The Hermetic museum, restored and enlarged : most faithfully instructing all disciples of the sopho-spagyric art how that greatest and truest medicine of the philosopher's stone may be found and held. Now first done into English from the Latin origin

41쪽

in whicli 3 ou put this minerat sori vard as the essen ce os the universat remedy-I ask You again and again to reconsideryour Opinion, and to mark the saying os Arnold, that ' it isi Oolisti to seeli in a thing that whicli it cloes not contain. Heal So Sab S, in his Commentary on The Crowd V : Thephilosopher's sione is a pure substance. V Again ullius in his ast Testament, observes Our tincture is nothing but pure fire.' There is an e Ypression to the fame effect in his Uade Mecum It is a subile spirit villicli tinges hodies, and Cleanses them os their leprous infirmities. Eut this minorat ilike ali the rest, without a single e XCeption) i S So groSSand impure that it can only be cleansed by the mediation os our tincture. There re the substance of Our Great Sione Cannot be elici ted hom it, since Richard, Cp. I. in nothing Can beobtained frona a body whicli cloes not exist therein. What shallu e say of Vitriol, whicli misi eads many by iis Wonderit qualities, especialty as Some part Os it ChangeS into Copper, an diiseis has the power os transsor ming iron into Copper Θ AS amalter of fact, it is the elementary subStance of COpper, and when this minerat vapour or aerisorm mercuryὶ finds in theminerat velias of the oarth a place where itS bitter, ac id, Sali, and venereat sulphur lios hid, it immediately amalgamates With itinio a metal. But Since the quantity of the asoresaid sulphur greatly eXceedes that of the mercury, when the pure is separatocli rom the impure, and the combusti ble Dom the in combustibi e by the segregati nil office of Nature, the mercury itself is changedinto a greenisti inferior substance. When Common sulphur is ad ded to Copper, and the whole brought in contact with hre forari can do by intense heat in a sexu moments what it tal es thegent te heat os Nature a long time to accomplisli) it corrodes thecopper, and changes it into vitri Ol, and , in proportion to thequantity of the sulphur, the Vitriol aSSumes a richer or ita inter colour vherace it comes that Some Vitriol Contains more Copperand Some less. In iron, too, there i S grOSS Sulphur heiace it is corrodeti by vitriol which seel S iis mei Cury the mercury Of iron

llic sulphur) the iron hecomeS pure COPPer. It should be care sully noti ced that the acid spirit os vitriolis generaled Dona sulphur ; sor the sineti os Sulphur is perceived

42쪽

in the spirit of vitriol, and the spirit os sulphur, like the spirit os

this sulphur is burned it is nothing but a dead, Carthy, po dei substanc Q. How then can it impari ii se to other things Θ Forit has two principies of decay-iis inflammabili ty and iis earthyimpuri ty. The Sulphur os the Sages, on the other hand, isti ving si re it is qui cla, and qui cliens and matures liseless

43쪽

moSt perfeci, and proved in ali iis operations, since it faves from combustion and promotes fusion. It is the red tincture, the sumos periection, and quick as lighining ; nor is it severed froni that with whicli it has mingled so long as it exi sis. The Same is fuit os amni ty, cleaving faith fully, and is the medium by whi Chtinctures a re uni ted, for it mingles most intimate ly with them, penetrating natural ly in to their inmost pari, sor it is os the fame nature. We imitate Nature CXactly, who in her minera liath no

44쪽

wisdom where it cannot be Mund, hecause Nature has not placedit there. And, truly, the working even Os Common mercury is Sowonderit that it has mis led some who supposed themselves tobe ad epis in this art. The folio ving i S a CaSe in poliat. I kne va man who Succeeded in gi Ving to hiS amalgam an orange colour, but he could not get it any nearer to the colour os gold. At last this clever chemist determined to increase the heat os thetarnace; thini ing that this xvould have the destred effect of more intimately combining the various ingredients. But alas i thentem bic sursi, the gold was hvrled into the fi re, and almost changed froni iis nature by the stili Volatile mercury.

strongly affected the gold in iis minutest parti Cles as to reduceit to a tincture, although Severat colours were obtained by the action os the heat on the metted mass. I f that good man hadtaken to heari Arnold 's worcis in the Flower of Flowers V heruould never have made that experiment. For the said Arnoldmal es reseren Co to those who adopt this method in the solio vingterm s They kne v that mercu is the elementata principie of

the metal S. and that they a re produced through iis digestion by the heat of sulphur ; they theres ore sublimed mercury by itSelf, then fi Xed and consolidated it again mel ted ii and did again

Coagulate it: but when they Came to examine the alembic, theysound no gold, etc.' Theres ore ive Cannot belleve that common qui ct silver is the substance of the Stone. At the fame time Ido not deny that it is in dispensabie both to the philosophi calchymisi and to the physician.

ct have Caresully sought the substance of Our stone in the animal and Vegetable worid, among stoneS, i CSSer, intermediate, and greater minerais, but in vain. We must no v see whether

45쪽

and the Stone. For in both sulphur and qui ct silver containing that salt whicli is their quickening foui are in dispensablyrequired nor can any uSesul metal be genera ted untii thesethree mal ing up the metallic substance) have been combi neci :

r in the composition Os meta is there must be nothing whicli has not been obtained frona a metallic Solarce. No externat thing, says Draco, whicli is not derived froni these truo sulphur anilmercvry haS POwer to pro tu Ce Or transmute metal S. On this account we must SeleCt a metallic Substance sor the productionos the Stone. V IV e must nexi briefly en quire whether it is to befound in imperfeci metal S. Many imagine that tho substance of the whi te tincture) may be elici ted frona tin or lead, and that os the reci out of Copper Or iron, or both. This idea is doli biless o vingio a misconception Of the words of the Sages. For Geber lib. forn. Cp., i X.) SayS The maSS sor sermentation wegeneralty gainsrom the imperfect baseJ bOdies. Theres ore we lay it clown asa generat rule that the whi te paste may be extra ted hom Jupiteranii Saturn, the red from Venus, Saturn, and Mars. Anci Basil. Valentinus SayS Lib. de PhyS. et hyperphys.), that the tinctureis prepared out os a Conjunction Os MarS and Venus. Again driumph. Antimon. , he u Ses these WOrcis Aster this tincture of the Sun and Moon Comes the tincture of Venus and Mars, which two mal e up the tincture of the Sun, when they have been thorought y persected and conden Sed. Aster these come thetinctures of J upiter and os Saturn sor the coagulation os mei curv)and at last the tincture os mercury itself. Eut the searcher of Nature must know that there Caia be no contradiction of opinionbetween Geber or Basil, sor it is impossibi e that the true

46쪽

their mercury) anni hi lateS, and converis into Smolae their entire substan Ce a), the out vard flame is sed by them, penetrates in to their interior, and dissolves them into Smoke, even though

47쪽

speali os impure hodies, they do not mean Copper, iron, lead, tin,&c., but iis own bo ν, or iis carth-as Arnold Flos Flor.) says : Mercury is uni ted to earth, i. e. , to an imperfeci SubStan Ce or body .' For though this earili V is So perfeci and pure that in these respecis it would seem to attain the ut most possibili tyos Nature, γ et in regard to the Stone it is stili imperfeci and impure. In this poliat art leaves Nature bellinci, since it accomptishes what Nature could not perform. That this earth bes ore iis plenary purgation and regeneration is imper Ct, may beseen Dona the faci that it cannot yet accomplisti more in them alter os tinging than Nature has gi ven to ii, while after iis regeneration it is most powerfui. ItS groSsness is Clearlyperceived in an actuat experiment for first it is black and looks like lead or antimony ; then it is of a whit isti colour, and is called Jupiter or tin, or magnesia , and this also besore it has attained true whi teness, but when it haS passed the whi te stage, it is called Mars and Venus ; aster that it be Omes persect an dred. That Basil. Valentinus agrees With me, and clid notreatly hold the opinion which he expressed in some of his vritings, is cicar Doria his traci concerning the Great Stone, where speal ing of the Malter of the Stone in he says that in the Sun ali three persections are Mund together, wheiace it derives iis power os resisting the fi re, and that the Moon, On account of iis fixed mercury, cloes not easi ly yield to the fi re, but en duresthe triai. That nobi e param our Venus,' he continues, iS

48쪽

furnished with an abundance of colour, and the greater and richer part of her hody is fuit os tincturo. The colour is the fame whicho welis in the most preci ou S Of metal S, and on account of iis abundance has a reddi Sh appea rance. But iis body is leprcius,sor whicli reason the tincture Cannot rema in fi Red in it, butevaporates When the former is destroyed. For when the bodycleCays the Sotai Cannot rem alia, but is dissipate' and dri ven o T.

But let no one conclude from these words os Basilius thatthat fi Xed sulphur of Venus, when uni ted to the spirit os persectinerCury, will become the tincture. We must again repeat that Our substance is nOt Collected frona many SOurCeS; but, aS Basilius S Ays, it is one universat thing, and is Mund in , and obtained from oti e thing, heing the spirit of mercu . the foui of Sulphur, and a Spiritual sali, uni ted under one heaven and divelling in one body. Theres ore let us turn Our backS Uponthe base metais, and turn Our mincis to the preci ous metal S,

to USO the base metais, 3 ou must fit si Change them in to tho substance of perfeci hodies. Theres ore, beloved inquirer into the Secreis of Nature, leave On One si de ali things animal and vegetabie, ait Salis, alums, Vitri OlS, hi Smuth S, magneSiaS, antim Onies, and ait base and impure metais, and seela thy Stone Nith Arnold de Vili. nov. lΡt. l. , Cp. vii. in Mercury and the Suia sortite Suia, and in Mercury and the Moon sor the Moon ; sincethe whole virtve of this ari consis is in them alone. V Foras

and not manually, generate ne v substances aster theirown kindi

49쪽

own, n O Other regimen, no Other colourS. In the Same way, there is no other true Solution, Sublimation, Consolidation,

50쪽

arenot there re our Stone, so long as they retain their metallic

Of the natural elemonis, is he clid not find it ready tollis hanci in these hodies. V And in the Codicil ' he says: