the grave, I have determined to write this tract, 

although all libraries are already full of books on this subject— 
of which, however, the greater part are false, and wear merely 
the rouge and powder of philosophy. I have written it not for 
my own pleasure, but for your advantage, that, by pointing to 
the foundation of truth, I might lead you back from the pathless 
wilderness into the right way—which is certainly for your own 
interest. As far as I am concerned, I have long known all that 
I seek to know in regard to this matter, and have no need of 
many books, seeing that during the last twenty-two years I have 
read and re-read all the works that fell into my hands—in- 
cluding numerous manuscripts, as well as many printed volumes. 
In this my tract you will find the subject set forth, and the 

true solution given, not only theoretically, but also from a 
practical and allegorical point of view, with a clearness and 
lucidity such as I believe to be almost unparalleled in any prev- 
ious philosophical treatise. In quoting, 1 have always been care- 
ful to give the exact reference, so that you may look out the 
passage for yourself, and by diligently considering it, sharpen 
your understanding. I could more easily have composed this 
treatise, and made myself known to the Brethren of the Golden 

8 . THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

Cross, if I had left out those references ; but for your sake I 
decided otherwise. Do not wonder that I conceal my name, and 
refuse to appear to you face to face. I have come forward, not 
for the sake of any paltry glory, or of worldly praise, but to do 
you good. Moreover, my teachers, even the true philosophers, 
advised me not thus to risk my life for the sake of obtaining a high 
place in the world's esteem, to expose myself to greedy robbers or 
to give occasion for many crimes by the prostitution of this pro- 
foundsecret. No doubt the gentle reader has learned by the works 
of Sendivogius that whenever he shewed himself openly to the 
powerful, he went in constant fear of hislife. Experience teaches 
that many philosophers who gave no thought to their personal 
safety, have been killed and deprived oftheirtinctureby greedy and 
powerful robbers ; and it stands to reason that any one going about 
with a great treasure in his hand, must fall a prey to brigands. 
Sendivogius concealed his name by an anagram. Thus also a 
short time ago another philosopher and Brother of the Golden 
Cross, whose real name has long been familiar to me, concealed 
it beneath an anagram, and made himself known to his friends by 
an enigmatical designation. Why then should I place myself at 
the mercy of this impure world ? Permit me rather, dear friend, 
to follow the example ofthe sages, and leave the rest to the thrice 
good and great God, who will make my true self known to you 
in good time, if it be for the glory of His name, and for your and 
my good. Do not be eager to enquire after my name. For 
even if you should get to know it, or become personally acquainted 
with me, you would have to rest satisfied with the contents of 
this tract. For I have solemnly promised two philosophers— 
Bernard, Count of Trevisan, and Neigens—that I will not betray 
to any one more than has been revealed in this book. — Neither 
beanxious to ask whether I actually possess this precious treasure. 
Ask rather whether I have seen how the world was created ; 
whether I am acquainted with the nature of the Egyptian dark- 
ness; what is the cause of the rainbow ; what will be the appear- 
ance of the glorified bodies at the general resurrection ; what is 
the most indelible colour. Of you that rightly understand this 
little book, I will enquire whether you have seen that great salt 
sea, without any corrosion, raise a sufficiency of the moisture of 
all nature to the summits ofthe highest mountains. Tell me 

2994 Faber i 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 9 

where there is sulphur out of sulphur, and mercury out of 
mercury—or where sulphur springs from mercury, and again 
mercury from sulphur. When was there placed before your 
eyes the idea of most fervent love, the male and the female em- 
bracing each other so closely that they could no more be torn 
asunder, but through unsearchable love became oze? If you 
understand what I am alluding to, and have performed the 
experiment with your own hands, and seen it with your own 
eyes, I welcome you as fellow partakers of the mystery, and have 
no dearer wish than to enjoy your familiar intercourse—for which 
reason I have also sent forth into the world this little tract. 

If any one complain of the difficulty of our Art, let him 
know that in itself it is perfectly simple, and can present no 
obstacle to those who love God, and are held worthy by Him of 
this knowledge. If any one blame me for setting forth the 
truths of this Art too plainly and clearly, so as to render it 
possible for any one to gain a knowledge thereof, I answer that I 
have indeed explained them with sufficient lucidity for those who 
are worthy and foreordained of God, but that the unworthy can 
derive no profit from them. — To some foolish and shallow persons 
I have several times expounded this Art in the simplest manner, 
and even word for word, but they despised it only, and would not 
believe me that there is exhibited in our work a twofold resur- 
rection of the dead. Our Art, its theory as well as its practice, 
is altogether a gift of God, Who gives it when and to whom He 
elects : it is not of him that wills, or of him that runs, but simply 
through the mercy of God. "Though I had diligently studied this 
Art for 17 or 18 years, yet I. had, after all, to wait for God's own 
time, and accept it as a free gift. No one need doubt the truth 
orcertainty ofthis Art. It is as true and certain, and as surely 
ordained by God in nature, as it is that the sun shines at noon- 
tide, and the moon shews her soft splendour at night. But I 
must conclude this preface, and gird myself for writing the tract 
itself. But ye, beloved Brethren of the Golden Cross, who are 
about to learn how to enjoy and use this most precious gift of 
God in secret, do not remain unknown to me, and if ye know me 
not, be sure that the faithful will be approved and their faith be- 
come known through the Cross, while security and pleasure over- 
shadow it. God be with us, Amen! 

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IO THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 
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THE GOLDEN TRACT 

CONCERNING THE STONE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. 

reader, and devoted seeker after true wisdom, when 

through the grace of God they had reached the goal of 

their desires, have endeavoured to make their discovery 
known to their fellow inquirers in all parts of the world—not 
only because they wished to inform them that the thrice great 
and good God had enlightened their minds, blessed the labours 
of their hands, and shewn to them the greatest and most pro- 
found secret of earthly wisdom (for which benefit all praise, 
honour, and glory are justly due to Him)— but also that they 
might afford assistance to beginners in the Art, by which, with 
God's permission, they too might attain to the knowledge of this 
most holy mystery. Such men there have been in all countries. 
Amongst the Egyptians Hermes Trismegistus holds the highest 
place; then come Chaldaans, Greeks, Arabs, Italians, Gauls, 
Englishmen, Dutchmen, Spaniards, Germans, Poles, Hungarians, 
Hebrews, and many others. Though the aforementioned Sages 
wrote at different times, and in different languages, yet their 
works exhibit so marvellous an agreement, that any true 
philosopher may easily see that all their hearts had been 
gladdened by God in the discovery of this stone, and that they 
all had performed this work with their own hands. Now, as the 
truth of their views is perceived by their agreement, so the 
disagreement of certain others marks them as false philosophers. 
For, not knowing the foundation of this glorious Art, and making 
up fanciful theories out of their own heads, they exhibit their 
ignorance to all. 

À NCIENT as well as modern philosophers, most beloved 

I2 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The aforesaid agreement exists in regard to the Matter, its 
solution, its weight, and the regulation and increase of the fire. 

As concerns the Matter, it is oze, and contains within itself 
all that is needed. Out of it the artist prepares whatever he 
wants. Its '' Birth is in the sand," as the philosopher Anastratus 
says in * The Crowd " : * Nothing is more precious than the red 
sand of the sea ; it is the distilled moisture of the Moon joined 
tothe light of the Sun, and congealed." That only this one 
substance is required is attested by Agadmon in the same 
book. He says: * Know that unless you take my body 
[sulphur] without the spirit [mercury] ye will not obtain what ye 
desire. Cease to think of many things. Natureis satisfied with 
one thing, and he who does not know it is lost." 

In the same way Arnold, of Villa Nova, writes in his 
* Flower of Flowers"; ** Our stone is made out of one thing, 
and with one thing." To the same effect he says to the King 
of Naples: * Allthat is in our stone is essential to it, nor does 
it need any foreign ingredient. Its nature is one, and it is oze 
thing. And Rosinus says: * Know that the object of your 
desire is one thing, out of which all things are made." Lilium: 
* You have need only of one thing, which at any stage of our 
experiment can be changed into another nature." So Geber 
says in his * Summary" : '* Our stone is one, one medicine, to 
which we add nothing, from which we take nothing away, only 
removing that which is superfluous" Again, Scites in * The 
Crowd" says: * The essence of this Art is in like manner a 
certain one thing which is stronger and more exalted than all 
other things, and is called the most powerful acid, because 
it changes gold into a clear spirit, without which there is neither 
whiteness, nor blackness, nor redness. When the spirit is joined 
to the body it becomes one with it; and yet again becomes 
a spirit, and is saturated with the spiritual and unchangeable 
tincture, and thus again by combination receives a bodily tincture 
which cannot be annihilated. If you place the body without 
the acid over the fire, it will be burnt and destroyed." From 
these words of Scites the reader might conclude, that not one 
but two things, namely a body and an acid (as he calls it) are 
required, and that a liquid must be combined with a dry thing 
lest the dry thing should be consumed by the fire, in order that 

——— 

VENIR GS QIADENC ACT. I3 

by the moist thing it may be preserved from such combustion. To 
such a conclusion, if rightly accepted, I gladly subscribe. But 
from the above mentioned philosophical dicta (however obscurely 
worded they may be) it is clearer than day that the substance of 
our Blessed Stone is oze (although different sages call it by 
different names), and that Nature has made it ready to the hand 
of the adept, having willed this one thing, and no other thing in 
all the world, to be the material of the Stone. "This Matter lies 
before the eyes of all; everybody sees it, touches it, loves it, but 
knows it not. It is glorious and vile, precious and of small 
account, and is found everywhere. "Theophrastus Paracelsus, 
in his book concerning * The Tincture of Physical Things," 
calls it the Red Lion, which is named by many, but known 
by few. Hermes, in the first chapter of his Treatise, calls it 
"Quick Silver coagulated in its innermost chambers." In the 
* Rosary of the Philosophers" itgoes by the name of Salt. But, 
to be brief, our Matter has as many names as there are things in 
the world; that is why the foolish know it not. Foolish I call 
those who, without any previous knowledge of Nature and her 
properties, undertake to learn this Art, and come to it (as Arnold 
says)like the ass to the crib, not knowing for what they open 
their mouths. Hence it is well said by Geber, in the ** Sum of 
Perfection: * He who has no elementary knowledge of Nature 
is far from a proper appreciation of this Art" And Rosarius 
says: "Iadvise no one to approach this Art unless he knows 
the principle and the regimen of Nature: if he be acquainted 
with these, little is wanting to him except one thing, nor need 
he put himself to a great expense, since the stone is one, 
the medicine is one, the vessel one, the rule one, the disposition 
one" Yet this one substance is so divided by the operation of 
Nature, and the skill of the Artist, that it is transmuted into our 
White Eagle, nor does the splendour of the sun illuminate more 
abundantly the spagyric matter with its beams; or, as Basilius 
Valentinus hath it, that, * thence is born a spirit white as srow, 
and another spirit red as blood, which two spirits are contained 
in a third hidden thing." Hence King Aros wellsays: * Our 
medicine is composedout of twothings havingone essence,namely, 
through the mercurial union of a solid and a liquid, a spiritual 
and a corporeal a cold and a moist,a warm anda dry, and in 

I4 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

no other way can it be made" — And Richard the Englishman 
says: * The stone is one, the medicine one, which, however, 
according to the philosophers, is called Rebis (Two-thing), 
being composed of two things, namely, a body and spirit [red or 
white But over this many foolish persons have gone astray, 
explaining it in divers ways." Rebis is two things, and these 
two things are one thing, namely, water joined to a body, by 
which the body is dissolved into a spirit, that is, mineral water, 
out of which it was first made; and this body and spirit make 
up one mineral water, which is called Elixir, that is to say, 
ferment; for then water and spirit are one thing, of which is 
composed a tincture and medicine for purging all bodies. And 
thus, according to the philosophers, we have the nature of sulphur 
and mercury above ground, while underground they become 
gold and silver. Bernard, Count of Trevisan and the March, 
says: '"* Our work is performed by means of one root, and two 
crude  mercurial substances, drawn and extracted ífrom a 
mineral, pure and clear, being conjoined by the heat of friendship, 
as this matter requires, and carefully cooked until the two things 
become one thing," &c. Basilius Valentinus (Z6. JVa£. e£ 
Supernat., c. 4) says: * I will make this known to thee in all truth 
[for the love of God], that the root of philosophic sulphur, which 
is a heavenly spirit, is united in the same material with the root 
ofthe spiritual and supernatural mercury, and the principle of 
spiritual salt—out of which is made the Stone, and not out of 
several things. "That universal thing, the greatest treasure of 
earthly wisdom, is one thing, and the principles of three things 
are found in one, which has powerto change all metals into 
one. The three things are the true spirit of mercury, and the 
soul of sulphur, united to spiritual salt, and dwelling in one 
body; they are dragon and eagle, king and lion, spirit and 
body, etc." 

In this way our prepared material is also called male and 
female, active and passive. So Zimon says, in * The Crowd " : 
«* Know that the secret of the work consists in male and female, 

- &&.,,an active and a passive principle. In lead is found the male, 
in órpiment the female. The male rejoices when the female is 
brought to it, and the female receives from the male a tinging 
seed, and is coloured thereby." And Diomedes says: * Join the 

í————— É! 

ZEE? 6 QIDDYR NL TR C T 15 

male child of the * red servant? to the fragrant spouse, and they 
will produce the object of our Art. But you must not introduce 
any foreign matter, neither dust, nor any other thing. The con- 
ception will then be perfect, and a true son will be born. Oh, 
how precious is the nature of the *red servant, without whom 
nothing can be effected!" — Others call it quicksilver, or mercury, 
and sulphur, or fire, as Roger Bacon says, in the third chapter of 
his * Mirror ": * Out of sulphur and mercury are all metals, 
and nothing adheres to them, neither is joined to them, or trans- 
mutes them, but what is of them. And thus we must accept 
mercury and sulphur as the matter of the stone." So also 
Menabadus says: * He who joins quicksilver to the body of 
magnesia, and the woman to the man, extracts the secret essence 
by which bodies are coloured."  Lullius in his ** Codicil " says: 
"'The property of our mercury is to be coagulated by its 
sulphur." And, in the Practice of his Testament : ** The silver is 
a flowing moisture, floating above and preserving the whole from 
combustion." 

Others use the names, body, spirit, and soul. Thus Arnold, 
in his * Flower of Flowers," says: * The Sages have affirmed 
that our Stone is composed of body, soul, and spirit, and they 
have spoken truly. For the imperfect part they have compared 
to a body, because it is weak. The water they have called 
spirit, and truly, because it is spirit. The ferment they have 
termed soul, because it gives life to the imperfect body (which 
before was dead), and makes its form more beautiful." 

Again, he says : '* A spirit is never joined to a body but by 
the interposition of a soul. For the soul is the medium between 
body and spirit, joining them together" ^ Morienus Says: he 
soul quickly enters its own body— but if you tried to join itto a 
foreign body, you would labour in vain. And Lilium Says : 
" Body, soul, and spirit make up one thing, which has all in it- 
self, and to which nothing is added." 

But why should we mention and explain all the names by 
which our Matter is designated? We will be content with the 
foregoing, seeing that they are the most common and the most 
germane to our purpose. Inthe following pages, after endeavour- 
ing to find where our substance lies hid, and where it may be 
obtained, we will say some words about the mode of its dis- 

16 TEE T MMC AULAE 

solution, that being afterall the principal objectofour inquiry. 
And first, as concerns the search after our Matter, we should 
remember that in the beginning, when there was nothing but 
Himself, God, who is infinite in wisdom, created two classes of 
things, namely, those that are in heaven, and those that are 
under heaven. . The heavenly things (about which we need not 
here speak at length) are the heavens themselves, and the dwellers 
in heaven. The things that are under the heavens were created 
out of four elements, and are commonly divided into three 
classes. Those that live and feel hold the first place, and are 
called animals. "The second class are the plants, that grow out of 
the earth, but do not feel. The third class, that of the minerals, 
has its origin underground. These three classes include all that 
(beneath the moon) has been created out ofthe elements. They 
can never become more or less, and God has bound each thing 
to its own genus and species, so that it cannot change from one 
genus to another. If any one tried to make a man or a tree out 
of a stone, or a monkey or lead out of a plant, or an animal or a 
plant out of lead, he would be prevented from doing so by the 
eternal order of the Great King. Ifsucha thing were possible, 
all classes of natural objects could be changed into one. But, 
because such a change would put an end to the world, the Ruler 
of the Universe does not permit it Nay, what is more, He not 
only restricted everything to its own kind, but gave each created 
thing its own seed, by which it might be propagated after its own 
manner—always remaining in its own class, and not overstepping 
the bounds of some other species. If any one wished to change 
a man into a horse, an apple into a lettuce, a diamond or any 
other jewel into gold, he would make an enormous mistake. For 
such an attempt would be against the nature of sublunar things. 
And as it was in the beginning so it shall be in the end, when 
the Almighty, who in the beginning said * Let it be," shall say 
* Let it perish." But among those things which have a common 
substance, seed, and elementary composition, it is not difficult to 
accomplish an amelioration and improvement, by the puri- 
fication of their matter. So we may see a man of a clear and 
subtle mind attain to a higher degree of human excellence than 
others who are less gifted. This difference arises from the superior 
purity and subtlety of his spiritual substance, which again has its 

OPI. c QUSVEVELIN LS RAT CT 17 

origin in a rectified and well constituted body. Thus also we see 
one horse excel the strength and speed of another ; and it is the 
same with all kinds of living beings. Alike rule holds good to 
an even greater degree in regard to plants and trees— with trees, 
by transplanting, grafting, and kindred methods well familiar to 
gardeners ; while as to other vegetable natures, we are taught by 
daily experience how plants and flowers of the same kind differ 
from each other in glory, in beauty, in fragrance, and savour. Of 
this cloves and tulips afford a striking instance. Into how many 
different species have these flowers been developed ; and even 
these new developments are being made more beautiful from 
' day to day, and it is universally admitted that never were there 
such fine and fragrant flowers before. What am I to say about 
metals which have a common substance, namely, quicksilver, 
digested and consolidated by the power of sulphur?  Concern- 
ing this common substance, Richard the Englishman has the 
following words: * Nature has elaborated all kinds of fusible 
things by a natural process out of mercury, and the substance of 
its sulphur, because it is the property of quicksilver to be con- 
solidated by steam, as by the heat of white and red sulphur 
which does not burn." 

The same view is expressed by Arnold (pt. r., Gp db) 
* Quicksilver is the elementary form of all things fusible ; for all 
things fusible, when melted, are changed into it, and it mingles 
with them because it is of the same substance with them. Such 
bodies differ from quicksilver in their composition only so far as 
itself is or is not free from the foreign matter of impure sulphur." 
Similarly Rosinus (42 Saratantaz) says : * The substance of all 
metals in the heart of the earth is solidified and imperfect quick- 
silver; for by the quickening heat of sulphur different metals 
(according to the different varieties of sulphur) are generated 
in the earth ; their original substance is one and the same, and is 
modified only by a greater or smaller external influence." Hence 
we see daily how busily Nature is occupied in bringing them 
to mortification and perfection. Now the perfection of metals 
and the final intention of Nature in regard to them, is gold. For 
all metals shew that Nature has done something for them towards 
ultimate perfection ; no metal is so base as not to contain a single 
grainofgoldorsilver Naturewould always changequicksilver that 

B 

18 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

has within itself its own sulphur into gold, if she were not often 
hindered by some outward impediment, viz, impure, fcetid, and 
combustible sulphur. In most cases gold is dug out pure, clear, 
free from. dross, and unmixed with any other metals But 
most frequently a large quantity of foreign sulphur mingles with 
the quicksilver, and thus prevents its perfect development ; and, 
according to the variety of that sulphur, different kinds of 
metals are generated, as Aristotle says (4. Meteor.): *If the 
quicksilver be of a good substance but the sulphur impure 
and combustible, it changes the quicksilver into brass. If the 
quicksilver be stony, impure, and earthy, and the sulphur not 
pure, it becomes iron. Tin seems to have good and pure quick- 
silver; but the sulphur is bad and not well mixed. Lead has 
gross, bad, and ill-smelling quicksilver, and is thus not properly 
coagulated." 

That retarding, combustible, and fcetid sulphur is not the 
true fire that fashions metals; but quicksilver has its own 
sulphur in itself, which is sufficient for the purpose of fashioning 
it, as Bernard, Count of Trevisan, says: ** Some believe that in 
the generation of metals, a sulphuric substance is introduced 
from without ; but, on the contrary, it is clear that in the work- 
ing of Nature sulphur is already enclosed in the mercury. Yet 
it has no power in it except through the moving heat, by which the 
said sulphur is changed, and with it two other qualities of the 
mercury. In this way, then, Nature generates by means of this 
sulphur the different kinds of metals in the veins of the earth, 
according to the diversity of degrees and alterations" For in 
metals, according to Arnold (pt. L, cp. iii.), *there is a two-fold 
superfluity : one that is enclosed in the innermost nature of the 
quicksilver, and got there at the first mingling of the metal; the 
other does not belong to the essence of it, is external to it, and 
corruptible. To remove the former is a difficult task ; the latter 
may be removed without any difficulty. The combustible 
sulphur is taken away by being subjected to the action of fire, or 
is destroyed by foreign bodies ; but the other, which is in the 
quicksilver, is preserved by it from combustion." But again, 
that inward sulphur which fashions the quicksilver belonging 
to it, and matures it towards perfection, is either pure or impure, 
combustible or incombustible. Impure sulphur hinders the 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 19 

digestion of the quicksilver, which cannot .be transformed into 
gold until that which does not belong to it has been entirely 
separated from it; but the pure, incombustible, fixed sulphur 
remains with it, and then at length it passes either into gold or 
silver, according as the sulphur is either white or red. This 
internal sulphur is nothing but mature mercury, and the most 
advanced part of the quicksilver. and for this reason the quick- 
silver receives it so kindly, as being of its own essence, while 
it rejects the other which is foreign to it. — So Richard the 
Englishman says, in his ninth chapter: ** The more simple the 
sulphur is, the more readily does it combine with simple and 
pure mercury, and the more intimately they combine the 
more precious is the metal which is produced. But such 
sulphur, says Avicenna, * is not found on earth, except in so far 
as it exists in metallic bodies through the action of the sun and 
moon. In the sun it exists in a perfect state, because there it is 
better digestedand decocted." According to Richard,in his twelfth 
chapter, the red sulphur of the philosophers exists in the sun 
on account of its greater digestion, and the white sulphur in 
the moon on account of its inferior digestion." 

Since, then, the substance of the metals is oze, and common 
to all, and since this substance is (either at once, or after laying 
aside in course of time the foreign and evil sulphur of the baser 
metals by a process of gradual digestion) changed by the virtue 
of its own indwelling sulphur into GOLD, which is the goal of 
all the metals, and the true intention of Nature— we are obliged 
to admit, and freely confess that in the mineral kingdom, as well 
as in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, Nature seeks 
and demands a gradual attainment of perfection, and a 
gradual approximation to the highest standard of purity and 
excellence. 

I thought it would be best, O friendly searcher of Nature, 
to discuss the matter more in detail,in order that you might the 
more readily know and make use of the substance of our Stone ! 
For if you attempted to produce our Stone out of an animal 
substance you would fail, because the two things belong to 
different natural orders. For the Stone is a mineral, but you 
would be trying to fashion it out of an animal substance. «But 
nothing," saysour Richard, in his first chapter, * can be got out 

B2 

20 JAMES) HERMETIC AMMUSEUM. 

ofa thing which is not in it. Therefore every species, every 
genus, every natural order, is naturally developed within its own 
limits, bearing fruit after its own kind, and not within some other 
essentially different order: everything in which seed is sown 
must correspond to its own seed." And Basil. Valentinus says : 
* Consider arid know, my friend, that you must not select an 
animal soul for this your purpose. For flesh and blood were 
given by the Creator to animals, and are proper to animals, and 
from them animals are formed and brought forth." For this 
reason I wonder at those who wish to be regarded as great 
adepts, and yet look for the substance of the stone in female 
menstruums, the seminal fluid, eggs, hairs, urine, and similar 
things, and are not ashamed to fill so many volumes with their 
vain and worthless recipes, and to deceive the ignorant with such 
foolish, futile, and useless speculations. ^ Roger, in his 
* Mirror" (cp. iii.), expresses his amazement at the folly of these 
men when he exclaims: * How strange that any sane person 
should look for what he wants in the animal and vegetable 
worlds, which have nothing whatever to do with the object of his 
search, while the mineral world is quite as ready to his hand. 
It is incredible that any philosopher should establish his art on 
such a remote foundation, except indeed by way of allegory." 
* For our Stone (says Basil.) is not made of combustible things. 
Verily that Stone and the matter thereof are safe from all such 
violence, therefore cease to seek it in the animal kingdom ; for 
Nature herself could not find it there." Again, whoever hopes 
to find it in the vegetable world, as, for instance, in trees, 
herbs, flowers, is quite as much mistaken as he who would 
change an animal into a stonc. Plants and trees, with all that 
they produce, may be consumed by fire, and leave nothing 
behind but the dust out of which they are made, and the salt 
which at the first creation of their species they received from 
Nature. Let no one be misled by the confident assertions of 
those who pretend that they can produce the Philosopher's Stone 
out of wheat, or out of wine. "These persons fancy they under- 
stand the meaning of a certain passage in thewritings of Raymond 
Lullius, but they exhibit the depth of their folly by the assumption 
of profound wisdom, and thus only deceive themselves and others. 
I do not deny that some excellent solvents, indispensable both. 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 2T 

to the physician and to the chemist, are obtained from these 
sources; but I do most positively deny that the Philosopher's 
Stone can be prepared, or its seed elicited, from them, since the 
Creator has ordained that nothing should overstep the bounds 
of the natural order to which it was originally assigned. Hence 
every true disciple of wisdom may gather that the substance of 
the Stone is to be obtained neither in the animal nor in the 
vegetable world, seeing that both are combustible. We must 
therefore look for it among incombustible things, that is to 
say, in the mineral world, and thence only can we prepare it. 
Since, then, the Stone of the Wise is mineral, and there are differ- 
ent kinds of minerals, as stones (including clay and the different 
varieties of earth), salts, general minerals, and metals, we must 
further ask, in which of allthese it is contained. We may at 
once eliminate stones, because they contain no fusible mercury, 
and cannot be melted, dissolved, or divided into their component 
parts on account of the large quantity of foreign sulphur and 
earthly substance which cleave to them. 

Nor will the wise investigator of Nature's secrets expect to 
find the substance of the Blessed Stone in salts, alums, or 
similar minerals. In them he meets with a sharp, corroding, 
destructive spirit, but mercury and sulphur, as understood by 
philosophers, he would vainly look for. General minerals, like 
magnesia, bismuth, antimony, ctc, can never under any circum- 
stances become metals; how, then, can the substance of this 
Stone, which is the essential perfection of all metals and minerals, 
be obtained from them? ^ Moreover, they have nothing in 
common with metals, but do burn, corrode, and destroy them :— 
how then can they be the means of their improvement ? 

Hear what Richard the Englishman has to say on this head 
(cp. x): " The lesser minerals cannot become metals—First, 
because they were not generated out of the elementary substance 
of metals, which is quicksilver. But seeing that their generation 
differs from the generation of metals in form, and substance, and 
composition, they can never become metals, because things 
belonging to the same species have the same elementary sub- 
stance,and spring from the same seed. But the lesser minerals are 
not generated from mercury, as we learn from Aristotle and 
. Avicenna, If they were to become metals, they would have to 

22 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

change into the elementary substance of metals. And, since 
such a transformation is beyond the power of chemistry, they can 
never become metals ; that is to say, they can never be the sub- 
stance of the Stone. Second, since the lesser minerals cannot be- 
come the elementary substance of metals, which is mercury, they 
can never reach the middle and the end of the same develop- 
ment, namely, metals and the tincture. — But because the pro- 
perties of the lesser minerals are foreign to those of the metals, 
although they may have some of the virtues of minerals, yet on 
the whole they are less excellent and are liable to be injured by 
fire. Therefore the nature of metals delights not in them, but 
repels them, while it receives that which is suited to it. For this 
reason they are foolish who bring in so many foreign specula- 
tions for the purpose of imposing upon their hearers ; for the 
things they put forward are altogether unlike metals and can 
never receive nor impart their nature." 

The student must not suffer himself to be misled by the 
language occasionally employed with regard to salts by the 
philosophers whom we have quoted, as, for instance, when it is 
said, in the mystic language of our Sages, * He who works with- 
out salt will never raise dead bodies"; or, again, when he reads in 
the book of Soliloquies,* He who works without salt draws a bow 
without a string." ^ For you must know that these sayings refer 
to a very different kind of salt from the common mineral. This 
you may see from the following passage of the * Rosary of the 
Philosophers": * The salt of metals is the Philosopher's 
Stone; for our Stone is water congealed in gold and silver; 
it is hostile to fire and may be dissolved into the water of which 
it is composed after its kind." And that the *congealed water " 
of the Sages does not mean ordinary water may be gathered from 
the following words of Geber (lib. forn, cp. xix.): *Seek to 
resolve the sun and the moon into their dry water, which the 
vulgar call mercury." The Sages have also described their earth 
under the name of salt—e,g., in the * Sounding of the Trumpet, 
where it is said: * That which is left at the bottom of the dis- 
tilling vessel is our salt—that is to say, our earth." — And in the 
* Allegories of the Wise " one bursts forth into these words : 
* Mark well that those bodies which flow forth from our bodies 
are salts and alums" At times they call the medicine itself 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 23 

* Salt," as in the following passage ofthe * Scale": ' The virtue 
of the second water is to exalt earth into its own mineral salt, as 
though assimilating it by its own strength." And Arnold, in his 
work concerning the * Preservation of Youth," (lib. iii) says: 
* "This prepared salt has great virtue in preserving youth. — The 
Sages have compared it to the natural heat of healthy youth. 
The Stone itself has sometimes been called by the wise the 
Animal Stone, sometimes the Mineral Secret, on account of this 
similitude ; sometimes the Everlasting Remedy, or the Water of 
Life. The whole preparation may be reduced to the purest 
drinking water, like other things that have the same properties. 

From the aforesaid it clearly appears that we are forbidden both 
by the teaching of the Sages and by the nature of the thing to 
suppose that the Stone can be made out of the lesser minerals. 

We should next enquire more carefully whether the matter 
of our Stone may be obtained from the intermediate minerals— 
like bismuth, antimony, magnesia, and so on. They are certainly 
often mentioned in this connection by the Sages. — Thus Senior 
says,in a certain passage: *If yellow orpiment has not the 
power of coagulating mercury our Magistery can never attain its 
goal." Thomas de Aquinas recommends us to take *our antimony, 
or black earth," while Parmenides, in * The Crowd," says : * Take 
quicksilver and coagulate it in the body of magnesia, or cor- 
ruptible sulphur." But in all such passages these terms are used 
metaphorically ; it is not meant that the Great Stone can ever be 
made out of such substances. "The orpiment and magnesia of 
the Sages are not the common minerals, but the substance which 
in other passages is called the Agent, the Lion, the King, 
Sulphur, and by many other names. They call it orpiment 
because it gives a deeper and more brilliant colouring to gold ; 
magnesia because of the excellence and greatness of that 
which is gained from it ; antimony, with Thomas Aquinas, on 
account of the brilliant blackness which it assumes after solution. 
As a matter of fact, when the Stone has assumed its ebony colour 
they are in the habit of comparing it to all black things. 

But it may be said that some of these intermediate minerals 
are, as a matter of fact, composed of mercury and sulphur, and 
may become metals, £2., magnesia unites with lead and tin, and : 
antimony not only mingles with metals, but also produces a 

24. THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

lead not very different from natural lead. Moreover, it is 
asserted that many persons of high and low degree have 
actually seen gold made of these minerals. It is further said 
that as these minerals are composed of mercury and sulphur 
(and can by chemical means be reduced to them), and are therc- 
fore of a common origin with the metals, the substance of the 
Stone may also be elicited from them. But, in the first place, 
we must draw a distinction between the various minerals of this 
class, namely those which contain mercury, and those which 
hardly ever contain it. "Those that are full of mercury are of 
greater account, since, by means of our Medicine, their mercury 
may be transformed into gold and silver; and, their nature 
being partly metallic, they may well be called half metals. 
But the rest, which have no mercury, are of no use for our 
purpose. But forasmuch as, on account of the gross and com- 
bustible sulphur which is in them, even the first are very far 
indeed from the metallic goal, so they cannot be taken for the 
substance of our Stone, which should be pure and perfect 
mercury combined with pure, subtle, and  incombustible 
sulphur. That they are most impure and deeply infected with 
the grossness of their sulphur, may be easily seen by the test of 
a chemical experiment. One of them (zinetum) might, by 
reason of its weight and brilliance, be taken at first sight for 
pure mercury by the careless ; but when brought to the test of 
fire it is consumed with a smoke, like that of sulphur. 
Bismuth, on the other hand, is not even fusible by fire—such is 
its earthy grossness and impurity. Antimony, again, can be 
purged by a chemical process, and reduced to a very white and 
beautiful regulus. As we gaze upon it in this purified state, 1t 
seems difficult to believe that it may not be transformed into 
something glorious. ^ Hence it is natural that some self-con- 
ceited people should have supposed that the Stone may be 
prepared from it. But however much antimony is purged of its 
blackness, it still retains its grossness, hardness, and sulphuric 
properties ; it can never become malleable (like the metals), and 
therefore, in spite of its numerous affinities, cannot be regarded 
as a metal. Moreover, it has gross and impure mercury ; and its 
sulphur is combustible. Ye, then, who would be great philo- 
sophers and do deceive many with your voluminous writings, 

IAE DLE TAVAICUT. 25 

in which you put this mineral forward as the essence of the 
universal remedy—l ask you again and again to reconsider 
your opinion, and to mark the saying of Arnold, that "it is 
foolish to seek in a thing that which it does not contain. He 
also says, in his Commentary on * The Crowd": * The 
philosopher's stone is a pure substance. Again, Lullius in his 
* Last Testament," observes : '* Our tincture is nothing but pure 
fire.^ There is an expression to the same effect in his 
* Vade Mecum": *It is a subtle spirit which tinges bodies, 
and cleanses them of their leprous infirmities." But this 
mineral (like all the rest, without a single exception) is so gross 
and impure that it can only be cleansed by the mediation of our 
tincture. — Therefore, the substance of our Great Stone cannot 
be elicited from it, since (Richard, cp. tr.) nothing can be 
obtained from a body which does not exist therein. What shall 
we say of vitriol which misleads many by its wonderful 
qualities, especially as some part of it changes into copper, and 
itself has the power of transforming iron into copper? Asa 
matter of fact, it is the elementary substance of copper, and 
when this mineral vapour (or aeriform mercury) finds in the 
mineral veins of the earth a place where its bitter, acid, salt, and 
venereal sulphur lies hid, it immediately amalgamates with it 
into a metal. But since the quantity of the aforesaid sulphur 
greatly exceeds that of the mercury, when the pure is separated 
from the impure, and the combustible from the incombustible by 
the segregating office of Nature, the mercury itself is changed 
into a greenish inferior substance. When common sulphur is 
added to copper, and the whole brought in contact with fire (for 
art can do by intense heat in a few moments what it takes the 
gentle heat of Nature a long time to accomplish) it corrodes the 
copper, and changes it into vitriol, and, in proportion to the 
quantity of the sulphur, the vitriol assumes a richer or fainter 
colour ; whence it comes that some vitriol contains more copper 
and some less. In iron, too, there is gross sulphur ; hence it is 
corroded by vitriol which seeks its mercury (the mercury of iron 
being very like that of vitriol), and (the mercury being joined to 
the sulphur) the iron becomes pure copper. 

. It should be carefully noticed that the acid spirit of vitriol 
15 generated from sulphur ; for the smell of sulphur is perceived 

26 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

in the spirit of vitriol, and the spirit of sulphur, like the spirit of 
vitriol, has power to change into vitriol. Since, then, this 
corrosive sulphur is hid in vitriol,and since it contains so small 
a quantity of impure mercury, we may be sure that it cannot be 
the object of our search. In this we agree with Alphidius, who 
says: * Take heed, my son, and eschew dead bodies, and stones ; 
in these things there is no true way of procedure, for their life 
preserves not, but destroys. Such are salts, orpiments, arsenic, 
magnesia, bismuth, tutty, and the like ^ And Arnold (Flos 
Flor.) says: * The reason of these mistakes is that thc four spirits, 
viz, orpiment, salt of ammonia, mercury, and sulphur, are not 
the seed of perfect or imperfect metals (except, of course, 
mercury and sulphur by themselves)." 

But from these last words of Arnold it might be inferred 
that common mercury and quicksilver are the substance of 
the stone, seeing that these are referred to the four spirits, and 
that sulphur is supposed to consolidate the mercury. But I 
answer, with Richard the Englishman, in his eleventh chapter, 
that it does not really do so. For every kind of common 
sulphur is repugnant to metals, as the Sage says: ** Indeed 
you must know that sulphur comes forth out of the fatness of 
the earth, and is thickened in the minera by gentle heat ; when 
it becomes hard it is ca//ed sulphur." 

Now there are two kinds of sulphur, the living and the 
combustible. Quick sulphur is the active principle of metals, 
and, when purged from all foreign matter, is the Matter of our 
Stone. But the common combustible variety is not the Matter 
of metals or of our Stone ; rather, it is injurous to them. 
Common, combustible sulphur—so we are told by Avicenna and 
Richard the Englishman—has nothing to do with our art. 
However carefully prepared, it still disintegrates and destroys 
metals, because it has no affinity with them. When enclosed in 
metals, it retards their fusion. This is clearly seen in the case 
of iron, which contains hard, gross, and impure sulphur. When 
this sulphur is burned it is nothing but a dead, earthy, powdery 
substance. How then can it impart life to other things? For 
it has two principles of decay—its inflammability and its earthy 
impurity. The sulphur of the Sages, on the other hand, is 
living fire; it is quick, and quickens and matures lifeless 

42/7 2C B D Y LY AM E 27 

substances. Common sulphur, then, cannot be the substance 
of the Stone. 

But what shall we infer concerning common mercury ? 
The Sages tell us tbat the Matter of our Stone is a mercurial 
substance, and many of its qualities closely resemble those 
of vulgar mercury. For it is the elementary substance of all 
fusible minerals, as Arnold says (Ros., pt. L, cp. ii) : * Since all 
fusible substances, when melted, are changed into it, and it 
mingles with them because of its common nature: they can 
differ from it only in so far as it contains impure foreign 
sulphur. And, again (cp. iv.): * Living mercury is clearly 
most perfect, and proved in all its operations, since it saves from 
combustion and promotes fusion. It is the red tincture, the sum 
of perfection, and quick as lightning ; nor is it severed from that 
with which it has mingled so long as it exists. The same is 
full of affinity, cleaving faithfully, and is the medium by which 
tinctures are united, for it mingles most intimately with them, 
penetrating naturally into their inmost part, for it is of the same 
nature. We imitate Nature exactly, who in her minera hath no 
other matter whereon she works except a pure mercurial form. 
It is the only thing that overcomes fire, and is not overcome by 
it, but delights in its amicable warmth." Again, Bernard says: 
*In this mercury is enclosed essential sulphur, which the fire 
cannot touch ; and it accomplishes our object without any other 
substance than that of pure mercury." Seeing, then, that 
mercury has such excellent properties, it must surely be the 
substance of our Stone? True; but as there are two kinds of 
sulphur, so there are two kinds of mercury, the common mercury 
and the mercury of the Sages. Common mercury is gross and 
crude ; nor does it stand the test of fire like our mercury, but is 
dissipated in the form of smoke, even by gentle heat. Hence 
the Sages have laid down this rule: * Our mercury is not the 
mercury of the vulgar herd." So Lullius says (Slav op 
" Common  quicksilver, however carefully prepared, can 
never become the quicksilver of the Sages, for common quick- 
silver can only stand the test of fire by the aid of some other dry 
and more highly digested quicksilver. ^ But most students of 
this art have spoken largely about the sublimation of common 
mercury, and have persisted in seeking the treasure of earthly 

28 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

wisdom where it cannot be found, because Nature has not placed 
it there. And, truly, the working even of common mercury is so 
wonderful that it has misled some who supposed themselves to 
be adepts in this art. The following is a case in point. I knew 
a man who.succeeded in giving to his amalgam an orange 
colour, but he could not get it any nearer to the colour of gold. 
At last this clever chemist determined to increase the heat of the 
furnace, thinking that this would have the desired effect of more 
intimately combining the various ingredients. But alas! the 
alembic burst, the gold was hurled into the fire, and almost 
changed from its nature by the still volatile mercury. 
Hence it appears that the mercury (which is its body) so 
strongly affected the gold in its minutest particles as to reduce 
it to a tincture, although several colours were obtained by the 
action of the heat on the melted mass. If that good man had 
taken to heart Arnold's words in the * Flower of Flowers," he 
would never have made that experiment. For the said Arnold 
makes reference to those who adopt this method in the following 
terms : * They knew that mercury is the elementary principle of 
the metals, and that they are produced through its digestion by - 
the heat of sulphur ; they therefore sublimed mercury by itself, 
then fixed and consolidated it, again melted it and did again 
coagulate it: but when they came to examine the alembic, they 
found no gold, etc." Therefore we cannot believe that common 
quicksilver is the substance ofthe Stone. At the same time I 
do not deny that it is indispensable both to the philosophical 
chymist and to the physician. 

We have carefully sought the substance of our stone in the 
animal and vegetable world, among stones, lesser, intermediate, 
and greater minerals, but in vain. We must now see whether 
we can find it in the metals, and if so, whether in all or only in 
some. It is a well-known fact (to which Roger bears witness, 
Spec., cp. iii.), that all metals are generated outof sulphur and 
quicksilver, and that nothing will become one with them, or 
change.them, but what originates in themselves ; since a thing 
can be developed and improved only by that which belongs to 
its own nature (Richard, cp. i.). 

I need not say that the Great Artist has ordained that 
throughout the whole of Nature things should generate and 

JOLEED S C5 QULTDVEVC TOR 29 

produce only that which is like them, so that, for instance, a 
horse can never be the offspring of a man. * As brute animals," 
says Basil Valentine, **cannot multiply after their kind by way 
of generation except by virtue of their common nature ; so you 
cannot expect to obtain the Blessed Stone, but out of its own 
seed, out of which it was made from the beginning. Now to 
find the. seed you should diligently consider for what purpose 
you require the Store. You will at once see that it can be 
obtained only from the metallic root from which God has ordained 
that the metals themselves should be generated. Moreover, 
there is a great conformity between the generation of the metals 
and the Stone. For in both sulphur and quicksilver (containing 
that salt which is their quickening soul) are indispensably 
required ; nor can any useful metal be generated until these 
three (making up the metallic substance) have been combined ; 
for in the composition of metals there must be nothing which has 
not been obtained from a metallic source" * No external thing, 
says Draco, ** which is not derived from these two [sulphur and 
mercury]has power to produce or transmute metals. On this 
account we must select a metallic substance for the production 
of the Stone" We must next briefly enquire whether it is to be 
found in imperfect metals. Many imagine that the substance of 
the white (tincture) may be elicited from tin or lead, and that of 
the red out of copperoriron,orboth. This idea is doubtless owing 
to a misconception of the words of the Sages. For Geber (lib. 
forn. cp. ix.) says : * The mass for fermentation we generally gain 
from the imperfect [base] bodies" Therefore we lay it down as 
a general rule that the white paste may be extracted from Jupiter 
and Saturn, the red from Venus, Saturn,and Mars. And Basil. 
Valentinus says (Lib. de phys. et hyperphys.), that the tincture 
Is prepared out of a conjunction of Mars and Venus. Acain 
(Triumph. Antimon.), he uses these words : * After this tincture 
of the Sun and Moon comes the tincture of Venus and Mars 

which two make up the tincture of the Sun, when they have been 
thoroughly perfected and condensed. After these come the 
tinctures of Jupiter and of Saturn (for the coagulation of mercury) 

and at last the tincture of mercury itself." But the searcher of 
Nature must know that there can be no contradiction of opinion 
between Geber or Basil, for it is impossible that the true 

30 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

philosophers should ever lie, and so these words should be para- 
bolically understood. For no perfection can be obtained from 
imperfect metals, either by themselves or mixed, nor can that 
which is itself imperfect bring other things to perfection. For 
the purest substance of mercury is required for our purpose, as 
is testified in the * Sounding of the Trumpet," and by Avicenna, 
Lullius, and almost all the Sages, who unanimously affirm that 
"the purest substance of mercury is selected by us for our 
work." Now this highly refined substance of mercury is not 
found in the base metals, since they are rendered so gross by 
their impure and unessential sulphur, that, like leprous bodies, 
they can never be thoroughly purged and cleansed, in which 
process is the essence of our artifice. Nor do they well stand the 
test of fire, which is one of the properties required in our Matter. 
Let us hear what Geber has to tell us (Summa, cp. Ixiii.) concern- 
ing the impurity of imperfect metals, and the properties of 
perfect mercury : * Thus," hesays, * we happen upon two most 
wonderful secrets. The one is that there exists a twofold cause 
for the destruction of every [imperfect] metal by fire : namely, 
(1), the combustible sulphur enclosed in their interior substance 
is kindled by fierce heat, and (unimpeded by any excellence in 
their mercury) annihilates, and converts into smoke their entire 
substance; (2), the outward flame is fed by them, penetrates 
into their interior, and dissolves them into smoke, even though 
they be very solid ; (3), their interior is laid bare by calcination. 
Now when all these conditions of destruction are found together, 
bodies must needs be destroyed ; if they are not found together, 
they are destroyed somewhat more slowly. "The second secret 
is the excellence which quicksilver imparts to bodies. Forquick- 
silver (no other condition of decay being present) does not 
permit itself to be separated into its elements, but proves its 
perfection by preserving its substance intact inthefire. Blessed 
be God who created it, and gave it such a substance and such 
properties as are not found in all Nature besides. This is that 
which overcomes fire, and delights in its amicable heat" Here 
Geber clearly shews that the substance of our Stone cannot exist 
in imperfect metals; because things that are impure in them- 
selves do not abide the fire which might purify them, while our 
mercury (on account of its purity) is not in the slightest degree 

DL 

- iin, ds 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 31 

injured by the fire. Thus we perceive that no one imperfect 
metal can contain the substance of our Stone. But neither is it 
to be found in a mixture of impure metals—for by mixing they 
become less pure than they were before. Moreover we said 
above that the. substance we required was oze. his fact is 
clearly set forth by Halys (lib. secret., cp. vi), when he says: 
« The Stone is One ; nothing else must be added to it: out of 
one substancc the Sages obtain our remedy. Nothing else must 
mingle with the Stone itself, or with its substance. And 
Morienus says: * This Magistery grows from one original root, 
which branches out into several parts, and from which springs 
one thing." 

But if base metals cannot be the substance of the Stone, why 
do the Sages bid us employ them? I will tell you. When they 
speak of impure bodies, they do not mean copper, iron, lead, tin, 
&c., but its own Zody, or its earth—as Arnold (Flos Flor.) says: 
* Mercury is united to earth, Ze, to an imperfect substance 
[or body]" For though this * earth " is so perfect and pure that 
in these respects it would seem to attain the utmost possibility 
of Nature, yet in regard to the Stone it is still imperfect and 
impure. In this point art leaves Nature behind, since it accom- 
plishes what Nature could not perform. That this. earth before 
its plenary purgation and regeneration is imperfect, may be 
seen from the fact that it cannot yet accomplish more in the 
matter of tinging than Nature has given to it, while after its 
regeneration it is most powerful [Its grossness is clearly 
perceived in an actual experiment : for first it is black and looks 
like lead or antimony ; then it is of a whitish colour, and is 
called Jupiter (or tin, or magnesia), and this also before it has 
attained true whiteness, but when it has passed the white stage, 
itis called Mars and Venus; after that it becomes perfect and 
red. That Basil Valentinus agrees with me, and did not 
really hold the opinion which he expressed in some of his 
writings, is clear from his tract concerning the Great Stone, 
where (speaking of the Matter of the Stone) he says that in the 
Sun all three perfections are found together, whence it derives 
its power of resisting the fire, and that the Moon, on account of 
its fixed mercury, does not easily yield to the fire, but endures 
the trial. *' That noble paramour Venus," he continues, '*is 

32 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

furnished with an abundance of colour, and the greater and richer 
part of her body is full of tincture. The colour is the same which 
dwells in the most precious of metals, and on account of its 
abundance has a reddish appearance. But its body is leprous, 
for which reason the tincture cannot remain fixed in it, but 
evaporates when the former is destroyed. For when the body 
decays the soul cannot remain, but is dissipated and driven off. 
Its habitation is destroyed and burnt with fire, and its place knows 
it no more. In a fixed body it would without difficulty remain. 
The fixed 'salt' gives to brave Mars a hard, strong, and heavy 
body ; whence the strength of his soul is perceived: for this 
warrior is not easily overcome. For his body is hard and difficult 
to wound." 

But let no one conclude from these words of Basilius that 
that fixed sulphur of Venus, when united to the spirit of perfect 
mercury, will become the tincture. We must again repeat that 
our substance is not collected from many sources; but, as 
Basilius says, it is oze universal thing, and is found in, and 
obtained from one thing, being the spirit of mercury, the soul 
ofsulphur, and a spiritual salt, united under one heaven and 
dwelling in one body. Therefore let us turn our backs upon 
the base metals, and turn our minds to the precious metals, 
taking to heart those words of Plato (qu. ii): * Why do you 
melt and dissolve other bodies with great labour, when in these 
[the precious metals] you have what you seck? If you wish 
to use the base metals, you must first change them into the 
substance of perfect bodies." Therefore, beloved inquirer into 
the secrets of Nature, leave on one side all things animal and 
vegetable, all salts, alums, vitriols, bismuths, magnesias, antimo- 
nies, and all base and impure metals, and seek thy Stone with 
Arnold de Vill. nov. (Pt. L, cp.vii.): *in Mercury and the Sun for 
the Sun, and in Mercury and the Moon for the Moon; since 
the whole virtue of this art consists in them alone"  * For as 
the source of ignition is fire, so gold is the principle of gold 
making," says Ripley, in his * First Gate." If, therefore, thou 
wouldest make gold and silver by the philosopher's art, take 
for this purpose neither eggs, nor blood, but gold and silver, 
which, being subjected to the action of fire naturally, prudently, 
and not manually, generate new substances after their own kind, 

ID ——— 

at v 

-— n ———————I HPV" Can ion a ne 

^ iine 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 33 

like all things in Nature. Richard (cp. x.)tells us" to sow gold 
and silver, that aided by our labour they may bring forth fruit, 
through the mediation of Nature: for these two have [and are] 
what you seek and nothing else in all the world." And why 
should I not fix on them since they contain pure and perfect 
mercury, with red and white sulphur. (Richard,cp. xvii) So 
Avicenna teaches that, * in all silver is white, as in all gold there 
is red, sulphur. No other sulphur like that which exists in these 
bodies is found on allthe earth. Therefore we cunningly pre- 
pare these two bodies, that we may have sulphur and quick- 
silver of the same substance as that which generates gold and 
silver under the earth. For they are shining bodies, whose 
rays tinge other bodies with true whiteness and redness, ac- 
cording to the manner of their own preparation." * For our 
Magistery," says, Arnold (Rosar, pt. Ll, cp. v.) "aids perfect 
bodies, and works upon the imperfect without the admixture 
ofanything else. Gold, then, being the most precious of all the 
metals, is the red tincture, tinging and transforming every body. 
Silver is the white tincture, tinging other bodies with its perfect 
whiteness." Let me tell the gentle reader that the metals, that 
is to say, gold and silver in their metallic form, are not the Matter 
of our Stone—being in the middle between them and the base 
metals, as our Matter is in the middle between the former and 
our Great Stone. So Bernard says (pt.ii): * Let them be 
silent who affirm that there is any tincture but our own, or any 
other sulphur than that which lies hid in magnesia ; also those 
who would extract the quicksilver from any but the red slave, 
and who speak of some other water but our own which is 
incorruptible and combines with nothing except that which 
belongs to its own nature, and moistens [tinges] nothing except 
that which is one with its own nature. There is no acid but our 
own, no other regimen, no other colours. In the same way, 
there is no other true solution, sublimation, consolidation, 
putrefaction. | therefore advise you to have done with alums, 
vitriols, salts, black bodies, borax, aqua fortis, herbs, animals, 
beasts, and all that proceeds from them, hairs, blood, urine, 
human seed, flesh, eggs, and all minerals, and to keep to the 
metals. But though the quicksilver required for our Stone is found 
in metals only, and in these is the beginning of the work, they 

34 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

are not therefore our Stone, so long. as they retain their metallic 
form. For one and the same substance cannot have two forms. 
How can they be the Stone which holds an intermediate form 
between metals and mercury, unless their present form is first 
destroyed and removed ?" Therefore, also, Raymond Lully says 
in his * Testament" (cp. vi): * On this account a good artist 
takes metals for his media in the work of the magistery, and 
especially the Sun and Moon, because in them the sub- 
stance of the Mercury and Sulphur is ripened, pure, and 
well-digested by Nature's own artifice, ^ The artist would 
vainly endeavour to produce this exact proportion out 
of the natural elements, if he did not find it ready to 
his hand in these bodies" ^ And in the * Codicil" he says: 
* Without these two, viz, gold and silver, our art would have 
no existence, since the sulphur they contain has been purified by 
nature with a thoroughness such as art would vainly strive to 
imitate. From these two bodies, with their prepared sulphur [or 
prepared arsenic] our Medicine may be elicited, but without them 
we can never obtain it." In the preface to his * Key" he says: 
* [ advise you, my friends, to operate on nothing but the Sun and 
Moon ; but these you should resolve into their elementary sub- 
tances, viz, our quicksilver and our sulphur." In like manner 
Arnoldus assures us that *from these bodies there is extracted 
an exceedingly white and red sulphur; for in these there 
is a most pure substance of sulphur, cleansed to the highest 
degree by Nature's own artifice." ^ Nicarus, in * The 
Crowd," says: *I bid. you take gold, which you desire to 
multiply and renew, and to divide its water into two parts ; for 
that metal falling into that water will be called the fermenting 
matter of gold." How can this Sage call his * water" gold? To 
- assist the student in solving this enigma I must tell him that the 
gold of the Sages is not common gold, as also Senior tells us. In 
*The Crowd" it is said : * As mercury is the element of all metals, 
so gold is their ultimate goal; hence in all metals, pure and im- 
pure, there are gold,silver, and mercury. But there is one true gold 
which is the essence of all? ^ Thus you see that there is a gold 
of the Sages, which, though derived from common gold, is yet 
very different from it. The following words occur in the * Rising 
Dawn" (cp. xvi) * The philosopher's gold resembles common 

A E ———PERRRRRRRRREPPRRRRRN 

i oc m PEE 

DEECGODDEN TRACT. 95 

gold neither in colour nor in substance. That which is extracted 
from it is the red and white tincture." * The philosopher's gold 
may be bought at a low price " (Aphidius). * All that is bought 
at a high price is false. With little gold we buy much 
(Morienus). Moreover, our gold is living gold, and our silver is 
living silver, so that they can cause nothing but life and growth. 
Common gold and silver are dead, They can effect nothing 
until they are raised from the dead and quickened by the Sage. 
Then they live, and possess in a high degree the power of pro- 
pagating and multiplying their race. Concerning the life of our 
metals that great philosopher, Sendivogius (who is still living), 
has the following words : * Let me advise you not to receive the 
gold and silver of the vulgar herd, for they are dead. Take our 
living metals. Place them in our fire, and there will result a 
dry liquid. First, earth will be resolved into water [for thus the 
Mercury of the Sages is called. That water will solve gold and 
silver, and consume them until only the tenth part with one part 
is left. This will be tbe humid radical of the metals." 

It is to be noted that Sages sometimes call their water, 
as wellas their earth, gold. Hereunto we have already heard 
the words of Nicarus, and after a like manner we are told in the 
" Rosary of the Philosophers : * Our gold and silver are not the 
gold and silver of the vulgar. We call gold the water which rises 
into the air when exposed to fire. Verily, this gold is not the 
gold of the vulgar. The vulgar would not believe of zZezz gold 
that it could be volatilised on account of its solid nature." 

The philosopher's *earth," then, is sometimes designated 
their gold, as the same author testifies: * Know that our ore, 
which is the gold of the philosophers, is their earth." This 
"earth" is also called ore, ferment, or tincture ; just as the 
" water" is called white and flaky *earth" ^ So we read in the 
" Sounding of the Trumpet ": * Wherefore Hermes says, * Sow 
your gold in white, flaky earth which by calcination has been 
made glowing, subtle, and volatile That is to say : Sow gold, 
2.e., the soul and quickening virtue, into the white earth, which 
by preparation has been made white and pure and freed from all 
Its grossness. "Thus natural gold is not the fermenting matter, 
but the philosopher's goldis thequickening ferment itself." Again, 
in the Seventh Step of the * Ladder of the Philosophers " : * Their 

C2 

36 . THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

earth is white in which their gold [which is the soul]is sown, 
and this body is the centre of knowledge, the concentration 
thereof, and the habitationspf tinctures" Once more: * There- 
fore Hercules says; 'Solve the body of magnesia which has 
become white and like the leaves of the bramble. This is the 
body ; the soul is the esssence which is called the philosopher's 
gold." (For with water the spirit ascends into the upper air.) 
* Mix," says Senior, *gold with gold, that is water [mercury] 
and ashes)" Again, Hermes says: *Sow gold into the white 
flaky earth." From these expressions, however obscurely worded, 
it is clear that our gold is not common gold. 

But why do the philosophers call their gold now * water," 
and now *earth"? Do they not contradict themselves, or each 
other? No; our Sages, in expounding tbe truth, veil it under 
obscure and allegorical expressions, but nevertheless agree with 
each other so marvellously that they allseem to speak, as it 
were, with one mouth. "They do not confound one thing with 
another, nor do they wish to lead the earnest enquirer astray. 
They express themselves in mystic phrases to hide the truth 
from the unworthy and impious, lest they should seem to be 
casting pearls before s:ine, and giving: the holy thing to be 
trodden underfoot by these who think only of indulging their 
lustful desires. But the noble student of our art has been told 
more than once, not only from what quarter our Stone may be 
obtained, but also that its substance must be cze, which by the 
artist's skill may be resolved into two, viz., earth and fire, or 
mercury and sulphur. 

The Sages, then, do well to call their gold earth or water ; 
for they have a perfect right to term it whatever they like. So 
they have frequently called their Stone their gold, their super- 
perfect gold, their regenerate gold, and by many other names 
besides. If any one does not perceive their meaning at the first 
glance, he must blame his own ignorance, not their jealousy. 

The reader now knows that the substance of our Stone is 
neither animal nor vegetable, and that it does not belong to the 
minerals or the base metals, but that it must be extracted from 
gold and silver, and that our gold and silver are not the vulgar, 
dead gold and silver, but the living gold and silver of the Sages. 
We must now say something about the mode of solution, as the 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 37 

greatest arcanum of all, and the root of the matter. A solution 
takes place when we transform a dry thing into a liquid, a hard 
thing into a soft, a hidden thing into one that is manifest, z.e., 
when a solid is changed into water ; not, however, the vulgar 
water (as Parmenides and Agadmon in * The Crowd " teach us: 
* When some persons hear of the liquefaction, they think a change 
takes place into the water of the clouds. But if they had read 
and understood our books, they would know that our water is 
permanent), but into the water of the Sages, Ze., the elementary 
substance, as Arnold (Ros. I., cp. ix.) says: * The object of the 
Sages is to dissolve the Stone into its mercury, or elementary 
matter" And Avicenna says: * Thou who wouldest attain our 
object must first endeavour to dissolve and sublime the two 
luminaries, which is the first stage of the experiment, that they 
may become quicksilver, ^ Therefore Arnold (Ros. II, cp. ii.) 
describes the solution as a resolving of bodies, and a preparation 
ofthe first Matter or Nature. And Richard the Englishman 
(cp. xviii.) writes thus : * First the Stone must be resolved into its 
elementary substance [seeing that it is an union of body and 
spirit], that the two may become one mercurial water." But even 
as this first solution is the most vital part of our process, so is it 
also the most difficult, as Eobold Vogelius testifies when he 
says : * How hard this achievement is can be affirmed by those 
who have performed it" Bernard of Trevisan, in his book 
addressed to Thomas of Bononia, says: * He who knows the 
secret of the sclution is acquainted with the arcanum of the Art, 
which is, to mingle kinds, and effectually to extract elements 
from elements which lie hid in them." — The solution must not 
be made with aqua fortis ; for aqua fortis corrodes and destroys 
the body which should be only liquefied and improved. The 
solution does not take place into any water that wets the hands, 
but into a dry water, which is called both sulphur and mercury, 
as Zneumo says (Turba): *Unless by resolving it into its 
elements you extract from the body its marrow, and make it an 
impalpable spirit, you labour in vain." And Richard the English- 
man, following Avicenna, affirms (cp. xi): * The Sages have 
striven to discover how those sulphurs may be extracted from 
those more perfect bodies, and how their qualities may be so 
refined by Art, that that which was not manifest before (although 

8 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

it always lay hid in them) may appear by the mediation of the said 
Art with Nature. And thisthey confess cannot be done unless 
the body be resolved into its First Matter, which is quicksilver, 
out of which it was made in the beginning, without admixture 
of any outward things ; since foreign matter cannot improve the 
nature of our Stone. **For no water," says Bernard, ** dissolves 
our bodies, but that which is of their kind, and may be 
inspissated by them." (Ep. to Thom. of Bonon) And in the 
same Epistle he writes : * The solution should be permanent, so 
that from both elements, viz, the male and female seed, a new 
species may result. Amen, I say unto you that no natural 
water can dissolve metals, except that which is always in them 
substantially and formally, and which the metals themselves, 
being dissolved, may again consolidate." ^ Thus Morfoleus, in 
* 'The Crowd " says: * Every body is dissolved with the spirit that 
is joined to it, and doubtless also becomes spiritual. ^ And 
every spirit is modified and coloured by bodies, to which spirit 
is thus added a tinging colour which stands the test of fire." 
Hence the student of our art must diligently enquire what 
that water is. * For the knowledge of the menstruum;," says 
Raymond (Comp. An., p.i.) *isathing without which nothing can 
be done in the magisteryof this Art. Nothing preserves the metals 
while it dissolves them, but our menstruum," which, as he further 
states in his 'Codicilj is *the water by which the metals are 
' solved, while all their essential properties are conserved." Though 
this is the Great Arcanum which our Sages have always kept 
secret, and have forbidden us to reveal, yet, as far as we may, 
we will put you on the right track by two quotations. The 
first is found in the abridged Rosary, and runs as follows: * The 
first preparation and foundation of this Art, is the solution [ze., 
reduction] of the body into water, Ze., into quicksilver, and this 
they call the solution, when they say : Let the gold be dissolved, 
which is hid in the body of magnesia, that it may be reduced to 
its First Matter, that thence it may become sulphur and quick- 
silver, and not be again liquefied into water. The object of our 
solution is to make it liquid, and resolve it into the substance of . 
quicksilver that the saltness of its sulphur may be diminished, 
which divine sulphur is prepared by extraction from two 
sulphurs, when the spirit meets the body." The second quota- 

TEDPA GOLDEN. URACT. 39 

tion is from the ** Prooemium of the Twelve Gates, by Ripley : 
* [ will straightway teach thee that thou mayest know that there 
are three mercuries, which are the keys of knowledge [which 
Raymond calls his menstrua], without which nothing is properly 
done. But two of them are superficial The third is of the 
essence of the Sun and Moon, the properties of which I will 
describe to thee. For mercury, the essence of other metals, is 
the principal substance of our Stone. In Gold and Silver our 
menstrua are not visible to the eye, and are only perceived by 
their effect. This is the Stone of which we speak, if anyone 
understand our books aright. It is the soul and shining sub- 
stance of the Sun and Moon, that subtile influence from which 
the earth derives its splendour. For what are gold and silver 
(says Avicenna) but pure red and white earth? Take away 
from it the aforesaid splendour, and it will be nothing but 
worthless earth. The whole compound we call our lead. The 
quality of splendour comes from the Sun and Moon. And, in 
brief, these are our solvents. Perfect bodies we naturally calcine 
with the first, without adding any impure body but oxe, com- 
monly called by philosophers the green lion, and this is the 
medium for perfectly combining the tinctures of theSunand Moon. 
With the second, which is a vegetable liquid, reviving what 
before was dead, the two principles [both material and formal] 
must be solved ; else they would be of little value. "With the 
third, which is a permanent, incombustible liquid, of unctuous 
quality, the tree of Hermes is burnt to ashes. This is our 
natural, most sure fire, our mercury, our sulphur, our pure tincture, 
our soul,our Stone raised with the wind, born in the earth. 
These things take to heart. This Stone, I dare to tell thee, is the 
powerful essence of the metal, and thou must be careful how thou 
dost obtain it. For this solvent is invisible, although with the 
secondary philosophic water it may, by the separation of ele- 
ments, become visible in the form of pure water. Out of this 
solvent, and with it, thou mayst obtain the sulphur of Nature, if 
it be naturally turned into a pure spirit. Then thou mayst with 
it dissolve thy fundamental mass [Ze. gold and silver]." 

In these two quotations the whole mystery of the solution is 
revealed. If you will consider the properties and powers of 
.Nature, and compare them with these words, and annihilate all 

40 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the workings of Nature (Ze. reduce them, and unroll them 
like the thread of a skein), you will find in them all truth plainly 
and fundamentally. But if you cannot gather from them 
where are the bolted gates, and do not know the substance 
and the powers of Nature, you shall be conducted to them, not 
by contemptuous self-conceit, but by ardent prayer and inde- 
fatigable study. 

For (by the revelation of the great and good God) I have 
attained this Art only by persevering application, vigils, and 
repeated reading of authentic books. I do not speak of the 
matter—that was made known to me by the revelation of God 
alone; but I have by study discovered the secret of its solution, 
which is the same with ancient and modern Sages, and the true 
arcanum of the Art, in the absence of which neither past nor 
present Philosophers could have performed anything, whence it is 
a secret of Art and an arcanum of wisdom which no one but God 
must reveal, for which benefit I give undying thanks with heart 
and lips to the Creator of all things, world without end, Amen. 

That you may have no cause to complain of me, gentle 
reater, I will, however, for the love of God, expound to you 
another mystery. You are to know that, although the solution 
is one, yet in it there may be distinguished a first, and a second, 
as they say in the schools. The irs solution is that of which 
Arnold speaks in the above quotation, vzz., the reduction of it to 
its First Matter; the secozd is that perfect solution of body and 
spirit at the same time, in which the solvent and the thing solved 
always abide together, and with this solution of the body there 
takes place simultaneously a consolidation of the spirit. 

Here you may clearly and plainly see with your eyes what 
you have long desired to see. If you understand it, it is mere 
child's play ; therefore, I will forbear to speak any further about it. 
If you know the beginning, the end will duly follow by the help of 
God, from whom alone we may obtain all glory, the corruptible 
glory of this world, and that eternal glory in which with glorified 
bodies we shall see God face to face—despising all mundane 
pleasure that we may behold with our own eyes that eternal, 
infinite, and unspeakable joy of heaven. 

With these words I will conclude my little tract. Every- 
thing else that remains to be said I will set forth in the following 

TEIBAGOUDEN. TRACT. 41 

parable, where you will find the entire system and practice 
clearly expounded. If you duly follow it, you will doubtless . 
attain to the true.wisdom. May it be shewn to you, and to all 
good men, by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Spirit, Blessed for evermore ! 

M.S. 

The thing is one in number, and one essence, which Nature 
strives to transform, but with the help of Art, into two, and twice 
two: mercury and sulphur impart nourishment to themselves. 
Spirit, and soul, and body, and four elements: the fifth which 
they furnish is the Philosophers Stone. Select your substance 
without guile, let it be double, and let its splendour be of pure 
mercury. Take sulphur free from every foreign substance, and 
consume it in a fiery furnace. But when you put it together 
again, let it still be of the same weight. "Then I will believe that 
you are upon the road of the mystery. When you have dis- 
solved, quickly sublime it. Pound what you obtain, and 
ceaselessly distil it. Then endeavour to condense it, and 
continue to expose it to heat ^ After this begin to "*tinge" 
largely. You have the panacea of men, and the sum of the 
metals, and you shall be able to cure whomsoever and what- 
soever you please. 

Here follows a. Parable in which the Mystery of the whole 
Matter 2s Declared. 

Once upon a time, when I was walking abroad in a wood, 
and considering the wretchedness of this life, and deploring that 
through the lamentable fall of our first parents we had been 
reduced to this pitiable state, I suddenly found myself upon a rough, 
untrodden, and .impracticable path, which was beset with briars. 
Then I was afraid, and strove to retrace my steps. But it was not 
in my power to do so ; for so violent a tempest blew upon me from 
behind that it was easier to take ten steps forward than to 
take one backward. So I had to hurry forwàrd, and follow the 
rugged path up and down hill After a while, I reached a beau- 

42 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

tiful meadow, surrounded with heavy-laden fruit trees, which the 
: inhabitants of the place called the Meadow of Happiness. 
There I met a crowd of decrepit men with grey beards, one of 
whom, an elderly personage, had a long darkish beard, whom also 
I knew by name, but whose face I had never seen. These men 
were discusssing various subjects, c.g., the goodness and wisdom 
of God, all natural objects, and especially the great mystery 
which lies hid in Nature, which —they said—-God conceals from 
the whole world, and makes known only to a few who truly 
love Him. I listened to them for a long time (for I was 
pleased with their discourse) till I thought that some were 
talking rather wildly, not in regard to the substance and the 
method, but as concerns parables, similitudes, etc, which were 
the figments of Aristotle, Pliny, and others When I heard 
these things, I could no longer contain myself, and, like Saul 
among the prophets, I began to give my opinion, and to refute 
those futile assertions by arguments drawn from experience and 
reason. Some of them agreed with me, and began to test my 
knowledge with many questions. But I was so well grounded 
that I stood the test to the admiration of all They all mar- 
velled at the soundness of my knowledge, and affirmed with 
one voice that I should be received into their fellowship. 
These words filled me with great joy. But they said I could 
not be their Brother until I knew their Lion, and his internal 
and external properties. ^ They told me. I must summon up 
my whole strength to subdue him. I confidently replied that 
I would leave no stone unturned to attain this object. For 
their kindness affected me so, that I would not have left them 
for all the wealth of this world. Therefore they conducted me 
to the Lion, and were at great pains to declare to me his nature. 
But no one would tell me how I must treat him at first. Some 
of them did indeed mutter a few words on this point, but so con- 
fusedly and obscurely, that scarce one in a thousand would. have 
understood their meaning. However, they said that when I had 
bound him without being harmed by his sharp claws and 
terrible teeth, I should know all the rest. This Lion was old, 
fierce, great, and terrible to behold with his flowing yellow mane. 
Then Í repented of my temerity, and would gladly have re- 
treated if I had not been held to my purpose by my vow, and 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 43 

the old men that surrounded me. So I carefully descended into 
the Lion's den, and strove to pacify him; but he glared upon 
me with red eyes, and affrighted me so that I could hardly stand 
upon my feet, and thought that my last hour had come. But 
calling to mind what one of the old men had said to me when I 
entered the den, namely, that many had undertaken to tame the 
Lion, but that only few had accomplished it, I summoned up 
courage, and tried several artifices, which I had learned by dili- 
gent training. Moreover, I had some knowledge of natural 
magic. I therefore relinquished my blandishments, and seized 
him so gently, skilfully, and subtly, that almost before he knew 
what I was about I had drawn all the blood from his body, and 
from his very heart and bowels. "This blood was red indeed, but 
choleric. Then I proceeded to dissect him, and made a most 
marvellous discovery :—his bones were as white as snow, and their 
quantity more considerable than that of the blood. When the 
old men who stood round the den, and had watched our struggle, 
saw this, they began to converse with great eagerness, as I could 
see from their gestures— for, being in the den, I could not hear 
their words. But anon their dispute began to run high, and I 
could distinguish these words: * He must bring him to life again 
if he wishes to be our brother." Therefore, without further delay, 
I stepped out of the den into a large open space, and then 
suddenly (I know not how) found myself upon a very high wall, 
which rose more than 100 yards into the air, but at the top was 
not more than a foot in width, and along the middle of it 
ran an iron battlement of great strength. Now as I passed 
along I thought I saw one walking before me on the right 
side of the battlement. When I had followed him a short 
distance I became aware of another person following me on 
the other side ; but, whether it was a man or a woman I 
cannot undertake to say. This person hailed me, and said 
that there was more convenient footing on his side than on 
mine. "This I was quite ready to believe; for the battlement, 
which was on the middle of the wail, made the path so narrow 
as to render progress extremely difficult at such a great height ; 
indeed, I noticed that some of those who followed me actually 
fell Therefore I got over the battlement on to the other side, 
and proceeded to the end of the wall, which presented a most 

44 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

difficult and dangerous descent. Then I was sorry that I had 
deserted my own side, as I could neither advance nor retreat. 
But, remembering that fortune befriends the bold, I attempted 
the descent, and by using my hands and feet, I got down safely. 
Now when I had advanced a little further, I put away all thought 
of danger, and: forgot all about the wall and the battlement. 
"Then lighting upon a certain place, I found white and red roses, 
but the latter were more abundant ; so I gathered some of them 
and stuck them in my cap. In that place were some most beau- 
tiful women, and in the neighbouring garden a number of young 
men were to be seen. But a wall which surrounded the garden 
prevented the latter from joining the women. They were eager 
to do so, but were not allowed to go round the garden and find 
the gate. The sight moved me to pity, and therefore I hastily 
went back by the smooth path along which I had come, and 
soon reached some houses, among which I expected to find the 
gardener' cottage. But I found there many men, of whom each 
had his own cell (in. very few there were two living together). 
They were all busily at work, each labouring by himself Their 
work was of a kind long and familiarly known to me indeed, 
far too well known. So I said to myself: * Behold, here are 
many persons at work upon vain and foolish experiments, which 
have a certain specious plausibility (according to each man's 
idiosyncrasy), but no real foundation in Nature. Surely you, 
too, will obtain forgiveness." At least, I would not suffer myself 
to be detained with these barren futilities, but went on my way. 
When I reached the gate of the garden some looked askance at 
me, and I was afraid they would prevent me from carrying out 
my purpose. Others murmured, and said: "Look, this fellow 
presumes to approach the gate of the garden, and we who have 
spent so many years in these horticultural labours, have never 
gained admittance! How we will jeer at him if he meets with a 
repulse" But I paid no attention to their talk (for I knew the 
interior of that garden better than they, although I had never 
been in it), and approached the gate, which was double-locked, 
and in which there appeared to be no keyhole, but soon I per- 
ceived a keyhole which would have escaped any common observer. 
So I inserted my master key (called by some " the adulteress "), 
which I had diligently fashioned for the purpose, pushed back 

"TEES GODIDEN RMCUM .  - 45 

the bolt, and entered. After passing this gate, I came upon 
other bolted gates, which, however, I opened without any diffi- 
culty. So I entered the garden, and found in the middle of it a 
small square garden, which was surrounded with a rose hedge 
covered with beautiful roses, and as a little rain was falling, and 
the rays of the sun shone upon it, I beheld a rainbow. But I 
was hastening past the small garden, to that place where I 
thought I could aid the young women, when, behold, there 
came forward the most beautiful of all the maidens, arrayed in 
silk and satin, with the most beautiful of the youths, dressed in a 
scarlet robe. They walked arm in arm to the rose garden, and 
carried many fragrant roses in their hands. I greeted them, and 
and asked how she had got over. * This my beloved bride- 
groom," she said, "helped me, and now we are leaving this 
pleasant garden, and hastening to our chamber to satisfy our 
love" "Iam glad," I returned, * that without any trouble on my 
part your desires have been fulfilled. ^ But you see how much 
trouble I have taken on your behalf, having traversed so 
great a distance in so short a time" Then I came to a 
water-mill, built within of stones, where there were no flour 
bins or other millers requisites; yet I saw wheels driven 
round by the water. I asked the decrepit miller the reason, 
and he told me the grinding took place somewhere out of 
view. At the same moment I saw a miller enter that place 
by a small bridge, and immediately followed him. ^ When I 
had passed the bridge, which was on the right side of the 
wheels, [ paused and beheld a wonderful sight. In a moment 
the wheels were above the bridge; I saw very black water, 
with white drops; the bridge was only about three inches 
wide; but by clinging to the rails I got safely back, without 
being wetted at all, and asked the old man how many wheels 
he had. He answered, *Ten" I was troubled by the mar- 
vellous incident, and would gladly have known its meaning, 
but felt that it was labour lost to ask the old man any questions, 
and so departed. Before the mill was a raised platform on 
which some of the aforesaid old men were walking to and fro in 
the warm sunshine, discussing a letter which they had received 
from the Faculty of the University. I guessed the tenor of the 
letter, and, feeling sure that it concerned me, I addressed to them 

46 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

a question to that effect. "It Zoes concern you," they said, * the 
wife whom you married a long time ago, you must keep for ever, 
or else we must tell our chief" * You need not trouble your- 
selves about this matter," I said, *for we were born together, and 
brought up together as children, and now that I have married 
her, I will never forsake her, but cherish her till her last breath ; 
nay, even death itself shall not sever us" It is well" they 
said, *your wife is satisfied, too; you must be joined together." 
* | am content," I said. "It is well," they repeated. * For thus 
the Lion will be restored to life, and be more powerful and more 
active than he was before" Then I remembered my labours, 
and knew by certain signs that this matter concerned not myself, 
but a very good friend of mine. As these thoughts crossed my 
mind, I saw our bridegroom and his beloved bride—both clothed 
in the aforesaid garments—come forward, eager to be joined 
together. "This sight gladdened me ; for I had been afraid that 
the whole matter concerned me. Now when the bridegroom, in 
his bright scarlet robe, with his bride, whose silk dress gave out 
shining rays, reached. the old men, they were straightway joined 
together. And I marvelled that the maiden, who was said to be 
the mother of her bridegroom, was of so youthful an appearance, 
that she might have seemed his daughter But I know not 
what sin they had committed, except that brother and sister 
had been drawn to each other by such passionate love that 
they could no more be separated; and, being charged with 
incest, they were shut up for ever in a close prison, which, 
however, was as pellucid and transparent as glass, and 
arched like the heavenly vault,so that all that they did could 
be seen from without. Here they were to do penance for 
their sins with ever-flowing tears, and true sorrow. All their 
clothes and outward ornaments were taken away. None of 
their servants and friends were allowed to be with them, but 
after they had received sufficient meat and drink (the latter 
taken from the aforesaid water), the door was shut and locked, 
and the seal of the Faculty was affixed to it. I was entrusted 
with the charge of heating their chamber in the winter, so that 
they might be neither too hot nor too cold, and I was further 
to see that they did not escape. If any accident of any kind 
happened, I was to be severely punished. I did not like this 

THE GOLDEN TRACT 4? 

charge; and, as I remembered that the matter was most im- 
portant, and that the College of Sages were not wont to say 
what they did not mean, I was filled with fear. But since I 
had to bear that which I could not alter, and since the 
chamber was situated in a strong tower, and surrounded with 
battlements and lofty walls, and, moreover, could be easily 
heated with a gentle and continuous fire, I called upon God for 
help, and began to heat the chamber. But what happened? 
As soon as they felt the grateful warmth, they fell to embracing 
each other so passionately that the husband's heart was melted 
with the excessive ardour of love, and he fell down broken in 
many pieces. When she who loved him no less than he loved her, 
saw this, she wept for him, and, as it were, covered him with 
overflowing tears, until he was quite flooded and concealed from 
view. But those complaints and tears did not last long, for 
being weary with exceeding sorrow, she at length destroyed 
herself. Alas! what fear and anguish fell upon me, when I 
saw those who had been so straitly committed to my charge, 
lying, as it were, melted and dead before me. I felt sure that 
I should be put to death for it; but the jeers, the derision, and 
the contempt which I would have to undergo seemed more 
grievous even than death. In this anxious state of mind I spent 
several days, until the thought occurred to me that, if Medea had 
restored a dead body to life, I might perhaps be able to do the 
same. But I could think of no better plan than to keep up the 
warmth of the chamber until the water should have evaporated, 
and the dead bodies of the lovers could again be seen. 
doubted not that then I should most honourably escape from all 
danger. So I kept up the fire forty days, the water diminishing 
from day to day, and the dead bodies beginning to reappear. 
Now, however, they looked as black as coals. "This effect would 
have been produced sooner if the chamber had not been so 
closely shut and sealed so that I could in no wise open it. For 
I noticed that the water rose to the roof of the chamber, and 
then came down again like rain ; but it could find no exit from 
the chamber, until the dead bodies had putrefied and began to 
give out a grievous smell In the meantime the rays of the sun, 
shining upon the moisture of the chamber, produced a most 
beautiful rainbow ; and, after all my sorrow, the sight of its gay 

48 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

colours filled me with great delight; and I was particularly 
pleased to see my lovers lying before me. But as there is no 
joy without a drop of bitterness, so I was still disturbed by the 
thought that those who had been committed to my care were 
still lying lifeless. Nevertheless, I comforted myself with the 
reflection that the chamber (being so tightly closed) must still 
contain their souls and spirits. "Therefore I continued diligently 
to perform my office of warming them, being assured that they 
would not return to their bodies while they could enjoy that 
moist atmosphere. "This conjecture was justifed by the event. 
For towards evening I noticed that many vapours rose from the 
earth through the heat of the sun, and were lifted up as water is 
attracted by the sun ; afterwards when night fell, they watered 
the earth as fertilising dew, and washed our bodies, which became 
more beautiful and white the oftener this sprinkling took place. 
And the whiter they became, the more the quantity of moisture 
in the air diminished, until at last the atmosphere was too thin 
for the spirit and soul to remain therein any longer; so they 
were at length compelled to return to the clarified body of the 
Queen, which (to my great joy) was straightway restored to life. 
My joy was all the greater, because now she was arrayed in a 
beautiful and magnificent garment such as is rarely seen by 
mortal eye, and had a glorious crown, all made of diamonds, 
upon her head. Thus attired, she stood upon her feet and 
cried: * Know this, ye mortals, and let it enter your hearts, 
that the most High God is one God, who has power to set up 
and pull down kings. He makes rich and poor as He wills. 
He has killed, and raised again. I was great, and was brought 
low; but now, having been humbled, I have been made Queen 
of many more kingdoms. After death life has been restored to 
me. When I was poor, the treasures of the wise and mighty were 
committed to me. Therefore I, too, can make the poor rich, 
give grace to the humble, and restore the health of the sick. 
But I am not yet able to raise my beloved brother, the most 
mighty King, from the dead. Nevertheless, when he comes, he 
will show that my words are true," When she had thus spoken 
the sun lighted up the world with his glorious rays, and the heat 
waxed great (for the dog days were approaching) Long before 
this, garments of rich black silk, of grey or ash-coloured damask, 

THE GOLDEN TRACT. 49 

of rare white silk, embroidered with silver, precious pearls, and 
brilliant diamonds, had been got ready towards the marriage of 
our Queen ; and now garments of many colours, of flesh colour, 
orange, and saffron, and of red and scarlet silk, richly em- 
broidered with rubies and carbuncles, were being prepared for 
the adornment of our new King. But there was no one to be 
seen working at those garments ; yet one after another was got 
ready, insomuch that I greatly marvelled, because I knew that 
none but the bride and the bridegroom had entered the chamber. 
My wonder increased when I observed that as each dress was 
finished, those that had been there before straightway vanished, 
though I could see no one put them away. Now when that 
most precious scarlet garment had been finished, the great and 
mighty King appeared in great splendour and indescribable 
magnificence, and when he saw that he was shut in, he besought 
me, in the most persuasive accents, to open the door, as it would 
be to my advantage to let him out of the chamber. Now, 
though I had been most strictly enjoined not to open the 
chamber, I was filled with awe by the majesty and persuasive 
speech of the King, and acceded to his request. When he left 
the chamber, he bore himself so kindly, so gently, and so humbly, 
that I could not help reflecting that these virtues are the most 
glorious ornaments of the great. As he had passed the dog 
days in great heat he was extremely thirsty, spent, and weary ; 
wherefore he humbly requested me to bring him some water 
from the river where it raged and foamed under the wheels. 
I gladly acceded to his request, and, after slaking his thirst with 
a deep draught, he returned to the chamber, requesting me to 
shut the door carefully so that no one might disturb him or 
rouse him from his sleep. So he slept a few days, and then 
called me back to open the door again. He looked much more 
beautiful, ruddier, and more royal, and said that this water was 
very precious and full of virtue. — When at his request I had 
fetched him some more, he took a deeper draught than before, 
insomuch that the size of the chamber seemed to become en- 
larged. After drinking of this water (which is lightly esteemed 
by the ignorant) as much as he desired, he became so beautiful 
and glorious that in all my life I do not remember to have seen 
a more glorious man, or more glorious deeds. For he took me 
D 

50 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

into his kingdom and showed me all the treasures and riches of 
the whole world, till I was obliged to confess, that so far from 
exaggerating his power, the Queen had not told me the half of it. 
Of gold and precious carbuncles there was no end. "There was 
also to be found renewal and restoration of youth, and of the 
natural faculties, and recovery of lost health, with a never failing 
panacea for all diseases. What pleased me most of all, was that 
the people of that kingdom knew, feared, and honoured their 
Creator, and asked and obtained of him wisdom, understanding, 
and, after this life, eternal glory and beatitude. May this latter 
be given to us also by God the Father, God the Son, and God 
the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity, to Whom belong praise, 
glory, and honour, world without end, Amen. 

——— 

^ul tisl ^. dilepmm ied niae bsedlumn cni 

THE GOLDEN AGE 
RESTORED: 

HAVING NOW APPEARED A SECOND TIME, FLOURISHED 
BEAUTIFULLY, AND BROUGHT FORTH FRAGRANT AND 
GOLDEN SEED. THIS RARE AND PRECIOUS 
SEED IS SHEWN AND IMPARTED TO ALL 
THE SONS OF TRUE WISDOM AND 
THE DOCTRINE, 

BY 

HOENEY MAIDATEH ANAS. 

E 
z 

** Jf any of you lack swisdom, let him ask of God, who 
Qzves sinply, and without upbraiding, and it shall be 

: a P : 
Q7ven to him."—]AMES i, 5. 

MOTTO OF THE AUTHOR: 

'" The Centre of the World—a Grazn of Sand." 

DIRUSSDUASCU. 

To the Worthy and Christian Reader. 

ELOVED and pious reader, above all, ye who are Sons 

of Wisdom and the Doctrine, some years ago Almighty 

God, in answer to my daily prayers, opened my eyes by 

the light of His Holy Spirit (Who was sent us through 

Christ by the Father, and from Whom we receive all wisdom), and 
enabled me to discover the True Centre in the Centre ofthe 
Triangle and the one true Matter of the precious Philosopher's 
Stone, so that I now hold it in my hands; but it took me five 
years longer to discover how the blood of the Red Lion and the 
glue of the White Eagle were to be extracted, and how these 
were to be mixed in their natural proportions, enclosed, sealed, 
and committed to the secret fire. — Nor did I even then find the 
arcanum without constant and untiring application. — I have, 
indeed, studied the writings, parables, and various figures of the 
philosophers with singular industry, and laboured hard to solve 
their manifold wonderful enigmas, most of which are simply the 
vain products of their imaginations. It was long before 
experience taught me that all their obscure verbiage and high 
pretensions are mere folly and empty phantasms (as is amply 
testified by our leading Sages) "Then I understood that their 
preparations (of which we read in Geber, Albertus Magnus, and 
others), their purgations, sublimations, cementations, distillations, 
rectifications, circulations, putrefactions, conjunctions, solutions, 
coagulations, calcinations, incinerations, mortifications, revivifica- 
tions, &c., as also their tripods, athanors (furnaces), reverberatory 
alembics, excrements of horses, ashes, sand, stills, pelican-violas, 
retorts, fixatories, &c., are mere plausible impostures and frauds. 
This must be apparent to any one who considers the truth ofthe 
matter. Nature, who, in her noble simplicity, delights in her own 

34 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

proper substance, knows nothing of these futilities. — Hence 
"Theophrastus (Sec. Mag. de Phil. Lap.) rightly says of those who 
seek the substance of the Stone in wine, imperfect bodies, blood, 
bismuth, mercury, sulphur, wine, dung, orpiment, and in plants, 
as chelidonia, hyssop, ivy, &c., that they are full of lies and 
thievery—deceiving the credulous, milking their purses dry, and, 
as to the rest, following their own foolish fancies, that are quite 
unable to realise the requirements of Nature. (Tell menow who 
will help me with the minerals of the earth, distillations of water, 
&c.?) Some of them take new wine and urine for the purpose of 
changing them into metals. To hear them talk, you might sup- 
pose all that is sold at the apothecaries to be good for metals. 
Thou foolish man, dost thou not perceive that none of these 
things have anything to do with them ? 

You might as well try to sever Nature, as endeavour to make 
metals out of blood. Make a man out of a horse, or a milch cow 
out of a mouse : this would be according to the same method of 
multiplication. Art cannot change or overstep the natural order 
of the universe. Ifa woman bring forth a male child, you can- 
not change him into alittle girl. From this rule, which evidently 
obtains throughout Nature, any sane person may gather where, 
and how, we must look for, and find, our Blessed Matter. 
But let no one imagine, or suffer any quack to delude him into 
the belief, that he has all that he requires when the substance 
has been made known to him either by God, or by one of the 
initiated. Let him not suppose that the solution and purification 
are a very simple matter. He could fall into no more serious 
mistake. He has scarcely got beyond the most elementary stage 
of his task. Let me once more tell him that I spent five entire 
years, after discovering the true Matter of the Stone, in the 
search after the right method of manipulating it, until at length, 
in the sixth year, the key of power was entrusted to me by the 
secret revelation of the most High God. "That same key the 
ancient Patriarchs, Prophets, and Sages have always kept secret. 
* For i£" says Monarcha, in a certain passage, "they had 
described it in an universally intelligible manner, and placed it 
within the reach of every labourer and porter, it would have been 
a great theft, and no true mystery ; moreover, many evils would 
arise from such a profanation of the arcanum, which would also 

Y om rmm REM 

dieetibu iu qui a, 

| 
i 

| 
1 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. ss 

be manifestly contrary to God's will." For these and other reasons 
(which I have stated in the Epilogue), lest I should seem to be 
hiding the talent committed to me by God, I have in this my 
* Golden Age Come Back " (as far as Nature and God allow) 
revealed the Great Mystery of the Sages, which, through the grace 
of God, I have seen with these eyes, and handled with these 
hands. "The just and pious reader will regard my undertaking 
with a kindly eye, and not suffer seeming contradictions to mis- 
lead him: the theory of and practice of this Art, and the laws 
which obtain in the Republic of the Chemists, forbade me to 
write more openly or plainly. Ihope and trust that, neverthe- 
less, all who look upon this book with the eyes of the mind, pore 
over it by day and by night, and pray to God from the bottom 
of their hearts, will, together with me, enjoy the wonderful 
hidden fruits of philosophy. In this way the Brethren of the 
true Golden Cross, and the elect members of the philosophic 
communion, are and remain joined together in a great confeder- 
ation. 

In conclusion, that the learned and worthy Christian reader 
may know my Christian name and my surname, I will remove 
every cause of complaint by making it known in the following 
manner. Let all and sundry be certified that the number of my 
name is I6I3: by this number my whole name is written in the 
book of Nature with two dead ones, and seven living ones. After 
that, the letter 5 is the fifth part of B, and 15 the fifth part of 12. 
With this information you must be satisfied. Written at 
Taunenberg, March 23rd, 1622. 

Epigram to the Sons of Wisdom and the Doctrine. 

I have sought ; I have found ; I have often purified ; and 
I have joined together; I have matured it: Then the golden 
tincture has followed, which is called the Centre of Nature 
(heuce so many opinions, so many books, so many parables). 
It is the Remedy, I openly declare it, for all metals, and for all 
sick persons. "The solution is of God. 

HERMAN DATICHIUS, 
The Author's Famulus. 

£p c 
ME. 4 PRSE D "un o d 

"a 4- uw 3 
— ; E TIN LEA 
r i id 

- I y 3 A. : 1 T -— depo ht. E ? Per Lun it Lm XI Y " : 
" ERE IUEBNMRULMTL PETS r Pme mmu 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 

S I pondered in my mind the marvels of the Most

bours, which He laid upon us; I remembered the 
. wheat harvest, when Reuben, the son of Leah, found 
Dudaim in the field, which Leah gave to Rachel for the 
love of the Patriarch Jacob. "Then I was carried forward, 
being plunged in profound thought, to the time of Moses, 
who rendered potable the golden calf (which Aaron had 
formed) by reducing it to powder in the fire, throwing it into 
the water, and giving it the children of Israel to drink ; and I 
marvelled greatly at the wonderful and masterly destruction of 
the metal by the man of God. But when I reflected upon 
the matter, the truth was borne in upon my mind, and my eyes 
were opened like those of the disciples at Emmaus, who knew 
their Master in the breaking of bread ; and my heart burned 
within me. Then I retired to rest, that I might consider the 
matter further (on the morrow), and fell into a deep slumber ; 
when, behold, Solomon appeared to me in all his power, 
wealth, and glory, and with him came his whole harem: sixty 
were queens, eight hundred concubines, and of virgins 
there was a countless number. One of them was his most 
beautiful dove, and was dearest to his heart. They formed a 
procession according to the Catholic rite, in the centre of which 
was one greatly praised and beloved, whose name was like oint- 
ment poured out, and whose fragrance was sweeter than that of 
spices ; the fiery spirit of this person was the Key for the 
opening of the Temple, for entering the Holy of Holies, and 
taking hold on the horns of the Altar. 
When the procession had been performed in the manner 
aforesaid, Solomon shewed me the One Centre in the Triangle 

58 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

of the Centre, and opened my understanding. "Then I observed 
that a woman stood behind me, who had bared her breast, from 
a deep wound in which blood and water gushed forth. Her 
thighs were like two half-moons, made by the Master; her navel 
was like a round goblet; her belly like a heap of wheat, set 
about with roses; her breasts like two young roes that are 
twins ; her neck like a tower of ivory ; her eyes like the fish- 
pools in Heshbon, by the Gate of Bathrabbim ; her nose like 
the Tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus ; 
her head like Carmel, and the hair of her head like royal 
purple. Her garments, which were rancid, ill-savoured, and full 
of venom, lay at her feet, whither she had cast them ; and at 
length she broke forth into these words: *I have put off my 
coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how 
shall I dele them ? — The watchmen that went about the 
city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; they 
took away my veil from me." "Thereupon I fell to the ground 
with great and ignorant terror. But Solomon bade me rise, 
and said : * Fear not ; for you see Nature bared, and the most 
secret of all secrets that is found beneath the sky and earth : 
She is beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an 
army with banners—and nevertheless the pure and chaste virgin 
of whom Adam was formed and created. The entrance of 
her tabernacle is sealed. She lives in gardens, sleeps in the 
double cave of Abraham, in the field of Hebron, and her 
palace is in the depths of the Red Sea, and in transparent 
caverns. "The air bare her, the fire nourished her: therefore 
she is the Queen of the earth, and has honey and 
milk in her breasts; her lips are as a dropping honey- 
comb ; honey and milk are under her tongue ; and the smell of 
her garments is to the wise like the smell of Lebanon—but to 
the ignorant an abomination. ^ And Solomon said further : 
* Awake, and see my whole harem, and say what it is like." 
And straightway his whole harem was stripped naked. Yet 
could I not find or judge, and my eyes were sealed lest I should 
know the secret When Solomon saw my infirmity, he set 
that naked woman apart from the rest of the harem, and said : 
*'Thy thoughts are vain, and thy mind is sunburnt ; thy memory 
is shrouded in a thick mist, so that thou canst judge nothing 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 59 

rightly. But if thou art on the watch, and makest good use 
of thy present opportunity, the bloody sweat and snowy tears 
of this virgin will have power to restore thee, and to strengthen 
and clarify thy intellect and memory that thy eyes may see 
the secret wonders of the Most High, the height of the things 
above, the depth of the things beneath, and that thou mayst 
clearly understand the powers and operation of all Nature, and 
of the elements. "Thy intellect shall be silver, and thy memory 
golden. The colour of all precious stones shall appear before 
thy eyes; thou shalt know their birth, and separate the good 
from the bad, the sheep from the goats. "Thy life shall be peace, 
butthe bells of Aaron shall rouse thee from sleep, and the lyre 
of David, my father, from drowsiness" These words of 
Solomon awed and terrified me still more; in partl was 
adread at such emphatic speech, and in part also at the 
splendour and glory ofthe King's harem. But King Solomon 
seized my right hand, and led me through a wine cellar into a 
most splendid secret palace, where he refreshed me with flowers 
and apples. The windows were of transparent crystal, and I 
gazed through them.  Andhesaid: * What do you see?" I said : 
*[ see the former chamber whence we came, and on the left 
stands thy royal harem, and on the right naked virgins. Their 
eyes are redder than wine, and their teeth whiter than milk. 
But the garments that lie at their feet are fouler, blacker, and 
more unsightly than the river Kidron." .* Choose out one of 
these," said Solomon, *to be your love. I esteem the virgins 
even as my own harem. And the more their loveliness delights 
me, the less am I deterred by their foul garments" With this, 
the King turned himself and spoke most kindly to one of his 
queens. There was in the chamber a mistress of about a 
hundred years of age. She was arrayed in a grey robe, and 
had a black fillet on her head, that was embroidered with many 
brilliant jewels, and lined within with red, yellow, and blue silk ; 
her mantle was heavily ornamented with all kinds of Turkish 
and Indian colours and figures. This ancient woman nodded to me, 
and swore piously that she was the mother of that naked virgin, 
and that she was a pure, chaste, and sealed virgin, who had 
never before suffered the eye of man to dwell upon her, nor had 
any one ever touched her. She was the virgin of whom the 

60 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Prophet had spoken: *Behold, we have a secret son, who 
with others has been changed.  Behold,a virgin has conceived, 
the virgin that is called Apdorossa, that is, the sealed one, who 
suffers not others." Because her daughter was still unmarried, 
she had concealed her dowry beneath her feet, lest in the present 
war she should be deprived of her wealth by soldiers. But 
I was not to be deterred by her foul garments, but to 
choose her daughter from among all the rest for my beloved 
one, and the pleasure of my life. IfIdid so she would give mea 
lye with which I could cleanse her garments. Moreover, with her 
hand I should receive the flowing salt, the incombustible oil, and 
an inestimable treasure. ^ She was about to declare this to 
me more in detail, when Solomon turned round, looked askance at 
me, and said : * I am the wisest of men, and my pleasant harem 
and the glory and the beauty of my queens excel the gold of 
Ophir. The ornaments of my concubines shame the rays of the 
sun, and the beauty of my virgins the light of the moon. My 
virgins are heavenly, my wisdom inscrutable, my mind past 
finding out." 

Then I answered, while I bowed down to the ground with 
awe: * Behold, if I have found grace in your eyes—for I am 
lowly—give me that naked virgein whom I have chosen from 
among all, to preserve my life. Her garments are old, defiled, 
and foul, but I will purge them, and love her with all my heart. 
Let her be my sister, my spouse, since one glance of her eyes 
has stolen away my heart, and I am sick with love for her." 
On hearing this Solomon straightway gave her to me. With 
that there arose a tumult in the harem, which roused me from my 
sleep, Now I knew not what had happened to me; but I 
took it for some dream, and thereupon until the light dawned I 
was full of subtle thoughts. But when I had risen, and poured 
forth my prayers, behold, I saw the garments of the naked virgin 
lying by my bedside, and when I saw not her, my hair stood on 
end, and I was covered with a cold perspiration. But I took 
heart and recalled my dream, and endeavoured to remember 
whether it had been real or not. But seeing that my pondering 
could explain nothing, I would by no means look again upon the 
garments, much less did I dare to touch them. So I changed 
my chamber, and, out of sheer ignorance, left those garments 

ZOEDB GS QUSE AN OE RESTORE. 61 

lying there a long time. For I feared that if I touched them or 
turned them over, something remarkable would happen to me. 
Now the poisonous odour of the garments which I had inhaled 
in my sleep was so sickening that my eyes could not see the 
time of grace, or my heart understand the great wisdom of 
Solomon. 

After the garments had lain five years in the chamber, I at 
length determined to throw them into the fire, and change my 
dwelling. In the night after I had formed this resolution, that 
ancient woman appeared to me in a dream,and rebuked with 
the following angry words: '" Most ungrateful of mortals, the 
garments of my daughter, beneath which lie concealed those 
priceless jewels, have now been committed to thee for more than 
five years. Yet in all that time thou hast not cleansed or puri- 
fied them, and now thou thinkest to burn them ; is it not enough 
that thou art the cause of my daughters death?" Then I 
answered, wrathfullyi: * How am I to understand thy words? 
Wouldst thou make me out to be a robber, though during those 
five years I have never seen thy daughter, or heard a syllable 
about her? How can I possibly be the cause of her death?" 
Here she took me up: * All this is true. Nevertheless thou 
hast sinned grievously against God, and on that account hast 
not received from me my daughter, or the lye of the Sages 
wherewith to cleanse her garments. For since thou wert from 
the very first horrified at the sight of my daughter's garments, 
the planet Saturn, her grandfather, was wroth, and changed 
her into what she was before her birth ^ Moreover, thou 
hast offended him by despising her, and being the cause of 
her death, corruption, and final destruction. She it is of whom 
Senior thus speaks: *Woe, woe unto me! Bring me a naked 
woman, while my body was yet invisible, and I had not 
yet become a mother, till I should be born a second time; 
then I brought forth all the strength of the vegetable 
roots, and carried off the victory in my essence'" These 
words sounded strange and mysterious to me, yet I 
manfully repressed my wrath, and solemnly protested that I 
knew nothing of her daughter's decease, and certainly had not 
been the cause of her death, corruption, and destruction ; thatI 
had kept her garments five years in my chamber, but had been 

62 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

prevented by my great blindness from understanding their use ; 
and that I felt innocent before God and men. | My excuse satis- 
fied the ancient woman ; she looked kindly at me, and said : *I 
see that thy conscience is pure from guilt, and for thy innocence 
thou shalt receive a great reward. Therefore, I will reveal to thce 
this matter faithfully, but secretly. My daughter, for the great 
love she bare thee, has left thee under her garments a grey box 
wrapped in a thick, black, mouldy cloth." With this she gave me a 
glass bottle full of lye, and continued : * Purge that box well of 
the dirt and bad smell with which the garments have infected it, 
and then thou shalt want no key, but the box will open of its 
own accord, and in it thou shalt find two things, viz, a white 
silver casket full of polished diamonds, and a rich robe inter- 
tissued with precious solar jasper stones. ^ All these treasures 
belonged to my dear daughter, and she left them all to thee before 
she was transtormed and perished. If thou wilt skilfully trans- 
pose this treasure, carefully purify it, and silently and patiently 
place it in some warm, moist, vaporous, and transparent chamber, 
and guard it there from cold, wind, hail, swift lightning, and all 
outward injury, till the. season of the wheat harvest, thou shalt 
perceive and behold the great glory and beauty of thine heritage." 

When she had thus spoken, I awoke, and devoutly prayed 
that God might grant me wisdom to find the box which had been 
described to me in my dream. Then I instituted a careful search 
among the garments, and was soon rewarded with success ; but 
the cloth in which the box was wrapped was so hard and so firmly 
glued to it that I could not tear it off ; moreover, I could not 
cleanse it with lye, or cut it with iron, steel, or any other 
metal So I did not know what in all the world I should do, and 
began to think that it was a poisoned cloth, and to call to mind 
the saying of the Prophet: * Though thou wash thee with nitre 
and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, 
saith the Lord God." 

So another year passed away, and stillall my patient toil and 
thought had met with no success. Atlast, to drive away melan- 
choly, I took a walk in a certain garden ; and, after some time, I 
sat down upon a stone and fell into a deep sleep. I slept, but my 
heart waked. Then the ancient woman appeared to me once 
more, and said: * Have you entered upon the heritage of my 

—-———— 

Tel -—-— — 

Dire M e orum UEM AM 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 63 

daughter?" I sorrowfully replied, *I did indeed find the box, 
but I cannot remove the cloth, nor will the lye that thou gavest 
me avail to soften it" ^ Then she laughed at my simplicity, and 
said: '* Dost thou try to eat oysters or crabs in their shells? 
Must they not first be prepared by the ancient cook of the planets? 
I told thee to purify the grey box with the lye I gave thee, but 
not the cloth which is wrapped round it. The latter thou 
shouldest first have burned with thefire of the Sages." For this 
purpose she gave me some glowing coals, wrapped in a silk cloth, 
from which I was to obtain the subtle fire of the Sages, and told 
me that if with this fire ! burned away the cloth I should get at 
the box. When she had ended, straightway there arose a north 
and south wind, and blew through the garden. "Then I awoke 
again, shook off sleep, and beheld the glowing coals lying at my 
feet. I took them up with a grateful heart, and began to work 
day and night, remembering the saying of the Sages : * Fire and 
Azoth are sufficient for thee " ; and the passage in Esdras (Bk. iv.) : 
* And he gave me a goblet filled with fire, and when I had drunk 
it wisdom grew in me ; and God granted me understanding, and 
my spirit was preserved, and my mouth opened, but nothing else 
was added." After forty nights I had finished 204 books, of 
which seventy were worthy to be read by the most wise, and 
were written upon box tablets. I thus continued in silence and 
hope, as that ancient woman had bidden me do, until at last, 
after a long time, my understanding, in fulfilment of Solomon's 
prophecy, became silver, and my memory gold. 

When, in obedience to the directions of the ancient lady, 
I had skilfully placed the treasure of her daughter in a chamber 
by itself, and closed it up, I gazed upon those brilliant lunar 
diamonds, and solar rubies, and understood the meaning of 
Solomon when he says: * My Beloved is white and ruddy, the 
chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, 
his locks are bushy, and black as a raven ; his eyes are as the 
eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly 
set; his cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers ; his lips 
like roses dropping fragrant myrrh ; his hands are as gold rings 
set with the beryl; his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with 
sapphires; his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of 
fine gold ; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the 

64 JHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

cedars ; his mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. 
This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O ye daughters of 
Jerusalem. Hold him, and suffer him not to go, till I have 
brought him into my mothers house, into my mother's 
chamber." 

'To these words of Solomon I could find no answer, and had 
already determined to take the treasure out of the chamber that 
I might at length enjoy quietness and peace, when I happened 
upon this other passage: *I charge you, O ye daughters of 
Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir 
not up nor awake my love till he please. She is a garden 
enclosed ; a spring shut up; a fountain sealed ; a vineyard at 
Baal-hamon ; a vineyard at Engedi ; an orchard ; a spice garden ; 
a hill of myrrh; a mountain of incense; a bed; a crown; a 
palm tree ; a rose of Sharon ; a sapphire ; a beryl stone ; a wall ; 
a tower, and battlement ; a garden of herbs; a fountain in a 
garden; a spring of living waters; a daughter of princes, and 
the pleasant love of Solomon ; she dearly loves her mother, and 
is her mother's chosen one; her head is full of dew, and her 
locks wet with the drops of night." 

'These words enlightened me, and shewed unto me the aim of 
the wise: wherefore I patiently left the treasure in the chamber, 
and waited till through God's mercy all should have been happily 
perfected by the operation of Nature, and the labour of my 
hands. 

Shortly afterwards, on the day of the new moon, an eclipse 
of the sun was seen, which was terrible to behold, for it began 
with a misty greenness, somewhat shot over with other colours, 
but it was followed by entire blackness; all heaven and earth 
were shrouded in thick darkness, and men were full of fear, but 
I rejoiced. For I remembered God's great mercy, and the 
Mystery of Regeneration, as Christ Himself told us that 
unless a grain of wheat was cast into the earth, and de- 
composed, it could bring forth no fruit | Now it happened 
that the eclipse was covered by clouds, and the sun began to 
shine, but as yet three-fourths of it were darkened. And, 
behold, an arm held out from the clouds a letter sealed at the 
four corners, on which was written : * I am black, but comely, O 
daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the 

———rn 

——— PER 

Jc -——————— 

" " : 
pes. MVP v aep e b, 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 65 

curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, 
and burnt by the sun." Then there was seen a rainbow, and I 
remembered the Covenant of the Most High, and the faithful- 
ness of my Teacher, and, behold, by the help of the planets and 
the fixed stars, the sun at last overcame the eclipse, and shone 
out once more in perfect brightness upon the mountains and 
valleys. Then allfear and terror were at an end, and all that 
had seen that day rejoiced in the Lord, and said: * Lo, the 
winter is past, the rain is overand gone; the flowers appear 
on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the 
voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth 
forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give 
a good smell Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the 
vines, that we may gather the ripe grapes and drink wine, and 
be satisfied in due season with milk and the honeycomb." At 
the approach of evening the sky changed its aspect, and the 
Seven Stars rose with a lurid light, till, having completed their 
natural course, they paled and vanished before the Redness of 
the Sun. And, behold, the wise that dwelt upon earth awoke 
from their sleep, and gazed up to heaven, and said : ** Who is it 
that bursts forth like the Dawn, beautiful like the Moon, mighty 
like the Sun, in whom there appears no spot? his fervour is 
kindled, and the flame ofthe Lord: Many waters cannot quench 
love, neither can the floods drown it. "Therefore, we will not 
forsake her ; she is our sister, though she be small, and have no 
breasts. We will take her back to the house of her mother, into 
the transparent palace where she was before, that by sucking the 
breasts of her mother, she may become great like the tower of 
David, strengthened with battlements, on which hang a thousand 
shields and all the weapons of the strong. When she went 
forth the daughters called her blessed, the Queen and the 
concubines praised her." But I knelt down, and returned thanks 
to God, and glorified His Holy Name. 

EPILOGUE. 

And now, my beloved Sons of Wisdom and the Doctrine, 
herein is the great Mystery of the Sages, in all the power and 
glory thereof, and the Revelation of the Spirit, concerning 

E 

66 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Whom the prince and monarch Theophrastus has these words, in 
his Apocalypse of Hermes : * He is the only God, and holds the 
whole world together; through Him alone can we be true, and 
truly vanquish the Elements, and obtain the Quintessence. No 
eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered into the 
heart of any man to conceive that which is in the mind of this 
Spirit of Truth. In Him alone is truth, and through Him alone 
Adam and the other patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were 
enabled to secure constant health, and a long life, and to provide 
for themselves great wealth. Through this Spirit the Seven Sages 
invented the Arts, and gained riches. ^ With His aid Noah 
built the Ark, Solomon the Temple, and Moses the Tabernacle ; 
through Him vessels of pure gold were borne into the Temple; 
through Him Solomon gained his excellent knowledge, and per- 
formed mighty deeds. He enabled Ezra to restore the Law ; 
Miriam, sister of Moses, to exercise liberality ; and the Prophets 
of the Old Covenant to predict the future. He is the Sanctifica- 
tion and Healing of all things, the highest knowledge, the 
ultimate Mystery of Nature, that is to say, the Spirit of the 
Lord, Who fills the whole universe, and Who brooded over the 
waters in the beginning—without Whose secret teaching 
the world cannot be understood, and Whom the whole 
world desires on account of His power, while the Saints 
have sought and longed ardently to see Him from the 
beginning of the world. For He dwells in the seven 
Planets, raises the clouds, dispels the mist, gives light to all 
things, changes everything into gold and silver, imparts all 
health, abundance, and treasure, heals the leper, cures dropsy 
and gout, prolongs life, comforts the sorrowful, restores health to 
the sick, removes all defects, and, in short, is the Mystery of all 
mysteries, the Arcanum of all arcana, the true healing and 
Medicine of all things. He gives the desired knowledge, and is 
the best of all sublunar things, by which Nature is strengthened, 
and the heart with all the members renewed, the flower of youth 
kept fresh, old age driven away, diseases destroyed, and the 
whole earth renewed. His Nature is unsearchable, His power 
infinite, His excellence and glory unapproachable. 

* Moreover, this Spirit presides over all heavenly things, 
gives health, fortune, joy, peace, love, destroys every evil after 

-5 

THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 67 

its kind, puts an. end to poverty and misery, renders men 
incapable of doing, saying, or thinking any evil, and gives to the 
godly temporal felicity, but to the wicked who abuse it, eternal 
punishment." 

And thus, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, we will, in 
these few words, conclude our exposition of the Great Mystery of 
the Most Precious Philosophical Stone, and of the Arcanum of 
the Sages. To the Most High and Almighty God, the Creator 
of this Art, Whom it hath pleased to reveal to me, wretched, sin- 
ful man (in answer to my prayer), this most precious knowledge, 
be eternal praise, glory, honour, and thanksgiving ; and to Him 
be addressed a most humble and fervent prayer that He may so 
direct my heart and mind, that I may not speak of this Mystery, 
or make it known to the wicked, lest I be found unmindful of my 
Vow, a Breaker of the Heavenly Seal, a perjured Brother of the 
Golden Cross, and guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost. 
From this may God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Holy Ghost, the Blessed and Indivisible Trinity, in mercy 
PRESERVE ME. Amen, Amen, Amen. 

E2 

TS 

a 

THE -SOPEHTC M VDROLLTED: 

OR, 

WATER STONE OP THEB WISE; 

THAT IS, A CHYMICAL WORE, IN WHICH THE WAY IS SHEWN, 
THE MATTER NAMED, AND THE PROCESS DESCRIBED ; 
NAMELY, THE METHOD OF OBTAINING THE 
UNIVERSAL TINCTURE. 

NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME. 

PRINTED AT THE PUBLIC COST FOR THE ADVANTAGE OF THE PUBLIC. 

A BRIEF EXPOSITION 
OF THE 
WONDERFUL WATER STONE OF THE WISE, 

COMMONLY CALLED 

TDERE) PLHTIPEOSOPHEBERS STONB: 

ROM the beginning of the world, there have always

and wise Gentiles who diligently studied the nature 
and properties of the lower Creation. They laboriously 

endeavoured and fervently longed to discover whether Nature 
contained anything that would preserve our earthly body from 
decay and death, and maintain it in perpetual health and vigour. 
For by the light of Nature, and Divine revelation, they intuitively 
perceived that the Almighty, in His love to men, must have con- 
cealed in the world some wonderful arcanum by which every 
imperfect, diseased, and defective thing in the whole world might 
be renewed, and restored to its former vigour. 

By the most diligent and careful search they gradually 
found out that there was nothing in this world that could procure 
for our earthly and corruptible body immunity from 4eazZ, since 
death was laid upon the Protoplasts, Adam and Eve, and their 
posterity, as a perpetual penalty. But they did discover oze 
thing which, being itself incorruptible, has been ordained of God 
for the good of man, to remove disease, to cure all imperfection, 
to purge old age, and to prolong our brief life—a boon actually 
enjoyed by the Patriarchs. 

This wonderful remedy was industriously sought by the 
wise and understanding, until they discovered it, and its precious 
virtue. Thus, the Patriarchs used it to restore their bodily 

72 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

vigour, and prolong their lives; and it was no doubt revealed by 
God to Adam, our thrice great parent, who bequeathed the secret 
to all the Patriarchs who were his descendants, who thereby pro- 
cured for themselves length of days and boundless wealth. 
When the aforesaid Gentiles had received this knowledge, they 
justly regarded it as a most precious gift of God, and a most 
holy Art, and forasmuch as they perceived that, by God's 
providence, it had been revealed only to a few, and concealed 
from the majority of mankind, they always made it a point of 
conscience and honour to keep it secret. 

But that the secret might not be lost, but rather continued 
and preserved to posterity, they expounded it most faithfully, 
both in their writings and in oral teaching to their faithful 
disciples, for the benefit of posterity ; nevertheless, they so 
clothed and concealed the truth in allegorical language that 
even now only very few are able to understand their instruction 
and turn it to practical account. For this practice they had a 
very good reason; they wished to force those who seek this 
wisdom to feel their dependence on God (in Whose hand are all 
things) to obtain it through instant prayer, and, when it has 
been revealed to them, to give all the glory to Him. Moreover, 
they did not wish the pearls to be cast before swine. For they 
knew that if it were made known to the wicked world, men 
would greedily desire nothing but this one thing, neglect all 
labour, and give themselves up to a dissolute and degraded life. 

But although the said philosophers have treated this subject 
with so great a variety of method, and used many peculiar and 
singular expressions, curious parables, and strange and fanciful 
words, yet they all agree in pointing out the same goal, and one 
and the same Matter as essential to the right conduct of the Art. 
Nevertheless, many students of the Art have entirely missed 
their meaning, and the secret Matter of which they speak. For 
at the present day there are (as there have always been) a large 
number not only of low charlatans, but of grave and learned men, 
who have sought this knowledge with unwearied industry, and 
yet have not been able to attain to it. Nay, some, angling with 
a golden hook, have utterly ruined themselves, and have been 
compelled to abandon their search in despair. "Therefore, lest 
anyone should doubt the existence of this secret Art, or, after the 

(ipe 

VAZURINSQUOEDI C TEIPVAQUE ITE 71 

manner of this wicked world, look upon it as a mere figment, I 
will enumerate some of the true Sages (besides those named in 
Holy Scripture) who really knew this Art, in the natural order 
of their succession. They are Hermes Trismegistus, Pytha- 
goras, Alexander the Great, Plato, Theophrastus, Avicenna, 
Galen, Hippocrates, Lucian, Longanus, Rasis, Archelaus, 
Rupescissa, the Author of the (Great Rosary, Mary the 
Prophetess, Dionysius, Zachaire, Haly, Morienus, Calid, Con- 
stantius, Serapion, Albertus Magnus, Estrod, Arnold de Villa 
Nova, Geber, Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, Alan, Thomas 
Aquinas, Marcellus Palingenius; and, among moderns, Bernard 
of Trevisa, Frater Basil Valentinus, Phillip Theophrastus (z.e., 
Paracelsus), and many others. Nor is there any doubt that, 
among our own contemporaries, there might be found some, who, 
through the grace of God, daily enjoy this arcanum, though they 
keep it a close secret from the world. But, side by side with 
these great Sages who have written truly and uprightly con- 
cerning this Magistery, there are found many charlatans and 
imposters who falsely pretend to have a knowledge of this Art, 
and, by tricking out their lies in the phraseology of the Sages, 
throw dust into men's eyes, make their mouths water, and at 
length fail to make good their promises. Their dupes should 
well ponder the following warning: * Trust not him who 
distills gold out of your money-box. If you are wise you will 
be on your guard against such. If you would not suffer 
both loss and mockery, beware of these dishonest charlatans. 
Follow those who are simple, straightforward, and modest. He 
who has the good, enjoys it in silence" But where are you to 
find such? *Seek the good; you may know them by their 
excelling the rest in weight, matter, and performance" | Now, 
since there are many students of this Art who would fain learn its 
secret by a true and straight path, and are yet so bewildered 
by these impostors and charlatans, by their empty talk and their 
high pretensions, that they do not know which way to turn: 
therefore I have determined briefly to expound the true prin- 
ciples of this Art. For though I account myself unworthy to 
speak of so great a Mystery, yet I may say, without any self- 
glorification, that, through the grace of God, I have made greater 
progress in this Magistery than most; and I consider it as my 

74 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

duty not to hide the talent which my Lord and Master, the 
great and good God, has committed to my unworthy keeping. 
For this reason I am willing to show the right way, by which 
they may attain a true knowledge of this subject, to all lovers 
of chemistry, and have put forth this Brief Epitome and Declar- 
ation of the Whole Art (so far as it may be committed to 
writing), in the hope that through my means, God may perchance 
open the eyes of some, and lead them back from their precon- 
ceived notions to the right path, and so manifest to them His 
mighty works. For the greater convenience of the reader I 
will divide the work into four parts. 

In the First part I will set forth the rudiments of the Art, 
and the best mode of preparing oneself for its study. 

In the Second I will shew and describe the quality and 
properties of the substance required, as also the method of its 
preparation and manipulation. 

In the Third something will be said concerning the great 
utility of the Art, and its unspeakable efficacy and virtue. 

In the Fourth will follow a Spiritual Allegory, in which this 
whole Magistery is set forth, being the true form of the 
Heavenly, Everlasting, and Blessed Corner Stone of the Most 
High. It will also contain a true, brief, and simple, practical 
manual of the method of proceeding, for I am no friend of many 
specious words. 

ID/ASESSTIE 

IDASMASITSMEONDE 

* Who is he that feavs the Lord ?. He will zustiruct him in 
the right path." 

In the first place, let every devout and God-fearing 
chemist and student of this Art consider that this arcanum 
should be regarded, not only as a truly great, but as a most 
holy Art (seeing that it typifies and shadows out the highest 
heavenly good) Therefore, if any man desire to reach this 
great and unspeakable Mystery, he must remember that it is 
obtained not by the might of man, but by the grace of God, and 

—O—" 

THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH. 75 

that not our will or desire, but only the mercy of the Most High, 
can bestow it upon us. For this reason you must first of all 
cleanse your heart,lift it to Him alone, and ask of Him this gift 
in true, earnest, and undoubting prayer. He alone can give and 
bestow it. 

If the omnipotent God, who is the unerring searcher of all 
hearts, should find in you uprightness, faithfulness, sincerity, and 
a desire to know this Art, not for any selfish end, but for His true 
honour and glory, He will doubtless hear your prayer (according 
to his promise), and so lead you by His Holy Spirit that you 
will begin to understand this art, and feel that this knowledge 
would never have entered your heart if the most gracious Lord 
had not answered your petition, and revealed to you the under- 
standing even of the most elementary principles. 

Then fall upon thy knees, and with a humble and con- 
trite heart render to Him the praise, honour, and glory due 
for the hearing of thy prayer, and ask Him again and again 
to continue to thee His grace, and to grant that, after attaining 
to ful and perfect knowledge of this profound Mystery, 
thou mayest be enabled to use it to the glory and honour 
of His most Holy Name, and for the good of thy suffering 
fellow men. 

. Moreover, as you love your soul, beware of revealing the 
Mystery to any unworthy or wicked man, even in the smallest 
particular, or by making him in any sense a partaker thereof. 
If you in any way abuse the gift of God, or use it for your own 
glorification, you will most certainly be called to account by the 
Almighty Giver, and you will think that it would have been 
better for you if you had never known it. 

When you have thus, as it were, devoted yourself to God 
(who is not mocked), and learned to appreciate justly the aim 
and scope of this Art, you should, in the first place, strive to realise 
how Nature, having been set in order by God the Triune, now 
works invisibly day by day, and moves and dwells in the will of 
God alone. For no one should set about the study ofthis Art with- 
out a just appreciation of natural processes. Now Nature may 
truly be described as being oze, true, simple, and perfect in her own 
essence, and as being animated by an invisible spirit. If there- 
lore you would know her, you, too, should be true, single-hearted, 

76 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

patient, constant, pious, forbearing, and, in short, a new and 
regenerate man. 

If you know yourself to be so constituted and your nature 
adapted to Nature, you will have an intuitive insight into her 
working, such as it would otherwise be impossible to obtain. 

For the study of this Art is such a perfect guide to excel- 
lence that a good knowledge of its principles will (as it were, 
against your will) hurry you on to an understanding of all the 
wonderful things of God, and teach you to rate all temporal and 
worldly things at their true value. But let not him who desires 
this knowledge for the purpose of procuring wealth and pleasure 
think that he will ever attain to it. "Therefore, let your 
mind and thoughts be turned away from all things earthly, and, 
as it were, created anew, and consecrated to God alone. For 
you should observe that these three, body, soul, and spirit, must 
work together in harmony if you are to bring your study of this 
Art to a prosperous issue, for unless the mind and heart of a 
man be governed by the same law which develops the whole 
work, such an one must indubitably err in the Art. 

When you are in inward harmony with God's world, out- 
ward conformity will not be wanting. Yet our artist can do 
nothing but sow, plant, and water: God must give the increase. 
Therefore, if any one be the enemy of God, all Nature declares 
war against him ; but to one who loves God, heaven and earth 
and all the elements must lend their assistance. If you bear 
these things in mind, and know the true First Matter (of which 
we shall speak later on) you may at once set about the practical 
part of this study, calling on God for grace, direction, and guid- 
ance, so that your work may be carried successfully through all 
its stages. 

EG GIEESUASINXSE 

* He that abides im the fear of. the Lord, and cleaves to His 
Word, and «waits faithfully on. His office, will transform tin and 
copper anto silver and gold, and will do great things with the. Áelp 
of God: yea, with the grace of Jehovah, he will have power to 
2uake gold out of. common vefuse." 

nm-—-— 

THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH. 77 

IP/ASRSDOSIUS 
ISAIAH XXVIII. 

* Therefore, thus. saith the Lord : Behold I lay in Zion for a 
foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner Stone, a 
sure foundation. .He that has st shall not be confounded." 

The numerous writers on our most noble Art have never 
wearied of singing its praises, and inventing for it new and 
glorious names. ts most precious object they have called the 
PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, or the most ancient, secret, 
natural, incomprehensible, heavenly, blessed, beatified, and 
triune universal Stone of the Sages. Their reason for naming 
it a stone, or likening it to a stone, was this: First because its 
original Matter is really a kind of stone, which, being hard and 
solid like a stone, may be pounded, reduced to powder, and 
resolved into its three elements (which Nature herself has joined 
together), and then again may be re-combined into a solid stone 
of the fusibility of wax by the skilled hand of the artist adjusting 
the law of Nature. 

The importance of starting with an exact knowledge of 
the first or otherwise the second Matter of the Philosophical Stone 
has been largely dwelt upon by all writers on this subject. 
This Matter is found in one thing, out of which alone 
our Stone is prepared (although it is called by a thousand 
names), without any foreign admixture ; and its quality, 
appearance, and properties have been set forth in the 
following manner. It is composed of three things, yet it is only 
one. Likewise, having been created and made of one, two, three, 
four, and five, it is everywhere found in one and two. "They also 
call it the universal Magnesia, or the seed of the world, from 
which all natural objects take their origin. Its properties are of 
a singular kind ; for, in addition to its marvellous nature and 
form, it is neither hot and dry like fire, nor cold and wet like 
water, nor cold and dry like earth, but a perfect preparation of 
all the elements. Its body is incorruptible, and is not destroyed by 
any of the four elements, but its properties far exceed 
those of the four elements, and the four qualities, like heaven and 
the Quintessence. With respect to its outward appearance, 

78 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

figure, form, and shape, they call it a stone, and not a stone ; 
they liken it to gum and white water, and to the water of the 
Ocean. It is named the water of life, the purest and most 
blessed water, yet not the water of the clouds, or of any common 
spring, but a thick, permanent, salt, and (in a certain sense) dry 
water, which wets not the hand, a slimy water which springs 
out of the fatness of the earth. Likewise, it is a double mercury 
and Azoth, which, being supported by the vapouror exudation of 
the greater and lesser heavenly and the earthly globe, cannot be 
consumed by fire. For itself is the universal and sparkling flame 
of the light of Nature, which has the heavenly Spirit in itself, 
with which it was animated at first by God, Who pervades all 
things, and is called by Avicenna, the Soul of the world. For as 
the soul lives and moves in all the members of the body, 
so that spirit lives and moves in all elementary creatures, and is 
the indissoluble bond of body and soul, the purest and most 
noble essence in which lie hid all mysteries in their inexhaustible 
fulness of marvellous virtue and efficacy. Moreover, they 
ascribe to it infinite Divine power and virtue when they say 
thatit is the Spirit of the Lord who fills the Universe, and in 
the beginning moved upon the face of the waters. "They also 
call it the spirit of truth that is hid in the world, and cannot be 
understood without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or the 
teaching of those who know it. It is found fezezza//y every- 
where, and in everything, but in all its perfection and fulness 
only in oze thing. In short, it is a Spiritual Essence which is 
neither celestial nor infernal, but an aérial, pure, and precious 
body, in the middle between the highest and lowest, the choicest 
and noblest thing under heaven. But by the ignorant and the 
beginner it is thought to be the vilest and meanest of things. It 
is sought by many Sages, and found by few; suspected by 
those that are far away, and received by those that are near ; 
seen by ali, but known by few, as you may see from the following 
lines : 

* Into three the great good is divided, yet it is oze, and 
highly esteemed by the world. Men have it before their eyes, 
handle it with.their hands, yet know it not, though they con- 
stantly tread it under their feet. It is the greatest wealth, and he 
who knows the Art may rival the richest." 

| 
| 

VENE S QUOTIQUEISVID A (QUPPIEI: 79 

AN ENIGMA OF THE SAGES, 

In which the underlying substance of the Art, called the 
Phoenix of the Sages, is found to be thrice threefold. 

** [f [ tell you three parts of a thing you have no cause to 
complain. Seek one of three, and of the three one will be there : 
for where there is body and soul, there is also Spirit, and there 
shine salt, sulphur, and mercury. Trust my word, seek the grass 
that is trefoil. "Thou knowest the name, and art wise and cun- 
ing if thou findest it." 

ANOTHER ENIGMA. 
(Much easier.) 

* There is one thing in this world which is found occasionally. 
It is bluish-grey and green, and, wonderful to say, there is in this 
thing a red and white colour. It flowslike water, yet it makes 
not wet ; itis of great weight, and of small. I might give it a 
thousand names, yet the thousand know it not. It is mean to 
look upon, yet to the Sage it is precious. He who solves it with 
the second and condenses it with the third, he has our glorious 
subject." 

YET ANOTHER ENIGMA,. 

Everthing contributes to the formation of this Stone. It is 
conceived below the earth, born in the earth, quickened in heaven, 
dies in time, obtains eternal glory. 

Now when you have the substance indicated (which is in 
part heavenly, in part earthly, and in its natural state a mere 
confused chaos without certain name or colour), and know it well 
(for this knowledge the Sages have always accounted the 
principal part of this work), then you must give your whole mind 
to manipulating it in the proper manner. But before doing any- 
thing to it with his hands, the student should remember not to 
begin the preparation of this great and inscrutable arcanum 
before he knows well the spirit that lurks in it according to its 
essential qualities and properties. ^ With this spirit," says a 
certain philosopher, * you should not meddle until you first have a 
full and exact knowledge of it. For God is marvellous in His 
works, and He is not mocked. . I could give some instances of 

80 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

men who set about this matter with great levity and were heavily 
punished by meeting (some of them) with fatal accidents in their 
laboratories, For this work is no light thing, as many suppose, 
perhaps, because the Sages have called it child's play. Those to 
whom God has revealed His secrets may indeed find the experi- 
ment simple and easy. But do thou carefully beware of expos- 
ing thyself to great danger by unseasonable carelessness. Rather 
begin thy work with reverent fear and awe and with earnest 
prayer, and then thou wilt be in little danger." 

Now when you have exercised yourself with exceeding 
diligence in the oratory, the matter being ready to your hand, go 
into the laboratory, take the substance indicated, and set to work 
in the following manner. 

Above all things you mustlet it be your first object to solve 
this substance (or first Entity, which the Sages have also called 
the highest natural good). Then it must be purged of its watery 
and earthy nature (for at first it appears an earthy, heavy, thick, 
slimy, and misty body), and all that is thick, nebulous, opaque, 
and dark in it must be removed, that thus, by a final sublima- 
tion, the heart and inner soul contained in it may be separated 
and reduced to a precious essence. 

All this can be accomplished with our Pontic and Catholic 
water, which in its refluent course irrigates and fertilizes the 
whole earth, and is sweet, beautiful, clear, limpid, and brighter 
than gold, silver, carbuncles, or diamonds. "This blessed water 
is enclosed and contained in our Matter. 

Then the extracted Heart, Soul, and Spirit must once more 
be distilled and condensed into oze by their own proper salt 
(which in the interior of the substance is first of a. blood-red 
colour, but then becomes of a bright, clear, and transparent 
white, and is called by the Sages the Salt of Wisdom). You have 
thus first, by what is called. the anterior process, separated the 
pure from the impure, and first rendered the visible invisible, 
then, again, the invisible visible or palpable (but yet no longer so 
gross and shapeless as it wasat first), and it is now a bright body 
with a pleasant, penetrating smell, and withal so subtle and 
ethereal that if it were not fixed it would evaporate and vanish 
away. Forthis reason the Sages call it mercurial water, or water 
of the sun, or mercury of the sun, or mercury of the wise. But 

IDERE SOPEIC. ETYDROJIATTET. 81 

so long asit remains in the aforesaid form it would, if used as a 
medicine, produce no good effect, but rather act as a poison. If, 
therefore, you wish to enjoy its glorious virtue, and manifold 
power, you must subject it to some further chemical processes. 

For this purpose you must diligently observe the working 
of Nature (extending over a considerable period of time), and 
strictly follow her guidance. When you have this knowledge, 
you should take two parts of the aforesaid prepared aqueous 
matter, and again three different parts. "The first two parts you 
should keep ; but to the three parts add another matter, viz., the 
most precious and divinely endowed Body of Gold, which is 
most intimately akin to the First Matter. Of this add one 
twelfth for the first fermentation; for both, the spiritual and 
heavenly prepared substance, and this earthly Body of Gold, 
must be joined together, and coagulated into oze body. 

But it should be noted that common gold is useless for this 
purpose, being unsuitable and dead. For though it has been 
declared by God the Omnipotent to be the most precious and 
beautiful of metals, yet so long as it lay hid in the mine its 
perfect growth and development was hindered. Daily use, 
moreover, blunts its indwelling powers, namely, sulphur, or its 
soul, and it is continually becoming mingled and defiled with 
other things that are foreign to its nature. Hence it becomes 
daily more and more unfit to be the subject of art. You must, 
therefore, seek to obtain gold which has a pure, living spirit, and 
of which the sulphur is not yet weakened and sophisticated, but 
is pure and clear (by passing through antimony, or by the 
heaven and sphere of Saturn, and being purged of all its defile- 
ment) : otherwise the first substance, being spiritual and ethereal, 
will not combine with it. For this Magistery deals only with 
pure bodies, and suffers no unclean thing near, on, or around it. 

Now when these unequal parts of the water and gold 
(differing not only in quality, but also in quantity, for the first is, 
after its preparation, ethereal, thin, subtle, and soft, while the 
other is very heavy, firm and hard) have been combined in a 
solutory alembic, and reduced to a dry liquid or amalgam, they 
should be left six or seven days exposed to gentle heat of at 
least a tepid character. Then take one part of the three parts of 
water, and pour it into a round, oval glass phial, similar to an 

F 

82 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

egg in shape; put the tempered liquid in the midst thereof, and 
leave it once more for six or seven days ; the Body of the Sun 
will then be gradually dissolved by the water. Thereupon both 
will begin to combine, and one will mingle with the other as 
gently and insensibly as ice with warm water. "This union the 
Sages have shadowed out in various ways, and likened it, for 
instance, to the wedlock of a bride and bridegroom (as in the 
Song of Solomon). When this is done, add the third part (which 
you have kept) to the rest, but not all at once, or in one day, but 
in seven different instalments : otherwise the Body would become 
too liquid, and entirely corrupted by too much moisture. 

For as seed, when cast into the ground, is destroyed and 
rendered useless by an excess of moisture and rain, so our work 
cannot prosper unless the water is judiciously administered. All 
this being done, let the phial be carefully closed and sealed, to 
prevent the compound from evaporating or losing its odour ; and 
place it in the furnace, there exposing it to a gentle, continuous, 
airy, vaporous, and well-tempered heat, resembling the degree 
of warmth with which the hen hatches her eggs. 

[NoTE.—The Sages have said much about vaporous fire, 
which they have called the fire of wisdom, which is not elemen- 
tary or material, but (according to them) essential and preter- 
natural. They also call it the Divine fire, Ze, the water of 
mercury, roused into action by common fire.]] Digest and heat 
it well, yet take care that none of it is sublimed, or, in the 
parabolic language of the Sages, that the wife does not rule the 
husband, and that the husband does not abuse his authority over 
the wife, &c.,—if you do this, the whole will proceed normally, 
without any interference on your part (except that, of course, 
you must keep up the fire). . At first the earthly Body of the Sun 
is totally solved, and decomposed, and robbed of all strength 
(the Body, which was first of a muddy impurity, changing to a 
coal-black colour, called by the Sages the Raven's Head, within 
the space of forty days), and is thus despoiled of its Soul. The 
Soul is borne upward, and the Body, being severed from the 
Soul,lies for some time, as if dead, at the bottom of the still, 
like ashes. But if the fire is increased, and well tempered, the 
Soul gradually descends again in drops, and saturates and 
moistens its Body, and so prevents it from being completely 

THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH. 83 

burned and consumed. Then, again, it ascends and descends, the 
process being repeated seven times. "The temperature you must 
keep at the same point from beginning to end. Haste slowly— 
for it is of the greatest importance that the influence of the fire 
should be brought to bear gently and gradually. In the mean- 
time you will observe various chemical changes (e, of colour) 
in the distilling vessel, to which you must pay careful attention. 
For if they appear in due order, it is a sign that your undertaking 
will be brought to a prosperous issue. 

First there appear granular bodies like fishes' eyes, then a 
circle around the substance, which is first reddish, then turns 
white, then green and yellow like a peacock's tail, then a dazzling 
white, and finally a deep red—until at last, under the rarefying 
influence of the fire, the Soul and Spirit are combined with their 
Body, that lies at the bottom, into a fixed and indissoluble 
Essence, which union and conjunction cannot be witnessed 
without unspeakable admiration and awe. "Then you will behold 
the revivified, quickened, perfected, and glorified Body, which is 
of a most beautiful purple colour (like cochineal), and its tincture 
has virtue to change, tinge, and cure every imperfect body, as 
we shall hereafter show more in detail. When thus, by the grace 
and help of God, you have happily attained the goal of your 
labours, and found the Phoenix of the Sages, you should once more 
return thanks to Him with your whole heart,and use His un- 
speakable gift solely for His glory, and for the advantage of your 
suffering brethren. Thus I have most faithfully explained to 
you the whole process by which this most noble Art; and highest 
achievement, to wit, the Egg of the Sages, or Philosopher's 
Stone, may be begun and successfully completed. 

If, however, during the operation, any accidental mishap 
should occur, it must be seen to in time, or else the chemical 
process will never be brought to perfection. If you (1) observe 
that before the compound is solved and turns black, anything is 
sublimed, or evaporated, or something resembling a red oil floats 
on the surface of the substance (which is a bad sign); or (2) if 
before or after it has turned white, it turns red too suddenly ; or 
(3) if, towards the end, it does not properly coagulate ; or (4) if 
the substance is so strongly affected by the heat that, being 
taken out, it does not instantly zze/7 on red Aot zron like cvax, but 

F2 

84 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

tinges and colours the iron, and afterwards will not remain fixed 
in the fire—you may regard all these indications as symptons 
of a false composition and temperature, or of some kind or other 
of carelessness. 

If these defects are not immediately seen to, they will 
speedily become incorrigible ^A cunning adept should be ac- 
quainted with the various devices by which they may be 
remedied; and I will recount them here for the sake of the 
beginner. 

If one or more of the above defects are observed, the whole 
compound must again be taken out of the phial, and once more 
solved in the aforesaid water of mercury (also called virgin's milk, 
or the milk,blood, and sweat ofthe First Matter,or the never-failing 
fountain, or the water of life, which nevertheless contains the 
most malignant poison); with this water it must once more be 
moistened and saturated, and then subjected to the action of the 
fire, until there is no longer any sublimation or formation of 
gaseous vapours; or till the final coagulation has duly taken 
place, as described above. Of its subsequent fermentation and 
multiplication, and of its uses, more will be said in the third part. 

Of the Zzze required for the whole process, it is impossible 
to say anything very definite ; and, indeed, the Sages have put 
forward the most conflicting opinions on this point—no doubt 
because some have been occupied with it longer than others. 
But ifany man will carefully observe the working of Nature, 
and be guided by her teaching, and in all things hold a middle 
course, he will gain his object sooner than one that trusts too 
blindly to his own wisdom. 

But I tell thee not to go beyond the middle point of the 
letter X either in the former or latter stage of the operation, 
but to take one half (V) for the time of the solution and the 
other half for the composition. "Then, again, for the final union, 
the number XX should be thy guide (unless anything unforeseen 
should occur) Be satisfied with that space of time. On the 
other hand, do not try to hurry on the consummation, for one 
hours mistake may throw thee back a whole month. If thou 
strivest unduly to shorten the time thou wilt produce an abortion. 
Many persons have, through their ignorance, or self-opinionated 
haste, obtained a Nihilixir instead of the hoped for Elixir. 

DEBE SQUE EV QU IET. 85 

In view of the importance of this magical science, I have 
thought it right to lay this before the sons of knowledge, for 
their careful consideration. 

RIDDLE. 

There are seven cities, seven metals, seven days, and the 
number seven; seven letters, seven words in order meet, seven 
times, and as many places; seven herbs, seven arts, and seven 
stones. Divide seven by three, and thou shalt be wise. No one 
will then strive to precipitate the half. In brief, all will proceed 
favourably in this number." 

In the following lines the whole Process is briefly described :— 

(L)—THE FIRST STAGE. 
* Dissolve your substance, and then let it be decomposed ; 
then let it be distilled, and once more condensed." 

(IL)— THE SECOND STAGE. 

*Combine two things, decompose them, let them become 
black. Digest them and change them to white by your skill ; at 
last let the compound change to a deep red, let it be 
coagulated, and fix it; and you will be a favoured man. f, 
afterwards, you cause it to ferment, you will have conducted 
the whole work prosperously. Then tinge therewith whatso- 
ever you will, and it will multiply to you infinite treasure." 

Or, more briefly, thus :— 
| * Seek three in one, again seek one in three.  Dissolve, and 
condense, and thou shalt be master of the Art." 

A Riddle in which also the Process is indicated :— 

* A spirit is given for a time to the body, and that spirit is 
thelife of a soul. Ifthe spirit draw the soul to itself, they are 
both severed from the body. "Then are there three abiding in 
the same place, until the precious body is dissolved, and is 
decomposed and dies. But after a time the spirit and the soul 
are brought back by gentle warmth, and hold once more their 
former seat. Then you have the essence; no perfection is 
wanting, and the work is glorified by a joyful end." 

PROov. XXIII. 

"* My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my 
ways." 

86 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 
D/AXSSTSTTEE 

Szrach xliii: '" Who has seen Him that he should tell of 
Him? Who can exalt Him according to His greatness? .We 
see but the smallest of His. svorks: those that are much greater 
are hidden from us. For God has made all, and gives under- 
standznge thereof to those that fear. Him." 

Concerning the end of this great Art, and the excellence, 
virtue, efficacy, and unspeakable utility of the marvellous 
Philosophers Stone, much has been written: yet has no 
one been able to tell out its thought-surpassing glory or 
to adequately set forth its fame. All Sages have regarded 
it as the chief felicity that this earth can afford, without 
which no one can attain perfection in this world. For 
Morienus says: * He who has this Stone has all, and needs no 
other help." For it includes all temporal felicity, bodily health, 
and solid good fortune. 

They have also commended the Stone for that the spirit 
and efficacy which lie concealed in it are the spirit of the Quint- 
essence of all things beneath the disc of the moon; on this 
account they say that it upholds the sky, and moves the sea. 
"They also describe it as the most elect, the most subtle, the 
purest, and noblest of all the heavenly spirits, to which all the 
rest yield obedience as to their King, that bestows on men all 
health and prosperity, heals all:diseases, gives to the God-fearing 
temporal honour and a long life, but to the wicked, who abuse 
it, eternal punishment. It is also extolled by the Sages because 
it has never been known to fail of effecting its purpose, but is 
found to be in all proved, perfect, and unerring. Therefore 
Hermes and Aristotle call it the true, undeceiving, and unfailing 
arcanum of all arcana, the Divine Virtue which is hidden from 
the foolish. In brief, they have designated it the chief of all 
things under heaven, the marvellous conclusion or epilogue 
of all philosophic works. Hence some devout Sages have 
affirmed that it was Divinely revealed to Adam, and by him 
handed down to all the holy Patriarchs. 

For by its aid Noah is said to have built the Ark, Moses 
the Tabernacle with all its golden vessels, and Solomon the 

H 

EAEOSQDPINOUTIVID SQUE, 87 

Temple, besides accomplishing many other great deeds, fashion- 
ing many precious ornaments, and procuring for himself long 
life and boundless riches. 

Moreover, the Sages own that through its means they 
invented the seven liberal arts, and sought and obtained suste- 
nance for themselves. God gave them this gift that they might 
not be hindered in their researches by poverty, or driven to flatter 
the rich for the sake of gain, and thus become contemptible, 
and as a jestor by-word in His sight. 

The Stone enabled them to discern the great mysteries 
of the Divine wonders, and the inexhaustible riches of the 
Divine Glory, By it their hearts were roused and stirred up 
toa more intimate knowledge of God. For they sought not to 
obtain great wealth, or the honour and pleasures of this world, 
butall their delight was to search out and contemplate the 
marvellous secrets of Nature. They regarded the works of God 
with very different eyes, and in a very different manner than 
most men in our own times, who, alas, look on them like cows 
or calves, and pursue the study of our noble Art for the sake of 
wealth, and temporal advantage and pleasure. But they will 
never find what they seek. For God gives not this gift to the 
wicked, who despise His word, but to the godly who strive to 
live honestly and quietly in this wicked and impure world, 
and to lend a helping hand to the needy brethern; or, in the 
words of the poet :— 

* God gives this Art to the sincere and good, nor can the 
world purchase it with all its gold. The vulgar know nothing 
of this Mystery, for if any man be impious, he seeks the Stone 
in vain. He who holds it in silence dwells where he would, and 
fears neither accidents, nor thieves, nor any evil. For this reason 
this sacred gift is granted to few: it is in the hands of God, and 
He gives it to whomsoever He will." 

Much has been said concerning the operation, virtue, and 
utility of this Art in a variety of writings which have heretofore 
seen the light, as, for example, unto what extent the said Stone, 
prepared and made more than perfect, becomes a medicine 
which is above every medicine. It has been denominated the 
universal panacea, to which not only all diseases yield (as, for 
instance, leprosy and gout) but by the use of which old men 

88 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

may become young again, recover their lost faculties, and their 
former strength, and by which those who are already half dead 
may be revivified and quickened. But, as I am no physician, I 
will forbear to give an opinion on this point. That the Stone 
has this virtue, every one that possesses it can discover for him- 
self I prefer to set down a few observations concerning those 
qualities and uses of the Stone which are known to me by daily 
experience. 

In the first place, the practice of this Art enables us to 
understand, not merely the marvels of Nature, but the nature of 
God Himself, in all its unspeakable glory. It shadows forth, in 
a wonderful manner, how man is the image of the most Holy 
Trinity, the essence of the Holy Trinity, and the Oneness of 
Substances in that Trinity, as well as the difference of Persons ; 
the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, His 
Nativity, Passion, Death, and Resurrection ; His Exaltation and 
the Eternal Happiness won by Him for us men; also our 
purification from original sin, in the absence of which purification 
all good actions of men would be vain and void—and, in brief, 
all the articles of the Christian faith, and the reason why man 
must pass through much tribulation and anguish, and fall a prey 
to death, before he can rise again to a new life. All this we see 
in our Art as it were in a mirror, as we shall take occasion to set 
forth in our Fourth Part. 

Secondly, its earthly and natural use consists in changing 
all imperfect metals, by means of its tincture, into pure and solid 
gold, as I will try to show as briefly as I can. 

The Stone or Elixir cannot be used for this purpose in the 
form in which we left it at the completion of the previous stage 
of our process; but it should be still further fermented and 
augmented in the following manner, as otherwise it could not be 
conveniently applied to imperfect metals and bodies. 

Take one part of the Essence, and add to it three parts of 
purest gold, which has been purged and melted by means of 
antimony, and reduced to very thin plates. Let them be placed 
together in the crucible. 

Thereupon the whole compound will be transformed into a 
pure and efficacious, Tincture, which, when applied to base 
metals, in the ratio of 1 : : 1000, will change them into pure gold. 

TADE  SQPHIG  IOYXDIRQDLTTLHH. 89 

NoTE.—The purer the metals are, and the greater their 
affinity to our substance, the more easily are they received by 
the Tincture, and the more perfect and rapid is the process of 
regeneration. For the transformation consists in all that is 
impure and unsuitable being purged off, and rejected like dross. 
In the same manner flawed stones can be transmuted into 
precious diamonds, and common crystal can be so tinged as to 
become equal to the most precious stones. Moreover, many 
other things may be done with the Tincture which must not be 
revealed to the wicked world. These virtues of the Stone, and 
others of a like kind, are looked upon as the least important by 
the Sages, and by all Christians on whom God has bestowed 
this most precious gift. Such men think them vile indeed when 
compared with the knowledge of God and of His works which is 
afforded by the Stone. 

For let me tell you that he on whom the Most High has 
conferred the knowledge of this Mystery esteems mere money 
and earthly riches as lightly as the dirt of the streets. His heart 
and all his desires are bent upon seeing and enjoying the 
heavenly reality of which all these things are but a figure; 
as Solomon, the wisest of wise Kings, testifies in chapter 
vii. of the Book of Wisdom, where he says: *I preferred wisdom 
before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in 
comparison of her. Neither compared I unto her any precious 
stone, because all gold in respect of her is as a little sand, and 
silver shall be counted as clay before her." Those, therefore, 
that desire this Art as a means of procuring temporal 
honour, pleasure, and wealth, are the most foolish of men ; and 
they can never obtain that which they seek at so great an 
expense of money, time, and trouble, and which fills their hearts, 
their minds, and all their thoughts. For this reason the Sages 
have expressed a profound contempt for worldly wealth (not as 
though it were in itself a bad thing, seeing that it is highly com- 
mended in Holy Scripture as an excellent gift of God, but 
because of its vile abuse). They despised it because it seemed to 
hinder men from following the good and the true, and to intro- 
duce a mischievous confusion into their conceptions of right and 
wrong. These abuses of money the illustrious Marcellus Palin- 
genius Stellatus has graphically described in the poem entitled 

90 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the * Zodiac of Life," under the sign of Sagittarius, where he 
draws a vivid picture of the evils of avarice. To this poem I 
would therefore refer the gentle reader. 

From this poem we may gather how lightly this dis- 
tinguished man, though evidently a possessor of the Stone, as 
appears out of his *Zodiac of Nature,' held gold and silver, 
and all things temporal, in respect of virtue. 

Nor is his case by any means exceptional. All Sages have 
regarded wisdom, and the knowledge of heavenly things, as far 
better than the transient things of earth, and have so ordered 
their lives and actions that at the last they might obtain im- 
mortality and eternal glory. This feeling is well expressed by 
Solomon, in his Book of Proverbs (cp. xvi), where he says: 
* How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get 
understanding rather to be chosen than silver !"—and again in 
the xxii chapter: * A good name is rather to be chosen than 
great riches, and knowledge rather than silver and gold" The 
same aspiration prompted the following words of the son of 
Sirach : *See that thou keep a good name, for it is better than 
a thousand treasures of gold." 

By reason of these and other virtues which result from the 
philosophy of the Stone, the Sages have never wearied of 
extolling its marvellous excellence ; and they have taken great 
pains to make it known to the worthy, in order that its wisdom 
might be accepted and practically exhibited by them. But to 
the foolish everything is obscure and difficult to be understood. 
(This is the gist of the first six chapters of Solomon's Book of 
Proverbs, where he says that men should strain every nerve to 
attain to our wisdom. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, too, he uses 
the following words: * My son, be satisfied with a lowly station : 
for it is better than all that this world desires. The greater thou 
art, the more humble thyself, and God will give thee grace. 
For the Lord is a most High God, and does great things through 
the lowly." 

TETUR CE SQUE UY QE TER 91 
BARI EV. 

PSALM LXXVIIL AND MATTH. XIII. 

* [ qvill open amy mouth in parables, and declare things hidden 
from the foundation of the world." 

When it pleases Almighty God by His Divine Word to make 
known unto the human race His marvellous, deep, and celestial 
mysteries, He is wont to do so in parables, andto shadow forth 
His meaning in things familiar to our eyes which are depicted 
visibly before us. For instance, when pronouncing upon Adam 
in Paradise, after the Fall, the sentence of death, He told him 
that as he was made and formed of dust, he should also return 
to dust—dust being a thing which in itself has no life. Again, 
when promising to Abraham an innumerable posterity, He 
illustrated His meaning by pointing to the stars of the heavens, 
the sand of the sea shore, and the dust of the earth. In the 
same manner, God made use of divers precious types in declaring 
His will to the children of Israel through the Prophets. "This 
practice was also adopted in the New "Testament by Christ 
Himself—the Foundation and Express Image of the Truth— 
who set forth His teaching in parables in order that it might be 
better understood. So He compares His Divine and Blessed 
Gospel—the highest happiness of man—to seed that is sown in 
a field, amongst which the enemy scatters evil seed; to a 
hidden treasure ; to a pearl of great price; to a grain of wheat ; 
to a mustard seed ; to leaven, etc. 

[Cp. Luke vii. Matthew xiii and xxii ^ Luke xix. 
Matthew xx.] 

The Kingdom of Heaven He describes under the image of 
a great Wedding Feast. The Christian Church, again, He com- 
pares to a Vineyard, and to a King calling upon his servants to 
render up an account. —Healso uses the similitude of a noble 
lord who entrusted his goods to his servants, of a lost sheep, a 
prodigal son, and others of a similar nature. 

[Cp. Matthew xviii Luke xvi Matthew xxv. Luke xviii. 
Markxii. Luke xviii Luke x.] 

These types and similitudes were given to us on account of 

our human infirmity, which prevents us from understanding and 

92 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

picturing to ourselves the things of heaven. And since it is God's 
wont to reveal His mind in parables and /feures, we can but 
regard it as of a piece with all the other dealings of God, that 
the Chief Good, His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
who by His obedience saved all mankind from eternal death and 
restored to us the Kingdom of Heaven, should have expressed 
His nature in a concrete bodily form. This is the greatest 
mystery of Almighty God, and the highest and worthiest object 
of knowledge. 
[Ephes. iii. Coli Isaiah xlv.: '* Lez Zhe Leaveus drop down 
Jrom above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let 
ihe earth open and bring forth the Saviour."| 

And although this great Good had been prefigured to us in 
the Old Testament by types such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the 
ladder of Jacob, the betrayal and wonderful exaltation of Joseph 
the brazen serpent, Samson, David, and Jonah ; yet, besides all 
these, Almighty God deigned to give us a fuller revelation and a 
corporal, visible, and apprehensible Idea of His heavenly trea- 
.sures and gifts in the Person of His Son. This earthly and 
bodily manifestation He plainly toretold in the Prophet Isaiah 
(cp. xxviii): *Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a corner 
stone, a tried stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall 
not make haste. To the same effect the Royal Seer David 
speaks, through the Holy Spirit, in Psalm cxviii.: * The Stone 
which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner. 
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." This 
type, the aforesaid Corner Stone, Christ applies to Himself 
(Matth. cp. xxi) when He says: * Have ye never read in the 
Scriptures? The Stone that the builders rejected is become the 
chief stone of the corner. ^ This is the Lord's doing, and it is 
marvellous in our eyes. And whosoever shall fall on this Stone 
shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind 
him to powder. And Peter (Acts, cp. iv.) and Paul in his 
Epistle to the Romans (cp. ix.) repeat almost the same words. 

This tried, blessed, and heavenly Stone Jesus Christ was 
longingly expected from the beginning of the world by the 
Fathers and Holy Patriarchs ; God-enlightened men prayed that 
they might be accounted worthy to see the promised Christ in 
His bodily and visible form. And if they rightly knew Him by 

TED SQUE ER TRQUE TTE 93 

the Holy Spirit, they were comforted by His presence in their 
lives, and had an invisible Friend on whom they could stay them- 
selves, as upon a spiritual fulcrum, in trouble and danger even 
unto the end of their life. 

But although that heavenly Stone was bestowed by God as 
a free gift on the whole human race, the rich as well as the poor 
(Matth. xi., 6.) ; yettothis very day comparatively few have been 
able to know and apprehend Him. To the majority of mankind 
He has always been a hidden secret, and a grievous stumbling 
block, as Isaiah foretold in his eighth chapter: * He shall be for 
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, a gin and a snare, so 
that many shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, 
and be taken." Thesamevwas revealed to the aged Simeon, when he 
spake thus to Mary, the Mother of the Corner Stone : * Behold, 
He shall be for a fall and rising again of many in Israel, and 
for a sign that shall be spoken against" To this S. Paul also 
bears witness (ad. Rom. ix.): * They fell from the Stone of offence, 
and the rock of stumbling. He that believes in Him shall not be 
confounded." "This Stone is precious to them that believe, but 
to the unbelieving *a stone of offence and stumbling, seeing 
that they are broken against the word, and believe not in 
Him on whom they are founded (Eccl xliii)" In all these 
respects the Precious, Blessed, and Heavenly Stone agrees most 
wonderfully with our earthly, corporal, and philosophical Stone ; 
and it is, therefore, well worth our while to compare our Stone 
with its Heavenly prototype. We shall thus understand that 
the earthly philosophical Stone is the true image of the real, 
spiritual, and heavenly Stone Jesus Christ. 

Thus, then, those who would truly know and prepare the first 
Matter of the Philosopher's Stone (the chief and principal mystery 
of this earth) must have a deep insight into the nature of things, 
just as those who would know the Heavenly Stone (Ze, the 
indissoluble, triune essence of the true and living God) must have 
a profound spiritual insight into the things of heaven : hence we 
said in our first part, that the student of our Art must first have 
a thorough knowledge of Nature and her properties If a man 
would come to know the highest good, he must rightly 
know, first God, and then himself (Acts xvii.: * For in Him we 
live" etc) If anyone learn to know himself and God (Ze. 

94 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

our duty as men, our origin, the end of our being, and our affinity 
to God), he has the highest scholarship, without which it is 
impossible to obtain happiness, either in this world, or in the 
world to come. 

If we would find that high and heavenly Stone, we must 
remember that, as our earthly Philosophical Stone is to be 
sought in one thing and two things, which are met with every- 
where, so we must look for Him nowhere but in the eternal 
Word of God, and the Holy Scripture (consisting of the Old 
and New Testaments)—as God the Father testified at His Trans- 
figuration on Mount Tabor (Mark ix., Luke ix.), when He said : 
*'Thisis My Beloved Son: hear ye Him." In the same way 
Christ, the essential and eternal Word of God, speaks of Him- 
self : * No one comes to the Father, but by Me "—Aaccording to 
the Scripture, the infallible testimony of the Divine Word (Isaiah 
xxxiv.) In Isaiah viii. we find the words: * to the Law and the 
Testimony." And Christ, the aforesaid Corner Stone, bears 
witness to the necessity of Scripture, when He says: * Search 
the Scriptures, for in them ye believe that ye have eternal life, 
and it is they that testify of Me" Therefore, David says in 
Psalm cxix., long before the coming of Christ: * My delight, O 
Lord, is in Thy commandments, for they are my counsellors ; 
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet ; I rejoice in the way of Thy 
testimonies more than in great riches. Also, I consider Thy 
ways, and walk in Thy testimonies." 

[Cp. Gen. xiii Psal xlv. Isaiah ix, 49. Jerem. xxxii. 
I obnessgra MEO rS OT] 

Moreover, when and where the First Matter of this heavenly 
Stone was founded (*from the beginning of the world"), is 
expressly set forth in several passages of Holy Scripture, 
especially in the fifth chapter of Micah : * Whose goings forth 
have been from of old, from everlasting" ^ When the Jews asked 
the Corner Stone Himself who He was, He answered: * I that 
speak to you was from the beginning," and again: * Before 
Abraham was,l am." From these passages it follows that He 
had His being, without a beginning, from all eternity, and that 
He will abide throughout all eternity. 

And although this knowledge is to be found and obtained 
nowhere but in the Old and New Testaments, nevertheless he 

-——" 

TEE SOPHIC. ILYDROLITH. 95 

who would gain it must proceed with the greatest care (II. 
Timothy, iii.) for one false step may render all our subsequent 
labour useless. He who would gain a golden understanding of 
the word of truth, should have the eyes of his soul opened, and 
his mind illumined by the inward light (1r. John, v.) which 
God has kindled in our hearts from the beginning ; for he who 
strives to obtain this knowledge without the Divine light, may 
easily mistake Saul for Paul, and choose a false road instead of 
the right path. This happens continually in regard to our 
earthly Stone. Ten persons may read the same description of it, 
and yet only one may read the words aright. So the majority 
of mankind daily miss the knowledge of the Heavenly Stone ; 
not because it is not before their eyes, but because they have not 
eyes to see it. Therefore Christ says: (Luke xi) "' The eye is 
the light of the body, and if the eye be dark the whole body will 
be full of darkness" In the seventeenth chapter of the same 
Gospel He says: '" Behold the kingdom of God is within you." 
From these words it most clearly appears that the knowledge of 
the light in man must come from within, and not from without. 
The external object, as they say, or the letter, is written for 
the sake of our infirmity, as a further aid to the implanted light 
of grace (Matth. xxiv.) as also the outward spoken word is 
used as an auxiliary means for the conveyance and advancement 
of knowledge. For example, if a white and a black tablet were 
put before you, and you were asked to say which was white and 
which black, you would not be able to answer the question if 
you had no previous knowledge of those colours ; your ability to 
do so, comes, not from looking at the tablets, but from the know- 
ledge that before was in your mind. The object only stirs up 
your perceptive faculty, and calls out the knowledge that before 
was in you, but does not of itself afford that knowledge. In the 
same way, if any one put into your hand a flint, and asked you 
to bring outward and visible fire out of it for him, you would be 
unable to do so without the steel that belongs to it, with which 
you would have to elicit the spark slumbering in the stone. 
Moreover, you would have to catch and fan it into flame on a 
piece of tinder—or else the spark would immediately vanish 
again. If you do this, you will have a bright fire, and so long as 
you keep it up, you will be able to do with it whatever you 

96 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

like. In the same manner, the heavenly light slumbers in the 
human soul, and must be struck out by outward contact, 
namely, by the true faith, through reading and hearing, and 
through the Holy Spirit whom Christ restored to us, and 
promised to give us (John xiv: * No man comes to the Father 
but by me"), and to put into our dark, but. still glowing 
hearts, as into a kind of tinder, where He may be fanned and 
kindled into a bright flame, working the wil of God in our 
souls. For He delights to dwell in light unapproachable, and 
in the hearts of believers. Although no man ever has, or ever 
can, see God with his outward bodily eyes, yet with the in- 
ward eyes of the soul He may well be seen and known. But 
notwithstanding that inward light casts its bright beams over 
the whole world, and into the heart of every man without 
any difference, the world, by reason of its innate corruptness, 
cannot see it rightly, and refuses to acknowledge it; and on 
this account so many false and pernicious notions are current 
concerning it. But we shall do well to consider that God has, 
not without a good purpose, furnished our heads with two 
eyes and two ears; for He would thereby teach us that man 
has a double vision and a double hearing ; namely, the outward 
and the inward. With the inward he is to judge spiritual things, 
and the outward is also to perform its own proper office. The 
same distinction we find in the spirit and the letter of Scrip- 
ture. For this reason I thought fit to explain this matter for 
the sake of students of the simple sort, who might otherwise 
be at a loss to apprehend the full significance of the triune 
Stone. 

Again, as the substance of the earthly Stone is nothing 
accounted of in the world, and rejected by the majority of man- 
kind, so Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, and the Heavenly 
Triune Stone, is lightly esteemed in this world, and scarcely 
even looked at ; nay, we may say that nothing is so profoundly 
and utterly despised by mankind, as the Saving Word of God. 
Hence (Cor. i, 2) it is called foolishness by the wise of this 
world. Nor is it only contemned and regarded as worthless ; 
it is even proscribed and laid under a ban, like some false 
heretical doctrine, and it is greivous for a God-fearing man to 
listen to the blasphemous words that are spoken against it, But 

IADE SOPIAUCGCHAUDROII DH. 97 

the believer must be tried by it, and the world sifted by its 
appearance. So S. John says(cp. i): * He came unto His own, 
and they received Him not; " and again: *He was in the 
world, and the world knew Him not." ! 
Again, as the physical and earthly water-Stone of the Sages 
has, on account of its unsearchable excellence, been called by a 
great variety of names by the multitude of philosophers, so the 
Heavenly Light, the one Noumeri and Illuminant, whose riches 
and glory are past finding out, is designated in Holy Scripture 
by a large number of titles. We will go through the most 
important names of both. The Philosopher's Stone is called the 
most ancient, secret or unknown, natural, incomprehensible, 
heavenly, blessed, sacred Stone of the Sages. t is described as 
being true, more certain than certainty itself, the arcanum of all 
arcana—the Divine virtue and efficacy, which is hidden from the 
foolish, the aim and end of all things under beaven, the wonder- 
ful epilogue or conclusion of all the labours of the Sages—the 
perfect essence of all the elements, the indestructible body 
which no element can injure, the quintessence ; the double and 
living mercury which has in itself the heavenly spirit—the cure 
for all unsound and imperfect metals—the everlasting light— 
the panacea for all diseases—the glorious Phoeenix—the most 
precious of treasures—the chief good of Nature—the universal 
triune Stone, which is naturally composed of three things, and, 
nevertheless, is but oze—nay, is generated and brought forth of 
one, two, three, four, and five. In the writings of the Sages we 
may also find it spoken of as the Catholic Magnesia, or the seed 
of the world, and under many other names and titles of a 
like nature, which we may best sum up and comprehend in 
the perfect number of one thousand. And as the earthly 
Philosopher's Stone and its substance have a thousand names, 
so an infinite variety of titles is even more justly predicated of 
the Chief Good of the Universe. For He is God, the Word of 
God, the Eternal Son, the real, eternal, tried, and precious 
corner and foundation Stone which the builders refused and 
rejected. He is true, and more ancient than all things. seeing 
that He was before the foundation of the world, and from ever- 
lasting. He is the true, hidden, and unknown God, super- 
natural  incomprehensible, heavenly, blessed, and highly 
G 

98 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

praised. He is the only Saviour, and the God of Gods 
(Deut. x. Sure He is, and true, and cannot lie (Nu. xxiii, 
Rom.iii) He is the only Potentate who does what He will, 
according to His good pleasure. He is secret and eternal, and in 
Him lie hid all the treasures and mysteries of knowledge 
(Rom. xvi, Col ii) ^ He is the only Divine virtue and 
omnipotence, which is unknown to the foolish, or the wise of 
this world. Heis the only true essence of all elements, seeing 
that of Him all things are and were created (Rom. ii., Ja. i). He 
is the quintessence, the essence of all essences, and yet Himself 
notan essence of anything. He has in Himself the Heavenly 
Spirit which quickens all things with life itself (Wisd. vii., Isaiah 
xlii, John xiv.. He is the one perfect Saviour of all imperfect 
bodies and men, the true heavenly physician of the soul, the 
eternal light that lights all men (Isaiah Ix., John i.), the universal 
Remedy of all diseases, the true spiritual panacea. He is the 
glorious Pheenix that quickens and restores with His own blood 
His little ones whom the old Serpent, the Devil, had wounded 
and killed. He is the greatest treasure, and the best thing in 
heaven or upon earth, the triune universal essence, called 
Jehovah—of one, the Divine essence—of two, God and Man—of 
three, namely three Persons—of four, namely three Persons, and 
one Divine Substance—of five, namely of three Persons, one 
Divine and one Human Substance. He is also the true 
Catholic Magnesia, or universal seed of the world, of Whom, 
through Whom, and to Whom are all things in heaven and upon 
earth—the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says 
the Lord that is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty 
(A poc. i.). 

But again, as in the case of the philosophical work, it is not 
enough for anyone to know its substance and its triune essence, 
with the quality and property thereof, if he does not also know 
where to obtain it, and how to become a partaker of its benefits 
— which can only be done, as we said above, by dissolving the 
substance into its three parts, decomposing it, and so 
depriving it of its caliginous shadow and hirsute essence, subliming 
its inner hidden heart and soul by means of the sweet, universal, 
fiery, marine water (extracted from itself) into a volatile essence— 
so we cannot know that glorious triune Essence, called Jehovah, 

IDEE SOPEHIGURHYVDROPELUTH. 99 

unless the image of Him is first dissolved and purified in our own 
souls, the veil of Moses (Ze, our own desperate sinfulness which 
prevents us from seeing God as He is) being taken away, and 
our inner heart and soul being purified, cleansed, and sublimed 
by the Divine illumination of Him that dwells within, namely, 
Christ, who washes our hearts like pure water (Isaiah xliv.), and 
fills them with His sweet and gentle comfort. So you first 
behold the wrath, but afterwards the love of God. 

Once more: As our Matter, in the philosophical work, 
after being dissolved into its three parts or principles, must 
again be coagulated and reduced into its own proper salt, and 
into oze essence, which is then called the salt of the Sages: so 
God, and His Son, must be known as Oe, by means of their 
essential substance, and must not be regarded as two or three 
Divinities, possessing more than one essence. When you have 
thus known God through His Son, and united them by the bond 
of the Holy Spirit, God is no longer invisible, or full of wrath, 
but you may feel His love, and, as it were, see Him with your 
eyes, and handle Him with your hands, in the person of Jesus 
Christ, His Son and express image. But even this knowledge 
of the Triune God will avail you little, unless you continue to 
advance and grow in His grace, for God otherwise will be still 
terrible, and as it is said of Him (Deut. vii, 18), *a consuming 
fire" For as the substance of the Sages, after all the changes 
that it has undergone, will do more harm than good as a medi- 
cine applied to the body, without the final preparation, so unless 
you fully and perfectly apprehend Christ, the mere knowledge of 
Him will tend to your condemnation rather than to the salvation 
of your soul (I. John, iv.). Therefore if you wish to become a 
partaker of Christ, and if you desire to possess and enjoy His 
heavenly gifts and treasures, you must advance in the 2ezsozad 
knowledge of Christ, and look upon Him, not merely as a pure 
and immaterial Spirit, but as the Saviour who in the fulness of 
time took upon Himself a human body, and became the Son of 
Man, as well as the Son of God. 

Forasin our philosophical work another most noble and 
cognate metallic body must be united to our first substance (if 
it is to be rendered effectual for the perfecting of other metals), 
and joined together with it into oze body, so the Divine Nature 

G2 

100 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

of the Son of God had to take upon itself, as it were, another 
kindred * metallic" body, namely our human nature, our human 
flesh and blood (which, having been created in the image of 
God, has the greatest affinity with Him), and to be joined with 
it into one indissoluble whole, in order that He might have the 
power of bringing imperfect men to perfection. 

But again, we said that common gold, on account of its 
imperfection and impurity, would not combine with our substance, 
because its manifold defects had rendered it * dead " and useless 
for our purpose, and that, for this reason, it must first receive a 
bright and pure body (not adulterated or weakened by the 
presence of bad internal sulphur) In the same way, the Divine 
essence of the Son of God could not be joined to common 
human nature, which is conceived in sin, defiled with hereditary 
uncleanness, and many actual sins and  besetting infirmities 
(though all these are no integral part of human nature as such), 
but required a pure, sinless, and perfect humanity. 

For if the earthly Adam, before the Fall (though after all 
only a created being), was holy, perfect, and sinless, how much 
more must the heavenly Adam, to whom the only begotten Son 
of God was joined, have a perfect humanity? ^ Therefore the 
heavenly, eternal, fundamental Corner Stone, Jesus Christ (like 
the earthly Philosophical Stone), is now Oxze, uniting in Him- 
self, after an inscrutable manner, a dual nature of admirable 
generation and origin, and the properties both of God and of 
man. For according to His Divine Nature, He is true God, of 
the Substance of His heavenly and eternal Father, and the Son 
of God, whose goings out (as the Scripture says) were from 
everlasting (Mic. v. According to His human nature, on the 
other hand, He was born in the fullness of time as a true 
and perfect man, without.sin, but with a real body and soul 
(Matth. xxvi) Therefore He now eternally represents the indis- 
soluble and personal union of the Divine and the human sub- 
stance, the oneness of the natures of God and man. 

It is much to be wished that the eyes of our self-opinionated 
doctors were opened, or the nebulous film, or sophistical mask, 
which obscures their vision, taken away, that so they might see 
more clearly. I am particularly alluding to the Aristotelians, 
and other blind theological quibblers, who spend their lives in 

ERES SQUPEDIG ER QUTET IOI 

wrangling and disputing about Divine things in a most un- 
christian manner, and put forth no end of manifold distinctions, 
divisions, and confusions, thus obscuring the Scriptural doctrine 
concerning the union of natures and communication of sub- 
stances in Christ. If they will not believe God and His Holy 
Word, they might at least be enlightened by a study of our 
chemical Art, and ofthe union oftwo waters (viz., that of mercury 
and that of the Sun) which our Art so strikingly and palpably 
exhibits. But the scholastic wisdom of their Ethnic philosophy 
is entirely based upon pagan philosophy, and has no foundation 
in Holy Scripture or Christian Theology. "Their Aristotelian 
precepts, their * substances " and * accidents," entirely blind them 
to the true proportions of things, and they forget Tertullian's 
saying "that philosophers are the patriarchs of heresy." But we 
do not think it worth while to pursue this subject any further. 
Again, as our chemical compound (in which the two essences 
have been combined) is subjected to the action of fire, and is 
decomposed, dissolved, and well digested, and as this process, 
before its consummation, exhibits various chromatic changes, so 
this Divine Man, and Human God, Jesus Christ, had, by the will 
of His heavenly Father, to pass through the furnace of affliction, 
that is, through many troubles, insults, and sufferings, in the 
course of which His outward aspect was grievously changed ; 
thus He suffered hunger when, after His Baptism and EHis 
entrance upon the ministry of the Word, the Holy Spirit led Him 
into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, and there waged 
with Him a threefold contest, as an example to all baptized 
Christian men, who, having declared themselves followers of 
Christ, are, like Him, tempted, and have to sustain the shock of 
various grievous assaults. Again, He was subject to weariness, 
He shed tears, He trembled, He wrestled with death, He shed 
drops of sweat mingled with blood, He was taken captive and 
bound, was struck in the face by the high priest's servant, 
was mocked, derided, spitted upon, scourged, crowned with 
thorns, condemned to die upon the Cross, which He had to bear 
Himself; was nailed to it between two malefactors, received 
vinegar and gall to drink, cried out with a loud voice, com- 
mended His spirit into the hands of His Father—and so gave up 
the ghost and died upon the Cross. These and other tribulations, 

102 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

which are faithfully related by the Evangelists, He had to bear 
in the course of His earthly life. 

And as the Sages say that the above mentioned process of 
chemical digestion is generally completed within forty days, so 
the same number seems to have a most peculiar significance in 
Scripture, more particularly in connection with the life of our 
Lord. The Israelites remained forty years in the wilderness ; 
Moses was forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai; Elijah's 
flight from Ahab occupied the same length of time. Christ 
fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness; He spent 
forty months in preaching upon earth; He lay forty hours in 
the grave—appeared to His disciples forty days after His Re- 
surrection. Within forty years from Christ's Ascension Jerusalem 
was destroyed by the Romans, and made level with the ground. 

Then again, the Sages have called our compound, while 
undergoing the process of decomposition, the Raven's Head, on 
account of its blackness. In the same way, Christ (Isaiah liii.) 
had no form nor comeliness—was despised and rejected of men— 
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief—so despised, that 
men hid, as it were, their faces from Him ; and in the 22nd 
Psalm He complains that He * is a worm, and no man," *a 
scorn and laughing-stock of the people." "We may also see an 
analogy to Christ in the fact that the decomposed body of the 
sun lies for some time dead and lifeless, like burnt-out ashes, at 
the bottom of the phial, and that its * soul" gradually descends 
to it under the influence of greater heat, and once more saturates, 
as it were, the dead and decaying body, and saves it from total 
destruction. For when, on the Mount of Olives, and on the 
Cross, Christ had experienced a feeling of utter dereliction, He 
was afterwards comforted and strengthened, and nourished (as 
it were) with Divine nectar from above. And when at length He 
had given up the ghost, and all the strength forsook His body, 
so that He went down to the parts below the earth, even there 
He was preserved, refreshed, and filled with the quickening 
power of the eternal Deity, and thus, by the reunion of His 
spirit with His dead body, quickened, raised from the dead, 
lifted up into heaven, and appointed Lord and King ofall— 
where, sitting at the right hand of His Father, He now rules, 
governs, preserves, and quickens all things with the power of 

PITE SOPEHIC (£IVDISQDUIDE. 103 

His Word. This marvellous Union and Divine Exaltation 
angels and men in heaven, upon earth, and under the earth can 
scarce think upon without holy fear, and trembling awe— 
Whose power, strength, and purple Tincture (Z«., Blood) changes 
us imperfect men and sinners in body and soul, and is a mar- 
vellous medicine for all our diseases, as we shall see further on. 

We have briefly and simply considered the most obvious 
analogies that serve to establish the typical connection between 
Jesus Christ, the heavenly Corner Stone, and our earthly 
Philosopher's Stone, and to illustrate its figurative resemblance to 
the Incarnation of the Saviour of men. We will now proceed to 
shew that the earthly Stone also shadows forth His transmuting, 
strengthening, healing, and quickening power towards us sinful, 
wretched, and imperfect human beings. 

.For though God created man at the beginning in His own 
image, and made him more glorious and perfect than other 
creatures, and breathed into him a living and immortal soul, 
yet by the fall the image of God was defaced, and man was 
changed into the very reverse of what God had intended that 
he should be. 

But in order that we might be restored to our former 
glorious state, God in His great mercy devised the following 
remedy : As the perfect earthly Stone, or Tincture, after its 
completion extends its quickening efficacy, and the perfecting 
virtue of its tincture to other imperfect metals, so Christ, that 
blessed heavenly Stone, extends the quickening influence of His 
purple Tincture to us, purifying us, and conforming us to 
the likeness of His perfect and heavenly Body. For, as S. 
Paul says: (Rom. viii), He is the first-born among many 
brethren, as He is also the first-born before all creatures, through 
whom all things in heaven and earth were created, and reconciled 
to God. If we who are by Nature impure, imperfect, and 
mortal, desire to become pure, immortal and perfect, this 
transmutation can be effected only through the mediation of the 
Heavenly Corner Stone Jesus Christ, who is the only holy, risen, 
glorified, heavenly King, both God and man in the unity of oze 
Person. 

For as the Philosopher's Stone, which is the Chemical King, 
has virtue by means of its tincture and its developed perfection 

104. THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

to change other imperfect and base metals into pure gold, so our 
heavenly King and fundamental Corner Stone, Jesus Christ, can 
alone purify us sinners and imperfect men with His Blessed ruby- 
coloured Tincture, that is to say, His Blood, from all our natural 
flth and uncleanness, and perfectly heal the malignant disease 
of our nature ; seeing that there is no salvation but in Him, and 
that no other name is given under heaven whereby men can 
obtain happiness and perfection. 

The blind and insensate world has, indeed, through the craft 
and deceit of the Devil, tried many other ways and methods of 
obtaining everlasting salvation, and has toiled hard to reach the 
goal; but Christ nevertheless is and remains the only true 
Saviour and Mediator, who alone can make us appear just in the 
sight of God, and purify us from our spiritual leprosy—just as, 
upon earth, there is only one royal, saving, chemical Stone by 
which all imperfect metals must be brought to perfection and all 
bodily diseases healed (especially that fearful, and otherwise in- 
curable leprosy) ^ All other spiritual remedies—such as those 
invented and used by Jews, Turks, heathens, and heretics—may 
be compared to the devices of false and sophistical alchemists ; 
for by them men are not purified, but defiled--not quickened, but 
enfeebled, and given over to a state of more helpless spiritual 
deadness. So the pseudo alchemists, or malchemists, as they 
may be more appropriately termed, discover many tinctures and 
colours by which men are not only deceived, but, as daily 
experience teaches, often ruined in fortune, body, and soul. 

Again, if we men would be purified and cleansed of our 
original sin and the filth of Adam (in whom, through the subtilty 
of the Cacodaemon, our whole race was corrupted in the very: 
Protoplast), we can obtain perfection and eternal happiness only 
through the regeneration of water and the Spirit, as the royal 
chemical substance is regenerated by water and its spirit. In 
this new and spiritual regeneration, which is performed in 
baptism through water and the Spirit, we are washed and 
purified with the Blood of Christ, united to His Body, and clothed 
with Him as with a garment (Col. iii, Eph. v.). For, as the 
Philosophical Stone becomes joined to other metals by means of 
its tincture and enters into an indissoluble union with them, so 
Christ, our Head, is in constant vital communion with all His 

"EB. SOPHIA UEDVIDAQUATIBEEF. 105 

members through the ruby tincture of His Blood, and compacts 
His whole Body into a perfect spiritual building which after God 
is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, that regenera- 
tion which is wrought in baptism through the operation of the 
Holy Spirit is really nothing but an inward spiritual renewal of 
fallen man, by which we become God's friends instead of His 
enemies, and thus heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (1. 
Cor. ii, Rom. xii, Ephes. ii, Hebr. iii). For to this end Christ 
died and rose again, that through this means, namely, through 
His passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, He might enter 
the Holy Place made without hands, and prepare for us the way to 
our everlasting Fatherland. Therefore, we, too, as His brothers 
and sisters, should follow His passion, and grow like Him in love, 
humility, and all other virtues, till we are conformed to His 
glorified body, and until, having lived and died with Him, we 
also reign with Him, and share His everlasting glory. 

But this inward quickening and imitation of Christ, our 
heavenly King, in our daily lives, is not the outgrowth of our 
own merit or natural will (for by nature all men are blind, deaf, 
and dead, as to spiritual things), but is produced solely through 
the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us 
through the blessed laver of regeneration. In like manner, the 
minerals and metals are in themselves gross and dead, and 
cannot purify or ameliorate themselves, but are purified, renewed, 
dissolved, and perfected through the agency of the spagyric 
spirit. Now when we have been incorporated in the Body of our 
heavenly King, and washed and cleansed of original sin through 
His purple Tincture, and so rendered capable of bringing forth 
the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, we are fed up, like little children, 
and nourished with the pure and health-giving milk of grace, 
until at length we become living stones, fit for the heavenly 
building and the highest priesthood, which consists in offering up 
spiritual sacrifices such as are acceptable to God the Father, 
through Jesus Christ. For even a Christian, though regenerated 
through water and the Word, cannot grasp or apprehend all 
things at once, but must grow gradually, and daily, in the 
knowledge of God and of Christ. 

For as, in our philosophical experiment, the union of the 
two essences, namely of the earthly gold and the heavenly 

106 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

prepared Matter, which have first been reduced to a kind of dry 
liquid, or amalgam, in a solutory alembic, does not take place 
all at once (seeing that the different parts are added gradually 
and at stated intervals) so we must expect the growth of the 
quickened spirit to be slow and gradual. For when the spiritual 
union of a man with Christ in baptism has once taken place, and 
he is united once for all with His Body, he must gradually 
advance in the Christian faith, and assimilate in his soul one 
article after another, until he has obtained perfect knowledge, 
and is firmly established in all the fulness of conviction. 

Now the Christian faith, like the prepared aqueous sub- 
stance, consists of twelve articles, according to the number of 
the Apostles, and these again fall into three principal sections, 
viz. (1r) that which treats of our creation, (2) that which deals 
with our redemption, and (3) that which describes our sanctifica- 
tion. All these articles the Christian must, one by one, and 
little by little, make his own. He cannot master them all at 
once; for if too much spiritual nourishment were administered 
to him at a time, his soul might begin to loathe its food, and he 
might be entirely estranged from the faith. "Therefore, the third 
article, for instance, should be divided into seven parts, and taught 
in seven different lessons (just as the matter was not put into the 
phial all at once. When a man has made the whole faith 
thoroughly his own, he must carefully preserve it pure from all 
corruption and falsification. 

Moreover, in the chemical process, the Stone cannot bring 
its influence to bear on imperfect metals, unless it is first com- 
bined with three several parts of highly refined and purified gold, 
not because the tincture of the Stone itself is imperfect, but on 
account of the grossness of the metals which otherwise could not 
receive its subtle influence. The Stone itself is perfect; but the 
base metals are so feeble and dead that they cannot apprehend 
the angelical and spiritual perfection of the Tincture, except 
through the more congenial medium of gold, refined and fused 
through Antimony. In the same way, our heavenly King, Jesus 
Christ, has, through His obedience to His Father's will, once 
for all delivered us from sin and impurity, and made us sons 
and heirs of God ; nevertheless, His saving Blood, the true purple 
Tincture, cannot be received by us, on account of our inborn 

ZE SOPHIGC EIDYDROLTIH, 107 

infirmity and gross sinfulness, except through three media 
appointed by God for this purpose, namely: (1) His Holy 
Word, which is better and purer than earthly gold seven times 
refined ; (2), saving faith, which is a marvellous gift of God, 
comes through the Word of God, unites the hearts of men, and 
is tried in the fire of affliction ; (3), unfeigned love towards God 
and our neighbour, which is also a gift of God, the fulfilment of 
the law, and a perfect imitation of God's nature. If we have and 
possess in a proper manner these three things, the Word, faith, 
and love, Christ can operate rightly upon us with his heavenly 
Tincture, and celestial Unction, make their blessed influence felt 
throughout our imperfect natures, and thus, by pervading our 
entire being, cause us to be partakers of His own heavenly 
nature. But Satan, that grim pseudo-alchymist, ever lies in 
wait to draw those whom Christ has regenerated, and made sons 
of God by faith through baptism, and who are warring the 
good warfare, and keeping faith and a good conscience, away 
from the right path— and in this attempt he and his faithful 
servants, our sinful flesh, and the wicked, seductive world, are, alas, 
very frequently successful (for even the just man falls seven times 
a day. Prov. xxiv.) For as he lay in wait for Christ, our Lord, 
Master, and Guide, and soon after His Baptism made a violent 
assault upon Him ; so to the present day he spreads his crafty 
nets and pernicious snares in the Christian Church. Our Lord 
he first endeavoured to delude into doubting the Word of God, 
and questioning His Fathers love, by pointing to the want, 
hunger, and bodily affliction, that God suffered Him to endure in 
the wilderness. But if Christians do not yield to this tempta- 
tion, Satan attacks them on another point, and tries to induce 
them to place a foolhardy confidence (such as is not warranted 
by God's word) in their heavenly Father; just as he strove to 
persuade Christ to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the 
Temple, seeing that God would surely protect Him. If this 
device does not succeed, the Evil One is not ashamed to try 
a third expedient: he promises us all the riches of this world, 
and the glory thereof, if we will forsake God, become idolators, 
and worship Satan himself—a proposal which he actually had 
the hardihood to make to Christ. These Satanic machinations 
God, in His inscrutable wisdom, permits, in order that men may 

108 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

thereby be exercised in faith, hope, patience, and true prayer, 
and prepared for the agony of death which the old man will one 
day have to undergo—that thus they may gain a final victory 
over their hereditary foe. "This victory they will gain if they 
are taught by the grace of God how to encounter the Devil's 
deceitful and crafty wiles. 

For since, as S. Paul says, we wrestle not with flesh 
and blood, but with principalities and powers, with the rulers of 
the darkness of this world, with the spiritual forces of wicked- 
ness in the heavenly places ; we cannot successfully oppose our 
own strength to their spiritual assaults, but we must, after the 
example of our Standard-bearer, Jesus Christ, arm ourselves 
against our spiritual foes with spiritual weapons, such as 
the Word of God, and the sword of the Spirit We musttake . 
from the armoury of the Holy Spirit the breast-plate of 
righteousness, and have our loins girt with truth, our feet shod 
with the preparedness of the Gospel of peace ; and we must cover 
ourselves with the great shield of faith, with which we shall be 
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one: for faith in 
Jesus Christ is a most strong shield which no weapon of the Evil 
Demon has power to pierce. 

Again, we saw that in our chemical operation the regulation 
of the fire, and a most patient and careful tempering of its heat, 
was of the greatest importance for the proper digestion of the 
substance. We also spoke of the * fire of the Sages " as being 
one of the chief agents in our chemical process, and said that it 
was an essential, preternatural, and Divine fire, that it lay hid in 
our substance, and that it was stirred into action by the influence 
and aid of the outward material fire. In like manner, the true 
Word of God, or the Spirit of God, whom Jeremiah compares to 
a fire, lies hid in our hearts, having been planted in our souls by 
Nature, and only defaced and obscured by the fall. "This spirit 
must be aided, roused into action, and fanned into a bright 
flame, by another outward fire, viz, the daily fire of godliness, 
the exercise of all the Christian virtues in good days and in evil, 
and the study of the pure Divine Word, if, indeed, the internal 
light of grace, or the Spirit of God, is to work in us, instead of 
being extinguished. For as an earthly craftsman polishes iron, 
which in itself is cold, till it is heated by continual friction, and 

TELE SOQPIIG HOVDRODLYTTH. 109 

as a lamp must go out if it is not constantly fed with oil ; so the 
inward fire of man, unless it is assiduously kept up, gradually 
begins to burn low, and is at length completely extinguished. 
Therefore it is indispensable for a Christian diligently to hear, 
carefully to study, and faithfully to practice the Word of God. 

Again, what we said of spiritual sight, viz, that it must take 
place not with the outward eyes of the body, but with the 
inward eye of the soul, is equally applicable to spiritual hearing. 
I speak of listening, not to the outward speech of men, or to the 
Pharisaic leaven of the new Scribes, which nowadays, alas, is 
substituted for the sincere and unadulterated Word of God, but 
to the Voice of God Himself. I speak of the thrice rehned Word 
of God (Psalm cxix.), which proceeds out of the mouth of God, 
and is declared by His Holy Spirit—which is not, as these false 
teachers presumptuously assert, a vain and empty sound, but the 
Spirit, the life, and the saving power of God to all that believe. 
Of it the Royal Seer David speaks as follows: *I will hear 
what the Lord shall say unto me" — Of this inward and Divine 
hearing of the Word of God, as from a kind of fountain- 
head, good and living faith, which works by love, takes its source. 
For it is, as S. Paul says (Rom. x.) : * Faith comes by hearing, 
and hearing by the Word of God." 

Now if the Word is pure and undefiled, the hearing, too, 
may be pure and undefiled, and the faith which comes of such 
hearing will also be true, and show itself by love and humble 
obedience to the will of God 1n prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. 
It will also find expression in all good works towards our neigh- 
bour. To the exercise of this love Christ exhorts us in His long 
valedictory discourse (John xiii.) and leaves it with us as His 
farewell saying : * This is my commandment that ye love each 
other, even as I also loved you."  * If any one say, I know God, 
and love not his brother, he is aliar, and the truth is not in him. 
But he who keeps the Word of God, in him the love of God is 
perfected " (I. John, ii). And again (I. John, iv.): * God is love, 
and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 
From these passages we learn that love is the bond of perfection 
by which we are united to Christ, and by which we are in Him, 
He in His Father, and His Father in Him.  *If any one," says 
Christ, *will keep my word, this is he that loves me, and I will love 

IIO THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

him, and we will come to him and take up our abode with him." 
Again: *If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my 
love | But this our love to God must also find expression to- 
wards our neighbour. For *ifany one love not his brother whom 
he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen? And 
this commandment we have of Him, that he that loves God love 
his brother also.^ — The nature ofthis love is described by S. 
Paul (1. Cor. xiii.) in the following words : * Love suffereth long, 
and is kind ; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not 
puffed up, and never fails" — Hence it appears that there is no 
true love which does not show itself in works of kindness towards 
our fellow men ; and hence also it appears that the good works 
which are acceptable to God cannot precede faith, but are its 
outgrowth and precious fruit ; works do not make faith good and 
acceptable, but it is faith that gives their real value to works— 
for we are justified and obtain eternal life by faith alone. And 
if a regenerate man bear himself thus lovingly and humbly in all 
his life, he will never lack fruit in due season. For such a man is 
placed by God in the furnace of affliction, and (like the hermetic 
compound) is purged with the fire of suffering until the old Adam 
is dead, and there arises a new man created after God in 
righteousness and true holiness, as S. Paul says(Rom.vi.): * We 
are buried with Christ by baptism into death, that like 
as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life ^ When this has been accom- 
plished, and a man is no longer under the dominion of sin, then 
there begins in him something analogous to the solution of the 
gold added to the substance of our chemical process. — The old 
nature is destroyed, dissolved, decomposed, and, in a longer or 
shorter period of time, transmuted into something else. Sucha 
man is so well digested and melted in the fire of affliction that 
he despairs of his own strength and looks for help and comfort 
to the mercy of God alone. In this furnace of the Cross, a man, 
like earthly gold, attains to the true black «Raven's Head, ze, 
loses all beauty and reputation in the eyes of the world; 
and that not only during forty days and nights, or forty years, 
but often during his whole life, which is thus often more full of 
sorrow and suffering than of comfort and joy. And, through this 
spiritual dying, his soul is taken from him, and lifted up on high ; 

TIEDE) SQUID OEDYT QD DII 

. while his body is still upon earth, his spirit and heart are already 
in his eternal Fatherland ; and all his actions have a heavenly 
source, and seem no longer to belong to this earth. For he lives 
no longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, not 
in the unfruitful works of darkness, but in the light and in the 
day—in works that stand the test of fire. "This separation of 
body and soul is brought about by a spiritual dying. For as the 
dissolution of body and soul is performed in the regenerated 
gold, where body and soul are separated from one another, and 
yet remain close together in the same phial, the soul daily 
refreshing the body from above, and preserving it from final 
destruction, until a set time: so the decaying and half-dead 
bodily part of man is not entirely deserted by its soul in the 
furnace of the Cross, but is refreshed by the spirit from above 
with heavenly dew, and fed and preserved with Divine nectar. 
(For our temporal death, which is the wages of sin, is not a. real 
death, but only a natural and gentle severing of body and soul). 
The indissoluble union and conjunction of the Spirit of God, and 
the soul of the Christian, are a real and abiding fact. And here 
again we have an analogy to the (sevenfold) ascending and 
descending of the soul in the chemical process. For the tribu- 
lations and temporal sufferings of God's people have now lasted 
six thousand years ; but during this whole time, men have again 
and again been refreshed, comforted, and strengthened by the 
Spirit of God—and so it is now, and ever will be, until the great 
universal Sabbath and rest-day of the seventh millenium. ^ Then 
this occasional spiritual refreshing will cease, and everlasting joy 
will reign, since God will be all in all. 

While the digestion of the dead spiritual body in man goes 
forward, there may be seen (as in the chemical process) many 
variegated colours and signs, z.., all manner of sufferings, afflic- 
tions, and tribulations, including the ceaseless assaults of the 
Devil, the world, and the flesh. Butall these signs are of good 
omen, since they show that such a man will at length reach the 
desired goal. For Scripture tells us that all that are to obtain 
the eternal beatitude of Christ must be persecuted in this world, 
and we must enter into the kingdom of heaven through much 
tribulation and anguish. This truth is well expressed in the 
following words of S. Augustine: * Marvel not, brother, if after 

Luo THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

becoming a Christian you are assailed by many troubles. For 
Christ is our Head, and, as His members, we must follow and 
imitate, not only Him, but His life and sufferings. The life of 
Christ was closely beset with all manner of tribulations, poverty, 
insult, mockery, scorn, sorrow, and acute bodily suffering ; and it 
is clear that if you would obtain the life of Christ, you must, like 
Him, become perfect through suffering. For without these 
afflictions and tribulations we cannot come to God. |. A man who 
would enter Paradise must go through fire and water, whether 
he be Peter, to whom the keys of heaven were entrusted, or Paul, 
a chosen vessel of God, or John, to whom all the secrets of God 
were revealed. ^ Every brother must enter the kingdom of 
heaven through much tribulation." 

It should further be observed that the Antimony of the 
Sages with which the gold must be refined before being added 
to the Elixir, or royal chemical substance (or before undergoing 
a sudatory bath with ancient grey-headed Saturn) is expressed 
by the sign à. In the same way, a ball with a cross upon 
it is put into the hands of the Lord of the Holy Roman Empire, 
whereby it is indicated that he, too, must experience, and be 
tried by the tribulations of this world, before he can be peace- 
fully seated upon his throne. To all this we may find an 
analogy in the aforesaid School of the Cross, and the tribulations 
and persecutions through which all Christians must pass, and the 
struggle which they must wage with grey-headed Saturn, that is 
to say, the old Adam and Satan, before they can enter into 
everlasting joy and rest. 

Besides the aforesaid sorrows and afflictions, there are also 
in this world certain signs and marvels, and great mundane 
revolutions, which we must diligently consider and perpend. We 
must first hear of wars, and rumours of wars, various sects, 
plagues, and famines; for all these things are the true fore- 
runners aud heralds of our redemption. Then must come the 
general resurrection of the dead, by which those who obtain the 
victory through the Blood of the Lamb (for this second regene- 
ration is begun and rendered possible by their first regenera- 
tion in this life) pass into a new and unending life through the 
final indissoluble union of their bodies, souls, and spirits. For 
by the power and effectual working of Christ, our almighty 

THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH. I'D3 

heavenly King (to whom we are joined in a supernatural 
manner by faith), we shall be endued with pure spiritual health, 
strength, glory, and excellence. This marvellous union of body, 
soul,and spirit, this Divine glorification and exaltation of the 
elect, is a consideration fraught with reverential and unspeakable 
awe (like the sight of the final chemical transformation); it is 
a sight at which the very angels will stand rapt in inexpressible 
wonder; and then they will see us pass into the heavens to 
reign with Christ, and with them, and the ministering spirits, 
in everlasting glory, and joy unspeakable, world without end. 
To conclude—as, in our chemico-philosophical process, it 
was possible and necessary to correct at once any defect or 
irregularity, since otherwise the whole compound would be 
corrupted and rendered useless; so, in the Christian life, every 
fault must at once be carefully corrected, and put away, lest 
it afford a loophole for Satan, the world, and the flesh, to creep 
in again, and to cause in us, so to speak, a pernicious sublima- 
tion, or a premature redness (corresponding to the first and 
second chemical defects) or to make us despair of God's mercy 
when we consider our many grevious sins, or to stir up in us 
a spirit of murmuring against the great furnace heat of God's 
discipline (which two latter failings correspond to the third and 
fourth chemical defects) If any of these unfortunate accidents 
happen to our souls, they must be dissolved again (after the 
analogy of the chemical compound), by repentance, by the 
solutory key of holy Absolution, and thus, as often as is 
required, be purged of sin and post-baptismal defilement by 
Absolution, as well as by the pure heavenly milk of the Lord's 
Supper, which is the sweat of the heavenly Lamb, and water 
and blood, the fountain of life—which (like the mercurial water 
of the chemical process) is, to the unworthy and wicked, the 
most deadly poison, but food, drink, and a source of strength to 
the repentant believer. Thus he may still attain to what cor- 
responds to the final coagulation and perfect chemical conden- 
sation, namely, to the heavenly perfection of eternal beatitude. 
These two most wholesome remedies for post-baptismal sin 
(viz, Absolution and the Lord's Supper), God in his mercy has 
ordained, and entrusted to the keeping of His most Beloved 
Church, for the healing of repentant Christian men. Through 

H 

LT4 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

her, we are either, by absolution, pronounced free from guilt, 
or, if we remain impenitent, and persist in our wicked course, 
we are, by excommunication, delivered over to Satan, that by 
the destruction of the flesh, our souls may be saved in the day of 
the Lord Jesus. 

19] eITE(OXCOIIS). 

Thus, gentle and well-wishing reader, I have briefly and 
simply set forth to you the perfect analogy which exists between 
our earthly and chemical and the true and heavenly Stone, Jesus 
Christ, whereby we may attain unto certain beatitude and per- 
fection, not only in earthly but also in eternal life. I might have 
done so more grandly and copiously ; but you must know that I 
am neither a theologian, nor, according to the modern fashion, 
an Aristotelico-theologian, but a simple and unsophisticated lay- 
man. For the knowledge which God has committed to me, I 
have obtained, not at any learned academy, but in the universal 
school of Nature, and by perusing the open book of God. For 
this reason I have expressed my thoughts simply, and not tricked 
them out in sesquipedalian words, as is the manner of pro- 
fessional theologians ; nor do I pretend to have exhausted the 
subject ; all that I have done is to throw out some hints for the 
guidance of those who wish to investigate it more carefully. In 
doing my best, I have also endeavoured to do my duty ; for 
every lover of the truth is bound to praise God by revealing the 
knowledge entrusted to him. Besides all this, I desired to pro- 
fess publicly my belief in the true Christian faith ; since at the 
present time many devout and godly Christians are falsely 
represented and decried by lying slanderers as heretics. Let 
not the blasphemies and reckless judgment of the wicked world 
trouble the true Christian, against whom they are directed ; for 
the Devil and his servants have at all times done to the followers 
of Christ what they did to Christ Himself. Therefore I will say 
no more on this subject, but I will leave it to be decided by the 
Judge of all the world. 

As to the earthly Stone itself I must ask the reader to study 
diligently what has gone before in our treatise as to this subject. 

THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH. IIS 

For as in an excellent poem a verse is sometimes repeated at 
least once, so on this point we are accustomed to do the same, 
because the reader ought not to direct his aims and thoughts to 
the earthly Philosophical Stone until he has attained a right 
knowledge of the Celestial Stone, and has prepared it, or, at least, 
has commenced with the utmost zeal the preparations of both 
together. For the earthly Stone is a gift from God, descending 
by the clemency of the Celestial Stone. I agree with all the 
Sages that it would be folly to attempt the study of so profound 
a mystery without a good previous knowledge of Nature and 
her properties. But I also say that it is not merely difficult, but 
quite impossible, to prepare the Philosopher's Stone without a 
true knowledge of Christ, the heavenly Corner Stone, in whom 
all Nature lives and moves, and has its being. This warning. 
should be duly considered ; and he who would not expose him- 
self to the certainty of ignominious failure, should reflect that the 
mastery of any art requires persevering exercise, and that, before 
setting about this search after the Philosopher's Stone, he must 
prepare himself by careful and patient study. If any neglect 
this warning, his failure will be the result of his own ignorance 
and mental immaturity. 

But I wonder still more that there are to be found some 
men, who not only study this Art, but even try to practice it, and 
yet do not quite know whether it proceeds by natural and 
legitimate magic, or whether it is not after all a necromantic, or 
black art, which is exercised by the illegitimate aid of the powers 
of hell No, my good friend. The Devil, wicked angels, and 
wicked men, have no power but that which God suffers them to 
possess—and with our present glorious Art they positively have 
nothing whatever to do. It is entirely in the hand of God, who 
imparts it to whom He will, and takes it away from whom He 
will; and He does not suffer any votaries of pleasure, or evil 
.Spirits, to partake of it. He gives it only to the pure, true, and 
humble of heart. "This excellence is neither known, nor under- 
stood, by the majority of the present generation ; and when the 
sound of it strikes upon their ears, and they do not comprehend 
it, they straightway call it foolishness. On account of this their 
blindness, that spirit will always be hidden from their minds, 
and will at length be entirely taken away from them. 

H2 

116 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Let me, however, be permitted to impress one thing on 
the minds of my pious and devout readers. [n so far as a man 
orders his life, soul, heart, and actions aright in the sight of God, 
in sofar will he perceive that he is making good progress in the 
discovery, preparation, and use of the Stone. This assertion is 
the result of my own personal experience during many years, 
and it embodies my deliberate conviction. Therefore, the best 
preparation for this study is, in my judgment, a diligent amend- 
ment of heart and life. 

I am aware that I here lay myself open to the objection 
that it is possible to enumerate several men who actually 
possessed this Stone, or Tincture, and with it transmuted base 
metals into gold and silver; and who yet were not good men, 
but vain, profligate, and without knowledge of God. To this 
objection, I answer that from whencesoever these men may have 
obtained the Tincture, I certainly never will believe that they 
prepared it—ze.,the true and right Tincture—themselves. The 
tragic end of many of these men, and the headlong destruction 
brought upon them by their Tincture, prove but too clearly the 
truth of what I say. Moreover, all that call themselves 
alchemists are not therefore necessarily true possessors of the 
Stone. For, as in other branches of knowledge, there are 
found many different schools and sects, so all that are in search 
of this precious Tincture are called alchemists, without 
necessarily deserving the name. 

In this tract I have spoken of true, natural, and scientific 
alchemy, which teaches us to distinguish the evil and impure 
from the good and pure, and thus, to aid the weakness, and 
correct the corruption, of Nature. We help the metals to arrive 
at maturity, just as a gardener may assist fruit, which by some 
accident is prevented from ripening, or as a seed or grain of corn 
may easily be multiplied by being sown in the ground. Of 
pseudo-alchemy I neither pretend, nor care, to know anything, 
because I perceive that the ways of its teachers are crooked, and 
that they promise mountains of gold, without being able to 
redeem the least part of their pledge ; I also see that those who 
follow them incur great expense, ceasless toil, and are often 
ruined in body and soul. Therefore, if you encounter alchemists 
of this description, who speak boastfully of their Art, and offer 

EDENESQIOEATO CET QUE PET. imb 

to teach it you for money, I warn you to be on your guard 
against them. For with such men there is mostly a serpent 
lurking in the grass (Mic. ii.). 4 

I think I may confidently assert that the cost of preparing 
the Tincture (apart from your own daily maintenance, and the 
fuel required) doces not exceed three florins. For the Matter, as 
has already been said, is for most part, very common, and may 
be everywhere obtained in abundance ; and the /adour is easy 
and simple. In brief, the whole design can present no difficulty 
whatever to those whom God has chosen for this purpose, ze, to 
those who love Him ; but to the wicked it is beset with insuper- 
able impediments. In conclusion, let me tell you that if God 
in His gracious mercy should vouchsafe to reveal to you this 
open secret, it will then become your sacred duty to use it well, 
and to conceal your knowledge from the unworthy, to put a seal 
upon your lips, and to preserve unbroken silence about it. If 
you neglect this well-meant warning, you may bring upon your- 
self the anger of God, and persecutions of wicked men, and be 
justly punished with temporal and eternal ruin. 

* [f any one seek riches by means of this sacred " 
* Art, let him be devout, and simple-hearted, silent," 
"and wise. He who strives not after these virtues," 
* will receive the opposite of that which he desires : " 
* he will be poor, needy, naked and wretched." 

AII this, beloved Reader, I desired to enjoin upon you as a 
farewell admonition. I devoutly hope that God has opened your 
eyes, and that you have completely apprehended my meaning. 
To explain the matter more clearly and openly than I have done, 
I am forbidden by my vow. I can only ask you once more to 
peruse this treatise carefully, and to ask God to enlighten your 
understanding. 

ZAXDODBONLD/ BOX. 

If, after obtaining this knowledge, you give way to pride or 
avarice (under the pretext of economy and prudence), and thus 
gradually turn away from God, the secret will most certainly fade 
out of your mind in a manner which you do not understand. 
This has actually happened to many who would not be warned. 

118 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

RECAPITULATORY LINES. 

* If you will follow my teaching, and if you are " 
*a devout Christian man, you may take the" 

" *substance which I have before indicated, and," 
* by following the directions I have given, you" 
* may possess all the riches of the whole world." 

To this end—if you are worthy—may God in His mercy 
vouchsafe you His blessing. This prayer I offer up for you from 
the bottom of my heart. 

IRVASYABNRO 

Almighty, everlasting God, Father of heavenly light, from 
Whom proceed all good and perfect gifts: we pray Thee, of 
'Thine infinite mercy, to reveal to us Thine eternal wisdom, 
which is evermore about Thy throne, and by which all things 
were created and made, and are still governed and preserved : 
send it down to us from heaven, and from the throne of Thy 
glory, that it may be with us, and work with us, seeing that it is 
the teacher of all heavenly and secret arts, and knows and under- 
stands all things. Let it accompany us in all our works, that 
by Thy Spirit we may attain a true understanding and certain 
knowledge of this Blessed Art, and of the marvellous Stone of 
the Sages, which Thou art wont to reveal only to Thine elect, 
and hast concealed from the world. And so further us with Thy 
wisdom, that we may begin, continue, and complete this work 
without any error, and enjoy its fruits for ever with great joy— 
through the Heavenly and Eternal Foundation and Corner 
Stone, Jesus Christ, Who with Thee and the Holy Spirit liveth 
and reigneth, ever One God, world without end. Amen. 

Joshua xxi. 43-44. 

* And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He 
sware to give unto their fathers ; and there failed not aught of 
any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of 
Israel ; all came to pass." 

Deuteronomy xxxil, 3. 
* Ascribe the Glory unto God Alone ! " 
AMEN. 

UB OSQUOTEIAC C EIWIDRQU PDT. II9 
EPIGRAM. 

*Itis an easy matter to prepare gold in the furnace out of 
metals: at times there is found a man to whom the secret is 
revealed. "Why is not every alchemist rich? — The reason is that 
one thing is wanting which many seek with anxious care. 
Common gold is not fixed, and, when brought to the test of fire, 
quickly disappears and perishes. But he who knows the fixed 
gold, which at all times remains the same, and from which nothing 
is lost, he is the possessor of the true Art, and may be called a 
good and practical Sage and Chemist." 

ANOTHER EPIGRAM. 

*'lheology without alchemy is like a noble body without its 
right hand. This is graphically shewn and exhibited in the pic- 
ture before us. First look at the helmet and the two wings, 
which signify the love of the Art. They bear us onward to 
Sophia (Wisdom), who is brightlike Phoebus. Her body is naked 
because she is ardently loved. She is loved because she has at 
her disposal the riches of the whole world. He that gazes upon 
her beauteous form cannot refrain himself from loving her, goddess 
as she is. Although this love is, as it were, hidden, yet it is con- 
stant; and that is indicated by the mask. ^ Her heart is sincere, 
her words are modest, righteousness upholds her steps, she is free 
from malice and guile. Her valiant appearance shews that she 
is of an open mind. Yet she seems to be falling, too: that is 
because the base world hates her, and with fierce truculence tries 
to cast her down to the ground. But evermore she bravely rises 
on high, though ambition moves her not. She is beloved by God 
and man. "Though mockery is to her for a garment, as is shewn 
by the noisy cymbals, yet she cares nothing for it, but cleaves all 
the more faithfully to wisdom ; to it she lifts her eyes, to it she 
directs her steps. For she knows that it is the only true salva- 
tion, and therefore she occupies herself with it by day and by 
night. She is not anxious for worldly praise, nor does she heed 
the hatred and injustice of men, or care for their opinion too little or 
too much. Much suffering and tribulation are inflicted upon her 
by this wicked world, yet she bears it with a valiant heart and holds 
itin disdain. For she possesses the treasure which gives her all 

120 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

that she desires, and avarice dwells not in her thoughts. That 
in which the world delights, she accounts as the dirt beneath her 
feet, since fortune is a wheel, and its revolutions are swift. There- 
fore she delights to tread the path of thorns, until, leaving the 
world, she finds rest in the tomb. — Then her righteous soul will 
soar aloft to heaven, and for a just reward there shall be given 
unto her a diadem of stars. After her death, her praise and glory 
shall wax bright in the world, like unto the glorious splendour of 
the sun; nor will it ever pale, but. become more intense as the 
years advance, and her name shall shine like a bright star for 
evermore."* 

UNTO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY. 
AMEN. 

* NoTE.— The Latin original contains no engraving illustrative of this Epigram. 

A 

DIEN OWNSTRATTOJN 

OF 

NOR T U RE 

MADE TO THE ERRING ALCHEMISTS, AND COMPLAINING 

OF THE SOPHISTS AND OTHER FALSE TEACHERS. 

SET FORTH BY 

JOHN A. MEHUNG. 

NATURE (speaks).

His own image, and appointed to be the lords of the 
earth, depart so far away from me! I allude more 
particularly to you, O stolid philosophaster, who presume to 
style yourself a practical chemist, a good philosopher, and yet are 
entirely destitute of all knowledge of me, of the true Matter, and 
of the whole Art which you profess! For, behold, you 
break vials, and consume coals, only to soften your brain still 
more with the vapours. You also digest alum, salt, orpiment, 
and atrament; you melt metals, build small and large 
furnaces, and use many vessels: nevertheless, I am sick of 
. your folly, and you suffocate me with your sulphurous smoke. 
With most intense heat you seek to fix your quicksilver, which is 
the vulgar volatile substance, and not that out of which I make 
metals ; therefore you effect nothing. For you do not follow my 
guidance, or strive to imitate my methods, rather mistaking my 
whole artifice. You would do better to mind your own business, 
than to dissolve and distil so many absurd substances, and 
then to.pass them through alembics, cucurbitas, stills, and 
pelicans. By this method you will never succeed in congealing 
quicksilver. For the revivification you use a reverberatory fire, 
and make it so hot as to render everything liquid—thus do you 
finish your work, and in the end ruin yourself and others. You 
will never discover anything unless you first enter my workshop, 
where, in the inmost bowels of the earth I ceaselessly forge 
metals: there you may find the substance which I use, and 
discover the method of my work. 
Do not suppose that I will reveal my secret to you unless 
you first find the growing seed of all metals (resembling that of 

( OOD heavens, how deeply I am often saddened at 
J 

124 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the animals and vegetables) I preserve in the bosom of the 
earth both that which is used for their generation, and that with 
which they are nourished up. 

Metals Eazsz, vegetables Lzve aud Grow, and animals Fez, 
which is more than merely to grow. I make metals, stones, and 
the atramental substances out of certain elements, which I mix 
and compound in a certain way. "These elements you must seek 
in the heart of the earth, and nowhere else. Vegetables contain 
their own seed, and image ; in like manner, animals are propa- 
gated, and by the same means do generate their own likeness. 
Everything proceeds by the laws laid down for it. Only you, 
wicked man, who try to usurp my office, have departed further 
from me than any other creature. Metals have no life, or 
principle of generation and growth, if they lack their own proper 
seed. The first is accomplished by the four elements in nine 
days; the Moon goes through the twelve heavenly signs in 
twenty-nine and a half days. 

By the aforesaid laws, winter and summer relieve each other, 
the elements are changed, generations take place in the earth— 
through my working, through the working of God and the 
heavens, do all things subsist, the perceptible, the visible, and the 
invisible. Thus all things in heaven which are comprehended 
under the Moon, do work, and impart their influence to the 
substance, which, like a woman, longs to conceive seed. Each 
star influences its own substance, and according to their peculiar 
nature, they produce different things. "They work first in heaven 
above, then in the earth beneath in the elements, each according 
to its own peculiar virtue ; and hence arise species and individual 
things. 

You are to know that these manifold influences do not pour 
themselves fruitlessly upon the earthly elements. For though 
their working is invisible, yet it is a most certain and real 
thing. The earth is surrounded by heaven, and from it obtains 
her best influences and substances. Every sphere is ready to 
communicate its truth, and therewith to pervade her centre. 
Through this motion and heat, there arise upon earth vapours, 
which are the first substances. Ifthe vapour is cold and moist, 
it sinks down again to the earth, and is there preserved ; that 
which is moist and warm ascends to the clouds. "That which is 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 125 

shut up in the earth I change, after a long time, into the 
substance of sulphur, which is the active, and into quicksilver, 
which is the passive principle. The metals are another mixture 
of this first composition. The whole is obtained from the four 
elements, which I form into one mass. This process I repeat so 
often that you have no excuse for a mistake. 

After the putrefaction comes the generation, which is 
brought about by the internal incombustible warmth heating the 
coldness of the quicksilver, which gladly submits to this heat 
because it wishes to be united to its sulphur. All these things, 
fire, air, and water, I have in one alembic in the earth. "There I 
digest, dissolve, and sublime them, without any hammer, tongs, 
file, coals, vapour, fire, * bath of S. Mary," or other sophisticated 
contrivances. For I have my own heavenly fire which excites 
the elemental according as the matter desires to put on a suitable 
and comely form. "Thus I extract my quicksilver from the four 
elements, or their substance. "This is always accompanied by its 
sulphur, which is its second self, and warms it gradually, gently, 
and pleasantly. "Thus the cold becomes warm, and the dry moist 
and oily. But the moist is not without its dry substance, nor is 
the dry without its moist: one is conserved by the other in its 
first essence (which is the elementary spirit of the essence, or the 
quintessence) from which proceeds the generation of our child. 
The fire brings it forth, and nourishes it in the air, but before 
that, it is decomposed in virgin earth ; then water flows forth (or 
it flows forth from the water), which we must seek, since itis my 
first Matter, and the source of my mineral. For contrary resists 
strenuously to contrary, and doth in such wise fortify itself, lest 
perchance it be carried away in operating ; then does it suffer 
transmutation, and is stripped of its form by the concupiscence 
of matter, which incessantly attracts a new form. 

By my wisdom I govern the first principle of motion. My 
hands are the eighth sphere, as my Father ordained ; my. 
hammers are the seven planets, with which I forge beautiful 
things. The substance out of which I fashion all my works, 
and all things under heaven, I obtain from the four elements 
alone. Chaos, or Hyle, is the first substance. This is the 
Mistress that maintains the King, the Queen, and the whole 
court. A horseman is always ready to do her bidding, and a 

126 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

virgin performs her office in the chambers. The more beautiful 
she is, the more beautiful do I appear in her. Know also that 
I have power to give their essence to all essences, that it is I who 
preserve them, and mould them into shape. Moreover, observe 
the three parts into which God has divided the first substance. 
Of the first and purest part He created the Cherubin, Seraphin, 
Archangels, and all the other angels. Out of the second, which 
was not so pure, He created the heavens and all that belongs to 
them; of the third, impure part, the elements and their pro- 
perties. First and best of these is 7zre Fire admits of no 
corruption, and contains the purest part of the quintessence. 
After Fzre, He made the subtle Air, and put into it a part (but 
not so large a part) of the quintessence. Then came the 
visible element of Water, which has as much of the quintessence 
as it needs. Last of all comes the Zaz77. All these (like all 
the rest of Nature) He created in a moment of time. The earth 
is gross and dark, and though it is fruitful, yet it contains the 
smallest part of the quintessence. At first the elements re- 
mained as they were in their separate spheres. So Air is really 
moist, but is properly tempered by Fire. Water is really warm, 
butobtains its moisture from the air. The Earth is really dry, 
but it is also cold ; its great dryness renders it akin to fire. Fire, 
however, is the first of elements which causes life and growth by 
its heat. 

Now all these elements influence and qualify each other, so 
that each in its turn is now active, now passive. For instance, 
Fire works upon air and earth. Earth is the mother and nurse 
of all things, and sustains all that is liable to decay under 
heaven. Now God has given me power to resolve the four 
elements into their quintessence; this is that first substance 
which in every element is generically qualified. I resolve them 
for my own purpose, and thereby bring aBBut all generation. 
But no one will be able to resolve me into my first substance, as 
he strives to resolve the elements. For I alone can transmute 
the elements and their forms, and he who thinks otherwise 
deceives himself For you will never be able to assign to each 
substance its proper influence, or to find the correct proportions 
of the elements which are required by that substance. I alone, 
I say, can form created things, and give to them their peculiar 

4 DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 127 

properties and substance. By my heavenly mysteries I produce 
perfect works, which are justly called miracles, as may be seen 
in the Elixir which has such marvellous virtue, and is of my own 
forming. No art upon earth can add anything to, or improve 
upon, my workmanship. Every sane person must see that 
nothing can be accomplished without a perfect knowledge of the 
heavenly bodies, or apart from the efficacy which abides in them ; 
without these everything is error and misuse ; and yet, whence 
is a mere man to obtain this influence, and how is he to apply it 
to the substance? How can he mingle the elements in their 
right proportions? Even if a man were to spend a long life in 
the investigation of this secret (says Avicenna, De Vir. Cord., 
cp. ii) he would not get any nearer to its solution. It is 
entrusted to my keeping alone,and can never be known to any 
man. By my virtue and efficacy I make the imperfect perfect, 
whether it be a metal or a human body. [I mix its ingredients, 
and temper the four elements. I reconcile opposites, and calm 
their discord. 

This is the golden chain which I have linked together of my 
heavenly virtues and earthly substances. Iaccomplish my works 
with such unerring accuracy that in them all my power is shewn 
forth, and with so much skill that the wisest of men cannot attain 
to my perfection. Go forth then, and behold my works, you who 
think yourself so skilled a workman, and (without any know- 
ledge of me), with your coal fires and your S. Mary's bath, strive 
to make gold potable in my alembics—and know that I cannot 
bear the sight of your folly. Are you not ashamed, after con- 
sidering my works, to attempt to rival them with your mal- 
odorous decoctions in your coloured and painted vials, and thus 
lose both your time and your money? |] am at a loss to con- 
ceive what you can be thinking. Have pity upon yourself, 
and consider my teaching. Try to understand rightly what I tell 
you, for I cannotlie. Consider how that most glorious metal, 
gold, has received its beautiful form from heaven and its precious 
substance from the earth. The generation of the precious stones, 
such as carbuncles, amethysts, and diamonds, takes place in the 
same manner. The substance itself is composed of the four 
elements ; its form and qualities it receives through heavenly in- 
fluences, although the capacity of being thus wrought upon 

128 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

slumbers in the element and is only brought out and purified in 
the course of time. All this is accomplished by my hands alone. 
I am the architect, and no one else knows the secret of life, For, 
however wise he may think himself, he does not know how much 
to take of each element, or where to obtain it, or how to mingle 
hostile elements so as to allay their discord, or how to bring the 
heavenly influences to bear on these essences. — He cannot even 
make iron, or lead, or the very basest of metal; how then should 
he be able to make gold except by stealing my treasure? The 
object which he desires can be accomplished by my art alone— 
an art which it is impossible for man to know. 

And even though we allow gold to be the most precious of 
metals, yet gold by itself cannot cure diseases, or heal the 
imperfections of other metals, or change them into gold. In the 
same way glass (which might otherwise be the Philosopher's 
Stone)can never become so soft as to be rendered malleable. 
Gold alone is the most precious and the most perfect of all 
the metals. Butif you cannot even make lead, or the minutest 
grain of any metals, or produce the fruit of any herb, how hope- 
less must your search after the art of making gold appear! 
Again if you say that you wish to produce some chemical result, 
even if it do not turn out to be gold, I answer that you thereby 
only give a fresh proof of your folly. Can you not understand 
that the secret of my innermost working must always remain a 
sealed book to you? What Nature does can never be success- 
fully imitated by any created being. Nay, if I made gold 
out of seven metals, and you do not understand my method, how 
can you ever hope to prepare the substance which itself changes 
all metals into the purest gold, and is the most precious treasure 
that God has given me? You are foolish and ignorant, if you 
do not know that this precious thing which you seek is, to the 
created mind, the greatest mystery of Nature, and that it is com- 
pounded by heavenly influences—and thus has power to heal 
and deliver men from all diseases, and to remove the imperfec- 
tion of the base metals. If, therefore, it is in itself so perfect 
that it has not its like upon earth, it must surely be the work- 
manship of the highest Intelligence, since no one else can even 
make gold, and certainly not produce a thing which has itself 
the power of making gold. Surely, to maintain that you are 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 129 

able to prepare such a thing, is like saying that you cannot carry 
ten pounds, but that you are strong enough to carry a hundred 
pounds. Put to heart, therefore, the true scope and responsibility 
of your intent. 

I, myself, again, receive all my wisdom, virtue, and power 
from heaven, and my Matter, in its simplest form, is the four 
elements. This is the first. principle and the quintessence of the 
elements, which I bring forth by reductions, time, and circula- 
tions, by which I transmute the inferior into the more perfect, 
the cold and dry into the moist and warm ; and thus I preserve 
stones and metals in their natural state of moisture. This is 
brought about by the movements of the celestial bodies, for by 
them the elements are ruled; by their controlling influence like 
is brought to like. ^ The purer my substance is, the more excel- 
lent are the results produced by the heavenly influence. And 
do you think that there in your alembic, where you have your 
earth and water, I will be induced by your fire and heat, and 
by your white and red colour, to bend my neck to your yoke, 
and to do your will and pleasure? Do you think that you can 
move the heavens, and force them to shed their influence upon 
your work. Do you think that that is an organic instrument 
which gives forth sweet music only when it is touched by the 
musician's fingers? You take too much upon yourself, you 
foolish man. — Do you not know that the revolutions of the 
heavens are governed by a mighty Mind, which, by its influence, 
imparts power to all things ? 

I beseech you to remember that all great things proceed 
from me, and, in the last instance, from God; and not to 
suppose that the skill of your hands can be as perfect as the 
operation of Nature. For it is void and vain, and, ape-like, 
must imitate me in all things. Nor must you suppose that 
your distilling, dissolving, and condensing of your substance 
in your vessel or your eliciting of water out of oil, is the 
right way of following me. Far from it, my son. All your 
mixing and dissolving of elements never has produced, and 
never can produce, any good result. Do you wish to know 
the reason? Your substance cannot stand the heat of the 
furnace for a single half-hour, but must evaporate in smoke, or 
be consumed by the fire. But the substance with which I 

I 

130 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

work, can stand any degree of heat, without being injured. 
My water is dry, and does not moisten what it touches; it 
does not evaporate, or become less, neither is its oil consumed. 
So perfect are my elements; but yours are worse than 
useless. 

In conclusion, let me tell you that your artificial fire will 
never impart my heavenly warmth, nor will your water, oil, 
and earth supply you with any substitute for my substance. 
It is the gift of God, shed upon the elements from heaven, 
and upon one more than upon another; but how, is known 
only to me, and to the Great Artist who entrusted me with 
this knowledge. One thing more let me tell you, my son. 
If you would imitate me, you must prepare all out of one 
simple, self-contained Matter, in oze well-closed vessel, and in 
one alembic. "The substance contains all that is needed for 
its perfect development, and must be prepared with a warmth 
that is always kept at the same gentle temperature. Let me 
ask you to consider the birth and development of man, my 
noblest work. You cannot make a human body out of any 
substance whatsoever. Of my method in forming so subtle a 
body neither Aristotle nor Plato had the remotest knowledge. 
I harden the bones and the teeth, I make the flesh soft, the 
muscles cold, the brain moist, the heart, into which God has 
poured the life, warm, and fill all the veins with red blood. 
And in the same way, I make of one quicksilver, and of one 
active male sulphur, one maternal vessel, the womb of which is 
the alembic. It is true that man aids me with his art, by 
shedding external heat into the matrix; more than this, 
however, he cannot do. He, then, that knows the true Matter, 
and prepares it properly in a well-closed vessel, and puts the 
whole in an alembic, and keeps up the fire at the proper 
degree of warmth, may safely leave the rest to me. Upon 
the fire all depends, and much, therefore, does it behove you 
to see thereto. Consider, therefore, the fire, which they call 
epesin, pepsin, pepausin, and optesin, or natural, preternatural, 
and infranatural fire, which burns not. Without the true 
Matter and the proper fire, no one can attain the end of his 
labour. I give you the substance; you must provide the 
mere outward conditions. Take, then, a vessel, and an alembic 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 131 

of the right kind and of the right size. Be wise, and perform 
the experiment in accordance with my laws. Help me, and 
I wil help you. I will deal with you as you deal with me. 
To my other sons, who have treated me well, have obeyed 
their father and mother, and submitted themselves to my 
precepts, I have given a great reward, as John de Mehung, 
for instance, will tell you. His testimony is also borne out 
by Villanova, Raymond, Morienus the Roman, Hermes (whom 
they call Father, and who has not his like among the Sages), 
Geber, and others who have written about this Art, and know 
by experience that it is true. 

If you, my son, wish to prepare this precious Stone, you 
need not put yourself to any great expense. All that you want 
is leisure, and some place where you can be without any fear of 
interruption. Reduce the Matter (which is oze) to powder, put 
it, together with its water, in a well-closed vessel, and expose it 
to continuous, gentle heat, which will then begin to operate, 
while the moisture favours the decomposition. "The presence of 
the moisture prevents the dryness of the quicksilver fromretarding 
its assimilation. Meanwhile, you must diligently observe what 
I do, and remember the words of Aristotle (Meteor iii. and iv.), 
who says: * Study Nature, and carefully peruse the book con- 
cerning Generation and Corruption. You must also read the 
book concerning heaven and the world, in which you will find 
indicated the beautiful and pure substance. If you neglect this 
study, you will fail. On this subject consult Albertus Magnus, 
De Mineralibus. But if your eyes are opened by such studies, 
you will discover the secret of the growth of minerals, viz., that 
they are all produced from the elements. 

First learn to know :ze, before you call yourself Master. 
Follow me, that am the mother of all things created, which have 
one essence, and which can neither grow, nor receive a living 
soul, without the heavenly and elementary influences. When 
you have learned by persevering study to understand the virtues 
of the heavenly bodies, their potent operations, and the passive 
condition of the elements, and its reason—if you further know 
the media of transmutation, the cause of generation, nutrition, 
and decay, and the essence and substance of the elements—you 
are already acquainted with the Art, notwithstanding that a 

I2 

132 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

most subtle mind is still needed for the studying of my operations, 
But if you do not possess part at least of this knowledge, you 
will be fortunate indeed if you succeed in discovering my 
secret. Itisa secret that is read not by those that are wise in their 
own conceits, but by those that humbly and patiently listen to 
my teaching. Therefore, if you desire to own this treasure, 
which has been the reward of the truly wise in all ages, you must 
doas I bid you. For my treasure has such virtue and potency 
that the like of it is to be found neither in heaven nor upon 
earth. It holds an intermediate position between Mercury and 
the Metal which I take for the purpose of extracting from it by 
your art and my knowledge that most precious essence. It is 
pure and potable gold, and its radical principle is active 
humidity. Moreover, it is the universal Medicine described by 
Solomon (Eccles. xxxviii); the same also is taken from the 
earth, and honoured by the wise. God has assigned it a place 
among my mysteries, and reveals it to the Sages, although 
many who call themselves learned doctors of Theology and 
Philosophy, hold it in ignorant contempt—as Alchemy is also 
despised by the doctors of Medicine, because they do not know 
me, and are ignorant of that which they profess to teach. They 
must be insufficiently furnished with brains, or they would not 
direct their foolish scorn against the panacea which renders all 
other medicines unnecessary. Happy is the man, even though 
he be sinking under the weight of years, whose days God pro- 
longs until he has come to the knowledge of this secret! For (as 
Geber says) many to whom this gift was imparted late in life, 
have, nevertheless, been refreshed and delighted by it in 
extreme old age. 

He that has this secret possesses all good. things and great 
riches One ounce of it will ensure to him both wealth and 
health. It is the only source of strength and recreation, and far 
excels the golden tincture. It is the elixir and water of life, 
which includes all other things. In my treasure are concealed 
quicksilver, sulphur, incombustible oil, white, indestructible, and 
fusible salt. I tell you, frankly, that you will never be able to 
accomplish its preparation without me, just as I can do nothing 
without your help. But if you understand my teaching, and co- 
operate with me, you can accomplish the whole thing in a short 
time. 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 133 

Have done with the charlatans, and their foolish writings ; 
have done with all their various alembics, and phials ; have done 
with their excrements of horses, and all the variety of their coal- 
fires, since all these things are of no use whatever. Do not 
perplex yourself with metals, or other things of a like nature : 
rather change the elements into a mutable form. For this is the 
most excellent substance of the Sages, and is rejected only by 
the foolish. Its substance is like, but its essence unlike, that of 
gold. Transmute the elements and you will have what you 
seek. Sublime that which is the lowest, and make that which is 
the highest, the lowest. Take quicksilver which is mixed with 
its active sulphur ; put it into a well-closed vial, and one alembic, 
plunge one-third of it into the earth, kindle the fire of the Sages, 
and watch it well so that there may be no smoke. — The rest you 
may leave to me. I ask you to do no more, but only bid you 
follow my unerring guidance. 

THE ANSWER OF THE CHEMIST, 

In wich Ae confesses his errors, asks pardon for them, and 
returns than&s to Nature. 

Dearest Mother Nature, who, next to the angels, art the 
most perfect of all God's creatures, I thank thee for thy kindly 
instruction. I acknowledge and confess that thou art the 
Mother and Empress of the great world, made for the little world 
of man's mind. Thou movest the bodies above, and transmutest 
the elements below. At the bidding of thy Lord thou dost 
accomplish both small things and great, and renewest, by cease- 
less decay and generation, the face of the earth and of the 
heavens. I confess that nothing can live without a soul, and that 
al! that exists and is endued with being flows forth from thee by 
virtue of the power that God has given to thee. All matter is 
ruled by thee, and the elements are under thy governance. 
From them thou takest the first substance, and from the heavens 
thou dost obtain the form. "That substance is formless and void 
until it is modified and individualized by thee. — First thou givest 
it a substantial, and then an individual form. In thy great 
wisdom thou dost cunningly mould all thy works through the 
heavenly influences, so that no mortal hand can utterly destroy 
them. Under thy hands God has put all things that are necessary 

134 JHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

to man, and through thee, He has divided them into four king- 
doms, namely, those that have being and essence, like the metals 
and stones; those that have essence and growth, like the 
vegetables; those that have feeling and sensation, like the beasts, 
birds, and fishes. These are the first three classes; in the fourth 
it pleased God to place only the noblest and most perfect of His 
works, namely, man, to whom He also gave a rational and im- 
mortal soul. "This soul is obscured by the defilement which 
found its way into the body through the senses, and, but for the 
grace and mercy of God, would have become involved in its 
condemnation. Hence the chief perfection of man is not 
derived from thee, nor dost thou impart to us our humanity. 
Nevertheless, the material part of man is the work of thy hands 
alone. 

And, surely, our bodies are cunningly and wonderfully made, 
and, in every part of them, bear witness to the masterly skill of 
the workman. How marvellous are the uses of our various 
members! How wonderful that the soul can move them and 
set them to work at will! But, alas! oftener still the body is 
master of the soul, and forces it to do many things which pure 
reason condemns. If we consider the matter from this point of 
view, it seems as though thou hadst begun well, and yet thy 
work had,,after all, turned out an abortion. | Wert thou wanting 
in wisdom, or knowledge, or couldst thou not do otherwise? 
Pardon me if I speak too presumptuously about thy wisdom, I 
only desire to be rightly and truly informed. For, indeed, even 
now thy stern rebuke has made many things clear to me. I have 
spent my whole life in attending to thy lessons; and the more 
closely I have listened, the more clearly have I understood my 
mistakes and the depth of thy wisdom. | Now, whether I lie, or 
stand, or walk, I can think of nothing but thy great mystery. 
And yet I am unable to conceive what subtance and form I must 
take for it. Thou didst sternly rebuke me for not following thy 
way ; but thou knowest that, if I do not obey thee, it is only be- 
cause I do not know what thou wouldst have me do. I shall 
never be able to attain any satisfactory result in this Art, unless 
thou wilt enlighten my blindness. Thou hast rightly said that it 
is not for man to know the mystery of thy working: how then 
can I be guided to this knowledge, unless thou wilt take me by 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 135 

the hand? Thou sayest that I must follow thee; and I am 
willing to do so. But tell me what I must do, and what books I 
must study for that purpose. Of the books which I have read, 
one says, * Do this," and the other, * No, do that"; and they are 
full of unintelligible expressions and of dark parables. At last I 
see that I cannot learn anything from them. "Therefore I take 
refuge with thee, and instantly beseech thee to advise and to tell 
me how to set about this difficult task, — On my kness I implore 
thee to show me the way by which I can penetrate into the lower 
parts of the earth, and by what subtle process I am to obtain the 
perfect mercury ofthe metals. And yet I doubt whether any 
man, even after obtaining this mercury, can really make gold. 
That is thy work, and not the work of man ; as thy words and 
my own experience most clearly shew. 

We see that the cold and moist mercury needs the 
assistance of its sulphur, which is its seed after its kind, or its 
homogeneous sperm, out of which the metal or Stone must be 
produced. But thou sayest only : Take the proper substance, the 
proper vessel the proper mineral, the proper place, and the 
proper fire; then form, colour, and life will grow and spring forth 
from thence. "Thou art the Architect ; thou knowest the glorious 
properties of the Matter. "The active principle can do nothing 
unless there be a passive principle prepared to receive its 
influence. Thou knowest how to mix the warm and the cold, 
the dry and the moist ; by reconciling hostile elements, thou 
canst produce new substances and forms. For I did indeed 
understand all that thou didst tell me, but am unable to express 
itso well as thou. "This thou hast firmly impressed on my 
mind, that the Elixir is composed by the reconciling and mutual 
transmutation of the four elements. But what man is sufficient 
for such a task? For who knows how earth can have its 
essence in common with air, or how it can be changed into 
moisture which is contrary to its nature? For humidity will not 
leave a cold and humid element, not even under the influence of 
fire. "This, too, is the work of Nature, that it becomes black, and 
white, and red. These three visible colours correspond to the 
three elements, earth, water, and fire, and are pervaded by the air. 

Then, again, thou sayest that the Stone is prepared of oze 
thing, of oze substance, in oxe vessel| the four (elements) 

136 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

composing one essence in which is oze agent which begins and 
completes the work ; man, thou sayest, need do nothing but add 
a little heat, and leave the rest to thy wisdom. For all that 
is needed is already contained in the substance, in perfection, 
beginning, middle, and end, as the whole man, the whole 
animal, the whole flower is contained each in its proper seed. 
Now, in the human seed the human specific-substance is also 
included, as flesh, blood, hair, &c.; and thus every seed contains 
all the peculiar properties of its species. In the whole world 
men spring from human seed, plants from plants, animals from 
animals. Now I know that when once the seed is enclosed 
in the female vessel, no further trouble or work of any kind is 
required—everything is brought to perfection by thy gradual 
and silent working. And the generation of the Stone, thou 
sayest, is performed in a similar manner. Only one substance 
is required, which contains within itself air, water, and fire—in 
short, everything that is needed for the completion of this work. 
No further handling of any kind is necessary, and a gentle 
fire is sufficient to rouse the internal warmth, just as an infant in 
the womb is cherished by natural heat. The only thing in 
which man must aid thee, is, by preparing the substance, 
removing all that is superfluous, enclosing this simple earth, 
which is combined with its water, in a vessel, and subjecting 
it to the action of gentle heat in a suitable alembic. This, 
thou sayest, is all that needs to be done by man ; when all has 
been prepared for thee, thou dost begin thy part of the work. 
Thou dissolvest the substance, and makest the dry watery ; then 
thou sublimest it, and bearest it upward into the air, and thus, 
without any further aid, bringest that to perfection which can 
itself impart perfection to all imperfect things. Therefore, thou, 
Nature, art the first mother, since thou dost cunningly combine 
the four elements into an essence by a process of which none 
but thou has any knowledge. "Thus far have I understood thee, 
and do not quite despair, if it be pleasing unto God and to thee, 
of seeing thy great reward with my own eyes. 

But at present I earnestly desire to know but one thing : 
and that is, how can that substance be obtained, what are its 
qualities, and what its powers to impart perfection to imperfect 
things ? 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 137 

I am well aware that gold is the most precious of the metals ; 
but I cannot see that it has any capacity of becoming more 
potent than it already is. For whatever man may do with it, 
it will never be able to perfect anything but itself. If any one 
told me to dissolve it and extract from it its quicksilver, I should 
regard that as a very foolish direction ; for nothing can be got 
out of gold but what is in it. These philosophasters betray 
their ignorance by saying that they can reduce gold to its first 
substance; but thy instruction has made it clear to me that 
the first substance cannot be obtained, except by destroying the 
specific properties of a thing, nor can any new species be brought 
forth by such a destruction, unless the species be first universa- 
lized into the genus. Moreover, I make bold to affirm that no 
man can first resolve gold into its generic substance, and then 
restore it again ; for when it has once lost its specific properties, 
no mere human skill can change it back into what it was before. 
Nor can any one really reduce gold to the first form imparted to 
it by the elements. For gold is not transmuted either by heat 
or by cold, and is so perfect in its kind that fire only renders it 
purer. Itdoes not admit of any further development, and there- 
fore no other metal or quicksilver can be obtained from it. 

It is true that plants and animals are constantly producing 
their like by means of their seed, and their capacity of organic 
nutrition. But I do not see how the same can be said of metals, 
seeing that at the expiration of any given period they still retain 
the same size and weight which they had at the beginning. 
"Through thee they receive their being out of the elements with- 
out any sowing, planting, or development of any kind. Moreover, 
I know that no credit is to be attached to the fanciful notions of 
the old Sages who would prepare our Stone out of a crude 
inetallic substance, and do not understand that the form and 
substance of a thing are conditioned by its essential nature. 
Now, I remember a certain juggling charlatan, who was looked 
upon as a great philosopher, telling me that the only true 
material was common quicksilver, which must be well mingled 
with gold, since in such an union the one brought the other to 
perfection. If I did this, continued that impostor, I should be 
able to prepare the Elixir. First, however, the four elements 
must be separated from each other, then, after each had been 

138 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

purified, they must be reunited, the great being combined with the 
small, and the subtile with the gross. This, he said, was the right 
way of making the Stone. But I know that all this is sheer non- 
sense, and that such men are only deceiving themselves and others. 

I am also aware that only God can produce anything out of 
the elements. He alone knows how to mingle and combine them 
in their due proportions. For He alone is the Creator and 
Author of all good things, and there is nothing in the world that 
He has not made. Therefore, let the charlatans cease their vain- 
glorious talk, and remember that they can never hope to gather 
where they cannot sow; let them make an end of their false cal- 
cinations, sublimations, distillations, by which they extract the 
spirit in a vaporous form, and of their juggling coagulations and 
congelations, by which they pretend, even among the initiated, to 
be able rightly to separate the elements of gold and quicksilver. 
It is certainly true that all things under heaven are composed of 
the four elements, and mixed of them according to the due pro- 
portion of their genus and species ; but itis notsimply the union 
of the four elements, but their being combined in a certain way, 
which constitutes the substance of the Philosophical Stone. 

I also understand that in the red quicksilver and perfect 
body, which is called the Sun, the four elements are combined in 
a peculiar way, and so inseparably conjoined, that no mere human 
art can divide them. For all ancient and true Sages say that 
fire and air are enclosed in earth and water, and contend so 
violently with each other that none but God and Nature can loosen 
their grappling embrace. This I can truly affirm and also prove. 
For we can neither see the fire nor grasp the air ; and ifany one 
says that the several elements can be seen he is an imposter, 
seeing that they are inseparably and inextricably conjoined. 
For, although the Sophists pretend, and confidently affirm, that 
they can divide gold and quicksilver into the four elements, yet 
for all that they speak not the truth. — If two elements, fire and 
air, were thus taken away, all the rest must vanish into nothing. 
They may say that those two are retained, but they are, never- 
theless, densely ignorant as to what becomes of them; for air 
and fire cannot be seen or perceived. Again, that extract which 
they callfire and air renders humid, which is not the property 
either of fire or of air. 

A DEMONSTRATION OF NATURE. 139 

Moreover, as thou hast said, even the most learned Doctor 
cannot know the proportion of each element in any given 
substance. For God has entrusted this knowledge to thee alone. 
Nor is any Sage wise enough to be able to mingle and put 
together the elements so as to produce any natural object. If 
then he dissolves anything into its elements, how, I pray thee, 
is he to put them together again into any abiding form, since 
heis ignorant of their proportionate quantity and quality, and 
of the method of their composition? Yet it is of no use to 
separate them, if they cannot be put together again. To thee, 
O Nature, we must entrust this task, since thou knowest the 
art of preparing the Philosopher's Stone, and of combining the 
elements without first separating them. Nevertheless, for the 
preparation of the true Elixir, thou needest the aid of a wise and 
truly learned man. Aristotle says: * Where the physicist ends, 
there the physician begins" Nor can we attain to true alchemy, 
until we begin to follow Nature, and to be guided by a know- 
ledge of her principles. Where the study of Alchemy is rightly 
carried on, it is mightily advanced by Nature. But, for all that, 
we must not suppose that every natural substance must be useful 
to the alchemist. We must remember that Alchemy has a 
threefold aim: First, to quicken and perfect the metal, 
and so to digest its spirit that none of it is lost; secondly, 
so to digest and heat the substance in a small phial that 
(without the addition of anything else) the body and 
spirit are changed into one. The mingling of the elements is 
performed, not by the artist, but by thee. Thirdly, it (alchemy) 
proves that the process of preparing the Stone does not in- 
clude any separation of the four elements (of the quicksilver 
and the Sun, which is called red and glorious gold) ^ To 
believe that such a separation must take place is a great 
mistake, and contradicts the fundamental principles of phi- 
losophy. 

Again, it is an undoubted fact, that every elementary sub- 
stance is fed by the elements themselves. If, then, that which 
now forms one object is dissolved, the object as such is 
destroyed, the bond which held the elements together being 
violently broken, and each returning to that from which it was 
first taken. A father that begets a son must not be destroyed 

140 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

for that purpose; it suffices that the generating spirit shall go 
forth with the seed, and be conceived by the female seed, and 
cherished with its warmth. Such a generating spirit has power 
to beget an infant of the same species, as Avicenna says. Now, 
it is the same with pure gold, which is the true matter of the 
Philosophical Stone. For the father is the aczzve principle, and 
must not be destroyed, or resolved into its elements, but it is 
sufficient for the paternal Sun (gold) to breathe its virtue and 
strength through the mother into the son. When the mother 
(who is of the earth) brings forth, the son is seen to have the 
father's substance. 

Thus, I have learnt from thee, O Nature, that Alchemy isa 
true science, and that the deep red gold, which is called Sun, is 
the true father of the Stone or Elixir, from which this great and 
precious treasure proceeds ; which heats, digests, and cunningly 
tinges (without the least diminution or corruption) the other 
principle of that gold, and thus brings forth so glorious a son. 
Itis worse than useless, therefore, to meddle with the composi- 
tion, or to separate the elements, which Nature has so skilfully 
combined in the quicksilver, and in the perfect body of the gold. 
All we have to do is to imitate Nature, and use the instruments 
with which she combines the elements, and which she uses in 
moulding minerals, and in giving its form to the quicksilver. 
If we act otherwise, we destroy thy works, and sever the golden 
chain which thou hast forged. Nevertheless, we must, as 
Aristotle says, transmute the elements that we may obtain the 
object of our search. 

Thus thou hast wisely led me into thy way, and hast 
shewn me the utter folly of my own doings  Unto thee I 
render the most heartfelt thanks for that thou hast delivered 
me from my own ignorance, and from the disgrace and ruin 
to which all my endless alembics, quicksilvers, aquae fortes, 
dissolutions, excrements of horses, and coal fires, must at length 
have brought me. 

In future, I will read thy book more diligently, and obey 
thee more implicitly. For this is the surest and safest way 
that a man can go, because the Art is entirely in thy hands, 
although, by reason of its gigantic aim, its progress must 
necessarily be slow. — Therefore, I will lose no more time, and 

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 141 

first begin to think about the substance, the active principle 
of which shall yield me most potent quicksilver. That I will 
enclose in a clean, air-tight phial, and under it I will place an 
alembic; thereupon thou wilt wait upon thine office. From 
the bottom of my heart I once more render unto thee the 
debt of unspeakable gratitude, for that thou hast deigned to 
visit me, and to bestow upon me so precious an inheritance. 
In token of my gratitude I will now do thy bidding, and let 
it be my ceaseless aim to attain to this most glorious Tincture 
of the Elements, feeling assured that with the help of the 
thrice great and good God, I shall succeed. 

A .SHORT TRJACIT, 

OR 

PARISIUS OPI ACIE S CSV TINASISNE 

By NICHOLAS FLAMELL.

ought first to find an answer to the question, from 

what substance they spring, and how they are 
formed in their ores. For this purpose he must observe the 
changes that are continually going forward in the mineral veins 
of the earth. Hence they may be made subject to transmutation 
outside of their ores if they are first made spiritual, so that they 
may be reduced to their sulphur and mercury, which is performed 
by Nature. Now all metals have been formed out of sulphur 
and quicksilver, which are the seeds of all metals, the one 
representing the male, and the other the female principle. 
These two varieties of seed are, of course, composed of elementary 
substances ; the sulphur, or male seed, being nothing but fire and 

| E that would understand the whole subject of metals, 

142 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

air (Ze, geo sulphur, resembling fire, free from the mutable 
properties of metals, and not that common sulphur which is 
not a metallic substance at all) ; while the quicksilver, or female 
seed, is nothing but earth and water. These two seeds were 
figuratively represented by the ancient Sages under the forms of 
two dragons, or serpents, one of which had wings, while the 
other had none. The wingless dragon is sulphur, because it 
never flies away from the fire. The winged serpent is quicksilver, 
which is borne away through the air (the female seed, which is 
composed of water and earth)—because in a certain degree it 
flies away or evaporates. Now, if these two seeds, separated 
one from another, are united spermatically by triumphant Nature, 
in the book of Mercury, the first mother of metals, the Sages 
call the substance that results, the flying dragon, because this 
dragon, being kindled with its fire, in its flight pours abroad 
into the air fire and a poisonous vapour. The same happens 
to mercury, which, if placed in a vessel over an ordinary fre, 
has its internal, hidden fire kindled ; and then you may see how 
the outward vegetable fire kindles the inward natural fire of 
mercury. You will notice that it exhales into the air a 
certain poisonous fume or vapour, the stench of which is 
such as to prove that it is nothing but the head of the dragon 
which is leaving Babylon in great haste, even the philosophical 
Babylon which is encompassed by a double or treble vessel. 
Other Sages have likened this Mercury to a flying Lion, 
because the Lion devours other animals, and refreshes and 
strengthens himself at will with the blood of all animals except 
those which have power to resist his rage—and because mercury, 
too,is known to deprive other metals of their specific form, 
and to absorb and incorporate them. — Gold and silver, however, 
are strong enough to resist its violence ; although it is well-known 
that mercury, when exposed to an exceptional degree of heat, 
devours and swallows even these two metals. Yet neither of 
them is changed into the nature of the mercury, howbeit, they 
are enclosed in its womb; for gold and silver are more per- 
manent and more perfect than crude mercury, this being an 
imperfect metal, notwithstanding that there is in it the substance 
of perfection. — Common gold, which is a perfect metal, and 
silver, and all the imperfect metals, are developed out of 

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 143 

mercury. For this reason, the ancient Sages have called it the 
Mother of the Metals, and hence, being itself a metal, it must 
contain a two-fold metallic substance, namely, the inner sub- 
stance of the Moon, and that of the Sun (which is unlike the 
other. Of these two substances mercury is formed, and they 
are cherished in its body in the form of spiritual essences. Now, 
as soon as Nature has formed that mercury of these two spirits, 
she strives to transmute them into a perfect bodily form ; and 
therefore, when those two spirits have grown up, and their two 
varieties of seed awake, they desire to assume their own proper 
bodies ; and then the Mother, mercury, must die, and having 
died a natural death, can never be quickened any more into that 
which it was previously. 

Vainglorious and arrogant .Alchemists have  obscurely 
hinted that perfect and imperfect bodies must be transmuted 
into fluid mercury, but.this assertion is only a trap for the un- 
wary. lt is true that mercury consumes imperfect metals, like 
lead and tin, and thus increases in quantity ; but, by doing so, 
it loses its perfection, and is no longer the mercury that it was 
before. If, indeed, it could be so mortified by a chemical 
process as to shut out all hope of its ever quickening itself again, 
it would be changed into something else, as happens with cinna- 
bar, or in sublimate. But, when it is coagulated by a chemical 
process, whether by a swift or a slow method, its two bodies do 
not assume a permanent form. By the natural process this 
coagulation is indeed successfully carried out ; and thus we never 
find a vein of lead, for instance, which does not contain a few per- 
manent grains, at least, of gold and silver. "The first coagulation 
of mercury is lead, which is most suitable for fixing it, and 
bringing it to pérfection. For lead is never without some fixed 
grain of gold and silver, which are impa;ted to it by Nature for 
the purpose of multiplication and development, as I myself 
have experienced, and am able to testify. So long as it is in 
its mercury, and not separated from its mineral, it can continue 
to increase its substance from the substance of its mercury. 
But if this fixed grain is taken away, and severed from its 
mercury (or the mineral in which it is found), it can no longer 
gain in size. It is with this grain as with the green fruit that 
is formed on a tree when the blossom has been shed. Ifit is 

144 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

plucked off before it is ripe, it can come to nothing. [fit is 
left on the tree, it is nourished and increased by the sap and the 
juice of the parent stem, and thus gradually attains to its proper 
size, and to maturity. But, until ripeness has been attained, the 
fruit continues to attract to itself the sap and juice of the tree, 
that is to say, so long as the connection with the parent tree is 
not severed. 

Almost the same thing happens with gold. Such a grain 
attracts to itself the mercury ofthe lead, and incessantly * fixes " 
it into its own mercury, whereby it grows and gradually increases 
in size. The mercury of perfect or imperfect metals is the parent 
tree, and the grain (of gold) can be nourished with nothing but 
this mercury. But as soon as you sever the connection with the 
parent mercury, that growth of the grain must immediately come 
to an end; it is as though the unripe fruit had been plucked 
from the tree : you would vainly endeavour to restore the vital 
connexion. When you have once removed an unripe pear or 
apple from its native branch, it would be foolish indeed to join 
it to the tree once more, and expect it to ripen. Instead of 
growing, it will gradually shrivel up, and become smaller. The 
same thing may be observed in the case of the metals. For if 
any one were to take common metallic gold and silver, and tried 
to resolve those metals into mercury, he would be doing a very 
foolish thing. It is a result which cannot be brought about by 
any chemical process, however subtle and ingenious, just as fruit 
which has once been plucked in an unripe state can never again 
be vitally joined to the parent tree. [t has, indeed, been well 
said by the Sages that if gold and silver be joined together 
through their proper mercury, they have power to render all 
other (imperfect) metals perfect. But these Sages did not speak 
of common gold and silver, which must always remain what they 
are, can never become anything else, and certainly cannot aid the 
development of other metals. It is fruit that has been plucked 
before the time, and therefore is dead and withered. No, the 
/iving fruit (the realliving gold and silver) we must seek o 7e 
tree; for only there can it grow, and increase in size, according 
to the possibilities of its nature. This tree we must transplant, 
without gathering its fruit, into a better and richer soil, and to 
a sunnier spot. Then its fruit will receive more nourishment in 

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 145 

a single day than it was wont to receive in a hundred years, 
while it was still in its former sterile soil. 

I wish you to understand that Mercury, which is a most 
excellent tree, and contains silver and gold in an indissoluble 
form, must be taken and transplanted into a soil that is nearer 
to the Sun (Ze, in this case, gold), where it may flourish ex- 
ceedingly, and be abundantly watered. Where it was planted 
before, it was so shaken and weakened by the wind and the 
frost, that but little fruit could be expected from it. So there it 
remained a long time, and bore no fruit. 

But in the garden of the Sages, the .$zz sheds its genial 
influence both morning and evening, day and night, un- 
ceasingly. "There our Zzee is watered with the rarest dew, and 
the fruit which hangs upon the trees swells and ripens and 
expands, from day to day. It never withers, but makes more 
progress in one year than it did in a thousand years in its 
former sterile situation. Or, to drop metaphor, let the mercury 
be taken, and warmed day and night in an alembic over a 
gentle fire. Yet it should not be a coal or a wood fire, but 
a clear and pellucid heat, like that of the Sz itself—a gentle 
and even warmth. (Growing fruit must not be exposed to too 
much heat, or else it is withered, and shrivelled up, and is 
never brought to perfection. It must have a genial warmth, 
and be supported by a moderate moisture in the tree, if it is 
to flourish and expand. | For heat and moisture are the food 
of all earthly things, both animal, vegetable, and mineral. 
Ordinary coal or wood fires are too violent for our purpose, 
and give no nourishment like the heat of the Sun which pre- 
serves all bodies through its natural influences. For this 
reason the Sages use none but this natural fire, not because 
it is made by the Sages, but because it is made by Nature— 
Nature, that creates all things, whether they be animal, vege- 
table, or mineral, and warms them, each at its own proper 
degree. 

Therefore, I will not say that man by his art can make 
natural things ; but I do say that human art can impart 
greater perfection to that which Nature makes. For this 
purpose the ancient Sages have had but one object in 
view, namely, to produce from the moon and the true mother 

K 

146 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

mercury, the mercury of the philosophers, which in its opera- 
tion is much more potent than natural mercury, and is 
useful for working upon simple, perfect, imperfect, cold, 
and warm metals Now, the Philosophical Stone is good 
for perfect and imperfect metals, and soon  restores 
and brings them to perfection without any diminution, 
addition, or real change of any kind. For, apart from perfect- 
ing them, it leaves them in the state in which they were before. 
I do not say that the Sages combine common gold, silver, and 
mercury for this purpose: this is the method only of ignorant 
charlatans, who thereby hope to prepare the mercury of the 
Sages; butthey never succeed in producing this, the real first 
substance ofthe Stone. If they would obtain it they must go 
to the seventh mountain, where there is no plain, and from 
its height they must look down upon the sixth, which they will 
behold at a great distance. On the summit of that mountain 
they will find the glorious Regal Herb, which some Sages call 
a mineral, some a vegetable. The bones they must leave, and 
only extract its pure juice, which will enable them to do the 
better part of the work. "This is the true and subtle mercury 
of the philosophers which you must take. Now, first it prepares 
the white tincture, and then the red. For the Swz and /7eoz 
are prepared by the same method, and yield the red and white 
tincture respectively, and the preparation is so simple that it 
might be seen to by a woman while she works at her spindle 
—just as she might set a hen on some eggs, without washing 
them first, and without any other trouble but that of turning 
the eggs every day that the chickens may break the shells 
all the sooner. In like manner, you must not wash your 
mercury, but only put it with its like (which is fire) into ashes 
(corresponding to the straw), into one glass vessel (which is 
the nest) in a suitable alembic (which is the house) — If you 
do this there will come out a chicken, that will deliver you 
with its blood from all diseases, and feed you with its flesh, 
and clothe you with its feathers, and shelter you from the cold. 
Therefore, I pray and beseech the Creator of all things to 
grant His grace to all faithful Alchemists, that they may find 
the chicken, which, through God's unspeakable goodness and 
mercy, has now been vouchsafed to me. I have written this 

A PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY. 147 

tract for your sakes, to encourage you, and point out to you 
the right way: I hope and trust that my words will enable 
you to understand more fully the works of other Sages. 
Farewell ! 

K2 

THE ONLY TRUE 
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' 

DERE ONISVOIURUUER C WASYE

glorious Art there is to be found much false teach- 
ing, which is put forward by pseudo-alchemists, 
whose writings are nothing but imposture and deceit, 

and are yet highly esteemed by people of the simpler 
sort. These charlatans induce their dupes to waste much 
money and time on that which can profit them nothing ; 
for unless a thing be well begun, it can never be brought 
to a good end. Yet most men, who, nowadays, have 
devoted themselves to this exalted art of chemistry, are pursuing 
a wrong course, and are deceivers or deceived. ^ The deceivers 
are conscious of their own ignorance, and try to veil it under an 
obscure and allegorical style. "The less they really know, the 
more pompous and the more unintelligible do their speculations 
become. But the reader, who is puzzled by their perplexing 
stylé, may at least comfort himself with the assurance that he 
knows as much about the matteras the authors. That assurance 
must serve for a kind of clue to the endless labyrinth of their 
false sublimations, calcinations, distillations, solutions, coagula- 
tions, putrefactions, and corruptions. Nevertheless, we may 
almost every day see foolish persons spend their whole sub- 
stance on those absurd experiments, being induced to do so 
by the aforesaid pseudo-alchemists, who impose on them with a 
false process, and fanciful perversions of Nature. 

With these useless and unnecessary experiments the true 
Alchemists will have nothing to do. "They follow the method 
pursued by Nature in the veins of the earth, which is very 
simple, and includes no solutions, putrefactions, coagulations, or 
anything of the kind Can Nature, in the heart of the earth, 
where the metals do grow and receive increase, have anything 

152 THE HBERMETIG MUSEUM. 

corresponding to all those pseudo-alchemistical instruments, 
alembics, retorts, circulatory and  sublimatory phials, fires, 
and other materials, such as cobbler's wax, salt, arsenic, 
mercury, sulphur, and so forth? Can all these things really be 
necessary for the growth and increase ofthe metals? [t is 
surprising that any one not entirely bereft of his senses can 
spend many years in the study of alchemy, and yet never get 
beyond those foolish and frivolous solutions, coagulations, putre- 
factions,  distillations, while Nature is so simple and 
unsophisticated in her methods. Surely every true Artist must 
look upon this elaborate tissue of baseless operations as the 
merest folly, and can only wonder that the eyes of those silly 
dupes are not at last opened, that they may see something 
besides such absurd sophisms, and read something besides those 
stupid and deceitful books. It seems that they are so entangled 
in their sophisms that they can never attain to the freedom of 
true philosophy. 

Butlet me tell you that so long as you love lies, and turn 
away from rational philosophy, you will never find the right way. 
I can speak from bitter experience. For I, too, toiled for many 
years in accordance with those sophistic methods, and en- 
deavoured to reach the coveted goal by sublimation, distillation, 
calcination, circulation, and so forth, and to fashion the Stone out 
of substances such as urine, salt, atrament, alum, etc. Ihave tried 
hard to evolve it out of hairs, wine, eggs, bones, and all manner 
of herbs; out of arsenic, mercury, and sulphur, and all the 
minerals and metals. I have striven to elicit it by means of aqua 
fortis and alkali. I have spent nights and days in dissolving, 
coagulating, amalgamating, and precipitating. Yet from all these 
things I derived neither profit nor joy. I had hoped much from 
the quintessence, but it disappointed me like the rest. 

Therefore, beloved brother, let me warn you to have nothing 
to do with sublimations of sulphur and mercury, or the solution of 
bodies, or the coagulation of spirits, or with all the innumerable 
alembics, which bear little profit unto veritable art. —So long as 
you do not seek the true essence of Nature, your labours will be 
doomed to failure; therefore, if you desire success, you must 
once for all renounce your allegiance to all those old methods, 
and enlist under the standards of that method which proceeds in 

THE ONLY TRUE WAY. 153 

strict obedience to the teaching of Nature—in short, the method 
which Nature herself pursues in the bowels of the earth. — For 
you see that Nature uses only one substance in her work of 
developing and perfecting the metals, and that this substance in- 
cludes everything that is required. Now, this substance appears 
to call for no special treatment, except that of digestion by gentle 
heat, which must be continued until it has reached its highest 
possible degree of development. For this simple heating pro- 
cess the cunning sophists have substituted solutions, coagula- 
tions, calcinations, putrefactions, sublimations, and other fantas- 
tical operations—which are only different names for the same 
thing; and thereby they have multiplied a thousand-fold the 
difficulties of this undertaking, and given rise to the popular 
notion that it is a most arduous, hazardous, and ruinously expen- 
sive enterprise. This they have simply done out of jealousy and 
malice, to put others off the right track, and to involve them in 
poverty and ruin. But they will find it difficult to justify their 
conduct before God, who has commanded us to love our neigh- 
bours as ourselves. For out of sheer malice they have rendered 
the road of truth impassable, and perplexed a simple natural 
process with such an elaborate tissue of circumstantial nomen- 
clature, as to make the amelioration of the metals appear a hope- 
lessly difficult task. 

For while you heat, you also putrefy, or decompose, as you 
may see by the changes which a grain of wheat undergoes in the 
ground under the influence of the rain and of the sun; you know 
that it must first decay before new life can spring forth. It is 
this process which they have denominated putrefaction and solu- 
tion. Again when you heat, you also sublime, and to this coction 
they have applied the terms sublimation and multiplication, that 
the simple man mighterr more easily. In like manner coagula- 
tion takes place in heating ; for they say that coagulation takes 
place when humidity is changed into the nature of fire, so as to 
be able to resist the action of fire, without evaporating, or being 
consumed. And heating also includes that which they call 
* circulation," or conjunction, or the union of fire with water to 
prevent complete combustion. 

Thus you see that that which they-have called by so many 
names is really but one simple process. The substance, which 

154 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

is one, they have described under a similar variety of appellations, 
to prevent men from finding that which, by the grace of God, 
can provide for them so many precious blessings. In the first 
place they call it *our mercury,' by which they mean nothing 
but moisture, which begins to unite itself with the fire, and there- 
fore may be compared to mercury. Again, they use the expres- 
sion, *our sulphur, whereby they mean nothing but the fire 
itself, which lies hid beneath the water, or humidity, and is 
heated by the water to its highest degree. Then, again, they call 
it Hyle, or the First Substance, because all things are first 
generated out of water and fire. Other names, such as Arsenic, 
Orpiment, Bismuth, are not used by the Sages at all, but only 
by certain ignorant charlatans, of whom we need not take any 
further notice. Let zs follow the guidance of Nature: sZe will 
not lead us astray. 

If you let this be your motto, you will surely be able to 
call to mind the first substance, out of which all metallic sub- 
stances are generated. But before we consider this question, it 
will much behove you to understand why the Sun, Moon, Venus, 
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are metals, and what is their origin. 
Besides finding an answer to this question, you must also bear 
in mind that all created things are divided into three kingdoms, 
viz, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral To the first 
belong all living things that have flesh and blood ; to the second 
all herbs, plants, and trees; to the third all metals, stones, and 
everything that cannot be burned. 

But, though divided into three classes, yet all things, 
O my brother, may be traced back to one common Principle, 
from which they derive their generation, or birth. By different 
varieties of heat this first substance is transmuted in various 
ways, and assumes different specific forms. — Since, then, Nature 
is so simple, I advise you once more to have done with all those 
foolish sublimations, coagulations, and putrefactions, and the 
ridiculous old wives' fables which are even now believed by many, 
and simply to follow Nature, and her unsophisticated methods : 
then she will take you by the hand, and guide you to the true 
substance. For the only method of correcting or ameliorating 
Nature, consists in the natural heating of essences. Now, this 
Essence, my friend, is the principal thing, on which depends the 

THE ONLY TRUE WAY. 155 

whole matter. This simple truth, the vulgar herd of alchemists 
seem quite unable to understand, and thus go on toiling day by 
day with substances which have nothing to do with the matter. 
They might as well sow horn, or wood, cr stones, and expect a 
golden harvest of corn. The suz and zzeoz cannot be made out 
of a// substances, but only out of the natural Essence out of 
which all things are formed, being afterwards differentiated into 
divers substances by different varieties of heat. Thus the 
special quality of every individual thing is to be referred to the 
degree of its coction. If, therefore, we wish to exercise the 
true Art of Alchemy, we must imitate the method by which 
Nature does her work in the bowels of the earth. 

The ancients have named many colours in connexion 
with this process, such as black, white, citrine, red, green, and 
so forth. All this is simply intended to lead you astray from 
the right road, and to keep you in ignorance. "Those ancient 
writers were constantly at the greatest pains to obscure their 
style with such a perplexing variety of allegorical expressions 
as to render it impossible for the ordinary reader to under- 
stand their meaning. 

Therefore, I would again and again exhort you not to 
believe them when they tell you that you must have or take a 
black substance, or that the substance turns black, white, and 
red in the course of the chemical process. The black colour was 
suggested to them by the fact that the substance or essence at 
first mingles with a brilliant material fire, by which a liquid is 
separated from the essence in the form of a certain black fume. 
This black fume the ancients called the Black Raven, and the 
essence they denominated the Raven's Head. — This separation 
you should carefully observe. From it the ancients learned that 
the separation of natural subtances is nothing buta natural 
defect of the heating process. This, again, suggested to them the 
consideration that those essences that had been imperfectly 
heated by Nature, might be aided in a natural manner by 
ordinary fire, and that thus the essences which are still combus- 
tible, and their liquids (which the ancients invidiously called 
mercury), being black when they are separated from the essence, 
might be perfected by art, and the essences guarded against com- 
bustion by their liquid, and the liquid rendered incapable of being 

156 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

separated from the essence. This the ancients called *our 
sulphur. ^ Forafter this preparation the essence is no longer 
vegetable or animal, but by the perfection of its heating it has 
become a mineral essence, and is therefore called sulphur ; the 
essence is nothing but an e/ezzenzary fire, and its liquid, which is 
guarded against combustion, is true e/emezary air, and, because 
air is naturally warm and moist, it is called mercury by those 
jealous ancients. ^ Air contains in itself the nature of fire, and 
elementary fire, again, contains within itself the nature of air: 
thus, by the union of their common elements, a true amalgama- 
tion of the two can take place. Such are the material fire and 
water which we see. ^ These material elements are nothing but 
an aid to the essences ofthe elements by which they can be 
naturally reduced to the highest degree (of perfection ?). This 
gradation is the only true Alchemy, and there is none beside. 
The pseudo-alchemy of our modern charlatans is mere waste of 
money and time. 

It would be a great mistake for you to suppose that you 
can derive any real knowledge from the writings of the Sages. 
They show you only the outside, and conceal the internal 
Essence. To you they offer the husks, but the finest of the 
wheat they keep for themselves. They showyou a way which they 
do not dream of treading. I advise you, therefore, in future, to 
give them a wide berth ; or you will only enrich the apothecaries 
while you plunge yourself and your family into the deepest 
poverty ; nay, instead of gaining the universal panacea, you will 
contract the most dangerous diseases from constantly moving in 
an atmosphere black with sulphurous and mercurial smoke, and 
fetid with the stench of bismuth and all manner of salts. 

It is truly amazing that none of the seekers after this great 
treasure, though willing to submit to any amount of labour and 
hardship for its sake, seem capable of perceiving the lesson 
which constant failure is striving to impress upon them. — What, 
I pray you, have those thousands of persons, who have tried the 
solutions, coagulations, putrefactions, amalgamations, and 
circulations, gained by their agonising toil? "What good result 
have they produced with their waters, solutions of metals, blood, 
hair, eggs, milk, sugar, and all manner of herbs? Let me 
beseech you to profit by their heart-breaking experience, and to 

THE ONLY TRUE WAY. 157 

have done with everything but true Alchemy, which teaches 
that the substance is brought to perfection, and attains the 
exaltation of elementary fire, by its own light and liquid— 
by which also imperfect metals are ameliorated, because their 
elementary fire was not properly digested by its liquid. 
And for the same reason the elementary fire cannot remain, 
for the liquid is separated from that elementary fire by 
the heat of the ordinary fire, and evaporates in the form of 
white smoke. The elementary fire, on the other hand, does not 
evaporate, but abides with its earth, and must be burned with 
it, because its protecting liquid has vanished in white smoke. 
This is that whiteness of which the Ancients have said that it 
comes after the black colour. For this reason, they are in the 
habit of saying that you must make it black before you make it 
white. We begin our process with blackness, and transmute 
the black smoke, but do not take it for our substance, and make 
it white. The latter would be a foolish supposition and. im- 
posture. If you would avoid such misapprehensions, you must 
not attempt the study of this subject until you have a sound 
knowledge of the operations of Nature, and more especially of 
the essential properties of the metals. 

I am afraid, my Brother, that my book will cause you 
heaviness of heart, instead of joy, because I sweep away at one 
fell stroke all those false sophistical notions which had become 
so dear to you. Nevertheless, you must once for all relinquish 
that idea of yours that you are profoundly versed in the 
mysteries of this Art, and leave these childish absurdities to 
those who derive wealth and profit from them. Among these 
persons, Adam de Bodenstein held a very distinguished place ; 
for he wrote all manner of so-called theosophical books, and 
boasted of his attainments in the alchemistic Art, of which he 
was really quite ignorant. Yet to the present day many people 
believe that he (whose expressions are those of a mere charlatan) 
had a real knowledge of true alchemy. t is true that his 
nonsense cannot for a moment impose on the initiated ; but 
among the blind (as the proverb says) it is easy to win golden 
opinions as a good fencer. On this account, and as Bodenstein 
is no more among the living, I will dismiss the subject, for 
nothing but what is favourable should be spoken of the dead 

158 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

and of the absent. This I will say, however, that he was a 
good Sophist and a good physician ; but of Alchemy he knew 
little or nothing. I should not have said this much if I were 
not really anxious to warn the unwary against being dazzled by 
the splendour of his name, and to prevent them from being 
lured on by it to their own ruin. 

If, then, you are a lover of the truth, you will bid farewell 
to these specious absurdities, and henceforth entrust yourself to 
the guidance of Nature alone; be sure that she will lead you 
onward without faltering to the desired goal, even thát method 
by which she works towards the essence. Moreover, she will 
demand of you neither much labour nor any considerable outlay. 
The whole thing is done by a simple process of heating, which 
includes the solution and coagulation of the bodies, and also the 
sublimation and putrefaction. But some writers have substi- 
tuted for the simple and true essence a certain other essence, 
with which they have deceived the whole world, and involved 
many persons in considerable losses. Whether their conduct 
was upright and loving will one day be decided by the Great 
Judge. lt would be better not to publish such writings, since 
the false statements and groundless assertions with which they 
swarm, plunge so many credulous persons into grievous losses. 
For if there were not so many books put forward by ignorant 
writers, many thousands of persons who at the present moment 
are hopelessly floundering about in a sea 'of specious book- 
learning, would have been led by the light of their own unaided 
intellects to the knowledge of this precious secret; they are 
prevented, these many years, from seeing the plain truth by a 
vast mass of printed nonsense which commands their reverence, 
because they do not understand it. The Ancients did indeed 
know something about the Art; butat the present day we can 
very well dispense with the cumbrous phraseology under which 
they (most successfully) attempted to veil their meaning. It 
can only tend to the bewilderment of honest enquirers, who are 
thereby thrown off the true scent, unless indeed they should 
come to be instructed by living Masters. 

I myself may not speak out as plainly as I would, for I am 
silenced by the vow which binds all the masters of the Art, the 
curse that lights on those who violate the sacred seal of Nature's 

JTEPE (QNVLY TROBE WAY. 159 

secrets, and the malediction of all the philosophers. Therefore, 
I must exhort you again and again to trust your own obser- 
vations rather than the writings of others, and to let the Book 
of Nature be the most favoured volume of your library. 
Observe her methods, not only in the production of metals, but 
in the procreation of the fruits of the earth, and their constant 
growth and development, in the winter and summer, in the 
spring and autumn, by rain and sunshine. If you had a sound 
knowledge of Nature's methods in producing the bud and the 
flower, and in ripening the green fruit, you would be able to set 
your hand to the germs which Nature provides in the bowels of 
the earth, and to educe from them (or their substance) that 
which you so much desire. 

Forgive me then, my Brother, for so unceremoniously 
overthrowing all your old settled and dearly cherished con- 
victions. My excuse must be that I have done it for your own 
good, as you would otherwise never learn the true secret of 
transmuting metals. You may believe and trust me, for I can 
have no conceivable motive for filling the world with fresh lies, 
of which, God knows, it is already full enough, through the 
agency of the aforesaid deceivers and their willing dupes, who 
after being lured on by those false books to the loss of all their 
worldly goods, have not suffered their eyes to be opened by 
their losses, and seem unable to find their way out of that 
gigantic labyrinth of falsehood. Nay, they have even taken 
upon themselves to write books, and to speak as if they were 
perfect masters of the Art, and had derived great advantage 
from it, though in reality they have been brought so low as to - 
be able to afford nothing but miserable decoctions. They 
dissolved until their whole fortune had undergone a process of 
dissolution ; they sublimed until all their gold and silver had 
evaporated ; they putrefied until their clothes decayed upon 
their bodies; and they calcined until all their wood and coal 
were consumed to ashes, and they themselves were reduced to 
wallet and staff. 

This is the prize which they have won with all their trouble. 
Let their ruin be a warning to you, my Brother. For /Zezr 
alchemy, instead of imparting health, is followed by penury and 
disease; instead of transmuting copper into gold, it changes 

160 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

gold into copper and brass. Consider also how many ignorant 
persons, such as cobblers, tailors, bankrupt merchants, and 
tavern keepers, pretend to a knowledge of this Art, and, after a 
few years' unsuccessful experimenting in the laboratory, call 
themselves great doctors, announce in boastful and sesquipe- 
dalian language their power to cure many diseases, and promise 
mountains of gold. "Those promises are empty wind, and their 
medicines rank poison, with which they fill the churchyards, 
and for the impudent abuse of which God will one day visit 
them with heavy punishment. But I will leave the magistrates 
and the jailers to deal with these swindling charlatans. 
speak of them only to put you on your guard. If so many 
persons write on the subject of Alchemy, who know nothing 
whatever about the nature and generation of metals, it becomes 
all the more necessary for you to be careful what books you 
read, and how much you believe. 

For I tell you truly that so long as you have no real and 
fundamental knowledge of the nature of the metals, you cannot 
make much progress in the true Art of Alchemy, or understand 
the natural transmutation of metals. You must grasp the 
meaning of every direction before you con put it into effect. 
Always mistrust that which you do not understand (Ze, in 
studying this art). "There are zazy false ways, but there can be 
only oze that is true, and indicates a process which does not 
require many hands, or much labour. For this reason, beloved 
friend and Brother, you must work hard by day and by night to 
obtain a thorough knowledge of the metals, and of their 
essential nature. Then you will be able to understand the 
requirements of the art. You will know without being told 
what is the true substance and the true method. You will see 
the utter uselessness of your former labour, and you will be 
amazed at your former blindness. Study the nature of metals 
and the causes of their generation, for they derive their birth 
from the same source as all other created things. 

For as by a heating process the infant is developed in the 
mother's womb out of the father's seed, and as the chicken is 
brought forth out of the egg by the natural incubation of the 
hen, so the metals, too, are developed in a certain way out 
of a certain substance. Yet I do not say, my Brother, that 

EDE C QVE Y^. EU. WAY. 161 

mercury and sulphur are the first substance of metals. Those 
juggling deceivers have told you so; but in the veins of the 
earth, where the metals grow, are found neither mercury nor 
sulphur. "Therefore, when they speak of sulphur, you must un- 
derstand them to allude to elementary fire, and by mercury you 
must understand the liquid. In a similar lying spirit they have 
called fire (elementary) * our Sun," and the liquid * our Moon, 

or the elementary fire soul, and the elementary liquid spirit, be- 
cause elementary substances are invisible. The soul is invisible 
fire, and the spirit invisible moisture: the outward essential fire 
and water they have called ' 2odzes, because they are visible and 
palpable. Nay, they try to make you believe that these are 
metallic bodies, and that you must dissolve them. — But do not 
let them deceive you. Be on your guard against their dishonest 
tricks, and cunning devices, by which they set you to experiment 
with metallic bodies, when they really mean the metallic essence. 

They point out to you varieus materials and substances, 
notwithstanding that there is only oe true substance, and oze 
true method. Be sure that their solutions, coagulations, sub- 
limations, calcinations, and putrefactions, do not represent the 
method of Nature in the heart of the carth, where the metals 
grow. For pious Nature only heats the elementary fire which is 
thereby ameliorated and fixed through its liquid ; which latter 
she also changes, by various degrees of heat, into all the various 
objects which compose the three natural kingdoms—and although 
now it is differentiated into bodies so different as vegetables, ani- 
mals, and minerals, yet they have all originally sprung from one 
common substance, all have one root, which the Ancients 
denominated the first Matter or Hyle. But it is really nothing 
but hidden elementary fire, with its liquid, which the Ancients 
called the root liquid, radical moisture, or humid radical, because 
it is the root of all created things. 

This liquid, with its fire, is differentiated into the various 
kinds of natural bodies, by the various degrees of heat, or 
' cocto", which take place in them. One thing is more perfectly 
heated in its clementary fire through its liquid, than another. 
The vegetab/e nature is that in which the coction is least perfect. 
Therefore its essence is easily burned, and its liquid easily sepa- 
rated from its elementary fire, by common fire, 

L 

162 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The coction of the azz»za/ is almost as imperfect as that of 
the vegetable substance: for its essence is easily burned. The 
coction of the ;zera/ substances is the most perfect of all, 
because in them the metallic liquid is more closely united (by 
coction) to its elementary fire. Hence metals are better able to 
resist common fire than the vegetable and animal substances. 
When a metal is placed in the fire, it does not burn with a bright 
flame like wood ; for the liquid of wood is not so completely 
joined (by coction) to its essence, as the liquid of metals 
is to z/s essence. The union of the liquid with the essence 
is not metallic, but vegetable, for which reason the latter is 
consumed with a black smoke, when, by a higher degree 
of coction, the vegetable has been transmuted into a metallic 
essence, it no longer gives out a black smoke in common fire, but 
a white smoke, as you may see when imperfect metals are melted 
in the fire. Thatis why the Ancients said that you must árst 
make the substance black before you make it white, Ze., it must 
first give out a black smoke before it gives out a white. Again 
they say : You must first make it white before you make it red. 
To make red is to make perfect, because gold and silver have 
been rendered perfect by coction, their essence being fully united 
to their liquid, and changed into pure fire. 

Do not then suffer yourself to be thrown off your guard by 
the obscure phraseology of the Ancients. If you thoroughly 
study the simple fundamental nature of the metals, you will 
know what their enigmatic expressions mean, and will not, like 
some moderns, conclude from their writings that you must take 
a certain substance and dissolve it until it turns black, then 
again purify and calcine it till the blackness disappears and it 
begins to turn white ; and after that, once more increase the fire 
and calcine and toil until the substance turns red. Such an 
interpretation of the language of the Ancients can only suggest 
itself to persons entirely ignorant of the nature of metallic 
substances ; indeed, the Ancients wrote as they did solely in 
order to hide their real meaning from all but the close students 
of Nature. To this end they were in the constant habit of 
employing the terms * mercury " and * sulphur  Andalthough 
the metallic essence is the true substance which, by natural 
coction, must be raised from the lowest to the highest stage of 

EAE DIEA DRRULA, AL, 163 

development, and although the meaning of the Ancients is 
intelligible enough to the initiated, yet the ignorant can gather 
from their language no more than the fact that the substance 
must be taken from the metals. But where are they to obtain 
it, and how are they to bring it to perfection? The metallic 
essence can not be separated from the imperfect metals without 
being injured ; for if it be separated with fire the liquid must 
evaporate, and the essence (witli its earth) be consumed. Nor 
will you be able to separate the essence of the imperfect metals 
by means of aqua fortis, arsenic, aqua vita, or alkali, without 
injuring the essence and its liquid by the foreign moisture : for 
the metallic nature can bear no foreign substance, and if any 
foreign moisture combines with the metallic liquid, it loses its 
proper quality and is entirely corrupted. 

The metallic essence of the perfect metals you cannot 
obtain in a separate form ; for their liquid and elementary fire 
are welded together by so perfect a process of coction, and so 
closely united with their earth, that neither fire nor water can 
avail to separate them, seeing that the fire has no power over 
them, and no foreign moisture can combine with, or corrupt, the 
liquid of perfect metals. All your labour will be in vain : the 
coction has done its work so well that you will never be able to 
undo it. 

Hence, the Ancients said that there was no sulphur in 
anything but in the metals, and hence also they called the 
metallic liquid quicksilver. But names do not alter facts : the 
fact is that the elementary fire must be so united to its element- 
ary liquid by natural coction that they become indivisible. For 
the liquid protects the fire against combustion, so that both 
remain fixed and unchanged in common fire. This perfected 
substance the Ancients have well called Elixir, or fire which 
has undergone a process of perfect coction: for that which 
before was crude and raw is * cooked," or digested by the 
process of coction. "That element which, by its imperfection, 
causes base metals to be broken up and disintegrated by fire, 
has been digested and perfected by natural heat. 

For this reason you must not grudge the labour which the 
proper performance of this heating process demands, seeing that 
it includes purification, sublimation, dissolution, and all the other 

L2 

* 

164 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

chemical processes enumerated by the ancient alchemists. All 
these you may safely dismiss from your mind, as they can cause 
you nothing but trouble, loss, and waste of time. My purpose 
in writing this faithful admonition is to caution you again and 
again to beware of those pitfalls with which the contemptuous 
obscurity of the Ancients has so plentifully beset the path of 
the ingenuous enquirer. Il also desired to suggest to you the 
true suósiance, and the one true zzezAod, and have throughout 
endeavoured to express myself in a style as free from allegorical 
obscurity as possible. I have recalled you from your wander- 
ings in the pathless wilderness, and put you in the right way. 

Now you must beseech Almighty God to give you the real: 

philosophical temper, and to open your eyes to the facts of 
nature. Thus alone you will be able to reach the coveted goal. 

THE 

(GLORY OB THESW ORDD. 

OR, 
TASTE SOJEUCUPASIRSZASDIESIEUS 

THAT IS TO SAY, 

. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT SCIENCE WHICH ADAM LEARNED 
FROM GoD HIMSELF; WHICH NOAH, ABRAHAM, AND SOLOMON 
HELD AS ONE OF THE GREATEST GiFTS OF GOD; WHICH 
ALSO ALL SAGES, AT ALL TIMES, PREFERRED TO THE 
WEALTH OF THE WHOLE WORLD, REGARDED AS 
THE CHIEF TREASURE OF THE WHOLE 
WORLD, AND BEQUEATHED ONLY TO 
Goop MEN; 

NAMELY, 

IHR SOGIENGE OR-THE PHILOSOPHER'S SW OINIB: 

DPI, XH 9: 

"or this they willingly, through their sickedness, are 
zgnorant o/, that through the Word ot God the heavens were 
0/ old, and the earth standing out oí the vafer, and m the 
water." 

155 dii 

THE GEORY (OE LHB WORLD, 

OR, 

TABLE OF PARADISE: 

A most precious book, containing art, the like of which is not to 
be found upon earth; shewing the truth concerning the true 
Philosophy, and the most noble medicine, and priceless 
Tincture, together with divers other valuable Arts, 
and the Instruments required for them.

hidden mysteries of Nature, which God has planted 

there, and deigns to reveal to men, that they may see 
how marvellously things are created, and how wonderfully all 
classes of natural objects are brought forth : for a testimony to all 
believing Christian men, and for a comfort to all afflicted and 
troubled hearts—seeing that allthings created perish and are de- 
composed only to be renewed again, to be multiplied, animated, 
and perfected after their kind. For nothing that is created, or 
born, is at rest, but daily undergoes increase or multiplication on 
the part of Nature, until it becomes that which is created and 
ordained to be the treasure of all mankind. 

Therefore, beseech God to give you such wisdom and un- 
derstanding as will enable you to understand this Art, and to 
bring it, by His blessing, to a good issue for His own glory, and 
the good of your neighbour. 

If then you would obtain this knowledge at the hand of 
God, you must confess yourself a miserable sinner, and implore 
His blessing, which alone can enable you to receive His Gift 

N OW, in the name of God, the Almighty Creator and 

168 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

worthily, and to bear in mind that He has bestowed it upon you 
out of pure mercy, and that any pride or presumptuous insolence 
on your part will most certainly entail its loss, in addition to His 
wrath, and eternal condemnation. You must resolve to begin 
this blessed and divine work in the name of God, for the service 
of all good Christians, and the building up of our faith ; to be a 
good athlete in the war against unbelievers; to shun the company 
of wicked men ; never to open your mouth against the righteous ; 
but to bestow your bounty upon the needy in order that after 
this life you may receive the crown of eternal joy and beatitude. 
For this treasure, which is above all other earthly treasures, is 
granted to him alone who approves himself humble, honest, 
gentle, and faithful, as far as the weakness of human nature 
allows, and keeps the laws of God through God's bounty and 
blessing, and who is not likely to mistake the true nature of the 
gift, or to abuse it against his own eternal welfare. It is the gift 
of the Holy Spirit, the loving bounty of the great God, which 
comes down from the Father of light. | He who masters this 
Art, must have asked and obtained wisdom of God, since he has 
not only gold, silver, and all the riches of this world, but also 
perfect health, length of days, and, what is better still, the com- 
fort to be derived from a reassuring type of the bitter passion 
and death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, His descent 
into hell, His glorious and most holy Resurrection on the third 
day, and His victory and triumph over sin, death, Devil, and 
hell—a victory that must carry joy and comfort to all that have 
the breath of life. 

Let me now shew you how wonderfully the human and 
divine natures of Jesus Christ were united and joined together 
in one Person. The soul and body of Christ and His divine 
nature were so inseparably joined together that they cannot be 
severed throughout all eternity. Nevertheless Christ had to die, 
and His soul had to be separated from His body, and once 
more joined to it on the third day, that His body might be 
glorified, and rendered as subtle as His soul and spirit. For 
He had received His body of the substance of the most Blessed 
Virgin Mary, and therefore it had to be perfected by temporary 
separation from His soul and spirit Nevertheless, His divinity 
remained united in one essence with the body and soul of 

VERDE (7. QRCVRNDUD TEIE C YPADRUP D: 169 

Christ—it was with the body in the tomb, and with His soul in 
Paradise. j 

The body of Christ had to be separated from its soul in 
order that it might receive the same power and glory. But 
now, Christ having been dead, and His soul having afterwards 
been reunited to His body, they are henceforth inseparably 
conjoined into one subtle essence. His divine omnipotence 
which He received from His Father, which governs all things in 
heaven and earth, and is equally perfect from all eternity, is now 
one Person with the Christ Jesus, who suffered, died, rose again, 
and ascended into heaven, in endless power, glory, majesty, 
might, and honour. 

Therefore, O  sinful man, render thanks to Almighty God 
for the grace and fatherly loving kindness shewn to you ; and 
rest assured that you may obtain the glorification which was 
given to Christ. For Christ rose first that he might open up for 
you a way unto His heavenly Father. Like Him, you too 
must be crucified to this world by many hardships, tribulations, 
and anxieties. But that you may understand the glorification 
of the body, and its renewal to eternal life, you should diligently 
consider God's fatherly love and mercy towards fallen man. 
Bear in mind that all things that come down from Him are 
good and perfect gifts. "Take care, therefore, lest you foully 
abuse the gifts bestowed upon you freely, without any merit 
of your own, to the destruction of your soul; rather let all 
your actions shew that you love and fear God, and then every 
labour to which you set your hand will prosper, and from 
beginning to end you will pursue the work successfully and 
joyously. | Commit your care to God, trust His word, and 
keep His holy commandments: then God will be with you 
in all things, will bless your toil, and in His fatherly love 
forefend all loss and harm. Your art will then afford you true 
comfort, yield you all you need, refresh you amid all your hard- 
ships, supply you with the means of relieving the necessities 
of others, and constantly keep before your eyes a living type 
of your own glorious resurrection, and of that of all Christian 
believers—whereby we must exchange this earthly and mortal 
life for endless joy and the glory of eternal and incorruptible 
beatitude. 

170 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Let me then tell you, who would be a true lover of this Art, 
that it was first delivered by God to Adam in Paradise, For it 
is a true revelation of many secrets and mysteries. It shews 
you the vanity of your body and of your life in this world ; but 
it also solaces you with the hope of eternal salvation. It sug- 
gests to you the reflection that if God has infused such wonderful 
virtues into mere inanimate natural objects, surely we, who are 
so much better than they, must be reserved for some high and 
glorious destiny. I beseech you, therefore, to acquit yourself 
wisely in all that you do—not to be in haste, —but to reveal this 
mystery to no mortal man, unless he be a lover of this Art and 
of a godly, sincere, and merciful temper. Such was the practice 
of the ancient Sages to whom this wisdom was revealed by the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You must also confess that this 
Art is real, for the sake of those who will not believe that Jesus 
Christ proceeded from His Almighty Heavenly Father, and was 
also born of a pure virgin. Moreover, you must ask God to 
enlighten you by the gift of His Holy Spirit, to sharpen your 
understanding, to open your eyes, and to grant you a profound 
insight into that unfathomable wisdom which lies hid in our 
Art, and which no Sage has ever been able to express in his 
writings. For there are many secrets in Nature which it is 
impossible for our unaided human reason to apprehend. If you 
follow my directions and suffer yourself to be guided by the 
grace of God, then the work which you undertake for the glory 
of God, and for the good of your neighbour, will have a joyful 
issue. Feed the hungry ; give drink to the thirsty ; clothe the 
naked; comfort the afflicted ; visit the sick and the prisoners : 
and you shall have what you desire. 

ROBERT VALENS RUGL. 

* A spirit is within, which by deliberate skill" 
* you must separate from the body. Simply" 
* disjoin the material part from the vapour. You" 
* should then add the cold water of the spring." 
* With this you should unweariedly sprinkle both." 
* You will then have the true Elixir of all this " 

«€T Amt? 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 171 

Exhortation and Information 

to all the lovers of this Art, in which they can see, as in a mirror, 
all the fundamental and essential requirements thereof ; whether 
it is possible or not to arrive at the true Art, and concerning the 
same. 

I would warn all and sundry, but especially you, my beloved 
disciples, in clear and impressive language, to be on your guard 
against all fantastical teaching, and to listen to the truthful infor- 
mation which I shall now proceed to give you. 

In the first place, you must give a wide berth to the false 
Alchemy of the vulgar herd. I have experienced this so much 
that [I am loath to recommend any to undertake the work, 
since this Art is so well hidden that no mortal on earth can dis- 
cover it unless Sol and Luna meet. If you give diligent heed to 
my warning you may attain to a knowledge thereof, but if you 
do not, you will never approach any nearer to it. Know also 
that there is only oze thing in the whole world that enters into 
the composition of the Stone, and that, therefore, all coagulation, 
and admixture, of different ingredients, would shew you to be on 
a wrong scentaltogether. If you could perform all the different 
operations of our art, yet all your dissolving, coagulating, decom- 
posing, distilling, augmenting, albefying, &c., would be useless, 
without a true knowledge of our Matter. For our Art is good 
and precious, nor can any one become a partaker of it, unless it be 
revealed to him by God, or unless he be taught by a skilled 
Master. Itis a treasure such as the whole world cannot buy. 
Do not, therefore, my sons, spend your toil until you know what 
that is on which you are to operate. For even if you knew the 
right Matter, your information would be useless to you without 
a knowledge of the method of preparing it. "The Stone in its 
final and effective form is not to be found anywhere in the whole 
world, either in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath ; nor 
in any metal, nor in anything that grows, nor yet even in gold or 
silver. lt must be prepared, Ze, developed, into its final form ; 
yet for all that, it cannot, strictly speaking, be made better than 
God created it, nor can the Tincture be prepared out of it: the 
* Tincture' must be added to it, and therefore has nothing to do 

172 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

with our main object, since it is a different thing altogether. If 
it were in any metal, we should surely have to look for it in the 
Sun or Moon ; yet the Moon cannot contain it, or it would long 
since have become the Sun. Neither is it in mercury, or in any 
sulphur, or salt, or in herbs, or anything of that nature, as you 
shall see hereafter. Now we will conclude our exhortation, and 
proceed to describe the Art itself. 

There follow some Methods of Recogniszng our Stone. 

It 

Know that our Stone is oze, and that it is justly called a 
Stone. For it zs a Stone, and could bear no name so character- 
istic, as that of the Stone of the Sages. Yet itis notany one of our 
existing stones, but only derives its appellation from its similarity 
to them. For our Stone is so prepared as to be composed ofthe 
four elements. On this account it has been called by different 
names, and assumes different forms, although it is oze thing, and 
its like is not found upon earth. It isa Stone, and not a stone 
in the sense of having the nature of any one stone; it is fire, yet 
it has not the appearance, or properties, of fire; it is air, yet 
neither has it the appearance, or properties, of air; it is water, but 
has no resemblance, or affinity, to the nature of water. It is 
earth, though it has not the nature, or appearance, of earth, seeing 
that it is a thing by itself. 

Another way of Knowzng our Precious Stone. 

1c 

An ancient philosopher says: Our Stone is called the 
sacred rock, and is divided, or signified, in four ways. Firstly, 
into earth ; secondly, into its accretion; thirdly, into fire; and 
fourthly, into the flame of fire. If any one knows the method of 
dissolving it, of extracting its salt, and of perfectly coagulating 
it, he is initiated in the mysteries of the Sages. Therefore if the 
salt turn white, and assume an oily appearance, then it tinges. 
There are three stages in our Art. Firstly, the transmutation of 
the whole thing into.one salt ; secondly, the rendering of three 
subtle bodies intangible; thirdly, the repetition of the whole 
solution of the whole thing. If you understand this, set your 
hand to the work. For the Matter is only one thing, and would 

ZEB) C OVI REP DUE ETE QS D 173 

remain one thing, though a hundred thousand books had been 
written about it, because this Art is so great a treasure that the 
whole world would not be a sufficient compensation for it. It is 
described in obscure terms, yet openly named by all, and known 
toall. But ifall knew its secret, no one would work, and it would 
lose its value. On this account it would be impious to describe 
it in universally intelligible language. He to whom God will 
reveal it, may understand these dark expressions. But because 
most men do not understand them, they are inclined to regard 
our Art as impossible, and the Sages are branded as wicked men 
and swindlers. Learned doctors, who thus speak of us, have it 
before their eyes every day, but they do not understand it, 
because they never attend to it. And then, forsooth, they deny 
the possibility of finding the Stone; nor will any one ever be 
able to convince them of the reality of our Art, so long as they 
blindly follow their own bent and inclination — In short, they are 
too wise to discern it, since it transcends the range of the human 
intellect, and must be humbly received at the hand of God. 

Yet Another Way of Knowzng our Blessed Stone. 

The philosopher, Morienus, calls our Stone, water: and he 
had good reasons for the name. .O water of bitter taste, that 
preservest the elements! (O glorious nature, that overcomest 
Nature herself! ^O thou that resemblest Nature, which 
dissolvest her tractable nature, that exaltest Nature—that art 
crowned with light, and preservest in thyself the four elements, 
out of which the quintessence is made! Thou art for the simple, 
seeing that thou art most simple in thy operation. Having 
conceived by a natural process, thou bringest forth vapour, 
and art a good mother. "Thou needest no outward help ; nature 
preserves nature, and is not separated from nature by the 
operation of nature. The thing is easy to find, the knowledge 
is easy, altogether familiar, yet it is as a miracle to many. Thy 
solution is great glory, and all thy lovers are named above. Thou 
art a great arcanum and to the many thou appearest impossible ! 

Explanation. 

Know, my son, that our Stone is such that it cannot 
adequately be described in writing. For it is a stone, and 

174 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

becomes water through evaporation ; yet it is no stone, and it 
by a chemical process it receives a watery form it is at first 
like any other liquid water, being a thin fluid ; yet its nature is 
not like that of any other water upon earth. "There is only one 
spring in all the world from which this water may be obtained. 
That spring is in Judaea, and is called, the Spring of the 
Saviour, or of beatitude. By the grace of God its situation 
was revealed to the Sages. [t issues in a secret place, and its 
waters flow over all the world. It is familiar to all, yet none 
knows the principle, reason, or way to find the spring, or 
discover the way to Judaa. But whoever does not know 
the right spring will never attain to a knowledge of our Art. 
For this reason, that Sage might well exclaim, * O water 
of a harsh and bitter taste!" For, in truth, the spring is 
difficult to find ; but he who knows it may reach it easily, with- 
out any expense, labour, or trouble. The water is, of its own 
nature, harsh and bitter, so that no one can partake of it ; and, 
because it is of little use to the majority of mankind, the Sage 
doth also exclaim, * O water, that art lightly esteemed by the 
vulgar, who .do not perceive thy great virtues, in thee lie, as it 
were, hid the four elements. "Thou hast power to dissolve, and 
conserve, and join nature, such as is possessed by no other thing 
upon earth." If you would know the properties and appearance 
of this Stone, know that its appearance is aqueous, and that the 
water is first changed into a stone, then the stone into water, 
and the water at length into the Medicine. If you know the 
Stone without the method of its preparation, your knowledge 
can be of no more use to you than if you knew the right method 
without being acquainted with the true Matter. Therefore our 
hearts are filled with gratitude to God for both kinds of 
' knowledge. 

Concerning the Treasure im the Tuncture. 

For let me tell you that when you have the red [tincture] 
you have something that all the treasures of the world will not 
buy. For it transmutes all metals into true gold, and is there- 
fore much better than the preparation of the Sun. As a 
medicine it excels all other gold ; all diseases may be cured by 
drinking one drop of the tincture in a glass of wine ; and it has 

— nii 

THE' GLORY OF THE WORLD. X75 

power to work many other marvels which we cannot here 
mention at length. If you wish to prepare the tincture for the 
Moon, take five half-ounces of the red tincture, and mix it well 
with five hundred half-ounces of the Moon, which have been 
subjected to the action of fire, then melt it, and the whole will 
be changed into the Tincture and the Medicine. Of this take half 
an ounce, and inject it into five hundred half-ounces of Venus 
or any other metal, and it will be transmuted into pure silver. 
Of the red tincture, which you have diligently prepared, take 
one part to a thousand parts of gold, and the whole will be 
changed into the red tincture. Of this, again, you may take 
one part to a thousand parts of Venus, or any other metal, and 
it will be changed into pure gold. For this purpose you need 
not buy any gold or silver. The first injection you can make 
with about a drachm of both ; and then you can transmute with 
the tincture more and more. 

You should also know that in our Art we distinguish two 
things—the body and the spirit: the former being constant, or 
fixed, while the other is volatile. These two must be changed, 
the one into the other: the body must become water, and the 
water body. "Then again the body becomes water by its own 
internal operation, and the two, Z.e., the dry and the liquid, must 
once more be joined together in an inseparable union. This 
conjunction could not take place if the two had not been 
obtained from oze thing ; for an abiding union is possible only 
between things of the same nature. Of this kind is the union 
which takes place in our Art; for the constituent parts of the 
Matter are joined together by the operation of nature, and not 
by any human hand. The substance is divided into two parts, 
as we shall explain further on. For instance, the Eagle is a 
"water," which being extracted is then a body dead and lifeless : 
if it is to be restored to life, the spirit must once more be joined 
to it, and that in a unique fashion, as we see that it devours 
gradually again the one eagle after the other. "Then the body 
loses all its grossness, and becomes new and pure ; nor can this 
body and soul ever die, seeing that they have entered into an 
eternal union, such as the union of our bodies and souls shall 
be at the last day. i 

176 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Another. Description of our. Stone. 

The Enigma of the wise (the Stone) is the Salt and Root 
of the whole Art, and, as it were, its Key, without which no one 
is able either to lock or unlock its secret entrance. No man can 
understand this Art who does not know the Salt and its prepara- 
tion, which takes place in a convenient spot that is both moist 
and warm; there the dissolution of its liquid must be accomp- 
lished, while its substance remains unimpaired. These are the 
words of Geber. 

Explanatzon. 

Know that the Salt of which Geber speaks has none of the 
specific properties of salt, and yet is called a Salt, and zs a Salt. 
It is black and fetid, and when chemically prepared, assumes the 
appearance of blood, and is at length rendered white, pure, and 
clear. It is a good and precious Salt which, by its own operation, 
is first impure and then pure. It dissolves and coagulates 
itself, or, as the Sage says, it locks and unlocks itself ^ No Salt 
has this property but the Salt of the Sages. Its chemical 
development it may undergo in a moist and convenient place, 
where its moisture (as the Sage says) may be dissolved in the 
Bath of Mary. He means that it must be warm enough for its 
water to be distilled, yet not warmer than the excrement of 
horses, which is not fresh. 

Another Descrzption of our Stone. 

Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia,in his * Philosophy" 
has the following words: Know that the Salt is fire and dryness. 
Fire coagulates, and its nature is hot, dry, and penetrating, even 
unto the inmost part. Its property is to become white even as 
the Sun and the Moon with the variations in the extremes of fire, 
to wit,of the natural fire, while the Sun restores redness and the 
Moon whiteness, and brings bodies to their spiritual condition 
at the same time that it removes their blackness and bad sulphur. 
With it bodies are calcined: it is the secret of the red and 
white tincture, the foundation and root of all things, and the 
best of all created things after the rational soul of man. For no 
Stone in the whole world has a greater efficacy, nor can any 
child of this earth find the Art without this Stone. Blessed be 

VEA. DAE, (QE TREPE AAT, 177 

God in heaven, who hath created this Art in Salt for the trans- 
mutation of all things, seeing that it is the quintessence which is 
above all things, and in all things. God Most High has not 
only from Heaven blessed creatures in this fashion, but praise, 
excellence, power, and wisdom are to be recognised as existing 
in this Salt. He who can dissolve and coagulate it, is well 
acquainted with the arcana of this Art. Our Salt is found in a 
certain precious Salt, and in all things. On this account the 
ancient Sages called it the *common moon," because all men need 
it. If you would become rich, prepare this Salt till it is rendered 
sweet. No other salt is so permanent, or has such power to fix the 
* soul," and to resist fire. The Salt of the earth is the soul ; it 
coagulates all things, is in the midst of the earth when the earth 
is destroyed ; nor is there anything on the earth like its tincture. 
It is called Rebis (Two-thing), is a Stone, Salt, oze body, and, to 
the majority of mankind, a vile and a despised thing. Yet it 
purifies and restores bodies, represents the Key of our whole Art, 
and all things are summed up in it. Only its entering in is so 
subtle that few perceive it: yet if it enter a body, it tinges it and 
brings it to perfection. What then should you desire of God but 
this Salt and the ingression thereof? 

If a man lived a hundred thousand years, he could never 
sufficiently marvel at the wonderful manner in which this noble 
treasure is obtained from ashes, and again reduced to ashes. In 
the ashes is Salt, and the more the ashes are burnt, the more 
ashes it affords ; notice also, that that proceeds from fire, and 
returns to fire, which proceeds from [the] earth. — All must con- 
fess that in the Salt there are two salts that kill mercury. This 
is a most profound saying. For sulphur, and the radical liquid, 
are generated in earth of a most subtle nature, and thus is pre- 
pared the Philosopher's Stone, which causes alil things, even as 
the philosophers set forth, to arise out of oze thing, and one 
nature, without the addition of any foreign substance. Our 
Matter is one of the commonest things upon earth, and contains 
within itself the four elements. It is, indeed, nothing short of 
marvellous that so many seek so ordinary a thing, and yet are 
unable to find it. We might put down many other characteristics 
of this Salt, but I prefer to leave the further elaboration of this 
subject to the reader, and to confine myself to a more detailed 

M 

178 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

account of its fruits, entrance, and life, of the mode of opening 
the garden, and catching a glimpse of the glorious roses, of the 
way in which they multiply, and bear fruit a thousand-fold ; also 
how you may cause the dead body to re-appear, and to be raised 
again to immortal life, by the power of which it may be able to 
enter imperfect bodies, purify them, and bring them to perfec- 
tion, and to a state of immutable permanence. 

I now propose to speak of the Stone under three aspects, 
viz, as the vegetable, the animal, and the mineral Stone ; and 
among these again, of the one which contains those four 
elements that impart life to all. Place this one substance in an 
air-tight alembic, and treat it according to the precepts of our 
Art, which we shall set forth further on. Then the sowing in the 
field can take place, and you obtain the Mineral Stone, and the 
Green Lion that imbibes so much of its own spirit. Then 
life returns to its spirit through the alembic, and the dead 
body lies at the bottom of the vessel. In the latter there are 
still two elements which the fire cannot sever—for sooner 
[than that] the ashes are burned in the fire itself, and the 
Salt thereby becomes stronger. The earth must be calcined 
until it turns white; then the earth is severed of its own accord, 
and is united to its own earth. For every thing strives to 
be joined to its like. Give it the cold and humid element 
to drink, and leave it standing eight days, that the two 
may be well mixed. You must see yourself what is best to be 
done after this: for I cannot give you any further information at 
present. Sun and Moon must have intercourse, like that of a 
man and woman: otherwise the object of our Art cannot be 
attained. — All other teaching is false and erroneous. Think 
upon this Salt as the true foundation of our Art ; for its worth 
outweighs all the treasures of this world. Itself is not developed 
into the tincture, but the tincture must be added to it. Nor is 
the substance of our Art found in any metal. 

Another. Description of the Matter and the. Method. 
By Senzor. 
Natural things, according to this Sage, are those which have 
been generated and produced out of a natural substance by a 
natural method. Now in its first, or lunar, stage, our Stone is 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 179 

produced from a coagulated white earth, as the Sage says: 
Behold our Sun in our white earth, and that by which the 
union in our Art is effected ; which is twice transmuted into 
water, and whose volatile exhalation, representing that which is 
most precious in our Substance, is the highest consolation of the 
human body. With this water the inward mercury of the 
metals must be extracted. Hence it follows that our Stone is 
obtained from the elements of two luminaries (gold and silver), 
being called our quicksilver and incombustible oil, the soul and 
light of bodies—which alone can afford to dead and imperfect 
bodies eternal light and life. Therefore I pray and beseech you, 
my son, to crush quicksilver from our Substance with intelligence 
and great activity. 

The Purging the * Earth" of Its Superfluous Earth. 

The aforesaid earth, or Matter, you must purify, or calcine; 
so as to extract its water and spirit. The latter you must en- 
close in a phial,and pour common aqua vitae upon it till the 
substance is covered to the height of three or four fingers; then 
subject it to the action of fire for an hour, and diligently distil it 
by the bath. What remains you must again calcine, and extract 
with its water till you find nothing more in the *earth." The earth 
keep for the second stage ofthe process. The water you have 
extracted distil over a gentle fire. Then you will find at the 
bottom of the distilling vessel a certain beautiful substance, 
resembling a crystal stone, which is purged of all earthly gross- 
ness, and is called *our earth." "This substance you must place 
in a glass (pumpkin-shaped) distilling vessel, and calcine until 
it becomes dry and white, and yet liquid withal Then you 
have obtained the treasure of this world, which has virtue to 
purify and perfect all earthly things: it enters into all, it 
nourishes the fixed salt in all things by means of Mercury or 
the body. 

Another. Description of our. Stone. 

Know, my sons, that the Stone out of which our Art is 
elaborated, never touches the earth after its generation. If it 
touch the earth, it is of no use for our purpose, although at its 
first birth it is generated by the Sun and Moon, and embodies 

M2 

180 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

certain earthy elements. It is generated in the earth, then 
broken, destroyed, and mortified. Out of it arises a vapour 
which is carried with the wind into the sea, and thence brought 
back again to the land, where it almost immediately disappears. 
It must be caught in the air, before it touches the ground ; other- 
wise it evaporates. As soon asit is borne from the sea to the 
land, you must promptly seize it, and enclose it in your phial, 
then manipulate it in the manner described. You may know its 
coming by the wind, rain, and thunder, which accompany it ; 
therefore it should not escape you. "Though it is born anew 
every day, yet it existed from the beginning of the world. But 
as soon as it falls to the ground, it becomes useless for the pur- 
poses of our Art. 

* From our earth wells forth a fertilizing fountain," 

* whence flow two precious stones. The fist" 

*straightway hastens to the rising of the Sun ;" 

*the other makes its way to the setting thereof." 

* From them fly forth two Eagles, plunge into the " 

* flames, and fall once more to the earth. Both" 

* are furnished with feathers, and Sun and Moon," 

* being placed under their wings, are perfected." 
Know also that two waters flow forth from this fountain ; the 
one (which is the s22777) towards the rising Sun, and the other, 
zke body, towards the setting Sun. The two are really only oze 
very limpid water, which is so bitter as to be quite undrinkable. 
'The quantity of this water is so great that it flows over the whole 
earth, yet leads to nothing but the knowledge of this Art. The 
same also is misused too often by those who desire it. "Take also 
the * fire," and in it you will find the Stone, and nowhere else in 
the whole world. It is familiar to all men, both young and old, 
is found in the country, in the village, in the town, in all things 
created by God ; yet itis despised by all. Rich and poor handle 
it every day. It is cast into the street by servant maids. Chil- 
dren play with it. Yet no one prizes it, though, next to the 
human soul, it is the most beautiful and the most precious thing 
upon earth, and has power to pull down kings and princes. 
Nevertheless, it is esteemed the vilest and meanest of earthly 
things. Itis cast away and rejected by all. Indeed it is the 
Stone which the builders of Solomon disallowed. But if it be 

MM dM EE EE 

TDEDB. GLORY QU TEE WORLD. 181 

prepared in the right way, it is a pearl without price, and, indeed, 
the earthly antitype of Christ, the heavenly Corner Stone. As 
Christ was despised and rejected in this world by the people of 
the Jews, and nevertheless was more precious than heaven and ' 
earth; so it is with our Stone among earthly things: for the 
spring where it is found is called the fount of nature. For even 
as through Nature all growing things are generated by the heat 
of the Sun, so also through Nature is our Stone born after that 
it has been generated. 

When you have found the water which contains our Stone, 
you must take nothing away from it, nor add anything to it: for 
it must be entirely prepared by means of that which it contains 
within itself. "Then extract the water in an alembic, and separate 
the liquid from the dry. The body will then remain alone on 
the glass, while the water runs down into the lower part. There- 
upon unite the water once more to the body in the manner 
described above, and your task will be accomplished. Know 
also that the water in which is our Stone, is composed in well- 
balanced proportions of the four elements. In the chemical 
process you will learn to distinguish earth, oil, and water, or body, 
spirit, and soul: the earth is at the bottom of the glass vessel, the 
oil, or soul, is with the earth, and the water is the spirit which is 
distilled from it. In the same way you will come upon two 
colours, namely, white and red, representing the Moon and the 
Sun. Theoilis the fire, or the Sun, the water is air, or the Moon ; 
and Sun and Moon are silver and gold which must enter into 
union. But enough, what I have said in this Epistle ought to 
enable you to find the Stone, and if herein you fail to discover it, 
rest assured that it will never become known to you. Be thou, 
therefore, a lover of the Art,and commended unto God the 
Almighty even unto all eternity. Written in the year 1526 after 
the birth of our Lord. 

Thus do the Sages write concerning the two waters which 
yet are only eze water—and in this alone the Stone is to be 
found. Know also that by so much as the earthly part is 
wanting, by also so much does the heavenly part abound more 
fully. Now this Stone renders all dry and arid bodies humid, 
all cold bodies warm, all impure bodies clear and pure. It con- 
tains within itself all healing and transmuting virtue, breathed 

182 JHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

into it by the art of the Master and the quickening spirit of fire, 
Thanks be unto God therefore in all time. 

The Sun zs zts Father, the Moon zts Mother. 

If you have those two spirits, they bring forth the Stone, 
which is prepared out of one part of Sulphur, or Sun, and four 
parts of Mercury, or Moon. "The Sulphur is warm and dry, the 
Mercury cold and moist. That must again be dissolved into 
water, which before was water, and the body, which before was 
mercury, must again become mercury. 

Concerning the First Matter, ov Seed of the Metals, including 
zkhat of the Husband, and that of the Spouse. 

Metals have their own seed, like all other created things. 
Generation and parturition take place in them as in everything 
else that grows. If this were not the case, we should never have 
had any metals. Now, the seed is a metallic Matter which is 
liquefied from earth. "The seed must be cast into z/s earth, and 
there grow, like that of every other created thing. Therefore, 
we must prepare the earth, or our first Matter, and cast into it 
the seed, whereupon it will bring forth fruit after its kind. This 
motion is required for the generation out of oze thing, viz., that 
first Matter; the body must become [a] spirit, and the spirit 
body : thence arises the medicine which is transmuted from one 
colour to another. Now, that which is sought in the white pro-. 
duces white, and the red, in like manner, gives red. The first 
Matter is oze thing, and fashioned into its present shape by the 
hand of God, and not of man—joined together, and transmuted 
into its [being] essence by Nature alone. ^ This we take, dissolve, 
and again conjoin, and wash with its own water, until it becomes 
white, and then again red. Thus our earth, in which we now 
may easily see our Sun and Moon, is purified. For the Sun is the 
Father of metals, and the Moon is their Mother : and if genera- 
tion is to take place, they must be brought together as husband 
and wife. By itself neither can produce anything, and therefore 
the red and the white must be brought together. And thougha 
thousand books have been written about it, yet for all that, the 
first substance is not more than one. It is the earth into which 
we cast our grain, that is to say, our Sun and Moon, which then 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 183 

bear fruit after their kind. If itself be cast into metals, it is 
changed into that which is best, viz, Sun and Moon. This is 
most true. Thanks be unto God. 

A Simple Account of the. True Art. 

According to the Sages, no body is dissolved without the 
coagulation of the spirit. For as soon as the spirit is transmuted 
into the body, [the Stone] receives its power. So long as the 
spirit is volatile, and liable to evaporate,it cannot produce any 
effect: when it is fixed, it immediately begins to operate. You 
must therefore prepare it as the baker preparesthe bread. Take 
a little of the spirit, and add it to the body, as the baker adds 
leaven to the meal, till the whole substance is leavened. [It is 
the same with our spirit, or leaven. The Substance must be con- 
tinuously penetrated with the leaven, until it is wholly leavened. 
Thus the spirit purges and spiritualizes the body, till they are 
both transmuted into one. Then they transmute all things, into 
which they are injected, into their own nature. The two must 
be united by a gentle and continuous fire, affording the same 
degree of warmth as that with which a hen hatches her eggs. It 
must then be placed in a St. Mary's Bath, which is neither too 
warm nor too cold. The humid must be separated from the dry, 
and again joined to it. When united, they change mercury into 
pure gold and silver Thenceforward you will be safe from the 
pangs of poverty. But take heed that you render thanks unto 
God for His gracious gift which is hidden from many. | He has 
revealed the secret to you that you may praise His holy name, 
and succour your needy neighbour. Therefore, take diligent 
heed, lest you hide the talent committed to your care. Rather 
put it out at interest for the glory of God, and the good of your 
neighbour. For every man is bound to help his fellowman, and 
to be an instrument in the hand of God for relieving his necessi- 
ties. Of this rule Holy Scripture affords an illustration in the 
example of Joseph, Habakkuk, Susanna, and others. 

Here follows my "TESTAMENT weh J have drawnm up zn 
your favour, my beloved Sons, with all dy. Heart. 

For your sakes, beloved students of this Art, and dear Sons, 
I have committed to writing this my testament, for the purpose 

184 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

of instructing, admonishing, warning, and informing you as to 
the substance, the method, the pitfalls to be avoided, and the 
only way of understanding the writings of the Sages. For as 
Almighty God has created all things out of the dry and the 
humid elements, our Art, by divine grace, may be said to pursue 
a precisely similar course. If therefore any man know the prin- 
ciple and method of creative nature, he should have a good 
understanding of our Art. If anyone be unacquainted with 
Nature's methods, he will find our Art difficult, although in reality 
it is as easy as to crush malt, and brew beer. In the beginning 
when, according to the testimony of Scripture, God made 
heaven and earth, there was only oze Matter, neither wet nor 
dry, neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor light, nor darkness, 
but one single substance, resembling vapour or mist, invisible and 
impalpable. It wascalled Hyle, or the first Matter. Ifathing is 
once more to be made out of nothing, that *nothing" must be 
united, and become oze.thing ; out of this oze thing must arise a 
palpable substance, out of the palpable substance oze body, to 
which a living soul must be given—Uwhence through the grace of 
God, it obtains its specific form. When God made the substance, 
it was dry, but held together by moisture. If anything was to 
grow from that moisture, it had to be separated from that which 
was dry, so as to get the fire by itself, and the earth by 
itself. Then the earth had to be sprinkled with water, if any- 
thing moist was to grow out of it, for without moisture nothing 
can grow. In the same way, nothing grows in water, except it 
have earth wherein to strike root. It then the water is to bedew 
the earth, there must be something to bring the water into con- 
tact with the earth ; for example, the wind prevents all ordinary 
water from flowing to the sea, and remaining there. Thus one 
element without the aid of another can bear no fruit ; if there 
was nothing to set the wind in motion it would never blow— 
therefore the fire has received the office of impelling and obliging 
it to do its work. This you may see when you boil water over 
the fire; for then there arises a steam which is really azr, wafer 
being nothing but coagulated air, and air being generated from 
water by the heat of the Sun. For the Sun shines upon the 
water, and heats it until steam is seen to issue forth. "This vapour 
becomes wind, and, on account of the large quantity of [the] air, 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 185 

we get moisture and rain : so air is once more changed or coagu- 
lated into water, or rain, and causes all things upon earth to grow, 
and fills the rivers and the seas. 

It is the same with our Stone, which is daily generated from 
[the] air by the Sun and Moon, in the form of a certain vapour, 
yea, even through the Red Sea ; it flows in Judea in the channel 
of Nature whither it behoves us to bring it. If we catch it, we 
lop off its hands and feet, tear off its head, and try to bring itto the 
red [colour]. If we find anything black in it, we throw it away 
with the entrails and the filth. When it has been purified, we 
take its limbs, join them together again, whereupon our King 
revives, never to die again, and is so pure and subtle as to pervade 
all hard bodies, and render them even more subtle than itself. 
Know also that when God, the Almighty, had set Adam in Para- 
dise, He shewed him these two things in the following words: 
* Behold, Adam, here are two things, one fixed and permanent, 
the other volatile : their secret virtue thou must not make known 
to 2// thy sons." 

Earth, my brother, is constant, and water volatile, as you 
may see when anything is burnt. For then that which is 
constant remains, while that which is volatile evaporates. That 
which remains resembles ashes, and if you pour water on it, it 
becomes an alkali, the efficacy of the ashes passing into the 
water. If you clarify the lye, put it into an iron vessel, and let 
the moisture evaporate over a fire, you will find at the bottom 
the substance which before was in the lye, that is to say, the 
salt of the matter from which the ashes were obtained. This 
salt might very well be called the Philosopher's Stone, from 
being obtained by a process exactly similar to that which is 
employed in preparing the ze2/ Stone, though at the same time 
it profits nothing in our work. For the substance which con- 
tains our Stone is a lye, not indeed prepared by the hand of 
man from ashes and water, but joined together by Nature, 
according to the creation and ordination of God, commingled of 
the four elements, possessed of all that is required for its perfect 
chemical development. If you take the substance, which 
contains our Stone, subject it to a S. Mary's Bath in an alembic, 
and distil it, the water will run down into the antisternium, and 
the salt, or earth, remain at the bottom, and is so dry as to be 

186 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

without any water, seeing that you have separated the moist 
from the dry. Pound the body small, put it into the S. Mary's 
Bath, and expose it to heat till it is quite decomposed. "Then 
give it its water to drink, slowly, and at long intervals, till it is 
clarifed. For it coagulates, dissolves, and purifies itself. The 
distilled water is the spirit which imparts life to its body, and is 
the alone soul thereof. Water is wind (air) and wind is life, 
and the life is [in the] soul. In the chemical process, you find 
water and oil—but the oil always remains with the body, and is, 
as it were, burnt blood. Then it is purified with the body by 
long-continued gentle heat. But you should be careful not to 
set about this Art before you understand my instructions, which 
at the end of this first part are bequeathed to you in the form 
of a Testament. For the Stone is prepared out of nothing in 
the whole world, except this substance, which is essentially one. 
He who is unacquainted therewith can never attain the Art. It 
is that one thing which is not dug up from mines, or from the 
caverns of the earth, like gold, silver, sulphur, sait, &c., but is 
found in the form which God originally imparted to it. It is 
formed and manifested by an excessive thickening of air; as 
soon as it leaves its body, it is clearly seen, but it vanishes 
without a trace as soon as it touches the earth, and, as it is 
never seen again, it must therefore be caught while it is still in 
the air—as I told you once before. I have called it by various 
names, but the simplest is perhaps that of *Hyle," or first 
principle of all things. It is also denominated the One Stone 
of the Philosophers, composed of hostile elements, the Stone of 
the Sun, the Stone of the Metals, the runaway slave, the 
aériform Stone, the Thirnian Stone, Magnesia, the corporeal 
Stone, the Stone of the jewel, the Stone of the free, the 
golden Stone, the fountain of earthly things, Xelis, or Silex 
(flint), Xidar, or Radix (root), Atrop, or Porta (gate). By these 
and many other names it is called, yet it is only oze. If you 
would be a true Alchemist, give a wide .berth to all other 
substances, turn a deaf ear to all other advisers, and strive to 
obtain a good knowledge of our Stone, its preparation, and its 
virtue. 

My Son, esteem this my Testament very highly: for in it I 
have, out of love and compassion towards you, given the reins 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 187 

to the warm-hearted impulse which constrains me to reveal more 
than I ought to reveal. But I beseech you, by the Passion of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,not to communicate my 
Testament to ignorant, unworthy, or wicked men, lest God's 
righteous vengeance light upon you, and hurl you into the 
yawning gulf of everlasting punishment, from which also may 
the same merciful God most mercifully preserve us. 

It is by no means a light thing to shew the nature of the 
aforesaid Hyle. Hyle is the first Matter, the Salt of the Sages, 
Azoth, the seed of all metals, which is extracted from the body 
of * Magnesia " and the Moon. . 

Hyle is the first principle of all things—the Matter that 
was from the beginning. 1t was neither moist, nor dry, nor 
earth, nor water, nor light, nor darkness, but a mixture of all 
these things, and this mixture is HYLE. 

HERE FOLLOWS THE SECOND PART OF THIS BOOK. 

In the beginning, when God Almighty had created our first 
parent Adam, together with all other earthly and heavenly 
bodies, He set him in Paradise, and forbade him, under penalty 
of eternal death, to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil. So long as Adam obeyed the Divine precept 
he had immortality, and possessed all that he needed for perfect 
happiness But when he had partaken of the forbidden fruit, 
he was, by the command of God, driven forth into this world, 
where he and his descendants have since that time suffered 
nothing but poverty, disease, anxiety, bitter sorrow, and death. 
If he had been obedient to the Divine injunction, he would have 
lived a thousand years in Paradise in perfect happiness, and 
would then have been translated to heaven; and a like happy 
destiny would have awaited all his descendants. For his 
disobedience God visited him with all manner of sufferings and 
diseases ; but in His mercy also shewed him a medicine whereby 
the different defects brought in by sin might be remedied, 
and the pangs of hunger and disease resisted, as we are, for 
instance, preserved and strengthened by bodily meat and drink. 

188 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

It was on account of this original sin that Adam, in 
spite of his great wisdom and the many arts that God had 
taught him, could not accomplish his full thousand years. 
But if he had not known the virtues of herbs, and the Medicine, 
he would certainly not have lived as long as he did. When, 
however, at length his Medicine would no longer avail to 
sustain life, he sent his son Seth to Paradise to fetch the tree 
of life. This he obtained after a spiritual manner. But 
Seth did seek also and was given some olives of the Tree 
of the Oil of Mercy, which he planted on the grave of his 
father. From them sprang up the blessed Tree of the Holy 
Cross, which through the atoning death of our Redeemer 
became to us wretched, sinful men, a most potent tree of life, 
in gracious fulfment of the request of our first parent Adam. 
On the other hand, the suffering, disease, and imperfection 
brought not only upon men, but also upon plants and animals, 
by the fall of Adam, found a remedy in that precious gift 
of Almighty God, which is called the Elixir, and Tincture, 
and has power to purge away the imperfections not only 
of human, but even of metallic bodies; which excels all other 
medicines, as the brightness of the sun shames the moon 
and the stars — By means of this most noble Medicine 
many men, from the death of Adam to the fourth monarchy, 
procured for themselves perfect health and great length of 
days. Hence those who had a good knowledge of the 
Medicine, attained to three hundred years, others to four 
hundred, some to five hundred, like Adam ; others again to nine 
hundred, like Methusalem and Noah; and some of their 
children to a longer period still, like Bacham, Ilrehur, Kalix, 
Hermes, Geber, Albanus, Ortulanus, Morienus, Alexander 
of Macedonia, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, and many others who 
possessed the Medicine of the Blessed Stone in silence, and 
neither used it for evil purposes, nor made it known to the 
wicked ; just as God Himself has in all times hidden this know- 
ledge from the proud, the impure, and the froward. But cease 
to wonder that God has put such excellent virtue into the 
Stone, and has imparted to it the power of restoring animal 
bodies, and of perfecting metals: for I hope to explain to you 
the whole matter in the three parts of my Book, which I have 

ELE (os OY (QE THE WORLD. 189 

entitled GLORY of the WORLD. If you will accept my 
teaching, and follow my directions, you will be able to prove 
the truth of my assertions by your own happy experience. 
Now when you have attained this great result, take care that 
you do not hide your talent. Use it for the solace of the 
suffering, the building of Christian schools and churches, and 
the glory of the Holy Trinity. Otherwise God will call you 
to an eternal account for your criminal neglect of His gift. 
May God deign to keep us from such a sin, and to establish 
us in His Holy Word! 

To the Reader. 

If it should seem unto you a tedious matter, my friendly 
reader, to read through and digest my book, I advise you 
to cheer yourself on by bearing in mind the great object you 
have in view. If you do so you will find the book very 
pleasant reading, and a joy indeed. Since God— praised in 
all times be his Holy and  Venerable Name!—in His 
unspeakable mercy has made known to. me the magistery of 
this most true and noble Art, I am moved and constrained 
by brotherly love to shew you the manner of producing this 
treasure, in order that you may be able to avoid the ruinous 
trouble and expense to which I was put in the course of a 
long and fruitless search. I will endeavour to be as clear 
and outspoken as possible, in order to vindicate myself from 
the possible charge of imposture, malice, and avarice. I am 
most anxious that the gift which God has committed to my 
trust shall not rust, or rot, or be useless in my hands. For 
this most precious Medicine is so full of glorious potency as 
to be most justly styled the Oil of Mercy, for reasons which 
your own understanding will suggest to you. It is therefore 
unnecessary for me to go into this preliminary question at 
any great length. I may at once proceed to give you an 
account of the Art itselfP and to put you on your guard 
against all seducing deceivers,—in short, to open up to you a 
true, unerring, and joyful road to the knowledge and possession 
of the Stone, and to the operations of this Art. 

Therefore, I—who possess the Stone, and communicate 
to you this Book—would faithfully admonish and  beseech 

190 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

you tc keep this my TABLE of PARADISE and GLORY 
of the WORLD, from all proud and unjust oppressors of the 
poor ; from all presumptuous, shallow, scornful, calumnious, and 
wicked persons, so as not to put it into their hands, on pain of 
God's everlasting punishment. I beseech you to take this warning 
to heart; but, on the other hand, to communicate and impart 
this my Table to all true, poor, pious, honest, and benevolent 
persons, who will gratefully reverence and rightly use the 
merciful gift of God, and conceal it from the unworthy. 
Nevertheless, even if my book should find its way into the hands 
of wicked men, God will so smite them with blindness as to 
prevent them from apprehending too much of my meaning, and 
frustrate all their attempts to carry out my directions. For God 
knows how to confound the wicked, and bring their presumption 
to nought ; as we are also told by David in his psalms: * Thine 
enemies shalt thou hold in thine hand, and shalt restrain them 
in the snares of their mind." I beseech you, therefore, my 
sons, to give diligent heed to my teaching ; then you will spend 
this life in health and happiness, and at length inherit everlasting 
joy. I pray that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
may grant this my petition. 

An Account of the True Art. 

I make known to all ingenuous students of this Art that the 
Sages are in the habit of using words which may convey either 
a true or a false impression ; the former to their own disciples 
and children, the latter to the ignorant, the foolish, and the 
unworthy. Bear in mind that the philosophers themselves 
never make a false assertion. The mistake (if any) lies not 
with them, but with those whose dulness makes them slow to 
apprehend the meaning. Hence it comes that, instead of the 
waters of the Sages, these inexperienced persons take pyrites, 
salts, metals, and divers other substances which, though very 
expensive, are of no use whatever for our purpose. For no one 
would dream of buying the true Matter at the apothecary's ; 
ay, that tradesman daily casts it into the street as worthless 
refuse. Yet the matter of our Stone is found in all those things 
which are used by ignorant charlatans : for it is our Stone, our 
Salt, our Mercury, our verdigris, halonitre, salmiac, Mars, 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 191 

sulphur, &c. lt is not dug out with pick-axes from ordinary 
mountains, seeing that our Stone is found in our mountains and 
springs; our Salt is found in our salt-spring, our metal in our 
earth, and from the same place we dig up our mercury and 
sulphur. But what we mean by our mines and springs these 
charlatans cannot understand. For God has blinded their 
minds and made gross their senses, and left them to carry on 
their experiments with all manner of false substances. Nor do 
they seem able to perceive their error, or to be roused from their 
idle imaginations by persistent failure. Where they sbould 
have distilled with gentle heat they sublime over a fierce fire, 
and reduce their substance to ashes, instead of devcloping its 
inherent principles by vitalizing warmth. Again, when they 
should have dissolved, they coagulated instead, and so on. By 
these false methods they could, of course, obtain no good result ; 
but instead of blaming their own ignorance they lay the fault on 
their teacher, and even deny the genuineness of our Art. Asa 
matter of fact, all their mistakes arise from their misinterpreting 
the meaning of words which should have put them on the right 
scent. For instance, when the Sages speak of calcining, these 
persons understand that word to mean *" burning," and conse- 
quently render their substance useless by burning it to ashes. 
When the Sages "dissolve," or transmute into * water," these shal- 
low persons corrode with aqua fortis. They do not understand that 
the dissolution must be effected with something that is contained 
within our substance, and not by means of any foreign appli- 
ance. These foolish devices bear the same relation to our Art 
that a dark hole bears to a transparent crystal. [t is their own 
ignorance that prevents them from attaining to a true knowledge; 
but ZZey put the blame on our writings, and call us charlatans 
and impostors. "They argue that if the Stone could be found at 
all, they must have discovered it long ago, their eyes being as 
keen and their minds as acute as they are. **DBehold," say 
they, ^how we have toiled day and night, how many books we 
have read, how. many years we have spent in our laboratories : 
surely if there were anything in this Art, it could not have 
escaped us" By speaking thus, they only exhibit their own 
presumption and folly. "They themselves have no eyes, and 
they make that an argument for blaspheming our high and holy 

192 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Art. Therefore, you should first strive to make yourselt 
acquainted with the secrets of Nature's working, and with the 
elementary principles of the world, before you set your hand to 
this task. After acquiring this knowledge, carefully peruse this 
book from beginning to end ; you will then be in a position to 
judge whether our Art is true or false. You will also know what 
substance you must take, how you must prepare it, and how 
your eager search may be brought to a successful issue. Let 
me enjoin you, therefore, to preserve strict silence, to let no- 
body know what you are doing, and to keep a good heart: 
then God will grant you the fulfilment of all your wishes. 

Here follows my own Opinion and Philosophical 
Dactum. 

I now propose to put down a brief statement of the view 
which I take of this matter. He who understands my mean- 
ing, may at once pass on to the opinions of the various Sages, 
which I have placed at the end of my book. He who does not 
apprehend my meaning, will find it explained in the following 
treatise. 

Since I know the blessed and true Art, with the nature 
and the matter of the Stone, I have thought it my duty freely 
to communicate it to you —not in a lawyer's style, nor in pompous 
language, but in few and simple words. Whoever peruses this 
book carefully, and with an elementary knowledge of natural 
relations, cannot miss the secret which I intend to convey. I 
am afraid that I shall be overwhelmed with reproaches for 
speaking out with so much plainness, seeing that this Art has 
never, from the beginning ofthe world, been so clearly explained 
as [ mean to explain it in this Book. Nevertheless, I am well 
aware that I am now declaring a secret which must for ever 
remain hidden from the wise of this world, and from those who 
are established in their own conceits. But [ must now proceed 
to give you the result of my experience. 

My beloved sons and disciples, and all ye that are 
students of this Art ; I herewith, in the fulness of Christian faith 
and charity. do make known to you that the Philosopher's Stone 
grows not oz/y on " ou" tree, but is found, as far as its effect 
and operation are concerned, in the fruit of all other trees, in all 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 193 

created things, in animals, and vegetables, in things that grow, 
and in things that do not grow. For when it rises, being stirred 
and distilled by the Sun and the Moon, it imparts their own 
peculiar form and properties to all living creatures by a divine 
grace ; it gives to flowers their special form and colour, whether 
it be black, red, yellow, green, or white; in the same way all 
metals and minerals derive their peculiar qualities from the op- 
eration of this Stone. All things, I say, are endowed with their 
characteristic qualities by the operation of this Stone, Ze., the 
conjunction of the Sun and Moon. For the Sun is the Father, 
and the Moon the Mother of this Stone, and the Stone unites in 
itself the virtues of both its parents. Such are the peculiar proper- 
ties of our Stone, by which it may be known. If you understand 
the operation, the form, and the qualities, of this Stone, you will 
be able to prepare it ; but if you do not, I faithfully counsel you 
to give up all thought of ever accomplishing this task. 

Observe, furthermore, how the seeds of all things that grow, 
as, for instance, grains of wheat or barley, spring forth from the 
ground, by the operation of the Stone, and the developing 
influences of Sun and Moon; how they grow up into the air, are 
gradually matured, and bring forth fruit, which again must be 
sown in its own proper soil. The field is prepared for the grain, 
being well ploughed up, and manured with well rotted dung; 
for the earth consumes and assimilates the manure, as the body 
assimilates its food, and separates the subtle from the gross 
'Therewith it calls forth the life of the seed, and nourishes it with 
its own proper milk, as a mother nourishes her infant, and 
causes it to increase in size, and to grow upward. The earth 
separates, [ say, the good from the bad, and imparts it as nutri- 
ment to all growing things ; for the destruction of oze thing is 
the generation of another. It is the same in our Art, where the 
liquid receives its proper nutriment from the earth. Hence the 
earth is the Mother of all things that grow ; and it must be 
manured, ploughed, harrowed, and well prepared, in order that 
the corn may grow, and triumph over the tares, and not be 
choked by them. A grain of wheat is raised from the ground 
through the distillation of the moisture of the Sun and Moon, 
if it has been sown in its own proper earth. The Sun and Moon 
must also impel it to bring forth fruit, if it is to bring forth fruit 

N 

194 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

atall. For the Sun is the Father, and the Moon the Mother, of 
all things that grow. 

In the same way, in ozz soil, and out of our seed, our Stone 
grows through the distilling of the Sun and Moon ; and as it 
grows it rises upwards, as it were, into the air, while its root 
remains in the ground. — That which is above is even as that 
which is below; the same law prevails ; there is no error or 
mistake. Again, as herbs grow upward, put forth glorious 
flowers and blossoms, and bear fruit, so oux grain blossoms, mat- 
ures its fruit, is threshed, sifted, purged of its chaff, and again put 
in the earth, which, however, must previously have been well 
manured, harrowed, and otherwise prepared. "When it has been 
placed in its natural soil and watered with rain and dew, the 
moisture of heaven, and roused into life by the warmth of the 
Sun and Moon, it produces fruit after its own kind. "These two 
sowings are peculiar characteristics of our Art. For the Sun and 
Moon are our grain, which we put into our soil, as soul and spirit 
—Aand such as are the father and the mother will be the children 
that they generate. "Thus, my sons, you know our Stone, our 
earth, our grain, our meal, our ferment, our manure, our verdigris, 
our Sun and Moon. You understand our whole magistery, and 
may joyfully congratulate yourselves that you have at length 
risen above the level of those blind charlatans of whom I spoke. 
For this, His unspeakable mercy, let us render thanks and praise 
to the Creator of all things, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Concerning the Origin of Metals. 

My son, I will now proceed to explain to you more in detail 
the generation of the metals, and the way in which they receive 
their growth and development, with their special form and quality. 
You will thereby be enabled to understand, even from the very 
foundation, with marvellous accuracy and clearness, the principle 
that underlies our whole Art. Permit me, therefore, to inform 
you that all animals, trees, herbs, stones, metals, and minerals, 
grow and attain to perfection, without being necessarily touched 
by any human hand: for the seed is raised up from the ground, 
puts forth flowers, and bears fruit, simply through the agency of 
natural influences. As it is with plants, so it is with metals. 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 195 

While they lie in the heart of the earth, in their natural ore, they 
grow, and are developed, day by day, through the influence ot 
the four elements: their fire is the splendour of the Sun and 
Moon ; the earth conceives in her womb the splendour of the 
Sun, and by it the seeds of the metals are well and equally 
warmed, just like the grain in the fields. Through this warmth 
there is produced in the earth a vapour or spirit, which rises 
upward and carries with it the most subtle elements. It might 
well be called a fifth element : for it Zs a quintessence, and con- 
tains the most volatile parts of all the elements. This vapour 
strives to float upward through the summit of the mountains, but, 
being covered 'vith great rocks, they prevent it from doing sso: 
for when it strikes against them, it is compelled to descend again. 
It is drawn up by the Sun, it is forced down again by the rocks, 
and as it falls the vapour is transmuted into a liquid, z.&, sulphur 
and mercury. Of each of these a part is left behind—but that 
which is volatile rises and descends again, more and more of it 
remaining behind, and becoming fixed after each descent. This 
* fixed " substance is the metals, which cleave so firmly to the 
earth and the stones that they must be smelted out in a red-hot 
furnace. The grosser the stones and the earth of the moun- 
tains are, the less pure will the metal be; the more subtle the 
soil and the stones are, the more subtle will be the vapour, and 
the sulphur and mercury formed by its condensation—and the 
purer these latter are, the purer, of course, will the metals them- 
selves be. When the earth and the stones of the mountain are 
gross, the sulphur and mercury must partake of this grossness, and 
cannot attain to their proper development. Hence arise the 
different metals, each after its own kind.  Foras each tree of the 
field has its own peculiar shape, appearance, and fruit, so each 
mountain bears its own particular ore ; those stones and that 
earth being the soil in which the metals grow. The quality of 
this soil is to a great extent dependent upon planetary influences. 
The nearer the mountains lie to the planets, the more do metals 
grow in them ;: for the qualities of metals are determined by 
planetary influences. Mountains that are turned towards the 
sun have subtle stones and earth, and produce nothing but gold. 
If they are more conveniently situated for being influenced by 
the moon, their metallic substance is turned into silver. For all 
N2 

196 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

metals, when perfectly developed, must ultimately become Moon 
and Sun, though some need to be operated on by the Sun and 
Moon longer than others: for the Sun is the Father, and the 
Moon the Mother, of all things that grow. Thus you see that gold 
glitters like the Sun, and silver like the Moon. Now, children 
always resemble their parents ; and all metallic bodies contain 
within themselves the properties of the Sun: to change the baser 
metals into gold and silver, there is positively nothing wanting 
but gentle solar warmth. n this respect there exists a close 
analogy between animal and vegetable growth. "When the Sun 
retires in the winter, the flowers droop and die, the trees shed 
their leaves, and all vegetable development is temporarily sus- 
pended. In the summer again, when the heat of the Sun is too 
great, not being sufficiently tempered by the cooling influences 
of the Moon, all vegetation is withered and burnt up. If there 
is to be perfect growth, the Sun and Moon must work together, 
the one heating and the other cooling. If the influence of the 
Moon prevails unduly, it must be corrected by the warmth of the 
Sun; the excessive heat of the Sun must be tempered by the 
coldness of the Moon. All development is sustained by solar 
fire. Imperfect metals are what they are, simply because they 
have not yet been duly developed by solar influences. 

Now, by the special grace of God, it is possible to bring this 
natural fire to bear on imperfect metals by means of our Art, and 
to supply the conditions of metallic growth without any of the 
hindrances which in a natural state prevent perfection. Thus by 
applying our natural fire, we can do more towards *' fixing " im- 
perfect bodies and metals in a moment, than the Sun in a 
thousand years. For this reason our Stone has also power to 
cure all things that grow, acting on each one according to its 
kind. For our Matter represents a perfect and inseparable union 
of the four elements, which indeed is the sum of our Art, and is 
consequently able to reconcile and heal all.discord in all manner 
of metals and in all things that grow, and to put to flight all 
diseases. For disease is discord of the elements, (one unduly 
lording it over the rest) in animal as well as in metallic bodies. 
Now as soon as our blessed Medicine is applied, the elements are 
straightway purified, and joined together in amity ; thus metallic 
bodies are fixed, animal bodies are made whole of all their dis- 

THE GLORY OF THE.WORLD. 197 

eases, gems and precious stones attain to their own proper per- 
fection. 

You should also know that all stones are generated by the 
Sun and Moon out of the sulphur and volatile mercury ; if they 
do not become metals, that is entirely due to their own grossness. 
In the same way, all plants are generated from sulphur and 
mercury, and that by the heat of the Sun and Moon. For the 
Sun and Moon are the mercury in our Matter. The Sun is warm 
and dry, the Moon warm and moist ; for in [the] earth is hid a 
warm and dry fire, and in that fire dwells warm and moist air— 
and from these is generated mercury which is both warm and 
moist. Hence there may be distinguished two chief constituent 
principles, to wit, moist and dry, that is, earth, wind, and water, 
unto which mercury is conjoined,and the same is warm and moist. 
Mercury and sulphur, in our substance, and in all things, spring 
from the moist and dry, the moist and dry being stirred by the 
warmth of the Sun, and distilled and sublimed,—in each thing 
according to its specific nature. Thus our Stone is that mercury 
which is mixed of the dry and the moist. But the common mer- 
cury is useless for our purpose—for it is volatile, while our mer- 
cury is fixed and constant. "Therefore have nothing to do with 
the common mercury, but take our mercury which is the principle 
of growth in all bodies, whether human, vegetable, or metallic ; 
which imparts to all flowers their fragrance and colour.  Uhis 
mercury represents an harmonious mixture of the four elements, 
hot and dry, Sun and Moon. [It is generated in the form of a 
vapour in the fields and on the mountains, by the warmth of the 
Sun: that vapour is condensed into a moisture, from which arise | 
sulphur and mercury, and from them again metals. The same 
process takes place in our Art, which represents the union of the 
warm and moist, by means of warmth. For our substance is 
generated in the form of a vapour out of warmth and moisture, 
and changed into sulphur. In this fire and water, and nowhere 
else, is our Stone to be found. For the vapour carries upward 
with it most subtle earth, most subtle fire, most subtle water, and 
most subtle air, and thus presents a close union of the most subtle 
elements. This is the first Matter, and may be divided into 
water and earth, which two are again joined together by gentle 
heat, even as in the woods and mountains mercury is joined with 

198 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

a quick earth and rare water by means of a temperate warmth, 
and in the long process of time is converted into metal So is 
it ordained in our Art, and not otherwise does the process take 
place. When you, therefore, see that our substance, having been 
first generated in the form of a vapour, permits itself to be sepa- 
rated into water and earth, you may know that the Stone is 
composed of the four elements. Know also that the vapour in 
the mountains is true mercury (which cannot be said of the 
ordinary mercury); for wherever there is vapour in the mountains, 
there is true mercury, which by ascending and descending, in the 
manner described above, becomes fixed, and inseparable from its 
earth, so that where the one is, there the other must abide. 

'Thus I have told you plainly enough how the metals are 
generated, what mercury is, and how it is transmuted into metals. 
I will therefore conclude this part of my treatise, and tell you in 
the following section how you may actually perform the chemical 
process You see that it is not so incredible, after all, that 
all metals should be transmuted into gold and silver, and all 
animal bodies delivered from every kind of disease ; and I hope 
and trust that God will permit you practically to experience the 
truth of this assertion. 

Now 4 «i tell you how you must produce the Fzre and 
Water, in wich is prepared the Mercury required 
for the red and white Tzncture. 

Take fire, or the quicklime of the Sages, which is the vital 
fire of all trees, and therein doth God Himself burn by divine love. 
In it purify Mercury, and mortify it for the purposes of our Art ; 
understand, with vulgar Mercury, which you wish to fix in water 
or fire. But the Mercury which lies hidden in this water, or fire, 
is therein fixed of itself. The Mercury which is in the fire must be 
decomposed, clarified, coagulated, and fixed with indelible, 
living, or Divine fire, of that kind which God has placed in 
the Sun ; and wherein God Himself burns as with Divine love 
for the consolation of all mankind. Without this fire our Art can 
not be brought to a successful issue. This is the fire of the 
Sages which they describe in such obscure terms, as to have 
been the indirect cause of beguiling many innocent persons to 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 199 

their ruin; so even that they have perished in poverty 
because they knew not this fire of the Philosophers. It is the 
most precious fire that God has created in the earth, and has a 
thousand virtues—nay, it is so precious that men have averred 
that the Divine Power itself works effectually in it. It has 
the purifying virtue of Purgatory, and everything is rendered 
better by it. It is not wonderful, therefore, that a fire should 
be able to fix and clarify Mercury, and to cleanse it from all 
grossness and impurity. "The Sages call it the living fire, 
because God has endowed it with His own Divine, and vital- 
ising power. 

In the writings of the Sages, this fire goes by different 
names. Some call it *burnt" wine, others assign to it three names 
from the analogy of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, God 
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; Body, 
Soul, and Fire, or Spirit. 

The Sages further say: The fire is fire, and also water, 
containing within itself both cold and heat, moisture, and 
dryness, nor can anything extinguish it but itself Hence 
others say that it is an inextinguishable fire, which is continually 
burning, purifying, and tinging all metals, consuming all their 
impurities, and combining Mercury with the Sun in so close 
an union that they become one and inseparable. 

"Therefore our great Teachers say that as God the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are three Persons, and yet but 
one God; so this fire unites these three things, namely, the 
Body, Spirit, and Soul, or Sun, Mercury, and Soul The 
fire nourishes the Soul which binds together the Body and 
the Spirit, and thus all three become one, and remain united 
for ever. Again,as an ordinary fire, on being supplied with 
fuel, may spread and fill the whole world, so this Tincture 
may be multiplied, and so this fire may enter into all metals; 
and one part of it has power to change two, three, or five 
hundred parts of other metals into gold. 

Again, the Sages call this fire the fire of the Holy Spirit, 
because as the Divinity cf Christ took upon itself true flesh and 
blood without forfeiting anything of its Divine Nature, so the 
Sun, the Moon, and Mercury, are transmuted into the true 
Tincture, which remains unaffected by all outward influences, 

200 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

and endures, and will endure, for ever. Once more, as God 
feeds many wicked sinners with his blood, so this Tincture 
tinges all gross and impure metals, without being iniured by 
contact with them. So also, therefore, may it be compared with 
the sacro-saintly Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist, from 
which no sinner is excluded, how impure soever he may have 
been. You have thus been made acquainted with the all but 
miraculous virtue of this fire: remember that no student of this 
Art can possibly do without it. For another Sage says: *In 
this invisible fire you have the whole mystery of this Art, as the 
three Persons of the Holy Trinity are truly concluded in one 
substance." [n this fire the true Art is summed up in three 
palpable things, which yet are invisible and incomprehensible, 
like the Holy Spirit. Without those three things our Art can 
never be brought to perfection. One of them is f; the 
second, water ; the third, earth ; and all those three are invisibly 
present in oze essence, and are the instrumental cause of all 
perfection in Nature. 

Now «wil [ also describe the operation of those Tree 
Tlungs in our Art, aud will at once begin 
vhal Three. 

Our wise Teacher Plato says: '* Every husbandman who 
sows good seed, first chooses a fertile field, ploughs and manures 
it well, and weeds it of all tares ; he also takes care that his own 
grain is free from every foreign admixture. When he has 
committed the seed to the ground, he needs moisture, or rain, to 
decompose the grain, and to raise it to new life. He also 
requires fire, that is, the warmth of the Sun, to bring it to 
maturity." 'The needs of our Art are of an analogous nature. 
First, you must prepare your seed, ze, cleanse your Matter from 
all impurity, by a method which you will find set forth at length 
in the Dicta of the Sages which I subjoin to this Treatise. 
Then you must have good soil in which to sow your Mercury 
and Sun; this earth must first be weeded of all foreign 
elements if it is to yield a good crop. Hence the Sage enjoins 
us to *sow the seed in a fruitful field, which. has been prepared 
with living fire, and it will produce much fruit." 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 201 

What is the Urine of Children ? 

I wil now truly inform you concerning the Urine of 
Children, and of the Sages. The spirit which is extracted from 
the metals is the urine of children: for it is the seed and the 
first principle of metals. Without this seed there is no con- 
summation of our Art, and no Tincture, either red or white. 
For the sulphur and mercury of gold are the red, the sulphur 
and mercury of silver are the white Tincture: the Mercury of 
the Sun and Moon fixes all Mercury in imperfect metals, and 
imparts excellence and durability even to common Mercury. 
Dioscorides has written an elegant treatise concerning this 
Urine of Children, which he calls the first Matter of metals. 

What is the Mercury of the Sages ? 

Mercury is nothing but water and salt, which have been 
subjected for a long space of time to natural heat so as to be 
united into one. This is Mercury, or dry water, which is not 
moist, and does not moisten anything ; of course, I do not speak 
of crude common mercury, but of the Mercury of the Sages. 
The Sages callit the fifth element. Itis the vital principle which 
brings all plants to maturity and perfection. The other quint- 
essence, which is in the earth, and partly material, contains within 
itself its own seed which grows out of its soil. The heavenly 
quintessence comes to the aid of the earthly, removes the 
grossness of its earth, and brings the aforesaid seed to maturity. 
For Mercury, and the Celestial Quintessence, drain off all 
harmful moisture from the quintessence of the earth. This 
Mercury is also called sulphur of the air, sulphur being a 
hardening of mercury; or we may describe them as husband 
and wife, from whom issue many children in the earth. You 
must not think that I desire to hide from you my true meaning : 
nay, I will further endeavour to illustrate it in the following way. 
Common sulphur, as you know, coagulates common mercury ; 
for sulphur is poisonous, and mercury deadly. How then can 
you obtain from either of them anything suitable for perfecting 
the other, seeing that both require to be assisted by some ex- 
ternal agent? On the other hand, I tell you that if, after the 
conjunction of our fixed sulphur with our sublimed mercury, you 
sprinkle a mere particle of it upon crude mercury, the latter is at 

202 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

once brought to perfection. Again, you may clearly perceive 
that the quintessence of the earth has its operation in the winter 
when the earth is closed up with frost; while the Quintessence 
of the Stars operates in the summer time, when it removes all 
that is injurious in the inferior quintessence, and thus quickens 
everything into vigorous growth. "The two quintessences may 
also be driven off into water, and there conserved. An earthly 
manifestation you may behold in the colours of the rainbow, 
when the rays of the Sun shine through the rain. But, indeed, 
there is not a stone, an animal, or a plant, that does not contain 
both quintessences. In short, they embody the secret of our 
whole Magistery, and out of them our Stone is prepared. 
Hermes, in his Emerald Table, expresses himself as follows: 
* Our Blessed Stone, which is of good substance, and has a soul, 
ascends from earth to heaven, and again descends from heaven 
to earth. Its effectual working is in the air; it is joined to 
Mercury; hence the Sun is its Father, the Moon its Mother; 
the wind has borne it in her womb, the earth is its nursing 
mother, and at length that which is above is also that which is 
below. "The whole represents a natural mixture: for it is a 
Stone and nota Stone, fixed and volatile, body and soul, hus- 
band and wife, King and Queen, Let what I have said 
suffice, instead of many other words and parables. 

Composition. 

Albertus expresses himself thus concerning the conjunction 
of the Stone: * The elements are so subtle that no ordinary 
method of mingling will avail. They must first be dissolved 
into water, then mixed, and placed in a warm spot, where they 
are united after a time by natural warmth. For the Elixir and 
the two solutions must be conjoined in the proportion of three 
parts of the Elixir and one part of the crushed body. This 
must again be coagulated and dissolved, and so also again until 
the whole has become oze, without any transmutation. All this 
is accomplished by the virtue of our mercurial water; for with 
it the body is dissolved. It is that which purifies, conjoins, 
dissolves, and makes red and white." Aristotle says of it as 
follows: This water is the earth in which Hermes bids us sow 
the seed ; the Sun or Moon, as Senior hath it, for extraction of 

THE GLORF OF THE WORLD. 203 

the Divine water of sulphur and mercury, which is fire, warming 
and fructifping by the igneous virtue thereof. This is the 
Mercury and that is the water which wets not the hand. It is 
the Mercury which all Sages have loved and used, and of which 
they have acknowledged the virtue so long as they lived. 

THE THIRD PART OF THIS TREATISE, CONTAINING 
THE DiCTA OF THE SAGES. 

i I will now proceed to quote the very words of the 
various Sages in regard to this point, in order that you may the 
more easily understand our meaning. Know then that AI- 
mighty God first delivered this Art to our Father, Adam, in 
Paradise. For as soon as He had created him, and set him in 
the Garden of Eden, He imparted it to him in the following 
words: * Adam, here are two things: that which is above is 
volatile, that which is below is fixed. "These two things contain 
the whole mystery. Observe it well, and make not the virtue 
that slumbers therein known to thy children ; for these two 
things shall serve thee, together with all other created things 
under heaven, and I will lay at thy feet all the excellence and 
power of this world, seeing that thou thyself art a small 
world." 

ii ABEL, the son of Adam, wrote thus in his Principles : 
After God had created our Father, Adam, and set him in 
Paradise, He subjected to his rule all animals, plants, minerals, 
and metals. For man is the mountain of mountains, the Stone 
of all stones, the tree of trees, the root of roots, the earth of 
earths. Allthese things he includes within himself, and God 
has given to him to be the preserver of all things. 

ii; SETH, the son of Adam, describes it thus: Know, 
my children, that in proportion as the acid is subjected to coc- 
tion, by means of our Art, and is reduced into ashes, the more of 
the substance is extracted, and becomes a white body. 1f you 
cook this well, and free it from all blackness, it is changed into a 
stone, which is called a white stone until it is crushed.  Dissolve 
it in water of the mouth, which has been well tempered, and its 

204 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

whiteness will soon change to redness. The whole process is 
performed by means of this sharp acid and the power of God. 

iv. ISINDRUS: Our great and precious Matter is air, for 
air ameliorates the Matter, whether the air be gross or tenuous, 
warm or moist. For the grossness of the air arises from the 
setting, the approach, and the rising of the Sun. Thus the air 
may be hot or cold, or dry and rarefied, and the degrees of this 
distinguish summer and winter. 

V. ANAXAGORAS says: God and His goodness are the 
first principle of all things. Therefore, the mildness of God 
reigns even beneath the earth, being the substance of all things, 
and thus also the substance beneath the earth. For the mild- 
ness of God mirrors itself in creating, and His integrity in the 
solidity that is beneath the earth. Now we cannot see His 
goodness, except in bodily form. 

vi. SENIOR, or PANDOLPHUS, says: I] make known to 
posterity that the thinness, or softness, of airis in water, and is 
not severed from the other elements. If the earth had not its 
vital juice, no moisture would remain in it. 

vii  ARISTEUS delivers himself thus briefly: Know that 
the earth is round, and not flat. For if it were perfectly flat, the 
Sun would shine everywhere at the same moment. 

vii. PYTHAGORAS: That which is touched and not seen, 
also that which is known but not looked upon, these are only 
heaven and earth; again, that which is not known is in the 
world and is perceived by sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. 
Sight shews the difference between black and white; hearing, 
between good and evil; taste, between sweet and bitter; touch, 
between subtle and gross ; smell, between fragrant and fetid. 

ix. ARISTEUS, in his Second Table, says: Beat the body 
which I have made known to you into thin plates; pour 
thereon our salt water, Ze, water of life, and heat it with a 
gentle fire until its blackness disappears, and it becomes first 
white, and then red. 

Xx. PARMENIDES : The Sages have written about many 
waters, stones, and metals, for the purpose of deceiving you. 
You that desire a knowledge of our Art, relinquish Sun, Moon, 
Saturn, and Venus, for our ore, and our earth, and why so? 
Every thing is of the nature of no thing. 

DUE GLORY TREE WORLD. 205 

xi LUCas: Take the living water of the Moon, and coag- 
ulate it, according to our custom. By those last words I mean 
thatit is already coagulated. Take the living water of the Moon, 
and put it on our carth, till it becomes white: here, then, is our 
magnesia, and the natures of natures rejoice. 

xii ETHEL: Subjectour Stone to coction till it becomes 
as bright as white marble. "Then it is madea great and effectual 
Stone, sulphur having been added to sulphur, and preserving its 
property. 

xiii, PYTHAGORAS: We exhibit unto you the regimen con- 
cerning these things. The substance must drink its water, like 
the fire of the Moon, which you have prepared. It must con- 
tinue drinking its own water and moisture, till it turns white. 

xiv. PHILETUS: Know, ye sons of philosophy, that the 
substance, the search after which reduces so many to beggary, is 
not more than one thing of most effectual properties. It is 
looked down upon by the ignorant, but held in great esteem by 
the Sages. Oh, how great is the folly, and how great also is the 
presumptuous ignorance of the vulgar herd! If you knew the 
virtue of this substance, kings, princes, and nobles would envy 
you. We Sages call it the most sharp acid, and without this acid 
nothing can be obtained, neither blackness, whiteness, nor the 
Tincture. 

xv. METHUSALEM : With air, vapour, and spirit we shall 
have vulgar mercury changed into as good a silver as the nature 
of minerals will allow in the absence of heat. 

xvi  SIXION: Ye sons of philosophy, if you would make 
our substance red, you must first make it white. Its three na- 
tures are summed up in whiteness and redness. Take, therefore, 
our Saturn, subject it to coction in aqua vite until it turns white, 
becomes thick, and is coagulated, and then again till it becomes 
red. "Then it is 7ed /ead, and without this lead of the Sages no- 
thing can be effected. 

xvi. MUNDINUS: Learn, O imitators of this Art, that 
the philosophers have written variously of many gums in their 
books, but the substance they refer to is nothing but fixed 
and living water, out of which alone our noble Stone can 
be prepared. Many seek what they call the essential 
"* gum," and cannot find it. I reveal unto you the knowledge of 

206 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

this gum and the mystery which abides therein. Know that our 
gum is better than Sun and Moon. Therefore it is highly 
esteemed by the Sages, though it is very cheap ; and they say : 
Take care that you do not waste any of our *gum." But in their 
books they do not call it by its common name, and that is the 
reason why it is hidden from the many, according to the command 
which God gave to Adam. 

xvii. DARDANIUS: Know, my sons, that the Sages take 
a living and indestructible water. Do not, then, set your hands 
to this task until you know the power and efficacy of this water. 
For nothing can be done in our Art without this indestructible 
water. For the Sages have described its power and efficacy as 
being that of spiritual blood. "Transmute this water into body 
and spirit, and then, by the grace of God, you will have the spirit 
firmly fixed in the body. I 

xix. PYTHAGORAS, in his Second Book, delivers himself as 
follows : The Sages have used different names for the substance, 
and have told us to make the indestructible water white and red. 
'They have also apparently indicated various methods, but they 
really agree with each other in regard to all essentials, and 
it is only their mystic language that causes a semblance of 
disagreement. Our Stone is a stone, and not a stone. It has 
neither the appearance nor the properties of stone, and yet it 
is a stone. Many have called it after the place where it is 
found ; others after its colour. 

xx. NEOPHIDES: I bid you take that mystic substance, 
white magnesia. And have a care that the Stone be pure 
and bright. "Then place it in its aqueous vessel, and subject it 
to gentle heat, until it first becomes black, then again white, and 
then red. The whole process should be accomplished in forty 
days. When you have done this, God shows you the first 
substance of the Stone, which is an eagle-stone, and known to 
all men. 

xxi  THEOPHILUS: Take white Magnesia, Ze., quicksilver, 
mingled with the Moon. Pound it till it becomes thin water; 
subject it to coction for forty days; then the flower of the 
Sun will open with great splendour. Close well the mouth 
of the phial, and subject it to coction during forty days, when 
you will obtain a beautiful water, which you must treat in the 

ZEE GLORY OD TEE WORLD. 207 

same way for another forty days, until it is thoroughly 
purged of its blackness, and becomes white and fragrant. 

xxii B/;ELUS says: I bid you take Mercury, which is 
the Magnesia of the Moon, and subject it and its body to coction 
till it becomes soft, thin, and like flowing water. Heat it again 
till all its moisture is coagulated, and it becomes a Stone. 

xxii. BASAN says: Put the yellow Matter into the bath, 
together with its spouse, and let not the bath be too hot, lest both 
be deprived of consciousness. Let a gentle temperature be kept 
up till the husband and the wife become oze; sprinkle it with 
its sweat, and set it in a quiet place. Take care you do not 
drive off its virtue by too great heat. Honour then the King 
and his Queen, and do not burn them. If you subject them to 
gentle heat, they will become, first black, then white, and then 
red. If you understand this, blessed are ye. But if you do 
not, blame not Philosophy, but your own gross ignorance. 

xxiv. ARISTOTLE: Know, my disciples, the Sages call our 
Stone sometimes earth, and sometimes water. Be directed in 
the regulation of your fire by the guidance of Nature. In 
the liquid there is first water, then a stone, then the earth of 
philosophers in which they sow their grain, which springs 
up, and bears fruit after its kind. 

XXv. AGODIAS: Subject our earth to  coction, till it 
becomes the first substance. Pound it to an impalpable dust, 
and again enclose it in its vessel. Sprinkle it with its own moisture 
till an union is effected. "Then look at it carefully, and if the 
water presents the appearance of )(, continue to pound and 
heat. For,if you cannot reduce it to water, the water cannot be 
found. In order to reduce it to water, you must stir up the body 
with fire. The water I speak of is not rain water, but 
indestructible water which cannot exist without its body, 
which, in its turn, cannot exist, or operate, without its own 
indestructible water. 

XXvi  SIRETUS: What is required in our Art is our water 
and our earth, which must become black, white, and red, with 
many intermediate colours which shew themselves successively. 
Everything is generated through our living and indestructible 
water. True Sages use nothing but this living water which 
supersedes all other substances and processes. Coction, califac- 

208 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

tion, distillation, sublimation, desiccation, humectation, albefac- 
tion, and rubrefaction, are all included in the natural development 
of this one substance. 

xxvii MOSINUS: The Sages have described our subs- 
tance, and the method of its preparation, under many names, and 
thus have led many astray who did not understand our writing. 
It zs composed of red and white sulphur, and cf fixed or indes- 
tructible water, called permanent water. 

Xxviii PLATO: Let it suffice you to dissolve bodies with 
this water, lest they be burned. Let the substance be washed 
with living water till all its blackness disappears, and it becomes 
a white Tincture. 

xxix. ORFULUS: First, subject the Matter to gentle 
coction, of a temperature such as that with which a hen hatches 
her eggs, lest the moisture be burnt up, and the spirit of 
our earth destroyed. Let the phial be tightly closed that the 
earth may crush our substance, and enable its spirit to be 
extracted. The Sages say that quicksilver is extracted from the 
flower of our earth, and the water of our fire extiacted from two 
things, and transmuted into our acid. But though they speak 
of many things, they mean only oze thing, namely, that 
indestructible water which zs our substance, and our acid. 

xxx. BATHON : If you know the Matter of our Stone, and 
the mode of regulating its coction, and the chromatic changes 
which it undergoes—as though it wished to warn you that its 
names are as numerous as the colours which it displays—then 
you may perform the putrefaction, or first coction, which turns 
our Stone quite black. By this sign you may know that you 
have the key to our Art, and you will be able to transmute it 
into the mystic white and red. The Sages say that the Stone 
dissolves itself, coagulates itself, mortifies itself, and is quickened 
by its own inherent power, and that it changes itself to black, 
white, and red, in Christian charity and fundamental trnth. 

xxxi. BLoDIUS. Take the Stone which is found every- 
where, and is called Rebis (Two-thing), and grows in two 
mountains. Take it while it is still fresh, with its own proper 
blood. Its growth is in its skin, also in its flesh, and its food is 
in its blood, its habitation in the air. Take of it as much as you 
like, and plunge it into the Bath. 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 209 

xxxii. LEAH,the prophetess, writes briefly thus: Know, 
Nathan, that the flower of gold is the Stone; therefore subject 
it to heat during a certain number of days, till it assumes the 
dazzling appearance of white marble. | 

xxxii ALKIUS: You daily behold the mountains which 
contain the husband and wife. Hie you therefore to their 
caves, ard dig up their earth, before it perishes. 

xxxiv. BONELLUS: All ye lovers of this Art, I say unto 
you, in faith and love: Relinquish the multiplicity of your 
methods and substances, for our substance is oe thing, and is 
called living and indestructible water. He that is led astray by 
many words, will know the persons against whom he should be 
on his guard. 

xxxv. HIERONYMUS: Malignant men have darkened 
our Art, perverting it with many words; they have called our 
earth, and our Sun, or gold, by many misleading names. Their 
salting, dissolving, subliming, growing, pounding, reducing to an 
acid, and white sulphur, their coction of the fiery vapour, its 
coagulation, and transmutation into red sulphur, are nothing but 
different aspects of one and the same thing, which, in its first 
stage, we may describe as incombustible and indestructible 
sulphur. 

xxxvi. HERMES: Except ye convert the earth of our 
Matter into fire, our acid will not ascend. 

xxxvii  PYTHAGORAS, in his Fourth Table, says: How 
wonderful is the agreement of Sages in the midst of difference ! 
They all say that they have prepared the Stone out ofa sub- 
stance which by the vulgar is looked upon as the vilest thing on 
earth. Indeed, if we were to tell the vulgar herd the ordinary 
name of our substance, they would look upon our assertion as a 
daring falsehood. But if they were acquainted with its virtue 
and efficacy, they would not despise that which is, in reality, 
the most precious thing in the world. God has concealed 
this mystery from the foolish, the ignorant, the wicked, and 
the scornful, in order that they may not use it for evil 
purposes. 

xxxvii. HAGIENUS: Our Stone is found in all mountains, 
all trees, all herbs, and animals, and with all men. It wears 
many different colours, contains the four elements, and has been 

Oo 

210 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

designated a microcosm. Can you not see, you ignorant seekers 
after the Stone, who try, and vainly try, such a multiplicity of 
substances and methods, that our Stone is one earth, and one 
sulphur, and that it grows in abundance before your very eyes? 
I will tell you where you may find it. The first spot is on the 
summit of two mountains ; the second, in all mountains ; the 
third, among the refuse in the street ; the fourth, in the trees and 
metals the liquid of which is the Sun and Moon, Mercury, 
Saturn, and Jupiter. "There is but one vessel, one method, and 
one consummation. 

xxxix. MORIENUS: Know that our Matter is not in 
greater agreement with human nature than with anything else, 
for it is developed by putrefaction and transmutation. fit were 
not decomposed, nothing could be generated out of it. The goal 
of our Art is not reached until Sun and Moon are conjoined, and 
become, as it were, one body. 

xl THE EMERALD TABLE: [t is true, without any 
error, and it is the sum of truth; that which is above is also that 
which is below, for the performance of the wonders of a certain 
one thing, and as all things arise from one Stone, so also they 
were generated from one common Substance, which includes 
the four elements created by God. And among other miracles 
the said Stone is born of the First Matter. The Sun is its 
Father, the Moon its Mother, the wind bears it in its womb, 
and it is nursed by the earth. Itself is the Father of the whole 
earth, and the whole potency thereof. If it be transmuted into 
earth, then the earth separates from the fire that which is most 
subtle from that which is hard, operating gently and with great 
artifice. Then the Stone ascends from earth to heaven, and 
again descends from heaven to earth, and receives the choicest 
influences of both heaven and earth. If you can perform this 
you have the glory of the world, and are able to put to flight all 
diseases, and to transmute all metals. It overcomes Mercury, 
which is subtle, and penetrates all hard and solid bodies. Hence 
it is compared with the world. Hence I am called Hermes, 
having the three parts of the whole world of philosophy. 

xli. LEPRINUS says: The Stone must be extracted from 
a two-fold substance, before you can obtain the Elixir which is 
fixed in one essence, and derived from the one indispensable 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 2T 

Matter, which God has created, and without which no one can 
attain the Art. Both these parts must be purified before they 
are joined together afresh. The body must become different, 
and so must the volatile spirit. Then you have the Medicine, 
which restores health, and imparts perfection to all things. The 
fixed and the volatile principle must be joined in an inseparable 
union, which defies even the destructive force of fire. 

xlii. LAMECH: In the Stone of the Philosophers are the 
first elements, and the final colours of minerals, or Soul, Spirit, 
and Body, joined unto one. The Stone which contains all these 
things is called Zibeth, and the working of Nature has left it 
imperfect. 

xliii. SOCRATES: Our Mystery is the life of all things, or 
the water. For water dissolves the body into spirit, and sum- 
mons the living spirit from among the dead. My son, despise 
not my Practical Injunction. For it gives you, in a brief form, 
everything that you really need. 

xliv. ALEXANDER: The good need not remain concealed 
on account of the bad men that might abuse it. For God rules 
over all, according to His Divine Will. Observe, therefore, that 
the salt of the Stone is derived from mercury, and is that Matter, 
most excellent of all things, of which we are in search. The 
same also contains in itself all secrets. Mercury is our Stone, 
which is composed of the dry and the moist elements, which have 
been joined together by gentle heat in an inseparable union. 

xlv. SENIOR teaches us to make the Salt out of ashes, and 
then, by various processes, to change it into the Mercury of the 
Sages, because our Magistery is dependent on our water alone, 
and needs nothing else. 

xlvi. ROSARIUS: Itisa stone, and not a stone, viz., the 
eagle-stone. "The substance has in its womb a stone, and when 
it is dissolved, the water that was coagulated in it bursts forth. 
Thus the Stone is the extracted spirit of our indestructible body. 
It contains mercury, or liquid water, in its body, or fixed earth, 
which retains its nature. This explanation is sufficiently plain. 

xlvii PAMPHILUS: The Salt of the Gem is that which is 
in its own bowels ; it ascends with the water to the top of the 
alembic, and, after separation, is once more united and made one 
body with it by means of natural warmth. Or we may, with 

02 

2T THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

King Alexander, liken the union to that of a soul with its 
body. 

xlviii. DEMOCRITUS: Our Substance is the conjunction 
of the dry and the moist elements, which are separated by a vapour 
or heat, and then transmuted into a liquid like water, in which 
our Stone is found. Forthe vapour unites to the most subtle earth 
the most subtle air, and contains all the most subtle elements. 
This first substance may be separated into water and earth, the 
latter being perceptible to the eye. The earth of the vapour is 
volatile when it ascends, but it is found fixed when the separation 
takes place, and when the elements are joined together again it 
becomes fixed mercury. For the enjoyment of this, His precious 
gift, we Sages ceaselessly praise and bless God's Holy Name. 

xlix. SrRos: The body of the Sages, being calcined, is 
called everlasting water, which permanently coagulates our 
Mercury. And if the Body has been purified and dissolved, the 
union is so close as to resist all efforts at separation. 

l. NOoaH, the man of God, writes thus in his Table: My 
children and brethren, know that no other stone is found in 
the world that has more virtue than this Stone. No mortal man 
can find the true Art without this Stone. Blessed be the God 
of Heaven who has created this property in the Salt, even in the 
Salt of the Gem ! 

li | MENALDES: The fire of the Sages may be extracted 
from all natural things, and is called the quintessence. It is of 
earth, water, air, and fire. It has no cause of corruption or other 
contrary quality. 

li. HERMES, in his second Table, writes thus:  Dissolve 
the ashes in the second element, and coagulate this substance 
into a Stone. Let this be done seven times. For as Naaman 
the Syrian was purged of his leprosy by washing himself seven 
times in Jordan, so our substance must undergo a seven-fold 
cleansing, by calcining and dissolving, and exhibiting a variety 
ofever deepening colours. In our water are hidden the four 
elements, and this earth, which swallows its water, is the dragon 
that swallows its tail, Ze, its strength. 

lii  NUNDINUS: The fire which includes all our chemical 
processes, is three-fold: the fiery element of the air, of water, 
and of the earth. This is all that our Magistery requires. 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 202 

liv. ANANIAS: Know, ye Scrutators of Nature, that fire 
is the soul of everything, and that God Himself is fire and 
soul. And the body cannot live without fire. For without fire 
the other elements have no efficacy. It is, therefore, a most 
holy, awful, and divine fire which abides with God Himself in 
the Most Holy Trinity, for which also we give eternal thanks 
to God. 

lv. BOoNIDUS: In the fountain of Nature our Substance is 
found, and nowhere else upon earth ; and our Stone is fire, and 
has been generated in fire, without, however, being consumed by 
fire. 

lvi. RosINUS: Two things are hidden in two things, and 
indicate our Stone: in earth is fire, and air in water, yet there 
are only two outward things, viz, earth and water. For Mercury 
is our Stone, consisting as it does both of moist and dry 
elements. Mercury is dry and moist in its very nature, and all 
things have their growth from the dry and moist elements. 

lvii. GEBER: We cannot find anything permanent, or 
fixed, in fire, but only a viscous natural moisture which is the 
root of all metals. For our venerable Stone nothing is required 
but mercurial substances, if they have been well purified by our 
Art, and are able to resist the fierce heatoffire. This Substance 
penetrates to the very roots of metals, overcomes their imperfect 
nature, and transmutes them, according to the virtue of the 
Elixir, or Medicine. 

lvii. AnROS: Our Medicine consists of two things, and 
one essence. There is one Mercury, of a fixed and a volatile 
substance, composed of body and spirit, cold and moist, warm 
and dry. 

lix. ARNOLDUS: Let your only care be to regulate the 
coction of the Mercurial substance. In proportion as it is itself 
dignified shall it dignify bodies. 

lx. ALPHIDIUs: Transmute the nature, and you will find 
what you want. For in our Magistery we obtain first from the 
gross the subtle, or the spirit; then from the moist the dry, 
Ze., earth from water. Thus we transmute the corporeal into the 
spiritual, and the spiritual into the corporeal, the lowest into the 
highest, and the highest into the lowest. 

214 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

lxi... BERNARDUS: The middle substance is nothing but 
coagulated mercury ; and the first Matter is nothing but two- 
fold mercury. For our Medicine is composed of two things, the 
fixed and the volatile, the corporeal and the spiritual, the cold 
and the warm, the moist and the dry. Mercury must be sub- 
jected to coction in a vessel with three divisions, that the 
dryness of the active fire may be changed into vaporous moisture 
of the oil that surrounds the substance. Ordinary fire does not 
digest our substance, but its heat converted into dryness is the 
true fire. : 

Ixii STEPHANUS: Metals are earthly bodies, and are 
generated in water. The water extracts a vapour from the 
Stone, and out of the moisture of [the] earth, by the operation of 
the Sun, God lets gold grow and àccumulate. Thus earth and 
water are united into a metallic body. 

Ixiii;. GuIDO BONATUS writes briefly concerning the 
quintessence, as being purer than all elements. "The quint- 
essence contains the four elements, that is, the first Matter, out 
of which God has created, and still creates, all things. It is 
Hyle, containing in a confused mixture the properties of every 
creature. 

lxiv. ALRIDOS: The virtue and efficacy of everything 
is to be found in its quintessence, whether its nature be warm, 
cold, moist, or dry. This quintessence gives out the sweetest 
fragrance that can beimagined. Therefore the highest perfection 
is needed. 

Ixv. LONGINUS describes the process in the following 
terms: Let your vessel be tightly closed and exposed to an 
even warmth. This water is prepared in dry ashes, and is sub- 
jected to coction till the two become one. When one is joined 
to the other; the body is brought back to its spirit. Then the 
fire must be strengthened till the fixed body retains that which 
is not fixed by its own. heat. With this you can tinge ten 
thousand times ten thousand of other substances. 

Ixvi. HERMES, in his Mysteries, says: Know that our 
Stone is lightly esteemed by the thankless multitude ; but it is 
very precious to the Sages. If princes knew how much gold 
can be made out of a particle of Sun, and of our Stone, they 

, would never suffer it to be taken out of their dominions. 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. za 

*'lThe Sages rejoice when the bodies are dis- lc 
*solved; for our Stone is prepared with two" 
* waters. It drives away all sickness from the " 
*diseased body, whether it be human or" 
** metallic." 

By means of our Art, we do in one month what Nature 
cannot accomplish in a thousand years: for we purify the parts, 
and then join them together in an inseparable and indissoluble 
union. 

Ixvii, NERO: Know that our Mercury is dry and moist, 
and conjoined with the Sun and Moon. Sun and Moon in 
nature are cold and moist mercury and hot and dry sulphur, 
and both have their natural propagation by being joined in one 
thing. 

Herve follows a T: vue Explanation of some of the Foregoing 
Philosophical Dicta, the. smeaning, word for word 
and point for point, being clearly set forth. 

I now propose to say something about the meaning of the 
obscure and allegorical expressions used by some of the Sages 
whom I have quoted. Be sure that they all were true Sages, 
and really possessed our Stone. It may have been possessed 
by more persons since the time of Adam, but the above list 
includes all of whom I have heard. I need not here review all 
their sayings ; for the words of the least of them are sufficient for 
imparting to you a knowledge of this Art; and my ambition 
goes no higher than that. If I have enumerated so large a 
number of authorities, I have only done so in order that you 
might the better understand both the theory and practice of 
this Art, and that you might be saved all unnecessary ex- 
pense. Forthis reason I have declared this true philosophy 
with all the skill that God has given me. I hope the initiated 
will overlook any verbal inaccuracy into which I have fallen, 
and that they will be induced by my example to abstain from 
wilfully misleading anxious enquirers. I tnay have fallen. into 
some errors of detail, but as to the gist of my work, I know 
what I have written, and that it is God's own truth. 

216 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Explanation of the Saying of Adan. 

When God had created our first parent Adam, and set him 
in Paradise, He shewed him two things, namely, earth and water. 
Earth is fixed and indestructible, water is volatile and vaporous. 
These two contain the elements of all created things : water con- 
tains air, and earth fire—and of these four things the whole of 
creation is composed. In earth are enclosed fire, stones, minerals, 
salt, mercury, and all manner of metals; in water, and in air, all 
manner ofliving and organic substances, such as beasts, birds, 
fishes, flesh, blood, bones, wood, trees, flowers, and leaves. To all 
these things God imparted their efficacy and virtue, and subjected 
them to the mastery and use of Adam. Hence you may see how 
all these things are adapted to the human body, and are such as 
to meet the requirements of his nature. He may incorporate the 
virtue of outward substances by assimilating them in the form of 
food. In the same way, his mind is suitably constructed for the 
purpose of gaining a rational knowledge of the physical world. 
That this is the case, you may see from the first chapter of 
Genesis. 

On the sixth day of the first year of the world, that is to 
say, on the r5th day of March, God created the first man, Adam, 
of red earth, in a field near Damascus, with a beautiful body, and 
after His own image. When Adam was created, he stood naked 
before the Lord, and with outstretched hands rendered thanks to 
Him, saying : O Lord, Thy hands have shaped me: now remem- 
ber, I pray Thee, the work of Thy hands, which Thou hast clothed 
with flesh, and strengthened with bones, and grant me life and 
loving-kindness. 

So the Lord endowed Adam with great wisdom, and such 
marvellous insight that he immediately, without the help of any 
teacher—simply by virtue of his original righteousness—had a 
perfect knowledge of the seven liberal arts, and of all animals, 
plants, stones, metals, and minerals. Nay, what is more, he had 
perfect understanding of the Holy Trinity, and of the coming ot 
Christ in the flesh. Moreover, Adam was the Lord, King, and 
Ruler of all other creatures which, at the Divine bidding, were 
brought to him by the angel to receive their names. Thus all 
creatures acknowledged Adam as their Lord, seeing that it was 
he to whom the properties and virtues of all things were to be 

TIN GE OY RROEE EO. PEEES- ADI UD. 2/7 

made known. Now the wisdom, and knowledge of all things, 
which Adam had received, enabled him to observe the properties, 
the origin, and the end of all things. He noted the division and 
destruction, the birth and decay of physicalsubstances. EHe saw 
that they derive their origin from the dry and the moist elements, 
and that they are again transmuted into the dry and the moist. 
Of all these things Adam took notice, and especially of that 
which is called the first Matter. For he who knows how all 
things are transmuted into their first Matter, has no need to ask 
any questions. It was that which existed in the beginning 
before God created heaven and earth; and out of it may be 
made one new thing which did not exist before, a new earth, fire, 
water, air, Sun, Moon, Stars, in short, a new world. 

As in the beginning all things were created new, so there is 
a kind of new creation out of the first substance in our Art. 
Now although God warned Adam generally not to reveal this 
first substance—viz, the moist and the dry elements—yet He 
permitted him to impart the knowledge to his son Seth. Abel 
discovered the Art for himself, by the wisdom which God had 
given him, and inscribed an account of it on beechen tablets. 
He was also the first to discover the art of writing ; further, he 
f»retold the destruction of the world by the Flood, and wrote all 
these things on wooden tablets, and hid them in a pillar of stone, 
which was found, long afterwards, by the children of Israel 
Thus you see that our Art was a secret from the beginning, and 
a secret it will remain to the end of the world. For this reason 
it is necessary carefully to consider all that is said about it, and 
especially the words of the Lord to Adam : for they exhibit in a 
succinct form the secret of the whole Art. 

Explanation of the Saying of Abe. 

This saying partly explains itself, and is partly explained 
by what we said about God's words to Adam. — Yet I will add a 
few remarks concerning it Man hath within him the virtue and 
efficiency of all things, whence he is called a small world, and is 
compared to the large world, because the bones which are beneath 
his skin, and support his body, may be likened to the mountains 
and stones, his flesh to the earth, his veins to the rivers, and his 
small veins to the brooks which are discharged into them. — The 

218 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

heart is the sea into which the great and small rivers flow ; his 
hair resembles the growing herbs—and so with all other parts 
of his body. Again, his inward parts, such as the heart, lungs, 
and liver, are comparable to the metals. ^ The hairs have their 
head in the earth (ZZ, the flesh) and their roots in the air, as the 
Sages say, that the root of their minerals is in the air, and their 
head in the earth. "That which ascends by distillation is volatile, 
and is in the air; that which remains at the bottom, and is 
fixed, is the head, which is in the earth. Therefore, the one 
must always exist in conjunction with the other if it is to be 
effectual. Hence man may be compared to an inverted tree : for 
he has his roots, or his hair, in the air, while other trees have their 
hairs. or their roots, in the earth. 

And of our Stone, too, the Sages have justly said that it has 
its head in the earth, and its root in the air. "This similitude has 
a two-fold interpretation. First, with regard to the place in 
which our Matter is found ; secondly, with regard to the dissolu- 
tion and second conjunction of the Stone. For when our Stone 
rises upward in the alembic, it has its root in the air; but if it 
would regain its virtue and strength, it must once more return to 
its earth, and then it has its head and perfect potency in the 
earth. Hence our Stone, too, is not inaptly denominated a small 
world ; it is called the mountain of mountains, from which our 
ore is derived, since it is evolved from the first substance in a way 
analogous to that in which the great world was created. Know 
that if you bury anything in [the] earth, and it rots, as food is 
digested in the human body, and the gross is separated from the 
subtle, and that which is fetid from that which is pure, then that 
which is pure is the first Matter which has been set free by decay. 
If you understand this, you know the true Art. But keep it to 
yourself, and cast not pearls before swine ; for the vulgar regard 
our Art with ignorant contempt. 

Explanation of the Saying of Seth, Som of Adam. 

By * acid which is to be subjected to coction, and 
transmuted into ashes," the Sage Seth means distilled water, 
which we call seed. If this, by diligent coction, is condensed 
into a body— which he calls ashes—the body loses its blackness 
by being washed till it becomes white; for, by constant 

TELE. GAIXQRV^ QUO TEDE: WEOIGIIUD. 219 

coction, all blackness and gross impurity are removed. If it 
were not for this earth, the spirit would never be coagulated ; 
for it would have no body into which it could enter—seeing 
that it cannot be coagulated and fixed anywhere but in its 
own body. On the other hand, the spirit purifies its body, 
as Seth says, and makes it white. He says further: *If you 
diligently heat it, and free it from its blackness, it is changed 
into a Stone, which is called the white coin of the Stone." 
That is to say, if it is slowly heated with a gentle fire, it is 
by degrees changed into a body which resists fire, and is 
named a Stone. It is fixed, and it has a brilliantly white 
appearance. A coin it is called, because, as he who has a coin 
may purchase with it bread or whatever else he needs, so he 
who has this Stone may purchase for himself health, wisdom, 
longevity, gold, silver, gems, etc. Hence it is justly called the 
Coin, since it can buy what all the riches in the world cannot 
procure. [tis struck by the Sages, who, instead of the image 
of a prince, impress upon it their own image. Therefore it is 
denominated the COIN of the SAGES, because it is their own 
money, struck in their own mint. 

Again, when the Sage says, * Heat the Stone till it breaks 
[itself] and dissolve it in the well-tempered water of the 
Moon," he means that the Stone must be heated by that which 
is in itself, until it is changed into water, or dissolved. All this 
is done by its own agency ; for the body is called Moon, when 
it has been changed into water; and the extracted spirit, or 
distilled water, is called Sun. For the element of [the] air is 
concealed in it ; but the body must be broken in its own water, 
or dissolved by itself. The * well-tempered water of the Moon " 
is the gentle inward heat which changes it into water, and yields 
two waters, viz., the distilled spirit, and the dissolved body. 
These two waters are again united by slow and gentle coction, 
the distilled spirit becoming coagulated into a body, the 
dissolved body becoming a spirit. The fixed becomes volatile, 
and the volatile fixed, by dissolution and coagulation, and both 
assume, first a white, and then a red colour. The change to 
white and red is produced by the same water, and the white is 
always followed by the red, just as the black is followed by the 
white. When the Sage says, in conclusion, *that the whole 

220 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

can be accomplished only with the best acid, through the power 
of God alone," he means that the one thing from which alone our 
Stone can be procured may be compared to the sharpest acid, 
and that, by means of our Art, this acid is changed into the 
best of earthly things, which all the treasures of all kings and 
princes are not sufficient to buy 

Explanation of the Saymg of [sindrus. 

Good Heavens! How skilfully the Sages have contrived 
to conceal this matter. It would surely have been far better if 
they had abstained from writing altogether. For the extreme 
obscurity of their style has overwhelmed thousands in ruin, 
and plunged them into the deepest poverty, especially those 
who set about this task without even the slightest knowledge 
of Nature, or of the requirements of our Art What 
the Sages write is strictly true; but you cannot understand 
it unless you are already initiated in the secrets of this Art. 
Yea, even if you were a Doctor of the Doctors, and a Light 
of the World, you would be able to see no meaning in 
their words without this knowledge. They have written, but 
you are none the wiser. They half wished to communicate the 
secret to their posterity ; but a jealous feeling prevented them 
from doing so in plain language. To the uninitiated reader 
these words of Isindrus must appear nothing short of nonsense: 
* Great is the air, because the air corrects the thing, if it is thin or 
thick, hot or cold." But the Sage means that when it ascends 
with the water, it is hot air, for fire and air bear our Stone 
like secret fire concealed therein, and the water which ascends 
from the earth, by that ascension becomes air, and thin; 
and when it descends, it descends into water which contains fire ; 
thus the earth is purified, seeing that the water takes [the] fire 
with it into the earth. For the fire is the Soul, and the Moon 
the Spirit. "Therefore, theair is great, because it bears with it 
water and fire, and imparts them to all things, though thereby 
(by this loss of water) itself becomes cold. Then theair becomes 
thick, when with its fire it is transmuted into the body, and thus 
the air corrects the thing by its thickness. For it bears out 
our Stone as it carries it in, and purifies it both in its ascent and 
in its descent. In the same way air purifies all things that grow 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. sn 

(Z.«., plants), gives them their food (Ze. water), and imparts to them 
its fire, by which they are sustained. Of this you may convince 
yourself by ocular demonstration. For the air bears the clouds, 
and sheds them upon earth in the form of rain; which rain 
contains secret fire derived from the earth, and the rays of the 
Sun by which it was drawn upward—and this fire it gives to all 
things as food. And although the rays of the Sun and Moon 
are immeasurably subtle, swift, and intangible; yet the rays of 
our Sun and Moon are much swifter and more subtle than those 
which are received by the plants in their growth. For the earth 
digests the rays of the Sun and Moon, and they sustain in 
the most wonderful manner things of vegetable growth ; and all 
the living rays of the Sun and Moon nourish all created things. 
For by this digestion they obtain their life. For this reason 
the air may be called great, because through the grace of God it 
accomplishes great things. 

Again, when the Sage says, * If theair becomes thick, " ze, 
when the Sun turns aside, or is changed, "there is a thickness, 
till it rises," he means that if the distilled water which is taken 
for the Sun, or fire, approaches its body, and is changed into it, 
then the Sun stoops down to the earth.  Thereby the air 
becomes thick, being joined to the earth, and if the Sun is once 
more elevated the air becomes thin ; that is to say, when the 
water is extracted from the earth by means of the alembic, the 
fire rises upward, Ze, the Sun is exalted, and the air becomes 
thin. Again,when he says, * This also is hot and cold, and 
thickness, and thinness, or softness," the Sage means that the 
Sun is hot, and the Moon cold ; for the earth, when dissolved, is 
the Moon, and water, in which is fire, is the Sun : these two must 
be conjoined in an inseparable union. This union enables them 
to reduce the elements of all metallic and animal bodies, into 
which they are injected, to perfect purity and health. "When 
the Sage adds that thickness and thinness denote summer and 
winter, he means that our Art is mingled of thickness and 
thinness, or two elements which must be united by gentle warmth, 
like that of winter and summer combined. "This temperate 
warmth, which resembles that of a bath, brings the Sun and 
Moon together. Thus I have, by the grace of God, interpreted 
to you the parabolic saying of Isindrus. 

222 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Explanation of the Saying of Anaxagoras. 

From the beginning of all things God is. He is likened to 
light and fire, and He may be likened to the latter in His 
essence, because fire is the first principle of all things that are 
seen and grow. In the same way, the first principle of our Art 
is fire. Heat impels Nature to work, and in its working are: 
manifested Body, Spirit, and Soul; that is, earth and water. 
Earth is the Body, oil the Soul, and water the Spirit; and all this 
is accomplished through the Divine goodness and lenity, without 
which Nature can do nothing; or, as the Sage says: * God's 
lenity rules all things ; and beneath the thickness of the earth, 
after creation, are revealed lenity and integrity." ^ Thatisto say: 
If the earth is separated from the water, and itself dissolved into 
oil and water, the oil is integrity, and the water lenity ; for the 
water imparts the soul to the oil and to the body, and [the body] 
receives nothing but what is imparted to it by heaven, that is, 
by the water—and the water is revealed under the oil, the oil 
under the earth. For the fire is subtle, and floats upward from 
the earth with subtle waters, and is concealed in the earth. Now 
oil and air and earth are purified by their own spirit. "Therefore 
the oil is integrity in the body, and the spirit lenity. And the 
spirit in the first operation descends to the body and restores life 
to the body; although the oil is pure and remains with the body, 
yet it cannot succour the body without the help of the spirit; for 
the body suffers violence and anguish while it is dissolved and 
purified. "Then, again, the "thickness of the earth" is transmuted 
into a thin substance such as water or oil, and thus the * lenity " 
is seen in the body. For the body is so mild or soft as to be 
changed into water, or oil, although before it was quite dry. 
"Therefore oil is seen in the earth, which is the fatness or life of 
the water, Ze, an union of fire, air, and water. Now give the 
water to the body to drink, and it will be restored to life. — And 
though those three elements have ascended from the earth, yet 
the virtue remains with the body, as you may see by dissolving 
it into oil and water. But the oil cannot operate without the 
spirit, nor can the spirit bear fruit without the oil and the body. 
"Therefore they must be united ; and all *lenity " and "integrity " 
are seen in the body when it is transmuted to white and red. 

VOLES GILORT^ OP. DEBE WORLD. 223 

Explication of the Opinion of Pythagoras. 

This Sage asks what that is which is touched, and yet not 
seen. He means that the substance which is prepared by our 
Art is oze thing, which is tangible and invisible. "That is to say, 
it is felt, but not seen, nor is the mode of its operation known. 
He who knows it, but knows not its operation, as yet knows 
nothing as he ought. "This one thing, which alone is profitable 
for the purposes of our Art, proceeds from a certain dark place, 
where it is not seen, nor are its operation or its virtue known to 
any but the initiated. A great mystery is also concealed in the 
Matter itself, namely, air and fire, or the Sun, the Moon, and the 
Stars. "This is concealed in it, and yet is invisible, as the Sage 
says: What is not seen, or known, is only heaven. — That which 
is felt, and not seen, is earth. Earth, says the Sage, is thickness, 
or body, which is found at the bottom of the Matter, has accu- 
mulated in the Matter, and can be felt and known. By the 
words, *that is between heaven and earth, which is not known," 
(Ze, in the world), the Sage means that the Matter of our Stone 
is found in the small world ; not in rocks and mountains, or in 
the earth, but between heaven and earth, Ze, in the air. Again, 
when he says that '* in it are senses, and entirety, as smell, taste, 
hearing, touch," he would teach us that in human nature there is 
entirety of mind and perception; for man can know, feel, and 
understand. He would also teach us how our Stone is to be 
found, namely, by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. By 
sight, because the Matter of the Stone is thick, or thin and clear, 
and turns black, white, and red. By smell, because, when its 
impurity is purged away, it emits a most sweet fragrance. By 
taste, because it is first bitter and disagreeable, but afterwards 
becomes most pleasant. By touch, because that sense enables us 
to distinguish between the hard and the soft, the gross and the 
subtle, between water and earth, and between the different stages 
of distillation, putrefaction, dissolution, coagulation, fermentation, 
and injection, which the substance goes through. ^ The different 
processes of the task are perceived with the senses, and it should 
be accomplished within forty-six days. 

Loosenzng of the Kmot of Aristeus. 

"Take the body which I have shewn you, and beat it into thin 

leaves," Ze, take the earth which cleaves to our substance, and, 

224 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by having become dry, becomes visible and knowable ; for now 
it is water and earth. "The earth is thus sZezvz, and divided into 
two parts, earth and water. Let that earth be taken, placed in a 
phial, and put in a warm bath, by the warmth of which it is dis- 
solved, through its own internal coction, into water; this the Sage 
calls beating into thin leaves. — The body which is thus obtained 
is variously described as the Philosopher's Stone, or the Stone of 
leaves. * Add some of our salt water, and this is the water of 
life" That means: After its dissolution into water, it must 
receive our salt water to drink—for this water has been previously 
distilled from it, and is the water of life; for the soul and spirit 
of the body are hidden in it, and it is called our sea water; the 
same also is its natural name, because it is obtained from the 
invisible hidden sea of the Sages, the sea of the smaller world. 
For our Art is called the smaller world, and thus it is the water 
ofoursea. Ifthis water is added to the body, and heated and 
purified with it, the body is purged by long coction, and its colour 
changes from black to a brilliant white, while the water is coagu- 
lated, and forms, by indissoluble union with the body, the 
imperishable Philosopher's Stone, which you must use to the 
glory of God, and the good of your neighbour. 

Exposition of the Saying of Parmenides. 

Jealous Sages have named many waters and metals and 
stones, simply for the purpose of deceiving you; herein the 
philosophers would warn us that they have used secrecy, lest the 
whole mystery should be manifested before all the world. 
'Those who follow the letter of their directions are sure to be led 
astray, and to miss entirely the true foundation of our Art. 
'The fault, however, lies not with the Sages so much as with the 
ignorance of their readers. The Sages name it a sZoze ; and so 
it Zs a stone, which is dug up from our mine. They speak of 
metals ; and there are such things as metals liquefied from our 
ore. They speak of water; but our water we obtain from our 
own spring. The redand white sulphur they refer to are obtained 
from our air. Their salt is obtained from our salt mines. /7 is 
our Sun, our verdigris, halonitre, alkali, orpiment, arsenic, our 
poison, our medicine, etc. By whatever name they call it they 
cannot make it more than oze thing. It is rightly described by 

E 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 225 

all the Sages, but not plainly enough for the uninitiated en- 
quirer. For such an one knows neither the substance nor its 
operation. The Sage says: * Relinquish Sun, Moon, and Venus 
for our ore," Ze, it is not to be found in any earthly metals, but 
only in our ore. Whoever rightly understands the concluding 
words of the Sage has received a great blessing at the hand of 
God. 

Explanation of the Saying of Lucas. 

By the living water of the Moon this Sage means our 
water, which is twofold. "The distilled water is the Moon ; the 
Sun, or fire, is hidden in it, and is the Father of all things. 
Hence it is compared to a man, because the Sun is in the water. 
It is also called living water; for the life of the dead body is 
hidden in the water. It is the water of the Moon, because the 
Sun is the Father and the Moon the Mother. Hence, also, they 
are regarded as husband and wife. The Body is the Moon, 
or Mother, and the distilled water, or male principle, rises up- 
ward from the earth; and for that reason is sometimes called 
Moon. For it is the water of the Moon, or Body. It has left 
the Body, and must enter it again before our Art can be 
perfected. Hence the Body, or Moon, has well been designated 
the female principle, and the water, or Sun, the male principle, 
for reasons which have been set forth at length in this book. 

Again, when the Sage says, * Coagulate it after our 
fashion," those last three words mean that the body must receive 
its spirit to drink gradually, and little by little, until it recovers 
its life, and health, and strength, which takes place by means of 
the same gentle heat which digests food in the stomach, and 
matures fruit in its place. For it is our custom to eat, drink, 
aud live in gentle warmth. By this regimen our body is pre- 
served, and all that is foul and unprofitable is driven out from 
our body. According to the same fashion of gentle coction, all 
that is fetid and black is gradually purged out of our Stone. 
For when the Sage says * after our fashion," he wishes to teach 
you that the preparation of the Stone bears a strict analogy 
to the processes of the human body. That the chemical de- 
velopment of our substance is internal, and caused by the 
operation of Nature and of its four elements, the Sage indicates 

P 

226 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by the words, *Everything is already coagulated." The sub- 
stance contains all that is needed ; there is nothing to be added 
or taken away, seeing that it is dissolved and again conjoined 
by its own inherent properties. When the Sage continues, *I 
bid you take water of life, which descends from the Moon, 
and pour it upon our earth till it turns white," he means that if 
water and earth are separated from each other, then the dry 
body is our earth, and the extracted water is the water of the 
Moon, or water of life. "This process of adfusion, desiccation, 
attrition, coagulation, etc., is repeated till the body turns white ; 
and then takes place onr conglutination, which is indissoluble. 
*'Then," as the Sage says, "we have our Magnesia, and the 
Nature of natures rejoices." Its spirit and body become one 
thing: they were one thing, and after separation have once more 
become one thing ; therefore, one nature rejoices in the restora- 
tion of the other. 

Exposztzon of the Saying of Ethelzus. 

He says: * Heat our Stone until it shines like dazzling 
marble; then it becomes great, and a mystic Stone; for sulphur 
added to sulphur preserves it on account of its fitness" That is 
tosay: When the moist and the dry have been separated, the 
dry which lies at the bottom, and is called our Stone, is as black 
asaraven. It must be subjected to the coction of our water 
(separated from it) until it loses its blackness, and becomes as 
white as dazzling marble. "Then it is the mystic Stone which by 
coction has been transmuted into fixed mercury with the bless- 
ing of God. The Stone is mystic, or secret, because it is found 
in a secret place, in an universally despised substance where no 
one looks for the greatest treasure of the world. Hence it may 
well be called The HIDDEN STONE. By the joining of 
two sulphurs and their mutual preservation, he means that 
though, after the separation of spirit and body, there seem to be 
two substances, yet, in reality, there is only one substance; so 
the body which is below is *sulphur," and the spirit which is 
above is also *sulphur" Now, when the spirit returns to the 
body, one sulphur is added to another; and they are bound to- 
gether by a mutual fitness, since the body cannot be without the 
spirit, nor the spirit without the body. Hence there are these 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 22/7 

two sulphurs in the body, the red and the white, and the white 
sulphur is in the black body, while the red is hid beneath it. If 
the spirit is gradually added to the body, it is entirely coagulated 
into the body, sulphur is added to sulphur, and perfection is 
attained through the fitness which exists between them. 'The 
body receives nothing but its own spirit; for it has retained its 
soul, and what has been extracted from a body can be joined to 
nothing but that same body. The spirit delights in nothing so 
much as in its own soul, and its own body. Hence the Sage 
says: * When the spirit has been restored to the body, the 
sulphur to the sulphur, and the water to the earth, and all has 
become white, then the body retains the spirit, and there can be 
no further separation." "Thus you have the well purged earth of 
the Sages, in which we sow our grain, unto infinity, that it may 
bring forth much fruit. 

Explanation of the Saying of Pythagoras. 

You have good cause to wonder atthe great variety of ways 
in which the Sages have expressed the samething. Nevertheless, 
their descriptions apply only to one Matter, and their sayings 
refer only to a single substance. For when our Sage says, * We 
give you directions concerning these things: "We tell you that 
it is dry water, like the water of the Moon, which you have pre- 
pared," he means that we Sages must give directions, according to 
the best of our ability. Ifthose directions, rightly understood, do 
not answer the purpose, you may justly charge us with fraud and 
imposture. But if you fail through not taking our meaning, you 
must blame your own unspeakable stupidity, which follows the 
letter, but not the spirit of our directions. When the Sage 
further says that it must drink its own water, he would teach you 
that after the separation of the dry from the moist, the water ex- 
tracted from the body is the right water, and the water of the 
Moon, prepared by putrefaction and distillation. "This extracted 
water is regarded as the male principle, and the earth, or body, 
as the female principle. The water of the husband must now be 
joined in conjugal union to that of the wife; the body must, at 
intervals, drink of its own prepared water, and become ever 
purer, the more it drinks, till it turns most wonderfully white. 
Then it is called * our calx," and you must pour the water of our 

P2 

228 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

calx upon the body, until it is coagulated, becoming tinged, and 
a most bright quality returns to it, and the body itself is saturated 
with its own moisture. If you wish to obtain the red tincture, 
you should dissolve and coagulate, and go through the whole pro- 
cess over again. Verily, this is God's own truth, an accurate, 
simple, and plain statement of the requirements of our Art. 

Explanation of the Emerald Table of Hermes. 

: Hermes is right in saying that our Art is true, and has been 
rightly handed down by the Sages ; all doubts concerning it have 
arisen through false interpretation of the mystic language of the 
philosophers. But, since they are loth to confess their own ig- 
norance, their readers prefer to say that the words of the Sages are 
imposture and falsehood. ^ The fault really lies with the ignorant 
reader, who does not understand the style of the Philosophers. 
If, in the interpretation of our books, they would suffer themselves 
to be guided by the teaching of Nature, rather than by their own 
foolish notions, they would not miss the mark so hopelessly. By 
the words which follow : * That which is above is also that which 
is below;" he describes the Matter of our Art, which, though oze, 
is divided into two things, the volatile water which rises upward, 
and the earth which lies at the bottom, and becomes fixed. But 
when the reunion takes place, the body becomes spirit, and the 
spirit becomes body, the earth is changed into water and becomes 
volatile, the water is transmuted into body, and becomes fixed. 
When bodies become spirits, and spirits bodies, your work is 
finished ; for then that which rises upward and that which des- 
cends downward become oze body. "Therefore the Sage says that 
that which is above is that which is below, meaning that, after 
having been separated into two substances (from being one sub- 
stance), they are again joined together into one substance, ze, an 
union which can never be dissolved, and possesses such virtue 
and efficacy that it can do in one moment what the Sun cannot 
accomplish in a thousand years. And this miracle is wrought by 
a thing which is despised and rejected by the multitude. Again, 
the Sage tells us that all things were created, and are still gene- 
rated, from one first substance, and consist of the same elementary 
material ; and in this first substance God has appointed the four 
elements, which represent a common material into which it might 

VIEUD CIO QV ETE QV EV 229 

perhaps be possible to resolve all things. Its development is 
brought about by the distillation of the Sun and Moon. For it 
is operated upon by the natural heat of the Sun and Moon, which 
stirs up its internal action, and multiplies each thing after its 
kind, imparting to the substance a specific form. "The soul, or 
nutritive principle, is the earth which receives the rays of the Sun 
and Moon, and therewith feeds her children as with mother's 
milk. Thus the Sun is the father, the Moon is the mother, the 
earth the nurse—and in this substance is that which we require. 
He who can take it and prepare it is truly to be envied. It is 
separated by the Sun and Moon in the form of a vapour, and 
collected in the place where it is found. "When Hermes adds 
that * the air bears it in its womb, the earth is its nurse, the whole 
world its Father, he means that when the substance of our 
Stone is dissolved, then the wind bears it in its womb, Ze, the air 
bears up the substance in the form of water, in which is hid fire, 
the soul of the Stone ; and fire is the Father of the whole world. 
Thus, the volatile substance rises upward, while that which 
remains at the bottom, is the * whole world " (seeing that our Art 
is compared to a *small world") Hence Hermes calls fire the 
father of the whole world, because it is the Sun of our Art, and 
air, Moon, and water ascend from it; the earth is the nurse of 
the Stone, Ze., when the earth receives the rays of the Sun and 
Moon, a new body is born, like a new fcetus in the mother's 
womb. The earth receives and digests the light of Sun 
and Moon, and imparts food to its foetus day by day, till it 
becomes great and strong, and puts off its blackness and 
defilement, and is changed to a different colour. This, * child," 
which is called *our daughter, represents our Stone, which 
is born anew of the Sun and Moon, as you may easily see, 
when the spirit, or the water that ascended, is gradually 
transmuted into the body, and the body is born anew, and 
grows and increases in size like the fcetus in the mother's womb. 
Thus the Stone is generated from the first substance, which con- 
tains the four elements; itis brought forth by two things, the 
body and the spirit; the wind bears it in its womb, for it 
carries the Stone upward from earth to heaven, and down again 
from heaven to earth. Thus the Stone receives increase from 
above and from below, and is born a. second time, just as every 

230 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

other fcetus is generated in the maternal womb; as all created 
things bring forth their young, even so does the air, or wind, 
bring forth our Stone. When Hermes adds, *Its power, or 
virtue, is entire, when it is transmuted into earth," he means 
that when the spirit is transmuted into the body, it receives 
its full strength and virtue. For as yet the spirit is volatile, and 
not fixed, or permanent. [fit is to be fixed, we must proceed as 
the baker does in baking bread. | We must impart only a little 
of the spirit to the body at a time, just as the baker only puts a 
little leaven to his meal, and with it leavens the whole lump. 
The spirit, which is ezz leaven, in like fashion transmutes the 
whole body into its own substance. Therefore the body must 
be leavened again and again, until the whole lump is thoroughly 
pervaded with the power of the leaven. In our Art the body 
leavens the spirit, and transmutes it into one body, and the 
spirit leavens the body, and transmutes it into one spirit. And 
the two, when they have become one, receive power to 
leaven all things, into which they are injected, with their own 
virtue. 

The Sage continues: *If you gently separate the earth from 
the water, the subtle from the hard, the Stone ascends from earth 
to heaven, and again descends from heaven to earth, and receives 
its virtue from above and from below. By this process you 
obtain the glory and brightness of the whole world. "With ityou 
can put to flight poverty, disease, and weariness; for it overcomes 
the subtle mercury, and penetrates all hard and firm bodies." 
He means that all who would accomplish this task must separate 
the moist from the dry, the water from the earth. The water, or 
fire, being subtle, ascends, while the body is hard, and remains 
where itis. The separation must be accomplished by gentle heat, 
&,in the temperate bath of the Sages, which acts slowly, and is 
neither too hot nor too cold. "Then the Stone ascends to heaven, 
and again descends from heaven to earth. — The spirit and body 
are first separated, then again joined together by gentle coction, 
of a temperature resembling that with which a hen hatches her 
eggs. Such is the preparation of the substance, which is worth 
the whole world, whence it is also called a "little world." "The 
possession of the Stone will yield you the greatest delight, and 
unspeakably precious comfort. It will also set forth to you in a 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 231 

typical form the creation of the world. It will enable you to cast 
out all disease from the human body, to drive away poverty, and 
to have a good understanding of the secrets of Nature. 'The Stone 
has virtue to transmute mercury into gold and silver, and to 
penetrate all hard and firm bodies, such as precious stones and 
metals. You cannot ask a better gift of God than this gift, which 
is greater than all other gifts. Hence Hermes may justly call 
himself by the proud title of * Hermes Trismegistus, who holds 
the three parts of the whole world of wisdom." 

ZASNOOUBDEIUSAES C DORCAS CU, 

CORRESPONDING TO THE FIRST, WHICH MAY BE 
READ WITH GREAT PROFIT. 

IBZISSBEBUANCUES: 

We may justly wonder that the Sages who have written 
about this most precious and secret Art, have thought it necessary 
to invent so many occult and and allegorical expressions, by 
means of which our Art is concealed not only from the unworthy, 
but from earnest and diligent students of the truth.  Foolish 
persons, indeed, who read their books, and hear of the riches and 
all the other good things which this Art affords, experience a 
pleasant tickling sensation in their ears, and straightway behold 
visions of themselves sitting on golden thrones, and commanding 
all the treasures of the universe ; they fancy that the Art can be 
learned in the twinkling of an eye, soon come to regard them- 
selves as great Doctors, and are unable to conceive the possibility 
of their making a mistake, or being led astray by the Sages. 
Much less are they aware that it has always been the custom of 
the philosophers to conceal the fundamental facts of this Art, 
and to reveal them to their own sons and disciples only in senten- 
tious allegorical sayings. It is impossible to read through all that 
the Sages have ever written on this subject; but it is a still more 

232 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

hopeless undertaking to gather from their books a full and suffi- 
cient knowledge of our Art, unless, indeed, God opens your 
understanding, and gives you a real insight into the natural 
properties of things, and thereby into the sayings of those who 
speak of them. For it is Nature alone that accomplishes the 
various processes of our Art, and a right understanding of Nature 
will furnish you with eyes wherewith to perceive the secrets 
thereof .Thus Basonsays: * Take care not to add anything else ; 
for it is the property of our substance to overcome all other 
things" And Bondinus tells us that the whole process is accom- 
plished by means of the water which issues from the Stone. 
Alphidius declares that the Philosopher's Stone contains four 
different natures, and thereby possesses a virtue and efficacy 
such as are found in no other stone. Therefore, the question of 
the Royal Sage Haly, whether there is another stone upon 
earth which may be compared with our Stone, and possesses the 
same wonderful properties, is answered by Morienus in the fol- 
lowing words: * Iam aware of no other stone of equal excellence, 
potency, and virtue; for it contains the four elements in a 
visible form, and is singular of its kind among all the created 
things of the world. If, therefore, any person should take any 
[other] Stone but the one demanded by this Magistery, his 
labours must result in failure." Moreover, the ancient Sage Arros 
says : * Our Stone is useless for our purpose, until it be purged 
of its gross earth." In like manner we are informed by Morienus 
that unless the body be purged of its grossness, it cannot be 
united to its spirit; but when it has put off its gross nature, 
the spirit joins itself to it, and delights in it, because both have 
been freed from allimpurity." The truth of his words is attested 
by Ascanius in * The Crowd," who says: * Spirits cannot join 
themselves to impure bodies; but when the body has been well 
purged, and digested by coction, the spirit becomes united to it, 
amidst a phenomenal exhibition of all the colours in the world, 
and the imperfect body is tinged with the indestructible colour of 
the ferment ; this ferment is the soul, in and through which the 
spirit is joined to the body, and transmuted with the body into 
the colour of the ferment, whereupon all three become one thing." 
Hence it is well, though somewhat enigmatically said by the 
Sages, that there takes place a conjugal union of husband and 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 233 

wife, and that of the two a child is born after their likeness, just 
as men generate men, metals metals, and all other things that 
which is like them. 

Hence all that would exercise this Art must know the pro- 
perties of the most noble substance thereof, and follow the 
guidance of Nature. But many enquirers conduct their operations 
at haphazard, they grope in the dark, and do not know whether 
their art be an imitation of Nature, or not. Yet they undertake 
to correct, and intensify, the operation of Nature. Ofsuch persons 
Arnold says that they approach our Art as the ass goes up to 
the crib, not knowing for what it opens its mouth. For they do 
not know what they would do, nor are they aware that they must 
listen to the teaching of Nature. They seek to do the works 
of Nature, but they will not watch the hand of her whom 
they pretend to imitate. Yet our Art has a true foundation 
in natural fact. For Nature prepares the metals in the earth, 
some perfect, like gold and silver; others imperfect, like 
Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter, according to the labour and 
influence of the planets. He, then, who would accomplish our 
Magistery, and desires to participate in this most noble Art, must 
know the seed from which the metals are naturally generated in 
the earth, which seed we remove by Nature, and purify and pre- 
pare it by Art, making it so glorious, and full of wonderful 
potency, that with it we can impart instant purity and perfection 
to the imperfect bodies of men and metals. "This seed we must 
extract from perfect, pure, and mature bodies, if we would attain 
the desired end. Now, in order that you may the more readily 
attain this knowledge, I have composed the following Tract 
concerning the first principle of Nature, and the creation and 
generation of man—which the student of our Magistery should 
diligently peruse, consider, and digest Then he will not so 
easily miss the right path. 

The Fear of the Lord is the Beginnzng of. Wisdom. 

All true Sages and philosophers have earnestly sought to 
obtain a knowledge of Almighty God as He is revealed in His 
marvellous works ; this knowledge they attained, in so far as it 
can be attained by the human mind, by diligently considering 
the origin and first principles of all things. — For they were enabled 

340100 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

to realize the omnipotence of the Creator by the contemplation 
of the secret powers, and miraculous virtues, which He has infused 
into natural things. "They were led to consider how they might 
employ their knowledge for the good of the human race, and how 
they might reveal it to others, and they received wisdom to ex- 
pound the first principles of natural things, but more especially 
the birth and death of man, in something like the following way : 
In the beginning God created all things out of a subtle liquid, or 
impalpable vapour which was neither moist, nor dry, nor cold, 
nor hot, nor light, nor dark, but a confused chaos. This subtle 
vapour God first changed into water, which He then separated 
into a hard and a liquid part, or into earth and water. Out or - 
elementary water He further evolved air, and out of elementary 
earth He brought forth fire, that is, elementary fire. And it may 
still be seen that the two first elements contain the two last; for 
daily experience teaches us that in water there is air, and that in 
earth there is fire. Out of these God created the firmament, the 
Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, and all other natural objects. At 
last He created a being in His own image, which He formed out 
of moist earth—z»e, for the most part out of earth (which encloses 
fire) moistened with water (containing air) Hence it is said 
that man was created out of the four elements, and he is called a 
"small world." But man lay like one dead upon the ground, until 
God breathed into his nostrils the spirit oflife,and Adam became 
aliving soul. In like manner God created all other animals, and 
all plants and minerals, out of the four elements. "Then God set 
Adam in the Garden of Eden, in Paradise, which He had planted 
with His own hands, and in which flourished all manner of flowers, 
fruit, roots, herbs, leaves, and grass. Then Adam's heart was 
filled with joy, and he understood the great power of his Creator, 
and praised and magnified Him with his lips; at that time he 
suffered no lack of any thing, having all that his heart desired, 
and he was appointed lord of all other creatures. Therefore, the 
eternal Creator bade the holy angels bring every other living 
being to Adam, that all might acknowledge him as their lord, 
and that Adam might give to each one its own name, and 
distinguish one from the other. í 
Now when God beheld the animals walking about in 
Paradise, each with its own mate (except Adam, for whom no 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 235 

" mate was found); when God saw them approaching him, and 
yet eager to flee from him, because of the reverence and awe 
with which he inspired them —God said: *It is not good for 
man to be alone"; therefore He caused a deep sleep to fall upon 
Adam, and taking one of his ribs, not far from his heart, He 
formed it into a beautiful woman. "This woman God brought 
unto the man, calling her Eve, and gave her to him for a wife, 
that he might protect her, that she might obey him, and that 
they might be fruitful and multiply. 

The Glory and Excellence of Adam. 

God had appointed that Adam and Eve should spend a 
thousand years in Paradise, and then be translated, body and 
soul, to the Eternal Life of Heaven ; the same glorious destiny 
was in reserve for their posterity. —Foras yet man was pure, good, 
and sinless, and not subject or liable to any kind of distemper, 
or sickness. He was acceptable and perfect in the sight of His 
Creator, who had made him in His own image, and given him all 
the produce of Paradise to eat, except the fruit of the Tree of 
Knowledge, from which he was to abstain on pain of eternal 
punishment, both bodily and spiritual. But when he gave ear 
to the seducing words of the Evil One, and ate the forbidden 
fruit, he straightway became poor and wretched, perceived his 
own nakedness, and concealed himself amongst the trees of the 
garden. He had deserved eternal death, and it would have 
fallen upon him, if the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, had not promised to give satisfaction for him. Yet in 
this world God punished Adam with a heavy yoke of wretched- 
ness, tribulation, poverty, and disease, followed by the bitter 
agony of death. He also drove him forth from Paradise, aad 
laid a heavy curse upon the ground, that thenceforward it should 
not bring forth fruit of its own accord, but that it should bear 
thorns and thistles Now, when Adam found himself in the 
midst of a wild and uncultivated earth, compelled to gain his 
bread by tilling the field in the sweat of his brow, and to endure 
much suffering, care, and anxiety, he began to think seriously of 
what he had done to provoke the wrath of God, to experience deep 
sorrow for his grievous sin, and to implore God's gracious mercy 
and forgiveness. His prayers appeased the paternal heart of 

236 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

God, and induced Him to ease the grievous yoke laid upon 
Adam. The centralfact of his punishment, however, remained, 
and death, though deferred, at length overtook him. 

But, as I say, God mitigated the punishment of Adam, and 
took away from his neck the grievous yoke .of suffering, by 
shewing him the means of warding off the strokes of impending 
calamity. For this purpose the natural properties of things were 
revealed to Adam by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ; and 
he was taught to prepare medicines out of herbs, stones, and 
metals, wherewith he might alleviate his hard lot, ward off 
disease, and keep his body in good health until the end of his days, 
which, however, was known to God alone. For,although from 
the very beginning Adam had a clear insight into the working 
of the natural world, the greatest of all secrets was still hidden 
from him, till God one day called him into Paradise, and set forth 
to him this marvellous mystery—the mystery of our Stone—in 
the following words: 

* Behold, Adam, here are two things, the one fixed and 
immutable, the other volatile and inconstant. 'The great virtue 
and potency that slumber in them you must not reveal to 27 
your sons. For created them for a special purpose, which I 
will now no longer conceal from you. Now, when Adam had 
learned the mystery out of God's own mouth, he kept it a strict 
secret from all his sons, until at length, towards the close of 
his life, he obtained leave from God to make the preparation of 
the Stone known to his son Seth. Unless Adam had posses- 
sed the knowledge of this great mystery he would not have 
been able to prolong his life to the age of 3oo (let alone 900) 
years. For he was never for a momeut free from an agonizing 
sense of his guilt, and of the terrible evils which he had, by his 
disobedience, brought upon himself and his posterity, who, 
through his fault, were one and all involved in the condemnation 
of eternal death. If we consider this, it must appear amazing 
that Adam could keep alive even so long as a single year after 
his fall; and we thereby clearly perceive (from the fact that he 
attained to so great a length of days) that the goodness of God 
must have furnished him with some life-preserving remedy. If 
Adam had not possessed our Medicine, or Tincture, he could 
not have borne up under so much tribulation, anxiety, wretched- 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD, 237 

ness, grief, sorrow, and disease. But against all these ills he 
used our Medicine, which preserved his limbs and his strength 
from decay, braced his faculties, comforted his heart, refreshed 
his spirit, relieved his anxiety, fortified his mortal body against 
all manner of disease, and, in short, guarded him from all evil 
until the last hour of his life. 

At length, however, Adam found that the Remedy had no 
longer any power to strengthen him, or to prolong his life. So 
he began to consider his end, refrained from applying the Medi- 
cine any more, threw himself upon the mercy of God, and sent 
his son Seth (to whom he had confided the secret), to the gate 
of Paradise, to demand some of the fruit of the Tree of Life. 
His request was denied him, whereupon he returned, and carried 
back to his father the answer of the Angel. It was heavy news 
for Adam, who now felt that his end was approaching, and there- 
fore sent Seth a second time to fetch the oil of mercy. Before he 
could return, Adam died ; but,at the bidding of God, Seth 
obtained from the Angel some olive-stones from the Tree of the 
Oil of Mercy, and planted them on his father's grave, where 
they grew into the tree from which the Cross of our Blessed 
Redeemer was made. Thus, though in a carnal sense the Oil 
was denied to Adam, and brought him no surcease from tem- 
poral death ; yet, in a spiritual sense, it was freely given to him 
and obtained for him and all his offspring eternal life, and free, 
gracious, and merciful forgiveness of all their sins, concerning 
which God promised that He would remember them no more. 

Thus, through the Heavenly Tree of Life, God fulfilled the 
prayer of our first parent Adam, and granted his request in a 
way which he had not looked for; and he now tastes the joy 
which is at the right hand of God, and is for ever removed from 
the hostile power of hunger, thirst, heat, cold, death, and all the 
other evils which flesh is heir to. Let us then diligently strive to 
realize that the Mystery of the Redemption is the most precious, 
the most excellent, and the most awful of the mysteries revealed 
by God to man, a mystery which no human thought can sound, 
and which no human lips can ever fully utter. But of this 
Awful Mystery, or Medicine of the Soul, God has also bestowed 
upon us an earthly antitype, or Medicine of the Body, by means 
of which wretched man may, even in this world, secure himself 

238 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

against all bodily distempers, put to flight anxiety and care, and 
refresh and comfort his heart in the hour of trouble—namely, 
the Mystery of the Sages, or the Medicine of the Philosophers. 
If, therefore, à man would be perfectly happy in this world, and 
in the world to come, he should earnestly and devoutly strive to 
become possessed of these two Remedies ; and for this purpose, 
he should turn to God with his whole heart,and ask for His 
gracious help, without which neither can be obtained; and, above 
all, he should be most eager to receive that Remedy by which 
the soul is healed of the mortal disease of sin. 

This is the true fountain of the Sages ; and there is nothing 
like it upon earth, but one eternal thing, by which the mortal 
body may, in this vale of tears, be fortified against all accidental 
disease, shielded from the pangs of poverty, and rendered sound, 
healthy, and strong, being protected against all mischances to 
the very end ; and by which also metallic bodies may be chan- 
ged into gold through a quickening of the process which Nature 
uses in the heart of the earth. The preparation and effects ot 
this Stone are not unjustly considered to bear a close analogy to 
the creation of the world ; therefore, I thought well to give an 
account of it from the very beginning. 

I will now proceed briefly to expound my view of this Art, 
which, as all Sages testify, corresponds most closely to the 
creation and generation of man. Il will attempt to make my 
meaning as plain as I dare, for the glory of the Holy Trinity, and 
the good of all Christian believers When God had created the 
world, and adorned it with all manner of green things, herbs, 
roots, leaves, flowers, grass, and also with animals and minerals, 
he blessed them, and appointed that everything should bring 
forth fruit and seed after its kind. Only Adam (who is our 
Matter) was not yet in a position to produce any fruit out ot 
himself Before he could propagate his species, it was necessary 
that a part of him should be taken away, and again joined to him, 
i^,his wife Eve. Hereunto we must understand that so long 
as our substance is still gross and undivided, it can produce no 
fruit. It must first be divided, the subtle from the gross, or the 
water from the earth. "The water is Eve, or the spirit ; the 
earth Adam, or the body. And as the male is useless for pur- 
poses: of generation until it be united to the female, so our 

EET DRY QE TE, -WORDJD. 239 

earth is dead till it is quickened by the union with water. 
This is what that ancient Sage, Hermes, means when he says 
that the dead must be raised to life, and the feeble made strong. 

It is necessary, then, to unite body and soul, and to 
change that which is below into that which is above, Ze, body 
into spirit, and spirit into body. By this expression you are to 
understand not that the spirit by itself is changed into a body, 
or that the body by itself is changed into a spirit, but that both 
are united, and that the spirit, or water, dissolves, or resuscitates 
the body, or earth, while the body attracts the spirit, or water ; 
and that they are thus joined into oze substance, the earth being 
softened by the water, and the water hardened by the earth—as 
the boys in the street pour water on dry dust, and knead the 
whole into one mass. For this reason the Sages call our process 
child's play, in which the death of one is the life of the other, 
Ze., in which the hardness of the one is softened by the other, 
and vzce versa, seeing that the two are nothing but body and 
spirit originally belonging together. When contemplating this 
union, the Sage, Hermes, bursts forth into the following ex- 
clamation: * Oh, how strong, victorious, and precious is this 
nature that so unspeakably comforts its supplementary nature ! " 
This nature is water, which stirs up and quickens the nature of 
the body. Hence it is said that Adam, or the body, would be 
dead without Eve, the spirit; for when the water has been 
distilled from our substance, the body lies dead and barren at 
the bottom of the alembic, and is described by the Sages 
as being, after the loss of its spirit, black, poisonous, and 
deadly. Ifthe body is to be resuscitated, it must be rendered 
fit for generation by being purged of its blackness and fetid 
smell, and then its sweat or spirit must be restored to it; the 
spirit cannot conceive unless the body be allowed to:embrace its 
Eve, or spirit. Senior says that the higher vapour must be 
brought back to the lower vapour; the Divine water is the King 
that descends from heaven, and leads the soul back to its body 
which is thereby quickened from the dead. "Observe that in the 
body there is hidden fixed sa2//, which slumbers there just as the 
male seed slumbered in Adam. — This the spirit, or Eve, attracts, 
and thus becomes pregnant; that is to say: The seed of the 
body, which we call fixed salt, is extracted from the body by its 

240 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

own water (which has before been separated from it) and is 
rendered so subtle and volatile that it ascends with the spirit to 
heaven. Then we say that the fixed has become volatile, that 
the dead has been revived, and that the body has received life 
from its spirit. On this account the water is called by some 
Sages the living water of the man, since it is extracted from the 
body, or man ; and Lucas enjoins us to take it, and heat it after 
the fashion of Nature. Other Sages call the body the * black 
soil," because in it the fixed salt is concealed from view, like the 
seed in the ground. Others, again, call it the * black raven;" 
which has in its maw the * white dove" ; and the water which is 
distilled from the body they call the *virgin's milk," by which 
the white dove must be brought forth from the black raven. In 
short, these things are described by the Sages under a great 
variety of names ; but the meaning of those names is the same. 
In this fashion the water is embraced by the body, and the seed 
of the body, or the fixed salt, makes the water pregnant. For 
the water dissolves the body, and bears upward with it some 
particles ofthe fixed salt; and the oftener this process is repeated, 
the thicker does the water become. Hence the repetition of 
the process is a most important point. Hermes says that when 
he saw the water gradually grow thicker and harder, he rejoiced, 
for thereby he knew that he should find what he sought. The 
water, then, must be poured upon the body, and heated with it, 
till the body is dissolved, and then again extracted till the body 
is coagulated. Thus the body must be well broken up, and purified 
by washing. This process of affusion and extraction must be 
repeated until all the salt, or potency and efficacy, has been ex- 
tracted from the body. This is the case when the water becomes 
white and thick, and, in the cold, hard and solid like ice, while in 
the heat it melts like butter. Now, when nothing more can be 
extracted from the body, the residuum must be removed ; for it 
is the superfluous part of the substance. This is what the Sages 
mean when they say: In the preparation we remove that which 
is superfluous; but otherwise our whole Magistery is accomplished 
with one single substance, nothing being added, and nothing 
taken away, except that which is really superfluous; for it 
possesses in abundance all that is needed, namely, the water, or 
* white, flaky earth, which must be injected into "living 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. 241 

mercury," that so the transmutation into good and fixed silver 
may take place. But something much more noble and precious 
is concealed in this water (fixed salt) which grows and grows 
like the infarit in the mother's womb. For as the embryo in the 
matrix, which is first a mere seed, grows, and is gradually trans- 
muted into flesh and blood, Ze, into a thicker substance, till at 
length the limbs are formed ; so this water grows from the white 
colour which distinguishes it at first, till it is changed to another 
colour. (For the embryo,too, is transmuted from the natural 
colour of the embryo into flesh and blood.) "The substance at 
length assuming a red colour, may be compared to the forming 
of the infant's limbs ; it is then that we first see what is to 
become ofit. When you perceive this final transmutation—the 
germ of which lay in the substance all along—you may 
well rejoice; for you have attained the object of your 
desire. 

Thus I have described the union of the man and woman, 
that is to say, of the body and spirit, by means of which the 
child is conceived in the water, and the whiteness extracted from 
the black body. Nor do we need anything else, except, as 
Morienus says, time and patience. This coagulated water is the 
* white, flaky earth," in which the Sage bids us sow our gold and 
silver that they may bear fruit a hundred-thousand-fold. This is 
the *clear spring" of the Count of Trevisa, in which the King 
bathes, though not assisted by any of his ministers, who only 
watch his clothes until he has dried up the whole spring, when 
he makes all his ministers lords and kings such as he was at 
the time of his entering the bath. But now the King's dignity 
is three times as great as it was before; he wears a three-fold 
diadem on his head, and is arrayed in garments that shine like 
carbuncles and amethysts, and beneath them he wears the tunic 
of purity, and is bound with the girdle of righteousness. He is 
the most glorious King of life, whose power transcends all human 
thought. Athis sideis seated his pure and chaste queen, sprung 
of his own seed ; and of these two are born many royal children. 
The redness is concealed and preserved in the whiteness, 
which must not be extracted, but subjected to gentle coction 
until its full crimson glory flames forth. "This whiteness is thus 
referred to in *The Crowd" : * If yousee that after the blackness 

Q 

242 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

there follows a whiteness, be sure that after the whiteness will 
come a redness: for the redness slumbers in the whiteness, and 
should not be extracted, but gently heated, until the whole turns 
red." Let what I have now said suffice you. 

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD.  2a43 

HERMES [says]: 

You must have a good knowledge of the True Principle 
of both Natural and Artificial Substances. For he who knows 

not the true First Principle will never attain to the end. 

THE LovkE oF GOD AND 
OF YOUR NEIGHBOUR 

LS amem. TPORORORURSG TON. COm^ PASETA SAI SUODKOUME 

To LovE GOD rs THE HIGHEST WISDOM, 
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TJIMEE Xs /'oUR JPOSSESSION. 

UNTO HIM BE ALL HONOUR, PRAISE, AND 

GI OR Y. 

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OF GREAT PRICE 

GONGERNUING FEDES  PEDLEGOSQO/BU AJ 

5TONE,. 

PUBLISHED BY A GERMAN SAGE IN THE YEAR 
1423, 

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CONCERNING THE PHILOSOPHICAL STONE. 

CELATPTER. T.

and their essence from the earth, according to the suc- 
cession of time. "Their specific properties are deter- 
mined by the outward and inward influences of the stars 

and planets, (such as the Sun, the Moon, Etc.), and of the four 
qualities of the elements. From these combined circumstances 
arisethe peculiar forms,and propersubstances,of all growing, fixed, 
and generating things,accordingto the natural order appointed by 
the Most High at the beginning of the world. "The metals, then, 
derivetheir origin fromthe earth,and are specifically compounded 
of the four qualities, or the properties of the four elements ; their 
peculiar metallic character is stamped upon them by the 
influences of the stars and planets. So we are informed by 
Aristotle, in the fourth book of his Meteor., where he says that 
quicksilver is the common substance of all metals. "The first 
thing in Nature, as we said before, is the substance which 
represents a particular conglomeration of the four elements, 
which the Sages call Mercury, or quicksilver. But this 
quicksilver is as yet imperfect, on account of its gross and 
earthy sulphureous nature, which renders it too easily combus- 
tible, and on account of its superfluous watery elements, which 
have all been collected together out of the four elements by the 
action of the heavenly planets. This substance is composed of a 
hot sulphureous earth, and a watery essence, in such a way that 
the Sages have called it imperfect sulphur. 

248 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Now, since Nature is always striving to attain perfection, and 
to reach the goal set before her by the Creator of all things, she is 
continually at work upon the qualities of the four elements of 
each substance ; and so stirs up and rouses the inward action of 
the elements by the accidental heat of the Sun, and by natural 
warmth, that there arises a kind of vapour or steam in the veins 
of the earth. This vapour cannot make its way out, but is 
closed in; in penetrating through fat, earthy, oily, and impure 
sulphureous substances it attracts to itself more or less of these 
foreign and external impurities. "This is the reason that there 
areseen in it so great a variety of colours before it attains to 
purity and its own proper colour. 

Those mineral and metallic substances which contain the 
largest proportion of efficacious sulphureous and mercurial 
vapour are the best ; and each quality of the four elements has 
its own peculiar operation and transmuting influence in such a 
conglomeration of various substances—their action being roused 
by the sulphur of the earth and the outward heat of the Sun. 
(Through these agencies the Matter is often dissolved and 
coagulated, till that which is pure, or impure, is borne upward ; 
and this is the work not of a few years, but of a great length of 
time. Nature has to purge away the peculiar characteristics of 
all other metals before she can make gold; as you may see by 
the fact that different kinds of metal are found in the same 
metallic vein. 'This fact may be explained in the following 
manner. When the sulphureous and mercurial vapours ascend, 
they are mixed, and united by coction, with the aforesaid 
substance. If those sulphureous vapours are earthy, thick, and 
impure, and the heat of the Sun, or their own natural heat, have 
too sudden and violent an effect, the substance hardens, with all its 
sulphureous impurities, before it can be purged of its grossness, 
and it becomes more like metallic sulphur. If the quicksilver is 
hardened, the whole mass takes the form of some metal, 
according to the influence of the particular planet with which it 
is penetrated. For Nature first combines the four elements into 
some substance or body, which then receives its specific 
properties through the influence of some planet Such is the 
origin of copper, tin, lead, iron, and quicksilver. But it is not 
essential that I should here describe at length the specific 

IR (0T GIRUELAUD. CPC E, 249 

composition and distinctive properties of each of the imperfect 
metals; they are all mingled in various proportions of impure 
sulphur and inefficacious quicksilver. Nature, as I said, is 
ceaselessly at work upon these imperfect metals, purging and 
separating the pure quicksilver from the impure, and the pure 
sulphur from the impure, until all their grossness is removed, and 
they become what God designed that they should be, viz., gold. 
But if these vapours float upward in their original pure condition, 
with their inward, pure, and subtle earth, without becoming mixed 
with gross, earthy, and sulphureous alloy, and if they succeed in 
breaking forth into the open air, before they become hardened 
into a sulphureous mass, they remain quicksilver and are not 
changed into any metal. 

If, however, this pure quicksilver floats upward in a pure 
mineral earth, without any gross alloy, it is hardened into the 
pure and white sulphur of Nature by being subjected to a very 
moderate degree of gentle heat, and at length assumes the 
specific form of silver. Like all the other metals it may still be 
developed into gold, if it remain under the influence of its 
natural heat. But if the same pure, unalloyed quicksilver be 
subjected to .a higher degree of natural heat, it is transmuted 
into the pure reZ sulphur of Nature, and becomes gold without 
first passing through the stage of silver. In this form it 
remains, because gold is the highest possible stage of metallic 
development. 

Quicksilver is the mother of all metals, on account of its 
coldness and moistness ; and if it be once purified and cleansed 
of all foreign matter it cannot be mixed any more with gross- 
ness of any kind, neither can it be changed back into an 
- imperfect metal. For Nature does not undo her work, and that 
which has once become perfectly pure can never become impure 
again. Sulphur, on the other hand, is the father of all metals, 
on acount of its heat and dryness. In the following chapter we 
shall refer to this difference, and speak more in detail about 
quicksilver. : 

LDADUPEIS I 

. There is, then, in 4// metals true mercury, and good sulphur, 
in the imperfect as well as in the perfect metals. But in the 

250 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

imperfect metals it is defiled with impure matter, and stands in 
need of maturing. Hence you see that all metals may be 
changed into gold and silver, if the golden and silver properties 
that are in them be freed from all alloy, and reduced by gentle 
heat to the form of silver or gold. "Those metals, indeed, 
which have been torn up by the roots, that is to say, that have 
been dug up from their own proper soil in the veins of the 
earth, can no longer proceed in that course of development 
which they pursued in their native abode ; yet, as much as in 
them lies, they strive to be perfected. 

Now the Spirit of Truth, who imparts all true knowledge, 
has taught the Sages a Medicine, or Form, by which all the 
impurities of the imperfect metals may be removed, and the 
perfect nature, or true mercury, which is in them, transmuted 
into gold and silver. 

IEIPASDATSIITS NQSTITITE 

But we must now proceed to say a few words about the 
method of preparing this Medicine, by which the imperfection is 
removed from imperfect metals through the mediation of perfect 
mercury, and the mode of gold and silver is developed in them. 

I find that the writings of the Sages are all about gold, 
silver, and quicksilver, which, it is said, must be reduced to the 
form which they wore before they became metals; that is to 
say, the form which they wore, perhaps, some thousands of 
years ago. But the operation of Nature is progressive, not retro- 
gressive. Hence it is a great mistake to suppose that the work 
of Nature can be reversed by dissolution in aqua fortis, or by 
the amalgamation of gold or silver and quicksilver. For if 
the metal be plunged in a solvent, if water be distilled from it, or 
if quicksilver be sublimed from it, it still remains the same 
metal that it was before. "The specific properties of a metal can- 
not be destroyed so as to obtain the first substance. Yet 
Aristotle says that metals cannot be changed unless they are 
reduced to their original substance. 

(O EIE SEATEENIS IIR A 

What we said in the last chapter shows that Alchemical Art 
cannot be concerned with the subjecting of gold, silver, or quick- 

"^ 

Ze ETAT TRU GE AUEY UTERE QST 

silver to chemical processes. Nevertheless, that which you read 
in the books of the Sages is most true; and we shall see in the 
following pages in what sense it is to be understood, that our Art 
is in gold, silver, and quicksilver. But it is clear that our Art can 
make no use of quicksilver such as may be obtained from the 
metals by means of any kind of artificial process, such as disso- 
lution in aqua fortis, or amalgamation, or any other method of 
chemical purification. 

If then, this is not the right substance, or original mercury, 
it is clear that it is not to be found in the metals. For even if 
you melt two, three, or four metals together, yet not one of them 
can give the others any aid towards attaining perfection, seeing 
that itself stands in need of external aid. And even though you 
mix some imperfect metal with gold, the gold will not give up its 
own perfection for the purpose of succouring the other: for it 
has nothing to spare which it might impart to the imperfect 
metal And even if the imperfect metal could assume the virtue 
and efficacy of the gold, it could only do so at the expense of the 
gold itself. In vain, then, shall we seek in metals the Medicine 
which has power to liberate the perfect mercury contained in im- 
perfect metals. 

CLDASPTER V. 

Again, we read in the books of the Sages that quicksilver 
and mercury are the original substance of all metals. "These 
words are true in a certain sense. But by many beginners they 
are supposed to mean ordinary quicksilver. Such an interpreta- 
tion, however, makes nonsense of the dictum of the Sages. For 
ordinary quicksilver is an imperfect metal, and itself derived from 
the original substance of all metals. The Sages, indeed, say 
little about the o7zgzz of their mercury ; but that is exactly be- 
cause they use the name of mercury, or sulphur, for the first 
substance of their perfect metals. If common mercury were not 
a metal, there would be no metal corresponding to the celestial 
influence of the planet Mercury, as gold and silver receive their 
specific properties from the influence of the Sun and Moon. Now, 
as it is one of the metals, the other metals cannot be derived from 
it, much less can their properties be derived from it or from 
themselves, although the real perfect mercury is quite as abundant 

252 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

in mercury as in any other metal Nor can common sulphur 
be the first substance of the metals, for no metal contains so 
much impurity as common sulphur ; and if it be mixed with any 
metal, that metal becomes even more impure than it was before, 
and is even partially, or wholly, corroded. 

(GXSIPAIPATUIITS SNR VAIR 

Again, the Sages affirm that quicksilver, or mercury, is the 
spirit of the specific nature of metals, collected out of the four 
elements by the influence of the Planets, and the operation of 
Nature in the earth—and that from it is developed either gold, 
silver, or some other of seven metals, according to the peculiar 
effects of the predominant planetary influence. 

Hence ignorant alchemists have supposed that all this is 
true of the common quicksilver, because it amalgamates with 
all metals, and is soft and volatile. But why should its volatile 
properties prove it to be no metal? X According to this definition, 
we might deny the metallic character of tin, lead, and other 
metals, because they do not remain fixed ina fierce fire—though 
one can stand a greater degree of heat than another. If, again, 
any substance is to be called the first substance of metals because 
of the facility with which it amalgamates with them, copper 
would have a better claim to be so regarded, since it enters into a 
closer union with gold and silver than mercury, and shares both 
their fusible and malleable nature. But that is no final union, 
for it admits of separation; and quicksilver may, with the 
greatest ease, be separated from the metals with which it has 
amalgamated. A true union of metals can only take place in 
the original substance which is common to all. We do find 
amalgams of three, or even more metals; but then this union 
was consummated in the first substance, which is oze, and the 
whole amalgam would have been developed into gold, if its 
natural growth had not been retarded by gross, sulphureous, 
arsenical| and earthy impurity, which is found among metals 
when purified. "The metals which we dig up out of the earth 
are,as it were, torn up by the roots, and, their growth having 
come to a standstill, they can undergo no further development 
into gold, but must always retain their present form, unless some- 

2 mRMCT OPm GREAT PRICE. 2/53 

thing is done for them by our Art. Hence we must begin at the 
point where Nature had to leave off: we must purge away all 
impurity, and the sulphureous alloy, as Nature herself would have 
done if her operation had not been accidentally, or violently, dis- 
turbed. She would have matured the original substance, and 
brought it to perfection by gentle heat, and, in a longer or shorter 
period of time, she would have transmuted it into gold. In this 
work Nature is ceaselessly occupied while the metals are still in 
the earth; but she takes away from them nothing save their 
superfluous water, and the impurity which prevents them from 
attaining to the nature of gold, as we briefly showed in the 
second chapter. 

GLDASPIDBRC OVID 

It is clear, then, that the final union of metals, or their per- 
fection, cannot be attained by the mingling of any specific 
metals; that the metallic substance becomes useless for our 
purpose, as soon as it assumes a specific form ; but that, at the 
same time, all metals have a common origin, or Matter, which is 
one thing, flowing out by the operation of Nature, who ever 
desires the most perfect form which her own essence and her con- 
dition will admit. And this is the form of gold, highest and best 
of all that belong to the metallic mode. If, then, the purest form 
of this substance which it is possible for Art to prepare with the 
help of Nature, be added to the imperfect metals, then it over- 
comes what is impure in these, for it is not the impure, but the 
pure matter which is like unto it But you must not suppose 
that this power belongs to common gold ; common gold has its 
own specific form, which it is unable to impart to other metals. 
The power of gold is sufficient only for preserving its own excel- 
lence; but our prepared substance is much better and more 
honourable than gold, and has power to do that which gold 
cannot do, viz, to change the common matter of all metals 
into gold. 

CIEDAJPAT ERE VATI: 
From what I have hitherto said, one ignorant of alchemy 

might suppose that the teaching of the Sages is altogether false 
and untrustworthy. Therefore I must now proceed to tell you 

254 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

how it may truly be affirmed that our Art is concerned with quick- 
silver, silver, and gold, or with quicksilver and sulphur, and in 
what sense mercury is the spirit of the metals. I will first speak 
about quicksilver, and at once premise that this word is not here 
taken to mean that common quicksilver which is one of the 
metals, but the first substance of all the metals, and itself no 
specific metal at all. For a metal must have derived its distinctive 
properties through planetary influences ; nor can any one 
metal be the first substance of all metals. "This quicksilver is 
neither too hot, nor too cold, nor too moist, nor too dry ; but it is 
a well-tempered mingling of all four. When perfectly matured 
quicksilver is subjected to external heat, operating thereon, it is 
not burned, but escapes in a volatile essence. Hence it may well 
be called by the philosophers a spirit, or a swift, and winged, and 
indestructible soul. 

So long as it is palpable and visible it is also called body ; 
when subjected to external cold it is congealed into a fixed body, 
and then these three, body, soul, and spirit, are one thing, and 
contain the properties of all the four elements. That outward 
part which is moist and cold is called zvazez, or quicksilver; on 
account of its inward heat it is called azz ; if without it appear hot 
and dry it is fre or sulphur; and on account of its internal 
coldness it is also styled ea7ZZ. In this way quicksilver and sul- 
phur are the original substance of all metals ; but, of course, I do 
not mean that the substance is prepared by mixing common 
sulphur and quicksilver. The sulphur and quicksilver of the 
Sages are one and the same thing, which is first of the nature of 
quicksilver, or moist and watery, and is then, by constant coction, 
transmuted into the nature of sulphur, which may rnost justly be 
described as dry and igneous. 

(OIBIPASPAIUDRISSGIENG 

But I wish to confine my discourse to the quicksilver and 
sulphur of the philosophers, from which all metals derive their 
origin ; and it is, according to the Sages, a heavy, earthy water, 
mixed with very subtle white earth, and subjected to natural coc- 
tion until the moist and the dry elements have become united 
and coagulated into one body—through the perfect mutual 

EB DD AE T ACE, 255 

adjustment of all the elementary properties, and by the accidental 
operation of cold. This is the substance which is used for the 
purposes of our Art, after it has been perfected and purified by 
gentle coction, and freed from its earthy and sulphureous gross- 
ness, and the combustible wateriness ofthe quicksilver. Itis then 
one clear, pure, and indestructible substance, proceeding from a 
duplex substance, exhibiting, in their greatest purity and efficacy, 
the united properties of quicksilver and of sulphur. In Art the 
operation is similar to Nature. Hence the Sages have justly 
affirmed that our Art is concerned with quicksilver, gold, and 
silver. For in its first stage the substance resembles quicksilver, 
which is sublimed by gentle natural heat, and purified in the 
veins of the rocks in the form of a pure vapour, as we explained 
above. To it we now add silver and gold, and that for the fol- 
lowing reason, because we cannot find anywhere else in any one 
thing the metallic power needed for rousing the sulphur of the 
quicksilver, and coagulating it, except in gold and silver. For 
the Sage cannot prepare our quicksilver unless it be first removed 
from the earth, and separated from the potency of its natural 
surroundings ; and all these natural influences can be artificially 
supplied only by the addition of gold and silver. Our Art, then, 
has to find a substitute for those natural forces in the precious 
metals. By them alone it is able to fix the volatile properties of 
our quicksilver, for in them alone do we find the powers and in- 
fluences which are indispensable to our chemical process. 

You should also bear in mind that the silver should be 
applied to our quicksilver before the gold, because the quicksilver 
is volatile, and cannot with safety be subjected all at once to 
great heat. Silver has the power of stirring up the inherent 
sulphur of the quicksilver, whereby it is coagulated into the 
form of the Remedy for transmuting metals into silver; and 
this coagulation is brought about by the gentle heat of the 
silver. Gold requires a much higher degree of heat, and if 
gold were added to the quicksilver before the silver, the greater 
degree of heat would at once change the quicksilver into 
a red sulphur, which, however, would be of no use for the 
purpose of making gold, because it would have lost its essen- 
tial moisture; and our Art requires that the quicksilver should 
be first coagulated by means of silver into white sulphur, 

256 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

before the greater degree of heat is applied which, through gold, 
changes it into red sulphur. "There must be whiteness before 
there is redness. — Redness before whiteness spoils our whole 
substance. 

(ORIPASSIBEU SNC 

The quicksilver of the Sages has no power to transmute 
imperfect metals, until it has absorbed the essential qualities of 
gold and silver; for in itself it is no metal at all, and if it is to 
impart the spirit, the colour, and the hardness of gold and silver, 
it must first receive them itself. It is with the first substance of 
metals as it is with water. If saffron is dissolved in water, the 
water is coloured with it, and if mixed with other water, imparts 
to that water, too, the colour of saffron. Unless the first sub- 
stance, or quicksilver, is tinged with silver and gold, and coagu- 
lated by their efficacy, it cannot impart any colour, or 
coagulate the (water or) first substance which is latent in the 
imperfect metals. For it is essentially a spirit, and volatile, and 
if it be added to imperfect metals, it cannot act upon their water, 
or undeveloped first-substance, because that is partly fixed by 
their coagulated sulphur. But if the first-substance has been 
fixed by means of gold and silver, it has become a fixed and 
indestructible water; and, if added to imperfect metals, takes up 
into its own nature their first substance, or water, and mingles 
with it. By this means all that is combustible and impure in 
them is driven off by the fire. And herein is the saying true, 
which was uttered by the Sage Haly: * The spirit (z.e., quick- 
silver) is not coagulated, unless the body (Ze., gold and silver) be 
first dissolved." For then gold and silver become spiritual, flow- 
ing, capable of being assimilated by the common substance of 
all metals, and of imparting to it their own metallic strength 
and potency. And even though this new substance be fusible 
in the fire, yet, when it cools again, it still remains what it 
was, nor is it ever again converted into a permanent spiritual 
substance. It is the quicksilver, then, that constitutes the chief 
strength and efficacy of our Art; and he that has no 
quicksilver is without the very seed of gold and silver from 
which they grow in the earth. 

21092722189 (T GIBT PRIGE. 257 

EPILOGUE. 

We have sufficiently explained that quicksilver is the first 
substance of the metals, without which no metal can become 
perfect, eitherin Nature or in our Art. But we do not yet 
know where to look for it, and where to find it. This is the 
great secret of the Sages, which they are always so careful to 
veil under dark words that scarcely one in many thousands 
is thought worthy to find the philosophical Mercury. Many 
things have been written about it; but I will quote the words 
of one philosopher which I consider as the most helpful: In the 
beginning, he says, God created the earth plain, simple, rich, 
and very fertile, without stones, sand, rocks, hills, or valleys ; it 
is the influences of the planets which have now covered it with 
stones, rocks, and mountains, and filled it with rare things of 
various colours, Ze, the ores of the seven metals ; and by these 
means the earth has entirely lost its original form, and that 
through the following causes :— 

First, the earth which was created rich, great, deep, wide, 
and broad, was, through the daily operation of the Sun's rays, 
penetrated to her very centre with a fervent, bubbling, vaporous 
heat. For the earth in herself is cold and saturated with the 
moisture of water. Atlength the vapours which were formed 
in this way in the heart of the earth became so strong and 
powerful as to seek to force a way out into the open air, and 
thus, instead of effecting their object, threw up hills and hillocks, 
or,as it were, bubbles on the face of the earth. And since in 
those places where mountains were formed the heat of the Sun 
must have been most powerful, and the earthy moisture rich 
and most plentiful,it is there that we find the most precious 
metals. Where the earth remained plain, this steam did not 
succeed in raising up mountains ; itescaped, and the earth, being 
deprived of its moisture, was hardened into rocks. Where the 
earth was poor, soft, and thin, it is now covered with sand 
and little stones, because it never had much moisture, and, having 
been deprived of the little it possessed, has now become sandy 
and dry, and incapable of retaining moisture. No earth was 
changed into rocks that was not rich, viscous, and well saturated 
with moisture. For when the heat of the Sun has sucked up 

R 

258 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

its moisture, the richness of the earth still. makes it cohere, 
although now it has become hard and dry ; and earth that is not 
yet perfectly hard is even at the present time undergoing a 
change into hard stones, through the diligent working of Nature. 
But the steam and the vapours that do not succeed in escap- 
ing, remain enclosed in the mountains, and are day by day 
subjected to the maturing and transmuting influences of the Sun 
and the planets. Now, if this vaporous moisture become mixed 
with a pure, subtle, and earthy substance, it is the quicksilver 
of the Sages; if it be reduced to a fiery and earthy hardness, 
it becomes the sulphur of the Sages. "This enquiry opens up 
the way of finding our quicksilver, or first substance of the 
metals ; but though it be found in great quantities in all mines, it 
is known only to very few. It is not silver, or gold, or com- 
mon quicksilver, or any metal, or sulphur. The Sage says: * It 
is a vaporous substance out of four elements, watery, and pure, 
and though it is found with all metals, it is not matured in those 
which are imperfect. Hence it must be sought in the ore, in 
which we find gold and silver" And when again he says, * If 
this quicksilver be hardened, it is the sulphur of the Sages," he 
means that this can only be done by means of gold and silver, 
which it takes into itself, and by which it is sublimed and 
coagulated through its own natural gentle coction, under the 
influence of the Sun's heat, and in its own proper ore. 

O heavenly Father, shew this quicksilver 
to all whom 
'Thou biddest walk in Thy paths! 

AUUVERY UBROLEB TRACT 

CONCERNING THE 

PIIDLOSOPBEPDMCAJI, SJ QNS. 

WRITTEN BY AN UNKNOWN GERMAN SAGE, 
ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO, AND CALLED THE BOOK OF ALZE, 
BUT NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME. 

Da 7 a9 
"m E. 

Aa, cuta T 

Ex. 

5b 

TIBLRC UBIQUE OB TUAE ZEB

first about the Moon, then about the Sun, and the other 
planets, and only in the third place about our most 
excellent Medicine, ALZE. In this case that which is 

last is better and more honourable than thatwhichisfirst. Thesub- 
stance must first become white, and then red ; it cannot become red 
unless it have first become white. Hence Simon the Sage says: 
* Know that unless you first make the Stone white, you cannot 
make it red" For by the red are the rest of the planets united, 
and the Medicine appears unawares unless this order is 
observed in the matter of the white and red. So is the Moon 
first taken and makes, with the white, Elixir, that is, the white of 
the Moon to the white of Mercury out of bodies comes to the 
red. Whence our Sages say that the red is hidden in the white, 
which they do not dare to extract, until the whole substance has 
become red. When the substance has been subjected to the 
influence of the Moon, it may then, in the second place, be 
brought under the influence of the Sun, which will bring the 
Medicine to perfection without any aid from the other planets. 
By which you may understand why the Medicine comes last, 
even as from the Father proceeds the Son, and the Holy Spirit 
from both of these. He thathath ears to hear let him hear, and 
comprehend the brief statement of our Art, which is given in * The 
Crowd ": * Know that the true Tincture can be prepared only 
out of our ore" Concerning this ore I therefore propose to give 
you the only explanation that is required, and I shall be careful 
to supplement and confirm my own opinion by quotations from 
other Sages. I shall speak not only about our ore, but also 
about our union or conjunction of water and mercury. For 
Eximenus says: * Nothing profitable can arise out of the 

262 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

elements without conjunction and gentle coction, Our ore 
Lucas calls the white ore, and it goes by many other names on 
account of the many colours which it exhibits in the various 
stages of the chemical process. But though the jealousy of the 
Sages has described it under various names, it is, and remains 
only one substance. Pythagoras says: * Many names are 
given to it; nevertheless, it is nothing else but the one and true 
Matter, and this is by reason of the development of its nature. 
'The envious have described it by the names of all bodies, as, for 
instance, a coin, lead, copper, etc., according to the variety of its 
colours. So Lucas tells us that we have no need of many things, 
but only of one thing.  Diamedes and Basan say : * Do not add 
toit any foreign substance ; for the common substance of metals 
is one thing, and more excellent than all other things" Hence 
our whole Art is concerned with water,and a twin substance 
that ameliorates the water. Synon tells us that sulphur and our 
ore are derived from one thing, and changed into four. Lucas 
says: "The white ore is subjected to coction till it generates itself. 
'Thus it becomes united in all its four elements, and receives a 
living soul. It is never more than one thing, but as a man 
consists of body, soul, and spirit, and yet is no more than one 
person, so our substance consists of body, soul, and spirit The 
ore receives its strength, spirit, and growth from the water." The 
Sages say: *If the ore be often deadened in its coction, it 
becomes all the more excellent, and if the body have a soul after 
the manner of man." The body does not penetrate the soul, but 
the soul penetrates the body, because it is volatile. The soul, 
which is hidden in the four parts of the body, is called sulphur. 
'These bodies are male and female, and by their mutual operation 
our substance becomes water.  Aristeus says: * Observe the 
indestructible water which issues from it" Take the humidity 
which it gives off. Hence other Sages say: * Take water with 
its twin substances, and let it be dried up by means of the vapour 
which is like it, and coagulated in its own water." "That water is 
also called poison ; it is the principle of life, because itis a soul, 
and extracted from many things. All bodies that this 
Tincture enters are quickened; all bodies from which it is 
extracted are destroyed. ts potency is spiritual blood, which, if 
well mixed with bodies, transmutes them into spirits, and 

DIEA BOO QE ALLZE. 263 

combines with them into one substance. The body attracts the 
spirit, and the spirit tinges the body with a spiritual substance 
like blood. For the Sages say that whatever has a spirit has 
blood. If the venom penetrate the body, it imparts to it an 
indestructible colour, and then the soul cannot be separated from 
the body any more. If in flying it faces round and meets its 
pursuer, then is theflight at an end. The two belong together, 
aud Nature always tends to assimilate kindred substances. 
The final colour is indestructible, because the soul pervades 
every part of the body, and is inseparably bound up with it. 
Though the wateris naturally cold, yet we must beware of too 
fierce a degree of heat; for if the moisture of the substance be 
dried up, our work must come to nought. 

That which is called the spirit, is the active, or male prin- 
ciple, and can only be obtained by the dissolution of the body. 
Accordingly, we must understand this of the humidity which 
results, namely, that which is produced, as long as two spouses 
are conjoined after a lawful manner, even unto the white. 
Would you know when the body has been rendered liquid by 
coction? Hear what Bonellus answers: * When you see a black 
substance floating in the water, you may know that the body has 
been dissolved." 

These two, body and spirit, have a third thing which 
represents their common substance, and is, in its turn, called their 
body. It is also called a round cloud, death, blackness, darkness, 
shadow, ashy lead, or a metallic and subtle ore ; or it is described, 
after that which is obtained from it, as gold that was hidden in 
the body of Magnesia. Hence it is said: * Extract the shadow 
thereof from the splendour" This also is the substance of which 
so many have spoken. Three things constitute the true ore, viz., 
body, soul, and spirit. Hence it is compared to an egg, because 
in an egg, too, the chicken is developed out of three things. 
Thus also Alchemy is produced out of the above-mentioned 
three things, as many philosophers do testify in * The Crowd." 
The male principle, or the water, is also called the * nature" 3 fot 
water is a natural agent which dissolves the elements of bodies, 
and then again unites them. — Concerning this water, it is said by 
Fictes, that its nature has the wonderful power of transmuting 
the body into spirit. Where it is found alone it overcomes all 

264 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

other things, and is an excellent, harsh, and bitter acid, which 
transmutes gold into pure spirit. — Without this acid we cannot 
attain either the red, or the black, or the white. When itis com- 
bined with bodies, then the body changes into spirit, by a heavenly 
fire, and immutable, indestructible tincture. Know also that the 
union must be brought about by a gentle fire, since the elements 
cannot stand a fierce fire, until the union has taken place. 
When the gentle heat is applied, the elements devour and con- 
sume each other, and yet again, on the other hand, comfort and 
strengthen each other, and teach each other to stand the test of 
fire. Hence the Sages say : * Invert the elements, and you will 
find what you seek." To invert the elements is to make that 
which is moist, dry, and that which is volatile, fixed. ^ The hus- 
band also enforces conjunction that he may reproduce his own 
likeness. Many strive to accomplish this separation and conjunc- 
tion; but few succeed in bringing about an union which can 
stand the test of fire. "The composition which is prepared out of 
our precious substance is not even in the slightest degree dimin- 
ished in volume by fire. Rather, it is nourished by fire, as a 
mother nourishes her child. "These are the only things that have 
the power of making red and white, both inwardly and outwardly. 
Remember that at first they can only bear a gentle fire. When 
you see that a whiteness begins to appear it must be your next 
care to extract it from the black substance; then you should 
develop the redness which is hidden in it. But the latter object 
you must attain, not by extraction, but by gentle coction. Do 
not marvel that the Sages describe our ore under many names, 
and as consisting of body, soul, and spirit. They are also 
referred to as brothers, or as husband and wife. But Geber says 
that sometimes the whole substance is only called body, or spirit ; 
and unless there be a dissolution into water, our work cannot be 
brought to a successful issue. Of course, we do not mean the 
the water of the clouds, as the foolish say, but a permanent 
water, which, however, cannot be permanent without its body. 
Thus Hermogenes says that we are to take the hidden spirit, and 
not to despise it, because it shares its great power with its brother. 
For only the union of the two can give us the right Tincture. 
The water is also called a most sharp acid, with which the body 
must be washed ; this is what Socrates calls * woman's work, and 

YE UBOOR. Qf 4LZB. 265 

child's play." The secret of our Art is the union of man and 
woman : the husband receives the tinging spirit from his wife. 
The union of husband and wife coagulates the female principle ; 
and if the whole be transmuted into red, we have the treasure of 
the world, of which Synon says: *If the water be changed into the 
body, the body is changed, first into earth, then into dust and 
ashes, and you have what you want." 

'Then the work is over, and the Stone contains within itself 
the Tincture in the body of Magnesia. "Therefore, the Sages say, 
in conclusion: * My son, extract from the splendour its shadow." 
Accordingly, we need exertion, and exercise is beneficial to us, 
seeing that milk is for infants, but that strong men require 
stronger food. So also is it in this operation of the Stone. 

Now, it is laid down by Geber that our Art must do more 
for the substance than Nature has done for it; otherwise we 
should never obtain the Medicine which has the power of 
correcting and perfecting the essences of the seven planets, or 
metals. For this purpose the Art of Alchemy has been delivered 
to us by the Sages; but the beginner must be on his guard 
against being misled by their manner of speaking, and the multi- 
plicity of names which they give to our substance, which has 
been suggested to them by its great variety of (successive) colour- 
ing, and by the fact that it is composed of the four elements. 
The Stone must be saturated with its water, that it may imbibe 
it all, and then subjected to the action of fire, until it turns to a 
kind of dust, like burnt blood, and becomes indestructible by fire. 
This Stone is sought by Kings, but is found only by those to 
whom it is given of God. It is publicly sold for money. But if 
men knew its precious nature, they would cease to think lightly 
ofit. God, however, has hidden it from the world, and he who 
would accomplish our work should first lay the right foundation, 
or his building must come to nought. Let me tell you, then, that 
our Stone requires a gentle fire; and if, after not many days, it 
die, and lie in the tomb, yet God restores to it its spirit, and re- 
moves its disease and its impurity. When it is burnt to ashes, 
it must be well sprinkled and saturated with its blood, until it 
becomes like burnt blood. Hermes remarks that both substances 
rejoice in being united to each other. To the spiritual substance 
God gives that which Nature could not give it. For Nature has 

266 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

nothing so precious as the true Tincture; and if with its bodies 
it become liquid, it produces a marvellous effect. For the Tinc- 
ture changes everything itis mixed with into its own nature, and 
makes it white both within and without. By one operation and 
way, by one substance, and by one mixing, the whole work is 
accomplished, while its purity is also one, and it is perfected in 
two stages, each consisting of a dissolution and a coction, with 
the repetition of these. ; 

It must be your first object to elicit the whiteness of the sub- 
stance by means of gentle and continued coction orheat. I know 
that the Sages describe this simple process under a great number 
of misleading names. But this puzzling variety of nomenclature 
is only intended to veil the fact that nothing is required but sim- 
ple coction. This process of coction, however, you must patiently 
keep up, and that with the Divine permission, until the King is 
crowned, and you receive your great reward. If youask whether 
the substance of our Stone be dear, I tell you that the poor pos- 
sess it as well as the rich. 

Many have been reduced to beggary because they foolishly : 
despised that which is highly esteemed by the Sages. If kings 
and princes knew it, none of us would ever be able to obtain it. 
Only one vessel is required for the whole process, which 
should be of stone, and should be capable of resisting fire. 

A. pound of the body of our ore should be taken, and ren- 
dered as pure, refined, and highly rectified, like the virtue of 
heaven, as the philosophers have it. Then the vessel should be 
placed in a reverberatory alembic. "This should be set over a 
gentle fire, the vessel being kept tightly closed, in order that it 
may be able to retain its companion, and permit the same to 
enkindle the whiteness thereof, as Lucas says. "The vessel con- 
taining the ore must be placed over the fire, since there can be no 
perfection without heat and intermixture of elements, seeing 
that it is produced from blood. When the male and the 
female principle have been together for a space of forty nights, 
there is an emission of moist warm seed; and to the same God 
has liberally given much blood to heat it. This seed develops 
into an embryo which is supported with a little milk over a 
moderate fire, and grows stronger day by day. Its growth must 
be aided by warmth ; but the heat of the fire should be temper- 

DEB BOOK OFT ALZB. 267 

ate, like that of the Sun. This may be effected by placing our 
vessel over an:empty vessel, and that again upon some glowing 
coals. "The process of coction should be continued until the 
alembic is well dried and the substance begins to assume a 
liquid aspect; for water alone is sufficient for the coagulation 
and fixing of the whole, as we are told by Democritus. "This 
water is described under various names, such as sulphur, quick- 
silver, spirit, and also vapour, for it can scarcely retain its 
companion. There are in our Art only two substances, and if 
I speak of two, then I think of four, all which things require one 
thing, by which. Nature, conquering all Nature, is extracted. 
For Nature, on account of its nature, rejoices in itself, Nature 
conquers nature, and in itself contains nature. At the same time 
one is not opposed to the other, but one comprehends the other, 
whereby it excels the other, and the philosophers call this 
water the purifying water. 

This dissolution first imparts a black appearance to the 
body. The substance should then turn white, and finally red. 
The blackness exhibits an intermediate stage between fixedness 
and volatility. So long as there is blackness, the female principle 
prevails, till the substance enters into the white stage. This 
whiteness is called the first power of our Stone, and the water is 
referred to as that most excellent acid. You must be very care- 
ful not to destroy the potency of this water. Avicenna says 
that natural heat operating in humid bodies, first causes black- 
ness ; then removes the blackness ; and finally causes whiteness, 
as may be seen in calx. Hence our substance must become first 
black, and then white, and be reduced to a kind of powder. 
'Then the soul must be restored to the powder by a powerful fire; 
and both [be] subjected to coction until they become first black, 
then white, afterwards red, and finally good venom, the whole 
being accomplished by the separation of waters. And now, the 
waters being divided, cook the matter and the vapour till 
coagulation takes place, and there is made a white stone. Then 
are the waters divided. Another mortification, or exsiccation, 
follows, and is called clouds, or smoke. The smoke well coagu- 
lated with its feces becomes quick white; roast then the white 
ore that it may bring forth itself. When the blackness vanishes, 
the spirit is restored ; for the spirit does not die, but rather 

268 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

quickens body and soul. The more perfectly our ore is purged, 
and subjected to coction, the better it becomes, till it is at 
length condensed into a Stone. But it must be dissolved again, 
and subjected to a powerful fire, until it looks like burnt blood. 
If this Stone be added to any substance, it tinges it into gold. 
The Sages speak of it as a kind of root. Take, they say, the 
whole virtue of the Tincture, and concentrate it in the Root. If 
a body which has no earthy elements receive this Tincture, it 
receives more benefit than less excellent bodies. The Stone 
overcomes everything to which it is applied, and tinges foreign 
bodies with its own colour. The dry fire tinges bodies, the air 
strengthens them, the white water washes away their blackness, 
and their earth receives the Tincture. Concerning the coction 
needed for the development of our substance, the Sages have 
expressed themselves in a great variety of ways. Observe 
Hermes, who says that it must be repeated again and again, 
until the red colour at length is obtained.  Herein is the stability 
of the whole work. Afterwards it assumes many, many colours, 
not including the red, which appears at the end. For the white 
must precede it. Set to work by the regimen of fire, and 
triturate. The above mentioned water volatilizes all bodies ; 
even such as are gross it penetrates until it has assimilated them 
toits own nature. Know that unless you operate upon bodies 
until they are destroyed and their soul is extracted, with such 
you will never tinge any body, for nothing tinges which has not 
first itself been tinged. If the body be made fluid and burnt, 
then it bends itself towards its begetter, becoming a subtle 
Magnesia, and it turns towards the earth, which makes it 
spiritual and vivifies it. Before the final whiteness of the first 
stage is attained, the substance turns first of a black, then of an 
orange, and then of a reddish colour (which, however, is quite 
different from the final redness of the last stage). "These colours, 
however, need not trouble you, since they are evanescent and 
merely transitional. 

From what I have said you may gather that our substance 
is found in the gold which is hidden in Magnesia, and that it is 
oz thing composed of sulphur from sulphur and mercury from 
mercury. And as the substance of our Stone is one, so is the 
method of its preparation. Therefore, do not listen to those 

r8 

TERES ENDOYR. QE ALZ. 269 

ignorant and fraudulent alchemists who speak of many different 
kinds of sublimation and distillation. Turn a deaf ear to those 
who say that the substance of our Stone is the powder of the 
Basilisk. As to the (length of) time required for the prepara- 
tion, you must begin it in the winter, which is moist, and extract 
the moisture until the spring, when all things become green, and 
when our substance, too, should exhibit a variety of colours. In 
the summer the substance should be reduced to powder by 
means of a powerful fire. The autumn, the season of ripeness, 
should witness its maturity,or final redness. About the motions 
of the stars or planets you need not trouble yourself.: Our 
substance is a body containing the spirit which makes glass 
malleable, and turns crystals into carbuncles. One drop of our 
Elixir, as large as a drop of rain, will suffice to tinge and trans- 
mute a body a thousand times as large as itself. 

This most noble Remedy was appointed, like all other 
things, for the use of man, because he is the most glorious of 
God's creatures, and the lord of the whole earth. It was given 
to him for the purpose of preserving his youth, expelling 
disease, preventing suffering, and providing him with all he 
requires. Our Elixir is better than all the medicinal prepara- 
tions of Hippocrates, Avicenna, and others. From it may be 
prepared a potable antidote which has power to cure leprosy. 
As fire purges and refines metals, so this Remedy restores to 
the human body its natural heat, expels from it all health- 
destroying matter, and fortifes it against every conceivable 
form of disease. Its virtue is infinitely greater than that of the 
potable gold dust, which is taken as a preventative among the 
Gentiles. 

Great and wonderful is the potency of the gold that slum- 
bers in Magnesia, both for the purifying of the human system, 
and for the transmuting of metals. What more shall I say? 
A]I the things that I have here faithfully described I have seen 
with my own eyes, and performed with my own hands. 

When I was preparing the substance, after discovering the 
true method, I was so seriously interfered with by the persons 
with whom I lived that I was almost on the point of giving up 
the whole thing in despair At length I communicated my 
discovery to a friend, who faithfully executed my instructions, 

270 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

and brought the work to a successful issue. For which Blessed 
Gift may God be praised, world without end. Amen. 

THE BOOK OF 
LAMBSPRING, 
A Noble Ancient PAilosopher, 

pEMPEOSOPHIPCSOLE STONES 

RENDERED INTO LATIN VERSE BY 

NICHOLAS BARNAUD DELPHINAS, 

Doctor of Medicine, & gealous Student of this Art. 

TRAMA AUTE LUI 

PUROSIBUACC E.

THIS CREST | BEAR WITH GLORY AND JUSTICE. 

AND 

274 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

understood, 
The utmost depth of my teachers! knowledge 

have I sounded. 
This God graciously granted to me, 
Giving me a heart to understand wisdom. 
'Thus I became the Author of this Book, 
And I have clearly set forth the whole matter, 
That Rich and Poor might understand. 
There is nothing like it upon earth ; 
Nor (God be praised) have I therein forgotten my humble 

self. 
I am acquainted with the only true foundation : 
Therefore preserve this Book with care, 
And take heed that you study it again and again. 
Thus shall you receive and learn the truth, 
And use this great gift of God for good ends. 
O God the Father, which art of all the beginning and end, 
We beseech thee for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ 
To enlighten our minds and thoughts, 
That we may praise Thee without ceasing, 
And accomplish this Book according to Thy will ! 
Direct Thou everything to a good end, 
And preserve us through Thy great mercy.— 
With the help of God I will shew you this Art, 
And will not hide or veil the truth from you. 
After that you understand me aright, 
You will soon be free from the bonds of error. 
For there is only oze substance, 
In which all the rest is hidden ; 
"Therefore, keep a good heart. 
Coction, time, and patience are what you need ; 
If you would enjoy the precious reward, 
You must cheerfully give both time and labour. 
For you must subject to gentle coction the seeds and the 
metals, 

Dp oem I have read, and thoroughly 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRZNG. 25 

Day by day, during several weeks ; 

Thus in this one vile thing 

You will discover and bring to perfection the whole work 
of Philosophy, 

Which to most men appears impossible, 

Though it is a convenient and easy task. 

If we were to shew it to the outer world 

We should be derided by men, women, and children. 

"Therefore be modest and secret, 

And you will be left in peace and security. 

Remember your duty towards your neighbour and your God, 

Who gives this Art, and would have it concealed. 

Now we will conclude the Preface, 

That we may begin to describe the very Art, 

And truly and plainly set it forth in figures, 

Rendering thanks to the Creator of every creature. 

Hereunto follows the First Figure, 

ms í 

THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The Sages will tell you 

That two fishes are in our sea 

Without any flesh or bones. 

Let them be cooked in their own water ; 
Then they also will become a vast sea, 

'The vastness of which no man can describe. 
Moreover, the Sages say 

'That the two fishes are only one, not two ; 
"They are two, and nevertheless they are one, 
Body, Spirit, and Soul. 

Now, I tell you most truly, 

Cook these three together, 

'That there may be a very large sea. 

Cook the sulphur well with the sulphur, 

And hold your tongue about it : 

Conceal your knowledge to your own advantage, 
And you shall be free from poverty. 

Only let your discovery remain a close secret. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 277 

FIGURE I. 

BE WARNED AND UNDERSTAND TRULY 
. THAT TWO FISHES ARE SWIMMING IN OUR SEA. 

The Sea is the Body, the two Fishes are Soul and Spirit. 

278 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The Sage says 

'That a wild beast is in the forest, 

Whose skin is of blackest dye. 

If any man cut off his head, . 

His blackness will disappear, 

And give place to a snowy white. 
Understand well the meaning of this head : 
'The blackness is called the head of the Raven ; 
As soon as it disappears, 

A white colour is straightway manifested ; 
It is given this name, despoiled of its head. 
When the Beast's black hue has vanished in a black smoke, 
jhedSacessrc]olco 

From the bottom of their hearts ; 

But they keep it a close secret, 

'Fhat no foolish man may know it. 

Yet unto their Sons, in kindness of heart, 
They partly reveal it in their writings ; 
And therefore let those who receive the gift 
Enjoy it also in silence, 

Since God would have it concealed. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 279 

FIGURE Il. 

HERE YOU STRAIGHTWAY BEHOLD 
A BLACK BEAST IN THE FOREST. 

Putrefactton. 

280 

HE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The Sages say truly 

That two animals are in this forest : 

One glorious, beautiful, and swift, 

A great and strong deer ; 

'The other an unicorn. 

"They are concealed in the forest, 

But happy shall that man be called 

Who shall snare and capture them. 

The Masters shew you here clearly 

That in all places 

These two animals wander about in forests 

(But know that the forest is but one). 

If we apply the parable to our Art, 

We shall call the forest the Body. 

That will be rightly and truly said. 

The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times. 

The deer desires no other name 

But that of the Soul; which name no man shall take away 
from it. 

He that knows how to tame and master them by Art, 

To couple them together, 

Amd to lead them in and out of the forest, 

May justly be called a Master. 

For we rightly judge 

'That he has attained the golden flesh, 

And may triumph everywhere ; 

Nay, he may bear rule over great Augustus. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 281 

FIGURE III. 

HEAR WITHOUT TERROR 
THAT IN THE FOREST ARE HIDDEN A DEER AND AN 
UNICORN. 

P7 

,; he Body there is Soul and Spirit. 

282 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

'The Sages do faithfully teach us 

'That two strong lions, to wit, male and female, 

Lurk in a dark and rugged valley. 

"These the Master must catch, 

Though they are swift and fierce, 

And of terrible and savage aspect. 

He who, by wisdom and cunning, 

Can snare and bind them, 

And lead them into the same forest, 

Of him it may be said with justice and truth 

'That he has merited the meed of praise before all others, 
And that his wisdom transcends that of the worldly wise. 

TDEDBR UB OQ QUE QUIT LAMBSPRING. 283 

FIGURE IV. 

HERE YOU BEHOLD A GREAT MARVEL— 
TWO LIONS ARE JOINED INTO ONE. 

The Spirit and Soul must be united im their Body. 

284 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Alexander writes from Persia 

That a wolf and a dog are in this field, 
Which, as the Sages say, 

Are descended from the same stock, 
But the wolf comes from the east, 

And the dog from the west. 

"They are full of jealousy, 

Fury, rage, and madness : 

One kills the other, 

And from them comes a great poison. 
But when they are restored to life, 
"They are clearly shewn to be 

'The Great and Precious Medicine, 

'The most glorious Remedy upon earth, 
Which refreshes and restores the Sages, 
Who render thanks to God, and do praise Him. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRZNG. 285 

FIGURE V. 

A WOLF AND A.DOG ARE IN ONE HOUSE, AND ARE 
AFTERWARDS CHANGED INTO ONE. 

The Body is mortified and vendered | white, then Jomed to 
Soul and Spirit by being saturated with them. 

286 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

A savage Dragon lives in the forest, 

Most venomous he is, yet lacking nothing : 
When he sees the rays of the Sun and its bright fire, 
He scatters abroad his poison, 

And flies upward so fiercely 

That no living creature can stand before him, 
Nor is even the Basilisk equal to him. 

He who hath skill to slay him, wisely 

Hath escaped from all dangers. 

Yet all venom, and colours, are multiplied 

In the hour of his death. 

His venom becomes the great Medicine. 

He quickly consumes his venom, 

For he devours his poisonous tail. 

A]I this is performed on his own body, 

From which flows forth glorious Balm, 

With all its miraculous virtues. 

Hereat all the Sages do loudly rejoice. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 287 

FIGURE VI. 

AT MIRACLE AND WITHOUT ANY 

THIS SURELY IS A GRE 

DECEPTION- — 
THAT IN A VENOMOUS DRAGON TH 

GREAT MEDICINE. 

ERE SHOULD BE THE 

The Mercury is precipitated or sublimed, dissolved in its own 
proper water, aud then once more coagulated. 

288 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

A nest is found in the forest, 

In which Hermes has his brood ; 

One fledgling always strives to fly upward, 
'The other rejoices to sit quietly in the nest ; 
Yet neither can get away from the other. 

'The one that is below holds the one that is above, 
And will not let it get away from the nest, 

Xs a husband in a house with his wife, 

Bound together in closest bonds of wedlock. 
So also do we rejoice at all times, 

That we hold the female eagle fast in this way, 
And we render thanks to God the Father. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 289 

BIGURE. VLL 

WE HEAR OF TWO BIRDS IN THE FOREST, 
YET WE MUST UNDERSTAND THEM TO BE ONLY ONE. 

The Mercury having been often sublimed, is at length fixed, and 
becomes capable of vesisting fire: the sublimation quust 
be repeated until at length fixation is attained. 

ar 

290 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

In India there is a most pleasant wood, 

In which two birds are bound together. 

One is of a snowy white ; the other is red. 
They bite each other, and one is slain 

And devoured by the other. 

"Then both are changed into white doves, 

And of the Dove is born a Phoenix, 

Which has left behind blackness and foul death, 
And has regained a more glorious life. 

'This power was given it by God Himself, 

That it might live eternally, and never die. 

It gives us wealth, it preserves our life, 

And with it we may work great miracles, 

As also the true Philosophers do plainly inform us. 

REUEVEOQA QUT OE ZMASIRDNG. 291 

FEIGURE VILE 

HERE ARE TWO BIRDS, GREAT AND STRONG—THE BODY AND 
SPIRIT; ONE DEVOURS THE OTHER. 

Let the Body be pe n P. or a warm bath, the Spirit 
having been extracted from it/— The Body has become «white 
by the process, the Spirit red by our Avt.. AW that 
exists tends towards perfection, and thus is 
Ue Plulosophers Stone prepared. 
T2 

l3 

9 

l3 

IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

. Now hear of a wonderful deed, 

For I will teach you great things, 

How the King rises high above all his race ; 
And hear also what the noble lord of the forest says : 
I have overcome and vanquished my foes, 

I have trodden the venomous Dragon under foot, 
I am a great and glorious King in the earth. 
There is none greater than I, 

Child either of the Artist or of Nature, 

Among all living creatures. 

I do all that man can desire, 

I give power and lasting health, 

Also gold, silver, gems, and precious stones, 

And the panacea for great and small diseases. 
Yet at first I was of ignoble birth, 

Till I was set in a high place. 

'To reach this lofty summit 

Was given me by God and Nature. 

'Thence from the meanest I became the highest, 
And mounted to the most glorious throne, 

And to the state of royal sovereignty : 

Therefore Hermes has called me the Lord of the Forests. 

TEE BOOK OP LZMBSPALAVG. 293 

TOR CE DRESS JOX- 

THE LORD OF THE FORESTS HAS RECOVERED HIS KINGDOM, 
AND MOUNTED FROM THE LOWEST TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE. 
IF FORTUNE SMILE, YOU MAY FROM A RHETOR BECOME A 
CONSUL ; 

IF FORTUNE FROWN, THE CONSUL MAY BECOME A RHETOR. 

Thus you may £now that the Tincture has truly attained 
the first degree. 

94 

THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

In all fables we are told 

That the Salamander is born in the fire ; 

In the fire it has that food and life 

Which Nature herself has assigned to it. 

It dwells in a great mountain 

Which is encompassed by many flames, 

And one of these is ever smaller than another— 
Herein the Salamander bathes. 

The third is greater, the fourth brighter than the rest— 
In all these the Salamander washes, and is purified. 
'Then he hies him to his cave, 

But on the way is caught and pierced 

So that it dies, and yields up its life with its blood: 
But this, too, happens for its good: 

For from its blood it wins immortal life, 

And then death has no more power over it. 

Its blood is the most precious Medicine upon earth, 
'The same hàs not its like in the world. 

For this blood drives away all disease 

In the bodies of metals, 

Of men, and of beasts. 

From it the Sages derive their science, 

And through it they attain the Heavenly Gift, 
Which is called the Philosopher's Stone, 

Possessing the power of the whole world. 

This gift the Sages impart to us with loving hearts, 
(That we may remember them for ever. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 295 

FIGURE X. 

A SALAMANDER LIVES IN THE FIRE, 
WHICH IMPARTS TO IT A MOST GLORIOUS HUE. 

A 

ENSRI 
— 

Tas 2s the reiteration, gradatwn, and amelioration of the 
Tzncture, or Philosophers Stone ; and the whole is 
calted its Augmentation. 

296 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

Here is an old father of Israel, 

Who has an only Son, 

A Son whom he loves with all his heart. 

With sorrow he prescribes sorrow to him. 

He commits him to a guide, 

Who is to conduct him whithersoever he will. 

The Guide addresses the Son in these words : 

Come hither! I will conduct thee everywhere, 

'To the summit of the loftiest mountain, 

That thou mayest understand all wisdom, 

'That thou mayest behold the greatness of the earth, and of 
the sea, 

And thence derive true pleasure. 

I will bear thee through the air 

To the gates of highest heaven. 

'The Son hearkened to the words of the Guide, 

And ascended upward with him ; 

"There saw he the heavenly throne, 

"That was beyond measure glorious. 

When he had beheld these things, 

He remembered his Father with sighing, 

Pitied the great sorrow of his Father, 

And said: I will return to his breast. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 297 

FIGURE XI. 

THE FATHER AND THE SON HAVE LINKED THEIR HANDS 
WITH THOSE OF THE GUIDE : 
KNOW THAT THE THREE ARE BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT. 

298 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Says the Son to the Guide : 

I will go down to my Father, 

For he cannot live without me. 

He sighs and calls aloud for me. 

And the Guide makes answer to the Son : 
I will not let thee go alone ; 

From thy Father's bosom I brought thee forth, 
I will also take thee back again, 

'That he may rejoice again and live. 

This strength will we give unto him. 

So both arose without delay, 

And returned to the Father's house. 
When the Father saw his Son coming, 
He cried aloud, and said :— 

THE BDOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 299 
FIGURE XII. 

ANOTHER MOUNTAIN OF INDIA LIES IN THE VESSEL, 

WIIGEE LEBBE- SBIRIT ANJILTEBE SOUL—- 
THAT IS, THE SON AND THE GUIDE—HAVE CLIMBED. 

2 

m gs 

I 

* * A 

300 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

My Son, I was dead without thee, 

And lived in great danger of my life. 

I revive at thy return, 

And it fills my breast with joy. 

But when the Son entered the Father's house, 
'The Father took him to his heart, 

And swallowed him out of excessive joy, 
And that with his own mouth. 

'The great exertion makes the Father sweat. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 3OI 

FIGURE XIII. 

HERE THE FATHER DEVOURS THE SON ; 
THE SOUL AND SPIRIT FLOW FORTH FROM THE BODY. 

- CPU 
ANE ios 

SE i 

NS 
j 

siempre rorum ana 

302 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Here the Father sweats on account of the Son, 
And earnestly beseeches God, 

Who has everything in His hands, 

Who creates, and has created all things, 

To bring forth his Son from his body, 

And to restore him to his former life. 

God hearkens to his prayers, 

And bids the Father lie down and sleep. 

'Then God sends down rain from heaven 

To the earth from the shining stars. 

It was a fertilizing, silver rain, 

Which bedewed and softened the Father's Body. 
Succour us, Lord, at the end, 

That we may obtain Thy gracious Gift ! 

SEONSSRRESERSESSRSDS 

ASNSNSNNSSSSNISNSENSSRNINU 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 

PIGUREBE XIV. 

HERE THE FATHER SWEATS PROFUSELY, 
WHILE OIL AND THE TRUE TINCTURE 
OF THE SAGES FLOW FORTH FROM HIM. 

z—— — A 
T EE 

pl 

2 

99 

304 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The sleeping Father is here changed 
Entirely into limpid water, 

And by virtue of this water alone 

'The good work is accomplished. 

"There is now a glorified and beautiful Father, 
And he brings forth a new Son. 

'The Son ever remains in the Father, 

And the Father in the Son. 

Thus in divers things 

'They produce untold, precious fruit. 

They perish never. more, 

And laugh at death. 

By the grace of God they abide for ever, 

'The Father and the Son, triumphing gloriously 
In the splendour of their new Kingdom. 
Upon one throne they sit, 

And the face of the Ancient Master 

Is straightway seen between them : 

He is arrayed in a crimson robe. 

THE BOOK OF LAMBSPRING. 

FIGURE XV. 

HERE FATHER AND SON ARE JOINED IN ONE, 
SO TO REMAIN FOR EVER. 

305 

o6 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

d COST EIBESESISNBVERSITEDSIIE SKIING: 
OF 
TESETSIS VA SRSIPEIDE 
TO 

IBOEISE OS OUNSIAYAEUTURSUEEESASNEI)NOUISVIBIVIKOSSSMIRAMID 

(Er (EID) 

BE 

IDSSVAGISSSERASNBIDR GP OBSS VE 
NOW 

AND 

IJSVEESRSVIOBNRSER 
AMEN. 

TEUER COGQUEIDPUNETPSTPOTS 

OR, 

THREE CHOICE CHEMICAL TRACTS, 

NAMELY : 

(i) That of BASILIUS VALENTINUS, a Monk of the 
Benedictine Order; called PRACTICA, with twelve 

Keys and an Appendix. 

aD mbe CREIDIE MIHI of Ordina of "PEKONAS 
NORTON, an English Sage. 

(iii) The TESTAMENT of a certain CREMER, Abbot of 
WESTMINSTER. 

EDITED BY 

MICHAEL MAIER, 

DOCTOR OF MEDICINE. 

- 1 ML k 

M» 

j 
ccm 

INS CIRUB ED 
TO 

THE MOST LEARNED AND HUMANE OF PHYSICIANS, THE 
TRUEST, SINCEREST, NOBLEST, AND MOST 

ACCOMPLISHED OF HIS KIND, 

JO N UPARTNMUANON OEYJIERA 
M.D., 
A RENOWNED PHYSICIAN AND COUNCILLOR OF THE IMPERIAL 

FREE CITY, FRANCFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, 

bY 
IMEINGOEISAUBUD MCAGY BURG 

M.D., PH.D; COUNT PALATINE, KNIGHT, AND FORMERLY 

COURT PHYSICIAN TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY. 

Being placed in the thick of the struggle between the fol- 
lowers of Dogmatic and Hermetic Medicine, I thought it would 
throw great and unexpected light on the subject of this contro- 
versy, if I published in the Latin tongue the three great classical 
Tracts bearing upon the matter, viz., that of the Benedictine Monk 
BASILIUS VALENTINUS, and those of the two great 
English Sages NORTON and CREMER. This Triad of Tracts 

Quo IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 
I have ventured to call the GOLDEN TRIPOD, and the name 

suggests to me, as appropriate to our controversy, the answer 
returned to the enquiring Ionians by the priestess of Delphi : 

*'l'he feud between the Meropes and the Ionians " 
"will not cease until the Golden Tripod, which" 
* Vulcan cast into the sea, be brought into the" 
*house of the man who knows the things that " 
* are, that were, and that are to come." 

Thus I believe our controversy, too, may be determined, if I 
dedicate zzy golden Tripod to the most learned of modern 
physicians. For, as Homer says, * A physician is worth many or- 
dinary men," and if I searched through the whole of Germany, nay, 
Europe, I could not find a fitter person than him who is set upon 
the lofty tower of world-wide celebrity, and whose skill is admired 
and courted far and wide by princes and nobles. Accept, then, 
this GOLDEN TRIPOD, forged by the hands of the Hermetic 
Vulcan. Value it as a token of affection and esteem, as well as 
because of its inward worth. I firmly trust that it will assuage 
the feud between the adherents of Dogmatic and of Hermetic 
Medicine, as its namesake of old did that between the Meropes 
and Ionians ; and that it will establish amity and concord among 
physicians of both schools. In order that its beneficial influence 
might be as widely spread as possible, I have set it forth in the 
common language of European scholars. In conclusion, let me 
pray you to love me, even as I love you—as I also know that 
you do. 

Written at Francfort-on-the-Main in the month of 
January, 1618. 

IIT) 

Fue RC 

WITH TWELVE KEYS, AND AN APPENDIX THERETO, 

CONCERNING 

"A^EILE GREAT STONE Ob IPmE 
ANCIENT SAGES. 

BY 
BASSINS "VOAJTLISN DIN S; 

A MONK OF THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 

PIRST TRACI. 

AN EPIGRAM 

UPON 

STO TRES IAS A OTIO AEN) SEIS P ANS TENTI E 

BY 

TVIBIK OU ETIPASISSIPESVIOASIBEISISSS 

* Pactolus contains not such great treasures ; " 
*nor does gold-bearing Hebrus roll down such " 
* precious things in its golden sand, as Valentine " 
*scatters abroad in this one book. Here is" 
*greater wealth than all the riches of the Inds." 
* For he bore away the golden fruit from the" 
* Hesperian garden, and blessed with them fair" 
"Germany's fields. | He bore away the golden " 
* fleece from Colchis, and gave it to us by mighty " 
*toi. | And when at length he sank into the" 
*tomb, he left us his royal Treasure to enjoy." 
* Here is something for you to admire and" 
"imitate. Only seek it at the bottom of the" 
* vessel,or you will wander astray. All things " 
* are one, though they be described under various " 
*names. Let this suffice thee; seek not many " 
*utensils for thy labour. If thou knowest the" 
*substance and the method, it is enough, and " 
*thou knowest all." 

e 
cf IN 

THES PREFASCE 

OF 
BASILIUS VALENTINUS, THE BENEDICTINE, 

CONCERNING 

TUUS  (GURIDAT. STONE OP TEE 
ZUNCUE NA -- SIANGUBIS:

/ suffering, I was led to consider the wretchedness 

n of this world, and the fearful consequences of our 

first parents' disobedience. Then I saw that there 

was no hope of repentance for mankind, that they were getting 

worse day by day, and that for their impenitence God's ever- 

lasting punishment was hanging over them ; and I made haste 

to withdraw myself from the evil world, to bid farewell to it, 
and to devote myself to the service of God. 

When I had spent some years at the monastery, I found 
that after I had performed my work and my daily devotions 
I still had some time on my hands. — This I did not wish to pass 
in idleness,lest my evil thoughts should lead me into new sins; 
and so I determined to use it for the study and investigation of 
those natural secrets by which God has shadowed out eternal 
things. So I read a great many books in our monastery written 
in olden times by philosophers who had pursued the same study, 
and was thereby stimulated to a more ardent desire of knowing 
that which they also knew. Though I did not make much 
progress at first, yet at last God granted my earnest prayer, and 
opened my eyes that I might see what others had seen 
before me. 

314 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

In the convent there was a brother, who was afflicted with 
a severe disease of the kidneys, and to whom none of the many 
physicians he had consulted had been able to give even mo- 
mentary relief. So he had committed himself to the hand of 
God, and despaired of all human aid. 

As I loved him, I gathered all manner of herbs, extracted 
their salts, and distilled various medicines. But none of them 
seemed to do him the slightest good, and after six years I found 
that I had tried every possible vegetable substance, without any 
beneficial effect. 

It last I determined to devote myself to the study of the 
' powers and virtues which God has laid into metals and minerals ; 
and the more I searched the more I found. One discovery led 
to another, and, after God had permitted unto me many experi- 
ments, I understood clearly the nature and properties, and the 
secret potency, imparted by God to minerals and metals. 

Among the mineral substances I found one which exhibited 
many colours, and proved to be of the greatest efficacy in art. 
"The spiritual essence of this substance I extracted, and therewith 
restored our sick brother, in a few days, to perfect health. For 
the strength of this spirit was so great as to quicken the prostrate 
spirit of my diseased brother, who, from that day to the day of 
his death, remembered me in his hourly prayers. And his prayers, 
together with my own diligence, so prevailed with God, that 
there was revealed to me that great secret which God ever con- 
ceals from those who are wise in their own conceits. 

Thus have I been wishing to reveal to you in this treatise, as 
far as may be lawful to me, the Stone of the Ancients, that you, 
too, might possess the knowledge of this highest of earthly treas- 
ures for your health and comfort in this valley of sorrow. I write 
about it, not for my own good, but for that of posterity ; and 
though my words be few and simple, that which they import is 
of immeasurable magnitude. Ponder them well, that you also 
may find the Rock which is the foundation Stone of truth, the 
temporal blessing, and the eternal reward. 

PODES OP OANCUM, 
OF 

BASILIUS VALENTINUS, THE BENEDICTINE, 
CONCERNING 

SERES CGIRIBSCACT SITONUES- QUE "DERE 
ANCIENT SAGES. 

N the preface, gentle Reader, and zealous Student of this 
Art, I promised to communicate to you a knowledge of 
our Corner Stone, or Rock, of the process by which it is 
prepared, and of the substance from which it was already 
derived by those ancient Sages, to whom the secret of our Art 
was first revealed by God for the health and happiness of earthly 
life. Let me assure you that I fully intend to fulfil my promise, 
and to be as plain with you as the rules of our Art permit, not mis- 
leading you by sophistical deceptions, but opening up to you the 
spring of all blessings even unto the fountain head. I propose 
to set forth what I have to say in a few simple, straightforward 
words, for I am no adept in the art of multiplying words; nor 
do I think that exuberance of language tends to clearness ; on 
the contrary, I am convinced that it is many words that darken 
council. 

Let me tell you, then, that although many are engaged in 
the search after this Stone, it is nevertheless found but by very 
few. For God never intended that it should become generally 
known. [It is rather to be regarded as a gift which He reserves 
for those favoured few, who love the truth, and hate falsehood, who 
study our Art earnestly by day and by night, and whose hearts 
are set upon God with an unfeigned affection. 

316 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Hence, if you would prepare our great and ancient Stone, 
I testify unto you in all truth that you must give diligent heed to 
my teaching, and before all things implore the gracious blessing 
of the Creator of all things. You must also truly repent you of 
all your sins, confessing. the same, and firmly resolve to lead 
a good and holy life. It is also necessary that you should 
determine to shew your gratitude to God for His unspeakable 
Gift, by succouring the poorandthe distressed,and by opening your 
hand and your heart to the needy. Then God will bless your 
labour, and reward your search with success, and yourself with 
a seat in Heaven as the fruit of your faith. 

Do not despise the truthful writings of those who 
possessed the Stone beforeus. For, after the enlightening grace 
of God, it is from them that I received my knowledge. Let 
your study of them be increased and repeated often, lest you 
lose the thread of insight, and the lamp of understanding be 
extinguished. 

Give yourself wholly to study, and be not flighty or double- 
minded. Let your mind be like a firm Rock,in which all the 
various sayings of the Sages are reduced to the unity of their 
common meaning. For a man who is easily influenced in 
different directions is not likely to find the right path. 

As our most ancient Stone is not derived from combustible 
things, you should cease to seek it in substances which cannot 
stand the test of fire. For this reason it is absurd to suppose 
that we can make any use of vegetable substances, though the 
Stone, too, is endowed with a principle of growth. 

If our Stone were a vegetable substance, it would, like 
other vegetables, be consumed by fire, leaving only a certain 
salt. Ancient writers have, indeed, described our Stone as the 
vegetable Stone. But that name was suggested to them by the 
fact that it grows and increases in size, like a plant. 

Know also that animals only multiply after their kind, and 
within their own species. Hence our Stone can only be pre- 
pared out of its own seed, from which it was taken in the 
beginning ; and hence also you will perceive that the soul of an 
animal must not be the subject of this investigation. Animals 
are a class by themselves; nor can anything ever be obtained 
from them that is not animal in its nature. But our Stone, as it 

ALI 

JICHE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 317 

has been bequeathed to me by the Ancients, is derived from 
two things, and one thing, in which is concealed a third thing. 
This is the purest truth, and a most faithful saying. ^ For 
male and female have from of old been. regarded as one body, 
not from any external or visible consideration, but on account 
of the ardour of that mutual love which naturally draws them 
together into one; and as the male and female seed jointly 
represent the principle of propagation, so also the sperm of the 
matter out of which our Stone is made can be sown and 
increased. There are in our substance two supplementary kinds 
of seed, from which our Stone may be prepared and multiplied. 

If you are a true lover of our Art, you will carefully 
weigh and ponder these words, lest, with other sophisticators, 
you fall into the dangerous pit prepared by the common enemy 
of man. 

But whence are you to obtain this seed? This question 
you may most easily answer by asking yourself another question. 
What do you want to develop from this seed, and what use do 
you wish to make of it? "There can be no doubt, then, that 
it must be the root, or first substance, of metals, from which all 
metals derive their origin. It is, therefore, necessary that we 
should now proceed to speak of the generation of the metals. 

In the beginning, when the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters, and as yet all was involved in darkness, 
Almighty and Eternal God, Whose beginning and wisdom are 
from everlasting, by His inscrutable counsel created heaven and 
earth, and all that in them is, both visible and invisible, out 
of nothing. How theact of creation was accomplished I will not 
attempt to explain. "This is a matter which is set forth to us 
in Holy Scripture, and must be apprehended by faith. 

To each creature God gave its own seed, wherewith to 
propagate its kind, that in this way there might always be an 
increase of men and animals, plants and metals. Man was not 
to be able to produce zew seed : he was only permitted to educe 
new forms of life out of that which already existed. — The creat- 
ing of seed God reserved to Himself. For if man could create 
seed he would be equal to the Creator. 

Know that our seed is produced in the following way. A 
celestial influence descends from above, by the decree and 

318 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

ordinance of God, and mingles with the astral properties. 
When this union has taken place, the two bring forth a third, 
namely, an earth-like substance, which is the principle of our 
seed, of its first source, so that it can shew an ancestry, and from 
which three the elements, such as water, air, and earth, take their 
origin. These elements work underground in the form of fire, 
and there produce what Hermes, and all who have preceded me, 
call the three first principles, viz., the internal soul, the impalpable 
spirit, and visible bodies, beyond which we can find no earlier 
beginning of our Magistery. 

In the course of time these three unite, and are changed 
through the action of fire into a palpable substance, viz., quick- 
silver, sulphur, and salt. If these three substances be mixed, 
they are hardened and coagulated into a perfect body, which 
represents the seed chosen and appointed by the Creator. "This 
is a most important and certain truth. If the metallic soul, the 
metallic spirit, and the metallic /o777 of body be present, there 
will also be metallic quicksilver, metallic sulphur, and metallic 
salt, which together make up the perfect metallic body. 

If you cannot perceive what you ought to understand 
herein, you should not devote yourself to the study of philosophy. 

Moreover, I tell you in few words, that you cannot obtain a 
metallic body except by perfectly joining these three principles 
into one. Know, also, that all animals are, like man, composed 
of flesh and blood, and also possess a vitalizing spirit, but are 
destitute of the rational soul which the Creator gave to man alone. 
Therefore, when animals die, they perish for ever. But when 
man yields up his mortal life into the hands of his Creator, his 
soul does not die. It returns, and is united to the glorified body, 
ia which, after the Resurrection, soul and spirit dwell together 
once more in eternal glory, never to be separated again through- 
out all eternity. 

Hence the rational soul of man makes him an abiding 
creature, and, though his body may seem to die, yet we know 
that he will live for ever. For to him death is only a process of 
purification, by means of which he is freed from his sins, and 
translated to another and better place. Butthere is no resurrection 
for the brute beasts, because they have no rational soul, for which 
alone our Lord and Saviour shed His blood. 

QUEE) NEQUEAT RATUP QU. 319 

For though a body may be vitalized by a spirit, yet it need 
not, therefore, be fixed, unless, indeed, it possess a rational soul, 
that strong bond between body and spirit, which represents their 
union, and resists all efforts to separate them. — Where there is 
no soul, there is no hope:of redemption. Nothing can be perfect 
or lasting withoutasoul. Thisisa profound and most important 
truth, which I feel in conscience bound to make known to my 
readers. Now, the spirits of metals have this property of fixed- 
ness in a greater or less degree ; they are more or less volatile in 
proportion to the mutual fitness of their bodies and souls. A 
metal that has the three conditions of fixedness is not affected 
by fire or overcome by any other outward agent. But there is 
only oze metal that fulfils these conditions, namely, gold. Silver 
also contains fixed mercury, and is not so quickly volatilised as 
the imperfect metals, but stands the trial of fire, and yields no 
food to voracious Saturn. 

Amatory Venus is clothed with abundant colour, and her 
whole body is one pure tincture, not unlike the red colour which 
is found in the most precious of metals. But though her spirit 
is of good quality, her body is leprous, and affords no permanent 
substratum to the fixed tincture. Hence the soul has to share 
the fate of the imperfect body, and when the body dies the soul 
has to leave it. For its dwelling has been destroyed by fire, and 
it is without a house wherein to abide. 

Fixed salt has imparted to warlike Mars a hard, firm, and 
durable body, which is evidence of the generosity of his soul ; nor 
can fire be said to have much power over it. And if its strength 
be united to the beauty of Venus, I do not say but that a precious 
and harmonious result may be obtained. For the phlegmatic or 
humid quality of the Moon may be heated with the ardent blood 
of Venus, and the blackness of Venus removed with the strong 
salt of Mars. 

You need not look for our metallic seed among the elements. 
It need not be sought so far back. If you can only rectify the 
Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt (understand, those of the Sages) until 
the metallic spirit and body are inseparably joined together by 
means ofthe metallic soul, you thereby firmly rivet the chain of 
love, and prepare the palace for the coronation. 

These things represent a liquid key, comparable to the 

320 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

celestial influence, and a dry water joined to the terrestrial sub- 
stance : all which are oze thing, derived from three, and two, and 
one. [f you understand this, you have already attained our 
Magistery. Then you must join the husband and wife together, 
that each may feed upon the other's flesh and blood, and that so 
they may propagate their species a thousandfold. 

Though I would fain reveal this matter to you more 
plainly and openly, I am prohibited from doing so by the law of 
God, and by the fear of His wrath, and of eternal punishment, 
lest the gift of the Most High should be abused. 

I: however, you do not understand the theoretical part of 
my work, perhaps the practical part will serve to enlighten you 
more fully. I will therefore proceed to shew how, by the help of 
God, I was enabled to prepare the Stone of the Ancients, and, 
for your further instruction, I will add twelve keys, in which I 
give a figurative account of our Art. 

Take a quantity of the best and. finest gold, and separate it 
into its component parts by those media which Nature vouchsafes 
to those who are lovers of Art,as an anatomist dissects the 
human body. Thus change your gold back into what it 
was before it became gold ; and thou shalt find the seed, the 
beginning, the middle, and the end—that from which our go/Z 
and its female principle are derived, viz, the pure and subtle 
spirit, the spotless soul, and the astral salt and balsam. When 
these three are united, we may call them the mercurial liquid : a 
water which was examined by Mercury, found by him to be 
pure and spotless, and therefore espoused by him as his wife. 
Of the two was born an incombustible oil; for Mercury be- 
came so proud that he hardly knew himself. He put forth eagle 
feathers, and devoured the slippery tail of the Dragon, and 
challenged Mars to battle. 

Then Mars summoned his horsemen, and bade them enclose 
Mercury in prison under the ward of Vulcan, until he should be 
liberated by one of the female sex. 

When this became known, the other Planets assembled 
and held a deliberation on the question, what would be the 
best and wisest course to adopt When they were met 
together, Saturn first came. forward, and delivered himself as 
follows : 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 321 

* [, Saturn, the greatest of the planets in the firmament, 
declare here before you all,that I am the meanest and most 
unprofitable of all that are here present, that my body is weak, 
corruptible, and of a swarthy hue, but that, nevertheless, it is I 
that try you all For having nothing that is fixed about me, 
I carry away with me all that is of a kindred nature. My 
wretchedness is entirely caused by that fickle and inconstant 
Mercury, by his careless and neglectful conduct. Therefore, I 
pray you, let us be avenged on him, shut him up in prison, and 
keep him there till he dies and is decomposed, nay, until not a 
drop of his blood is to be seen." 

Then yellow Jupiter stepped forward, bent his knees, in- 
clined his sceptre, and with great authority bade them carry out 
the demand of Saturn. He added that he would punish every- 
one who did not aid the execution of this sentence. 

Then Mars presented himself, with sword drawn—a sword 
that shone with many colours, and gave out a beautiful and 
unwonted splendour. This sword he gave to the warder Vulcan, 
and bade him slay Mercury, and burn him, together with his 
bones, to ashes. "This Vulcan consented to do. 

While he was executing his office, there appeared a beautiful 
lady in a long, silver robe, intertissued with many waters, who 
was immediately recognised as the. Moon, the wife of the Sun. 
She fell on her knees, and with outspread hands, and flowing 
tears, besought them to liberate her husband—the Sun—from 
the prison in which, through the crafty wiles of Mercury, he was 
being detained by the Planets. But Vulcan refused to listen to 
her request ; nor was he softened by the moving prayers of Lady 
Venus, who appeared in a crimson robe, intertissued with threads 
of green, and charmed all by the beauty of her countenance and 
the fragrance of the flowers which she bore in her hand. She 
interceded with Vulcan, the Judge, in the Chaldee tongue, and 
reminded him that a woman was to effect the deliverance of the 
prisoner. But even to her pleading he turned a deaf ear. 

While they were still speaking the heaven was opened, and 
there came forth a mighty animal, with many thousands of young 
ones, which drove the warder before it, and opening its mouth 
wide, swallowed Venus, its fair helper, at the same time exclaim- 
ing with a loud voice: *I am born of woman, woman has 

M 

322 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

propagated my seed, and therewith filled the earth. Her soul is 
devoted to mine, and therefore I must be nourished with her 
blood" When the animal had said these words with a loud 
voice, it hastened into a certain chamber, and shut the door 
behind it; whither its voracious brood followed, drinking of the 
aforesaid incombustible oil, which they digested with the greatest 
ease, and thereby became even more numerous than they had 
been before. This they continued to do until they filled the 
whole world. 

Then the learned. men of that country were gathered 
together, and strove to discover the true interpretation of all they 
had seen. But they were unable to agree until there came for- 
ward a man of venerable age, with snowy locks and silvery 
beard, and arrayed in a flowing purple robe. On his head he 
wore a crown set with brilliant carbuncles. His loins were 
girded with the girdle of life. His feet were bare, and his words 
penetrated to the depth of the human soul He mounted the 
tribune, and bade the assembly listen to him in silence, since he 
was sent from above to explain to them the significance of what 
they had seen. 

When perfectsilence prevailed,he delivered hrmself as follows : 

. * Awake, O man, and behold the light,lest the darkness 
deceive thee! "The Gods revealed to me this matter in a profound 
sleep. Happy is the man who knows the great works of the 
Divine power. Blessed is he whose eyes are opened to behold 
light where before they saw darkness. 

* ''wo Stars are given by the Gods to man to lead him to 
great wisdom. —Gaze steadily upon them, follow their lights, and 
you will find in them the secret of knowledge. 

** The bird Phaeenix, from the south, plucks out the heart of 
the mighty beast from the east. Give the animal from the east 
wings, that it may be on an equality with the bird from the 
south. Forthe animal from the east must be deprived of its 
lion's skin, and lose its wings. Then it must plunge in the salt 
water of the vast ocean, and emerge thence in renovated 
beauty. Plunge thy volatile spirits in a deep spring whose 
waters never fail, that they may become like their mother, who 
is hidden therein, and born of three. 

* Hungary is my native land, the sky and the stars are my 

—2 8 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD 323 

habitation, the earth is my spouse. Though I must die and be 
buried, yet Vulcan causes me to be born anew. Therefore, Hun- 
gary is my native land, and my mother encloses the whole world." 

When all that were present had received these his sayings, 
he thus continued : 

* Cause that which is above to be below; that which is 
visible, to be invisible ; and that which is palpable, to become 
impalpable. Again, let that which is below become that which is 
above; let the invisible become visible, and the impalpable, 
palpable. Here you see the perfection of our Art, without any 
defect, or diminution. . But that in which death and life, 
destruction and resurrection dwell, is a round sphere, with 
which the goddess of fortune drives her chariot, and imparts 
the gift of wisdom to men of God. Its proper name here upon 
earth, and for the human understanding, is * All-in- All." 

* Let him who would know what this *All-in-AII' is, give the 
earth great wings, and make it fly upward through the air to the 
heavenly regions. Then singe its wings with fierce heat, and 
make it fall into the Red Sea, and there be drowned. "Then dry 
up the water with fire and air till the earth reappears, and you 
will have * All-in-A1l.' 

* [f you cannot find it in this way, look around upon the 
things that are in the world. "Then you will find the * All-in- All, 
which is the attracting force of all metals and minerals derived 
from salt and sulphur, and twice born of Mercury. More I may 
not say about * All-in-All,' since all is comprehended in all. 

* My friends, blessed are ye if, by listening tothe wcrds of 
the wise, ye can find this great Stone, which has power to cure 
leprous and imperfect metallic bodies and to regenerate them ; 
to preserve men in health, and procure for them a long life— 
as it has hitherto kept the vital fire burning within me so long 
that [ am weary of life, and yearn to die. 

" For His wisdom and mercy, and for the gracious Gift which 
He has bestowed upon me so long ago, [ am bound to render 
God thanks, now and evermore. Amen." 

When the old man had thus spoken, he vanished from 
their sight. 

But all who had heard him went each man to his house, 
and meditated on his words by day and by night. 

Y2 

324 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

HERE FOLLOW 

TEES SISVVAEPTO VAT SSTSGTDN AS 

OF 
BASSBIEDUS OVANISENUIBINUUSASBEUBEASBEN!ESIO TS UUNIBS 

WITH WHICH WE MAY OPEN 

THE DOORS OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
MOST ANCIENT STONE, 

AND UNSEAL 

THE MOST SECRET FOUNTAIN OF HEALTH: 

INIRSU KEV 

, 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 325 

Let my friend know that no impure or spotted things are 
useful for our purpose. For there is nothing in their leprous 
nature capable of advancing the interests of our Art. "There is 
much more likelihood of that which is in itself good being spoiled 
by that which is impure. Everything that is obtained from the 
mines has its value, unless, indeed, it is adulterated.  Adultera- 
tion, however, spoils its goodness and its efficacy. 

As the physician purges and cleanses the inward parts of 
the body, and removes all unhealthy matter by means of his 
medicines, so our metallic substances must be purified and refined 
of all foreign matter, in order to ensure the success of our task. 
Therefore, our Masters require a pure, immaculate body, that is 
untainted with any foreign admixture, which admixture is the 
leprosy of our metals. 

Let the diadem of the King be of pure gold, and let the 
Queen that is united to him in wedlock be chaste and immaculate. 

If you would operate by means of our bodies,take a fierce grey 
wolf, which, though on account of its name it be subject to the sway 
of warlike Mars, is by birth the offspring of ancient Saturn, and 
is found in the valleys and mountains of the world,where he roams 
about savage with hunger. Cast to him the body of the King, 
and when he has devoured it, burn him entirely to ashes in a 
great fire. By this process the King will be liberated ; and when 
it has been performed thrice the Lion has overcome the wolf, and 
will nd nothing more to devour in him. "Thus our Body has 
been rendered fit for the first stage of our work. 

Know that this is the only right and legitimate way of puri- 
fying our substance : for the Lion purifies himself with the blood 
of the wolf, and the tincture of its blood agrees most wonderfully 
with the tincture of the Lion, seeing that the two liquids are 
closely akin to each other. When the Lion's hunger is appeased, 
his spirit becomes more powerful than before, and his eyes glitter 
like the Sun. His internal essence is now of inestimable value 
for the removing of all defects, and the healing of all diseases. 
He is pursued by the ten lepers, who desire to drink his blood ; 
and all that are tormented with any kind of sickness are refreshed 
with this blood. 

For whoever drinks of this golden fountain, experiences a 
renovation of his whole nature, a vanishing of all unhealthy 

326 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

matter, a fresh supply of blood, a strengthening of the heart and 
of all the vitals, and a permanent bracing of every limb. For it 
opens all the pores, and through them bears away all that pre- 
vents the perfect health of the body, but allows all that is bene- 
ficial to remain therein unmolested. 

But let my friend be scrupulously careful to preserve the 
fountain of life limpid and clear. If any strange water be mixed 
with it, it is spoiled, and becomes positively injurious. If it still 
retain any of the solvent which has been used for its dissolution, 
you must carefully purge it off. For no corrosive can be of the 
least use for the prevention of internal diseases. 

When a tree is found to bear sour and unwholesome fruit, 
its branches must be cut off, and scions of better trees grafted 
uponit. Thenew branches thereupon become organically united 
to the trunk ; but though nourished with its sap, they thence- 
forward produce good and pleasant fruit. 

The King travels through six regions in the heavenly firma- 
ment, and in the seventh he fixes his abode. There the royal 
palace is adorned with golden tapestry. lf you understand my 
meaning, this Key will open the first lock, and push back the 
first bolt; but if you do not, no spectacles or natural eyesight 
will enable you to understand whatfollows. But Lucius Papirius 
has instructed me not to say any more abóut this Key. 

THE GOLDEN TKRIPOD. 327 
SECOND XKEY. 

In the houses of the great are found various kinds of drink, 
of which scarcely two are exactly like each other in odour, 
colour, or taste. For they are prepared in a great variety of 
different ways. Nevertheless they are all drunk, and each is 
designed for its own special use. 

When the Sun gives out his rays, and sheds them abroad 
upon the clouds, it is commonly said that he is attracting water, 
and if he do it frequently, and thereby cause rain, it is called a 
fruitful year. 

If it be intended to build a palace, the services of many 
different craftsmen must be employed, and a great variety of 
materials is required. Otherwise the palace would not be worthy 
the name. It is useless to use wood where stone is necessary. 

'The daily ebb and flow of the sea, which are caused by the 
sympathetic influence of heavenly bodies, impart great wealth 
and blessing to the earth. For whenever the water comes 
rolling back, it brings a blessing with it. 

328 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

A bride, when she is to be brought forth to be married, is 
gloriously adorned in a great variety of precious garments, 
which, by enhancing her beauty, render her pleasant in the eyes 
of the bridegroom. But the rites of the bridal night she 
performs without anv clothing but that which she was arrayed 
withal at the moment of her birth. 

In the same way our bridal pair, Apollo and Diana, are 
arrayed in splendid attire, and their heads and bodies are 
washed with various kinds of water, some strong, some weak, 
but not one of them exactly like another, and each designed for 
its own special purpose. Know that when the moisture of the 
earth ascends in the form of a vapour, it is condensed in the 
upper regions, and precipitated to the earth by its own weight. 
Thus the earth regains the moisture of which it had been 
deprived, and receives strength to put forth buds and herbs. 
In the same way you must repeatedly distil the water which you 
have extracted from the earth, and then again restore it to your 
earth, as the water in the Strait of Euripus frequently leaves the 
shore, and then covers it again until it arrives at a certain 
limit. 

When thus the palace has been constructed by the hands of 
many craftsmen, and the sea of glass has absolved its course, and 
filled the palace with good things, it is ready for the King to 
enter, and take his seat upon the throne. 

But you should notice that the King and his spouse must be 
quite naked when they are joined together They must be 
stripped of all their glorious apparel, and must lie down together 
in the same state of nakedness in which they were born, that 
their seed may not be spoiled by being mixed with any foreign 
matter. 

Let me tell you, in conclusion, that the bath in which the 
bridegroom is placed, must consist of two hostile kinds of 
matter, that purge and rectify each other by means of a con- 
tinued struggle. For itis not good for the Eagle to build her 
nest on the summit of the Alps, because her young ones are 
thus in great danger of being frozen to death by the intense cold 
that prevails there. 

But if you add to the Eagle the icy Dragon that has long 
had its habitation upon the rocks, and has crawled forth from 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 329 

the caverns of the earth, and place both over the fire, it will elicit 
from the icy Dragon a fiery spirit, which, by means of its great 
heat, will consume the wings of the Eagle, and prepare a per- 
spiring bath of so extraordinary a degree of heat that the snow 
will melt upon the summit of the mountains, and become a water, 
with which the invigorating mineral bath may be prepared, and 
fortune, health, life, and strength restored to the King. 

SIRERSRSID S T ESEE VA 

Atelfl! 

(UN 
VA » 
i 

By means of water fire may be extinguished, and utterly 
quenched. If much water be poured upon a little fire, the fire 
is overcome, and compelled to yield up the victory to the water. 
In the same way our fiery sulphur must be overcome by means 
of our prepared water. But,after the water has vanished, the 
fiery life of our sulphurous vapour must triumph, and again 
obtain the victory. But no such triumph can take place unless 
the King imparts great strength and potency to his water, and 
tinges it with his own colour, that thereby he may be consumed 

OI IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

and become invisible, and then again recover his visible form, 
with a diminution of his símple essence, and a development of 
his perfection. 

A painter can set yellow upon white, and red or crimson 
upon yellow ; for, though all these colours are present, yet the 
latter prevails on account of its greater intensity. When you 
have accomplished the same thing in our Art, you have before 
your eyes the light of wisdom, which shines in the darkness, 
although it does not burn. For our sulphur does not burn, but 
nevertheless its brilliancy is seen far and near. Nor does it 
colour anything until it has been prepared, and dyed with its 
own colour, which it then imparts to all weak and imperfect 
metals. This sulphur, however, cannot impart this colour until 
it have first by persevering labour been prevailed upon to abjure 
its original colour. For the weaker does not overcome the 
stronger, but has to yield the victory to it. The gist of the 
whole matter lies in the fact that the small and weak cannot aid 
that which is itself small and weak, and a combustible substance 
cannot shield another substance from combustion. "That which 
isto protect another substance against combustion must itself 
be safe from danger. The latter must be stronger than the 
former, that is to say, it must itself be essentially incombustible. 
He,then, who would prepare the incombustible sulphur of the 
Sages, must look for our sulphur in a substance in which it is 
incombustible—which can only be after its body has been 
absorbed by the salt sea, and again rejected by it. Then it 
must be so exalted as to shine more brightly than all the stars 
of heaven, and in its essence it must have an abundance of blood, 
like the Pelican, which wounds its own breast, and, without any 
diminution of its strength, nourishes and rears up many young 
ones with its blood. "This Tincture is the Rose of our Masters, 
of purple hue, called also the red blood of the Dragon, or the 
purple cloak many times folded with which the Qucen of Salva- 
tion is covered, and by which all metals are regenerated in colour. 

Carefully preserve this splendid mantle, together with the 
astral salt which is joined to this sulphur, and screens it from 
harm. Add to it a sufficient quantity of the volatility of the 
bird; then the Cock will swallow the Fox, and, having been 
drowned in the water, and quickened by the fire, will in its turn 
be swallowed by the Fox. 

—M"— MOL 

0 

en e ma 
| NER 

2 x 

—— - m 

AII flesh that is derived from the earth, must be decomposed 
and again reduced to earth ; then the earthy salt produces a new 
generation by celestial resuscitation. For where there was not 
first earth, there can be no resurrection in our Magistery. For 
in earth is the balm of Nature, and the salt of the Sages. 

At the end of the world, the world shall be judged by fire, 
and all those things that God has made of nothing shall by 
fire be reduced to ashes, from which ashes the Phoenix is to 
produce her young. For in the ashes slumbers a true and 
genuine tartaric substance, which, being dissolved, will enable us 
to open the strongest bolt of the royal chamber. 

After the conflagration, there shall be formed a new heaven 
and a new earth, and the new man will be more noble in his 
glorified state than he was before. 

When the sand and ashes have been well matured and 
ripened with fire, the glass-blower makes out of it glass, which. 
remains hard and firm in the fire, and in colour resembles a 
crystal stone. To the uninitiated this is a great mystery, but 
not to the master whom long experience has familiarized with 
the process. 

332 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Out of stones the master also prepares lime by burning, 
which is very useful for our work. — But before they are prepared 
with fire, they are mere stones. The stone must be matured 
and rendered fervent with fire, and then it becomes so potent 
that few things are to be compared to the fiery spirit of lime. 

By burning anythiny; to ashes you may gain itssalt. Ifin this 
dissolution the sulphur and mercury be kept apart, and restored 
to its salt, you may once more obtain that form which was 
destroyed by the process of combustion. This assertion the 
wise of this world denounce as the greatest folly, and count as a 
rebellion, saying that such a transformation would amount to a 
new creation, and that God has denied such creative power to 
sinful man. But the folly is all on their side. For they do not 
understand that our Artist does not claim to create anything, 
but only to evolve new things from the seed made ready to his 
hand by the Creator. 

If you do not possess the ashes, you will be unable to obtain 
our salt ; and without our salt you will not be able to impart to 
our substance a bodily form ; for the coagulation of all things is 
produced by salt alone. 

As salt is the great preserving principle that protects all 
things from decay, so the Salt of our Magistery preserves metal 
from decomposition and utter annihilation. If their Balm were 
to perish, and the Spirit to leave the body, the body would be 
quite dead, and no longer available for any good purpose. The 
metallic spirit would have departed, and would have left its habi- 
tation empty, bare, and lifeless. 

Observe also, thou who art a lover of this Art, that the salt 
that is gained from ashes has great potency, and possesses many 
concealed virtues. Nevertheless, the salt is unprofitable, until its 
inward substance has been extracted. For the spirit alone gives 
strength and life. The body by itself profits nothing. If you 
know how to find this spirit, you have the Salt of the Sages, and 
the incombustible oil, concerning which many things have been 
written before my time. 

Although many philosophers 

Have sought for me with eagerness, 
Yet very few succeed at length 

In finding out my secret virtue. 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 333 
INESSETRSE Y. 

Z 2 

ZN 

1 

The quickening power of the earth produces all things that 
grow forth from it, and he who says tbat the earth has no life 
makes a statement which is flatly contradicted by the most 
ordinary facts. For what is dead cannot produce life and growth, 
seeing that it is devoid of the quickening spirit. "This spirit is 
the life and soul that dwell in the earth, and are nourished by 
heavenly and sidereal influences. For all herbs, trees, and roots, 
and all metals and minerals, receive their growth and nutriment 
from the spirit of the earth, which is the spirit oflife. Thisspirit 
is itself fed by the stars, and is thereby rendered capable of im- 
parting nutriment to all things that grow, and of nursing them as 
a mother does her child whileit is yet in the womb. The minerals 
are hidden in the womb of the earth, and nourished by her with 
the spirit which she receives from above. 

Thus the power of growth that I speak of is imparted not 
by the earth, but by the life-giving spirit that is in it. If the 
earth were deserted by this spirit, it would be dead, and no 

334 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

longer able to afford nourishment to anything. For its sulphur 
Or richness would lack the quickening spirit without which there 
can be neither life nor growth. 

Two contrary spirits can scarcely dwell together, nor do 
they easily combine. For when a thunderbolt blazes amidst a 
tempest cf rain, the two spirits, out of which it is formed, fly from 
one another with a great shock and noise, and circle in the air, 
so that no one can know or say whither they go, unless the same 
has been ascertained by experience as to the mode in which 
these spirits manifest 

Know then, gentle Reader, that life is the only true spirit, 
and that that which the ignorant herd look upon as dead may 
be brought back to permanent, visible, and spiritual life, if but 
the spirit be restored to the body—the spirit which is supported 
by heavenly nutriment, and derived from heavenly, elementary, 
and earthly substances, which are also called formless matter. 

Moreover, as iron has its magnet which draws it with the 
invisible bonds of love, so our gold has its magnet, viz., the first 
Matter of the great Stone. If you understand these my words, 
you are richer and more blessed than the whole world. 

Let me conclude this chapter with one more remark. When 
a man looks into a mirror, he sees therein reflected an image of 
himself. If, however, he trv to touch it, he will find that it is not 
palpable, and that he has laid his hand upon the mirror only. 
In the same way, the spirit which must be evolved from this 
Matter is visible, but not palpable. This spirit is the root of the 
life of our bodies, and the Mercury of the Philosophers, from 
which is prepared the liquid water of our Art—the water which 
must once more receive a material form, and be rectified by means 
of certain purifying agents into the most perfect Medicine. For 
we begin with a firm and palpable body, which subsequently 
becomes a volatile spirit, ard a golden water, without any con- 
version, from which our Sages derive their principle of life. 
Ultimately we obtain the indestructible medicine of human and 
metallic bodies, which is fitter to be known to angels than to 
men, except such as seek it at God's hands in heartfelt prayer, 
and give genuine proofs of their gratitude by service rendered to 
Him, and to their needy neighbour. 

Hereunto I may add, in conclusion, that one work is devel- 

DE GOLDEN IRIPOD. 335 

oped from another. First, our Matter should be carefully puri- 
fied, then dissolved, destroyed, decomposed, and reduced to 
dust and ashes. Thereupon prepare from it a volatile spirit, which 
is white as snow, and another volatile spirit, which is red as blood. 
These two spirits contain a third, and are yet but one spirit. 
Now these are the three spirits which preserve and multiply life. 
"Therefore unite them, give them the meat and drink that Nature 
requires, and keep them in a warm chamber until the perfect birth 
takes place. Then you will see and experience the virtue of the 
gift bestowed upon you by God and Nature. now, also, that 
hitherto my lips have not revealed this secret to any one, and 
that God has endowed natural substances with greater powers 
than most men are ready to believe. Upon my mouth God has 
sect a seal, that there might be scope for others after me to write 
about the wonderful things of Nature, which by the foolish are 
looked upon as unnatural. For they do not understand that all 
things are ultimately traceable to supernatural causes, but never- 
theless are, in this present state of the world, subject to natural 
conditions. 

SIENTES SES OY 

VIE Mai is MT 
| M i 8 

NS 

336 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The male without the female is looked upon as only half a 
body, nor can the female without the male be regarded as 
more complete For neither can bring forth fruit so long as it 
remains alone. But if the two be conjugally united, there is a 
perfect body, and their seed is placed in a condition in which it 
can yield increase. 

If too much seed be cast into the field, the plants impede 
each other's growth, and there can be no ripe fruit. But if, on 
the other hand, too little be sown, weeds spring up and choke it. 

If a merchant would keep a clear conscience, let him give 
just measure to his neighbour. If his measure and weight be 
not short, he will receive praise from the poor. 

In too much water you may easily be drowned ; too little 
water, on the other hand, soon evaporates in the heat of the 
sun. 

If, then, you would attain the longed-for goal, observe just 
measure in mixing the liquid substance of the Sages,lest that 
which is too much overpower that which is too little, and the 
generation be hindered. For too much rain spoils the fruit, and 
too much drought stunts its growth. Therefore, when Neptune 
has prepared his bath, measure out carefully the exact quantity 
of permanent water needed, and let there be neither too little 
nor too much. 

'The twofold fiery male must be fed with a snowy swan, 
and then they must mutually slay each other and restore each 
other to life; and the air of the imprisoned fiery male will occupy 
three of the four quarters of the world, and make up three parts 
of the imprisoned fiery male, that the death-song of the swans 
may be distinctly heard ; then the swan roasted will become 
food for the King, and the fiery King will be seized with great 
love towards the Queen, and will take his fill of delight in 
embracing her, until they both vanish and coalesce into one 
body. 

It is commonly said that two can overpower one, especially 
if they have sufficient room for putting forth their strength. 
Know also that there must come a twofold wind, and a single 
wiud, and that they must furiously blow from the east and from 
thesouth. If, when they cease to rage, the air has become water, 
you may be confident that the spiritual will also be transmuted 

ZUR. n QT. PARUPERCHID 89/7 

into a bodily form, and that our number shall prevail through 
the four seasons in the fourth part of the sky (after the seven 
planets have exercised power), and that its course will be per- 
fected by the test of fire in the lowest chamber of our palace, 
when the two shall overpower and consume the third. 

For this part of our Magistery skill is needed, in order to 
divide and compound the substances aright, so that the art 
may result in riches, and the balance may not be falsified by 
unequal weights. The sky we speak of is the sky of our Art, 
and there must be justly proportioned parts of our air and earth, 
our true water and our palpable fire. 

SEVENTE, KEY. 

Natural heat preserves the life of man. If his body lose its 
natural heat his life has come to an end. 

A moderate degree of natural heat protects against the 
cold ; an excess of it destroys life. [It is not necessary that the 
substance of the Sun should touch the earth. The Sun can 
heat the earth by shedding thereon its rays, which are intensified 

Ww 

338 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by reflection. This intermediate agency is quite sufficient to do 
the work of the Sun, and to mature everything by coction. The 
rays of the Sun are tempered with the air by passing through it 
so as to operate by the medium of the air, as the air operates 
through the medium of the fire. 

Earth without water can produce nothing, nor can water 
quicken anything into growth without earth ; and as earth and 
water are mutually indispensable in the production of fruit, so 
fire cannot operate without air, or air without fire. For fire has 
no life without air ; and without fire air possesses neither heat 
nor dryness. 

When its fruit is about to be matured, the vine stands in 
greater need of the Sun's warmth than in the spring ; and if the 
Sun shine brightly in the autumn, the grapes will be better than 
if they had not felt his autumnal warmth. 

In the winter the multitude suppose everything to be dead, 
because the earth is bound in the chains of frost, so that nothing 
is allowed tosprout forth. Butas soon as the spring comes, and 
the cold is vanquished by the power of the Sun, everything is 
restored to life, the trees and herbs put forth buds, leaves, and 
blossoms, the hibernating animals creep forth from their hiding 
places, the plants give out a sweet fragrance, and are adorned 
with a great variety of many coloured flowers ; and the summer 
carries on the work of the spring, by changing its flowers into fruit. 

Thus, year by year, the operations of the universe are per- 
formed, until at length it shall be destroyed by its Creator, and 
all the dwellers upon earth shall be restored by resurrection to a 
" glorified life. "Then the operations of earthly nature shall cease, 
and the heavenly and eternal dispensation shall take its place. 

When the Sun in the winter pursues his course far away 
from us, he cannot melt the deep snow. But in the summer he 
approaches nearer to us, the quality of the air becomes more 
fiery, and the snow melts and is transmuted by warmth into 
water. Forthat which is weak is always compelled to yield to 
that which is strong. 

The same moderate course must be adopted in the fiery 
regimen of our Magistery. For it is all important that the liquid 
should not be dried up too quickly, and that the earth of the Sages 
should not be melted and dissolved too soon, otherwise your 

UOCE ONG QUITAR. PRSE. 339 

fishes would be changed into scorpions. If you would perform 
our task rightly, take the spiritual water, in which the spirit was 
from the beginning, and preserve it in a closely shut chamber. 
For the heavenly city is about to be besieged by earthly foes. 
You must, therefore, strongly fortify it with three impassable 
and well-guarded walls, and let the one entrance be well protected. 
Then light the lamp of wisdom and seek with it the gross thing 
that was lost, shewing only such light as is needed. For you 
must know that the worms and reptiles dwell in the cold and 
humid earth, while man has his proper habitation upon the face 
of the earth ; the bodies of angels, on the other hand, not being 
alloyed with sin or impurity, are injured by no extreme either of 
heat or cold. When man shall have been glorified, his body will 
become like the angelic body in this respect. lf we carefully 
cultivate the life of our souls, we shall be sons and heirs of God, 
and shall be able to do that which now seems impossible. But 
this can be effected only by the drying up of all water, and the 
purging of heaven and earth and all men with fire. 

BACODIUIPET OKSBLYS 

340 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Neither human nor animal bodies can be multiplied or pro- 
pagated without decomposition ; the grain and all vegetable 
seed, when cast into the ground, must decay before it can spring 
up again; moreover, putrefaction imparts life to many worms 
and other animalcule. The process of augmentation and quick- 
ening is mostly performed in [the] earth, while it is caused by 
spiritual seed through the other elements. 

The farmer's wife knows that she cannot hope to obtain 
chickens except through the decomposition of the egg. 

If bread is placed in honey, and suffered to decay, ants are 
generated ; worms are bred in the putrefying bodies of men, 
horses, and other animals ; maggots are also developed by the 
decay of nuts, apples, and pears. 

The same thing may be observed in regard to vegetable life. 
Nettles and other weeds spring up where no such sced has ever 
been sown. "This occurs only by putrefaction. The reason is that 
the soil in such places is so disposed, and, as it were, impregnated, 
that it produces these fruits, which is a result of the properties of 
sidereal influence ; consequently the seed is spiritually produced 
in the earth, and putrefies in the earth, and by the operation of the 
elements generates corporeal matter according to the species of 
Nature. Thus the stars and the elements may generate new 
spiritual, and, ultimately, new vegetable seed, by means of putre- 
faction. But man cannot create new seed ; for it is not in his 
power to order the operation of the elements and the essential 
influences of the stars. By natural conditions, however, new 
plants are generated simply through putrefaction. This fact is 
not noticed by the farmer, simply because it is a thing that he 
has always been used to, and for which he is unable to find an 
explanation. But you who should know more than the vulgar 
herd, must search into the causes of things, and endeavour to 
understand how the process of generation and resuscitation is 
accomplished by means of decomposition, and how all life is 
produced out of decay. 

Each element is in its turn decomposed and regenerated 
by that which is contained in it. For you should know that 
every element contains the three others. In air,for instance, 
there is fire, water, and earth. This assertion may appear 
incredible, but it is nevertheless true, In like manner, fire 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 341 

includes air, water, and earth, since otherwise it could generate 
nothing. Water contains fire, air, and earth; for if it did not, 
there could be no growth. At the same time, each element is 
distinct, though each contains the others. All this is found by 
distillation in the separation of the elements. 

In order to rationally prove this to you, who are investigat- 
ing the separation of Nature, and purpose to understand the 
division of the elements, lest you should think my words inven- 
tions, and not true, I tell you that if you distil earth, you will find 
that, first of all, there is an escape of air, which, in its turn, always 
contains fire, as they are both of a spiritual essence, and exercise 
an irresistible mutual attraction. In the next place, there issues 
water from the earth, and the earth, in which is the precious salt, 
remains by itself at the bottom of the vessel. 

When water is distilled, air and fire issue from it, and the 
water and material earth remain at the bottom. — Again, when 
the invisible part of elementary fire is extracted, you get water 
and earth by themselves. | Nor can any of the three other 
elements exist without air. It is air that gives to earth its power 
of production, to fire its power of burning, to water its power of 
generating fruit. Again, air can consume nothing, nor dry up 
any moisture, without that natural heat which must be imparted 
toit by fire. For everything that is hot and dry contains fire. 
From these considerations we conclude that no element can 
exist without the others, and that in the generation of all things 
there is a mingling of the four elements. He who states the 
contrary in no wise understands the secrets of Nature, nor has 
he investigated the properties of the elements. For if anything 
is to be generated by putrefaction, the process must be as 
follows: The earth is first decomposed by the moisture which 
it contains ; for without moisture, or water, there can be no true 
decay ; thereupon the decomposed substance is kindled and 
quickened by the natural heat of fire: for without natural heat 
no generation can take place. Again, if that which has received 
the spark of life, is to be stirred up to motion and growth, it 
must be acted upon by air. For without air, the quickened 
substance would be choked and stifled in the germ. Hence it 
manifestly appears that no one element can work effectually 
without the aid of the others, and that all must contribute 

342 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

towards the generation of anything. Thus their quickening co- 
operation takes the form of putrefaction, without which there 
can be neither generation, life, nor growth. "That there can be 
no perfect generation or resuscitation without the co-operation of 
the four elements, you may see from the fact that when Adam 
had been formed by the Creator out of earth, there was no life 
in him, until God breathed into him a living spirit. "Then the 
earth was quickened into motion. In the earth was the salt, 
that is, the Body ; theair that was breathed into it was mercury, 
or the Spirit, and this air imparted to him a genuine and 
temperate heat, which was sulphur, or fire. Then Adam moved, 
and by his power of motion, shewed that there had been infused 
into him a life-giving spirit. For as there is no fire without air, 
so neither is there any air without fire. "Water was incorporated 
with the earth. "Thus living man is an harmonious mixture of 
the four elements ; and Adam was generated out of earth, water, 
air, and fire, out of soul, spirit, and body, out of mercury, sulphur, 
and salt. 

In the same way, Eve, our common mother, was created ; 
for her body was built up and formed out of Adam's body—a 
fact which I wish you particularly to notice. 

To return again to putrefaction, O seeker of the Magistery 
and devotee of philosophy, know that, in like manner, no metallic 
seed can develop, or multiply, unless the said seed, by itself alone, 
and without the introduction of any foreign substance, be 
reduced to a perfect putrefaction. 

The putrefaction of metallic seed must, like that of animal 
and vegetable seed, take place through the co-operation of the 
fourelements. I have already explained that the elements them- 
selves are not the seed. But it ought by this time to be 
clear to you that the metallic seed which was produced by 
the combined operation of heavenly, sidereal, and elementary 
essences, and reduced into bodily-form, must, in due course, be 
corrupted and putrefied by means of the elements. 

Observe that this seed containsa living volatile spirit. For 
when it is distilled, there issues from it first a spirit, and then 
that which is less volatile. But when by continued gentle heat, 
it is reduced to an acid, the spirit is not so volatile as it was 
before. For in the distillation of the acid the water issues first, 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 343 

and then the spirit. And though the substance remains the 
same, its properties have become very different. It is no longer 
wine, but has been transmuted by the putrefaction of gentle heat 
into an acid. "That which is extracted with wine or its spirit, 
has widely different properties and powers from that which is 
extracted with an acid. For if the crystal of antimony be 
extracted with wine or the spirit of wine, it causes vomiting and 
diarrhcea, because it is a poison, and its poisonous quality is not 
destroyed by the wine. But if it be extracted with a good dis- 
tilled acid, it furnishes a beautiful extract of a rich colour. If 
the acid be removed by means of the St. Mary's Bath, and the 
residuum of yellow powder washed away, you obtain a sweet 
powder which causes no diarrhcea, but is justly regarded as a 
marvellously beneficial medicine. 

'This excellent powder is dissolved in a moist place into a 
liquid which is profitably employed as a painless agent in surgery. 

Let me sum up in few words what I have to say. "The sub- 
stance is of heavenly birth, its life is preserved by the stars, and 
nourished by the four elements; then it must perish, and be 
putrefied ; again, by the influence of the stars, which works 
through the elements, it is restored to life, and becomes once 
more a heavenly thing that has its habitation in the highest 
region of the firmament. Then you will find that the heavenly 
has assumed an earthly body, and that the earthly body has been 
reduced to a heavenly substance. 

344 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 
NINTH KEY. 

Saturn, who is called the greatest of the planets, is the least 
useful in our Magistery. Nevertheless, it is the chief Key of the 
whole Art, howbeit set in the lowest and meanest place. 
Although by its swift flight it has risen to the loftiest height, far 
above all other luminaries, its feathers must be clipped, and 
itself brought down to the lowest place, from whence it may once 
more be raised by putrefaction, and the quickening caused by 
putrefaction, by which the black is changed to white,and the 
white to red, until the glorious colour of the triumphant King 
has been attained. "Therefore, I say that though Saturn may 
seem the vilest thing in the world, yet it has such power and 
efficacy that if its precious essence, which is exceesively cold, be 
reduced to a metallic body by being deprived of its volatility, it 
becomes as corporeal as, but far more fixed than, Saturn itself. 
This transmutation is begun, continued, and completed with 
Mercury,sulphur, and salt. This will seem unintelligible to many, 
and it certainly does make an extraordinary demand upon the 
mental faculties ; but that must be so because the substance is 
within the reach of everyone, and there is no other way of 

TUDEDE, GOUIWEN.- TEGZIPOD, 345 

keeping up the divinely ordained difference between rich 
and poor. 

In the preparation of Saturn there appears a great variety of 
different colours ; and you must expect to observe successively 
black, grey, white, yellow, red, and all the different intermediate 
shades. In the same way, the Matter of all the Sages passes 
through the several varieties of colour, and may be said to 
change its appearance as often as a new gate of entrance is 
opened to the fire. 

The King shares his royal dignity with noble Venus, and 
appears in splendid state, surrounded by all the dignitaries of his 
court. Before him is borne a beautiful crimson banner, in which 
there is an. embroidered representation of Charity in green 
garments. Saturn is the prefect of the royal household, and in 
front of him Astronomy bears a black standard, with a repre- 

sentation of Faith in yellow and red garments. 
Jupiter is the Grand Marshal, and is preceded by a banner 
of grey colour, borne by Rhetoric, and adorned with a variegated 
representation of Hope. 

Mars is at the head of military affairs, and executes his 
office with a certain fiery ardour. Geometry carries beforc 
him a crimson banner, on which you moy behold Courage in a 
crimson cloak. Mercury holds the office of Chancellor ; Arith- 
metic is his standard bearer, and his standard is of many colours; 
on it may be observed the figure of Temperance in a many 
coloured robe. 

The Sun is Vice-Regent, and is preceded by Grammar, 
bearing a yellow banner, on which Justice is represented in a 
golden robe. "Though Venus seems to cast him into the shade 
by the gorgeous magnificence of her appearance, he really pos- 
sesses more power in the kingdom than she. 

Before the Moon, Dialectic bears a shining silver banner, 
with the figure of Prudence wrought into it in sky-blue, and 
because the husband of the Moon is dead, he has transferred to 
her his task of resisting the domination of Queen Venus. For 
among all these there is enmity, and they are all striving to 
supplant each other. Indeed, the tendency of events is to give 
the highest place to the most excellent and the most deserving. 
For the present state of things is passing away, and a new 

346 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

world is about to be created, and one Planet is devouring another 
spiritually, until only the strongest survive. 

Let me tell you allegorically that you must put into the 
heavenly Balance the Ram, Bull, Cancer, Scorpion, and Goat. 
In the other scale of the Balance you must place the Twins, the 
Archer, the Water-bearer, and the Virgin. "Then let the Lion 
jump into the Virgin's lap, which will cause the other scale to 
kick the beam. "Thereupon, let the signs of the Zodiac enter into 
opposition to the Pleiads, and when all the colours of the world 
have shewn themselves, let there be a conjunction and union 
between the greatest and the smallest, and the smallest and the 
greatest. 

If the whole world's nature 

Were seen in one figure, 

And nothing could be evolved by Art, 

Nothing wonderful would be found in the Universe, 
And Nature would have nothing to tell us. 

For which let us laud and praise God. 

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THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 347 

In our Stone, as composed by me and by those who have 
long preceded me, are contained all elements, all mineral and 
metallic forms, and all the qualities and properties of the whole 
world. In it we find most powerful natural heat, by which the 
icy body of Saturn is gently transmuted into the best gold. 1t 
contains also a high degree of cold, which tempers the fervent 
heat of Venus, and coagulates the mercury, which is thereby also 
changed into the finest gold. All these properties slumber in the 
substance of our Stone, and are developed, perfected, and matured 
by the gentle coction of natural fire, until they have attained 
their highest perfection. 

If the fruit of a tree be plucked before it is ripe, it is unfit 
for use; and if the potter fail to harden his vessels in the fire, they 
cannot be employed for any good purpose. 

In the same way you must exercise considerable patience in 
preparing our Elixir, if it is to become all that you wish it to 
become. No fruit can grow from a flower that has been plucked 
before thetime. He who is in too great a hurry, can bring nothing 
to perfection, but is almost sure to spoil that which he has in hand. 
Remember, then, that if our Stone be not sufficiently matured, it 
will not be able to bring anything to maturity. 

The substance is dissolved in a bath, and its parts reunited 
by putrefaction. In ashes it blossoms. In the form of sand all 
its excessive moisture is dried up. Maturity and fixity are ob- 
tained by living fire. The work does not actually take place in 
the Bath of St. Mary, in horse-dung, in ashes, or in sand, but the 
grades and regimen ofthe fire proceed after the degrees which are 
represented by these. The Stone is prepared in an empty furnace, 
with a threefold line of circumvallation, in a tightly closed cham- 
ber. It is subjected to continued coction, till all moisture and 
clouds are driven off, and the King attains to indestructible 
fixedness, and is no longer liable to any danger or injury, because 
he has become unconquerable. Let me express my meaning in 
a somewhat different manner. When you have dissolved your 
earth with your water, dry up the water with its own inward fire. 
Then the air will breathe new life into the body, and you will 
have that which can only be regarded as that Great Stone which 
in a spiritual manner pervades human and metallic bodies, and 
is the universal and immaculate Medicine, since it drives out that 

348 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

which is bad, and preserves that which is good, and is the un- 
failing corrective of all imperfect or diseased substances. This 
Tincture is of a colour intermediate between red and purple, with 
something of a granite hue, and its specific weight is very 
considerable. 

Whoever gains possession of this Stone, should let his whole 
life be an expression of his gratitude towards God in practical 
kindness towards his suffering brethren, that after obtaining God's 
greatest earthly gift, he may hereafter inherit eternal life. 

Praise be unto God everlastingly for this His inestimable 
gift. 

I/IYENAE/NSDEISSKSE/V2 

The eleventh Key to the Knowledge of the augmentation 
of our Stone, I will put before you in the form of a parable. 

There lived in the East a gilded knight, named Orpheus, 
who was possessed of immense wealth, and had everything that 
heart can wish. He had taken to wife his own sister, Euridice, 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 349 

who did not, however, bear him any children. This he re- 
garded as the punishment of his sin in having wedded his own 
sister, and was instant in prayer to God both by day and by 
night, that the curse might be taken from him. 

One night, when he was buried in a deep sleep, there came 
to him a certain winged messenger, named Phoebus, who touched 
his feet, which were very hot, and said: * Thou noble knight, 
since thou hast wandered through many cities and kingdoms, 
and suffered many things at sca, in battle, and in the lists, the 
heavenly Father has bidden me make known to thee the following 
means of obtaining thy prayer: Take blood from thy right side, 
and from the left side of thy spouse. For this blood is the 
heart's blood of your parents, and though it may seem to be of 
two kinds, yet, in reality, it is only one. Mix the two kinds 
of blood, and keep the mixture tightly enclosed in the globe of 
the seven wise Masters — There that which is generated will 
be nourished with its own flesh and blood, and will complete its 
course of development when the Moon has changed for the 
eighth time — If thou repeat this process again and again, thou 
shalt see children's children, and the offspring of thy body shall 
fill the world." 

When Pheebus had thus spoken, he winged his flight 
heavenward. In the morning the knight arose and did the 
bidding of the celestial messenger, and God gave to him and to 
his wife many children, who inherited their father's glory, wealth, 
and knightly honours from generation to generation. 

If you are wise, my son, you will find the interpretation of 
my parable. If you do not understand it, ascribe the blame 
not to me, but to your own ignorance. 1I ay not express my- 
self more explicitly ; indeed, I have revealed the matter in a 
more plain and straightforward manner than any of my pre- 
decessors.  [ have concealed nothing; and if you will but 
remove the veil of ignorance from your eyes, you will behold 
that which many have sought and few found. 

350 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

! Eu 2 

?3 

If an athlete know not the use of his sword, he might as 
well be without it ; and if another warrior that is skilled in the 
use of that weapon come against him, the first is like to fare 
badly. For he that has knowledge and experience on his side, 
must carry off the victory. 

In the same way, he that possesses this tincture, by the 
grace of Almighty God, and is unacquainted with its uses, might 
as well not have it at all. Therefore this twelfth and last Key 
must serve to open up to you the uses of this Stone. In dealing 
with this part of the subject I will drop my parabolic and 
figurative style, and plainly set forth all that is to be known. 

When the Medicine and Stone of all the Sages has been 
perfectly prepared out of the true virgin's milk, take one part of 
it to three parts of the best gold purged and refined with 
antimony, the gold being previously beaten into plates of the 
greatest possible thinness. Put the whole into a smelting pot, 
and subject it to the action of a gentle fire for twelve hours ; 
then let it be melted for three days and three nights more. 

THE GOLDEN TRIPOD. 351 

For without the ferment of gold no one can compose the 
Stone or develop the tinging virtue. Forthe sameis very subtle 
and penetrating if it be fermented and joined with a ferment 
like unto itself; then the prepared tincture has the power of 
entering into other bodies, and operating therein. Take then 
one part of the prepared ferment for the tinging of a thousand 
parts of molten metal, and then you will learn in all faith and 
truth that it shall be changed into the only good and fixed gold. 
For one body takes possession of the other ; even if it be unlike 
to it, nevertheless, through the strength and potency added to 
it, it is compelled to be assimilated to the same, since like 
derives origin from like. 

Whoever uses this as a medium shall find whither the 
vestibules of the palace lead, and there is nothing comparable 
to the subtlety thereof. He shall possess all in all, performing 
all things whatsoever which are possible under the sun. 

O principle of the prime principle, consider the end! O 
end of the final end, consider the beginning! And be this 
medium commended unto your faithful care, wherein also God 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, shall give unto you whatsoever 
you need both in soul and body. 

Concerning the First Matter of the Philosophical Stone. 

Seek for that Stone which has no fleshly nature, but out of 
which a volatile fire is extracted, whence also this stone is 
made, being composed of white and red. It is a stone, and no 
stone ; therein Nature alone operates. 4A fountain flows from it. 
'The fixed part submerges its father, absorbing it, body and life, 
until the soul is returned to it. And the volatile mother like to 
him, is produced in her own kingdom ; and he by his virtue and 
power receives greater strength. The volatile mother when 
prepared surpasses the sun in summer. Thus the father by 
means of Vulcan was produced from the spirit. Body, soul, and 
spirit exist in both, whence the whole matter proceeds. It 
proceeds from one, and is one matter. Bind together the fixed 
and the volatile; they are two, and three, and yet one only. 
If you do not understand you will attain nothing. Adam was 
in a bath—Uwherein Venus found her like, which bath the aged 
Dragon had prepared when his strength was deserting him. 

352 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

There is nothing, says the Philosopher, save a double mercury ; 
I say that no other matter has been named ; blessed is he who 
understands it. Seek therein, and be not weary; the result 
justifies the labour. 

A short Appendix and clear. Resumption of the foregoing 
Tract concernzng the Great Stone of the 
Ancient Sages. 

I, Basil Valentine, brother of the Benedictine Order, do 
testify that I have written this little book, wherein, after the 
manner of the Ancients, I have philosophically indicated how this 
most rare treasure may be acquired, whereby the true Sages did 
prolong life unto its furthest limit. 

But, notwithstanding that my conscience doth bear me wit- 
ness in the sight of the Most High, before whom all concealed 
matters are laid bare, that [ have written no falsehood, but have 
so exposed the truth that understanding men can require no 
further light (that which is laid down in the theoretical part 
being borne out and confirmed by the practice of the Twelve 
Keys), yet have I been impelled by various considerations to 

3/75/52 MU (EID RARO 959 

demonstrate by a shorter way what I have written in the said 
treatise, and thus cast further light thereon, whereby also the 
lover of the desired wisdom may obtain an increased illumination 
for the fulfilment of his desire There are many who will con- 
sider that I am speaking too openly, and will hold me answerable 
for the wickedness that they think will follow, but let them rest 
assured that it will be sufficiently difficult, notwithstanding, for 
any thick-headed persons to find what they scek herein. Atthe 
same time the matter shall be made clear to the elect. Hearken 
then, thou follower of truth, to these my words, and so shalt thou 
find the true way ! 

Behold, I write nothing more than I am willing to hold by 
after my death and resurrection! Do thou faithfully and simply 
lay to heart this shorter way, as hereinafter exhibited, for my 
words are grounded in simplicity, and my teaching is not con- 
fused by a labyrinth of language. 

I have already indicated that all things are constituted of 
three essences—namely, mercury, sulphur, and salt—and herein 
I have taught what is true. But know that the Stone is com- 
posed out of one, two, three, four, and five. Out of five—that is, 
the quintessence of its own substance. Out of four, by which we 
must understand the four elements. Out of thrce, and these are 
the three principles of all things. Out of two, for the mercurial 
substance is twofold. | Out of one, and this is the first essence of 
everything which emanated from the primal fiat of creation. 

But many may by all these discourses be rendered doubtful 
in mind as to what they must start with, and as to the conse- 
quent theory. So I will,in the first place, speak very briefly 
concerning Mercury, secondly concerning Sulphur, thirdly con- 
cerning Salt; for these are the essence of the Matter of our 
Stone. 

In the first place, you must know that no ordinary quick- 
silver is useful, but our quicksilver is produced from the best 
metal by the spagyric art, pure, subtle, clear, and glistening, like 
a spring, pellucid even as crystal, free from all dross. Hence 
make water or combustible oil. For Mercury was in the 
beginning water, and herein all the Sages agree with my dictum 
and teaching In this oil of Mercury dissolve its own Mercury, 
from which the water in question was made, and precipitate the 

X 

354 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Mercury with its own oil. Then we havea twofold mercurial 
substance; but you must know that gold must first be dissolved 
in a certain water, as explained in my second Key, after the 
purification described in the first Key, and must be reduced into 
a subtle calx, as is mentioned in the fourth Key. Next, this calx 
must be sublimated by the spirit of salt, again precipitated, and 
by reverberation reduced into a subtle powder. Then its own 
sulphur can more easily enter into its substance, and have great 
friendship with the same, for they have a wondrous love towards 
each other. "Thus you have two substances in one, and it is 
called Mercury of the Sages, but is yet a single substance, which 
is the first ferment. 

JVow follows concerning Sulphur. 

Seek your Mercury in a similar metal Then when you 
know how to extract the metal from its body by purification, the 
destruction of the first Mars, and reverberation, without the use of 
any corrosive (the method of doing which I have indicated in my 
third Key)—you must dissolve that Mercury in its own blood, 
out of which it was made before it became fixed (as indicated in 
the sixth Key) ; and you have then nourished and dissolved the 
true lion with the blood of the green lion. For the fixed blood 
of the Red Lion has been made out of the volatile blood of the 
Green Lion; hence, they are of one nature, and the unfixed 
blood again renders that which is volatile fixed, and the fixed 
bleod in its turn fixes that which is volatile, as it was before its 
solution. . Then foster it in gentle heat, until the whole of the 
mercury is dissolved, and you obtain the secozd ferment (by 
nourishing the fixed sulphur with that which is not fixed), as all 
Sages,unite with me in testifying. X Afterwards this becomes, by 
sublimátion with spirit of wine, of a blood-red colour, and is 
called 7oza&/e go/d. 

JVow I «will also give my Opinion vespecting the 
Sa/t of the Sages. 

The effect of *salt" is to fix or volatilize, according as it 
is prepared and used. For the spirit of the salt of tartar, if 
extracted by itself without any addition, has power to render all 
metals volatile by dissolution and putrefaction, and to dissolve 

UEDIS CR QUAL DANG RUP COE. 355 

quick or liquid silver into the true mercury, as my practical 
directions shew. 

Salt of tartar by itself is a powerful fixative, particularly if 
the heat of quicklime be incorporated with it. For these two 
substances are singularly efficacious in producing fixation. 

In the same way, the vegetable salt of wine fixes and 
volatilizes according to the manner ofits preparation. ts useis 
one of the arcana of Nature, and a miracle of the philos- 
opher's art. 

When a man, drinks wine, there may be gained from his 
urine a clear salt, which is volatile, and renders other fixed 
substances volatile, causing them to rise with it in the alembic. 
But the same does not fix. Ifa man drank nothing but wine, 
yet for all that the salt obtained from his urine would have a 
different property from that gained out of the lees of wine. For 
it has undergone a chemical change in the human body, having 
become transmuted from a vegetable into an animal salt—just 
as horses that feed on oats, straw, etc, change those vegetable 
substances into flesh and fat, while the bee prepares honey out 
of the precious juices of flowers and herbs. 

he great change which takes place in these and other 
substances is due to Puzrefactzon, which separates and transmutes 
the constituent elements. 

'The common spirit of salt, which is extracted according to 
the direction given in my last declaration, if there be added to 
it a small quantity of the "spirit of the dragon," dissolves, 
volatilizes, and raises together with itself in the alembic, gold and 
silver; justas the * eagle," together with the spirit of the dragon 
(which is found in stony places), before the spirit is separated 
from its body, is much more powerful in producing fixation 
than volatility. | 

This I also say, that if the spirit of common salt be joined 
to the spirit of wine, and distilled together with it, it becomes 
sweet, and loses its acidity. "This prepared spirit does not dis- 
solve gold bodily, but if it be poured on prepared calx of gold, 
it extracts the essence of its colour and redness. If this be 
rightly done, it reduces the white and pure moon to the colour 
of that body from which it was itself extracted. "The old body 
may also receive back its former colour through the love of 

BS THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

alluring Venus, from whose blood it, in the first instance, derived 
its origin. 

But observe, likewise, that the spirit of salt also destroys 
the moon, arid reduces it to a spiritual essence, according to my 
teaching, out of which the * potable moon " may be prepared. 
This spirit of the moon belongs to the spirit of the sup, as the 
female answers to the male, by the copulation or conjunction of 

. the spirit of mercury or its oil. 

'The spirit lies hid in mercury, the colour you must seek in 
sulphur, and their coagulation in salt; then you have three 
things which together are capable of once more generating a 
perfect thing. The spirit is fermented in the gold with its own 
proper oil ; the sulphur is found in abundance in the property of 
precious Venus. This kindles the fixed blood which is sprung 
from it, the spirit of the salt of the Sages imparts strength and 
firmness, though the spirit of tartar and the spirit of urine, 
together with true vinegar, have great virtue. For the spirit of 
vinegar is cold, and the spirit of lime is intensely hot, and thus 
the two spirits are found to be of opposite natures. I do not 
here speak according to the customary manner of the Sages. 
But I must not say too openly how the inner gates are to be 
unlocked. 

In bidding farewell,let me impart to you a faithful word. 
Seek your material in a metallic substance. . Thence prepare 
mercury. his ferment with the mercury. of. its own proper 
sulphur, and coagulate them with salt. Distil them together ; 
mix allaccording to weight. Then you will obtain oe ZZzzg, 
consisting of elements sprung from one Z£zug. Coagulate and fix 
it by means of continuous warmth. 'Thereupon augment and 
ferment it a third time, according to the teaching of my two last - 
Keys, and you will find the object and goal of your desire. The 
uses of the Tincture are set forth plainly in my twelfth Key. 

JISEIVASNIESS UISIRNSII EK (9)IOS 

As a parting kindness to you, I am constrained to add that 
the spirit may also be extracted from black Saturn and ben- 
evolent Jupiter. When it has been reduced to a sweet oil, we 
have a means of robbing the common liquid quicksilver of its 
vivacity, or rendering it firm and solid, as is also set forth in my 
book. 

IDEAE OQ DEA TIeLPOD. 357 

Postscript. 

When you have thus obtained the material, the regimen of 
the fire is the only thing on which you need bestow. much atten- 
tion. This is the sum and the goal of our search. ' For our fire 
is a common fire, and our furnace a common furnace. And 
though some of my predecessors have left it in writingsthat our 
fire is not common fire, I may tell you that it was only one of 
their devices for hiding the mysteries of our Art. For the. 
materialis common, and its treatment consists chiefly in the 
proper adjustment of the heat to which it is exposed. 

'TFhe fire of a spirit lamp is useless for our purpose. Nor is 
there any profit in * horse-dung," nor in the other kinds of heat 
in the providing of which so much expense is incurred. 

Neither do we want many kinds of furnaces. Only our 
threefold furnace affords facilities for properly regulating the heat 
of the fire. Therefore do not let any babbling sophist induce 
you to set up a great variety of expensive furnaces. Our furnace 
is cheap, our fire is cheap, and our material is cheap—and 
he who has the material will also find a furnace in which to 
prepare it, just as he who has flour will not be at a loss 
for an oven in which it may be baked. Itis unnecessary to write 
a special book concerning this part of the subject. You cannot 
go wrong, so long as you observe the proper degree of heat, 
which holds a middle place between hot and cold. If you 
discover this, you are in possession of the secret, and can practise 
the Art, for whichthe CREATOR of all nature be praised world 
without end. AMEN. 

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THE 

HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

RESTORED AND ENLARGED: 

MOST FAITHFULLY INSTRUCTING ALL DISCIPLES OF THE SoPHO-SPAGYRIC 
ART HOW THAT GREATEST AND TRUEST MEDICINE OF 

TIS  DAETTILOS OP'HIERS SdTO)JN(GE 

MAY BE FOUND AND HELD. 

Now FIRST DONE INTO ENGLISH FROM THE LATIN ORIGINAL PUBLISHED AT 
FRANKFORT IN THE YEAR 1678. 

Containing Txwenty-two most celebrated Chemical Tracts. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 
V OSETUSMEE, — JT. 

3L annon : 
JAMES ELLIOTT AND CO., 
TEMPLE CHAMBERS, FALCON CoumGr, FLEET STREET, E.C. 

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LIBRARY: 

JT ANWBIEB QR CONTENT S. 

WOTLUME. ll. 

I.—TurE CnHzMiCAL TREATISE of Thomas Norton, the 
Englishman, called Believe-Me, or The Ordinal of 
Alchemy ... 

II. —TuE TEsTAMENT OF CREMER, Abbot of Westminster 
and Brother of the Benedictine- Order 

III.—TuE Nrew CnueMicAL Liour, Drawn from the Foun- 
tain of Nature and of Manual Experience. By 
Michael Sendivogius 

IV.—Tur NEew CnzuticAL Lricur, Second Part, Concerning 
Sulphur. By Michael Sendivogius ... 

V.—AN OPEN ENTRANCE TO THE CLOSED PALACE OF THE 
Kisc. By an Anonymous Sage and Lover of 
Truth (ze, Eirenazus Philalethes) 

VI.—A SuBrLE ALLEGORY CONCERNING THE SECRETS OF 
ALCHEMY, very useful to possess and pleasant to 
read. By Michael Maier 

VII.— THE THREE TmEATISES Or PHILALETHES. I. The 
Metamorphosis of Metals 

PAGE 

69 

^e) 

127 

159 

199 

225 

Pact. 

VIll.—Tukr TunrE ThaEaTISES OF PHILALETHEs, ICON 
Short Vade Mecum or Guide to the Celestial 
Ruby 

IX.—Tnur TunreE TnEaTISES Or PuHiLALETHEs. |I]. The 
Fount of Chemical Truth 

X.—]ous FmEpERICKk HrLvETIUS' GorLpEN Carr, which 
the World worships and adores: in which is 
discussed the Most Rare Miracle of Nature in the 
Transmutation of Metals, viz. : How at the Hague 
a Mass of Lead was in a Moment of Time changed 
into Gold by the Infusion of a Small Particle of 
our Stone 

Xl.— THE ArL-WisEe DooRkkEPER, or a Fourfold Figure, 
exhibiting analytically to all who enter this Museum 
the Mosaico-Hermetic Science of Things above 

and Things below e SS. E SS ec 

261 

hs 
-] 
M 

3o 

THE GOLDEN. TEIPOD. 

SBOOND TRACT. 

THE 

CHEMICAL TREATISE 

OF 
THOMAS NORT QN. 

THE ENGLISHMAN, 

CALLED 

DEILLEVE - ME 

) 

OR 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 

AX NE 18, 19 MEER AX Ul 

WRITTEN BY M. M. ON NORTON'S CHEMICAL 
TIXRSBAASDISIB? 

As the Nile with its overflowing waters floods the surround- 
ing country, and covers it with fertilizing slime, bearing in it the 
promise of a rich and laughing harvest, so the genius of Norton 
overflows its banks far and wide, while he makes known to us 
the glorious works of Nature. He spreads himself abroad over 
an immensity of space, that he may fertilize the fields of Alchemy, 
and rejoice the hearts of its husbandmen. If you are fortunate 
you will catch beneath this wide expanse of waters a fish which 
will satisfy the longing of your heart. And if you fail of suc- 
cess, yet your mind will be stored with the precious treasures of 
knowledge, and you will in any case be richly rewarded for your 
labour. "The treasures of Hermes are not laid open in oze book :- 
perhaps one writer may render clear to you what another fails 
to explain. 

THE TREATISE, CREDE-MIHI, OR ORDINAL, 

OF THOMAS NORTON. 

PROSPACXdCBIRST.: 
CGBy the Author hamself.)

sifBes the ignorance of the vulgar. It is the book of 
honouring, increasing riches, and the book of the needy, 
putting to flight poverty. It is the book of confidence 

and truth, full of counsel for kings and of teaching for prelates, 
a book useful for sainted men, who wish to live unspotted of 
sin; asecret book, the Book of the Gift of God, to chosen men 
a pathway of true hope, a strength to those constant in firm 
faith, and who unwaveringly believe in my words. Alchemy is 
sought by the false and the true— by false seekers without 
number, but they are rejected. Many are aflame with the desire 
of gain, but amongst a thousand thousand scarce three are 
chosen. "There are many called to knowledge, noble and poor, 
learned and ignorant, but they will not submit to toil, or await 
the time; they do not attain to the goal because they are 
ungrateful. The: Book of our Art is clear as light to the sons of 
knowledge, to whom God has freely given to understand this 
matter Only.let them believe this prophetical saying ; to the 
thankful all flows forth from the fount of Divine love. 

This noble science is bestowed only on those who love 
justice with a devout mind, but to the deceitful, the treacherous, 
and the violent it is denied, because their sins hinder the coming 
of God's gifts. 

This knowledge would often have been the glory of 
England's Kings, if their hope had been firmly placed upon God. 

42 

4 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

One who shall have obtained his honours by means of this Art, 
will mend old manners, and change them.for the better. When 
he comes, he will reform the kingdom, and by his goodness and 
virtue he will set an everlasting example to rulers. In his time 
the common people will rejoice, and render praise to God in 
mutual neighbourly love. O King, who art to accomplish all 
this, pray to God the King, and implore His aid in the matter! 
So the glory of thy mind will be crowned with the glory of a 
golden age, which shall not then be hoped for as future. 

DSRSEJSEIPAT NIS SIX BNBIDE 

To the honour of the One God, who is Three Persons in 
One, this book has been written, in order that, after my death, 
learned and unlearned men might see how every one who will 
follow my good counsel, and ponder it well before he begins the 
work, may obtain great treasure through the Art of Alchemy. 
But the book is also a storehouse of mighty secrets for the 
learned. Let me warn the unlearned that they must study this 
Art with fear and trembling, lest they be led astray by the 
false delusions of those who counsel many costly experiments, 
and use high sounding words. For my part, I desire none of 
that fame which the world can give, but only your prayers to 
God for me, though you need not utter my name. Let no one 
trouble himself about the author, but rather let him diligently 
consider the contents of the Book. If you enquire into the 
motives of men, you will find many who are induced to give 
their minds to the study of Alchemy, only by the desire of gain 
and riches ; and such men are found even among Cardinals of 
highest rank, Archbishops, and Bishops of lofty order, Abbots 
and religious Priors, also among hermits, monks, and common 
priests, and among Kings, princes, and lords of high degree. 

For men of all classes desire to partake of our good things : 
merchants, and those who exercise their craft in the forge, are 
led captive by a longing to know this Art; nor are common 
mechanics content to be excluded from a share in it: they love 
the Art as dearly as great lords. The goldsmiths are consumed 

THPB QRDINAL Of ALCHEMY. 5 

with the desire of knowing—though them we may excuse since 
they have daily before their eyes that which they long to possess. 
But we may wonder that weavers, freemasons, tailors, cobblers, 
and needy priests join in the general search after the Philoso- 
pher's Stone, and that even painters and glaziers cannot restrain 
themselves from it. Nay, tinkers presumptuously aspire to exalt 
themselves by its means, though they should be content with the 
colour with which glass is stained. Many of these workmen, 
however, have been deceived by giving credulous heed to 
impostors, who helped them to convert their gold into smoke, 
and though they are grieved and disappointed at the loss, they 
yet buoy themselves up with sanguine thoughts, and hope that 
they will after all reach the goal; alas, too many have I known, 
who, after amusing themselves with delusive hopes through a 
long life, have at last died in squalid poverty ! For them it would 
have been better if they had stayed their hands at once, seeing 
that they met with nothing but disappointment and vexation of 
spirit. For, surely, he who is not very learned will do well to 
think twice before he meddles with this Art. Believe me, it is by 
no means alight matter to know all the secrets connected with the 
science. Nay, it is a profound philosophy, a subtle science, a sacred 
alehemy. Concerning which I here intend to write in a style 
manly, but not curious. For he who desires to instruct the com- 
mon people should speak to them in a language they understand. 
But though I must express myself in a plain and unassuming 
style, no candid reader should therefore contemn me. For 
all that before me have written on this matter have rendered 
their books obscure and unintelligible by an exaggerated use of 
poetical imagery, parables, and metaphors which grievously 
obstruct the path of those who first enter on this field of know- 
ledge. "This is the reason that a beginner, who strives to put 
their precepts into practice, only loses his trouble and his money, 
as is daily seen. Hermes, Rhasis, Geber, Avicenna, Merlin, 
Hortulanus, Democritus, Morienus, Bacon, Raymond, Aristotle, 
and many others, have concealed their meaning under a veil of 
obscurity. Hence their books, which they have handed down to 
us, have been a source of endless error and delusion to the vulgar 
and the learned, and, in spite of the beautiful conceits which 
abound in their writings, no one has been able to find a path 

6 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

through the wilderness of their words ; yea, many have been 
reduced to despair. Anaxagoras indeed acquitted himself better 
than the rest, in his book * Concerning Natural Changes" Of 
all the ancient Sages whose writings I have read, he lays open 
most plainly the foundation of our knowledge. For this very 
reason Aristotle is wroth against him, and attacks him most 
virulently in many passages, as I can shew, his purpose being to 
keep men from following him. For he (Anaxagoras) was full of 
wisdom and love: may God above reward him for his goodness, 
and pardon the evil deeds of those who sow the seeds of enmity 
and hatred. To the latter class belonged that monk who set 
forth a pretentious book of A Thousand Receipts, from malice 
and the love of mischief—which was copied in many places, 
and deceived and deluded numerous enquirers, and reduced 
them to beggary ; moreover, he represented true and approved 
men as forgers and impostors. For this reason I am im- 
pelled by pity to set forth the truth in a few simple words, 
in order to warn you against false and deceitful teaching, if, 
indeed, you will pay attention to me and to my words. "Throw 
away your volumes of * Recipes," for they are full of falsehood 
and fraud. Do not believe them, but give diligent heed to the 
maxim, that nothing is wrought without its own proper cause. 
This is the mistake into which those self-styled * Practical Sages" 
fall. They do not place knowledge on a firm foundation by 
enquiring into the cause of things. You should therefore con- 
stantly bear this momentous rule in mind: never to set about 
an experiment until you fully comprehend the why and the how. 
He who would make good progress in this Art should also dili- 
gently eschew all falsehood. For God is Truth, and itis He who 
shews this Art to men : therefore keep yourself above all things 
unspotted from the slightest taint of falsehood. Let it be fixed 
.in your mind as an abiding principle, under no circumstances to 
procure for yourselves * adulterated " metals, like those who seek 
to accomplish albifications and citrinations, which cannot abide 
a searching test, and by which they produce false silver and 
false coin for the purpose of duping the credulous. But God has 
provided that no one should succeed in attaining to this Blessed 
Art, who loves that which is false rather than that which is true. 
If any man would obtain grace of God to discover the secrets of 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 7 

this Art, he should be a lover of justice and truth ; nor let him 
be too eager in his own mind to follow this Art on account of its 
outward advantages. He who would enjoy the fruit of his labour, 
should be satisfied with such wealth as is sufficient. Let him not 
waste time and trouble on divers methods of procedure, but let him 
follow the directions of this Book, which is called the * Ordinal of 
Alchemy," the Crede-;u/, an everlasting standard. For as the 
Ordinal instructs the presbyters concerning the ministry of the 
days which they must observe,so all the true and useful teach- 
ing of ill-digested books on Alchemy is here set forth in proper 
order. Wherefore, this Book is of. inestimable value for the - 
acquisition of the precious science, nor can its truth ever be 
denied, though it be composed in an unassuming style. As I 
have received this Art by Divine Grace, so I set it forth to yon 
in seven chapters as fully as my fealty will permit. For I 
remember what is said about the judgment of God at the last day. 

The first chapter will shew what persons from among 
the common people can attain to this knowledge, and why the 
science of Alchemy was by the Ancients called blessed and 
sacred. 

In the second chapter will be set forth the wise joy and the 
long labours of those who follow this Art. 

The third chapter will, for the sake of my fellow-men, 
contain a faithful description of the substance of that Stone 
which the Arabians call the Elixir. There you willlearn whence 
it is obtained. 

The fourth chapter will treat of the gross part of the 
work, which is foul and little suited to delicate persons. 

The fifth chapter is concerned with the subtle part of the 
process which God has ordained for the lezrned only, but which 
few of the learned ever comprehend ; so that the secret is really 
possessed by very few. 

The sixth chapter deals with the question of proportion, 
and with the agreement of this world below with the sphere of 
heaven above, of which a right understanding greatly helps 
many learners, and proves of great assistance to them in our 
wonderful Art. 

. The seventh chapter will truly set forth to you the principles 
in accordance with which your fire should be regulated. 

8 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

: Now, O Lord, do Thou guide and assist me, for I desire to 
gird myself to my task! Everyone that shall happen to read 
this Book, I implore to offer up prayers for my soul, and not to 
alter. that which I have written, for the better or for the worse, 
on the pain of my most grevious anathema. For where the sense 
is obscure this is for the purpose of secrecy ; but if a single syl- 
lable.be altered in a critical passage, it may destroy the value 
of the whole book. Therefore, see that which I have written be 
preserved intact, for though the language be humble, yet it 
conveys truths of most momentous importance, and it should 
be read not once or twice, but twenty times. Your best plan 
will be to read many books on Alchemy, and this one last of all. 

VUPEHE ORDINAL OR ALCHEMY. 

: nma TONS Tc TÉTTTE ilii 

EIER E A p s M 

THOMAS NORTON'S 
CA EMJCAZIbU R BA TISE. 

CEITIATP'EER E 

MOST wonderful Magistery and  Archimagistery is 
the Tincture of sacred Alchemy, the marvellous 
science of the secret Philosophy, the singular gift 
bestowed upon men through the grace of Almighty 
God— which men have never discovered by the labour of their 
hands, but only by revelation, and the teaching of others. It 
was never bought or sold for a price to any of those who 
sought after it; but it has always been granted through the 
grace of God alone to worthy men, and perfected by long labour 
and the lapse of time. it was given to relieve the estate of 
man; it puts an end to vainglory, hope, and fear, and removes 
ambition, violence, and excess. It mitigates adversity, and 
saves men from being overwhelmed by it.  Whoever has 
perfect knowledge of it, eschews extremes, and is content with 
the middle way. Some disdain to call this Art sacred, because 
they say that Paynims sometimes acquire a knowledge of it, 
though God cannot be desirous of conferring any good thing upon 
them, seeing that their wilful and stubborn unbelief renders them 
incapable of possessing that which is the cause of all good. 
Moreover, it is affirmed that our Art produces nothing but gold 
and silver, which are coined into money, or fashioned into cups 
and rings, but are approved and accounted by wise men the 
least valuable and precious of all things which are upon the 
earth ; and hence men of this school conclude that this science, 
if judged by its effects, cannot claim to be regarded as sacred. 

I2 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

To this objection, we answer what we know to be true, that 
the science of this Art has never been fully revealed to any- 
one who has not approved himself worthy by a good and noble 
life, and who has not shewn himself to be deserving of this 
gracious gift by his love of truth, virtue, and knowledge. From 
those who are otherwise minded this knowledge must ever 
remain concealed. 

Nor can anyone attain to this Art, unless there be some 
person sent by God to instruct him in it. For the matter is so 
glorious and wonderful that it cannot be fully delivered to any 
one but by word of mouth. Moreover, if any man would receive 
it, he must take a great and sacred oath, that as we his teachers 
refuse high rank and fame, so he will not be too eager for these 
frivolous distinctions, and that he will not be so presumptuous 
as to make the secret known to his own son; for propinquity 
of blood, or affinity, should be held of no account in this our 
Magistery. Nearness of blood, as such, does not entitle anyone 
to be let into the secret, but only virtue, whether in those near 
to us orin strangers. "Therefore you should carefully test and 
examine the life, character, and mental aptitude of any person 
who would be initiated in this Art, and then you should bind 
him, by a sacred oath, not to let our Magistery be commonly 
or vulgarly known. Only when he begins to grow old and 
feeble, he may reveal it to one person, but not to more—and 
that one man must be virtuous, and generally approved by his 
fellows. For this Magistery must always remain a secret 
science, and the reason that compels us to be so careful is 
obvious. lf any wicked man should learn to practise this Art, 
the event would be fraught with great danger to Christendom. 
For such a man would overstep all bounds of moderation, and 
would remove from their hereditary thrones those legitimate 
princes who rule over the peoples of Christendom. And the 
punishment of this wickedness would fall upon him who had 
instructed that unworthy person in our Art. In order, then, to 
avoid such an outbreak of overweening pride, he who possesses 
the knowledge of this Art, should be scrupulously careful how 
he delivers it to another, and should regard it as the peculiar 
privilege of those who excel in virtue. 

But even if this: Art could, on account of its effects, be 

WEE QRDINAT. Qm ALCHBEUMY. I3 

justly denied a claim to sanctity, it would still be sacred on 
account of its nature and essence. For as, on the one hand, 
no one can discover it except by the grace of God, so it is also 
holy, because it is a divine labour and work to change vile 
copper into the finest silver and gold. For no one could dis- 
cover a method of producing such effects by his own thought, 
seeing that the substances are divers, and man cannot separate 
that which God has joined together. Nor could the course of 
Nature be quickened, unless God Himself had granted the aid 
of this mighty science to those whom He loves. Therefore, the 
ancient Sages have well called Alchemy a sacred science ; and 
no one should be so presumptuous as to cast away the blessed 
gift of God. For let us only consider that God has hidden this 
knowledge from great and learned doctors, and out of His 
mercy has revealed it to men of low. degree, who are faithful 
lovers of truth, and lowly of heart ; and as there are only seven 
planets among the vast multitude of the stars of heaven, so 
amongst millions of millions of men hardly seven attain to this 
knowledge. As we watch men's lives, we see and learn that 
many scholars of profound erudition, with countless other 
enquirers, have striven to acquire our science, and yet that all 
their labour has produced as a net result—nothing. Though 
they have spent all their substance in the search, it has never- 
theless turned out a failure. "They have again and again missed 
the mark at which they aimed ; and at last they have given up 
the quest in despair, and have arrived at the bitter conclusion 
that the Art is nothing but rank fiction and imposture. As the 
outcome of their fruitless enquiries they have begun to denounce 
our Magistery for a vain and empty thing. Let me tell such 
men that they take too much upon themselves in thinking that 
that must be nought which their wisdom is not sufficient to 
compass. But we are not greatly troubled by their calumnies 
and injurious words ; for those who are wise in their own con- 
ceits, while in reality they understand nothing, are not the guests 
for whom our feast is prepared. Though these men cannot 
understand our Magistery, yet, for all that, it must remain true ; 
and though its truth be denied by some who are lifted up by 
the vain pride of empty wisdom, all wise men will admit that those 
who have confessedly never looked upon a thing cannot be allowed 

I4 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

to give an authoritative opinion about it. It would be foolish 
indeed to attach any value to a blind man's opinion about a 
painting ; and though these men are so proud of their profundity 
and wisdom, | very much doubt whether they could build the 
tower of St. Paul's (London), or remove it from its foundations. 
But it is more difficult still to believe that they are keen enough 
to penetrate the most profound secret which this world contains. 
Well, now, we will say no more about them, but deliver them 
over to the wretchedness of their own ignorance. 

Now, you who seek this wisdom, learn to distinguish the 
false from the true. All true enquirers into the Art of Alchemy 
should be well versed in the primary philosophy. Otherwise all 
their labour will be vain. "The true seeker undertakes the search 
on his own account; for while he eagerly hopes to find our 
Delectable Stone, he does not wish to see others involved in any 
loss he may incur. He therefore conducts all the experiments 
at his own cost, nor does he grudge the expense which their 
labour requires. He consumes his substance and empties his 
coffers, and advances step by step with great patience, basing his 
hope on God's assistance alone. Impostors, on the other hand, 
wander in ragged gown from city to city, and set traps for the 
unwary whom they may dupe with their pretended knowledge, 
and outwit by vain talk and perjury. They say that they can 
augment silver, and affirm with a false oath that they can mul- 
tiply both gold and silver, and thus they ingratiate themselves 
with the covetous, producing the excellent conjunction of Fraud 
and Avarice. But in.no long time the multiplier of gold is found 
to have deceived his credulous victim with his magnificent 
promises and his perjured assertions—and the covetous man is 
reduced to beggary. "This must be the result if one is not from 
the very first on his guard against the deceitful language of the 
multiplier. Of these persons I might speak at great lengtb, but 
am aíraid of encouraging men who are of themselves disposed to 
evil. I fear that by saying any more I might possibly do as 
much harm as good, and therefore I will only add one word to 
the wise: If these persons really possessed the knowledge to 
which they pretend, they would take good care not to make it 
known to others, nor would they have any need to go about 
boasting of their knowledge, and cheating the credulous out of 

THE ORDINAL- QF ALCHEMY. I5 

their money. If these impostors were punished according to 
their deserts in all places where they drive their fraudulent trade, 
there would not be so many of them. Now these fellows put 
forward lying assertions about Nature when they speak of the 
multiplication of metals. For of this one thing you may rest 
assured : Metals are never multiplied. Such a thing would be 
contrary to Nature's methods. Nature never multiplies anything, 
except in either one or the other of these two ways: either by 
decay, which we call putrefaction, or in the case of animate crea- 
tures, by propagation. In the case of metals, there can be no 
propagation, though our Stone exhibits something like it. 
Putrefaction destroys and corrupts, but in order to be fruitful, 
it must go forward in some convenient place. Metals are 
generated in the earth; for above ground they are subject to rust: 
hence above ground is the place of the corruption of metals and 
of their gradual destruction. "The cause which we assign for this 
fact is that above ground they are not in their proper element, 
and an unnatural position is destructive to natural objects, 
as we see, for instance, that fishes die when they are taken 
out of the water; and as it is natural for men, beasts, and 
birds to live in the air, so stones and metals are naturally 
generated under the earth. Physicians and apothecaries do 
not look for aquatic flowers on arid hills. ^ God in His 
wisdom has ordained that everything should grow in its 
own proper place. I know that some deny this principle, and 
assert that metals are multiplied. For, they say, the veins of 
silver, lead, tin, and iron which we find in the earth, are some- 
times rich and sometimes poor; and such diversity would be 
totally inexplicable if the metals did not multiply or grow. — This 
fact then is thought to prove that metals grow underground— 
and if they grow underground, why, it is asked, should they not 
grow above ground, in a vessel which protects them from the 
influences of fire, water, and air? Our answer to this argument 
is that it proves nothing, because the conditions are not the same 
in the two cases. For the only efficient cause of metals is the 
mineral virtue, which is not found in every kind of earth, but 
only in certain places and chosen mines, into which the celestial 
sphere pours its rays in a straight direction year by year, and 
according to the arrangement of the metallic substance in these 

16 . THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

splaces, this or that metal is gradually formed. Only few parts of 
the earth are suitable for such generation—how, then, can they 
be multiplied above the earth? Every person of average intelli- 
gence knows that in the case of congealed water, or ice, the water, 
before it becomes hardened, is more plentiful in some places than 
in others. Before its congelation, it exists in small quantities in 
brooks and ditches, while more considerable veins of it are found 
in lakes and rivers. Afterwards, large quantities of ice are seen 
where there was much water; but it would manifestly be absurd 
to say that the ice must have grown or multiplied in the lakes and 
rivers, because they contain greater masses of it than ditches or 
brooks. In the same way, the metals do not necessarily grow in 
the mountains, because in some places they exist in larger 
quantities than in others. ^A certain portion of any metal can 
never be increased in quantity by the action of an inherent prin- 
ciple ; and herein minerals differ from vegetables and animals. 
A vegetable seed, such as an acorn, virtually contains within itself 
the trunk and the leaves of a tree, though they cannot at a given 
moment be discerned with the eye. But metals always remain 
exactly the same in their composition, though they be dissolved 
with strong waters. An ounce of silver can never become more 
or less than an ounce of silver. For nothing can be multiplied 
by inward action unless it belong to the vegetable kingdom, or 
the family of sensitive creatures. But the metals are elementary 
objects, and possess neither seed nor sensation. Hence we con- 
clude that all multipliers of metals should be forbidden to exercise 
their fraudulent trade. For when a metal has once been gene- 
rated, it is never added to by growth. Nevertheless, we have 
known one metal to be transmuted into another of a different 
kind by means of the cognate nature of their substances ; so, 
for instance, iron has been changed into bronze. But nothing 
can produce real silver or gold except the Medicine of the Philo- 
sophers. Hence the falsehoods affected by the multipliers are 
eschewed and shunned by all true Sages. But all honour and 
reverence is due to the genuine Art of sacred Alchemy, which is 
concerned with the precious Medicine that has virtue to produce 
pure gold and silver. Of this an example exists in a certain city 
of Catalonia, which Raymond Lullius is supposed to have drawn 
up. It consists of a series of seven images, and is designed to 

EHE ORUDEANLAIP, QI ALCHBITY. jj 

shadow out the way of truth. "Three of these pictures represent 
matronly figures of solid silver, and four of them represent men 
of gold in flowing garb. On the hems of their garments appear 
certain letters, the meaning of which I will proceed to expound. 

* | was once an old iron horse-shoe "—such is the inscription 
on the garment of one woman——" but now I am the purest silver." 
* [," says another woman, * was iron smelted from the ore, but 
now I am become pure and solid gold."  * I," says a third, * was 
once a battered piece of copper: now L am all silver." The fourth 
figure says: *I was once copper, generated in a vile place, but at 
the bidding of God I have now become perfect gold." *I,"says 
the fifth figure, * who was once fine and pure silver, am now more 
excellent gold." The sixth figure proclaims that it was during 
200 years a leaden pipe, but is now known by all for honest silver. 
TThe seventh says: * A wondrous thing has happened to me—I 
have become lead out of gold. But certainly my sisters are 
nearer than I." 

This science derives its name from a certain King Alchymus 
of illustrious memory, who, being a generous and noble-hearted 
prince, first set himself to study this Art. He ceased not to 
question Nature by day and by night, and at last extorted from 
her a blessed answer. King Hermes also did a like thing, being 
deeply versed in every kind of learning. His * Quadripartite " 
deals with the four great branches of natural science: astrology, 
medicine, alchemy, and natural magic ; and therein he expresses 
himself as follows : * Blessed is the man who knows things truly 
as they are, and blessed is the man who duly proves that which 
appertains to knowledge." It was his opinion that many are 
deceived in thinking that they understand that of which they do 
not know the cause. It is an old proverb that in a bushel of 
imagination there is often not even a grain of true knowledge. 
It is also true that by the habit of proving everything, and by wise 
discernment, learned men are even now adding to their stock of 
information. By knowledge men understand themselves and all 
things; without knowledge men are beasts, and worse than 
beasts. Lack of knowledge renders men fierce and wild, but 
instruction makes them mild and gentle. It is now the custom 
for nobles to despise those who desire to understand the secrets 
of Nature ; but in olden times even Kings ordained that no one 

Vor. II, B 

18 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

should be instructed in the seven liberal sciences except those 
who were nobly born, and brilliantly endowed, and that he who 
had once devoted himself to knowledge should be bound to spend 
his life in its pursuit. Hence the Ancients called these sciences the 
seven liberal sciences, because those who wished to become per- 
fect adepts in them should delight in them in a spirit of liberty. 
Freedom from all mundane cares is necessary for him who would 
apply himself thoroughly to the study of human law, and he who 
wishes to become a ripe scholar in many sciences, has much 
more solid reasons for turning his back on the world's toils and 
pleasures. This fact sufficiently shews the ground on which 
learned men are despised. Yet the glorious memory of the man 
who increases day by day in the knowledge of truth, can never 
perish. "The man who loves wisdom, justice, and grace, may be 
rejected in many places, but time will circle his brow with a crown 
of gold. In the meantime, we must expect that those who love 
knowledge for its own sake shall be scorned by the ignorant 
multitude. Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that though 
many devote themselves to this study for the sake of mere gain, 
yet avarice and science are incompatible yoke-fellows ; he whose 
affections are set on mere lucre, will never discover the secrets of 
this Art. But he who delights in knowledge for its own sake 
approaches the study of our Art in the right spirit, and such a 
man is bound to succeed. "There is no need to lengthen out this 
chapter any further, since we have already set forth who they are 
that may, with reasonable hope of success, apply themselves to 
the study of sacred Alchemy. Let me repeat that any such per- 
son should be a faithful Christian, and a man who is not easily 
moved from his purpose. He should be free from ambition, free 
from the necessity of borrowing from others, full of patience and 
endurance, and of unwavering confidence in God. | He should be 
prepared to follow knowledge through good and evil report. His 
life should be free from guilt, falsehood, and sin. Such men alone 
possess mental aptitude for becoming proficients in this science. 
'The next chapter deals with joy and sorrow. 

OETPOSDATUI/ ISSQIUTE 

In Normandy there once lived a monk, who deceived many 
persons of different ranks in life. When his mind had become 

TEE ORDINAL. QF. ALCHEMY. 19 

filled with the vain conceit that he had a perfect knowledge of 
this Art, he gave himself up to such violent joy that he almost 
went out of his senses. Whose preposterous zeal I will attempt 
to excuse by adding the foilowing brief narrative for the sake of 
illustration :— 

This monk had led a vagrant life in France, in forgetfulness 
of his vow, and in the indulgence of his low desires. At last he 
. came to this kingdom, and attempted to persuade all men that 
he had a perfect understanding of the Art of Alchemy, which he 
said he had obtained from a certain * Book of Recipes" He 
was desirous of achieving a mighty deed, which should hand 
down the glory of his name to posterity, and for ever establish 
his reputation in this island. He was always thinking how he 
should spend the vast wealth which (he thought) he would soon 
be able to procure. At last he said to himself: * Behold, I 
knów where I shall find a faithful man, who can aid me in this 
matter, and help me to the fulfilment of my wish: which is, to 
erect in a glorious manner on Salisbury Plain, fifteen magnificent 
Abbeys in a short space of time, and each within a mile of the 
other." In pursuance of this design, the monk came to me, and 
laid open his whole plan, at the same time requesting me to 
assist him with my counsel. I have promised before the shrine 
of Saint James not to divulge his name ; but yet I may without 
prejudice to my vow speak about his foolish undertaking. 
After telling me of his proficiency in this glorious Art, he 
said that he wanted nothing but an opportunity of labouring for 
the King's good, and permission from the Council to buy land 
for the aforesaid Abbeys. As to the expense, he said it would 
be easy for him to make it good. But he was in great doubt, 
where, from whom, and how he was to purchase the land. After 
listening to the exposition of his lofty design, I desired to test 
his learning and his knowledge of scholastic science ; and I 
found that in these branches of attainment he was sadly to seek. 
Yet I contained myself, and kept my own counsel, in order that 
I mightlearn more about his designs. So I told him that the 
matter was not of sufficient importance to be laid before the 
King, for everyone would look upon the same as an idle tale, if 
no proof of his pretensions was forthcoming. The monk 
answered that he had in the fire a substance which would supply 

B2 

20 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

him with all that he needed, and that within forty days 
he could triumphantly demonstrate to me the truth of his 
words. I replied that I would not now press him any 
further, but that I would wait the allotted time. But when 
the date which he had fixed arrived, the monk's science 
evaporated, and all his Abbeys and lofty designs vanished into 
thin air ; as the impostor had come, so he departed, not without 
great shame and confusion. But shortly afterwards I heard that 
he had deceived many kind-hearted people, and had then again 
returned to France. It seemed a great pity that fifteen abbeys, 
seats of religion,sanctity, and learning, should so unceremoniously 
have vanished with him! It was also wonderful that such a man 
could have deluded himself into the belief that he could erect 
fifteen abbeys, while he himself could not live true to his vow of 
obedience,and must needs wander about as an apostate vagabond, 
for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of this sacred Art. 
But I have already repeatedly said that just because it is sacred, 
no false or deceitful person can attain to it. In order to illustrate 
my meaning, I will now add another example. There wasa man 
who thought that he was as deeply versed in this Art as 
Raymond Lullius or Friar Bacon, for which reason he was so 
presumptuous as to call himself peerless. He was the priest of 
a small town, not far from the city of London, and was thought 
by others to have little skill in preaching. This man felt sure 
that he had discovered the secret of our Art, and so, in order to 
advance his fame, he formed the design of throwing a bridge 
over the Thames for the benefit of travellers, and for the con- 
venience of the whole neighbourhood. But nothing would serve 
him but he must set up a grand and lofty structure which should 
compel the admiration of all bebolders. It was to have towers 
covered with flaming gold, and its pillars were to be such as had 
never been seen before. He frequently spoke of the new thing 
which he was going to accomplish, for his bridge was to be seen 
far and wide by night, and was to endure for ever ; its glory was 
never to grow dim. Then he revolved different plans in his 
mind concerning the best manner of carrying out his design. 
At first he thought that flaming torches would answer his pur- 
pose, and elaborated a plan of setting them up in sufficient 
numbers. But soon he was seized with a fear that after his 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 2f 

death the trustees of his benefaction might neglect the torches, 
and apply the money allotted to that purpose in some other way, 
Thus he at length arrived at the conclusion that it would be best 
tolight up his bridge by night with great flaming gems and 
carbuncles, such as should be visible far and wide, and radiate 
their splendour in all directions. But here again he was troubled 
with new misgivings, where such carbuncles could be found, and 
where he should meet with wise and reliable men, who would 
travel through all the countries of the world, and procure for him 
a sufficient number of these jewels. "These thoughts caused him 
so much anxiety, that he wasted away to a mere shadow. All 
this time, of course, he was firmly persuaded that he had found 
the true secret of our Art. But when the year came to an end, 
his Art and all his substance vanished with it; for he had opened 
his glass vessel and found that it contained neither gold nor 
silver. Then he flew into a great passion, and cursed himself in 
the bitterness of his heart. For he had spent all his wealth, and 
passed the rest of his life in poverty. What more shall I say 
about him? His case speaks for itself. 

When learned scholars and those who frequent the schools 
hear of the melancholy fate of these foolish persons, they ought 
to take warning, and remember that the same things may 
happen to themselves, if they are not constantly on their guard. 
For many of them are but too ready lightly to receive all con- 
clusions, however false, if they only find them boldly asserted in 
books. "This easy and unquestioning confidence may bring in 
its train poverty and vexation of spirit. The hope afforded by 
such teaching is an empty delight and a veritable fools! paradise. 
But the true sons of our Art stay their hope on God alone, since 
they know that without Him everything is a delusion and a 
failure, for they know that a man who has not the Beginning of 
all Knowledge cannot conduct his enquiry to a successful end. 
No man, O God, can comprehend without Thee, and though the 
exposition of the Art be uttered in his ears, without Thee it is 
but idle breath to him! Of Thee, O God, comes all blessed 
and successful effort! "Thou art of all good things both the 
beginning and the end. Now I have told you something of 
the joy which is caused by the vain hopes of foolish enquirers ; 
hear now also about the sorrow, of which this Art has been 

22 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

a source to many whose hopes have been grievously disap- 
pointed. 

The first cause of sorrow is to see and realize that among 
the many who seek this Art only few ever find it, and that no 
one can attain this knowledge unless he be taught before he 
begins; and he is truly learned, and finely endowed, who can 
apprehend it by the teaching of another. "The subtle shades of 
natural differences must be well known to the man who desires 
to be initiated in the most profound secret of the universe ; and 
no form of words can be so accurate as to safeguard the learner 
against error. For many who have now departed this life have 
gone widely astray before they finally succeeded in their 
search after our Stone. Either at the very outset, or at a 
later stage of the work, all are liable to error, until they are 
enlightened by the teaching of experience, and hit upon the 
proper regulation of heat and cold. Nobody is more liable 
to error in respect to this matter than your bold and over- 
confident enquirer. Nobody sooner mars our work, than he 
who is in too great a hurry to complete it. The man who 
would bring this matter to perfection, should set about it 
cautiously and heedfully. ^ The most grievous circumstance 
connected with our Art, is that if you make a mistake in any 
part of it, you have to do it all over again from the very 
beginning. Anyone who gives himself up to this search must 
therefore expect to meet with much vexation of spirit. He will 
frequently have to change his course in consequence of new 
discoveries which he makes. His experiments will often turn 
out failures, his mind will often be in a state of doubt and 
perplexity ; and thus he will continue to be vexed by 
conflicting results, until at length he reaches the goal of his 
desire. Again, let me tell you a little more about the 
sorrows and troubles of the Alchemist, which may considerably 
moderate your desire to acquire the practice of this Art. At 
first it is most difficult, as the Sages say, to find out among so 
many impostors, the man who has a perfect understanding of 
our science. And when you have found a truly learned master, 
you have not yet by any means left all your trouble far behind you. 
If your mind is devoted to virtue, the Devil will do his utmost to 
frustrate your search by one or the other of three stumbling blocks, 

IDEZB. ORTA (QU. ALCHEMT. 23 

namely, haste, despair, or deception. For he is afraid of the 
good works which you may do if you succeed in mastering this 
secret. The first danger lies in undue haste, which destroys and 
mars the work of many. Allauthors who have written about 
this Art, agree in saying, like the author of the little book of 
*'The Philosopher's Feast," that undue haste is of the Devil. 
Hence he will the soonest make an end who tarries a little at 
the beginning ; and those who act otherwise will discover to 
their cost the truth of the proverb which says that: * The greater 
haste we make, theless will be our speed." For he who is in a 
hurry will complete his work neither in a month, nor yet in a 
year ; and in this Art it will always be true that the man who is 
in a hurry will never be without matter of complaint. Rest 
assured also that haste will precipitate you from the pinnacle of 
truth. Itis the Devil's subtlest device to ensnare us ; for this 
haste is an zezzs-/atuus by which he causes us to wander from 
the right path. The man who has found grace stoutly sets his 
face against hurry ; he does so as a matter of habit, for in a 
moment of time haste may mar your whole work. Therefore be 
on your guard against hurry, accounting it as a device of the 
Devil Time will not allow me to caution you with sufficient 
vehemence of fecling against habits of hurried work. Many 
pierce themselves through with sharp sorrows, because they are 
always in a hurry, and full of impatience to reach the goal, 
which comes about through the temptation of Satan. I will 
say no more about hurry, but blessed is he who possesses 
patience. If the enemy does not prevail against you by hurry, 
he will assault you with despondency, and will be constantly 
putting into your minds discouraging thoughts, how those who 
seek this Art are many, while they are few that find it, and how 
those who fail are often wiser men than yourself. He will then 
ask you what hope there can be of your attaining the grand 
arcanum ; moreover, he will vex you with doubts, whether your 
master is himself possessed of the secret which he professes to 
impart to you; or whether he is not concealing from you the 
best part of that which he knows. The Evil One will endeavour 
to fill your mind with these doubts, in order to turn you from 
your purpose by diffidence and despondency. Nor will anything 
avail against his assaults, except the calm confidence inspired 

24 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by virtue, and the sound conclusions of reason. Your fears will 
be scattered to the winds if you quietly consider the high 
character of your master and teacher ; nor need you despair if 
you an call to mind that he was induced to instruct you by 
love, and by no selfish motive. It is difficult indeed to trust a 
man who offers you his services ; for such a person stands more 
in need of you than you of him. But if your master be such a 
man as I have directed you to seek, and if he has waited for 
you to come to him, you ought to be strongly armed against 
the shafts of distrust. If your master be at all such a man as 
mine was, you can have no excuse for doubting him, for mine 
was noble and true, a lover of justice, and an enemy to 
deceit. Moreover, he was a good keeper of his secret, and 
when others ostentatiously displayed their knowledge, he held 
his peace as if he. knew nothing. When others talked in his 
presence about the colours of the rose, he would listen in grave 
and impenetrable silence. Him I attended during many years ; 
but he would not impart to me anything of moment, until he had 
made me submit to many tests for the purpose of proving my 
disposition ; and when he had found me faithful and true, and 
had seen the great hope which I had conceived in my mind, I 
obtained favour in his eyes through the will of God, and his 
heart inclined to me. When at length he thought that I should 
not be put off any longer—since my scholarly attainments and 
the generous aspiration of my soul had moved his heart, and 
made it go out to me—he took up his pen, and wrote to me as 
follows: * My faithful friend and beloved brother, I am con- 
strained to accede to your request, as no other person like 
you will ever come to me. The time has arrived for you 
to receive this favour of me on account of your manly 
character and firm faith, your approved virtue and wisdom, 
your truthfulness, love, and perseverance, your constancy, and 
the generous aspiration of your soul "This your excellent 
mental condition I will now reward, to your lasting solace 
and comfort, by divulging to you the mighty secret. For this 
purpose it is necessary to converse with you by word of mouth ; 
if I laid open to you the secret in writing, I should be violating 
my oath. Hence it is necessary that we should meet ; and when 
you come, I will make you the heir of my Art, and depart from 

IDENE -ORDINATL OP AU CHEBIMY. 25 

this land. You shall be my brother and my heir in respect of 
this grand secret, which is the despair of the learned. For this : 
reason give thanks to God for this message : it is better than to 
become heir-apparent to a crown. For only those whom God 
has chosen next to His own heavenly saints, ever receive this 
Art by which He is so highly honoured. I will write no more 
to you at the present time: mount on horseback, and come to me 
without delay." When I had perused these lines, I set out at 
the very same hour, and at once hastened to my master, though 
the distance exceeded a hundred miles. I continued with him 
forty days, and learned all the secrets of Alchemy (although 
before I had understood philosophy as well as any other person 
in the kingdom). Yet it would be foolish to suppose that the 
work itself can be completed within forty days: I say that ! was 
fully instructed within that time, but the work itself requires a 
longer period. Then all that had been dark became as clear as 
the light, when I beheld the secret gates of Nature unbarred ; I 
saw so plainly the causes and the ra£zeza/e of everything, that it 
was no longer possible for me to doubtordespair. Ifyou are as 
fortunate in your master as I, you will never be assailed by 
despondency. 

The third enemy against whom you must guard is deceit, 
and this one is perhaps more dangerous than the other two. The 
servants whom you must employ to feed your furnaces are fre- 
quently most untrustworthy. Some are careless, and go to sleep 
when they should be attending to the fire ; others are depraved, 
and do you all the harm they can ; others, again, are either stupid 
or conceited and over-confident, and disobey instructions ; some 
have fingers retentive of other people's property, or they are 
drunken, negligent, and absent-minded. Be on your guard 
against all these, if you wish to be spared some great loss. If 
servants are faithful, they are generally stupid ; those who are 
quick-witted, are generally also false ; and it is difficult to say 
whether the deceitful or the stupid are the greater evil of the two. 
For when I had all my experiments in proper train, some 
thievish servants ran away with my materials and utensils, and 
left me nothing but the empty laboratory ; and when I calculated 
the cost, time, and labour of beginning the work all over again, 
I had almost in the bitterness of my heart resolved to bid an 

26 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

everlasting farewell to this Art of Alchemy. For it will hardly 
be believed how completely I had been stripped of all that T 
possessed, although ten trustworthy persons still survive to attest 
the fact. Indeed the blow was so great that it could hardly have 
been inflicted on me by human agency alone, without the insti- 
gation and co-operation of the Devil. I also made an Elixir of 
Life, of which a merchant's wife bereft me, and I procured a 
quintessence, with many other precious preparations, but of all 
these things [I was robbed by wicked men, and thus found, to my 
smart, that in the sweetest cup of this world's joy, there is a 
liberal infusion of bitterness. Let me tell you a little more of 
what has fallen under my observation, concerning the perplexities 
ofthis work. The calamity of which l am thinking happened 
to a good and godly man ; and I am the only person that can 
give a true account of it. 

Thomas Dalton, a devout and religious servant of God, 
possessed a larger quantity of the Red Medicine than has ever 
been obtained by any other Englishman. | Nowa certain knight 
of King Edward's household, named Thomas Herbert, dragged 
this Dalton forth by violence from an abbey in Gloucestershire, 
and brought him before the King, where he was confronted with 
Delvis. For Dalton had been scribe (secretary) to this William 
Delvis, and Delvis had told the King about Dalton's skill in this 
Art.  Delvis was a faithful servant, who always stood in the 
presence of King Edward, and he deposed that within an hour 
Dalton had made for himself one thousand pounds sterling of 
gold, fully equal to that of the royal coin: and he confirmed his 
testimony by a most sacred oath upon the Bible. Then Dalton 
looked full upon Delvis, and said: * O Delvis, thou hast per- 
jured thyself! "Thou hast foully broken the pledge thou gavest 
me, and hast betrayed me even as Judas betrayed his Master." 
*[ did, indeed," rejoined Delvis, *once swear to thee that I 
would not betray thy secret; yet I do not consider myself as 
guilty of perjury, since the service of my King and country 
release me from my oath." "Then Dalton soberly answered him 
thus: * This subterfuge does not excuse thy perjury ; for if it 
did, how could the King himself trust thee, who hast confessed 
thy perjury in his presence? And," he continued, turning to His 
Majesty, * I do admit that I possessed this Medicine for a long 

TRIBU 'QORDINVAL. OP ALCHBAMY. 27 

time ; but at length it was only a source of grief and anxicty to 
me-——and therefore after retiring to that abbey from which I was 
brought hither, I threw it into a tidal river which is daily 
renewed by the ebb and flow of the sea. Thus as much wealth 
has been lost as would have sufficed for the outfit and support 
of twenty thousand knights, who might have been willing to go 
forth and recover the Holy Sepulchre. For the love of God, I 
kept this Medicine many years, in order that through its means 
I might succoura King who should undertake this expedition. 
But as this sacred duty was forgotten, the Medicine is now 
irrecoverably lost" The King replied that it was a foolish 
act to destroy so wonderful a treasure, and demanded that 
Dalton should prepare some more of the Medicine. * No," said 
Dalton, * that can never be." * Why nct?" enquired the King. 
* How did you obtain it?" Dalton replied that he had received 
it from a learned Canon of Lichfeld, whose works he had 
diligently attended to during many years, until at length the 
Canon had bequeathed to him as much of the Medicine as he 
had ever possessed. Then the King gave Dalton four marks, 
with liberty to depart withersoever he desired ; and, at parting, 
he expressed his grief and concern that he had not known Dalton 
before. But as it oftens happens that the worst tyrants are 
found in the retinues of kings, so Herbert now caused Dalton to be 
seized, robbed of the money which the King had given him, and 
carried off to Stepney, where he detained him a long time. 
Thence Dalton was conveyed by Herbert to a castle in 
Gloucestershire, cast into the dungeon thereof, and kept close 
prisoner for four years, during which period he was tormented 
by Herbert in every conceivable manner. At length he was led 
forth to execution, and when he saw the ministers of death, he 
said: *O blessed Lord Jesus, I have been separated from Thee 
too long : Thou didst give me this knowledge, and I have used 
it without overweening pride. I have not been able to find a 
fit person to whom I might have bequeathed my wisdom. 
Therefore, dearest Lord, I now resign Thy gift into Thy own 
hands" Then he poured forth a devout prayer, and thereupon 
turned to the executioner and said, with a smile, * Now thou 
mayest work thy will." 

When Herbert heard these words, his eyes filled with tears, 

28 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

because neither deceit, imprisonment, nor death could induce 
his victim to yield up the precious secret; and he bade his 
servants let the old man go, as his obstinacy was not to be over- 
come. Then Dalton arose, looked about him with sadness and 
disappointment depicted in his countenance, and departed with 
a heavy heart; for he had no desire to live even another year. 
This injury happened to him through the greed and cruelty of 
godless men. Herbert died not long after, and Delvis lost his 
life at Tewkesbury. Such are the sufferings which they who 
aspire to a knowledge of this Art, must lay their account with 
having to bear. Yet we also see how the greed of wicked men 
over-reaches itself. For if Herbert had treated Dalton with 
kindness and gentleness, instead of with cruelty, insolence, and 
violence, much advantage might have been reaped not only by 
the King, but also by the entire commonwealth. Yet we need not 
wonder that gracious means were not used, for sin reigns every- 
where in this kingdom. ^ Otherwise, the people might have 
obtained great relief from rates and taxes, and much money 
might have been bestowed in charity among knights, priests, and 
the common people. Hence we may learn that profligate 
violence is incapable of acquiring wisdom; for virtue and vice 
are contrary the one to the other, and men abandoned to the one 
cannot receive the reward of the other. If vicious persons could 
gein a full knowledge of this Art, their overbearing insolence 
would grow unendurable, and their ambition would overleap all 
bounds ; they would by its means become worse men than they 
were before. Now this chapter respecting the delights and 
sufferings of our Art is finished. The next will declare the 
Matter of our Stone. 

(IETVASDATSESISSQIIS 

Tonsilus had been engaged in the momentous search 
during more than sixty years. Bryan, too, and Halton, in the 
western parts, had been employed day and night in practical 
experiments ; yet they did not find this noble science, because 
they did not know the Matter and root of the Art, but sought it 
by a mistaken method, until they had wasted their lives and 
goods. They were put to great expense, loss, and suffering, by 
the recipes according to which they worked. Then Tonsil 

DERE ORDINAL Of ALCHEMY. 29 

complained to me with tears that he was in great bitterness of 
soul, because he had spent the better part of his life on false 
receipts, vile substances, herbs, gums, roots, and grasses, of which 
he enumerated many species, as, for instance, crowfoot, celandine, 
mezerion, lunaria, and mortagon—also upon hair, eggs vervein, 
excrements, and urine—upon antimony, arsenic, honey, wax, and 
wine—on quicklime, vitriol, marchasita, and all kinds of minerals 
—on amalgams, albifications, and citrinations. | All had been 
reduced to nothing by his operations : for he had not well con- 
sidered his purpose, and the due proportions of natural truth. 
After he had failed with all these substances he thought nothing 
could be better than to operate on human blood, until I told him 
that by a fierce fire blood was destroyed, and converted into 
smoke. "Then he besought me by the love of Christ to declare 
to him the true substance of the Stone. ** Tonsil," I replied, 
- " what good would it do an old man like you?  Renounce this 
pursuit and give yourself up to prayer; for that is what your 
time of life requires. If you did know the substance of our 
Stone, you would fall a victim to old age before you could 
prepare it." But he bade me not to trouble myself about what 
might be the result to himself. * It would be a comfort to me 
at least to know the substance of the Stone which I have sought 
solong." * Tonsil," I said, * your request is more easily made 
than granted. For all the authors who deal with this subject 
write about it in obscure language, and not one of them declares 
it plainly ; nay, they beseech God to remove them suddenly out 
of this world, if they ever write books about the grand secret. 
For many of them have been fearful of committing to paper 
more than was right about this science; and not one of them 
has given more than one or two plain hints respecting it. They 
did not write with the object of divulging their secret to the 
world, but in an obscurely allusive style, in order that they 
might be able to recognize those who understood their meaning 
as brothers and fellow adepts. Hence you must not be content 
with reading only one book, but you should study a variety of 
authors; because, according to the learned Arnold, one book 
opens up the understanding of another. The same thought is 
expressed by the learned Anaxagoras, who testifies that 
if a man will not take the trouble of reading many books, 

30 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

he can never attain to a practical knowledge of our Art. 
But though I] may not reveal to you for the sake of 
charity what has never yet been plainly set forth by the 
brethren of our Art, I may at least give you some comfort by 
answering as straightforwardly as I can, any questions which 
you may like to put to me." *' Good Master," he replied, * tell 
me truly whether the substance be Sun (gold) and Mercury, or 
Sun and Moon (silver), or whether these three must be taken 
together; or whether it be Gold by itself, or Mercury by itself, 
or whether Sulphur with these two be the substance of the 
Stone? Or, is salt of ammonia nearer the truth, or is some other 
mineral the right thing to use in our Art?" * The questions 
you have put, Tonsil, are wisely and astutely conceived ; 
neverthelesss, you have not named the substance, except 
generically. For you must take a part of these, and of other 
things at various times, according to the requirements of the 
Art. Divers things are used in the preparation of our Stone, 
but there are two materials, and only one Stone. Between the 
two there is the same difference as that between a mother and 
her offspring ; or, looking at the matter from another point of 
view, the difference resembles that which exists between male 
and female. "These two substances will furnish you with all that 
you need. As forthe white Tincture, if you are wise, one of these 
you shall find to be a Stone, which is rightly named, because, like 
a stone, it is indestructible by fire. Yet it is not like a stone to 
the touch or the sight, but is a fine earthy powder, of a dull red. 
In its separate form we call it our ground litharge ; at first it is 
brown and ruddy, and then of a whitish colour. It is called our 
chosen Marcasite, and one ounce of it is worth more than fifty 
pounds. Yet is it not sold in the cities of Christendom, but he 
who desires it, must either get it made by someone else, or 
prepare it himself. "There is this advantage concerning it, that 
to make it once well dispenses with all need of repeating the 
task. Ancient writers call it a thing of small price, because 
it is lightly esteemed by the merchants, and no one that finds it 
cares to pick it up, any more than if it were an ounce of dirt. 
Few will believe that it is a pearl of great price, for it is known 
to none but the wise. Thus have I laid bare to you a great 
secret, more plainly than any of the dead masters. Then, 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 9u 

Tonsilus, you must also have another Stone, or else you want 
your principal material. This Stone is most glorious, fair, and 
bright. It is sold as a stone, and looks like a stone of singular 
transparency and brilliance. One ounce of it may, in most 
places, be obtained for about twenty shillings. Its name is 
Magnesia, but its real nature is known to few. It is found 
on the tops of the highest mountains, and in the lowest 
depths of the earth ^ Plato knew its properties and called 
it by its name.  Chaucer says, in the Canon's Tale, that it 
is called Dytanos, thus defining an obscure term in language 
still more hopelessly obscure ; but it is impossible to understand 
a thing if for one unintelligible term another still less intelligible 
is substituted. Nevertheless, my Tonsilus, I will endeavour to 
explain to you the meaning of Magnesia in our own tongue. 
Magos is Greek, and is equivalent to the Latin zzzra&z/e; aes is 
money, ycos, science ; 4 is God ; that is to say, it is a matter in 
which much divine knowledgeis involved. Now you know what 
Magnesia is—it is res aezzs, and in it lies hidden a wonderful and 
divine secret. These two stones, my Tonsilus, you must take as 
your materials for the preparation of the Elixir. Although at 
first no further materials are needed, yet, as I have already 
hinted, divers other things are of great use in our Art. "The 
great secret was never before so plainly expounded. But take 
my explanation in all its fulness; and I will pray God, lest 
my excess of frankness be reckoned to me for a crime—for I 
fear that I have suffered my pen to run riot. Though few may 
understand what I have said, yet there are some students of this 
Art so subtle, cunning, and keen-witted, that still fewer data 
would suffice to them for the discovery of all that we know. 
Nevertheless, God shall provide that none shall find it except the 
man of a pure and virtuous life. It was with this end in view 
that the ancient writers concealed with so much solicitude the 
matters of our Stone, which I have here declared. You need no 
other substances but these two for the preparation of the white 
Stone, except salt of ammonia, and that kind of sulphur which 
is extracted from metals. "These two substances suffice for the 
fulfilment of your desire; none but these two finally abide the 
test of the fire. Sulphur is burned, and loses its colour. But 
our Litharge is indestructible. ^ Do not set about with any 

Qo THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

metal or quicksilver. — If you destroy its whole composition, 
some of its component parts will be of use to you. But the 
principal substances are the two which I have mentioned, namely, 
Magnesia and Litharge, its brother." 

(OEIPAXDEIBEUSSSIIVA 

I will not attempt to escape from the task which I have 
undertaken to expound the great work: Í will instruct you as 
fully as possible in this secret, and all my endeavour shall be to 
make known to you the truth. As faras I may do so without 
prejudice to my vow, I will be your guide, and shew you the way 
to the goal of your desire. If you consider into whata state of 
obscurity and confusion the different parts of this work have been 
wilfully thrown by the old writers, you will understand the diffi- 
culty of my task. None of them has declared more than one 
point of our experiment ; and for this reason their writings, even 
if you understand them, will not enable you to practise the Art 
yourself. Arnold testifies in his books that the central secret of 
our Art is to know the substance on which it is based ; and in 
his work * Multifary," where he shews how pure and simple 
essences are to be recognised, he says that our fundamental 
matter is of two kinds ; but he does not tell us how they are to 
be found. "Their names you have already learned in the last 
chapter. Friar Bacon dwells more fully on this point, where he 
says: "Divide all parts into their cognate elements. For the 
unlearned do not proceed in this way ; but they continue perti- 
naciously and senselessly to add more and more to a divisible 
substance—and while they fancy that they are on the point of 
bringing to perfection the flower of our Art, all that they really 
effect is the multiplication of error." In this passage Bacon, like 
his predecessors, appears fearful of saying too much. Perhaps 
you also remember what Avicenna says, in his * Gate ": * You 
must go forward to perfection by true teaching in accordance 
with the facts of Nature : you must eat to drink, and drink to eat, 
and in the mean season be covered with perspiration." Rhasis 
expresses himself to the same effect, but warns us against suffering 
the matter to consume its food too quickly : * Let it assimilate 
its aliment little by little" Of this rule the Prophet also makes 
mention, if you rightly comprehend his meaning: * Thou hast 

THE ORgDUNNAL Of ALCHEM:-YX. 33 

visited the earth," he says, * and watered it: Thou hast multiplied 
its wealth : the fruitful land hast Thou turned into a dry place, 
and the arid land into a river of water. When it has plenty of 
meat and drink, it is needful to watch at a time when the body 
craves sleep. For our labour demands constant vigils and great 
diligence, and it must be nourished and fed with precious sub- 
stances. * Therefore let all poor men eschew this experiment," 
says Arnold, *as this Art is for the rich of this world "—and I 
myself can attest to all poor men the truth of these words. 
* Moreover," he continues, * let the enquirer be patient and of an 
even temper, for those who are in a hurry will never reach the 
goal" The length of time required for the purification of the 
substance, is a stone of stumbling to many who will not believe 
init. I advise you, therefore, ye poor, not to attempt the solution 
of this mystery, but to stay your hands before it is too late. One 
fourth of an ounce too much or too little may in a single hour 
mar and destroy the labour of weeks. "The substance you must 
prepare with gentle heat, and so long as there is no violent 
effervescence, you may keep it over the fire: you should gradu- 
ally consume it by gentle coction, but it must not be suffered 
to throw up great bubbles, as such a course would be indicative 
of haste.  Gentleness and patience will mark out to you the 
safest method, and enable you to avoid the manifold dangers 
which beset the enquirer's path. One of the most difficult 
experiments in the gross work, is the classification of our 
intermediate minerals. The different media that are used must 
all be in a highly purified state, if the work is to be brought to a 
successful conclusion. For the pure and impure, the mature and 
immature, are by nature violently opposed to each other; that 
which is fixed naturally adheres to fixed substances, and volatile 
substances are sympathetically attracted by that which is volatile. 
Everywhere Nature strives to produce harmony by drawing like 
to like. Now you will find our gross work to be generically 
impure; and it is a matter of great difficulty and danger, 
requiring the utmost wisdom of the wise, and confounding the 
folly of the ignorant, to purge our Substance from all foreign 
matter. The learned as well as the simple are often led astray 
at this point, and prove the truth of the saying of Anaxagoras, 
that all men need to be taught discretion by bitter experience. 
VOL, II, (c 

34 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Once I heard a wise man say that, atthe present time, magnesia 
(in a pure state) is sold in Catalonia, together with the other 
intermediate minerals, so that the hands of a fastidious man 
need now no longer be defiled with this dirty work ; and if this 
were really true, both the commencement and the consummation 
of your work would be a much easier matter than it is under 
ordinary conditions. For if you are compelled to do all that I 
have had to accomplish, you will be wearied out before you 
reach the work proper. The work of the Sages does not begin 
until all substances are pure, both without and within. Let us 
remember that as we are seeking a tincture which imparts per- 
fection to all things else, we must remove from it all that is foul 
and vile. Of the different media, each has its own properties, 
and its own function to perform, according to its essential 
nature; of those media by which our experiment is advanced, 
some are of their own nature helpful, and others are harmful. 
Our Apothecaries do not understand the secret of their prepara- 
tion, and we refuse to instruct them, because we know that they 
would adulterate them (for the purpose of deceiving their 
customers) rather than take diligent and conscientious pains to 
let their drugs be genuine and pure. It is their practice (as I 
know by bitter experience) to ask a high price, and to furnish 
an untrustworthy article. If a man would have materials on 
which he may rely, he must not be afraid of soiling his own 
hands, nor must he shun expense, though it may swallow up 
all his hoarded wealth. In the gross work that man is 
furthest from the goal who is in too great a hurry to reach it. 
If our great work, with all that belongs to it, could be accom- 
plished in three years, artists might account themselves fortuntae ; 
for when it has once been brought to a satisfactory conclusion, 
there is no need to undertake it a second time, if indeed one is 
skilled in the art of augmenting his medicine ; and the attain- 
ment of this skill is one of the great objects of our Magistery. 
There is no need for me to name in this place the different 
minerals which are required, seeing that Albertus has most fully 
discussed this point. I might say much about the properties of 
minerals ; but the discussion would prove barren of results in 
the advancement of our Art. One of the most important 
conditions of success is the mechanical skill in the manipulation 

DEBA DRDINAT. OF. A'ECHEMEY. 35 

of experiments ; in regard to these it is possible to go astray in 
athousand ways, the path being beset with all but insurmount 
able difficulties at every step. Therefore, believe that which the 
ancient writers tell us—that nothing can be rightly done without 
experience. Consider all circumstances, and take care to secure 
uniformity in all that is required. Use one vessel which is 
simple both in material and in shape; beware of one made of 
mixed material, lest some accident happen at a critical moment. 
This general admonition will save me the trouble of laying 
down, and you the trouble of remembering, a hundred special 
cautions ; and this instruction may suffice for him who is wisely 
intent on the practice of our Art. If your servants are faithful 
and true, you will be able to carry out your experiments without 
constant vexation. Therefore, if you would be free from all fear, 
over the gross work, follow my counsel, and never engage 
married men ; for they soon give in and pretend that they are 
tired out, as | can assure you from my own experience. 
Hire your workmen for certain stipulated wages, and not for 
longer periods than twenty-four hours at a time. Give them 
higher wages than they would receive elsewhere, and be prompt 
and ready in your payments. For your kindness will stir up 
in their hearts love and reverence, and a spirit of zeal in the 
conduct of the work committed to them ; for they know withal 
that they are liable to be discharged at once if they are negligent 
in your service, Married men will not agree to be engaged for 
such short periods ; therefore, give them a wide berth. If I had 
known and acted on this principle before, I might have been 
spared much loss and vexation. In the pursuit of our Art, you 
must preserve at all times your liberty of action ; and you 
should also take care, from time to time, to unbend your mind 
from its sterner employments with some convenient recreation ; 
otherwise yourspirts might be weighed down with melancholy 
and despair, and you might lose heart for the continuation of 
your work. There is no need to add much to this chapter, for 
the ancient writers have already fully set forth all that I have 
not yet touched upon. But that which they have omitted is 
most plainly expounded in this Book. Hence it is called the 
Ordinal of Alchemy, the supplement of all other works on 
the subject. "The following chapter is for the initiated, and 
C2 

36 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

shews all the rules to be observed in the subtle part of the 
work. 

(ODIVASDAIBBEISES VA 

When Briseus was a money-changer, he caused loss to 
many persons, but to others his dealings were a source of delight 
and joy ; and as this fact seemed at the time a wonder and 
marvel to all who heard of it, so in our own time—not so very 
long ago—an almost miraculous event was observed to take 
place: within the short space of ten days the same bed in a 
house near Leadenhall was successively occupied by three 
Masters of this Art, every one of whom possessed both the 
white and the red Tincture; though hardly one person amongst 
a million of men ever becomes possessed of the glorious prize. 
One of them, as I was told, was from the Duchy of Lorraine, 
the second hailed from the Midland Counties of England, the 
third was the youngest, and was born near a Cross, which stands 
at the boundary of three shires. Wise men had foretold from 
the conjunction of planets that prevailed at his birth, that he 
would be an ornament to England. Anyone might travel 
through the length and breadth of Europe without meeting with 
three such Masters. Two of them are about to depart, but the 
third will remain and do much good in this part of the world. 
Nevertheless, the sins of our rulers will delay the good which 
otherwise he might confer upon our country at once. The 
oldest of the three Masters prophesied concerning this young 
adept, that he would have to endure much suffering at the hands 
of those who owed him the greatest debt of gratitude. He 
also uttered many other prophecies, some of which were verified 
by the event, while the rest remain to be fulfilled. * One thing 
is most certain," he said, * after great sorrow there will be great 
joy in all parts of this country—joy which will be experienced 
by all good men." The youth enquired when this thing should 
be, and the old man's answer was that it should come to pass 
when the Cross was honoured by night and by day in the land 
of God, and the land of Light: which thing will happen in due 
time, but is delayed by the grevious wickedness of men. But 
when the blessed hour arrives, this Art will be revealed to a 
King; and more glorious things will then be brought to pass 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. eU 

than it is possible for us to enumerate in this place, when he 
shall have reformed our manners and abolished all abuses. He 
will investigate this science in secret, and will be instructed in it 
by hermits, or monks. So King Calid, in his time of need, 
sought this knowledge of many, until it was imparted to him by 
Morienus, who succoured the King with his counsel, being 
removed thereto by his nobleness and virtue. But now we will 
speak of this subject no longer, but proceed to give an account 
of the subtle work. He that would understand it must be 
deeply learned. He should know elementary philosophy if he 
wishes to study Alchemy. 

Now, let me tell you who are intent upon this Art, that 
when materials have by preparation been rendered fit for 
generation, they must by division be separated into four 
elements. If you cannot do this, go and learn of Hortulanus, 
who has written a special treatise on the subject—in which 
treatise he shews how to divide wine into its elements. More- 
over, you should know the effects of the four qualities—heat, cold, 
moisture, and dryness—of which all things are composed ; and 
because in this Art you are specially desirous of obtaining a 
colour which abides the fire, you ought also to know, before you 
set about its production, how colours are generated. For every 
colour that can be named is seen in our work, before the white 
colour appears. Moreover, you must be able to melt your 
substance easily, like wax or gum. Otherwise, according to the 
Masters, it could not enter or penetrate metals. The substance 
should be both fixed and fluxible, and have abundance of colour. 
To conjoin these three contraries in one substance, is the great 
secret of our Art. Nevertheless, an apt learner may find it 
expounded in this chapter. And first—to speak as briefly and 
concisely as possible concerning the aforesaid four primary 
qualities: heat and cold are active qualities ; moisture and 
dryness, on the other hand, are qualities of a passive kind. For 
the latter are always passively subject to the former, as, for 
instance, stones when they become lime, and water when it is 
changed to ice. Whence you may easily see that nothing is 
fully wrought except by heàt and cold. Yet the passive qualities 
have some power, as we find every day in mechanical operations, 
in the baking of bread, the brewing of beer, and other processes 

38 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

brought about by the operation of moisture and dryness. 
Aristotle, in his physical treatise, and many others, say that 
from action proceeds knowledge; thus they call practice the 
source and root of speculation and of all science. For the 
properties of all things are perceived by watching their opera- 
tions, as, from the colour of urine we hear physicians draw 
conclusions in regard to the excess or lack of animal heat in the 
body. By means of those four primary qualities, we study the 
colours in the due order of their succession. But we can have 
no real assurance respecting the white colour, except in a very 
pure substance. You will be materially assisted in your task by 
a knowledge of the way in which colours are daily generated. 
Colour is the extremity of every transparent body ; a clear sub- 
stance is here beautifully consummated. If dryness dominates in 
a dry substance, its colour will most certainly be white. Of this 
fact you may convince yourself by ocular proof in the case of 
burned bones, or of quicklime made of stones. Where cold 
prevails in a moist and clear substance, a white colour will be the 
result, as is seen in the case of ice, or water indurated by frost. 
The cause has already before been declared in our philosophy ; 
but here I do not speak of common philosophy, but only adduce 
these facts in illustration of alchemistic principles. — And indeed 
one fact explains another, as the offspring may be known by 
looking at its mother. If heat operates on a thick and moist 
substance, a black colour will be the result. 

If you desire an illustration of this principle, you need only 
put some green wood on the fire. When cold is brought to bear 
on a thick and dry substance, the colour which is produced will 
be black. The reason 1s that the substance is compact and very 
thick, and under the influence of cold which is destructive of life, 
the thickness causes obscurity and absence of light; and 
negation of colour is blackness. Thus you may accept it for an 
universal fact that a clear substance is a white substance. The 
efficient cause is not always the same ; it is sometimes heat, and 
sometimes it is cold. But blackness and whiteness (as every one 
knows) are the two extremes of colour Hence your work 
must begin with blackness, if whiteness is its final perfection. 
Red—as the Sages say—is an intermediate colour between black 
and white. Nevertheless you may believe what I say: Red 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 39 

is the final colour in Alchemy. — The Sages also tell us that pink 
and orange are colours intermediate between white and red ; 
and that green and grey are intermediate colours between red 
and black. Flesh colour is seen in very pure substances. 
Physicians have discovered nineteen colours intermediate be- 
tween white and black in urine ; of these colours one is whitish, 
like that of the onyx stone. Magnesia appears to partake of 
this colour—though Magnesia throws out a mild, pure splendour 
in the subtle stage of our Art ; and here we behold all colours 
that ever were seen by mortal eye—a hundred colours, and 
certainly a good many more than have been observed in urine ; 
and in all those colours our Stone must be found in all its 
successive stages. In the ordering of your practical experiments, 
and in conceiving the different parts of the work in your own 
mind, you must have as many phases, or stages, as there are 
colours. If you do not know the different stages of this Art, 
you will find them in Raymond's * General Exposition of 
Alchemy." Gilbert Kymer has indeed left us a fanciful book, in 
which he describes seventeen proportions. But they do not 
suffice for this science, of which he was never able to discover the 
true secret, though he was profoundly learned in Medicine. 
Such, however, is the strength of the human constitution, that it 
often overcomes disease in spite of the doctor's physic: and the 
physician's art is praised in many cases where his remedies had 
nothing to do with the cure, or even retarded it. But the case is 
different with respect to our mineral medicine ; for our Art is 
raised far above all generations, and exists only in the wisdom 
of the Artist, as any wise man may discover by experience. Thus, 
the true foundation of Alchemy consists in the proper graduation 
of the work, and in the correct adjustment of heat and cold, 
moisture and dryness; also in the knowledge that through these 
qualities others are generated, such as hardness and softness, 
heaviness and lightness, roughness and smoothness— according to 
the addition of these primary qualities in certain proportions of 
weight, number, and measure. Under these three categories we 
may range everything that God has made. — For God has created 
and ordered all things in accordance with certain proportions of 
number, weight, and measure ; and if you depart from these pro- 
portions, you destroy the harmony of Nature. Itis therefore a 

A THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

wise caution which is given by Anaxagoras, that we should not 
proceed to join together our elements, until we have discovered 
the exact proportion of weight in which all the elements are 
found in the substances with which we have to deal. Bacon says 
that the Ancients have concealed nothing except these propor- 
tions, respecting which they give us no information. For when 
they speak of proportions, they bewilder the student with the 
most contradictory assertions. If you wish to know. the truth 
about these proportions, you may obtain it by studying. the works 
of Albertus, Raymond, Bacon, and Anaxagoras the Elder. You 
must collect your knowledge from the pages of these four writers, 
as one of them by himself will not afford it. "Though you under- 
stand the secret of joining the four qualities together into one 
cohesive whole, yet the more difficult task of combining the 
different elements still remains to be accomplished. A proper 
union has to be effected between earth and water on the one 
hand, and air and fire on the other. Though the third and the 
second are the most noble of all, yet the first and the fourth 
cannot be excluded. Earth is the most useful element, and that 
of which we have the greatest need. Here lies latent the possi- 
bility of growth and the power of generation; it is the earthy 
litharge of our Stone. Without it there can be no generation 
and no fixation thereof. For there is nothing fixed save earth 
alone; all the other elements are volatile. Daily experience 
teaches you that this is true of fire, water, and air. Fire is the 
cause of expansion, and renders the substance capable of per- 
mixtion ; but the transparent splendour and beautiful colour are 
produced through the influence of air. Moreover, when air is 
condensed, it produces substances which are easily melted, such 
as wax, butter, and gum ; these are liquefied by a very slight 
degree of heat. Water purifies by ablution, and causes morti- 
fying things to revive. There is nothing wonderful in the 
multiplication of fire, and it is greatly inferior to the power of 
multiplication inherent in earth. For earth daily produces fresh 
herbs, while one spark of fire is miraculously enlarged only when 
it is fed with plenty of combustible matter. Fire and earth are the 
only elements that are capable of multiplication, and they cause 
the power of multiplication inherent in our Stone. Of this earth 
Albertus the Great says, that among all mineral substances 

THE ORDINAL 0F ALCHEMY. 41 

lithargyrium (which he describes at some length) is the most 
suitable for our white Elixir. We will now proceed to discuss 
the conjunction of the elements ; and, on this point, we may lay 
down the following rules : (1) Combine your elements grammati- 
cally, in accordance with their own proper rules. "These rules 
are the principal instruments for aiding the learned in this work : 
for the two greatest contraries upon earth are fixedness and 
volatility. . All the grammarians of England and France cannot 
skill to teach you this concord. But this Ordinal can shew you 
where you may learn it, namely, in the book called 2e Aréore. 
(2) Join them together also after the manner of the rhetorician, 
with purified and ornate essences. Inasmuch as your tincture 
must be pure and fair, take pure earth, water, fire, and air. (3) 
In accordance with logical methods, combine such things as 
admit of a true and natural union. Many learned men, by 
neglecting this precept, have lost all their labour and pains. 
(4) Combine them also arithmetically, in accordance with 
those subtle natural proportions, of which little was known 
when Boéthius wrote: * Bind together the elements by num- 
bers" (5) Combine your elements musically, for two reasons : 
first, on account of melody, which is based on its own proper 
harmonies. join them according to the rules which obtain 
in music in the proportions which produce musical conson- 
ance; for these musical proportions closely resemble the 
true proportions of Alchemy, at least, as far as the more 
general aspects of our Art are concerned. [Its more subtle 
proportions you must learn from the writings of Raymond 
and Bacon. Bacon discusses them allusively in his three 
Epistles. Raymond expounds them more fully in his General 
Treatise. Many who read his words think that they understand 
them, but they are deceived. (6) Combine your elements also 
by means of Astrology, that all their operations may prosper, 
and that the simple, rude, and unformed substance may, in due 
course of time, and in the proper order of its development, be 
brought to perfection through the blessed influences of the 
Stars. (7) The science of perspective (optics) also affords much 
help to those who labour in our noble Art; and it is mater- 
ially advanced by many other sciences, (8) as, for instance, that 
science which deals with the plenum and the vacuum. But, as 

42 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

far as this Art is concerned, we must regard as the mistress 
of all sciences, (9) the science of Natural Magic. Now, when 
the four elements have been wisely combined, and each thing 
ordered in its own proper degree, then we shall behold in the 
various stages of coction, a constantly shifting succession of 
colours, until perfection is attained. ^ For the substance is 
wrought upon from within by the natural warmth, which is 
found to exist intellectually in our substance, though it can be 
neither seen, nor felt, nor handled. Its operation is known 
only to few. When this inward natural heat is stirred up by 
the influence of outward artificial heat, Nature, having once 
been roused into activity, will go on to operate, and produce 
the various changes which the substance has to undergo; and 
this is one cause, as the Sages will tell you, why so many colours 
are seen in our work. | Many mistakes arise in the study of 
this Art through ignorance of the difference between outward 
and inward heat. ln order that you may know how these two 
kinds of heat ought to aid and stimulate each other, and which 
of the two ought to predominate in our work, you should be 
guided by the analogy of animate creation, and more especially 
by the analogy of the coction which goes on in the human 
body. It was well said by  Morienus, that the generation 
of our Stone exhibits a wonderful analogy to the creation of 
man, in whom, says Raymond, the four degrees of the four 
complexions are found together. On account of the close 
analogy which exists between the generation of man and that 
of our Stone, it has been said that there are in this world only 
two microcosms—man and our Stone. 

Now, we have described the conjunction or digestion of the 
elements, and we proceed to give an account of the nutrition of 
our substance. There is a solid humour rendered firm by 
dryness, well mixed in all its degrees ; and the passive qualities 
are generated in due mixture by inward and outward heat. 
Hence our digestion is nothing but perfection produced out of 
a substantial humour. You must pardon my using these ex- 
pressions, which to the unlearned must appear obscure and 
meaningless ; but this Art of Alchemy, like all other arts and 
sciences, has its own proper terminology, from which it is not 
safe for me to depart. Digestion is sometimes quickened by 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 43 

outward cold, as you may see from the fact that in winter men 
take a larger quantity of food than in summer, when their heat 
is more intense For cold drives heat inward and increases its 
action, giving it greater virtue and power of digestion than it 
had before. The digestive quality in our Art is the virtual heat 
of a digestive organism. Nevertheless, the warmth of a diges- 
tible substance is also instrumental in aiding digestion. Fever 
heat digests nothing. Baths may both aid and cause destruction. 
Digested (fermented) wine has more natural heat than must. 
Coagulation is not a substantial form, but enly a passive state 
of some material substance. Moreover, you should know when 
the colours appear, that the principal agent in the substance is 
either heat, or cold, or moisture, or dryness. To recognise the 
principal agent at any given stage requires the practised eye of 
of the Master, and a quick observation of the manner in which 
the colours arise. The principal agent obtains royal power over 
the four qualities, and during its temporary predominance 
assimilates them to its own nature. This change is discussed by 
Anaxagoras in his book entitled * Natural Conversion," and its 
rationale is also given by Raymond. The discernment of your 
principal agent is not by any means such a simple matier as you 
may suppose; I will attempt to teach it you by means of four 
signs or symptoms, viz., colour, taste, smell, and fluxibility. "The 
colour of your substance may guide you in recognising its 
principal agent, because that colour which a glance at your 
vessel exhibits as predominant is caused by that quality which, 
for the time being, is the principal agent. Of course, you will 
be able to moderate any excessive action of this principal agent, 
if you are aware of its nature ; and its nature I will now enable 
you to tell, by giving you an account of the causes whereby the 
different colours which appearin our Art are produced. White- 
ness is the effect of transparency in any object. Blackness arises 
when the clearness of a dense body is obscured by the thickness 
of its constituent parts: it is produced out of an earthy 
substance by combustion, particularly when the heat causes a 
greater hardness of the atoms. By the mixture of the dense 
and obscure with the clear and pure, we obtain all the interme- 
diate colours. Any clear and transparent body arises out of the 
substance of air and water condensed in purified earth which 

A4 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

does not destroy their transparency. If in such clear and 
transparent bodies you do not perceive any special shades of 
colour, you may confidently conclude that they are the effect of 
intense cold, as is the case with the crystal, beryl, and other for- 
mations which you may thus distinguish from each other: Crystal 
is aeriform water, and is clear, transparent, and fair; but where 
the aqueous element predominates, it is more obscure, as in the 
case of beryl or ice. Where the substance is essentially dry, 
it is dense, hard, and obscure, as may be seen in the diamond, 
and other substances of a like nature. In a clear substance 
light causes a brilliancy such as we behold in Magnesia ; and a 
watery vapour produced by heat is instrumental in the formation 
of such bodies. Such are the causes of transparency, and of the 
extreme colours. As to the intermediate colours, that of the 
ruby is caused by a thin smoke in a clear body, which happens 
when much light and brilliancy prevail in such a body ; and it is 
more or less brilliant in proportion to the quantity of light. 
The amethyst comes next in glory after the ruby, its obscurity 
being greater, and its transparency less; the shining substance 
of the chalcedony stands next to beryl. Green, or the colour of 
the emerald, is formed of pure water, mixed with a burned earthy 
substance, and the greater the transparency of the earth, the 
more marked is also the brilliant green of the emerald. Yellow 
is generated out of water and earth, and has the clearness of air 
dimmed by the obscurity of black vapour. Grey,or lead colour, 
is the result of and union of watery and earthy elements,and where 
these atoms are cold and dense, the grey colour is more intense, 
' as is seen in very old lead ; or in persons at the point of death. 
This colour is called livid, and is frequent in men of an envious 
disposition. It concentrates the natural colour and the blood in 
the heart, for the purpose of comíforting it, and leaves the face 
cold and dry, as it has been forsaken by its warmth and blood. 
In the same way, when fevers have reached an extreme point, 
the finger nails are of a livid hue. "The colour of the sapphire is 
an orient blue, not unlike that of the celestial firmament, and 
fairer to behold than the colour of lead, because it contains more 
air, water, and light. Moreover, the colour of the sapphire is 
esteemed more precious than other shades of light blue, 
which are more obscure because they contain more earth and 

EDITA QURIZDDINAU, - QUU ZU CHBEM Y, 45 

less air. Silver may easily be converted into the colour of the 
lazulite, because the transparency of the silver, produced by air, 
has a tendency to become assimilated to the colour of the sky ; 
and the abundance of quicksilver which it contains, causes the 
brilliancy of the silver, while the splendour of the quicksilver, in 
its turn, is produced by subtle earth, pure water, and clear air. 
The orange colour, the shade of yellow which appears in gold, 
is a pleasing colour, and by many is even considered charming ; 
it is generated by a strong and vigorous digestion, as its aqueous 
elements are exposed to a high degree of heat, which is seen in 
honey, urine, gall and lye. The yellow colour of gold is the 
product of a pure and subtle water perspicuously condensed. 
For the more pure water is condensed, the more brilliant it 
becomes. The cause of a mirror is fixed humidity ; and for this 
reason it is also smooth, because air receives no impressions, and 
is incapable of confining itself. It is the water which produces 
its clearness If pure white and pure red be well mixed, the 
result is a beautiful orange colour. Thus all the different ways 
in which the elements may be combined, produce different 
colours in our substance, according to the different degrees of 
digestion. Observe well the proper colours of elements, that you 
may be the better able to judge of colours. Physicians say of 
certain herbs that they are cold without, and warm within at the 
root. If you wish for an illustration of this saying, observe the 
nature of fragrant violets. Common philosophy teachesus that the 
rose is cold within and red without. ^ Anaxagoras says in his 
* Natural Changes," that the outward and the inward in all things 
are of a nature directly opposite to each other; and the rule 
holds true, except in the case of such thingsas are very plain and 
simple in their composition, as, for instance, the scammony and 
laurel, that do not nourish like vegetables. Bear in mind that 
in every mixture, one of the elements will strive to obtain the 
mastery. "This insolent and greedy disposition is found in man, 
as in all things beside. But all sorts and conditions of men are 
placed on a footing of equality by death, which is God's means 
of laying low men of high degree, and of shewing the vanity of 
all ambitious thoughts and desires. Kings and beggars find 
their common level in the grave. It is thus that you must treat 
your principal agent, if it overleaps the proper bounds of equality. 

46 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

In this sense Aristotle says: * Let there be perfect equality in 
the composition of your Stone, in order that unprofitable strife 
may be avoided." Let there be all the colours which we have 
enumerated, in their proper order, and then suffer Nature to bring 
about the process of generation in her own way, till among this 
great variety of colours one is found to predominate, which 
resembles the colour you are seeking to discover. In this way 
you may make use of the colours for the purpose of guiding you 
in this work. I might say much more about colours ; but what 
has been said constitutes a satisfactory fulfilment of my promise, 
and will teach you how far the various colours may be made to 
serve your purpose in recognising your principal agent. Many 
learned men indeed will justly wonder that so great a variety of 
colours should appear in our Stone before the final stage of per- 
manent and immutable whiteness is reached, seeing that the 
ingredients seem to be so few and simple. But I will explain 
the mystery in a few words: Those colours are due to the pro- 
perties of magnesia, the nature of which is capable of change into 
any proportion and degree, just as crystal, for instance, exhibits 
the colour of any substance which is placed under it. Hence it 
is well and generously said by Hermes that * for performing the 
miracles of one thing, God has so ordained it that out of one 
thing all these marvels should spring forth." For this reason 
common philosophers cannot find this virtuous Stone, because it 
transcends their comprehension. 

'The sense of smell will also furnish you with indications 
whereby you may recognise the predominant element ; and, in 
conjunction with the indications afforded by colour, it will teach 
you where to look for the principal agent. Now as white and black 
are the two extremes of colour, so stench and fragrance are the ex- 
tremes of odour. But as fishes are incapable of distinguishing 
intermediate colours, because their eyes are without eye-lids and 
cannot be closed, so we cannot become aware of intermediate 
odours by the sense of smell, because our nostrils are incapable 
of being shut,like the eyes of fishes. On this account inter- 
mediate odours are not perceived by the nostrils as distinctly as 
intermediate colours are perceived by the eye. An unpleasant 
smell is not, in the opinion of the Sages, an intermediate smell, 
but only one less fetid. Yet they have noted it down in 

IE CORUDIIANGAUP, QVE" ZEE CHDBAMEY, 47 

their books as the result of their experience—though I have no 
experimental knowledge of the fact—that if you mix a sweet 
and fragrant odour with one of a penetratingly fetid character, 
the fragrant odour alone is smelt, while the fetid one is imper- 
ceptible ; and the reason which they allege is that all fragrant 
things are more pure and spiritual than those which are fetid, 
and therefore penetrate the air more easily, and, being more 
grateful to the living organisms and more agrecable to nature, 
are more readily received than fetid smells. An odour is a 
vaporous steam dissolved by heat, of a substance resembling an 
exudation, which penetrates the air freely, and affects it and 
your sense of smell,as your palate is affected by food, your 
sense of hearing by sound, and your sense of sight by colour. 
Four things are required for the perfect apprehension of odours. 
First, it is necessary that a subtle substance should be affected 
by the operation of heat, and give out a vaporous similitude of 
itself, which evaporation must then be dispersed through thin, 
clear air, and act on the sense of smell But this odorous 
vapour is not so readily given out by dense and hard substances 
which, like our Stone, are not easily affected by heat. Heat 
quickens odours, cold hinders them ; manure is more fetid in 
summer than in winter. Grateful odours are generated out of a 
pure and vaporous substance, as in the case of ambergris, nard, 
and myrrh, which are specially pleasing to women. — A pure sub- 
stance under the influence of gentle heat, gives out moderate 
odours, such as the fragrance of violets ; but when moderate heat 
acts on an impure substance, the result is a disagreeable odour, 
such as that of aloés and sulphur. When the natural heat of the 
substance is diminished, the fact is signalized by a most fetid 
smell, such as that of decomposed fish. Where a stench is pro- 
duced by the putrefaction of natural heat, it is a vapour or steam 
issuing from decaying matter. If the juices only are corrupted, 
while the substance itself is not destroyed, the stench will be 
extremely disagreeable, yet not so fetid as in the former case. 
A. putrid smell is caused only by the corruption of the substance 
itsel. When an evil substance is decomposed, it gives out a 
horrible smell; and putrefying carcases of human beings may 
often cause a pestilence. The smell of extinguished coals is 
destructive of health, and may occasion even a mare to miscarry. 

48 | THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

When the qualities of a substance harmonize with your nature, 
the odour will be pleasant; but if the substance be of a kind that 
does not sympathise with your nature, you will be disagreeably 
affected by the odour. Fishes love sweet smells, as is seen from 
the fact that they are more easily attracted by a fresh than by a 
stale bait. All fragrant matters have a corresponding degree of 
natural heat; and though camphor, roses, and other cold sub- 
stances emit a pleasant fragrance, yet ancient writers tell us that 
the purity of their substance is equivalent to, and virtually 
represents, natural heat. You may take for granted the truth of 
the old saying, that one pleasant smell does not neutralize another. 
It is different, however, with fetid odours ; for the smell of garlic 
overpowers that of dung. But now we have said enough for our 
present purpose about smells, and you will be easily able to tell 
when putrefaction begins to set in. The sense of smell will also 
enable you to distinguish between a subtle and a gross substance. 
You will also have knowledge of an intermediate substance 
which exhibits the corruption of natural heat, and of the 
difference between corrupted humour and corrupted substance. 
But our substance has been highly purified, and is conserved by 
the mean virtue ; wherefore, you must not expect a fetid smell 
to arise from it, though it putrefies after its own proper kind. 
The third sign and test by which you may know your 
principal agent is called taste,'which always causes the diminu- 
tion of the substance tasted. The test of the palate would be 
more certain than that of the eye or the nose, if it were not 
dangerous to taste our Stone,seeing that it is destructive of 
health and life, so penetrating is its quality ; hence it is inex- 
pedient and even dangerous to taste of it too often. It 
strengthens metals, as we know, but it is hurtful to human 
beings until the perfect red colour appears, which abides the 
test of fire. A common labouring man, who had devoted him- 
self to the study of this Art, tasted a small piece of the white 
Stone in the hope that thereby he would be delivered from all 
pain and disease, instead of which he was suddenly struck 
down with the palsy. Him my master speedily cured with 
mineral Bezoar. "Therefore, though the palate be the best judge 
of the progress which has been made in our Art, yet it is of 
little practical use, because the taste of our substance is both 

TEZES QRDIEVAL QF ALCHEMY. 49 

horrible and hurtful. Nevertheless, certain parts may, without 
any risk, be tasted before they are joined together, for the 
purpose of discovering whether the operation has been rightly 
performed or not. At the same time the skilled artist will be 
able to discover all he wants to know by the colour and odour. 
Thus many judge of the quality of good wine, but new wine is 
best tested by the palate. For the sense of smell has only one 
organ, and is capable of distinguishing nothing but vaporous 
steam. The sense of taste, on the other hand, undoubtedly 
possesses six organs for the perception of material qualities. 
These organs Nature has ordained for the security and protection 
of living creatures. The ape tests the wholesomeness of his 
food by the sense of smell, men and parrots rely upon the 
verdict of the palate. For many things, though fragrant, touch 
the palate adversely, and repel by their acidity, bitterness, or 
sickly and nauseating sweetness; or they are poisonous, cor- 
rosive, or too highly seasoned. In all these cases it is unad- 
visable to appeal for a decision to the sense of taste. The 
ancient writers have distinguished nine different varieties of taste, 
viz., acrid, oily, and vinegary (indicative of a subtle substance), 
biting, salt, watery (characteristic of intermediate substances), 
bitter, acid, and sweet (inherent in substances of great thickness 
and density) These nine varieties of taste are of common 
occurrence : five of them are the product of heat—the oily, the 
acrid, the salt, the bitter, and the sweet; the remaining 
four are produced by cold--the sour, the acid, the watery 
or insipid, and the biting. Taste is determined by two 
things, viz., by diversities of substance, and diversities of quality. 
A thick substance is generally found to have a sweet taste; a 
substance which is moist, thick, and warm, produces an oily 
taste ; while a substance of an intermediate quality, which is 
both hot and dry, is characterised by a salt or pungent taste. A 
thick substance, that is both hot and dry, is intensely bitter. 
A subtle substance, on the other hand, which is also hot and dry, 
is marked by a harsh and acrid flavour. In this way heat is the 
source of five different varieties of taste, but not of more. That 
which is cold and dry in the second degree, and at the same time 
exhibits a subtle substance, is sour—as you may see by the face 
which a man makes who has tasted unripe apples. The same 
VoL. II. D 

50 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

qualities in the same degree, united to an intermediate substance, 
produce, as you may easily suppose, a biting effect upon the 
palate, as, for instance, the rose. But the acid, less acid, and 
slightly acid flavours are the results of cold and dryness in 
different degrees. Cold and humidity in the first degree always 
produce a watery flavour, as is seen in the whites of eggs and in 
oysters ; for these substances are both cold and humid, and have 
much superfluous moisture—íor which reason they are not 
greatly relished by the human palate. Isaac says that there are 
only seven varieties of taste, because the acid and the slightly 
acid, though different in degree, are yet in reality one and the 
same flavour, and because the watery or insipid variety simply 
represents negation of taste. We may also speak of compound 
flavours, such as bitter-swect,and others of a like kind. Thus, 
by means of the palate, men may distinguish substances, qualities, 
and degrees. But if you do not care to subject our matter to 
the test of the palate, you may be guided by another class of 
symptoms, just as in medicine we do not rely upon the signs 
exhibited by the urine alone, but take them in conjunction with 
the state of the pulse, and the general condition of the body. He 
would be an ignorant physician indeed who should compiete 
his diagnosis without availing himself of everything which 
may help him to a knowledge of the exact nature of the 
disease. Thus, if you would pursue the study of our Art, 
you should avail yourself of the indications afforded by the 
four methods of observation for the purpose of forming a correct 
judgment. Of three of these methods we have already spoken, 
the fourth is the fluxibility of the liquid. The liquid is the 
strength of our substance, and its condition affords the most 
striking evidence of the progress of the work ; moreover, by its 
means the elements are both combined and dissolved. The 
liquid joins together the male and the female, and causes the 
dead to be restored to life. "The liquid purges by ablution, and 
is the principal nutriment of our Stone. Without liquid there is 
no good food ; the liquid carries the aliment to all the different 
parts of the human living body, and it performs the same 
function in Alchemy. But you should well consider the purity 
and the quantity of all your liquids, and also their consistency or 
thinness: otherwise you will make little progress. Now, because 

EUDSA QIUIWINADLI, QF. ALCHBEME 5I 

our Elixir needs a twofold preparation, it exhibits more natural 
marvels than any other substance. Physicians say that the 
denser and more consistent urine is, the more humidity does it 
indicate; but with us the thickness betokens dryness, and that 
which is subtle humidity. Many liquids are needed for our 
Stone in accordance with its requirements. In the book entitled 
*'The Crowd," Aristeus says: that air is invisibly enclosed in 
water, which lifts up the earth by its aérial potency. Pythagoras 
remarks that if the matter were so, it would be a most fortunate 
circumstance. Plato expresses himself most circumspectly when 
he calls it (the liquid) *the gentle dropping of dew" ; and the 
words are thoroughly applicable to Alchemy. But in the 
commonplaces of the primary philosophy it is said that condensed 
air is changed back into rain, and rarefied water into air. Some. 
say that the month of May is the beginning of the year, when 
air is condensed into water. Others say that such water 
descends from the sky till the Sun enters the sign of Scorpio. 
Others, again, tell us that no liquids should be used that are 
affected by the cold, because, as the ancient writers state, their 
activity is chained up by the cold. Some Sages affirm that the 
liquid which you should employ in preparing the Elixir is milk ; 
another expresses himself in the following mystical words: 
"No liquid is sufficient for the great work but the water 
of Litharge, which together with the water of Azoch 
produces virgin's milk." Democritus, on the other hand, states 
that the best liquid for the preparation of our Stone is 
permanent water, which is naturally capable of resisting 
the action of fire, and of enduring its heat. Rupescissa 
says that aqua vitae is the liquid required, because it is spiritual 
and revivifying in its nature, and because it is the quintessence 
which restores dead things to life (concerning this quintessence 
Aristotle writes in his * Book of Secrets" that all perfection is in 
the fifth part)  Rupescissa further calls this aqua vitz the best 
of all liquids, for that it renders thick and dense substances 
spiritua. In the works of Pythagoras you will find our aqua 
vitae spoken of in different language. He himself calls it the 
vivifying principle, and bids us volatilize that which is fixed, and 
fix that which is volatile, as by this strong method of compulsion 
the fixed materials will become easy to melt. Others say that 

D2 

LE THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the best of all liquids is that which stirs up most desire and love. 
These are best found near islands, and in places that are washed 
by the ocean. Certain Sages tell us of yet another liquid which 
is colder than spring water, and has an icy taste; its quantity, 
however, is never diminished, nor is its substance consumed, 
though it is in a state of constant activity in the preparation of 
our Stone. "This water is called by Democritus the * shadowless 
light," or *the water of the rising Sun." Hermes says that no 
water is of such paramount importance as the water of crude 
mercury ; "for," hesays, *this water holds the high place of being 
the proper water of Alchemy." "Thus, ye who pursue the study 
of this Art, may know by means of all these liquids our Stone 
must be perfected. A liquid is a shifting. substance, of a watery 
and unstable nature ; and all such things are more subject to 
lunar influences than those of a firmer structure. Of this every 
initiated Artist may behold a proof in the preparation of the 
white Tincture. Liquids wash and purify both extreme and 
intermediate substances. God created liquids for the use of man 
and for the cleansing ofallimpurities. Liquids doubtless possess 
the power of bringing hidden impurities to the surface of a body, 
as those will tell you who use this simple means for the purpose 
of cleansing soiled clothing. Liquids comfort and refresh the 
parched roots of grass and trees ; for all natural liquids have the 
power of restoring any vital juices which have beenlost. Liquids 
are also useful for the dividing and separating of qualities, and 
for the resolving of substances into their smallest parts. Liquids 
further cause the generation of our Stone by the conjunction of 
many things into one. They assist the fluxibility and motion of 
many things. Again, you should observe how liquids are to be 
gained from the different substances which exist on earth. Some 
are derived through incision, as, for instance, the juice ofthe 
terebinth ; others, by crushing, as the juice of the grape and of 
the olive ; others again, by distillation, like water ; some, by com- 
bustion, like colophony ; some by dissolution, according to the 
manner in which women prepare lye ; others are produced in other 
ways ; while some owe their origin to natural processes, as, for 
instance, urine, blood, milk, and sweat. Coagulatory substances, 
again, are of great use and profit in the making of cheese. In 
these and many other ways we seek and discover liquids which may 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 53 

be useful to us in the preparation of our glorious Elixir, the most 
precious Philosopher's Stone, for which we daily bless God's name. 

All the liquids that we have enumerated are of a more or 
less adhesive nature, with the solitary exception of quicksilver, 
which, though fluxible, will not adhere to any other matters but 
those in which it finds a sister or brother mixed of the same 
subtle substance ; but with any other liquid it will not mingle, 
though they, too, are composed of the four elements, as milk 
contains whey, butter, and cheese. These four elements may be 
separated and put together again, to the great advancement of 
your experiment ; but the manner in which cheese, butter, and 
whey are obtained is a simpler subject of investigation than are 
the liquids which exist in our Stone. Not one of them is simple 
and uncompounded except water alone. Of the several liquids 
of our Stone you should understand also the qualities and 
degrees ; for thus you will be able to check the various super- 
fluoüus activities of the principal agent,if this agent itself be 
permanent and durable. If the predominant quality be dryness, 
you may correct it by adding, according to your requirements, a 
greater or less quantity of humid moisture ; and in the same way 
you may proceed with regard to the other qualities, thus 
compelling the principal agent to submit to the rule of your will. 
By the knowledge of the diversity, contrariety, and agreement of 
qualities, you may judge which quality ought to predominate. 
You will need great wisdom in so adding and diminishing your 
liquids that all the ingredients are placed on an equal footing. 
But do not believe that there is anything which has the qualities 
of heat and moisture in the same degree; forall that maintain 
the existence of two qualities of this kind, are deceived in their 
opinion, whoever they be. The commonplaces of philosophy, 
which set forth this proposition, are not true. Have done with 
this idea, and let a new one take its place in your mind. For all 
the ancient writers who have asserted that these two qualities 
could exist in the same degree, have been mistaken, or they have 
done so simply for the purpose of preventing enquirers from 
discovering the secret method of tempering the elements. Hence 
he who does not know graduations cannot be perfect in our work, 
seeing that God has allotted to each thing its own proper measure. 
Without due measurement of time no one can sing correctly; he 

54 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

who errs in the measurement of time, errs in the very essence of 
the singer's Art—and all that err inflicta wrong on Nature. Con- 
sider also that the purer your medium is, the greater will be the 
perfection which arises out of it. "The media embrace the most 
important part of the virtue and potent essences of our Art. 
For the solid cannot become fluxible, nor the liquid firm, in the 
gradual process of preparing our substance, without the help of 
intermediate substances which partake of the nature of both the 
extremes. [t is thus that, by means of a treble spirit, the soul is 
joined to the human body ; of these three spirits one is called the 
vital spirit, the other the naturalspirit, and the third the animal 
spirit. Let me also tell you where these spirits dwell. The vital 
spirit has his habitation in the heart; the natural spirit, accord- 
ing to the ancient writers, abides in the liver, while the animal 
spirit sojourns in the brain. Now, so long as these three spirits 
maintain a sound state of health in the human body, the soul 
dwells in the body without any jarring disagreements, and life is 
sustained. But when these spirits are unable to abide in man, 
the soul is also compelled to forsake the body. For the subtle, 
pure, and immortal soul can never dwell with the gross body, 
except the spirits act as media between them. In our work we 
ought also to distinguish between body, soul, and spirit; and 
our intermediate substances are the spirit which joins the body 
and soul together by partaking of the nature of both. Nature 
has no other way of binding extremes together except by inter- 
mediate substances, and these intermediate substances (media) 
are of different kinds. After all these things you should also 
know the seven circulations of each element, which agree with 
the number of the seven planets, and they are known to none 
except by grace Divine. Certain Sages of great learning tell 
us that these circulations are nine in number ; and perhaps it is 
safer for us.to follow their teaching. Nevertheless, the newest 
inventions made by modern philosophers, whose assertions are 
exalted beyond the possibility of doubt, enable us to dispense 
with two. Some learned men think that they may avoid every 
risk of a mistake if they go on in due order from fire to air, 
from air to water, and from water to earth, thus moving down- 
ward from that which is most exalted to that which is lowest ; 
and they adduce in support of their assertion the alleged fact 

IPTE CQIDTALAT, QR ALCHEMY. 55 

that air is the food of fire. But, believe me, this kind of 
circulation is nothing but one method of rectification, which 
tends more to separation and correction than to transmutation. 
Moreover, the favourite food of fire, its own proper nutri- 
ment and fuel,is not air but earth, as both fire and earth are 
dry, and heat depends for its very existence on dryness, while the 
nature of air, on the other hand, is more humid. Yet it is 
also true that fire cannot operate without air, since the hand of 
God has linked together the elements in. a bond of mutual 
dependence, which will not suffer them to be disunited by any 
human contrivance or device. . Of this fact you may find an 
illustration in trumpets, where, after the ascent of air, you may 
often observe a deposit of water, the occurrence of which can 
only be explained on the supposition of the mutually inclusive 
nature of the elements. But our circulation begins with fie, 
the most exalted of all elements, and ends with water, which 
of all elements is the most unlike to fire. Another circulation 
begins with air and ends with earth. From earth to fire, thence to 
pure water, thence again to fire, and after this to a mean, passing 
to earth, finally once more recurring to fire—by such circula- 
tions, the Red Tinctureis perfected. Other circulations are more 
suitable for the production of the White Tincture. Now every 
circulation has its own proper time, according to the facility or 
difficulty of its execution. For as one planet is heavier and 
slower than another, so some circulations that are performed by 
the Sages take up a space of thirty weeks, while other circula- 
tions require a much shorter period of time ; just as some planets 
are lighter and swifter than others. "Thus, after all the gross and 
crude operations have been performed, our work may often still 
require twenty-six weeks. Ignorance of this fact has deceived 
many, and caused them to give up their labour at a point 
where the Sages are wont to begin. Other inexperienced 
students of this Art have imagined that it can be accomplished 
in forty days. They do not know that in Art as well as in 
Nature everything has its own time, and its own proper 
method. "The elephant, for instance, being a huge and unwieldy 
animal, extends its period of gestation over two years, and is 
fifty years old before it can bring forth young. Anaxagoras 
says, in his * Considerations," that the generation of the metals 

56 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

requires a thousand years, and that, in comparison to that period 
of time, our work occupies only a single day. You must 
therefore conduct your operation in a very subtle manner when 
you see the earth rise above the water; for as the earth which 
we tread with our feet supports the water, so, in our Art, you 
should frequently cause a gentle spring of water to well forth, in 
order that the same may flow softly, seeing that a violent out- 
pour is positively hurtful. Moreover, the student of Alchemy 
should be aware of the effects of the seven waters, concerning 
which you must seek instruction in the books of others ; for you 
cannot expect me to expound our whole system in this brief 
treatise. 

Some think that by means of these waters they can correct 
all metallic imperfections, and can find the effects of the four 
elements ; for they are confident that all requisite properties are 
discovered in these waters, not only for the purpose of softening 
hard metals, but also for hardening those which are too soft, 
purifying them, and rendering them malleable. For the attain- 
ment of each one of these objects, the knowledge of these waters 
is said to be indispensable. Otherwise our Stone would not 
receive its proper nourishment. "The ancient writers call our 
Stone a microcosm ; and there can be no doubt that its compo- 
sition greatly resembles that of the world in which we live, 
consisting as it does of elements, hot, cold, moist, and dry, hard, 
soft, light, and heavy, rough, smooth, fixed, volatile, and fluxible ; 
and also because, in spite of the manifold variety of its com- 
ponent parts, it is not many things, but one thing. The 
transmutation of metals implies a change, not only of colour, but 
also of substance. The elements of the substance which under- 
goes a change must become the elements of the substance into 
which it is to be changed, and impress upon it their own character. 
All transmuted parts must be proportionately impressed in the 
transmuting elements, so that the thin elemented matter may 
permanently possess the substance of the one and the virtue of 
the other. As soon as a child is born, it can feed and cry ; and 
so our Stone, when first prepared, has abundant power of imparting 
its colour to other substances. Again, as after three years the 
child walks and talks, so after a certain lapse of time, our Stone 
receives a still more intense power of colouring, so that it can 

THE ORDINAL OF ALCHEMY. 57 

pervade with its own glorious nature a substance of a thousand 
times its own size. To this fact I myself can bear witness: for 
many a time have I seen well-purged metals transmuted into the 
finest silver and gold. "Thus, our Stone may go on growing in 
quantity, and becoming more excellent in quality, during an 
infinite period of time ; and in this respect it bears a marvellous 
analogy to the birth and growth of human beings. I must, how- 
ever, take this occasion to state a truth which may be displeasing 
to some readers. The time when you first succeed in preparing 
your Stone should be well and wisely used, or you may even then 
lose all your pains, and miss your recompense for all the 
heavy outlay you have undergone. 

For the purpose, then, of augmenting your Stone, you should 
at once divide it into two equal parts, carefully testing the correct- 
ness of your division by means of the balance. One-half is for 
the Red Tincture, and the other moiety for the White. "Then,and 
not till then, will you begin to reap the profits of your labours. But 
it will be unadvisable to stop even here, seeing that you may go 
on augmenting your Tincture indefinitely. Miriam, the sister of 
Aaron, rightly says that life is short, and knowledge long; never- 
theless, our Tincture, when it has once attained to the highest 
perfection of its excellence, has the virtue of greatly retarding 
old age. Some of our Sages have been so foolish as to give up 
the further improvement of our Stone at a point when they 
might have reached the final goal with little trouble and great 
advantage to themselves. "This supine carelessness can only be 
explained by assuming that they were not aware of the full virtue 
of that Stone; and I see that I must point out to all its 
fortunate owners the full extent of their possession. For when I 
shall have departed out of this world, this testimony will remain 
behind as a witness, and on this account I am not slow to reveal 
the secrets of the Art, so far as I may do it without prejudice to 
my vow. [I have instructed you with sufficient clearness how to 
prepare the White Tincture. But when my master had declared 
all these things to me, he said that many students have by patient 
and unwearied diligence independently discovered this our White 
Stone and Tincture, as if they had derived their knowledge from 
the wisest cf masters; but that scarce one in fifteen kingdoms 
possesses our Red Stone. With these words, he fixed upon me 

58 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

a steady and unfaltering gaze, and he saw that his speech had 
clouded my countenance with sorrow. answered : * Alas, what 
shall I do? for I love knowledge far beyond all earthly wealth ; 
moreover, the Red Tincture is said to be a most precious 
substance, which has the virtue of prolonging life. I should 
account the Red Stone a more glorious acquisition than all the 
gold of the whole world." He replied that I was still a young 
man, and that youth was proneto insolence and excess. Could I 
expect to be enrolled among the Sages at the immature age of 
twenty-eight? I must be a much older man before I could 
expect to have this secret unfolded to me. * Alas, good master," 
I said, * though my body is still young and my years are few, I be- 
seech you to prove me, and you will see that my mind has already 
attained the ripeness of mellow age." My master said no more at 
the time, but I soon found that he was trying and testing my 
character by a course of probationary training, after the manner 
of the Sages—of which it would be both tedious and indiscreet 
to publish a lengthy account. Finally, however, by the grace of 
God, he accounted me worthy of this wonderful proof of his love 
and esteem, and imparted to me the true secret of preparing the 
Red Tincture. To inquire into the manner of its preparation 
would be an aimless quest before the White Tincture has been 
prepared. Both Medicines are composed from the same sub- 
stance, in the same vessel, and by the same methods, until the 
living matters have been mortified. "Then the material and shape 
of the vessel, and the degree of chemical treatment, must be 
changed. But my heart beats violently, and my hands tremble, 
when I speak of this glorious thing. Hermes said a true word 
when he exclaimed: * Fire and Azoth are sufficient" The 
expositor of Hermes and Aristotle, in the treatise appended to 
their works, makes a most startling assertion, when he says that 
Albertus Magnus, and Bacon, the Minorite friar,had no knowledge 
of the manner in which the Red Stone is multiplied by augmenta- 
tion. This writer was well aware what he was saying, as my 
master proved to me by incontrovertible arguments. I myself 
have never actually prepared the Red Tincture as yet, because I 
was disheartened by being robbed of my whole wealth of chemical 
materials and implements—as I set forth atlength in a preceding 
chapter. But I understand the method of its preparation per- 

EBE ORDINAL QP ALCHBMYE 59 

fectly, and am able to explain it to others. Those who have 
ventured to unfold this grand arcanum to their disciples say that 
the redness of this delectable Stone is contained in its whiteness, 
and may be brought out, and made to appear to the Artist's 
ravished gaze by the gently compelling heat offire. Pandophilus, 
in * The Crowd" tells us that the white Tincture is the type and 
shadow of the red ; and Miriam confirms his words by saying that 
the redness is concealed in the whiteness. An admirable book 
entitled Laudabzle Sanctum,ascribed to Hermes,uses the following 
expression of the Red Tincture: * There lies the snowy wife 
wedded to her red spouse." That is to say, in the white Tincture 
you have a beautiful woman of snowy whiteness espoused to a 
red husband. If your white Stone is exposed to the heat, and 
through the action of the fire becomes red as blood, then the 
marriage is valid and perfect—as in the act of copulation, if it be 
fruitful, the male seed obtains the ascendancy, and assimilates the 
female seed to its own nature. That this fact is so, those who 
have observed the nature of the embryo have been taught by 
experience. When this has been brought about, our Stone is 
perfected. "The Sages say that it should be nourished with its 
own poison till it has had enough. When this has been done, 
you may go wherever you like, for it will defray all your expenses. 
Thus, then, I have expounded to you the subtle part of the work 
with all its appurtenances, and more I need not, cannot, and will 
not, reveal. 

OLDUACIIPBIR- NIE 

With respect to concords, let me say that there should be 
no serious difterence between those things which ought to agree. 
For difference produces discord, and discord would make all your 
labour of none effect ^ Whoever wishes to practise our Art, 
should be guided by five rules or concords. The first rule to be 
observed is, that the student's mind should be in perfect harmony 
with his work. "The desire of knowing this Art should hold a 
dominant place in his mind ; else all his labours will: come to 
nothing. The second concord is, that he should know the 
difference between this Art and those who professit. The third 
kind of harmony is that which should exist between the work 
and the instruments. The fourth concoid assigns to the work 

60 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the place which is most suited to its execution. "The fifth 
concord is the sympathy which should exist between your work 
and the celestial sphere. I will say something about each one of 
these five rules, and begin with the first. Few students possess 
the gift of perseverance. They are in a great hurry and the 
work seems too long. "They wish you to do violence to Nature, 
and the zeal of some is so much like a straw fire that at the end of 
six months it has quite burned down. Many change their minds 
after a week, scme after twenty-four hours. Some believe in our 
Art most fervently for a month ; but at the end of the month 
they will have nothing more to do with it. For such persons it 
would be better to stay their hands at once than to waste their 
time with the study of our Art Let these butterflies flutter 
whither they will But let us, before we put our hands to this 
work, learn with our hearts the truth of the saying ; *Let us do 
everything from beginning to end strenuously, and yet softly and 
gently." All foolish and double-minded people must necessarily 
be fickle and unstable ; and it is natural that simple folk, who 
have been stripped of all their savings by heartless impostors, 
should conceive a deep-seated aversion to our Art. But only 
men of constant and persevering minds are fitted to be students 
thereof. If any such man undertakes the study of this sciencoc, 
whether he be a layman or a priest, a merchant, a knight, an 
abbot, or a gentleman, he is not likely to fail of success : for his 
mind is in harmony with his work. "The second concord to 
which attention must be paid in the pursuit of this Art, is the 
securing of fit and suitable assistants. No assistant should be 
chosen that is not sober, discreet, and diligent, faithful, vigilant, 
a keeper of secrets, and a pure liver ; a man of clean hands and 
of a delicate touch, obedient and humbly content to carry out 
your orders. Such ministers alone will give close heed to your 
work, and secure you against all avoidable accidents. Do not 
imagine, however, that two or three of these will be sufficient 
for the completion of your experiment. If the quantity of 
your substance be moderate, eight such servants will be 
required, but if the quantity be small, the work may be done by 
four. Of this number, one half should be on duty, while the 
other half sleep, or are at church ; for this experiment cannot be 
brought to a successful termination, unless it is continually 

TEBP QIRUDINAT, (QI. AICHEBEMLT. 61 

attended to, by night as well as by day ; and with the exception 
of the Sabbath, your men should relieve each other in the 
morning and in the evening. While they are on duty, they 
should carefully eschew every wicked word and deed ; otherwise 
your work will most certainly be marred. For this reason your 
assistants ought either to be all men or all women, and persons 
of both sexes ought not to be set to work together. If your 
assistants are members of your own family, you should seek to 
inspire them with love for the work, and interest in its success ; 
for nothing is more important than that the hearts of your 
workers should be in their work. Our third rule was,that the 
instruments should be of a kind suited to the labour to be 
performed. This rule is not fully apprehended by many 
students of our science. [It means that the different parts of the 
experiment require their own proper utensils, of a substance and 
shape closely adapted to the particular purpose which they are 
intended to serve. The divisions and separations of our 
substance are best carried out in small vessels ; a broad vessel 
is required for humectation, while the process of circulation 
demands a vessel of still larger capacity. Those used for pre- 
cipitation should be long ; those which you employ for the 
purpose of sublimation may be both short and long, while 
narrow vessels, four inches high, are more appropriate in the 
process of correction. Some vessels are made of lead, and some 
of dead clay. Dead clay is that which has been carefully 
hardened, and having been mixed with sand and gravel. is 
capable of sustaining a high degree of fierce heat. Other kinds 
of clay burst when exposed to the fire, and you should reject 
vessels made of them. . Other vessels, again, are made of stone, 
and endure the test of heat admirably ; but vessels of this kind, 
which are both impervious to water and proof against fire, are 
now very rarely to be obtained in England ; but where they can 
be had, they are invaluable for our purpose. All other vessels 
are made of glass, and are admirably adapted to prevent the 
volatile substance from escaping. In our country they are made 
of ashes and siliceous material, but elsewhere of little stones. 
The best kind of glass for our purpose is that made of cinders 
which have been left to glow in the hearth all night; a still 
harder and more durable kind is prepared out of smelted glass 

62 JEU) Te MUS EMG MUI UTAMUA. 

sherds. What has been said will guide you in selecting the 
most suitable kind of vessel; as to its form or shape you must 
consult your own common sense: it is. however, clear that you 
should, in this case, as in all others, strive to follow as closely as 
possible in the footsteps of Nature. Moreover, the size and 
shape of your vessel should be in proportion to the quantity of 
your substance, and to all the other conditions of the experiment. 
'The general principles which should determine your choice are 
well laid down by Albertus Magnus in his book on * Minerals." 
'The whole secret was disclosed in a few words by my master, 
when he said: * If God had not given us a vessel, His other 
gifts would have been nothing worth—and that vessel is glass." 
Some other instruments are also needed, such, for instance, as 
suitable furnaces. "The ancients describe a special furnace for 
use in every stage of our Art, devised differently according to 
the bent of their minds. Many of these, however, are quite 
unsuitable, some being too broad, others too high, and others 
out of harmony with the requirements of Nature. Some of the 
furnaces described in these books may be used, but by far the 
greater number ought to be rcjected, seeing that they are the 
inventions of men who only appeared to be, but were not really, 
Sages. Of the furnace which can be most highly recommended, 
you will find a pictorial representation in this volume. One 
which was unknown to the Ancients, I am proud to call my own 
invention. I set it up, in the first instance, at a very con- 
siderable outlay. But its advantages more than make good 
its cost. It is so constructed that sixty different chemical 
operations, for which divers kinds of heat are required, may 
be carried on in it at the same time, and a very small fire of 
only a foot square supplies a sufficient degree of heat for all 
these processes. As all may not be sure of this instrument, 
it has not been represented in a picture. Another furnace 
will serve for sixty or more glasses, each of them standing 
in the same degree of heat, as you. may see by the picture. 
I have also invented another furnace, which is of great 
use in the work of separation, exaltation, and disjunction or 
division, and is most admirably adapted for the processes of 
ablution or purging, desiccation, and preparation. These six 
operations may with great ease be performed in it at the 

VITE ADRIAN QE PEDEM Y- 63 

same time, and one fire suffices for them all But it is a 
new invention, and I cannot afford to describe it more minutely. 
I might also set down a description of another furnace, which is 
more dangerous than all the rest. It was constructed by the 
Ancients for the preparation of our Magnesia ; and they said that 
while it could not with impunity be touched for fear of the flame 
which rose from the wood, yet a linen rag might be placed on it 
without being scorched. This ingeniously constructed furnace I 
was fortunate enough to re-invent, and with its aid I was enabled 
to perform many wonderful experiments. "This furnace and its 
structure must remain a secret for some years longer ; but let me 
warn you, in conclusion, to be very careful in the selection and 
structure of your furnace. It must be so arranged as to enable 
you to regulate the supply of heat, and to abate the fierceness of 
the flame at any moment. Ifa man does not understand and 
know the use of his tools and instruments, all his work will be 
dene in a casual, haphazard manner, and it will be impossible for 
him to anticipate success with any degree of certainty.  There- 
fore, let me once more repeat my warning: See to your 
instruments, and test their quality before you set about your 
work. The fourth rule is also mostimportant. Theexperiment 
cannot succeed unless it be performed in a suitable place. Some 
places must be always dry, free from air and excess of light such 
as is caused by the bright rays of the sun. Others cannot be too 
much illuminated. "The places more fitted for other parts of the 
work, are humid and cold. But violent draughts should be care- 
fully avoided throughout. Hence a spot must be wisely chosen 
to fulfil all the requirements of the different parts of the work. 
The Sages tell us, in their enigmatic style, that our substance 
should be prepared within nine bars. Astrologers say that it is 
a singular mark of Divine grace if a man can find the right place 
for our work. For many things produce wonderful effects in 
some places, but are entirely barren of results in others ; and 
opposite consequences are often produced by the same thing in 
different places. The explanation of these facts is to be found 
in the knowledge that different places are differently influenced 
by the celestial bodies, just as a magnet, for instance, affects a 
needle differently in different latitudes. For this reason the 
Sages have declared that some places are well, and others ill, 

64 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

suited to our work. But the very worst of all possible places are 
those which have been defiled by lechery. 

The fifth rule is well known to the learned. There should 
exist a certain harmony between the celestial spheres and our 
work. Nothing on earth is so simple or so easily influenced as 
the elements of our Stone; and when they are being prepared 
they obey their own proper constellations, as the needle yields to 
the influence of the magnet. Let this amicable concord prevail, 
then,in a direct and fiery ascendent,and let your happy and favour- 
able ascendent be in fortunate aspect with his Lord. The work 
should be sheltered from all adverse and evil influences; if these 
cannot beset aside,let them have a trine aspect. When you prepare 
the White Tincture, let the Moon be fortunate, as also the Lord of 
the Fourth House, which is the Treasure of Hidden Things, 
according to the old Sages. TheSixth House must be favourable 
for the servants. Preserve your work from all great impediments, 
and see that it be not affected by the adverse constellation of 
your Nativity. "The virtue of the mover of the orb is the formal 
influence; the virtue of the eighth sphere is instrumental to it ; 
the virtue of the planet is proper and special; and that of the 
elements is material, and embodies the working of the other 
agents. The first resembles the genius of the operator; the 
second is analogous to his hands ; the third corresponds to his 
instruments ; and the fourth answers to the substance which is 
. prepared. Let the things on earth correspond to things in 
heaven, and you will obtain the Elixir, and become a great 
Master. Do not trust to Geomancy, which is a superstitious 
Art; nor to all Astrologers, because this science is secret, like 
that of Alchemy. Necromancy God forbids, and the Church 
condemns ; therefore, if you wish for success, let your hands be 
pure from all superstitious practices. Necromancy is of the 
Devil, and a lying Art. God will bless you if you give yourself 
wholly to the study of our own Blessed Art. In the next chapter 
I will speak about the regulation of the fire. 

(EIFASDATUESSIS SERVATUS 

Would you know the perfect Master? It is he who under- 
stands the regulation of the fire, and its degrees. Nothing will 

FEBR OORDINAL QF ALCHEMY. 65 

prove to you so formidable an impediment as ignorance of the 
regimen of heat and fire ; for our whole Art may belooked upon 
as being concentrated in this one thing, seeing it is all important 
for the proper development of our substance that the degree of 
heat which is brought to bear on it should be neither too great 
nor too small. In regard to this point many learned men have 
gone grievously astray. (1) The degree of heat which is 
employed for the scalding of pigs and geese, is that which we 
require for our decoction of intermediate minerals, and for the 
purpose of covering the Litharge with sweat. (2) The degree 
of heat which is sufficient for drying thin linen is good for our 
air in thirty operations ; for the purpose of division you may 
employ the degree of heat used by cooks in roasting meat. 
(3) A similar degree of heat with a circular fire will be found 
useful for the separation of the dividents. (4) But for the 
circulation. of the elements you will require white heat, which 
must be maintained at an even temperature, without either 
increase or diminution, until the whole operation is accom- 
plished. Moreover, there ought not to be in this fire any 
moisture that can be perceived by the touch, or seen with the 
eye. (5) There also is such a thing as a moist fire, though 
the expression sounds like a contradiction in terms. This fire 
should be used at a certain stage of the work, in order to remove 
the substances which adhere to the sides of the vessel The 
same degree of heat is also employed to dilute thick substances. 
The Sages declare that, in its highest degree, it causes and 
generates an even dryness, and that its effect here coincides 
with that of dry heat in the first degree. (6) There is also 
another fire which is employed for the purpose of drying sub- 
stances steeped in moisture. (7) Another variety of fire is 
that of conservation, because by its operation all things are 
parched up. (8) In the preparation of Magnesia we use the 
effusion of fire, which is full of danger, not only to the work, but 
also to the Master, who may even lose his life by its noxious 
effects. — For this reason you should carefully protect your 
mouth, ears, eyes, and nose, as the smoke of this fire is ten 
times more baneful than poison. By neglecting this caution 
many students have sustained considerable injuries. (9). Avcor- 
rosive fire answers the purpose of judiciously separating kindred 
Vor, II Ü 

" 

66 JHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

elements. One moment of excess, one moment of premature 
diminution, may mar the labour of months. He that regulates 
the fire aright is worthy of being hailed as a great Master of the 
Fire. It is exceedingly difficult to tell the exact degree of heat 
which any given fire will produce ; and here the sense of sight is 
the only reliable test. No sound or intelligible directions can be 
given in writing: the only schoolmistress that can impart to you 
a thorough knowledge ofthis branch of our Art is experience. 
Itisin regard to this variety of heat that Anaxagoras says: 
* Nobody is all at once an accomplished Sage" (10) The next 
kind of heat is of a consuming fierceness. It is employed to 
smelt very hard minerals. It cannot be too fierce or powerful, even 
though it may occasionally be necessary to keep it up for some 
length of time. (r1) The next variety of heat is that of calcina- 
tion, and is used for the purging of impure metals, the essential 
qualities of which would be impaired by smelting. (12) The 
kind of heat used for sublimation comes next, and by its means 
volatile minerals may be sublimed. (1:3) The last variety of 
heat is the most important of all. It should be employed at the 
time of the projection of our Stone. But experience is a good 
teacher, and I will say no more, except that he who makes a 
mistake at this point, must begin the work over again. 

I have now told you all things as plainly as if I had been 
describing to you the way to this or that town. I have, as it 
were, named every county, river, bridge, and village that has to 
be passed, and, with this my guide-book in his hand, a judicious 
traveller may easily find his way. A wise and intelligent man 
may, by means of this Book, discover the secret of our science ; 
for the foolish and dull-witted it was not intended, and it will not 
teach them anything. Our Science is the height of earthly 
knowledge, and is to be attained by neither Pope nor Emperor 
through their rank, influence, or power, but only by virtue, and 
by Divine grace. Our Stone cannot be discovered or perfected 
unless it be sought with intense devotion. In the works ofthe 
Ancients, understood in the light of this my Ordinal, the truth of 
the matter is fully set forth ; the present Book, in particular, was 
written for the purpose of resolving all your doubts; here every- 
thing is in its proper place, and nothing is wanting. Time was 
when I would cheerfully have paid down a thousand pounds for 

IBERIA, (QE AUIEACEE M. 67 

the contents of this volume ; and this last chapter I would not 
have missed for three hundred pounds. 

Do not wonder, Masters and Friends, that our Science is 
here so plainly expounded : I set pen to paper with the require- 
ments of the common people in view. For just because the 
vulgar are not instructed in this knowledge, infinite wealth is 
annually wasted in this country, as all Sages know, and many 
others of all ranks are daily reduced to beggary. Study our Art, 
then, ye uninstructed, and scorn to abide in fatuous ignorance. 
It is better for you to take to this study late than never. 

Let all that are benefitted by the reading of this Ordinal 
offer up prayers for my soul, and for the living and the dead. 

In the year-of our Lord 1477 this Book was begun. 

Glory be to God ! 

""us9 TESTAMENT 

CRENMIE XR; 

ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, AND BROTHER OF THE 

BENEDICTINE ORDER. 

ZASQUTREATUISVASSGRTS EIE ON GSTUETIS QSVVORIEG 

Bv M. M. 

* Either the meaning of the Author or the letter " 
* of his writings is deceitful. Be on your guard," 
* therefore. Everywhere a serpent lurks among " 
*the flowers. Yet scorn not a friend who spoke " 
*as plainly as he might. Beneath the shadowy " 
* foliage of words is concealed the golden fruit" 

fe GYRO 
SAP IS OL TE SC 

SIUS SORS TANEEZINGE 

OF 
QREMER, THE ENGLISHMAN, 

ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, AND FRIAR OF THE 
BENEDICTINE ORDER. 

Alchemy without using any of those obscure technical 

terms, which have proved so serious a stumbling-block in 

the way of many students of this Art. I am here des- 
cribing my own experience during the thirty years which I spent 
and wasted in perusing the writings of authors whose whole 
ingenuity seemed to have been concentrated upon the Art of 
expressing thought in unintelligible language. "The more I read 
the more hopelessly I went astray, until Divine Providence at 
length prompted me to undertake a journey to Italy, and caused 
me to be accepted as a disciple by that noble and marvellously 
learned Master Raymond, with whom I remained for a long time. 
In his eyes I found such favour that he not only unfolded to mea 
partial knowledge of this Great Mystery, but at my most earnest 
entreaty, accompanied me to this island of England, and lived 
with me here two years. During his stay he thoroughly 
instructed me in the whole secret of the work. Subsequently, I 
introduced my noble master to his most gracious Majesty King 
Edward, who received him kindly and honourably, and obtained 
from him a promise of inexhaustible wealth, on condition that 
he (the King) should in person conduct a Crusade against the 
Turks, the enemies of God, and that he should thenceforward 
refrain from making war on other Christian nations. But, alas, 
this promise was never fulfilled, because the King grossly violated 
his part of the contract, and compelled my dear master to fly

72 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

beyond the seas, with sorrow and grief in his soul. My heart 
still burns within me when I think of the unjust treatment which 
he received, and I have no more earnest longing than once more 
to behold his bodily presence. For the model of his daily life, 
and the purity and integrity of his mind, would move the most. 
inveterate sinner to repentance. 

In the meantime, rest assured, most blessed Raymond, that 
I and my brethren day by day pour.out our prayers before God 
on your behalf. All wisdom is derived from God, and ever ends 
in Him. Any one who desires knowledge should ask it of Him, 
for he gives liberally, and without upbraiding. "The height and 
the depth of all knowledge, and the whole treasure of wisdom 
are given unto men of God, because in Him, and to Him, and 
through Him are all things, and nothing can happen without His 
wil. In beginning my discourse I invoke the help of Him Who 
is the source and origin of all good things. May the bright light 
of His Spirit shine in my heart, and guide me into all truth ; 
also enabling me to point out to others the true path of 
Knowledge! May this prayer be granted, by Him who is 
enthroned on High, and rules and governs all things, world 
without end! Amen. : 

BIImsEheSeeinnigswasasbea Ond M rM 
of grace and truth." 

. Prayer. 

Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, deign to bless 
and sanctify the fire which we unworthy men, by invocation of 
Thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, presume to bless. 
Hallow it, most gracious God, with Thy benediction, and let it 
tend to the good of the human race, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Good Lord, Creator of the Red Light, 

Who dividest the times by certain seasons, 

When the Sun vanishes, fearful Chaos comes again : 
Oh Christ, restore the light to Thy faithful people! 

THE TESTAMENT OF CREMER. 75 

Though Thou hast studded heaven's floor with stars, 
And inlaid it with the bright lamp of the Moon, 

Yet Thou dost teach us also to strike light out of flints, 
And to fan it into life out of the stone-born spark. 

Thou art the true light ofthe eyes, and the light of the senses ; 
A mirror Thou art of things without and of things within. 
Accept this light which I bear, ministering 

Tinged with the unction issued from the peace- -bearing virgin. 

To Thee we come, great Father, thro' Thine only S 
In whom Thy glory visibly shines forth, 
And through Him, the Blessed Comiorler 

. .Whom Thou didst send forth from Thy great heart. 

In whom Thy Brightness, Honour, Light, and Wisdom, 
Majesty, Goodness, and Mercy 

Dwell with us throughout the Ages, 
ind, draw us up to the Fountain of Light Amen. 

GEDUASPTDEJR- T. 

Hox to IURE the living water which constitutes the [fe of 
our Art. 

Take three oz. of tartar of good claret, strong and pure. 
Add to it five oz. of Petroleum, two oz. of living sulphur, two oz. 
of orange-coloured Arsenic, three oz. of Rabusenum, two oz. of 
willow charcoal ^ Mix and distil all these ingredients in the 
* Bath of Neptune," in a well-stoppered glass jar. Let this jar 
be about one cubit high, and carefully closed to prevent any of 
the spirits or smoke from evaporating. When you see it turn of 
a pale colour, take it out of the furnace, and let it cool. You 
ought to be able to prepare it in about four days. Be careful 
not to inhale its smell, for it is deadly poison. This water should 
be kept in a stout well-stoppered glass jar, and used according to 
the directions given in the following chapters. 

The o£Zer «Vater should be twice distilled out of the urine of 
an unpolluted youth of eighteen ; if he be polluted, the water will 
have no vitality. 

74 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 
CIETASPAIIENRISSTITE 

Take the water of an unpolluted youth after his first sleep 
for three or four nights, until you have three pints. Put it each 
night into a well-stoppered stone jar; remove the sediment. 
Strain out one pint of the thinnest and purest part of the liquid. 
Add two glasses of very strong vinegar, two oz. of quick- 
lime, half-an-ounce ofthe * living water," of which the preparation 
has been described above. Put the mixture into an earthen pot, 
and place over it an alembic or distilling vessel, rendered air- 
tight with clay. Let it stand one day and one night before you 
put it on the fire. Then expose it to gentle heat, and let it 
distil continually for five or six days and nights. Thus let it 
flow by drops; carefully lute your glass receptacle so that 
neither spirit nor smoke may escape, and when the liquor dis- 
tiling assumes a blue or pallid colour, then abstract nothing 
further. 

(oi IPASDATSISIESRESTHII 

Smelt eight oz. of clear, hard iron ore, having no blemishes, 
in three or four parts, over a fierce charcoal fire; extinguish it 
with so much of the Virgin water described in the second chapter 
as may be necessary for the purpose. "Then take three oz. of 
tin, heat it for a short time in the fire, and steep it in the Virgin 
water. Pound the iron ore and the tin very small on a marble 
tablet, and when it begins to cool feed it with some of the water 
aforesaid. Pour the whole into a narrow-necked glass bottle, 
and seal it up with lead. Put it in a safe place, and in October 
you should fill a water-tight box (about one yard in height) with 
fresh horse dung, and thrust your glass vessel into it. Next to 
" the bottle let there be a layer of unslaked quick-lime. Shut the 
lid of the box closely, and never look at the mixture but at the 
time of the full moon. Its colours will continue to change until 
it becomes fixed and hardened. Then it is precipitated towards 
the bottom of the vessel. When it has been in the box twelve 
weeks, it should be quite black. You may then take it out, and 
keep it till the twentieth day of March, when it should be once 
more pounded small, according to the directions given below. 

THE TESTAMENT OF CREMER js 

QEIDAPTER TV. 

About the fifteenth day of March take three oz. of 
quicksilver, and add to it half-an-oz. of "living water" Pass 
the quicksilver five times through a strainer purged with lye and 
well dried. Melt two pounds of lead, and pour it into a pot. 
When it becomes liquid, thrust into it a thin round skewer, and 
when the lead is still warm, but already fixed, remove the 
skewer, and pour in the quicksilver instead. When the whole 
mass has cooled turn it out on a slab of marble, pour some oil 
over it, pound it small, divide it into three parts, mix each with 
small pilules of soot. Leave them in a closely sealed vessel for 
eight days, stamp them to powder, and nourish this powder with 
a liquid compounded in equal proportions of vinegar and * Virgin 
water" Put the soft paste which must thus be formed into a 
high glass distilling vessel. Close up the upper part of the vessel 
'with clay, and tie it up with a piece of leather or parchment. 
Then plunge it into a wooden box, containing glowing coals of 
juniper wood and oak, and a twentieth part of iron filings. To 
: test the degree of the fire before inserting the vessel put in it a 
piece of dry paper. Ifit catches alight the fire is not too hot, 
but if the thin shreds which remain of the paper after burning 
are also consumed, then the heat is excessive, and the door must be 
opened till the temperature lowers ; when it has become properly 
warm, carefully add to it a spoonful of *living water" (described 
in the first chapter) But take care that the still is only three- 
quarters covered with the coals, in order that you may, whenever 
the moon is full, be able quickly to remove the cover, and see 
how the work is progressing. Whenever you perform this, add a 
spoonful of *living water. At first the colour of the mixture 
should be black ; afterwards it will become white, and will pass 
through various changes of colour. When the mixture turns 
solid or fixed, its colour should be red of a somewhat dark tinge, 
and it should also be saline and heavy, no longer flowing or 
bubbling up towards the top of the vessel. It ought to be treated 
in the manner suggested for forty weeks, beginning on the 
twenty-fifth of March. By the end of this period the mixture 
will have become so hard as to burst the vessel. When this 
happy event takes place, the whole house will be filled with a 

76 VETE, EP ARWMIBETIO MOIS, 

most wonderfully sweet fragrance ; then will be the day of the 
Nativity of this most blessed Preparation. Remember, that the 
iron box with the coals ought to be enclosed in another wooden 
box, of which the object is to preserve the compound from the 
noxious influences of the air. 

(GSIPASDATNIRSSVA 

Take two pounds of pure and soft lead, two pounds of pure 
tin, and melt them in the above-mentioned well-covered clay 
jar. Place the whole on a wood fire, and keep it in a moderate 
blaze for three hours. Remove the * foam " of the metallic ore, 
till the whole mixture is pure and transparent, then add to ita 
fourth part of an ounce of the Red Stone powdered. Stir it 
gently with an iron spoon until the whole mass turnsred. Leave 
the jar for seventy-two hours, and during the last three hours 
expose it once more to the gentle heat of a blazing wood fire. 
While it is still liquid you can mould it into any shape you 
please ; when it hardens you have before your eyes the Consum- 
mation of the whole work. Mind you lift up your hands in 
grateful prayer to the Giver of all good gifts. So be it. 

(IE IPASDAISBARSES VAI, 

How to prepare a fire-proof clay jar in «which 
to melt the metal. 

Take well-tempered potter's clay, or the white earth which 
is called Taxonium ; mix it with a tenth part of horse dung. 
When the jar has been formed, and is half dried, cover it with 
thin filings of red or caldarium copper and fine powder of red 
arsenic. When it is quite dry, smear all its lower part with 
saltpetre dissolved for twelve hours in the *living water" of our 
first chapter. 

Ho: to prepare the Clay. 

Make the * clay " which you are to use for stopping up your 
vessel and keeping it air-tight, of bitumen, or quicklime mastic, 
and the white of eggs, well mixed with a little white Armenian 
bolus. Let your petroleum be clear, pure, and. yellow. Your 
Rabusenum should be clear, and of a bright vermilion. 

THE TESTAMENT OF CREMER. 2 

It is my wish that Brother Alexander, and Richard, of this 
our Monastery, should copy this Testament in the name of the 
Most Blessed Trinity, and preserve it carefully. 

In the first place, let them diligently keep the secret from 
all greedy and nefarious persons, and reveal it to none but the 
Abbot and Prior, for the time being, of our Monastery. Nor 
should it be made known to them until they have sworn on the 
four Gospels that they will not reveal it to any men in power, 
or to any of the inferior brethren of our Monastery. 

Moreover, it is my wish that the Art be not actually exer- 
cised in this our Monastery, except to save it from penury and 
ruin—a contingency which is not likely to happen, seeing that I 
leave to it so great a treasure of precious metals. I also enjoin 
upon you who are in authority in this house, to wit, the Abbot 
and Prior, to have this my last will and testament copied once in 
every sixty years, in order that it may not become illegible, either 
through the ravages of time, or through a change in the form of 
those written characters which render man's thought permanent. 

Furthermore, I command you not to betray the secret of the 
preparation of the Red Dragon's Blood, or the quantities of sub- 
stances required, or the manner of their treatment, or the time 
when the work should be taken in hand, to any human soul, 
except to the persons named above ; and I adjure you to keep 
and preserve intact, inviolate, and unbroken the trust committed 
to you, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
as you will one day have to answer me before the judgment seat 
of Christ. Whoever does not observe this my mandate, let his 
name be blotted out from the Book of Life. 

Magnesia is the smelted ore of iron. When the mixture is 
still black it is called the Black Raven. As it turns white, it is 
named the Virgin's Milk, or the Bone of the Whale. In its red 
stage, it isthe Red Lion. When it is blue, it is called the Blue 
Lion. When it is all colours, the Sages name it Rainbow. But 
the number of such names is legion: and I can only mention 
these few. Moreover, they were only invented for the purpose of 
confounding the vulgar, and hiding this mystery from the simple. 
Whenever you meet with a book full of these strange and out- 
landish terms and names, throw it asideat once : it will not teach 
you anything. 

78 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

Rabusenum is a certain red substance and earth coming 
forth with water, which flows out of minerals, and is brought to 
perfection in the month of July in a glass] jar exposed to the heat 
of the sun for 26 days. 

THE NEW 
CHEMICAL "LIGHT 

DRAWN FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF NATURE 
AND OF MANUAL EXPERIENCE. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

A JT ROBOACT' E SS 

CONCERNING 

oU MUR. 

[THE AUTHOR'S ANAGRAM]: 

* Divi Leschi genus amo." 

In this sentence : '*I love the Divine Race of Leschi," 
all the letters of the Author's name are found 
transposed, — 

To wir: MICHAEL SENDIVOGIUS. 

" E É 

DISSE ANE B. 

Upon all genuine Seekers of the great Chemical Art, 
or Sons of Hermes, the Author. implores 
the Divine Blessing aud Salvation.

deceitful books and forged Alchemistic * receipts," 
which have been put in circulation by heartless 

1 impostors, though they do not contain even a 
spark of truth—and how many persons have been and are still 
daily led astray by them ?—it occurred to me that I could not 
do better than communicate the Talent committed to me by the 
Father of Lights to the Sons and Heirs of Knowledge. I also 
wish to let posterity see that in our own age, as well as in 
ancient times, this singularly gracious philosophical Blessing has 
not been denied to a few favoured men. For certain reasons 
I do not think it advisable to publish my name ; chiefly, because 
I do not seek for praise for myself, but am only anxious to 
assist the lovers of philosophy. The vainglorious desire for 
fame I leave to those who are content to seem what they, in 
reality, are not. The facts and deductions which I have here 
briefly set down are transcribed from that manual—experience, 
graciously bestowed upon me by the Most High ; and my object 
is to enable those who have laid a sound foundation in the 
elementary part of this most noble Art, to advance to a more 
satisfying fullness of knowledge, and to put them on their 
guard against those depraved * vendors of smoke," who delight 
in fraud and imposition. Our science is not a dream, as the 
vulgar crowd imagines, or the empty invention of idle men, as 
the foolish suppose. It is the very truth of philosophy itself, 
which the voice of conscience and of love bid me conceal no 

VOL. II. y 

82 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

longer. In these wicked days, indeed, when virtue and vice are 
accounted alike, the ingratitude and unbelief of men keep our 
Art from appearing openly before the public gaze. Yet this 
glorious truth is even now capable of being apprehended by 
learned and unlearned persons of virtuous lives, and there are 
many persons of all nations now living who have beheld Diana 
unveiled. But as many, either from ignorance or from a desire 
to conceal their knowledge, are daily teaching and inducing 
others to believe that the soul of gold can be extracted, and 
then imparted to other substances; and thereby .entice 
numbers to incur great waste of time, labour, and money: let 
the sons of Hermes know for certain that the extracting of 
the essence of gold is a mere fond delusion, as those who 
persist in it will be taught to their cost by experience, the only 
arbitress from whose judgment seat there is no appeal. If, on 
the other hand, a person is able to transmute the smallest piece 
of metal (with or without gain) into genuine gold or silver 
which abides all the usual tests, he may justly be said to have 
opened the gates of Nature, and cleared the way for profounder 
and more advanced study. Itis with this object that I dedicate the 
following pages, which embody the results of my experience, to the 
sons of knowledge, that by a careful study of the working of 
Nature they may be enabled to lift the veil, and enter her 
inmost sanctuary. . To this final goal of our sacred philosophy 
they must travel by the royal road which Nature herself has 
marked out for them. Let me therefore admonish the gentle 
reader that my meaning is to be apprehended not so much from 
the outward husk of my words, as from the inward spirit of 
Nature. If this warning is neglected, he may spend his time, 
labour, and money in vain. Let him consider that this mystery 
is for wise men, and not for fools. "The inward meaning of our 
philosophy will be unintelligible to vainglorious boasters, to 
conceited mockers, and to men who smother the clamorous voice 
of conscience with the insolence of a wicked life; as also to 
those ignorant persons who have fondly staked their happiness 
on albefactions and rubrefactions and other equally senseless 
methods. The right understanding of our Art is by the gift of 
God, or by the ocular demonstration of a teacher, and can be 
attained only by diligent, humble search, and prayerful depen- 

IHE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 83 

dence on the Giver of all good things ; now, God rejects those who 
hate Him, and scorn knowledge. In conclusion, I would earnestly 
ask the sons of knowledge to accept this Book in the spirit in 
which it was written ; and when the HIDDEN has become 
MANIFEST to them, and the inner gates of secret knowledge 
are flung open, not to reveal this mystery to any unworthy 
person; also to remember their duty towards their suffering and 
distressed neighbours, to avoid any ostentatious display of their 
power; and above all, to render to God, the Three in One, 
sincere and grateful thanks with their lips, in the silence of their 
hearts, and by refraining from any abuse of the Gift. 

S-IMWPEIE IC. Eo 
IS 

TDSETUEY S SUAVE ONE Sm UU TIT BE. 

As after the completion of the Preface, it was found that it 
did not cover the whole of the space allotted to it, I have, at 
the publisher's request, there set down the *last will and testa- 
ment of Arnold Villanovanus," which I once turned into Latin 
verse. lam conscious that the style of my versification is want- 
ing in neatness and elegance ; but this defect was partly caused 
by the necessity of adhering strictly and faithfully to the Author's 
meaning. 

Testament of Arnold de Villanova. 

It is said that Arnold de Villanova, a man who was a 
credit to his race, signified his last will in the following words : 
" [t has its birth in the earth, its strength it doth acquire in the 
" fire, and there becomes the true Stone of the ancient Sages. 
* Let it be nourished for twice six hours with a clear liquid until 
"its limbs begin to expand and grow apace. Then let it be 

. F2 

84 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

* placed in a dry and moderately warm spot for another period 
* of twelve hours, until it has purged itself by giving out a thick 
* steam or vapour, and becomes solid and hard within. ^ The *vir- 
**gin's milk' that is expressed from the better part of the 
* Stone is then preserved in a carefully closed oval-shaped distil- 
* ]ing vessel of glass, and is day by day wondrously changed by 
* the quickening fire, until all the different colours resolve them- 
* selves into a fixed gentle splendour of a white radiance, which 
* soon, under the continued genial influence of the fire, changes 
* to a glorious purple, the outward and visible sign of the final 
* perfection of your work." 

SPEUB UBERST DREATISE 

Of Nature, what she is, and «wat manner of men her 
Disciles ought to be. 

ANY Sages, Scholars, and learned men have in all 
ages, and (according to Hermes) even so early as 
the days before the Flood, written much concerning 
the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone; and if 

their books could be understood without a knowledge of the 
living processes of Nature, one might almost say that they are 
calculated to supersede the study of the real world around us. 
But though they never departed from the simple ways of Nature, 
they have something to teach us, which we, in these more 
sophisticated times, still need to learn, because we have applied 
ourselves to what are regarded as the more advanced branches 
of knowledge, and despise the study of so *simple" a thing as 
natural Generation. Hence we pay more heed to impossible 
things than to those objects which are broadly exhibited before 
our very eyes ; we excel more in subtle speculations than in a 
sober study of Nature, and of the meaning of the Sages. It is 
one of the most remarkable features of human nature that we 
neglect those things which seem familiar, and are eager for new 
and strange information. The workman who has attained the 
highest degree of excellence in his Art, neglects it, and applies 
himself to something else, or else abuses his knowledge. Our 
longing for an increase of knowledge urges us ever onward 
towards some final goal, in which we imagine that we shall find 
full rest and satisfaction, like the ant which is not endowed with 
wings till the last days of its life. In our time, the Philosophical 
Art has become a very subtle matter; it is the craft of the 
goldsmith compared with that of the humble workman who 
exercises his calling at the forge. We have made such 
mighty strides in advance that if the ancient Masters of our 

86 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

science, Hermes and Geber and Raymond Lullius, were to rise 
from the dead, they would be treated by our modern Alchemists, 
not as Sages, but as only humble learners. They would seem 
very poor scholars in our modern lore of futile distillations, circu- 
lations, calcinations, and in all the other countless operations 
wherewith modern research has so famously enriched our Art, 
though without understanding the sense of the ancient writings. 
In all these respects, our learning is vastly superior to theirs. 
Only one thing is unfortunately wanting to us which they 
possessed, namely, the knack they had of actually preparing the 
Philosopher's Stone., Perhaps, then, their simple methods were 
after all the best ; and it is on this supposition that I desire, in 
this volume, to teach you to understand Nature, so that' our vain 
imaginations may not misdirect us in the true and simple way. 
Nature, then, is one, true, simple, self-contained, created by God 
and informed with a certain universal spirit. Its end and origin 
are God. Its unity is also found in God, because God made all 
things. Nature is the one source of all things: nor is anything 
in the world outside Nature, or contrary to Nature. Nature is 
divided into four * places" in which she brings forth all things 
that appear and that are in the shade ; and according to the good 
or bad quality of the * place" she brings forth good or bad things. 
There are only four qualities which are in all things and yet do 
not agree among themselves, as one is always striving to obtain 
the mastery over the rest. Nature is not visible, though she acts 
visibly ; she is a volatile spirit who manifests herself in material 
shapes, and her existence is in the Will of God. It is most im- 
portant for us to know her * places," and those which are most 
in harmony, and most closely allied, in order that we may join 
things together according to Nature, and not attempt to confound 
vegetables with animals, or animals with metals. Everything 
should be made to act on that which is like to it—and then 
Nature will perform her duty. 

Students of Nature should be such as is Nature herself— true, 
simple, patient, constant, and so on ; above all, they should fear 
God, and love their neighbours. They should always be ready 
to learn from Nature, and to be guided by her methods, ascer- 
taining by visible and sensible examples whether that which they 
propose to perform is in accordance with her possibilities. If we 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 87 

would reproduce something already accomplished by Nature, we 
must follow her, but if we would improve on her performance, we 
must know in and by what it is ameliorated. For instance, it 
we desire to impart to a metal greater excellence than Nature 
has given to it, we must take the ueta//ic substance both in its 
male and its female varieties, else all our efforts will be in vain. 
It is as impossible to produce a metal out of a plant, as to make 
a tree out of a dog or any other animal. 

SECOND TREATISE. 

Concerning the operation of Nature in our Substance, 
and its Seed. 

I have already said that Nature is one, true, and consistent, 
and that she is known by her products, such as trees, herbs, &c. 
I have also described the qualifications of a student of: Nature. 
Now I will say a few words about the operation of Nature. As 
Nature has her being in the Will of God, so her will, or seed, is 
in the Elements. She is one, and produces different things, but 
only through the mediate instrumentality of seed. For Nature 
performs whatsoever the sperm requires of her, and is, as it were, 
only the instrument of some artisan. "The seed, if anything, is 
more useful to the artist than Nature herself; for Nature 
without seed, is what a goldsmith is without silver and gold, or a 
husbandman without seed corn. Wherever there is seed, Nature 
will work through it, whether it be good or bad. Nature works 
on * seed" as God works on the free will of man. "Truly it isa 
great marvel to behold Nature obeying the seed, not because she 
is forced to do so, but of her own will. In like manner, God 
permits man to do what he pleases, not because He is constrained, 
but of His good and free bounty. The seed, then, is the elixir oi 
anything, or its quintessence, or its most perfect digestion and 
decoction, or, again, the Balm of Sulphur, which is the same as the 
radical moisture in metals. We might say much more about 
this seed, but can only mention those facts which are or 
importance in our Art. The four elements produce seed, through 
the will of God and the imagination of Nature ; and as the seed 
of the male animal has its centre or storing place in the kidneys, 

88 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

so the four elements by their continual action project a constant 
supply of seed to the centre of the earth, where it is digested, and 
whence it proceeds again in generative motions. Now the centre 
of the earth is a certain void place wherein nothing is at rest; 
and upon the margin or circumference of this centre the four 
elements project their qualities. As the male seed is emitted 
into the womb of the female, where only so much as is needed 
is retained while the rest is driven out again, so the magnetic 
force of our earth-centre attracts to itself as much as is needed of 
the cognate seminal substance, while that which cannot be used 
for vital generation is thrust forth in the shape of stones and other 
rubbish. "This is the fountain-head of all things terrestrial Let 
us illustrate the matter by supposing a glass of water to be set 
in the middle of a table, round the margin of which are placed 
little heaps of salt, and of powders of different colours. If the 
water be poured out, it will run all over the table in divergent 
rivulets,:and will become salt where it touches the salt, red where 
it dissolves the red powder, and soon. The water does not change 
the *places,' but the several places differentiate the water. In 
the same way, the seed which is the product of the four elements 
is projected in all directions from the earth-centre, and produces 
different things, according to the quality of the different places. 
Thus, while the seed of all things is one, it is made to generate a 
great variety of things, just as the seed of a man might produce 
a man if projected into the womb of a female of his own species, 
or a monstrous variety of abortions, if projected into the wombs 
of different female animals. So long as Nature's seed remains 
in the centre it can indifferently produce a tree or a metal, a herb 
or a stone, and in like manner, according to the purity of the 
place, it will produce what is less or more pure. But how do the 
elements generate the sperm or seed? There are four elements, 
two heavy and two light, two dry and two moist, but one driest 
and one moistest of all; and these are male and female. By 
God's Will each of these is constantly striving to produce things 
like to itself in its own sphere. Moreover, they are constantly 
acting on one another, and the subtle essences of all are combined 
in the centre, where they are well mixed and sent forth again by 
Archeus, the servant of Nature, as is more fully set forth in the 
Epilogue of these twelve Treatises. 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 89 

SDETIRID- CTRISACTISE. 
Concerning the true and first Matter of Metats. 

The first matter of metals is twofold, and one without the 
other cannot create a metal. The first and principal substance is 
the moisture of air mingled with warmth. This substance the 
Sages have called Mercury, and in the philosophical sea it is 
governed by the rays of the Sun and the Moon. The second 
substance is the dry heat of the earth, which is called Sulphur. 
But as this substance has always been kept a great mystery, let 
us declare it more fully, and especially its weight, ignorance of 
which mars the whole work. The right substance, if the 
quantity of it which is taken be wrong, can produce nothing 
but an abortion. There are some who take the entire body for 
their matter, that is, for their seed or sperm ; others take only a 
part of it: both are on the wrong track. If any one, for in- 
stance, were to attempt the creation of a man out of a man's 
hand and a woman's foot, he would fail. For there is in every 
body.a central atom, or vital point of the seed (its 44, part), even 
in a grain of wheat. Neither the body nor the grain is 2// seed, 
but every body has a small seminal spark, which the other parts 
protect from all excess of heat and cold. If you have ears and 
eyes treasure up this fact, and be on your guard against those 
who would use the whole grain as seed, and those who strive to 
produce a highly rarefied metallic substance by the vain solution 
and mixture of different metals. For even the purest metals 
contain a certain element of impurity, while in the inferior the 
proportion is greater. You will have all you want if you find 
the point of Nature, which you must not, however, look for in 
the vulgar metals; it is not to be found therein, for all these, 
and common gold more especially, are dead. But the metals 
which we advise you to take are living and have vital spirits. 
Fire is the life of metals while they are still in their ore, and the 
fire of smelting is their death. But the first matter of metals 
isa certain moisture mixed with warm air. Its appearance is 
that of oily water adhering to all pure and impure things ; yet 
in some places it is found more abundantly than in others, 
because the earth is more open and porous in one place than in 
another, and has a greater magnetic force. When it becomes 

9o THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

manifest, it is clothed in a certain vesture, especially in places 
where it has nothing to cling to. It is known by the fact that 
it is composed of three principles ; but, as a metallic substance, 
| it is only one without any visible sign of conjunction, except 
that which may be called its vesture or shadow, namely, 
sulphur, &c. 

EO ISEREIURIBS/AMIBISEN 
Hos metals are produced Zn the Bowels of the Earth. 

The metals are produced in this way: after the four 
elements have projected their power and virtues to the centre of 
the earth, they are, in the hands of the Archeus of Nature, dis- 
tilled and sublimed by the heat of perpetual motion towards the 
surface of the earth. For the earth is porous, and the air by 
distillation through the pores of the earth is resolved into a 
water, out of which all things are generated. — You should know 
that the seed of metals is the same, in the first instance, as the 
sperm of all other things, viz, a vaporous moisture. Hence it is 
foolish to seek the dissolution of metals in the first matter, which 
is nothing but a vapour, and in so doing philosophers have not 
comprehended the first matter, but only the second, as Bernard 
Trevisan well argues, though in a somewhat obscure manner, for 
he addressed himself to the Sons of the Doctrine. For my part, 
before openly explaining this theory, I would warn all men not 
to seek that which exists everywhere by itself in a soft volatile 
form by so many circulations, calcinations, and reiterations of 
hard gold and silver, which can never be changed back into their 
original substance. Let us follow the real meaning of the 
writers of Alchemy whose works we read, and remember that if 
Art would produce any solid and permanent effect, it must follow 
in the footsteps of Nature, and be guided by her methods. It 
must trust itself to the guidance of. Nature as far as Nature will 
lead, and go beyond her by still adhering to her rules Now I 
said that all things are produced of a liquid air or a vapour, 
which the elements distil into the centre of the earth by a con- 
tinual motion, and that as soon as the Archeus has received it, 
his wisdom sublimes it through the pores, and distributes it to 
each place, producing different things according to the diverse 

IHE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. | 9 

places in which it is deposited. Some think that each metal has 
its own seed. But this is a great mistake, for there is only one 
seed. The sperm which appears in Saturn is the same as that 
which is found in gold, silver, copper, &c.; their difference is 
caused by the place, and by the time during which Nature was 
at work upon them, the procreation of silver being achieved 
sooner than that of gold, and so with the other metals. The 
vapour which is sublimed by heat from the centre of the earth, 
passes either through cold or warm places. If the place be 
warm and pure, and contain adhering to it a certain fatness of 
sulphur, the vapour (or Mercury of the Sages) joins itself to its 
fatness, and sublimes it together with itself. If in the course of 
its further sublimation this unctuous vapour reaches other places 
where the earth has already been subtilized, purified, and 
rendered moist by previous ascending vapours, it fills the pores 
of this earth, and with it becomes gold. But if this unctuous 
moisture be carried to impure and cold places, it becomes lead ; 
if the earth be pure and mingled with sulphur, it becomes copper. 
For the purer the place is, the more beautiful and perfect will 
the metal be. We must also note that the vapour is constantly 
ascending, and in its ascent from the earth's centre to its super- 
ficies, it purifes the places through which it passes Hence 
precious metals are found now where none existed a thousand 
years ago, for this vapour, by its continual progress, ever 
subtilizes the crude and impure, and as continually carries away 
the pure with itself This is the circulation and reiteration of 
Nature. All places are being more and more purified : and the 
purer they become, the nobler are their products. In the winter 
this unctuous vapour is congealed by the frost At the return 
ofspring it is set free, and is the ./agzesza which attracts to 
itself the kindred Mercury of the air, and gives life to all things 
through the rays of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, thus bring- 
ing forth grass, flowers, and the like, for Nature is never idle even 
during a single moment. This, then, is the only true account of 
the generation of Metals The earth is purged by a long 
distillation, and when the unctuous or fatty vapour approaches, 
the same are procreated, nor are they ever otherwise begotten, 
notwithstanding the imaginations of those who misinterpret on 
this point the writings of the philosophers. 

92 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

TUERI RETRRSTURESSANSUTE 
On the generatim of all &inds of Stones. 

The substance of stones is the same as that of all other 
things; and their quality is determined by the purity of the 
places in which they arise. When the four elements distil their 
vapour to the centre of the earth, the Archeus of Nature expels 
and sublimes it in such a manner that it carries with it in its 
passage through the pores of the earth, all the impurities of these 
places up to the surface, where they are congealed by the air, all 
that pure air engenders being congealed by crude air, their 
ingression being mutual, so that they join one with another, since 
Nature rejoices in Nature. "Thus rocks and stones are gradually 
built up and generated. Now the larger the pores of the earth, 
the greater is the quantity of impurities carried upward ; and 
thus the earth is most completely purified under those places 
where there is a great accumulation of stones or rocks at the 
surface, and in this manner the procreation of metals becomes 
easierin these places. "This explains the fact that metals are 
scarcely ever found in plains, but nearly always in the bowels of 
rocky hills. The plains are often moist with elemental water 
which attracts to itself the rising vapour, and with it is digested 
by the rays of the Sun into the rich clay which potters use. In 
places where the soil is gross, and the vapour contains neither 
unctuousness nor sulphur, it produces herbs and grass in the 
meadows. The precious stones, such as diamonds, rubies, and 
emeralds, chrysopras, onyx, and carbuncle, are all generated in 
the same manner as ordinary stones. When the natural vapour 
is sublimed by itself without sulphur or the unctuosity of which 
we have spoken, and. reaches a place where there is pure salt 
water (Ze, in very cold places, where our sulphur cannot exist, 
for could it exist, this effect would be hindered), diamonds are 
formed. The unctuous sulphur which rises with the vapour 
cannot move without warmth, and is instantly congealed, when 
it reaches a slightly cold place, leaving the vapour to continue 
its upward movement without it. Colours are imparted to 
precious stones in this way. When the unctuous sulphur is con- 
gealed by the perpetual motion, the spirit of the water digests it 
in passing and purifies it by the water of the salt, until it assumes 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 93 

ared or white colour. This colour is volatilized by so many 
repeated distillations, and at length is borne upward with the 
purifpying vapour, which by its aid is able to enter imperfect 
bodies, and thus to pervade them with colour; the colour is 
united to the partly congealed water, and fills all its pores so 
that the two are absolutely one. For water which has no spirit 
is congealed by heat, and water which has a spirit is congealed 
by cold ; but he who knows how to congeal water by means of 
heat, and to join to it a spirit, is like to discover something a 
thousand times more precious than gold, or anything which is in 
the world. Let him separate the spirit from the water, in order 
that it may putrefy, and that the grain may appear. Then let 
him purge off the dross, and reduce the spirit to water. This 
union will produce a branch which bears little resemblance to 
the parent stem. 

SLX PH TREAWLSE. 
Concerning the Second Matter and Putiefactton. 

We have spoken of the first matter of all things, and after 
what manner they are born by Nature without seed, that is, after 
what manher Nature receives the matter from the elements 
whereof she engenders seed. We will now consider this seed and 
the things evolved from it. Everything that has seed is multi- 
plied thereby, but not without the aid of Nature: for seed is 
nothing but congealed air, or a vaporous humour enclosed in a 
body ; and unless it be dissolved by a warm vapour, it cannot 
work. Now, the nature of this seed which is produced out of the 
four elements, is threefold : it is either /7zwera/, or Vegetable, or 
Anzmal. Mineral seed is known only to the Sages. "Vegetable 
seed is common and vulgar, as we see in fruits. Animal seed is 
known by imagination. But vegetable seed exhibits most clearly 
the process by which Nature evolves natural objects out of the 
four elements. — Winter is the cause of putrefaction : it congeals 
the vital spirit in trees; and when the heat of the Sun, which 
magnetically attracts moisture, sets it free, the natural heat (of 
the tree) which is thereby stirred up, drives a subtle vapour of 
water towards the surface, and makes the sap to flow, always 
separating the pure from the impure, though the impure may 

94 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

sometimes precede the pure. That which is pure is congealed 
into flowers, the impure becomes leaves, the gross and thick 
hardens into bark. The bark of the tree remains fixed ; the 
leaves fall when the pores are obstructed by heat or cold; the 
flowers receive a. colour according to the quality of the natural 
heat, and bear fruit or seed. We may instance the apple, wherein 
is the sperm, whence the tree does not spring ; but in this sperm 
is the seed or grain interiorly, whence the tree is born even 
without sperm, for multiplication is not of the sperm but of the 
seed. Thus we see how Nature, without our help, creates 
vegetable seed out of the four elements. But how about Min- 
erals? Nature brings forth Mineral or Metallic seed in the 
bowels ofthe earth. "This is the reason why so many will not 
believe in its existence—because it is invisible. And on this 
account the vulgar unbelief is not so greatly to be wondered at : 
for if they hardly understand that which is openly before their 
eyes, how should they know anything about that which they 
cannot see. Yet, whether they believe it or not, the fact remains 
the same, and it is most true that that which is above is as that 
which is below, and that which is born above has origin from the 
same source which is at work down below, even in the bowels of 
the earth. What prerogative have vegetables above metals that 
God should give seed to the one and withhold it from the other ? 
Are not metals as much in Hissight as trees? It is certain that 
nothing can grow without seed ; for that which has no seed, is 
dead. "The four elements must either bring forth metallic seed, 
or produce metals without seed. In the latter case, they cannot 
be perfect: for nothing is complete without seed. He who can 
bring himself to believe that metals.are destitute of seed, is un- 
worthy to understand the mysteries of our Art. The metals then 
really contain their own proper seed ; and it is generated in the 
following way. The vapour which (in the manner repeatedly 
described) rises from the earth's centre, and is called Mercury not 
on account of its essence but on account of its fluidity, and the 
facility with which it adheres to anything, is assimilated to the 
sulphur on account of its internal heat ; and, after congelation, is 
the radical humour. Thus metals are indeed generated out of 
mercury; but those ignorant persons who say that this first 
substance of metals is ordinary mercury, confourd the whole 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 95 

body with the seed that is in it, seeing that common mercury, 
too, contains metallic seed, as well as the other metals. Let 
us illustrate the matter by the analogy of the human body. 
Therein it is certain that there is a seed whereby the species 
of mankind is propagated. That body (which may be likened 
to common mercury) cozfazgs seed, which is not seen, and 
of which the quantity is very small in proportion to the size of 
the whole body : the process of generation is performed not by 
the whole body, but by this seminal * congealed watery vapour." 
Butas no vital generation could take place if the body were 
dissected in order to get at the seed, as the murdering of the body 
would kill the seed—so ignorant Alchemists may be said to 
murder the body and kill the seed of metals, when they dissolve 
their bodies, whether of gold, silver, or lead, and corrode them 
with aqua fortis, in order to obtain the metallic seed. — All multi- 
plication is performed by means of male and female seed ; and 
the two (which by themselves are barren) must be conjoined in 
order to bring forth fruit, Ze, a new form. .Whosoever, therefore, 
would bring forth any good thing must take the sperm or the seed, 
and not the entire body. 

Take, then, the living male and the living female, and join 
them in order that they may project a sperm for the procreation 
ofa fruit according to their kind, forlet no one presume to suppose 
that he can make the first matter. | The first matter of man is 
earth, and there is no one so bold as to dream that he can create 
a man. God alone can perform this artifice. But if the second 
substance (or seed) which is already created, be put in the proper 
place, Nature will produce a new form of the same species. The 
Artist only separates what is subtle from its grosser elements, and 
puts it intothe proper *vessel"  Naturedoestherest. Asathing 
begins, so it ends. Out of one arise two, and out of two one— 
as of God the Father there was begotten God the Son, and from 
the two proceeded God the Holy Ghost. Thus was the world 
made, and so also shall it end. Consider carefully these few 
points, and you will find, firstly, the Father, then the Father 
and the Son, lastly, the Holy Spirit. You will find the four 
elements, the four luminaries, the two celestials, the two centrics. 
In a word, there is nothing, has been, and shall be nothing in the 
world which is otherwise than it appears in this symbol, and a 

96 THE HERMETIC. MUSEUM. 

volume might be filled with its mysteries. I say, therefore, it is 
the attribute of God alone to make one out of one; you must 
produce one thing out of two by natural generation. Know, then, 
that the multiplying sperm is the second substance, and not the 
first. For the first substance of things is not seen, but is hidden 
in Nature or the elements : the second substance is occasionally 
seen by the children of knowledge. j 

SIEVIEANGTISEISIPRIBPASIERSIB: 
Conceruiug the Virtue of the Second Matter. 

But in order that you may the better know this second 
matter, I will describe to you its virtues. Nature is divided 
into three kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal. 
It is manifest that the mineral kingdom could subsist of itself 
were there no vegetables or animals in the world ; the vegetable, 
in like manner, is independent of the animal and mineral. 
These two kingdoms were created in independence. The animal 
kingdom alone depends for its subsistence on the two others, 
and is the most noble and excellent of all ; and seeing that it is 
the last of the three, it governs the two others, because virtue 
expends itself at the third, even as it is multiplied in the 
second. In the vegetable kingdom the first substance is the 
herb or the tree, which you cannot create, but which is pro- 
duced by Nature alone. "The second substance is the seed 
which you see, by which herbs and trees are propagated. In 
the animal kingdom the first substance is the beast or man, 
whom you cannot create; but the seed, or second substance, by 
which they are propagated, you know. In the mineral kingdom, 
too, you are unable to create a metal, and if you boast that 
you can do so, Nature will laugh at your pretensions; given 
even the possession of that first matter which is vaunted by 
the philosophers, namely, the centric salt, you cannot multiply 
it without gold ; but the vegetable seed of metals is known only 
to the Sons of Science. In the case of plants, the seed is seen 
outwardly, and is digested by warm air. In animals the seed 
appears inwardly and outwardly, and is prepared in the kidneys 
of the male Water is the seed of minerals, in the very 
centre of their heart and life; and the * kidneys of its digestion" 

"IUE NEW. CHEMICAL LIGHT. 97 

are fire. The receptacle of vegetable seed is the earth ; the 
receptacle of animal seed the womb of the female; and air is 
the receptacle of water—the mineral seed. The receptacles of 
seed are the same as congelations of bodies; digestion is the 
same as solution, and putrefaction the same as destruction. The 
specific property of seed is to enter into union with other sub- 
- stances belonging to the same kingdom, because it is subtle, and, 
in fact, air congealed by fatness into water. It is recognisable 
by the fact that it does not become naturally united to anything 
outside the kingdom to which it belongs. It is not dissolved, 
but only congealed, as it does not need solution but only con- 
gelation. Hence it is necessary that the pores of bodies be 
opened to admit the sperm, in the centre of which lies.the seed 
(which is air. When it enters its proper womb it is congealed, 
and congeals the pure or mixed substance which it finds. So 
long as there is any seed in the body the body lives ; when it is 
all consumed the body dies ; and any emission of seed weakens 
the body, as may be seen in the case of dissolute persons, and 
of trees which have been too richly laden with fruit. The seed, 
then,is invisible, but the sperm can be seen, and is even as 
a living soul, which is not found in dead things. It is extracted 
after two manners, of which the first is gentle and the second 
violent Nothing is produced without seed, but everything 
comes into being by means of seed. Let all sons of knowledge 
remember that seed is vainly sought in dry trees, and that it is 
found only in those which are green. 

TO GOEIESIDETRIURSB/AUDDIS B 
How Nature operates through our. Art in the Seed. 

Seed in itself produces no fruit, if it be not placed by Nature 
or Art in its own proper womb. Though seed in itself is the most 
glorious of all created things, yet the womb is its life, which causes 
the putrefaction of the enclosing grain or sperm, brings about the 
congelation of the vital atom, nourishing and stimulating its 
growth by the warmth of its own body. All this is constantly 
and regularly being enacted (by months, years, and seasons) in 
the above said three natural kingdoms. The process can be 
hastened artificially in the vegetable and mineral, but not in the 

VOL. II, G 

98 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

animal world. In the mineral kingdom, Art can do something 
which Nature is unable to perform, by removing the crude air 
which stops up the outward pores of minerals, not in the bowels 
of the earth but in the circumference. The elements vie in 
projecting their seed into the centre of the earth in order that it 
may there be digested. The centre, by a caloric movement, 
emits it into the womb ; of these wombs. there are an untold 
number—as many as there are places, and one place always purer 
than another. Know that a pure womb will bring forth a pure 
form ofits own species. For instance, as among animals there 
are wombs of women, cows, mares, bitches, so in the mineral 
world there are metals, stones, and salts. Now salts principally 
demand consideration, with their localities, according as they are 
less or more important. 

INHEINGTU ETE ISISSGPAMIBINS DA 

On the Commzixtion of Metals, and the Eliiting 
of the Metallic Seed. 

We have spoken hitherto of Nature, of Art, of bodies, sperm, 
and seed. Let us now proceed to the practical enquiry, how 
metals should be mixed, and how they are mutally related. For, 
as a woman is generated in the same womb, and out of the same 
seed as a man, and the only difference is in the degree of 
digestion, and the purity of the blood and salts, so silver is 
produced from the same seed, and in the same womb as gold ; 
but the womb of the silver had more water, and, as it were, less 
digested blood than that of gold, according to the times of the 
celestial moon. But if you would ünderstand the sexual union 
of the metals, and their manner of emitting and receiving seed, 
look at the celestial bodies of the planets. You will see that 
Saturn is higher than all the rest, to whom Jupiter succeeds, then 
Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, while the last place is occu- 
by the Moon. The virtues of the planets descend, but do 
not ascend ; and so as experiences teaches us, Mars is easily 
converted into Venus, but not Venus into Mars, which has an 
inferior sphere. Also Jupiter may be quickly transmuted into 
Mercury, because Jupiter has a higher place ; the one is second 
after the firmament, the other second after the earth. Saturn is 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 99 

the highest, the Moon lowest; the Sun combines with all, but is 
never ameliorated by its inferiors. "There is a great correspon- 
dence between Saturn and the Moon, the Sun being medial 
between them ; as also between Mercury and Jupiter, Mars and 
Venus, which all have the Sun as their centre. Most operators 
know how to transmute iron into copper, or Venus, without 
using gold ; they also know how to change Jupiter into Mercury ; 
some can prepare the Moon (silver) out of Saturn ; but if they 
could prepare gold by these changes, their secret would be worth 
knowing indeed. For this reason I repeat that it is important 
to know the mutual correspondence of metals, and their 
possibilities of union. "There is oze metal which has power to 
consume all others, for it is, so to speak, their water, and almost 
their mother, and is resisted only by the radical humour of gold 
and silver, and ameliorated by it. "This metal is called Chalybs 
(steel). If gold is united to it eleven times, and emits its seed, 
it is weakened even unto death; but the Chalbys (steel) 
conceives and brings forth a son much nobler than the father ; 
and when the seed of the son is placed in her womb, it purifies it, 
and renders it a thousand times better fitted to produce excellent 
fruit. There is another Chalybs (steel) which is like this one, and 
created as a thing by itself by Nature ; this steel is able, with its 
wonderful virtue, to elicit from the rays of the * sun" that which 
. $o many have sought, and which is the chief principle of our Art. 

TINSPET E TDRJS/AIDES E: 

On the Supernatural Generation of the Son of the Sun. 

We have treated of those things which are produced by 
Nature and have been created by God, so that those who are 
searchers of this science may comprehend more easily the 
possibility of Nature, and the utmost limit of her powers. 

I now go on to speak about the method of preparing the 
Philosopher's Stone. The Stone or Tincture is nothing other 
than gold digested to the highest degree. Conon gold resembles 
a plant without seed; but when such a plant is matured, it 
produces seed—and so, when gold is ripened, it produces its 
seed, or the Tincture. If any one asks why gold and other 
metals do not commonly produce seed, | answer: because the 

: G2 

100 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

crudity of the ore, which has not sufficient heat, prevents it from 
being matured. In some places pure gold is found which 
Nature has been striving to mature, but which has not attained 
to ripeness on account of the crudity of the air. An analogous 
case is that of the orange tree, which bears no fruit in northern 
latitudes, because it has not sufficient warmth, while in warmer 
countries it ripens the most delicious fruit, and a like result it 
is possible to produce in colder countries, by means of artificial 
heat. The same thing happens with metallic natures, and so 
gold may be made to produce seed, by a wise and judicious 
Artist who knows how to assist Nature. Should he act inde- 
pendently of Nature, he would err, for in this science, as in all 
others, we can do nothing but supplement Nature, nor can we 
otherwise aid her than through the agency of heat or fire. Now, 
in order that Nature may be enabled to work upon a congealed 
metallic substance, wherein the spirit does not appear, the body 
must be dissolved and its pores opened. Now,there are two 
kinds of solution, the violent and the natural; and under the 
former head come all those methods of solution which are in 
vogue among the vulgar herd of modern Alchemists, and the 
same are cold and useless. JVa£ura/ solution takes place when 
the pores of the body are gently opened in our water, so that the 
digested seed can be emitted and placed in its womb. Our 
water is a water which does not wet the hands; it is a heavenly 
water, and yet not rain water. The * Body" is gold, which gives 
out the seed. Our silver (not common silver) is that which con- 
ceives the seed ofthe gold. "There itis digested by our continual 
fire, for seven or even ten months, until our water consumes 
three, and leaves oze; and this is something twofold. Then it 
is nourished with the milk of earth, or the fatness of that which 
is formed in the breasts of the earth, and is regulated and 
conserved by the putrefaction of the surrounding substance. In 
this way that infant of the second generation is born. Now let 
us advance from theory to practice. 

— 

eT 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 10 
ELEVENTH TREATISE. 

Concerning the practical preparation of our Stone or Tincture 
by means of our Art. 

Our discourse in preceding chapters has been enlarged by 
appropriate examples which will facilitate the understanding of 
the practice, which, in accordance with natural procedure, must be 
performed as follows: take eleven grains of our earth, by as 
many doses, one grain of our gold, and two grains of our silver. 
Here you should carefully bear in mind that common gold and 
silver are of no use for our purpose, as they are dead. Those 
which I ask you to take are the living metals. Expose them to 
the heat of our fire, and there will come out of them a dry liquid. 
The earth will first be dissolved into a water, which is called Mer- 
cury of the Sages, and this water will dissolve the bodies of the 
gold and silver, and consume them, till only the tenth part with 
one part remains, which is the radical metallic humour. "Then 
take the water of saltpetre from our earth, in which isa living river 
and a flowing wave. Let this water be clear, and pour on it the 
radical humour : expose the whole to the fire of putrefaction and 
generation, which is not the same as that of the first operation. 
Regulate the heat judiciously, until there appear colours like 
those of the Peacock's Tail; and then continue to apply this 
well-regulated heat until the colours resolve themselves into a 
pronounced green. Be not weary, but continue till the rest of 
the colours have manifested. When you observe at the bottom 
ashes of a brown colour, while the water is almost red, you should 
open the vessel and dip a feather into it. With this feather 
smear a morsel of iron, and if it becomes tinged, pour into the 
vessel as much of a certain water (which we will describe here- 
after) as there is of crude air which has entered in, and then again 
subject it to coction over the same fire, until it colours the feather 
again. Further than this my experience doesnot go. The water 
I have mentioned is the menstruum of the world, from the sphere 
of the Moon, and so carefully rectified that it has power to calcine 
the Sun. Herein have I desired to discourse everything to your 
understanding, and if sometimes you will take my meaning rather 
than my words, you will find that I have revealed all, more 
especially as regards the first and second work. — It remains for 

162 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

me to say a few words about the fire. In the first operation the 
fire should be of one degree and continuous, and should pervade 
the whole substance with an even warmth. In the second 
operation we need a natural fire, which digests and fixes the 
substance. Behold, I say unto you the truth! I have unfolded 
the regimen of the fire, if only you understand Nature. Butitis 
needful also to speak a few words concerning the vessel, which 
ought to be such as is indicated by Nature; and two of these 
vessels suffice. In the first operation, the vessel should be round ; 
in the second it should Ee somewhat smaller; it should also be 
of glass, in the form of a vialoregg. But know, above all things, 
that the fire employed by Nature is ose, and its differences are 
determined by differences of distance. The vessel of Nature is 
also one, but we use two in order to accelerate the development 
of our substance; its material is one, but consists of two sub- 
stances. If you would produce anything, look at the things that 
are produced. If you cannot understand those which are con- 
tinually before your eyes, it will go hardly with you when you 
seek to produce those which are as yet unseen. Remember that 
God alone can create; but He has permitted the Sage to make 
manifest things that are hidden and concealed, according to the 
ministry of Nature. Consider, I pray you, the simple water of 
the clouds. Who would believe that it contains in itself all 
mundane objects, hard stones, salts, air, earth, and fire? What 
shall I say of the earth, which seems simple enough, and yet con- 
tains water, fire, salts, air, and much besides? — O, admirable 
Nature, who knowest by the means of water how to produce the 
wonderful fruits of earth, who dost give life to them and nourish 
them by means of air! Everything depends upon the faculty of 
. seeing which we bring to the study of Nature | Common 
eyes, for instance, discern that the sun is hot; the eyes of the 
Sage see that the sun itself is cold, and that it is only its 
movements which produce heat; for its effect is felt at so 
great a distance in space. The heat of the sun is the same as 
our natural fire: for as the sun is the centre of the planets, 
and thence scatters its heat downward in all directions, so in the 
centre of the earth there is a sun of the earth, which by its 
perpetual motion drives heat or rays upward towards the surface 
ofthe earth. This inward heat is much more powerful than ele- 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 103 

mental fire, but it is tempered and cooled by the water which 
pervades and refreshes the pores of the earth ; otherwise all 
things would be consumed by its fierceness. In the same way, 
the fierce rays of the sun are tempered and assuaged by the 
air of the intermediate atmosphere, without which everything 
would be consumed, and no generation would be possible. 

But I must now proceed to explain after what manner the 
elements act upon each other. In the centre of the earth, then, 
there is a central sun, of which the heat pervades the whole 
earth to its surface by reason of the movement thereof, or by the 
motion of the firmament thereof. This heat changes the water 
of the earth into air (or vapour), which being much more subtle 
than water, is violently driven upward through the pores of 
the earth. But when it reaches the colder atmosphere it is 
once more condensed into water; and in some places we do 
indeed see this water, or condensed air, driven high up into the 
'àr by the force of the central fire: just as a kettle of water 
when exposed to gentle heat sends upward a gentle stream of 
vapour and air, while the steam thickens and the upward move- 
ment becomes more intense when the fire is kindled into a 
blaze. By this action of the * central sun " the elements are dis- 
tributed over the earth, and each finds the place where it can 
grow. This upward current of air is not always noticeable, 
because in many places there is not enough water to make it 
perceptible: an empty kettle gives out no steam. I say, then, 
that fire or heat is the cause of the motion of the air, and the 
life of all things ; and the earth is their nurse, or receptacle. If 
our earth and air were not cooled by water, the earth would 
be parched up, as it is even now in some places where the pores 
of the earth are closed up, and by obstructing the movement 
of the water would be placed at the mercy of the two kinds of 
solar heat. In this way the destruction of the world will one 
day be brought about. Now in our Art you should closely 
imitate these natural processes. There should be the Central 
Heat, the change of the water into air, the driving upward of the 
air, its diffusion through the pores of the earth, its reappear- 
ance as condensed but volatilized water. Then you must give 
our Ancient One gold and silver to swallow and consume, till 
he himself is burnt to death, and his ashes are scattered into the 

104 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

water, which you must then subject to coction for a sufficient 
space of time. The result will be the Medicine which is a cure 
forleprosy. But be careful not to take heat for cold, or cold 
for heat Mix only things which are like each other, and 
separate contrary elements by means of heat If you do not 
follow the guidance of Nature all your efforts will be in vain. 
I swear by God that I have spoken to you as a father should to 
his son. He that hath ears, let him hear, and he that hath sense, 
let him understand. 

BB VVAEPTP STVISTTUESI A VITIS 
Concernzng the Stone and its Virtue. 

We have spoken sufficiently in preceding chapters concern- 
ing the production of natural things, the elements, the first and 
second matters, bodies and seeds, as also of their use and virtue. 
I have written also of the Philosophical Stone, and shall now 
speak of its virtue, in so far as experience has discovered it to me. 
Before, however, I proceed to describe the virtues of the Stone, 
I will, for the better understanding of our Art, once inore 
recapitulate what has already been said. If any one doubts the 
reality of our Art, he should read the books of those ancient 
Sages whose good faith no one ever yet called in question, and 
whose right to speak on this subject cannot be challenged. If 
you will not believe ZZezz, I am not so foolish as to enter into a 
controversy with one who denies first principles: the deaf and 
dumb cannot speak. Why minerals alone should be excluded 
from God's primal benediction, when He bade all things increase 
and multiply after their kind, I am unable to see; and if 
minerals have seed they have it for the purpose of generic pro- 
pagation. The Art of Alchemy is true in its nature. Nature is 
true also, but a true Artist is rarely found. Nature is oze, 
our Art is oze, but the workmen are many. Nature, then, 
generates things through the Will of God out of the first Matter 
(the product of the elements) which is known to God alone. 
Nature produces things, and multiplies them out of the secord 
substance, which is known to the Sages. All elements are 
mutually dependent, though they do not agree when joined, but 
the queen of all is water, because it is the mother of all things— 

TUE" DEDI ORTEGA DT EUT- 105 

and over it broods the spirit of fire. When fire acts on water, 
and strives with it, the first matter is evolved. Thus arise 
vapours of sufficient denseness to combine with earth, by means 
of that crude air which from the very beginning was separated 
from it. This process is going on ceaselessly, by means of 
perpetual motion. For motion causes heat, as you may know 
by continued friction of any substance. Motion causes heat, 
heat moves the water; the motion of water produces air, which 
is the life of all living things. Thus all things grow out of 
water; out of its more subtle vapours are produced light and 
subtle things ; out of its * oil," things of greater weight ; out of 
its salt things far more beautiful and precious than the rest. But 
as Nature is often hindered by the impurity of this vapour, fat- 
ness, and salt, from producing perfection, experience has taught 
us to separate the pure from the impure. Therefore, if you 
would ameliorate Nature, and produce a more perfect and elabo- 
rated subject, purge the body by dissolution of all that is 
heterogeneous, and unite the pure to the pure, the well-digested 
to the well-digested, and the crude to the crude, according to the 
natural and not the material weight. For you must know that 
the central saltpetre never contains more earth than is required, 
whether it be otherwise pure or impure. But it is different with 
the fatness of the water, which is never found pure. Art purges 
it by the action of twofold heat, and then again combines its 
elements. 

JS IE JU IU) (G) (ORIS 

OR 

CONCLUSION OF THESE TWELVE TREATISES. 

I have composed, O friendly reader, the preceding twelve 
Treatises for the benefit of the students of this Art ; in order that 
they might understand the operations of Nature, and after what 
manner she produces all things which are in the world, before 
they put their hands to any experiment. Otherwise, they might 
be trying to open the gate without a key, or to draw water with 
a sieve. For in regard to our Holy and Blessed Art he for whom 
the sun shines not, walks in thick darkness, and he who does not 

106 TELE HLBERMEBETIC MOSEUCAL, 

see the light of the moon, is involved in the shades of night. 
Nature has her own light, which is not visible to the outward eye. 
'The shadow of Nature upon our eyes is the body. But where the 
light of Nature irradiates the mind, this mist is cleared away from 
the eyes, all difficulties are overcome,and things are seen in their 
very essence, namely, the inmost heart of our Magnesia, which 
corresponds to the respective centres of the Sun and Earth. The 
bodily nature of things is a concealing outward vesture. If you 
dressed a boy and a girl of twelve years of age in exactly the 
same way, you would be puzzled to tell which was the boy and 
which the girl, but when the clothes are removed they may 
easily be distinguished. In the same way, our understanding 
makes a shadow to the shadow of Nature, for our human nature 
is concealed by the body in the same way as the body by the 
clothes. I might in this place discourse fully and philosophic- 
ally of the dignity of man, of his creation and generation, but I 
will pass over these themes and touch briefly on his life alone. 
Man is made of earth, and lives through air ; for air contains the 
hidden food of life, of which the invisible spirit, when congealed, 
is better than the whole world. Truly wonderful and admirable 
are the ways of Nature, who shews to us day by day the light of 
truth. I have set down in these twelve Treatises that which she 
has revealed to me in order that the God-fearing reader may more 
easily understand that which I have seen with my eyes, that 
which my hands have performed, without any fraud or sophistica- 
tion. For without the light and knowledge of Nature it is 
impossible to attain to the perfection of this Art, unless it be 
revealed to a man by the Spirit, or secretly by a loving friend. 
The substance is vile and yet most precious. Take ten parts of 
our air; one part of living gold or living silver ; put all this into 
your vessel; subject the air to coction, until it becomes first 
water, and then something which is not water. If you do not 
know how to do this, and how to cook air, you will go wrong, 
for herein is the true Matter of the Philosophers. You must take 
that which is, but is not seen until the operator pleases. This is 
the water of our dew, which is extracted from the saltpetre of the 
Sages, by which all things grow, exist, and are nourished, whose 
womb is the centre of the celestial and terrestrial sun and moon. 
To speak more openly, it is our Magnet, which I have already 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 107 

called our Chalybs, or steel. Air generates this magnet, the 
magnet engenders or manifests our air. 

Thus Hermes says that its father is the Sun, its mother the 
Moon, and that the winds have fostered it in their womb, that is 
to say, the salt Alkali (called by the Sages salt of Ammonia, or 
vegetable salt) is hidden in the womb of Magnesia. 'The opera- 
tion thereof is as follows :—You dissolve condensed air, and in it 
a tenth part of gold ; seal it up, and expose it to our fire, until 
the air is changed into powder, and there will be seen, given the 
salt of the world, a great variety of colours. The rest of this 
process and the method of multiplication you will find fully set 
forth in the writings of Lullius, and other of the ancient Sages, 
so therefore I do not dwell on them, being content to treat only 
of the first and second matters. — This I have done frankly, and 
with open heart. Think not that any man in this world has 
spoken more fully and clearly than I have. I have not learnt 
what I tell you from books, but by the experiment of my own 
hands. If you do not understand it at first, or are unable to 
accept the truth, accuse not my work, but blame rather yourself, 
believing that God will not reveal this secret unto you. Take it, 
then, in all earnestness, read and again read it, especially the 
Epilogue of these twelve 'Treatises, and diligently consider 
the possibilities of Nature, the action of the elements, and 
which is chief among them, especially in the rarefaction 
of air or water, by which the heavens and the whole world 
were created. This I admonish you to do, as a father 
admonishes a son. Do not wonder that I have written so many 
Treatises I am not in need of books for myself, but was 
impelled to record my experience by pity towards those who are 
wandering astray in the darkness of their own conceits; and 
though I might have set forth this secret in few words, I have 
written at great length in order to equip you with that knowledge 
of Nature, without which you could not hope to succeed in this 
Art Do not be put out by the seeming contradictions with 
which, in accordance with the custom of the Sages, I have had 
to conceal my real meaning a little. There is no rose found 
withoutthorns. Revolve diligently in your mind all that I have 
said about the way in which the elements distil the Radical 
Moisture to the centre of the earth, and how the terrestrial and 

108 - THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

centric sun again raises and sublimes them, by its continual 
motion, to the surface of the earth. Note also the correspondence 
which has been affirmed between the celestial and the centric sun ; 
for the celestial Sun and Moon have a special power and a won- 
derful virtue in distilling upon earth by their rays. For heat is 
easily united to heat, and salt to salt. As the central sun has 
its sea and crude perceptible water, so the celestial sun has its sea 
of subtle and imperceptible water (the atmosphere) On the 
surface of the earth the two kinds of rays meet and produce 
flowers and all things. "Then rain receives its vital force out of 
the air, and unites it to that of the saltpetre of the earth. For the 
saltpetre of the earth is like calcined 7477az, and by its dryness, 
attracts air to itself—Nwhich air it dissolves into water. For this 
saltpetre itself was once air, and has become joined to the fatness 
of the earth. The more abundantly the rays of the sun descend, 
the greater is the quantity of saltpetre generated, and so also is 
the harvest on earth increased. Allthis does experience daily 
teach. 

I have willed thus to set forth solely for the benefit of the 
ignorant the correspondences which exist between all things, and 
the efficacious virtue of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. The wise 
have no need of such instruction. Our substance is openly dis- 
played before the eyes of all, and yet is not known. Oh, how 
marvellous is our heaven, and our water, and our mercury, and 
our saltpetre which are in the world sea, and our vegetable, and 
our fixed and volatile sulphur, and our dead head, or dregs of our 
sea, and our water that does not wet the hands, and without 
which no mortal can live—without which nothing is born or 
generated in the whole world! It is lightly esteemed by men, 
yet no one can do without it: for it is more precious than all the 
world beside, and, in short, it is nothing but our pontic-water 
which is congealed in the sun and moon and extracted from the 
sun and moon, by means of our chalybs (steel) through the skill 
of the Sages by a philosophical artifice and in a surprising 
manner . . . . Ll did not really intend to publish this book, 
for reasons that are named in the preface; but my love for 
earnest students of this Art got the better of my caution. So 
have I sought to make known my good-will to those who know 
me, and manifest unto the initiated that I am their companion 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. . o9 

and equal, and that I desire their acquaintance. I doubt not 
that there are many persons of good conduct and clear conscience 
who possess this great gift of God in secret. I pray and conjure 
them that they should preserve even the silence of Harpocrates. 
Let them be made wise by my example, and take warning from 
my dangers. Whenever I have revealed myself to the great, it 
. has always been to my peril and loss. But by this work I now 
shew myself to the Sons of Hermes, while at the same time I 
instruct the ignorant, and direct lost seekers into the right path. 
Let them know that the secret is here as plainly expounded as 
it ever will be. I have kept nothing back except the secret of 
extracting our *salt of Ammonia," or * Mercury of the Sages " 
out of our * sea water," and the great use to which it isput. IfI 
have not expressed myself very plainly on these points, it is only 
because I may not do so. The secret can only be revealed by 
God, who knows men's hearts and minds, and He will vouchsafe 
this.knowledge, in answer to earnest and importunate prayer, 
after a repeated careful perusal of this Book. The vessel, as I 
have said, is one, or two at most will suffice; and if you have 
knowledge of Nature, a continuous fire, and the right substance, 
you ought to succeed. Let me caution you, in conclusion, not 
to be led astray by those who waste their time and money on 
herbs, animals, stones, and all kinds of minerals but the right 
ones. Farewell, good reader, and may you long enjoy the results 
of my labours, to the glory of God, the salvation of your soul, 
and the good of your neighbour. 

ZA OBARSBOT) ACUI) 
TO THE. RIDDLE OF THE SAGES. 

Addressed to the Sons of. Truth. 

Though I have already given unto you, O Children of 
Science, a full and exhaustive account of our Art, and of the 
source of the universal fountain, so that there seems no further 
call to say anything, having, in the preceding Treatises, illus- 
trated the mode of Nature by examples, and declared both the 
theory and the practice, so far as it is permitted me to do, 

* 

L1O IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

yet there may be some of my readers who think that I have 
expressed myself here and there in too laconical a fashion. I 
will therefore once more make known, from beginning to end, 
the entire process, but in the form of a philosophical enigma, so 
that you may judge how far I have been permitted to attain 
by God. There is an infinite number of books which treat 
of this Art, but you will scarce find any which contain a more 
clear explication of the truth than is here set down. I have, in 
the course of my life, met with a good many who fancied that 
they had a perfect understanding of the writings of the Sages ; 
but their subtle style of interpretation was in glaring contrast 
with the simplicity of Nature, and they laughed at what they 
were pleased to call the rustic crudeness of my remarks. I have 
also frequently attempted to explain our Art to others by word 
of mouth ; but though they called themselves Sages, they would 
not believe that there is such water in our sea, and attributed 
my remarks to temporary insanity. For this reason I am not 
afraid that my writings will reveal anything to unworthy persons, 
as I am persuaded that it is only by the gift of God that this 
Art can be understood. f, indeed, subtlety and mental acute- 
ness were all that is necessary for its apprehension, I have met 
with many strong minds, well fitted for the investigation of such 
subjects. But I tell you: Be simple, and not overwise, until 
you have found the secret Then you will be obliged to be 
prudent, and you will easily be able to compose any number of 
books, which is doubtless more simple for him who is in the centre 
and beholds the thing itself, than one who is on the circum- 
ference only,and can only go by hearsay. You have a clear 
description of the matter of all things, but I warn you that if 
you would attain to this knowledge you should continue in 
earnest prayer to God, and love your neighbour. In the second 
place, you should not be ready to imagine all manner of subtleties 
and refinements of which Nature knows nothing. Remain 
rather in the way of her simplicity, for therein you are far more 
likely to put your finger on the subject than if you abide in the 
midst of subtleties. 

In reading my book, do not stick too closely to the letter of 
my words, but read them side by side with the natural facts 
which they describe. You should also from the first fix your 

VEU OUEST. URBI AL TORT: III 

eyes steadily on the object of your search, and the scope and aim 
ofour work. It is much wiser to learn with your mind and your 
brain first than by bitter experience afterwards. The object of 
your search should be to find a hidden thing from which, by a 
marvellous artifice, there is obtained a liquid by whose means 
gold is dissolved as gently and naturally as ice is melted in 
warm water. If you can find this substance, you have that out 
of which Nature produced gold, and though all metals and all 
things are derived from it, yet it takes most kindly to gold. For 
all other things are clogged with impurity, except gold wherein 
there is no uncleanness, whence in a special manner this matter 
is, as it were, the mother of gold. If you will not follow my 
instructions, and be warned by my cautions, you can derive no 
benefit from my book. I have spoken as plainly as my 
conscience would permit. If you ask who I am: I ama 
Cosmopolitan. If you know me, and wish to be good and hon- 
ourable men, keep my name a secret. If you do not know me, 
forbear to enquire after my name, for.I shall make public 
nothing more than appears in this writing. Believe me, if my 
rank and station were not what they are, I should enjoy nothing 
so much as a solitary life, or to have joined Diogenes in his tub. 
For I behold this world full of vanity, greed, cruelty, venality, 
and iniquity ; and I rejoice in the prospect of the glorious life to 
come. I no longer wonder, as once I did, that the true Sage, 
though he owns the Stone, does not care to prolong his life ; 
for he daily sees heaven before his eyes, as you see your face in 
a glass. When God gives you what you desire, you will believe 
me, and not make yourself known to the world. 

AC CPOAURUASBOIE EB) 

' OR 
EUNOILGOMEUA: 29D. TEILE S AGES. 
Added by sway of an Appendix. 

.. Once upon a time, when I had been for many years of my 
life sailing from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole, I was cast ashore 
by the Will of God, on the coast of a certain great ocean ; and. 

ID TIHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

though I was well acquainted with the properties of that sea, I 
did not know whether there was generated near those shores 
that little fish Edieneis, which is so anxiously sought, even unto 
this present, by men of high and low degree. Butas I watched the 
Naiads and Nymphs disporting themselves in the water, being 
fatigued with my previous toils, and overwhelmed by the 
multitude of my thoughts, I was lulled asleep by the soft murmur 
of the waves; and as I slept sweetly and gentlv, I beheld a 
marvellous vision. I saw ancient Neptune, with a trident in his 
hand, rise, with venerable aspect, from our sea, who after a 
friendly salutation, carried me to a most beautiful island. This 
island was situated in the southern hemisphere, and contained all 
that is required for man's use and delight. It appeared a more 
pleasant and delightful abode than Virgil's Elysian fields. The 
shores thereof were fringed with verdant myrtles and cypresses. 
'The meadows were studded with a large variety of beautiful and 
fragrant flowers. "The slopes of the hills were clad with vines, 
olives, and cedars. The roads were overhung by the intertwining 
branches of laurels and pomegranate trees, which afforded grateful 
shade to the wayfarer. The plains were covered with groves of 
orange and lemon trees. In short, the island was an epitome of 
earthly beauty. Concealed under a rock, Neptune shewed me 
two minerals of that island, gold and chalybs (steel) ^ ThenI was 
conducted to an orchard in the middle of a meadow, which was 
at no great distance, the same being planted with a great variety 
of beautiful trees. Among these he shewed me seven enriched 
by particular names; and two of them towered above the rest. 
One bore fruit which shone like the sun, and its leaves resembled 
gold ; the fruit of the other was whiter than lilies, and its leaves 
were like fine silver. Neptune called the first the Solar, and the 
second the Lunar tree. The only thing which it was difficult to 
obtain in the island, was water. The inhabitants had tried to get 
it from a spring by means of a conduit, and to elicit it from many 
things. But the result was a poisonous water, and the only 
water that could be drunk was that condensed out of the rays of 
the sun and moon. The worst of it was, that no one could 
attract more than ten parts ofthis water. It was wonderful water, 
I can tell you ; for I saw with my eyes, and touched with my hands 
its dazzling whiteness, which surpassed all the splendour of the 

ovp NR C ERAMZGAL IGI. IIj3 

snow. While I stood wrapt in admiration, Neptune vanished 
from my sight, and there stood before me a tall man, on whose 
forehead the name of Saturn was inscribed. He took a vessel, 
and scooped up ten parts of the water, in which he placed fruit 
from the Solar tree ; and the fruit was consumed like ice in warm 
water. So I said unto him :—* Lord, I behold here a marvellous 
thing. This water is small in quantity; nevertheless, the fruit 
of this tree is consumed therein by a gentle heat. To what pur- 
pose is all this?" |. He graciously replied: * My son, it is true 
that this thing is wonderful. But this water is the water of life, 
and has such power to exalt the qualities of this fruit, that it shall 
afterwards, without sowing or planting —only by its fragrance— 
transmute the six trees which remain into its own nature. 
Moreover, this water is as a woman to the fruit: the fruits of 
this tree can putrefy nowhere but in this water; and though the 
fruit by itself be wonderful and precious—yet when it putrefies 
in this water, it brings forth out of this putrefaction a Salamander 
that eridures the fire; its blood is more precious than all treasures, 
and has power to render fertile six trees such as you see here, 
and to make their fruit sweeter than honey." Then I said unto 
him :—" Lord, how is this thing done?" |. He replied: *I have 
already told thee that the fruits of the Solar tree are living, and 
they are sweet; but whereas the fruit while it is cooked in this 
water can inform but one part, after its coction has been com- 
pleted it can inform a thousand." I then enquired whether the 
fruit was boiled in this water over a fierce fire, and how long ? 
He answered this water has an inward fire, and when this is 
assisted by continuous outward warmth, it burns.up three parts 
of its own body with this body of the fruit, until nothing but an 
incredibly small part remains, which, however, possesses the most 
marvellous virtue. "This is cooked by the wise Master first for 
seven months, and then for ten. But in the meantime, on each 
fiftieth day, a variety of phenomena is witnessed." Again I 
besought him whether this fruit was cooked in several waters, 
and whether anything was added to it. He made answer: 
" There is no water, either in this island or in the whole country, 
but only this kind alone that can properly penetrate the pores of 
this fruit; and you should know the Solar tree also grew out of 
this water, which is collected by magnetic attraction out of the 
VOL. II. H 

1I4 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

rays of the Sun and Moon. Hence the fruit and the water 
exhibit a wonderful sympathy and correspondence. If any 
foreign substance were added to the water, its virtue would only 
be impaired. Hence nothing should be put into the water but 
this fruit. — After its decoction the fruit has life and blood, and 
its blood causes all barren trees to bring forth the same precious 
fruit" Iasked whether the water was obtained by any secret 
process, or whether it was to be obtained everywhere? He 
said: * It is found everywhere, and no one can live without it, 
but it is best when extracted by means of our Chalybs 
(steel, which is found in the belly of the Ram. If you 
ask what is its use, I answer that before the due amount 
of coction has been performed, it is deadly poison, but after- 
wards it is the Great Medicine, and yields 29 grains of blood, 
each one of which produces 864 of the fruits of the Solar 
tree. I asked whether it could be still further improved. 
*'TIhe Sages say," he returned, *that it can be increased first to 
ten, then to a hundred, then to a thousand, then to ten thousand 
times its own quantity, and so on." I asked whether that 
water was known by any particular name. He cried aloud, 
saying : * Few know it, but all have seen it, and see and love it ; 
it has many names, but zve call it the water of our sea: the 
water that does not wet the hands" * Do they use it for any 
other purpose?" I enquired ; *and is anything born in it?" 
* Every created thing," he replied, *uses it, but invisibly. All 
things owe their birth to it, and live in it. Nothing is, properly 
speaking, in it, though itself mingles with all things. It can 
be improved by nothing but the fruit of the Solar tree, without 
which it is of no use in this work." I was going to ask him 
to speak more plainly, when he began to cry out in such a 
loud voice that | awoke out of my sleep, and Saturn and the 
hope of getting my questions answered vanished together. Be 
contented, nevertheless, with what I have told you, and be sure 
that it is impossible to speak more clearly If you do not 
understand what I have said, you will never grasp the writings 
of other philosophers. After a while, I fell into another deep 
sleep, in which I saw Neptune standing over me, congratu- 
lating me on our happy meeting in the Garden of the Hesperides. 
He held up to me a mirror, in which I saw the whole of 

BENE ENDE CEDE MICA, LIGHT. IIS 

Nature unveiled. After we had exchanged a few remarks, I 
thanked him for conducting me to this beautiful garden, and 
introducing me to the company of Saturn; and I heartily be- 
sought him to resolve for me the difficulties and doubts which 
Saturn had left uncleared. ** For instance," I said, * I have read 
and believe that for every act of generation a male and a female 
are required; and yet Saturn spoke of generation by placing 
the Solar fruit in the water, or Mercury of the Sages. What 
did he mean? As the lord of the sea, I know that you are 
acquainted with these things, and I entreat of you to answer 
me." He said, * What you say about the act of generation is 
true ; and yet you know that worms are produced in a different 
way from quadrupeds, namely by P?wrefaction, and the place 
or earth in which this putrefaction occurs is feminine. In 
our substance the Mother is the water of which so much 
has been said, and its offspring is produced by putrefaction, 
after the manner of worms. Hence the Sages call it the Phoenix 
and Salamander. Its generation is a resurrection rather than a 
birth, and for this reason it is immortal or indestructible. Now, 
whatsoever is conceived of two bodies is subject to the law of 
death ; but the life of this fruit is a separation from all that is 
corruptible about it. It is the same with the Phoenix, which 
separates of itself from its corruptible body." I enquired whether 
the substance was compound in its nature. * No," he said, * there 
is only the Solar fruit that is put into the water, which must 
be to the fruit in the proportion of /ez to oze. Believe that 
what was here revealed to you in a dream by Saturn, after the 
manner of our island, is not a dream, but a bright reality which will 
stand the test of broad daylight" With these words he abruptly 
left me, without listening to my further questions ; and I awoke 
and found myself at home in Europe. May God shew to you, 
gentle reader, the full interpretation of my dreams! Farewell! 

To the Triune God be Praise amd Glory! 

H2 

116 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

A DIALOGUE 
BETWEEN 
MERCURY, THE ALCHEMIST, AND -NATURE. 

On a certain bright morning a number of Alchemists met 
together in a meadow, and consulted as to the best way of pre- 
paring the Philosophers Stone. It was arranged that they 
should speak in order, and each after the manner that seemed 
best to him. Most of them agreed that Mercury was the first 
substance. (Others said, no, it was sulphur, or something else. 
These Alchemists had read the books of the Sages, and hence 
there was a decided majority in favour of Mercury, not only as 
the true first matter, but in particular as the first matter of 
metals, since all the philosophers seemed to cry with one voice:— 
"O our Mercury, our Mercury?" &c., whatever that word might 
mean. just as the dispute began to run high, there arose a 
violent wind, which dispersed the ^Alchemists into all the 
different countries of the world —and as they had arrived at no 
conclusion, each one went on seeking the Philosopher's Stone in 
his own old way, this one expecting to find it in one substance, 
and that in another, so that the search has continued without 
intermission even unto this day. One of them, however, had at 
least got the idea into his head that Mercury was the substance 
of the Stone, and determined to concentrate all his efforts on the 
chemical preparation of Mercury, saying to himself, for this kind 
of discourse is very common among  Alchemists, that the 
assembly had determined nothing, and that the dispute would 
end only with the confection of the Stone. So he began reading 
the works of the philosophers, and among others that of Alanus 
on Mercury, whereby he became a philosopher indeed, but not 
one who had reached any practical conclusion. Then he took 
(common) Mercury, and began to work with it. He placed it in 
a glass vessel over the fire, where it, of course, evaporated. So 
in his ignorance he struck his wife and said: *No one but you 
has entered my laboratory ; you must have taken my Mercury 
out of the vessel." The woman, with tears, protested her innocence. 
The Alchemist put some more Mercury into the vessel, and kept 
close and jealous watch over it, expecting that his wife would 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. uj; 

once more make atvay with it. The Mercury rose to the top of 
the vessel in vaporóus steam. Then the Alchemist was full of 
joy, because he remembered that the first substance of the Stone 
is described by the Sages as volatile; and he thought that now 
at last he zzvs£ be on the right track. He now began to subject 
the Mercury to all sorts of chemical processes, to sublime it, and 
to calcine it with all manner of things, with salts, sulphur, 
metals, minerals, blood, hair, aqua fortis, herbs, urine, and vinegar. 
A]l these substances were tried in succession ; everything that 
he could think of was tried ; but without producing the desired 
effect. Seeing that he had still accomplished nothing, the poor 
man once more began to take thought with himself. At last he 
remembered reading in some authors that the matter was so 
contemptible that it is found on the dung hill; and then he 
began to operate on his Mercury with various kinds of dung. 
When all these experiments türned out failures, he fell into a 
deep sleep, and there appeared to him an old man, who elicited 
from him the cause of his sadness, and bade him use the pure 
Mercury of the Sages. When the Alchemist awoke he pondered 
over the words of the old man, and wondered what he could 
mean by *the Mercury of the Sages" But he could think of no 
other Mercury but that known to the common herd, and went 
on with his efforts to purge it; for which purpose he used, first, 
the excrements of animals, then those of children, and at last his 
own. He £lso went every day to the place where the old man 
had appeared to him, in the hope that he might be able 
to ask him for a more detailed explanation of his meaning. At 
times, he would pretend to be asleep ; and because he thought 
that the old man might be afraid to come to him in his 
waking hours he would swear to him, and say: *Be not 
afraid to come, old man: I am most certainly asleep. See, my 
eyes are tightly shut" At length, from always thinking about 
that old man, he fell into a fever, and in his delirious visions he 
at last saw a phantom in the guise of that ancient standing at his 
bedside, and heard him say : '** Do not despair, my friend... Your 
mercury is good, and your substance is good, but it will not obey 
you. Why do you not charm the mercury, as serpents are 
charmed?" With this, the old man vanished. But the Alchemist 
arose, with these words still ringing in his ears: " Serpents are 

118 HE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

charmed "—and recollecting that apotheécaries ornament their 
mercury bottles with images of serpents, he took up the vessel 
with the mercury, and repeated the formula of conjuration : *ux, 
ux, ostas," etc, substituting the word mercury for the name of the 
serpent: * And thou mercury, most nefarious beast At these 
words, the Mercury began to laugh, and said to the Alchemist : 
* Why dost thou trouble me, my Lord Alchemist?"  A/eemust: 
Oho, do you call me your lord? Now I have touched you home. 
I have found a bit to bridle you with ; wait a little, and you shall 
soon sing the tune that I bid you. (Then as his courage increased, 
he cried angrily) :—I conjure you by the living God—are you not 
that Mercury of the Sages?  Zereuzy (pretending to speak in 
a whimpering and frightened tone of voice): Master, I az 
Mercury.  Ackezzst: Why would you not obey me then? 
Why could I not fix you?  Jercuzy : Oh, most high and mighty 
Master, I implore you to spare your miserable slave! I did not 
know that you were such a potent philosopher. 4/cezzst: Oh, 
could you not guess as much from the philosophical way in which 
I operated on you?  J/fercury : I did so, most high and mighty 
Master, but I wished to hide myself, though now I see that I 
cannot hide myself from my most potent Lord.  A/ekemst: 
'Then you know a philosopher when you see him, as you now do, 
my gallant? JZZercury: My most high Lord, I see, and to my 
own great cost, that your Worship is a high and mighty and most 
potent philosopher. .4/cZezst (with a smile of sátisfaction): 
Now at last I have found what I sought. (To the Mercury, in 
awful tones of thunder): Now mind that you obey me, else it 
will be the worse for you.  7ercury: Gladly, Master, if I can: 
for lam very weak. .A/eLemzst: Oho, do you begin to make 
excuses already ? Jercury: No, but I am very languid. A/cenzst: 
What is the matter with you?  /Zereury: An Alchemist is the 
matter with me.  A/ckemzst: Are you laughing at me, you false 
rogue? /JZercury : Oh, no, no, Master, as God shall spare me, I 
spoke of an Alchemist—yoz are a philosopher. .A/cALemzst: Of 
course, of course, that is quite true. But what did the Alchemist 
do? ercury: Oh Master, he has done me a thousand wrongs ; 
he belaboured and mixed me up with all manner of disagree- 
able and contradictory things, which have stripped me of 
all my powers, and so I am sick, even to death.  A/cemzst : 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 119 

You deserved such treatment, because you would not obey. 
Mercury: l never yet disobeyed a philosopher, but I cannot 
help laughing at fools. .4/cLemzst: And what is your opinion 
of me?  Jercury: Oh Master, your Worship is a great man, 
and mighty philosopher, greater by far than Hermes, both 
in doctrine and wisdom.  .4/cezzst: Well, I won't praise 
myself, but I certainly am a learned man. My wife says so too. 
She always calls me a profoundly learned philosopher. ZZercury : 
I quite believe you. For philosophers are men whom too much 
learning and thought have made mad. — 4/cAezzzs? : Tell me, what 
am I to do with you? How am I to make you into the 
Philosopher's Stone?  Jereury: Oh, my master philosopher, 
that I cannot tell. You are a philosopher, I am the philosopher's 
humble slave. Whatever he wishes to make me, I become, as far 
as my nature will allow. — 4/cZezzzsz : This is all very fine, but I 
repeat that you must tell me how to treat you, and whether you 
can become the Philosopher's Stone. /fercury : Mr. Philosopher, 
if you know, you can make it, and if you don't you can't, From 
me you cannot learn anything with which you have been 
unacquainted beforehand. — A/cAezzst: You talk to me as to a 
simple person. Perhaps you do not know that I have lived at 
the courts of great princes, and have always been regarded as a 
very profound philosopher. /Zereury: I readily believe you, 
my Master, for the filth of your brilliant experiments still cleaves 
to me. ./clemzst: Tell me, then, are you the Mercury of the 
Sages? Mercury: l am Mercury, but you should know best, 
whether I am the Mercury of you philosophers. A/ckemzst: Tell 
me only whether you are the true Mercury, or whether there is 
another? ZZercury: | am Mercury, but there is also another. 
With these words, the Mercury vanished. The Alchemist 
shouts and calls aloud, but there is no answer. At last he is 
fain to derive some little comfort from the thought that he has 
had speech of Mercury, and therefore must be very dear to it. 
With this thought he once more sets himself to sublime, distil, 
calcine, precipitate, and dissolve the Mercury in the most awful 
manner, and with different sorts of waters. But his efforts 
turned out failures, and mere waste of time. Then he began to 
curse Mercury, and to blaspheme Nature for creating it. When 
Nature heard this, she called Mercury to her, and asked him what 

120 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

he had done to the Alchemist, and why he would not obey him. 
Mercury humbly protested his innocence. Nature admonished 
hin to obey the Sons of Knowledge: who sought to know her. 
Mercury promised that he would do so,but added :*Mother Nature, 
who can satisfy fools?" Nature smiled, and departed. Mercury, 
indignant with our Alchemist, returned also to his own place. The 
philosopher presently appeared with some excrements of swine, 
and was proceeding to ply Mercury therewith, when the latter 
thus wrathfully accosted him: * What do you want of me, you 
fool? Why did you accuse me?"  AZelemzst: Are you he whom 
I so much desiretosee?  7Zereury: | am ; but blind people can- 
not behold me. ZZc£emzst: l am not blind. Jereury: You 
are as blind as a new-born puppy. You cannot see yourself: 
how then should you be able to see me? — Z/eAezzst : Oh, now 
you are proud and despise me because I speak humbly. Perhaps 
you do not know that I have lived at the courts of princes, and 
have always been called a philosopher?  ZJZereury: The gates 
of princes stand wide for fools; and it is they that fare sumptu- 
ously in the palaces of the great. I quite believe that you have 
been at court. JA/ckemst: You are, undoubtedly, the Devil, and 
not a good Mercury, if you speak like that to philosophers. 
Mercury: Now,in confidence, tell me whether you are acquainted 
,with any philosophers. .4/eLemzst: Do you ask this of me, when 
you are aware that I am myself a philosopher?  Z7Zereury 
(smiling): Behold the Philosopher! ^ Well, my philosopher, 
what do you seek, and what would you have?  A/eAemzst: The 
Philosopher's Stone. JZerceury: Of what substance would you 
make it?, .4/ckemzst: Of our Mercury.  Zercury: Oh, my 
philosopher, then I had better go: for Iam not yours! cest - 
You are none but the Devil, and wish to lead me astray. 
Mercury: Well,my philosopher, I think I may return the com- 
pliment: you have played the very devil with me.  4/c&emzst : 
Oh, what do I hear? "This is most certainly the Devil. For I 
have done everything most scientifically, according to the writ- 
ings of the Sages.  Jerewry: Truly, you are a wonderful 
operator; your performances exceed your knowledge by as much 
as they defy the authorities which you have in your books. For 
they say that substances should be mixed only with substances 
of a kindred nature. But you have mixed me, against Nature, 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 1d 

with dung and other foul things, and are indifferent about 
defiling yourself so long as you can torture me.  Al/cemst : I 
do nothing against Nature: I only sow the seed in its own 
proper earth, according to the teaching of the Sages. Zercury : 
You sow me in dung; at the time of the harvest I vanish, 
and you reap dung. Verily, you are a good husbandman! 
Alchemist : Yet the Sages say that their substance is found on 
the dunghil.  JZercury: What they say is true, but you under- 
stand only the letter, and not the spirit of their injunctions. 
Alchemist: Now I see that you are perhaps Mercury. But as 
you will not obey me, I must once more repeat the words of con- 
juration : Ux,ux,ostas Mercury (laughing): It is of no use, 
my friend; your words are as profitable as your works. 
Afdchemzst : 'They say true when they call you a wonderful and 
inconstant and volatile substance.  Jereury: You call me 
inconstant. But to the constant I am also constant, and to the 
man of fixed resolve, I am fixed. But you, and the likes of you, 
are continually abandoning one substance for another, and are 
ever vagabonds in experiment. .4/cAemzst: Tell me truly, are 
you the Mercury which, side by side with sulphur and salt, the 
philosophers describe as the first principle of all things, or must 
I look for some other substance? — 7Zercury : The fruit, when it 
falls, lies near the tree that bore it. I am the same that I was, 
except in the matter of age. In the beginning I was young, 
and I remained so as long as I was alone. Now, I am old, and 
yet I am the same as ever. I am only older than I was. 
Alchemzst : | am glad that you are old. For it is a constant and 
fixed substance that I require, and this also have I invariably 
sought. JZercury : lt is in vain that you come to the old man 
whom you did not know as a youth.  4/cAemst: What is this 
yousay? Did I not know you when you were young? Have I 
not subjected you to all manner of chemical processes, and shall 
I not continue to do so till I have prepared the Philosopher's 
Stone? JZercury: Woeis me! WhatshallIdo? I already scent 
the foul odour of dung. Woe is me! I beseech you, Master 
Philosopher, not to ply me with excrements of swine—or the foul 
smell will drive me hence. And what more do you want of me? 
Am I not obedient? Do I not mingle with all things that you 
ask me to amalgamate with? Do I not suffer myself to be sub- 

122 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

limated, precipitated, amalgamated, calcined? ^ What more can I 
do? I have submitted to be scourged and spat upon till my 
miserable plight might move a heart of stone. I have given 
you milk, blood, flesh, butter, oil, and water. I have done all 
that any metal or mineral can do. And yet you have no pity on 
me! Woeis me!  A/cemzst: Oho, it does you no harm, you 
rascal ; you deserve it all richly, for not changing your form, or for 
resuming the old form after a mere temporary change! Zereury : 
I.do whatsoever you make me do. If you make me a body, I 
am a body. If you make me powder, Iam powder. Howcan I 
be more obedient than I am? — AZekemzst: Tell me, then, what 
you are in your centre, and I will not torment you any more. 
Mercury : Y see there is no escape from speaking fundamentally 
toyou. Ifyou will, you may now understand me. With my 

Jorm which you see you have nothing to do. My centre is the - 
fixed heart of all things, immortal and all-pervading. I am a 
faithful servant to my master, and a faithful friend to my com- 
panions, whom I do not desert, and with whom I perish. I am 
an immortal body. I die when I am slain, but rise to stand 
before the judgment seat of a discriminating judge. — A/czemzst - 
Are you then the Philosophers Stone?  /Zercury: My mother 
is such, and of her is born artificially some one thing—but my 
brother who lives in the citadel has in his gift that which the 
Sage desires. /ckemust: Tell me, isyouragegreat? Zercury : 
My mother bore me, yet I am older than my mother. A/ceuzst : 
How in all the world am I to understand you, if you answer my 
questions in dark parables? ^ Tell me in one word, are you that 
fountain concerning which Bernard, Count of Trevisan, has 
written?  J«Mercury: l am no fountain, but I am water, and the 
fountain surrounds me.  A/cAezzzst: Since you are water, is gold 
dissolved in you?  /«7ercury : Whatever is with me, I love ; and 
to that which is born with me, I impart nourishment. That 
which is naked I cover with my wings. cems£: Isee plainly 
that it is impossible to talk to you. Whatever I ask you, your 
reply is foreign to the point. If you do not answer my questions 
better, I will torment you again. ZZercury: Have pity on me, 
Master, I will gladly tell you all I know.  AZcemzsz: Tell me, 
are you afraid ofthe fire? JZercury : I myself am fire. Aelemist : 
Why then do you seek to escape from the fire? Mercury : 

ATE NUR, OEC RC SUL. dE TET. 123 

Because my spirit loves the spirit of the fire, and accompanies it 
whereverit goes. .A/ckemist: Where do you go when you ascend 
with the fire? 7ercury: Every pilgrim looks anxiously towards 
his country and his home. When he has returned unto these he 
reposes, and he always comes back wiser than he left. A/czezuzst : 
Do you return, then?  ZZereury: Yes, but in another form. 
Alchemist: Ydo not understand what you mean, nor yet about 
the fire. Aercury: lf any one knows the fire of my heart, he has 
seen that fire (proper heat) is my food ; and the longer the spirit 
of my heart feeds on fire, the fatter will it be: its death is 
afterwards the life of all things belonging to my kingdom. 
lchemist : Are you great?  /«Mercury : My body, as you must 
know, can become one drop out of a thousand drops, and, 
though I am always one, you can divide my body as often as 
you like. But my spirit, or heart, always produces many 
thousands of parts out of one part. Z/ckemzst ; How is this to 
be brought about? After what manner should my operation be 
performed on you?  Jerceury: l1 am fire within; fire is my 
food and my life ; but the life of fire is air, for without air fire is 
extinguished. Fire is stronger tban air ; hence [ know not any 
repose, and crude air can neither coagulate nor restrain me. 
Add air to air, so that both become one in even balance ; com- 
bine them with fire, and leave the whole to time.  AZeemzst : 
What will happen then?  Jercury: Everything superfluous 
will be removed. "The residue you burn in fire, place in water, 
" cook," and when it is cooked you give as a medicine, and have 
no fear. JAuemist: You do not answer my questions. Wife, 
bring the excrements of swine, and we will see whether we can 
get the better of his stubbornness. 

In his utmost extremity, Mercury called in the help of 
Nature, amidst much lamentation and mourning over these 
threats of our admirable Alchemist. He impeaches the thank- 
less operator; Nature trusts her son, Mercury, whom she knows 
to be true and faithful, and comes full of wrath to the Alchemist, 
calling him imperiously before her. —A/ckemist: Who calls me? 
. Nature: What are you doing to my son, arch-fool that you 
are? Why do you torment him? He is willing to give you 
every blessing, if you can understand him.  AZeemst: Who 
dares to rebuke so great a philosopher, and a man withal so 

124 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

excellent as I am?  Vature : O fool, and of all men most insen- 
sate, | know and love all philosophers, and am loved of them. 
I take pleasure in aiding their efforts, and they help me to 
do that which I am unable to accomplish. But you so-called 
Alchemists are constantly offending me, and systematically 
doing despite to me ; and this is the reason why all your efforts 
are doomed to failure. A/cZezust: Itis not true. I, too, am 
a philosopher, and understand scientific methods of procedure. 
I have lived with several princes, and with more than one phil- 
osopher, ss my wife can testify. Moreover, I possess at this 
very moment a manuscript which has lain hidden for some 
centuries in a certain wall I know very well that I am almost 
at the end of my labours, and am on the point of coinposing the 
Philesopher's Stone ; for it was revealed to me a few days ago 
in a dream. I have had a great many dreams, nor do I ever 
dream anything untrue ; my wife knows it. /Vazure: It is with 
you as with a great many of your fellows : at first they know 
everything, but in the end their knowledge turns to ignorance. 
Alchemzst : If you are truly Nature, it is you who serve for the 
operation of the work. ZVazure "That is true ; but it is per- 
formed only by those who know me, and such do not torment 
my children, nor do they hinder my working. ^ Rather 
they clear away the impediments, that I may the sooner 
reach the: goal Zekemzst: That is exactly what I do. 
Nature: | No; you do nothing but cross me, and deal 
with my children against my will. Where you should revive, 
you kill; where you should fix, you sublime ; where you should 
calcine, you distil; and thus my obedient son Jlercury you 
torment in the most fearful manner. /cLezzst: Then I will 
in future deal with him gently, and subject him only to gradual 
coction. Z/Vazuze: That is well,if you possess understanding ; 
otherwise, you will ruin only yourself and your possessions. f 
you act in opposition to my commands, you hurt yourself more 
than him. 4/ckemzst: But how am I to make the Philosopher's 
Stone?  JVature: That question does not justify your ill- 
treatment of my son. Know that I have many sons and 
daughters, and that I am swift to succour those who seek me, 
provided they are worthy.  .4/chemzst: ^ But who is that 
Mercury? JVature: Know that I have only one such son ; he 

TUE NUEVE COETPMECUAT, D ET. 125 

is one of seven, and the first among them ; and though he is 
now all things, he was at first only one. |n him are the four 
elements, yet he is not an element. He isa spirit, yet he has 
a body ; a man, yet he performs a woman's part ; a boy, yet he 
bears a man's weapons ; a beast, and yet he has the wings of a 
bird. He is poison. yet he cures leprosy ; life, yet he kills all 
things ; a King, but another occupies his throne; he flees from 
the fire, yet fire is taken from him ; he is water, but does not 
wet the hands; he is earth, and yet he is sown ; he is air, and 
lives by water. .A/ckezis?i: Now I see that I know nothing ; 
only I must not say so. For I should lose the good opinion of 
my neighbours, and they would no longer entrust me with money 
for my experiments. | must therefore go on saying that l 
know everything; for there are many that expect me to do 
great things for them.  Vazure: But if you go on in that way, 
your neighbours will at last find you out, and demand their 
money back. A/chemis?t: I must amuse them with promises, 
aslong as I can. JVature: And what then?  AZeemést: I 
will try different experiments ; and if they fail, I will go to some 
other country, and live the samelife there. /Vazure: And then? 
Alchemist: MHa,ha,ha! There are many countries, and many 
greedy persons who will suffer themselves to be gulled by my 
promises of mountains of gold. Thus day will follow day, and 
in the meantime the King or the donkey will die, or I myself. 
Nature: Such philosophers are only fit for the gallows. Be 
off, and take with you my most grievous curse. The best thing 
that you can do, is to give yourself up to the King's officers, 
who will quickly put an end to you and your philosophy ! 

NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 

SIE ON D: -PXASROD: 

CONCERNING SULPILTUR. 

THE AUTHOR'S ANAGRAM : 
Angelus Doce Mihi fus. 
(Angel, Teach me Right.) 

PREPBAC B.

Ancient Sages, gentle Reader, you may possibly be 
dissatisfied with my Book, particularly as you have so 
many other philosophical treatises ready to your hand. 

But you may be sure that no necessity is laid upon me to write 
at all, and that if 1 have come forward it is only out of love to 
you, having no expectation of personal profit, and no desire for 
empty glory, for which reason I here refrain, as [I have before 
done, from revealing my identity to the public. I was under the 
impression that in the first part of this work I had already given 
a lucid account of our whole Art. But my friends tell me that 
there is one point with which I have not yet fully dealt, and 
vehemently urge me to write this second treatise about Sulphur. 
The question is, whether even this Book will convey any 
information to one before whom the writings of the Sages and 
the Open Book of Nature are exhibited in vain. For if you 
could incline your ear to the teaching of Nature, you would at 
once be able to emancipate yourself from the tutelage of printed 

128 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

volumes; in my opinion it is better to learn from the master 
himself than from one of the disciples. In the preface to my 
twelve Treatises, and again in the twelfth chapter, [ have already 
hinted at the reason why there is now so great a multitude of 
books on this subject, that they confound and hinder the student 
instead of helping him. The confusion is rendered worse 
confounded by the ill-will of the Sages, who seem to have set pen 
to paper for the express purpose of concealing their meaning ; 
aad by the carelessness with which some of the more important 
volumes are copied and printed ; the sense of a whole passage is 
often hopelessly obscured by the addition or omission of one 
little word (eg.,the addition of the word *not" in the wrong 
place) Yet the student may get information even from these 
books (as the bee obtains honey even from poisonous flowers), 
if he reads them by the light of natural fact, and with constant 
reference to the utterances of other Sages. One writer explains 
another. Yet some of them are so closely beset with the 
difficulties of an obscure phraseology, that it is almost impossible 
to understand them, except by reading them side by side with 
the facts of Nature ; for their interpreters and commentators are 
more hopelessly unintelligible even than the writers whom they 
take upon themselves to explain ; the exposition is more difficult 
than the text. If you would succeed in this study, keep your 
eyes fixed on the possibilities of Nature, and on the properties 
of the natural substance. lt is universally described as common 
and easy of access and apprehension, and it zs so, but only to 
those who know it. He who knows it can discover it in the 
dunghill; he who does not will fail to find it even in gold. I 
have no desire to praise myself, but this one thing I will say, 
that the reading of my Books, in combination with a careful 
study of Nature, and of the writings of other genuine possessors 
of this Stone, must in the end open up to you the understanding 
of this secret. If I have planted another tree in the dense forest 
of Alchemistic literature, I have done so, not in order to obstruct 
the path of students, but in order to aid and refresh them by the 
way. Let not the diligent and God-fearing enquirer despair. If he 
seek the inspiration of God he will most surely find it. This know- 
ledgeis more easily obtained of God than of men. For His mercy is 
infinite, and He never forsakes those who put their trust in Him; 

DELE AES CHEMICAL EIGHT. 129 

with Him there is no respect of persons, nor does He despise 
the humble and contrite heart. He has showered the fulness of 
His mercy even on me, the unworthiest of all His creatures, in 
shewing to me His wonderful power and incffable goodness, 
which I am utterly unable to declare. The only way in which: 
| can, in a small degree, at least prove my gratitude, is by 
succouring my struggling brother students with friendly counsel 
and assistance. Rest assured, then, gentle Reader, that He will 
grant this boon to you, if you wait upon Him day by day with 
earnest prayer, and in the power of a holy and loving life. He 
will throw open to you the portals of Nature ; and you will be 
amazed at the simplicity of her operations. — Know for certain 
that Nature is wonderfully simple; and that the characteristic 
mark of a childlike simplicity is stamped upon all that is true 
and noble in Nature. If you would imitate Nature, you should 
take her simplicity for your model in all the operations of Art. 
If my Book does not please you, throw it away, and take up 
some other author; it is short, so that you need not spend 
much time in reading it through. Only persevere: to the im- 
portunate knocker the door will at length be opened. The times 
are at hand when many secrets of Nature will be revealed to 
men. The Fourth or Northern Monarchy is about to be estab- 
' lished ; the Mother of Knowledge will soon come ; and many 
things will be brought to light that were hidden under the three 
preceding monarchies. This fourth kingdom God will found 
by the hand ofa prince who will be enriched with all virtues, 
and endowed with wisdom greater than that of Solomon. In 
his time (to adopt the words of the Psalmist) mercy and truth 
will meet together; peace and justice will kiss each other; truth 
will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look 
down from heaven. There will be one Shepherd and one fold ; 
and knowledge will be the common property of all For those 
days I, too, am waiting with longing. Pray to God that it may 
come soon, gentle Reader. Fear Him, love Him, and read 
carefully the books of His chosen Sages—and you will soon 
see, and behold with your own eyes, that I have spoken truly. 

YOL. II. I 

I30 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

CONCERNING SULPHUR. 

The Second Principe. 
ULPHUR is by no means theleast important of the great 
Ux 

principles, since it is a part of the metal, and even a 

principal part of the Philosopher's Stone. Many Sages 

have left us weighty sayings about this substance: for 
instance, Geber himself (*Sum of Perfection," bk. t, chap. 28), who 
says: "It illumines all bodies, since it is the light of the light, 
and their tincture.,' But seeing that the ancients regarded it as 
the noblest principle, before we proceed to speak about it, we 
must first explain the origin of the three principles. The origin 
of the principles is a subject which has hitherto been but scantily 
discussed in the works of the Sages ; and the student who knows 
nothing about it, is as much in the dark in regard to this matter, 
as is a blind man in respect to colour. I therefore propose to 
make this point which my predecessors have neglected, the sub- 
ject of my treatise. 

Now, according to the ancient Sages there are two principles 
of things, and more particularly of metals, namely, Sulphur and 
Mercury ; according to the Moderns there are three: Salt, 
Sulphur, and Mercury, and the source of these principles are the 
elements ; of which it therefore behoves us to speak first. Beit 
known to the students of this Art that there are four elements, 
and that each has at its centre another element which makes it 
whatitis. "These are the four pillars of the world. "They were 
in the beginning evolved and moulded out of chaos by the hand 
of the Creator; and it is their contrary action. which keeps up 
the harmony and equilibrium of the mundane machinery ; it is 
they which, through the virtue of celestial influences, produce all 
things above and beneath the earth. We will say a few words 
about each of them in due order of succession ; and first of all 
about the nearest element, Earth. 

ZUR ONDE, - ORBI ACA DLIGET. I3I 

Concerning Elementary EavtA. 

Earth is an element of considerable quality and dignity. In 
this element the other three, especially fire, ave latent. It is 
admirably adapted both to the concealment and to the manifesta- 
tion of things committed to it. Itisgross and porous, specifically 
heavy, but naturally light. It is also the Centre of the World 
and of the other elements ; through its centre passes the axis of 
the earth to both poles. It is porous, as we have said, like a 
sponge, and produces nothing of itself; but it receives all that 
the other three project into it, conscientiously conceals what 
it should hide, and brings to light that which it should manifest. 
Whatsoever is committed to it putrefies in it through the action 
of motive heat, and is multiplied by the separation of the pure 
from the impure. Heavy substances are hidden in it. Light 
substances are driven by heat toits surface. It is the nurse and 
womb of all seed and commixtion ; and these seeds and com- 
pounds it faithfully preserves and fosters till the season of 
maturity. It is cold and dry, but its dryness is tempered with 
water ; outwardly it is visible and fixed ; inwardly it is invisible 
and volatile. It isa virgin substance, and dead residue of the 
creative distillation of the world, which God will one day calcine, 
and after extracting the humour, create out of it a new crystalline 
earth. In its present state it consists of a pure and an impure 
element. "The first is used by water for producing natural forms ; 
the latter remains where it is. It is also the storehouse of all 
treasures, and in its centre is the Gehennal fire, conserving the 
machine of the world, and this by the expression of water, which 
it converts into air. "This fire is produced by perpetual motion, 
and the influences of the Stars; it is aided by the Solar heat, 
which is tempered by the atmosphere, and the two together 
mature the growth of all things. For this reason the element of 
earth has fire intrinsically, and the earth is purified by this inward 
fire, as every element is purified by that which is in it. The 
inmost part, or centre of the earth, is then the highest purity 
mixed with fire, in which there is ceaseless motion, and we have 
shewn at some length in the twelve Treatises that it is, as it were, 
an empty space, into which the other elements project their 
products. It is enough for us to remember that this elementary 
earth is like a sponge, and the receptacle of all other elements. 

I2 

132 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Concerning Elementary Water. 

Water is an element of great specific gravity, full of unctuous 
moisture. Outwardly it is volatile, inwardly it is fixed, cold, and 
humid It is tempered by air, and is the sperm of the wcrld, in 
which the seed of all things is conserved. There is a great 
difference between sperm and seed. Earth is the receptacle of 
sperm, water the receptacle of seed. Whatever the air, under 
the influence of firc, distils into the water,is imparted by the 
water to the earth. There is always an abundance of sperm 
awaiting seed, in order that it may carry it into the matrix, 
which is performed by the movement of the air, excited by the 
imagination of fire. Sometimes sperm has not a sufficient 
quantity of seed, for want of heat to digest it. Sometimes, 
when there is no seed, the sperm enters the womb alone, but is 
ejected again without producing any fruit. At other times con- 
ception does not take place, even when there is plenty of seed in 
the sperm, because the womb is rendered barren by a superfluity 
of bad sulphur and malignant phlegm. Water is capable of 
commixtion with all things, by means of its volatile surface; it 
purifies and dissolves earth ; air is congealed in it, and thus 
intimately united to it. It is the Solvent of the World, because 
by the action of heat, it penetrates t^c air, and carries with it a 
warm vapour which causes the natural generation of those 
things with which the earth is like a womb impregnated. When 
the womb has once received a due portion of seed, Nature never 
rests until the natural form (whatever it may be) has been pro- 
duced. "The humid residue, or sperm, is putrefied in the earth 
by means of warmth, and out of it worms and other things are 
generated. An intelligent Artist will readily understand how 
great a variety of wonders is performed by Nature through this 
element, as a sperm, but the said sperm must be operated upon, 
having already within it an imagined astral seed of a certain 
weight. For Nature produces pure things by means of the first 
putrefaction, but things far purer by means of the second, as you 
see in the case of wood, where vegetable fibre is produced as the 
result of the first putrefaction, while the putrefaction of wood 
engenders worms and insects—natural forms endowed with sen- 
tient life ; and it is clear that animate creatures endowed with 

TENE ETE ACA,  LLZGETT. 133 

sense and motion belong to a higher creative level, and are 
moulded of a purer substance than plants. 

Water is the menstruum (solvent) of the world, and exists 
in .hree degrees of excellence: the pure, the purer, and the 
purest. Of its purest substance the heavens were created ; of 
that which is less pure the atmospheric air was formed ; that 
which is simply pure remains in its proper sphere, where, by the 
Will of God, and the co-operation of Nature, it is guardian of all 
subtle substances here below. It has its centre in the heart of 
the sea ; its polar axis coincides with that of the earth, whence 
flow forth all springs and fountains of water, which are presently 
swollen into great rivers. "This constant movement of water 
preserves the earth from combustion, and distributes the seeds 
of things throughout its length and breadth. Yet all water 
courses return to the heart of the sea. As to the ultimate 
fate of this water opinions are divided. Some say that all 
water is generated in the stars, and the sea does not overflow 
its shores because the water is consumed by fire as it reaches 
the heart of the sea. But this hypothesis is contrary to 
Nature's methods of working: Nature produces like out of like 
—and how can the stars, which are air and fire, produce water? 
Moreover, the safety of this carth depends on the equilibrium of 
the four elements ; ifat any time the total quantity of one ele- 
ment exceeded that of the others, the universe would relapse 
into chaos. Hence, if the stars generated water, they must mani- 
festly produce an equal quantity not only of air and fire, but also 
of earth—which is manifestly absurd. — [t is much more reason- 
able to suppose that the waters are chained down, as it were, 
to the foundation of the earth by the circumambient air, 
and that they are constrained by it to continue in a ceaseless 
movement towards the Arctic pole—because no vacuum is pos- 
sible: in Nature; which is also the reason why there is a 
Gehennal fire in the centre of the earth, which is presided over 
by the Archeus (the first principle) of Nature. 

For in the creation of the world, God first of all separated 
the quintessence of the elements from the weltering mass of 
chaos ; and out of it He evolved fire, the purest of all substances, 
giving to it the most exalted place in the universe, and making 
it, in a special manner, the dwelling-place of His Sacred 

I34 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Majesty. In the centre of chaos was kindled that fire which 
afterwards distilled and carried upward the purest substance of 
water, But because this most pure fire now occupies the firma- 
ment, and surrounds the throne of God, the waters have been 
condensed into a body beneath it; and thus the sky is formed, 
while the water which now forms the atmospheric air and the 
lower firmament is due to the action of a lower and grosser fire. 
As the water of the firmament cannot pass the bounds of that 
highest and celestial fire, so the lower fire cannot pass through 
the atmospheric air to the earth; nor can the air pass the 
bounds of this lower fire. The water and the earth were formed 
together into one organic mass. Only one part of this water 
was volatilized into air, in order to protect the earth from the 
fierce and consuming heat of the sun. If there had been a 
vacuum in the air, all the water would have evaporated; but as 
the space below the firmament is already filled up with air, the 
great bulk of the water is kept below, near the centre of the 
earth, by the pressure of the air. "These natural conditions con- 
tinue to operate day by day, and through their normal action 
the world will be preserved from destruction during the good 
pleasure of the Creator. "The central fire is kindled day by day 
by the universal motion and influence of the celestial bodies. 
This fire heats the water, and a certain quantity of the water is 
dissolved into air; the air day by day keeps down by its 
weight the residue of the water, and causes it to form one mass 
with the earth. And as the equilibrium of the world is thus 
naturally preserved by the Creator, so every natural generative 
process in the world must repeat the same conditions on a small 
scale. Thus the elements below act in perfect unison with 
the elements above, which God created of a far greater purity 
and excellence ; and the example of obedience to their influ- 
ences, which is set by the whole universe, is imitated on a small 
scale by the constituent parts of the world below. 

But let us now proceed to explain the flux and reflux of 
water. There are two Poles—the Arctic Pole in the north, and 
the Antarctic Pole, or the southernmost point of the earth. 
The Arctic Pole possesses the property of magnetic attraction ; 
the Antarctic Pole that of magnetic repulsion. "Thus the Arctic 
Pole attracts the waters along its axis, and then they are 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. ig 

again repelled by the Antarctic Pole along its axis; and, as the 
air does not permit inequality, they are once more forced back 
to their centre, the Arctic Pole. In this their continual course 
from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole, they pass through the 
middle (Z«., along the axis) of the earth, are diffused through its 
pores ,and break out here and there as springs and fountains, 
which are swollen into rivers, and return to the point whence 
they first flowed forth. "This universal motion is incessantly 
proceeding. "The waters, then, are not generated by the stars 
and consumed in the heart of the sea ; but they flow forth from 
the centre of the sea into the whole earth, and are diffused 
through all its pores. On this principle the Sages have con- 
structed conduits and aqueducts, since it is well known that 
water cannot rise higher than the level of its spring or fount. If 
this were not an actual fact, art would vainly found its practical 
conclusions upon it; and the natural principle involved is 
illustrated in the process by means of which wine is drawn out 
of a cask. 

It may be objected to our view that if the water of our 
springs were derived from the sea, it would be salt, and not 
sweet, as we actually find itto be. "The answer to this objection 
lies in the fact that the sea water, in its passage through the 
pores of the earth, gradually deposits all the salt which it 
contains, and thus wells forth from the ground in a sweet and 
fresh condition. It should, however, be remembered that some 
of our springs—called mineral or saline springs—actually do 
exhibit all the original saltness of the sea water which has not 
passed through earth calculated to retain its mineral element. 
In some places we also meet with hot springs, which are caused 
by the passage of the water through certain spots where large 
deposits of sulphur have been set afire by the central heat of the 
earth ; every one who has tasted this water must have observed 
its sulphureous flavour. Something closely analogous happens 
when the water passes through large deposits of iron, or alum, or 
copper, and acquires their taste. — Thus the earth is a great 
distilling vessel, formed by the hand of an all wise Creator, on 
the model of which all Sages have constructed their small distill- 
ing vessels ; and if it pleased God to extinguish the central fire, 
or to destroy the cunning machinery, this universal frame would 

136 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

relapse into chaos. At the end of time, He will kindle the 
Central Fire into a brighter flame, will cause all the water to 
evaporate, will calcine the earth—and thus the earth and the 
water will be rendered more subtle and pure, and will form a 
new and more glorious earth. 

The operations of the earth and the water are always per- 
formed in combination, and are mutually dependent, since they 
are the two tangible elements, in which the other two work 
invisibly. — Fire keeps the earth from being submerged, or 
dissolved ; air keeps the fire from being extinguished ; water 
preserves the earth from combustion. This is what the Sages 
call the equilibrium of the elements, and it illustrates the aid 
which they render to each other. Fire is closely associated with 
earth, and air with water. It will suffice if we remember that 
elementary water is the sperm and menstruum of the world, and 
the receptacle of seed. 

Concernzug Elementary Air. 

The most noble element of air is inwardly heavy, visible, 
and fixed, outwardly light, volatile, and invisible. It is hot and 
moist, 1s tempered by fire, and is nobler than earth or wáter. Air 
is volatile, but may be fixed, and when fixed, renders all bodies 
penetrable. Its purest substance hàs been formed into the vital 
spirits of animals, that which is less pure into the circumambient 
atmosphere, and the grosser residue has remained in the water, 
and associates with itas fire with its kindred earth. In the air 
the seed of all things is formed, as it were,in the body of the 
male, and is projected by its circulative motion into its sperm, 
which is water. It contains the vital spirit of all creatures, is the 
life of all, and penetrates and forces its seed upon all, as the man 
does upon the woman. It nourishes, impregnates, conserves the 
other elements ; and we are taught by daily experience that it 
is the life not only of minerals, animals, and vegetables, but also 
of the other elements. We see that water becomes foul and 
unwholesome without a supply of fresh air; without it fire is 
extinguished—as is well known to Alchemists who regulate the 
temperature of their fire by the supply of air. Air is also that 
which conserves the pores of the earth. In short, the whole 
universe is kept fresh and sweet by air, and it is the vital element 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT.  1igy 

of man, beast, plant, and stone. It contains the seed of all things 
which is forced up, into vegetables for instance, through the pores 
of the earth by the action of fire, and thus the tree is built up 
atom by atom out of the vital element of congealed air. "This 
vital force bas remained in it ever since the time when the Spirit 
of Life brooded over the waters in the air. The magnetic power 
of life which air undoubtedly possesses, was put into it by God 
at the Creation. As the magnet attracts to itself hard steel, and 
as the Arctic Pole attracts to itself the water, so the air, by 
means of the vegetable magnet which is in the seed, draws to 
itsclf the nutriment of the menstruum of the world (which is 
water) This power of attracting water is in a certain part (vzz., 
the 28oth part) of all seed. If, then, any one would bea cunning 
planter of trees, he should take care to turn the point of attrac- 
tion towards the North ; for as the Arctic Pole attracts water, 
so the vertical point draws to itself the seminal substance. If 
you would know what the point of attraction in a tree is, submerge 
it entirely in water ; that point which always appears first, will be 
the point of attraction. In theair, then, is the seed and the vital 
spirit, or abode of the soul of every creature. 

Concerning Elementary Fire. 

Fire is the purest and noblest of all elements, full of 
adhesive unctuous corrosiveness, penetrant, digestive, inwardly 
invisible, fixed, hot and dry, outwardly visible, and tempered by 
the earth. Of its purest substance was created the Throne of the 
Almighty ; of that which is less pure, the Angcels ; out of fire of 
an inferior purity were created the stars and the heavenly 
luminaries ; that which was less pure still was used to bear up the 
heavens; that which is impure and unctuous—that, namely, 
which we have termed the fire of Gehenna—is in the centre of the 
earth, and was there inclosed and shut up to set this lower world 
in motion. Though these different fires are separate, yet they 
are also joined together by natural sympathy. 

This element is the most passive of all, and resembles a 
chariot: when it is drawn it moves ; when it is not drawn, it 
stands still. It exists imperceptibly in all things ; and of it is 
fashioned the vital rational soul, which distinguishes man from 
all other animals, and makes him like God. This rational soul 

138 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

was divinely infused into his vital spirit by God, and entitles him 
to be regarded as a microcosm, or small world by himself. But 
the fire which surrounds the Throne of God is of an infinitely 
pure and simple essence, and this is the reason that no impure 
soul can know God, and that no human eye can penetrate this 
essential fire, for fire is the death and destruction of everything 
composite—and all material substances are of this nature. What 
I said about the restful passivity of fire, applies in a certain sense 
to the eternal calm and unchangeableness of the Divine Nature. 
For as the fire sleeps in the flint, until it is roused and stirred up 
from without, so the power of God, which is a consuming fire, is 
only roused to action by the kindling breath of His Almighty 
Will — How calmly and solemnly does not even an earthly 
monarch sit enthroned in the pomp and state of his royalty ! His 
courtiers hardly venture to move, and all around is calm and 
still But when he rises what a stir of motion and activity does 
he not cause! All that are about him arise with him, and 
presently you see him sweeping along in grand and stately 
majesty. Yet the pomp ofan earthly prince is but a faint reflex 
of the glory of the King of Kings. When He utters the voice of 
His Will,all heaven is roused, the world trembles, and thous- 
ands of angels speed forth on His errand. But it may be asked 
hcw I come to have this knowledge about heavenly things which 
are removed far beyond human ken. My answer is that the 
Sages have been taught of God that this natural world is only 
an image and material copy of a heavenly and spiritual pattern ; 
that the very existence of this world is based upon the reality of 
its celestial archetype; and that God has created it in imitation 
of the spiritual and invisible universe, in order that men might 
be the better enabled to comprehend His heavenly teaching, and 
the wonders of His absolute and ineffable power and wisdom. 
Thus the Sage sees heaven reflected in Nature as in a mirror ; 
and he pursues this Art, not for the sake of gold or silver, but 
for the love of the knowledge which it reveals; he jealously con- 
ceals it from the sinner and the scornful, lest the mysteries of 
heaven should be laid bare to the vulgar gaze. lf you will but 
rightly consider it, you yourself are an image of God, and a little 
picture of the great world. For a firmament you have the 
quintessence of the four elements attracted to the formative 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 139 

womb out of the chaos of seed, and bounded by your skin; your 
blood is fire in which lives your soul, the king of your little 
universe, acting through the medium of the vital spirit; your 
heart is the earth, where the Central Fire is always at 
work; your mouth is your Arctic, and your stomach your 
Antarctic Pole, and all your members correspond to some part 
of the greater world, as [ have set forth at some length in my 
work on the Harmony of the Universe, and in the Chapter? on 
Astronomy. In the microcosm of man's nature the soul is the 
deputy or Viceroy of the Creator, 1t governs the mind, and the 
mind governs the body : the mind is conscious of all that is con- 
ceived in the soul, and all the members understand the mind, 
obey it, and wait eagerly to carry out its behests. The body 
knows nothing of itself ; all its motions and desires are caused by 
the mind ; it is to the mind what the tool is to the craftsman. 
But though the rational soul operates in the body, a more im- 
portant part of its activity is exerted on things outside the body : 
it rules absolutely outside the body, and therein differs from the 
vital spirits of brute beasts. In the same way, the Creator of the 
world partly acts in and through things belonging to this world, 
and is thereby, in a sense, included in this world. But He abso- 
lutely transcends this world by that infinite part of His activity 
which lies beyond the bounds of the universe, and which is too 
high and glorious for the body of the world. The great differ- 
ence between the soul's extracorporal, and God's extramundane, 
activity, is that man's rational activity is purely imaginative and 
mental, whereas God's thoughts are immediately translated into 
real existences. I might be mentally in the streets of Rome, 
but my journey would be purely imaginative ; God's conceptions 
are at once objective essences. God, then, is included in the 
world, only as the soul is enclosed in the body, while it has power 
to do things which far transcend the capacity of the body. By 
material relations such as these you may know God, and learn 
to distinguish Him from the material manifestations of His power. 
When once the gates of knowledge have been flung wide for you, 
your understanding will be enlarged. 

We said that fire was the quietest of all elements, and that 
it is stirred by a kind of motion well known to the Sages. The 
Sage should be perfectly acquainted with the generation and 

140 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

destruction of all things; he is familiar with the creation of 
the heavens, and the composition and commixtion of things 
terrestrial; yet, though he knows everything, he cannot make 
everything. He knows the anatomy and composition of the 
human body—yet he cannot make a man. This is a mystery 
which the Creator has kept in His own hand. Nature cannot 
work till it has been supplied with a material: the first matter is 
furnished by God, the second matter by tbe Sage. But in the 
philosophical work Nature must excite the fire which God has 
enclosed in the centre of each thing. The excitation of this fire 
is performed by the will of Nature, and sometimes also by the 
will of a skilful Artist who can dispose Nature, for fire naturally 
purifies every species of impurity. 

All composite substances are purified by fire, as all sub- 
stances that are not fixed owe their purification to water. 
It is the property of fire to separate and divide composite 
substances ; and this separation means a purging away of the 
impure from the pure. This element also acts secretly, by mar- 
vellous means, not only in opposition to the rest of the elements, 
but also to all other things. For as the reasonable soul was 
made of this most pure fire, so the vegetable soul was made of 
the elementary fire which Nature governs. The fire which is 
contained in the centre of any given thing acts in the following 
way : Nature provides the motive power, which stirs up the air ; 
the air stirs up and rouses the fire, which separates, purges, 
digests, colours, and brings every seed to maturity, and expels 
the matured seed through the sperm into places or wombs, 
either pure or impure, more or less hot, dry, or humid ; and 
according to the nature of the place or womb, different things 
are produced (cp. the Twelve Treatises). So the Most High God 
has ordained that,in the economy of the universe, one thing 
should be at enmity with another, and that the death of one 
thing should be the life of the other; that one thing should 
consume what another produces, and evolve out of it some higher 
and nobler form of life. The elementary separation of all living 
things is death ; and hence it is necessary for man to die, as 
his body is compounded of the four elements, which cannot 
hold together for ever. In spite of this fact, our science fur- 
nishes au incontestible proof of man's original immortality. It 

TEE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 141 

is certainly true that all composite substances are liable to de- 
composition ; that this decomposition, when it takes place in the 
animal world, is called death ; and that the human body is a 
substance compounded of the fourelements. But it is also true 
that the elements of Paradise, where man was created, are not 
subject to this law, seeing that they are most pure and incor- 
ruptible heavenly essences; and if man had remained in this 
pure and celestial region, his body would have been incapable 
of natural decay. Adam, however, in an evil day for our race, 
disobeyed his Creator, and straightway was driven forth to the 
beasts, into the world of corruptible clements which God had 
created for the beasts only. From that day forward his food 
was derived from perishable substances, and death began to 
work in his members. The pure elements of his creation were 
gradually mingled and infected with the corruptible elements of 
the outer world, and thus his body became more and more 
gross, and liable, through its grossness, to natural decay and 
death. The process of degeneration was, of course, slow in the 
case of Adam and his first descendants ; but, as time went on, the 
seed out of which men were generated became more and more 
infected with perishable elements. The continued usc of corrupt- 
ible food rendered their bodies more and more gross—and human 
life was soon shortened to a very brief span indeed. In some 
favoured climes, where men eat and drink moderately, they 
still sometimes live to a green old age ; but in our latitudes men 
abridge the term of their natural existence by grossly filling them- 
selves with an excess of elementary corruptible food, and thus, 
before their time, become like "the beasts that perish." When 
the pure and essential elements are joined together in loving 
equilibrium, as they are in our Stone, they are inseparable and 
immortal, like the human body in Paradise; whence also our 
philosophical treasure has been compared to the creation of man, 
an analogy which modern wise men, who take all things literally, 
have understood as referring to the corrupted generation of this 
present order, which is produced from corruptible elements. 

It was the recollection of man's immortality in Paradise, 
that first set Sages a-thinking whether those pure and essential 
elements might not be obtained in this world, and united in one 
body. Atlength a merciful Creator made known to them that 

I42 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the desired conjunction of such elements existed in gold. It 
could not be found among the animals who are sustained by 
corruptible food, nor in vegetables, because they exhibit the 
elements in a state of inequality and contention. When cor- 
ruptible elements are united in a certain subject, their strife must 
sooner or later bring about its decomposition, which is, of course, 
followed by putrefaction ; in putrefaction, the impure is separated 
from the pure: and if the pure elements are then once more 
joined together by the action of natural heat, a much nobler and 
higher form of life is produced. In the strife of the elements, 
which follows when a body has been broken up by the victory of 
water, earth and air unite with fire, and together they overcome 
the water, digest, cook, and ultimately congeal it—which is the 
beginning of a new life. For if the hidden central fire, which 
during life was in a state of passivity, obtain the mastery, it 
attracts to itself all the pure elements, which are thus separated 
from the impure, and form the nucleus of a far purer form of life. 
It is thus that our Sages are able to produce immortal things, 
particularly by decomposition of minerals ; and you see that the 
whole process, from beginning to end, is the work of fire. 

"Chus, then, we have briefly set forth as much as will serve 
our purpose concerning the four elements. Truly the description 
of each might be extended into a large volume, but we postpone 
all amplification for our Treatise on Harmony, which, God help- 
ing, if our life be spared, will be opportune to a more large 
discourse upon natural things. 

Concerning the Three PrincuMes of A Thzngs. 

'The three Principles of things are produced out of the four 
elements in the following manner: Nature, whose power is in 
her obedience to the Will of God, ordained from the very begin- 
ing, that the four elements. should incessantly act on one another, 
so, in obedience to her behest, fire began to act on air, and pro- 
duced Sulphur; air acted on water and produced Mercury ; 
water, by its action on earth, produced Salt. Earth, alone, 
having nothing to act upon, did not produce anything, but 
became the nurse, or womb, of these three Principles. We 
designedly speak of three Principles; for though the Ancients 
mention only two, it is clear that they omitted the third (Salt), 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 143 

not from ignorance, but from a desire to lead the uninitiated 
astray. j 

Whoever would be a student of this sacred science must 
know the marks whereby these three Principles are to be 
recognised, and also the process by which they are developed. 
For as the three Principles are produced out of four, so they, in 
their turn, must produce two, a male and a female; and these 
two must produce an incorruptible one, in which are exhibited 
the four (elements) in a highly purified and digested condition, 
and with their mutual strife hushed in unending peace and good- 
will. In every natural composition these three represent the 
body, the spirit,and thehidden soul ; and if, after purgingthem well, 
you join them together, they must, by a natural process, result in 
a most pure substance. For though the soul is most noble, yet 
it cannot reach the goal without the spirit which is its place and 
abode ; and if it is your desire to bring it back to a given place, 
both the soul and the place must be purged and washed from all 
impurity, so that the soul may dwell in glory, and nevermore 
depart. Without these three Principles, the Artist can do 
nothing, since even Nature is powerless without them. They are 
in all things, and without them there is nothing in the world, 
neither, indeed, can be. "Their origin being such as we have des- 
cribed, it is from these, by an imitation of Nature, that you must 
produce the Mercury of the Philosophers, and their first matter, 
bearing in mind the laws which govern natural things, and es- 
pecially metals. Do not think that Salt is unimportant because 
itis omitted by the Ancients ; they could not do without it, even 
if they did not name it, seeing that it is the Kcy which opens the 
infernal prison house, where sulphur lies in bonds. The three 
Principles are necessary because they are the immediate 
substance of metals. "The remoter substance of metals is the 
four elements, but no one can produce anything out of them but 
God; and even God makes nothing of them but these three 
Principles. | Why, then, should the Sage lose time and labour 
over the four clements, when he has the substance made ready to 
his hand by Nature? ]t is surely less troublesome to go three 
miles than four, and as these three Principles exist in all things, 
and, according to their proportions, etc., produce either metals, or 
plants, or animals, it is best to use them as our first substance. 

144 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

The body is earth, the spirit water, the soul fire or sulphur of 
gold. The Spirit augments the quantity of the body, the soul 
the virtue. But because in the matter of weight there is more of 
spirit than of fire, the spirit is uplifted, oppresses the fire, and 
attracts it to itself in such a way that both augment in virtue, 
and the earth, which is mediate between them, augments in 
weight. The Artist should determine which of the three 
Principles he is seeking, and should assist it so that it may over- 
come its contrary. | Afterwards he must seek by his skill to 
supplement what has been wanting in Nature, and thus his 
chosen Principle will obtain the necessary victory. The element 
of earth is nothing but a receptacle, in which fire and air carry 
on theirstrife through the mediation of air. If water predom- 
inate, temporal and corruptible things are produced ; if fire 
obtains the victory, it produces lasting and incorruptible things. 
So you know which of the elements ought to receive your aid. 
Moreover, though fire and water are in all things, they can 
produce nothing without air and earth. "Theiractivity is aroused 
by external heat (in Nature, the Central Fire of the earth), and in 
their struggle they are assisted each by that which is like to it. 
By this strife they are subtilized in the pores of the earth, and 
when they ascend to the surface they produce flowers and fruit, 
in which they closely associate together as friends; and the more 
they are subtilized and purified in their ascent, the more excellent 
are the fruits which they produce. 

When the purification has thus been performed, let water and 
fire become friends, which they will readily do in their earth which 
ascends with them ; and the process will be the more speedily and 
perfectly accomplished, if you combine the two in their proper 
proportions—thus improving upon Nature. [n all natural com- 
pounds fire is always the smallest part; but it is aided and 
stirred up by the action of outward fire; and according as fire 
is overcome or obtains the mastery, imperfect or perfect things 
are the result. The outward fire does not enter into the com- 
position as an essential part of it, but only by the effect which it 
helps to produce. The inward fire is sufficient, if it only receive 
nutriment from the outward fire, which feeds it as wood feeds 
elemental fire; in proportion to the quantity of nutriment 
the inward fire grows and multiplies. Care should be taken, 

ax fifi) 0s 

ym 

ww m" 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. i48 

therefore, that the outward fire is not so fierce as to devour, 
instead of feeding, the inward fire. Gentle coction will be the 
best means of attaining perfection, and of adding excellence to 
weight. Butas it is difficult to add to a compound substance, I 
would advise rather to produce the same effect by removing that 
which is present in an excessive quantity. Remove that which 
is too much, and let the compound develop itself naturally. 
But many artists sow straw instead of grain ; others sow both ; 
many throw away that which the Sages love ; others begin and 
do not persevere to the end ; they look for short and easy labour 
in a difficule Art. But we say that this Art consists in an even 
mingling of the virtues of the elements—in the natural equi- 
librium of the hot, the dry, the cold, and the moist—in the 
conjunction of the male and female, the female having engendered 
the male, Ze, of fire and the radical humour of the metals. If 
you understand that the Mercury of the Sages contains within 
itself its own good Sulphur, digested and matured by Nature, 
you can accomplish the whole process by means of Mercury 
alone ; but if you know how to add the supplement which our 
Art requires to the natural proportions of substances, to double 
the Mercury, and to triple the Sulphur, you will all the more 
quickly produce, first the good, then the better, and finally the 
best—though only one sulphur appears, and two mercuries 
(which, are, however, of the same stock) ; they should not be 
crude nor too much digested, yet well purged and dissolved (if 
you understand me) 

.. lIt is really unnecessary to describe the matter of the 
Mercury and the Sulphur of the Sages, as it has already been as 
plainly delineated by the Ancients as is consistent with our vow. 
We do not altogether say that the Mercury of the Philosophers 
IS à common thing, or that they have openly called it by its 
name, and that the matter from which Mercury and Sulphur 
are philosophically extracted has been plainly pointed out. 
For the Mercury itself is not found above ground, but is 
extracted by an artifice from Sulphur and Mercury conjoined, 
in short, Sulphur and Mercury are the ore of our quicksilver, 
and this quicksilver has power to dissolve, mortify, and revive 
metals, which power it has received from the sulphur (which has 
some of the properties of an acid). In order to put you on the 

VoL. II. K 

146 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

right track, I will also tell you the difference between our quick- 
silver and common mercury. Common mercury does not dissolve 
gold and silver so as to amalgamate with them ; but when our 
quicksilver dissolves gold and silver, it amalgamates with them 
in inseparable union, as water is mixed with water. Common 
mercury has bad combustible sulphur, which turns it black ; our 
quicksilver contains incombustible, fixed, good, snow-white and 
red sulphur. Common mercury is cold and humid ; our quick- 
silver is hot and humid. Common mercury blackens other 
bodies ; our quicksilver renders them white and pure as crystal. 
Common mercury is changed by precipitation into a yellow 
powder and bad sulphur ; our quicksilver is converted by heat 
into snow-white, good, fixed, and fusible sulphur. Common 
mercury becomes more fusible, our quicksilver more fixed, the 
more it is subjected to coction. Our quicksilver possesses such 
marvellous virtue that it would by itself be sufficient for our pur- 
pose, if subjected to gentle coction ; but in order to accelerate its 
congelation, the Sages add to it its well digested and matured 
sulphur. 

We might well have cited philosophers in confirmation of 
the points of our discourse, but as our writings are more clear 
than are theirs, we have no need of their support. Whosoever 
understands them will understand us better. If you would prac- 
tise our Art, learn first to hold your tongue, and study the nature 
of minerals, metals, and vegetables. Our Mercury may be 
obtained from all things, as everything has it; only from some 
substances it is more easily procured than from others. Our 
Art is not a matter of luck or accident, but is founded on a real 
knowledge, and there is only one matter in the world by which, 
and of which, the Stone of the Philosophers is prepared. The 
substance is indeed to be found everywhere, but the method of 
its extraction out of some matters would take a lifetime, and if 
you begin your search without a due knowledge of natural things, 
more especially in minerals, you will be working in the dark and 
in blindness. It is, indeed, possible to set about our Art in a 
casual manner ; and some who actually operate on our quicksilver, 
begin at the wrong end, and thus fail in bringing it to perfection, 
because they are quite in the dark about its real nature. Yet, 
after all, we must confess that a right knowledge of our Art is 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 147 

the gift of God alone, and is granted to diligent students in 
answer to earnest and importunate prayer. To the Master it 
may appear easy enough; but to the beginner it must seem 
at first very hard and uphill work. He should not, how- 
ever, despair, for in due time he will receive the reward 
of his diligence and aspiration ; even in the dangers which 
the knowledge may bring upon him, he will be kept 
from harm by the loving hand of Providence, as I can testify 
from personal experience. We have with us God's Ark of the 
Covenant, which contains the most precious of earthly things, 
and is guarded by the holy Angel of the Lord. . We heard that 
our enemies had fallen into the snare which they had laid for us ; 
that those who sought our lives had been enclosed in the meshes 
of death ; that those who attempted to rob us of our goods had 
lost all that they possessed; and that those who strove to 
blacken our reputation, died in shame and dishonour. Such is 
the care which God has of us, Who, from our childhood, has kept 
us safe under the shadow of His wings. And the feeling upper- 
most in our minds is the humbling consciousness of our utter 
unworthiness: we do not deserve the very least of His great 
mercies. But one thing we do and will do: our hope and trust 
always have been, are, and will be, in Him alone. We will not 
put our confidence in men or in princes: we will place ourselves 
in the hands of One who remains unchanged when all earthly 
power and greatness have passed away. The fear of the Lord 
is the beginning of wisdom : never did Sage utter truer word 
than this; and if we would attain to the knowledge of this 
glorious science, if we would be able to use it well when we pos- 
sess it, we must wait on God continually, and importune Him 
with earnest prayer. But to proceed with our description of the 
Matter. We said that it was quicksilver, and quicksilver only: 
whatever is added, is gained from this same substance. We 
have repeatedly affirmed that all things earthly are evolved out 
of three principles. But for our purpose they must be purged of 
their impurities, and then recombined ; that which is wanting is 
added—and thus imitating and assisting Nature, we arrive at a 
degree of perfection such as Nature is unable to attain, on 
account of the impurities with which her operations are clogged. 
Do not suffer yourself to be confounded by the apparent con- 
K2 

148 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

tradictions which the Sages have introduced into their writings for 
the purpose of keeping their secret. Select only those sayings 
which are agreeable to Nature; take the roses, leave the thorns. 
If you wish to produce a metal, your fundamental substance 
should be metallic ; only a dog can beget a dog ; without wheat 
you will vainly plough your field ; and all your endeavours in this 
Art will be in vain, unless you take your radical humour from a 
metal. "There is one substance, one Art, one operation — It is as 
erroneous to suppose that any of the particular benefits of our 
Stone can be enjoyed before the Stone itself has been prepared, 
asit would be absurd to imagine that you can have a branch 
without a root or tree. If you have water you can cook in it 
various kinds of meat, and thus obtain broth of different flav- 
ours ; but there will be no broth unless you have both the water 
andhesmedtqg m In metals, then, as in all other things, 
there is only one first substance, but the universal substance is 
modified in a vast variety of ways, according to the course of its 
subsequent development. Thus one thing is the mother of all 
things. "This great fact ought always to be borne in mind in 
studying the works of the Sages ; for nothing but mistakes and 
disappointment can result from a slavishly literal interpretation 
of their books. It is a pity that, instead of humbly studying 
and following Nature, our Alchemists are so ready to adopt 
any fancy or notion that happens to pass tbrough their minds. 
They seek to attain the end not only without a middle part, but 
without so much as a beginning. But how can anyone who 
sets about our Art in so casual and haphazard a manner 
expect anything but disappointments? Let our Alchemists 
have done, then, once for all, with their sophistical methods, to 
which they ascribe so great an importance—with their dealba- 
tions, rubrefactions, fixations of the Moon, extractions of the soul 
of gold,—and let them place themselves under the unerring 
guidance of Nature. For though the soul of the metal has to be 
extracted, it must not be killed in the operation ; and the ex- 
traction of the living soul, which has to be reunited to the 
glorified body, must be carried on in a way very different from the 
violent method commonly prevailing among Alchemists. We 
do not propose to multiply wheat without seed corn. Butlet us, 
in concluding this part of the subject, earnestly inculcate on the 

THE NEW CHEMICAL LIGHT. 149 

student's mind the necessity of having seed that will germinate 
and grow, and to avoid the use of seed which has been killed by 
an excess of fiery heat. 

Concerming Sulpkur. 

Among the three principles the Sages have justly assigned 
the first place to Sulphur, as the whole Art is concerned with the 
manner of its preparation. Sulphur is of three chief kinds: that 
which tinges or colours; that which congeals mercury ; and 
essential sulphur, which matures it. The properties and prepara- 
tion of this Sulphur we propose to describe, not in a set treatise, 
but in a dialogue like that which brought out the essential 
properties of Mercury. We will only say, by way of preface, 
that Sulphur is more mature than the other principles, and that 
Mercury cannot be coagulated without it. The aim and object of 
our Art is to elicit from metals that Sulphur by means of which 
the Mercury of the Sages is, in the veins of the earth, congealed 
into silver and gold ; in this operation the Sulphur acts the part 
of the male, and our Mercury that of the female. Of the com- 
position and action of these two are engendered the Mercuries 
of the Philosophers. 

In our former dialogue we gave an account of the meeting 
of Alchemists, which a sudden tempest brought to so abrupt a 
close. Among those who took a prominent part in the proceed- 
ings, was a good friend of the first Alchemist ; he was not a bad 
man, or an impostor, but, as they say, nobody's enemy except his 
own ; yet he was foolish withal, and though really very ignorant, 
had no small opinion of his own wisdom and learning. He had 
at the meeting been the foremost champion of the claims of 
Sulphur to be regarded as the first substance of the Stone, and 
was satisfied that he would have been able to make good that 
claim, if the meeting had not been prematurely broken up. So 
when he got home he resumed his operations on Sulphur in a 
very confident spirit. He subjected it to distillation, sublimation, 
calcination, fixation, and to countless other chemical processes, 
in which he spent much time and money, without arriving at any 
result whatsoever. His failures at length began to prey on his 
health and spirits, and in order to recruit the former, and raise 
the latter, he fell into the habit of taking long walks in the neigh- 

I50 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

bourhood of the town where he lived. But wherever he went he 
could think of nothing but Sulphur. One day, with his mind full 
of this besetting idea, and being wrought almost to an ecstacy, 
he entered a certain verdant grove, in which there was abundance 
not only of trees, herbs, and fruits, but also of animals, birds, 
minerals, and metals. Of water there was indeed a great 
scarcity ; it was carried to the place by means of aqueducts, and 
among these was a conduit flowing with water extracted from 
the rays of the moon ;—but this water was reserved for the use 
otf the Nymph of the grove. . In the grove there were two young 
men tending oxen and rams, and from them he learned 
that the grove belonged to the Nymph Venus. — The Alchemist 
was gratified enough, but all his thoughts were absorbed by the 
subject of Sulphur, and when he remembered the words of the 
Sages, who say that the substance is vile and common, and its 
treatment easy, when he recollected the vast amount of time, 
labour, and money which he had vainly spent upon it, he lifted 
up his voice, and in the bitterness of his heart, cursed Sulphur. 
Now Sulphur was in that grove, though the Alchemist did not 
know it. But suddenly he heard a voice which said : * My friend, 
why do you curse Sulphur?" He looked up in bewilderment : 
nobody was to be seen. ** My friend, why are you so sad ?" 
continued the voice. 4/ckezzst : Master, I seek the Philosopher's 
Stone as one that hungers after bread.  lozce: And why thus 
do you curse Sulphur ? AZcezzst : My Lord, the Sages call it the 
substance of the Stone; yet I have spentall my time and labour 
in vain upon it, and am well nigh reduced todespair.  J/ozee: lt 
is true that Sulphur is the true and chief substance of the Stone. 
Yet you curse it unjustly. For it lies heavily chained in a dark 
prison and cannot do as it would. Its hands and feet have been 
bound, and the doors of the dungeon closed upon it,at the bidding 
of its mother, Nature, who was angry with it for too readily 
obeying the summons of every Alchemist. It is now confined in 
such a perfect labyrinth of a prison, that it can be set free only 
by those Sages to whom Nature herself has entrusted the secret. 
Alchemist : Ah! miserable that I am, this is why he was unable 
to come to me! How very hard and unkind of the mother ! 
When is he to be set at large again? — l/ozee : That can only be 
by means of hard and persevering labour. 4cezzzs? ; Who are 

JEDE NU ORHIEMICAL LIGHT. 151 

his gaolers? — V/ozce : They are of his own kindred, but grievous 
tyrants. — A/chemist : And who are you? Voz: I am the 
judge and the chief gaoler,and my name is Saturn. /eemzst : 
(Then Sulphur is detained in your prison? Jozce&; Yes; but I 
am not his keeper. /cLezst: What does he do in prison? 
Voice; Whatever his gaolers command. | A/cezzzst ; And what 
can he do? oce : He can perform a thousand things, and is 
the heart of all. He can perfect metals and minerals, impart 
understanding to animals, produce flowers in herbs and trees, 
corrupt and perfect air ; in short, he produces all the odours and 
paints all the colours in the world. —Z/cLems?: Of what 
substance does he make the flowers ? J/ozce: His guards furnish 
him with vessels and matter ; Sulphur digests it; and according 
to the diversity of the digestion, and the weight of the matter, 
he produces choice flowers, having their specialodours. 4/cemzst; 
Master, is he old? — Vozce: Know, friend, that Sulphur is the 
virtue of the world, and though Nature's second-born—yet the 
oldest of all things. —'T'o those who know him, however, he is as 
obedient as a little child. He is most easily recognised by the 
vital spirit in animals, the colour in metals, the odour in plants. 
Without his help his mother can do nothing.  4/cezzs£ : Ishe 
the sole heir, or has he any brothers? ^e: He has some 
brothers who are quite unworthy of him; and a sister that 
he loves, and who is to him as a mother. | A/ekemzst.: 
Is he always the same? — Vozce : As to his nature, it is always 
the same. But in person his heart only is pure: his garments 
are spotted. —4/chemzst ; Master, was he ever quite free? 
Voice: Yes; in the days of the great Masters and Sages, whom 
Nature loved, and to whom she gave the keys of the prison. 
Alchemist : Who were these wise adepts? loce: There have 
been very many, and among them Hermes, who was one and the 
same with the mother of Sulphur. After him there were kings, 
princes, a long line of Sages, including Aristotle and Avicenna. 
A]I these delivered Sulphur from his bonds. — A/ciezzst ; What 
does he give to them for delivering him? — /ozee; When he is 
set free, he binds his gaolers, and gives their three kingdoms to 
his deliverer. He also gives to him a magic mirror, in which 
the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world may be seen 
and known at a glance: and this mirror clearly exhibits the 

152 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

creation of the world, the influences of the celestial virtues on 
earthly things, and the way in which Nature composes sub- 
stances by the regulation of heat. With its aid, men may at 
once understand the motion of the Sun and Moon, and that 
universal movement by which Nature herself is governed—also 
the various degrees of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness, and the 
virtues of herbs and of all other things. By its means the 
physician may at once, without consulting an herbarium, tell the 
exact composition of any given plant or medicinal herb. But 
now-a-days men are content to trust to the authority of great 
writers, and no longer attempt to use their own eyes. They 
quote Aristotle and Galen, as if there was not much more to be 
learned from the great Book of Nature which is spread open 
before them. Know that all things on the earth and under the 
earth are engendered and produced by the three principles, but 
sometimes by two, unto which the third, nevertheless, adheres. 
He who knows these three principles, and their proportions as 
conjoined by Nature, can tell easily by their greater or less 
coction, the degrees of heat in each subject, and whether they 
have been well, badly, or passably cooked. For those who know 
the three principles know also all vegetables—by sight, taste, 
and odour, for these senses determine the three principles, and 
the degree of their decoction. 4/cezzsz : Master, they say that 
Sulphur is a Medicine. Joezee: Nay, you might rather call him a 
physician, and to him who delivers him out of prison, he gives 
his blood as a Medicine. 4/cZezzst ;: How long can a man ward 
off death by means of this universal Medicine?  J/oeze; Until 
the time originally appointed. But many Sages who did not 
take it with proper caution, have died before that time. 
Alchemist : Do you call it a poison then?  /ozee ; Have you 
not observed that a great flame swallows up a small one? 
Men, who had received the Art by the teachings of others, 
thought that the more powerful the dose they took of our 
Medicine, the more beneficial would be the effect. They did 
not consider that one grain of it has strength to penetrate many 
thousand pounds óf metals. 4/cezzst: How then should they 
have used it?  J/ozce ; They ought to have taken only so much 
as would have strengthened and nourished, without overwhelm- 
ing, their natural heat. 4/cemst : Master, I know how to make 

VALDE NUBE QUEBEC. IDIGHT. I53 

that Medicine.  Vozce: Blessed are you if you do! For the 
blood of Sulphur is that inward virtue and dryness which 
congeals quicksilver into gold and imparts health and perfection 
to all bodies. But the blood of Sulphur is obtained only by 
those who can deliver him from prison ; and therefore he is so 
closely imprisoned that he can hardly breathe, lest he should 
come to the Palace of the King.  4/cezst:; ls he so closely 
imprisoned in all metals? —J/ozce : In some his imprisonment is 
less strict than in others. .4ZcZemst: Why, Lord, is he im- 
prisoned in the metals so tyrrannously? oz . Because if he 
once came unto his royal palace, he would no longer fear his 
guards. He could look from the windows with freedom, and 
appear before the whole world, for he would be in his own 
kingdom, though not in that state of highest power whereto he 
desires to arrive. 4/cezzst ;: What is his food? — l/ozce : His 
food is air, in a digested state, when he is free; but in prison 
he is compelled to consume it in a crude state.  A/cLemst ; 
Master, cannot those quarrels between him and his gaolers be 
composed? oz: Yes, by a wise and cunning craftsman. 
Alchemist : Why does he not offer them terms of peace? 
Voie: He cannot do so by himself: his indignation gets the 
better of his discretion.  4Zcemzst: Why does he not do so 
through some commissary ? Joe: He who could put an end 
to their strife would be a wise man, and worthy of undying 
honour. For if they were friends, they would help, instead 
of hindering each other, and bring íorth immortal things. 
Alchemist : 1 will gladly undertake the duty of reconciling them. 
For I am a very learned man,and theycould not resist my practical 
skill I am a great Sage, and my Alchemistic treatment 
would quickly bring about the desired end. But tell me, is this 
the true Sulphur of the Sages? Voie: He is Sulphur ; you 
ought to know whether he is the Sulphur of the Sages 
Atchemist: lf I find his prison, shall I be able to deliver him ? 
Voice: Yes, if you are wise enough to do so. [t is easier to 
deliver him than to find his prison. A4/cAezzzs? ; When I do find 
him, shall I be able to make him into the Philosopher's Stone? 
Voice : | am no prophet. But if you follow his mother's advice, 
and dissolve the Sulphur, you will have the Stone.  AZcemzst : 
In what substance is this Sulphur to be found? — Voze: In 

154 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

all substances. All things in the world— metals, herbs, trees, 
animals, stones, are its ore. A/cAemzst : But out of what sub- 
stances do the Sages procure it? Voice; My friend, you press 
me somewhat too closely. ButI may say that though it is every- 
where, yet it has certain palaces where the Sages can most con- 
veniently find it ; and they worship it when it swims in its sea 
and sports with Vulcan (god of fire), though there it is disguised 
in a most poor garb. Now is it in a dark prison, hidden from 
sight. But itis one only subject, and if you cannot find it at 
home you willscarcely do so in the forest. Yet, to give you 
some heart in your research, I will solemnly assure you that it 
is most perfect in gold and silver—most easily obtained in 
quicksilver. 

With these words Saturn departed, and the Alchemist, 
being weary with walking, fell into a deep sleep, in which he 
saw the following vision : He beheld in that grove a spring of 
water, near which Salt and Sulphur were walking and quarrel- 
ling, until at last they began to fight. Salt dealt Sulphur a 
grevious wound, out of which there flowed, instead of blood, 
pure, milk-white water, that swelled into a great river. In this 
river the virgin goddess, Diana, came to bathe; and a certain 
bold prince, who was passing by, was inflamed with great love 
towards her ; which she, perceiving and returning, pretended to 
be sinking under water. The prince bade his attendants assist 
her ; but they excused themselves, saying that the river, though 
it looked small and all but dried up, was most dangerous. 
* And," said they, * many of those who have passed here before 
have perished in it" "Then that prince threw off his thick 
cloak, plunged into the river, and stretched out his arm to save 
the beautiful Diana; but she grasped it so convulsively that 
they both sank under watertogether. Soon afterwards their souls 
were seen rising upward above the water, and they said, * We 
have done well, for in no other way could we be delivered from 
our stained and spotted bodies." Aces: (speaking): Will 
you ever return into those bodies? .Sou/s: Not while they are 
so polluted—but when they are cleansed, and the river is dried up 
by the heat of the sun. .4/cemzsií; What do you do in the 
meantime? Sous: We soar above the water till the storm 
and the mists cease. ... "Then the Alchemist thought that he 

"wy 
TENE SN OETE MICAL. LIGHT. 155 

saw a great number of his fellows come to the spot where the 
body of the Sulphur lay slain by the Salt; and they divided it 
among themselves, and gave a piece to him also. Then they 
went home, and began to operate on their (dead) Sulphur, and 
are at it to this day.  Presently Saturn returned, and the 
Alchemist said: Master, come quickly, I have found Sulphur— 
help me to make the Stone. .Sazurz:  Gladly, my friend. 
Prepare the quicksilver, and the sulphur, and give me the vessel. 
Alchemist : Oh, I do not want Mercury. Itisa delusion and a 
snare, as my friend the other Alchemist discovered to his smart. 
Saturn: | can do nothing without quicksilver.  4Zeezzst ; 
Oh no, we will make it of Sulphur only. So they set to work 
on that piece of dead Sulphur, and sublimed, calcined, and sub- 
jected it to all manner of chemical operations. But they 
produced nothing save little bits of sulphurous tow, such as they 
use for lighting fires. Then the Alchemist confessed the fruit- 
lessness of his endeavours, and bade Saturn set about the 
work in his own way. Then Saturn took two kinds of quick- 
silver, of different substance but one root, washed them with his 
urine, and called them the sulphurs of sulphurs ; then he mixed 
the fixed with the volatile, after which he placed them in a proper 
vessel, and set a watch to prevent the sulphur from escaping ; 
afterwards he placed them in a bath of very gentle heat—and 
thus they made the Philosopher's Stone, which must always 
follow as the outcome of the right substance. Then the 
Alchemist took it in his hand, admired its beautiful purple 
colour, and danced about with it, shouting aloud with joy and 
delight. Suddenly the glass slipped out of his hand and broke 
into a thousand pieces ; the stone vanished ; and the Alchemist 
awoke with nothing in his hand but some pieces of sulphurous 
tow. 

There are a good many  Alchemists who, having an 
extremely favourable opinion of themselves, and fancying that 
they can hear the grass grow, rail against this Art, because they 
think that if the Stone were not a mere delusion, they could not 
have failed to find it. We, for our part, are not over anxious 
to rob these people of their comfortable conviction. But to men 
who were worthy (men both of high and low degree) we have 
repeatedly proved the reality of our Art by incontestable 

156 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

ocular evidence. Let me warn those who wish to follow the true 
method in studying our Art, aiways to read with constant 
reference to natural facts, and never, under any circumstances, to 
do anything contrary to Nature. If the Sages say that fire does 
not burn, they must not believe it; for Nature is greater than 
the Sages ; but if they say that itis the property of fire to dry 
and heat things, they will accept this statement, because it is in 
accordance with the truth of Nature—and the facts of Nature are 
always simple and plain. If any one came and taught you to 
make this Stone, as though he were giving you a receipt for 
making cheese out of milk, hé might speak more plainly than I 
have done; but I am compelled to veil and conceal my meaning, 
because of the vow which my Master exacted of me. 

My last words shall be addressed to you who have already 
made some progress in this Art. Have you been where the 
bridegroom has been married to the bride, and the nuptials were 
celebrated in the house of Nature? Have you heard how the 
vulgar have seen this Sulphur, as much as have you who have 
taken such pains to seek it? f you wish that even old women 
should practise your philosophy, shew the dealbation of these 
sulphurs, and say openly to the common people: Behold, the 
water is divided, and the Sulphur has gone forth; when it 
returns it will be whiter than snow, and will congeal the water. 
Burn the Sulphur with imcombustible sulphur, wash it, and make 
it white and purple. until the Sulphur becemes Mercury, and the 
Mercury Sulphur, and you can proceed to quicken it with the 
soul of gold. Our Mercury must be corrected by means of 
Sulphur—otherwise it is unprofitable. A prince without a people 
is a wretched sight—and so is an Alchemist without Sulphur 
and Mercury. If you understand me, I have spoken. 

'The Alchemist went home, bewailed the broken Stone, and 
his folly in not asking Saturn about the Salt of the Sages, and 
the way of distinguishing between it and ordinary salt. The 
rest he related to his wife. 

Concluszon. 

Every student of this Art should first carefully read what is 
said—in this and other Treatises—about the creation, operation, 
properties, and effects of the four elements ; otherwise he cannot 

IDEUD NUEWE CREE MICAT, LIGHT. 157 

apprehend the nature of the three principles, or find the sub- 
stance of the Stone, or understand its development. God has 
created the elements out of chaos ; Nature has evolved the three 
principles out of the elements ; and out of these principles she 
makes all things, and gives power to her beloved disciples to 
produce marvellous preparations. If Nature produces metals out 
of the principles, Art must follow her example. It is one of the 
rules of Nature to act through intermediate substances ; and this 
book should enable the student to judge what substances are 
intermediate between the elements and metals, and between 
metals and the Stone. The difference between gold and water 
is great, that between water and mercury not so great, and that 
between gold and mercury very small, for mercury is the habita- 
tion of gold, water the habitation of mercury, and sulphur is that 
which coagulates mercury. The whole arcanum lies hidden in 
the Sulphur of the Sages, which is also contained in the inmost 
part of their Mercury, which has to be prepared in a certain way 
that shall be described on another occasion. 

I have not written this Treatise with the object of refuting 
the ancient Sages, but only for the purpose of correcting, explain- 
ing, and supplementing their statements. After all, they were 
only men, and they sometimes did make assertions which can 
now no longer be maintained. For instance, when Albertus 
Magnus says that gold was once found to have developed in the 
teeth of a dead man, he is out of harmony with the possibilities 
of Nature; for an animal substance can never develop into a 
mineral It is true that animals and vegetables contain sulphur 
and mercury, as well as minerals; but these principles are 
animal and vegetable, not mineral If there were no animal 
sulphur in man, the mercury of his blood could not be congealed 
into flesh and bones ; and if plants contained no vegetable sul- 
phur, their mercury or water (sap) would not be congealed into 
leaves and flowers. "The three kinds of sulphur are essentially 
the same, but, like the three mercuries, they are differentiated 
according to the three kingdoms, and cannot act outside their 
own kingdoms. Each kind of mercury can be coagulated by 
none but its own sulphur, and if gold was found in the teeth of 
a dead man, it must have been introduced in an artificial man- 
ner—either as gold, or in the shape of some other metal which 

158 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by the gradual action of its own metallic sulphur on its metallic 
mercury, was afterwards transmuted into gold. t is mistaken 
impressions and superstitious notions, like this one of Albertus 
Magnus, that we have set ourselves to correct in this Treatise, by 
stating once for all the true facts of animal, vegetable, and 
mineral development. 

Let the painstaking student be satisfied to have received a 
true account of the origin of the Threc Principles. There is no 
greater help towards a successful end than a good beginning. I 
have in this Treatise started the student on the right road, and 
given him clear and practical directions. With God's blessing, 
and by dint of diligent and persevering study, he may now fairly 
hope to reach the glorious goal. ButlI, having told out all that is 
lawful for me to utter, now commit myself to the mercy of a 
loving Creator, who will receive me to Himself; and I commend 
the gentle and pious Reader to the same great Father of All, to 
whom be praise and glory, through the endless succession of 
the ages. 

BIS TS EP MS EUSINMIDOS 

AN 
OPBN BNTIRANCIE 
(150 529p 9 ACT OC y 

OF THE 

IS ND. 

BY 
AUN. UASNOOUNCYOMUO)U.S. S. AVGAB AUN UD 
[P OSVSBSIRSSOSRSSERSUMRBIEDS 

TqACOBIS QR UCONTEN TS. 

THE AuTHOR's PREFACE. 

Chapter r. 
7 2: 

Of the need of Sulphur for producing this Elixir. 

Of the Component Principles of the Mercury of the 
Sages. 

Of the Chalybs of the Sages. 

Of the Magnet of the Sages. 

Of the Chaos of the Sages. 

Of the Air of the Sages. 

Of the first Operation—Preparation of Mercury by 
means of the Flying Eagles. 

Of the Difficulty and Length of the First Operation. 

Of the Superiority of our Mercury over all Metals. 

Of the Sulphur which is in the Mercury of the Sages. 

Concerning the Discovery of the Perfect Magistery. 

The Generic Method of Making the Perfect Magistery. 

Of the Use of Mature Sulphur in the Work of the 
Elixir. 

Of the Circumstantial and Accidental Requisites of 
our Art. 

Of the Incidental Purgation of Mercury and Gold. 

Of the Amalgam of Mercury and Gold, and of their 
respective Proportions. 

Concerning the Size, Form, Material, and Mode of 
Securing the Vessel. 

Of the Furnace, or Athanor of the Sages. 
L 

162 

Chapter r9. 

20. 

2I. 

22. 

20: 

24. 
25. 

26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 
cun 
92: 
33: 
34- 
35- 

THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Of the Progress of the Work during the First 
4o Days. 

Of the Appearance of Blackness in the Work of the 
Sun and Moon. . 

Of the Caution required to avoid Burning the 
Flowers. 

Of the Regimen of Saturn. 

Of the Different Regimens of this Work. 

Of the First Regimen, which is that of Mercury. 

Of the Regimen of the Second Part, which is that of 
Saturn. 

Of the Regimen of Jupiter. 

Of the Regimen of the Moon. 

Of the Regimen of Venus. 

Of the Regimen of Mars. 

Of the Regimen of the Sun. 

Of the Fermentation of the Stone. 

The Imbibition of the Stone. 

'The Multiplication of the Stone. 

Of Projection. 

Of the manifold Uses of this Art. 

TUER DAVID POTIS QUIS S SPPRSESOEUTASC Br 

philosopher, have decreed to write this little treatise of 
medicinal, chemical, and physical arcana, in the year 1645 
! after the Birth of Christ, and in the 23rd year of my age, 
to assist in conducting my straying brethren out of the labyrinth 
of error, and with the further object of making myself known to 
other Sages, holding aloft a torch which may be visible far and 
wide to those who are groping in the darkness of ignorance. The 
contents of this Book are not fables, but real experiments which 
I have seen, touched, and handled, as an adept will easily 
conclude from these lines. I have written more plainly about 
this Art than any of my predecessors ; sometimes I have found 
myself on the very verge of breaking my vow, and once or twice 
had to lay down my pen for a season ; but I could not resist the 
inward prompting of God, which impelled me to persevere in the 
most loving course, who alone knows the heart, and to whom only 
beglorv for ever. Hence, I undoubtedly gather that in this last 
age of the world, many will become blessed by this arcanum, 
through what I have thus faithfully written, for I have not 
willingly left anything doubtful to the youug beginner. I know 
many who with me do enjoy this secret, and am persuaded that 
many more will also rejoice in its possession. Let the holy Will 
of God perform what it pleases, though 1 confess myself an 
unworthy instrument through whom such great things should 
be effected. 

| BEING an anonymous adept, a lover of learning, and a 

DX E» — i 
do o PORE Ed 

GEIDAPIUSIRCSE 
Of the need of Sulphur for producing the Exi.

/ Fleece, which has virtue to transmute metals into 

gold, should know that our Stone is nothing 

but gold digested to the highest degree of purity 

and subtle fixation to which it can be brought by Nature 
and the highest effort of Art; and this gold thus perfected is 
called * our gold," no longer vulgar, and is the ultimate goal 
of Nature. These words, though they may be surprising to 
some of my readers, are true, as I, an adept, bear witness ; and 
though overwise persons entertain chimerical dreams, Nature 
herself is most wonderfully simple. Gold, then, is the one true 
principle of purification. . But our gold is twofold ; one kind is 
mature and fixed, the yellow Latten, and its heart or centre is 
pure fire, whereby it is kept from destruction, and only purged 
in the fire. This gold is our male, and it is sexually joined to 
a more crude white gold—the female seed: the two together 
being indissolubly united, constitute our fruitful Hermaphrodite. 
We are told by the Sares that corporal gold is dead, until it 
be conjoined with its bride, with whom the coagulating sulphur, 
which in gold is outwards, must be turned inwards. Hence it 
follows that the substance which we require is Mercury. Con- 
cerning this substance, Geber uses the following words : ** Blessed 
be the Most High God who created ZZercury,and made it an 
all-prevailing substance. And it is true that unless we had 
Mercury, Alchemists might still boast themselves, but all their 
boasting would be vain. Hence it is clear that our Mercury 
is not common mercury ; forall common mercury is a male that 
is corporal, specific, and dead, while our Mercury is spiritual, 
female,living, and life-giving. ^ Attend closely to what I say 
about our Mercury, which is the salt of the wise men. The 
Alchemist who works without it is like a man who draws a bow 

166 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

without a string. Yet it is found nowhere in a pure state above 
ground, but has to be extracted by a cunning process out of the 
substance i in which it exists. 

(OIEIVASDATEBVR SEINS 
Of the Component Principles of the Mercury of the Sages. 

Let those who aim to purify Mercury by means of salts, 
faces, and other foreign bodies, and by strange chemical pro- 
cesses, understand that though our water is variously composed, 
it is yet only oze thing, formed by the concretion of divers 
substances of the same essence. The components of our water 
are fire, the vegetable * Saturnian liquid," and the bond of 
Mercury. "The fire is that of mineral Sulphur, which yet can be 
called neither mineral nor metallic, but partakes of both char- 
acters: it is a chaos or spirit, because our fiery Dragon, that 
overcomes all things, is yet penetrated by the odour of the 
Saturnian liquid, its blood growing together with the Saturnian 
sap into one body which is yet neither a body (since it is all 
volatile) nor a spirit (since in fire it resembles melted metal). 
It may thus be very properly described as chaos, or the 
mother of all metals. From this chaos I can extract everything 
—even the Sun and Moon— without the transmutatory Elixir. 
It is called our Arsenic, our Air, our Moon, our Magnet, and our 
Chalybs: these names representing the different stages of its 
development, even unto the manifestation of the kingly diadem, 
which is cast out of the menstruum of our harlot. Learn, 
then, who are the friends of Cadmus ; who is the serpent that 
devoured them ; what the hollow oak to which Cadmus spitted 
the serpent. Learn who are the doves of Diana, that overcome 
the green lion by gentleness: even the Babylonian dragon, 
which kills everything with its venom. Learn, also, what are 
the winged shoes of Mercury, and who are those nymphs whom 
he charms by means of his incantations. 

(OIPASDATSESESSSUIIE 

Concernzng the Chalybs of the Sages. 

Our Chalybs is the true key of our Art, without which the 
Torch could in no wise be kindled, and as the true magi have 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 167 

delivered many things concerning it, so among vulgar alchemists 
there is great contention as to its nature. It is the ore of gold, 
the purest of all spirits ; a secret, infernal, and yet most volatile 
fire, the wonder of the world, the result of heavenly virtues in the 
lower world—for which reason the Almighty has assigned to it 
a most glorious and rare heavenly conjunction, even that notable 
sign whose nativity is declared in the East. "This star was seen 
by the wise men of old, and straightway they knew that a Great 
King was born in the world. When you see its constellation, 
follow it to the cradle, and there you will behold a beautiful 
Infant Remove the impurities, look upon the face of. the 
King's Son ; open your treasury, give to him gold, and after his 
death he will bestow on you his flesh and blood, the highest 
Medicine in the three monarchies of the earth. 

(OEIPASPADBSROSDVS 
Of the Magnet of the Sages. 

As steel is attracted towards the magnet, dnd the magnet 
turns towards the steel, so also our Magnet attracts our Chalybs. 
Thus, as Chalybs is the ore of gold, so our Magnet is the true 
ore of our Chalybs. "The hidden centre of our Magnet abounds 
in Salt, which Salt is the menstruum in the Sphere of the Moon, 
and can calcine gold. This centre turns towards the Pole with 
an archetic appetite, in which the virtue of the Chalybs is 
exalted into degrees. In the Pole is the heart of Mercury, the 
true fire (in which is the rest of its Master), sailing through this 
great sea that it may arrive at both the Indies, and direct its 
course by the aspect of the North Star, which our Magnet will 
manifest. 

(EIVATPADISRC OV? 
Of the Chaos of the Sages. 

Let the student incline his ear to the united verdict of the 
Sages, who describe this work as analogous to the Creation 
of the World. In the Beginning God created Heaven and 
Earth ; and the Earth was without form and void, and the Spirit 
of. God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 

168 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

* Let there be light," and there was light. ^ These words are 
sufficient for the student of our Art. The Heaven must be 
united to the Earth on the couch of friendship ; so shall he reign 
in glory for ever. The Earth is the heavy body, the womb of the 
minerals, which it cherishes in itself, although it brings to light 
trees and animals. The Heaven is the place where the great 
Lights revolve, and through the air transmit their influences 
to the lower world. But in the beginning all was one confused 
chaos. Our Chaos is, as it were, a mineral earth (by virtue 
of its coagulation) and yet also volatile air—in the cezzre of 
which is the Heaven of the Sages, the Astral Centre, which with 
its light irradiates the earth to its surface. What man is wise 
enough to evolve out of this world a new King, who shall 
redeem his brothers from their natural weaknesses, by dying, 
being lifted on high, and giving his flesh and blood for the life 
of the world? I thank Thee, O God, that Thou hast concealed 
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes ! 

(OEIVASPADIESSERVAIE 
Of the Air of the Sages. 

Our air, like the air of the firmament, divides the waters ; 
and as the waters under the firmament are visible to us mortals, 
while we are unable to see the waters above the firmament, so 
in *our work" we see the extracentral mineral waters, but are 
unable to see those which, though hidden within, nevertheless 
have a real existence. "They exist but do not appear until it 
please the Artist, as the author of the /Vezw LzgA£ has testified. 
Our air keeps the extracentral waters from mingling with those 
at the centre. If through the removal of this impediment, they 
were enabled to mingle, their union would be indissoluble. 
Therefore the external vapours and burning sulphur do stiffly 
adhere to our chaos, and unable to resist its tyranny, the pure 
flies away from the fire in the form of a dry powder. This then 
should be your great object. The arid earth must be irrigated, 
and its pores softened with water of its own kind ; then this 
thief with all the workers of iniquity will be cast out, the water 
will be purged of its leprous stain by the addition of true 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 169 

Sulphur, and you will have the Spring whose waters are sacred 
to the maiden Queen Diana. This thief is armed with all the 
malignity of arsenic, and is feared and eschewed by the winged 
youth. Though the Central Water be his Spouse, yet the youth 
cannot come to her, until Diana with the wings of her doves 
purges the poisonous air, and opens a passage to the bridal 
chamber. "Then the youth enters easily through the pores, 
presently shaking the waters above, and stirring up a rude and 
ruddy cloud. Do thou, O Diana, bring in the water over him, 
even unto the brightness of the Moon! So the darkness on the 
face of the abyss will be dispersed by the spirit moving in the 
waters. Thus, at the bidding of God, light will appear on the 
Seventh Day, and then this sophic creating of Mercury shall be 
completed, from which time, until the revolution of the year, you 
may wait for the birth of the marvellous Child of the Sun, who 
will come to deliver his brethren from every stain. 

GEDATPI ER VIE 

Of the Fzrst Operation-——Preparation of Mercury. by means 
of the Flying Eagles. 

Know, my brother, that the exact preparation of the Eagles 
of the Sages, is the highest effort of our Art. In this first section 
of our work, nothing is to be done without hard and persevering 
toil; though it is quite true that afterwards the substance 
develops under the influence of gentle heat without any 
imposition of hands. "The Sages tell us that their Eagles must 
be taken to devour the Lion, and that they gain the victory all 
the sooner if they are very numerous ; also that the number of 
the work varies between 7 and 9. The Mercury of the Sages is 
the Bird of Hermes (now called a goose, now a pheasant) But 
the Eagles are always mentioned in the plural, and number from 
3to IO. Yet this is not to be understood as if there should be 
so many weights or parts of the water to one of the earth, but 
the water must be taken so oftentimes acuated or sharpened as 
there are Eagles numbered. This acuation is made by sublima- 
tion. There is, then, one sublimation of the Mercury of the Sages, 
when one Eagle is mentioned, and the seventh sublimation will 
so strengthen your Mercury, that the Bath of your King will be 

170 JIHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

ready. . . Let me tell you now how this part of the work 
is performed. Take 4 parts of our fiery Dragon, in whose belly 
is hidden the magic Chalybs, and 9 parts of our Magnet; mingle 
them by means of a fierce fire, in the form of a mineral water, 
the foam of which must be taken away. Remove the shell, and 
take the kernel. Purge what remains once more by means of 
fire and the Sun, which may be done easily if Saturn shall have 
scen himself in the mirror of Mars. Then you will obtain our 
Chameleon, or Chaos, in which all the virtues of our Art are 
potentially present. This is the infant Hermaphrodite, who, 
through the bite of a mad dog, has been rendered so fearful of 
water, that though of a kindred nature, it always eschews and 
avoids it. But in the grove of Diana are two doves that soothe 
its rabid madness if applied by the art of the nymph Mercury. 
Take it and plunge it under water til it perish therein; 
then the rabid and black dog will appear panting and half 
suffocated— drive him down with vigorous blows, and the 
darkness will be dispelled. Give it wings when the Moon is full, 
and it will ly away as an Eagle,leaving the doves of Diana 
dead (though, when first taken they should be living). HRepeat 
this seven times, and your work is done; the gentle coction 
which follows is child's play and a woman's work. 

(/GIPASDATSESIS SES VATIIMIE 
Of the Difficulty and Length of the Fzrst Operatzon. 

Some Alchemists fancy that the work from beginning to 
end is a mere idle entertainment ; but those who make it so will 
reap what they have sown—viz, nothing. We know that next 
to the Divine Blessing, and the discovery of the proper founda- 
tion, nothing is so important as unwearied industry and persever- 
ance in this First Operation. Itis no wonder, then, that so many 
students of this Art are reduced to beggary ; they are afraid of 
work, and look upon our Art as mere sport for their leisure 
moments. For no labour is more tedious than that which the 
preparatory part of our enterprise demands. Morienus earnestly 
entreats the King to consider this fact, and says that many Sages 
have complained of the tedium of our work. * To render a 
chaotic mass orderly," says the Poet, *is matter of much time 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 171 

and labour "—and the noble author of the Hermetical Arcanum 
describes it as an Herculean task. There are so many impurities 
clinging to our first substance, and a most powerful intermediate 
agent is required for the purpose of eliciting from our polluted 
menstruum the Royal Diadem. But when you have once pre- 
pared your Mercury, the most formidable part of your task is 
accomplished, and you may indulge in that rest which is sweeter 
than any work, as the Sage says. 

CLLATDTER LX. 
On the Superiority of our. Mercury over All. Metals. 

Our Mercury is that Serpent which devoured the companions 
of Cadmus, after having first swallowed Cadmus himself, though 
he was farstronger than they. Yet Cadmus will one day transfix 
this Serpent, when he has coagulated it with his Sulphur. Know 
that this, our Mercury, is a King among metals, and dissolves 
them by changing their Sulphur into a kindred mercurial sub- 
stance. The Mercury of one, two, or three eagles bears rule over 
Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus. The Mercury of from three to seven 
eagles sways the Moon ; that of ten eagles has power over the 
Sun ; our Mercury is nearer than any other unto the first es of 
metals; it has power to enter metallic bodies, and to manifest 

their hidden depths. 

CLLIAJDTNDE X 

On the Sulphur wwiuch is zn the Mercury of 
the Sages. 

It is a marvellous fact that our Mercury contains ac/zve 
Sulphur, and yet preserves the form and all the properties of 
Mercury. Hence it is necessary that a form be introduced 
therein by our preparation, which form is a metallic sulphur. 
This Sulphur is the inward fire which causes the putrefaction of 
the composite Sun. This sulphureous fire is the spiritual seed 
which our Virgin (still remaining immaculate) has conceived. 
For an uncorrupted virginity admits of a spiritual love, as ex- 
perience and authority affirm. — The two (the passive and the 
active principle) combined we call our Hermaphrodite. When 

172 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

joined to the Sun, it softens, liquefies, and dissolves it with gentle 
heat. By means of the same fire it coagulates itself ; and by its 
coagulation produces the Sun. Our pure and homogeneous 
Mercurv, having conceived inward Sulphur (through our Art), 
coagulates itself under the influence of gentle outward heat, like 
the cream of milk—a subtle earth floating on the water. When 
it is united to the Sun, it is not only not coagulated, but the 
composite substance becomes softer day by day ; the bodies are 
almost dissolved ; and the spirits begin to be coagulated, with a 
black colour and a most fetid smell. Hence it appears that this 
spiritual metallic Sulphur is in truth the zzoevzug frznczple zn our 
Art; it is really volatile or unmatured gold, and by proper 
digestion is changed into that metal. If joined to perfect gold, 
it is not coagulated, but dissolves the corporal gold, and remains 
with it, being dissolved, under one form, although before the 
perfect union death must precede, that so they may be united 
after death, not simply in a perfect unity, but in a thousand 
times more than perfect perfection. 

(OIBIPASDADEBAISSESXCIE 
Concerning the Discovery of the Perfect Magistery. 

There are those who think that this Art was first discovered 
by Solomon, or rather imparted to him by Divine Revelation. 
But though there is no reason for doubting that so wise and pro- 
foundly learned a sovereign was acquainted with our Art, yet 
we happen to know that he was not the first to acquire the 
knowledge. It was possessed by Hermes, the Egyptian, and 
some other Sages before him; and we may suppose that they 
first sought a simple exaltation of imperfect metals into regal 
perfection, and that it was at first their endeavour to develop 
Mercury, which is most like to gold in its weight and properties, 
into perfect gold. "This, however, no degree of ingenuity could 
effect by any fire, and the truth gradually broke on their minds 
that an internal heat was required as well as an external one. 
So they rejected aqua fortis and all corrosive solvents, after long 
experiments with the same—also all salts, except that kind which 
is the first substance of all salts, which dissolves all metals and 
coagulates Mercury, but not without violence, whence that kind 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 173 

of agent is again separated entire, both in weight and virtue, 
from the things it is applied to. "They saw that the digestion of 
Mercury was prevented by certain aqueous crudities and earthy 
dross ; and that the zadzca/ nature of these impurities rendered 
their elimination impossible, except by the complete inversion of 
the whole compound. "They knew that Mercury would become 
fixed if it could be freed from their defiling presence—as it con- 
tains fermenting sulphur, which is only hindered by these 
impurities from coagulating the whole mercurial body. At 
length they discovered that Mercury, in the bowels of the earth, 
was intended to become a metal, and that the process of 
development was only stopped by the impurities with which it 
had become tainted. They found that that which should be 
active in the Mercury was passive; and that its infirmity could 
not be remedied by any means, except the introduction of some 
kindred principle from without. Such a principle they discovered 
in metallic sulphur, which stirred up the passive sulphur in the 
Mercury, and by allying itself with it, expelled the aforesaid im- 
purities. But in seeking to accomplish this practically, they 
were met by another great difficulty. In order that this sulphur 
might be effectual in purifying the Mercury, it was indispensable 
that it should itself be pure. All their efforts to purify it, how- 
ever, were doomed to failure. At length they bethought them 
that it might possibly be found somewhere in Nature in a purified 
condition—and their search was crowned with success. They 
sought active sulphur in a pure state, and found it cunningly 
concealed in the House of the Ram. This sulphur mingled 
most eagerly with the offspring of Saturn, and the desired effect 
was speedily produced—after the malignant venom of the *' air " 
of Mercury had been tempered (as already set forth at some 
length) by the Doves of Venus. Then life was joined to life by 
means of theliquid ; the dry was moistened ; the passive was 
stirred into action by the active; the dead was revived by the 
living. The heavens were indeed temporarily clouded over, but 
after a copious downpour of rain, serenity was restored. Mer- 
cury emerged in a hermaphroditic state. Then they placed it 
in the fire; in no long time they succeeded in coagulating it, and 
in its coagulation they found the Sun and the Moon in a most 
pure state. Then they considered that, before its coagulation, 

174 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

this Mercury was not a metal, since, on being volatilised, it left 
no residue at the bottom of the distilling vessel ; hence they 
called it unmatured gold and their living (or quick) silver. [t 
also occurred to them that if gold were sown, as it were, in the 
soil of its own first substance, its excellence would probably be 
enhanced ; and when they placed gold therein, the fixed was 
volatilised, the hard softened, the coagulated dissolved, to the 
amazement of Nature herself For this reason they wedded 
these two to each other, put them in a still over the fire, and for 
many days regulated the heat in accordance with the require- 
ments of Nature. "Thus the dead was revived, the body decayed, 
and a glorified spirit rose from the grave; the soul was exalted 
into the Quintessence,——the Universal Medicine for animals, 
vegetables, and minerals. 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Generic Method of Making the Perfect Magzstery. 

The greatest secret of our operation is no other than a 
cohobation of the nature of one thing above the other, until the 
most digested virtue be extracted out of the digested body of the 
crude one. But there are hereto requisite: Firstly, an exact 
measurement and preparation of the ingredients required ; 
secondly, an. exact fulfilment of all external conditions ; thirdly 
a proper regulation of the fire; fourthly, a good knowledge of the 
natural properties of the substances ; and fifthly, patience, in 
order that the work may not be marred by overgreat haste. 
Of all these points we will now speak in their proper order. 

(EIVASDATUEYRSSEXSDINS 
Of the Use of Mature Sulphur zn the Wor& of the Elzxir. 

We have spoken of the need of Mercury, and have described 
its properties more plainly and straightforwardly than has ever 
been done before. God knows that we do not grudge the 
knowledge of this Art to our brother men ; and weare not afraid 
that it can ever become the property of any unworthy person. So 
long as the secret is possessed by a comparatively small number 
of philosophers, their lot is anything but a bright and happy 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 175 

one ; surrounded as we are on every side by the cruel greed and 
the prying suspicion of the multitude, we are doomed, like Cain, 
to wander over the earth homeless and friendless. Not for us are 
the soothing influences of domestic happiness; not for us the 
delightful confidences of friendship. Men who covet our golden 
secret pursue us from place to place, and fear closes our lips, 
when love tempts us to open ourselves freely to a brother. Thus 
we feel prompted at times to burst forth into the desolate 
exclamation of Cain: * Whoever finds me will slay me" Yet 
we are not the murderers of our brethren ; we are anxious 
only to do good to our fellow-men. But even our kindness and 
charitable compassion are rewarded with black ingratitude— 
ingratitude that cries to heaven for vengeance. It was only a 
short time ago that, after visiting the plague-stricken haunts of a 
certain city, and restoring the sick to perfect health by means of 
my miraculous medicine, I found myself surrounded by a 
yelling mob, who demanded that I should give to them my 
Elixir of the Sages ; and it was only by changing my dress and 
my name, by shaving off my beard and putting on a wig, that I 
was enabled to save my life, and escape from the hands of those 
wicked men. And even when our lives are not threatened, it is 
not pleasant to find ourselves, wherever we go, the central objects 
of human greed. . . . I know of several persons who were found 
strangled in their beds, simply because they were suspected of 
possessing this secret, though, in reality, they knew no more 
about it than their murderers; it was enough for some desperate 
ruffans, that a mere whisper of suspicion had been breathed 
against their victims. Men are so eager to have this Medicine 
that your very caution will arouse their suspicions, and 
endanger your safety. Again, if you desire to sell any large 
quantity of your gold and silver, you will be unable 
to do so without imminent risk of discovery. The very 
fact that anyone has a great mass of  bullion for sale 
would in most places excite suspicion. This feeling will be 
strengthened when people test the quality of our gold ; for it is 
much finer and purer than any of the gold which is brought 
from Barbary, or from the Guinea Coast; and our silver is 
better even than that which is conveyed home by the Spanish 
silver fleet. If, in order to baffle discovery, you mix these 

176 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

precious metals with alloy, you render yourself liable, in Eng- 
land and Holland at least, to capital punishment; for in those 
countries no one is permitted to tamper with the precious metals, 
except the officers of the mint, and the licensed goldsmiths. I 
remember once going, in the disguise of a foreign merchant, 
to a goldsmith's shop, and offering him 600 pounds worth of our 
pure silver for sale. He subjected it to the usual tests, and then 
said : * This silver is artificially prepared." When I asked him 
why he thought so, his answer was: *I am not a novice in my 
profession, and know very well the exact quality of the silver 
which is brought from the different mines" When I heard 
these words I took myself away with great secrecy and dispatch, 
leaving the silver in the hands of the goldsmith. On this 
account, and by reason of the many and great difficulties 
which beset us, the possessors of this Stone, on every side, we 
do elect to remain hidden, and "will communicate the Art to 
those who are worthily covetous of our secrets, and then mark 
what public good will befall. Without Sulphur, our Mercury 
would never be properly coagulated for our supernatural work ; 
it is the male substance, while Mercury may be called the 
female; and all Sages say that no tincture can be made 
without its latten, which latten is gold, without any double 
speaking. Wise men, notwithstanding, can find this substance 
even on the dunghill; but the ignorant are unable to dis- 
cern it even in gold. The tincture of gold is concealed 
in the gold of the Sages, which is the most highly matured 
of bodies; but as a raw material it exists only in our 
Mercury ; and it (gold) receives from Mercury the multiplication 
of its seed, but in virtue rather than in weight. "The Sages say 
that common gold is dead, while their's is living; and common 
gold is dead in the same sense in which a grain of wheat is dead, 
while it is surrounded by dry air; and comes to life, swells, 
softens, and germinates only when it is put into moist earth. In 
this sense gold, too, is dead, so long as it is surrounded by the 
corporeal husk, always allowing, of course, for the great differ- 
ence between a vegetable grain and metallic gold. Ou grain is 
quickened in zoazer only ; and as wheat, while it remains in the 
barn is called grain, and is not destined to be quickened, because 
it is to be used for bread making—but changes its name, when 

MCODEN. EN T ASMUVGB. jt) 

it is sown in the field, and is then called seedcorn ; so our gold, 
while it is in the form of rings, plate, and coins, is called cozzzoz 
gold, because in that state it is likely to remain unchanged to 
the end of the world ; but ozezzza//y it is even then the gold of 
the Sages, because if sown in its own proper element, it would in 
a few days become the Chaos of the Sages. — Hence the Sages 
bid you revive the dead (Ze. the gold which already appeared 
doomed to a living death) and mortify the living, ze, the 
Mercury which, imparting life to the gold, is itself deprived of 
the vital principle. "Their gold is taken in a dead, their water in 
a living, state, and by their composition and brief coction, the 
dead gold revives and the living Mercury dies, Ze, the spirit is 
coagulated, the body is dissolved, and thus both putrefy together, 
until all the members of the compound are torn into atoms. 
'The mystery of our Art, which we conceal with so great care, is 
the preparation of the Mercury, which above ground is not to be 
found made ready to our hand. But when it is prepared, it is 
*our water" in which gold is dissolved, whereby the latent life 
of the gold is set free, and receives the life of the dissolving 
Mercury, which is to gold what good earth is to the grain of 
wheat. When the gold has putrefied in the Mercury, there 
arises out of the decomposition of death a new body, of the 
same essence, but of a glorified substance. Here you have the 
whole of our Philosophy in a nutshell There is no secret about 
it,except the preparation of Mercury, its mingling with the gold in 
the right proportions, and the regulation of the fire in accordance 
with its requirements. Gold by itself does not fear the fire ; 
hence the great point is, to temper the heat to the capacity of 
the Mercury. Ifthe Mercury is not properly prepared, the gold 
remains common gold, being joined with an improper agent ; it 
continues unchanged, and no degree of heat will help it to put 
off its corporeal nature. Without our Mercury the seed (Ze. gold) 
cannot be sown ; and if gold is not sown in its proper element, 
it cannot be quickened any more than the corn which the West 
Indians keep underground, in air-tight stone jars, can germinate. 
I know that some self-constituted * Sages" will take exception 
to this teaching, and say that common gold and running Mercury 
are not the substance of our Stone. But one question will 
suffice to silence their objections: Have they ever actually 
VOL, II. M 

178 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

prepared our Tincture? I have prepared it more than once, and 
daily have it in my power ; hence I1 may perhaps be permitted 
to speak as one having authority. Go on babbling about your 
rain water collected in May, your Salts, your sperm * which is 
more potent than the foul fiend himself," ye self-styled philoso- 
phers; rail at me, if you like; all you say is conclusively 
refuted by this one fact—you cannot make the Stone. When I 
say that gold and Mercury are the only substances of our Stone, 
I know what I am writing about ; and the Searcher of all hearts 
knows also that I say true. The time has arrived when we may 
speak more freely about this Art. For Elias the artist is at 
hand, and glorious things are already spoken of the City of God. 
I possess wealth sufficient to buy the whole world —but as yet I 
may not use it on account of the craft and cruelty of wicked 
men. [It is not from jealousy that I conceal as much as I do: 
God knows that I am weary of this lonely, wandering life, shut 
out from the bonds of friendship, and almost from the face of 
God. ] do not worship the golden calf, before which our 
Israelites bow low to the ground; let it be ground to powder 
like the brazen serpent. I hope that in a few years gold (not as 
given by God, but as abused by man) will be so common that 
those who are now so mad after it, shall contemptuously spurn 
aside this bulwark of Antichrist. Then will the day of our 
deliverance be at hand when the streets of the new Jerusalem 
are paved with gold, and its gates are made of great diamonds. 
The day is at hand when, by means of this my Book, gold will 
have become as common as dirt; when we Sages shall find rest 
for the soles of our feet, and render fervent thanks to God. My 
heart conceives unspeakable things, and is enlarged for the good 
of the Israel of God. These words I utter forth with a herald's 
clarion tones. My Book is the precursor of Elias, designed to 
prepare the Royal way of the Master ; and would to God that 
by its means all men might become adepts in our Art—íor then 
gold, the great idol of mankind, would lose its value, and we 
should prize it only for its scientific teaching. "Virtue would be 
loved for its own sake. I am familiar with many possessors of 
this Art who regard silence as the great point of bonour. But I 
have been enabled by God to take a different view of the 
matter ; and I firmly believe that [ can best serve the Israel of 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE 179 

God, and put my talent out at usury, by making this secret 
knowledge the common property of the whole world. Hence I 
have not conferred with flesh and blood, nor attempted to obtain 
the consent of my Brother Sages. If the matter succeeds 
according to my desire and prayer, they will all rejoice that I 
have published this Book. 

(OEIVASPATERAREC ONSE 

Of the Circumstantial aud |. Accidental Reguasites 
of our Art. 

We have weeded out all vulgar errors concerning our Art, 
and have shewn that gold and Mercury are the only substances 
required. We have shewn that this gold is to be understood, 
not metaphorically, but in a truly philosophical sense. We have 
also declared our Mercury to be true quicksilver, without any 
ambiguity of acceptation. "The latter, we have told you, must 
be made by art, and be a key to the former. We have made 
everything as clear as noonday ; and our teaching is based, not 
on hearsay, or on the writings of others, but on our own personal 
and oft repeated experience. The things we faithfully declare 
are what we have both seen and known. We have made and 
do possess the Stone—the great Elixir. Moreover, we do not 
grudge you this knowledge, but wish you to attain it out of this 
Book. We have spopen out more plainly than any of our 
predecessors ; and our Receipt, apart from the fact that we have 
not called things by their proper names, is perfectly trust- 
worthy. It remains for us to give you some practical tests by 
which the goodness or unsuitableness of your Mercury may be 
known, and some directions for amending its defects. When 
you have living Mercury and gold, there remains to be accom- 
plished, first, the purging of the Mercury and the gold, then 
their espousal, and finally the regulation of the fire 

CHAPTER XV. 

Of the I[ncidental Purging of Mercury and Gold. 

Perfect gold is found in the bowels of the earth in little 
pieces, or in sand. If you can meet with this unmixed gold, it 
M2 

180 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

is pure enough ; if not, purge it with antimony or royal cement, 
or boil it with aqua fortis, the gold being first granulated. "Then 
smelt it, remove the impure sediment, and it is ready. But 
Mercury needs inward and essential purging. which radical 
cleansing is brought about by the addition of true Sulphur, 
little by little, according to the number of the Eagles. Then it 
also needs an incidental purgation for the purpose of removing 
from its surface the impurities which have, by the essential 
purgation, been ejected from the centre. "This process is not 
absolutely necessary, but it is useful, as it accelerates the work. 
Therefore, take your Mercury, which you have purified with a 
suitable number of Eagles, sublime it three times with common 
salt and iron filings, and wash it with vinegar and a moderate 
quantity of salts of ammonia, then dry and distil in a glass 
retort, over a gradually increasing fire, until the whole of the 
Mercury has ascended. Repeat this four times, then boil the 
Mercury in spirits of vinegar for an hour, stirring it constantly. 
'Then pour off the vinegar, and wash off its acidity by a plenti- 
ful effusion of spring water. Dry the Mercury, and its splendour 
will be wonderful. You may wash it with wine, or vinegar and 
salt, and so spare the sublimation ; but then distil it at least 
four times without addition, after you have perfected all the 
eagles, or washings, washing the chalybeat retort every time 
with ashes and water; then boil it in distilled vinegar for half a 
day, stirring it strongly at times. Pour off the blackish vinegar, 
add new, then wash with warm water. "This process is designed 
to purge away the internal impurities from the surface. "These 
impurities you may perceive if, on mixing Mercury with purest 
gold, you place the amalgam on a white sheet of paper. The 
sooty blackness which is then seen on the paper is purged 
away by this process. 

(OPIPASDIISEPRSSSXQVIIS 
Of the Amlagam of Mercury aud Gold, and 
of their respective Proportions. 

When you have done all this, take one part of pure and 
laminated gold, or fine gold filings, and two parts of 
Mercury ;put them in a heated (marble) jar, Ze, heated with 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 181 

boiling water, being taken out of which it dries quickly, and 
holds the heat a long time. Grind with an ivory, or glass, or 
stone, or iron, or boxwood pestle (the iron pestle is not so good ; 
I use a pestle of crystal): pound them, I say, as small as the 
painters grind their colours ; then add water so as to make the 
mass as consistent as half melted butter. The mixture should be 
fixable and soft, and permit itself to be moulded into little 
globules—like moderately soft butter; it should be of such a 
consistency as to yield to the gentlest touch. Moreover, it 
should be of the same temperature throughout, and one part 
should not be more liquid than another. The mixture will be 
more or less soft, according to the proportion of Mercury which 
it contains; but it must be capable of forming into those little 
globules, and the Mercury should not be more lively at the 
bottom than at the top. If the amalgam be left undisturbed, it 
will at once harden ; you must therefore judge of the merits of 
the mixture, while you are stirring it; if it fulfils the above 
conditions, it is good. Then take spirit of vinegar, and dissolve 
in it a third part of salt of ammonia, put the amalgam into this 
liquid, let the whole boil for a quarter-of-an-hour in a long 
necked glass vessel; then take the mixture out of the glass 
vessel, pour off the liquid, heat the mortar, and pound 
the amalgam (as above) vigorously, and wash away all 
blackness with hot water. Put it again into the liquid, let 
it boil up once more in the glass vessel, pound it as before, and 
wash it. Repeat this process until the blackness is entirely 
purged out. The amalgam will then be as brilliant and white 
as the purest silver. Once more regulate the temperature of the 
amalgam according to the rules given above ; your labour will 
be richly rewarded. If the amalgam be not quite soft enough, 
add a little Mercury. Then boilit in pure water, and free it from 
all saltness and acidity. —Pour off the water, and dry the 
amalgam. Make quite sure that it is thoroughly dried, by waving 
it to and fro on the point of a knife over a sheet of white paper. 

182 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

CEHELAPTER XVII 

Concerning the Size, Form, Material, and Mode of 
Securing the Vessel. 

Let your glass distilling vessel be round or oval; large 
enough to hold neither more nor much less than an ounce of 
distilled water in the body thereof Let the height of the 
vessel's neck be about one palm, hand-breath, or span, and let the 
glass be clear and thick (the thicker the better, so long as it 
is clear and clean, and permits you to distinguish what is going 
on within)—but the thickness should be uniform. "The substance 
which will go into this vessel consists of 4 oz. of gold, and one 
oz. of mercury ; and if you have to add 4 oz. of mercury, the 
whole compound will still be less than 2 oz. The glass should 
be strong in order to prevent the vapours which arise from our 
embryo bursting the vessel. Let the mouth of the vessel be vezy 
carefully and effectually secured by means of a thick layer of 
sealing-wax. The utensils and the materials required are not 
then very expensive—and if you use my thick distilling-vessel 
you will avoid loss by breakage. The other instruments that are 
requisite are not dear. I know that many will take exception to 
this statement ; they will say that the pursuit of our Art isa 
matter of all but ruinous expense. But my answer consists in a 
simple question: What is the object of our Art? Is it not to 
make the Philosopher's Stone—to find the liquid in which gold 
melts like ice in tepid water? And do those good people who 
are so eager in their search after * Mercury of the Sun," and 
* Mercury of the Moon," and who pay so high a price for their 
materials, ever succeed in this object? ^ They cannot answer this 
question in the affirmative. One florin will buy enough of the 
substance of our water to quicken two pounds of mercury, and 
make it the true Mercury of the Sages. But, of course, glass 
vessels, coals, earthen vessels, a furnace, iron vessels, and other 
instruments, cannot be bought for nothing. Without .a perfect 
body, our ore, viz, gold, there can be no Tincture; and our 
Stone is at first vile, immature, and volatile, but when complete 
it is perfect, precious, and fixed. These two aspects of our Stone 
are the body, gold, and the spirit, or quicksilver. 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 183 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Of the Furnace, or Atkanor of tke Sages. 

I have spoken about Mercury, Sulphur, the vessel, their 
treatment, etc., etc.; and, of course, all these things are to 
be understood with a grain of salt. You must understand that 
in the preceding chapters I have spoken metaphorically ; if you 
take my words in a literal sense, you will reap no harvest except 
your outlay. For instance, when I name the principal substances 
Mercury and gold—I do not mean common gold in the state in 
which it is sold at the goldsmiths—but it must be prepared by 
means of our Art. You zay find our gold in common gold and 
silver ; but it is easier to make the Stone than to get its first- 
substance out of common gold. * Our gold " is the Chaos whose 
soul has not been taken away by fire. The soul of common 
gold has retired before the fiery tyranny of Vulcan into the 
inmost citadel. lf you seek our gold in a substance intermediate 
between perfection and imperfection, you will find it : but other- 
wise, you must unbar the gates of common gold by the first 
preparatory process (ch. xv.), by which the charm of its body is 
broken, and the husband enabled to do his work. Ííf you choose 
the former course, you shall use only gentle heat; in the latter 
case, you will require a fierce fire. But here you will be hope- 
lessly lost in a labyrinth, if you do not know your way out of it. 
But whether you choose our gold, or common gold, you will in 
either case need an even and continual fire. If you take our 
gold, you will finish the work a few months sooner, and the 
Elixir will be ten times more precious than that prepared from 
common gold. If you work with * our gold," you will be assisted 
in its calcination, putrefaction, and dealbation by its gentle 
inward (natural) heat. But in the case of common gold, this 
heat has to be applied externally by foreign substances, so as to 
render it fit for union with the. Virgin's Milk. In neither case, 
however, can anything be effected without theaid offire. It was 
not, then, in vain that Hermes counts fire next to the Sun 
and Moon as the governor of the work. But this is to be under- 
stood of the truly secret furnace, which a vulgar eye never saw. 
'There is also another furnace, which is called our common 
furnace, made of potter's earth, or of iron and brass plates, well 

184 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

compacted with clay. "This furnace we call Athanor, and the 
shape which I like best is that of a tower with a "nest" at the 
top. The *tower" should be about three feet high, and nine 
fingers wide within the plates. A little above the ground, let 
there be a little opening of about three or four fingers wide, for 
removing the cinders ; over that, there should be a fire-place 
built with stones. Above this, we place the furnace itself, which 
should be such as to exclude all draughts and currents of air. 
The coals are put in from above, and the aperture should then be 
carefully closed. But it is not necessary that your furnace 
should exactly correspond to the description which I have given, 
so long as it fulfils the following conditions: firstly, it must be 
free from draughts ; secondly, it must enable you to vary the 
temperature, without removing your vessel; thirdly, you must 
be able to keep up in it a fire for ten or twelve hours, without 
looking to it. Then the door of our Art will be opened to you ; 
and when you have prepared the Stone, you may procure a 
small portable stove, for the purpose of multiplying it. 

(LIV VDADESRIESNCIEXC 
Of the Progress of the Wor& during the first Forty Days. 

When you bave prepared our gold and Mercury in the 
manner described, put it into our vessel, and subject it to the 
action of our fire ; within 40 days you will see the whole substance 
converted into atoms, without any visible motion, or perceptible 
heat (except that it is just warm). If you do not yet rightly 
know the meaning of * our gold," take one part of common gold 
(well purified), and three parts of ozz Mercury (thoroughly 
purged) put them together as directed (cap. xvi), place them 
over the fire, and there keep them at the boiling point, till they 
sweat, and their sweat circulates. At the end of 90 days you 
will find that the Mercury has separated and reunited all the 
elements of the common gold. Boil the mixture 50 days 
longer, and you will discover that our Mercury has changed the 
common gold into * our gold," which is the Medicine of the first 
order. Itis already our Sulphur, but it has not yet the power 
oftinging. This method has been followed by many Sages, but 
it is exceedingly slow and tedious, and is only for the rich of the 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 185 

earth. Moreover, when you have got this Sulphur do not think 
that you possess the Stone, but only its true Matter, which you 
may seek in an imperfect thing, and find it within a week, by our 
easy yet rare way, reserved of God for His poor, contemned, and 
abject saints. Hereof I have now determined to write much, 
although in the beginning of this Book I decreed to bury it in 
silence. This is the one great sophism of all adepts ; some 
speak of this common gold and silver, and say the truth, and 
others say that we cannot use it, and they too,say the truth. 
But in the presence of God. I will call all our adepts to account, 
and charge them with jealous surliness. I, too, had determined 
to tread the same path, but God's hand confounded my scheme. 
I say then, that both ways are true, and come to the same thing 
in the end—but there is a vast difference at the beginning. (Our 
whole Art consists in the right preparation of our Mercury and 
our gold Our Mercury is our way, and without it nothing is 
effected. Our gold is not common gold, but it may be found in 
it; and if you operate on our Mercury with common gold 
(regulating the fire in the right way), you will after 150 days 
have our gold, since our gold is obtained from our Mercury. 
Hence if common gold have all its atoms thoroughly severed by 
means of our Mercury, and then reunited by the same agency, 
the whole mixture will, under the influence of fire, become our 
gold. But, if, without this preparatory purging, you were to use 
common gold with our Mercury for the purpose of preparing the 
Stone, you would be sadly mistaken ; and this is the great 
Labyrinth in which most beginners go astray, because the Sages 
in writing of these ways as two ways, purposely obscure the 
fact that they are only oze way (though of course the one is 
more direct than the other) The gold of the Sages may then 
be prepared out of our common gold and our Mercury, 
from which there may afterwards be obtained by repeated 
liquefactions, Sulphur and Quicksilver which is incombustible, and 
tinges all things else. In this sense, our Stone is to be found in 
all metals and minerals, since our gold may be got from them all 
—but most easily, of course, from gold and silver. Some have 
found it in tin, some in lead, but most of those who have pursued 
the more tedious method, have found it in gold. Of course, if 
our gold be prepared in the way I have described, out of common 

186 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

gold (in the course of 150 days), instead of being found ready 
made, it will not be so effectual, and the preparation of the Stone 
will take 127 years instead of 7 months. I know both ways, and 
prefer the shorter one ; but I have described the longer one as 
well in order that I may not draw down upon myself the scathing 
wrath of the *Sages." The great difficulty which discourages 
all beginners is not of Nature's making : the Sages have created 
it by speaking of the longer operation when they mean the 
shorter one, and vzce vers. If you choose common gold, you 
should espouse it to Venus (copper), lay them together on the 
bridal bed, and, on bringing a fierce fire to bear on them, you 
will see an emblem of the Great Work in the following succes- 
sion of colours: black, the peacock's tail, white, orange, and red. 
Then repeat the same operation with Mercury (called Virgin's 
Milk), using the **fire of the Bath of Dew," and (towards the 
end) sand mixed, with ashes. The substance will first turn a 
much deeper black, and then a completer vhite and red. Hence 
if you know our Art, extract our gold from our Mercury (this is 
the shorter way), and thus perform the whole operation with one 
substance (viz. Mercury); if you can do this, you will have 
attained to the perfection of philosophy. In this method, there 
| is no superfluous trouble : the whole work, from beginning to end, 
is based upon one broad foundation— whereas if you take common 
gold, you must operate on 7coe substances, and ZezZz will have to 
be purified by an elaborate process. If you diligently consider 
what I have said, you have in your hand a means of unravelling 
all the apparent contradictions of the Sages. They speak of 
three operations: the first, by which the inward natural heat 
expels all cold through the aid of external fire; the second, 
wherein gold is purged with our Mercury, through the mediation 
of Venus, and under the influence of a fierce fire; the third, in 
which common gold is mixed with our Mercury, and the ferment 
of Sulphur added. But if you will receive my advice, you will 
not be put out by any wilful obscurity on the part of the Sages. 
Our sulphur you should indeed strive to discover ; and if God 
enlightens you, you will find it in our Mercury. Before the 
living God I swear that my teaching is true. If you operate on 
Mercury and pure common gold, you may find *our gold" in 
7 to 9 months, and *our silver" in 5 months. But when 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 187 

you have these, you have not yet prepared our Stone: 4ZZa£ 
glorious sight will not gladden your eyes until you have been at 
work for a year-and-a-half. By that time you may obtain the 
elixir by subjecting the substance to very gentle continuous heat. 

GLDATPTDER XX. 

Of the Appearance of DBlac&ness in the Wor£& of the 
Sun and Moon. 

If you operate on gold and silver, for the purpose of finding 
our Sulphur, let your substance first become like a thin paste, or 
boiling water, or liquid pitch ; for the operation of our gold and 
Mercury is prefgured by that which happens in the preparation 
of common gold. with our Mercury. "Take your substance and 
place it in the furnace, regulate the fire properly for the space of 
twenty days, in which time you will observe various colours, and 
about the end of the fourth week, if the fire be continuous, you 
will see a most amiable greenness, which will last for about ten 
days. Then rejoice, for in a short time it will be as a black coal, 
and your whole compound shall be reduced to atoms. The 
operation is a resolution of the fixed into the not fixed that both 
afterwards, being conjoined, may make one matter, partly 
spiritual and partly corporal. Once more, ] assure you, the 
regulation of the fire is the only thing that I have hidden from 
you. Given the proper regimen, take the Stone, govern it as you 
know how, and then these wonderful phenomena will foliow : 
The fire will at once dissolve the Mercury and the Sulphur like 
wax; the Sulphur will be burnt, and change its colours from 
day to day ; the Mercury will prove incombustible, and only be 
gradually tinged (and purified, without being infected) with the 
colours of the Sulphur. Let the heaven stoop to the earth, till 
the latter has conceived heavenly seed. When you see the 
substances mingle in your distiling vessel, and assume the 
appearance of clotted and burnt blood, be sure that the female 
has received the seed of the male. About seventeen days after- 
wards your substance will begin to wear a yellow, thick, misty, 
or foamy appearance. At this time, you must take care not to 
let the embryo escape from your vessel; for it will give out a 
greenish, yellow, black, and bluish vapour and strive to burst the 

188 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

vessel. If you allow these vapours (which are continuous when 
the Embryo is formed) to escape, your work will be hopelessly 
marred. Nor should you allow any of the odour to make its 
way through any little hole or outlet ; for the evaporation would 
considerably weaken the strength of the Stone. Hence the true 
Sage seals up the mouth of his vessel most carefully, Let me 
advise you, moreover, not to neglect your fire, or move or open 
the vessel, or slacken the process of decoction, until you find that 
the quantity of the liquid begins to diminish ; if this happens 
after thirty days, rejoice, and know that you are on the right 
road. Then be doubly careful, and you will, at the end of 
another fortnight, find that the earth has become quite dry and 
ofa deep black. This is the death of the compound ; the winds 
have ceased, and there is a great calm. "This is that great 
simultaneous eclipse of the Sun and Moon, when the Sea also 
has disappeared. Our Chaos is then ready, from which, at the 
bidding ot God, all the wonders of the world may successively 
emerge. 

(S EIPASPAISEBSSOSXOXSIE 
Of the Caution required to avoid Durnzng the Flowers. 

The burning of the flowers is fatal, yet soon committed : it 
is chiefly to be guarded against after the lapse of the third week. 
In the beginning there is so much moisture that if the fire be too 
fierce it will dry up the liquid too quickly, and you will pre- 
maturely obtain a dry red powder, from which the principle of 
life has flown ; if the fire be not strong enough the substance 
will not be properly matured. "Too powerful a fire prevents the 
true union of the substances. True union only takes place in 
water. Bodies collide, but do not unite ; only liquids (and 
spirits) can truly mingle their substance. Hence our homogene- 
ous metallic water must be allowed to do its work properly, and 
should not be dried up, until this perfect mutual absorption has 
taken place in a natural manner. Premature drying only 
destroys the germ of life, strikes the active principle on the head 
as with a hammer, and renders it passive. AA red powder is 
indeed produced, but long before the time: for redness should 
be preceded by blackness. It is true that, in the beginning 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 189 

of our work, when heaven is wedded to earth, and earth 
conccives the fire of nature, a red colour does appear. But the 
substance is then sufficiently moist; and the redness soon gives 
way to a green colour, which in its turn gradually yields to 
blackness. Do not be in a hurry ; let your fire be just powerful 
enough, but not too powerful; steer a straight course between 
Scylla and Charybdis : you will behold in your vessel a variety 
of colours and grotesque transformations---until the substance 
settles down into a powder of intense blackness. This should 
happen within the first fifty days. If it does not, either your 
Mercury, or the regulation of your fire, or the composition 
of your substance is at fault—if, indeed, you have not moved or 
shaken your glass vessel. 

(UEIPANDAIIBARSSSNOXSBIE 
Of the Regimen of Saturn. 

All the Sages who have written on our Art, have spoken of 
the work and regimen of Saturn ; and their remarks have led 
many to choose common lead as the substance of the Stone. 
But you should know that ozz Saturn, or lead, is a much nobler 
substance than gold. It is the living earth in which the soul of 
gold is joined to Mercury, that they may bring forth Adam and 
his wife Eve. "Wherefore, since the highest has so lowered itself 
as to become the lowest, we may expect that its blood may be 
the means of redeeming all its brethren. The Tomb in which 
our King is buried, is that which we call Saturn, and it is the key 
of the work of transmutation; happy is he who can salute this 
planet, and call it by its right name. It is a boon which is 
obtained by the blessing of God alone; it is not of him that 
willeth, or of him that runneth ; but God bestoweth it on whom 
He will. 

(OEIASDADIRIRSOOXEXSDTR 
Of the different Regimens of this Work. 

Let me assure you that in our whole work there is nothing 
hidden but the regimen, of which it was truly said by the 
Sage that whoever knows it perfectly will be honoured by 

190 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

princes and potentates. I tell you plainly that if this one point 
were clearly set forth, our Art would become mere women's 
work and child's play : there would be nothing in it but a simple 
process of "cooking." Hence it has always been most carefully 
concealed by the Sages. But I have determined to write 
in a more sympathetic and kindly spirit: know then that our 
regimen throughout consists in coction and digestion, but that 
it implies a good many other processes, which those jealous 
Sages have made to appear different by describing them under 
different names. But we intend to speak more openly in regard 
to this subject. 

(ULIFASDADDASMESNOXOIVE 
Of the First Regimen, which zs that of Mercury. 

This first regimen has been studiously kept secret by all 
the Sages. They have spoken of the second regimen, or that 
of Saturn, as if it were the first, and have thus left the student 
without guidance in those operations which precede the appear- 
ance of that intense blackness. Count Bernard, of Trevisa, says, 
in his Parable, that when the King has come to the Fountain, 
he takes off the golden garment, gives it to Saturn, and 
enters the bath alone, afterwards receiving from Saturn a 
robe of black silk — But he does not tell us how long it takes 
to put off that golden robe; and thus, like all his brethren, 
leaves the poor beginner to grope in the dark during 40 or 50 
days. From the point where the stage of blackness is reached 
to the end of the work their directions are more full and 
intelligible. It is in regard to these first 40 days that the 
student requires additional light. "This period represents the 
regimen of Mercury (of the Sages), which is alone active during 
the whole time, the ozZer substance being temporarily dead. 
You should not suffer yourself to be deluded into the belief that 
when your matters are joined, namely, our Sun and Mercury, 
the *setting of the Sun" can be brought about in a few days. 
We ourselves waited a tedious time before a reconciliation was 
made between the fire and the water. As a matter of fact, 
the Sages have called the substance, throughout this first period, 
Rebis, or Two-thing: to shew that the union is not effected 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. [9I 

till the operation is complete. You should know, then, that 
though our Mercury consumes the Sun, yet a year after you 
shall separate them, unless they are connected together by a 
suitable degree of fire. It is not able to do anything at all 
without fre. We must not suppose that when our gold is 
placed in our Mercury it is swallowed up by it in the twinkling 
of an eye. This conception rests on a misunderstanding of 
Count Bernard's teaching about the King's plunge in the 
fountain. But the solution of gold is a more difficult matter 
than these gentry appear to have any idea of. It requires the 
highest skill so to regulate the fire in the first stage of the 
work as to solve the bodies without injuring the tincture. 
Attend to my teaching therefore. Take the body which I have 
shewed you, put it into the water of our sea, and bring to bear 
on the compound the proper degree of heat, till dews and 
mists begin to ascend, and the moisture is diminished night and 
day without intermission. Know that at first the two do not 
affect each other at all, and that only in course of time the body 
absorbs some of the water, and thus causes each to partake of 
the other's nature. Only part of the water is sublimed ; the 
rest gradually penetrates the pores of the body, which are 
thereby more and more softened, till the soul of the gold 
is enabled gently to pass out. Through the mediation of 
the soul the body is reconciled and united to the spirit, and 
their union is signalized by the appearance of the black colour. 
The whole operation lasts about 40—50 days, and is called the 
Regimen of Mercury, because the body is passive throughout, 
and the spirit, or Mercury, brings about all the changes of 
colour, which begin to appear about the 20th day, and gradually 
intensify till all be at last completed in black of the deepest dye, 
which the 5oth day will manifest. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The Regimen of the Secoud Part, which is that of Saturn. 

The Regimen of Mercury, the operation whereof despoils 
the King of his golden garments, is followed by the Regimen of 
Saturn. When the Lion dies the Crow is born. "The substance 
has now become of a uniform colour, namely, as black as pitch, 

192 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

and neither vapours, or winds, or any other signs of life are seen ; 
the whole is dry as dust, with the exception of some pitch-like 
substance, which now and then bubbles up; all presents an 
image of eternal death. Nevertheless, it is a sight which gladdens 
the heart of the Sage. For the black colour which is seen is 
bright and brilliant ; and if you behold something like a thin 
paste bubbling up here and there, you may rejoice. For itis the 
work of the quickening spirit, which will soon restore the dead 
bodies to life. "The regulation of the fire is a matter of great im- 
portance at this juncture; if you make it too fierce, and thus 
cause sublimation at this stage, everything will be irrecoverably 
spoilt. Be content, therefore, to remain, as it were, in prison for 
forty days and nights, even as was the good Trevisan, and employ 
only gentle heat. Let your delicate substance remain at the 
bottom, which is the womb of conception, in the sure hope that 
after the time appointed by the Creator for this Operation, the 
spirit will arise in a glorified state, and glorify its body—that it 
will ascend and be gently circulated from the centre to the 
heavens, then descend to the centre from the heavens, and take 
to itself the power of things above and things below. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Of the Regimen of fupiter. 

Black Saturn is succeeded by Jupiter, who exhibits divers 
colours. For after the putrefaction and conception, which has 
taken place at the bottom of the vessel, there is once more a 
change of colours and a circulating sublimation. This A'ezgz, or 
Regimen, lasts only three weeks. During this period you see all 
conceivable colours concerning which no definite account can be 
given. The * showers" that fall will become more numerous as 
the close of this reign approaches, and its termination is sig- 
nalized by the appearance of a snowy white streaky deposit on 
the sides of the vessel. Rejoice, then, for you have successfully 
accomplished the regimen of Jupiter. What you must be par- 
ticularly careful about in. this operation, is to prevent the young 
ones of the Crow from going back to the nest when they have 
once left it; secondly, to let your earth get neither too dry by 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. 193 

an immoderate sublimation of the moisture, nor yet to swamp 
and smother it with the moisture. These ends will be attained 
by the proper regulation of the outward heat. 

GEPAPTER XVIL 
Of the Regimen of the Moon. 

When the Reign of Jupiter comes to an end (towards the 
close of the fourth month) you will see the sign of the waxing 
moon (Crescent), and know that the whole Reign of Jupiter was 
devoted to the purification of the Laton. The mundifying spirit 
is very pure and brilliant, but the body that has to be cleansed is 
intensely black. While it passes from blackness to whiteness, a 
great variety of colours are observed ; noris it at once perfectly 
white ; at first it is simply white—afterwards it is of a dazzling, 
snowy splendoum* Under this Reign the whole mass presents 
the appearance of liquid quicksilver. "This is called the sealing 
of the mother in the belly of the infant whom she bears ; and 
its intermediate colours are more white than black, just as in the 
Reign of Jupiter they were more black than white. The Reign 
of the Moon lasts just three weeks ; but before its close, the 
substance exhibits a great varicty of forms ; it will become liquid, 
and again coagulate a hundred times a day ; sometimes it will 
present the appearance of fishes' eyes, and then again of tiny 
silver trees, with twigs and leaves. Whenever you look at it you 
will have cause for astonishment, particularly when you see it all 
divided into beautiful but very minute grains of silver, like the 
rays of theSun. This is the White Tincture, glorious to behold, 
but nothing in respect of what it may become. 

(ORIPASDIDIS RS CXCXSVOIDIT- 
Of the Regimen of Venus. 

The substance, if left in the same vessel, will once more 
become volatile and (though already perfect in its way) will 
undergo another change. But if you take it out of the vessel, 
and after allowing it to cool, put it into another, you will not be 
ableto make anything of it. In this Reign you should also give 

Vor. II. N 

194 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

careful attention to your fire. For the perfect Stone is fusible ; 
and if the fire be too powerful the substance will become glazed, 
and unsusceptible of any further change. This * vitrification " 
of the substance may happen at any time from the middle of the 
Reign of the Moon to the tenth day of the Reign of Venus, and 
should be carefully guarded against. The heat should be gentle, 
So as to melt the compound very slowly and gradually ; it will then 
raise bubbles, and receive a spirit that will rise upward, carrying 
the Stone with it, and imparting to it new colours, especially a 
copper-green colour, which endures for some time, and does not 
quite disappear till the twentieth day ; the next change.is to blue 
and livid, and at the close of this Reign the colour is a pale 
purple. Do notirritate the spirit too much—it is more corporeal 
than before, and if you sublime it to the Zo? of the vessel, it will 
hardly return. The same caution should be observed in the 
Reign of the Moon, when the substance begins to thicken. "The 
law is one of mildness, and not of violence, lest everything should 
rise to the top of the vessel, and be consumed or vitrified to the 
ruin of the whole work. When you see the gveez colour, know 
that the substance now contains the germ of its highestlife. Do 
not turn the greenness into blackness by immoderate heat. This 
Reign is maintained for forty days. 

(OEIVASDIBB/RASXSXOIPXS 
Of the Regimen of Mars. 

When the Regimen of Venus is over,and therein has appeared 
the philosophical tree, with all'its branches and leaves, the Reign 
of Mars begins with a light yellow, or dirty brown colour, but at 
last exhibits the transitory hues of the Rainbow, and the 
Peacock's Tail. At this stage the compound is drier, and often 
shews like a hyacinth with a tinge of gold. The mother being 
now sealed in her infant's belly, swells and is purified, but because 
of the present great purity of the compound, no putridness can 
have place in this regimen, but some obscure colours are chief 
actors, while some middle colours come and go, and they are 
pleasant to look on. Our Virgin Earth is now undergoing the 
. ast degree of its cultivation, and is getting ready to receive and 

AN OPEN ENTRANCE. I95. 

mature the fruit of the Sun. Hence you should keep up a 
moderate temperature; then there will be seen, about the 
thirtieth day of this Reign, an orange colour, which, within two 
weeks from its first appearance, will tinge the whole substance 
with its own hue. i 

CEPATDPTER XX. | 
Of the Regimen of the Sum. 

As you are now approaching the end of the work, the 
substance receives a golden tinge, and the Virgin's Milk which 
you give your substance to drink has assumed a deep orange 
colour. Pray to God to keep you from haste and impatience at 
this stage of the work ; consider that you have now waited for 
seven months, and that it would be foolish to let one hour rob 
you of the fruits of all your labour. "Therefore be more and 
more careful the nearer you approach perfection. Then you will 
first observe an orange-coloured sweat breaking out on the body ; 
next there will be vapour of an orange hue. Soon the body 
below becomes tinged with violet and a darkish purple. At the 
end of fourteen or fifteen days, the substance will be, for the 
most part, humid and ponderous, and yet the wind still bears it 
in its womb. Towards the 26th day of the Reign it will begin 
to get dry, and to become liquid and solid in turn (about a 
hundred times a day) ; then it becomes granulated ; then again 
it is welded together into one mass, and so it goes on changing 
for about a fcrtnight. At length, however, an unexpectedly 
glorious light will burst from your substance, and the end will 
arrive three days afterwards. "The substance will be granulated, 
like atoms of gold (or motes in the Sun), and turn a deep red 
—a red the intensity of which makes it seem black like very 
pure blood in a clotted state. "This is the Great Wonder of 
Wonders, which has not its like on earth. 

(OEDASPADEARE XOXOXCE, 

Of the Fermentation of the Stone. 

I forgot to wern you in the last chapter to be on your guard 
against the danger of vitrification ; too fierce a fire would render: 
N2 

198 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

his God in peace and safety. He will not care for pomp or 
dazzling outward show. But if he lived a thousand years, and 
daily entertained a million people, he could never come to want, 
since he has at hand the means of indefinitely multiplying the 
Stone both in weight and virtue, and thus of changing all 
imperfect metals in the world into gold. 

In the second place, he has it in his power to make stones 
and diamonds far more precious than any that are naturally 
procured. 

In the third place, he has an Universal Medicine, with 
which he can cure every conceivable disease, and, indeed, as to 
the quantity of his Medicine, he might heal ali sick people in the 
world. 

Now to the King Eternal, Immortal, and sole Almighty, be 
everlasting praise for these His unspeakable gifts and invaluable 
treasures. 

I exhort all that possess this Treasure, to use it to the 
praise of God, and the good of their neighbours, in order that 
they may not at the last day be eternally doomed for their 
ingratitude to their Creator. 

TO 

(E (BID RE ASIPA GO) BINGIES 
BE 

Jr38 119; (GEI (OY IW 

A 

SU D TISSUE EGORY 

CONCERNING THE 

SECINETS QR AECHISN Y 

VERY USEFUL TO POSSESS 
AND 

PLEASANT TO READ. 

BY 

MUORCAEIASEBSIE CIVIC ADTIOBARS. 

A EN 
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24 MD 9 E Ww 

THE SECRETS OF ALCHEMY. 

'the liberal arts and sciences, and in the company of 

wise men and judicious scholars, I was compelled, as 

the result of my observation of mankind, to arrive at 
the melancholy conclusion that the hearts of most persons are 
set either on ambitious and vainglorious projects, on sensual 
pleasures, or on the accumulation of wealth by all and any 
means; and that few care either for God or for virtue At 
first I did not quite know whether to become a disciple of the 
laughing or of the weeping philosopher, or whether to join in the 
exclamation of the wise Prince of Israel: * All things are vanity." 
But at length the Bible and experience taught me to take refuge 
in the study of the hidden secrets of Nature, whether pursued at 
home, by means of books, or abroad, in the Great Volume of the 
World. .Now, the more I drank of the mighty fount of know- 
ledge, the more painfully my thirst, like that of Tantalus, seemed 
to increase. [I had heard that there was a bird called Phoenix, 
the only one of its kind in the whole world, whose feathers and 
flesh constitute the great and glorious medicine for all passion, 
pain, and sorrow ; which also Helena, after her return from Troy, 
had presented in the form of a draught to Telemachus, who 
thereupon had forgotten all his sorrows and troubles. This bird 
I could not indeed hope to obtain entire; but I was seized with 
an irresistible longing to become possessed of at least one of its 
smallest feathers ; and for this unspeakable privilege I was pre- 
pared to spend all my substance, to travel far and wide, and to 
endure every hardship. There was, of course, much to discourage 
me. Some people denied the very existence of this bird ; others 
laughed at my faith in its wonder-working properties. I was 
thus brought for a time to regard all that Tacitus, Pliny, and all

202 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

other writers have said as fabulous, and to doubt whether, after 
all, the different narcotics and opiates were not a better remedy 
for anger and sorrow than the supposed virtues of the Phoenix. 
Moreover, I had heard of the simple method of curing these 
mental ailments suggested by a certain wise man to Augustus, 
whom he bade run through the twenty-four letters before 
saying anything whenever he was angry ; and this suggestion 
appeared to supersede all other remedies. I had also read 
the books of those moral philosophers who undertake to pre- 
scribe an effective remedy for every disease of the mind. But 
after giving all these boasted specifics a fair trial, I found, to my 
dismay, that they were of little practical use. In many cases, 
the causes of mental maladies appeared to be material, and to 
consist in an excess or defect of the bile, or of some other bodily 
substance; in all these cases a medical treatment seemed to be 
indicated ; whence Galen, that prince among physicians, was led 
to believe that character depends on temperaments of the body. 
As a soldier may lose all his bravery and strength by being 
starved and confined in a close prison, so even a good person 
may yield to anger, simply through some vicious habit of 
body. "This opinion is most reasonable in itself, and is borne 
out, amongst other things, by the testimony which is given by 
Arnold of Villanova, in that book of his where he sets forth the 
virtues of all medicines by means of tables of the four qualities : 
* 'The medicines that conduce to intellectual excellence are those 
which strengthen the digestion, and nourish the brain and the 
principal vitals, purging out all superfluities, purifying the blood, 
and preventing the ascent of vapours to the brain; hence you 
will find that many medical writers speak of their medicines as 
productive of a direct effect upon the mind, when it is only 
through the medium of the stomach, the brain, the blood, the 
liver, etc., that they tend to brighten the intellectual faculties, by 
improving the general health of the brain, and quickening all 
processes of the body, that you may say they are productive of 
joy, because they tend to strengthen the chief limbs, purify the 
blood, and produce good animal spirits. Other medicines "lead 
to Paradise," as they dispose the heart to charity and to every 
good work, by their action upon the blood. Some medicinal 
herbs have the power of exciting love, by increasing and clarify- 

TELA SBCISETS. QE ALCHBWE. 203 

ing the blood, and thus quickening the sexual instinct ; while 
others make men chaste and religious, by inducing poverty and 
frigidity of blood, and taking away the edge of all sensual 
appetite. In the same way, it is possible, by means of certain 
drugs, to make men stupid and insane, as men are rendered 
dull and stolid by drinking too much wine. You may also 
notice, sometimes, that after eating a certain kind of food, men 
become light-hearted, joyous, and inclined to dance and sing— 
though they are ordinarily staid and grave persons—while other 
kinds of food have a contrary effect upon them. Thus, a 
physician has power to make a miser liberal, a chaste person 
lascivious, a timid person bold, simply by changing the com- 
plexion of his vital juices. Such are the wonderful secrets of the 
medical Art, though, of course, they are hidden from the foolish 
and the ignorant. There are a great many infatuated persons 
who will not believe that medicine can do anything but cure 
a headache ; but such people know little of the resources of this 
science. Hippocrates forbad the physicians whom he taught 
to reveal these secrets ; and it was a wise prohibition." A little 
further on the same writer says: * What medicine can produce 
greater heat than anger? or chill the body more than fear? or 
invigorate the nerves more thoroughly than joy ? or nourish and 
comfort more gently than hope? . And what more certain cause 
of death is there than despair?" These are the words of the 
philosopher, and they shew that medicine may, through the 
body, cure the mind, and thus supply a remedy for anger as well 
as other mental disturbances. It is true that if there isa remedy 
for anger, it would, in the present state of the world, hardly be 
very highly esteemed. Still it would calm the passions of indi- 
viduals, although other persons might not recognise its value. 
But that which men do not care to have just now, may one day 
be in great demand. Such is the vicissitude of all things human. 
Galen once said that the savages of England and Germany were 
as hostile to the science of Medicine as they were ignorant of it. 
But now the descendants of Galen's countrymen are sunk in 
barbarism, while the English and Germans are the most skilful 
physicians in the world. "Thus it seems very likely that this 
Remedy may be one day in great request, especially when 
we consider its vast utility, and the innumerable evils which 
anger brings upon men. 

204. THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

What has been said about anger applies with equal force to 
grief ; for while the symptoms of anger are more or less mental, 
those of grief produce a more perceptible and lasting effect on 
the body. This great Remedy for anger and grief, then, it 
would be most desirable to have, if we could only find the 
Phemnix which affords it. Where shall I look for it? "Where 
shall I enquire after it? Whom shall I ask? | determined to 
go abroad, and to search for it till I should have found it. For- 
tune assists the brave: to the indolent and idle knowledge never 
comes. I would leave my native country —dearly as I love it, 
and sadly as [ should miss my friends - and wander from land to 
land until I should be able to return with the eagerly coveted 
Medicine. All beginnings are difficult: he who has never been 
sad, cannot rejoice ; he who has never erred, cannot be brought 
back to the right way ; and. as the Chemists say : * There is in 
Alchemy a certain noble body, which is moved from master to 
master, whose beginning is misery and sourness, whose end is 
sweetness and joy." So I expected to endure hardships, and go 
through bitter experiences, but I also expected them to be crowned 
with the delights of success. Of the existence of the Phoenix I 
had no doubt, or I could not have looked for it. It is enough 
for me to see the Sun and its rays, even though I cannot touch it ; 
and perhaps it is as well for us that we cannot get so very close to 
the Sun. But as to this Medicine which I seek ; how can I have 
a perfect knowledge of it before I see and touch it? How can I 
become a Master before I have been a scholar? The products 
of all countries are not the same; and perhaps I may learn in 
one part of the world what I cannot get to know in another. 
Moreover, I asked myself the question: Can a pilgrim's life hurt 
anyone? Are we not all pilgrims here below to that land whither 
our Saviour Christ has gone before? And is not the example of 
peregrination set us by the swallow, the herald of spring ; by the 
crane, the stork, and other birds of passage? Does not the whole 
world lie open before man as the air is everywhere accessible to 
birds? Great Phoebus himself, the god of the Sun, journeys 
day by day over the wide expanse of the sky. The heart of 
man beats and pulsates in his bosom from the first to the 
last hour of his life; and being surrounded by all these models 
and examples, it is natural for man to lead the life of a pilgrim, 

ZUEFIBL SENE AUEDTASQUET PEG ELE M Y. 205 

particularly if that pilgrimage be directed towards a certain 
goal. The merchant travels over land and sea to buy the pro- 
duce of distant climes ; but a nobler merchandise by far are 
science and knowledge, which are the wares of the mind. He 
who stays at home will there bury his talents, and get to know 
litle about the secrets of the universe X Moreover, it is both 
pleasant to travel and honourable to be always several hours' 
journey in advance of the Sun. That which is most spiritual is 
most swift in its movements, while the lifeless earth alone is 
immovable. The other three elements are in perpetual motion : 
the air sweeps over the earth in the shape of winds, hurricanes, 
and gales ; fire devours everything before it as it rushes onward in 
the conflagration of a great city ; water runs along in rivers and 
mighty streams, and hastes to reach the sea. Let us also look 
up and behold the heavens as they move in their glory. The 
stars, the sun, and the moon know the times and seasons of 
their rising and setting. ^A cannon ball, if projected from one 
of our most powerful guns, would be more than eight days in 
making the compass of the world (which is more than 25,000 
miles); but the Sun, notwithstanding its vast size, accomplishes 
the same distance in 24 hours. It would make our thoughts 
reel if we strove to realise the velocity with which Saturn moves 
round the Sun, and with which the heavens revolve round their 
own axis. But greater still; and far more wonderful, is the 
speed of human thought, which, in a moment of time, travels 
from one end of the heavens to the other. We may believe that 
the angels, as spiritual beings, move with the quickness of that 
which is spiritual in man, viz., thought. God alone does not 
move ; for He is everywhere. For all these reasons, I conceived 
that it would be both interesting, pleasant, honourable, and 
eminently profitable for me to follow the example of the whole 
world, and to undertake a pilgrimage for the purpose of dis- 
covering this wonderful bird Pheenix. 1 therefore braced myself 
for a long journey, determining to travel, first, through all the 
countries of Europe, then, if necessary, to America, thence to 
Asia, and at last to pass on to Africa. If, after carefully 
searching for the Phoenix in all these parts of the world, [ did 
not succeed in finding it or hearing of it, I might reasonably 
give up all hopes of ever setting eyes thereon. The plan of my 

206 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

journey was determined by the relative quality of the elements 
which the different parts of the world represent, Ze, Europe 
stands for earth, America for water, Asia for air, and Africa for 
fire; and earth cannot become air except through the medium 
of water; nor can water become fire except through the 
medium of air. I determined, then, to go first to Europe, 
which represents the grossest, and last to Africa, which repres- 
ents the most subtle element. But my reasons will be set forth 
more clearly as I come to speak of the different parts of the 
world. 

JEU IRQJIPIS) 2. de ARE L 

I left my native town on the day of the vernal equinox, 
when the Moon and Sun were both in the sign of Aries, with 
the intention of first travelling through Europe, and to enquire 
everywhere after the Pheenix. I took Europe to represent the 
element Earth, because earth forms the foundation of all the 
other elements, and stands out above the water, so Europe is the 
mother of the whole world, and though smaller than other con- 
tinents, is vastly superior to them through the courage, energy, 
and mental strength of its inhabitants. Some say that one hand- 
ful of earth gives ten handfuls of water, a hundred handfuls of 
air, and a thousand handfuls of fire ; and this is the relative im- 
portance of the different continents, if Europe answers to earth. 
Europe has produced the bravest warriors, and the most distin- 
guished conquerors; and though she has subdued other continents, 
she has herself never been subjugated by them. Of the four 
great world empires, only one was founded by an Asiatic prince; 
the Macedonian, the Roman, and the Teutonic Empires, have all 
had their centres in Europe. Alexander the Great and Julius 
Casar were among her sons. If we look at a map of Europe 
we may easily perceive that in shape this part of the world 
resembles a virgin; but her heart is that of a lion. For these 
reasons, | determined to travel first through this Virgin Lion, 
because it clearly corresponds to the fundamental element : 
earth. 

Europe is a Virgin because of her beauty and spotless purity ; 
a Lion because she has conquered others, but. has never herself 

VOEPE SEL RUBPIASE QD TAE B MY. 207 

been conquered. | Among the heavenly bodies the Sun answers 
to Europe, and among the metals, gold. For though she pro- 
duces little gold, and the sun shines upon her with less fierceness 
than on Africa, yet she is worthy of being compared to the Sun 
and gold because of the excellence of her people, though a few 
years ago even some real lions were born in Germany, yet we call 
her a Lioness only on account of her stoutness of heart. Europe 
is the Mother of the World, and Germany is her heart. 

Nor is Europe without her marvels. In Pannonia, it is 
reported, men live in compact stone houses under water. The hot 
springs of Carlsbad, it is said, are hardened into stones. On the 
coasts of Prussia, a transparent and pellucid stone (amber), formed 
out of subterraneous vegetable juices, is cast ashore in large quanti- 
ties. I do not mention the coral of the Sicilian sea, which, origin- 
ally a plant, hardens outside water into a white or red tree of 
stone ; orthe sealed earth of Germany and Silesia. . . . Europe, 
then, is the Zzoez EartA. This expression is for those who hear 
not with their ears only, but also with their brains ; it is earth 
which resists the fire, like gold, and is not resolved into air. 
Like the boundary pillar of the gods of old, it * yields to none." 
Hence Europe (the gold of the universe) seemed the very place 
in which I should be most likely to hear of the Phoenix and its 
Medicine. But most of those whom I met laughed at my quest, 
and said that,like Narcissus, I had fallen in love with the shadow 
of my own mind, the echo of my vain and ambitious thoughts, 
which had no substantial existence apart from my own folly. 
* 'The words of the Alchemists," said they, *arelike clouds: they 
may mean and represent anything, according to the fancy of him 
who hears them. And even if there were such a medicine, 
human life is too brief for the search ; all that makes life worth 
living will have to be neglected and thrust aside while you are 
engaged in hunting after it. If we can pick up a knowledge of 
this secret casually, and whilst devoting ourselves to other 
pursuits, well; but if.not, we can very ill spare the time for 
a closer search." These objections (at least the latter half of 
them) I met as follows: * The quest of this Medicine demands 
the whole powers of a man's body and mind. — He who engages 
in it only casually, cannot hope to penetrate even the outward 
rind of knowledge. The object of our search is a profound 

208 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

secret, and a man who is not prepared to give himself wholly to 
this enquiry had much better abstain from it altogether. 
readily acknowledge that the powers of my mind are not such as 
to justify me in anticipating success. But the spirit within me 
impels me to undertake this search ; and I am confident that 
God will at the last reward my patience, and my humble waiting 
upon Him. As every King loves his Queen, as every bride- 
groom is devoted to his bride, so I regard this science as more 
beautiful and lovely than anything else in the world besides. 
Now, beautiful things are hard to win, and hard toil is the way to 
all that is great and glorious." This was the gist of my answer. 
Now I had already travelled through a great part of Europe, when 
it occurred to me that Italy and Spain are constantly mentioned 
by the Ancients as the great seats of secret knowledge, and I 
therefore directed my steps thitherward. In Spain I heard 
that some Arabs (Geber, Avicenna, and others) had lived there a 
long time ago, and these had possessed the wonderful Medicine ; 
I was also told a great deal about Hercules and his achievement 
in securing the golden apples of the Hesperides, and also the 
golden cup, wherein he received the medicine for anger and 
sorrow. Now all prudent men have decided that it contained a 
small portion of the feathers of the Pheenix. I saw that Geryon 
with the three bodies was the theme of the philosopher's writings, 
that Hercules was a laborious artist, seeker of the Medicine. 
But nobody was able to give me any definite information. I did 
not, however, wish to leave Europe without visiting the Canary 
Islands, which are seven in number and are named:  Lancerotta, 
Bonaventura, Great Canaria, Teneriffe, Gomera, Ferro,and Palma. 
"Three of them, Lancerotta, Gomera, and Ferro, are governed each 
by its own King. Ferro is naturally destitute of good drinking 
water, but the inhabitants get a supply of it out of certain broad- 
leaved trees, which distil sweet water in such quantities as to 
suffice for the who:e island. Strangers and pirates who land in 
the island, being ignorant of this fact, are prevented by want of 
water from staying in Ferro very long. Now, it happened about 
this time that the King of Gomera had died without leaving a 
male heir, and his subjects refused to acknowledge the authority 
of his beautiful daughter Blanche, unless she accepted the hand 
of some royal wooer, because they said that it was unworthy of 

THE SECRETS OF ALCHEMY 209 

men to be ruled by a woman, and calculated to injure the 
manliness of the national character—as was shewn by the experi- 
ence of those peoples over whom women have borne sway for 
any length of time. For there women had assumed the place of 
men, while men were degraded to the position of women ; and, 
as a consequence, there followed the wildest excesses of profli- 
gacy and lewdness. So the royal maiden was prevailed upon to 
think of bestowing her hand in marriage. Now,there was in the 
island a royal youth, named Brumazar (with beautiful dark locks 
and a splendid golden robe),who was passionately enamoured of 
the royal maiden Blanche, and was loved by her in return. He 
wooed and won her, and the wedding was celebrated on condition 
that she should bring to him as her dower a diamond of great 
value and magnitude, while he should present to her a splendid 
ruby of incalculable worth (Z &, worth a million ducats) ; he, as her 
King and Lord, should protect her from all dangers and from 
the robbers with whom that country swarms, while she, on the 
other hand, promised humbly to obey him without either subter- 
fuge or tergiversation. After these preliminaries, they were 
linked together in close and indissoluble marriage, in which they 
lived long and happily ; and it was predicted that a son should 
be born to them, who would be a mighty conqueror, and would 
carry his victorious arms as far as the Pillars of Dionysus in 
India. . . . So you see that I. was unable to get any 
information whatsoever about the Pheenix in the course of my 
wanderings through Europe ; I therefore determined to set sail 
for America, in the hope that I might be more fortunate among 
the savages of that Continent. For I remembered the words of 
the poet :— 

* Accident is a mighty helper; let your hook always be 
baited; in the least likely river you may catch your fish." 

AMERICA: WATER. 

In these days, when commerce has opened up, as it were, a 
highroad across the seas to America (or India in the West), there 
is no very great difficulty in reaching that continent; but far 
different were the circumstances under which it was fist 

Vor. IT, O 

210 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

discovered. After leaving the *Islands of the Blessed," I became 
a passenger on board of a ship which had an eagle for its figure- 
head ; and, after weathering many severe gales and hurricanes, 
we at length landed in Brazil, a great province of America, 
entirely covered with forests. The surface of the country is only 
dotted here and there with the homestead of a settler; there are 
few towns, and the inhabitants are sunk in ignorance, and un- 
skilled in the arts of civilisation. How, then, could I hope to 
hearanything about the Phoenix among people who could hardly 
read or write? Yet there are in this country many rare and 
beautiful birds which are not found elsewhere, though, of course, 
the Phoenix, being a miraculous bird, must not be sought among 
common fowls. 'The trees of the land are of a rich colour and 
sweet fragrance; and one day when I was enjoying the wild 
beauty of the forest, and listening to the natural music of the 
birds, I happened to find an apple of unusual and exquisite 
beauty, which on a closer view exhibited . the following 
inscription :— 

* Within is that which, if you deliver it to its " 

* grandmother, there will thence arise a son who" 

* may cling to his mother in loving embrace. " 

* From this union will arise in a short time a" 

* noble tree which will render to the husbandman " 

*a golden harvest." 

After much thinking, it occurred to me that the seed which 
was in the fruit must be placed in the earth (its grandmother, since 
the parent tree was its mother) So I took it as a gift of God, 
sowed the seed, and when there had sprung up a little tree, T 
grafted it into the parent tree (first having sawn off that tree 
close to the ground) and when the two had grown together, they 
became a much more glorious tree than either of them had been 
before; and the fruit was that of the scion which had been 
inserted into the parent tree.... tis said that before the 
Spaniards reached Brazil, there were no horses in that country, 
so that the natives regarded a horse soldier as a monster half 
man and half beast; but when both horses and asses had been 
introduced by the strangers, it was thought most desirable to 
obtain also some mules which are the common offspring of these 
two animals. Now, there was a certain chief who possessed a 

VOENE SEE TRES. aT, CEDE M Y. Pu 

large number both of asses and horses, and he took particular 
interest in this matter. He knew very well how to breed horses 
from horses, and asses from asses, but he was not acquainted 
with the proper method of breeding mules from both ; while he 
was aware that all experiments which are made in the dark, ze, 
without the light of previous experience, are both dangerous and 
uncertain. The consequence was that all his efforts to produce 
a mule out of a stallion and a she ass were doomed to failure, no 
doubt because their seeds were not mixed in the right proportion. 
At last a Sage who was passing that way, and whose insight into 
the secret working of Nature was infinitely keener and more 
complete than that of those ignorant people, gave our chief the 
following advice:— 

*"I[f you would obtain a mule resembling the 

* paternal ass in length of ear and slowness of" 

* gait, you should feed each of the parents with " 

* just as large a quantity of food as their nature ' 

* requires. Would you know what this proportion " 

"is? (Give to the male twice as much as to the " 

* female, then a mare will conceive a mule from " 

* an ass." 

This advice was taken by the chief, and, after several 
failures, his perseverance was crowned with complete success. 
Nor does it appear contrary to Nature's general plan that two 
different parents should produce offspring which differs from 
them both. Look at the leopard, which is said to be the 
offspring of the pard and the lioness ; in the same way the wolf 
and bitch beget the lynx ; a scion inserted into a good tree 
produces fruit different from those of the parent stock; new 
varieties of flowers are obtained by a judicious mingling of the 
pollen ; and the red powder called * our Tincture," being mixed 
with quicksilver over the fire, produces gold which is utterly 
unlike either the one or the other. Now, these Americans are 
able to perform a most singular experiment with metals, and 
particularly with gold. ^ They have a kind of water in which 
gold becomes soft like wax, and capable of being moulded with 
the hand into any shape they please. This water is not a 
corrosive, since it does not burn the fingers of those who take up 
the gold. But we need not doubt that it is some chemical 

02 

» 

) 

212 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

discovery, and that it is obtained by a distilling process. . . . . 
As I could gain no further information in America, I began to 
think of taking the first opportunity of crossing to Asia: I took 
with me a very heavy and valuable piece of a certain kind of 
wood, the most precious I saw here in Brazil, and which is 
remarkable for its brilliant ebony colour, for this black colour 
seems proper to America by reason of the blackish poplars and 
the soil dyed with various hues. The colour of this wood seems 
to arise from the heat of the sun, and the wonderful peculiarity 
of the American soil, of which Monandez, that learned physician 
of Seville, writes as follows: * The variety of colour exhibited 
by the soil of Peru is most remarkable. If you look at it from 
a distance, it has the appearance of a patchwork quilt spread 
out to air in the sun: one part of it is green, another blue, 
others again are yellow, white, black, and red. Now all these are 
different kinds of mineral earth : the black earth, if mixed with 
water or wine, makes an excellent ink ; the red soil is said to be 
the ore of quicksilver, and the Indians paint themselves with it."— 
Well, I took my wood, went aboard a ship, with a white unicorn 
for its figure head, and setting sail for Asia, soon arrived in the 
Persian Gulf. 

ZASSIIPASC P ASIMISS 

Asia is the third continent of the world, the continent which 
answers to the element of Air, and its climate is more temperate 
than that of the other continents, as it is equally remote from 
the intense cold of Europe, and the intense heat of Africa. 
Being both warm and moist,it most admirably corresponds to 
the element of air; its heat is almost everywhere tempered by 
the vapours which ascend from the sea. Moist, warm air has 
fire for its father, and water for its mother, and retains the most 
active qualities of both its parents. Thus air is a mediator 
between the two hostile elements, and in its own composition 
reconciles their strife. In the same way Asia binds Europe 
(earth) and Africa (fire) together, the grossest and the most 
subtle of the elements ; but without Asia (air) there would be no 
union between them. By means of air, fire clings gladly to 

THE SECRETS OF ALCHEMY. i8 

earth, and fosters it; but without air, the fire soon goes out. It 
is the prerogative and distinctive mark of Asia to be the centre 
of the world, and to bring forth such fruits as require a warm, 
soft air, as, for instance, dates, balsam, spices of all kinds, and 
gold itself. Asia is the cradle of our race, the seat of the first 
Monarchy, the birthplace of our Redeemer. From the Persian 
gulf I travelled straight through the continent, till I reached 
those parts of Asia Minor where Jason is said to have obtained 
the golden fleece. So, being greatly interested in these old 
world occurrences, I walked out one day to a place said to be the 
field of Mars, and the site of the Palace of Aétes, the descendant 
of the Sun ; there I met an old man of venerable aspect and 
authoritative port, who saluted me graciously, and to whom, after 
returning his salutation, I addressed the following words : 
* Master, if I am not troubling you too much, kindly enlighten 
my ignorance, as I can doubt neither your ability nor your 
willingness to help a stranger" He having signified his 
willingness to do for me all that lay in his power, I asked 
him whether those things which were related in history 
and poetry concerning Jason and his golden fleece, were real 
facts or mere poetical fictions. He smiled, and made the 
following reply to my question: *I myself am Jason, and 
better able than any one else to give you information 
concerning those things which have happened to myself You 
need not be afraid, for during my lifetime I was no man's enemy, 
but succoured all,like a good physician; and now that I no 
longer belong to this world, I am still as kindly disposed towards 
my mortal brethren. On this spot stood the royal seat of my 
father-in-law, Aétes, whose father was the Sun— not, indeed, that 
heavenly luminary (which would be incredible), but one likest to 
him in name, and face, and dignity. The golden fleece of the 
ram, which Mercury had transmuted, and which Aétes had hung 
in the grove of Mars, I obtained in the following manner: 
Medea was my chief adviser, and she enabled me by her wise 
counsel to contend successfully against the fierce and venomous 
monsters. The watchful Dragon I stupefied with a narcotic, 
which I cast into his maw ; and while he was in that helpless 
state, I hastened to extract his teeth. "These had to be buried 
in earth first prepared and ploughed up by means of bulls vomit- 

214 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

ing fire, which fire was extinguished by water poured into their 
mouths. Then Medea gave me the images of the Sun and 
Moon, without which, she said, nothing could be done" | asked 
where I should find all these things. ^ His answer was that he 
obtained them Medea, but he could not tell me where she was to 
be found. * When she left me in her madness," he said, * she 
was wedded to old Aegeus, to whom she bore Medus; Medus 
afterwards went to Asia, and became the founder of the Median 
race" I wished to ask Jason many more questions, but he ex- 
cused himself from answering them, and vanished before my 
eyes. "Then I saw that he had been speaking of the Medicine of 
which I was in search, which also he had shadowed out under 
the figure of the golden fleece. For the crest of the Phoenix and 
its feathers are described by the learned as exhibiting a golden 
splendour. I did not indeed meet with many learned men in 
Asia; but I was wellsatisfied to have explored that blessed 
* aérial earth," especially as Syria and the Holy Land (with their 
rivers of Adonis and Jordan, in which the leper Naaman was 
cleansed) form part of it. In Syria,it is related that Adonis 
was killed by a boar, hounded. on by Mars, and that from his 
wounds there flowed forth that balm by means of which human 
bodies are preserved from decomposition. On this continent 
stood the Holy of Holies, into which our Most High Priest 
entered when He had made atonement for the sins of the whole 
race on the Cross of Calvary ; to Him let us now utter forth the 
most ardent desires of our hearts in the following prayer : 

O great and merciful Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, 
who being God from all eternity, next madest man in time, in 
order that, as our Mediator, Thou mightest unite God and man, 
by satisfying the eternal and infinite power of God which human 
sin had provoked to wrath, that is to say, Thyself, the Father, 
and the Holy Spirit. For this purpose Thou wast born into this 
world and didst gó about doing good among men, and didst 
sanctify this earth by Thy miracles, Passion, Resurrection, and 
Ascension. To Thee I pray from the very bottom of my heart 
that as Thou hast given this Medicine for the use of men by 
ordinary means, and meanwhile hast Thyself cured incurable 
diseases by Thy Divine power, Who art the Great Physician: 
so Thou wouldst bestow the gift of this most precious Medicine 

THE SECRETS OF ALCHEMY.  aeis5 

upon me, the very humblest of thy servants, who for the sake of 
this most blessed knowledge have taken upon myself so weary 
a pilgrimage, and so many toils and hardships, as Thou well 
knowest—in order that I may use it to the glory of Thy Name, 
and for the relief of my suffering brethren. Thou who art a 
searcher of hearts, knowest that I despise all worldly pomp, and 
desire to consecrate my life to Thee, if Thou wilt but work in me 
both the will and the power of performance: Grant to me the 
power of exercising boundless charity, of relieving all sufferings, 
both bodily and mental: Bless me with the gracious gift of Thy 
Medicine, which comes next in value after the peace of mind and 
eternal happiness which Thou hast gained for us, in order that 
its virtue may be effectual in the cure of human sorrow, disease, 
and pain ; to the everlasting praise of the everblessed Trinity, 
world without end, Amen. 

When I had poured forth this prayer to the Giver of all 
good things, [ remembered that besides the land which once 
flowed with milk and honey, but now, under Turkish rule, has 
become utterly barren and sterile, there was also in Asia, 
Paradise, which was created for man while he was still perfect. 
Knowing that this blessed garden was situated. near Babylon, 
I journeyed to the spot, but found nothing except a confluence 
of certain rivers.  Thence I travelled to the maritime parts of 
India, and found a city, called Ormuz, of which there ran a 
proverb, that if the world was a ring, Ormuz would be its gem. 
In this city there was a great concourse of eager visitors from 
the whole neighbourhood; and when I asked one of them 
whither he was hastening, he said : * To the terrestrial paradise." 
* What," said I, * was I unable to find the ancient garden of 
Eden, and do these people speak of a new Paradise!" But the 
man left me standing there, and pursued his journey as fast as 
he could. While I was considering whether I should follow him, 
it occurred to me that I should do well to adopt the plan of 
Columbus, the discoverer of America. So I went to the different 
gates of the city, and determined to leave it by that one where 
the sweetest and most fragrant odours were borne towards me 
on the air. This I did, and I soon found myself on a road where 
the air was such as might well come from an earthly Paradise, 
yet was frequented by very few travellers.  Ormuz being 

216 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

situated on an island, we soon had to cross a sea, where I saw 
men fishing up pearls of the purest whiteness. Having obtained 
some of these for love and money, I had no doubt that I had 
come into possession of one of the most important substances 
of the Medicine, for the whiteness of these pearls was such as to 
defy exaggeration. After pursuing my journey on the mainland, 
along a very narrow by-path, for some time, I reached a point 
where two roads met, and there was a statue of Mercury, of 
which the body was silver while the head was overlaid with 
gold. The right hand of this statue pointed towards the Earthly 
Paradise; and when I had followed for some time the road 
which it indicated, I came to a very broad and deep river, which 
it was impossible to cross without a boat, though far and wide 
there was no boat to be seen ; but the beauty of the other shore 
convinced me that it must be the Earthly Paradise. "The trees 
which grew there were covered with golden, orange, citron- 
coloured, purple, and intensely red flowers. There were evergreen 
laurels, junipers, box-trees, and great store of blossoms of all 
colours and of the sweetest fragrance: sunflowers, amaranths, 
lilies, roses, hyacinths, &c. The ear was charmed with the songs 
and cries of nightingales, cuckoos, parrots, larks, thrushes, and 
hundreds of other known and unknown birds; nor was there 
wanting the sweet music of instruments and sweet-toned organs ; 
the taste was gratified, as it seemed, with all manner of delicious 
fruits, and the fragrance which streamed out on the breeze was 
such as charmed while it rendered insensible the olfactory nerves 
of all the people who lived round about, just as the noise of the 
Nile cataracts becomes inaudible to those who are used to it. 
But what did the sight of all these glories profit me, who, for 
want of one little boat, was unable to get at them? So I turned 
away, with the firm resolution of coming back, as soon as I could 
do so with a better chance of success ; in the meantime, I should 
be most likely to find the Phoenix that I was in search of, if I 
crossed over to Africa without further delay. So I directed my 
course towards the Red Sea, and there landed in Africa. 

VILE SSEDCRUE TS. (QI UP GERM Y. 217 

ZASEGROECUA 5 SERTIRSES, 

. When I reached Africa, more than a year had elapsed from 
my first setting out ; the Sun had once more entered the sign of 
the Lion, the Moon was at her height in the house of Cancer. 
All these were circumstances which inspired me with hope. 
The intense heat of the African climate renders the whole 
continent torrid, sterile, and dry. It has few rivers, but many 
wild beasts, which meet together at the riverside, and bring forth 
among themselves many new and strange shapes, for which 
Africa is so well known.  Satyrs, cynocephali, and semi-human 
beings are said to live there. There are the Mountains of the 
Moon, and Atlas that bears up the heavens on its shoulders : all 
these abound in minerals and in serpents. There also is 
collected the blood of the Dragon which the Dragon has sucked 
from the Elephant; but when the Elephant falls dead, the 
Dragon is crushed, and the blood which it has drunk is pressed 
out of it. Again, in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea, an 
animal named ÓOr£«s has been observed, the colour cf whose 
head is red, with gold lines up to the neck, while its eyes are deep 
black and its feet white, to wit, the fore feet, but the hind feet 
are black,the face up to the eyes white-—a description which tallies 
exactly with that which Avicenna gives of our Medicine. 

Now I heard that not far from the Red Sea there lived a 
prophetess, named the Erythrean Sibyl, in a rocky cave ; and 
| thought well first of all to enquire of her concerning this 
Pheenix. It is she that prophesied and predicted the coming of 
the Son of God in the flesh — This assertion has indeed been 
questioned by many writers, but it is borne out by Eusebius, the 
great historian of the Early Church, and by Cicero, the great 
orator, who, as is well known, translated this prophecy into the 
Latin tongue. Abundant evidence to the same effect may also 
be collected from the works of Virgil, the prince of Roman poets. 
'The passage of Cicero which is referred to by Eusebius, will be 
found in the second book of his treatise, De Dzvznatzeue (On 
Divination.. . . . When I came to her, I found her sitting 
in her cave, which was beautifully overgrown with the spreading 
boughs of a green tree, and covered with green sod. I saluted 
her with the lowliest and most deferential humility. At first she 

218 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

seemed somewhat startled at my sudden appearance, and hastily 
retreated to the interior of the cave. But she was soon won 
over by my earnest entreaties, and prevailed upon to shew her- 
self at the entrance of her habitation. '" Whoart thou, stranger?" 
she enquired, *and what wouldest thou of me?  Dost thou 
not know that a man may not approach a virgin that 
dwells in solitude?" ^*]It is not forward boldness that has 
brought me hither," I replied ; * but I have come after mature 
deliberation, because I feel that it is you, and you alone, that can 
resolve certain doubts which lie heavy on my mind. If you will 
shew me this great kindness, |, on my part. promise to do you 
suit and service, and to fulfil all your commands, as far es lies in 
my power" When she heard tbese words, her countenance 
cleared, and she asked me in a more kindly tone what my 
business was. **I cannot," she continued, * deny anything to 
men like you who are anxious tolearn." * There are two things," 
I returned, *concerning which I would crave plain and straightfor- 
ward instruction from you. namely, whether there was and is in 
these countries of Arabia and Egypt a wonderful bird named 
Pheenix ; whether its flesh and feathers are really an effectual 
medicine for anger and grief ; and, if so, where the bird is to be 
found ? " * The object of your search," she rejoined, * is a great and 
glorious one ; doubt is the first stage of knowledge, and you have 
also come to the right place and the right: person. For the 
country in which you now find yourself is Araby the Blest, and 
nowhere else has the Phoenix ever been found ; moreover, | am 
the only person who could possibly give you any definite informa- 
tion about it. I will teach you, and this land will exhibit to you, 
the glad sight of which I speak. Therefore, listen to my words 
Araby the Blest and Egypt have from of old rejoiced in the sole 
possession of the Phaenix, whose neck is of a golden hue, while 
the rest of its body is purple, and its head is crowned with a 
beautiful crest. It is sacred to the Sun,lives 660 years, and 
when the last hour of its life approaches, it builds a nest ofcassia 
and frankincense, fills it with fragrant spices, kindles it by 
flapping its wings towards the Sun, and is burnt to ashes with it. 
From these ashes there is generated a worm, and out of the worm a 
young bird which takes the nest, with the remains of its parent, 
and carries it to Heliopolis (or Thebes), the sacred city of the 

VER CS QA IS. TQUE AT CHTEMY, 219 

Sun, in Egypt. Now, this whole tale which you find in the 
books of the Ancients is addressed to the mind rather than to 
the ear ; it is a mystical narrative, and like the hieroglyphics of 
the Egyptians, should be mystically ^ not historically) understood. 
An ancient Egyptian writer tells us that the Phoenix rejoices in 
the Sun, and that this predilection is its chief reason for coming 
to Egypt. He also relates that his countrymen were in the habit 
of embalming the Phoenix if it died before its time. If you 
therefore regard this tale as an allegory, you will not be far 
wrong ; and you know that the flesh and feathers of this bird 
were of old used in Heliopolis as a remedy for anger and grief." 
When I heard her say this, I was full of joy, and asked her 
whether she could tell me how to become possessed of this Blessed 
Bird and Medicine. She promised not to forsake me, and to do 
all in her power to help me out of my difficulty. * Nevertheless," 
she continued, * the most important part of the enterprise must 
be performed by the toil of your own hands. I cannot describe 
to you in exact and unmistakable terms the place where the 
Pheenix lives, yet [ will endeavour to make it as plain to you as 
I may. Egypt, you know, owes all her fertility to the Nile, 
whose sources are unknown and undiscoverable ; but the mouths 
by which it is discharged into the sea, are sufficiently patent to 
all. The fourth Son of the Nile is Mercury, and to him his father 
has given authority to shew you this bird, and its Medicine. 
This Mercury you may expect to find somewhere near the seven 
mouths of the Nile ; for he has no fixed habitation, but is to be 
found now in one of these mouths, and now in another" I 
thanked the Virgin Prophetess most cordially for her gracious 
information, and at once set my face towards the mouths of 
the Nile, which are seven :—the Canopic, the Bolbitic, the 
Sebennitic, the Pelusian, the Tenitic, the Phoenetic, and the 
Mendesic. The way to the Canopic mouth led me through an 
ancient Christian burial ground, where a most miraculous occur- 
rence is witnessed every year on a certain day in May. From 
dawn to noon on that day the dead bodies gradually rise from 
their graves until they are completely visible to the passers by; 
and from noon to sunset they gradually sink back again into their 
tombs. Ifthis be true, as eye-witnesses testify, it is a most cer- 
tain proof of the resurrection of the human body, and exhibits a 

220 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

close analogy to the resuscitation of the dead Phcenix. 1 
When I reached the island of Canopus, I enquired where Mer- 
cury was to be found. But the people were only hopelessly 
puzzled by my questions. Some said that, according to Hermes, 
Egypt exhibits an image of the heavens, and the seven mouths 
of the Nile (of which the Canopic is the most considerable) cor- 
respond to the seven planets; the Canopic mouth they called 
the habitation of Saturn, the grandfather of Mercury ; Mercury 
was to be found domiciled in some other mouth of theriver. At 
the Bolbitic mouth none of those persons of whom I enquired 
knew anything about Mercury. Near the third or Sebennitic 
mouth stood the city of Sebennis, of which the inhabitants were 
so savage and cruel towards strangers, and so utterly destitute 
of all the arts and graces of civilisation, that I could not conceive 
of Mercury, the god of culture and science, living in their midst. 
Moreover, a certain peasant whom I asked whether Mercury's 
house was there, told me that he had a house in the town but 
that he never lived there. Sol at once went on to the fourth or 
Pelusian mouth of the Nile. The famous city of Pelusium is 
said to have been founded by Peleus, the father of Achilles. It 
separates Asia and Arabia from Egypt, and was at one time a 
most wealthy town. "When I heard of its greatness in commerce 
and industry, and of the large quantities of Arabian gold which 
are imported in this city, one of the wealthiest marts of Egypt, I 
felt assured that I should find the dwelling of Mercury here ; but 
I was told by the inhabitants that he did not come there very 
often, though he was received as a most welcome guest whenever 
he did visit it. This answer filled me with dismay, which was in 
proportion to the hopes which I had conceived, but I determined 
not to abandon my search till I should have visited the three 
remaining mouths of the river. 

At the Tenitic mouth of the Nile, I learned quite as much 
as I had learned everywhere else, namely —nothing. When the 
people who lived there told me that Mercury never came to them 
at all, I began to bewail my hapless fate, and the many fruitless 
journeys I had undertaken; and I now saw that perhaps it 
would have been wiser to have begun at the other end. There, 
however, I was; only two mouths of the river were left; and in 
one of these Mercury would be found, if indeed the Prophetess 

had spoken true. 

VERB OSORUBES OR TC LLBMY. 22m 

At the Phoeenetic mouth another disappointment awaited me. 
Mercury had once lived there, but had long since migrated 
somewhere else. At the seventh, or Mendesian mouth, nothing 
whatever was known about him. 

It may easily be imagined that, after this long series of 
disappointments, I began to suspect the Sibyl very strongly of 
having sent me on a fool's errand ; for I had now visited every 
one of the mouths of the Nile, and yet had not found even a 
trace of Mercury in any of them. Or if the words of the 
prophetess had been true, it seemed as if the various people of 
whom I had enquired must have deceived me with false infor- 
mation. But after more mature consideration of the answers 
which had been returned to my questions in the different places, 
I arrived at the conclusion that I had merely misapprehended 
their meaning. So I retraced my steps, and at length succeeded 
in finding Mercury in one of the mouths, where the people had 
at first appeared to know nothing about him. He shewed meat 
great length, where I must look for the Phceenix and where I 
could obtain possession of it: When I reached the place to 
which he directed me, I found that the Phoenix had temporarily 
deserted it, having chanced to be chosen umpire between the owl 
and other birds which pursue it, of which battle we have treated 
otherwise. It was expected back in a few weeks; but,as I 
could not afford to wait so long just then, I thought I might be 
content with the information I had gained, and determined to 
consummate my search at some future time. So, having returned 
to my native land, I composed the following epigrams in honour 
of the Sibyl, Mercury, the Phcenix, and the Medicine. 

EPIGRAM 
In Honour of the Erythrean Sibyl, named Herophyle. 

* [ thank thee, great prophetess, whose inspiration is not of the" 
* fiend, but of the Spirit of God, that thou didst direct me on" 
* my way to the Son of Nilus, who should shew unto me the" 
*bird Phoenix. Full of sacred knowledge, thou didst utter" 
*forth thy oracles when thou didst sing of God who" 
"should come in the fashion of a man. Thou dost love" 

222 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

* Him who, bearing the sentences of highest justice, will be the" 
" omnipotent judge of the whole world, though thou wert called " 
*a Gentile Maiden, and though men said that thou couldst" 
" know nothing of Him. "The cave near the Red Sea cannot" 
* hold thy greatness, when Christ shall claim thee for His own" 
*in Heaven. T 

EPIGRAM 
Dedicated 1o Mercury of the Sages. 

*'The Latins call thee Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods ;" 
*among the Greeks thy name is that of great Hermes. Thou" 
*art called Tenthius on the soil of Egypt ; thy father is Nilus," 
* who enriches that soil, and has bequeathed unto thee untold" 
* wealth. "Thou hast duly conveyed to the peoples of Egypt" 
* the laws which Vulcan, being in the secret with thee, has given." 
* A]I nations of the world behold thee with delight, yet thou" 
* desirest to be known to very few. Of how many secrets of" 
* Nature have the keys been entrusted to thy keeping! Thy" 
*face is red, thy neck is yellow, thy bosom is whiter than" 
*purest snow. Thy feet are shod with black sandals, a wand " 
* with a double snake in no wise hurts thy hand. This is thine " 
* apparel whereby thou art known to all, O Hermes! Thy com-" 
* plexion is fittingly of four hues. — Thou didst shew to me the " 
* glorious bird Pheenix by the mouth of an interpreter, and I " 
*thank thee for thy love with all my heart ; though the words " 
* be light, they are weighty with gratitude. A hag i 

AN EPIGRAM 
In Praise of the Phonix. 

*O Marvel of the World, prodigy without a blot, unique " 
* Phoenix who givest thyself to the great Sages! Thy feathers " 
* are red, and golden the hues of thy neck ; thy nest is buiit of " 
* cassia and Saboean frankincense. When thy life is drawing " 
*to9 a close, thou knowest the secret way of Nature by" 
* which thou art restored to a new existence. Hence thou" 
* gladly placest thyself.on the altar of Thebes, in order that" 
* Vulcan may give thee a new body. The golden glory of thy " 

OPTED CSS (OR UCET, 223 

"feathers is called the Medicine of health, and the cure of" 
*human woc. Thou has power to cast out disease and to" 
"make the old young again. Thee. Blessed Bird, | would" 
"rather have than all the wealth of the world, and the know- " 
* ledge of thee was a delight which I sought for many years. 
* "Thou art hidden in the retreat of thine own nest, and if Pliny " 
* writes that he saw thee in Rome, he does greatly err. Thou" 
" art safc in thy home, unless some foolish boy disturb thee: if" 
* thou dost give thy feathers to Lu I pu thee let him be" 
"a Sage. v Th "UP WETEC 

)» 

On the Hermetic Medicine of the Phenzx. 

* [f all the mountains were of silver and gold, what would they " 
* profit a man who lives in constant fear of death? Hence there " 
*" cannot be in thé whole world anything better than our Medi- " 
* cine, which has power to heal all the diseases of the flesh. " 
* Wealth, aud riches, and gold, all yield the prize to this glori- " 
* ous possession: and whoever does not think so, is not a man," 
* but a beast. A 

* [f anyone «will not ac&nowledee the force of reason, he must 
needs have recourse to authority." 

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VOL. 1I. 

GIEIPAYPARESRE OE: 
Of the Claims of our Art, its Students, and its Method.

or to any kind of occupation, have before their eyes, 
as the aim of their efforts, perfection in the thing 

which they pursue. But only few attain to the goal 
of their wishes: there are many architects, but few masters of 
the art of architecture ; many students of medicine, but few men 
like Hippocrates or Galen; many mathematicians, but few 
proficients like Archimedes ; many poets, but few worthy to rank 
with Homer. Yet, even men who have nothing more than a 
respectable knowledge of their calling, are capable of being 
useful to society. 

Among those who devote themselves to the transmutation 
of metals, however, there can be no such thing as mediocrity of 
attainment. A man who studies this Art, must have either 
everything or nothing. An Alchemist who knows only half his 
craft, reaps nothing but disappointment and waste of time and 
money ; moreover, he lays himself open to the mockery of those 
who despise our Art. "Those, indeed, who succeed in reaching 
the goal of the Magistery, have not only infinite riches, but the 
means of continued life and health. Hence it is the most 
popular of all human pursuits. Anyone who has read a few 
* Receipts" claims the title of a Sage, and conceives the most 
extravagant hopes; and, in order to give themselves the 
appearance of very wise men indeed, such persons immediately 
set themselves to construct furnaces, fill their laboratories with 
stills and alembics, and approach the work with a wonderful 
appearance of profundity. "They adopt an obscure jargon, speak 
of the first matter of the metals, and discuss with a learned air 
the rotation of the elements, and the marriage of Gabritius with 

P2 

228 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Bega. In the meantime, however, they do not succeed in 
bringing about any metamorphosis of the metals, except that of 
their gold and silver into copper and bronze. 

When captious despisers of our Art see this, they draw 
from such constant failures the conclusion that our Art is 
a combination of fiction and imposture ; whilst those who have 
ruined themselves by their folly confirm this suspicion by 
preying on the credulity of others, pretending to have gained 
some skill by the loss of their money. In this way the path of 
the beginner is beset with difficulties and pestilent delusions of 
every kind ; and, through the fault of these swindlers, who give 
themselves such wonderful airs of profundity and learning, our 
Art itself has fallen into utter disrepute, though these persons, of 
course, know nothing whatever about it. The beginner finds it 
extremely difficult to distinguish between the false and the true 
in this vast Labyrinth of Alchemy. Bernard of Trevisa warns 
him to eschew like the plague these persons who hold out 
so many vain and empty promises ; while I have written this 
Treatise for the guidance of the blind, and: the instruction of the 
erring. I wish, in the first place, to clear our Art from the 
slanders which have been cast upon it, then to describe the 
qualifications of its students and its methods of procedure. 
After these prefatory explanations, I will gird myself to a 
description of the Art itself. 

Before I say anything else, I would record my most earnest 
protest against that method of reasoning by which the decep- 
tions of certain wretched sophists are laid to the charge of this 
science. The wickedness of some of its lying professors can 
prove nothing either for or against its genuineness. Such a 
position could be made good only by arguments based on 
natural relations ; but such arguments it is impossible to find. 
The light of Nature is too bright to be darkened by these 
obscurists. I hope my Book will shew that the Transmutation of 
Metals, from an imperfect to a perfect state, is a real and true 
achievement, and that by the co-operation of Nature and Art. 
The only thing that distinguishes one metal from another, is its 
degree of maturity, which is, of course, greatest in the most 
precious metals; the difference between gold and lead is not 
one of substance, but of digestion; in the baser metal the 

AUTRES ENS QI CELA BTESES. 29 

coction has not been such as to purge out its metallic impurities. 
If by any means this superfluous impure matter could be organ- 
ically removed from the baser metals, they would become gold 
and silver. So miners tell us that lead has in many cases 
developed into silver in the bowels of the earth ; and we contend 
that the same effect is produced in a much shorter time by 
means of our Art. It is a fact that the Mercury which is 
generated in the bowels of the earth, is the common substance of 
all metals—since this Mercury will enter into combination with 
every kind of metal—Uwhich could not be the case if it were not 
naturally akin to them all Mercury is a water that will mix 
with nothing that is not of the same nature. By Art, the hand- 
maid of Nature, Mercury can be so successively concocted with 
all metals, that one and the same under the same colour and flux, 
may subalternately shew and express the true temperature and 
properties of them all. Moreover, all metals are capable of being 
resolved into running Mercury—and surely this could not be if 
it were not their common substance. Again, the Mercury of 
lead may become that of iron, the Mercury of iron that of 
copper ; while the Mercury of tin may even be transmuted into 
that of silver and gold—a fact which triumphantly demonstrates 
the substantial affinity of all the metals. From antimony, too, a 
good Mercury is obtained, which some of our Artists are able to 
change into metallic mercury. It is also a well-established fact 
that the Mercury gained from any metallic or mineral body 
possesses the properties of assimilating common Mercury to its 
own nature; thus common Mercury may become that of all 
metals in turn. Do not these arguments clearly shew that there 
is one Mercury, and that in the various metals it is only differen- 
tiated according to their different degrees of digestion or purity ? 
I do not see how these arguments can be answered. It is 
possible indeed that some dull person may allege in refutation 
of our reasoning his inability to accomplish those chemical 
transformations on which it is based ; but such operators would 
be vindicating too great an honour for their ignorance if they 
claimed to advance it as an argument against the truth of our Art. 
They must not make their own little understandings the standard 
or measure of the possibilities of Nature. At any rate, my word 
is as good as theirs (and better, since they can never prove 

2oXole THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

a negative), and I do most positively and solemnly assert that I 
have with my own hands performed every one of the experiments 
Which I have described ; and I know many others whose experi- 
ence has shewn these things to be true. How can our opponents 
hope to prevail against eye-witnesses by bare negation? My 
testimony is borne out by the experience of such men as 
Albertus, Raymund, Riplaus, Flamellus, Morienus, and a host 
of others. I confess that the transformations of which I have 
spoken are not easy to accomplish ; but whoever has the Key of 
our Art can unlock all gates, and has power over all the secrets 
of Nature. But this Key is possessed only by those who have 
both a theoretical and a practical knowledge of natural processes. 
I could here reckon up divers mutations of metals, as, for 
instance, Mars into Venus, by the acid stalagma of vitriol, 
Mercury into Saturn, Saturn into Jupiter, Jupiter into Lune, 
which operations, indeed, many vulgar chemists (far enough from 
the top of the art) know how to perform. I might also add, 
what is known only to a few philosophers, that there is a secret 
substance intermediate between metals and minerals, the mixed 
heavenly virtues of which produce a certain metal without a 
name, which is, strictly speaking, not a metal at all, but a Chaos, 
or Spirit, for it is all volatile: from this all metals can be educed 
without transmutatory Elixir, even gold, silver, and mercury. It 
is called Chalybs by the author of the * New Light," and it is 
the true key and first principle of our Art. What though the 
Sages have hidden all these things, and set them forth paraboli- 
cally for the true sons of knowledge? Are they any the less 
true for that reason? . . . Allthat is wanted for the perfect 
development of an imperfect substance, is the gentle, digestive 
action of a homogeneous agent. "This agent is gold, as highly 
matured as natural and artificial digestion can make it, and a 
thousand times more perfect than the common metal of that 
name. Gold, thus exalted, radically penetrates, tinges, and 
fixes metals. This scientific fact we may illustrate in the follow- 
ing manner. If you take six pounds of silver, and gild it with a 
single ounce of gold, you may afterwards draw out the silver into 
threads of the greatest fineness, and still distinctly perceive in 
each thread the brilliancy of gold. If then this dead, bodily, and 
earthy metal (which, as a body, of course, has no power to enter 

TOR ACIPAS ENSE QURTAEDL IL EIEDES, 231 

another body) can produce so wonderful an effect, does it seem 
incredible that the spirit of this gold, which can enter and 
animate the bodies of other metals, should transform them into 
its own nature? If we had this spiritual tincture, is it not clear 
that it would do inwardly what the body of the gold is seen to 
dooutwardly? Remember that our Tincture is the Quintessence 
of gold, and infinitely more perfect than the mere body of gold 
. can ever be; and that it has, therefore, an infinitely greater 
power of diffusing its essential quality. If gold thus spiritually 
enters another metal, it will clearly assimilate it to its own 
nature. "The method of this spiritual ingestion we shall 
describe further on. Let us only add in this place, where 
we are discussing the 7aezzeua/e of metallic transmutation, 
that seed is the perfection of any seed-bearing substance; that 
which has no seed is altogether imperfect. It is, then, as the 
poet sings: * Gold contains the seeds of gold, though they be 
deeply hidden." Gold is not only perfect, but the most perfect 
thing of its kind (Ze, of metals) If gold has seed, it must be 
contained in water, which is the habitation of all spirits, seed 
being a certain spiritual means of conserving any species. If 
gold is to be dissolved for the purpose of educing its seed, the 
dissolution will have to take place by means of this same 
metallic water. When this dissolution takes place, the gold puts 
off its earthly form, and assumes a watery form. | Now, gold 
being both the starting point and the goal in the whole of this 
generative process, it is clear that all intermediate operations 
must be of a homogeneous character, Ze, they must consist in 
gradual modifications of this seed of gold. "The processes of our 
Art must begin with the dissolution of gold ; they must termin- 
ate in a restoration of the essential quality of gold. But as the 
negative can never become the positive, the final form of our gold 
must be essentially different from its initial one. The final form 
is so much more noble than the initial one as fire is more subtle 
and spiritual than earth. What I have written is enough for the 
faithful student of our Art ; and to its hostile and carping critics 
this book is not addressed. "Therefore, I will now go on to add 
a word or two about the qualifications of those who should study 
this noble science. Our Art has fallen into disrepute,as I have 
said, through the stupidity and dishonesty of many of its profes- 

232 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

sors. They are ignorant mechanics who, not having skill and 
brains enough for an honest trade, must needs meddle with our 
Art, and, of course, soon lose all they possess. Others, again, 
are only just less ignorant than these persons ; they are in too 
great a hurry to make gold before they have mastered even the 
rudiments of natural science ; of course they fail, spend all they 
have, borrow money from their friends, amuse themselves and 
others with hopes of infinite wealth, learn to talk a barbarous semi- 
philosophical jargon, and afford a capital handle to those who 
have an interest in abusing our Art. Again, there are others 
who really have a true knowledge of the secret, but who grudge 
others the light which has irradiated their own path; and who 
therefore write about it in hopelessly puzzling language, which 
the perplexed beginner cannot possibly understand. To this 
class belong Geber, Arnold, and Lullius, who would have done 
much better service to the student, if they had never dipped pen 
in ink. The consequence is that every one who takes up this 
study at once finds himself lost in a most perplexing labyrinth of 
falsehood and uncertainty, in which he has no clue I will 
therefore try to give him some sound advice as to the best way 
of accomplishing his object. 

In the first place, let him carry on his operations with great 
secrecy in order that no scornful or scurrilous person may know 
of them ; for nothing discourages the beginner so much as the 
mockery, taunts, and well-meant advice of foolish outsiders. 
Moreover, if he does not succeed, secrecy will save him from 
derision ; if he does succeed, it will safeguard him against the 
persecution of greedy and cruel tyrants. In the second place, he 
who would succeed in the study of this Art, should be persevering, 
industrious, learned, gentle, good-tempered, a close student, and 
neither easily discouraged nor slothful; he may work in co-op- 
eration with one friend, not more, but should be able to keep his 
own counsel; it is also necessary that he should have a little 
capital to procure the necessary implements, etc., and to provide 
himself with food and clothing while he follows this study, so 
that his mind may be undistracted by care and anxiety. Above 
all, let him be honest, God-fearing, prayerful,and holy. Being 
thus equipped, he should study Nature, read the books of genuine 
Sages, who are neither impostors nor jealous churls, and study 

TREATISES OF PHILALETHES. 25 

them day and night; let him not be too eager to carry out every 
idea practically before he has thoroughly tested it, and found it 
to be in harmony not only with the teaching of all the Sages, but 
also of Nature herself. Not until then let him gird himself for 
the practical part of the work, and let him constantly modify his 
operations until he sees the signs which are described by the 
Sages. Nor let him despair though he take many false steps ; 
for the greatest philosophers have learned most by their mistakes. 
For his guidance in these operations he will find all the light he 
requires in the following treatises. 

(OLIUAVPAIUESIRS SET. 

Of the Orzgin of tis Art and its Writers; ts Fundamental 
Metallic Principles, and the Gradual Production of 
Metals and Minerals. 

Hermes, surnamed Trismegistus, is generally regarded as 
the father of this Art; but there are different opinions with 
regard to his identity. Some say he was Moses ; all agree that 
he was a very clear-sighted philosopher, the first extant author 
on the subject, and was also of Egyptian extraction. Others say 
that Enoch invented the Art, and, before the coming of the Flood, 
described it on the so-called emerald tables, which were after- 
wards found by Hermes in the valley of Hebron. Many assert 
that it was known to Adam, who revealed it to Seth ; that Noah 
carried the secret with him into the Ark, and that God revealed 
it to Solomon. But I do not agree with those who claim for our 
Art a mystical origin, and thus only make it ridiculous in the 
eyes of ascornful world. Ifitis founded on the eternal verities of 
Nature, why need I trouble my head with the problem whether 
this or that antediluvian personage had a knowledge of it? 
Enough for me to know that it is now true and possible, that it 
has been exercised by the initiated for many centuries, and under 
the most distant latitudes ; it may also be observed that though 
most of these write in an obscure, figurative, allegorical, and 
altogether perplexing style, and though some of them have 
actually mixed falsehood with truth, in order to confound the 
ignorant, yet they, though existing in many series of ages, 

234 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

differing in tongue and nation, have not diversely handled one 
operation, but do all exhibit a most marvellous and striking 
agreement in regard to the main features of their teaching—an 
agreement which is absolutely inexplicable, except on the sup- 
position that our Art is something more than a mere labyrinth 
of perplexing words. Our Art is most plainly and straightfor- 
wardly expounded by Bernard of Trevisa, Ripley the English- 
man, Flamellus the Frenchman, Sendivogius, the author of the 
"New Light, the anonymous author of the * Arcanum of 
Hermes, who also wrote Enchiridion PAysice Restitute, and 
*'The Ladder of Philosophers," the great * Rosary;" the * Child's 
Play," the Tract of Dionysius Zachary, the works of Morienus, 
the works of Egidius de Vadis, Augurellus poem entitled 
* Goldmaking," the works of Peter Bonus of Ferrara, and the 
* Abridged Rosary." Let the student procure one or more of 
these, and similar genuine works on Alchemy, and let him study 
the secrets of Nature by the light which they throw upon it He 
will find a knowledge of natural science, and more particularly 
of mineralogy, indispensable for his purpose. 

AII philosophers tell us that there are four elements, which 
compose all things, and, by means of their diverse combination, 
produce various.forms. But the truth is that there are only 
three elements, ze, those which of their own nature are cold— 
air, water, and earth. The defect of heat which we perceive 
in them is in proportion to their distance from the sun. Fire 
I do not acknowledge as an element. "There is no fire, except 
the common fire which burns on the hearth ; and its heat is 
essentially destructive. The heat there is in things is the 
product either of light, or motion, or life, or alterative processes. 
Fire is not an element, but a robber that preys on the products 
of the four elements ; it is a violent corruptive motion caused by 
the clashing of two active principles. Thus, we see that it is an 
operation of two other substances, not a substance in itself—a 
result of the active co-operation of a comburent and a com- 
bustible. The nature and characteristic quality of the three 
elements is cold, and they possess heat only as an accident. 

Nor is it true that objects are formed by a mixture of these three 
elements; for dissimilar things can never really unite, seeing 
that union is a complete mixture and concretion of the smallest 

TREATISES OF PHILALETHES. 23g 

atoms or molecules of two substances. But such a mixture is 
impossible in the case of two dissimilar matters, as, for instance, 
between water and earth (or water and wine); they admit of 
being separated at any time on account of the disproportion of 
their smallest particles. It may be said that for the sake of union 
the grosser element becomes as subtle as the other ; but if this were 
the case, if for the purpose of. union water became as subtle as air, 
that would simply mean that water became air, an assumption 
which would thus fail to prove the possibility of an amalgam- 
ation of water and air. Is it not a simpler and more credible 
supposition that only water or air, as the case may be, enters into 
the composition of any given object? Butif any one still persists in 
maintaining this permutation of the elements (which, after all, 
would only mean that all things consist of air)—let me ask the 
humble question—by the activity of what agent they are so trans- 
muted? Moreover, one would also be glad to enquire what is the 
use of this permutation of earth into water, and of water into air? 
What can earth converted into water, or water converted into air, 
perform, that could not be just as well accomplished by simple 
unchanged water or air? Surely, Nature does nothing in vain ; 
but here would be a difficult and wasteful process of transmutation 
constantly going on, which is not calculated.to serve any useful 
purpose whatsoever. If it be said that earth rarefied into water 
is like water, yet not exactly water, my answer is that this is a 
mere quibble about words, and that if the rarefied earth is only 
like water, and not really water, it cannot possibly combine with 
it in its smallest particles ; so nothing is gained by this hypo- 
thesis Hence we may conclude that all things derive their 
origin from one element, which can be neither earth nor air. 
This I could prove at great length if I were not cramped for 
space. It follows, then, that water must be the first principle of 
all things, Ze, of all concrete bodies in this world ; earth is the 
fundamental element in which all bodies grow and are preserved ; 
air is the medium into which they grow, and by means of which 
the celestial virtues are communicated to them. The 
seed of all things has been placed by God in water. "This 
seed some exhibit openly,like vegetables, some keep in their 
kidneys, like animals ; some conceal in the depths of their 
essential being, like metals. The seed is stirred into action 

236 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

by its form (Ze, a certain appropriate celestial influence), 
coagulates the material water, and passes through a series of 
fermentative processes (fermentation being the principle of all 
transmutation), until it has produced that for the production of 
which it was specially suited. If the seed is metallic, there is 
generated from it first a dry liquid, which does not wet the hand, 
viz, Mercury, the mother of all metals. Mercury may be 
described as the true first matter of metals; for not until the 
elemental water has become Mercury can it be affirmed with any 
degree of certainty that a metal or mineral must result from it. 
Water is, in itself, potentially the seed of either an animal, 
vegetable, or mineral; but Mercury is metallically differentiated 
water, Ze., it is water passed into that stage of development, in 
which it can nolonger produce anything but mineral substances. 
Mercury, then, is the common seed of gold, silver, copper, tin, 
iron, lead, etc. ; their difference is only to be sought in the degree 
of their digestion. The digestive is not any fat sulphur which is 
brought to bear on them from without; but Mercury contains 
within itself the active principle of its development, vzz., the 
inward heat due to celestial influences, causing vitality, and 
dependent on the fitness of the womb. These heavenly influences 
are at work throughout the world; but their exact mode of 
action is determined by the potential nature of the seed; if the 
inward life be metallic, the course of its development by means of 
outward agents will also be metallic. Still Mercury develops 
only where these outward influences (celestial and terrestrial) can 
be brought to bear. In every other place it will appear a cold, 
dead, and lifeless substance. But in the centre of its nativity it 
is quickened by the action of celestial influences, conveyed to it 
through the medium of air, whence results heat, wherewith life is 
necessarily associated. Now, the womb in which this Mercury is 
placed, is either more, less, or not at all suited to it ; and accord- 
ing to the different degrees of this fitness, the substance either 
remains altogether stationary, or is more or less perfectly 
developed ; imperfection of development yields the imperfect 
metals, while by means of perfect development are produced 
silver and gold; but all metals, though differentiated by the 
degree of their digestion or maturity, have the same first 
substance, vzz, Mercury. The dross and impurities which are 

TESBL T ASES (QE PE ALETEIEEBES. 237 

so largely found in the base metals, form no part of the original 
Mercury, but are added afterwards through some flaw in the 
process of coagulation, or through the impurity of the place or 
womb in which their metallic generation (fermentation) takes 
place But I will now go on to deal with the special subject of 
this Treatise, vzz., the renovation or multiplication of gold and 
silver. 

G'BIPANDIPE RSS TRE 

Of the Generation of Gold and Siawer from the Mercurial 
Substance, and the Possibility of bringing Imperfect 
Metals to the same State of Perfection. 

To the aforesaid source (Mercury) we trace the birth of 
gold, and of its sister, silver; they represent this substance 
brought to perfection by means of digestion. Perfection is 
of two kinds, inchaotive or complete, partial or entire. Complete 
perfection (the complete digestion of all crudities and elimina- 
tion of all impurities) is the ultimate aim of Nature ; and she 
has reached it in our gold, which with its brilliancy lights up the 
whole earth. Inchaotive perfection may be so named, not abso- 
lutely, but relatively, when compared with essentially imperfect 
bodies. Those bodies are formally or essentially imperfect in 
the composition of which the impure predominates over the 
pure, so that they could never of themselves (by natural develop- 
ment) attain perfection ; this is the case with all metals except 
gold and silver. But whenever the pure is freed from the cor- 
ruptive tyrrany of the impure, and obtains the mastery over it, 
we have inchaotive perfection, though the development of the 
body may be still incomplete. These crudities and impurities 
do not originally belong to the metallic substance, and are very 
well capable of being separated from it ; if they are so purged off 
before coagulation, we get a perfect metal. But even if they are 
coagulated together with the Mercury, it is still possible to 
separate them from it, and thus to perfect the Mercury. It is on 
this possibility that our Art is based; and its business is to 
perform this separation. ^ The base metals contain the same 
Mercury as gold ; if we can free this Mercury from the 
impurities which hinder its development, it must also go on to 

238 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

perfection, Ze, become gold. If we could find some separating 
agent which would perform this office for the impure minerals, it 
would also be a digestive, Ze. it would quicken the inward metallic 
digestion of the long-entombed Mercury. Such a separant is 
our divine Arcanum, which is the heavenly spirit of water with 
fiery penetrative power. Compared with common gold, it is 
what the soul is in comparison of the body ; and having attained 
the highest degree of corporeal fixity, it takes up the Mercury of 
the base metals into its own nature, and protects it from the fire 
while the impurities are being burnt up. The Mercury of the 
base metals (unlike the Mercury of gold), if exposed to the fire 
without such protection, would not be able to encounter the 
searching ordeal, but (having no cohesion with its impure body, 
and possessing no fixity in itself) would simply evaporate, and 
leave the impurities to be burned. Butour Arcanum, being both 
a spiritual and a homogeneous substance, is capable of entering 
into a perfect atomic union with the imperfect metals, of taking 
up into its own nature that which is like to it, and of imparting 
to this Mercury its own fixity, and protecting it from the fire; so 
when the fire has burnt up all the impurities, that which is left 
is, of course, pure gold or silver, according to the quality of the 
Medicine—which from that time forward is (like all other gold 
and silver) capable of resisting the most searching ordeal So 
you see we do not, as is sometimes said, profess to create gold 
and silver, but only to find an agent which—on account of its 
homogeneity and spirituality—is capable of entering into an inti- 
mate (atomic) and maturing union with the Mercury of the base 
metals. And we contend that our Elixir is calculated, by the 
intense degree of its fixity and colour, to impart these qualities 
to any homogeneous substance which does not possess them. 

(IEIVASDIDRARSSINVA 
Of the Seed of Gold ; and whether other Metals. have Seed. 

Seed is the-means of generic propagation given to all perfect 
things here below; it is the perfection of each body; and 
anybody that has no seed must be regarded as imperfect. Hence 
there can be no doubt that there is such a thing as metallic seed. 

TORUEMIPRS ENS TO S ROT ej EIIETU EDS. 239 

If metals have seed, they certainly do not lose it in coagulation, 
which is the effect of perfection (or rather of perfect conditions). 
Now, in all seed-bearing things maturity means the perfect 
development of the seeds, and it stands to reason that metallic 
seed is therefore most certainly not destroyed by coagulation 
(the maturing process)  Ifit be asked whether all metals have 
seed, my answer is, that the seed of all metals is the same ; but 
that in some it is found nearer to, and in some further from the 
surface. All metallic seed is the seed of gold; for gold is the 
intention of Nature in regard to all metals. If the base metals 
are not gold, it is only through some accidental hindrance ; they 
are all potentially gold. But, of course, this seed of gold is most 
easily obtainable from well-matured gold itself. Hence it would 
be lost labour to endeavour to obtain it from tin or lead by some 
laborious process, when it may be more readily obtained from 
gold itself. Remember that I am now speaking of metallic seed, 
and not of Mercury. Lead is to be multiplied, not in lead, but 
only in gold; for only when it attains its maturity as gold can 
its seed become fruitful. It may be admitted that silver has 
its own seed, as there is a white (as well as a red) multiplicative 
Tincture. Still, the White Tincture is really contained in the 
Red ; and the seed of silver is nothing but a modification of that 
of gold. "The whiteness of silver is the first degree of perfection, 
the yellowness of gold is the second, or highest degree. For the 
mother of our Stone (the silver of the Sages) is white, and 
imparts its whiteness to our gold, whence the offspring of these 
two parents first becomes white, like its mother, and then red 
with the royal blood of its father. 

OEIASPABEIRS VA 

Of the Virtue of Golden Seed, and «where it is most 
readily found. 

In order that we may obtain this means of perfecting im- 
perfect metals, we must remember that our Arcanum is gold 
exalted to the highest degree of perfection to which the com- 
bined action of Nature and Art can develop it. In gold, Nature 
has reached the term of her efforts; but the seed of gold is 
something more perfect still; and in cultivating it we must, 

240 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

therefore, call in the aid of Art. The seed of metals is hidden 
out of sight still more completely than that of animals; never- 
theless, it is within the compass of our Art to extract it. The 
seed of animals and vegetables is something separate, and may 
be cut out, or otherwise separately exhibited ; but metallic seed 
is diffused throughout the metal, and contained in all its smallest 
parts ; neither can it be discerned from its body : its extraction 
is therefore a task which may well tax the ingenuity of the most 
experienced philosopher ; the virtues of the whole metal have to 
be intensified, so as to convert it into the sperm of our seed, 
"which, by circulation, receives the virtues of superiors and in- 
feriors, then next becomes wholly form, or heavenly virtue, which 
can communicate this to others related to it by homogeneity of 
matter. In respect of the Stone, the whole of gold is its sub- 
stance. The place in which the seed resides is—approximately 
speaking— water ; for, to speak properly and exactly, the seed is 
the smallest part of the metal, and is invisible; but as this in- 
visible presence is diffused throughout the water of its kind, and 
exerts its virtue therein, nothing being visible to the eye but 
water, we are left to conclude from rational induction that this 
inward agent (which is, properly speaking, the seed) is really 
there. Hence we call the whole of the water seed, just as we call 
the whole of the grain seed, though the germ of life is only a 
smallest particle of the grain. But the seminal life is not dis- 
tinct from the remaining substance of metals; rather, it is 
inseparably mingled with the smallest parts of the body. 
Roughly speaking, however, we describe the whole of our golden 
water as the seed of gold, because this seminal virtue pervades it 
in a most subtle manner. "This seminal virtue the ancient Sages 
called the hidden ferment, the poison, or the invisible fire; 
again, they said that it was fire, or that fire resided in the water ; 
they distinguished between soul and spirit, of which the former 
is the medium, the latter the active virtue. If anyone wonders 
that we describe water as the seat of the seed, or the seminal spirit, 
let him remember that in the beginning the Spirit of God moved 
on the face of the waters, Ze., penetrated them with His heavenly 
quickening power. Thus, from the very first day of Creation, 
water has been the source and element of all things. For water 
alone contains the seeds of all things; yet in vegetables they are 

DARBAUCISES OP PHUITLATRTHES. —25 

put forth in crude air; in animals they are preserved in the kid- 
neys; while in minerals they are diffused throughout the whole 
substance; nevertheless, seed can never leave its original seat 
(Ze,water)  Thingsare preserved by that from which they derive 
their origin; for the cause of their origin being removed, the 
things which are the effect must also cease to exist; hence the 
multiplication and nutrition of all things is in water and through 
water. Vegetables are generated and nourished by the aqueous 
Teffas of the earth ; animals by the liquid chyle; metals by the 
mercurialliquid. Animals preserve their seed in their kidneys, 
and in due time project it into the proper womb, where it is first 
moulded into a tender and very watery fcetus; this foetus is 
nourished by the liquid female menstruum, and thus grows until 
the time comes for it to be born. Then itis nourished with 
milk until it can bear stronger food ; but this solid food does not 
become real nutriment until the stomach has converted it into a 
liquid chyle (as, for instance, bones in the stomach of the dog). 
In the same way the metals keep their perfect seed where it can- 
not be seen ; but even there it is preserved in water. Thencethe 
Artist extracts it, puts it into its own proper womb, where it is 
cherished and grows, until (by means of corruption) it attains to 
its glorification. "This is a most difficult operation, because the 
metals, in which the seed is hidden, are so firmly and tightly com- 
pacted, and will not yield to violence, but only to a gentle and 
exquisitely subtle chemical process. Then I say to you, that 
there is a womb into which the gold (if placed therein) will, of 
its own accord, emit its seed, until it is debilitated and dies, and 
by its death is renewed into a most glorious King, who thence- 
forward receives power to deliver all his brethren from the fear 
of death. 

COBUADISSROVI: 
Of the Mode and Means of Extracting this Seed. 

That the most beautiful things are the most difficult to 
produce, is the experience of all mankind; and it is not to be 
wondered at, therefore, that the most glorious of sublunary 
operations is attended with a very great amount of difficulty. If 
any student of this Art is afraid of hard work, let him stop with 
his foot upon the threshold. When, indeed, the Father of Lights 

VOL, Il, Q 

242 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

has entrusted the Key of the Art to any man, that which remains 
to be done is mere child's play ; his eyes are ravished with the 
sight of the most glorious signs, until the time of harvest arrives. 
Without this, error and vexation will be the result. "Therefore 
the wise man, before commencing the work, will be chiefly 
solicitous of knowing it by its marks. Let the sons of knowledge 
learn that the great object of our Art is the manifestation of the 
hidden seed of gold, which can be effected only by full and 
perfect volatilisation of that which is fixed, and the subsequent 
corruption of its particular form. "To break up gold in this way 
is the most profound secret in the world. It is not brought 
about by corrosive depravation of the metal, nor by the usual 
method of dissolution, but by our philosophical solution of the 
metal into mercurial water, by means of a previous mercurial 
calcination (made by means of the agent 9), which is produced 
through the subtle rotation and conversion of the elements ; this 
calcination, again, is a mortification of our homogeneous liquid 
with the dry element belonging to it; afterwards the dry is so 
far revived by means of this same liquid, that the perfectly 
matured virtue, extracted from the substance by the solvent, is 
the cause of this calcination and solution. Here, then, there is no 
room for the action of a corrosive. Gold, which is the most solid, 
strong, fire-proof, and fixed of all substances, is to be volatilised, 
and no mere corrosive will accomplish such a perfect change of 
nature. The mighty agent required for this purpose must be 
homogeneous, amicable, and spiritual, Ze, it must be akin to the 
body (of gold), and yet strong enough to overcome it, and 
penetrate to its very core, still leaving each smallest part of the 
gold true gold. Gold does not easily give up its nature, and will 
fight for its life, but our agent is strong enough to overcome and 
kill it, and then it also has power to restore it to life, and to 
change the lifeless remains into a new pure body. 

A (CipDsge 10S — NALE 
Of the First Agent or. Womó, Znto wich our Seed should 
be emitted, and «where it 2s matured. 

There remains to be found an Agent, by means of which 
the aforesaid operation may be performed. For this purpose we 

^ 

TREATISES OF PHILALETHES. 243 

require a homogeneous water. For we have seen that the seed 
of gold is concealed, and can remain effectual only in water, and 
this water must be homogeneous with the body, or else it could 
not penetrate all the thick integuments by means of which this 
seed is secured. For like generates like, that is to say, every 
agent that exercises a generative action upon anything, trans- 
mutes it (as far as possible) into its own nature. The Agent 
then must be akin to the body which is to be dissolved, and, 
moreover, perfectly pure from all dross or alloy. Again, whereas 
gold is fixed and solid, the Agent must be highly volatile and 
spiritual; gold is thick and gross, our Agent is subtle, gold is 
dead, our Agent is living and life-giving: in short, our Agent 
should have all those qualities which gold has not, and which it 
is to impart to the gold. Hence we conclude that Mercury 
alone is the true Key of our Art ; for it is in truth the dry water 
described by the Sages, which, though liquid, does not wet the 
hands, nor anything else that does not belong to the unity of its 
substance. Mercury is our doorkeeper, our balm, our honey, 
oil, urine, may-dew, mother, egg, secret furnace, oven, true fire, 
venomous Dragon, Theriac, ardent wine, Green Lion, Bird of 
Hermes, Goose of Hermogenes, two-edged sword in the hand of 
the Cherub that guards the Tree of Life, &c., &c. ; it is our true, 
secret vessel and the Garden of the Sages, in which our Sun 
rises and sets. Itisour Royal Mineral, our triumphant vegetable 
Saturnia, and the magic rod of Hermes, by means of which he 
assumes any shape he likes. It is of this water that the Sage 
uses the words: * Let Alchemists boast as much as they like, 
but without this water the transmutation of metals is impossible. 
In Nature it is not such as we use it in our Art; it is a most 
common thing, and yet the most precious treasure of all the 
world. . . . . . Therefore, Son of Knowledge, pay diligent 
heed to my words: "Take that which in itself is most impure, the 
strumpet woman, purge it radically of all its uncleanness, and : 
extract from it that which is most pure, namely, our menstruum 
(solvent) the Royal Diadem."  Behold,I have told you in a few 
words that which ennobles the Sage, delivers him from error, and 
leads him to the most beautiful meadow of delights. . . . The 
Arcanum which we seek is nothing but gold exalted to its 
highest degree of perfection, through the operation of Nature 
Q2 

244 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

assisted by our Art. When the sperm hidden in the body of 
gold is brought out by means of our Art, it appears under the 
form of Mercury, whence it is exalted into the quintessence 
which is first white, and then, by means of continuous coction, 
becomes red. All this is the work of our homogeneous Agent, 
our Mercurial Ponticum, which is pure crystalline without 
transparency, liquid without humectation, and, in short, the 
true Divine water, which is not found above-ground, but is 
prepared by the hand of the Sage, with the co-operation of 
Nature, which we know, have seen, have made, and still possess ; 
which also we desire to make known to the true students of our 
Art, while it is our wish to hide it only from the unworthy. 

(CIBUedeAdDISIS — NISI 

Concerning the Genealogy of the Mercury of the Sages, 
4s Origin, Birth, and the Szgns «which precede 
and accompany it. 

Some boastful and arrogant sophists, who have read in 
books that our Mercury is not common Mercury, and who know 
that it is called by different names, do not blush to come forward 
as pretenders to a knowledge of this Art, and take upon them- 
selves to describe this solvent as diaphanous and limpid, or as a 
metallic gum which is permiscible with metals, though they do 
not in reality know anything whatsoever about it. The same 
may be said of those who would extract our Mercury from herbs 
or other still more fantastic substances. These gentry know not 
why the Sages do not use Mercury such as is sold by apothecaries 
as their substance. They are aware of the fact, but are unac- 
quainted with its causes ; and the consequence is the idea which 
they have that anything which changes the nature of common. 
Mercury, will convert it into that of the Sages.. But in regard to 
these foolish persons, I have already expressed our opinion. . . . 
All metals, as I demonstrated in the second chapter, have the 
same substantial principle, vzz.; Mercury. From this proposi- 
tion it follows that the substance of common Mercury : is 
homogeneous with that of all the other metals; and if the 
Mercury of the Sages be the homogeneous metallic water, it can 

AQUIS TAS ES CEDAT RÁPEIES. 245 

differ from common Mercury only in respect of its purity and 
heat. The first substance of common Mercury is that of all other 
metals, vzz., our Mercury. Solongasitremains in the veins of the 
earth, in a place perfectly adapted to its generation,and is sheltered 
from crude air, it retains its inward movement and heat, which 
are the cause of all metallic development. But if it be marred by 
any accident, or if the place become unfit for it, the inward 
movement is stopped, and the germinallife chilled like that of 
an egg which a hen has left after sitting on it for some time. 
This is the reason why those who have attempted to digest 
common Mercury by means of artificial heat have failed as 
ludicrously as any one who should endeavour to incubate 
artificially an addled egg. The difference between the egg and 
the metal is that our Art is capable of making good the damage, 
but not by artificial means. We havea crude, undigested, frigid, 
unmatured metallic mass, which wants the form of our Mercury, 
for which it must exchange its own, if itis to become that which 
we seek. With this end in view, its deficiences are twofold ; its 
nature is clogged with superfluous foreign matter, and it does 
not possess the requisite spiritual virtue. Its superfluities 
consist of earthy leprosy, and aqueous dropsy. Its deficiency 
is one of true sulphureous heat, by means of which it would be 
enabled to purge off these superfluities. Water, indeed, is the 
womb, but no womb can receive a vital germ without warmth. 
Supplement your (common) Mercury, therefore, with the inward 
fire which it needs, and it will soon get rid of all superfluous 
dross. If you can do this, you have accomplished the great feat 
ofthe Sages. Jupiter has recovered his empire ; the black clouds 
of Saturn are dispersed, and the sparkling fountain wells forth 
clear and pure. "This substance will dissolve gold by means of a 
true philosophical solution, which is as different as can be from 
that foolish use of corrosives which only destroy the metallic 
nature. "This Mercury (with) gold and silver naturally produces 
the Arcanum, or potable gold, as all adepts know and can testify. 

Here I conclude this Tract, as all that remains to be said is 
set forth in a special (the next) Treatise. 

246 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM 

A. 
IBSRSISESISESCUITTSID UE ET) 

THE 

CODSIETS S OD ASIDE SUISSE 

Concerning the Phailosopher s Stone and zts Grand Arcanum.

penetrative, and fixed substance, which brings all 
| metals to the perfection of gold or silver (according 
to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural 
methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature. 

It is prepared from one substance, with which the art of 
chemistry is conversant, to which nothing is added, from which 
nothing is taken away, except that its superfluities are removed. 

No one will question the utility of our Art, if he believes 
that it enables us to transmute base metals into gold. "That 
base metals are capable of such transmutation is clear ; Nature 
has destined them all to become gold, but they have not been 
perfectly matured. If, then, that which hinders their perfect 
digestion be removed, they will all become gold; for crude, cold, 
and moist Mercury is the common first substance of gold as well 
as of the other metals. Hence all other metals may be perfected 
into gold, by the aid of our Divine Magistery, which, being pro- 
jected upon imperfect metals, has power to quicken the maturing 
process by as much as itself exceeds the standard maturity 
of gold. How patent, then, must the spiritual nature of our 
Stone be, which can effect more in one hour by a bare projection 
than Nature in the course of ages. If that substance which 
Nature supplies be taken in hand by Art, dissolved, coagulated, 
and digested, its perfection is increased from a monadic to a 

5 

TARZLZIATISAS OR. PHILALETHES. 247 

denary virtue ; by repeating the same process, it is increased 
a hundred-fold, and then a thousand-fold, etc. "This wonderful 
Medicine penetrates each smallest part of the base metals (in 
the proportion of r::1,000) and tinges them through and 
through with its own noble nature: your arithmetic will fail 
sooner than its all-prevailing power. Each smallest part that is 
pervaded with the vitalizing power of the Elixir in its turn tinges 
that part which is nearest to it until the whole mass is leavened 
with its marvellous influence, and brought to the perfection of 
gold. This is done in a very short time, on account of the 
spiritual nature of the agent; it is the true metallic fire, and as 
a common fire warms even those parts of any object which are 
not in immediate contact with the fire, so this Elixir penetrates 
dissolved and melted metals in a moment of time—just in the 
same way as the virtue of leaven or yeast is brought to bear even 
upon those parts of the meal which it neverreaches. A reproach 
is sometimes levelled at our Art, as though it claimed the power 
of creating gold ; every attentive reader of our former tract will 
know that it only arrogates to itself the power of developing, 
through the removal of all defects and superfluities, the golden 
nature, which the baser metals possess in common with that 
highly-digested metallic substance. 

Listen, then, while I make known to you the Grand Arcanum 
of this wonder-working Stone, which at the same time is not a 
stone, which exists in every man, and may be found in its own 
place at all times. — The knowledge which I declare is not 
intended for the unworthy, and will not be understood by them. 
But to you who are earnest students of Nature, God will, at His 
own time, reveal this glorious secret. 

I have shewn that the transmutation of metals is not a 
chimerical dream, but a sober possibility of Nature, who is 
perfectly capable of accomplishing it without the aid of magic ; 
and that this possibility of metallic transmutation is founded 
upon the fact that all metals derive their origin from the same 
source as gold, and have only been hindered from attaining the 
same degree of maturity by certain impurities, which our 
Magistery is able to remove. 

Let me tell you, then, what is the nature of this grand 
arcanum, which the Sages have called the Philosopher's Stone, 

248 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

but which is in every man, in every thing, at every season of the 
year, if it be sought in the right place. 

It must consist of the elements, for they are the universal 
substance of all things, and as it is of a nature homogeneous with 
that of gold, it must be that which contains the qualities of all 
elements in such a combination as to render it incapable of 
being destroyed by fire. ! 

It follows, then, that you must look for the substance of our 
Stone in the precious metals, since the required combination of 
elements is not found anywhere else. Those foolish sophists 
who seek it outside the domain of metals will never arrive at any 
satisfactory conclusion. For there is only one true principle, 
and nothing heterogeneous must be introduced into our Magistery. 

For as a lion is always born of a lion, and a man of a man, 
so all things owe their birth to that which they are like; that 
which is combustible is derived from that which is combustible, 
that which is indestructible from that which is indestructible. 
Nor must we expect to find the principle which imparts the 
qualities of gold anywhere but in gold itself. If,indeed, we were 
able to create the sperm of things, we might hope to evolve this 
metallic principle from plants or animals which do not contain 
it; but that is the privilege of God alone. We must be content 
to dispose and develop the sperm which is made ready to our 
hands—new things we are unable to produce, and even if we 
could, our artificial seed would be no better than that which 
Nature has provided. If any one calling himself a Sage cannot 
use the things which are already created, it does not seem likely 
that he will be able to create new things out of heterogeneous 
substances—the seeds of metals out of herbs or animals. 

Thus, you see that the Stone which is to be the transformer 
of metals into gold must be sought in the precious metals, in 
which it is enclosed and contained. 

But why is it called a Stone, though it is not a stone; and 
how is it to be found? "The Sages describe it as being a stone 
and nota stone; and the vulgar, who cannot imagine how so 
wonderful a thing should be produced except by art-magic, 
decry our science as impious, wicked, and diabolica — Some 
silly persons clamour for an Act making the profession or 
practice of this Art punishable by statute law. Now, one can 

VUA I SYE NS EO (QA T ETUMIL Uo, FUTT ENS, 249 

hardly be angry with the illiterate and ignorant persons who 
raise this cry ; but when it is taken up by men of exalted station 
and profound learning, one hardly knows what to say. "These 
men I also reckon among the rude multitude, because they are 
deplorably ignorant of everything pertaining to our Art, and 
yet, forgetfu! of their dignity, they join in the hue and cry 
against it, like so many cowardly village curs. It is neither 
religious nor wise to judge that of which you know nothing ; and 
yet that is exactly what these people do, who claim to be both 
Christians and scholars. 

But let us return to the point from which we strayed. Some 
Alchemists who are in search of our Arcanum seek to prepare 
something of a solid nature, because they have heard the object 
of their search described as a Stone. 

Know, then, that it is called a stone, not because it is like a 
stone, but only because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists 
the action of fire as successfully as any stone. In species it is 
gold, more pure than the purest; it is fixed and incombustible 
like a stone, but its appearance is that of very fine powder, 
impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, 
in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet 
unctuous, and easily capable of tinging a plate of metal It is 
justly called the Father of all miracles, containing as it does all 
the elements in such a way that none predominates, but all form 
a certain fifth essence ; it is thus well called our gentle metallic 
fire. It has no name of its own; yet there is nothing in the 
whole world whose name it might not with perfect propriety 
bear. If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more 
than the truth ; if we described it is as corporeal, the expression 
would be equally correct; for it is subtle, penetrative, glorified, 
spiritual gold. It is the noblest of all created things after the 
rational soul, and has virtue to repair all defects both in 
animal and metallic bodies, by restoring them to the most 
exact and perfect temper ; wherefore is it a spirit or quintessence. 

But I must proceed to answer the second and more impor- 
tant part of my question. How is this Stone to be obtained? 
It does not exist in Nature, but has to be prepared by Art, in 
obedience to Nature's law. Its substance is in metals; but in 
form it differs widely from them, and in this sense the metals are 

250 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

not our Stone. For if we would elicit our Medicine from the 
precious metals, we must destroy the particular metallic form, 
without impairing its specific properties. "The specific properties 
of the metal have their abode in its spiritual part, which resides in 
homogeneous water. 'Thus we must destroy the particular form of 
gold, and change it into its generic homogeneous water, in which 
the spirit of gold is preserved ; this spirit afterwards restores the 
consistency of its water, and brings forth a new form (after the 
necessary putrefaction), a thousand times more perfect than the 
form of gold which it lost by being reincrudated. 

It is necessary, then, to reduce metallic bodies to their 
homogeneous water which does not wet the hands, that from this 
water there may be generated a new metallic. species which is 
nobler by far than any existing metal, viz., our Celestial Ruby. 

The whole process which we employ closely resembles that 
followed by Nature in the bowels of the earth, except that it is 
much shorter. Nature produces the metals out of cold and 
humid Mercury by assiduous digestion ; our Art takes the same 
crude, cold, and humid Mercury, and conjoins with it mature 
gold, by a secret artifice; the mixture represents a new and far 
more potent Mercury, which, by digestion, becomes not common 
gold, but one far more noble, which can transmute imperfect 
metals into true gold. 

Thus, you see that though our Stone is made of gold alone, 
yet itis not common gold. In order to elicit our gold from 
common gold, the latter must be dissolved in our mineral water 
which does not wet the hands ; this water is Mercury extracted 
from the red servant, and it is capable of accomplishing our work 
without any further trouble to the Artist. It is that one true, 
natural, first-substance, to which nothing is added, from which 
nothing is subtracted, except certain superfluities, which, how- 
ever, it will cast off without any aid by its own inherent vital 
action. The chief object of your perseverant efforts should be 
the discovery of this Mercury, or the albefaction of our red 
Laton ; all the rest is mere child's play, as the Artist has only to 
look on while Nature gradually matures his substance. 

But remember that our albification is by no means an easy 
task Gold which has been thus whitened can never resume 
its old form, for, instead of being corporeal and fixed, it is now 

ZREATZSES Qm PHILALETHES. DIT 

spiritual and volatile. Concentrate your whole mind, therefore, 
on the whitening of the Laton. It is easier to make gold than 
thus to destroy its form ; he who so dissolves it may be said 
rather to coagulate it—for dissolution of the body and coagulation 
of the spirit are coincident in it. 

Consider these signs, ye sons of knowledge. That which 
dissolves is spirit; that which coagulates is body. A body 
cannot enter a body so as to cause dissolution ; but a spirit can 
enter it, attenuate and rarefy it; and as you seek water, you 
need water to bring it to light; for every Agent has a tendency 
to assimilate to itself that which it acts upon, and every natural 
effect is conformed to the nature of the efficient; hence water is 
necessary if you would extract water from earth. 

When I speak of water, I do not mean aquafortis, royal 
water, or any other corrosive whatsoever, for these waters, instead 
of dissolving metals, only corrode, mar, and corrupt them, 
without destroying their old form, to which task they are 
insufficient, as they are not of a metallic nature. No, our water 
is the water Mercury, which dissolves homogeneous metallic 
bodies, and mingles with them in indissoluble union, abides 
with them, is digested with them, and together with them 
becomes that spiritual whole which we seek. For everything 
that dissolves a substance naturally (still preserving the specific 
properties of the thing dissolved) becomes one with it both 
materially and formally, coalesces with it, and is thickened by 
it, thus nourishing it; as we see in the case of a grain of wheat, 
which, when dissolved by the humid earthy vapour, thereby 
takes up that vapour as its radical moisture, and grows together 
with it into a plant. We may also observe that, every natural 
dissolution being a quickening of that which was dead, this 
quickening can take place only through some vital agent which 
is of the same essence with the dead thing; if we wish to 
quicken the (dead) grain of wheat, we can do this only by means 
of an earthy vapour, which, like the grain itself, is a product of 
the earth. For this reason common Mercury can have no 
quickening effect on gold, because it is not of the same essence 
with it. A grain of wheat sown in marshy soil, so far from being 
quickened into life, is, on the contrary, destroyed, because the 
aqueous humour of the soil is not of the same nature. In like 

252 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

manner, gold, if mixed with common Mercury, or with anything 
except its own essential humour, is not dissolved, because such 
waters are too cofd, crude, and impure ; for which reason, being 
utterly unlike gold,they cannot amalgamate with it, or attain 
with it to a far nobler degree of development. Our Mercury, 
indeed, is cold and unmatured in comparison with gold ; but it 
is pure, hot, and well-digested in respect of common Mercury, 
which resembles it only in whiteness and fluxibility. | Our 
Mercury is, in fact, a pure water, clean, clear, bright, and 
resplendent, worthy of all admiration. 

If you wish for a more particular description of our water, I 
am impelled by motives of charity to tell you that it is living, 
fluxible, clear, nitid, as white as snow, hot, humid, airy, vaporous, 
and digestive, and that gold melts in it like ice in warm water ; 
moreover, that in it is contained the whole regimen of fire, and 
the sulphur which exists but does not predominate in it. This 
water is the true Keeper of our Gates, the Bath of the King and 
of his Queen, which warms them incessantly, but is not taken of 
their substance, and is distinct from the whitening substance of 
the water, though the two are united and appear under the same 
flowing form and colour. It is our vessel, our fire, the abode of 
our furnace, by whose continuous and gentle warmth the whole 
substance is digested. If you know this water, it will be seen to 
contain all our fires, all our proportions of weight, all our regi- 
mens. [It is Bernard of Trevisa's clear pellucid Fountain, in 
which our King is cleansed and strengthened to overcome all his. 
foes. All you have to do is to find this water and to put into it 
the purified body ; out of the two Nature will then produce our 
Stone. 

"This mineral water can be extracted only from those 
things which contain it; and that thing from which it is most 
easily obtained is difficult to discover, as is also the mode of its 
extraction. It dissolves gold without violence, is friendly to it 
washes away its impurities, and is white, warm, and clear 
Without our Mercury, Alchemy could not be a science, but only 
a vain and empty pretence. If you can obtain it, you have the 
key of the whole work, with which you can open the most secret 
chambers of knowledge. Its nature is the same as that of gold, 
but its substance is different, and the preparation of it causes 

VOAUET A TTASVENSVS QD EET, UT ETE, 253 

a great stench. Weigh well the possibilities of Nature; refrain 
from introducing any heterogeneous element into our Magistery, 
and do not blame me if you fail to understand my words. 

Our Stone is produced from one thing, and four mercurial sub- 
stances, of which one is mature ; the others pure, but crude, two 
of them being extracted in a wonderful manner from their ore by 
means of the third. The four are amalgamated by the interven- 
tion of a gentle fire, and there subjected to coction day by day, 
until they all become one by natural (not manual) conjunction. 

Afterwards, the fire being changed, these volatile substances. 
should be fixed and digested by means of heat which becomes 
a little more powerful every day (ze&, by means of fixed 
and incombustible Sulphur of the same genus) until the whole 
compound attains the same essence, fixity, and colour. 

There are twelve degrees or phases of this our process, 
which I may briefly enumerate and describe as follows. The 
first is Calcination. 

Calcination is the first purgation of the Stone, the drying up 
of its humours, through its natural heat, which is stirred into 
vital action by the external heat of water—whereby the com- 
pound is converted into a black powder, which is yet unctuous, 
and retains its radical humour. 

"This calcination is performed for the purpose of rendering 
the substance viscous, spongy, and more easily penetrable; for 
gold in itself is highly fixed, and difficult of solution even in our 
water; but through this calcination it becomes soft and white, 
and we observe in it two natures, the fixed and the volatile, 
which we liken to two serpents. In order that a full dissolution 
may be made, there is need of contrition, that calcination 
may afterwards produce a viscous state, when it will be fit for 
dissolution. 

When the substances are first mixed, they are at enmity 
with each other, by reason of their contrary qualities, for there is 
the heat and dryness of the Sulphur fiercely contending with the 
cold and moisture of the Mercury. They can only be reconciled 
in a medium which partakes of both natures, and the medium in 
which heat and cold are reconciled is dryness which can co-exist 
with both. Thus cold and heat are brought to dwell peaceably 
together in the dryness of the earth, and dryness and moisture in 

254 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the coldness of the water. This reconciliation of contrary 
qualities is the second great object of our calcination. 

Its sufficient cause is the action of the inward heat upon the 
moisture, whereby everything that resists it is converted into a 
very fine powder; the moving and instrumental cause is the 
fire contrary to Nature, which, being hidden in our solvent water, 
battles with its moisture and digests it into a viscous or unctuous 
powder. 

This operation takes place before our dissolution, because 
whenever bodies are dissolved, the spirits in their turn are con- 
gealed. Again, the woman must reign, before she is overcome 
by the man. The dominion of the woman is in the water, and if 
the man overcome her in the element in which both her qualities 
of coldness and moisture inhere, he will easily conquer her where 
she has only one quality. 

Calcination, then, is the beginning of the work, and without 
it there can be neither peaceable commixtion nor proper union. 
The first dealbation reduces the substance to its two principles, 
sulphur and quicksilver, the first of which is fixed, while the 
other is volatile. ^ They are compared to two serpents, the fixed 
substance to a serpent without, and the volatile substance to a 
serpent with, wings. One serpent holds in his mouth the tail of 
the other, to shew that they are indissolubly conjoined by com- 
munity of birth and destiny, and that our Art is accomplished 
through the joint working of this Mercurial Sulphur, and 
sulphureous Mercury. Hence the whole compound is at this 
stage called Rebis, because there are two substances but only one 
essence. They are not really two, but one and the same thing ; 
the Sulphur is matured and well digested Mercury, the Mercury 
is crude and undigested Sulphur. It has already been said that 
in our Art we imitate Nature's method of producing metals in 
the bowels of the earth, except that our method is shorter and 
more subtle. In metallic veins only crude and frigid Mercury is 
found, in which the inward heat or dryness (7.e., Sulphur) can 
scarce make its influence felt. . No digestive heat is found there, 
but in the course of ages an imperceptible motion changes this 
metallic principle. In the course of centuries, however, this 
imperceptible digestive heat changes the Mercury into what is 
then called fixed Sulphur, though. before it was denominated 

Mercury. 

TREATISES OF PHILALETHES. 255 

But in our Art, we have something besides crude and frigid 
Mercury, vzz, mature gold, with its manifold active qualities. 
These are united to the passive qualities of our Mercury ; and so 
one aids and perfects the other, and as we have two fires, instead 
of the one slow inward fire of Mercury, the operation is more 
expeditious, and something far nobler than common gold is 
produced. 

'Thus you see that in our Art we have two Sulphurs and 
two Mercuries (Ze, Sulphur, and Mercury of Mercury, and 
Sulphur and Mercury of gold), but their only difference consists 
in degrees of perfection and maturity. Now, the perfect body 
of gold is reduced to its (two) first principles by means of our 
Divine water which does not wet the hands (vzz., Mercury and 
Sulphur) This operation fora time gives the ascendancy to the 
female agent; but this being unnatural, the male agent soon 
reasserts itself, and by means of its heat dries up the moisture of 
the female agent, and—through calcination— converts it all into 
a most subtle and viscous powder, which powder is then 
changed by dissolution into a water, in which the spirits of the 
solvent and the thing dissolved, the male and the female 
principles, are mingled. But the inward heat, which has once 
been roused into action, still continues to work, separating the 
subtle (which floats on the surface) from the gross (which sinks 
to the bottom), until the man has gained the upper hand, the 
inseparable union takes place, and the male impregnates the 
female; the female brings forth a nebulous vapour, in which 
they are putrefied and decay, and from which both arise with a 

-glorious body, no longer two, but only one by inseparable 
conjunction. This new birth is then coagulated, sublimed, 
nourished, and exalted to the highest degree of perfection, and 
may afterwards be indefinitely multiplied by fermentation, and 
used both for projection and as an Universal Medicine. 

We see, then, that these black and fetid ashes are not to be 
despised, since they contain the Diadem of our King; your 
substance will never be white, if it has not first been black. It 
is by means of putrefaction and decay that it attains the 
glorified body of its resurrection. Therefore, you should honour 
the tomb of our King, for unless you do so, you will never 
behold him coming in his glory. 

256 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

A great many students make a mistake at the very outset, 
by performing this calcination on a wrong substance—borax, or 
alum, or ink, or vitriol,or arsenic, or seeds, or plants, or wine, 
vinegar, urine, hair, blood, gum, resin, etc. ; or they choose a false 
method, and corrode instead of calcining the metallic bodies on 
which they operate. Calcination can take place only by means 
of the inward heat of the body, assisted by friendly outward 
warmth ; but calcination by means of a heterogeneous agent can 
only destroy the metallic nature, in so far as it has any effect at 
all. Every calcination of gold, which is not succeeded by a 
spontaneous dissolution, without laying on of hands, is also 
fallacious. 

The true calcination is by means of Mercury, which (being 
added to gold in due proportions) softens and dissolves the gold, 
and, by its inward heat,united to outward heat, stirs into action the 
native heat of the gold, and thus causes it to dry up its humidity 
into that fine, viscous, black powder. And this is the true key 
of the work—to incrudate the mature by the conjunction of an 
immature—being incrudated to calcine it—being calcined to dis- 
solve it—and all this philosophically, not vulgarly. 

'The outward signs of the calcination are as follows :—When 
the gold has become saturated with water, and the fire of the 
Mercury has called into play the heat of the bath, the water 
which was so brilliant begins to grow dim, then visibly swells and 
bubbles, until the whole becames a fatty and viscous powder, 
which, however, still retains its radical humour. . For when the 
heat first begins to operate, the cold and the moist seek refuge 
by rising to the top; thence they descend in liquid form and 
assimilate as much of the substance as they can to themselves ; 
thus the powder is converted into a glutinous water. For 
between the different processes of our Art, there exists such a 
concatenation that not one can be produced or understood with- 
out the rest. In order to hide our meaning from the unworthy, 
we speak of several operations ; but all these—the whole progress 
of the substance from black to white and red— should be 
philosophically understood as one operation, one thing, one 
successive disposition to black, white, and red. 

The following rules should be observed if you wish to bring 
about true calcination :— 

TREATISES OF PHILALETHES 387 

In the first place, you must procure our Mercury; common 
Mercury will produce no effect if you operate on it till doomsday. 

Secondly, the external fire of the furnace should be neither 
too violent (in order that the equilibrium of chemical forces in 
the substance may not be disturbed), nor yet too gentle, so that 
the action of the inward fire may not languish for want of out- 
ward heat. It should be just such as to keep up an equable 
vital warmth. 

In the third place, the Laton should receive neither too much 
nor too little to drink. If it receive too much, it will not be able 
to give it out, and a nebulous tempest will arise; if too little, it 
will be burnt to cinders. The activity of the Sulphur must dry 
up the superfluous humour of the Mercury ; therefore, the active 
(sulphur) must not be swamped with too much sperm ; nor must 
the moisture be choked with too much earth. ^ The proportions 
should be between two or three parts of water to one of gold ; 
but the larger the quantities of both substances, the more perfect 
will the calcination and dissolution be. The chief mistake 
against which you must guard is the swamping of your earth 
with water. For the earth contains the fire, which is the principal 
digestive in our Art. 

In the fourth place, you should take care to seal up your 
vessel properly, to prevent the spirit from evaporating. Consider 
how carefully Nature has closed up the female womb to prevent 
anything from escaping or entering that might prove hurtful to 
the young life; and quite as much (if not more) care is required 
in our Magistery. For when the embryo is being formed, great 
winds arise, which must not be allowed to escape—or else our 
labour will have been all in vain. 

The fifth requisite in our work is patience. You must not 
yield to despondency, or attempt to hasten the chemical process 
of dissolution. For if you do so by means of violent heat, the 
substance will.be prematurely parched up into a red powder, 
and the active vital principle in it will become passive, being 
knocked on the head, as it were, with a hammer. - But our true 
calcination preserves the radical humour in the body dissolved, 
and converts it into an unctuous black powder. Patience is, 
therefore, the great cardinal virtue in Alchemy. It must not be 
supposed that the signs and colours which I describe appear on 

YoL. If, IN 

258 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the first day, or even within the first week : Bernard of Trevisa 
tells us that he waited in an anguish of expectation for forty days, 
and then returned and saw clouds and mists. You need the 
patience of the husbandman, who, after committing the seed to 
the earth, does not disturb the soil every day to see whether it is 
growing. . . . Assoonas you have prepared your substance, 
z€., mixed mature yellow sulphur with its crude white sulphur, 
put them in a vessel and let them stand undisturbed ; at the end 
of twenty-four hours, the Mercury, which is attempting to rouse 
the latent fire of the sulphur, will begin to effervesce and send up 
bubbles. But little variation of colour shall appear until the 
object of the Mercury has been accomplished, and the Royal Bath 
prepared ; at first it is the Mercury alone that is at work. When, 
however, the Bath has been made hot (Ze, the inward warmth of 
the gold roused) the greater part of our work is over, and we shall 
be easily able to distinguish the various operations. The first 
colour which appears after the silver colour of the amalgamated 
body, is not perfect blackness, but only a darkish white; the 
blackness becomes more pronounced day by day, until the sub- 
stance assumes a brilliant black colour. "This black is a sign that 
the dissolution is accomplished, which does not come about in 
one hour, but gradually, by a continuous process; for the Tincture 
which comes out of the Sun and Moon appears black to the eyes, 
but is insensibly and imperceptibly extracted. When the whole 
of the Tincture has been extracted from the body that is to be 
dissolved, the blackness is complete. The more you digest the 
substance at first, the more you subtilize the gross, and blacken 
the compound. There are four principal colours, the first of 
which is blackness ; and it is of all colours the most tardy in 
making its appearance. But as soon as the highest degree of 
intense blackness has been reached (there being no idle intervals 
in our work), that colour begins little by little to yield to another. 
The time during which this blackness is developed is very long, 
and so is the time during which it disappears; but it is only for 
one moment that the blackness neither increases nor decreases: 
for things find rest only in that which is the end of their being, 
but blackness is not the end of our substance. 

The advent of the blackness is like the coming of the 
night, which is preceded by a long twilight—Nwhen the last ray of 

ADEL T TSES) QC IPELTL ATE TILES 259 

light has faded away, the blackness of night has come ; only our 
work is more tedious, and the change is, therefore, still less 
perceptible. 

It may be objected that the black tincture begins to be 
extracted as soon as the inward heat is roused, and that, there- 
fore, the colour which appears must be, from the very first, an 
intense black. My answer is that the Tincture which is extracted 
is, as a matter of fact, not black, but of a dazzling white ; and 
that the blackness is produced gradually, through the action of 
the water on the body, out of which it draws the soul (the 
tincture) thus giving the body up to decomposition. It is 
this putrefaction (the result of the mutual action of the Sulphur 
and Mercury) which imparts to the Tincture its black colour ; 
in itself the Tincture is brilliantly white. How long, then, will 
you have to wait till perfect blackness appears?  Flamellus tells 
us that this intense blackness comes at the end of about forty 
days. Ripley advises us to let the mingled substances remain 
together for six weeks, until the conception has taken place, 
during which time the fire must be very gentle. And Bernard 
(of Trevisa) suggests the same thing, when he says in his parable : 
* 'The King doffs his glorious robes, and gives them to Saturn, 
who clothes him in a garment of black silk, which he retains for 
forty days." Of course, the blackness which is here spoken 
of is not equally intense all the time, as you will understand 
from what has been said above. 

In the course of this change from white to black, the sub- 
stance naturally passes through a variety of intermediate colours ; 
but these colours (being more or less accidental) are not invari- 
ably the same, and depend very much on the original proportion 
in which the two substances are combined. In the second stage, 
during which the substance changes from black to white, it is 
already far purer, the colours are more lucid, and more to be 
depended upon. In the two phases there are intermediate 
colours ; but in the first they are more dingy and obscure than 
in the second, and very much less numerous. [In the progress of 
the substance from blackness to whiteness (Z«., the second phase 
of our Magistery) the most beautiful colours are seen in a 
variety such as eclipses the glory of the rainbow ; before the 
perfection of blackness is reached, there are also some transition 

R2 

260 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

colours, such as black, azure, and yellow—and the meaning of 
these colours is that your substance is not yet completely 
decayed; while the body is dying, the colours are seen, until 
black night shrouds the whole horizon in pitchy gloom. But 
when the process of resurrection begins (in the second phase), 
the hues are more numerous and splendid, because the body is 
now beginning to be glorified, and has become pure and spiritual. 

But in what order do the colours of which we speak appear ? 
To this question no definite answer can be given, because in this 
first phase there are so much uncertainty and variation. But 
the colours will be the clearer and more distinct, the purer your 
water of life is. The four principal colours (white, black, white, 
red) always follow in the same order; but the order of the 
intermediate colours cannot be so certainly determined, and you 
ought to be content if within the first 40 days you get the black 
colour. There is only one caution you should bear in mind, 
in regard to this point: if a reddish colour appears before the 
black (especially if the substance begins to look dry and powdery 
at the same time), you may be almost sure that you have marred 
your substance by too violent a fire. You should be very care- 
ful, then, about the regulation of your fire; if the fire be just hot 
enough, but not too hot, the inward chemical action of our water 
will do the rest. 

Our Solution, then, is the reducing of our Stone to its first 
matter, the manifestation of its essential liquid, and the extrac- 
tion of natures from their profundity, which is finished by bring- 
ing them into a mineral water; nor is this operation easy : those 
who have tried can bear out the truth of my words. 

PATET SENS ARTT d ETELBS. 261 

JTAEPEC BOAOUSNCT 

OF 

C M MIA nae

with the essential and substantial composition of our 
Stone ; the second describes their manner of combina- 
tion ; the third the mode of chemical procedure. Our 
substances are *red ore,' or matured Sulphur, and water, un- 
digested Mercury, or * white ore." "To these a vessel is added, a 
furnace, and a triple fire. In discussing their manner of com- 
bination, we have to consider their weight and the regimen. 
The weight is twofold, and so is the regimen: between them 
they produce the following processes—Calcination, Dissolution, 
Separation, Conjunction, Putrefaction, Distillation, Coagulation, 
Sublimation, Fixation, and Exaltation. The first two produce 
the black, viscous powder, by means of the *unnatural fire," a 
temperate, incomburent, and altering ignition. There is then a 
further change into a mineral water. The three operations 
which follow are the result of the first and third fires, namely, 
'natural and contra-natural, and * circulate" the substance, until 
the gross is separated from the subtle, and the whole is evenly 
tempered, the separated elements being then recombined, 
impregnated, and putrefied. 

The five last operations are the result of natural fire which 
increases and gets stionger from day to day, purifying the putre- 
fied substance of its dross, by continual ascensions and descents. 
(This process is therefore called distillation, volatilization, 
ablution, imbibition, humectation of the earth, and is continued 
until the dryness gradually thickens the substances, and, finally, 
under the influence of coction or continued sublimation, induces 

262 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

fixation, the terminal point of which is exaltation, an exaltation 
which is not local, from the bottom to the surface, but qualitative, 
from vileness to the highest excellence. 

These operations are sometimes called regimens ; but there 
are only two kinds of fire, the natural and the non-natural, the 
latter being employed to call out the activity of the former. Putre- 
faction precedes regeneration, and is caused by the strife of the 
two fires. That part of the work which is subsequent to putre- 
faction and conjunction, when the Sulphur and the water have 
become one, and also receive congelation, is effected by the 
natural fire alone. 

The substances are our body (commonly styled Lemnian 
earth) and our water (our true rain water) Our water is the life 
of all things, and if you can by much toil obtain it, you will have 
both silver and gold. It is the water of Saltpetre, and outwardly 
resembles Mercury, while inwardly at its heart there burns purest 
infernal fire. Do not be deceived with common quicksilver, but 
gather that Mercury which the returning Sun, in the month of 
March, diffuses everywhere, till the month of October, when it is 
ripe. 

Know that our Mercury is before the eyes of all men, 
though it is known to few. "When it is prepared, its splendour 
is most admirable ; but the sight is vouchsafed to none, save the 
sons of knowledge. Do not despise it, therefore, when you see 
it in sordid guise; for if you do, you will never accomplish our 
Magistery—and if you can change its countenance, the trans- 
formation will be glorious. For our water is a most pure virgin, 
and is loved of many, but meets all her wooers in foul garments, 
in order that she may be able to distinguish the worthy from the 
unworthy. Our beautiful maiden abounds in inward hidden 
graces; unlike the immodest woman who meets her lovers in 
splendid garments. To those who do not despise her foul 
exterior, she then appears in all her beauty, and brings them an 
infinite dower of riches and health. Our Queen is pure above 
measure, and her splendour like that of a celestial being—and so 
indeed she is called by the Sages, who also style her their 
quintessence. Her brilliancy is such as baffles imagination, and, 
if you would have any idea of it, you must see it with your own 
eyes. Our water is serene, crystalline, pure, and beautiful— 

TIRE SAT SESCON PHLILAELETEHEBES 263 

though it can assume its true form only through the aid of our 
Art. In that form it is our sea, our hidden fountain, from which 
gold derives its birth by natural descent; yet it is also stronger 
than gold, and overcomes it, wherefore gold is united to it, and 
is washed in it, and the two together grow up into a strong hero, 
whom neither Pope nor Emperor can buy for a price. Hence 
you should, above all things, seek this water, by means of which 
(with the solitary addition of a clean and perfect body) the 
Stone may be prepared. 

But it requires profound study to become acquainted with 
all the secrets of our sea, and with its ebb and flow. It took me 
18 months, after I had discovered the spring of our water, to 
find the method of making it well forth, because I did not know 
the meaning of the fiery furnace of the Sages. When I dis- 
covered it, indeed, the sight which I beheld richly rewarded me 
for all my pains I was then suddenly, as by a flash of 
inspiration, enabled to understand all the secret words and 
enigmas of the Sages. Our water is the fire which causes both 
death, and, through death, a more glorious life ^ Whoever 
discovers it has reached the autumn of his Magistery, as Nature 
will then (when the pure body has been put into it) perform all 
the other processes, and carry the substance onward to 
perfection through all the different regimens. This water, 
though one, is not simple, but compounded of two things: the 
vessel and the fire of the Sages, and the bond which holds the 
two together. So when we speak of our vessel, and our fire, we 
mean by both expressions, our water; nor is our furnace 
anything diverse or distinct from our water. There is then one 
vessel, one furnace, one fire, and all these make up one water. 
The fire digests, the vessel whitens and penetrates, the furnace is 
the bond which comprises and encloses all, and all these three 
are our Mercury. There are many kinds of fire (and of water) 
in our Magistery, but all these only represent different aspects of 
our Mercury. 

There is only one thing in the whole world from which our 
Mercury can be obtained. It is like gold in essence, but different 
in substance, and if you change its elements you will have what 
you seek. ]oin heaven to earth in the fire of love, and you will 
see in the middle of the firmament the bird of Hermes. Do not 

2614 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

confound the natures, but separate and re-combine them, and 
you will reign in honour all your life. 

In the South-west there is a high mountain (very near the 
Sun), one of seven, and the second in height. This mountain is 
of a very hot temperature (because it is not far from the Sun), 
and in this mountain is enclosed a vapour or spirit, whose services 
are indispensable for our work. But it does not ascend, unless 
it is quickened, nor is it quickened unless you dig kneedeep on 
the summit of the mountain. If you do this, a subtle exhalation 
(or spirit) ascends, and is congealed by the air into drops of 
beautifully limpid water— which is our water, our fire, our vessel, 
and our furnace; not common Mercury, but the hot and moist 
liquid of most pure Salt, which we call Mercury, because in 
comparison with the Sun, it is immature and cold. If the 
Almighty had not created this Mercury, the transmutation of 
metals would be impossible, because gold does not tinge unless 
it be first tinged itself. Our Mercury is the beloved spouse of 
gold, and changes its body into a purely spiritual substance ; 
gold loves it so, that for very love he dies, and is revived by his 
spouse, and she is impregnated by him, and conceives, and 
bears a most beautiful royal son. The whole knowledge 
of our Art consists in the discovery of this our sea; any 
Alchemist who is ignorant of it, is simply wasting his 
money. Our sea is derived from the mountain of which I told 
you above. The exhalation or white smoke which ascends 
there, will accomplish our whole Magistery. There is another 
secret which you should know if you wish to see your hope 
fulfilled, vzz., how you are to dig a hole in the mountain, as its 
surface is impenetrable to ordinary tools, its dryness being such 
that ithas become harder than a flint But in the places of 
Saturn a small herb is found, called Saturnia, whose twigs 
appear dry, but in whose roots there is abundance of juice. This 
herb you should carefully take up with the roots, and carry with 
you to the foot of the mountain, and, with the help of fire, bury 
it beneath the mountain; its virtue will at once penetrate the 
whole mountain, and soften its earth. Then you may ascend to 
the summit, easily dig a hole knee deep, and pour in so much 
dry and viscous water, that it penetrates to where the herb lies 
buried, and makes it ascend as a fume, which carries upward 

TURUELZITVISV TUS C OUEO TOT) T RRRERES. 265 

with it the spirit of the mountain. This spirit is the strength of 
fire mingling with water, and dwelling in it. The spirit of 
Saturnia is the whitening fume, the vapour of the mountain is 
fire, and all these things are fire. Thus you obtain Saturnia, the 
royal plant and mineral herb, which together with fat flesh makes 
such a soup as to eclipse the richest banquets in the world. 

Here is an enigmatic description of our water, which should in 
course of time and study, become plain to the diligent enquirer. 
There is the King (gold) and the water which is the King's 
Bath ; our water is the vessel, inasmuch as our King is enclosed 
in it, and the furnace, inasmuch as our fire is enclosed in it, and 
our fire, inasmuch as the virtue or spirit of the mountain dwells 
in it, and the woman, inasmuch as it receives the vapour of the 
plant Saturnia ; and as the dear friend of the Sun penetrates, 
whitens, and softens it, and causes it to emit its sperm. Then 
the fiery virtue which is in the water, begins to act on our body, 
wasting and mortifying it, until at length the innate heat of the 
Sun is roused into activity. Our Stone is called a little world, 
because it contains within itself the active and the passive, the 
motor and the thing moved, the fixed and the volatile, the mature 
and the crude — which, being homogeneous, help and perfect each 
other. We have already shewn that our object in adding 
matured Sulphur to crude Mercury (the same thing in different 
stages of development), is to shorten and accelerate the natural 
process. Gold is a hot and dry body, silver a frigid and humid 
one, Mercury the means of conveying tinctures. The body of 
the Sun is most highly digested, that of the Moon imperfect and 
immature, while Mercury is the bond by which these two con- 
traries are united. Join the Moon to Mercury by means of 
proper heat, so that the two become one Mercury which retains 
its inward fire; then the Mercury will be freed from all dross 
and superfluities, and it will become transparent like the tears 
we shed, though not exactly perspicuous. If you then unite this 
purified Mercury to gold, in which is the Moon and fire, the hot 
and dry will love the cold and humid, and they will unite on the 
bed of the fire of friendship; the man will dissolve over the 
woman, and the woman be coagulated over the man, till the 
spirit and the body become one by commixtion. Continue the 
same operation (let the heaven descend to the earth) till the 

266 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

spirit puts on the body, and both are fixed together. Then our 
Stone will have obtained its royal virtue. For Mercury is the 
water of all metals, and they are digested in it. When vegetables 
are boiled in ordinary water, which is naturally frigid and humid, 
it partakes of their qualities, and is yet separable from them ; so 
the pure Mercury, which is in all metals and minerals, ís 
perfectly separable from the dross and foreign matter which 
has become mixed up with them ; yet the different minerals 
and metals qualify the Mercury in the same way as the 
water is qualifed by the vegetables cooked in it. "There are 
these two differences between the Mercury and the water, that 
the water is not coagulated and fixed with the vegetables as our 
water is with the metals; and that, while the colour of common 
water is changed by anything boiled in it, Mercury retains its 
own colour and fluxibility, though its essence is qualified. 
Therefore the Mercury is effectual in the dissolution of the 
metal, and the metal in the coagulation of the Mercury ; and as, 
in the dissolution, the form and colour of the metal is latent in 
the form and colour of the Mercury, so, in coagulation, the form 
and colour of the Mercury is hidden in the form and colour of 
the metal; neither do the qualities of the metal in dissolution 
prevent the fluxibility of the Mercury, nor the qualities of 
Mercury in coagulation the fixity of the metal. Do you not 
here observe a wonderful harmony between Mercury and the 
metals? For their love is like that of mother and son, sister and 
brother, male and female. Hence they are calculated mutually 
to perfect each other, the water imparting to the body a spiritual 
and volatile nature, while the body gives to the water a corporeal 
substance. The reason that the colour of Mercury is not 
changed in coction by the dissolved body, is this: the earth 
and water in the Mercury are homogeneous, and so well tempered 
that neither can be separated from the other, and they are so 
well mixed that the whole substance exhibits (together with 
great fluxibility) so great a consistency as entirely to conceal the 
colours—and only if a part of the Mercury is destroyed or 
marred by some deleterious chemical corrosive, are the colours 
seen. "The relations of Mercury in respect of earth and water 
are these: in respect of water it is fluxible and liquid, in respect 
of earth it moistens nothing but what is of the same essence 

AORUED EI TAS HRS EO TAI, a TEM. 267 

with it. These hints will enable you to detect any errors in your 
treatment of Mercury. Some obstruct or divide its homogeneity 
by unduly drying up its water; others corrupt the earth and 
render it diaphanous by disproportionate mixing. Mercury is 
the sperm of the metals; it contains in itself the Sulphur by 
which alone it is digested (through which Nature would in course 
of time have matured it into gold); nor would it be possible to 
convert Mercury into gold without it. This mature Sulphur, 
then, is radically mixed with the Mercury, and rapidly digests it, 
while itself is putrefied by the Mercury, and is revived again, not 
as common, but as spiritual, penetrative, and tinging gold, which 
has power to purify imperfect metals of all their dross, and to 
change them into its own nature. Thus you see that none of 
the Mercury should be destroyed, or violently dealt with; all 
you have to do is to add to it a mature body sprung from the 
same root, and mix the two in their smallest parts, by means of 
our cunning conjunction (which is performed, not by a manual, 
but by a purely natural process, of which the Artist does not 
even understand the cause) ^ We must distinguish, however, 
between our transmutative conjunction, and a sort of conjunction 
practised by sophists which is merely a fusing together of the 
two substances, and leaves each exactly what it was before. In 
our operation the spirit of gold infuses itself into the spirit of 
Mercury, and their union becomes as inseparable as that of 
water mixed with water. The conjunction can take place only 
by means of the Moon or an imperfect body and fire; and this 
Moon is the sap of the water of life, which is hidden in Mercury, 
and is stirred up by fire; it is a spirit which enters the body, and 
compels it to retain its soul. We speak not of common Mercury 
(which lacks thespirit and fire), but of our Mercurial water—though 
common Mercury may be made like it by the addition of that 
which it lacks. Our conjunction is the grand secret of our Art ; 
for earth is not inseparably united to water, but the union of 
water with water is indissoluble; hence our conjunction can 
take place only after dissolution, which dissolution takes place 
through the Moon and fire that are in the Mercury. For the 
Moon penetrates and whitens, and the fire mortifies and frets, 
while water combines both these properties, according to the 
philosophical dictum : *' The fire which I shew you, is water," 

B 

268 JHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

and, *Unless the bodies are subtilized by fire and water, 
nothing can be done in our Magistery.' "Thus everything, from 
beginning to end, is accomplished, not by sophistical operations, 
but by our Mercury, which, unless it be violently impeded, is kept 
to the right road by the necessity of arriving at a certain goal. 
Some Alchemists fail because they put (common) gold with 
Mercury in a phial over the fire, and thus sow good seed in 
barren earth. But gold is not the substance of our Stone in its 
whole essence, nor yet Mercury. | What we want for our 
work of generation is the seed of gold which is profoundly 
hidden in our metal. This seed must be received into its own 
proper womb, and there mingle with the female seed, in order 
that, being kindly fostered with heat, and fed with its proper 
aliment, it may become that part of gold which is of abundant 
use in our work. It is not the whole of a man that generates the 
infant, but only his seed, which is rightly disposed in the proper 
womb ; and so only the seed of gold (and not the whole metal) 
is useful for our metallic generation. Gold is the Father of our 
Stone, the substance of our Stone is in gold, but gold is not the 
substance of our Stone; yet there is that in gold (the sperm) 
which, by right manipulation, may become our Stone. We 
extract from gold, by a cunning process, that which is its most 
highly matured virtue, and this is called, not common, dead, but 
our living gold. The difference between common gold and our 
gold, is that which exists between a Father and his seed; 
common gold is dead and useless, as far as our work is 
concerned, until it emits its living seed. "Take the body of gold, 
then, and gently extract from it its seed, and you will have the 
living male seed of our Stone, which we now no longer call gold, 
but ore, magnesia, lead, etc.—because it is no longer a body, like 
gold, but a chaos, or spirit, which cannot revert to its corporeal 
form. Aristotle says: * The first thing you should do is to 
sublime the Mercury, then you should put a pure body into the 
pure Mercury." "The sublimation of the Mercury which is here 
referred to, is not an artificial, but à true and naturalone. It is 
the *first preparation of the thin substance," by which the 
eclipse caused by the interposition of Earth is removed from the 
Moon, enabling her to receive the light of the Sun—which 
happens when the murky sphere of Saturn (that overshadowed 

ZR BEDETSNSR DIOE, dT. EET ES. 269 

the whole horizon) is removed, and Jupiter ascends the throne; 
then there rises upward a mist of dazzling whiteness, whence 
there is distilled upon the earth a pure, sweet, and fragrant dew, 
that softens it and stirs up great winds at its centre ; these winds 
bear our Stone upward, where it is endowed with heavenly 
virtue, and thence descending once more to its nurse, the earth, 
is clothed upon with a corporeal nature, and thus receives the 
strength both of things above and of things below. This living 
gold is *that which zs, but does not appear till it pleases the 
Artist, and in the knewledge of which is the secret of all 
perfection." Mercury is our field, in which the Sun rises and 
sets ; let the two be inseparably united on the bed of love, till 
from this (regenerate) Mercury there comes forth a quickening 
virtue, which is able to raise the dead. "Then there will appear 
the royal child, whose father is the Sun, whose mother is the 
Moon. . . Besides these things, we need, of course, a furnace 
of clay, a vessel of glass, and a triple fire; but we do not call 
these three our vessel, oux fire, or our furnace, because ordinary 
sophists employ these things as well as the Sages ; when we 
speak of our vessel, our furnace, and our fire, the terms are to be 
interpreted in accordance with the explanation which we gave 
above. Of this fire a Sage might well say : * Behold, the fire, 
which I will shew you, is water"; and again, * The vessel of the 
Sages is their water." Another Sage says, that all our operations 
take place in our humid fire, in our secret furnace, and our 
hidden vessel, and thereby clearly shews that there must be a 
fire, vessel, and furnace, other than those which ignorant 
Alchemists possess in greater perfection and abundance than we. 
Our appliances are part of our substance, and are described by 
Sendivogius, for instance, as the * vessel of Nature," and the 
*fire of Nature" This practice is followed by Flamellus, 
Artephius, Lullius, and all other Sages ; and I tell you that these 
three appliances are, after all, only one; for the nature of our 
substance is one. (Our fire is that which dissolves and heats 
bodies more effectually than ordinary fire ; hence it is called 
ardent wine and a most strong fire, and the Sages bid us burn 
our ore with our most strong fire—words which are falsely 
interpreted of an ordinary coal fire. Of this fire John. Mehungus 
writes: * No artificial fire can infuse so high a degree of heat as 
that which comes from heaven," 

J'OEENC CC ESROB DUE R TC EK 
HIEIEVBRLUS 

Ge OLLJ09 5 NE CC I T 

WHICH THE WORLD WORSHIPS AND ADORES.: 

IN WHICH IS DISCUSSED 
JUPE OMOSOE SRONRUS OMUSRSANOIEES IB NGSSISUPTRSD) 
IN THE TRANSMUTATION OF METALS, 
VIZ. : 
IIOW AT THE HAGUE A MASS OF LEAD WAS IN 
A MOMENT OF TIME CHANGED INTO GOLD 
BY THE INFUSION OF A SMALL 

PARTICLE OF OUR STONE. 

JOB, xxvii., 5 :—** Great things doeth God which we cannot comprehend." 

SENECA, Epist. 77 :—'* We must learn, in our pursuit of wisdom, to listen with 
equanimity to the reproaches of the foolish, and to despise contempt itself," 

BOUES 
MOST HONOURABLE AND EXCELLENT 

IDJR-CIDEDEOIIDORIBJOKSEST ES, 
A great physician, and traveller in. Turkey and other 
foreign lands, now in practice at Amsterdam, 
and amy zntimate friend ; 
AND TO THE 
MOST HONOURABLE AND PROFOUNDLY LEARNED 

DR. JOHN CASPAR FAUSIUS, 

Councillor and. Court. Physician. to. the. Count 
Palatine of Heidelberg ; 

AND 

IDIRCCGERRASSSIBIASNOUMIB/NEDZIBHETIUIS: 

Councillor and. Court Physician to the Elector of. Brandenburg, 

MY HONOURED PATRONS, AND 

BELOVED FRIENDS. 

VOL. II, : S 

DEDIGATORY EBISIBIZE 

TO THE ABOVE-NAMED NOBLE AND HONOURABLE 
FRIENDS AND MASTERS.

beloved friends the knowledge of this Spagyric Art, and of the 
most precious and miraculous Arcanum, which I have not only 
seen with my own eyes, but also executed with my own hands, 
by changing a mass of lead into solid gold, persistently resisting 
any test of fire, through the addition of a small particle of our 
transmutatory powder. It can no longer be pretended that our 
Art does not possess the power which it claims, or that the 
Mercury of the Sages is not the great and glorious fountain of 
all natural marvels. This wonderful secret has, through the 
grace of God, been revealed to me, and as it is unworthy of man, 
created in the image of God, to maintain silence in regard to 
God's miraculous works, like the brute beasts, I have determined 
to unveil this grand Arcanum to you, my beloved friends; andI 
will now gird myself to tell you all that I know and- have heard 
of the sayings and doings of the Great Artist Elias. It was not, 
indeed, he who revealed to me the grand secret; yet his conver- 
sation was so instructive that I cannot refrain from reporting it 
to you word for word. It is my earnest wish, honoured friends 
and masters, that this Book may meet with a kindly reception at 
your hands, and that you may derive from it both enjoyment 
and profit. With this hope, I remain, 

Your humble Servant, 

JOJEDNOSBIRISDIE/RIIG ESGEBEZID VIBADTIGNS 

CLEDATTERSL 

EFORE I begin to write about the philosophical Pygmy 
vanquishing the' Giants, my honoured friends and 
masters, you must permit me to transcribe a passage 
from the works of Helmontius (.A£or Vite, folio 630) : 

* [ cannot but believe that there is such a thing as a gold and 
silver making Stone. At the same time, I cannot shut my eyes 
to the fact that hundreds of painstaking Alchemists are daily 
being led astray by impostors or ignorant professors of the 
Spagyric Art" For this reason I shall not be astonished if— 
immediately upon perusing my book — multitudes of these 
deluded victims start up, and contradict the assertion which 
I have made in regard to the truth of this Art. One of these 
gentry denounces Alchemy as a work of the Devil; another 
describes it as sheer nonsense and humbug ; a third admits the 
possibility of transmuting metals into gold, but maintains that 
the whole process costs more money than it is worth. But I do 
not wonder at these opinions. It is a hackneyed saying of. 
human nature that we gape at those things whose purpose we do 
not understand, but we investigate things pleasurable to know. 
The Sages should therefore remember the words of Seneca (De 
Moribus): * You are not yet blessed, if the multitude does not 
laugh at you." But I do not care whether they believe or con- 
tradict my teaching about the transmutation of metals ; I rest 
calmly satisfied in the knowledge that I have seen it with my 
own eyes, and performed it with my own hands. Even in our 
degenerate age these wonders are still possible; even now the 
Medicine is prepared which is worth twenty tons of gold, nay, 
more, for it has virtue to bestow that which all the gold of the 
world cannot buy, vzz. health. Blessed is that physician who 
knows our soothing medicinal Potion of Mercury, the great 
panacea of death and disease. But God does not reveal this 
S2 

276 TELE JTERMETIC MUSEUM, 

glorious knowledge to all men indiscriminately ; and some men 
are so obtuse (with a judicial blindness) that they wonder at the 
activity of the simplest forces of Nature, as, for instance, the 
attractive power which the magnet exercises upon the steel. 
But (whether they believe it or not) there is a corresponding 
magnetic force in gold which attracts Mercury, in silver which 
attracts copper, and so with all other metals, minerals, stones, 
herbs, plants, etc. . . . We must not be surprised at this 
persistent opposition to truth : the light of the sun pains the 
eyes of owls. 

As a matter of fact, we human beings take too much upon 
ourselves in hastily and dogmatically judging of things which 
we do not understand. "We deny the influence of the stars upon 
earthly things, and by that denial only exhibit our ignorance. 
And what do we know of the secret forces which slumber in 
plants. You may know nothing of the glory of the Angels, the 
brightness of the heavens, the transparency of the air, the 
limpidity of the water, the variety of colours in flowers, the 
hardness of stones and metals, the proportionate beauty of men 
and animals, the image of God in regenerate souls, the faith of 
believers, the rationality of the mind, &c.—for we may be blind 
and without feeling or understanding—and yet the beauty of all 
these things is not in the least affected by our ignorance. 

If we bear these considerations in mind, they ought to stop 
our mouths when we feel tempted to deny the possibility of such 
wonderful transmutatory virtue being inherent in our Stone. 
Still, it must not be supposed that I wish to force this knowledge 
upon any one. God has reserved it for the worthy, and I know 
that it can never become known to the wicked, the irreligious, 
or the scornful. All I propose to do is to lay before the reader, 
for his diligent consideration, those conversations which have 
passed between the Artist Elias and myself, in regard to the 
nature of this Stone, the splendour of which (being more glorious 
than the dawn, more brilliant than a carbuncle, more bright 
than the sun or gold) has not yet faded from my mind. The 
contempt of the scornful| and the ignorance of the foolish I 
despise. Their ephemeral babble will soon be swept away by 
the river of forgetfulness ; but our triumphant Art, which is 
established upon a foundation of adamant, upon the foundation 

HELVETLIUSU GOLDEN CALF. 277 

of God's own truth, will abide unshaken throughout all ages. 
For adepts according to ancient experience have given their 
word that this natural mystery is only to be found with JEHOVA 
Saturninely placed in the centre of the world. But those we 
call blessed, who can purge the Queen of the Sages of her 
impurity, who can circulate the Catholic Virgin Earth by means 
of our crystalline Physico-magical Art, and who have beheld 
the King, with his crown on his head, and his strength of inward 
fire, come forth from the chamber of his crystal grave, his 
bodily semblance glorified with all the most beautiful hues 
that the world affords, like a shining carbuncle, or like a 
transparent, compact, and diaphanous crystal—like a salamander 
that has spued forth all water, and washes away the leprosy of 
base metals with fire. Moreover, they shall behold the abyss of 
the Spagyric Art, where in the mineral kingdom, the same so royal 
art has, to a certain extent, for many years (in, as it were, the 
safest retreat of all) lain concealed. The Sages have seen the 
river in which /Eneas was cleansed of his mortality—the river of 
Pactolus in Lydia which was changed into gold by King Midas 
bathing in it—the bath of Diana—the spring of Narcissus—the 
blood of Adonis trickling upon the snowy breast of Venus, 
whence was produced the anemone—the blood of Ajax, from 
which sprang the beautiful hyacinth flower—the blood of the 
Giants killed by Jupiter's thunderbolt—the tears which Althea 
shed when she doffed her golden robes—the magic water of 
Medea, out of which grass and flowers sprang forth—the Potion 
which Medea prepared from various herbs for the rejuvenescence 
of old Jason—the Medicine of Aesculapius—the magic juice, by 
the aid of which Jason obtained the Golden Fleece—the garden 
of the Hesperides, where the trees bear golden apples in rich 
abundance—Atalanta turned aside from the race by the three 
golden apples—Romulus transformed by Jupiter into a god— 
the transfiguration of the soul of Julius Casar into a Comet— 
Juno's serpent, Pytho, born of decomposed earth after Deucalion's 
flood—the fire at which Medea lit her seven torches—the Moon 
kindled by Phaéthon's conflagration—A rcadia, in which Jupiter 
was wont to walk abroad—the habitation of Pluto in whose 
vestibule lay the three-headed Cerberus—the Pile, on which 
Hercules burnt those limbs which he had received from his 

278 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

mother, with fire, till only the fixed and  incombustible 
elements derived from his father were left, and he became a god— 
and the rustic cottage whose roof was made of pure gold. 
Blessed, yea, thrice blessed, is the man to whom Jehovah has 
revealed the method of preparing that Divine Salt by which the 
metallic or mineral body is corrupted, destroyed, and mortified, 
while its soul in the meantime is revived for the glorious ressur- 
rection of the philosophical body— blessed, I say, is he to whom 
the knowledge of our Art is vouchsafed in answer to prayer 
throughout all his work for the Holy Spirit! For it should be 
remembered that this is the only way in which our Art of Arts 
is vouchsafed to man, and if you would attain it, the service of 
God ought to be your chief business. By committing themselves 
to this sacred and practical path of piety, and to theosophical 
colloquies alone with Jehovah, all true students of this Art will, 
in due course of time, behold the sight which will gladden their 
hearts. Blessed, also, is he to whom some adept graciously flings 
wide the gates of knowledge, and to whom the golden road of the 
King is thus manifested! . . I am afraid that the Preface 
will not please all my readers ; nevertheless, I have a good hope 
that it will cheer and hearten the better part of them. Drink, my 
friends, from the fountain of truth, which wells forth in the 
Dialogue that I shall hereafter set down, and slake therewith the 
thirst of your souls, for my words shall be sweeter to you than 
nectar or ambrosia. For I bear in mind the saying of Julius 
Caesar Scaliger that * the end of wisdom is its communication," 
and the teaching of Gregory of Nyssenus, who affirms " that the 
good delight to impart their knowledge to others, because it is 
the greatest joy to them to be useful." 

KOLTPASBATSEPISSQMINIS 

The truth of this Art is maintained by many illustrious 
writers, of whom the following are the most distinguished 
representatives of their class: ) 

Paracelsus (Aev. AVafur. ix. fol. 358) has the following 
words: * The true sign by which the Tincture of the Physicists 
is known, is its power of transmuting all imperfect metals into 
silver (if it be white) or gold (if it be red), if but a small particle 

HELVETIUS GOLDEN CALF 79 

of it be injected into a mass of such metals liquefied in a 
crucible." 

Again: * The invincible Star of the Metals vanquishes all 
things, and changes them into a nature similartoits own. This 
gold and silver are better than those found in mines for the pre- 
paration of arcane medicines from it." 

Again: *I say that any Alchemist, who has the Star of 
Gold, can change all metals into that precious substance." 

Again: ' Our Tincture of Gold contains stars, is a substance 
of the greatest fixity, is unchangeable in multiplication, is a red 
powder (with almost a saffron tinge), liquid like resin, trans- 
parent like crystal, fragile like glass, is of a rubinate colour, and 
of great specific gravity." 

.Again, in Paracelsus' book called * The Heaven of the 
Sages, and in his seventh book on the **Transmutation of 
Natural Things," he bears witness to the same fact: * Trans- 
mutation is a great natural mystery, which is bv no means—as 
fools suppose—contrary to the course of Nature, or the law of 
God. Without this Philosopher's Stone, the imperfect metals 
can be transmuted neither into gold nor silver." 

Paracelsus, in his Manual concerning the Medicinal Philo- 
sopher's Stone, says: * Our Stone is the heavenly and super- 
perfect Medicine, because it washes away all the impurities of 
metals." 

Henry Khunrath, in his * Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom " 
(fol. 147), has the following words: * I have visited many lands, 
and had speech of many learned men. I have seen the Green 
Catholic Lion, and the Blood of the Lion, ze,the Gold of the 
Sages, with my own eyes, have touched it with my hands, tasted 
it with my tongue, smelt it with my nose. By its means I have 
cured many whose life was despaired of." 

Again (fol. 202): *That which I describe is not a myth: 
you shall handle it with your hands, see it with your eyes,—that 
Azoth, or Catholic Mercury of the Sages, which, together with 
inward and outward fire,in sympathic harmony, through an 
unavoidable necessity, physico-magically united,is alone sufficient 
for the preparation of our Stone." 

Again: * You shall see the Philosopher's Stone, our King and 
Lord of Lords, go forth from the chamber of its crystal tomb into 

28o THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

this world, with its glorified body, regenerate and transcendently 
perfect, a brilliant carbuncle, whose most subtle and fully purified 
parts, being harmoniously mixed, are bound inseparably into 
one, altogether smooth, translucid as crystal | compact and 
exceedingly weighty. It is easily fused in fire, as resin, and after 
the flight of artificial quicksilver, just as wax. Without smoke 
it enters and penetrates solid bodies as oilenters paper. It is 
soluble in any liquid, melting and commingling with the same, 
fragile as glass, in a powder saffron-coloured, but in a solid mass, 
red like the ruby. Its purple colour is the mark of perfect 
' fixation and fixed perfection, for it remains fixed and incom- 
bustible, even when exposed to fire, corrosive waters, or burning 
sulphur, since it is, like the salamander, incapable of being 
consumed by fire." 

Again : * When the White Tincture is added to metals as a 
ferment, it transmutes them into purest silver ; when the Red 
'Tincture is mixed with pure gold, it is, within three days, multi- 
plied by the quantity of the gold." 

Helmontius (* On Life Eternal," page 590) has the following 
words :—' I have seen the Stone, and touched it with my own 
hands. . . . . Onme-fourth of agrain of this powder, wrapped 
up in paper, I have cast upon eight ounces of boiling quicksilver 
in a crucible, and immediately the whole mixture was congealed 
into a mass like yellow wax ; when the fusion was completed, 
the crucible contained eight ounces of purest gold (less eleven 
grains). So one grain of our powder had transmuted into purest 
gold 19,186 times its own weight of quicksilver,—and this 
process can be repeated indefinitely. The powder cleanses the 
metal from all impurity, and protects it from rust, decay, and 
fire, etc. 

Again, the same Helmontius says, in his * Tree of Life" 
(page 630) :—*1 am compelled to believe that there is a Stone 
which produces gold and silver ; for I have several times, with 
my own hands, projected one grain of powder upon one thousand 
grains of boiling quicksilver, which was thereby, in the presence 
of a great multitude of spectators, immediately transformed into 
precious gold. He who first gave me some of this transmutatory 
powder, had of it at least as much as would have sufficed for the 
production of 200,000 pounds of gold. He gave me about 

HELVETIUS GOLDEN CALF. 38 

14 grain of the powder, with which I transmuted 934 ounces of 
quicksilver. 
Moreover, the most honourable and profoundly learned 

Dr. Theodore Ketjes, an eminent physician resident at Amster- 
dam, gave me a medal on which were the following inscriptions: 

N TOUR erafftlies 

On the obverse of the medal there appeared the following 

words : 
AS THIS ART IS RARE AMONG MEN, 

SO IT IS RARELY EXHIBITED : 
PRAISED BE GOD FOR EVER WHO 
HAS COMMUNICATED PART OF 
HIS INFINITE POWER TO US HIS MOST: 
ABJECT CREATURES. 

282 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

It is also said that, in 1660, Alexander (a Scotch adept) 
effected a change of imperfect metals into gold, at Cologne, and 
at Hanover, etc. 

There are also other instances on record of such transmuta- 
tions having taken place. 

The following is a genuine extract from a letter written by 
Dr. Kuffler :— 

* First I found in my own laboratory, aquafortis, next in 
that of CZar/es de Koy,l poured it over calx of gold prepared 
in the ordinary way, and after the third cohobation, it sublimated 
with itself the tincture of gold in the neck of the retort, which 
I mingled with silver precipitated in the ordinary way, and I 
beheld that it had transmuted one ounce of sublimated tincture 
of gold in the crucible with the usual flux, and two ounces of 
precipitated silver, into an ounce-and-a-half of the best gold, 
while the third portion remained silver. The gold was white and 
fixed, but the remaining two parts were the best silver, fixed 
under the test of any fire. This is my experience, and I need 
not say that it has made me a most enthusiastic believer in 
Alchemy." 

I, Helvetius, have seen this gold, without the tincture, white. 

Another proof of the genuineness of this Art was given at 
the Hague, in the year 1664, when a silversmith, of the name of 
Gril, in the presence of many witnessess, transformed one pound 
of lead, partly into gold, and partly into silver. Gril had 
obtained the Tincture from a certain weaver of the name of 
John Caspar Knóttner, with the injunction to use it for metals 
only. Gril placed it with some lead in a glass cake dish, and 
after about a fortnight the above change was found to have 
taken place. Ican testify to the genuineness of this case, as Gril 
was personally known to me, and I saw the transmuted lead, 
which exhibited on its surface a most beautiful silver crystal, in 
the form of a star, as though prepared by most ingenious artifice 
with a circle. "The pity was that Gril, being obstinate and crafty, 
would not let Knóttner know whether it was his ** Spirit of Salt " 
that had effected the change ; and some time afterwards, when 
Gril's obstinacy had at length been overcome, Knóttner had 
forgotten which of his many chemical preparations he had given 
to him, and, before he was able to find out, he and his family 

JZIBTBDIISS GLEN CATR. 283 

were swept away by the plague, while Gril fell into the water 
and was drowned. Afterwards, not one of the many goldseekers 
was able to discover the secret which died with them.  Never- 
theless, it is a matter of never ceasing admiration that the 
Philosopher's Stone should have the power of transmuting,in so 
short a time, the dull and heavy nature oflead into the bright and 
brilliant nature of silver and gold ; of this natural law, however, 
we have an illustration in the fact that steel, by contact with the 
magnet, acquires its magnetic power. 

CEPAI EJ UE 

Since promises are all the more acceptable, the more quickly 
they are fulfilled, I will now, without any further delay, address 
myself to the task which I have set myself to accomplish. 

On the 27 December, 1666, in the forenoon, there came to 
my house a certain man, who was a complete stranger to me, but 
of an honest, grave countenance, and an authoritative mien, 
clothed in a simple garb like that of a Memnonite. He was of 
middle height, his face was long and slightly pock-marked, his 
hair was black. and straight, his chin close shaven, his age about 
43 or 44, and his native province, as far as I could make out, 
North Holland. 

After we had exchanged salutations, he asked me whether 
he might have some conversation with me. He wished 
to say something to me about the Pyrotechnic Art, as he had 
read one of my  Tracts (directed against the Sympathetic 
Powder of Dr. Digby), in which I hinted a suspicion whether 
the Grand Arcanum of the Sages was not after all a gigantic 
hoax. He, therefore, took that opportunity of asking me 
whether I could not believe that such a grand mystery might 
exist in the nature of things, by means of which a physician 
could restore any patient whose vitals were not irreparably 
destroyed. I answered: * Such a Medicine would be a most 
desirable acquisition for any physician ; nor can any man tell 
how many secrets there may be hidden in Nature ; yet, though 
] have read much about the truth of this Art, it has never been 
my good fortune to meet with a real Master of the Alchemical 
Science." I also enquired whether he was a medical man, since 

284 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

he spoke so learnedly about the Universal Medicine. In reply, 
he modestly disclaimed my insinuation, and described himself as 
a brassfounder, who had always taken a great interest in the 
extraction of medicinal potions from metals by means of fire. 
After some further conversation, the Artist Elias (for it was he) 
thus addressed me: '* Since you have read so much in the works 
of the Alchemists about this Stone, its substance, its colour, and 
its wonderful effects, may I be allowed the question, whether you 
have not yourself prepared it?" (On my answering his question 
in the negative, he took out of his bag a cunningly-worked ivory 
box, in which there were three large pieces of a substance 
resembling glass, or pale sulphur, and informed me that here 
was enough of the Tincture for the production of 20 tons of 
gold. When I had held the precious treasure in my hand for a 
quarter of an hour (during which time I listened to a recital of 
its wonderful curative properties), I was compelled to restore it 
to its owner, which I could not help doing with a certain degree 
of reluctance. — After thanking him for his kindness in shewing 
it to me, I then asked how it was that his Stone did not display 
that ruby colour which I had been taught to regard as character- 
istic of the Philosopher's Stone. He replied that the colour 
made no difference, and that the substance was sufficiently 
mature for all practical purposes. My request that he would 
give me a piece of his Stone (though it were no larger than a 
coriander seed), he somewhat brusquely refused, adding, in a 
milder tone, that he could not give it me for all the wealth I 
possessed, and that not on account of its great preciousness, but 
for some other reason which it was not lawful for him to divulge ; 
nay, if fire could be destroyed in that way, he would immediately 
throw it all into the fire. "Then, after a moment's consideration; 
he enquired whether I could not shew him into a room at the back 
of the house, where we should be less liable to the observation of 
passers-by. (On my conducting him into the state parlour 
(which he entered without wiping his dirty boots), he demanded 
of me a gold coin, and while I was looking for it, he produced 
from his breast pocket a green silk handkerchief, in which were 
folded up five medals, the gold of which was infinitely superior 
to that of my gold piece. On the medals appeared the following 
inscriptions :— 

EUAIIUD RUSO QUIE NL CAT. 285 

Holy, Holy, Holy Jehovah's 
wonderful and miraculous 
is the Lord our God ; Wisdom 
the universe is full of in the Catholic Book of 
Nature. 

His Glory. 

I was made the 
26 August, 1666. 

Lion. Palance. 

uini (S 

God, Nature, and 
the Spagyric Art 

make nothing 

in vain. 

DONNA S 

o the Eternal, 

Holy, Sacred Spirit ! 
Halleluia, Halleluia. 

Invisible, Triune, Thrice 

Holy, and only wise God, 

Avaunt, Satan. the Governor and 
Speak not of God . Preserver, 
without Light. be praise now and 

Amen ' ever. 

I was filled with admiration, and asked my visitor whence 
he had obtained that wonderful knowledge of the whole world ? 
He replied that it was a gift freely bestowed on him by a friend 
who had stayed a few days at his house, who had also taught 
him to change common flints and crystals into stones more 
precious than rubies, chrysoliths, and sapphires ; he also revealed 
to me the preparation of crocus of iron (an infallible cure for 
dysenteryj, of metallic liquid (an efficacious remedy for dropsy), 
and of many other infallible Medicines, to which, however, I paid 
no great heed, as I was impatiently anxious to have the chief 

286 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

secret of all revealed to me. The Artist told me that his Master 
had bidden him bring him a glass full of warm water, to which 
he had added a little white powder, and in which one ounce of 
silver had melted like ice in warm water. Of this draught he 
emptied one-half, and gave the rest to me. Its taste resembled 
that of fresh milk, and its effect was most exhilarating." 

I asked my visitor whether the potion was a preparation of 
the Philosopher' Stone? But he answered: * You should not 
be so inquisitive." 

Then he told me that, at the bidding of the Artist, he had 
taken down a piece of leaden water-pipe, and melted the lead in 
a pot, whereupon the Artist had taken some sulphureous powder 
out of a little box on the point of a knife, and cast it into the 
melted lead, and that after exposing the compound for a short 
time to a fierce fire, he had poured forth a great mass of molten 
gold upon the brick floor of the kitchen. 

*'The Master bade me take one-sixteenth of the gold for 
myself as a keepsake, and to. distribute the rest amongst the 
poor; which I did by making over a large sum in trust to the 
Church of Sparrendam. At length, before bidding me farewell, 
my friend taught me this Divine Art." 

When my strange visitor had concluded his narrative, I 
besought him to give me a proof of his assertion, by 
performing the transmutatory operation on some metals in my 
presence. He answered evasively, that he could not do so then, but 
that he would return in three weeks, and that, if he was then at 
liberty to do so, he would shew me something that would make 
me open my eyes. He appeared punctually to the promised day, 
and invited me to take a walk with him, in the course of which 
we discoursed profoundly on the secrets of Nature in fire, though 
I noticed that my companion was very chary in imparting 
information about the Grand Arcanum ; he spoke very learnedly 
and gravely concerning the holiness of the Art (just as if he 
were a clergyman), and said that God had commanded the 
initiated to make the secret known only to the deserving. At 
last I asked him pointblank to shew me the transmutation of 
metals. I besought him to come and dine with me, and to spend 
the night at my house; I entreated ; I expostulated ; but in 
vain. He remained firm. 1l reminded him of his promise. He 

TBI AE PAURA GN QUE DEN. CAT: 287 

retorted that his promise had been conditional upon his being 
permitted to reveal the secret to me. At last, however, I 
prevailed upon him to give me a piece of his precious Stone— 
a piece no larger than a grain of rape seed. He delivered it to 
me as if it were the most princely donation in the world. Upon 
my uttering a doubt whether it would be sufficient to tinge more 
than four grains of lead, he eagerly demanded it back. I 
complied, in the hope that he would exchange it for a larger 
piece; instead of which he divided it in two with his thumb,threw 
away one-half and gave me back theother, saying : * Even now it 
is sufficient for you." Then I was still more heavily disappointed, 
as I could not believe that anything could be done with so small 
a particle of the Medicine. He, however, bade me take two 
drachms, or half an-ounce of lead, or even a little more, and to 
melt itin the crucible ; for the Medicine would certainly not 
tinge more of the base metal than it was sufficient for. 
I answered that I could not believe that so small a quantity 
of  Tincture could transform so large a mass of lead. 
But I had to be satisfied with what he had given me, and my chief 
difficulty was about the application of the Tincture. I confessed 
that when I held his ivory box in my hand, I had managed to 
extract a few small crumbs of his Stone, but that they had changed 
my lead, not into gold, but only into glass. He laughed, and 
said that I was more expert at theft than at the application of 
the Tincture. * You should have protected your spoil with 
* yellow wax; then it would have been able to penetrate the lead 
and to transmute it into gold. As it was, your Medicine 
evaporated, by a sympathetic process, in the metallic smoke. 
For all metals, gold, silver, tin, and mercury, are corrupted by the 
fumes of lead, and degenerated into glass." I shewed him the 
crucible, and there he discovered the yellow piece of Medicine stil! 
adhering to it. He promised to return at nine o'clock the next 
morning, and then he would shew me that my Medicine could well 
be used for transmuting lead into gold. With this promise I had 
to declare myself satisfied. Still I asked him to favour me with 
some information about the preparation of the Arcanum. He 
would not tell me anything about the cost and the time ; *as to 
its substance," he continued, * it is prepared from two metals or 
minerals ; the minerals are better because they contain a larger 

288 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

quantity of mature Sulphur. The solvent is a certain celestial 
Salt, by means of which the Sages dissolve the earthy 
metallic body, and this process elicits the precious Elixir of the 
Sages. The work is performed from beginning to end in a 
crucible over an open fire; it is consummated in four days, and its 
cost is only about three florins. Neither the Mineral from the 
Egg nor the Solvent Salt are very expensive." replied that 
his statement was contradicted by the sayings of the Sages, who 
assign seven or nine months as the duration of the Work. | His 
only answer was that the sayings of the Sages were to be under- 
stood in a philosophical sense, and no ignorant person could 
apprehend their true meaning. I besought him that, as a 
stranger had made known to him this precious mystery, so he 
would extend to me the same kindness, and give me at least 
some information which would remove all the most formidable 
obstacles out of my path; for if one knew one thing, other 
facts connected with it were more easily discovered. But the 
Artist replied: *Itis not so in our Magistery ; if you do not 
know the whole operation from beginning to end, you know noth- 
ing at all. I have told you all; yet you do not know how the 
crystal seal of Hermes is broken, and how the Sun colours it 
with the marvellous splendour of its metallic rays, or in what 
mirror the metals see with the eyes of Narcissus the possibility 
of their transmutation, or from what rays adepts collect the fire 
of perfect metallic fixation." With these words,and a promise 
to return at nine o'clock the next morning, he left me. But at 
the stated hour. on the following day he did not make his 
appearance ; in his stead, however, there came, a few hours later, 
a stranger, who told me that his friend the Artist was unavoidably 
detained, but that he would call at three o'clock in the afternoon. 
'The afternoon came; I waited for him till half-past seven o'clock. 
He did not appear. 'Thereupon my wife came and tempted me 
to try the transmutation myself. I determined, however, to wait 
till the morrow, and in the meantime, ordered my son to light 
the fire, as I was now almost sure that he was an impostor. On 
the morrow, however, I thought that I might at least make an 
experiment with the piece of * Tincture" which I had received ; 
if it turned out a failure, in spite of my following his directions 
closely, I might then be quite certain that my visitor had. been a 

ET TURPIRISSGOQUDEA. CAT. 289 

mere pretender to a knowledge of this Art. So I asked my 
wife to put the Tincture in wax, and I myself, in the meantime, 
prepared six drachms of lead; I then cast the Tincture, 
enveloped as it was in wax, on the lead; as soon as it was 
melted, there was a hissing sound and a slight effervescence, and 
after a quarter of an hour I found that the whole mass of lead 
had been turned into the finest gold. Before this transformation 
took place, the compound became intensely green, but as soon 
as [ had poured it into the melting pot it assumed a hue like 
blood. When it cooled, it glittered and shone like gold. We 
immediately took it to the goldsmith, who at once declared it to 
be the finest gold he had ever seen, and offered to pay fifty florins 
an ounce for it. 

'The rumour, of course, spread at once like wildfire through 
the whole city; and in the afternoon, I had visits from many 
illustrious students of this Art; I also received a call from the 
Master of the Mint and some other gentlemen, who requested 
me to place at their disposal a small piece of the gold, in order that 
they might subject it to the usual tests. I consented, and we 
betook ourselves to the house of a certain silversmith, named 
Brechtil, who submitted a small piece of my gold to the test 
called * the fourth": three or four parts of silver are melted in 
the crucible with one part of gold, and then beaten out into : 
thin plates, upon which some strong aquafortis is poured. The 
usual result of this experiment is that the silver is dissolved, 
while the gold sinks to the bottom in the shape of a black 
powder, and after the aquafortis has been poured off, and 
melted once more in the crucible, resumes its former shape. . . 
When we now performed this experiment, we thought at first 
that one-half of the gold had evaporated; but afterwards we 
found that this was not the case, but that, on the contrary, two 
scruples of the silver had undergone a change into gold. 

Then we tried another test, vzz., that which is performed by 
means of a septuple of Antimony ; at first it seemed as if eight 
grains of the gold had been lost, but afterwards, not only had 
two scruples of the silver been converted into gold, but the silver 
itself was greatly improved both in quality and malleability. 
Thrice I performed this infallible test, discovering that every 
drachm of gold produced an increase of a scruple of gold, but the 

VOL. 1I, T 

290 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

silver is excellent and extremely flexible. Thus I have unfolded 

to you the whole story from beginning to end. "The gold I still 

retain in my possession, but I cannot tell you what has become 
of the Artist Elias. Before he left me, on that last day of our 

friendly intercourse, he told me that he was on the point of 
undertaking a journey to the Holy Land. May the Holy 

Angels of God watch over him wherever he is, and long preserve 

him as a source of blessing to Christendom! This is my earnest 

prayer on his and our behalf. 

(OEIPASPIDIE/RSSBVA 

I will now proceed to give an account of the conversations 
which passed between the Artist Elias and myself (the 
Physician) on the occasion of his kindly visits to my house. 
The reader is to imagine the Artist entering my room, and 
introducing himself with the following words : 

I salute you, Dr. Helvetius. I am one of the readers of the 
Tract you wrote against Dr. Digby, and his Sympathetic Pills, 
and I should like to have some conversation with you on this 
and kindred subjects. I am a close student of Nature's secrets, 
and delight in the company of those who have a kindred aim. 
And, certainly, I have found as the result even of my paltry 
investigations, that no natural marvels are to be rashly 
pronounced impossible. 

PHYSICIAN. 

Let me bid you a hearty welcome.  Discourses on the 
secrets of Nature are the great delight of my heart, as they are 
of yours. Come with me, I pray you, into my study. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

You do, indeed, possess a wonderfully well-equipped 
laboratory, and I make no doubt that, by its means, you have 
sounded all the secret depths of Alchemy. But why do you 
keep so many medicines? Do you not believe that there exists 
in the nature of things one or more remedies, fully capable of 
counteracting disease in all cases, where neither the heart, the 

JE DRESSER DUISIDVE NS CADIT 291 

liver, nor the lungs, are entirely destroyed, or the vital juices 
altogether consumed ? 

PHYSICIAN. 

From what you say I conclude that you are either one of 
the profession, or else a Master of the Chemical Art. I do 
believe, as you say, that there exist in Nature other more excel- 
lent medicines than any that I possess. This view is both 
natural and reasonable, and it is supported by the authority of 
many celebrated writers. "They tell us of a certain Universal 
Medicine, which, as they say, is known only to the elect, but it 
enables its possessors to heal all diseases (even those otherwise 
incurable), and to prolong their lives almost indefinitely. "Yet is 
anyone able to conduct us to this miraculous fountain, whence 
this vitalizing water is drawn? am afraid it is a hopeless 
aspiration. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

I am not, as you suppose, a physician, but only a brass- 
founder. I have, however, from a very early age, taken an all- 
absorbing interest in the Art of Alchemy, and the secret qualities 
of metals. And as a result of my investigations (humble as they 
have been), I most decidedly incline to the belief that the dis- 
covery of the Medicine you mention will, even in our degenerate 
age, be vouchsafed to some earnest student, as a reward of 
prayer and work. 

PHYSICIAN. 

It is true that God grants His gifts to those who love Him 
ungrudgingly and without upbraiding. But I also find that in 
former ages, as in our own, there have lived hosts of chemists 
who have spent their lives, as the saying is, in scooping up water 
with a sieve. Moreover, it seems quite impossible to gain from 
the writings of the genuine Sages any intelligible information, 
either as.to the substance or the mode of preparation of this 
Universal Philosopher's Stone. . ... In the meantime, it is 
the duty of a good physician to make the most of those appliances 
for the cure of disease, which are actually within his reach. If 
he refused to give any medicines until he had discovered the 

292 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Universal Remedy, his patients would suffer through his folly and 
carelessness. — Moreover, taking into consideration the great 
variety of human constitutions, I really do not see how one Medi- 
cine can possibly cure all diseases ; the effect of morbid matter 
upon the glands and vital juices of different persons being 
well known to be utterly different. f you give a certain 
quantity of wine to Peter, it will make him quarrelsome, and 
even furious ; its effect on Paul is to produce in him the mild- 
ness and timidity of a lamb; in Matthew it causes gaiety and 
laughter ; while it makes Luke melancholy and tearful. In the 
same way, the morbid matter known as scorbutic poison becomes, 
in Peter's case, an acid, consuming the whole of the vital juices 
and organs, and breaking out on his hands and feet in the 
shape of bluish, discoloured boils. The same poison in the body 
of Paul is changed into a bitter aperient, which shews itself on 
the arms and feet in the form of subcutaneous red spots, with 
punctures like flea-bites, and, in times of plague, turns to anthrax. 
In the body of Matthew the poisonous fluid is of a sweetish 
taste, and produces on arms and legs watery tumours, like those 
seen in dropsical subjects; in times of plague, they turn to 
plague sores. In Luke's case, the humour is saltish and acrid ; 
the swellings on his arms and legs are dry and inflammatory ; 
and when there is infectious matter in the air, the sores become 
so red and malignant as to produce madness and death. It 
stands to reason, then, that these different symptoms require 
different treatment, and that no one herb or medicine could pos- 
sibly suffice for such different cases. "The volatile bitter salt of 
Cochlearia, which relieves Peter, makes Paul worse; a fixed acid 
salt only aggravates the symptoms of Luke, but it very often 
suffices to produce a complete cure in the caseof Paul. In every 
instance we require a remedy which is different from the morbid 
matter already in the system, and therefore capable of counteract- 
ing it. In the face of this need of specific remedies for every 
particular form of disease, you must pardon a medical man if he 
does not quite see the possibility of an Universal Medicine. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

I admit the truth of all that you say, as far as the Vegetable 
Kingdom is concerned, though very few physicians employ this 

HELVETIUS GOLDEN CALF. as93 

method of cure. At the same time, [I see no reason why there 
should not be in the Mineral Kingdom an Universal Medicine 
which combines all the virtues of the different vegetable reme- 
dies you have named. I acknowledge that this Gift of Grace 
is bestowed only on a few persons; but the truth of the 
Alchemistic Art is too strongly supported to admit of any 
doubt 

PHYSICIAN. 

I have by no means exhausted the list of objections which 
may with reason be urged against the existence of this Universal 
Medicine. But how can the same remedy be equally suited to 
the case of a man or a woman, a delicate and a robust person, 
the initiatory or the final stage of a disease, a chronic or an acute 
affection ? . 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

Your arguments against the Universal Medicine are very 
learned and orthodox, and I am not disinclined to allow to 
them some importance. At the same time, you will admit that 
* many men many minds" is a saying of some weight, and those 
who know anything by experience, are the best qualified to speak 
about it. The sweetest music does not delight all hearers ; the 
best story appears dull to some readers ; some like one kind of 
food or wine and some another: and so there are as many 
different verdicts about this Universal Medicine as there are 
(self-constituted) judges. But only he who is acquainted with 
its properties has a right to deliver an authoritative opinion. 
Now, it is quite true that in your common, tinkering Medicinal 
Art, which seeks to counteract only the separate symptoms or 
manifestations of disease, there is no room íor an Universal 
Medicine. But the true physician knows that all disease (what- 
ever shape it may assume) is simply a depression of the vital 
spirits, and that whatever strengthens vitality, will cut off the 
possibility of disease at the very source, expelling the humours 
which each produce their own peculiar malady, and I maintain 
that our Universal Medicine is a remedy of this radical kind. It 
gently promotes and quickens the movement of the vital spirits, 
and thus, by renewing the source of life, renovates and quickens 

294 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

the whole frame, infusing new vitality and strength into every 
part. For this reason adepts call it the Great Mystery of 
Nature, and the preventive of old age and disease. By its aid 
any man may live the full term of days naturally allotted to 
him, and need have no fear of contagion, even when the plague, 
or some other malignant epidemic, is striking down hundreds of 
his neighbours. 

PHYSICIAN. 

If I take your meaning, this Remedy does not set itself 
merely to correct depraved humours, but directly restores the 
vital spirits themselves ; and it cannot prolong existence beyond 
the span of life originally allotted to each man by the Creator, 
though it does prevent his being cut off prematurely by weak- 
ness or disease. ^Allthis sounds very reasonable. But there is 
another question I should like to ask. Does this Medicine 
change a man's temperament, so as to convert a phlegmatic 
person into one of a sanguine character, or a melancholy person 
into a gay and jovial boon companion ? 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

Certainly not. It is impossible for any medicine of any 
kind to alter the nature of a man: just as wine does not produce 
a change in a man, but only brings out his true character. The 
effect of the Universal Medicine is of a corresponding kind. It 
is like the warmth of the Sun, which does not change or even 
modify. the shapes, colours, and scents of the different flowers, 
but only fully develops all that is in them by means of its 
genial influence. . . . If our Universal Medicine possessed 
the property of prolonging the life of man beyond the term 
assigned to each individual by Divine foreknowledge, no doubt 
Sageslike Hermes Trismegistus, Paracelsus, Raymond Lullius; 
Count Bernhard, and many other genuine possessors of this 
Great Mystery, would be still with us in the land of the living. 
It would be folly and madness to suppose that any medicine in 
the whole world can do more than protect a man against being 
cut off prematurely, z.e., before his appointed time. 

VEZUBVID EIUS QUIE EVENT M RO 295 

PHYSICIAN. 

All that you have said about the operation of this Blessed 
Universal Medicine seems both reasonable and in harmony with 
Nature's general plan of working. The worst of it is that, 
though I now fully believe in the existence of the lfTedicine, all 
my efforts to find it have hitherto resembled the futile endeavours 
of a mariner who, attempting to put out to sea in a frail boat, is 
again and again driven back to the shore by the united force of 
wind and wave. Though many illustrious persons have written 
concerning the preparation, they have so cautiously veiled it, that 
the smallest possible number might become acquainted witb the 
steps to be taken to arrive at their desire. The best thing one 
can do, I think, is to stay in one's laboratory, work and pray, 
and wait for God's blessing. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

You reason well, my friend; yet you must not despair of 
learning the secret of the Alchemists' Art, especially if you can 
induce some adept to become your teacher. But we will now 
proceed to discuss the transmutatory virtues of our most precious 
Stone, which are still more wonderful than its medicinal 
properties. 

PHYSICIAN. 

Oh, I see! You wish to discuss the transmutation of metals. 
In the possibility of such transmutation, I certainly do feel con- 
strained to believe, considering that I have heard and read of 
cases which admit of no manner of doubt, and in which such 
transmutation is attested by the most authentic and trustworthy 
witnesses (such as Dr. Kiffler, Helmont, Scotus, &c.), as having 
really taken place. I am especially thinking of that wonderful 
experiment of metallic transformation which was achieved at 
Prague, in the presence of the German Emperor Ferdinand III., 
when, by means of one grain of the Tincture, three pounds of 
Mercury were changed into the best gold; for that event was 
commemorated by a medal struck at the Imperial Mint. But 
though I firmly believe in the possibility of such a transmutatory 
Tincture, I have never in the whole course of my life come across 
any one who possessed it. 

296 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

You are quite right in what you say,albeit your belief or 
unbelief could not make any difference to the truth of our Art, 
just as a magnet would go on attracting steel, and rendering it 
magnetic by such contact, even if you did not credit it. t is 
also true that hitherto our secret has been rather hidden than 
revealed by those who have written about it in the obscurest of 
language. But you can no longer feel disposed to doubt that 
which you see with your own eyes ; and here in this box you 
behold a large quantity of the true substance of the Sages. 
There! Examine it. 

PHYSICIAN. 

Is this yellow, sulphureous, glassy substance really and truly 
the Philosopher's Stone? Did you prepare it yourself ? Surely 
you are hoaxing me! 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

No, indeed; you now hold the most precious of mundane 
treasures in your hand; and I myself prepared it from beginning 
to end. If you can take me to a room where we shall be more 
secret, I will shew you some gold obtained. through its means 
(and having been ushered into the state parlour, he produced the 
five medals described above) These (said he) I keep in 
memory of my Master. 

PHYSICIAN. 

So you had a Master from whom you learned the glorious 
secret! How wonderful that I should at this moment be holding 
the true substance in my hands! Can you not give me a small 
piece of it, just enough to transmutoe four grains of lead into gold, 
so that I may be able to test the truth of your statement? Do 
give me a piece, at least as large as a grain of mustard seed, and 
let me make the trial! It would be a great kindness. 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

I admit that a certain stranger once instructed me both as 
to the possibility of this Art, and in its methods of procedure. 

ZU UE ASSET QUEEN QE 297 

But I cannot give you even a small fragment of my Tincture, 
though you offered me this room full of ducats ; not because the 
substance is so precious in my eyes, but for another momentous 
reason which I may not reveal. Indeed,if fire could consume 
fire, I should at once throw the whole of this Tincture on the 
hearth. I will, however, return to you after the lapse of three 
weeks, and shew you some beautiful experiments which will both 
surprise and delight ycu. If by that time I shall have obtained 
leave to do so, I will also satisfy your curiosity by performing in 
your presence a change of lead into gold. In the meantime, I 
bid you good-bye, and warn you not to invest too much of your 
substance in the pursuit of this Art, as it will all turn to ashes. 

PHYSICIAN. 

I am deeply obliged to you for your kindness in coming to 
me, and shewing me this Stone; but you can hardly expect me 
to be satisfed with the mere sight of it. I am one of those 
whose souls are always athirst for knowledge ; and I believe that 
if our first parent Adam, who lost Paradise by touching the 
forbidden fruit, were alive at the present day, he would once 
more risk the happiness of his life in order to become possessed 
of the * golden apples from the garden of Atlas"  Ithank you 
most heartily, however, for comforting me with the prospect of 
your return in three weeks. I will endeavour to spend the 
interval in strict obedience to your wise and kindly counsel; but 
you may easily suppose that the feeling uppermost in my mind 
will be one of eager hope and longing for the fulfilment of your 
promise. l also thank you for the proof of your confidence 
involved in making yourself known to me as an adept of this 
Art. If the secret which you have entrusted to my safe keeping, 
were, by any accident, to come to the ears of a tyrannical prince 
or noble, would you be terrified by his threats into betraying it? 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

I have never made this secret known to anyone except to 
yourself and one good old man. Nor must any human being 
hear or see the like in future. But if any prince or king were to 
cast me into prison, or put me to the rack, he would not be able . 

vor 1I, U 

298 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

to extract a single syllable of direct or indirect information from 
me by the most cruel tortures which he could devise; not even 
death itself would make me shrink from the path of duty, or 
become disloyal to my trust. 

PHYSICIAN. 

Are there any Alchemistic writers that are more easily 
understood than the rest,or who can at least be warranted to 
possess a real knowledge of those things wherein they undertake 
to instruct others? 

ARTIST. 

I do not read many of these books ; but of all the writers on 
Alchemy whose works I have studied, I have found Sendivogius, 
the Cosmopolitan, to be the most trustworthy ; also Basilius, in 
his twelve Keys. "Truth has chosen the obscure style of Sendi- 
vogius for her hiding-place, if you could only discover her—just 
as our Substance is really and truly hidden and concealed in the 
outward bodies of all metals and minerals. 

PHYSICIAN. 

Accept once more my warmest thanks for all your kindness 
and friendly counsel. I do indeed believe that, as you say, the 
essences of metals are hidden in their outward bodies, as the 
kernel is hidden in the nut. Every earthly body, whether 
áànimal, vegetable, or mineral, is the habitation and terrestrial 
abode of that celestial spirit, or influence, which is its principle of 
life and growth. The secret of Alchemy is the destruction of 
the body, which enables the Artist to get at, and utilize for his 
own purposes, the living soul. But what man is sufficient to 
search out this wonderful secret ? 

ARTIST ELIAS. 

You have spoken truly, and judged rightly concerning the 
natural destruction of things ; and if you find grace in the sight 
of God, He will commission either me or some other adept of 
our Art to unfold to you the right way of destroying the out- 
ward bodies of metals and seizing the inward, vital, life-giving 

INTUS GUIDE IN ALTUS 299 

soul. This gracious gift, I sav, God may bestow on you sooner 
than you think, in answer to devout and earnest prayer. Once 
more, farewell, and rest assured that I will always remain your 
friend. I cherish a fond hope that I shall soon see you again, in 
a flourishing state of health. 

With these words he departed ; and I have already told 
you how after three weeks he came back and gave me a small 
piece of the transmutatory Tincture. But since our second 
parting I have neither set eyes on him, nor heard either of him 
or from him. 

He has, however, left deeply seated in my heart the 
conviction that through metals and out of metals purified by 
highly refined and spiritualized metals there may be prepared 
the living gold and quicksilver of the Sages, which bring both 
metals and human bodies to perfection. If my friend had 
condescended to give me one or two practical hints as to the 
best method of proceeding in this Magistery, I might have 
discovered the grand secret of collecting the rays of the Sun and 
Moon in their own proper womb, whereby their power of 
metallic transmutation by magnetic sympathy might have been 
brought out. Thus I might have obtained the red seed which 
transmutes into gold, and the white seed which transmutes into 
silver. For the Artist Elias told me that the Chalybs of 
Sendivogius was that true Mercurial metallic humour which— 
without the aid of any corrosive—would suffice to separate the 
fixed rays of the Sun and Moon from their body, and to render 
them volatile and Mercurial for the dry philosophical Tincture 
which he shewed me, and the efficacy of which I subsequently 
experienced. This is the same method by which metals are still 
being produced day by day in the bowels of the earth, and 
stones developed, in their different saline wombs, out of the 
spiritual tingent sulphureous seed. . . . . Metallic sulphur 
mixed with saltpetre, may be converted, by gentle heat, 
first into solid earth, then into air, then into limpid water, and 
then into glass of a most beautiful colour, and of a penetra- 
tiveness superior to that of fire—just as the chicken is developed 
out of the apparently lifeless egg by gentle heat. Between the 
different metals there exists a sympathy such as that between 
the magnet and steel, gold and quicksilver, silver and copper ; 

U2 

300 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

and this sympathy is the zaZzoza/e of the transmutation of metals. 
On the other hand, there are also metallic antipathies, such as 
that of lead to tin, of iron to gold, of lead to mercury—anti- 
pathies which have their counterpart in the animal and vegetable 
worlds. An accurate and comprehensive knowledge of these 
sympathies and antipathies is the one great qualification of every 
man who aspires to be a Master of this Art. 

In making known to you all that I have seen and experi- 
enced, I am only following the maxim of Seneca, who said that 
he desired knowledge chiefly that he might impart it to others. 
If anyone doubts the truth of my statements, let him but live a 
pious and Christ-like life here below, and he will learn the truth 
of all things in the new Jerusalem above. "That a share of this 
glory may be vouchsafed to you and him, is the prayer of 

Your faithful and loving servant, 
JOHN FREDERICK HELVETIUS, M.D. 

SDOBIMES 

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BONUM INFINITUM VEL LUMEN GRATIZE 
The Infinite Good or the Light of Grace. 'TRIUNITAS — Trinity 
in Unity. n^n^ - ]Jehovah. PATER, FILIUS, ET SPIRITUS 
SANCTUS — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. MUNDUS ARCHE- 
TYPUS — The Archetypal World. SERAPHIM, CHERUBIM, 
THRONI — Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, ze, ZZzerarcuc, 
Classis Prima — First Class of the Hierarchy. DOMINATIONES, 
PRINCIPATUS, POTESTATES — Rulers, Principalities, and Powers, 
L6, Hierarchie Classis Secunda — Second Class of the Hierarchy. 
VIRTUTES, ARCHANGELI, ANGELI — Virtues, Archangels, 
Angels, Ze, Hierarchie Classis Tertia — 'Third Class of the 
Hierarchy. MUNDUS INTELLIGENTIARUM — The World of 
Rational Beings. 

LIOIV, BIO, SERO Y, IE ORID GOD/'OR CHOSINS: 
ASIE IPEEES EPOR BUE (OE EUIS COO RSYS 

MARCELLIUS PALINGENIUS (in Zod. Vit, Book ix.): 
Great Father of Gods, Highest Power of the World, than 
whom Thought knows nothing greater; far from the bodily 
world, yet forming all Bodies, those which cannot change, 

312 IHE HERMETIC MUSEUM, 

and those which are destroyed by the lapse of time ; Beginning 
without a beginning ; Fountain from which all manner of good 
things flow forth; Ruler and Multiplier of. Nature; Who com- 
prehendest All Things, yet art comprehended of none ; Infinite 
Majesty, Goodness, Wisdom, Life, Order, Beauty, Perfection, 
Mind, Truth,—Light, Way, Strength; dwelling nowhere, and 
yet dwelling everywhere ; immovable, yet constantly moving 
all things: Of whom, To whom, and Through whom are all 
things; always remaining the same, unchangeable through all 
time; Greatest of Causes, who, revolving according to a fixed 
law the starry heavens, dost govern the circle of human Destiny ; 
King of Kings, waited on and worshipped by thousands of 
Angelic Hosts singing joyous Hymns in the Infinite Domain 
of Light, beyond the uttermost borders of the [lower] World, 
where is the fit abode of true Archetypal Things ; Thee I worship, 
to Thee I pray, Thee I reverently adore. Deign to look on me 
with gracious eye, and hear my voice when I cry to Thee. 
Send to me the rays of Thy Light, dispel the darkness of my: 
soul, weighed down by the grossness of a mortal body. Grant 
me to find the Right Way, lest hurtful error, vain credulity, 
and blind opinion drag me headlong to the ruinous domain of 
falsehood. For if without Thee a mortal mind or human 
strength strive to rise upward, their waxen wings are melted, 
and they fall headlong, like Icarus of old. Without Thee, I 
cannot see the hidden depths of Divine Truth, or the art and 
skill by which salvation is attained. Grant unto me, therefore, 
most gracious King of Kings, that I may know Thee and 
please Thee; then that I may know myself, what I am, the 
reason of my life on earth, whence I came, and whither I am 
going, what is my duty in this life, and what I must eschew—so 
that. when Lachesis has finished the thread of my life, and the 
last hour has cast my weary body into the Tomb, Death may be 
unto me a grateful rest, and the haven of peace. 

THE ALL-WISE DOORKEEPERK. 9uo 

BIG RB. DLL 
MUNDUS ELEMENTARIS -— Elementary World. 

The First Circle contains the Zodiacal Symbols. 

SECOND CIRCLE. 

Capricoruus tenet Genua — Capricorn holds the knees. 

Aquarius habet Tibias — Aquarius rules the thighs. 

Piscés gubernant Pedes — 'The Fishes govern the feet. 

Ardes tenet in Microcosmo Caput — Aries holds the head of the 
microcosm. 

Taurus tenet Collum et Guttur — 'Taurus holds the neck and the 
throat. 

Gemini tenent Scapulas et Manus — Gemini hold the shoulders 
and the hands. 

Cancer regit Pectus et Pulmonum — Cancer rules the breast and 
the lungs. 

Leo imperat Stomacho — 'The Lion governs the stomach. 

Virgo tenet Hepar, [ntestina, et circa Ventrem — 'The Virgin holds 
the liver, the intestines, and the parts about the stomach. 

Lzbra continet Renes et Vesicam — 'The Balance contains the 
reins and the bladder. 

Scorpio gubernat Nature Secreta — 'The Scorpion governs the 
secret parts of Nature. 

Sagzttarius regit Coxas — Sagittarius governs the thighs. 

THIRD CIRCLE. 

JANUARIUS, FEBRUARIUS, Z/e/auckola — January, February, 
Melancholy. 

MARTIUS, er — March—Spring. 

APRILIS, Pzfuzta — April—Phlegm. 

MaAYUS — May. JUNIUS, ZZs/as — June—Summer. 

JuüLius, BzZs — July—Bile. 

AUGUSTUS — August. SEPTEMBER, A4z/u;mus — September— 
Autumn. 

OCTOBER, 

NOVEMBER, 

DECEMBER, Z7zezts — Winter. 
VOL. If, M 

J| Sanguis — Sanguine Temperament. 

314 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

FOURTH CIRCLE. 

Mznere — Minerals. IGNIS — Fire. ZERIS — Air. AQU/E— 
Waters. J/etia//a — Metals. TERRE — Earth. 
FiFTH TO ELEVENTH CIRCLES. 

The Seven The Seven TÀhe'7 Members of The Seven 

Planets. Angels. AMzcrocosmus. AMetals. 
SATURN. Orzplaer. SPLEEN. Lead. 
JUPITER. Zacharzel. LIVER. Tzn. 
MAmnSs. Samuel. DIAPHRAGM. 47x. 
SUN. JAMichae  * | HEART. Gold. 
VENUS. Anael. REINS. Copper. 
MERCURY. Rapael. LUNGS. Quzceszlver. 
MOooN. Gabriel. BRAIN. Szver. 

'TWELFTH CIRCLE. 

SIESIITAMES OOINSTSP/RSEN GJTEPIIVASSSSIUISSENS RSS UTNGALMSIVIURINTID S 
BIB ENS UNS TUQP ASEPITVASTUT) S STIS IPS (UIN STEIN SISI (EUN MO 
There are Three Principles, Three Worlds, Three Ages, and 
Three iXingdoms. 

'THEOLOGIA (Theology). 
MATICA (Grammar) ^ DIALECTICA (Dialectics). 
(Rhetoric). MusiCcA (Music). PHYSICA (Physics). AsTRO- 
NOMIA (Astronomy) ^ ARITHMETICA (Arithmetic). | GEO- 
METRIA (Geometry). MEDICINA (Medicine). JURISPRUDENTIA 
(Jurisprudence). 

NATURA — NATURE. 

GRAM- 
RHETORICA 

ALCHYMIA (Alchemy). 

INMOST CIRCLE. 

Magna dignitas fidelium animarum ut unaquaeque habeat, 
efc. — |tis the great honour of faithful souls, that from their 
very birth an angel is appointed to preserve and keep each of 
them. . 

THE ALL-WISE DOORKEEPEK. 315 

The Author of the * Handbook of Physical Science 
Restored " writes as follows : 

8 r. God is an Eternal Being, an Infinite Unity, the Radical 
Principle of all things. His Essence is Infinite Light. His 
Power—Omnipotence ; His Will—Perfect Goodness ; His 
Wish—Absolute Reality. As we strive to think of Him, we 
plunge into the Abyss of Silence, of infinite Glory. 8 2. Many 
Sages have held that an Archetypal World existed long before 
the world of sense, when the Archetypal Light began to 
unfold Himself, and set forth in an Ideal World a counterpart 
of the Divine Mind. This belief is borne out by the words of 
Hermes Trismegistus, who says that when God changed His 
form, the universe was suddenly revealed and put forth in the 
Light of Actuality-—this world being nothing but a visible 
Image of a Hidden God. This is what the Ancients meant 
when they said that Pallas leapt forth in divine perfection from 
the forehead of Jupiter, with the aid of Vulcan (or Divine 
Light) 8 3. The Eternal Father of All Things, being not less 
wise in the ordering, than powerful in the creation, of the world, 
has made the whole Universe to cohere by means of secret 
influences and mutual subjection and obedience, things below 
being analagous to things above, and vzce versá; so that both 
ends of the world are nevertheless united by a real bond of 
natural cohesion. "Thus Hermes tells us that things below are 
the same as things above, and that things above are analagous 
to things below. 8 4. He who looks upon Nature as anything 
but the constant expression of God's Will, is an Atheist; every 
smallest part of the great universe is constantly vitalized and 
conserved by the Spirit cf the Divine Master, and there is no 
life or existence apart from His consciously exerted Will. It 
was He that in the beginning moved upon the face of the 
waters, and brought forth the Actual out of the Chaos of 
Potentiality. 

316 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 
TSPTNCES UT UTE TMTTTSTSE 

FIRST CIRCLE. 
n^ón* — Jehovah, Ze, A OQ — Alpha and Omega. 

SECOND CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 2.—The earth was empty and void, and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep. 

'THIRD CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 2. —And the Spirit of God moved the face of the 
waters. 
FouRTH CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 3, 4.—A nd God said: Let there be light: and 
there was light. . . . And God saw the light that it was 
good. 

BIBRHOGIRGDE. 

Genesis, i. 4, 5.—And He divided the light from the dark- 
ness. And He called the light day, and the darkness He called 
night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 

SISDHSGTIRGDE 

Genesis, i. 6-8.—And God said, Let there be a firmament in 
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the 
waters. 

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters 
which were under the firmament from the waters which were 
above the firmament: and it was so. 

And God called the firmament Heaven, and the evening 
and the morning were the second day. 

Psalm xxxiii, 6.—By the word of the Lord were the 
heavens made ; and all the host of them by the breath of His 
mouth. 

Psalm cxlviii. 4, 5.—Praise the Lord, ye heavens of heavens, 
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the 
name of the Lord : for He commanded, and they were created. 

TER WLRINASB UXOOARAIEAPER. 317 

Daniel, iii. 59, 60.— Praise the Lord, ye heavens ; bless Him 
and magnify Him for ever. O ye waters that be above the 
firmament, praise ye-the Lord: bless Him and magnify Him 
for ever. 

SEVENTH CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 9-13.—A nd God said: Let the waters under the 
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry 
land appear: and it was so. 

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering 
together of the waters called He seas: and God saw that it was 
good. 

And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself upon the earth : and it was so. 

And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed 

'after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in 
itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 

And the morning and the evening were the third day. 

Psalm, civ. 5, 14.—Who laid the foundations of the earth 
that it should not be removed for ever. , He causeth the grass to 
grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he 
may bring forth food out of the earth: and wine that maketh 
glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and 
bread which strengtheneth man's heart. 

EIGHTH CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 14-19.—And God said: Let there be lights in 
the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night ; and 
let them be for signs, and for seasons, and days and years. 

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, 
to give light upon the earth : and it was so. 

And God made two lights : the greater light to rule the day, 
and the lesser light to rule the night ; He made the stars also. 

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give 
light upon the earth, 

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide 
the light from the darkness. 

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

318 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

Sirach, xliii. t.—He made the lofty firmament in its glory, 
and the stars, a vision of beauty. The eastern Sun announces 
the day. Itis a wonder of the Most High. Great is God who 
created it, and bade it run its course Moreover, the Moon 
shines throughout the world, in due season, dividing months 
and years. lt waxes and wanes in wonderful guise. The host 
of the stars shines gloriously in the firmament of heaven. God, 
the Most High, has commanded them to light up the world. 
By the word of the Lord they are fixed, and do not neglect their 
vigils. 

NINTH CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 20-23.— And God said: Let the waters bring 
forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl 
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

And God created great whales, and every living creature 
that moveth, which the waters brought forth aebundantly, after 
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind : and God saw 
that it was good. 

And God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and multiply, 
and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 

Psalm civ., 24.—O Lord, how manifold are Thy works: In 
wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. 
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping 
innumerable, both small and great beasts. "There go the ships ; 
there is that leviathan whom thou hast made to take his pastime 
therein. These all wait on Thee, that Thou mayest give them 
their meat in due season. 

'TENTH CIRCLE. 

Genesis, i. 24-31 —And God said: Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing 
and beast of the earth, after his kind: and it was so. 

And God made the beast of the earth, after his kind, and 
cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the 
earth, after his kind ; and God saw that it was good. 

And God said: Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of the 

THB ALL-WISE DOORKEBEPERKR. 219 

sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over 
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon 
the earth. 

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God 
created He him : male and female created He them. 

And God blessed them, and said unto them : Be fruitful 
and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bear- 
ing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree 
in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall 
be for meat. 

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the 
air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was 
S0. 

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it 
was very good. And the evening and the morning were the 
sixth day. 

GEORGE RIPLEY,in the Prologue to his * Twelve Gates," 
says : O incomprehensible Light, glorious in Majesty, the bright- 
ness of whose rays obscures our lights: O Unity in the sub- 
stance, and Trinity in the Godhead.  Merciful purifier of souls, 
who dost exalt us from this troublesome vale of vanity to heaven. 
Infinite power and wisdom, unspeakable goodness, sustain and 
govern me day by day so that I may displease Thee in nothing.

out of whose infinite mind this universal frame sprang forth in a 
moment of time—when heaven and earth were made by Thy 
word, and all that is in them by the breath of Thy mouth— grant 
unto me grace to know Thy blessedness and Thy goodness. In 
no other way shall I come to the knowledge of the Blessed Stone. 
As Thou didst make all things out of oze chaos, so let me be 
skilled to evolve our microcosm (little world) out of oze substance 
in its three aspects of Magnesia, Sulphur, and Mercury ! 

320 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM. 

EIE GS USROBE VS 

n^n*- Jehovah. 

ANNUS SOLARIS — The Solar Year. ANNUS STELLATUS 
— The Year of the Stars ANNUS VENTORUM — The Year of 
the Winds. 

Mercurius Philosophorum — Mercury of the Sages. 

Mercurius Corporeus — Corporeal Mercury. 

AMercurtus Vulgaris — Common Mercury. 

Sulphur Cembustibile — Combustible Sulphur. 

Sulphur Fixum — Fixed Sulphur. 

Sulphur ZEthereum — Nolatile Sulphur. 

Sal Terrenum — Earthy Salt. 

Sal Elementorum — Elementary Salt. 

Sa/ Centrale — Central Salt. 

Jenes quatuor ad opus requiruntur — Four kinds of fire are 
requisite for the work. 

Pheniv — Phenix. Aguz/a — Eagle. 

BV (HE WORD ORB 'rHE XEZORD WERE THE HEAVENS 
ESTABLISHED, AND THEIR HOSTS BY THE BREATH OF HIS 
MOUTH. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD HAS FILLED THE WORLD. 
"ATI, TEIENGS ARE SATISELIED WILH HY GOODNIESS; O LORD: 
IqEIOUSSRURNNIBSIQPANVANOSBEIY OBAGB;  BESEYOOARIESUDBROUBISBEID? 
/'HOU "PAKESE AWAV THY SPIRIT, THEY DIE ANDPRETURN 
AGAIN TO THEIR DUST. THOU SENDEST FORTH THY SPIRIT 
AND THEY ARE CREATED, AND RENEWEST THE FACE OE 
THE EARTH. LHY GLORY IS FOR EVERLASTING. 

THE EMERALD TABLE OF HERMES. 

It is most true, it is without error, it is the sum of verity : 
'That which is beneath is like that which is above, and that 
which is above is like that which is below, for the performance 

LZHE ALL-WISE DOORKEEPER a2 

of the wonders of one thing. As all things were created from 
the Mind of One, so all things arose by modification of this 
One Thing. It is so with our Substance. [ts father is the Sun, 
its mother the Moon The Wind bore it in its belly. The 
earth is its nurse. The father of all, the Thelema of the whole 
world, is here. Its strength is undiminished if it is changed 
into earth. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the 
gross, gently, but with great skill. It rises from earth to 
heaven, and again descends to the earth, and receives the 
strength of things above and of things below. "Thus you have 
the GLORY OF THE WHOLE WORLD, and all darkness 
will flee away from you. This is the strength of every strong 
thing ; it overcomes every subtle thing, and penetrates all solids. 
IN. THIS WAY WAS THE WORLD CREATED: These 
are the wonderful modifications, the manner of which I have 
described. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having 
the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. I have now 
said all I have to say concerning the operation of the Sun. 

ZNOIDUDCES INSIDUGPAVE: