves to them, and consequently pass easily through everything, as one must infer from what we have said above, and as experience shows. Whence it follows that there is no other matter than glass alone,
It is therefore necessary to make a Cucurbite of glass which is round, whose bottom is not very rounded, but almost flat, in the middle of which R must be made a circle or belt of glass outside, which surrounds it all around; and on this circle it is necessary to raise a round wall, which protrudes as much inside as the lid of the Cucurbite has thickness; so that in this space the cover can enter at ease and without difficulty, and this cover must have as much height or approximately, as has the wall of the Cucurbite above the circle. Moreover, it is necessary to make two lids in proportion to the concavity of these two walls, which are equal, of the size of a span, which are made in point or in pyramid; at the top of each of which there are two equal holes, and large enough to fit a large hen's feather, as will be seen more clearly by what I will say hereafter. Now the reason in general for which one must make the Aludel in the way I have just said, is so that the Artist can turn and move the lid of it, as he pleases; and that these two parts join so exactly one to the other, that if it is necessary that they remain without being fought, the Spirits for that cannot leave there; that if someone can imagine something better and cleaner (to do this Operation), what I teach here must not prevent him from using it. as he pleases; and that these two parts join so exactly one to the other, that if it is necessary that they remain without being fought, the Spirits for that cannot leave there; that if someone can imagine something better and cleaner (to do this Operation), what I teach here must not prevent him from using it. as he pleases; and that these two parts join so exactly one to the other, that if it is necessary that they remain without being fought, the Spirits for that cannot leave there; that if someone can imagine something better and cleaner (to do this Operation), what I teach here must not prevent him from using it.
There is still another particular reason which obliges us to do the Aludel as I have said; that is, so that the upper part of the Cucurbite (that is, all that is above the glass belt) enters entirely into its cover, and so that the Cucurbite thus enters it halfway. For smoke having this characteristic that it always rises and never descends; I believe I have found in this the best means one can imagine to prevent the spirits from escaping and dissipating; which by experience will be found to be true.
For the rest, there is a general maxim which must be observed in all Sublimations, which is that the top of the lid of the Aludel must be cleaned and emptied very often, removing what has risen, lest if too much Matter were assembled there, it would fall back into the bottom of the Vessel; and that thus, as it would be necessary to begin again often, the Sublimation would not take too long to be made. It is also necessary to take care to remove and set aside the Powder which will have risen, and which will be near the hole which is at the top of the lid, and not to mix it with what will be melted and piled up in lumps, and with what will be clear and transparent; whether it remained at the bottom, or whether it rose, and whether it attached itself to the sides of the Vessel:
Moreover, we will know that the Sublimation will be good and well done if the sublimated Matter is clear and shiny, and if it does not burn or catch fire. This is how the Sublimation of Sulfur and Arsenic must be done to be perfect. That if one does not find Matter as we have just said, it will be necessary to resublimate it by itself (that is to say without mixing anything with it), by observing all the circumstances that we have marked, until it is in the way that we have said.


CHAPTER XLV

Of the Sublimation of Mercury.

We have now to speak of the Sublimation of Quicksilver, and to say why it should be done. This Sublimation consists only in perfectly purging the Quicksilver of its earthiness, and in removing from it its wateriness or superfluous humidity. Because having no adustion (that is to say, not being able to burn),. we must not trouble ourselves to take it away from him.
The best way there is to separate the superfluous earthiness from the Quicksilver is to mix it with faeces, or with things with which it has no affinity. For this purpose we will use, for example, all kinds of Talc, or calcined egg shells, or very fine crushed glass, and all kinds of salts, after having prepared (or decrepit) them. Because all this cleans and purges it very well. Whereas all that has affinity with it, except for perfect bodies, not only does not cleanse it, but corrupts it and blackens it; because they are things which all have a combustible Sulphur, which, in the Sublimation, coming to rise with the Quicksilver, spoils and corrupts it. This is clearly seen by experience. Because if we sublimate Mercury with Tin or Lead, it will be found that this Sublimation will have made it all black. It is therefore better to sublimate it with that which has no natural resemblance to it, than with things which are similar to it. It is nevertheless true that if these things had no bad Sulphur, the Sublimation of Quicksilver would be done better with them than with all the others: because, as it would unite better with them, they would also cleanse it much better. Thus Talc is the best interlude, or means that one can employ to sublimate Mercury, because these two Matters have no affinity, and moreover Talc has no Sulphur. It is nevertheless true that if these things had no bad Sulphur, the Sublimation of Quicksilver would be done better with them than with all the others: because, as it would unite better with them, they would also cleanse it much better. Thus Talc is the best interlude, or means that one can employ to sublimate Mercury, because these two Matters have no affinity, and moreover Talc has no Sulphur. It is nevertheless true that if these things had no bad Sulphur, the Sublimation of Quicksilver would be done better with them than with all the others: because, as it would unite better with them, they would also cleanse it much better. Thus Talc is the best interlude, or means that one can employ to sublimate Mercury, because these two Matters have no affinity, and moreover Talc has no Sulphur.
To remove superfluous humidity from quicksilver, when it is mixed with limes, with which it must be sublimated, it must be crushed and mixed with them by sprinkling the amalgam with vinegar, or with some other similar liquor, until it does not appear mercury. And then we will evaporate, over a low heat, the liquor with which we will have sprinkled it. For by this means the wateriness of Mercury will also evaporate. But care must be taken that the heat is so gentle that it does not cause all the Mercury Substance to rise. By watering it, then, crushing it and gently evaporating it several times, we will remove most of its humidity, and what will remain will go away by sublimating it a second time. Now when we see him whiter than snow, and he remains attached to the side of the Sublimatory Vessel, as if it were dead (no longer having any movement) or it will then be necessary to begin again to sublimate it by itself, without any faeces, because what is fixed in it attaches itself to the faeces, and it would stick to it so strongly that there would no longer be any way of being able to separate it, or else it will be necessary afterwards to fix part of it, as I will teach later in a Chapter that I will do expressly for that; and resublimate on this fixed part what will remain, in order to fix it all the same, and set it apart. And to find out if it will be fixed, we will test it by putting it on the fire. Because if it makes a good fusion, we must be sure that the part which is not fixed has been sufficiently sublimated. That if this part is not very melting, you will add some Argent-vive to it which has been sublimated, but which is not yet fixed, and you will resublimate it until it becomes fusible. And when you see it very white, shiny and transparent, it is a mark that it is perfectly sublimated and purified. And if he does not have all these qualities, it will be a sign that the Sublimation is not perfect.
Do not therefore spare your trouble in purifying it by Sublimation. For such will be the purification that you will have given it, such will also be the perfection that will follow, in the projection that you will make of it on the imperfect bodies and on the raw quicksilver, that is to say which will not have been prepared. This is why there were some who, by the projection they made of it on the imperfect bodies, changed it either into Iron, or into Lead, or into Copper, or into Tin. Which only came from the fact that it was not well purified, that is to say that we did not remove its earthiness and its superfluous wateriness, or that we did not separate from it the Sulfur or the Arsenic which were mixed with it. That if we purify it perfectly by Sublimation, and if we give it the perfection that it can have, it will be a Tincture for the fixed and true white,


CHAPTER XLVI

From the Sublimation of Marcasite.

Having said enough about the Sublimation of Quicksilver, and why it is done, let us now see how one should sublimate Marcasite. It is sublimated in two ways: one without making the Aludel blush, and the other by making it blush. This is done so, because it is composed of two different Substances which are a pure Sulphur, which is not fixed, and a mortified Argent-Quick. The first of these Substances can serve as Sulphur, and the other can take the place of mortified and poorly prepared Quicksilver. We can therefore take this last Substance of Marcasite, and use it instead of Quicksilver, and thus we will have nothing to do with Quicksilver, nor to take the trouble to mortify it. But to sublimate the Marcasite, it must be crushed and put in the Aludel, and to sublimate all its Sulfur by a heat which is so well conducted that the Vessel does not blush; taking care very often to remove the Sulfur which will sublimate, for the reason we have given; then increasing the fire little by little, until the Aludel and even the Marcasite turn red. And the first Sublimation of the Marcasite must be done in the Sublimatory Vessel, until the Sulfur is separated from it; then continue the operation immediately in the same Vessel, until both sulphurous parts of the Marcasite have come out. Which you will obviously recognize by the following experiments. until the Aludel and even the Marcasite turn red. And the first Sublimation of the Marcasite must be done in the Sublimatory Vessel, until the Sulfur is separated from it; then continue the operation immediately in the same Vessel, until both sulphurous parts of the Marcasite have come out. Which you will obviously recognize by the following experiments. until the Aludel and even the Marcasite turn red. And the first Sublimation of the Marcasite must be done in the Sublimatory Vessel, until the Sulfur is separated from it; then continue the operation immediately in the same Vessel, until both sulphurous parts of the Marcasite have come out. Which you will obviously recognize by the following experiments.
When all the Sulfur will be sublimated, you will see that what will sublimate afterwards will be of a very white color, mixed with a celestial blue, very clear and very pleasant. You will still know it in the way that I am going to tell you. Anything sulphurous in nature will burn, catching fire and throwing up a flame similar to that made by Sulphur. Whereas what is sublimated the second time, and after all the Sulfur has risen, does not ignite and has none of the other properties of Sulphur, that is to say, it has neither the color nor the smell; but he will look like Quicksilver mortified by several Sublimations.


CHAPTER XLVII

Of the Vaisseau suitable for sublimating the Marcasite.

You can only have this material by sublimating the Marcasite in a very special way. For this purpose, it is necessary to have a very strong and well-made Earthen Vessel, which is long half the height of a man, that is to say about three feet, and wide enough to be able to reach into it. This Vessel will be in two pieces, so that the bottom, which must be made in the form of a very hollow dish, can be dismantled and joined to the body of the Vessel; and it must be very thickly leaden, from the mouth to a fin near the bottom. After which a capital, or chappe, will be applied to it, which must have a very wide spout. This is what the Vessel must be to make this Sublimation. Having joined the two parts of this Vessel well together with good lute, put the Marcasite in the bottom and adjusted the Capital, it will be placed in a Furnace, which is suitable to give a strong ignition to the Matter, that is to say which makes it redden well, as is that which is given to Silver and Copper to melt them, in case such a degree of fire is needed. We will close the opening of the Furnace with a plate or a circle that has an opening in the middle, through which we will pass the Vessel, and we will lute this plate all around the Furnace and the Vessel, for fear that if the fire were to pass between the two, it would harm the operation, and that it would not prevent the Matter which will sublimate itself, from attaching itself to the sides of the Vessel. This plate will have to be made with four small Registers, which can be left open and closed when necessary, or to give more air, or even to throw coal into the Furnace. Four other similar Registers will be made in the sides of the Furnace, which will be placed in such a way that each of these is between two of those which will be on the plate. And these Registers will still be used to throw coal into the Furnace. We will make another six or eight small holes, large enough to put a finger in, which will always remain open, so that the smoke from the Furnace can freely come out through there. These holes must be made between the plate and the sides of the Furnace. so that the smoke from the Furnace can freely come out through there. These holes must be made between the plate and the sides of the Furnace. so that the smoke from the Furnace can freely come out through there. These holes must be made between the plate and the sides of the Furnace.
For the rest, a Furnace, to be able to give a good ignition, must have the sides two cubits high, and there must be in the middle there is an iron plate pierced with several small holes, which must be strongly luted with the sides of the Furnace. With regard to the holes, they must be made narrow at the top, always widening at the bottom, and they must resemble a round pyramid. They are made in this way so that the ashes, the coals and the other things which will fall into them come out more easily, and that by this means these holes, remaining always open, the air enters more freely through there into the Furnace. For the more air a Furnace receives through the holes below, the more fit it is to give a great fire, and to make a strong ignition, that is to say, to inflame and redden Matter,
The reason why the Vessel, which is used to sublimate the Marcasite, must be very long, it is so that the greater part, being outside the Furnace, and consequently very far from the heat, it does not heat up, and that the vapors which will rise from the Material which sublimates, meeting the sides of the cool Furnace, they attach themselves to it, and that they find no outlet, neither anything which consumes them, nor which destroys them, as they iron. whether the Furnace was warmed up everywhere. I know this from experience, because having wanted to do this Sublimation in small Aludels, I found that nothing was sublimated, because the Aludel being very short, it had been heated up as much at the top as at the bottom. This had caused everything that sublimated to be continually exhaled in smoke and without anything attaching itself to the sides of the Furnace, everything went away little by little through the pores which the heat had opened. It is therefore a general rule for all Sublimations, that the Vessel must be long, so that there is a good part of it which does not feel the heat, and which is always cold.
I said that most of the Aludel had to be sealed or varnished (to do: well the Sublimation of the Marcasite). This is so that where it will be sealed, there will be no pores; because otherwise the vapors which would rise during the Sublimation would escape that way. This is why we seal the whole place of the Vessel where they go up, in order to prevent them from going out. But the bottom is not leaded, because as the Varnish, which is made in the Earth Vessel with Lead, is a vitrification, and since the bottom of the Aludel, being continually in the fire, it reddens, this Varnish or this vitrification would melt; and consequently Matter would melt, and vitrify also; glass having this particularity, that (when it is in fusion) there is nothing that it does not destroy, and that it does not change in its nature.
The Artist having considered all these things, and knowing the causes and the reasons, as we have just said, he will light the fire under his Aludel, which he will continue to maintain always until he is assured by the tests he will make of it, that all that could be sublimated from his Matter has risen. This test is made by means of a small rod of earth, which is well baked, and which has received a hole in the middle which pierces it up to half its length, which one will enter into the Aludel by the hole which is at the top, and which one will approach within an inch of the Matter which is sublime. And after you hold that rod there awhile, you'll pull it out. And if we see that something of Matter has entered the hole of this rod, it will be a sure sign that the Sublimation will not be completed. that if there is nothing, everything will be entirely sublimated. This test will be used for all other Sublimations.


CHAPTER XLVIII

Of the Sublimation of Magnesia and Tutie, and Imperfect Bodies.

The Sublimation of Magnesia and Tutie is done for the same reason and in the same way as we have just said that Marcasite sublimates itself. Because all these Matters cannot be sublimated without a strong ignition (that is to say without the Matter and the Aludel reddening and remaining in this state for a long time). This is why these Matters all sublimate for the same reason, have the same causes, the same experiences, and all generally agree in this, that all Matters which sublimate with ignition, or inflammation, sublimate without any addition of faeces; because they have enough in themselves, and more than is necessary; which is the cause that they are so difficult to sublimate.
All imperfect bodies sublimate in the same way. And there is no other difference, except that the fire must be much stronger to make their Sublimation, than for that of Magnesia, Marcasite and Tutia. There is no difference either between the particular Sublimations of each Body, except that there are some which cannot sublimate themselves if we do not add to them some Matter which helps them, and which elevates them, whereas the others do not need it.
Now there are two things to observe in the Sublimation of Bodies, which make it easier, as experience has shown. The first is that you shouldn't put a lot of Matter all at once in the bottom of the Aludel, because if there were a lot of it, the Sublimation wouldn't do well. The other is that the bottom of the Aludel should be completely flat and in no way hollow, so that the Body, of which only a very thin layer will be made, and all united in the bottom of the Vessel, can be raised everywhere equally. Venus and Mars are the two Bodies which need addition to raise them, because they take a long time to melt. For this effect, Tutia is added to Venus, and Arsenic to Mars; and with these two Matters, these Metals sublimate easily, because they have great conformity with them. With this precaution,



CHAPTER XLIX

Of the Descension and of the Means of purifying the Bodies with the Pellets.

After the Sublimation, we have to speak of the Descension, of which we will tell the uses and the entire practice. It was invented for three uses. The first, so that the Matter which has been enclosed in the Vessel, which is called the chemical Descensory, being in fusion, descends and comes out through the hole which is at the bottom of this Vessel, and that we know thereby, that this Matter has melted by itself.

The second use of the Descension is that it guarantees from Combustion the Bodies which are weak (that is to say which evaporate easily being in fusion), when they have regained body after having been calcined. Because when one wants to make take again body with the Metals which were reduced in lime, as it is a thing which cannot be done all at the same time, but successively, and one part after the other: if the part, which returned to its first nature of Metal, did not separate initially from the remainder, which is in lime; and if it were to remain in fusion until all the lime was melted, and had resumed body; it is certain that a good part of what first melted would exhale. It was therefore necessary to find an invention to first separate what melts, in order to remove it from above the fire, which makes it exhale:
The last use of the Descension is that it purifies the Bodies, by separating them from things which are foreign to them. For all that is pure merges and descends, and thus all that is not of its same nature remains in the Vessel. These are the uses of Descension.
Let us now say how it is made, and how the Vessel must be made which is used to make it. It is necessary that this Vessel be made in point, and that its sides, which must be very smooth, go always by narrowing also by bottom, terminating in point in the bottom, like a funnel, so that all which will be melted down easily in the bottom, without anything stopping it. The lid of this Vessel (if it must have one) will be made like a plain plate, and in such a way that it joins very exactly to the Vessel; and both should be made of good, firm earth, which does not crack or crack easily in the fire, however strong it may be. We will put in this Vessel the Matter which we intend to bring down, being in fusion, on round rods which are made of well-baked earth, and which will be applied in the Vessel in such a way that they are closer to the lid than to the bottom. After which we will put the lid there, which we will join exactly to the Vessel, and then we will light coals on this lid, which we will maintain continuously with the bellows, until all the Matter being melted, it descends into the Vase which is below. That if the Matter is difficult to melt, instead of putting it on these rods of earth, it will be placed on a plate, either quite plain, or somewhat hollow, from which it can flow easily when it is melted, by tilting the top of the Descensory Vessel to make it fall. For in this way Matter, standing better and longer on the plate than on rods of earth, it will also better receive the impression of fire; and consequently it will blend much better. Besides that by tilting the Descensory Vessel from time to time, we can know more easily when the Matter will be melted.
This is the way to purge the Bodies by Descension. But they are even better purged of their earthliness by the Pellets, by making them regain Body after having calcined them. And this way of purifying them is the same as that which is done by the Descensory. Here is the way. You must take the Body you want to purify and put it either in small pieces, or in filings, or, to do better, in lime, and mix it with some lime that is not fusible. Then put the whole in the Descensory, and melt it over a high heat, until the whole, or the greater part, has returned to a Body. For we have found by experience that the Bodies are cleansed by this means of much earthiness. It is not, however, that thereby they are entirely purified, as they can be because we know we are capable of giving perfection. But it is a mondification which is useful to them, and which makes them more suitable for transmutation, when the Medicine is projected on them to give them perfection; being for them a preparation to receive it. We will tell in the following all that is necessary for this.


CHAPTER L

Distillation; of its Causes, and of the three ways of making it; by the Still, by the Descensory, and by the Filter.

We have now to speak of Distillation and its Causes. Distillation is an elevation which is made of aqueous vapors in a clean Vessel. There are several kinds, depending on the diversity of things that can be distilled. Thus there is one which is done by fire, and the other without fire: The first is done in two ways, either by the elevation of vapors in the still, or by the chemical descensory, by means of which oil is extracted from vegetables. The Distillation which is done without fire is that which is done by the Filter. The principal use of all Distillations in general is to purify the Liquors of the faeces, which, being mixed and confounded with them, render them cloudy; and to prevent them also by this means from spoiling and corrupting themselves.
The particular use of Distillation, which is done by elevation and by means of the Still, is to have pure Water, without the mixture of any faeces. For experience obviously shows that water which has been distilled two or three times does not leave or deposit any earthly faeces. Now what obliges to have Liquors thus purified, is so that if we need to drink, or to make some imbibition on the Spirits, or on the medicinal Powders, we can do it with a Water so pure, that after it will be exhaled by the heat, it leaves no impurity which infects, nor which spoils our Medicines, nor the Spirits that we will have purified.
As for the Distillation which is done by bas or by the Descensoire, it was invented only in order to draw, from what is distilled, the very pure and natural oil. Because it cannot be drawn natural or combustible by the Alembic, and so it is drawn by the Descensory, in order to preserve its color, which is mixed with its Substance. Because it may happen that we need this color.
The other kind of Distillation, which is done without fire by means of the Filter, is to have only very clear Water. We are now going to see how one must make all these Distillations, and we will tell by the same means the Causes and the Experiences.
Distillation by the elevation of the vapors or by the Alembic is done in two ways: either by placing a Cucurbite in a terrine full of ashes which serves as an interlude, or by putting the Cucurbite in a Cauldron or in some other copper Vessel full of water, and accommodating it all around with herbs or wool, lest if it were not thus stopped and supported, it should wobble in the water, and that it would not broke by coming to strike against the edges of the Vessel, before the Distillation was completed. Now there is this difference between these two Distillations, that that which is made with the ashes is made with a larger, harsher, and stronger fire; and that that of the bath is made by a gentle and slow heat, because the water, which serves as interlude or medium in this last species of Distillation, does not heat up so strongly as ashes do. And that is why in it, what distils is colored, and the most gross and earthly parts rise as well as the subtle ones; whereas in that which is done in the bath there are only the most subtle parts which rise, without being colored, and they resemble much more simple Water. Whence it follows that in Distillation in the bath, there is a more subtle separation of the parts of the Matter which are distilled, than by that which is done in the fire of ashes. What I know from experience. For having distilled oil by the fire of ashes, I found my oil which had passed into the Receptacle, almost without it having been altered; and to make the separation of its parts, I was compelled to distill it by bath, otherwise I would never have been able to do it. But having distilled it in the bath for the second time, I separated my oil into its elementary parts, and I drew a very white and very clear Water from an oil which was perfectly red. So that all the redness of the oil remained in the bottom of the Cucurbite. Which obviously shows that it is by the only means of this Distillation that one can make the true separation of the Elements of all Plants, of all that comes from them, and of all things that resemble them; as it is by the Descensory that oil must be drawn from the same Vegetables, and from all that is similar to them. And it is also through the Filter that all kinds of Liquors are clarified, as those who have experienced it know:
To make the Distillation with the fire of the ashes, it is necessary to have a terrine which is strong, and to pose it on a Furnace similar to that which we described to make the Sublimation: taking care that there is the same distance between the terrine and the sides of the Furnace, and that the Furnace has all the same Registers, for the reason which we said in this place. We put in the bottom of the terrine ashes packed an inch thick, and above these ashes we put the Cucurbite, which we cover all around with the same ashes up to the neck. After which we put in this Cucurbite what we want to distil in this way. Then one adjusts the Capital to it, so that the neck of that one enters entirely into the neck of this one, and that it goes to its edge, lest nothing of what one wants to distill, and especially the Spirits, can't get out. This done, we read the Capital and the Cucurbite well together, by the place where they join; then one applies the Receptacle, in the neck of which the spout of the Capital must enter up to half; and then wrap the place where these two Vessels join, with a cloth soaked in egg white, for fear that nothing will exhale through there. Finally, the laundry being dry and all things well laid out, a fire is made in the Furnace to make the Distillation. Now the Cucurbite and its Capital must be of glass. And as for the fire; it must be increased as much as it will be necessary to make the Distillation, and until it has drawn all the moisture from the Matter. into the neck of which the beak of the Capital must enter up to half; and then wrap the place where these two Vessels join, with a cloth soaked in egg white, for fear that nothing will exhale through there. Finally, the laundry being dry and all things well laid out, a fire is made in the Furnace to make the Distillation. Now the Cucurbite and its Capital must be of glass. And as for the fire; it must be increased as much as it will be necessary to make the Distillation, and until it has drawn all the moisture from the Matter. into the neck of which the beak of the Capital must enter up to half; and then wrap the place where these two Vessels join, with a cloth soaked in egg white, for fear that nothing will exhale through there. Finally, the laundry being dry and all things well laid out, a fire is made in the Furnace to make the Distillation. Now the Cucurbite and its Capital must be of glass. And as for the fire; it must be increased as much as it will be necessary to make the Distillation, and until it has drawn all the moisture from the Matter. a fire is made in the Furnace to make the Distillation. Now the Cucurbite and its Capital must be of glass. And as for the fire; it must be increased as much as it will be necessary to make the Distillation, and until it has drawn all the moisture from the Matter. a fire is made in the Furnace to make the Distillation. Now the Cucurbite and its Capital must be of glass. And as for the fire; it must be increased as much as it will be necessary to make the Distillation, and until it has drawn all the moisture from the Matter.
The Distillation which is done in the bath is similar to that which is done in the fire of the ashes, with regard to the Cucurbite and the Still. But it is different, in that instead of a terrine, we use an iron boiler, or rather copper, which we fit on a furnace, in the same way as we have said above. And in the bottom of the Boiler, we make a layer of hay, wool, or some other similar material, the thickness of three fingerbreadths. And on this layer we put the Cucurbite with its Alembic, accommodated and fought as we have just said: So that there is hay all around the Cucurbite, up to the neck of the Alembic, lest it break. On this layer we put small loose sticks, or vine shoots, and above all that large fats, or pebbles, so that by their weight, causing the Distilling Vessel to sink, and the hay that has been placed around it, by this means hold the Vessel firm and subjugated, and prevent it from wobbling and rising on the water; which might cause it to break, and cause the Distillation to be entirely lost. Then one fills the Boiler with water, and one makes a fire under it to boil it (taking care to fill it with other hot Water, as that which is inside is exhaled), continuing to do so until all is distilled.
Distillation is carried out by the Descensory with a glass Vessel, to which a cover of the same material is applied, having previously put there what one wishes to distill. One lutes them together, one makes fire on them, and the Distillation descends into the Vessel or Vessel, which is below to receive it.
With regard to the Distillation which is done by the Filter, or by the Tongue, it is done in this way. We put in a basin of glass or earth the Liquor that we want to filter. We will have Tabs (of white cloth made in point) well washed and very clean; We will dip them in water, we will lay the widest end in the bottom of the terrine, and the narrower end will hang outside the Basin, on another Vessel which we will place to receive the Liquor. The Water with which the Tongue will be watered will distill first, then the Liquor of the Basin will be filtered: and if we find that it is suspicious, we will put it back into the Basin, and we will refilter it until it is very clear and very clean.
I will not amuse myself with proving these operations, because they are so easy on their own that they need no proof.

CHAPTER LI

Of Calcination, Both of Bodies and of Spirits, of its Causes, and of the Manner of Doing it.

After Distillation, we have to talk about Calcination. Calcination is the Reduction which is made of a thing into powder, by the deprivation of moisture, which binds and unites its parts together. The use for which it was invented is to remove, by the action of fire, the burning Sulfur which spoils and infects the Bodies where it is found. There are several kinds of Calcinations depending on the variety of things that need to be calcined. For bodies or metals are calcined, spirits are calcined, and other foreign things are calcined, that is to say, things that have no affinity either with bodies or with spirits, and all these calcinations are done for quite different ends. First, the Imperfect Metals being of two kinds, one hard, like Venus and Mars, the other soft, like Jupiter and Saturn, they are calcined for various purposes: one general and the other particular. The first is to remove from them, by the violence of the fire, that Sulfur which corrupts them and turns them black. For it is only by Calcination that one can burn and consume the adustible Sulfur of whatever it may be. The Metals, for example, being solid and thick Bodies, and their bad Sulfur being hidden and contained in the Substance of Quicksilver, which is diffused and mixed by all the Metal (since it is the principal part of it, and that which makes the connection and the continuity of all the others), it is consequently the Quicksilver which prevents this Sulfur from being able to be burned (when one puts the Metals in the fire, and that they melt there or that they there blush). Thus it is necessary to break and divide the continuity of the Metal,
Calcination is done for yet another purpose, which generally concerns all Metals: Which is that by this means they are purified of their earthiness. For experience has taught us that by calcining the Metals several times, and by putting them back afterwards into a Body, they are purified and refined, as we will show later.
As for the Calcination of Bodies, or Soft Metals, besides stripping them of their bad Sulphur, and purifying them of their earthiness, which Calcination does in all Bodies, it also serves in particular to harden them and make them capable of reddening in the fire, provided this Operation is performed several times with skill. We will talk about it more particularly in the second Book. Because experience obviously shows us that by this invention, the two soft Metals become hardened, and Jupiter even more and rather than Saturn.
Spirits are calcined to better dispose them to become fixed, and to resolve themselves into Water. For everything that is calcined is more fixed, and dissolves more easily than that which is not. And the reason is that the parts of that which have been calcined, having become more subtle by the action of the fire (which has separated from it the earthiness and the volatile humidity, as has already been said), these parts more easily mingle with the Water, and they therefore also change more easily into Water, as will be known if experienced.
With regard to foreign things (that is to say which are neither Metals nor Spirits), they are calcined to serve for the preparation which it is necessary to give to Spirits and Bodies, of which we will deal more fully in the following Book. But this calcination contributes nothing to the perfection of the Bodies, nor to that of the Spirits.
It is therefore obvious that there are several kinds of Calcinations, and that this diversity comes only from the difference of the things which can be calcined. For bodies are calcined quite differently from spirits and other things. And even Bodies are not all calcined in the same way, because they are different from each other. Thus soft bodies can be calcined in general, either by fire alone, without adding anything to them, or by adding prepared salt, or by putting it there as it is without any preparation.
To do the Calcination by fire only, one takes an Earthen Vessel made like a dish, very strong and well cooked, which one places on the Calcinating Furnace, which must be done in the manner that we have described above the Furnace to give a strong ignition, and of which we will speak again later. And we put this Vessel in such a way in the Furnace, that we have the freedom to put coals under it, and that there is enough space to blow them. One then puts Lead or Tin in this Vessel, which is strongly supported on an iron tripod, or on three pebbles, and which is still strengthened by three or four other pebbles, which one tightens between him and the sides of the Furnace, so that it cannot shake. After which, one makes under the Vessel enough fire to melt the Lead or the Tin which one put there. When the Metal will be melted, and a black skin will be seen forming on it, by means of fire, it will be removed with a Spatula of iron, or of some other material that cannot be burned, in order to make lime from this skin. And we will continue to remove this skin (as it forms) until all the Metal is reduced to powder. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. and that we see a black skin forming on it, by means of fire, we will remove it with a spatula of iron, or of some other material that cannot be burned, to make this skin lime. And we will continue to remove this skin (as it forms) until all the Metal is reduced to powder. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. and that we see a black skin forming on it, by means of fire, we will remove it with a spatula of iron, or of some other material that cannot be burned, to make this skin lime. And we will continue to remove this skin (as it forms) until all the Metal is reduced to powder. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. or some other material that cannot be burned, to make lime from this skin. And we will continue to remove this skin (as it forms) until all the Metal is reduced to powder. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. or some other material that cannot be burned, to make lime from this skin. And we will continue to remove this skin (as it forms) until all the Metal is reduced to powder. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white. That if it is Saturn that is calcined, it will be necessary to put the skins that we will have drawn from it (and which will turn into powder), on a larger fire than that with which it will have been melted, and to hold them there until its lime becomes very orange. That if Jupiter is calcined, it will be necessary to put its skins on a fire which is not so strong (as the one where we will put the Saturn) and leave it there until its lime is perfectly white.
But there is one thing here which the Artist must beware of, which is that Saturn, being reduced to lime, regains Body very easily, which Jupiter does only with difficulty; because otherwise he may fail, if, when he has removed the skins, or the powder of Saturn, and put it on a bigger fire, he does not take care to regulate this fire so well that he prevents this Metal from resuming Body, before its lime is perfect, and it becomes orange. I therefore warn him that to do this Operation well, he must give the fire very temperate, and only increase it little by little, and by degrees, until Saturn is well calcined, so that he does not resume Body, and that thus one can surely increase the fire to completely perfect his lime.
Here is another precaution the Artist must take when calcining Jupiter. For if, because of the difficulty of putting it back into Body, after it is calcined, it happened that he could not put it back there, but where it always remained in lime, or that this lime vitrified, he would be mistaken if he believed that for that reason it was impossible to make this Metal resume Body, when it would once be calcined. I therefore warn him that if he does not give strong fire to the lime of Jupiter, he will not put it back in the Body: and it may even be that he will not put it back there yet for that, because he will be able to vitrify himself. For Jupiter, in the depths of his Substance, has a volatile Quicksilver, which flees when this Metal is held a long time in the fire: and by this means it remains deprived of its proper and natural Humidity. So that in this state it will be more likely to change into Glass than into Metal, being an assured Maxim, that all that has lost its natural Humidity can only be melted to vitrify. From where it follows that to put Jupiter in Body (after its Calcination), it is necessary to make a violent fire which melts its lime first and suddenly, otherwise it will not recover there. Practice and work will teach you how to do this Operation well.
These two Metals are calcined by the addition of Salt, which contributes a great deal by its acuity to calcining them, by throwing on them, when they are in fusion, several pinches of Salt one after the other, which one mixes, by stirring strongly with a Rod of iron, the Metal when it is in fusion, and until by this mixture it is reduced to powder. After which they finish perfecting their lime in the manner and with all the precautions that we have just mentioned. There is still this difference in this last Calcination of these two Bodies, that Saturn, after having been calcined the first time, more easily resumes Bodies than Jupiter; but that its lime is not easier to perfect than that of Jupiter; which comes from the fact that Saturn has a more fixed humidity, and that it has much more earthiness, than Jupiter has.
Venus and Mars are also calcined, but as these two Metals are very difficult to melt, they are not calcined in either of the two ways of which we have just spoken. This is how it is. One makes Laminae of these two Metals, which one puts in a strong fire, but which is however not so strong that it can melt them. For as these Metals have a great deal of earthiness and of combustible and volatile Sulphur, they are easily calcined in this way. Because the great amount of earthiness, which is mixed among their Quicksilver, separates its continuity, preventing the parts of this Quicksilver from being united and contiguous with each other. Which means that there are pores in these Metals, through which the Sulphur, finding a free passage, comes out and goes away in smoke; and into which the fire, entering likewise with freedom, burn this Sulfur and raise it to vapor. And by this means the parts of these Metals, being more distant from each other, this remoteness and this discontinuity are the cause which are also more easily reduced to powder. And it is easy to judge by experience that this is done. For if you put a Lamine of Venus in a strong fire, you will see that a bluish flame will come out of it, such as that made by Sulphur, and you will then find, above your Lamine, several scales which will turn into powder. Because the Sulfur burns more easily in the parts which are most exposed to fire, and on which it acts more strongly, such as the external parts. this distance and this discontinuity cause what is also more easily reduced to powder. And it is easy to judge by experience that this is done. For if you put a Lamine of Venus in a strong fire, you will see that a bluish flame will come out of it, such as that made by Sulphur, and you will then find, above your Lamine, several scales which will turn into powder. Because the Sulfur burns more easily in the parts which are most exposed to fire, and on which it acts more strongly, such as the external parts. this distance and this discontinuity cause what is also more easily reduced to powder. And it is easy to judge by experience that this is done. For if you put a Lamine of Venus in a strong fire, you will see that a bluish flame will come out of it, such as that made by Sulphur, and you will then find, above your Lamine, several scales which will turn into powder. Because the Sulfur burns more easily in the parts which are most exposed to fire, and on which it acts more strongly, such as the external parts. such as that made by Sulfur, and you will then find, above your Lamine, several scales which will turn into powder. Because the Sulfur burns more easily in the parts which are most exposed to fire, and on which it acts more strongly, such as the external parts. such as that made by Sulfur, and you will then find, above your Lamine, several scales which will turn into powder. Because the Sulfur burns more easily in the parts which are most exposed to fire, and on which it acts more strongly, such as the external parts.
With regard to the Furnace, which must be used to make this Calcination, it must be the same as that of the Distillation, of which we have spoken above, except that there must be a large opening at the top, so that the smoke can freely come out. It is necessary to put in the middle of the Furnace the Laminae of these two Metals which one wants to calcine, so that the fire surrounds them equally, and on all sides. And as for the Vessel where these Laminae will be placed, it must be of strong earth and well cooked, lest it come to melt by the violence of the fire, and it must be made like a terrine, or a very thick dish.
It remains to speak of the Calcination of Spirits. It is done when being almost fixed, one gives them a fire which one increases by degrees and little by little, until they can tolerate a very strong fire. The Vessel in which they will be placed to be calcined must be round and of very thick glass, lest it melt, which will be corked very exactly, and which will then be placed in a Furnace, such as the last one that we have described.
One uses the same Vessel and the same Furnace to calcine all the other things; nevertheless we are not embarrassed to retain them, nor to prevent them from exhaling, which is what gives the most trouble in the Calcination of Spirits; because nothing flees nor is volatile except spirits, and that which has affinity with their nature.


CHAPTER LII

Of Dissolution.

Dissolution is the Reduction of a solid and dry thing into Water or Liquor. This is done by means of subtle, acrid and political or mordicant Waters, which have no faeces: as is distilled Vinegar, Verjuice, sour Plums, and Pears which have much acrimony, the Juice of Pomegranates similarly distilled, and other similar Liquors. It was invented to make by its means more subtle things which are not very grounding nor entering, and which have very useful fixed Spirits, which without this Operation would be lost as well as the other things which are of the nature of Spirits. For it is certain that all that dissolves is necessarily either Salt or Alum, or of a similar nature. Now the Salts and the Alums have this of their own, let them fuse the things to which they are added before they become vitrified. And thus the Spirits being dissolved; they will give a very similar fusion. And as these Spirits naturally have a great affinity, both with the Bodies and among themselves, if they have fusion, it necessarily follows that they enter into the Bodies, that they penetrate them, and that by penetrating them, they transmute them. Now, in order that they may have this effect, it is necessary that after a Body has been dissolved and coagulated, some Spirit which has been previously purified, without however having been made fixed, must be added to it, and both sublimated together, so many times that the Spirit remains united with the Body which communicates to it a more prompt fusion, and that in the profusion prevents it from becoming vitrified. For spirits have this peculiarity, that they never vitrify themselves, and that they prevent the things with which they are mixed from becoming vitrified, while they remain with them. The Spirit, therefore, which retains more the nature of the Spirit, will be the one which will best guarantee vitrification. Now the Spirit which is only purified is less altered, and has more of the nature of Spirit than that which is purified, fixed, calcined and dissolved. It is therefore this kind of Spirit that must be added (to Salt and Alum), because by their mixture there is a good fusion, an ingres, or ease of entering and penetrating, and a permanent and lasting fixation. will be the one that best guarantees vitrification. Now the Spirit which is only purified is less altered, and has more of the nature of Spirit than that which is purified, fixed, calcined and dissolved. It is therefore this kind of Spirit that must be added (to Salt and Alum), because by their mixture there is a good fusion, an ingres, or ease of entering and penetrating, and a permanent and lasting fixation. will be the one that best guarantees vitrification. Now the Spirit which is only purified is less altered, and has more of the nature of Spirit than that which is purified, fixed, calcined and dissolved. It is therefore this kind of Spirit that must be added (to Salt and Alum), because by their mixture there is a good fusion, an ingres, or ease of entering and penetrating, and a permanent and lasting fixation.
We have said that only Salts, Alums and similar things dissolve. What we can prove by the experience we have made of it on all natural things; that is to say on Minerals, Plants and Animals. For having tried on all these things, we have found that only this can dissolve. Hence we infer that whatever dissolves must necessarily be of their nature. And therefore, since we see that what has been calcined and dissolved several times dissolves after that very easily, we judge from this that everything that is calcined partakes of the nature of Salts or Alums, and that it has all the same properties.
Now there are two ways of making Dissolution: one by heated manure, and the other by boiling water, which both have the same end and have the same effect. The first is done by putting what is calcined in a glass Matras, on which one will pour once as much distilled vinegar, or some other similar Liquor; and having sealed the mouth of the Matras well, so that nothing can exhale, we will bury it in heated manure, and we will leave it there for three days to dissolve. After which we will separate by the Filter what will have been dissolved, and what will not have been, we will calcine it a second time, then we will put it back in Dissolution, as we have already done; continuing to do this Operation, until all is entirely dissolved, or at least the greater part, according to the need which one will have it.
The dissolution which is made by boiling water is done much sooner, and is better. Here's how we do it. We put all the same what has been calcined in a Matras with Vinegar. We close the Matras well, for fear that nothing exhales. It is then placed in a Boiler full of water and hay, in the same way as we have said it should be done for the Distillation in the bath. After that we make a fire below. Boil the water for an hour. What is dissolved is distilled, which is set apart; and we calcine a second time what has remained without dissolving, until everything is completely dissolved.


CHAPTER III

Of Coagulation, its Causes, and the various Means of Coagulating Mercury and Dissolved Medicines.

Coagulation is an operation by which a liquid thing is reduced to a solid substance, by removing its wateriness or humidity. It was invented for two uses. One is to harden the Quicksilver, the other to dry up the Medicines that are dissolved, removing the moisture mixed with them. There are therefore as many different Coagulations as there are various things to coagulate. For Quicksilver coagulates in one way, and Medicines and other dissolved things in another. There are even two different ways to coagulate Quicksilver; one by stripping it of all its natural moisture; the other by thickening that moisture until it hardens. In whatever way, however, one wants to do this Coagulation, it is very difficult; and you have to be very skilful and very skilful to do it, because of the very strong union and composition of its parts. I will teach in this Chapter everything there is to do for that.
There have been some who have imagined that to coagulate it, there was only to preserve it and hold it for a long time in a moderate fire; but having believed to have frozen it by this means, after having withdrawn it from the fire, they found that it was as runny as before. Which having stunned and surprised them, they strongly maintained that its Coagulation was impossible. There are others, who supposing by natural Principles that all that is humid dries up by the heat of fire, believed that they would coagulate it by continuing to hold it for a long time in a fire which was proper to it. And indeed they pushed it so far that they made it, some a white Stone or Powder, and the others a red and orange Stone or Powder, but which was neither melting nor entering. And not having been able to guess where the cause of this diversity came from, they left this Operation as a useless thing. Others tried to coagulate it with Medicines, and they were wrong. For either they did not coagulate it, or having made it more subtle by heat, they caused it to evaporate imperceptibly; or the Coagulation they made of it was not in the form of Metal. So that, not knowing what to attribute an effect so contrary to their intention, they despaired of overcoming it. Others have made, with much industry and artifice, certain compositions, from which, having made a projection on Mercury, they have coagulated it; but uselessly, because they converted it into an imperfect Body or Metal, of which they did not know the cause any more than the others, not having enough experience for that. I will explain here all these Causes,
But to better understand these Causes, we must first remark that Quicksilver, as I have already said several times, is of a uniform Substance; I mean that it has its parts all similar and of the same nature. Whence it follows that it is not possible, by holding it for a short time on the fire, to remove its wateriness, nor to thicken it. And therefore, the first of which we have spoken did not succeed in coagulating it, for having rushed too quickly to carry out their Operation. Quicksilver moreover, being of a subtle Substance, he flees from above the fire. This is why too great a fire causes those who cause it to exhale to fail. Moreover, Quicksilver mixes more easily with Sulphur, Arsenic and Marcasite, because it is of the same nature as them. And that's why being mixed with these Minerals, it seems to be coagulated, not, however, that in this state it has the appearance of a metallic Body: but it only appears as if it had been amalgamated with Lead, or as if it were Antimony, or something similar; because these Matters, with which it is mixed, being volatile, they cannot preserve it nor maintain it in the fire, until it can become Body: but they go away and evaporate with it by the heat. And this is what deceives those who claim to coagulate it by thus mixing it. Besides that, Quicksilver has a great deal of humidity in its natural composition, which cannot be separated from it, unless one has the skill to make a violent fire, and to hold it there without it being able to escape; and if we do not find a way to keep it in a fire that is proper and suitable for it. Now, I call a proper and suitable fire for quicksilver that which one increases in proportion as it can endure, until one finally takes away its humidity, leaving it only as much as it needs to be fusible, as metals are; because if there was no humidity at all, it would not fuse. And that is the fault of those who coagulate it into a white or red Stone, which has no fusion.
As for the Colors that arise in this powder, it is easy to guess the cause, if we consider that the Argent-vive has naturally in itself sulphurous parts, one more, the other less, which can be separated from it by artifice. Sulfur therefore having this property, that being mixed in greater or less quantity with Quicksilver, it makes the whole Composition red or orange, as experience shows in artificial Cinnabar, which is made only of these two Materials. The Sulfur being separated from the Quicksilver, the latter will consequently only produce the White Color by means of fire. This is therefore what makes this diversity of Colors, when Quicksilver has been coagulated into Stone or Powder. Quicksilver still has an earthy, sulphurous impurity mingled in its Composition, which necessarily infects all the Coagulations that one can make of it. And from there comes the failing of those who, by coagulating it, make of it an imperfect Body or Metal. Because if the Medicine or the Quicksilver that one coagulates have a Sulfur which is not fixed, from this Composition it will be made a Body or soft Metal, as it will be made a hard one if the Sulfur is fixed. In the same way if the Sulfur is white, the Body or Metal which will be formed from it will be white: and if the Sulfur is red, the Body will be likewise red. That if the Sulfur is not completely white, the Body which will be formed from it, will not be so perfectly white; nor perfectly red if the Sulfur is not quite red, Finally, if the Sulfur is terrestrial and livid, the Body will be impure: as on the contrary it will be pure if the Sulfur has no terrestrial impurity. Because it is a constant Maxim, that all (Metallic) Sulfur which is not fixed, forms a livid Body, which fixed Sulfur never does, at least of itself. Thus, according as the Substance of the Sulfur will be pure or impure, the Body or Metal, which will be formed from it, will be pure or impure.
The same diversity can come from Quicksilver alone, without the mixture of Sulphur, and it will all the same have quite different effects, depending on whether it will have been purified and prepared by the Medicines which will coagulate it. This is why one can miss some all the same in the Coagulation of Mercury, and it can be changed differently by the Medicines that one will employ to make it. Thus, sometimes Quicksilver coagulates into Lead, sometimes into Tin, formerly into Copper, and sometimes into Iron. What happens because of the impurity of the Medicines: As when it coagulates into Gold or Silver, this change can only come from the goodness or the purity of that which causes it to coagulate.
Now let's see how Quicksilver can be coagulated. This is done by precipitating it often, that is, by causing it to fall from the top of the Vessel into the bottom, by means of strong and violent fire, because such fire easily deprives it of its wateriness or humidity (which is what prevents Coagulation). For this purpose, it must be placed in a Vessel which is very high, so that when it comes to rise, it finds a cool place, where it can remain attached, at the sides of the Vessel, which will not have been heated because of its height. This Vessel must be exactly stopped up, lest the Quicksilver come out of it and flee, but remain there until, by a strong heat, the Vessel having reddened, it rushes and falls to the bottom, and rises and falls again and again,
This is the first way to coagulate it. Here is another. It must be held for a long time over a fire that is proper and proportionate to it, having placed it in a glass matrass with a very long neck and a wide belly, which will be left completely open, so that the humidity of the Argent-Vive can evaporate imperceptibly.
It is coagulated in another way by a Medicine of its own, the composition of which I will teach hereafter more clearly, and as much as is necessary: ​​And to leave nothing to say on this subject, I will describe it here in advance, according to the experience I have had of it several times. It is a Medicine which penetrates it and unites itself intimately with it by its least parts, before it can evaporate by the heat of the fire. And from this it must necessarily be inferred that this Medicine must be made of things which have much conformity with it: as are all Metallic Bodies, and Sulphur, and Arsenic, which are Spirits. But as we do not see that any of the Bodies can give to Quicksilver a permanent and true Coagulation: and that on the contrary it leaves them and detaches itself from them by heat, whatever great affinity they have together: It follows that none of the Metallic Bodies penetrates it, nor attaches itself intimately to it. And therefore the Medicine of which we speak, must be of a more subtle Substance, and have a more liquid fusion than the Metallic Bodies have. Moreover, we also do not see that the two other Spirits, remaining in their nature, and all such as they are, make on the Argent-vive a fixed and permanent Coagulation, but entirely volatile, impure and black. Volatile because Spirits are; black and impure because of the mixture of their terrestrial and combustible Substance. And hence it evidently follows that from whatever Matter this Medicine takes, it must necessarily be a thing whose Substance is very subtle and very pure, which unites itself intimately with Quicksilver by the conformity of its nature; which has a very easy and very liquid fusion, and which is flowing like Water, or Wax, and Oil; and finally which is fixed and permanent, resisting all the efforts of fire. The Medicine which will have all these properties will coagulate the Quicksilver, and will transmute it into Gold and Silver.
I have just declared to you the means of inventing this medicine, and I have told you how you will be able to discover it, having indicated it to you in proper terms. Now it's up to you to carefully seek it out, and you will find it. Nevertheless, so that you have no reason to complain that I have not said enough, I add that this Medicine is taken from the same Metallic Bodies prepared with their Sulfur or Arsenic, and even from Sulfur alone and from Arsenic alone prepared, and again from Metallic Bodies alone. But I warn you that it is done more easily, sooner, and more perfectly with Quicksilver alone. For Nature more lovingly embraces her own nature; she unites and enjoys herself better with it than with any other that is foreign to her. Apart from the fact that Quicksilver is actually composed of a very subtle Substance; it is also much easier to draw from him that subtle Substance (which is necessary for making Medicine) than from anything else. As to the way of making this Medicine, it must be by Sublimation, as I have sufficiently said before. And with regard to the fixation (which it must give), I speak of it in a specific chapter.
A word remains to be said of the Coagulation of Bodies which have been dissolved; it is done by putting them in a Matras, which will be placed in a terrine full of ashes, burying it there up to the neck, and holding these Vessels over a soft and temperate fire, until all the wateriness of the Matter which one wishes to coagulate has evaporated.


CHAPTER LIV

On Fixation, its Causes, and the Different Manner of Fixing Bodies and Spirits.

Fixation is an Operation by which a thing which flees from fire is rendered in a state to be able to suffer it without evaporating. The reason why it was invented is so that the Tincture, the change and the alteration which the Medicine makes in the Body which it alters, always remain there, without this Tincture and this alteration changing, nor that they can be separated from it by any degree of fire whatsoever.
There are several kinds of Fixings, depending on the variety of things that can be made fixed. These things are, first, some imperfect Bodies or Metals, such as Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. Secondly the Spirits, namely Sulfur and Arsenic in the first degree; Mercury in the second; and in the third Marcasite, Magnesia, Tutia and other things of that nature.
As for imperfect bodies or metals, they are fixed by calcining them and then causing them to regain body. For by Calcination they are purified from the combustible and volatile Sulfur which corrupts them, that is to say from their imperfection, as was sufficiently explained in the preceding Chapter, where we treated of Calcination.
Sulfur and Arsenic bind in two ways. The first is done by sublimating them so many times by themselves in an Aludel, that they become fixed. So the whole thing is to fix them promptly. And for this purpose it is necessary to find the means to make and to reiterate in a short time several Sublimations of these two Materials. This will be done by means of two Aludels with their double lids, in such a way that the Sublimation is done continuously, and without interruption, until these two Spirits are made fixed. So that we will first put, in the second Aludel, all that will be sublimated and mounted in the lid of the first, continuing to do the Sublimations in succession, and one after the other, without letting stop and stick to the side of the Aludel what rises from these two Matters; making them sublimate incessantly, as long as nothing more rises or sublimates itself by the heat of the fire. Because the more Sublimations we make in less time, the sooner and better we will fix them.
And it is this that even led to the idea of ​​the second way of making the Fixation of these two Spirits, which is done by precipitating and causing to fall to the bottom of the Vessel what rises as it sublimates, so that it always remains in the heat, until it is fixed. And this is done with a very high glass Vessel, the bottom of which must be fought, because otherwise it would break: then with an iron or stone spatula, one makes fall down (where the heat is) what rises and attaches to the side of the Vessel, continuing to make what rises fall, until it is fixed and does not rise any more.
As for Quicksilver, the Fixation is done in the same way as that of Sulfur and Arsenic; except that one cannot fix these last two, if before, by this last manner of Fixing, one does not separate with skill their most subtle parts which are inflammable. What it is not necessary to do to the Argent-vive, because it does not catch fire or burn itself in the fire. Sulfur and arsenic must also be given a much more temperate heat to fix them than quicksilver. There is also this difference, that it takes much more time to fix them than to fix the Argent-vive, and that as they rise much higher than it, because they are more subtle, it is also necessary that the Vessel, in which they will be sublimated, be higher.
Marcasite, Magnesia and Tutie are fixed in this way. After we will have sublimated them once, and that, by this Sublimation, we will have had what we want to have of them, we will have to throw away the faeces or garbage, then we will resublime them by themselves, by putting back what will have risen to the top of the Vessel on what will have remained at the bottom, until these Matters become fixed.


CHAPTER LV

From cremation.

Incineration is the softening that is done of a hard or dry thing, and which is not fusible, to make it liquid and flowing. From where it is easy to judge that this Operation was not invented so that a thing, which by default of fusion could not enter a Metallic Body to alter it and change it, was so softened that it became fluid and incoming. This has made some believe that incineration should be done with liquid things, such as Oils and Waters. But this is not true, being a thing quite opposed to the natural Principles of the Magisterium, and manifestly condemned to error by the way of acting of Nature. For we do not see that the humidity which Nature has placed in the Metallic Bodies, by the necessity which they had of being melted and softened, or a humidity which can soon be consumed (as is the humidity of Oils and Liquors), since on the contrary it is a permanent humidity, and which lasts as long as the Metals themselves. And in truth, if this humidity could be evaporated in a short time by the heat of the fire, it would necessarily be necessary that after the Metals had been either reddened in the fire, or melted only once, they would no longer have any humidity at all. Whence it would follow that one could no longer forge or smelt any Metal whatsoever which had once been reddened in the fire. it would necessarily be necessary that after the Metals would have been either reddened in the fire, or melted once only, they would have no more moisture at all. Whence it would follow that one could no longer forge or smelt any Metal whatsoever which had once been reddened in the fire. it would necessarily be necessary that after the Metals would have been either reddened in the fire, or melted once only, they would have no more moisture at all. Whence it would follow that one could no longer forge or smelt any Metal whatsoever which had once been reddened in the fire.
In order therefore to imitate Nature in her Operations, as far as we can, we must do the incision as she does. Now it is certain that Nature has incerated Bodies which are fusible, by giving them as Principle and as foundation of their Inceration, the very humidity which makes them fusible, which suffers and sustains the heat of fire more than any other humidity, such as it can be. We must therefore necessarily incinerate with the same humidity. Now this incerative humidity cannot be better found anywhere than in the spirits. I mean what is in Sulfur and in Arsenic soon; but more soon, and even better in the Argent-vive. For after their resolution is made, we do not see their moisture separate from their earth, so strongly did Nature unite these two things together, when she mixed and composed them; whereas in the resolution of all other things which have an interior humidity, we see by experience that this humidity is separated from their earthly substance; after which they have no moisture left. What does not happen in the same way in the Spirits, and especially in the Argent-vive And consequently, nothing can prevent us from making use of Spirits to make the inceration.
For this effect, it is necessary to sublimate them so many times with the Body, to which by their means we want to give Inceration, that without these Spirits losing any of their moisture, they unite with it, and that by this means the Body becomes easily fusible. What the Spirits cannot do, if they are not first cleansed and stripped entirely of all that can cause corruption. I would find it more appropriate if their Oils were first fixed with Oil of Tartar; after which these Spirits might be useful in giving any Inceration which may be needed in this Art.

End of the first book.