WRITTEN SCIENCE OF ALL HERMETIC ART
Which has not been drawn from the Books of others;
but which has been justified and proved by experience itself;
brought to light, in honor and glory of the children of art.
The Ides of September of the year 1720, by a Philosopher known for such.
Anonymous (1736)
I — Alchemy is a study which imitates nature, and goes much further than this servant of the Divinity.
II — It is not the Reading of Philosophical Books that constitutes the Philosopher; but rather the practice, preceded by the discoveries of a faithful friend, which demonstrates the art to us.
III — Our art is easy and difficult, very precious and vile, according to the subject which applies to it and attaches itself to it.
IV — He is easy in that he behaves only according to the way of simple nature.
V — It is difficult in that it reveals to us all the mysteries of this learned worker, and makes us the confidants of her hidden springs.
VI — It is very precious, compared to those who seek our art, in precious and expensive things.
VII — It is vile in that it derives its origin from a thing, if not vile, at least very common and well known.
VIII — The matter of the Philosophers is unique, in essence, and in number, and does not depend on several subjects.
IX - It is not in the Astral kingdom that we must seek our matter, although it contains all the virtue of the stars.
X — It is not also in the Elements, although she has concentrated them in herself.
XI — Neither can the animal kingdom give it to us, although it is endowed with a very noble soul.
XII — The vegetable kingdom cannot furnish us with our matter, although it has a vegetative spirit, and a virtue much more multiplying than all vegetables.
XIII - It is finally in the last family of nature: I mean the mineral kingdom, that it must be discovered, although it is neither gold, nor silver, nor living mercury, nor any of the other metals, and minerals, major, and minor, with the exception of what the Philosophers call their unripe MINERAL ELECTRA, or PHILOSOPHICAL MAGNESIA, which they call their SATURN, which is by no means the common, and which cannot be understood by the ordinary sense of vulgar chemists.
XIV — The Matter of the Philosophers must be believed; that is to say, never to have gone through fire.
XV — Our Magnesia is the true and only matter of the Philosopher's Stone, in our universal way, which is wet and dry.
XVI — The Solution of our matter is either violent, or gentle, or benign.
XVII — The fire of the Philosophers, as the greatest, and the first of their secrets (since it is the only knowledge which distinguishes the Philosopher from the Sophists), is threefold, the natural, the supernatural, and the elemental.
XVIII — It is the natural fire which makes the golden sulfur of Magnesia.
XIX — The supernatural fire is the dissolving menstruation of the Philosophers which is not corrosive. It is non-igneous fire, non-aqueous water, corporeal spirit, and spiritual body; in a word, a cold fire, the heat of which, however, outweighs the natural and the artificial. It is only this heat which can dissolve gold radically, without any corrosion, and make it fusible and drinkable, which is of all, and of all remedies, the best and the most effective.
XX—Elemental fire is the key to the natural and the Supernatural.
XXI — The supernatural fire is the mother of the Mercury of the Philosophers; the natural is its father, and the elementary is its nurse and governess.
XXII - The Mercury of the Philosophers is single, double or triple.
XXIII - The simple is the sour fountain of the Philosophers, or their PHILOSOPHICAL VINEGAR, which is the first foundation and the only principle of the Stone, it is he who extracts the sulfurs from the metals, resolves and volatilizes their salts.
XXIV — The double which is the Philosophical leafy earth, is a very sweet perfume and OXYCRAT, a water which does not wet the hands; finally it is what the Philosophers call their Azoth.
XXV The triple mercury is the first matter of the Philosophers, which contains their three principles; knowledge, Philosophical salt, sulphur, and mercury, united inseparably, by the bond of conjunction. Finally, it is this mercury that hermetically seals itself, and this water mixed with fire.
XXVI We have five solutions of our matter.
1° Crude matter, to draw from it the fire of the Philosophers.
2° So that this secret fire, being extracted, it makes appear the VITRIOLINE FIRE, not common; but philosophical, which is called, LEAD of the Philosophers.
3° That this vitriolic fire passes through putrefaction, to the chaos of the Philosophers.
4° Philosophical gold, by the own mercurial magnet.
5° Of the philosophical earth, in order to form its double mercury.
XXVII - It appears two putrefactions; that of our VITRIOL, and that of the ADAMIC EARTH, so called by the Philosophers, in order to prepare the leafy earth, or the double mercury.
XXVIII - The Philosophers have only one magnet, and two steels.
XXIX — The simple mercury of the Philosophers is the magnet of their Sulphur.
It is through it that we draw the gold of the Philosophers, which is much more precious than vulgar gold: it is also the magnet of philosophical salt; it is with him that one washes the philosophical earth, and that one makes it volatile, so that they join exactly, and that they make what is called double mercury.
XXX — Both sulphurous and saline steel must coitate eleven times with the mercurial magnet, so that it acquires, by this repeated cohobation, a very noble regenerated nature.
XXXI — The volatilization of the philosophical earth by the Spirit of mercury (so that the salt of the metals which is the stone itself be generated) requires an ingenious, assiduous, and patient artist.
XXXII - The great mystery is to know how to volatilize the philosophical ground, without this volatilization the other works are useless, and vain. The Philosophers were very reserved on this article. Raymond Lully, Basile Valentin, Théophraste, Paracelse, Geber, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Melchior, Michel Sendivogius, Count Trévisan, Morien, and several others were very secret, and very obscure, they depicted the process only with different hieroglyphs, and spoke of it in very varied terms. In view of the diversity of the Phenomena that appear in this elaboration; some have given it the name of Nitre Vierge extracted from the Adamic earth; others have named it the Great Days of Solomon; sometimes the Champs de Mars;elsewhere, Benoîte Verdeur of Venus; sometimes Harvest bearing leaves, and fruit; in occasions, Oil of Talc of the Philosophers; sometimes Mercury Amalgamated; others Mass of pearls ready to coagulate, Stygian Mass, Glacial Sea; sometimes Moon pregnant with mercury; Philosophical elsewhereical Diamond, Leafy Earth, Tartar of the Philosophers, Manna, Dragon devouring its own tail: we would not finish bringing them back.
XXXIII The leafy earth of the Philosophers is composed with their liquid gold, according to the weight of nature: it is for then first matter, to which if one proportions the GRADUAL PHILOSOPHICAL FIRE (which the Philosophers call the OIL OF SATURN, or the SEAL of HERMES) this earth is led to the white and red elixir: it is tinted, and perfected by its own elements, which are air and fire, and multiplies to infinity.
XXXIV — There is no particular way that does not emanate from the universal source. We must not therefore believe the fables of the Sophists of the present time, who know how to extort money from overly credulous subjects, and deceive them with the spirit of a future gain which will never happen.
XXXV — The real particulars are made by the simple spirit of the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is solar and lunar, like the stone of fire of Basil Valentine, the increase of gold and silver, copper leads to degrees of perfection. The transmutation of gold and silver into a TEINGENTE dye. The ripening of quicksilver, silver and gold, and several others.
XXXVI The double mercury of the Philosophers renders the oil of Talc, which some have called their GUT. It preserves the flower of youth until the most advanced old age. He can dissolve several small pearls to make very large ones, much more beautiful, in quality and beauty, than the natural ones.
XXXVII — The perfect tincture, besides the transmutation of metals, multiplied to infinity, restores and strengthens health, it renders sterile women fertile, it transmutes crystals into precious stones and into diamonds, it exuberates the last into carbuncles, and renders glass malleable.
XXXVIII In a word, the mysteries of the Stone are so great that human reason can scarcely conceive them.
XXXIX It is thus, said Hermes, that God created the world.
XL — The Stone finally contains within itself the secrets, the riches, the miracles, and the forces of the three kingdoms.
It all comes from one thing. Very famous Doctor or Chemist, whoever you are, solve me, if you can, and please, this SYLLOGISM; if not, if you give me the opportunity, I am ready to resolve it for you demonstratively.
I have no doubt, Sir, that this program throws all the readers into the experiments of minerals, since it designates this MINERAL ELECTRA, immature, like the matter of the Stone.
I am going to explain to you what the Philosophers mean by their MINERAL ELECTRA. Our matter, they all say, is found on sea and on land; they tell the truth: but in another place they warn that it cannot be found anywhere in the world: they do not deceive us.
Minerals are understood to mean any salts; it is this Philosophical salt of which Philalethes speaks, and which he calls the first being of all the salts, that must be made such; that is to say, to compose it by an attracting magnet of the celestial virtues, which is the MINERAL ELECTRE, appearing under the form of a "fray of Frogs". They are therefore not wrong in excluding all metals and minerals, since this mineral is formed by the artist from a thing taken from a mine, which is nothing less than ordinary mines, and this thing is the magnet of celestial virtues; also they exclaim: OUR MATTER HAS ITS OWN MINES.
What has deceived an infinite number of artists, who have worked on real matter without fruit, is that they have taken the seal of Hermes for a lute vase, under the enameller's lamp, or exactly blocked by a lut: but I believe that our matter must make itself a lut itself; that is to say, the silkworm encloses itself in its shell (Buchère, Amy Sage, Flamel). I also believe that none of the fires of chemists should be used for the work, therefore on the attestation of the Philosophers, I exclude all the fires of wind furnaces, retorte, street lamp, lamp, horse's belly, and would stick to their secret fire.
But what is this secret fire? Here is the stumbling block. The material of the stone and the secret fire have made a number of skilful people stumble: not all men have been allowed to penetrate the most sublime mysteries of nature, among which the Philosopher's Stone holds the first rank.
I have read almost all the Authors who deal with this great art, without being able to go into them entirely. I have consulted those who had the greatest reputation on these matters, I have not even neglected the manuscripts, and I confess that all the knowledge that I have been able to draw from them is still only very imperfect.
I put myself, in spite of all my care, in the lowest rank of those whom the Adepts call Profane. I even have the temerity to think that many Authors, who have the reputation of having carried out the Great Work, have only acquired it by writing obscurely, and by copying the passages of the true Philosophers, on whose interpretation they had made vain efforts.
It is not that I deny the possibility of the Great Work; on the contrary, I am convinced of it. It would not be possible that such great men, who have made such ample treatises of them, could have given the most serious study of their lives to a chimera: or if they had been carried away by blind credulity, there would not be read among them who would make the most authentic oaths, and who would take as witnesses the most respectable and sacred things of the truth which they are about to announce to you.
I admit that many people have been seduced by the imposture: I agree that an infinite number of unfortunates have taken the name of Philosophers with impunity. It is certain that these same people had a fair game, to impress the greater part of men, on the subject of metallic transmutation. All vulgar chemists who have a little experience know, without a doubt, that by desulphurizing the two perfect metals with corrosives, and by throwing this sulfur on an equal quantity, or weight of mercury, or imperfect metals, the transmutation takes place instantly. However, ordinary men cry miracles at such experiences; the purses open, and the fraudulent Alchemist takes advantage of their simplicity.
The Stone of the Philosophers is of an entirely different nature; it transmutes the metals, without needing to borrow the sulfurs of the other perfect metals, and it is the sovereign medicine for curing the mixtures of the three kingdoms.
The piece that I have just given you is sufficient to give a fair idea of art, to show also what thousands of volumes have written without order: it is, in a word, a sort of thesis that a German Lord claims to support in the face of the Universe.
He presents himself as the winner of the tournament, and seems to invite scholars to dispute on this subject, in the manner of Germany, where public theses on this science are supported.
This little Work is written in Latin, but it should be translated into all kinds of languages, for the convenience of many children of the art, who are not literate.