A Treatise on Salt
Listen Audio BookA Treatise on Salt
By Anonymous
The author of this work, discusses the threefold aspect of the salt principle in alchemy, and where it is found in Nature, of how it is dissolved and then divided into four elements. He draws parallels between the white stone born out of the salt and Christ's Beatitudes and some verses from the Book of Revelation. He shows how one can lead from the white stone to the red, the goal and conclusion of the work of alchemical philosophers.
A certain thing is found in this world,
Which is also everywhere, and in every place,
It is not earth, nor fire, nor air, nor water,
However it wants neither of these things,
Nay, it can become fire, air, water, and earth;
For it contains all nature, in itself purely, and sincerely,
It becomes white and red, is hot and cold,
It is moist and dry, and is diversifiable every way,
The band of sages only have known it,
And they call it their salt.
A Treatise, or Discourse upon Salt, the Third Principle of Minerals
Chapter 1
Of the quality and condition of the salt of nature.
Salt is the third principle of all things, of which the ancient philosophers have not spoken. It has however been explained to us, and as it were pointed at with the finger by J. Isaac, a Hollander, Basil Valentine, and Theoph. Paracelsus; not that among the principles any one be first, or any one last, since they have one and the same origin, and an equal beginning: but we follow the method of our father, who has given the first place to mercury, the second to sulphur, and the third to salt. It is it chiefly which is the third being, that gives a beginning to minerals, that contains in itself the two other principles, viz. mercury and sulphur, and which in its birth has for its mother only the impression of Saturn, which binds it, and renders it compact, of which the body of all metals is formed.
There are three sorts of salt. The first is a central salt, which the spirit of the world begets without any discontinuation in the centre of the elements by the influences of the stars, and is governed by the rays of the sun, and of the moon in our philosophical sea. The second is a spermatic salt, which is the domicile or seat of the invisible seed, and which in a gentle natural heat, by the mean of putrefaction gives of itself the form, and vegetable virtue, to the end that this invisible and most volatile seed be not dissipated, and entirely destroyed by an excessive outward heat, or by any other contrary or violent accident: For if that should happen, it would no longer be able to produce anything. The third salt, is the last matter of all things, which is to be found in them, and which remains in them even after their destruction.
This threefold salt took its birth from the first instant of the creation, when God said, 'Fiat', and its existence was made out of nothing, inasmuch as the primitive chaos of the world was nothing else than a crass and saline obscurity, or cloud of the abyss, which was concentred and created out of invisible things by the word of God, and was brought forth by the force and power of his voice, as a being which was to serve for a first matter, and give life to everything, and which is actually existing. It is neither dry, nor moist, nor thick, nor thin, nor luminous, nor obscure, nor hot, nor cold, nor hard, nor soft; but is only a blended chaos, out of which afterwards all things were produced and separated. But in this place we shall say no more on that head, and shall only treat of our salt, which is the third principle of minerals, and is moreover the beginning of our philosophical work.
But if the reader desires to reap any benefit from this discourse of mine, and comprehend my thought, he must first of all read with great attention the writings of the other true philosophers, and chiefly those of Sandivogius, of whom we have made mention above, that by the perusal of them, he may know fundamentally the generation, and the first principles of metals, which proceed all from the same root. For he who knows exactly the generation of metals, is not ignorant also of their melioration and transmutation: and after he has by that mean got the knowledge of our fountain of salt, he shall here find the remaining instructions that are necessary for him, to the end, that having addressed himself to the Almighty with an ardent devotion, he may through his holy grace and blessing, acquire that precious salt, white as the very snow; that he may draw up the living water of Paradise; and may therewith prepare the philosophical tincture, which is the greatest treasure, and most noble gift that God has ever bestowed in this life on the wise philosophers.
Discourse translated from verse.
Pray to God to give you wisdom, clemency, and grace.
By the means of which this art may be acquired.
Do not apply your mind to anything else, than to this hylech of the philosophers.
In the fountain of the salt of our sun and moon,
You'll there find the treasure of the son of the sun.
Chapter 2
Where our salt is to be sought for.
As our azoth is the seed of all metals, and that it has been established and composed by nature in an equal temperature and proportion of the elements, and in a concording agreement of the seven planets, so likewise is it in what alone we ought to seek, and ought to hope to meet with a powerful virtue of a wonderful force, which we can not find in any other thing in the world; for in the whole university of nature, there is but one thing, by which the truth of our art is discoverable, in which it entirely consists, and without which it can not be. It is a stone, and no stone. It is called a stone by resemblance; first, because its mine is truly stone, at the beginning when it is first taken out of the caves of the earth. It is a matter hard, and dry, which is reducible into small particles, and which may be pounded after the manner of a stone. Secondly, because that after the destruction of its form, (which is but a stinking sulphur which must first be taken away,) and after the division of its parts which had been compounded and united together by nature, it is necessary to reduce it into one sole essence, and to digest it gently according to nature into an incombustible stone, resisting the fire, and yet melting like wax.
If therefore you know what you seek for, you also know what our stone is. It is requisite you should have the seed of a subject of the same nature with that you would produce and beget. The testimony of all the philosophers, and even of reason herself, demonstrate sensibly, that this metallic tincture is nothing else than gold extremely digested, that is to say, reduced and brought to its utmost perfection:
For if this golden tincture, was to be drawn from any other thing than from the substance of gold, it would necessarily follow that it shall tinge all other things, as well as it does metals; which it does not do. There is not anything besides the metallic mercury alone, which by the virtue it has to tinge and perfectionate; becomes actually gold, or silver in power, which done, when one takes the sole and only mercury of metals, in the form of a crude sperm, and not yet ripe; which is called hermaphrodite, because it contains in its own belly its male and female, that is to say, its agent and patient; and which being digested to a whiteness pure and fixed becomes silver, and pushed on to a redness, becomes gold.
For there is only what is homogeneous in him, and of the same nature, that ripens and coagulates by coction; of which you have a certain final mark, when it attains to a supreme degree of redness, and the whole mass resists the strongest flame of fire, without emitting the least smoke or vapour, or becoming any whit lighter in weight: after that, it must be again dissolved by a new menstruum of the world; so that, that portion which is strongly fixed flowing all about, be received into its belly, in which this fixed sulphur is brought to a much easier fluidity and solubility: and the volatile sulphur likewise, by the mean of the very great magnetic heat of the fixed sulphur ripens speedily, etc. For one mercurial nature will not quit the other; but when we see that this one, red or white, after the manner we have above represented, or rather that the ripe antimony, fixed and perfect, becomes apt to congeal in the cold, whereas it will easily become liquid in the heat, like wax, and be very easy to resolve in any liquor whatever, and will diffuse itself through all the parts of the subject, giving it a colour throughout, as a little saffron tinges a great deal of water. Therefore this fixed liquability cast upon melted metals, resolving itself into the form of water in a very great heat, will penetrate into the least particle of the same; and this fixed water will be able to retain all that is volatile therein, and to preserve it from combustion. But then a double heat of fire and of sulphur will act so powerfully, that the imperfect mercury will be no way able to resist; and almost in the space of half an hour, there will be heard a certain noise or crackling, which will be an evident sign that the mercury has been overcome, and that he has ejected outwardly, what he had inwardly, and that all is converted into a most pure and perfect metal.
Whoever then has ever had any tincture, either philosophical, or particular, has not been able to extract it but from this sole principle; as says that great philosopher Basil Valentine, who was a native of the upper Alsace, and our German compatriot (who lived in my country about fifty years ago) in his book entitled The triumphal Chariot of Antimony, where treating of the different tinctures which may be drawn from this same principle he writes:
"That the stone of fire (made of antimony) does not tinge universally as does the stone of the philosophers, which is prepared of the essence of the sun; nay even less than all the other stones; for nature has not given it so much virtue for that effect: but it tinges only in particular, viz. tin, lead, and Luna into Sol, he neither makes mention of iron nor of brass, unless it be, that from them may be drawn the antimonial stone by separation, and that one part thereof can only transmute five parts, by reason that it remains fixed in the coppel, and in the antimony itself, in the quartal, and in all the other trials; where, on the contrary, this true, and most ancient stone of the philosophers is able to produce infinite effects.
Likewise in its augmentation and multiplication, the stone of fire can not exalt itself any further, whereas gold is of itself pure and fixed. However, the reader is moreover to observe, that there are stones of different species, which tinge in particular, for I call stones, all fixed and tinging powders; but yet there is always some one which tinges more effectually, and in a higher degree than another. The stone of the philosophers holds the first rank among them all. Secondly, comes the tincture of the sun and moon to red and white. Then the tincture of vitriol and of Venus, and the tincture of Mars, each of which contains also in itself the tincture of the sun, provided it be brought to a lasting fixation. Then again the tincture of Jupiter and Saturn, which serve to coagulate the mercury; and, in fine, the tincture of Mercury itself. Thus you have the difference, and the several sorts of stones and tinctures, they are nevertheless all engendered of the same seed, of the same mother, and from the same source: from whence also was produced the true universal work, excepting which, there is no other metallic tincture to be found; nay, not even in all the things which can be named; as for the other stones, whatever they may be, as well as the noble, as the ignoble and vile, I have nothing to do with them, and I do not pretend so much as to speak or write of them, because they have no other virtues than what relate to physick. Neither shall I make mention of the animal and vegetable stone, by reason they only serve for the preparation of medicaments, and can not make any metallic work, not even to produce of themselves the least quality; of all which stones as well mineral, vegetable, as animal, the virtue and power is found accumulated together in the stone of the philosophers. The salts of all things have no manner of virtue to tinge, but they are the keys which serve for the preparation of stones, which otherwise can do nothing of themselves; that is what belongs only to the salts of metals and minerals. I say something now, if thou would but understand, I make known to thee the difference that is in the salts of the metals, which must not be omitted nor rejected, in what regards the tinctures; for in the composition, we can not be without them, because that in them is to be found that great treasure, from whence all fixation draws its origin, together with its duration, and its true and only foundation." Here end the words of Basil Valentine.
All the philosophical truth consists in the radix we have mentioned; and whoever knows well this principle, viz. that all that is above is governed entirely as what is below: so on the contrary, he also knows the use and operation of the philosophical key, which by its pontic bitterness calcines and reincrudates all things, although by this reincrudation of perfect bodies, there would be only found the same sperm, which may be had ready prepared by nature, without any need of reducing the compact body, but rather that very sperm, altogether, soft and not ripe, such as nature gives it us, the which may be brought to its maturity.
Apply yourself therefore wholly to this primitive metallic subject, to which nature has truly given the form of a metal: but i has left it yet crude, not ripe, imperfect, and not finished, in the soft mountain, of which, you may more easily dig a pit, and draw out of the same our pure pontic water which the fountain encompasses, the which alone (to the exclusion of all other water) is of its own nature disposed to convert itself into a paste with its proper flower, and with its solar ferment; and after to digest itself into ambrosia. And although our stone is found of the same genus in all the seven metals, according to the saying of the philosophers, who affirm that the poor (to wit, the five imperfect metals) possess it as well as the rich (viz. the two perfect metals) yet the best of all the stones is found in the new habitation of Saturn, which has never been touched; that is to say, of him whose son presents himself, not without great mystery, to the eyes of the world, day and night, and of whom the world makes use when it sees it, and which the eyes can never attract by any species, to that effect that one may see, or at least believe, that this great secret is contained in this son of Saturn, as all the philosophers assert and even swear it; and that it is moreover the cabinet of their secrets, and that it comprehends within itself the spirit of the sun, shut up in its own bowels, and proper intestines.
We can not for the present more clearly describe our vitriolated egg, provided the reader be acquainted with any of the children of Saturn, viz. "The triumphing antimony; the bismuth, or tin of ice melting at the candle; the cobaltum blackening more than lead or iron: the lead which makes the trials: the plumbites (a matter so called) which the painters make use of the zinc which colours, and appears admirable, by its showing itself in a different manner, almost under the form of mercury: a metallic matter, which may be calcined, and vitriolised by air, etc. although this serene vulcan which is inevitable; the cook of human race, procreated by black parents, viz. of the black flint, and the black steel, may, and has the virtue of preparing the most excellent remedies, of each of the above-mentioned matters: but our volatile mercury is very different from all these things.
Discourse translated from verse.
It is a stone, and no stone, In which all the art consists,
Nature has made it such,
But it has not yet brought it to perfection.
You will not find it on earth, because it has there no growth;
It grows only in the caverns of the mountains.
This whole art depends on it;
For he who has the vapour of this thing.
Has the gilded splendour of the red lion,
The pure and clear mercury;
And he who knows the red sulphur which it contains,
Has within his power the whole foundation.
Chapter 3
Of the dissolution.
Since the time draws nigh, when this fourth monarchy shall predominate towards the north, which will be soon followed with the calcination of the world, it would be proper enough to discover clearly to all in general the philosophical calcination or solution, (which is the sovereign princess in the chemical monarchy) the knowledge whereof being acquired, it would be no longer difficult afterwards for many to treat of the art of making gold, and to obtain in a short time all the most hidden treasures of nature. This would be the sole and only mean capable of banishing from all the corners of the world that insatiable thirst which men have for gold, and which drags along with it the heart of almost all those who inhabit the earth; and to cast down (to the glory of God) the statue of the golden calf, which the great ones, as well as the little ones of this age adore. But as all these things, as well as an infinity of other hidden secrets, belong only to a good artist, we shall disclose them to him now what Paracelsus has heretofore said; to wit, that one third part of the world shall perish by the sword, another by the plague and famine; so that there will hardly be left another third part. That all the orders (that is to say, that beast with seven heads) should be destroyed out the world. And then (says he) all things shall return to their perfect and primitive state, and we shall enjoy the Golden Age: man shall recover his found understanding, and shall live conformably to the morals of men, etc. But notwithstanding all these things will be in the power of him whom God has destined to the performance of these wonders, yet we shall leave in writing, whatever shall be of any utility to those who are in quest after this art; and we say pursuant to the sentiment of all the philosophers, that a true dissolution is the key of the whole art: that there are three sorts of dissolutions; the first is, the dissolution of the crude body; the second, of the philosophical earth; and the third is, that which is made in the multiplication.
But for as much as what has been already calcined, dissolves more easily than what has not, it is absolutely necessary that the calcination, and destruction of the sulphurous impurity, and of the combustible stench, precede all other things: in the next place, all the waters or menstruums must be separated, which may have been made use of, as assistants in this art, in order that nothing that is strange, and of another nature may there remain; and this precaution must likewise be had, lest the too great outward heat, or other dangerous accident should perhaps exhale, or destroy the interior generative and multiplicative virtue of our stone, as the philosophers admonish us in the Turba saying: take care chiefly in the putrefaction of the stone, and be mindful that the active virtue be not burnt or suffocated, because no seed can grow, nor multiply, when it has been deprived of its generative force by any exterior fire. Having got the sperm or seed, you may then by a gentle digestion happily accomplish your work: for we first gather the sperm of our magnesia; being drawn out, we putrify it; being putrefied, we dissolve it; being dissolved, we divide it into parts; being divided, we purify it; being purified, we unite it; and so we consummate our work.
This is what is taught us in these words by the author of the most ancient duel, or of the dialogue between the stone and the gold, and the vulgar mercury:
"By the omnipotent God, and upon the salvation of my soul, I point out and discover to you, you who are lovers of this most excellent art, out of a sincere motion of fidelity, and compassion to your long inquiry, that our whole work is made but of one thing, and is perfected by itself, having need only of dissolution, and congelation; which ought to be done without the addition of any foreign thing. For as ice in a dry vessel, being put upon the fire, is converted into water by the heat: in like manner, our stone has no need of any other thing, than the assistance of the artist, which is obtained by the help of his manual operation, and by the action of the natural fire. For, admitting it were to be eternally hidden very deep in the earth, yet it could never perfect itself in any thing; it must therefore be helped; not however in such a manner, as that it should be requisite to add to it any foreign thing, or that is contrary to its nature: but it must rather be governed after the same manner, as God causes the production to us of the fruits of the earth, in order to our nourishment; as for instance, the several grains, which must be afterwards threshed and carried to the mill, that bread may be made thereof. It is just the same in our work; God has created this copper for us, which is the only thing we take: we destroy its crude and crass body; we take out the good kernel which it has within itself; we reject what is superfluous; and we prepare a medicine of what was only a venom."
You may then easily understand, that you can do nothing without dissolution: for when this saturnine stone shall have imbibed the mercurial water, and shall have congealed it within its own bonds, t is necessary that by a gentle heat it should putrefy in itself, and be resolved into its first humour; to the end that its invisible, incomprehensible, and tinging spirit, which is the pure fire of the gold, enclosed and imprisoned in the depth of a congealed salt, may be brought forth, and likewise that its gross body may be also subtilised by regeneration, and may be conjoined and inseparably united with its spirit.
Discourse translated from verse.
Resolve therefore your stone after a convenient manner,
And not after a sophistick way;
But rather pursuant to the thought of the wise,
Without adding thereto any corrosive;
For no other water is to be found that can dissolve our stone,
Except a little fountain very pure, and clear,
Which happens to run of its own accord,
And is the humour proper to dissolve it,
But it is hidden almost to all the world.
It heats so vehemently of itself,
That it causes our stone even to sweat tears:
It requires only a slow exterior heat;
And this is what you must chiefly remember.
But I must moreover discover another thing to you,
That if you don't see a black smoke above,
And a whiteness beneath,
Your work has not been well performed,
And you have been mistaken in the dissolution of the stone.
Which you will immediately discover by that sign.
But if you proceed as you ought,
You will perceive a dark cloud,
Which without delay will sink to the bottom,
When the spirit shall assume a white colour:
Chapter 4
How our salt is divided into four elements, according to the intention of the philosophers.
As our stone, exteriorly, is humid, and cold, and its internal heat is a dry oil, or a sulphur, and a living tincture with which the quintessence must be conjoined and united naturally; it is necessary that you separate from each other all these contrary qualities, and bring them to an agreement: which our separation will effect, which is called in the philosophic ladder, the separation, or depuration of the aqueous and liquid vapour from the black faeces, the volatilisation of the rare parts, the extraction of the conjoining parts, the production of the principles, the disjunction of the homogeneity; which is what must be done, in proper and convenient baths, etc.
But it is requisite first to digest the elements in their proper dunghill: for without putrefaction, the spirit can not separate itself from the body, and it is it alone that subtilises, and causes volatility. And when your matter shall be sufficiently digested, in such manner that it may be separated, it becomes more clear by such separation, and the quicksilver takes the form of a clear water. Divide then the stone and the four elements into two distinct parts, to wit, into one part that is volatile, and another that is fixed. What is volatile is water and air, and what is fixed is earth and fire. Of all these elements the earth and the water only appear sensibly before our eyes; but not the fire and the air. And these are the two mercurial substances, or the twofold mercury of Trevisanus, to which the philosophers in the Turba have given the following names:
1 The volatile - 1 The fixed
2 The quicksilver - 2 The sulphur
3 The superior - 3 The inferior
4 The water - 4 The earth
5 The woman - 5 The man
6 The queen - 6 The king
7 The white woman - 7 The red servant
8 The sister - 8 The brother
9 Beya - 9 Gabricius
10 The volatile sulphur - 10 The fixed sulphur
11 The vulture - 11 The toad
12 The living - 12 The dead
13 The water of life - 13 The black, more black, than the black
14 The humid cold - 14 The dry hot
15 The soul or spirit - 15 The body
16 The dragon's tail - 16 The dragon devouring his tail
17 The heaven - 17 The earth
18 The sweat - 18 The ashes
19 The most sharp vinegar - 19 The brass, or the sulphur
20 The white smoke - 20 The black smoke
21 The black clouds - 21 The bodies out of which those clouds come
In the superior part, which is spiritual and volatile, resides the life of the dead earth; and in the inferior part, which is terrestrial and fixed, is contained the ferment which nourishes, and fixes the stone; these two parts come from the same radix, and both the one and the other must conjoin and unite together in the form of water.
Take then the earth, and calcine it in the dunghill, which is tepid, and moist, till it becomes white, and appears greasy. This is that incombustible sulphur, which by a greater digestion, may be made a red sulphur; but it must be white before it becomes red: for it can not pass from black to red, but through the white, which is the medium between both: and when the white appears in the vessel, without doubt, the red lies hid therein. Wherefore the matter must not be taken out, but must only be further digested, till it at last becomes red.
Discourse translated from verse.
The gold of the wise, is no way the vulgar gold;
But it is a certain water clear and pure,
On which is born the spirit of the Lord;
And it is from thence that all beings receive life.
This is the reason why our gold is become entirely spiritual:
By the mean of the spirit, it passes through the alembic;
Its earth remains black,
Which however did not appear before;
And now it dissolves itself,
And becomes likewise a thick water,
The which desires a more noble life,
To the end it may be able to rejoin itself.
For by reason of the thirst it has, it dissolves, and is dissevered,
Which benefits it very much:
Because if it did not become water and oil,
Its spirit and soul could not unite,
Nor mingle with it, as it then happens to do:
In such manner, that of them one thing is made,
Which rises to a consummate perfection,
The parts whereof are so strongly joined together,
That they can never be separated.
Chapter 5
Of the separation of Diana whiter than the snow.
It is not without reason that the philosophers call our salt, the place of wisdom; for it is replenished with rare virtues, and divine wonders: it is from it chiefly that all the colours of the world may be drawn. It is white like the very snow in its exterior; but it contains interiorly a redness like that of blood. It is replenished moreover, with a very sweet taste, a vivifying life, and with a tincture that is altogether celestial, although all these things are not in the proprieties of the salt, because the salt gives only an acrimony, and is but the band of its coagulation; but its internal heat is pure, a pure essential fire, the light of nature, and an oil most beautiful and transparent, which is of so great a sweetness, that no sugar nor honey can equal it, when it is entirely separated, and divested of all its other proprieties,
As to the invisible spirit, which resides in our salt, it is by reason of the force of its penetration, like and equal to the thunderbolt, which strikes vehemently, and which nothing can resist.
From all these parts of the salt united together, and fixed in a being that resists the fire, there results so powerful a tincture, that it penetrates all bodies in the twinkling of the eye, after the manner of a furious thunderbolt, and drives away immediately what is an adversary to life.
And thus it is that the imperfect metals are tinged, or transmuted into Sol: for from the very beginning they are gold in potentia, having drawn their origin from the sole essence of the sun; but by the anger, and malediction of the deity, they were corrupted by seven different leprosies and maladies: and if they had not been gold before, our tincture could never turn them into gold, as we see man does not become gold notwithstanding he swallows a dose of our tincture, which has a sufficient power to drive all maladies from the human body.
One also plainly sees by an exact anatomy of the metals, that they partake in their interior, of gold, and that their exterior is environed with death and malediction. For first, there is to be observed in these metals, that they contain a corruptible matter, which is hard and gross and of an accursed earth; to wit, a substance which is crass, stony, impure, and terrestrial, which they bring even from their mine. Secondly, a stinking water which is capable of giving death. In the third place, a mortified earth, which is lodged in this stinking water; and in fine, a venomous quality, which is mortal and raging. But when the metals are freed from all these accursed impurities, and from their heterogeneity, then there is to be found in them the noble essence of gold; that is to say, our blessed salt, so much praised by the philosophers, who tell us of it so often, and have recommended it to us in these terms. Draw forth the salt of the metals, without any corrosion or violence, and that salt will produce you the white and red stone. Item, the whole secret consists in the salt, of which is made our perfect elixir.
Now it sufficiently appears how difficult it is to find the mean to make, and to have this salt; since this science, even down to this day, has not been wholly discovered to everybody, and that even at this present, there is not one in a thousand that knows, what sentiment he ought to entertain concerning the surprising saying of all the philosophers, on this sole and self-same matter, which is nothing else than true and natural gold, yet nevertheless very vile, is flung into the highways, and is there to be found. It is of great value, and even inestimable; and yet is only dung: it is a fire, which burns more vehemently than all other fire, and nevertheless it is cold: it is a water that washes very clean, and yet it is dry: it is a hammer of steel, which strikes even the impalpable atoms; and for all that, it is like a soft water: it is a flame which reduces all things into ashes; and nevertheless it is moist: it is a snow, which is all snow, and yet may be digested and made to thicken: it is a bird which flies on the tops of the mountains; and yet it is a fish: it is a virgin who has never been touched, and who nevertheless brings forth children, and abounds. with milk: they are the rays of the sun, and of the moon, and the fire of sulphur; and at the same time, it is an ice extremely cold: it is a burnt tree, which however brings forth blossoms while it is burning, and yields an abundance of fruit: it is a mother that bears children, and yet it is only a man: and, likewiase, on the contrary, it is a male, and yet does the office of a woman: it is a very heavy metal, and yet it is a feather: it is also a feather which the wind carries away, and is, nevertheless, heavier than the very metals: it is likewise a poison more deadly than even that of the basilisk, and yet it drives away all sorts of maladies.
All these contradictions, and others the like, and which nevertheless are the proper names of our stone, so confound those who are ignorant how they are to be understood, that there are a great many who absolutely deny the truth of any such thing, though at the same time they believe themselves to have the best turned genii of the world. They choose rather to refer themselves to one single Aristotle, than to an infinite number of famous authors, who for many ages have confirmed all these things, as well as by the trials they have made thereof, as by the writings they have left us; protesting that all the words they have advanced, carried truth in them, or else hey would be obliged to be answerable for the same at the great Day of Judgement. But notwithstanding all, this is no way regarded, they who are in possession of the science, are always despised; which does not happen without the just judgement of God, who by how much the better he has placed this precious gift in any vessel, by so much the more does he permit it to be considered as a mere folly, to the end that they who are unworthy of it, may despise and reject it to their own unspeakable loss, and peculiar damage. But the sons of the science guard with fear and trembling this secret depositum of providence, considering that the parables, as well of the sacred writ, as of all the sages, signify very different things from what the literal sense bears: wherefore, pursuant to the command of the psalmist, they meditate day and night on their matter, and seek this precious stone with solicitude and pains, till such time as they find it by their prayers and their labours. For if God (as it can not be doubted of) does not make known this admirable stone (though only a terrestrial one) to the men of a depraved will, because it is a small sketch of the holy and celestial angular stone, what sentiments ought we to have of that authentic and inestimable stone which all the angels and archangels adore? Though at the same time there is not any man but may be sure of acquiring it without much labour, provided he be regenerated, and makes profession of the faith, that he publishes it with his mouth, that he conceives no doubt thereof, and forms no contestation thereupon, he will enter the straight gate of Paradise, with all the holy personages of the Old and New Testament.
As for our own part, we know for certain that all theology and philosophy are vanities without this incombustible oil. For as the five imperfect metals die in the trial of the fire, if they are not tinged, and brought to their perfection by the mean of this incombustible oil (which the philosophers call their stone,) in like manner the five foolish virgins, who at the arrival of their king, and their spouse, shall not have the true oil in their lamps, will perish indubitably. For the king (as is to be seen in St Matthew Chap. 25. 41, 42, 45.) will place on the left those who shall not have the oil of charity and mercy, and will say to them; "Get you gone from me accursed as you are, go into the everlasting fire, which is prepared for the Devil, and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat: I was dry, and you did not give me to drink: I was a stranger, and you did not lodge me: I was naked, and you did not clothe me: I was sick, and a prisoner, and you did not visit me." On the contrary, as they who are incessantly endeavouring to know the wonderful secrets of God, and implore with an ardent zeal the father of all light to illuminate their understandings, receive at last the spirit of the divine wisdom, which guides them in all truth, and unites them by their lively faith with that victorious lion of the tribe of Judah, who alone unties and opens the book of regeneration, sealed with the seven seals in each of the faithful. In such manner, that in him is born that lamb, which from the beginning was sacrificed, who alone is the Lord of lords, and who nails the old Adam to the cross of his humility and meekness, and regenerates a new man by the seed of the divine word.
Thus likewise do we see a faithful representation of this regeneration in the work of the philosophers, in which there is that only green lion, which shuts and opens the seven undissoluble seals of the seven metallic spirits, and which torments the bodies till it has rendered them entirely perfect, by the mean of the long and firm patience of the artist. For he also has some resemblance with the lamb, to whom, and to none else, the seven seals of nature shall be opened.
Oh children of the light! who are always victorious by virtue of the divine lamb; all the things which God has ever created, shall contribute to your happiness, both temporal and eternal, as we have a promise thereof from the very mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he was pleased to specify these sixteen beatitudes, which he has reiterated in St. Matthew Chap.5. and in the Apocalypse Chap.2. and 21. in these words.
1. Happy are the poor in spirit; for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
To him who shall overcome, I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.
2. Happy are they who mourn; for they shall receive consolation.
He who shall overcome, shall not be offended with the second death.
3. Happy are the meek; for they shall inhabit the earth by right of inheritance.
To him who shall overcome, I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and to the stone a new written name, which none knows but he who receives it.
4. Happy are they who hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall be satiated.
He that shall overcome, and shall have observed my works to the end, I shall give him power over the nations; and he shall govern them with an iron rod, and they shall be broken to pieces like the vessels of the potter. As I have also received from my father. And I will give him the morning star.
5. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall have mercy shown them.
He that shall overcome shall be thus clothed in white garments: and I will not blot his name out of the book of life: and I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
6. Blessed are they who are clean of heart; for they shall see God.
He that shall overcome, I will make him become a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go forth no more; and I will write upon him the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, which descends from Heaven from before my God; and my new name.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.
He that shall overcome, I will make him sit with me in my throne: as I have also overcome, and am seated with my father on his throne.
8. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of justice; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
He that shall overcome, shall obtain all things by an hereditary right; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Let us then, my brethren, resume by the grace of our merciful God, a laborious spirit, that we may fight a good battle: for he who shall not have duly fought, shall not be crowned, because God does not grant us his temporal gifts, but by dint of sweat, and labour, according to the universal testimony of all the philosophers, and even of Hermes himself, who assures, that to obtain this blessed Diana, and this lunary, as white as the very milk, he had suffered many labours of the mind, as anybody may easily conjecture. For as our salt is at the beginning a terrestrial subject, heavy, rude, impure; chaotic, gummy, viscous, and a body which has the form of nebulous water, it is requisite it should be dissolved, that it should be separated from its impurity, from all its terrestrial, and aqueous accidents, and from its thick and gross shadow; and above all, that it should be extremely sublimed, to the end, that this crystalline salt of the metals, free from all faeces, purged from all its blackness, putrefaction and leprosy, may become most pure, and sovereignly clarified, white as the snow, melting and running like wax.
Discourse translated from verse.
The salt is the sole and only key,
Without salt our art can no wise subsist.
And although this salt (that I may advertise you thereof)
Has not the appearance of salt at the beginning.
Yet nevertheless it is truly a salt, which without doubt,
Is altogether black and stinking at first,
But which in the operation, and by labour,
Will have the resemblance of the ferous part of the blood;
And afterwards will become altogether white and clear.
By its own dissolution and proper fermentation.
Chapter 6
Of the marriage of the red servant, with the white woman.
There are many who think they know the manner of making the tincture of the philosophers: but when they come to make trials with our red servant, one would hardly believe how small the number is of them that succeed, and how few there are in the whole world that deserve the name of true philosophers. For where shall we find a book that shall give sufficient instruction on that subject, since all the philosophers have wrapped it up in silence, and have thus concealed it on purpose, as our well beloved father had said by way of revelation to the inquisitors of this art, to whom he hardly left anything of moment, except these few words: one only thing, mixed with a philosophical water.
And there is no doubt to be made that this thing gave a great deal of trouble and pains to some philosophers, before they could get through this forest, in order to begin their first operation, as we have a considerable instance in the author of the 'Open Ark', commonly called the disciple of the great and little peasant (who is in possession of the manuscripts of his deceased, venerable and worthy preceptor, and who has had a perfect knowledge of the philosophical art, these thirty years past) who has related to us what happened to his master in this point, that is to say, in his first operation, by which he could not on his first attempt, whatever means or industry he could use, bring to pass that the sulphurs should intermingle and incorporate: because the sun always swum on the surface of the moon. This gave him a great uneasiness, and was the cause of his undertaking many new and vexatious travels, with a design to inform himself in that point, by some person who might happen to be masters of the stone; as it accordingly fell out suitably to his wish, in such manner, that no person has yet appeared, that has surpassed his experience; for he knew effectually the nearest, and the shortest way of this work, since in the space of thirty days, he completed the secret of the stone, whereas the other philosophers are obliged to keep their matter in digestion first, for the space of seven months, and after that, during ten months continually.
This we were willing to observe to those who imagine, and believe themselves to be great philosophers, and yet never put their hands to the work; with this intention that they may seriously consider, whether anything be wanting to them; for before this step, it often happens, that the presumptious artists are forced to own and acknowledge their ignorance and temerity. Nay there are some even among the greatest doctors, and persons of the greatest acquisition, who persuade themselves that our red servant digested, is to be extracted from the common gold, by mean of a mercurial water, which error the most learned author of the ancient Chymical Duel, has formerly demonstrated, in a discourse of his, where he makes the stone speak after this manner: "Some persons have so far deviated from me, that although they have found the way to extract my tinging spirit, which they have mingled with other metals and minerals, yet I have granted to them the fruition only of a small portion of my virtue, to meliorate therewith those metals which are most proximate to me, and nearest allied; but if these philosophers had had recourse to my proper wife and had joined me to her, I should have afforded a thousand times more tincture.
As to what relates to our conjunction, there are two different ways of conjoining, of which the one is moist, and the other dry. The sun has three parts of his water, and his wife has nine, or the sun has two, and his wife has seven. And as the seed of a man is at one single time all injected into the matrix of a woman, which closes immediately till the time of delivery, after the same manner in our work we conjoin two waters, the sulphur of God, and the soul and body of its mercury: the sun and the moon: the husband and the wife: two seeds: two quicksilvers, and of those two we make our quicksilver, and of this mercury, the stone of the philosophers."
Discourse translated from verse.
After the earth is well prepared,
To drink its humidity.
Then take together the spirit, soul and life,
And give them to the earth.
For what is the earth without seed?
And a body without a soul?
You shall therefore take notice, and observe
That the mercury is brought back to its mother.
Of whom it took its origin;
Cast it therefore upon her, and it will be of utility to you;
The seed will dissolve the earth,
And the earth will coagulate the seed.
Chapter 7
Of the degrees of fire
In the coction of our salt, the external heat of the first operation is called elixation, and is performed in humidity; but the tepidity of the second operation, is accomplished in dryness, and is called assation. The philosophers have marked out these two fires, in this manner: our stone must be cooked by elixation and assation.
Our blessed work requires to be regulated conformably to the four seasons of the year; and, as the first part, which is the winter, is cold and moist; the second, which is the spring, is tepid and moist; the third, which is the summer, is hot and dry; and the fourth, which is the autumn, is appointed for the gathering in of the fruits; in like manner the first regulation of the fire must resemble the heat of a hen that sits brooding to hatch her chickens, or be like, the heat of the stomach, which concocts and digests the meats, which nourish the body; or like the heat of the sun, in the sign Aries, and this tepidity lasts till the blackness appears, nay, even till the matter becomes white. If you don't observe this regimen, and that your matter be too much heated, you will not see the so much desired head of the raven; but you shall unfortunately perceive a precipitate, and transient redness like that of the wild poppy, or else a ruddy oil swimming on the top, or that your matter shall have begun to sublime; if this shall happen, you must of necessity withdraw your composition, dissolve it, and drench it with our virginal milk, and begin your digestion afresh with more precaution, till such times as such. default shall not appear. And when you shall discover the whiteness, you shall increase the fire to the entire desiccation of the stone, which heat ought to resemble that of the sun, when it passes out of Taurus into Gemini; and after such desiccation, you must again prudently augment your fire, till your matter attains a perfect redness, which heat is like that of the sun in the sign Leo.
Discourse translated from verse
Take good heed of the advertisements I have given,
For the regimen of your gentle fire,
And then you may hope for all sorts of prosperity,
And participate one day of this treasure,
But it is necessary that you first know,
The vaporous fire, according to the thought of the sages.
Because that fire is not elementary,
Or material, and other the like,
But it is rather a dry water drawn from mercury;
This fire is supernatural,
Essential, celestial, and pure,
In which the sun, and the moon are conjoined.
Govern the fire by the regimen of an exterior fire,
And guide your work to the end.
Chapter 8
Of the admirable virtue of our saline and aqueous stone.
He who shall have received so much grace from the father of lights, as to obtain in this life the inestimable gift of the philosophers stone, may not only be assured that he possesses a treasure of so high a price, that the whole world together, and even all the monarchs that inhabit it throughout are not able to pay the price thereof, but we ought moreover to be persuaded, that he has a most manifest token of the love God bears him, and of the promise the divine wisdom (which bestows such a gift) has made in his favour, to grant him for ever an eternal habitation with her, and a perfect union in a celestial marriage, which we wish with all our heart to all Christians; for that is the centre of all treasures, according to the testimony of Solomon, in the 7th of Wisdom, where he says; 'I have preferred wisdom to a kingdom, and to principality, and I have not made any account of riches in comparison with her. I have not put in a parallel with her, any precious stone; for all gold is but a vile gravel in reference to it, and silver is only dirt. I have loved it above health, and the beauty of the body, and I have made choice of her for my light, the rays of which are never darkened. The possession of her has given me all the good things imaginable, and I have found that the bad in her hand. infinite riches, etc.
As to our philosophical stone; one may conveniently enough observe therein all these wonders, first the sacred mystery of the most holy trinity, the work of the creation, of the redemption, of the regeneration, and the future state of eternal felicity.
Secondly, our stone drives away, and cures all sorts of maladies whatever, and preserves anyone in good health, to the last term of his life, which is when the spirit of man going out like a candle, vanishes. away gently, and passes into the hands of God.
Thirdly, it tinges and changes all metals into gold and silver, even better than those which nature is used to produce, and by its means the most vile stones, and all crystals may be transformed into precious stones. But because our intention is to change the metals into gold, it is requisite they should be first fermented with very good and moist pure gold; for, otherwise, the imperfect metals would not be able to support its too great and supreme subtility; but there would rather ensue loss and damage in the projection. The imperfect and impure metals must also be purified, if one will draw any profit therefrom. One drachm of gold is sufficient for the fermentation in the red, and one drachm of silver for the fermentation in the white; and the artist need not be at the trouble of buying gold or silver for this fermentation, because with one single very small part, the tincture may afterward be augmented more and more, in such manner that whole ships might be loaded with the precious metal that would accrue from this confection, for if this medicine be multiplied, and be again dissolved and coagulated by the water of its mercury, white or red, of which it is prepared, then the tinging virtue will be augmented each time, by ten degrees in perfection, which may be reiterated as often as one pleases.
"The rosary says, that he who shall have once accomplished this art, even though he were to live thousands of years, and was every day to maintain four thousand men, yet he would never know any security."
"The author of The Aurora Appearing says, it is she, that is the daughter of the sages, and that has in her power, authority, honour, virtue, and empire, who has upon her head the flourishing crown of the kingdom, encompassed with the rays of the seven bright stars, and like the bride adorned by her husband, she bears written on her garments in golden letters, Greek, Barnarian and Latin; I am the only daughter of the wife (?wise), altogether unknown to fools. Oh happy science, oh happy scholar! For whoever has the knowledge of it, possesses an incomparable treasure, because he is rich before God, and honoured by all men, not by the means of usury, fraud, nor of unwarrantable commerce, nor by the oppression of the poor, as the rich men of this world make it their glory to enrich themselves by, but by the means of his industry, and by the labour of his own hands.
Wherefore, it is not without reason that the philosophers conclude that it is requisite to interpret the two following enigmas of the white and red tincture, or of their Urim and Thummim.
Discourse translated from verse
The moon.
Here is born a divine and august empress,
The masters with one common consent,
Style her their daughter,
She multiplies herself, and produces a great number of children,
Pure, immortal, and without blemish.
This queen has an aversion to death, and poverty;
She surpasses by her excellency gold, silver, and even the preciousstones.
She has more power, than all the remedies whatever.
There is not in the whole world, anything comparable to her,
For which reason, we render thanks to God, who dwells in the heavens.
The sun.
Here is born an emperor replete with honours;
There can never be born one more great than he,
Neither by art, nor by nature,
Among all things created;
The philosophers call him their son,
Who has the power, and strength to produce diverse effects,
He gives to man, all that he asks of him.
He grants him a lasting health,
Gold, silver, and precious stones,
Strength, and a beautiful and untainted youth.
He expels choler, sadness, poverty, and all weaknesses.
Oh! thrice happy be, who has obtained of God so great a blessing.
Recapitulation
My dear brother, and son, inquirer after this art, let us now resume from the very beginning all those things that are chiefly necessary to you, if thou desirest thy inquisition should be assisted, and attended with good success.
In the first place thou must imprint strongly in thy memory, that without the mercy of God, thou art altogether wretched and unhappy, nay, even more miserable than the Devil himself, within whose power are all the damned, because, as he has given thee an immortal soul, thou must, whether thou wilt or not, live a whole eternity, either with God among the blessed, in the fruition of an inconceivable bliss, or else with Satan among the damned in torments not to be expressed. Wherefore adore God with all thy heart, that he may vouchsafe to save thee for all eternity, employ thy whole strength and all thy endeavours to follow his holy commandments, which are the rule of thy life, as our saviour has injoyned it, in these words: seek first the kingdom of God, and all the other things shall be given you. By this means you will imitate the sages our predecessors, and you will observe the method which they pursued, to get into favour of this dreadful Lord, (before whom Daniel the prophet saw a thousand millions of assistants, and a great many myriads served him) as likewise the most wise Solomon has faithfully pointed out the way which he kept to obtain the true wisdom, by the mean of this doctrine which is the best, and which we must entirely practise. "I was," (says he) "a child endowed with good qualities, and by reason. I had received a good education, I found myself to have attained the age of adolescence in a life without crime, and without reproach: but after that, I perceived that I had even less disposition than any other man to become virtuous, unless God granted me that grace, (and that even it was wisdom to know whose gift that was) I went to the Lord, I prayed to him, and said to him with all my heart: Oh God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who didst constitute man to reign over all the creatures thou hast made, to regulate and dispose all the earth in justice, and to judge in equity of heart: give me I pray, that wisdom, which encompasses continually the throne of your divine majesty, and do not cast me out of the number of your children: for I am your servant, I am a weak man, and of short duration, and as yet too incapable of understanding judgement and the laws, etc."
By the same means thou mayst also be acceptable to God, provided thou makest the being so, thy chief study; and afterwards it will be lawful for thee, and even become thee, to think of the means of living handsomely during this life, and not only not be a burden to thy neighbour, but even be able to relieve the poor as occasion shall offer. This is what the art of the philosophers easily imparts to all those to whom God permits this science, as one of his most peculiar graces to be known: but he does not use to do it, unless he be prompted thereto by fervent prayers, and by the holy life of him who desires so signal a favour, and he does not grant it immediately even to any person whatever, but always by mediate dispositions, to wit, by instructions, and the labour of the hands, to which he gives a thorough blessing, if he be invoked thereto with a sincere heart; whereas, when recourse is not duly had to him by prayer, he stops the effect thereof, either by interposing obstacles to things already begun, or else by permitting them to conclude with an evil event.
However, to acquire this science, it is requisite to study, read and meditate, that thou may'st be able to know the process of nature, which art must necessarily follow. The study and lecture consists in those good and true authors, who have in effect experienced the truth of this science, and have communicated it to posterity, and to whom credit may be given with certainty in their art; for they were men of conscience, and far from telling any lies, although for many reasons they have written obscurely. As for my part, thou must compare what they have wrapped up in obscurity, with the operations of nature, and to take notice what seed she makes use of to produce and generate each thing: as for instance, this or that tree is not made of all sorts of things; but only of a seed, or root which is of its own kind. It is just so in the art of the philosophers, which has in like manner a certain and assured determination; for it tinges nothing into gold or silver, but the mercurial metallic genus, which it condenses into a malleable mass, which endure the hammer, persisting in the fire, and which is tinctured with a most perfect colour, and in communicating its tincture, cleanses and separates from the metal whatever is not of its own nature: it therefore follows, that the tincture is likewise of the mercurial metallic genus, designed for the perfection of gold, and that its origin, root, and seminal virtue, must be drawn from the same subject, of which the vulgar metallic bodies are produced, which endure and extend themselves under the hammer. I give thee here a clear description of the matter of the art, which if thou dost not yet comprehend, thou must assiduously apply thyself to the lecture of the authors, till such time as all things are become familiar to thee.
Having laid a firm and solid foundation on the doctrine of the true and lawful possessors of the stone, you must proceed to the manual operations, and a due preparation of the matter, which requires that all the faeces, and superfluities be taken away by our sublimation, and that it acquire a crystalline essence, saline, aqueous, spirituous, and oleaginous, which without the addition of any heterogeneous thing, and of a different nature, and without any diminution or any loss of its seminal, generative, and multiplicative virtue, must be brought to an equal temperament of moist and dry, that is to say, of the volatile, and of the fixed, and pursuant to the process of nature, raise this same essence by the means of our art, to a consummate perfection, that she may become a most fixed medicine, which may be resolved in all liquors, as also in any gentle heat, and may become potable; yet so nevertheless, that it do not evaporate, as the vulgar remedies most commonly do, which always want that chief virtue which they ought to have in order to cure, because as being weak and imperfect, either they are exalted by heat, or they are not: if they are exalted, they are perhaps only certain subtle waters distilled, that is to say, spirits, so light and so easily exalted, that even by the heat of the body, (which they augment so far as to cause tremblings;) they are presently sublimed and carried upwards, ascending to the head and there seeking an egress (as the spirits of wine are used to do in those that are drunk,) and the evaporation thereof not being able to be made, by reason of the closure of the brainpan, they strive to force their passage impetuously, after the same manner as it usually happens in artificial distillations, when sometimes the spirits being gathered together, and become powerful, they break the vessel which contains them. Now, if the ordinary medicines can not exalt themselves, they are perhaps composed of salts which are deprived of all the moisture of life by too intense a fire, and can therefore contribute very little to the cure of a lingering distemper: for as a burning lamp is fed with oil and fat, which being consumed it goes out: in like manner, the wick which preserves and maintains life, is sustained by a balm of life which is succulent and oily, and is snuffed by the means of most excellent medicines, as commonly a candle is snuffed with snuffers: now, by reason our medicine is for certain composed of the sun, and even of its rays, it is easy to conjecture what a transcendent virtue it has above all other remedies, since it is the sun alone, throughout all nature, that kindles and preserves life; for without the sun all things would be frozen, and nothing in the world would grow; the beams of the sun give a verdure, and increase to all things: the sun likewise gives life to all sublunary bodies, makes them shoot, vegetate, move, and multiply, which is performed by the vivifying irradiation of the sun. But then this solar virtue is a thousand times stronger, more efficacious and salutary in his true Son, which is the subject of the philosophers; for it is requisite that where he is generated, the beams of the sun, the moon, the stars, and of all the virtues of nature, should be accumulated in that magnetic place during many ages, and that they should as it were have shut themselves up together in a well closed vessel, which being afterwards hindered from going out, and being repressed and contracted, transform themselves into this admirable subject, and generate of themselves the vulgar gold; this sufficiently declares with how many virtues its origin is replete, since he absolutely triumphs over the greatest effort of the fire, though ever so violent, insomuch that there is not anything to be found in the whole world of a more consummate perfection after our subject; and if it were at any time found in its last degree of perfection, made and composed by nature, and that it were fusible like wax, or butter, and that its redness, diaphaneity, and clearness appeared outwardly, it would be then truly our blessed stone; which it is not, however if it be taken in its first principle, it may be carried to the highest perfection imaginable, by the mean of that sovereign philosophical art, fundamentally explained in the books of the ancient sages.
A Dialogue
Which more amply discovers the preparation of the philosophical stone
You may have observed in the foregoing treatises, that the assembly of alchemists and distillers who disputed eagerly about the stone of the philosophers, was interrupted by a sudden and unexpected storm; how they were separated and dispersed thereby to any certain determination, and how each of them remained without conclusion. This gave occasion to an infinite number of sophistication, and deceitful and erroneous processes, because this unlucky tempest having hindered them from coming to a final decision of all their differences, each of them remained in the imaginary opinion he had formed to himself, which he afterwards followed in his operations. One part of those spagyrical doctors who had assisted at this assembly, had read the writings of the true philosophers, who sometimes advance, that mercury, sometimes that sulphur, and sometimes again that salt is the subject matter of their stone. But as these sophisters had wrongly understood the thought of the ancients, and had imagined that the common mercury, sulphur, and salt, were the things which were to be made use of in the confection of the stone, after they had been dispersed into may different places of the earth, they fell to work, and made essays of all sorts. One among them had observed in Geber this maxim worthy of consideration; "The ancients speaking of salt have concluded, that it was the soap of the sages, the key which shuts and opens, and which shuts again, and no body opens; without which key they say, that no man in this world can attain to the perfection of this world, that is to say, if he does not know how to calcine the salt, after having prepared it, and then it is called fusible salt:"
As he had also read in another author, that "He who knows the salt, and its dissolution, knows the hidden secret of the ancient sages." This alchemist was persuaded by these words, that it was necessary to work with common salt, out of which he learned to prepare a subtle spirit, with which he dissolved the vulgar gold, and drew there from its citrine colour, and tincture, which he studied to conjoin and unite with the imperfect metals, that by that mean they might be changed into gold: but all his labours had no success, whatever pains he could take; which he ought before to have known from the same Geber, when he says, "That all the imperfect bodies are no way perfectionable by a mixture with those bodies which nature has rendered but simply perfect, because in the first degree of their perfection, they only acquired a simple form for themselves, by which they were rendered perfect by nature, and being dead, they have no superfluous perfection which they can communicate to the others; and this for two reasons: the first, because by that mixture of imperfection, they are rendered themselves imperfect, since they have no more perfection, than they stand in need of for themselves: and lastly, because by that mean, their principles can not mix themselves intimately, and into all the most minute particles, by reason that the bodies do not interpenetrate each the other, etc." Afterward this other sentence of Hermes came into the mind of our artist, viz. "That the salt of the metals is the stone of the philosophers."
He concluded then with himself, that the vulgar salt could not be the thing of which the philosophers pretended to speak, but that it was to be extracted from the metals; he therefore fell a calcining the metals with a fierce fire, to corrode them, destroy them, and prepare the salts: he invented for his purpose divers ways to dissolve the metals, to make them melt easily, and an infinity of other the like vain and superfluous operations: but he never could by all these means compass the end of his desire. This made him again doubtful concerning the salts, and the matters of which we have spoken, so that he was incessantly poring in the books of the several philosophers. He was continually turning over the leaves, hoping to meet with some express passage relating to the matter, and at last he light of this axiom. Our stone is salt, and our salt is an earth, and this earth is a virgin. Here making a stop in order to weigh seriously these words, he imagined that on the sudden his mind was much enlightened, and he began to be sensible that his former labours had not succeeded according to his wish, because that he had hitherto wanted that virgin salt, and that that virgin salt is not by any means to be had on the universal superficies of the earth, because the whole surface thereof is covered with herbs, flowers, and plants, the roots of which would by their fibres attract and suck in that virgin salt, from whence they would take their increase, and so all the salt would be deprived of its virginity, and would be found as it were impregnated. He now began to wonder from whence proceeded his first stupidity, that hindered him from comprehending sooner these things in the book of the philosophers, which speak thereof so clearly, as in Morienus, who says, our water grows in the mountains and in the valleys. In Aristotle; Our water is dry. In Danthyn; our water is to be found in old stables, privies, and stinking common sewers. In Alphidius; our stone is to be found in all the things that are in the world, and everywhere; nay, it lies cast in the highway. and God has not set it at a high price to the purchaser, to the end the poor as well as the rich might have it. Now then, (thought he with himself) is not this salt manifestly denoted in all these places? It is truly the stone, and the dry water, which is to be found in all things, and even in the Jakes; for as much as all bodies are composed of it, are nourished by it, and are augmented by its means, and by their corruptions are resolved into it, and also because a great quantity of this fat salt causes fertility. This the most ignorant husbandmen know better than we do who are learned, since to restore those lands which are barren by reason of dryness, they make use of rotten dung, and of a fat and swelled salt, considering very well that a lean and meagre land can not be fruitful. Nature has also discovered to some, that the poverty of a land without moisture might be likewise improved and meliorated by the salt of ashes: it is for this reason, that in some places the husbandmen take leather, which they cut into pieces, burn it, and cast the ashes on poor lands to render them thereby fruitful, as is practised in Denbighshire, which is a province of England: we have, moreover, an ancient testimony of this practice in Virgil. This the philosophers have declared to us, when they write that their subject was the strong strength of all strength, and that (to speak the truth) is the salt of the earth, which shows itself such: for where was there ever found a strength, or more terrible virtue than in the salt of the earth, viz. nitre, which is a thunderbolt whose impetuousness nothing is able to resist.
Our alchemist by this and other the like considerations believed he had already attained to the main scope of the truth, and rejoiced mightily within himself that among thousands and millions of others he alone had obtained so elevated and sublime a knowledge; he already despised the most learned, and even almost all the rest of mankind, for their continuing to wallow in the mire of ignorance, and were not like him arrived at the highest pinnacle of the most refined philosophy, and were not there become rich of themselves, since there were infinite treasures hidden in the virgin salt of the philosophers; then he resolved that to acquire this virgin salt, he would rummage even under the very bottom. of the roots in a certain piece of fat land, in order to bring therefrom a virgin earth which had not yet been impregnated; establishing unadvisedly this maxim, that to obtain the living water of sal nitre, it was necessary to dig into a pit deeply, up to the very knees, which delirious whim he was not contented barely to pursue in his labour, but he made it public by a discourse which he caused to have printed, in which he maintained that that was the true meaning of all the philosophers. He so obstinately adhered to this vain and imaginary opinion, that he spent in the pursuance thereof all he was worth, so that he found himself reduced to great poverty, and oppressed with grief and sorrow, deploring the irreparable loss of his money, time and labour. This damage was attended with vexatious cares, affliction, and restless watchings, which increasing from day to day, he at last resolved to return to the place where he had been before to dig deep into the earth which he had believed was the philosophical earth, and there he continued to disgorge his reproaches, and imprecations, till at last sleep stole upon him, of which he had been deprived for some days by so much anxiety and sadness; while he was thus plunged in this profound sleep, there appeared to him in dream, a great company of men, all irradiated with light, one of which approached him and reprimanded him after this manner: friend, why dost thou vomit up so many injuries, maledictions, and execrations against the philosophers who repose in God? The alchemist in a surprise answered trembling: my lord, I have read their books in part, where I perceived that there was no encomiums to be imagined which they do not give to their stone, which they extol to the very heavens; this stirred up in me an ardent desire to set my hand to the work, and I have in all things operated according to their writings and precepts, that I might also participate of their stone: but I too late find, that their sayings have deceived me, since thereby I have lost all I was worth.
Vision. You injure them, and accuse them unjustly of imposture, for all those you behold, here are happy persons; they never writ any lie; on the contrary, they have left us nothing but the pure truth, though wrapped up in hidden and occult terms; to the end, that such great mysteries might not be known by the unworthy, for otherwise great evils would arise, and disorders in the world; you ought to interpret their writings not according to the letter, but according to the operation, and possibility of nature; you ought not to have undertook the manual operations, till you had first laid a solid foundation by your fervent prayers to God, by an assiduous lecture, and by an indefatigable study; and you ought to observe in what the philosophers all agree; to wit, in one only thing, which is no other than the salt, sulphur, and mercury of the philosophers.
Alchemist. How can it be imagined, that salt, sulphur, and mercury, are but one and the same thing, since they are three distinct things?
Vision. Now you plainly show, that you have a dull brain, and that you know nothing of the matter, the philosophers have only one thing, which contains body, soul, and spirit, they call it salt, sulphur, and mercury, which three are to be found in one and the same substance, and this subject is their salt.
Alchemist. Where can one get this salt?
Vision. It is drawn from the obscure prison of the metals: with it you may perform wonderful operations, and see all sorts of colours; it also transmute all the vile metals into gold; but it is requisite that this subject be first rendered fixed.
Alchemist. I have for this great while broken my brain in working in these metallic operations, without having ever been able to find anything like it.
Vision. You have always sought it in dead metals, and which have not in them the virtue of the philosophical salt: as you can not make baked bread serve you for seed, any more than you can hatch a chicken from a boiled egg; but if you desire to cause a generation, it is necessary you should make use of a pure seed, that is living, and has not been spoiled: since then the vulgar metals are dead, why do you seek for a living matter among the dead?
Alchemist. Can not gold and silver be revived again by means of dissolution?
Vision. The gold and silver of the philosophers are life itself, and have no need of being revived: they may be had even for nothing; whereas the vulgar gold and silver sell very dear, and besides they are dead, and remain always dead.
Alchemist. By what means is this living gold to be had?
Vision. By dissolution.
Alchemist. How is that dissolution performed?
Vision. It is performed in itself, and by itself, without the addition of any foreign thing. For the dissolution of the body is made in its own blood.
Alchemist. Is the whole body changed entirely into water?
Vision. To speak the truth, it is all changed; but the wind carries also in its belly the fixed son of the sun, who is that fish without bone, which swims in our philosophical sea.
Alchemist. Have not all the other waters, the same propriety?
Vision. This philosophical water is not a water of the clouds, or of any common fountain; but it is a saline water, a white gum, and a water that is permanent, which being united to its body, never quits it, and when it has been digested during that space of time which it requires, it can never after be separated therefrom: this water is moreover the real substance of life in nature, which has been attracted by the magnet of the gold, and which may be resolved into a clear water by the industry of the artist; which is what no other water in the world can do.
Alchemist. Does this water yield no fruits?
Vision. Since this water is the metallic tree, it is possible to graft thereon a young shoot, or a small solar twig, which if it happens to grow, has this effect, that by its odour all the imperfect metals become like unto it.
Alchemist. How must it be proceeded with?
Vision. It must be cocted by a continual digestion, which is first performed in moisture, and afterwards in dryness.
Alchemist. Is it always one and the same thing?
Vision. In the first operation, the body, soul, and spirit must be separated, and then joined together again: and if the sun be united to the moon, then the soul of its own accord separates itself from its body, and afterwards returns to it of itself again.
Alchemist. Is it possible to separate the body, soul, and spirit?
Vision. Do not perplex yourself about anything but the water, and the foliated earth; you will not perceive the spirit, for it swims always upon the water.
Alchemist. What do you mean by this foliated water?
Vision. Have you not read, that there appears in our philosophical sea, a certain little island? That earth must be pulverised; and then it will become like unto a thick water mixed with oil; and that is our foliated earth, which you must unite by an exact weight, with its own water.
Alchemist. What is that exact weight?
Vision. The weight of the water must be plural, and that of the foliated earth, white or red, must be singular.
Alchemist. Oh my lord, your discourse seems too obscure to me at this first beginning.
Vision. I make use of no other terms, nor other names than those which the philosophers have invented, and have left us in their writings. And all that company of happy persons whom you behold, were while they lived true philosophers; some of which were great princes, and some again kings, or powerful monarchs, who were not ashamed to set their hands to the work, in order to seek out by their labour, and sweat, the secrets of nature, the truth of which they have left us in their writings. Read therefore their books with diligence and assiduity, and do not load them with injuries for the future: but observe their most learned traditions and maxims; shun all sophistries, and all the deceitful alchemists, and at last you'll enjoy the concealed mirror of nature.
The vision having finished this discourse vanished in an instant; and the alchemist waking immediately began to consider with himself what had passed, but knew not what judgement to make thereof; but as all the words of the vision remained fresh in his memory, he forthwith repaired to his chamber to set them down in writing. After that, he read attentively the books of the philosophers, and by the lecture thereof grew sensible of the grossness of his former faults and follies. Having thus discovered the true foundation, that he might preserve a remembrance of the same, he put it into German metre, as follows.
Discourse translated from verse.
A certain thing is found in this world,
which is also everywhere, and in every place,
It is not earth, nor fire, nor air, nor water,
However it wants neither of these things,
Nay, it can become fire, air, water, and earth;
For it contains all nature, in itself purely, and sincerely,
It becomes white and red, is hot and cold,
It is moist and dry, and is diversifiable every way.
The band of sages only have known it,
And they call it their salt:
It is extracted from their earth,
And it has been the ruin of many a fool;
For the common earth is worth nothing here,
Nor the vulgar salt in any manner,
But rather the salt of the world,
Which contains in itself all life:
Of it is made that medicine, which will preserve you from all maladies.
If then you desire the elixir of the philosophers,
Without doubt that thing must be metallic,
As nature has made it,
And has reduced it to a metallic form,
Which is called our magnesia,
Out of which our salt is extracted;
When therefore you shall have found this thing.
Prepare it well for your use,
And you shall draw forth of this clear salt,
Its heart, which is very sweet,
Make its red soul come out likewise,
And its sweet and excellent oil.
And the blood of the sulphur is called,
The sovereign good in this work;
These two substances may generate for you,
The sovereign treasure of the world.
Now, how must you prepare these two substances?
By the mean of your salt of earth,
I dare not write it openly,
For God will have it concealed;
And one must by no means give to the swine A viand made of precious pearls.
However, learn from me, with all fidelity,
That no foreign thing must enter into the work;
As ice, by the heat of the fire,
Is converted into its primitive water,
It is necessary also, that the stone
Become a water in itself:
It has need but of a gentle and moderate bath,
In which it dissolves of its own accord,
By the means of putrefaction.
Separate the water therefrom,
And reduce it into a red oil,
Which is that soul of a purple colour.
And when you shall have obtained these two substances,
Bind them gently together,
And put them into the philosophers egg.
Closed hermetically.
And you must place them on an athanor,
Which you must guide according to the exigency, and custom, of all the sages,
In administering to it a very slow fire,
Such as a hen gives to her eggs to hatch her chickens;
Then the water, by a great effort,
will attract to itself all the sulphur,
Insomuch that there will no longer appear anything thereof,
Which however can not last long.
For by its heat and siccity
It will strive to make itself manifest again,
Which on the contrary the cold Luna will endeavour to hinder.
Here will begin a great conflict between these two substances,
During which, the one, and the other will ascend
On high, whether they raise themselves by an admirable mean;
But the wind constrains them to descend downwards,
Notwithstanding which they fly again upwards,
And after they have for a good while continued
these motions and circulations,
They remain at last stable below,
And there become liquefied with certitude,
In their first chaos most profoundly.
And then all these substances will become black,
As does the soot in the chimney,
That is called the head of the raven,
Which is no small sign of the grace of God.
When that shall have happened,
you will see in a short time
Colours of all sorts,
The red, the yellow, the blue, and the others,
The which will nevertheless all soon disappear.
And you will see afterwards more and more,
That the whole will become green,
like the leaves, and herbs.
Then at last the light of the moon shows itself;
Wherefore the heat must then be augmented,
And be left in that degree;
And the matter will become white like a hoary man,
whose aged complexion resembles ice,
It will also whiten afterwards like silver.
Govern your fire with a great deal of care,
And afterwards you shall see that in your vessel,
Your matter will become altogether white as the snow;
And then your elixir is perfected as to the white work;
Which in time will likewise become red.
For which reason augment your fire afresh,
And it will become yellow, or of a lemon colour all over:
But at last it will become red like a ruby.
Then render thanks to God our Lord,
For you have found so great a treasure,
That there is not in the whole world anything comparable to it for its excellency;
This red stone tinges into pure gold,
Tin, copper, iron, silver, and lead,
And all the other metallic bodies whatever:
It effects and produces moreover many other wonders;
You may by its mean drive away all the maladies incident to mankind,
Wherefore render thanks to God with all your heart;
And being enabled by it, give freely your assistance to your neighbour,
And employ the use of this stone to the honour of the most high,
Whom it may please, to receive us into his kingdom of heaven.
Glory, honour, and virtue forever to the holy, holy, holy sabbath, God omnipotent, who alone is wise, and eternal, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who is encompassed with an inaccessible light, who has hindered he violence of death, and who has produced, and set in the light, an imperishable spirit. Amen.
