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metalli C. By means of Our Art, we do in One monti, what Nature Cannot accomplisti in a thousand years : for we puris y the partS, and then join them together in an inseparabie and indissolubie
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fi Shes, flesti, blood, bones, Wood, troes, flowers, and leaveS. TO allthese things God impar ted their efficacy and virtve, and subjected them to the mastery and use of Adam. PIence yOu may See ho vali these things a re adapted to the human hody, and are Such ASto meet the requirements of his nature. He may in Corporate the Virtue Os out arci Substances by assimilating them in the form offOOd. . In the Same way, his minci is sui tably Constructed sor thepurpose of gaining a rational knowledge of the physical Korid That this is the casei you may see fro in the firSt Chapter of
ber, I pray Thee, the work of Thy hands, whicli Thou hasi clothedwith flesti, and strengthened with bones, and grant me life and
So the Lord enclowed Adam iuith great wis dom, and SUChma rvellous insight that he immediately. without the hel p of anyteacher-Simply by virtve of his original righteous nesS-had aper Ct knowledge of the seven liberat aris, and of ali animais, PictntS, Sion OS, metal S, and minerat S. Nay, what is more, he had perfeci unde restanding of the Holy Trinity, and of the coming ol Christ in the flesti. Moreover, Adam was the Lord, K in g, and Ruler os ali Other creatures which, at the Divine bidding, werebrought to hi in by the anget to receive their nam es. ThuS AllCreatureS ACknowledged Adam as their Lord, seeing that it Washe to whom the properties and virtu es of ali things were to be
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made known. Now the wisdom, and knowledge of ali things, whicli Adam had received, en abled hi in to observe the Properti CS, the origin, and the end of ali things. He noted the division and destruction the birili and decay of physical substances. He Sa viliat they derive their origin Do in the dry and the moist ClementS, and that they a re again transmuted in to the dry and the m Oist. Os ali these things Adam took notice, and especialty of that whicli is called the first Matter. For he who knows how allthings are transmuted in to their first Matter, has no ne d to askany queStions. It was that whicli existed in the beginia ingbefore God created heaven and earth : and o ut of it may be
permitted hi in to impari the knowledge to his son Seth. Abel discovered the Art for himself, by the wisdom whicli God hadgi ven him; and inscribed an account os it on beechen tableis. He was also the first to discover the art of writ ing ; surther, hes ,retoid the destruction of the world by the Flood, and wrote allthese things on Nooden tableis, and hid them in a pillaros sto ne which was mund long aster ards, by the child ren of Israel Thus 3 Ou See that our Art was a Secret from the beginning, anda secret it will re main to the end of the worid. For this reasonit iS necessary Cares ut ly to consider ali that is sald abnut it, an despecialty the words of the Lord to Adam : for they exhibit in a Succinct forin the secret of the whole Art.
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heari is the sea into whicli the great and smali rivers flow ; his hair resembles the growing herbA-and so with ali other paris of his body. Again, his in xv ard paris, Such as the heari, lungs, and liver, a re Comparabie to the metals. The hairs have theirhead in the earth i. e. , the flesti) and their roois in the air, as the Sages Say, that the root of their minerais is in the air, and theirhead in the earth. That whicli ascend s by distillation is volatile, and is in the air ; that whicli rem atras at the bottom, and is fixed, is the head , whicli is in the earth. Theres ore, the onemust alwayS exi Si in Conjunction with the other is it is to be
And of our Stone, too, the Sages have justly said that it hasiis head in the earth, and iis root in the a tr. This similitude hasa twO-fold interpretation. Firsi, with regard to the place in whicli our Matter is found ; secondiy, with regard to the dissolu
digested in the human body, and the gross is separated DOm thesia bile, and that whicli is fetid Dom that whicli is pure, then that whicli is pure is the first Matter whicli has been set Dee by deCay. Is you understand this, you know the true Art. But keep it to
Explanation of the Saring of Seth, Son of Adam.
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who has this Sione may purchase sor himself health, wiSdom, longeVity, gold, Silver, gems, etc. Heiace it is justly called the Coin, since it Caia bily what ali the riches in the worid cannot procure. It is structi by the Sages, who, instead of the imageos a prince, impress upon it their own image. Theres ore it is denominated the COIN of the SAGES, because it is their own
the distilled spirit hecoming coagulated into a body, thedissolved bocly becoming a spirit. The fi Xed beComes Volatile, and the volatile fixed, by dissolution and Coagulation, and both
assume, first a white, and then a red Colour. The Change towhi te and red is produced by the Same water, and the white is always sol lowed by the red, just as the black is sol lowed by the white. When the Sage says, in Conclusion, that the whole
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thus the earili is purified, seeing that the water tal es theJ fire with it irato the earth. For the fi re is the Soul, and the Moon the Spirit. There re, the air is great, hecause it bears with it water and fire, and imparis them to ali things, though thereby by this toss of water) itself becomes Cold. Then the air becomes thicli, when with iis fire it is transmuted into the body, and thus the air Correcis the thing by iis thici ness. For it bears outour Stone as it carries it ita, and purifies it both in iis ascent and in iis deSCent. In the fame way air purifies ali things that gro v
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oil and water, the oti is integri ty, and the water leni ty ; for thewater imparis the foui to the oti and to the body, and the bodyJ receives nothing but what is imparteci to it by heaven, that is
oti and air and earili are purified by their Own spirit. Theres ore the oti is integri ty in the body, and the spirit leni ty. And the spirit in the first operation descends to the bocly and restores ii to the body; although the oti is pure and rem alias u illi the body, yet it cannot SuCCOur the body without the hel se of the spirit: sorthe body suffers violence and anguish while it is dissolveci and
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Explication of the opinion os othagoraS. This Sage asks what that is whicli is totiched, and 3 et not
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by having become dry, becomes visibi e and knowable : sor nowit is utater anci earth. The earili is thus shewn, and divi ted in totwo paris, earth and water. I et that earth be taken, placed in aphial, and put in a warm bath, by the warmih of whicli it is dis solved, through iis own internat Coction, intO water; this the Sage calis beating in to thin leaves. The bocly whicli is thus obtai neclis variotis ly described as the Philosophers Stone, or the Sione os
glory of God, and the good of your neighbour. Expositio=r of the S ing of Parmenides
cannot malae it more than one thing. It is rightly described by