Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (Coelum Philosophorum, Aurora of the Philosophers, Concerning the Nature of Things, ...)

By PHILIPPUS THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS. The Science and Nature of Alchemy, and what Opinion should be Regulated by the Seven Rules or Fundamental Canons according to the seven contTnonly known Metals ; and containing a Preface with certain Treatises and Appendices.

OF Theophrastus Paracelsus to all Alchemists and Readers YOU who are skilled in Alchemy, and as many others as promise yourselves great riches or chiefly desire to make gold and silver, which Alchemy in different ways promises and teaches ; equally, too, you who willingly undergo toil and vexations, and wish not to be freed from them, until you have attained your rewards, and the fulfilment of the promises made to you ; experience teaches this every day, that out of thousands of you not even one accomplishes his desire. Is this a failure of Nature or of Art ? I say, no ; but it is rather the fault of fate, or of the unskilfulness of the operator. Since, therefore, the characters of the signs, of the stars and planets of heaven, together with the other names, inverted words, receipts, materials, and instruments are thoroughly well known to such as are acquainted with this art, it would be altogether superfluous to recur to these same subjects in the present book, although the use of such signs, names, and characters at the proper time is by no means without advantage. But herein will be noticed another way of treating Alchemy different from the previous method, and deduced by Seven Canons from the sevenfold series of the metals. This, indeed, will not give scope for a pompous parade of words, but, nevertheless, in the consideration of those Canons everything which should be separated from Alchemy will be treated at sufficient length, and, moreover, many secrets of other things are herein contained. Hence, too, result certain marvellous speculations and new operations which frequently

differ from the writings and opinions of ancient operators and natural philosophers, but have been discovered and confirmed by full proof and experimentation. Moreover, in this Art nothing is more true than this, though it be little known and gains small confidence. All the fault and cause of difficulty in Alchemy, whereby very many persons are reduced to poverty, and others labour in vain, is wholly and solely lack of skill in the operator, and the defect or excess of materials, whether in quantity or quality, whence it ensues that, in the course of operation, things are wasted or reduced to nothing. If the true process shall have been found, the substance itself while transmuting approaches daily more and more towards perfection. The straight road is easy, but it is found by very few. Sometimes it may happen that a speculative artist may, by his own eccentricity, think out for himself some new method in Alchemy, be the consequence anything or nothing. He need do nought in order to reduce something into nothing, and again bring back something out of nothing. Yet this proverb of the incredulous is not wholly false. Destruction perfects that which is good ; for _the good cannot appear on account of that which conceals it. The good is least good whilst it is thus concealed. The concealment must be removed that so the good may be able freely to appear in its own brightness. For example, the mountain, the sand, the earth, or the stone in which a metal has grown is such a concealment. Each one of the visible metals is a concealment of the other six metals.

By the element of fire all that is imperfect is destroyed and taken away, as, for instance, the five metals, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Saturn.* On the other hand, the perfect metals, Sol and Luna, are not consumed in that same fire. They remain in the fire : and at the same time, out of the other imperfect ones which are destroyed, they assume their own body and become visible to the eyes. How, and by what method, this comes about can be gathered from the Seven Canons. Hence it may be learnt what are the nature and property of each metal, what it effects with the other metals, and what are its powers in commixture with them. But this should be noted in the very first place : that these Seven Canons cannot be perfectly understood by every cursory reader at a first glance or a single reading. An inferior intelligence does not easily perceive occult and abstruse subjects. Each one of these Canons demands no slight discussion Many persons, puifed up with pride, fancy they can easily comprehend all which this book comprises. Thus they set down its contents as useless and futile, thinking they have something far better of their own, and that therefore they can afford to despise what is here contained.

* The three prime substances are proved only by fire, which manifests them pure, naked, clean, and simple I th absence of all ordeal by fire, there is no proving of a substance possible. For fire tests everything, and when the ' matter is separated the three pure substances are displayed. -De Origine Mothot-icjn ex Trthus Primis Subsi t ' ' Parnmt^ztm, Lib. I., c. I. Fire separates that which is constant or fixed from that which is fugitive or vol t'\ De Morbis Mei(^Uids, Lib. IL, Tract I. Fire is the father or active principle of separation. " Third Fr on Tartar," from the Fragmenta Medica,

Concerning the Nature and Properties of Mercury.* ALL things are concealed in all. One of them all is the concealer of the rest— their corporeal vessel, external, visible, and movable. All liquefactions are manifested in that vessel. For the vessel is a living and corporeal spirit, and so all coagulations or congelations enclosed in it, when prevented from flowing and surrounded, are not therewith content. No name can be found for this liquefaction, by which it may be designated ; still less can it be found for its origin. And since no heat is so strong as to be equalised therewith, it should be compared to the fire of Gehenna. A liquefaction of this kind has no sort of connection with others made by the heat of natural fire, or congelated or coagulated by natural cold. These congelations, through their weakness, are unable to obtain in Mercury, and therefore, on that account, he altogether contemns them. Hence one may gather that elementary powers, in their process of destruction, can add nothing to, nor take away anything from, celestial powers (which are called Quintessence or its elements), nor have they any capacity for operating. Celestial and infernal powers do not obey the four elements, whether they be dry, moist, hot, or cold. No one of them has the faculty of acting against a Quintessence ; but each one contains within itself its own powers and means of action, f

* By the mediation of Vulcan, or fire, any metal can be generated from Mercury. At the same time, Mercury is imperfect as a metal ; it is semi-generated and wanting in coagulation, which is the end of all metals. Up to the halfway point of their generation all metals are Mercury. Gold, for example, is Mercury ; but it loses the Mercurial nature by coagulation, and although the properties of Mercury are present in it, they are dead, for their vitality is destroyed by coagulation.— Z?tf Morbis Metallicis, Lib. III., Tract II., c. 2. The essences and arcanas which are latent in all the six metals are to be found in the substance of Mercury. ~/^*t^., c. 3. There are two genera of Mercury, the fixed Mercury of earth and another kind which descends from the daily constellation.— /^/(/., Lib. I., Tract II., c. 4. As there is a red and white Sulphur of Marcasites, a yellow, red, and black Sulphur of Talc, a purple and black Sulphur of the Cachimise, a Sulphur of Cinnabar, and, in like manner, of marble, amethyst, etc., so is there a special Mercury of Copper, Plumbago, Zinc, Arsenic, ate— Ibid. Mercury is not Quicksilver, for Mercury is dead, while Quicksilver is living. — De Hvdropisi.

t Nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance,, but in the virtue. And this is the principle of the Quintessence, which reduces, say, 2olbs. into a single ounce, and that ounce far exceeds the entire 2olbs. in potency. Hence the less there is of body, the more in proportion is the virtue.— X*.; Origine Morbarum Inmsilili-um, Lib. IV.

Concerning the Nature and Properties of Jupiter. In that which is manifest (that is to say, the body of Jupiter) the other six corporeal metals are spiritually concealed, but one more deeply and more tenaciously than another. Jupiter has nothing of a Quintessence in his composition, but is of the nature of the four elementaries. On this account his liquefaction is brought about by the application of a moderate fire, and, in like manner, he is coagulated by moderate cold. He has affinity with the liquefactions of all the other metals. For the more like he is to some other nature, the more easily he is united thereto by conjunction. For the operation of those nearly allied is easier and more natural than of those which are remote. The remote body does not press upon the other. At the same time, it is not feared, though it may be very powerful. Hence it happensjthat men do not aspire to the superior orders of creation, because they are far distant from them, and do not see their glory. In like manner, they do not much fear those of an inferior order, because they are remote, and none of the living knows their condition or has experienced the misery of their punishment. For this cause an infernal spirit is accounted as nothing. For more remote objects are on that account held more cheaply and occupy a lower place, since according to the propriety of its position each object turns out better, or is transmuted. This can be proved by various examples.

The more remote, therefore, Jupiter is found to be from Mars and Venus, and the nearer Sol and Luna, the more " goldness " or " silveriness," if I may so say, it contains in its body, and the greater, stronger, more visible, more tangible, more amiable, more acceptable, more distinguished, and more true it is found than in some remote body. Again, the more remote a thing is, of the less account is it esteemed in all the respects aforesaid, since what is present is always preferred before what is absent. In proportion as the nearer is clear the more remote is occult. This, therefore, is a point which you, as an Alchemist, must seriouly debate with yourself, how you can relegate Jupiter to a remote and abstruse place, which Sol and Luna occupy, and how, in turn, you can summon Sol and Luna from remote positions to a near place, where Jupiter is corporeally posited ; so that, in the same way, Sol and Luna also may really be present there corporeally before your eyes. For the transmutation of metals from imperfection to perfection there are several practical receipts. Mix the one with the other. Then again separate the one pure from the other. This is nothing else but the process of permutation, set in order by perfect alchemical labour. Note that Jupiter has much gold and not a little silver. Let Saturn and Luna be imposed on him, and of the rest Luna will be augmented.*

* Tin, or Jupiter, is pure Mercury coagulated with a small quantity of Salt, but combined with a larger prooort' of white Sulphur. It derives its colours, white, yellow, or red, from its Mercury. Its sublimatio 1 "^ T' Mercury, and its resolution by Salt, and it is sublimed and resolved by these.— £)« EUmento Aguce Tract IIT ^ f. '

Concerning Mars and His Properties. The six occult metals have expelled the seventh from them, and have made it corporeal, leaving it little efficacy, and imposing on it great hardness and weight. This being the case, they have shaken off all their own strength of coagulation and hardness, which they manifest in this other body. On the contrary, they have retained in themselves their colour and liquefaction, together with their nobility. It is very difficult and laborious for a prince or a king to be produced out of an unfit and common man. But Mars acquires dominion with strong and pugnacious hand, and seizes on. the position of king. He should, however, be on his guard against snares, that he be not led captive suddenly and unexpectedly. It must also be considered by what method Mars may be able to take the place of king, and Sol and Luna, with Saturn, hold the place of Mars.*

Concerning Venus and Its Properties. The other six metals have rendered Venus an extrinsical body by means of all their colour and method of liquefaction. It may be necessary, in order to understand this, that we should show, by some examples, how a manifest thing may be rendered occult, and an occult thing rendered materially manifest by means of fire. Whatever is combustible can be naturally transmuted by fire from one form into another, namely, into lime, soot, ashes, glass, colours, stones, and earth. This last can again be reduced to many new metallic bodies. If a metal, too, be burnt, or rendered fragile by old rust, it can again acquire malleability by applications of fire.f

Concerning the Nature and Properties of Saturn. Of his own nature Saturn speaks thus : The other six have cast me out as their examiner. They have thrust me forth from them and from a spiritual place. They have also added a corruptible body as a place of abode, so that I may be what they neither are nor desire to become. My six brothers are spiritual, and thence it ensues that so often as I am put in the fire they penetrate my body and, together with me, perish in the fire, Sol and Luna * In the generation of Iron there is a larger proportion of Salt and Mercury, while the red Sulphur from which copper proceeds is present in a smaller quantity. It contains also a cuprine salt, but not in equal proportion with Mercury. Its constituents are its own body, which preponderates ; then comes Salt, afterwards Mercury, and, lastly, Sulphur. When there is more Salt than the composition of Sulphiu" requires, the metal can in no wise be made, for it depends upon an equal weight of each. For fluxibility proceeds from Mercury and coagulation from Salt. Accordingly, if there be too much Salt it becomes too hard. — De EUinento Aqute, Lib. IV., Tract III., c. 4.

t Venus is the first metal generated by the Archeus of Nature from the three prime principles after the marcasite.« and cachimiae have been separated from these. It is formed of the gross redness which is purged olF from the primal Sulphur, of the light red expelled in like manner from the Mercury, and of the deep yellow separated in the purification of the prime Salt by this same Archeus.— /^/i^., c. 3. excepted. These are purified and ennobled in my water. My spirit is a water softening the rigid and congelated bodies of my brothers. Yet my body is inclined to the earth. Whatever is received into me becomes conformed thereto, and by means of us is converted into one body. It would be of little use to the world if it should learn, or at least believe, what lies hid in me, and what I am able to effect. It would be more profitable it should ascertain what I am able to do with myself. Deserting all the methods of the Alchemists, it would then use only that which is in me and can be done by me. The stone of cold is in me. This is a water by means of which I make the spirits of the six metals congeal into the essence of the seventh, and this is to promote Sol with Luna.*

Two kinds of Antimony are found : one the common black, by which Sol is purified when liquefied therein. This has the closest affinity with Saturn. The other kind is the white, which is also called Magnesia and Bismuth. It has great affinity with Jupiter, and when mixed with the other Antimony it augments Luna.

Concerning Luna and the Properties thereof. The endeavour to make Saturn or Mars out of Luna involves no lighter or easier work than to make Luna, with great gain, out of Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, or Saturn. It is not useful to transmute what is perfect into what is imperfect, but the latter into the former. Nevertheless, it is well to know what is the material of Luna, or whence it proceeds. Whoever is not able to consider or find this out will neither be able to make Luna. It will be asked. What is Luna ? It is among the seven metals which are spiritually concealed, itself the seventh, external, corporeal, and material. For this seventh always contains the six metals spiritually hidden in itself. And the six spiritual metals do not exist without one external and material metal. So also no corporeal metal can have place or essence without those six spiritual ones. The seven corporeal metals mix easily by means of liquefaction, but this mixture is not useful for making Sol or Luna. For in that mixture each metal remains in its own nature, or fixed in the fire, or flies from it. For example, mix, in any way you can. Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Sol, and Luna. It will not thence result that Sol and Luna will so change the other five that, by the agency of Sol and Luna, these will become Sol and Luna. For though all be liquefied into a single mass, nevertheless each remains in its nature whatever it is. This is the judgment which must be passed on corporeal mixture. But concerning spiritual mixture and

» Lead is the blackness of the three first principles, which, however, is by no means a superfluity, but a peculiar metallic nature in them existing. For all metals are latent in Mercury, and they are all only Mercury. The same is to he concluded concerning Salt and Sulphur. Thus, as copper is the abundant redness of the three principles so Lead is their blackness ; but, at the same time, there are four colours concealed therein -the blackness, purged off from the three principles ; redness, which contains a precipitate out of Mercury ; whiteness, from the calcination of Mercury • and a certain yellowness, derived from Mercury. Thus the grossness and the colours are alike due to Mercury and Lead is, in fact, a black Merciu^. —Ibid., c. 5. communion of the metals, it should be known that no separation mortification is spiritual, because such spirits can never exist without boc Though the body should be taken away from them and mortified a huni times in one hour, nevertheless, they would always acquire another n more noble than the former. And this is the transposition of the metals i one death to another, that is to say, from a lesser degree into one greater higher, namely, into Luna ; and from a better into the best and r most perfect, that is, into Sol, the brilliant and altogether royal metal, most true, then, as frequently said above, that the six metals ah generate a seventh, or produce it from themselves clear in its esse.

A question may arise : If it be true that Luna and every metal derive origin and is generated from the other six, what is then its property anc nature ? To this we reply : From Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Sol, nothing and no other metal than Luna could be made. The caus that each metal has two good virtues of the other six, of which altoge there are twelve. These are the spirit of Luna, which thus in a few w may be made known. Luna is composed of the six spiritual metals and i virtues, whereof each possesses two. Altogether, therefore, twelve are posited in one corporea.l metal, which are compared to the seven planets the twelve celestial signs. Luna has from the planet Mercury, and 1 Aquarius and Pisces, its liquidity and bright white colour. $ , sii, anc So Luna has from Jupiter, with -b (Sagittarius) and Taurus, its white cc and its great firmness in fire. V- > ^\ W • Luna has from Mars, with Ca and Aries, its hardness and its clear sound. $ , as, and f . Luna has : Venus, with Gemini and Libra, its measure of coagulation and its malleab ? , n, and Libra. From Saturn, with Virgo and t^ (Scorpio), its homog ous body, with gravity. h>W< ^"^ r6 . From Sol, with Leo and Virgc spotless purity and great constancy against the power of fire.

0, S^, anc Such is the knowledge of the natural exaltation and of the course of the s and body of Luna, with its composite nature and wisdom briefly summaris Furthermore, it should be pointed out what kind of a body such mel spirits acquire in their primitive generation by means of celestial influx, the metal-digger, when he has crushed the stone, contemptible as it is ir pearance, liquefies it, corrupts it, and altogether mortifies it with fire. ' this metallic spirit, in such a process of mortification, receives a better and i noble body, not friable but malleable. Then comes the Alchemist, who a corrupts, mortifies, and artificially prepares such a metallic body. Thus more that spirit of the metal assumes a more noble and more perfect t putting itself forward clearly into the light, except it be Sol or Luna. at last the metallic spirit and body are perfectly united, are safe from corruption of elementary fire, and also incorruptible.*

• When the three prime principles have been purged of their superfluities, and from the said superfluil imperfect metals have been generated, there remains nothing gross or crude, either in colour or substance, but very subtle nature of a white and purple hue. This is the most pure quality of IMercury, Salt, and Sulphur, mo

Concerning the Nature of Sol and its Properties. ~~N The seventh after the six spiritual metals is corporeally Sol, which in itself is nothing but pure fire. What in outward appearance is more beautiful, more brilliant, more clear and perceptible, a heavier, colder, or more homogeneous body to see ? And it is easy to perceive the cause of this, namely, that it contains in itself the congelations of the other six metals, out of which it is made externally into one most compact body. Its liquefaction proceeds from elementary fire, or is caused by the liquations of Mercury, with Pisces and Aquarius, concealed spiritually within it. The most manifest proof of this is that Mercury is easily mingled corporeally with the Sun as in an embrace. But for Sol, when the heat is withdrawn and the cold supervenes after liquefaction, to coagulate and to become hard and solid, there is need of the other five metals, whose nature it embraces in itself — ^Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Luna. In these five metals the cold abodes with their regimens are especially found. Hence it happens that Sol can with difficulty be liquefied without the heat of fire, on account of the cold whereof mention has been made. For Mercury cannot assist with his natural heat or liquefaction, or defend himself against the cold of the five metals, because the heat of Mercury is not sufficient to retain Sol in a state of liquefaction.

Wherefore Sol has to obey the five metals rather than Mercury alone. Mercury itself has no office of itself save always to flow. Hence it happens that in coagulations of the other metals it can eff'ect nothing, since its nature is not to make anything hard or solid, but liquid. To render fluid is the nature of heat and life, but cold has the nature of hardness, consolidation, and immobility, which is compared to death. For example, the six cold metals, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Luna, if they are to be liquefied must be brought to that condition by the heat of fire. Snow or ice, which are cold, will not produce this eff'ect, but rather will harden. As soon as ever the metal liquefied by fire is removed therefrom, the cold, seizing upon it, renders it hard, congelated, and immovable of itself. But in order that Mercury may remain fluid and alive continually, say, I pray you, whether this will be aff'ected with heat or cold ? Whoever answers that this is brought about by a cold and damp nature, and that it has its life from cold— the promulgator of this opinion, having no knowledge of Nature, is led away by the vulgar. For the vulgar man judges only falsely, and always holds firmly on to his error. So then let him who loves truth withdraw therefrom. Mercury, in fact, lives not at all from cold but from a warm and fiery nature.

and excellent in form, substance, essence, and colour. These two essences, namely, the white and the purple are separated by the Archeus, and out of the first, fixed and coagulated, is formed silver, while from the purple there is generated gold, which is the most noble Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, separated from all other colours, and consistinir of purple alone. Its clayey or yellow appearance is accounted for by the subtlety and clearness of the metal, because all the dull colours are removed. In Silver the most prevalent colours are green and blue, which are respectively derived from the Mercury and the Salt, the Sulphur contributing nothing in the matter of colouring, On the other hand, in gold the purple colour is derived from Salt, the pellucid redness from Sulphur, and the yellow from Mercurv —Ibid., c. 8. '■ The Caelum Philosophorum. i Whatever lives is fire, because heat Is life, but cold the occasion of death. Tl fire of Sol is of itself pure, not indeed alive, but hard, and so far shews tl colour of sulphur in that yellow and red are mixed therein in due proportio The five cold metals are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Luna, which assi| to Sol their virtues ; according to cold, the body itself ; according to fir colour ; according to dryness, solidity ; according to humidity, weight ; ai out of brightness, sound. But that gold is not burned in the element terrestrial fire, nor is even corrupted, is effected by the firmness of Sol.

F^ one fire cannot burn another, or even consume it ; but rather if fire be add( to fire it is increased, and becomes more powerful in its operations. Tl celestial fire which flows to us on the earth from the Sun is not such a fire ; there is in heaven, neither is it like that which exists upon the earth, but th celestial fire with us is cold and congealed, and it is the body of the Su: Wherefore the Sun can in no way be overcome by our fire. This on happens, that it is liquefied, like snow or ice, by that same celestial Su; Fire, therefore, has not the power of burning fire, because the Sun is fir which, dissolved in heaven, is coagulated with us.

Gold is in its j i Celestial Essence three- \ 2 Elementary fold I 3 Metallic and I T^7 • . r tuid The End of the Seven Canons.

God and Nature do Nothing in Vain. THE eternal position of all things, independent of time, without beginning or end, operates everywhere. It works essentially where otherwise there is no hope. It accomplishes that which is deemed impossible. What appears beyond belief or hope emerges into truth after a wonderful fashion. Note on Mercurius Vivus. Whatever tinges with a white colour has the nature of life, and the properties and power of light, which causally produces life. Whatever, on the other hand, tinges with blackness, or produces black, has a nature in common with death, the properties of darkness, and forces productive of death. The earth with its frigidity is a coagulation and fixation of this kind of hardness. For the house is always dead ; but he who inhabits the house lives. If you can discover the force of this illustration you have conquered. Tested liquefactive powder. Burn fat verbena.* Recipe.— Salt nitre, four ounces ; a moiety of sulphur ; tartar, one ounce. Mix and liquefy. What is to be thought concerning the Congelation of Mercury. To mortify or congeal Mercury, and afterwards seek to turn it into Luna, and to sublimate it with great labour, is labour in vain, since it involves a dissipation of Sol and Luna existing therein. There is another method, far different and much more concise, whereby, with little waste of Mercury and less expenditure of toil, it is transmuted into Luna without congelation. Any one can at pleasure learn this Art in Alchemy, since it is so simple and easy ; and by it, in a short time, he could make any quantity of silver and

* Verbenas adole pingues, et mascula tura. — Virg., Eel. viii. 65. gold. It is tedious to read long descriptions, and everybody wishes t advised in straightforward words. Do this, then ; proceed as follows, you will have Sol and Luna, by help whereof you will turn out a very rich r Wait awhile, I beg, while this process is described .to you in few wc and keep these words well digested, so that out of Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter you may make Sol and Luna. There is not, nor ever will be, an; so easy to find out and practise, and so effective in itself. The methc making Sol and Luna by Alchemy is so prompt that there is no more nee books, or of elaborate instruction, than there would be if one wished to \ about last year's snow. Concerning the Receipts of Alchemy. What, then, shall we say about the receipts of Alchemy, and about diversity of its vessels and instruments ? These are furnaces, glasses, waters, oils, limes, sulphurs, salts, saltpetres, alums, vitriols, chrysoci copper-greens, atraments, auri-pigments, fel vitri, ceruse, red earth, thi wax, lutum sapientiae, pounded glass, verdigris, soot, testae ovorum, croci Mars, soap, crystal, chalk, arsenic, antimony, minium, elixir, lazurium, ^ leaf, salt-nitre, sal ammoniac, calamine stone, magnesia, bolus armenus, many other things. Moreover, concerning preparations, putrefacti digestions, probations, solutions, cementings, filtrations, reverberati calcinations, graduations, rectifications, amalgamations, purgations, etc., these alchemical books are crammed. Then, again, concerning herbs, n seeds, woods, stones, animals, worms, bone dust, snail shells, other si and pitch.

These and the like, whereof there are some very far-fetch€ Alchemy, are mere incumbrances of work ; since even if Sol and Luna cou] made by them they rather hinder and delay than further one's purpose. I is not from these — to say the truth — that the Art of making Sol and Luna be learnt. So, then, all these things should be passed by, because they no effect with the five metals, so far as Sol and Luna are concerned. Som may ask. What, then, is this short and easy way, which involves no diflfic and yet whereby Sol and Luna can be made ? Our answer is, this has fully and openly explained in the Seven Canons. It would be lost la should one seek further to instruct one who does not understand these would be impossible to convince such a person that these matters could t easily understood, but in an occult rather than in an open sense.

The Art is this : After you have made heaven, or the sphere of Sa with its life to run over the earth, place on it all the planets, or such, or more, as you wish, so that the portion of Luna may be the smallest. Le run, until heaven, or Saturn, has entirely disappeared. Then all those pli will remain dead with their old corruptible bodies, having meanwhile obti another new, perfect, and incorruptible body. That body is the spirit of heaven. From it these planets again rece: body and life, and live as before. Take this body from the life and the e 14 The Heymetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus. Keep it. It is Sol and Luna. Here you have the Art altogether, clear and entire. If you do not yet understand it, or are not practised therein, it is well. It is better that it should be kept concealed, and not made public. How TO Conjure the Crystal so that all things may be seen in it. To conjure is nothing else than to observe anything rightly, to know and to understand what it is. The crystal is a figure of the air. Whatever appears in the air, movable or immovable, the same appears also in the speculum or crystal as a wave. For the air, the water, and the crystal, so far as vision is concerned, are one, like a mirror in which an inverted copy of an object is seen.

Concerning the Heat of Mercury. Those who think that Mercury is of a moist and cold nature are plainly in error, because it is by its nature in the highest degree warm and moist, which is the cause of its being in a constant state of fluidity. If it were of a moist and cold nature it would have the appearance of frozen water, and be always hard and solid, so that it would be necessary to liquefy it by the heat of fire, as in the case of the other metals. But it does not require this, aince it has liquidity and flux from its own heat naturally inborn in it, which keeps it in a state of perpetual fluidity and renders it " quick," so that it can neither die, nor be coagulated, nor congealed. And this is well worth noticing, that the spirits of the seven metals, or as many of them as have been commingled, as soon as they come into the fire, contend with one another, especially Mercury, so that each may put forth its powers and virtues in the endeavour to get the mastery in the way of liquefying and transmuting. ^One seizes on the virtue, life, and form of another, and assigns some other nature and form to this one. So then the spirits or vapours of the metals are stirred up by the heat to operate mutually one upon the other, and transmute from one virtue to another, until perfection and purity are attained. T

But what must be done besides to Mercury in order that its moisture and heat may be taken away, and in their place such an extreme cold introduced as to congeal, consolidate, and altogether mortify the Mercury? Do what follows in the sentence subjoined : Take pure Mercury closely shut up in a silver pixis. Fill a jar with fragments of lead, in the midst of which place the pixis. Let it melt for twenty-four hours, that is, for a natural day. This takes away from Mercury his occult heat, adds an external heat, and contributes the internal coldness of Saturn and Luna (which are both planets of a cold nature), whence and whereby the Mercury is compelled to congeal, consolidate, and harden. Note also that the coldness (which Mercury needs in its consolidation and mortification) is not perceptible by the external sense, as the cold of snow or of ice is, but rather, externally, there is a certain amount of apparent heat. Just in the same way is it with the heat of Mercury, which is the cause of its fluidity. It is not an external heat, perceptible in the same way as one of our qualities. Nay, externally a sort of coldness, is perceptible. Whence Sophists (a race which has more talk than true wisdom) falsely assert Mercury is cold and of a moist nature, so that they go on and advise \ congeal it by means of heat ; whereas heat only renders it more fluid, as daily find out to their own loss rather than gain.

True Alchemy which alone, by its unique Art, teaches how to fabr Sol and Luna from the five imperfect metals, allows no other receipt this, which well and truly says : Only from metals, in metals, by metals, with metals, are perfect metals made, for in some things is Luna and in < metals is Sol. What Materials and Instruments are required in Alchemy. There is need of nothing else but a foundry, bellows, tongs, hamn cauldrons, jars, and cupels made from beechen ashes. Afterwards, la; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna. Let them ops finally up to Saturn. The Method of Seeking Minerals. The hope of finding these in the earth and in stones is most uncer and the labour very great. However, since this is the first mode of ge1 them, it is in no way to be despised, but greatly commended. Such a desii appetite ought no more to be done away with than the lawful inclinatio young people, and those in the prime of life, to matrimony. As the bees for roses and other flowers for the purpose of making honey and wax, so, men — apart from avarice or their own aggrandisement — should seek to exi metal from the earth. He who does not seek it is not likely to fin( God dowers men not only with gold or silver, but also with poverty, squi and misery. He has given to some

a singular knowledge of rrietals minerals, whereby they have obtained an easier and shorter metho( fabricating gold and silver, without digging and smelting them, than they ^ commonly accustomed to, by extracting them from their primitive boi And this is the case not only with subterranean substances, but by cei arts and knowledge they have extracted them from the five metals gene (that is to say, from metals excocted from minerals which are impe and called metals), viz., from Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Ve from all of which, and from each of them separately, Sol and Luna cai made, but from one more easily than from another.

Note, that Sol and I can be made easily from Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter, but from Mars Venus with difficulty. It is possible to make them, however, but with addition of Sol and Luna. Out of Magnesium and Saturn comes Luna, out of Jupiter and Cinnabar pure Sol takes its rise. The skilful ai however (how well I remember !), will be able by diligent consideratioi prepare metals so that, led by a true method of reasoning, he can pror the perfection of metallic transformation more than do the courses of twelve signs and the seven planets. In such matters it is quite superfluov

watch these courses, as also their aspects, good or bad days or hours, the prosperous or unlucky condition of this or that planet, for these matters can do no good, and much less can they do harm in the art of natural Alchemy. If otherwise, and you have a feasible process, operate when you please. If, however, there be anything wanting in you or your mode of working, or your understanding, the planets and the stars of heaven will fail you in your work. If metals remain buried long enough in the earth, not only are they consumed by rust, but by long continuance they are even transmuted into natural stones, and there are a great many of these ; but this is known to few. For there is found in the earth old stone money of the heathens, printed with their different figures. These coins were originally metallic, but through the transmutation brought about by Nature, they were turned into stone. Alchemy is nothing else but the set purpose, intention, and subtle endeavour to transmute the kinds of the metals from one to another.* According to this, each person, by his own mental grasp, can choose out for himself a better way and Art, and therein find truth, for the man who follows a thing up more intently does find the truth. It is highly necessary to have a correct estimation of stars and of stones, because the star is the informing spirit of all stones.

For the Sol and Luna of all the celestial stars are nothing but one stone in itself ; and the terrestrial stone has come forth from the celestial stone ; through the same fire, coals, ashes, the same expulsions and repurgations as that celestial stone, it has been separated and brought, clear and pure in its brightness. The whole ball of the earth is only something thrown off, concrete, mixed, corrupted, ground, and again coagulated, and gradually liquefied into one mass, into a stony work, which has its seat and its rest in the midst of the firmamental sphere.

Further it is to be remarked that those precious stones which shall forthwith be set down have the nearest place to the heavenly or sidereal ones in point of perfection, purity, beauty, brightness, virtue, power of withstanding fire, and incorruptibility, and they have been fixed with other stones in the earth, t They have, therefore, the greatest affinity with heavenly stones and with the stars, because their natures are derived from these. They are found by • Alchemy is, so to speak, a kind of lower heaven, by which the sun is separated from the moon, day from night medicine from poison, what is useful from what is refuse.— Zl« Cotica. Therefore learn Alchemy, which is otherwise called Spagyria. This teaches you to discern between the true and the false. Such a Light of Nature is it that it is a mode of proof in all things, and walks in light. From this light of Nature we ought to know and speak, not from mere phantasy, whence nothing is begotten save the four humours and their compounds, augmentation, stagnation and decrease, with other trifles of this kind. These proceed, not from the clear intellect, that full treasure-house of a good man, but rather are based on a fictitious and insecure foundation. — Paramintm Lib. L c. ^.

t When the occult dispenser of Nature in the prime principles, that is to say, the potency called Ares has produced the gross and rough genera of stones, and no further grossness remains, a diaphanous and subtle substance remains, out ofwhich the Archeus of Nature generates the precious stones or gems.— .0? Elrmenlo Aaua Lib IV Tract IV., c. lo, y , . ., men in a rude environment, and the common herd (whose property it take false views of things) believe that they were produced in the same i where they are found, and that they were afterwards polished, carried aro and sold, and accounted to be great riches, on account of their cole beauty, and other virtues. A brief description of them follows :— The Emerald. This is a green transparent stone. It does good to eyes and the memory. It defends chastity ; and if this be violatec him who carries it, the stone itself does not remain perfect.* The Adamant. A black crystal called Adamant or else Evax, on ace of the joy which it is effectual in impressing on those who carry it. It is c obscure and transparent blackness, the colour of iron. It is the hardest of but is dissolved in the blood of a goat. Its size at the largest does not ex that of a hazel nut. t

The Magnet Is an iron stone, and so attracts iron to itself. \ The Pearl. The Pearl is not a stone, because it is produced in sea sh It is of a white colour. Seeing that it grows in animated beings, in me in fishes, it is not properly of a stony nature, but properly a depraved (ot wise a transmuted) nature supervening upon a perfect work.§ The Jacinth Is a yellow, transparent stone. There is a flower of same name which, according to the fable of the poets, is said to have be man. II The Sapphire Is a stone of a celestial colour and a heavenly nature The Ruby Shines with an intensely red nature.** The Carbuncle. A solar stone, shining by its own nature like the su The Coral Is a white or red stone, not transparent. It grows in sea, out of the nature of the water and the air, into the form of wood shrub ; it hardens in the air, and is not capable of being destroyed in fire. * The body of the Emerald is derived from a kind of petrine Mercury. It receives from the same its \ coagulated with spirit of Salt. —Idid.^ c. 12.

t The most concentrated hardness of all stones combines for the generation of the adamant. The white ad has its body from Mercury, and its coagulation from the spirit of Salt. — Ibid.^ c. 14. t Fortified by experience, which is the mistress of all things, and by mature theory, based on experience, I that the Magnet is a stone which not only undeniably attracts steel and iron, but -has also the same power o^ matter of all diseases in the whole body of man. — De Corallis, See Herbarius TkeophrasiL § The Pearl is a seed of moisture. It generates milk abundantly in women if they are deficient the De Aridura. 11 The Jacinth, or Hyacinth, is a gem of the same genus as the Carbuncle, but is inferior thereto in its nai De Elemenio Aguce, Lib. IV., Tract IV., c. 11. IT In the matter of body and colour the Sapphire is generated from Mercury (the prime principle). It is : over white Sulphur and white Salt from a pallid petrine Mercury. Hence white Sapphires frequently occur bee white Mercury concurs in the formation. In like manner a lute-coloured Mercury sometimes produces a cl; \iUQ.— Ibid., c. 15.

* * The Ruby and similar gems possessing a ruddy hue are generated from the red of Sulphur, and their boc petrine Mercury. For Mercury is the body of every precious stone.— Ibj'd., c. 13. tt The Carbuncle is formed of the most transparent matter which is conserved in the three principles. Mer the body and Sulphur the colouring thereof, with a modicum of the spirit of Salt, on account of the coagulation light abounds therein, because Sulphur contains in itself a clear quality of light, as the art of its transmi demonstrates. — Ibtd., c. 11. tt There are two species of red Corals— one a dull red, which varies between sub-purple and semi-black ; the 1 resplendent and brilliant red. As the colours differ, so also do the virtues. There is also a whitish species w almost destitute of efficacy. In a word, as the Coral diminishes in redness, so it weakens in its qualities. — Net Theo^hrasH; De Corallis. The Chalcedony Is a stone made up of different colours, occupying a liddle place between obscurity and transparency, mixed also with cloudiness, nd liver coloured. It is the lowest of all the precious stones.* The Topaz Is a stone shining by night. It is found among rocks, t

The Amethyst Is a stone of a purple and blood colour. J The Chrysoprasus Is a stone which appears like fire by night, and like fold by day. The Crystal Is a white stone, transparent, and very like ice. It is subimated, extracted, and produced from other stones. § As a pledge and firm foundation of this matter, note the following contusion. If anyone intelligently and reasonably takes care to exercise himself n learning about the metals, what they are, and whence they are produced : le may know that our metals are nothing else than the best part and the spirit if common stones, that is, pitch, grease, fat, oil, and stone. But this is least lure, uncontaminated, and perfect, so long as it remains hidden or mixed with he stones. It should therefore be sought and found in the stones, be recoglised in them, and extracted from them, that is, forcibly drawn out and iquefied. For then it is no longer a stone, but an elaborate and perfect metal, omparable to the stars of heaven, which are themselves, as it were, stones eparated from those of earth. Whoever, therefore, studies minerals and metals must be furnished with uch reason and intelligence that he shall not regard only those common and :nown metals which are found in the depth of the mountains alone. For there s often found at the very surface of the earth such a metal as is not met with it all, or not equally good, in the depths.

And so every stone which comes to )ur view, be it great or small, flint or simple rock, should be carefully investigated and weighed with a true balance, according to its nature and properties. /ery often a commop stone, thrown away and despised, is worth more than a :ow. Regard must not always be had to the place of digging from which his stone came forth ; for here the influence of the sky prevails. Everywhere here is presented to us earth, or dust, or sand, which often contain much gold )r silver, and this you will mark.

Here ends the Ccelum Philosophorum. •The gem Chalcedony is extracted from Sail.— Chtrurgia Magna; De Tumoribus, etc., Morhi Gallici Jb. III., c. 6. ' t The Topa2 is an extract from the minera of Mars, and is a transplanted Iron. — Ibid. \ The Amethyst is an extract of Salt, while Marble and Chalcedony are extracted from the same principle through he Amethyst. — Ibid. % The origin of Crystals is to be referred to water. They contain within them a spirit of coagulation whereby they ire coagulated, as water by the freezing and glacial stars. —Lib, Meteoruvi, c. 7.

WRITTEN AGAINST THOSE SOPHISTS BORN SINCE THE DELUGE, IN THE AGl OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD ; By ph. THEOPHRASTUS BOMBAST, of hohenheim, Philosopher of the Monarchia, Prince of Spagyrists, Chief Astronomer Surpassing Physician, and Trismegisttis of Mechanical Arcana. SINCE you, O Sophist, everywhere abuse me with such fatuous and me cious words, on the ground that being sprung from rude Helvetia ] understand and know nothing : and also because being a duly qual physician I still wander from one district to another ; therefore I have posed by means of this treatise to disclose to the ignorant and inexperien what good arts existed in the first age ; what my art avails against you yours against me ; what should be thought of each, and how my posteri this age of grace will imitate me. Look at Hermes, Archelaus, and ot in the first age : see what Spagyrists and what Philosophers then exi; By this they testify that their enemies, who are your patrons, O Sophis the present time are but mere empty forms and idols. Although this w not be attested by those who are falsely considered your authentic fathers saints, yet the ancient Emerald Table shews more art and experience in ] osophy. Alchemy, Magic, and the like, than could ever be taught by you your crowd of followers. If you do not yet understand, from the afore facts, what and how great treasures these are, tell me why no prince or 1 was ever able to subdue the Egyptians. Then tell me why the Emp Diocletian ordered all the Spagyric books to be burnt (so far as he could his hands upon them). Unless the contents of those books had been knc they would have been obliged to bear still his intolerable yoke, — a yi O Sophist, which shall one day be put upon the neck of yourself and ] colleagues.

From the middle of this age the Monarchy of all the Arts has bee length derived and conferred on me, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Prince Philosophy and of Medicine. For this purpose I have been chosen by Go extinguish and blot out all the phantasies of elaborate and false works, of delusive and presumptuous words, be they the words of Aristotle, Galen, Avicenna, Mesva, or the dogmas of any among their followers. My theory, proceeding as it does from the light of Nature, can never, through its consistency, pass away or be changed : but in the fifty-eighth year after its millennium and a half it will then begin to flourish. The practice at the same time following upon the theory will be proved by wonderful and incredible signs, so as to be open to mechanics and common people, and they will thoroughly understand how firm and immovable is that Paracelsic Art against the triflings of the Sophists : though meanwhile that sophistical science has to have its ineptitude propped up and fortified by papal and imperial privileges. In that I am esteemed by you a mendicant and vagabond sophist, the Danube and the Rhine will answer that accusation, though I hold my tongue. Those calumnies of yours falsely devised against me have often displeased many courts and princes, many imperial cities, the knightly order, and the nobility. I have a treasure hidden in a certain city called Weinden, belonging to Forum Julii, at an inn, — a treasure which neither you, Leo of Rome, nor you, Charles the German, could purchase with all your substance.

Although the signed star has been applied to the arcanum of your names, it is known to none but the sons of the divine Spagyric Art. So then, you wormy and lousy Sophist, since you deem the monarch of arcana a mere ignorant, fatuous, and prodigal quack, now, in this mid age, I determine in my present treatise to disclose the honourable course of procedure in these matters, the virtues and preparation of the celebrated Tincture of the Philosophers for the use and honour of all who love the truth, and in order that all who despise the true arts may be reduced to poverty. By this arcanum the last age shall be illuminated clearly and compensated for all its losses by the gift of grace and the reward of the spirit of truth, so that since the beginning of the world no similar germination of the intelligence and of wisdom shall ever have been heard of. In the meantime, vice will not be able to suppress the good, nor will the resources of those vicious persons, many though they be, cause any loss to the upright.

IPHILIPPUS Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast, say that, by Divine gr , many ways have been sought to the Tincture of the Philosophers, wl finally all came to the same scope and end. Hermes Trismegistus, Egyptian, approached this task in his own method. Orus, the Greek, obsei the same process. Hali, the Arabian, remained firm in his order. Albertus Magnus, the German, followed also a lengthy process. Each on these advanced in proportion to his own method ; nevertheless, they all arri at one and the same end, at a long life, so much desired by the philosoph and also at an honourable sustenance and means of preserving that life in Valley of Misery. Now at this time, I, Theophrastus Paracelsus Bomb Monarch of the Arcana, am endowed by God with special gifts for this s that every searcher after this supreme philosophic work may be forcec imitate and to follow me, be he Italian, Pole, Gaul, German, or whatsoeve whosoever he be. Come hither after me, all you philosophers, astronomers, spagyrists, of however lofty a name ye may be, I will show and open to j Alchemists and Doctors, who are exalted by me with the most consumn labours, this corporeal regeneration. I will teach you the tincture, arcanum,* the quintessence, wherein lie hid the foundations of all myste and of all works. For every person may and ought to believe in another c in those matters which he has tried by fire.

If any one shall have brou forward anything contrary to this method of experimentation in the Spag Art or in Medicine, there is no reason for your belief in him, since, experiments through the agency of fire, the true is separated from the false. The ligh Nature indeed is created in this way, that by means thereof the proof or t of everything may appear, but only to those who walk in this light. With light we will teach, by the very best methods of demonstration, that all th who before me have approached this so difficult province with their own fan and acute speculations have, to their own loss, incurred the danger of tl foolishness. On which account, from my standpoint, many rustics have b

* The Arcanum of a substance is not the virtue {virtus) but the essence {vis) and the potency (J>otenfia\ i stronger than the virtue ; nevertheless, an old error of the doctors conferred the name of virtues upon the poti essences. — Paratitirum, Lib. IV. Many things are elsewhere set forth concerning the Quintessence, but what scribed is really a separation or extraction of the pure from the impure, not a true quintessence, and it is more con termed an Arcaniun. — Explicatio Totius AstroHomite. ennobled ; but, on the other hand, through the speculative and opinionative art of these many nobles have been changed into clowns, and since they carried golden mountains in their head before they had put their hand to the fire. First of all, then, there must be learnt — digestions, distillations, sublimations, reverberations, extractions, solutions, coagulations, fermentations, fixations, and every instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, such as glass vessels, cucurbites, circulators, vessels of Hermes, earthen vessels, baths, blast-furnaces, reverberatories, and instruments of like kind, also marble, coals, and tongs. Thus at length you will be able to profit in Alchemy and in Medicine. But so long as, relying on fancy and opinion, you cleave to your fictitious books, you are fitted and predestinated for no one of these things.

Concerning the Definition of the Subject and Matter of the Tincture of the Philosophers. Before I come, then, to the process of the Tincture, it is needful that I open to you the subject thereof : for, up to the present time, this has always been kept in a specially occult way by the lovers of truth. So, then, the matter of the Tincture (when you understand me in a Spagyrical sense) is a certain thing which, by the art of Vulcan,* passes out of three essences into one essence, ©r it may remain. But, that I may give it its proper name, according to the use of the ancients, though it is called by many the Red Lion, still it is known by few. This, by the aid of Nature and the skill of the Artist himself, can be transmuted into a White Eagle, so that out of one two are produced ; and beyond this the brightness of gold does not shine so much for the Spagyrist as do these two when kept in one. Now, if you do not understand the use of the Cabalists and the old astronomers, you are not born by God for the Spagyric art, or chosen by Nature for the work of Vulcan, or created to open your mouth concerning Alchemical Arts. The matter of the Tincture, then, is a very great pearl and a most precious treasure, and the noblest thing next to the manifestation of the Most High and the consideration of men which can exist upon earth. This is the Lili of Alchemy and of Medicine,which the philosophers have so diligently sought after, but, through the failure of entire knowledge and complete preparation, they have not progressed to the perfect end thereof. By means of their investigations and experiments, only the

» The ofSce of Vulcan is the separation of the good from the bad. So the Art of Vulcan, which is Alchemy is like unto death, by which the eternal and the temporal are divided one from another. So also this art might be called the death of things.— iJe.A^orfej Metallicis, Lib. I., Tract III., c. i. Vulcan is an astral and not a corporal fabricator.- Dt Caduco Mntricis, Par. VI. Theartist working in metals and other Minerals transforms them into other colours, and in so doing his operation is like that of the heaven itself. For as the artist excocts by means of Vulcan, or the igneous element, so heaven performs the work of coction through the Sun. The Sun, therefore, is the Vulcan of heaven accomplishing coction in the earth.-ZI« Icteritiis. Vulcan is the fabricator and architect of all things, nor is his habitation in heaven only, that is, in the firmament, but equally in all the other elements.— Xii. Meteorum, c. 4. Where the three prime principles are wanting, there also the igneous essence is absent. The Igneous Vulcan'is'nothing else but Sulphur, Sal Nitrum, and Mercury. — Jbid., c. 5. . The Tincture of the Philosophers. initial stage of the Tincture has been given to us ; but the true founda which my colleagues must imitate, has been left for me, so that no one sh mingle their shadows with our good intentions. I, by right after my experiences, correct the Spagyrists, and separate the false or the erroneous : the true, since, by long investigations, I have found reasons why I shoul able justly to blame and to change diverse things. If, indeed, I had founc experiments of the ancients better than my own, I should scarcely have t; up such great labours as, for the sake, the utility, and the advantage o good Alchemists, I have undergone; willingly. Since, then, the subject o

exceeded in fidelity between two brothers, I approach its preparation, and ; I have laid down the experiences of the first age, I wish to add my own in tions ; to which at last the Age of Grace will by-and-by give its adhei whichever of the patriarchs, O Sophist, you, in the meantime, shall made leaders.

Concerning the Process of the Ancients for the Tincture of THE Philosophers, and a more compendious Method by Paracelsl The old Spagyrists putrefied Lili for a philosophical month, and afterw distilled therefrom the moist spirits, until at length the dry spirits ' elevated. They again imbued the caput moriuum.vnih moist spirits, and ( them off from it frequently by distillation until the dry spirits were all elev£ Then afterwards they united the moisture that had been drawn off' and dry spirits by means of a pehcan, three or four times, until the whole remained dry at the bottom. Although early experience gave this pre before fixation, none the less our ancestors often attained a perfect realis; of their wish by this method. They would, however, have had a shorter of arriving at the treasure of the Red Lion if they had learnt the agreeme: Astronomy with Alchemy, as I have demonstrated it in the Apocalyps Hermes.* But since every day (as Christ says for the consolation of * The Book of the Revelation of Hermes, interpreted by Theophrastus Paracelsus, concerning the St Secret of the World, seems to have been first brought to light by Benedictus Figulus, and appeared as a / risistaHce in hb " Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels," of which an English translation has bet recently published. (" A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels." By Benedictus Figulus. No done into English from' the German original published at Frankfort in the year i£o8.

Hermes, Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers, flourishing at different times, who have introduced the An more especially have explored the secrets of inferior Creation, all these have eagerly sought a means whereby body might be preserved from decay and become endued with immortality. To them it was answered that t nothing which might deliver the mortal body from death ; but that there is One Thing which may postpone decay, youth, and prolong short human life (as with the patriarchs). For death was laid as a punishment upon our first p Adam and Eve, and will never depart from all their decsendants. Therefore, the above philosophers, and many other faithful) has its own peculiar care, the labour for the Spagyrists before my times has been great and heavy; but. this, by the help of the Holy Spirit flowing into us, will, in this last age, be lightened and made clear by my theory and practice, for all those who constantly persevere in their work with patience. For I have tested the properties of Nature, its essences and conditions, and I know its conjunction and resolution, which are the highest and greatest gift for a philosopher, and never understood by the sophists up to this time. When, therefore, the earliest age gave the first experience of the Tincture, the Spagyrists made two things out of one simple. But when afterwards, in the Middle Age, this invention had died out, their successors by diligent scrutiny afterwards came upon the two names of.

this simple, and they named it with one word, namely, Lili, as being the subject of the Tincture. At length the imitators of Nature putrefied this matter at its proper period just like the seed in the earth, since before this corruption nothing could be born from it, nor any arcanum break forth from it. Afterwards they drew off the moist spirits from the matter, until at length, by the violence of the fire, the dry were also equally sublimated, so that, in this way, just as the rustic

sought this One Thing with great labour, and have found that that which preserves the human body from corruption, and prolongs life, conducts itself, with respect to other elements, as it were like the Heavens ; from which they understood that the Heavens are a substance above the Four Elements. And just as the Heavens, with respect to the other elements, are held to be the fifth substance (for they are indestructible, stable, and suffer no foreign admixture), so also this One Thing (compared to the forces of our body) is an indestructible essence, drying uf) all the superfluities of our bodies, and has been philosophically called by the above-mentioned name. It is neither hot and dry like fire, nor cold and moist like water, nor warm and moist like air, nor dry and cold like earth. But it is a skilful, perfect equation of all the Elements, a right commingling of natural forces, a most particular union of spiritual virtues, an indissoluble uniting of body and soul. It is the purest and noblest substance of an indestructible body, which cannot be destroyed nor harmed by the Elements, and is produced by Art. With this, Aristotle prepared an apple, prolonging life by its scent, when he, fifteen days before his death, could neither eat nor drink on account of old age. This spiritual Essence, or One Thing, was revealed from above to Adam, and was greatly desired by the Holy Fathers ;

this also Hermes and Aristotle call the Truth without Lies, the most sure of all things certain, the Secret of all Secrets. It is the Last and the Highest Thing to be sought under the Heavens, a wondrous closing and finish of philosophical work, by which are discovered the dews of Heaven and the fastnesses of Earth. What the mouth of man cannot utter is all found in this spirit. As Morienus says : " He who has this has all things, and wants no other aid. For in it are all temporal happiness, bodily health, and earthly fortune. It is the spirit of the fifth substance, a Fount of all Joys (beneath the rays of the moon), the Supporter of Heaven and Earth, the Mover of Sea and Wind, the Outpourer of Rain, upholding the strength of all things, an excellent spirit above Heavenly and other spirits, giving Health, Joy, Peace, Love ; driving away Hatred and Sorrow, bringing in Joy, expelling all Evil, quickly healing all Diseases, destroying Poverty and misery, leading to all good things, preventing all evil words and thoughts, giving man his heart's desire, bringing to the pious earthly honour and long life, but to the wicked who misuse it. Eternal Punishment." This is the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot comprehend without the interposition of the Holy Ghost, or without the instruction of those who know it. The same is of a mysterious nature, wondrous strength, boundless power.

The Saints, from the beginning of the world, have desired to behold its face. By Avicenna this Spirit is named the Soul of the World. For, as the Soul moves all the limbs of the body, so also does this Spirit move all bodies. And as the Soul is in all the limbs of the Body, so also is this Spirit in all elementary created things. It is sought by many and found by few. It is beheld from afar and found near ; for it exists in every thing, in every place, and at all times. It has the powers of all creatures ; its action is found in all elements, and the qualities of all things are therein, even in the highest perfection. By virtue of this essence did Adam and the Patriarchs preserve their health and live to an extreme age, some of them also flourishing in great riches. When the philosophers had discovered it, with great diligence and laboiu-, they straightway concealed it under a strange tongue, and in parables, lest the same should become known to the unworthy, and the pearls be cast before swine. For if everyone knew it, all work and industry would cease ; man would desire nothing but this one thing, people would live wickedly, and the world be ruined, seeing that they would provoke God by reason of their avarice and superfluity. For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath the heart of man understood what Heaven hath naturally incorporated with this Spirit.

Therefore have I briefly enumerated some of the qualities of this Spirit, to the Honour of God, that the pious may reverently praise Him in His gifts (which gift of God shall afterwards come to them), and I will herewith shew what powers and virtues it possesses in each thing, also its outward appearance, that it may be more readily recognised. In its first state, it appears as an impure earthly body, full of imperfections. It then has an earthly nature, healing all sickness and wounds in the bowels of man, producing good and consuming proud flesh, expelling all stench, and healing generally, inwardly and outwardly. In its second nature it

The Tincture of the Philosophers, does at the proper time of year, they might come to maturity as one after anc is wont to ascend and to fall away. Lastly, as after the spring comes sum they incorporated those fruits and dry spirits, and brought the Magistei the Tincture to such a point that It came to the harvest, and laid itseli for ripening.

Concerning the Process for the Tincture of the Philosophers^ AS it is shortened by Paracelsus. The ancient Spagyrists would not have required such lengthened la and such wearisome repetition if they had learnt and practised their wor my school. They would have obtained their wish just as well,- with far expense and labour. But at this time, when Theophrastus Paracelsus arrived as the Monarch of Arcana, the opportunity is at hand for finding those things which were occult to all Spagyrists before me. Wherefc say, Take only the rose-coloured blood from the Lion and the gluten fron Eagle. When you have mixed these, coagulate them according to th€ appears as a watery body, somewhat more beautiful than before, because (although still having its corruptic Virtue is greater. It is much nearer the truth, and more effective in works. In this form it cures cold and hot and is a specific against poisons, which it drives from heart and lungs, healing the same when injured or woundec fying the blood, and, taken three times a day, is of great comfort in all diseases. But in its third nature it app< an aerial body, of an oily nature, almost freed from all imperfections, in which form it does many wondrous work ducing beauty and strength of body, and (a small quantity being taken in the food) preventing melancholy and h of the gall, increasing the quantity of the blood and seed, so that frequent bleediftg becomes necessary.

It expar blood vessels, cures withered limbs, restores strength to the sight, in growing persons removes what is superfluoi makes good defects in the limbs. In its fourth nature it appears in a fiery form (not quite freed from all imperfectiot somewhat watery and not dried enough), wherein it has many virtues, making the old young and reviving those point of death. For if to such an one there be given, in wine, a barleycorn's weight of this fire, so that it rea stomach, it goes to his heart, renewing him at once, driving away all previous moisture and poison, and restori natural heat of the liver. Given in small doses to old people, it removes the diseases of age, giving the old young and bodies. Hence it is called the Elixir of Life, In its fifth and last nature, it appears in a glorified and illun: form, without defects, shining like gold and silver, wherein it possesses all previous powers and virtues in a high more wondrous degree. Here its natiu*al works are taken for miracles. When applied to the roots of dead tree revive, bringing forth leaves and fruit. A lamp, the oil of which is mingled with this spirit, continues to burn fc without diminution. It converts crystals into the most precious stones of all colours, equal to those from the mint does mayn other incredible wonders which may not be revealed to the unworthy. For it heals all dead and living without other medicine.

Here Christ is my witness that I lie not, for all heavenly influences are united and cor therein. This essence also reveals all treasures in earth and sea, converts all metallic bodies into gold, and tl nothing like unto it under Heaven. This spirit is the secret, hidden from the beginning, yet granted by God to holy men for the revealing of these riches to His Glory— dwelling in fiery form in the air, and leading earth with to heaven, while from its body there flow whole rivers of living water. This spirit flies through the midst Heavens like a morning mist, leads its burning fire into the water, and has its shining realm in the heavens, although these writings may be regarded as false by the reader, yet to the initiated they are true and possible, wh hidden sense is properly understood. For God is wonderful in His works, and His wisdom is without end. Thi; in its fiery form is called a Sandaraca, in the aerial a Kybrick, in the watery an Azoth, in the earthly Alcohof Aliocosoph. Hence they are deceived by these names who, seeking without instruction, think to find this Spirit in things foreign to our Art. For although this spirit which we seek, on account of its qualities, is called by names, yet the same is not in these bodies and cannot be in them. For a refined spirit cannot appear except in ^ suitable to its nature.

And, by however many names it be called, let no one imagine there be different spirits, f< what one will, there is but one spirit working everywhere and in all things. That is the spirit which, when illumines the Heavens, when setting incorporates the purity of Earth, and when brooding has embraced the \\ This spirit is named Raphael, the Angel of God, the subtlest and purest, whom the others all obey as their King, spiritual substance is neither heavenly nor hellish^ but an airy, pure, and hearty body, midway between the highe lowest, without reason, but fruitful in works, and the most select and beautiful of all other heavenly things. Thi of God is far too deep for understanding, for it is the last, greatest, and highest secret of Nature. It is the Sf God, which in the Beginning filled the earth and brooded over the waters, which the world cannot grasp witho gracious interpositton of the Holy Spirit and instruction from those who know it, which also the whole world desi its virtue, and which cannot be prized enough. For it reaches to the planets, raises the clouds, drives away mists

process, and you will have the Tincture of the Philosophers, which an infinite number have sought after and very few have found. Whether you will or not, sophist, this Magistery is in Nature itself, a wonderful thing of God above Nature, and a most precious treasure in this Valley of Sorrows. If you look at it from without it seems a paltry thing to transmute another into something ' far more noble than it was before. But you must, nevertheless, allow this, and confess that it is a miracle produced by the Spagyrist, who by the art of his preparation corrupts a visible body which is externally vile, from which he excites another most noble and most precious essence. If you, in like manner, have learnt anything from the Hght of Aristotle, or from us, or from the rules of Serapio, come forth, and bring that knowledge experimentally to light. Preserve now the right of the Schools, as becomes a lover of honour and a doctor. But if you know nothing and can do nothing, why do you despise me as though I were an irrational Helvetian cow, and inveigh against me as a wandering vagabond ? Art is a second Nature and a universe of its own, as experience witnesses, and demonstrates against you and your idols. Sometimes, therefore, the Alchemist compounds certain simples, which he

its light to all things, turns everything into Sun and Moon, bestows all health and abundance of treasure, cleanses the leper, brightens the eyes, banishes sorrow, heals the sick, reveals all hidden treasures, and, generally, ciu'es all diseases. Through this spirit have the philosophers invented the Seven Liberal Arts, and thereby gained their riches. Through the same Moses made the golden vessels in the Ark, and King Solomon did many beautiful works to the honour of God. Therewith Moses built the Tabernacle, Noah the Ark, Solomon the Temple. By this Ezra restored the Law, and Miriam, Moses' sister, was hospitable ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and other righteous men, have had lifelong abundance and riches ; and all the saints possessing it have therewith praised God. Therefore is its acquisition very hard, more than that of gold and silver. For it is the best of all things, because, of all things mortal that man can desire in this world, nothing can compare with it, and in it alone is truth. Hence it is called the Stone and Spirit of Truth ; in its works is no vanity, its praise cannot be sufficiently expressed. I am unable to speak enough of its virtues, because its good qualities and powers are beyond human thoughts, unutterable by the tongue of man, and in it are found the properties of all things. Yea, there is nothing deeper in Nature. O unfathomable abyss of God's Wisdom, which thus hath united and comprised in the virtue and power of this One Spirit the qualities of all existing bodies !

O unspeakable honour and boundless joy granted to mortal man ! , For the destructible things of Nature are restored by virtue of the said Spirit. O mystery of mysteries, most secret of all secret things, and healing and medicine of all things I Thou last discovery in earthly natures, last best gift to Patriarchs and Sages, greatly desired by the whole world ! Oh, what a wondrous and laudable spirit is purity, in which stand all joy, riches, fruitfulness of life, and art of all arts, a power which to its initiates grants all material joys ! O desirable knowledge, lovely above all things beneath the circle of the Moon, by which Nature is strengthened, and heart and limbs are renewed, blooming youth is preserved, old age driven away, weakness destroyed, beauty in its perfection preserved, and abundance ensured in all things pleasing to men ! O thou spiritual substance, lovely above all things I O thou wondrous power, strengthening all the world 1 O thou invincible virtue, highest of all that is, although despised by the ignorant, yet held by the wise in great praise, honoiu-, and glory, that -proceeding from humours— wakest the dead, expellest diseases, restorest the voice of the dying! O thou treasure of treasures, mystery of mysteries, called by Avicenna "an unspeakable substance," the purest and most perfect soul of the world, than which there is nothing more costly under Heaven, unfathomable in nature and power, wonderful in virtue and works, having no equal among creatures, possessing the virtues of all bodies under Heaven !

For from it flow the water of life, the oil and honey of eternal healing, and thus hath it nourished them with honey and water from the rock. Therefore, saith Morienus ; " He who hath it, the same also hath all things." Blessed art Thou Lord God of our fathers, in that Thou hast given the prophets this knowledge and understanding, that they have hidden these things (lest they should be discovered by the blind, and those drowned in worldly godlessness) by which the wise and the pious have praised Thee ! For the discoverers of the mystery of this thing to the unworthy are breakers of the seal of Heavenly Revelation, thereby offending God's Majesty, and bringing upon themselves many misfortunes and the punishments of God. Therefore, I beg all Christians, possessing this knowledge, to communicate the same to nobody, except it be to one living in Godliness, of well-proved virtue, and praising God, Who has given such a treasure to man. For many seek, but few find it. Hence the impure and those living in vice are unworthy of it. Therefore is this Art to be shewn to all God-fearing persons, because it cannot be bought with a price. I testify before God that I lie not, although it appear impossible to fools, that no one has hitherto explored Nature so deeply. The Almighty be praised for having created this Art and for revealing it to God-fearing men.

Amen. And thus is fulfilled this precious and excellent work, called the revealing of the occult spirit, in which lie hidden the secrets and mysteries of the world. But this spirit is one genius, and divine, wonderful, and lordly power. For it embraces the whole world and overcomes the Elements and the fifth Substance. To our Trismegistus Spagyrus, Jesus Christ, be praise and glory immortal. Amen.

The Tincture of the Philosophers. afterwards corrupts according to his need, and prepares thence another tl For thus very often out of many things one is made, which effects more Nature of herself can do, as in Gastaynum it is perfectly well known that V is produced from Saturn ; in Carinthia, Luna out of Venus ; and in Hunj Sol out of Luna ; to pass over in silence for the time being the transmuta of other natural objects, which were well known to the Magi, and i wonderfully than Ovid narrates in his Metamorphoses do they come to light. That you may rightly understand me, seek your Lion in the East, your Eagle in the South, for this our work which has been undertaken, will not find better instruments than Hungary and Istria produce. B you desire to lead from unity by duality in trinity with equal permutatio each, then you should direct your journey to the South ; so in Cyprus shall gain all your desire, concerning which we must not dilate more profusely we have done at present. There are still many more of these arcana w exhibit transmutations, though they are known to few. And although t may by the Lord God be made manifest to anyone, still, the rumour of Art does not on that account at once break forth, but the Almighty § therewith the understanding how to conceal these and other like arts eve the coming of Elias the Artist, at which time there shall be nothing so oi that it shall not be revealed.

You also see with your eyes (though there i need to speak of these things, which may be taken derisively by some) thj the fire of Sulphur is a great tincture for gems, which, indeed, exalts ther a loftier degree than Nature by herself could do. But this gradation of m( and gems shall be omitted by me in this place, since I have written sufficis about it in my Secret of Secrets, in my book on the Vexations of Alchem and abundantly elsewhere. As I have begun the process of our ances with the Tincture of the Philosophers, I will now perfectly conclude it.

Concerning the Conclusion of the Process of the Ancients, MADE BY Paracelsus. Lastly, the ancient Spagyrists haying placed Lili in a pelican and drie fixed it by means of a regulated increase of the fire, continued so long i from blackness, by permutation into all the colours, it became red as bl and therewith assumed the condition of a salamander. Rightly, indeed, they proceed with such labour, and in the same way it is right and becor that everyone should proceed who seeks this pearl. It will be very difiicul me to make this clearer to you unless you shall have learnt in the Schoi the Alchemists to observe the degrees of the fire, and also to change ; vessels. For then at length you will see that soon after your Lili shall 1 become heated in the Philosophic Egg, it becomes, with wonderful appearar blacker than the crow ; afterwards, in succession of time, whiter than swan ; and at last, passing through a yellow colour, it turns out more red i any blood. Seek, seek, says the first Spagyrist, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. It would be impious and indecorous to put food in the mouth of a perfidious bird. Let her rather fly to it, even as I, with others before me, have been compelled to do. But follow true Art ; for this will lead you to its perfect knowledge.

It is not possible that anything should here be set down more fully or more clearly than I have before spoken. Let your Pharisaical schools teach you what they will from their unstable and slippery foundation, which reaches not its end or its aim. When at length you shall have been taught as accurately as possible the Alchemistic Art, nothing in the nature of things shall then at length be so difficult which cannot be made manifest to you by the aid of this Art. Nature, indeed, herself does not bring forth anything into the light which is advanced to its highest perfection, as can be seen in this place from the unity, or the union, of our duality. But a man ought by Spagyric preparations to lead it thither where it was ordained by Nature. Let this have been sufficiently said by me, concerning the process of the ancients and my correction of the Tincture of the Philosophers, so far as relates to its preparation.

Moreover, since now we have that treasure of the Egyptians in our hands, it remains that we turn it to our use : and this is offered to us by the Spagyric Magistery in two ways. According to the former mode it can be applied for the renewing of the body ; according to the latter it is to be used for the transmutation of metals. Since, then, I, Theophrastus Paracelsus, have tried each of them in different ways, I am willing to put them forward and to describe them according to the signs indeed of the work, and as in experience and proof they appeared to me better and more perfectly.

Concerning the Transmutation of Metals by the Perfection of Medicine. If the Tincture of the Philosophers is to be used for transmutation, a pound of it must be projected on a thousand pounds of melted Sol. Then, at length, will a Medicine have been prepared for transmuting the leprous moisture of the metals. This work is a wonderful one in the light of Nature, namely, that by the Magistery, or the operation of the Spagyrist, a metal, which formerly existed, should perish, and another be produced. This fact has rendered that same Aristotle, with his ill-founded philosophy, fatuous. For truly, when the rustics in Hungary cast iron at the proper season into a certain fountain, commonly called Zififerbrunnen, it is consumed into rust, and when this is liquefied with a blast-fire, it soon exists as pure Venus, and never more returns to iron. Similarly, in the mountain commonly called Kuttenberg, they obtain a lixivium out of marcasites, in which iron is forthwith turned into Venus of a high grade, and more malleable than the other produced by Nature. These things, and more like them, are known to simple men rather The Tincture of the Philosophers. than to sophists, namely, those which turn one appearance of a metal another. And these things, moreover, through the remarkable conte of the ignorant, and partly, too, on account of the just envy of the artifi( remain almost hidden. But I myself, in Istria, have often brought V( to more than twenty-four (al. 38) degrees, so that the colour of Sol c not mount higher, consisting of Antimony or or Quartal, which Venus I 1 in all respects as other kinds.

But though the old artists were very desirous of this arcanum, and soi it with the greatest diligence, nevertheless, very few could bring it by m of a perfect preparation to its end. For the transmutation of an inferior n into a superior one brings with it many difficulties and obstacles, as change of Jove into Luna, or Venus into Sol. Perhaps on account of 1 sins God willed that the Magnalia of Nature should be hidden from many i For sometimes, when this Tincture has been prepared by artists, and they ^ not able to reduce their projection to work its effects, it happened thai their carelessness and bad guardianship, this was eaten up by fowls, w feathers thereupon fell off, and, as I myself have seen, grew again. In way transmutation, through its abuse from the carelessness of the art came into Medicine and Alchemy. For when they were unable to use Tincture according to their desire, they converted the same to the renovatic men, as shall be heard more at large in the following chapter.

Concerning the Renovation of Men. Some of the first and primitive philosophers of Egypt have live( means of this Tincture for a hundred and fifty years. The life of many, has been extended and prolonged to several centuries, as is most cl shewn in different histories, though it seems scarcely credible to any For its power is so remarkable that it extends the life of the body be what is possible to its congenital nature, and keeps it so firmly in that dition that it lives on in safety from all infirmities. And although, inc the body at length comes to old age, nevertheless, it still appears as thou were established in its primal youth. So, then, the Tincture of the Philosophers is a Universal Medicine, consumes all diseases, by whatsoever name they are called, just lik invisible fire. The dose is very small, but its effect is most powerful, means thereof I have cured the leprosy, venereal disease, dropsy, the fs sickness, colic, scab, and similar afflictions ; also lupus, cancer, nol tangere, fistulas, and the whole race of internal diseases, more surely one could believe. Of this fact Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Bohe etc., will afford the most ample evidence.

Now, Sophist, look at Theophrastus Paracelsus. How can your A( Machaon, and Hippocrates stand against me ? This is the Catholicum o Philosophers, by which all these philosophers have attained long life for resisting diseases, and they have attained this end entirely and most effectually, and so, according to their judgment, they named it The Tincture of the Philosophers. For what can there be in the whole range of medicine greater than such purgation of the body, by means whereof all superfluity is radically removed from it and transmuted ? For when the seed is once made sound all else is perfected. What avails the ill-founded purgation of the sophists since it removes nothing as it ought ? This, therefore, is the most excellent foundation of a true physician, the regeneration of the nature, and the restoration of youth. After this, the new essence itself drives out all that is opposed to it. To eifect this regeneration, the powers and virtues of the Tincture of the Philosophers were miraculously discovered, and up to this time have been used in secret and kept concealed by true Spagyrists. Here ends the Book concerning the Tincture of the Philosophers. WE now purpose to speak concerning gradations,* and those of such a kind that a metal dissolved or digested in them can be promoted to the degree of Sol and transmuted. Many persons endeavour to transmute the lesser metals into silver, and others, of a mediocre nature, into gold, w^ith some difference, however, in their conjunction, so that in a cineritium, by transmutation of graduation, the lesser metals may be brought to the perfection of the greater ones — a perfection which answers any suitable tests.

We will set down, then, in this place, fourteen gradations. Many others may be found, but these we willingly forget, and have collected those only which are established by experience, and are worth writing about. These we arrange with a triple diff'erentiation. Some are strong waters, others are oils, and the rest liquids. These we arrange in a like order, as is clear from our method of treating them. That is to say, we put, first of all, strong waters, secondly oils, and lastly liquids.

Take of Vitriol, Alum, and Salt Nitre, two pounds each ; of Flos Aeris, Crocus of Mars, and Hzematitis, a quarter of a pound each ; of Cinnabar, a pound and a half; of Antimony,! three-eighths of a pound ; of Arsenic, oneeighth of a pound. Let all be distilled with a very strong fire into strong water, which purify and clarify after the method of such waters, and dissolve therein cemented Luna, or Fart with Part, Luna and Venus ; then put it in digestion for a month. Afterwards take out the residuum by fulmination, and thus you will • The term gradation is used by Paracelsus in more than one sense ; here it is the process by which one substance is developed into another. Care must be taken to distinguish between this and the grades of metals, etc. Thus, in gold there are said to be twenty-four grades ; in silver thirty-two grades of softness ; in iron forty-six grades of hardness ; in lead eighteen degrees of fluxibility ; twelve of malleation in copper ; in Mercury eighty-three properties or branches.— Chirurgia Minor, Lib. III. Preface. t From the time of Basil Valentine, Antimony played almost as important a part in the operations of Alchemy as it performed in Medicine. It is variously described by Paracelsus. Sometimes the term is made to include all marcasites, cachimiae, talcs, ogerta, etc. — De Morbis Metallicis, Tract III., c.

3. Again, Antimony is a mucilage, or, that you may understand me the better, fimisium. - /(5rV., c. 7. It transmutes Saturn into Venus.— Z?^ Aridura. It receives its body from Mercury, and is the most gross nature of Mercury, after it has been purged out (that is, expelled from the prime principle). It retains all the powers and virtues of Mercury. Of all products coming forth out of the three first principles, there is none which retains the virtue of Mercury more patently than Antimony. It is nothing but Mercury coagulated through the Spirit of Salt and Sulphur. But, at the same time, understand that it is derived from the gross and rough, not from the subtle nature of the said Mercury.— Z>^ Elemento Aquee, Tract V., c. 5.

find it transmuted. Let that which is still in the aquafortis be precipitated and fulminated as above, and thus the remainder of the silver can be obtained. Care should be taken that the aforesaid simples be prepared and separated, first of all, in purgation, because any impurity hinders this work of transmutation very seriously. In this second gradation it is worth while to note carefully another process, it being one which can be adopted with greater gain and subtlety, as follows : Take of Saltpetre and of Cinnabar each one pound. Let them be pounded together, and the water distilled from them ; which water preserve. Do the same with an equal weight of Antimony and Arsenic. Mix together the three waters, and add of Salt Nitre, Alum, and Vitriol each one pound. Distil all again, after the manner of Aquafortis. Afterwards pour this on its Caput Mortuum, which has been finely powdered. Again distil it to its ultimate spirit, and clarify it, just as any other aquafortis. In the case of all metals which have been dissolved in it, and have remained in digestion until perfect, its powers of operation are incredibly great. In very truth, there are latent in a composition with these ingredients all the forces of those metals which have In themselves a corporeal matter. For three of such distillations tinge so powerfully, by the force of the water, that scarcely any greater or more powerful means of working with strong waters could be found.

The third gradation, which is reckoned as last among the strong waters, is to be understood and compounded as follows : — Take of Cinnabar, Arsenic, and Antimony, each half a pound, of Saltpetre two pounds, and of Sulphur half a pound. Let these be pounded together, mixed, and distilled to strong water with a very powerful fire. Afterwards take two parts of this water, of Common Alum and Alumen Plumosum each a part and a half, of Vitriol one part, of Verdigris and Crocus of Mars each half a part. Let all these be distilled together into a strong water with a very violent fire. At length, for the whole of this water, take two parts of the Caput Mortuum ; and of Antimony, Verdigris, Cinnabar, and Sulphur, half a part each. Distil these from their dregs by strongly driving them into a receiver. Afterwards, in this water, when it has been clarified, dissolve half a part with ten parts of flowers of brass and crocus of Mars, and let it be digested therein. You will afterwards find more of the residuum transmuted to Sol than you would deem possible to the Art. Let us now speak about gradations made with oils, which do not dissolve

after the mode and form of strong waters, but in digestion, and thus accomplish their perfection. The first gradation of this kind is made with Oil of Antimony, in which is latent a wonderful tincture of redness. Let the following be the process adopted : —Take of Antimony one pound, and of sublimated Mercury half a pound. Let them both be distilled together over a powerful fire by means of an alembic, and the redness will ascend as thick as blood. This tinges and graduates all Luna into Sol, and brings the latter when pale to the highest degree of permanent colour. The fifth gradation, whereof the oil is reckoned second in order, is made in the manner which follows : — Take of the Oil of the Philosophers one pound, with which mix half a pound respectively of Calcined Alum and of Citrine Colcothar. Distil a second time, and afterwards rectify to purity and a constant colour. Put in Luna, and let it remain in digestion. Reduce what remains, separate it in aquafortis, and, lastly, fulminate by means of Saturn. The sixth gradation, third in order among the oils, is made in the following way : — Take of Live Sulphur* two pounds, and of Flax Oil (linseed oil) four pounds. Let these be formed into a compound, and this be distilled into an oil. To this let there be added the same quantity of Live Sulphur, and let it be treated just as it was for the compound.

Let it be digested in horse-dung for a month, or if longer, so much the better. After this let there be added one-eighth of a pound of each of the following : Salt Nitre, Vitriol, Alum, Flos Aeris, Crocus of Mars, and Cinnabar. Distil whatever will ascend. Remove the liquids, keeping only the oils. Put these apart in a glass cucurbite, adding the species as above, and the Caput Mortuum in powder. Distil again as before. Afterwards pour it off again from the dregs, let it be putrefied a second time for a month, and further distilled. When the colours are gone or separated, keep the red, and rectify it as required. Lastly, let plates of Luna be digested at the proper time, and at length reduced by a process of fulmination.

Gradations which are produced by liquids are found in two different forms, namely, the tenacious and the watery. First let us speak concerning the tenacious. Take one pound of Honey, and in it decoct one-quarter of a pound each of Vitriol and of Alum with an eighth of a pound of lamen. Distil the water from these over a strong fire, and add thereto one-eighth of a pound each of the Caput Mortuum from a human cranium, and half a pound of Sulphur. Decoct into the form of a hepar and digest for a month ; then distil and rectify with water until pure. Afterwards add one-eighth of a pound each of Sal Ammoniac, Flos Aeris, Crocus of Mars, and Alum ; a quarter of a pound of Vitriol, and two ounces each of fixed Antimony and fixed Red Arsenic. Pound » Live Sulphur is that of which fragments or particles will cohere without it being in a dissolved or fluid state.— De PraparatioJtibus^ Lib. I., Tract ?., these together, put into water, and let them stand in heat for ten days. Afterwards let the liquid be separated from the dregs. Purify and project into the mixture metallic plates ; then let them remain in moderate digestion until perfect. Lastly, let the matter be burnt, separated, and fulminated.

The gradation by the second liquid is as follows : Take a sufficient quantity of aquafortis. In one part thereof dissolve Sol, in another part Venus, in another part Mars. Mix these solutions together, and afterwards distil the water from them. Pour this again on its dregs, and once more distil and pour as before, until a thick liquid is produced therefrom. To this add five parts of distilled and prepared Honey. Let all be digested for a month, and afterwards separate the phlegma. Keep the liquid, and in it let projected metallic plates be digested for a month. Lastly, let it be coagulated into a mass, and into one distinct body. Let this be subjected to a process of fulmination and quartation. Fulminate a second time, and thus will be found an excellent transmutation by means of liquid. By the third liquid the ninth gradation is made in the following manner : Take aquafortis, in which dissolve Verdigris, and let both be kept together in horse dung for the space of a month. Now distil the water from the dregs, pour it on again, distil and pour it over several times, until an oil is produced from it. Into that liquid put metallic filings, and in the course of its being digested you will find a transmutation. Although the liquid may be small in quantity, nevertheless it graduates most eff'ectually, and affects the very largest amount of metal in proportion to its own quantity.

The Tenth Gradation. In the following manner the fourth liquid is to be understood : Take the best Aquafortis, and in it dissolve as much Steel as possible. Let these remain in digestion for a month, and from them will be formed a compound of one colour. Let this compound also be distilled into a liquid, in which metallic filings must remain in digestion until the liquid is incorporated. Then let both be fulminated together— that is to say, the liquid and the metal— by means of Saturn. Then will be found this transmutation, which must be separated and prepared in the usual way. The eleventh gradation is made by the first aqueous liquid according to the formula subjoined : Take four pounds of the most highly purified Saltpetre, and repurge this from its phlegma by combustion. Add two pounds of Common Salt duly prepared. Mix these together, and distil with an alembic six or nine times until the Salts altogether pass over through the alembic into the receiver placed ready for the purpose. Then take two pounds of this Water ; two ounces each of Flowers of Antimony, Flos Aeris, Flos Martis, and Flower of Sulphur, with two oiuices and a half respectively of Sal Ammoniac and of Alum. Mix all these together, and let them remain in digestion for four and twenty days. After this let them be separated in the purest water. Afterwards let Luna and the metals be graduated by digestion, fulminated by Saturn, separated by quartification, and fulminated a second time.

By means of the second aqueous liquid the twelfth gradation is produced in the following manner : Take three pounds of the most highly corrected Vinum Ardens ; one pound of the Water of Saltpetre ; half a pound of the Water of Common Salt ; and three quarters of a pound respectively of Vitriol, Alumen Plumosum, and Alumen Aochi. Let these be combined to form a mixture, and distil this six times from the Caput Mortuum. In this water let metals be digested, when they will be fixed and transmuted, as we have said above concerning the others. By the third aqueous liquid the thirteenth gradation is produced in the following manner : Take one pound of Isteris of Blood. Distil it thirteen times from its dregs, and place in it two ounces each of Flos Aeris and of Sulphur. Let them be dissolved in horse-dung for a month. Afterwards put in Calx Lunae, so that the colour and substance may be consumed. Afterwards let them be coagulated and fulminated in Saturn. Know that in this liquid common Mercury, as well as that of metals, is coagulated according to the conditions of Transmutation . The fourth liquid in this place is the Water of Mercury, which is made for the fourteenth gradation as follows below :

Take one pound of Mercury sublimated twenty times with Sal Ammoniac, and one ounce respectively of the Flowers of Venus, Mars, Sulphur, and Antimony. Grind and mix all together, and then let them be resolved into a water. This water requires no other labour whatever. Metals projected into it, digested for a short time, and afterwards fulminated, are graduated in a wonderful manner. Here ends the Book of Gradations.

By Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, Paracelsus the Great NATURE begets a mineral in the bowels of the earth. There are two kinds of it, which are found in many districts of Europe. The best which has been offered to me, which also has been found genuine in experimentation, is externally in the figure of the greater world, and is in the eastern part of the sphere of the Sun. The other, in the Southern Star, is now in its first efflorescence. The bowels of the earth thrust this forth through its surface. It is found red in its first coagulation, and in it lie hid all the flowers and colours of the minerals. Much has been written about it by the philosophers, for it is of a cold and moist nature, and agrees with the element of water. NJ So far as relates to the knowledge of it and experiment with it, all the philosophers before me, though they have aimed at it with their missiles, have gone very wide of the mark. They believed that Mercury and Sulphur were the mother of all metals, never even dreaming of making mention meanwhile of a third ; and yet when the water is separated from it by Spagyric Art the truth is plainly revealed, though it was unknown to Galen or to Avicenna. But if, for the sake of our excellent physicians, we had to describe only the name, the composition, the dissolution, and coagulation, as in the beginning of the world Nature proceeds with all growing things, a whole year would scarcely suflSce me, and, in order to explain these things, not even the skins of numerous cows would be adequate.

Now, I assert that in this mineral are found three principles, which are Mercury, Sulphur, and the Mineral Water which has served to naturally coagulate it. Spagyric science is able to extract this last from its proper juice when it is not altogether matured, in the middle of the autumn, just like a pear from a tree. The tree potentially contains the pear. If the Celestial Stars and Nature agree, the tree first of all puts forth shoots in the month of March ; then it thrusts out buds, and when these open the flower appears, and so on in due order, until in autumn the pear grows ripe. So is it with the minerals. These are born, in like manner, in the bowels of the earth. Let the Alchemists who are seeking the Treasure of Treasures carefully note this. I will shew them the way, its beginning, its middle, and its end, In the following treatise I will describe the proper Water, the proper Sulphur, and the proper Balm thereof. By means of these three the resolution and composition are coagulated into one. Concerning the Sulphur of Cinnabar. Take mineral Cinnabar and prepare it in the following manner. Cook it with rain water in a stone vessel for three hours. Then purify it carefully, and dissolve it in Aqua Regis, which is composed of equal parts of vitriol, nitre, and sal ammoniac. Another formula is vitriol, saltpetre, alum, and common salt.

Distil this in an alembic. Pour it on again, and separate carefully the pure from the impure thus. Let it putrefy for a month in horse-dung ; then separate the elements in the following manner. If it puts forth its sign,* commence the distillation by means of an alembic with a fire of the first degree. The water and the air will ascend ; the fire and the earth will remain at the bottom. Afterwards join them again, and gradually treat with the ashes. So the water and the air will again ascend first, and afterwards the element of fire, which expert artists recognise. The earth will remain in the bottom of the vessel. This collect there. It is what many seek after and few find. This dead earth in the reverberatory you will prepare according to the rules of Art, and afterwards add fire of the first degree for five days and nights. When these have elapsed you must apply the second degree for the same number of days and nights, and proceed according to Art with the material enclosed. At length you will find a volatile salt, like a thin alkali, containing in itself the Astrum of fire and earth, t Mix this with the two elements that have been preserved, the water and the earth. Again place it on the ashes for eight days and eight nights, and you will find that which has been neglected by many Artists. Separate this according to your experience, and according to the rules of the Spagyric Art, and you will have a white earth, from which its colour has been extracted. Join the element of fire and salt to the alkalised earth. Digest in a pelican to extract the essence. Then a new earth will be deposited, which put aside.

Concerning the Red Lion. Afterwards take the lion in the pelican which also is found [atj first, when you see its tincture, that is to say, the element of fire which stands above the water, the air, and the earth. Separate it from its deposit by trituration. * The Sign is nothing else than the mark left by an operation. The house constructed by the architect is the sign of his handicraft, whereby his skill and art are determined. Thus the sign is the achievement itself.— i?<r Colica. t The earth also has its Astrum, its course, its order, just as much as the Firmament, but peculiar to the element. So also there is an Astrum in the water, even as in the earth, and in like manner with air and fire. Consequently, the upper Astrum has the Astra of the elements for its medium, and operates through thera, by an irresistible attraction. Through this operation of the superior and inferior Astra, all things are fecundated, and led on to their tnd.—Exfiiicaiio Tolius Astronomic. Without the Astra the elements cannot flourish. ... In the Astrum of the earth all the celestial operations thrive. The Astrum itself is hidden, the bodies are manifest. . . . The motion of the earth is brought about by the Astrum of the earth. . . . There are four Astra in man (corresponding to those of the four elements), for he is the lesser world. -De Caducis, Par. II.

Thus you will have the true aurum potabile* Sweeten this with the alcohol of wine poured over it, and then distil in an alembic until you perceive no acidity to remain in the Aqua Regia. This Oil of the Sun, enclosed in a retort hermetically sealed, you must place for elevation that it may be exalted and doubled in its degree. Then put the vessel, still closely shut, in a cool place. Thus it will not be dissolved, but coagulated. Place it again for elevation and coagulation, and repeat this three times. Thus will be produced the Tincture of the Sun, perfect in its degree. Keep this in its own place. Concerning the Green Lion. Take the vitriol of Venus, t carefully prepared according to the rules of Spagyric Art, and add thereto the elements of water and air which you have reserved. Resolve, and set to putrefy for a month according to instructions. When the putrefaction is finished, you will behold the sign of the elements. Separate, and you will soon see two colours, namely, white and red. The red is above the white. The red tincture of the vitriol is so powerful that it reddens all white bodies, and whitens all red ones, which is wonderful.

Work upon this tincture by means of a retort, and you will perceive a blackness issue forth. Treat it again by means of the retort, repeating the operation until it comes out whitish. Go on, and do not despair of the work. Rectify until you find the true, clear Green Lion, which you will recognise by its great weight. You will see that it is heavy and large. This is the Tincture, transparent gold. You will see marvellous signs of this Green Lion, such as could be bought by no treasures of the Roman Leo. Happy he who has learnt how to find it and use it for a tincture ! This is the true and genuine Balsam, J the Balsam of the Heavenly Stars, suffering no bodies to decay, nor allowing leprosy, gout, or dropsy to take root. It is given in a dose of one grain, if it has been fermented with Sulphur of Gold. Ah, Charles the German, where is your treasure? Where are your philosophers ? Where your doctors ? Where are your decocters of woods, who at least purge and relax ? Is your heaven reversed ? Have your stars wandered out of their course, and are they straying in another orbit, away

^ Auyuni Potabile, that is, Potable Gold, Oil of Gold, and Quintessence of Gold, are distinguished thus. Anntiit Pot ihile is gold rendered potable by intermixture with other substances, and with liquids. Oil of Gold is an oil extracted from the precious metal without the addition of anything. The Quintessence of Gold is the redness of gold extracted therefrom and separated from the body of the metal.— ZJ^ Mcmbns Contractis, Tract II. , c. z. t If copper be pounded and resolved without a corrosive, you have Vitriol. From this may be prepared the quintessence, oil, and liquor \h^x^oL—De Morbis Tartareis^ Cuprine Vitriol is Vitriol cooked with Copper. — Z?^ ^(??-i/j Verniium, Par, 6. Chalcanthum is present in Venus, and Venus can by separation be reduced into Chalcanthum. — Chirurgm Magna. Pars. III., Lib. IV. .J t There is, indeed, diffused through all things a Balsam created by God, without which putrefaction would immediately supervene. Thus, in corpses which are anointed with Balsam we see that corruption is arrested, and thus in the physical body we infer that there is a certain natural and congenital Balsam, in the absence of which the living and complete man would not be safe from putrefaction. Nothing removes this Balsam but death. But this kind diifers

from what is more commonly called Balsam, in that the one is conservative of the living, and the other of the dead. Ckirurgia- Magna, Pt. II., Tract II., c. 3. The confection of Balsam requires special knowledge of chemistry, and it was first discovered by the Alchemists. —/iJzV. , Pt. I., Tract II., c. 4. trom the line of limitation, since your eyes are smitten with blindness, as by a carbuncle, and other things making a show of ornament, beauty, and pomp? If your artists only knew that their prince Galen— they call none like him— was sticking in hell, from whence he has sent letters to me, they would make the sign of the cross upon themselves with a fox's tail. In the same way your Avicenna sits in the vestibule of the infernal portal ; and I have disputed with him about his aurum potabik, his Tincture of the Philosophers, his Quintessence, and Philosophers' Stone, his Mithridatic, his Theriac, and all the rest. O, you hypocrites, who despise the truths taught you by a true physician, who is himself instructed by Nature, and is a son of God himself ! Come, then, and listen, impostors who prevail only by the authority of your high positions ! After my death, my disciples will burst forth and drag you to the light, and shall expose your dirty drugs, wherewith up to this time you have compassed the death of princes, and the most invincible magnates of the Christian world. Woe for your necks in the day of judgment ! I know that the monarchy will be mine. Mine, too, will be the honour and glory. Not that I praise myself : Nature praises me. Of her I am born ; her I follow. She knows me, and I know her. The light which is in her I have beheld in her; outside, too, I have proved the same in the figure of the microcosm, and found It in that universe.