Third part of the Mineral work

or commentary

On the Book of Paracelsus, called the Heaven of the Philosophers, or the Book of Vexations, in which are taught the transmutations of Metals, with an Appendix touching the melting, the separation, and the other necessary operations.


By Jean Rudolphe Glauber

Preface to the Reader

Dear reader, I wanted to give you notice of the plan I had to undertake in this third part, the explanation of the Book of Paracelsus, called the Heaven of the Philosophers, so that you would not believe that for lack of material to write, I was reduced to the need to enlarge my Book with the works of others. What I want to treat here, I could have done without involving the Books of Paracelsus, but I did it by the consideration that I had of the beautiful Books that Paracelsus brought to light the previous century for the public utility: I could not support the slander of the ignoramuses who condemned them, because they did not hear them, although I was happy enough to discover the truth there, and to know that very few people equaled it é in true Philosophy, Medicine, and Alchemy. The thing has come to this point, that there are excellent Physicians, who would not dare to declare themselves in his favor, for fear of shocking his enemies. But I have no doubt that good people take pleasure in seeing the torch that he had lit for us renewed. This is why I have undertaken the explanation of this little treatise, to which we give the name of Heaven of the Philosophers, with no other intention than to show the truth hidden in its obscurity, so that its adversaries may be forced to confess that it has been and always will be their master. And by this means I hope that many will sing the Palimodie, and make triumph the truth which had been oppressed for a long time. This is why I have undertaken the explanation of this little treatise, to which we give the name of Heaven of the Philosophers, with no other intention than to show the truth hidden in its obscurity, so that its adversaries may be forced to confess that it has been and always will be their master. And by this means I hope that many will sing the Palimodie, and make triumph the truth which had been oppressed for a long time. This is why I have undertaken the explanation of this little treatise, to which we give the name of Heaven of the Philosophers, with no other intention than to show the truth hidden in its obscurity, so that its adversaries may be forced to confess that it has been and always will be their master. And by this means I hope that many will sing the Palimodie, and make triumph the truth which had been oppressed for a long time.

Why should we allow ourselves to be harmed by the reputation of an extremely praiseworthy man, who wrote only for the glory of God, and for the benefit of his neighbour? He was not a man who sought gain in the damage of others, and who wanted to enrich himself by the practice of Medicine, as the slanderers say. Everything he did, he did with good intentions without receiving a salary, which he did not need, being satisfied with his enlightenment and knowledge. Above all, he did much good to the poor, of whom we have many testimonies; among others his Epitaph which is at Salzburg in the Hospital of Saint Sebastian, where he was buried, and to which he left all his possessions. It is written in capital letters on marble, which I have read in these terms. Here lies Philippi Aureole Paracelsus, excellent Doctor of Medicine, who by marvelous art cured those horrible diseases, leprosy, gout, dropsy, and others which were thought incurable, and gave his property to be distributed among the poor. He died in the year of Our Lord 1541 on the 24th day of September.

What can we say to that? If he had not had the qualities given to him in his Epitaph, the Magistrates would not have honored him with such a glorious Eulogy: all lovers of truth today believe that no one has ever equaled him. The contempt and envy of certain ignoramuses does not deprive him of any of his merit, he will always be Paracelsus, and they will only be slanderers; they will only show their impudence according to the old proverb: Art has no other enemies than the ignorant. I, who have written very little, am still exposed to the gossip of the envious, how could he be exempt from it, he who so courageously fought against error and lies? It is the custom of this corrupt world, which Our Lord himself experienced, when he rebuked the Pharisees, who pursued him with movements, of irreconcilable hatred unto death. He who wants to please the world, must believe that what is curved is straight, and approve of all things; otherwise we cast him out and despise him. As I therefore saw that our good Paracelsus was so badly treated, without anyone daring to shut their mouths to detractors, I undertook to show that far from being an impostor, he was very true and very enlightened in the secrets of nature. I do not claim to prove that he was able to make heaps of gold and silver, of which he does not speak at all; it only shows the possibility, which I will also try to do; though I have no knowledge of the great work, and do not trouble myself much about it, contenting myself with discerning the true from the false, and to convince the opinionated; also hoping that our Germany, which is miserably ruined, will be able to receive much use from it, by the industry of those who will seek in my writings the means of attaining the end they desire. I pray God that he deigns by his clemency, to favor my work for his glory, and for the public good.



The Heaven of the Philosophers
or
the Book of Vexations

by Philippi Theophraste Paracelsus.

The Art and Nature of Alchemy, and What to Believe in It; understood in seven infallible rules, which concern the seven Metals.

Preface by Theophraste Paracelsus, to all Alchemists and readers of this Book.

Friends who profess Alchemy; and all of you who want to get rich, by making a lot of gold and silver, according to the precepts and the promises it gives, you who want to torment yourselves by such laborious work; experience teaches us that among a thousand not one succeeds; but he does not say that it is the fault of art or of nature, it is rather the ignorance of the craftsman. This is why I will not fill this book with a difficult and embarrassing doctrine, as chemists usually do. Take antimony, and melt it with nitre, and tartar: half an ounce of this, half an ounce of gold, three drams of tin, one dram of schlic, two ounces of sulphur, two ounces of vitriol, let them be melted with silver, and with arsenic in a crucible.

And since the characters of the signs of the stars and planets, the change and inversion of their names, with the instruments in which matter must be contained, are known to everyone, there is no need to speak of them again, although I do not use them when the occasion arises.

Here the method is different, and chemistry is taught by seven infallible rules, adapted to the nature of the metals; the language is simple, without politeness and without ornament, but the meaning is deep and mysterious; with many new speculations which produce admirable operations, which combat the common opinion of the Philosophers.

Now there is nothing more certain in chemistry than what we discover in it and believe in it the least: and it is the sole fault of all chemical operations which is the cause of the ruin of the ignorant who work uselessly. Either there is too much matter, or there is not enough; or that the weight be equal, of which the thing is spoiled and corrupted in the operation; or that having encountered the thing, it enhances itself and tends to perfection. The way is very easy but few people find it. It also happens that an industrious man invents an art and a chemical way, either he does something or he does nothing. He doesn't have to do anything to reduce something to nothing, and then something be born out of nothing, that's unbelievable, but it's still the truth.

Corruption produces perfect good: Good cannot appear before him who hides it: the good that is hidden is a good that has been begun. It is necessary to lose and remove the one who hides it, and the good being delivered will appear in its luster, and the gloss will be highlighted: the one who hides, is the mountain, the sand, the earth, the stone where the metal was born; but each visible metal hides the other six metals.

Like imperfect things, such as the five metals, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn, are corrupted, burned, and destroyed by elemental fire; the perfect ones, which are the two noblest metals, the Sun and the Moon, cannot be; this is why they are preserved in the fire, they take their bodies from the other imperfect metals, in which they have been destroyed, making themselves visible and manifest. We will teach in the seven rules how and by what means this can be done, of what nature and what property is each metal, what is its mixture with the others in the operation, and what is its power.

It should also be noted that a dazed person will not at first understand the seven rules which we propose; a weak understanding is not capable of high and difficult things; that's why each rule needs a lot of work, and research. There are some proud people who imagine they know much more important things, and who despise my doctrine.


The third part of the mineral work.

This Preface is quite clear in itself, and therefore it needs no special explanation: but the preparation of which he spoke is obscure, that is why it needs light. Take antimony, let it be fused with nitre and tartar, one loton of it, one loton of gold, three drams of tin, one dram of schlic, two lotons of sulphur, two lotons of vitriol, let them be fused with silver and arsenic. This is the way of making gold and silver, which Paracelsus teaches, different from that of the others, which can only be done with a lot of work; but he assures us that by his gold and silver can easily be made at little expense, and without employing much time. There is no doubt that he deceived the hopes of an infinity of people; but it was with good reason, especially since they imagined that they were chimeras. Whence I have heard many complain, who could not understand that gold and silver are made with volatile and destructive things, such as antimony, sulphur, vitriol, and arsenic; which, far from producing gold and silver, corrupt them, reduce them to smoke, or at least to dross. Myself while making this experiment, I saw that these metallic species, like schlic, vitriol, sulphur, arsenic, had stripped of their metallic form, and charged with scoria: but it is what Paracelsus had desired, and that should not astonish us; since to explain himself he adds a little later. Something must become nothing; and then nothing becoming something: that which is beyond the capacity of an ignoramus, that metals being corrupted and reduced to dross are perfected by work. Although this is very true; few people believe him, as he says, explaining all this operation down to mercury, in these terms: Corruption makes good perfect. The good cannot appear because of the one who hides it: it is necessary to remove the one who hides it so that the good is manifested. The mountain, the sand, the stone, or the earth in which the metals were generated, are those which hide them, and which must be separated by melting, so that the metals are pure. The Chemist stops short here, not understanding these words. But Paracelsus continues, and adds that each metal hides the others; which is amply taught in the Seven Rules. He also warns the Chemist that he must not be satisfied with the metals that are exposed for sale, after they have been removed from the mine, but that he must consult natural philosophy, and see if they are sufficiently purified, and if they do not still hold something of the one who hides them and makes them imperfect. Everyone knows the difference between a rough and coarse mine, containing the strong scattered metal, surrounded by stone and filth, and the metal which is treatable and purified. It is equal, or even greater, between the imperfect common metal and the gold and silver which are enclosed within it. Everyone knows the difference between a rough and coarse mine, containing the strong scattered metal, surrounded by stone and filth, and the metal which is treatable and purified. It is equal, or even greater, between the imperfect common metal and the gold and silver which are enclosed within it. Everyone knows the difference between a rough and coarse mine, containing the strong scattered metal, surrounded by stone and filth, and the metal which is treatable and purified. It is equal, or even greater, between the imperfect common metal and the gold and silver which are enclosed within it.

Although the way of extracting metals from the mines is now so base and so despised by long usage, that it no longer passes for an art, but for a trade which is practiced everywhere; however in the beginning, before it was so well known, it passed for a marvelous art, and even still much should be said about it, although it has become common. Now it must not be doubted that what hides the metals, and which is adherent to them, cannot be removed with the same facility, and that the pure and fixed inner center, the gold and the silver, cannot be extracted and separated from them. But especially since men do not carry their care and their research further, and since the use of base metals is quite necessary, we are satisfied that, being once extracted from the rough and coarse mine, they are malleable and suitable for our uses, and that not without reason, seeing that human life is much less able to pass from iron, tin, copper, lead, gold and silver. However, wise and well-advised men will find it expedient to extract and separate what is best in these metals which are so common and so despised. What is more hidden is the gold, which must be drawn from it, took the means of art and fire, to which Paracelsus led us by the hand, which has been despised until now, and which the ignorant laugh at like a fable. This must be attributed to time, which changes, corrupts, and perfects all things; and we must hope that from now on people will be more careful of metallic antimony than they have been hitherto. gold and silver. However, wise and well-advised men will find it expedient to extract and separate what is best in these metals which are so common and so despised. What is more hidden is the gold, which must be drawn from it, took the means of art and fire, to which Paracelsus led us by the hand, which has been despised until now, and which the ignorant laugh at like a fable. This must be attributed to time, which changes, corrupts, and perfects all things; and we must hope that from now on people will be more careful of metallic antimony than they have been hitherto. gold and silver. However, wise and well-advised men will find it expedient to extract and separate what is best in these metals which are so common and so despised. What is more hidden is the gold, which must be drawn from it, took the means of art and fire, to which Paracelsus led us by the hand, which has been despised until now, and which the ignorant laugh at like a fable. This must be attributed to time, which changes, corrupts, and perfects all things; and we must hope that from now on people will be more careful of metallic antimony than they have been hitherto. this is what Paracelsus has led us to by the hand, which has been despised until now, and which the ignorant laugh at like a fable. This must be attributed to time, which changes, corrupts, and perfects all things; and we must hope that from now on people will be more careful of metallic antimony than they have been hitherto. this is what Paracelsus has led us to by the hand, which has been despised until now, and which the ignorant laugh at like a fable. This must be attributed to time, which changes, corrupts, and perfects all things; and we must hope that from now on people will be more careful of metallic antimony than they have been hitherto.

It is the doctrine of Paracelsus that imperfect metals are corrupted and reduced to nothing by the force of fire, which they cannot withstand; and that the gold and silver they contain cannot be destroyed, but by the force of fire they withdraw from the imperfect metals, to unite and defend each other, the impure portion being burnt; what we find to be in accordance with nature, and with truth; for in all heterogeneous things which come to be mixed and to suffer some violence, the like unites with its like, and tries to preserve itself with all its strength, neglecting the things which are not of its nature, and leaving them a prey to the enemies. I could confirm this truth by many examples, not only animals, but also plants, and minerals, which I pass over in silence to be shorter. What is more necessary is to know which is the friend or the enemy of each one: for some are opposed to extreme heat, to others extreme cold. We see it by experience in the rigor of Winter, if we expose a vessel full of cervoise or of some other igneous and subtle liquor, which, being unable to resist the vehemence of the cold, is necessarily corrupted. In this meeting, as nature tries as much as possible to defend herself from her enemy, she concentrates her purest and most powerful parts, and leaves the rest to her enemy who converts it into ice. The same thing is evidently noticed in other liquors which have various parts, when they come to feel cold; for the noblest separates from the lowest, and quickly flees in the middle of the fort: for example if one dissolves salt or oil in water, these being the most noble, they will withdraw into the middle, and leave the water which will be taken by the cold. Even though a Town is besieged by a powerful enemy, which it cannot drive out; it does not, however, receive him first, and does not open its doors to him, so that he may make himself master of it, and dispose of it as he pleases; on the contrary, it resists as much as possible. No one wants to be killed first, especially the big ones who manage business, they do their best to keep the people, they wouldn't want to lose a single man; but when they cannot avoid it, they rather expose it to blows, than their own persons, they retire to the strongest part of the City to find their preservation there, until the people being vanquished, they are compelled to surrender themselves. It is just so with imperfect metals, exposed to the violence of fire, nature having the design of separating them; the gold and silver, which are the most important parts of it, set themselves apart, withdraw together; and leave the rest to the action of the fire, which corrupts and destroys it. As metals are more powerful in their nature than animals and plants; they are also separated by a more powerful enemy, which is fire; not however alone, but with an assistant, by which their substance is corrupted, by the dissolution of the bond which united them: which is done by means of mineral salts, because of the great affinity which they have with them. For metals either alone or joined with others are never changed by the action of fire, however long it may be, unless their radical construction is rather dissolved by the force of mineral salts. Which we will discuss later.

In order to understand the species and the ingredients of this operation, it is necessary to speak of the recipe which is written in this place. Take antimony fuse it with nitre and tartar. Take a lot of it. Note that it is not necessary to take a loton of the entire melted mass, either from the upper one with the scoriae, or from the lower regulus which has descended downwards in the mixture. But you can't tell which of these two it is by the meaning of the lyrics. However since it is here the intention of Paracelsus, to destroy gold and silver by the mixture of these species, and after having reduced them to nothing, to make them find increase in this nothing, by the addition of something; it is more likely that he spoke of the regulus than of the slag, which regulus insinuating itself into the tin, into the arsenic, and into the schlic, unites them with gold and silver. For it is the property of the regulus of antimony to join metals and minerals together. The tin being mixed with the malleable metals, and suffering the fire with them, reduces them to dross, as also does sulphur, vitriol, and schlic, which Paracelsus uses only to corrupt the Sun and the Moon, and reduce them to dross. Now it is not easy to guess what kind of schlic he means, because he has not added the name of gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, or tin. For chemists and metalworkers give the name of schlic, when after having washed a well-crushed mine with water, and having formed a heap or a stone; the heaviest and most noble part remains at the bottom of the vessel, by the examination of which they judge the value of the metal or mine. They call this work schlic, and since all metals can be reduced to schlic, that is to say calcined, the name schlic or lime can be applied to all sorts of metals. Also called lime or schlic, this loose powder which accumulates under the millstones to polish the fittings, the swords, the breastplates and other weapons, in deep gaps or receptacles of wood intended for this use, and which one has accustomed to sell for the dyeing of black cloths. Now we do not know whether it is this sort of lime or that of the metals that he means, and even it is not very important, seeing that the Sun and the Moon do not need any lime to be reduced to nothing, and to become something of this nothing,

Those have been deceived who imagined that all these species mixed together would be entirely changed into gold and silver, having drawn nothing from them but a yellow dross, the luster of which was sad and distressing. On the contrary, the luster is happy and joyful, when the metal which has been corrupted and reduced to nothing and dross, then becomes more noble and more excellent. This destruction and reduction is not uniform, but it takes place in various ways, as we shall see next.

First rule.

On the nature and properties of Mercury.

All things are hidden in all things, but among all there is one that hides the others, it is an external, visible, mobile corporeal vessel. All the flowers are manifested in this vessel, because it is a corporeal spirit, for which reason all the coagulations and consistencies are captive there and enclosed, surmounted, surrounded and constricted by the flower: one cannot find a proper name for this flower, nor for its cause; especially since there is no heat that can be compared to it, except that of the Underworld: this flower has no communication and no affinity with the other flowers, which are caused by the heat of the elementary fire, which freeze, and harden by the cold. Mercury is above all that, it has more power. Whereupon it should be noted that the mortal virtues of the four elements have no force against the celestial virtues, which we call quintessence, especially as the elements can neither give nor take away from this quintessence. The celestial and infernal force is not obedient to the four elements nor can any elemental thing, whether dry or moist, hot or cold, act on the quintessence, but each has its separate operation and force in its particular.

In this first rule of mercury, Paracelsus says in few words, but very clearly, that the fluidity of mercury does not come from the four elements which are corruptible, but from the quintessence, and that consequently it has no affinity with these elementary flowers. Now it would take a long speech to explain what this quintessence is that Paracelsus mentions in this place, which is not my subject now. The other Philosophers have dealt with it amply, and so have I; to which I refer, I add only this. Paracelsus wants the quintessence to be seen as a thing not subject to the four elements, but permanent and incorruptible. By this he wants us to understand, that the fluidity of mercury does not derive its origin from the four elements but from the quintessence; its coagulation similarly is done by the quintessence, and not by the hot or cold elemental fires. Now it is easy to conjecture that in this quintessence which coagulates mercury and converts it into gold, and silver, is not found in vegetables, nor in animals; but that it must be extracted from metals, and that it must be much purer, more fixed and more fusible than these. Paracelsus wrote many things, attributing admirable virtues to this quintessence; other Philosophers assert that it is a thing reduced by means of art into a very pure and perfect substance. There are some who give a quintessential name to the tincture which we are accustomed to making projections. and not by the hot or cold elemental fires. Now it is easy to conjecture that in this quintessence which coagulates mercury and converts it into gold, and silver, is not found in vegetables, nor in animals; but that it must be extracted from metals, and that it must be much purer, more fixed and more fusible than these. Paracelsus wrote many things, attributing admirable virtues to this quintessence; other Philosophers assert that it is a thing reduced by means of art into a very pure and perfect substance. There are some who give a quintessential name to the tincture which we are accustomed to making projections. and not by the hot or cold elemental fires. Now it is easy to conjecture that in this quintessence which coagulates mercury and converts it into gold, and silver, is not found in vegetables, nor in animals; but that it must be extracted from metals, and that it must be much purer, more fixed and more fusible than these. Paracelsus wrote many things, attributing admirable virtues to this quintessence; other Philosophers assert that it is a thing reduced by means of art into a very pure and perfect substance. There are some who give a quintessential name to the tincture which we are accustomed to making projections. nor in animals; but that it must be extracted from metals, and that it must be much purer, more fixed and more fusible than these. Paracelsus wrote many things, attributing admirable virtues to this quintessence; other Philosophers assert that it is a thing reduced by means of art into a very pure and perfect substance. There are some who give a quintessential name to the tincture which we are accustomed to making projections. nor in animals; but that it must be extracted from metals, and that it must be much purer, more fixed and more fusible than these. Paracelsus wrote many things, attributing admirable virtues to this quintessence; other Philosophers assert that it is a thing reduced by means of art into a very pure and perfect substance. There are some who give a quintessential name to the tincture which we are accustomed to making projections.

Which makes it clear to us that by the name quintessence is meant the purest, the best, and the most powerful part of the thing. Be that as it may, it is certain that mercury is an admirable subject, and that it is not so easy to fix as many have imagined, who have experienced quite the opposite to their great damage. A great deal of coal is uselessly employed for this purpose; I have often even worked with little satisfaction; but although I did not arrive at a permanent fixation, I nevertheless made marvelous remarks, of which I will tell you something. He is endowed with an extraordinary force, which is very friendly to metals, he unites easily with the pure, and very difficultly with the impure; which testifies that he is of a very pure nature. That if we were to fix it, I will show if I wanted, for indubitable reasons, that something more excellent than gold would be made of it; it is never without profit whenever, being added to other metals, it is forced to suffer fire. Since he manifestly perfects them volatile as he is, what would he not do if he were fixed, and if he remained a long time merging with them in the fire? To give more light, I add the following.

Having noticed in my great youth that many people tried to fix mercury, and to change it into gold and silver by amalgamation, sublimation, coagulation, precipitation, and other similar operations, I also undertook to do it under the guidance of Paracelsus, who assures us that its coagulation is in Saturn. I therefore melted in a crucible 6. Or 7. Part of lead, adding to it a part of mercury, which being done, I threw it into another crucible where there was molten nitre, so that it was covered by the nitre; then I took a still larger crucible, in which I melted some saturn glass, made of 4. Part red lead, and one part pebbles, and put the other two in it all hot, so that they were covered by the glass; I put all three in a new crucible, imagining that this flighty guest would be well guarded by the glass of Saturn. Having thus enclosed the mercury of so many walls, I put it in the fire to reduce it to fixation. He truly suffered it, not being able to escape, but having increased the fire, and the glass flowing with the nitre, he escaped, having left the place empty, and the weight of Saturn whole. In the examination which I made of it afterwards, I found in it a grain of silver heavier than common silver, which I took for fixed mercury; but having repeated my work, I recognized that it was not, and that the mercury had flown away from it, but that by a secret virtue he had perfected the Saturn, and had made him give silver. The whole mass of Saturn turned black and hard as tin. It is from there that I knew well that the mercury which is a pure igneous spirit, could not be fixed without the quintessence. All that it does, when joined with other metals, is retained long enough to suffer the fire, though it soon vanishes; it is that he changes them in some way, not by perfecting them, but by exciting them by his insight to act against each other, and to receive the strength to perfect themselves, which is not done with much gain; I only wanted to show what it could do, and how wonderful, and hard to discover, its power was. It is rightly considered a miracle of nature, it is nothing but an infusible fire, although the ignorant believe it to be cold, it can be made by art much hotter, and much more volatile, which I have sometimes experienced, when having often thrown it into a vehement fire, and having put it in glass, rising by natural force without any fire, it has returned in its chaos. In a word, many have made marvelous operations with mercury, but all without fruit, of which we will speak more fully when it is appropriate.

Second rule.

Of Jupiter and Saturn.

There is no manifest thing, such as the body of Jupiter, for example, in which the other six corporeal metals are not spiritually hidden, one more as much and more deeply than the other. Jupiter does not participate in the quintessence, but in the nature of the four elements, this is why its fluidity is seen with little fire, and its coagulation is done by a moderate cold, it has communication with the other metallic flowers.

This is why each thing unites all the more easily with another, the more it resembles it, provided that they touch each other reciprocally; the action being much more effective and sensitive between close things; especially since what is far away does not make such a strong impression. Thus Heaven is not desired, because it is very distant, and Hell is not feared, because it is also very distant, and no one has ever seen its form, nor felt its torments; which causes it to pass for a fable in the minds of the impious. Absent things are not esteemed and are even quite despised, especially when they are in a thick and coarse place; for it is certain that each thing becomes better or worse by the property of the place, of which many examples could be given.

The further away Jupiter is from Mars and Venus, and near the Sun and the Moon, the more gold and silver it contains in its body; the greater, powerful, shining, beautiful, agreeable, palpable, true and certain it is, more closely than from afar.

Finally, absent and distant things are more vile than near and present things, and the latter are always more remarkable. Wherefore, O Alchemist, thou shalt take heed how thou shalt put Jupiter in a spiritual, secret, and retired place, in which the Sun and the Moon make their residence, and also how thou shalt render the Sun and the Moon from afar, and place them in a near place wherein Jupiter has been bodily, so that the Sun and the Moon are there bodily and visibly in examination. There are various ways to transmute the metals, and to make it pass from imperfection to perfection.

The mixing of things and the separation of the pure from the impure, is precisely a transmutation made by the true work of alchemy. It should be noted that Jupiter has a lot of pure gold and silver. Add Saturn and Moon, and the Moon will receive augmentation.

Although we do not really know the real cause which compelled Paracelsus to begin with Mercury, and then pass to Jupiter, there is however the appearance that it was by mystery, and to signify something to us. He repeats in this place the preceding sentence, in these terms: That each visible metal hides in itself the other invisible ones, and that if we wish to do something good with it, we must take their invisible and spiritual gold, approach it and make it visible, and on the contrary remove the visible and make it invisible.

Now he does not teach in what way he refers the reader to the seven rules, which are very difficult, I am not saying only for novices, but for those who are the most experienced: and since there are not a thousand and one who understand them, one should not be surprised if the people do not take stock of his writings: doubtless his will was good, he imagined that he had written very clearly, and that he was dealing with people versed in the knowledge of metals, without have regard to the rudeness and ignorance of the people.

So what should be done in this meeting when we would write with great clarity, we would always have complaints and reproaches from the ignorant and proud: how is it that there are many who prefer to keep silent, leaving the noise and the cackling to the foolish. However, the innocent should not be punished with the criminal.

He therefore to whom God has given the grace of some talent, he must not bury it on the occasion of the wicked, but he must communicate light to the good and to the wicked, as does the Sun, and await the reward of God which will give to each according to his works.

If the nature and property of tin be considered, it will be found that among other imperfect metals, it is pure, unripe, full of much combustible sulfur, from which it derives its fusibility in fire, and its again you reduce it to ashes, withdrawing this work, until all the combustible sulfur being burnt, it refuses to go away in ashes; he melts, and in the examination he easily gives his gold and his silver. The same combustible sulfur is the cause that being mixed with gold, silver, copper, iron, and melted with them, it makes them brittle like glass: but being stripped of this sulfur by calcination or in any other way, it does not make them any more fragile, but what is strange, it fuses with them, and very easily with Venus, who by sweet and deceptive words knows how to harmonize the two old men Saturn and Jupiter, and cause them to suffer each other reciprocally in the fire. Gold and silver would do the same: but as they are two precious metals, which flow easily out of the crucible, and the work may be lost, it is better to keep them after they have been cleaned with much work, than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. it no longer makes them fragile, but what is strange, it merges with them, and very easily with Venus, who by soft and deceptive words knows how to tune the two old men Saturn and Jupiter, and make them suffer each other reciprocally in the fire. Gold and silver would do the same: but as they are two precious metals, which flow easily out of the crucible, and the work may be lost, it is better to keep them after they have been cleaned with much work, than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. it no longer makes them fragile, but what is strange, it merges with them, and very easily with Venus, who by soft and deceptive words knows how to tune the two old men Saturn and Jupiter, and make them suffer each other reciprocally in the fire. Gold and silver would do the same: but as they are two precious metals, which flow easily out of the crucible, and the work may be lost, it is better to keep them after they have been cleaned with much work, than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. and very easily with Venus, who by sweet and deceptive words knows how to harmonize the two old men Saturn and Jupiter, and make them suffer each other reciprocally in the fire. Gold and silver would do the same: but as they are two precious metals, which flow easily out of the crucible, and the work may be lost, it is better to keep them after they have been cleaned with much work, than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. and very easily with Venus, who by sweet and deceptive words knows how to harmonize the two old men Saturn and Jupiter, and make them suffer each other reciprocally in the fire. Gold and silver would do the same: but as they are two precious metals, which flow easily out of the crucible, and the work may be lost, it is better to keep them after they have been cleaned with much work, than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. it is better to keep them after they have been laboriously cleaned than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself. it is better to keep them after they have been laboriously cleaned than to risk them by mixing them with impure things; it is only necessary to employ copper, which will exhibit its gold, and its silver, which it held hidden within itself.

There are still other means of purging the tin of its superfluous sulphur, namely the nitrous fire. If you burn together filed tin, nitre, sulfur and sawdust, part of the tin rises in flowers, and the other remains, which by force of fire must be reduced to flowers and ashes, as long as the metallic nature is entirely destroyed. One gathers these flowers and one washes the ashes, then by means of a good and suitable flower, one reduces them to metal, which one must again file, and sublimate, and burn as before; until all the tin remains in the form of scoria, not sublimable, which must be melted and separated with the lead; and you will find the gold and the silver which was contained in its entrails.

Otherwise take filings of tin, with fixed nitre, and digest it in time, repair the defect of the humor which is exhaled, by adding a new liquor, so that it is always moist, and not too liquid, but that it is like thick water: this liquor consumes the combustible sulfur of the tin, fixes the imbustible, and renders it patient of the fire, so that being melted with the lead, and purged, it gives its gold. and his money.

We still make this separation of another kind. Reduce the tin to glass or amuse by means of common lead, or antimony regulus, hold it for a long time in a large fire where it will melt, make use of the incineration of the nitre or the salt of tartar. In this operation, the purest parts of the pewter being assembled, he makes a regulus; the impure go away in slag with the lead and the salt. The spelter being repurged you will find your gold and your silver in the cup.

Now it should be known that these operations can be done without copper, but that with copper they yield more gold and silver: not because copper itself gives its gold and silver, but because tin does not willingly give its gold and silver without the mixture of copper, in which it seeks its asylum, and hides itself, hiding from the dross, as long as the work being finished, the dross can no longer attract it: copper therefore serves as a receptacle where gold and silver can be hidden, what the Chemists call, bath. We will speak more fully of this work of the Amauses in the fourth Book, where it is treated of copper.

One can also separate gold and silver from tin in this manner. Melt common lead under the muffle in the dish; as it will be very hot throw in a little tin, it will enter immediately, but a little later rising, it will ignite in the form of sparks, it goes away in ashes, which it will be necessary to remove with an iron hook, put in new tin, and remove it when it is burned, and repeat this work, until all the lead is consumed by the tin, heat the ashes well for an hour under the muffle in the cup; so that if there were any grains of lead, they would be reduced to ashes, and that by this means the calcined ashes of Jupiter would be better fixed; if you reduce it, it will be a metal, which you will again heat under the muffle, where it will be reduced to ashes, repeat this work, as long as by the reduction it refuses to pass into metal, and that it remains in dross and destroyed metal. Melt it in a good crucible, and add to it a flower prepared of nitre and tartar: the fixed pewter withdraws at the bottom into a regulus with part of the lead, which regulus being washed reveals the gold and the silver which were hidden in the pewter. This work is kind, easy and of small expense, especially where wood and coal are cheap. The scoria from which the Roy has retreated is not lost, but is reserved for other uses, which we will discuss shortly. the fixed pewter withdraws at the bottom as a regulation with part of the lead, which, being washed, reveals the gold and the silver which were hidden in the pewter. This work is kind, easy and of small expense, especially where wood and coal are cheap. The scoria from which the Roy has retreated is not lost, but is reserved for other uses, which we will discuss shortly. the fixed pewter withdraws at the bottom as a regulation with part of the lead, which, being washed, reveals the gold and the silver which were hidden in the pewter. This work is kind, easy and of small expense, especially where wood and coal are cheap. The scoria from which the Roy has retreated is not lost, but is reserved for other uses, which we will discuss shortly.

But he is mistaken who hopes for profit from this little work under the mitten, especially since in this way one can only know how much gold and silver there is in a hundred pounds of tin, and what expense must be made to extract it, in order to be able to aspire to something more useful by calculation.

This work is not so conveniently done under the tile, as in large furnaces, where there is greater power of fire, and consequently more profit. And although my occupations have prevented me from trying it, I will tell you in a few words how to proceed in order to derive much profit from it. According to the calculation made of a smaller quantity, for one hundredth of tin, ten or twelve of lead are needed, so much so that having calculated the expense of lead, tin, coal and work, and deducting it from the gold, you will find that there is very little left: but if you penetrate further, you will find a considerable gain, by using the lead which contains silver; and tin which contains gold, such as is often found which contains so much gold as to equal the price of tin, as well as lead, which contains silver, which is equal in value to lead, which the Metallists do not know how to separate: and in order that your work may be more lucrative, add to the tin stones or mines of gold or silver, such as Marcasites, antimony, arsenic, orpiment, kobolt, quantity of pyrites or kifij which it has never been customary to melt because of the little gold they yield; they must be reduced to dross, and as they will join their gold and their silver, you will derive more profit from it. Mainly if these minerals having been rather melted with the copper, are reduced to regulus by means of iron: or their gold is compressed, and then the regulons are thrown with the tin on the lead, and go away in slag. In this case, their gold can be acquired at little cost, and be purified by tin.

That if you want this separation to be useful, it must not be done in crucibles, but in well-cemented hearths, on which a large flame is needed, which heats the metals strongly. After the calcination, incineration or annihilation has been done, it must be reduced in an acute furnace. This is not the time to deal with it more exactly, it is enough to have discovered the truth in a small quantity, everyone is allowed to try his luck in metal work.

Although bound various sorts of separating gold and silver from the state, I believe however see enough indicated for once. The following Chapters will shed light on the rest.

Third rule.

Of Mars and its property.

The six hidden metals have driven out the seventh and made it corporeal, leaving it the last rank, changing it to a coarse and laborious hardness: It is in it that they have brought out all the strength and all the hardness of coagulation, having reserved the colors, the flowers, and what is most noble. It's a hard business to make a Prince and a King, out of a low person and the dregs of the people. However Mars acquires honor by his virtue, and ascends the throne of a King. We must be careful not to do anything in haste, and think by what invention we will put Mars in the royal place, and the Sun and the Moon with Saturn in the place of Mars.

We follow the order, and even the calculation of the Astronomers by which also Mars is the third in descending: in this place Paracelsus does not give the first rank to Saturn as the Astronomers do, but to Mercury, and perhaps for some important reasons. Then he says, Mars is rough, hard and coarse, especially as the other metals have discharged on him all that they had most vile and most impure, as is seen by experience; it is made of a knotty and coarse wood: there is hardly anything good about it: it is rough, and is in no way comparable to the soft, tender and noble Jupiter. But being delivered from the knots, which is only done with great difficulty, he is forced to surrender, and to show by his virtue that he is also of royal blood.

Paracelsus adds that Saturn is able to untie it, and elevate it to a higher degree, though the Astronomers condemn the conjunction of these two, as the cause of all evils, and that is why they separated them by the benign Jupiter which they put in between. According to Paracelsus it is necessary to have many reverse precautions that Saturn unravels Mars; the haste is miserable: he resists courageously, and tries to ruin the others: we can, however, rank him according to the same Paracelsus whose reasons we run through in a few words.

Saturn has this natural property, to clean the other imperfect metals, of their superfluous sulphur, if by chance they contain something good: but it is not able to remove the radical impurities from them, which is born with them, it cannot do it alone; as it appears in the review of the cups. Although you add the iron to the lead, it must be separated on the cupel, it does not in any way enter the Saturn with sincerity; that if it happens by great work, it does not remain; but it soon retreats to the surface as dross, and leaving nothing with the lead, except what it accidentally had, it goes away with all the good it had naturally. Tin does the same; but for the copper, though they do not swim in the lead, and he retires apart, it does not unite radically, but being reduced with the lead to liquefiable scoria it descends into the porous ashes. Of which we have carefully treated in the fourth part of Les Fourneaux, and in the Appendix.

It is therefore certain that lead is not suitable in itself for cleaning metals, but that for this effect it needs the preparation of the art. For how will Saturn, which is the most liquid of all metals, unite itself with iron, which is the hardest? It is true that they penetrate each other by a mutual fusion but it is on the contrary and superficially, not radically. As if someone mixes water in flour to make a cake; the water thickens, and flour becomes liquid; but neither of them receives each other radically, the water insinuating itself into the pores of the flour, making the dough.

Similarly lead and iron mingle; but he also does not suffer the violence of the fire. Mars does not change its naturalness in fusion, it is always a hard metal and difficult to melt: lead also retains its humidity and liquidities, and although they come together in a mass, each nevertheless persists in its property: If they are put in a condition to be able to sustain fire together, iron comes to surrender, and gives its gold to lead or, and by its hot and volatile sulfur, it ripens the silver which is hidden in the lead, exalts it, and makes it corporeal, so that one and the the other communicates their virtue, and of their goodness, that they correct their faults, and mutually perfect each other. Although iron, which is harsh and rough by nature, flows with combustible sulphur, or with sulphurous minerals, such are antimony, arsenic, orpiment; and yet there is no transmutation, each remaining in its nature without alteration. Just as the mercury being reduced in amalgam with the silver makes less solution, but attaches itself to the gold, and leaves easily, the gold having remained with it. That if someone knew how to join gold and silver radically with mercury, one would not leave the other, but they would mutually perfect each other by the force of fire, as other metals do when they are radically mixed.

Someone will ask what is the radical and spiritual mixture of metals? I answer him, that when the union is made by a natural friendship, that they bear equally good and bad fortune, that one is not more remarkable than the others, that they open themselves through the doors and the thickest walls, that the volatile is not exhaled in the fire, that the liquefiable does not separate from the inliquefiable, by crawling along the vessel, and leaving behind itself as dross, what is more fixed is more rough. But you will ask, in what way do I make the metals spiritual, and in what way do I unite them radically; should they first be dissolved with strong water, or with other corrosive spirits, and make them volatile by means of the still? Not at all. This kind of spiritualizing is quite deceptive and sophistical, preventing one from coming to the knowledge of the truth. All the Philosophers advise the contrary, and forbid working metals by acrid spirits, especially since far from being perfected, they are corrupted and mortified in the root. If a man has been drowned, do we still have to make him swallow water to revive him? It's the same as if you put the bridle at the tail. It is evident that what is superfluous in the metals is combustible and corrosive sulphur: and that they possess all the more of it, as they are vile and imperfect: of which Mars gives us manifest testimony, that there is only acid sulphur; which deprived him of nobility and dignity: for if it did not abound so much in this coarse, acid, and vitriolic sulphur, it would not rust so easily, nor would it be corrupted by the attraction of a common humor. You will tell me that it does not appear to have so much corrosive sulphur, because where did it come from? since the mines and the stones of which it is made are not infected with this kind of sulphur. For if it had been, it would not have supported such a great fire in the fusion, but it flew away. Certainly, my friend, you do not understand the nature of the metals, and you are ignorant of the cause for which nature leaves this sulfur to iron, and to the other imperfect metals. You must know that this sulfur serves them as food, and as envelope and matter, in which their best ripens like an embryo, which afterwards appears in the form of pure and perfect metal. Nature's design was not that iron remained iron; but let it pass to the perfection of gold; the Minor's impatience does not give him time to come to that; and destining it for other more prompt uses, he imitates that Fisherman who was asked by a small fish he had just caught, to put it back in the water, until, having grown bigger, he would be able to better fulfill a plan: the Fisherman did not want to do anything about it: by saying to him, I would keep you now as you are, because I do not know if when you are big, you will come back to give in the hook. The Miner does the same, he does not wait for iron to attain the dignity of gold, but they apply to present uses. Everyone knows that it contains a lot of corrosive salt which is not combustible in the melting fire; and I do not want to give any other demonstrations than what I have said in the annotations of the Appendix. And in order to make you see that metal can retain in melting, volatile sulfur, and combustible, I will explain it to you more clearly. Gold having reached its perfection, does not seek this combustible sulphur, nor this acid and vitriolic salt, and nature has driven it out; especially since it no longer needs it to feed itself more, and even if you add it to it, it drives it away, and makes no alliance or friendship with it, as less perfect metals do. As for the silver, although it is not absolutely perfect, it is nevertheless more so than the others, and does not fail to have commerce with this sulfur salt, even until then, that in great heat it retains the common sulfur for a very long time. What we will show next in the separation of metals. That if silver, which is an almost mature and finished metal, retains this sulphur, how will the others which are more imperfect not retain it? To be more certain of this, you have only to incorporate sulphurous salt into any metal whatsoever, and retain them in a great heat; in a few hours you will see that your metal will have retained this sulphur, and will have defended them against the force of the fire. That if the metal receives and preserves this salt and this sulfur which were in some way separated from it by the melting, will it not still better preserve its own, in which it was formed and from which it came? Iron is not only a friend of all sulphurous and corrosive salts, but also of those of the urine, which he has attracted and preserved in the fire by a magnetic virtue. We see the example of this in the filings of Mars, mixed with nitre or salt of tartar, when the salt fixes itself with Mars, and resists fire. Which is noteworthy.

To return to the proposition I made to show that the imperfect metals not only are not perfected by spirits, and by corrosive salts; but that they are corrupted by it; No other proof is needed than experience, which makes us see every day, that all those who have used corrosive spirits for the improvement of metals have done nothing worthwhile, and have wasted their time and their property to their great damage: on the contrary, those who have used other, non-corrosive menses, have made great progress, and have found more than they had sought. These try to dissolve the metals, and to spiritualize them, and to unite them radically without any corrosives, so that in the fire they act and suffer mutually, and that they cooperate to acquire perfection, nobility and purity. We will deal more fully with this spiritualization in Chapter 6 where Paracelsus also speaks of it. At this hour then, as far as Mars is concerned; far from having to be treated by corrosive menses, it must be treated by those who loath it, who mortify and separate those who had held the metals in fusion, so that henceforth they no longer attract moisture, and that they no longer rust, and no longer become corrupted, but on the contrary that all corrosive things consist and are preserved by combustible sulphur. Now it must not be imagined that Mars, being delivered by this antidote from its coarse, terrestrial and combustible sulphur, must entirely be transmuted into pure gold: for the good which is in Mars is in small quantity; and as much as gold is nobler than common iron, so much the iron that remains, is baser than that from which the gold has been separated, being nothing more than a very useful earth or slag free from all metallic liquor. The milk of cows or other animals, not being mixed with water, is a good milk, but it yields much in goodness to butter which is well worked: and as much as the milk is more vile than butter, so much the acid milk, stripped of its flower and its cream, is also more vile than butter. If you remove from an excellent wine its spirit by distillation, a part of this spirit is better than twelve parts of wine, from which it was extracted: The residue can no longer be wine, and is so much more vile than another good wine; than good wine and more vile than the spirit that has been drawn from it. It is the same with metals, which, being deprived of their souls and their metallic form, are no longer fusible. This is why when we separate gold from the imperfect metals, we must be very careful if it does not equal the value of the metal and the rest of the expense. That if you know how to apply the residue of the metal to other uses, you will be all the bolder to work for this separation.

To return to the speech of Paracelsus, and to show that even Mars can be raised to the royal dignity by means of Saturn, after having said before that there is no familiarity of the most liquid with the hardest of metals, and that the former rather goes up in smoke than renders the latter fluid; after having assured that in the separation of Mars one cannot do without Saturn, one must state in a few words how one should use it.

It is true that Saturn is by its nature liquefiable and volatile, but it cannot easily be made fixed, without any loss of its radical moistness or its metallic nature, that it may sustain the same fire as Mars; after it has been reduced to this state, it is suitable for separation from Mars: it can be made fixed and non-liquefiable in several ways; but principally by the fixed salts, which are contrary to the superfluous sulfurs of Mars, and which are easily separated from the regulae which are made of Mars. For the nitre and the salt of tartar, not only harden the Saturn, but unite the other metals with it and make them spiritual, similar to clear transparent and soluble glass. Then when they have suffered the fire as much as is necessary, the agents being consumed and the patient sufficiently purged; the purest part of these metals, which have been spiritually mixed, and separated by the force of Saturn, from the other useless and coarse part: the regulus is easily purged; so that it is not necessary to separate the whole mass by precipitation, nor to reduce it to regulus. But the Saturn by its natural virtue completes in its time the separation precipitation of the pure and the impure of the metals which were united spiritually. Here, then, is the way of separating gold from Mars by means of Saturn, being impossible to derive anything good from it, by the common method of examiners, by slagging and separating by means of the said Saturn. Since Mars does not resist the force of fire with the vulgar Saturn, any more than Jupiter, but on the contrary,

This separation of gold from Mars can be done even better with the regulus of antimony, and with the nitre than by common Saturn. That if I do not give the recipe, and the whole process from one end to the other, no one should be surprised; especially as my Book would be of an excessive size, and I would not receive any more satisfaction from the ingrates. It is enough that I have indicated the way and the species, with which the operation must be carried out, because I wrote in favor of the Chemists who are already versed in the metallic exercise, and not of the puny distillers that if something is missing for the clarifications, it will be found at the end of the seven rules in some processes.

Someone will perhaps say, how is it possible that this operation can be done so easily by means of Saturn and the salts, seeing that in the first Part of this treatise and elsewhere in several places it is said, that Mars, far from giving away its gold easily, even unravels and hides that which is added to it by chance or by design? Let him learn, that this manner of separating gold from Mars is not a vulgar examination, but a true and philosophical operation, by which Mars is fully delivered from his hard and coarse body. And although I know that many readers will not penetrate further, I nevertheless believe and I assure you that there is still in this work something more excellent than gold, and not to give you a headache, I want to communicate it to you with good heart. Here it is : iron without any corrosives, it is made into a salt, which is able to remove the soul from gold, so that it remains half dead, Mars conceives, to bring to light a golden fruit, gold weakened by copper, and by antimony, recovers its strength and its color. Other Philosophers have mentioned this, saying that Mars does not spare even the King, from whom he takes jewels and adornments, and is not ashamed to grow rich. The very famous Sendivogius wrote about it in the following terms. Chemists know how to change iron into copper without the mediation of the Sun: they also know how to turn Jupiter into mercury; there are those who turn Saturn into the Moon, but if they knew how to use the nature of the Sun in these transmutations, they would certainly find there something above all treasures. That is why I say that it is necessary to know which metals want to be joined with each other, and which have a natural conformity. Thus there is a metal which has the power to consume the others: as being almost their water, and almost their mother: there is only one thing which resists it, and which is perfected by it, namely the humid radical of the Sun, and of the Moon. And to speak clearly, it is called steel: if gold is joined eleven times with it, it sows its seed, it weakens almost to death, the steel conceives, and begets a son more noble than its father: afterwards if the seed of this child is put in its womb, it purges it, and makes it a thousand times more fit to produce excellent fruits. There is also another steel that looks like the one we just talked about,

Even though Mars has such a bad reputation, you can still see that something good can come out of it. I confess that he is malicious, when he is the master, he does not even spare the sovereign, from whom he extorts the treasures by violence, but by the commerce of Venus, he returns them; and over time have the can distribute between the subjects. Although the King is stripped of his estates, and he becomes pale as a patient, he must nevertheless always have good courage: provided that he remains, affairs are not hopeless. For provided that these riches are not transported out of his kingdom, and that they are distributed among these subjects, he can by means of his revenues recover the luster of his majesty, and preserve it entirely.

I know that certain little minds who make the heard, but they are completely blind to the lights of nature, will laugh at me, as if I had interpreted the steel of Sendivogius at the foot of the letter that I had taken it for ordinary iron, but it matters very little to me: I wrote with reason what I wrote. I know that neither he nor I hear of common iron, but of a virtue had and of a magnetic essence, made without corrosive, intimate, is known to few people, which on the things of the world attracts the soul of the Sun with avidity and transmutes it.

Fourth rule.

Of the nature of Venus.

The six other metals lent all their colors and their flowers to Venus with inconstancy and for the exterior of the body. Now, and it would be very advantageous to show by a few examples, in what way the visible becomes invisible, and the invisible visible and material, all by means of fire. All fuels can be changed naturally by fire, and pass from one form into another, into coal, soot, ashes, glass, colors, stones, earth, and earth into many metallic bodies. If a metal happens to be burnt or spoiled by old age, not fusible, but rough, brittle, and going to ashes, it must be heated well, and it will resume its fusibility.

Although above all the metals Venus is always suitable for all operations, she is not nevertheless absolutely exempt from this combustible sulphur, but she is radically infected with it, so that without adding other sulphurs to her she is reduced to dross, and is easily corrupted: which happens by the quantity of this combustible sulphur. As for gold and silver, as they have no sulfur, they are not subject to destruction, only they do not go away in dross like the other imperfect metals, which, as they abound in sulphur, are changed even with a little fire into ashes, powder, or dross, which dross melt into opaque or transparent glass according to the nature of the metal: these glasses can be melted into malleable metals, and these metals again into ashes and glass. but it comes to light with some loss, on account of some burnt part, which cannot be reduced to metal, though the metal remains as it was at the beginning without receiving any improvement. Now whoever will have the secret of melting metals into glass, by adding to them not metallic things, but those which have affinity with metals, such as salts, sands, stones, he will always find his metal better in the reduction than he had priced it at the beginning. And so that the reader in favor of whom I compose this Book, fully understands my thought, I will explain myself clearly. Now whoever will have the secret of melting metals into glass, by adding to them not metallic things, but those which have affinity with metals, such as salts, sands, stones, he will always find his metal better in the reduction than he had priced it at the beginning. And so that the reader in favor of whom I compose this Book, fully understands my thought, I will explain myself clearly. Now whoever will have the secret of melting metals into glass, by adding to them not metallic things, but those which have affinity with metals, such as salts, sands, stones, he will always find his metal better in the reduction than he had priced it at the beginning. And so that the reader in favor of whom I compose this Book, fully understands my thought, I will explain myself clearly.

Paracelsus had said before, that each visible metal hid in itself the others where they were invisibly; and to make visible and corporeal, the metals which were invisible, it was necessary to remove that which hid them: I do not know how it is necessary to give light to these words, which are completely unintelligible in their brevity, and which no one wants to believe. Scarcely are there among a hundred who understand them: but just as a goose walks with its feet all dirty and muddy on the jewels of which it does not know the price; thus the proud ignoramuses do not want to recognize the naked and simple truth, and pass without stopping there. If Paracelsus had proposed long and uncertain operations in the manner of the Sophists, he would have found more followers; but because he did not want to lead his neighbor astray in unknown ways, and because he manifested the truth in a few words, he is despised.

For my part, I cannot be astonished enough at the madness of men, who take prodigious pains in this art. They write and communicate to each other only dreams and chimeras, and make use of people who know no more than their masters; they uselessly waste their time and money. They say that care must be taken to choose the true species, for lack of which all their work is useless: that red tartar is necessary for the making of gold, and the spirit of wine draws red wine, and not white: that one should not take red species for lunar work. Let the vinegar, the spirit of the wine, and the tartar be from Strasbourg or other certain places, otherwise they will not be suitable for the work.

That if the work does not succeed, they excuse themselves on the vinegar, and make a hundred other impertinences, for want of knowing well the nature of metals. The truth, according to the testimony of Paracelsus, should be simple and easy, but it is rarely found, and few believe it. Metals never change until they have been stripped of their metallic form: For if metal, alone or mingled with others, is long kept in fluidity, as it remains corporeal, it cannot give help to another; but if it is destroyed and it remains in the fire, the time that is necessary for it, alone joined with others, it is impossible that it will not become more perfect: as long as it keeps its metallic form it cannot profit, it is necessary that the hardness of the body is crumpled, and reduced to nothingness,

True Chemistry teaches the solution by its like without corrosive, so that the purest parts are united, and the others separated. When the metal is forced to withstand the vehemence of the fire, the parts in it become attached to each other; if they are fixed, they remain together; if they are volatile, they fly away together likewise; the place of nature hers, and defends them against ordinary fire, but when this bond comes to be loosed, they are compelled to submit to Vulcan's grasp, and do whatever pleases him. Chemists should be ashamed of their work, they should consult the plowmen who take the help of nature in everything they do. The plowman does not scatter his seed on all sorts of soil indiscriminately, but he chooses a well-cultivated field, acquires a new body; he must separate by means of Vulcan this new body, the faeces of which it is composed being very good, and very heavy. Without the rot and without the corruption, of which we have spoken, would never come to improvement. A villager who wants to separate the best part of the milk from the coarsest and the least valuable, she puts it aside in a warm place, so that what is most excellent rises, and what is most base, descends: And she even has this industry that she stirs this part which was less pure, in order to excite the cream, and that she can again separate the pure from the impure; what is called butter, to make milk out of it, which would never be made without industry and the Villageoise. Who would imagine that butter is contained in milk, if they didn't see him every day? The separation of the butter from the wateriness of the milk is effected only by prompt agitation, by which the milk is heated; hot water is even poured into it, so much because its humidity mixes with that of the milk, and advances the separation, because of its heat helps that which comes from agitation.

The ignorant will find this example crude, but it is nevertheless very appropriately alleged, and shows the manner in which the milk must be extracted from gold and silver, and how the separation is effected by means of hot water, and stirring with fire. For just as hot water aids in the moistness of milk, being the cause of its heterogeneity, which is butter, is rather separated from it: thus the metals, after having been cooked for a long time in their water, can be separated. The reason is, that compact bodies do not lose their nature so soon, however long in the fusion, and of themselves have not the strength to push out what they have good or bad, and to reveal whether they contain gold or silver; that is why they must be cooked for a long time in their water, so that they relax, let them pass from their metallic nature, and let the pure be separated from the impure by the agitation of the fire. Now the purest part of the metal does not go to the surface like butter, but according to the custom of metals, it goes to the bottom like something royal, which being cooled, it must be separated from the dross and purified.

It is very important to know what this water is, suitable for the separation of metals. Since she had the power to dissolve them, there must necessarily be friendship and alliance between her and them; old Saturn brings this water to itself, and it is from him that one can easily draw it. For the common Saturn, whatever all the philosophers have published which was only water, which the experience of the cupels has denied, is in no way suitable for this, so long as they remain compact in its metallic form. Before the metals can be reduced to water, it must instead become water itself.

It is a work of little time, and of little expense, of which we shall speak more fully in the next chapter and elsewhere. It should also be noted that if after having the solution of the copper with the water of Saturn, digest it for as long as necessary, the humidity dries up, the metal hardens, returns to a metallic body; and this is why the solution must always be preserved in its liquid state by pouring water into it, so that their reciprocal action is not impeded. What the Philosophers call, inceration. If you neglect it, the work does not entirely perish, but there remains very excellent in amause or tinted glass, which appears among the copper, and throws a rouge, which serves not only to color the wood, but also the glass, such as one sees the old panes of the churches. We imagined that the art was completely lost, but it was hidden by those who exercised it, and who recognized that there was something better: especially since this red amuse, being burned in a vehement fire, sends down a regule, which being washed with lead water gives good silver. However, if you wish to extract silver from copper, it is better not to make red glass, but by means of incerations have sinned which does not join with the young, but the solution remains always green and transparent, until Venus is well cleansed. We must not despise what the other Philosophers have written concerning amuses, the thing being considerable according to the words of Isaac. You will know that the glass made in this way is similar to the glorious body: especially as the faeces of metal, which were before a black and filthy body then become glass. It is under this body that the quintessence of metal is hidden, which is incombustible and shines in the glass with its precious color: in the same way on the last day the soul will shine in the glorified body, like a torch placed in a crystal lantern. One soul will shine better than another according to the will of God, just as one body is more beautiful than the others. And a little later he speaks of amuses in these terms: if it is copper iron, they are pure and clean, freed from their faeces, so that they will no longer be subject to rust. If it is Jupiter, the stench and noise will be taken from it, and it will be strong and more like the Moon; if it is the Moon, it is fixed: if it is the Sun, it is medicine; and if it's Saturn, it's the Moon.

This should be understood as those amuses which are transparent according to the nature of the metal; but those which are spiritual, and which dissolve in water, of which we have spoken before, are much preferable to the others. Besides that it should be noted that not only Venus and the other metals can be reduced in soluble amuse, and soluble by this water of Saturn, but that by the addition of the pebbles and the salts, and they make it even more beautiful. They are more vile in separation, because the dissolvent is not quite metallic, and after purgation they do not render the regulus so easily as those which have been made with Saturn's water.

There is still another way of cleaning and purging the superfluous sulfurs of Venus without the water of Saturn, and that of the pebbles, which is by means of saltpetre. If you put it with Venus or some other imperfect metal, and burn them together, the purest parts come together there, and the combustible sulfur withdraws in the form of dross.

Finally, this separation or ablution is also done by means of other fixed salts, but there is none happier than that which is done with the water of Saturn. The reader will know what we have said of Venus, is considerable, although we have spoken without ornaments; as the following and chapters will show.

Fifth rule.

Of the nature and virtues of Saturn.

Saturn speaks for itself in these terms. The other six drove me out of the spiritual city, though I was their examiners, and gave me habitation with a corruptible body. I am forced to be, which they neither can nor want to be; my six brothers are spiritual, and it is for this reason that when I am on fire, they enter my body. I perish in the fire, and they with me, except for the most noble ones, the Sun and the Moon, which are perfectly cleansed by my water from which they become superb. My spirit is my water, which softens the hard bodies of my other brothers. My body is abandoned to the Earth, everything I embrace becomes in conformity with the earth, and changes into a body. It is not expedient for the world to know what is in me, nor how much I am worth. The best would be to think only of me, and to draw from it what is in my power, without employing the work of chemistry. There is in me a stone of coldness, it is the water with which I harden and freeze the spirits of the other six metals, reducing them to the corporeality of the seventh, which is advanced the Sun with the Moon.

There are two kinds of antimony, with as black, through the mon of which gold is purged, being mixed and fused together this antimony in close alliance with lead. The other is white, magnesia, bismuth, resembling tin, such antimony being mixed with others, it increases the Moon.
From Saturn we make a bath of which we spoke above, to cleanse Venus and the other metals: as much do we make antimony, but one is cleaner than the other according to the diversity of the metals.

As Venus easily enters Saturn, it can be perfectly cleansed and separated by Saturn's water; it is not the same with Mars, nor with Jupiter because they do not last with vulgar lead in a vehement fire, but they withdraw towards the surface as dross, and one draws them out without having washed oneself: but the antimony does not receive, retain and wash them very eagerly, which is impossible for the common Saturn. It is a providence of God, who willed that there should be another Saturn by means of which could be washed and separated the metals which did not agree with the common Saturn.

He is therefore very assured, what Saturn says of himself, namely, that the world does not believe things which are hidden in him, and that it is not proper for him to know it; his body being very subject to corruption, makes like the earth all metals, except gold and silver, which resist, and are washed by means of his water. The copper, the iron, and the tin being melted with the lead on a cupel, go away litharge or slag; and when they descend into the porous ashes of the cupel, they become earth, because of their burning sulfur which is very like the sulfur of Saturn. As for gold and silver, as they have no sulfur of this kind, they resist lead, are not transmuted into ashes or earth, and consequently are preserved on the cupel.

However, it seems Paracelsus wants to indicate something else to us concerning the transmutation of Saturn with the other metals. As Saturn is water and the bath of other metals, so it cannot itself be washed by salts, which are the waters of the same Saturn, as I shall shortly prove.

No one is surprised if I do not speak more fully of Saturn, which I said was so admirable; for we have already mentioned it very often, as will again, so much that we do not want to repeat the same thing.

What Paracelsus adds of the difference of antimony is so clear that it needs no light: vulgar lead and antimony also, although very different in diversity from sulphur, is called black, even ashen bismuth; the old Metallists call tin, white lead, of which we do not trouble much.

Sixth rule.

Of the Moon, its nature and properties .

If someone wanted to convert the Moon into lead or iron, it would be as difficult for him as Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn, to make the Moon out of it: but noble things must not be converted into vile things, on the contrary vile and abject things must be made noble and precious; it is impossible to make the Moon without knowing their nature. What then is the Moon? It is the seventh external metal, corporeal and material, containing the other six which are hidden in it because as we have often said, the seventh contains all the others spiritually, not being able to be one without the other. We can put the seven metals together in a mass, but after their corporeal mixture, each retains its nature and remains fixed or volatile. But it is not the same with the spiritual mixture,

If you could take away the body from the metals a hundred times in one hour by mortification, they would always take back a nobler one than they had before. It is the true promotion of the metals, which is done from one mortification to another, that is to say, from an inferior degree to a superior which is the Moon, and from the best to the most excellent which is the Sun.

But, you will say, if it is thus that the Moon and each of the other metals are composed of the other six, what then is the nature, and the property of the Moon?

Answer. Of Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, etc. There can be no other metal than the Moon. The reason is that each of the other six metals has good virtues, which are twelve in all: and its virtues are the spirit of silver; what I declare in a few words. Of the six spiritual metals and twelve properties of gold, silver is made up of them as a corporeal metal with relation to the planets and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. From Mercury and b and \ the Moon holds a shining flower and a white splendour. From HGM the white color, great resistance to fire, and fixity. From GOL the duration and a good sound. From EN and Y coagulation and ductility. From VL and Z, a body fixed with gravity. From Soleil P and Z a sincere purity and a great constancy against the violence of the fire.

It is also necessary to know what matter the metallic spirits receive from it in their first origin, which they hold from the influence of the heavens; this matter is only the mud or the stone of no value, the Miner by breaking this stone, destroys the body of the metal, and burns it, in which mortification the metallic spirit takes another body, which is not friable, but which is pure and malleable. Then comes the Chemist, who destroys this metallic body, and prepares it according to the rules of the art; this corporeal metallic spirit once again takes on another much nobler and more perfect body, which appears outside, either Sun or Moon. And then the metallic spirit and the body being perfectly united are free from the corruption of fire.

In this sixth chapter Paracelsus repeats and repeats the words he had often reiterated in the preceding ones. Knowing that each visible metal hid in itself the others spiritually, and assures that it is impossible for corporeal metals to be perfected by melting; if they are not spiritualized beforehand: as I have often shown. But they do not teach in express terms how they are to be spiritualized and united together. So it is not reasonable to put the chewed pieces in the mouths of lazy people. Paracelsus does not want the metals to be spiritualized by corrosive spirits, by which they are rather corrupted than perfected; it must not also be done in glasses, but in crucibles in a short time: in this way they are so purified, that can be seen through either in or out of the fire, being able to liquefy into any water whatsoever. This is the true spiritualization of metals, which is lucrative, if it has all the above conditions. The Philosophers call it the first matter of metals, which today is known only to very few people. Our Distillers know of no other metallic spirits, than what they push out through the alembic or the retort, which are quite useless for improvement, as is seen by experience. Although the ancient Philosophers wrote, that it is necessary to make the fixed, volatile, and the volatile, fixed: They do not mean however that the metals were elevated, since they did not practice this kind of sublimation, or distillation: but they did all their metallic operations in the same earthen vessel, without employing corrosives, and without making use of glasses. What we will talk about elsewhere in more detail.

If we pay close attention to the words of Paracelsus at the end of the Chapter, we will clearly see that he does not mean that it is by the distillation which is done with the glasses, but by the fusion. When he says, that the metallic spirit descending from the heavens into the earth, first assumes a very vile and abject form, which is stone or mud, that the Miner causes it to assume a better one by destroying it with the vehemence of fire, it becomes malleable metal. Then the Chemist takes this metallic body, destroys it, kills it, and prepares it, so that he gives it another nobler and more excellent body, which is gold or silver. The Moon is purer and more than copper, iron, tin, and lead, but not yet mature, she is compared to the Sun, like the flower, which is far nobler than the grass, but it is less so than the seed which is the most perfect part of the grass. And as among the vegetables the flowers have a more beautiful color than the seed and than the fruit: so the Moon abounds more in tincture than the Sun, which I have experienced several times. But though the flower surpasses the seed in beauty, color, and smell; however, she yields to him in kindness and duration. The flower wilts easily, but the seed lasts, and produces new grass with flowers and seed for the preservation of its kind. And as among vegetables the grass is greater than the flower, and the flower greater than the seed: nature observes the same order among the Minerals. If it produced only flowers, and seed without producing any grass,

There is no doubt that there is more tincture in the Moon than in the Sun; seeing that the intimate interior of the Moon is nothing but redness; and the very fixed and splendid center of the Sun is of blue color, which must be noticed.

It is not necessary to relate here the other properties of the Moon, which are known to everyone: it must be compared to the flower, in that after gold it holds the first rank: of its nature it is entirely free from burning sulphur, but not being yet cooked to perfection, it is not the cleanest vehicle of the volatiles, for extracting gold from Marcasites and other mines, and for making it corporeal. What we talked about before and will talk about again below.

Seventh rule.

Of the Sun, of its nature and properties.

Gold is the seventh corporeal metal, composed of the other six spiritual ones, it is of his nature; it appears externally beautiful, yellow, visible, sensitive, heavy, cold, malleable: the reason is that it contains in itself the coagulation of the six other metals, by means of which it has a visible body; and if it is melted by elemental fire, it is because it takes its fluidity from Mercury, from the fishes and from the water pourer; what even appears outside.

After it has melted, if the fire runs out, it hardens and coagulates by the cold which comes from outside, and it takes this from the other five metals, from Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, Venus and the Moon: especially as the cold dominates in these five metals. And this is why out of the fire, gold cannot be fluid because of the cold: and Mercury, by its heat and its fluidity, cannot help it against the coldness of the five other metals, to maintain it in a continual flow, it is therefore constrained to obey the other five rather than Mercury alone, which has no part in the coagulation of metals, its property being to render liquid, and not to harden. It is an effect of heat, and of life, to render liquid; and it is cold indeed, to make hard, rigid, and immobile, in which it resembles death.

If you wish to make fluid the cold metals, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Sun and Moon, this must be carried out by the vehemence of fire, especially since it is characteristic of heat to dissolve. Since Mercury is always fluid and alive, it would be ignorant to say that it derives this from coldness and humidity, since heat is similar to life, and coldness to death. Gold is truly a fire of its nature; do not have a living and liquid fire, but a hard one; its yellow color mixed with red is a mark of its warmth. The five cold metals tin, iron, lead, copper and silver, communicate their virtues to gold, by coldness it is body, by heat it is yellow in color, by dryness it is hard, by humidity it is heavy, by splendor it is ringing: and if it is not destroyed by elemental fire, it is because it is extremely fixed. A fire does not destroy the other, on the contrary a fire being joined to the other, becomes stronger and more active. The celestial fire which the Sun sends into the earth, is not such as it is in Heaven, nor such as the terrestrial elemental fire, but the celestial fire being with us, is cold, rigid, and congealed, this is what forms the body of gold: this is why we cannot tame gold by our fire, we only divide it and melt it; just as the Sun dissolves snow and ice. is not such as it is in Heaven, nor such as the earthly elemental fire, but the celestial fire being with us, is cold, rigid, and congealed, this is what forms the body of gold: this is why we cannot tame gold by our fire, we only divide it and melt it; just as the Sun dissolves snow and ice. is not such as it is in Heaven, nor such as the earthly elemental fire, but the celestial fire being with us, is cold, rigid, and congealed, this is what forms the body of gold: this is why we cannot tame gold by our fire, we only divide it and melt it; just as the Sun dissolves snow and ice.

Gold is basically of three different kinds, celestial, elemental, and metallic. The celestial and the elemental is liquid, and the metallic corporeal.

End of the Seven Rules.

Here we are dealing with the most excellent of all metals, which is gold, which Paracelsus compares to fire, as it is effectively recognized if it is torn to pieces. But what can we say concerning his improvement, of which he has no need, seeing that nature has placed him in the sovereign degree of perfection, and that she could carry him no further. To make something better of it, then, it must be a medicine: for there was never a nobler and more precious metal.

Grass in good soil having been perfected by the heat of the Sun, loses its form and withers, its seed falls; but if we collect it, it keeps for a long time, and we can put it back into the ground to produce new herbs, or else it is used for the health of men. In the same way, nothing more can be done with gold than to make it serve as a remedy, to put it back into the metallic earth as a seed, so that, becoming corrupted and increased, it produces a new metallic germ. No one is unaware that gold can be made into good medicine in several ways, but few people know the method. Paracelsus and many other philosophers assert that, as a vegetable seed, it can increase by imperfect metals: Which is to be understood not only from that particular amelioration, in which among the imperfect, like attracting like receives augmentation: but also because the inner vegetative force, and the purest portion, being stripped from those who clothed it, can be separated by the industry of a good metallist, and perhaps exalted above perfection. Although many people think this incredible, yet we cannot doubt it, if they did not want to accuse all Philosophy of lies. and perhaps exalted above perfection. Although many people think this incredible, yet we cannot doubt it, if they did not want to accuse all Philosophy of lies. and perhaps exalted above perfection. Although many people think this incredible, yet we cannot doubt it, if they did not want to accuse all Philosophy of lies.

Someone will perhaps say that there is good reason to doubt a work in which so many people have wasted their time and their property, and that all the propositions of the Philosophers are only visions and lies. I would willingly forgive his incredulous, if they did not act from a principle of envy, and malice, especially since their talent is not to understand such a great secret of nature; for how can a blind man judge colors which he has never seen? If some have wasted their trouble searching in vain for the secret, that does nothing against the truth of the art. Never will a poor unfortunate Souffleurs arrive at such fine knowledge, it takes much time, industry, and expense ileus wax. At least though I've never worked at a thing so high is so difficult,

God and nature do nothing in vain.

The eternal City or the eternal place of all things without time, without beginning and without end, is all essentially everywhere: it operates where there is no hope: and what is judged to be quite impossible, is miraculously true.

Paracelsus after having completed his rules concerning the property of metals begins to repeat and declare his opinion, gives courage to the enterprising, and exhorts him not to be discouraged if his work does not succeed according to his will, alleging that nature does not work in vain, and that what is believed least is what happens most, these words are clear from themselves.

Everything that whitens is nature, of life, property of light, which is the cause of life. The fire with the heat, gives birth to its movement. Everything that blackens is nature of death, property and force of darkness, earth and cold are the cause of its hardness and fixation. The house is still dead, but the man is a living fire. If you find the true use of the examples, you are victorious.

In this place Paracelsus speaking of Mercury says that the heat of fire is the cause of life and of light, and that the cold and that which blackens is the cause of death: then he adds these few words which are of importance. Verbena oil burn.

Take eight lots of salt of nitre, four lots of sulphur, two lots of tartar, make them together.

Here begin the complaints of the Chemists that Paracelsus, writing of such an excellent thing, stops so abruptly and gives a recitation which in their judgment does not agree with the Mercury. It is, they say, to deceive us and to cause us pain that he has added to Mercury a powder capable of rendering liquid, which is what Mercury does not need, since it is always flowing: if he had taught us how to fix and coagulate it, we would have gladly listened to him. But these people had to accuse their stupidity, and not Paracelsus who were full of good will: these preceding words excuse him, when he says that God and Nature do nothing in vain: by this he gives to understand that this powder is not useless to Mercury, although it flows enough of itself: it is marvelously useful, if it is used appropriately, as its other words also teach us. He operates where there is no hope; what we believe to be quite impossible will miraculously turn out to be true.

Why would he have added this marvel, if it hadn't been necessary? no doubt it was because he knew the secret of using it to clip Mercury's wings, and to prevent him from escaping. Although I do not know the secret of fixing the Mercury, I have seen by experience prodigious things; and if the metals, principally Mercury, are joined together philosophically, sublimated and distilled, they give menses worthy of admiration. It is here that Paracelsus says: burn it with rich verbenas.

Everyone knows that the superfluous sulfur which is in the metals is the cause of their imperfections, and of more value; fire in question, has the power to burn this sulphur. But not everyone can know the secret. It takes a lot of time and diligence if you want Icarus to fly with his father Daedalus, if he gets too close to the Sun, he will burn his wings, and fall into the sea where he will be submerged: enough for the wise. Let's move on.

As for the coagulation of Mercury, there is no point in killing it, fixing it to reduce it to the Moon, it is only wasting time and money. There is another shorter way, by which Mercury is made the Moon, with little expense and without coagulation work. Everybody wishes to learn the means of making gold and silver in a short time and one rejects the writings which do not openly dissipate the way; we would be glad to find a way to get rich. But it is a simplicity to expect that in a few words this will be taught, and it is so certain that gold and silver are made by means of chemistry that it is no longer necessary in making Books but snows of the past year.

Paracelsus continues, and says it is not necessary to fix Mercury to make gold and silver out of it, similar in this to a rich man, who having forgotten that there were many people who were dying of hunger, said before he came to the end, he would rather eat bacon and vegetables, believing that the others had plenty of this kind of food, which they did not despise for delicacy, and that therefore it was right that they perish. Thus the good Paracelsus imagined that all chemists equaled him in the knowledge of metals, without thinking that there are so many poor blowers of coal who torment Mercury with solution, precipitation, sublimation, fixation, and other useless labors, without knowledge of what abounds in it and what lacks. Mercury is a fruit of admiration which ordinarily deceive Chemists: but if you want to deceive it in your turn, when you torment it you must give it breath, you must leave it a little cheered up: for it does not suffer from constraint. But also don't trust him too much, lest he fly away. For this reason it will be advisable to make the first stove with properly fitting glasses. Finally, without employing a long discourse, it is an altogether admirable subject, and I have always known him to be very rebellious and obstinate among the metals. I believe, however, that if someone knew how to govern it well, that he would derive very considerable profit from it; but who will show us the way? We must always have miracles known to us, and although we do not know all things,

Chemistry recipes.

How about quantity of recipes and ships? Such as are the furnaces, the glasses, the pots, the waters, the oils, the salts, the sulphurs, the antimony, the magnifica, the salt of nitre, the alum, the vitriol, the tartar, the borax, the atramant, the orpiment, the bosom of glass, the arsenic, the calamine stone, the bowl of Armenia, the red earth, the lime, the pitch, the wax, the lut of sapience, crushed green, verdigris, salt armonia, pine soot, chalk, faecal matter, hair, eggshells, virgin milk, white lead, minium, cinnabar, vinegar, aquafortis, crocus de mars, elixir, overseas azure, soap, tutie. What is it to prepare, putrefy, digest, prove, sublimate, calcine, dissolve, cement, fix, reverberate, coagulate, graduate, rectify, amalgamate, purge? The Books of Chemists are full of such things; as also trees, roots, seeds, wood, stones, animals, worms, ashes of bones, shells, molds, etc.

These are ambiguities and useless labors and those of Chemistry; and even if gold and silver could be made by this means, the multitude would rather hinder the work than advance them. This is why we must reject all the teachings which do not show that gold and silver are made with the five other metals.

But what is the real and short way to easily make good gold and good silver? Why are you delaying telling us? I believe that you know nothing about it, and that you do not play by these ambiguities, I answer that it has already been said, and that it is rather evident in the seven Rules, whoever does not understand it, is quite beyond hope. Let no one be foolishly persuaded that the thing should be easy and known to everyone; it is not right for it to be so. But we will hear even better by a hidden meaning. Here is the secret of the art. If you want to make Saturn's Sky run with life on the earth, add all the planets to it, or whatever you like, but let there be less of the Moon than the others. Make them run so long that the Sky of Saturn disappears entirely. The planets remain all alone, having died with their old corruptible body, and they have taken on a new, perfect and incorruptible body: this body is the spirit of heaven, by which the planets once again become corporeal and alive as before. Take away this new body of life, and keep it, for it is the Sun and the Moon. Here is the art discovered, if you do not hear them well yet, the thing must not be publicly disclosed.

In this chapter, Paracelsus teaches that for the transmutation of metals, one does not need so many ridiculous species, but only the same metals united together not methodically: it is true that in certain operations one cannot do without salts and minerals, for what they are necessary to soften the hardness of the metals, and to arrange them to perfection. But care must be taken to use only things that are friendly to metals, and not corrosives. One can also in fusion, liquidations, separations and other metallic operations, make useful use of other minerals and fossils. What Paracelsus does not deny, but only he condemns the ridiculous compositions of ignorant chemists, which are enemies of metals.

Then he teaches, but by a hidden meaning, how one can draw good gold and good silver from imperfect metals; and this has been so obscurely understood that only scholars know anything about it. It is common ground that Paracelsus' method has caused a great deal of pain to many people, who have not succeeded, and that there are others who by chance have discovered the truth. Thus it often happens that a man having lost the thing he was looking for, chance encounters another which is much better: who would have ever taught us the whiteness in black lead, the greenness in copper, the redness in iron, and in quicksilver, if we had not noticed it by accident? So many things have come to my knowledge that I had not sought, and I learned rather from the art of Paracelsus by my operations, than from his writings. Who can say for certain that it was his opinion?

There are many people who draw white, but there are few who give into it. It is even necessary to employ other things besides the aforesaid metals. What Paracelsus tells us in the process he prescribed, in these terms: when you make the sky run on earth, the sky will be made of Saturn, with life, put all the planets there or as you please, provided there is less of the Moon than of the others. From these words one can easily conjecture, that there must be more of Saturn than of all the others, so that they may be washed and purified. But someone will ask, why should the Moon, being itself pure, and needing no washing, have a part in this separation? It has already been answered somewhere else, that the Moon draws to itself the gold which is already washed, purified and tender, that it defends it, and makes it corporeal, otherwise it would remain among the dross. However this separation can be done without Moon, but it is not so lucrative.

It is not so necessary that the metals be joined, to be washed together with Saturn; they can be taken and cleaned separately. If it is not that the Chemist being very experienced knows how to do his composition so well, that the work is facilitated and that it gives more gold; what you must notice if you put very little silver in it, or if you put none at all: for if you put no silver in it, you must put copper, which comes very close to silver, and attracts imperfect metals, volatile gold, and not yet ripe, defends it and preserves it in the fire, but not so powerfully as silver. It is true that tin and iron, which are very impure and harsh metals, could be washed with lead, and stripped of their spiritual and hidden gold; but besides that it is very difficult, it would require even more expense than if silver, or at least copper, had been used. If we have this knowledge, why don't we give each the addition he needs, to succeed more usefully and more quickly? Certainly one must know perfectly the assembly and the mixture of the metals which one must fortunately wash with Saturn, few people know the importance of it, and I myself did not believe it such as it is, if I had not experienced it to my damage. Because a few years ago searching in this operation, the and not having observed the weight nor the degree of the fire well enough, I was often forced to repeat my work, and seriously deceived myself. However, I do not repent of the time and trouble, having discovered quite considerable assets; I dare not brag, to have encountered what is most excellent; but you have to be content with what you have, even a small piece of bread. Don't lose heart, expensive things don't go so fast, the buds are all surrounded by thorns, before the roses come out. If you have understood the weights correctly, the job is done, and you will be able to work boldly and in large quantities.

Paracelsus continues, saying that the added planets run with Saturn's sky, as long as said Saturn's sky fades. The planets will take on a new body, taking life and earth, which will be Sun and Moon. These words have been interpreted variously, mainly concerning the sky of Saturn, by those who imagined that it was only necessary to know what it was, to judge of all the rest. Many believe that it is the vulgar separation made by Saturn, taking the stellate regulus of antimony, which represents a star, and exhaling with life, which he believes to be fire, into the earth, which is the dish or vessel of earth, leaving the bodies of metals mortified, then by means of the flow reduced them, and melted with lead, and promising each other gold and silver they found that they had deceived themselves, declaimed against Paracelsus as against a Sophist and an impostor, especially since through his writings, they had no knowledge of the weights. One can variously explain what the sky of Saturn is. One could reasonably say that it is vulgar lead, especially being molten it shines and turns; or even the glass of lead, which being melted shines like the Sun; or else the starry regulus of antimony, especially as being broken and it represents a star by its pieces. But what use is it to you to know the sky of Saturn, if you do not know the true life it demands, nor the reduction of dead bodies, and reduced? Ordinary fire is not the life Paracelsus mentions, but it can be excited by means of this vulgar fire. He says these words: for this movement the fire by its heat is the birth of life. If life were nothing but elemental fire and running, nothing but Saturn separation or the slag reduction of the antimony regulus. It should also be necessarily added, that the destroyed bodies which remained, became more perfect, and that the spirit of heaven is still in them, when it says that the planets become alive and corporeal as before, which is not found in their separation and slagging, since their bodies remain in the form of dross, in which there is neither spirit nor life, much less is there gold or silver found there, whatever diligent research that can be made of it. for this movement the fire by its heat is the birth of life. If life were nothing but elemental fire and running, nothing but Saturn separation or the slag reduction of the antimony regulus. It should also be necessarily added, that the destroyed bodies which remained, became more perfect, and that the spirit of heaven is still in them, when it says that the planets become alive and corporeal as before, which is not found in their separation and slagging, since their bodies remain in the form of dross, in which there is neither spirit nor life, much less is there gold or silver found there, whatever diligent research that can be made of it. for this movement the fire by its heat is the birth of life. If life were nothing but elemental fire and running, nothing but Saturn separation or the slag reduction of the antimony regulus. It should also be necessarily added, that the destroyed bodies which remained, became more perfect, and that the spirit of heaven is still in them, when it says that the planets become alive and corporeal as before, which is not found in their separation and slagging, since their bodies remain in the form of dross, in which there is neither spirit nor life, much less is there gold or silver found there, whatever diligent research that can be made of it. nothing but the Saturn separation or reduction to dross of the regulus of antimony. It should also be necessarily added, that the destroyed bodies which remained, became more perfect, and that the spirit of heaven is still in them, when it says that the planets become alive and corporeal as before, which is not found in their separation and slagging, since their bodies remain in the form of dross, in which there is neither spirit nor life, much less is there gold or silver found there, whatever diligent research that can be made of it. nothing but the Saturn separation or reduction to dross of the regulus of antimony. It should also be necessarily added, that the destroyed bodies which remained, became more perfect, and that the spirit of heaven is still in them, when it says that the planets become alive and corporeal as before, which is not found in their separation and slagging, since their bodies remain in the form of dross, in which there is neither spirit nor life, much less is there gold or silver found there, whatever diligent research that can be made of it.

Paracelsus says in express terms. This body, namely dead bodies, is taken from heaven, by means of which the planets again become alive and corporeal; which teaches us that his spiritual bodies do not only become corporeal and resurrected; but that they can still command life to mortified bodies, which cannot be said of these, because they are not spiritual, seeing that the spirit must be penetrating and vivifying, and these are not of this kind; otherwise they must be rejected.

If anyone imagines that the metals having been deprived of life by the fire, and having become afresh spiritual, corporeal and living, they are immediately transmuted into gold and silver, he is mistaken by a vain hope, basing himself on what Paracelsus says, this new body taken from life and earth, keep it, for what it is gold and silver: for it is even impossible for the philosopher's stone to convert the whole body of metals in gold and silver. The Philosophers say, that nothing, nothing has happened, and that is indubitable. Only God can do something out of nothing; but what was something, having been made into nothing by means of art, can again be made into something. Since therefore the greater part of metals is only a useless, burning and harmful sulphur, which has never been metal, but which is attached to them from the outside, it burns their moist radical, and reduces it to dross; and it is this humid radical, which alone after the destruction, and not all the mass of the metal, nor the superfluous sulphur, of nothing is put back into something by the spirit of Saturn, that is to say, is made corporeal and living; the brimstone which before the corruption was nothing, being also nothing after the same corruption. If we consider the thing with attention we will clearly see that this is true. If in this operation we must separate the imperfect metals, assemble the purer parts, and disperse the impure, it is necessary that the separated parts are quite dissimilar: for as much as gold and silver are purer in comparison with the imperfect metal from which they were drawn, so much the more impure is that part which remains of the metal from which they were taken. This sort of separation is not like dividing a whole into two equal parts, as if someone were to divide ten ducats into two parts, each having five of the same weight and value; if from one part you take away two or three and add them to the other, they will make the latter as much larger as the other is smaller; that if you add nine to this one, and leave only one to the other, that one will not boast of being superior in quality, but only in quantity: but it is otherwise in our business, seeing that the separation is made in quality as well as in quantity. Just as if someone divided a mine into two equal parts where there was metal mixed with stone,

Or if any would separate two bottles of wine by the heat of the fire in a glass still, drawing up the most excellent spirit, leaving one bottle in the curcurbite, these two parts though equal in quantity, will yet be very different in goodness, the wine of one being nobler than the other. And as the residue being deprived of spirit, life and strength, is no longer wine and cannot be guaranteed from death and corruption, to which the spirit is not subject, on the contrary it preserves other things from it: It is the same with this repair of metals. The residue from which the gold has been separated is no longer tin, copper, or iron, but a gross earthly sulphur.

And the more so as the spirit is more excellent than wine, and gold more excellent than imperfect metal; doubting also will be more excellent the spirit of wine, and gold, if they are again separated, and leave new faeces. But it suffices in this place to have indicated what is the method of separation, so we have just spoken. Which teaches us, that neither the whole metal, nor even half, or any other part, is changed into gold, and that the other retains its nature as metal; but that the separation is made of the pure, which is in very small quantity, from the impure, which is in very great quantity. And it must not be imagined that it is the fault of the art or of our knowledge, if all is not converted into gold. It is a good thing that there is a little, and that the work is not entirely useless. We live on many things, and we subsist on little. Everyone must measure themselves against their alder. God does not fill all men with gold and silver, but some share mud and excrement, according to Paracelsus.

What shall I tell you more of the separating work, by means of which gold and silver are extracted from the imperfect metals with Saturn, and of which there must be no doubt, seeing that I have so often experienced it? Do you want me to promise to make you rich? I, who have not enriched myself, neither can nor dare to do so, lest your stupidity fail you to accuse me of lying and deceit. The surest thing is therefore to indicate that the thing is possible, and how it should be done. I have never done this operation in large quantities with lucre without cups, and even I have not had the opportunity to try it, I am however very convinced that the thing can be done in large quantities.

In what manner should the crystals be conjured.

To conjure is nothing else than to observe exactly a thing, and to know perfectly what it is. The crystal is a figure of the air, in which appears all that is in the air either mobile or immobile, as in mirrors and in water.

I don't quite understand Paracelsus' thought concerning the conjuration of crystals, for it doesn't concern metallic art. However, it does not appear that he dealt with it without some reason. We read that the ancient Pagan Philosophers conjured the crystals, and saw many wonderful things in them. Whether that is true or not, I depend on it, especially since it is not a natural art, and that in my opinion there is diabolical magic, of which I do not trouble myself. Paracelsus wrote thus in other places touching these admirable mirrors, and taught the way by the assembly of metals at certain times, and under certain constellations; which many have tried, but I don't know that any have ever succeeded. One could apparently say that by this conjuration of crystals Paracelsus meant, that to make metals spiritual, and to extract gold and silver from them, they must first be made similar to a crystal transparent to water, or to air, in which one sees the soul of the metal shining. In this sense he will agree with what he has said in the preceding chapters. It even seems that he mentioned this in favor of those, who wishing to make the separation by means of Saturn, find by experience, that the metals must be reduced to crystals, before they return their gold, and their silver. We will say no more about it, having spoken more at length in speaking of amuses. they must first be made like a crystal transparent to water, or to air, in which we see the soul of the metal shining. In this sense he will agree with what he has said in the preceding chapters. It even seems that he mentioned this in favor of those, who wishing to make the separation by means of Saturn, find by experience, that the metals must be reduced to crystals, before they return their gold, and their silver. We will say no more about it, having spoken more at length in speaking of amuses. they must first be made like a crystal transparent to water, or to air, in which we see the soul of the metal shining. In this sense he will agree with what he has said in the preceding chapters. It even seems that he mentioned this in favor of those, who wishing to make the separation by means of Saturn, find by experience, that the metals must be reduced to crystals, before they return their gold, and their silver. We will say no more about it, having spoken more at length in speaking of amuses. that the metals must be reduced to crystals, before they return their gold, and their silver. We will say no more about it, having spoken more at length in speaking of amuses. that the metals must be reduced to crystals, before they return their gold, and their silver. We will say no more about it, having spoken more at length in speaking of amuses.

Those are convinced who believe that Mercury is of a cold, humid nature. It is not, on the contrary it is filled with great heat and humidity, which being natural to it makes it continually fluid. For if it were of a cold and humid nature, it would always be hard, like ice, and it would have to be melted by the heat of fire, like other metals; what he does not need; especially since it gets its fluidity from its heat by which it is forced to live forever, and by the cold to die, harden, freeze and fix. It should be noted that the spirits of the metals which are joined in the fire mainly, are mercury extremely moved and troubled, communicating, reciprocating their forces to achieve victory and transmutation: they deprive each other of the force, the life, and the form,

But what must be done, so that mercury, being deprived of its heat and humidity, receives a great cold, by means of which it freezes and dies? do what follows.

Take a box of very pure silver, enclose the mercury in it, fill a pot with molten lead, and put your box with the mercury in the middle of this pot, let it flow a whole day, the mercury will lose its occult heat, and the external heat will cause it to have the internal coldness of lead and silver which are cold in nature, by means of which coldness the mercury freezes, stiffens, and hardens. It should be noted that the cold that mercury needs to harden is not perceptible from the outside, like that of snow or ice, but on the contrary it is hot. The heat also which makes mercury fluid is not felt when touched, on the contrary it is rather cold. Hence the Sophists, that is to say, men who speak without knowledge, publish that it is cold and damp,

The true chemistry which, by the principles of a single art, teaches how to make gold and silver from the other five imperfect metals, uses no other recipes than the very metals in which the Moon and the Sun are found.

Here Paracelsus shows the error of those who say that mercury is cold by nature, although it is nothing but fire; and returns to the spiritualized metals, which being excited by the vehement heat of the fire act against each other, change and perfect themselves.

He adds the invention of fixing mercury, not by in a literal sense, but he deals with a spiritual Moon, and a wet way by which it must be coagulated, though other metals are coagulated, by a dry way, and I have never tried this wet way.

He concludes by seeing the universal rule of transmutation, saying: perfect metals are made of metals, by metals; and with the metals; and we should not be surprised if silver comes from one, and gold from another; but he desires for this operation only metallic subjects, from some only silver is obtained, from others only gold, and from some gold and silver together. Which I have often experienced. As lead gives of itself only silver; tin, copper, iron, silver, and pure gold, and sometimes according to the proportion of the mixture with the other metals, it only gives gold, sometimes they only give a little, and sometimes nothing: this is wonderful, it must nevertheless be attributed to work and mixture.

What is the necessary matter, and what are the instruments of Chemistry.

The most necessary things are the stove, the coal, the bellows, the tongs, the hammer, the crucible, the pot of earth, the dish made of good stove ashes. Put together lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and the Moon, let it be until the end of lead.

It is very difficult to search for metals and minerals in the earth and in the stones: but especially since they must first be sought and drawn out of the earth, this work is not to be despised: the desire to search in the mines will no more cease than that which young men have for girls. As much as bees are greedy to make honey and wax, roses and other flowers; as man must he be inclined to rummage in the bowels of the earth to find metals there, but without avarice: he who has too much covetousness, receives the least. God does not fill all men with gold and silver, but with mud of misery and calamity.

God has also given to certain men a particular understanding, and a very perfect knowledge of mines and metals: so that without coming to the work of digging in mines, they know how to extract gold and silver from the other five imperfect metals, some more, and others less.

Note also that gold and silver are easily made from quicksilver, lead, Jupiter, gold and silver: but hardly from iron, from copper: it is however possible, but it must be by the principle and by the addition of gold and silver.

Magnesia, and lead, we get the Moon.

From copper and cinnabar, pure gold will come out.

A man of intelligence can so well handle the metals by sight suitable preparation, that he will advance their transmutation and perfection more by his industry, than all the signs and planets of Heaven. It is even superfluous to calculate the movements of the signs and of the planets, it is useless to observe the hours of such and such a right or left planet, all these things neither advance nor set back the work of anyone; for if you know the art and the possibility well, you have only to work for your comfort: that if you lack knowledge and exercise, all the signs and all the planets will also fail you.

It also sometimes happens that the metals, by remaining too long on the ground, are not only rusted, but that they return to the nature of stone, as there are many of them, to which one does not pay attention. Because we often find ancient currencies, which were once metals, and are now turned into stone.

Here first Paracelsus teaches us that to make gold and silver we need neither many instruments nor many species: but that the metals must only be joined and washed, not with a vulgar separation or bath: for even though you wash all the metals with lead, yet there will remain nothing more than the gold and silver which were taken in the beginning: the others go down part with the lead in the cupel, part remain in shape. of slag. He therefore teaches us again spiritual mixing and philosophical separation.

He adds that it is honest, good, and necessary to draw metals out of the bowels of the earth: but that it is more advantageous to separate gold and silver from the imperfect ones. And of course he is right. For all those who devote themselves to metals know well with what dangers, what care and what expense, they must be pulled out of the earth; it is true that if the work succeeds, the poor can become rich in a short time. The meeting of the mines is quite risky and fortuitous, one can gain there, and one can also lose there the thing is of great expense, which all kinds of people cannot support, it is proper only to those who have much to lose, and who always have bread to eat. If only a poor man comes across sand or earth fertile in gold, silver or other metals, who can feed him by making the separation: or that he associates himself with a rich person to provide the necessary expenses to have some rich vein excavated; as has happened very often. However that may be, there is much uncertainty: as for the metallurgy of which Paracelsus speaks in this place, it is much preferable to the other, if God grants the grace to a man to extract gold and silver from the metals which are found for sale everywhere, without his fearing the floods, the specters, and the other inconveniences of the mines. What riches would not Germany have kept for herself during such a long war, if she had had people versed in this art of separating metals? especially since they were taken from the mines with more difficulty and with more expense, all the more so have they been sold and are still being sold to foreigners at a lower price, for no one knows the true use of them. We should blush with shame that we are now inferior to other nations by our laziness, we who once surpassed them in sincerity, faith, virtue, wit and industry. Nevertheless it is not surprising, since the Magistrate does not support as it should the experienced Chemists who seek the secrets of nature. A distinction should be made between honest people, and deceivers and vagabonds, and miserable charlatans, who pretend to teach Chrysopeia, and have no knowledge of things metallic. The true Chemist does not dare to uncover himself, lest he be compared to these Acrobats. How is it that the Fatherland is deprived of many conveniences? However, if God gives me life and leisure, I have resolved to write a Book, in which I will show how much Germany abounds in hidden riches, what they consist of, and how they must be drawn from the bosom of the earth. Germany is provided with various mines above all the other regions, it has wood in abundance, it has all the things necessary to work there: it only lacks men who are affectionate to the fatherland, and who take care of it for the common good. Why have we come to this point of madness to send our copper to France or Spain, why our lead to Flanders and Venice, from whom we buy the verdigris and the white lead they have made of this same lead. Our wood, our sand, our ashes, are they not so fit to make crystal glasses,

There are many other things among us which equal or surpass in value those of foreigners, which are entirely neglected, instead of selling to foreigners only our superfluous goods, we take our money to them, and we become poor to enrich them.

O that if Germany were well governed, she would receive conveniences from her neighbours! Certainly when God has resolved to chastise a Province, he deprives it of the men of spirit and judgment, which he gives to it, if he intends to make it prosper. What is the cause of the opulence of Venice and Amsterdam, if not that these two powerful cities attract and support the wise and industrious men, by whose invention they carried their trade among other nations, and selling their goods, they filled their fatherland with gold and silver? It is better to have something to sell than something to accept. What does Germany need, that she did not receive generously from God, if she knew how to know him. The fashion has come to drink and eat excessively, so that even those who hardly have bread to eat, dissipate the little they have in a shameful debauchery: there is hardly anyone who cultivates the arts and sciences, everyone loves laziness; whence it comes that God adds wound upon wound, and it is to be feared that if we do not appease his wrath by serious repentance, we shall feel still greater evils, from which his clemency wishes to preserve us.

To return to my subject, in the intention that I had to clarify the writings of Paracelsus who deserved very well of the fatherland; I have told you and repeat it to you again, what he teaches concerning the metals, from which gold and silver are extracted, some easily, and others with difficulty; but always adding to them gold and silver, so that by this mixture, it makes corporeal and fixed, the gold and the silver which is dispersed and volatile in the imperfect metals.

He then adds, that if the metals remain too long on earth, they corrupt, and return: to stone and to earth, from which they had taken their origin. Which also happens to man, and to all creatures, there being nothing in the world that is not vain and perishable, except the knowledge, love, and fear of God.

What Alchemy is.

Alchemy is a thought, imagination, invention, by which the species of metals pass from one nature to another. Everyone therefore tries to invent, and to arrive at the knowledge of the truth by speculation.

It should be noted that the stars and the stones have great power: especially since the stars are the spirits, and give shape to the stones. The Sun and the Moon properly speaking are nothing more in themselves than stones, from which those of the earth derive their birth, as being the burn, the coal, the ashes and the excrement of those of the sky, which being purged and separated are clear and resplendent. And the whole globe of the earth is only a heap of fallen stones, broken, annealed, put into a mass, having rest and consistency in the middle of the circle of the firmament.

It should also be noted that the precious stones, which I will name below, are generated with the other stones, and given to the earth by the celestial stones, to which they approach in clearness, beauty, brilliance, virtue. constancy, and incorruptibility in fire, and that also by this means they are in some way similar to the stars, of which they are particles, which men find in an impure and coarse vessel. The vulgar, who are always a bad judge, believe that the place where they are found is that of their birth. After they have been polished, they are worn all over the world, and they are esteemed as great riches because of their form, color, virtues and properties, which I will deduce for you.

Precious Stones.

The Emerald is a green and transparent stone, it delights the sight, helps the memory, keeps modesty, which being offended, it feels this insult.

The Diamond is a black crystal, it is called Euar, because it gives joy. It is dark, and of an iron color, it is very hard, it dissolves with goat's blood, and does not pass the size of a hazelnut.

The Magnet is the stone of iron, especially as it attracts it.

The Marguerite is seen pearl, and not a stone, it is born in the scales, its color is white. For all that is born in animals, in man and in fish is not properly stone, although the vulgar according to the knowledge of the senses judges it to be a stone.
It is properly speaking a depraved, or changed, nature on a perfect work.

Hyacinth is a blond, transparent stone; it is also a flower which the Poets say fabulously of having been a man.

Sapphire is a celestial blue stone.

Ruby is a very red stone.
The Carbuncle is a solar stone, whose brilliance is similar to that of the Sun.

Coral is similar to stone, it is all red. It grows in the sea in the form of a shrub by the nature of water and air: then being changed by the air, it putrefies, and becomes red, and as much as it is incombustible in fire, it passes for a stone.

Chalcedony is a stone of many light colors, dark, and mixed with red, like the liver; it is the vilest of all stones.

Topaz is a stone, which shines even in darkness, it is found in other rocks.

Amethyst is a stone whose brilliance is mixed with red and blond.

Crysopase is a fire-colored stone at night, and by day it appears to be gold.

The Crystal is a white stone, transparent, resembling frozen water, it is sublimated, extracted, or washed from other rocks.

As a conclusion and to say goodbye to you, I give you this truth. If someone wants to know perfectly the origin and nature of metals; let him know that they are nothing but the best portion of common stones: they are the spirits of stones. That is to say, the pitch, the tallow, the grease and the oil of the stones, which is not pure and sincere, while it is mingled and hidden in the stones, therefore it must be sought, found and known in the stones; it must be expressed and drawn out by force: for then it is no longer a stone, but a perfect and finished metal, resembling the stars, which are also stones in their own kind, different from those stones of which we speak.

Whoever therefore wants to study in search of metals, must convince himself that they are not found only in the bowels of the earth; but very often there are all of them uncovered, better than those which are hidden: we must beware of all the pebbles, and of all the large and small stones which come before our eyes, to examine their nature and their properties. Especially since very often a stone that is not mentioned will make more profit than a cow. It is not always necessary to search eagerly for the rock or the matrix from which such a pebble will have been drawn, in order to also draw others; because this kind of stones have no rock, and they were begotten only from Heaven. There is sometimes etiam earth, dust, sand that we despise,

In this place Paracelsus clearly teaches what it is: Alchemy. Then he leads us to the generation of metals by the influences of the stars which fall into the bosom of the earth: giving precious stones a degree which approaches perfection, not to incite us to seek them in the hope of extracting gold and silver from them; but in order that we may make metals like these stones as to outward appearance, if we wish to extract gold and silver from said metals; this is what the doctrine of the preceding Chapters tends to, he did not put anything without design. How do gemstones relate to metals? No.

And though at no time is there gold and silver hidden in precious stones, from which they can be separated; nevertheless he does not intend here that we do so, but to confirm his previous doctrine, he shows that to draw gold and silver usefully from metals, they must rather be reduced to glasses, which resemble precious stones, of which he names several, and teaches their uses, not so much to make us understand their nature and their properties, as on occasion metals which must resemble them in color. Anyone who neither hears nor wants to believe what I say should go elsewhere and look for something better.

In conclusion he shows what metals are, and that it is not always necessary to draw them from the depths of the earth, sometimes meeting in abundance, in the dust, in the sand, and in the most vile and contemptible stones; he also says that one should not worry about their rock, since it is Heaven that engenders them. By this discourse he blames the blind covetousness of men, who seek so eagerly for mines hidden in the depths of the earth, which one cannot find without danger, nor dig without much expense; and who do not know, or proudly despise what is before their feet, who affect the darkness, who disdain and mischievously try to put out the lights that good people reveal to them.

Thus ends this little treatise that Paracelsus left us full of a hidden science touching things metallic, which I have tried to explain as clearly as I could; and I have no doubt that he will henceforth be no longer esteemed.

If anyone finds that I have written too obscurely, let him consult my other works, which are mutually explanatory, and excuse the occupation of my affairs. As for me, I have satisfaction in having given this introduction to my neighbor, and in being assured that my pains and my cares will not die with me.

If I have more life and more leisure, I will communicate other secrets to the public, as I do now in the conclusions of the Mineral Work, where I teach a number of particulars and certain operations, which will give light to my preceding writings, and will confirm the doctrine touching the transmutation of metals; I will then say how to separate and purge the metals that have been extracted from the imperfect, which will crown my work.

The practice of Theory, described above.

The preceding explanation of the Book of the Vexations of Paracelsus, made see, that the transmutation of metals was indubitable, and even taught the method of it. But especially since one must be perfectly well versed in things metallic to perform this operation, I am afraid that my explanation, faithful and intelligible as it is, will not bring more usefulness than the writings of Paracelsus, and that the ignorant will hold it in the same rank as the Book which they accuse of impossibility and falsehood. I thus wanted in testimony of the truth, to add some procedures in clear and easy terms, so that one does not be astonished, and that one adds as much faith to the writings of Paracelsus as to mine.

Now it is impossible to write with such clarity that no one can be mistaken, it would take too much time, and that would be as boring and as impertinent as to maintain a child who does not yet know the Alphabet of Physics and other subtleties. I do not undertake to teach here the novices of Alchemy, but people of good spirit and much experience in metallic operations, so let him excuse me, who will come to lack in the practice of the things that I show him, let him not blame the obscurity of my precepts, but his ignorance and stupidity, and even if there would not be a single one who can imitate me, the truth puts me beyond reproach.

There is no doubt that such will profit, who, working diligently and diligently to penetrate into the secrets of Vulcan, have gained enough light to understand me. Why would I write things that the don't know about? What use would my writings be to me, from which I neither received nor expected any profit, if they were not useful to my neighbor? My writings are not like posthumous writings, the truth of which no one can assure. Ignorance is not blameworthy for questioning the Author to clarify.

Without lying I would have written even more openly, if I were not afraid of profaning such a beautiful art and making it too common: there are some who will find that I have explained myself too much, and who will scold that such important secrets are revealed to the people. But what way to please everyone? Whatever happens, I will always be glad to have done my neighbor a good service.

Here is the secret of the Art.

When you have imposed the sky of Saturn, and you have caused it to sink into the earth with life, add to it in suitable weight the imperfect metals, namely lead, tin, iron, copper, and a little silver. Let them sink ever so slightly with the sky, until they disappear with it, having lost nature and metallic form, which will be reduced to earth. Resuscitate by the spirit of heaven this metallic earth which is still joined to the sky of Saturn, and which is surrounded by it on all sides; make it corporeal, and it will receive its first metallic form: but still let it become better, die and rise again three and four times, that the improvement may be greater, and there may come more gold and silver in the separation. For this operation it is not necessary to have neither pot nor tile, neither cup, crucible, têt, cucurbite, nor etching, other vessels or instruments that serve other metallic operations, but only a crucible, a furnace, a fire from the beginning to the end, which is completed perfectly in the space of a very short time. And to speak more openly, in this process the sphere of Saturn is the regulus of antimony, the life, the bleaching salt, having its operation and its movement from the fire; the earth is the crucible. Here is the whole work, which I have experienced more than a hundred times in small quantities. Let us above all learn to know fire well, its origin, its nature, and its forces, and the rest will be quite easy to understand. For wood, coal, and other combustible things are not properly fire, they are like its home, in which it makes itself visible and perceptible, being of itself occultly dispersed among the air. Likewise man is not the life or the soul, but the receptacle in which dwells the soul or the life infused into him from above. And when the soul has left the body, man is no longer man; but only a corpse.

Thus gold, being deprived of a soul, ceases to be gold, it is no more than a volatile mineral without good color; whence it is manifest that the goodness of metals comes from their soul, and not from their body. This is why silver is added to imperfect metals, so that this silver may receive and gather up the soul of the metals, which was extended through their whole body, and make it corporeal, visible, and perceptible: And thus by the mixture of these souls, good gold may be formed. No one, however, should imagine that the whole body of imperfect metals can be converted into gold; it never happens. It is true that their purest part, which is the soul, and the quintessence, being separated from the most impure, which is terrestrial and sulphurous, is incorporated with the Moon, which being exalted and animated, is converted into gold.

Someone will ask me in this way if we do not add silver to the metallic mixture, will there not come out gold? I answer that gold will come out of it, but in a smaller quantity than if silver had been put into it. The reason is that the soul of gold, which is found in imperfect bodies, is so tender and so slender, that it cannot of its own strength free itself from so many impurities with which it is surrounded, and form a new body for itself: so that it is expedient and necessary, to present to it a body, in which it collects itself and withdraws: to which the Moon is very proper, which is radically united with the impure metals, and mixed with them by the agitation of a vivifying fire which makes it rise and fall, encountering in this circulation the purest parts of the imperfect metals, which adhere to it,

I have therefore now clearly taught how to derive gold and silver from all metals together, or from each of them, with or even without the addition of Moon. If you understand it, I congratulate you; otherwise, you have no reason to complain that I did not ingenuously communicate the naked truth to you.

Another way of separating gold and silver from imperfect metals, by means of Saturn.

First pour the lead into the crucible: add thereto tin, iron, and copper in proper weight, let them be melted together. Suddenly the tin and the iron corrupt the lead, which is reduced to dross similar to yellow earth, and these dross being reduced give back their lead and their copper: as for the tin and the iron, they remain in the form of black dross, which must be kept. Melt again perfectly this lead mixed with the copper, add more tin and iron to it, to make slag, which must afterwards be reduced immediately. Repeat this work of slagging and reduction, until out of 100 pounds of lead, hardly one or two liras remain, wash them, and you will find the gold and the silver in part, which the metals will have given in this operation. As for the dross which could not be reduced, cook them well in a particular furnace, fix them, and in the reduction they will give gold and silver. Wash the Saturn, so that the gold and the silver which had remained in the dross, can be drawn out to serve us.

This work, which I have never been able to experience in large quantity, will succeed in my opinion, even in large quantity. Everyone can try it out, and calculate exactly how much profit can be made from it every year.

Imperfect metals can also be washed and fixed by the peculiar way of non-corrosive salts, and no one should doubt that by this means they will yield much gold and silver. And since I have often mentioned it in my writings, it would be boring to repeat it here. By this way of washing which resembles that of the laundress women, we may one day be able to advance the metals to a perfection above gold. Laundresses go about it in various ways, and the most skilful are those who make their linen the whitest. Some clean it with lye, but this work is coarse, and does not remove dirt well. Others soap it, and having removed the rubbish, remove the lye with clean water, then expose the linen to the Sun, which dries it by its heat, removes all the smell of soap and laundry, and whitens it more. That if the laundry or the soap come to receive dirt, they spread it, and clean the remains with clear water, and this so many times, that the filth is removed and the linen becomes perfectly white.

I have not cited in vain this example of the Washerwomen, to teach those who do not know how to wash and clean metals. Because it is impossible to wash seen impure metal, with the first water, but it is necessary to pour new until as long as all the impurities being removed, the water appears clear as when it was poured. The work of inceration is also very useful there, if you use incineration, that is to say, if the metal, being well cleaned, is often soaked in new water; then, being dried, it acquires a greater purity than it would have done with soap water alone. That if anyone knew a better water than this, there is no doubt that the metals would become more excellent than gold. Just as it is believed that linen can be so industrially prepared,

Let no one be surprised at the comparison I have made of this separation to the washing of the Laundresses; even the Philosophers have called their universal work, the work of women, and the plaything of children. I am very sure that if I had imitated the Sophists with a long speech full of lies, the world that likes to be deceived would have thanked me very much. But for me, whatever happens, I believe in conscience that I have satisfied God and men.

Metals may also after being calcined be purged and washed by lead glass made with the addition of pebbles, so that they yield much gold, of which I have written above. But it needs a lot of lead in which the metal extends amply, because without that it does not leave its faeces, and its purest parts cannot concentrate it into a body. I use the pebbles, so that receiving in them the faeces of the unclean metals, they make the separation of the pure and the impure. In the same way as to purify honey, sugar and other things with water, we mix in the egg white, for that it attracts the viscosity of the juice, and clarifies it. Similarly here the pebbles have the same effect. Saturn takes the place of water through which iron, copper, tin are dissolved. This work is very pleasant and very prompt, extremely lucrative, if the crucibles being pierced by the litharge could keep the mixture, and did not let escape so soon. That if someone were lucky enough to find vessels that would keep the lead glass for ten or twelve hours, he shouldn't bother to look for another way to get rich. For me, I've never had this happiness, although I've been looking for it for many years. A single pound of iron, copper, or tin yields at times half a loton of gold, and even a whole, if the operation is well conducted; that if you add fixed salt of Tartar to it, or even gravelly ashes, it yields more, but also the crucibles are rather pierced with it, which is unfortunate.

Formerly I valued this work so much that I would not have communicated it to anyone, however great a reward he might have offered me; but having been unable to pass any further, I communicate it free of charge, so that each may experience his destiny. God does not give everything to one, he uses them as he pleases.

The imperfect metals are purged of their harmful and combustible sulfur by the sudden fire of the nitre, of which we have spoken before in treating of Mercury, and this is the most prompt improvement of the metals, which takes place almost in a moment. Especially if they are reduced to soluble salt without using corrosive salt. Very proper to this are Mars and Venus, giving a philosophical vitriol, which can very conveniently be purified to perfection. There is a great secret hidden under the fable of the Poets concerning Venus and her son Cupid: who is this Cupid, would it not be the gold?

I could well still deduce other very good means of extracting gold and silver from imperfect metals; but having said enough in the explanation of the Seven Rules, I will content myself with that; besides that whoever does not understand it, would not benefit from a longer speech, it is enough for each one to know the foundations of his art to execute it. I will nevertheless add in the form of a supplement a very pleasant work, which is a Parable in which are contained all the foundations of Alchemy, the radical solution of metals, the conjunction, distillation, sublimation, ascension, descension, cohobation, cementation, calcination, inceration, fixation, with which I will finish the metallic transmutation.

There was a man, V, who had two children, the Bismuth and H, the youngest, H, said to his father V, give me my portion. The Philosophers and the ancient Metallics, always believed that Bismuth, and H, were lead, they called it H, white lead, and bismuth, black lead, as it makes itself rebellious and disobedient, that is to say, when it rises, its father gives it its portion, with which it goes away into a foreign country. Note well that H and Bismuth smelling of fire, H is separated from V, and from Bismuth, in rising it carries with itself something of V, and becomes rebellious slag, which is to go away into a foreign country. He enters an inn, in which was G host, and E hostess, holding in a hanging picture, The sign of the world, which after having welcomed him stripped him of all his paternal goods, here is the solution; there was a great scarcity of food, it's the drought; strong that the men were all disfigured by the famine, it is the corruption: to defend itself from this famine, it was constrained to keep the pigs, that is to say, to remain with the fetid nitre. And forced to live on pods, that is, on tartar. This is the inceration, the imbibition, so he was humiliated, this is the digestion, the circulation, ablution, sweetening, purification. He returns to his father, it is the incorporation. Who receives it with joy, here is the entrance, like a lost child, here is something nothing, and something nothing. He gives her a new dress, it's silver, he puts a gold ring on her finger, it's gilded silver. Then he remains constant with his father, and becomes a good steward, that is to say fixed metal.

Let no one blame me for having compared the transmutation of metals, and particularly tin, to the parable of the Prodigal Son, I did it to shed more light; besides, I have never noticed so much change in any work as in this one. Because in the first place in the solution there appears a blackness, which lasts its time, then comes the tail of the Peacock, the greenness, and finally the whiteness: Now do I not know if the redness would succeed the whiteness in case it was retained longer in the digestion, since I have never reached beyond the whiteness. This work is very pleasant, it rejoices the spirit of him who does it, it is neither of great expense, nor of great difficulty provided that one meets the weight, and good vessels. It opens the way to higher things. Happy is he who comes to the end,

It should be noted that each metal can be washed separately with lead and with salts; so that being exalted in separation, he gives gold and silver, he passes into all colors, but not so conveniently as if all were joined together. They interact reciprocally and spiritually, they change and perfect each other.

After having sufficiently taught how gold and silver can be extracted from imperfect metals, it is also necessary to show how they can be separated from each other, in order to have each in particular. What is done in this way: if the mixture contains more gold than silver, it is very conveniently melted with antimony, it is precipitated in regulus with iron, it is washed and purified with nitre. You can find this operation in previous writings. Let no one be sorry if the nitre steals and draws to itself something of gold and silver in separation or purification; it should not be thought that it is wasted effort; but we must remember the words of Paracelsus. Loss, or corruption, makes good perfect. Keep the nitrous slag well, so the regules have been purified, fix them, then reduce them by a strong flower, and then you will receive a child much more beautiful than he was before, and far from losing you will gain much. This would be the place to speak of a very useful work, but that is enough for the wise, the stupid would not profit from it. That if the mixture contains more silver, that it be first thrown into shot, that it be precipitated with or without antimony alone, with the lead and with the salts, separating the gold from the silver, in regulus, then that it be washed with nitre or with lead, and that it be purified by diligent work. If the precipitation is done with the lead, it is necessary to use the dead head, which obviously advances and perfects the work. and then you will receive a child much more beautiful than he was before, and far from losing you will gain much. This would be the place to speak of a very useful work, but that is enough for the wise, the stupid would not profit from it. That if the mixture contains more silver, that it be first thrown into shot, that it be precipitated with or without antimony alone, with the lead and with the salts, separating the gold from the silver, in regulus, then that it be washed with nitre or with lead, and that it be purified by diligent work. If the precipitation is done with the lead, it is necessary to use the dead head, which obviously advances and perfects the work. and then you will receive a child much more beautiful than he was before, and far from losing you will gain much. This would be the place to speak of a very useful work, but that is enough for the wise, the stupid would not profit from it. That if the mixture contains more silver, that it be first thrown into shot, that it be precipitated with or without antimony alone, with the lead and with the salts, separating the gold from the silver, in regulus, then that it be washed with nitre or with lead, and that it be purified by diligent work. If the precipitation is done with the lead, it is necessary to use the dead head, which obviously advances and perfects the work. the stupid would not profit from it. That if the mixture contains more silver, that it be first thrown into shot, that it be precipitated with or without antimony alone, with the lead and with the salts, separating the gold from the silver, in regulus, then that it be washed with nitre or with lead, and that it be purified by diligent work. If the precipitation is done with the lead, it is necessary to use the dead head, which obviously advances and perfects the work. the stupid would not profit from it. That if the mixture contains more silver, that it be first thrown into shot, that it be precipitated with or without antimony alone, with the lead and with the salts, separating the gold from the silver, in regulus, then that it be washed with nitre or with lead, and that it be purified by diligent work. If the precipitation is done with the lead, it is necessary to use the dead head, which obviously advances and perfects the work.

It must be observed that if the regules come out copper-colored or pale from the matured or fixed metals, there is no need for the bath, abstreiben, it suffices that, being in shot, they are precipitated with the salts, and the head dead. Then all the gold and all the silver will come out in particular regules, the copper and the lead go away in slag, which must be reduced in sharp furnaces, sticheosen, and apply them to other uses according to the precepts of the art.

I think it would be useless to say more about the extraction, the bath and the separation of metals, having treated here and there in my Books.

It would not be out of place to declare in what manner it is necessary to melt metals, so that they remain better, and how it is necessary to help with particular cements, the hard mines, and which are not very fertile, For the mines abound in sulfur which ruins, by which the metal goes away in slag in the casting, and does not give enough profit to compensate for the expenses which are necessary. This sulphur, principally in the mines of copper and lead, can be knocked down and changed by a particular cement, or by a fire of degree, so that afterwards in the casting, not only will it not consume the metal, and will not change it into slag; but still will exalt it, so that in the separation it will return gold, which would not happen in this cooking. No one curiously researches how to help the metal in front or even in the cast iron, a coarse fire cannot purify it, which is why more often than not the best part remains useless in the slag. An experienced Chemist can usefully extract, both in the cast iron, and with clean menses, extract the gold and the silver which the scoriae had absorbed. Which operation I indicated when I spoke of the extraction of pebbles, and I will discuss it more fully when I treat of happiness, and of the hidden treasures of Germany, which the reader must patiently await. draw out the gold and silver that the slag had absorbed. Which operation I indicated when I spoke of the extraction of pebbles, and I will discuss it more fully when I treat of happiness, and of the hidden treasures of Germany, which the reader must patiently await. draw out the gold and silver that the slag had absorbed. Which operation I indicated when I spoke of the extraction of pebbles, and I will discuss it more fully when I treat of happiness, and of the hidden treasures of Germany, which the reader must patiently await.

The Metallists would have another advantage, if they knew how to separate the silver, and to remove the gold by precipitation, so that it would not be unworthily consumed with the silver by the artisans. I hope that one day there will be those who will put under an anvil the slag they had rejected, to extract gold and silver. God has done everything for the best, and it is not without reason that he has sealed this knowledge from us for so long. And the more so as for several centuries pious men have predicted that before the end of the world all the mysteries will be discovered, that time approaching, it is no wonder that God and Nature have begun their revelations, seeing that all the arts and all the sciences are increasing so much day by day, that if our predecessors saw our operations, they would regard theirs as children's games. If the world lasts much longer, the metals will be much more usefully and promptly melted, washed and separated, to which I will try to contribute by my care and by my advice which I am ready to give to those who ask me for it. But as one usually pays with ingratitude for offers of service, this could well happen to me, because there are proud people who do not want to learn, ashamed of showing their ignorance. As if scarcity were extreme in one country, and there was great abundance in another, which would be separated by a vast loneliness, the way to which would be difficult to find. If someone with perfect knowledge offered to serve as a guide for some small portion of wheat, wouldn't it be great stupidity to refuse it, and to prefer to seek the way yourself with great difficulty and risk of life? who would have compassion on a man who would have brought upon himself this misfortune which he could avoid at little cost? thus such are unworthy of pity, who expend so much on uncertain things, employ so much time and care to acquire knowledge which is beyond their ability, despising the masters, and believing that there is shame in being taught. Without lying they must be compared to this Villager, who wanting to take a Squirrel, said that he had long legs, and wanting to jump from tree to tree like this animal, he fell, and broke his legs which were not suitable for that. Similarly there are those who say, what will prevent me from finding this way of separating, why would I beg the help of others? Nature and fortune will also be favorable to me. These people do not weigh the words of Saint Paul: it is not of those who will, nor of those who run, but of God alone who shows mercy. The Pagan Philosophers knew this truth when they said, that it does not happen for every man to enter Corinth. In which they teach us that to attain lofty things, care and research are sometimes useless. God alone knows the happy successes that come to men, who are as different from each other as brutes. All animals can walk and swim, but one runs and swims better than the other. We see the same in children, who, although they have the same education, are nevertheless very different in doctrine, because their genius is different. All gifts, says the Apostle, come down from above. The Philosophers relate this to the influences of the stars. The Holy Spirit is the true Doctor who has wont reveal secrets to us if we ask him properly. From where did Paracelsus draw these great lights that he had in Philosophy, in Alchemy, and in Medicine? Doubtless it was from the Father of lights and truths, who daily shows us his omnipotence by such generosity. Those are therefore deprived of reason who say that nothing can be added to the perfection that we have, as if God had his hands closed to favor the feeling of those stunned. If we knew God well, nature would not be unknown to us. But for what man by a natural infirmity loves darkness, it is not surprising if he walks only gropingly, and if he strays from the right path. There are many secrets that will one day be revealed. And we must not believe that God suffers the abomination that is in the world any longer. The day is past, and the night draws near, which must begin the chastisement of the wicked. Blessed are those who make friends with unjust wealth, and who follow the will of God by discovering the marvels of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. one should not be astonished if he walks only gropingly, and if he strays from the right path. There are many secrets that will one day be revealed. And we must not believe that God suffers the abomination that is in the world any longer. The day is past, and the night draws near, which must begin the chastisement of the wicked. Blessed are those who make friends with unjust wealth, and who follow the will of God by discovering the marvels of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. one should not be astonished if he walks only gropingly, and if he strays from the right path. There are many secrets that will one day be revealed. And we must not believe that God suffers the abomination that is in the world any longer. The day is past, and the night draws near, which must begin the chastisement of the wicked. Blessed are those who make friends with unjust wealth, and who follow the will of God by discovering the marvels of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. And we must not believe that God suffers the abomination that is in the world any longer. The day is past, and the night draws near, which must begin the chastisement of the wicked. Blessed are those who make friends with unjust wealth, and who follow the will of God by discovering the marvels of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. And we must not believe that God suffers the abomination that is in the world any longer. The day is past, and the night draws near, which must begin the chastisement of the wicked. Blessed are those who make friends with unjust wealth, and who follow the will of God by discovering the marvels of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. and who follow the will of God by discovering the wonders of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God. and who follow the will of God by discovering the wonders of nature, to his glory. Woe to those who make wealth their God, and who try to suppress the glory of God and the marvels of nature, here I end this Appendix of the Mineral work that I have brought to light for the good of their neighbor and for the glory of God.

END.