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sali might very weli be called the Philosopher's Sione, Dombeing obtained by a process exactly similar to that whicli is employed in preparing the real Stone, though at the fame timeit profits nothing in Our Work. Eor the SubStan Ce whicli COntains Our Stone is a lye, nOt in deed prepared by the hand of man frona ashes and water, but j Oined together by Nature according to the Creation and ordination of God, commingled of the s Our elei nenis, possessed os ali that is required sor iis persectchemical devel opinent. Is you tat e the substance, whicli contains Our Stone, subjeci it to a S. Mary's Bath in an alembic and distit it the water iuill rura clown in to the antisternium, and the Salt, or earth, re main at the bottom, and is so dry as to be
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It is by no means a light thing to fhew the nature of thea resaid Hyle. Hyle is the first Matter, the Salt of the Sages, Agoth, the seed of ali metals, whicli is extracted Dona the bodyos Magnesia ' and the Moon. Hyle is the first principi e of ali things the Malter that
parent Adam, together with ali other earthly and heavenlybodies, He set him in Paraclise, and sorbade him, under penalty of eternat cleath, to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledgeos good and evit. So long as Adam obeyed the Divine precepthe had immortali ty, and possessed ali that he nee led sor persecthappiness. But when he had partaken of the forbiciden fruit he was, by the command of God, ori ven sortii into this worid where he and his descendanis have since that time sumerednothing but poVerty, disease, anXiety, bitter Sorrow, and death. Is he had been obedient to the Divine injunction, he would have lived a thousand years in Paradi se in persect happiness, and would then have been translated to heaven ; and a like happydesti ny would have awaited ali his descendanis. For his lisobedience God visited him with ali manner of sufferings ancidi Seases ; but in His mercy also Shewed him a medicine whereby the different desecis brought in by sin might be remedi ed,
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It was on account of this original sin that Adam, inspite os his great wisdom and the many aris that God had taught him, could not accomplisti his fuit thousand years. But is he had not known the virities of herbs, and the Medicine, he would certainly not have lived as long as he dici. When, however, at longili his Medicine would no longer avail tosust in ii , he sent his son Seth to Paraclise to setch the tree of lis . This he obtained after a spirituat manner. But Seth dici seel. also and was gi ven some olives of the Tree of the Oil of Mercy, which he planted on the grave of his fallier. From them Sprang up the bl essed Tree of the HolyCross, whicli through the aloning death of our Redeemer
by the fali of Adam, found a remedy in that preci ous gistos Almighty God, whicli is called the Eli Xir, and Tincture,
and has power to purge aWay the impersections not onlyos human, but even os metallic bodies ; whicli excels ali other medicines, as the brightneSS Os the sun Shames the moonand the stars. By means of this most nobi e Medicine many men, from the death of Adam to the Murth monarchy, procured for themselves perfeci health and great tengili ofclays. Herace those who had a good knowledge of the Μedicine, attained to three hundred years, Others to Murhundred, Some to five hundred, like Adam ; others again to ni ne hundred, like Methusalem and Noah; and some of theirchildren to a longer period stili, like Bacham, Ilrehur, KaliX, Hermes, Geber, Albanus, Ortulanus, Morienus, Alexander of Macedonia, AnaXagoras, PythagoraS, and many OtherS WhOpossessed the Medicine of the Blessed Stone in silence, and net ther used it for evit purposes, nor made it known to the wicked : just as God Himself has in ali times hidden this knowledge from the proud, the impure, and the froward. But Ceaselo wonder that God has put such excellent virtve into the Stone, and has imparteci to it the power of restoring animalbodies, and of perfecting metals for I hope to eXplain to Youthe whole matter in the three paris of my Book, whicli I have
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may grant thi S my Potition. An Account of the True Art. I mal e known to ali ingenuous students of this Art that the Sages are in the habit os using words which may convey ei thera true Or a false impression ; tho sormer to their o via discipies and Child ren, the lalter to the ignorant, the foolisti, and theianworthy. Bear in mirad that tho philosophors thenaseivesneVer malae a false assertion. The mistat e sis any lies notwith them, but with those whose duin ess mal es them sto v to apprehend the mean ing. Heiace it Comes that, instead of the waters of the Sages, these ineXperien ed perSonS take pyrites, saltS, metal S, and diverS Other Substances whi Cli, though very
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idie imaginations by persistent fallure. Where they should have distilled with gentie heat they sublime oVer a fierce fire and reduce their substance to ashes, instead os de volo ping iis inherent principies by vitali ring Warriath. Again. when theyshould have dissolved they coagulated in Stead, and SO On. Bythese salse method A they Could os Course, obta in no good result ;but inste ad of blam ing their own ignorance they lay the fauit on
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Since I know the bl essed and true Ari, with the natureand the matter of the Stone. I have thought it my duty Deely
My beloved sons and discipies, and ali 3 e that ares tu denis of this Art : I here vitii in the mlness of Christi an salthand chari ty. do malae known to 3 ou that the Philosophers Sion egrOWS not ondi on our V tree, but is found , as far as iis effectand Operation are Concerned, in the fruit os ali other trees, in all
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Created things, in animales, and vegetabies, in thingS that gio , and in things that do not grow. For when it rises, being Stirredand distilled by the Sun and the Moon, it imparis their Own peculiar sorm and properties to ali living creatures by a divine grace ; it gives to flo vers their speciat form and Coloui, whetherit be blach, red, yellow, green, Or whi te in the Same way allinet als and minera is derive their peculiar qualitieS from the Operation Os this Stone. All things, I say, a re enclowed with their characteristic qualities by the operation Of this Stone, a. e. , theconjunction Os the Sun and Moon. bor the Stin is the Father, and the Moon the Mother of this Stone, and the Sione unites initself the virtves os both iis parentS. Such are tho peculiar Properties of our Stone, by whicli it may be known. I f yOu underStanditie operation, the forna, and the qualities, of this Stone, 3 ou will
to give up ali thought os ever accomptishing this taSk. Observe, furthermore, horu the see is os ali things that grow,aS, sor in Stance, gratias of inheat or barley, Spring fortit frona theg round , by the operation Os the Stone, and the develo pinginfluences of Sun and Moon; how they grow up in to the air, are gradu atly matured, and bring fortii fruit, Whicli again must besown in iis o via pro per soli. The fiet d is prepared sor the grain,
for the earth consumes and assimilates the manu re, as the bodyassimilates iis imod, and separates the subile from the gross
separateS, I Say, the good fro in the bad, and imparis it as nutriment to ait gro ving things ; for the destruction os one thing is the generation os another. It is the fame in Our Art, where theliquid receives iis proper nutriment Dona the earth. Hence theearili is the Mother of ali things that grow ; and it must bemanu red, ploughed, harro ed, and weli prepared, in orcler that the coria mav grow, and triumph oVer the lares, and not bechol ed by the m. A gratia of wheat is raised fro in the ground through the distillation of the moisture of the Sun and Moon, is it has been sown in iis own proper earth. The Sun and Moon
must also impet it to bring sortii fruit, is it is to bring sortii fruit